Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter! (Sigh, too tired tonight to try to make up something funny.)

Chapter 16 - Finally, he's at Hogwarts!

Harry cast an invisibility spell on himself and walked around the outskirts of Hogwarts, towards the gate. As soon as he reached the large, ironclad gate, Harry began the long trek up the dirt road. Ugh! Why did the Hogwarts territory have to be so darn huge?

Slowly, but surely, Hogwarts began looming up above until Harry was standing right in front of the front door, huge and magnificent in it's full wooden glory. Harry grimaced outwardly as he looked up at the familiar old castle, though inwardly, he was fighting a smile; and he was mad at himself for it.

Despite everything he'd gone through here and the people inside, Harry couldn't help but feel deep-seated relief wash through him at the sight of Hogwarts' doors. This place had always been his home, the first home he'd ever known. Harry had never wanted to leave for summer, dreaded it even, and not just because he would be leaving his friends and the only family he'd known (though, of course, they were no friends or family of his now) but because he'd have to leave this castle.

Even the feel of the cold stone corridors underneath his feet and the hard wooden seats of the great hall had filled him with comfort and joy, no matter what he'd been going through. Harry had loved this old building so much; he'd even considered trying to come back as a teacher, though many had believed he had wanted to be an auror. It was a secret dream he'd held deep inside his heart. But now, he couldn't truly go back, not while all these traitors were here; and he couldn't forgive them.

Harry felt a deep ache at knowing that he was here for now, but could never really come back, never really belong, not that he had ever truly belonged anyways. Harry felt sadness well up within him, as well as yearning for those innocent days back at Hogwarts when he hadn't known any better.

For years, Hogwarts had been his home, practically a sentient presence in his life; but now, it was just a building. It had always been just a building, a building filled to the brim with magic, but a building no less. Harry realized this now. But it had never felt that way to him before.

Harry pushed away his disappointment and settled forostalgia. His memories here were ones he'd always treasure – he realized at Azkaban that he should look past his recent bad memories and into the good past ones. He felt that even more now. Just the thought of Hogwarts had brought a smile to his face, even when he'd had no reason to smile. (Before the smile froze and turned to sadness at the thoughts of the people there, which were soon to follow.) Not even his six months in Azkaban or the betrayal of his most loved ones could change that.

But he had his own home now, a home with people -dementors? - Who would never betray his trust. He never had to feel alone like he had those first six months at Azkaban, or maybe even through his life at Hogwarts, ever again. Now all he had to do was think of Juan or Cindy or Uncle Morty or any of the dementors, and he felt like he was back at Azkaban, surrounded by those who cared for him and whom he cared about, a place that was his home in every sense of the word.

Funny how even when he'd been at Hogwarts, he had been surrounded by people who hadn't liked him, hated him, even; and he'd had to be forced to go to a world famous prison reserved for the worst sort of people to feel truly safe and loved. Ironic, but then again, his whole life was filled with irony. Harry felt all of his negative feelings wash away, and he felt better than he had in a long time.

Even if the horcrux hadn't been at Hogwarts, Harry probably would have needed to come anyways to confront his past. He couldn't' run away from it; he needed to face it and accept that that part of his life was over and move on. And so, he had.

Feeling a whole new person and with Luna's words echoing in his heart, Harry headed off carefully through the doors into the halls he'd walked so many times and years before. His life was no longer here, but that didn't mean he couldn't ever come back. Harry felt he had finally started to heal, far more than he ever had with the well-intentioned but unhelpful advice of the dementors. (1)

Harry heaved a sigh of relief at his new found feeling of freedom and pushed open the doors. He cringed as they let out a loud squeak. Just how old way Hogwarts anyways? The place was in bad need of a paint job or something. Harry closed the door with another grimace at the sound and padded softly down the corridor. Suddenly, he heard a voice ring out form the hallway opposite, and he froze.

"Luna?"

Harry heaved a sigh of relief that he was invisible and waited for whoever it was to come close enough for him to see who it was.

"Luna?" Harry watched as Professor McGonagall walked briskly towards the now close front door, wand alight. "Luna, are you back from your rounds?" she asked, glancing around for Luna.

Harry grumbled to himself; she must have heard that stupid door creak. McGonagall glanced around suspiciously, but as she could see no one there and there had not been a breach in the wards, she moved on, patrolling further down the hallway. However, she kept sending suspicious looks back towards the door where Harry was.

Harry chuckled silently a bit before turning to walk down the hallway and nearly funning into Professor Flitwick. With a gasp, Harry stepped out of the short man's way and stood still for a second. How many teachers were at this school? And think of all the students who would be roaming around the halls come the next day. Harry knew that finding the horcrux would take a while – the dementors only knew it was in the room of requirement.

He needed to find a way to get around without bumping around into people. He couldn't just walk around invisible; people would run into him. The balding wizard in the picture next Harry's head snorted in his sleep, drawing Harry's attention to him. Hmm…unless they were making a particularly large amount of noise, acting different than wizards expected them to, or were just plain strange looking, the pictures on the walls of Hogwarts hardly ever drew attention to themselves.

Plus, they could move inconspicuously from one picture to another. The idea had merit. Hmm…maybe he could…? He just had to make sure the pictures stayed silent. They were mounted on Hogwarts, were a part of Hogwarts, so did that mean they had to answer to Hogwarts? Harry reached out with his magic into the presence that was Hogwarts.

He pushed what he wanted the paintings to do to the front of his mind, hoping the magic that filled Hogwarts would catch his drift. Harry felt a small rush of magic come from the ancient building and swirl through every painting, too weak for most wizards to feel, but strong enough to wake the portraits. They looked around, muttering and grumbling, trying to figure out what had woken them.

Harry gritted his teeth and hoped Hogwarts had done what he'd wanted. Harry wandlessly did something that no wizard had ever thought to do before; (ok, so maybe they had thought of it; but Harry doubted anyone had actually done it) he willed himself into the painting.

It was a strange feeling, merging with the painting. Being two dimensional was, simply put, weird. The portrait of the young witch Harry assumed was a nun by her cowl and cross gave a stat when he suddenly appeared in her painting. Huh, so invisibility charms don't work in paintings – something to remember.

They young girl took in his hair, his eyes, and the scar on his forehead, and moved to scream and alert the professors to his presence when…nothing happened. She had opened her mouth and was visibly straining to scream, but no sound came out. She wrapped her hands around her neck and glared reproachfully at Harry, sure he had something to do with this.

"What did you-" she stopped and looked around, confused. "But didn't you silence…?" She turned to yell over at McGonagall, but, once more, she was unable to say a word. She opened and closed her mouth, gaping like a fish, before settling for running to the portrait next door and trying to alert the man in it to Harry's presence. Her efforts were thwarted, however, as not only could she not speak about Harry's presence, but she couldn't even gesture towards him.

Harry laughed. This was a rather fun way to keep anyone from finding out he was here. He had to give props to Hogwarts. Now all he had to do was make sure no one of the non-painting variety saw him, and, quite frankly, if he slipped up and let them see him, he would deserve to be caught. Harry stepped out of the nun's now empty portrait to the one on his left. It was rather like just walking through a door; however, it was accompanied by the unpleasant sensation of being wet, even though he knew he wasn't.

Harry moved over to the large, comfy chair in the painting and sat down with a happy sigh, ignoring the silent gasps, gestures, and fish impressions of the two old wizards living in the portrait. Eventually, after having ignored them for a while, the generally happier-looking wizard gave a sigh of defeat and went to go sit in the other chair, pulling a book out from behind it.

The grumpier-looking wizard, however, turned and came closer to Harry and started yelling in Harry's face, though none of his words could be heard. The wizard was extremely lucky that Hogwarts had decided to bleep out his yelling and that you couldn't kill a portrait. Though, Harry could read his lips; and the man was rather crude.

Harry pushed the wizard out of his face, and the old man fell back with a cry of indignation. Harry felt a flash of pity before pushing it away as the man straightened up and walked huffily out of the painting. The wizard in the chair didn't even look up from his book.

Harry settled back in the comfy chair with another sigh. Okay, so he was here, at Hogwarts…now what? He knew the diadem was in the room of requirement, but he had no clue what he should think to get in to wherever the diadem was. Hmm… Harry thought for a little while before giving up and standing. Oh, well, maybe an idea would come to him while he got the Basilisk fang.

The wizard in the chair looked up at Harry's movement, and Harry nodded his head in farewell as he moved on to the next painting; the wizard raised his book briefly in a quick good bye before burying his nose in it once more. Harry wondered briefly how many times the old wizard had read that book. Maybe there was a painting of the library around here somewhere, and he got his books form there.

As he came upon the next portrait, Harry found the grumpy wizard desperately trying to pantomime about Harry to two wizards decked out in adventuring gear. He just laughed and walked past, to the two young wizard's open shock and the old wizard's disgruntlement. Harry went through many paintings on his way to the girls lavatory, filled with many different kinds of people and animals. In some paintings, like the one with the couple so involved with each other that it was so not appropriate for a school, Harry could walk through unnoticed. However, this was mostly not the case.

The morning light was just beginning to peak over the horizon as Harry finally made it to the hallway outside the girl's lavatory. Most of the paintings had decided it would be a good idea to try and stop Harry, and so, a ten minute trip had been lengthened into hours. Someone had even decided to put Sir Cadogen's painting up in the main hallway; it had taken Harry at least an hour to get past the dodgy old knight. By this point, Harry was having serious day dreams about burning Sir Cadogen's painting…and whoever it was who had the brilliant idea to put him up in the main hallway.

Harry glanced up and down the hallway to see if anyone was coming. There were no paintings inside the bathrooms, and for good reason, too; who wants to have someone watching you while you go to the bathroom? The closest Harry had ever seen was the mermaid in that one prefect's washroom. Seeing no one, – it was, like, 2 am…no teacher stayed up that late to make rounds – Harry slipped out the painting of the four large Doberman's just before one of them decided it would be fun to take a snap at him.

Harry felt so much more comfortable and happy being 3D that he even took the liberty of sticking his tongue out childishly at the Dobermans. Why did they even have some of the pictures here? That one picture with the clowns…Harry would never be the same. There are some things he wouldn't even wish on Voldemort. It was a wonder no parent had complained and gotten it removed because their child was having nightmares, but then again Harry had had to live through that painting, even if only for a few moments.

Harry quietly pushed open the door to the bathroom and was slowly creeping towards the opening of the chamber of secrets when,

"Harry!"

The cry of his name startled Harry into slipping on the smooth marble surface of the floor and hitting his head on one of the sinks with a loud *clang*. With a groan of pain, Harry sat up, rubbed the knot that was now forming on the back of his head, and opened his eyes only to find himself staring into the ghostly, bespectacled eyes of the one and only Moaning Myrtle.

"Harry, it is you!" Myrtle exclaimed happily. "I knew you were innocent, and now you've come all the way to Hogwarts just to visit me!" She appeared overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.

"Oh, er, sure, Myrtle," Harry lied, looking around for escape. "Hey, uh, please don't cry. Uh, look, I gotta go down to the, um, chamber now, but hey, I've got good news for you."

Myrtle looked up, eyes watery. "rea-*hic*-ly?"

"Er, yeah," Harry said, thinking desperately. "Well, you know how Peeves is always picking on you?"

"*hic* Yes," Myrtle looked about reproachfully, still crying a bit, as if afraid the poltergeist was somewhere near.

"Well, it's because ,bye," Harry said this all in a rush before springing towards the chamber entrance, opening it with a hiss, and jumping down the hole, never happier to see a dark, enclosed space covered in dirt and germs and filled with dead animal carcasses in his entire life.

"W-what?" Myrtle looked about and began to cry even harder. "You're just making fun of me!" she wailed, diving headfirst into her toilet.

Meanwhile, in the chamber, Harry stood up, picking pieces of skeletons and fur from the dead animal on the floor off his butt in disgust. Suddenly, the though occurred to him that if he was trying to escape Myrtle, maybe he shouldn't have jumped into the chamber. She could have just followed him down, and then he would be trapped with Moaning Myrtle down here…in the chamber…with no escape. Ugh, just the thought sent shivers up Harry's spine. At least she was so easily offended she wouldn't follow him.

Harry walked down the tunnel, wincing as he heard the bones snap and crack under his feet, and arrived at the place where he'd killed the basilisk. And, man, did that place reek! A 50 foot decaying, venom-filled snake does not smell good when it's been there for 7 years. Fighting of waves of nausea, Harry covered his nose with his cloak and crept forward. The thing wasn't even halfway done decomposing, and, Harry had to admit, the sight of it would be enough to make a veteran auror gag.

Looking around, Harry reached carefully into the snake's mouth and tried to pull the fang out. He had to twist it a few times before it dame out with a sickening squelch! Harry nearly tossed his cookies (2) at the sound. He cast a quick scourgify on the filthy fang before shrinking it and pocketing it after placing a charm on it so that it wouldn't accidentally poke him or something.

Harry then did what most people would call "running like a scared little girl for safety," but that he would call "making a dashing exit." As soon as he reached where he had jumped from, Harry looked up at the long fall he had taken. Carefully, Harry cast a levitating charm on himself and floated up the long tunnel. He took off the charm as soon as he reached the lavatory and shut the chamber with a soft hiss.

He glanced around uneasily, as if expecting Myrtle to suddenly burst forth out of one of the walls, which she well could. Luckily for Harry, though, she was still off sulking somewhere; and so, Harry quickly scurried across the restroom without trouble. He quickly slipped into one of the paintings in the hallway that had nothing but scenery.

He sat down beside the lake in the painting and contemplated what to do next. It was still only, like, 3 am; and he hadn't slept in a while. Suddenly, and image of the one and only Draco Malfoy came to his mind. Draco worked here. Harry remembered reading about him taking over the position of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Strangely enough, he was the only one able to break the curse and had been working here for 3 years. Where had Lupin's rooms been? Oh, now Harry remembered. Wait, darn! Now he'd have to go by Sir Cadogen again! Ugh!

Harry walked through painting after painting again; Draco's rooms would be on the other side of the castle. He felt out with his magic to try and find out if there was a painting inside Draco's room. (How did portraits do that, anyways?) Harry uncertainly turned to the back of the painting in front of Draco's rooms. He felt extremely uncomfortable as he passed through the stone wall into the other painting. He shivered at the unpleasant feeling and quickly moved out of the painting of…-was that a rainbow?-and into Draco's rooms. Looking around at the darkened room, Harry saw a thin, sleeping form on sheets that looked like they were made of silk. Oh, he was in Draco's bedroom. Good thing Draco wasn't spending the night with anyone…that would have been awkward. Harry walked over next to the form lying on the humongous king-sized bed and lay down. Draco could deal with sharing for one night. Harry lay back without taking off his clothes or even getting under the covers and slowly felt sleep overtake him.

Author's Note: (1) How's that for an inner monologue. What do you think? Too lengthy? A little repetitive? I tried to keep it from going on and on, but I may have not done a very good job.

(2) Chapter one reference again!

Thanks very much for reading this chapter. It's not the longest, but, oh, well. By the way, I am going to try to start replying to all of your reviews, but I may miss a few, so if I accidentally skip you, sorry. I did not mean to. Anyway, please keep reading.