Chapter Two: Those Pesky Gryffindors
The next morning, the entirety of Gryffindor house was awakened at an ungodly hour by the shrill screams echoing from the girl's dorms.
"Augh, a ghost!"
"Ginny! You're alive!?"
"How did you escape from Slytherin's monster?"
"It's probably a trick, Slytherin has sent her to ensnare us all!"
Footsteps thundered overhead and below, as dozens of angry, sleep deprived Gryffindors rushed to find out what was the matter, and punish whoever disturbed their slumber. More screams soon joined the first, as the male occupants of the dorms attempted to follow the screams up the stairs into the girls dorms, and the stairs melted underneath them into a slide. By the time Harry and Ron made it downstairs through the crowds, mostly due to Ron's liberal application of his elbows to their housemates ribs, Percy was attempting to take charge, shouting over the chaotic racket. But all he really accomplished was to add to the deafening noise of the wailing slide, and the excited screams of the children.
Then, suddenly, everyone fell silent simultaneously. Ginny had appeared at the top of the slide, dead eyes gazing emotionlessly out into the multitude. Professor McGonagall hurried into the common room, ready to chastise anyone and everyone, but even she stilled herself upon meeting Ginny's gaze.
Five minutes later, when Ginny still hadn't said anything, people started to get restless. Finally, McGonagall cleared her throat.
"We're all very glad that you're still with us Ginny. However, I'm sure we all have a lot to do, I've got to see about reopening the school since you're fine and all, people need to get ready for class, and so forth."
At that, the spell was broken. One of the Weasley twins began to cheer, the other began to throw confetti everywhere, and the Gryffindors dispersed. Only Ginny remained at the top of the slide, staring straight ahead, not acknowledging anyone or anything around her.
"Look, you can't tell me that's right," Ron complained to Harry. "She's just standing there! And look at her eyes! Look at them! This is definitely not normal."
Harry peered at Ginny more closely. It was difficult for him to tell since he was still stuck at the bottom of the stairs, but she did look a bit stiff.
"She's probably tired, that's all. She's had a long day, a longer night, and now it's three in the morning, and everyone has been shouting at her. Once she gets a decent night's rest, she'll be back to normal, you'll see," Harry reassured Ron.
Ron wrinkled his forehead, but didn't voice his skepticism of this theory, instead allowing Harry to drag him back up to bed. He'd just keep waiting, and watching. Soon enough, someone else would see that something was very, very wrong with his sister, and he would be vindicated in his doubts.
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Meanwhile, underneath Harry's bed, Tom finally withdrew his fingers from his ears, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Bloody Gryffindors," he muttered to himself. "Ruining the first decent night's rest I've enjoyed in fifty years. I should get out there and give them what for, the inconsiderate vomitous masses." Now that he was awake, there was no way he was getting back to sleep, certainly not laying on the floor staring up at the underside of a bed like this. He deserved so much better. He knew that this was all Harry's fault. How dare his enemy be related to his giant monster? The nerve! And then stuff him, Tom Riddle, under a bed, like he was unwanted luggage, embarrassing trash? Totally unacceptable!
And yet, somehow, he found that he was completely unable to remain angry at Harry for any length of time. No matter how much he reminded himself of the insults the boy had committed in the past several hours, no matter how much he tapped into the dark ball of hatred that writhed within him, he simply couldn't sustain any negative feelings towards him. Instead, he felt a strong obsession for the strange, snake-like boy, an attraction, now that he thought about it, which seemed remarkably similar to the one the Weasley girl had harbored for Harry. Before he stole her soul, of course. He should know, she'd done nearly nothing but write all of her fantasies about the boy in his diary all the past year, when he was her captive audience, so to speak. He considered whether he had managed to suddenly and completely adopt his other, older, self's apparent obsession with Harry, but no, that wasn't it at all. Strangely enough, this obsession had nothing to do with murder. Tom's last thought as he somehow managed to drift back to sleep, blissfully unaware of the reentry of the boys, was that this could be a problem.
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Once the sun had properly risen, and day came for real, Harry and Ron went down to breakfast together. Ginny trailed after them, silent and ominous as a wraith, but neither of them noticed.
"Hey Harry, do you think they'll manage to wake Hermione and the other petrified people up soon?" Ron asked thoughtfully. Harry shrugged in response. He wasn't at all sure, but he certainly hoped so. After the very confusing end to their adventure yesterday, he could use her advice. Besides, if it turned out they were still having exams, he would need help, because he and Ron had been too busy investigating the mystery of the basilisk attacks to do much studying. Not that they would have studied anyways, but that was his story, and he was sticking to it.
At breakfast, the Gryffindors quickly filled the rest of the students in on what had happened earlier that morning, and soon the entire school knew of the defeat of the basilisk, or thought they did. Harry was too busy surreptitiously concealing food for Tom in his bag to tell anyone what had actually happened. He was so surreptitious that even Ron didn't notice, so Ron also put some breakfast in his school bag. Ron, on the other hand, was not so talented.
"Ron, what do you think you're doing? You haven't washed that bag since you spilled your frog spleens in it! That's disgusting! Besides, you're not supposed to take food out of the cafeteria!" By the end of this speech, Percy's chest was so puffed up that he could have floated up to the ceiling like a balloon.
Ron glanced around nervously, then muttered, "M'always hungry in herbology." This response seemed to satisfy his older brother, who went back to his frantic combination of studying and eating.
Neither of the Weasley brothers noticed Harry grab a sausage, glance both ways hastily, then lunge forward, swallowing it whole. Now that he knew of his reptilian heritage, he was determined to embrace it, but he thought that the rest of the students might not be so accepting. A few weeks ago, everyone had thought he was the heir of Slytherin. While they had hated and feared him for that, they might hate him even more if they knew the truth: that he was the heir of the monster of the heir of Slytherin, and that he was currently keeping the true heir of Slytherin under his bed, feeding him on table scraps. Best to keep that under wraps, he figured. Hopefully, nobody would notice any of his herpish habits, and put the pieces together. He did have one thing going for him: Hermione had never figured it out. If she couldn't, he was pretty sure nobody else would.
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After herbology, Harry and Ron ran all the way back up to Gryffindor tower, to deliver breakfast to Tom. Neither of them noticed that Ginny followed them the entire time, and even attended herbology with them, unbeknownst to professor Sprout. Tom was less than pleased with the cold bacon and spleen-flavored eggs that they provided, but had to choke it down once Harry reminded him that beggars can't be choosers. After suffering through a stern lecture on proper ways to transport food, the boys managed to escape, still followed by a silent Ginny, and hurried to their next class. The harder Harry tried to focus on professor Flitwick, the more his mind wandered. So much had changed. He was part snake? And even more importantly, his dad wasn't dead? Well, James was dead, but he had another dad who was still alive? It was all very confusing. Finally, halfway through charms class, he came to a decision. He needed to visit Roberts as soon as possible, and he needed to get some answers.
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Later that evening, after delivering some dinner to an increasingly grouchy Tom, Harry pulled on his invisibility cloak, and snuck away to the chamber of secrets. Nobody noticed him leave, not even Ron, who was busy playing wizard's chess against himself, or Tom, who was still trying to sort out his feelings so that he could hatch a new plot or three. However, once he arrived at the chamber entrance, he immediately realized that he was not alone. Ginny was already there, hissing at the sink. Shrugging, Harry followed her down the slimy tube, careful to remove his invisibility cloak first so it wouldn't get ruined. By the time he got to the bottom, Ginny had already disappeared. Oh well, it wasn't her he had come to visit anyways.
"Hi dad!" Harry exclaimed brightly as he entered the main part of the chamber. There was still no sign of Ginny, but that didn't bother him in the slightest. She must have found something to amuse herself with. The mouth of Slytherin's statue opened slowly and ponderously, and Roberts' massive form slithered out, eyes and scales still clouded, hitting the floor with a dull thud. His tongue flicked in and out twice in rapid succession, then he began to make his way over towards Harry.
"Hello, my son," Roberts hissed. "It is very good to smell you again. What brings you back to my lair so soon?"
"Well, I'm having a little bit of an identity crisis," Harry replied uncertainly, averting his slitted eyes. "I know that I'm part basilisk, but what exactly does that mean? Do I get any special abilities, or weaknesses I should watch out for? How will people treat me if they find out? What is my optimum diet and humidity levels? How long will I live, and how big will I get?"
"Ah, I was wondering if you would ask me these things. Luckily, there is a very simple answer: I do not know. Not remotely! There are no easy answers in life, my dear, Harry, mammalian son, as you will soon discover. All you can do is to wait patiently, and see what happens."
"Wow, you're pretty wise. You must be super old. Like, really, incredibly, mind-blowingly ancient. How did you meet my mother, can you tell me about her?" Harry was determined to leave this place knowing more than he did when he entered, and even if his dad didn't know anything about him, surely he knew something interesting about his mother.
"You're mother, hmm? She was the most beautiful arsehole I ever had the honor to meet. She was the love of my very long life, but then she left me for that man, James." Roberts hissed angrily at the painful memories. "I would have challenged him to a duel, a duel for the love of Lily, but without a speaker of parseltongue to release me, I am forever trapped down here in the darkness and slime. So my dreams of revenge were brutally crushed before they ever hatched from their leathery eggs, and I have remained here ever since, mourning what I have lost."
Harry was lost for words. Luckily, Roberts did not seem to expect him to respond, and continued his sorrowful monologue.
"You, Harry, are the only piece of Lily that I have left, the only piece in the whole world. And you are mine as well, you beautiful hatchling. Lily left me, but now I have another chance at happiness. I will never let you go." As he spoke, he had been slithering around Harry, so that now Harry was trapped within his coils. Harry began to be somewhat alarmed.
"Wait, what? Never let me go? But I have, uh, classes! And stuff. I can't stay here forever!" Roberts twitched his tail in response, giving a serpentine chuckle, before speaking again.
"Don't be silly Harry. I meant that metaphorically. I'm just giving you a gentle hug. You can leave whenever you want, just be sure and come back soon. It gets real lonely down here sometimes," Roberts reassured him, flicking him gently on the nose affectionately with his forked tongue. Harry smiled back at him. He knew now that he had finally found the loving family he had always craved.