Ch. 15
Susan looked around the common room. Not seeing any sign of her green eyed friend she quickly made her way up to the boy's dormitory poking her head in. She let out a relieved sigh when she saw Harry sleeping soundly in his bed oblivious to the recent events. Fighting the urge to go and wake him up so he could reassure her everything was going to be okay, she quietly closed the door and returned to the common room. The news of the attack had snuffed out all feelings of celebration that were prevalent only ten minutes ago. Slowly people drifted off to bed as the night wore on.
The next morning Susan's mood was lifted when she found Harry sitting in the common room waiting for her and Hannah looking much better than he had in recent weeks. The two girls quickly joined him on the couch and Susan leaned against him drawing comfort from his presence. "Justin told me that someone was attacked last night," Harry said. "Have they said anything else yet?"
"No not yet, but I expect Professor Sprout soon to make an announcement" Susan replied. As if her words summoned the herbology professor, the portrait hole opened and in walked Professor Sprout.
She looked around the common room and sent the prefects to gather the rest of the house for an announcement. When everyone was gathered in the common room she let out a tired sigh. "Good morning everyone, as I mentioned last night, there was another attack. The student was petrified and taken to the hospital wing showing the same symptoms as Mrs. Norris. Because of this attack, the Headmaster has decided to summon the Aurors and they will be here soon. Together with the teachers they will search the school and try to figure out what or who is responsible for this attack. Every student will be escorted to each meal and then they will return straight back to their common room." Professor Sprout paused here looking around at the worried faces of her badgers. "I will not lie to you, there is talk that we will close the school and send everybody home until we can figure out what has caused this attack."
In the back of the room one of the sixth year Hufflepuffs raised his hand. "Professor, can you tell us who was attacked?"
"It was Hermione Granger from Gryffindor." This caused many whispers to start up around the room. Susan could hear people mentioning the Heir of Slytherin and muggleborn as people discussed this latest development. "Now if that is all, let's go eat breakfast. Prefects, please make sure that we all stay together." Together all the Hufflepuffs made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. When they neared the hall Susan was surprised to see the doors closed. She could not recall the doors actually being closed before. Professor Sprout knocked on the door and they opened just enough to let the group of Hufflepuffs pass. When the last one was through they closed again.
They students took their seats and began to eat breakfast. Susan looked around the table noticing the downcast eyes and melancholy expressions on her housemates' faces. The one expression though that made her worry was Harry's. His face was expressionless but his eyes held terror in them. Before she could ask him what was wrong though the doors opened again and in walked her auntie followed by ten Aurors. Susan recognized Connie Hammer and Anne Daily walking next to Amelia. The group walked up to the head table and talked with the Headmaster briefly. After a brief conversation Professor Foote rose from his seat. "Students please finish your breakfast and your Head of House will escort you back to your common room. Please remain there until you are told otherwise."
Susan and the rest of the Hufflepuffs quickly finished their breakfast and were about to leave with Professor Sprout when Amelia walked up to them. "Professor Sprout, do you mind if I have a word with my children?"
"No not at all Madam Bones, if you could just escort them back to the Hufflepuff common room when you are done though." Amelia nodded and led Harry and Susan to a small room off the Great Hall. When they entered the room Amelia wrapped both kids in a warm hug.
"First of all Harry, congratulations on the game yesterday, I'm sorry I couldn't make it but we had a surprise audit of the budget yesterday." Harry said it was ok and he understood but Susan couldn't hold her curiosity in any more.
"Auntie what is going on?"
Amelia looked at the pair as if trying to decide how much to tell them. "Well, as Professor Sprout mentioned one of the students was petrified last evening. Headmaster Foote locked down the school and called in the Aurors for assistance. We will investigate today and if we find nothing, we will begin sending kids home this week until we can figure out what caused the attacks." She took a breath. "I'm not too sure how successful we will be in finding out what happened. I've been doing some digging and I've found some rather interesting things. The biggest piece of information I found is that this has occurred before. Fifty years ago students were being petrified and one student was killed. Hagrid was accused of the attacks and was expelled." Susan and Harry let out surprised gasps at that. "Now I have spoken to Hagrid and he admits to hiding a creature inside the school but it was an acromantula and the symptoms of the attacked students were not consistent with the giant spider's venom. Hagrid also mentioned that the spider asked Hagrid to set it free so as to flee from whatever was roaming the castle at the time." Amelia paused and took off her monocle and polished it on her robe before continuing. "Now here is where the story really gets interesting. The student who turned Hagrid in was a Slytherin Prefect named Tom Riddle."
Susan saw Harry react out of the corner of her eye but she was too enthralled in the story to see the dawning horror on his face. "With some help from the Department of Mysteries, I have been digging into anything I could find out about Tom Riddle. It turns out that Tom Riddle is the birth name of Lord Voldemort."
Amelia stopped when a strangled cry came from Harry. Susan looked over at her friend to see his face contorted in Terror. "No it can't be; that's impossible." Harry mumbled to himself.
Susan seeing her friend in distress rushed over to him only for Harry to draw back from her. "Harry what's wrong?"
"It was me, Susan. It was me all along. I really have been attacking people."
"Harry, what are you talking about you wouldn't hurt anybody."
"My Journal Susan, the one you got me over the summer. I've been writing in it on and off for the last few months. It even wrote back to me. We would talk about all sorts of things. I thought it was just charmed to be like that and whoever enchanted the journal just named it Tom Riddle." Susan and Amelia gasped as Harry continued to back away.
"Harry, we need to get that journal. If we have it we can figure out what happened and fix this." Amelia said.
"It's in my room in my trunk… No wait, it's in my pocket. Why is it in my pocket, I've never carried it around before." Harry said almost to himself. Harry reached into his pocket and just as his hand touched the journal he let out an ear splitting scream. Susan rushed over to Harry with Amelia right on her heals. Harry had collapsed on the floor and Susan and Amelia knelt on either side of him. Susan could see his chest rising in falling so at least he was breathing. Amelia pulled out her wand and began to wave it in patterns that Susan recognized as diagnosis spells but before she could finish her incantations Amelia was suddenly tossed to the other side of the room. Susan looked back at Harry when she heard a high cold laugh. She watched as Harry slowly rose from the floor eyes still closed and laughing maniacally.
When he was back on his feet he finally opened his eyes and Susan let out a strangled scream. Instead of the jade green eyes she had come to love gazing into, there were a pair of blood red eyes staring back at her. An evil grin spread on Harry's face as he looked down at Susan. Suddenly he sidestepped and she saw a bolt of red light coming right at her. It stuck and everything went black.
HC
Amelia quickly got to her feet to see Harry also standing laughing a high cold laugh she had heard before. She quickly sent a stunner at him only to have him move and it hit Susan. He quickly spun around to face Amelia with his wand drawn and started sending curses at her that no second year should know laughing all the way. "What's wrong Auntie," Harry taunted "afraid to attack all out on your darling son. It's a good thing that I have no compunctions in attacking you. Avada Kadavra." Amelia was stunned at those words coming out of 'Harry's' mouth that she didn't even think to dodge. She watched as if in slow motion as the tip of Harry's wand glowed green and the bolt of green started to appear out of Harry's wand.
"NO!" came a scream from Harry as his eye's turned back to green as he fought for control again jerking his arm off target making the spell miss wide. Harry's hold on himself was fleeting as his eyes turned red again. A scowl appeared over Harry's face. He quickly turned and waved his wand over Susan and then picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and dashed out of one of the side doors.
Amelia was right behind him trying to stop him by shooting stunners at him. He quickly ducked into a girl's bathroom and closed the door behind him sealing it. Amelia immediately started to break Harry's sealing charm and after a minute of work was able to open the door only to watch Harry disappear down a hole in the floor that quickly sealed itself up. Footsteps came from behind her and she spun around wand drawn and ready only to lower it when Kingsley and Professor Foote appeared in the bathroom door.
"Madam Bones, what is going on here?" Professor Foote asked.
"It appears that Lord Voldemort has been controlling one of the students and is the cause for the attacks. I chased the culprit up here but he disappeared into a whole over by the sinks. The suspect has also taken Susan and Harry with him."
Professor Foote looked at the sink and started casting spells causing numerous runes to appear. "It appears that we have found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. The only problem is that it is heavily warded only to be opened by speaking Parselmouth. We can open it but it will take some time."
"I don't have the time; I can get to them faster. Both kids are wearing special Portkeys I had made for them. Unfortunately it can only take me." She turned to Kingsley. "Shacklebolt, I want you and every Auror here working to open this door and come as soon as you can. I will go ahead and try to save the kids." After receiving a nod from Kingsley she grabbed her necklace portkey and portkeyed away to find her kids.
HC
The first thing that Susan noticed when she regained consciousness was that she was cold and wet. The smell around her was that of stagnant air that had been locked up for long periods of time. Remembering what her Auntie had taught her she continued to feign sleep trying to assess her surroundings before alerting her captor that she was awake. A familiar cold laugh told her how successful she was being. "You can quit faking it now. I know you're awake."
She opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a large chamber with numerous columns holding up the ceiling and a statue of a bearded man at the far end. The floor was damp and littered with skeletons of small rodents. "Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets Miss Bones. This chamber was built by my ancestor to one day cleanse the school of those unworthy to learn magic."
"What did you do to Harry?" Susan demanded in the bravest voice she could muster.
"All will be explained in time. We are still waiting for one more to join us." 'Harry' cocked his head as if listening to something he then raised his wand and pointed it just to the right of Susan. "And here she is now."
A flash of blue light and Amelia appeared right next to Susan. She had her wand drawn but a disarm spell was already heading towards her before she even finished appearing. Her auntie's wand flew out of her hand and was caught by Harry who immediately pocketed it. Susan felt in her pocket and also found her wand missing. "Good, now that Madam Bones is here, we can begin." Another wave of his wand and both Susan and Amelia found themselves bound to a pillar in a sitting position with their knees drawn close to their chests. "Now, Miss Bones asked me who I am, Madam Bones already figured that out didn't you?"
"You are Voldemort. But I don't know how you are possessing Harry" replied Amelia. Susan just looked at her friend in horror as he was controlled by the most evil dark wizard in history.
"Ah now that is an interesting story. It starts and it ends with this diary." 'Harry' reached into his robes and drew out the leather covered diary that Susan had given him in the summer. "I created this diary back when I was still in school. I left a little piece of myself in it so that one day, I would be able to finish Salazar Slytherin's mighty work and clear the school of mudbloods. The diary was only supposed to poses someone just enough for me to start to regain my own body using their life force but when young Harry started to write in it and I started to pour some of myself into him I found something interesting."
Susan sat listening to 'Harry' pace around gesturing wildly as he spoke and a memory from over the summer sprung into her head of her and Harry watching James Bond movies with Hannah. 'He's monologing. What is it with megalomaniacs and monologing?' She stifled a laugh and looked over to her aunt who caught her eye. Amelia flicked her eyes to her shin that was resting next to Susan's hand but well away from Amelia's. Getting the hint she slowly tried to move her hand and lift up Amelia's hem to get to her spare wand.
"When I started to let myself seep into Harry I found that I already had a piece of me in him imbedded in his scar. A little questioning of him indicated that he had no idea that it was there. Oh the opportunities that this presented, here was a powerful wizard with a piece of me already imbedded into him. I wouldn't have to create my own body, just take over his." Susan and Amelia gasped at this. She looked over at her aunt and could tell that this was a very bad thing. "At first Harry loved having a diary that talked back to him. He marveled at the wonders of the wizarding world and the things that magic could do. 'Oh Tom this is just amazing. I have to thank Suzy for getting you for me.' Of course I couldn't have that. I was able to use some light compulsion on him to forget to mention anything strange about the diary and to never show it to anyone. Unfortunately Harry seems to have a very strong willpower and the compulsion drained my strength and I was unable to exert as much influence for him to write in the diary as often as I would have liked. I was only able to kill the chickens and open the chamber for the first time on Halloween. Still he fought me and I was only able to petrify the squib's cat."
Harry turned his back again as he continued with his monologue and Susan took the opportunity to make a grab for Amelia's wand. She quickly passed it to her and she hid it up her sleeve just as Harry turned back around to continue his boasting.
"Of course after that Harry began to be more suspicious of me. I had to use what little control I had to make him forget everything about Halloween and not notice anything strange with his diary. I decided to change my tactics. I would build up my strength and let it seep into Harry. By this time the little that I was able to let slip into Harry combined with what was already their allowed me to seep into him without his writing in me. Unfortunately he didn't bring the diary home for Christmas so my plans had to be put back once again."
"Harry mentioned a pulling a few days ago" asked Susan stalling for time again. "Was that you causing the pull?"
"Yes, by that time, I had enough influence to reestablish the pull from the diary. He began caring it around with him that same day. It was the last step, I just needed an opportunity. After the Quidditch game, when Harry was close to passing out from the strain of trying to fight me off, I was able to poses him again and using his invisibility cloak send Slytherin's monster after another Mudblood. I was so happy to find that know-it-all mudblood was the one attacked."
"You think that petrifying one student is going to do anything?" Amelia asked." Right now there is a full brigade of Aurors in the school, they will be here soon."
"Ah but killing mudbloods hasn't been my goal for quite some time. You see, since November, my goal was total domination of this body. Harry is still fighting me for control as you noticed when he stopped me from sending a killing curse at you. In order to rid myself of his presence, I will need to remove his soul so that mine can take full control. To do that, I needed a sacrifice that met certain criteria, and you Miss Bones, meet them all. You Madam Bones will bear witness to Lord Voldemort's return and then, I will kill you also."
"I think we will have to disappoint you then." Susan felt the ropes fall off of her as Amelia cut them with a silent cutting curse. Amelia quickly got to her feet and started sending curses at Harry. "Susan run and hide, I'll take care of this." Susan started to protest but without her wand she was useless.
"Oh you are a feisty one Madam Bones. No wonder Harry thinks so much of you. I was hoping to kill you myself but my friend is a little hungry and she has been unable to taste human flesh in so long." Susan turned around hearing strange hissing noises come from Harry. When he was all done a low rumble came from the statue on the far wall as its mouth slowly opened. Out of the gapping maw slithered a giant acid green snake.
"Susan," Amelia yelled, "Close your eyes and run. Don't look at its eyes." Susan did just that as the cold laughter rang through the chamber.
"There is no escaping, you will all die down here and I will be reborn more powerful then you could possibly imagine."
The laughter was quickly silenced though as a familiar voice rang out that made Susan smile. "Leave my family alone Tom." Susan turned in time to see Harry holding his head and shaking it. His eyes back to their normal green again almost glowing with rage. He pointed his wand again and Susan thought that he had lost control when he fired off two Reductors in quick succession at something behind Amelia. Susan heard an inhuman shriek of pain and she chanced a look at the great snake. She looked back just in time to see two eye sockets empty and its head rearing back in pain. A third Reductor from Harry stuck the great snake in the back of its mouth exploding the great head outward.
"NO!" came the defiant scream from Harry who was back under Voldemort's control. He sent curses flying fast at Amelia who managed to dodge or shield them just as quick as they came after. "No matter, that attack used what little strength he had to fight me and now I can finish you off." The spells started to fly faster at Amelia who had to give up dodging all together. Susan watched as the sickly green of the killing curse was launched at her aunt with her conjuring a marble slab to stop it. Susan knew that her aunt could only last a little longer in the fight. Quickly Susan moved around the pillars to get behind Harry. As she was moving along the pillars she came upon one of the basilisk fangs that was blown off of the monster's head. Quickly formulating a plan she reached down and grabbed the fang being careful not to cut herself.
Amelia and Harry continued to fight as she started running towards Harry's back. He never saw her as she launched herself through the air and collided into his back taking him to the ground. Before Harry was able to respond she quickly grabbed the diary from his pocket and kicked Harry's wand away. In a smooth motion she put the diary on the floor and stabbed the basilisk fang into the center of the diary.
Harry let out an ear splitting scream and grabbed his head. Black ink started to leak out of the diary and cover Susan's hand as it let out a shriek of pain that matched Harry's. Soon both Harry and the diary went quite as black ooze matching what came from the dairy seeped from Harry's scar. She quickly rushed over to Harry and was relieved to find that he was still breathing.
"Harry wake up its over." She shook his shoulder as Amelia knelt down beside him and Susan gave her a worried look. "Auntie he isn't waking up."
"We need to get out of here Susan and get him to a Healer. I'm worried about what might have happened when you stabbed the diary though that was the only thing I could think of doing also. Grab it also, I know a few people who would be interested in seeing that."
Susan grabbed the diary and Amelia levitated Harry and together they left the Chamber. As they were walking out they heard voices coming closer. The first person to arrive was Kingsley.
"Madam Bones is everything OK?" he asked.
"Yes Shack, I see you managed to open up the door."
"Yes Director, it took a few of us but we were able to break through. The headmaster gave me a portkey that will take every one to the Hospital Wing."
"Good lets go." Together they all touched the portkey and in a flash of blue were transported to the Hospital wing were they were met by Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout and Professor Foote.