Author's Notes: Once again, a big thank you to all my readers out there. The hit count on this story is now OVER 9,000!! That will be the last 4chan reference I ever give. And a special thanks to my reviewers.
David Fishwick: Thank you for the support. Glad to see you like it so far.
ProfessorChris: I have you hooked! I'm doing my job correctly then. Thanks for the support.
Okay, last chapter's Monty Python reference was Pansy's remark to Megan that she would nail her head to the floor. This is taken from a sketch from the 14th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The sketch was titled "The Piranha Brothers" and featured the members of the group talking about the exploits of two mobsters and their associates. The interesting connection between this sketch and Harry Potter itself are that the sketch was based partially on the real-life exploits of two real British mobster brothers; the Kray twins. And, as J.K. Rowling once recalled in one of her many interviews, they were so feared at one time that no one referred to them by name. It was from this that the fear of Lord Voldemort's name is inspired. By the way, if you can't spot the reference this week, you need to stop living under a rock. Everyone knows this one.
I can't believe I forgot to mention this in the previous chapter, but as far as I'm aware, Timed Quidditch is an invention of my own, designed to make the game a bit more fair than the version J.K. Rowling gave to us, both for the teams and the fans.
Well, time for the next chapter.
Chapter 18: Halloween Activities
To the outside world, October 30, 1997 was a Thursday, but it was a Friday's set of classes at Hogwarts. And Henry Gryffindor was on his way to the Quidditch pitch to practice with the rest of the Gryffindor reserve team. Although the Gryffindor reserve team didn't play until the end of November (when they would be playing the Slytherin reserve team after Ravenclaw played Hufflepuff that morning), Ron Weasley wanted to keep all his players sharp. Not that Henry complained about playing Quidditch every day of the week. It was just that he was getting tired of not being able to score a single goal against Mohammad, who was obviously going to become the first team's keeper next year. In all the practices he could remember, no one on the reserve team had been able to score on him when he guarded the goals. He was determined that today was the day that he would finally do the impossible and win an informal prize pool of what was now twenty Galleons from his teammates.
On his way to the pitch, he saw Megan returning from Herbology class. "Hey Megan, my dad wanted to talk to you when you have a free moment," he called out, seeing no one else around.
"Thanks," Megan replied as she continued to brush the dirt off her robes, "Good luck scoring on Mohammad."
"I'm going to need it," Henry agreed as they passed each other in the hallway and continued on their way. Megan went up to the second floor and found Geoff packing up to head out on the London Express back to London.
"Professor Gryffindor?" she inquired as she poker her head through the open door.
Geoff looked back at the door. "Ah, Miss Blaire, I wanted to speak with you," he commented as he sat down behind his desk, "Please, come in. This is rather important."
Megan closed the door behind her. She knew what those words meant. "So what are you going to do and when?" she inquired.
"I'm heading back to London on the train tonight and will be returning with Harry tomorrow morning," Geoff explained, "I forgot something for tomorrow night's Halloween Feast, anyway, so I have an excuse to leave the school. After the feast is over, you'll need to clear out the Slytherin common room by midnight. Harry will be waiting outside the Slytherin door at that time. He will then look for the source of your feelings about the common room. Everyone should be too stuffed to move once they go to bed, but you'll have to make sure Harry is not seen by anyone. Once Harry finds what we're looking for, he'll come back to my office and I will get him out of the school unnoticed. Understand?"
"How will you sneak Harry into the school?" Megan asked, "And how will he move around without being seen?"
"Oh, I don't want to ruin the surprise for you," Geoff replied with a smile, "But I assure you, this will be something you'll love."
Megan was a bit skeptical, but decided to go along with the plan. "Okay, I just need to clear everyone out of the common room and open the portrait at midnight," she repeated, "Sounds easy enough."
Geoffrey nodded. "Right, now, if you pull this off, I think I'll tell you about a secret club that desperately needs a Slytherin in it," Geoff promised, "And yes, I think Henry will be joining it soon enough."
Megan smiled. "Sounds good to me," she replied, "I won't let you down, I promise." She then left the room.
She'll be a fine addition to Dumbledore's Army, Geoff thought as he continued to pack his things.
--
Geoff returned the following morning to Hogwarts, with Harry by his side, hidden under his Invisibility Cloak. As Geoff opened his office door, Harry walked into the room quickly as Geoff entered and closed the door behind him.
"Feels good to be back," Harry remarked as he took the cloak off, "Though I wish I could have gotten some toast at breakfast."
"Sorry Harry, but you can't be seen by anyone except Miss Blaire," Geoff reminded, "I can't have Crabbe and Goyle running off and telling anyone that they saw you here."
"I know, I know," Harry replied with disappointment, "So you're sure there's a Horcrux in the Slytherin common room?"
"If what Miss Blaire told me is true, then I have no reason to think not," Geoff assured, "It'll probably be hidden in a wall or something, though, so you'll have to do a thorough search for it."
Harry nodded. That wasn't unexpected. "But what about anything that may pop out when I get it, like that river troll back in the orphanage?" he asked, "If I can't handle it, I doubt a first year would be of any help."
"I am running on the assumption that this Horcrux is one of Voldemort's early ones, perhaps one he created while he was still at Hogwarts," Geoff replied, "Perhaps even the earliest one of them all. I know the diary was the second Horcrux he made, and that in and of itself only had the power of persuasion. I think its being hidden away was the most protection Voldemort could give this one. But if something comes up and you and Miss Blaire can't handle it, she'll go get Miss Parkinson."
Harry nodded. Geoff had told him about Pansy's change of heart, but he was still wary of her. "Lets just hope it doesn't come to that," he commented, "Now, at midnight, I'll be waiting outside the Slytherin common room under my Invisibility Cloak. Megan will open the door and let me in. Then I get to work finding the Horcrux."
"Correct," Geoff answered with a nod, "Once you find it, bring it back here and we'll destroy it. And then we'll deal with getting you out of here and back to Number Twelve without anyone knowing what happened here. But we won't worry about that until after the Horcrux is destroyed."
"Right," Harry agreed as he sat down in the far corner of the room, "I just wish I could see my friends while I'm here."
Geoff understood that Harry had been deprived of friendship for more than two months now, though Geoff thought he was taking things quite well considering the circumstances. But he simply could not risk Harry's presence in the castle becoming known to anyone except those who absolutely needed to know. "Harry, once this is said and done," Geoff assured, "You'll have all the time in the world for your friends."
Harry nodded in agreement. He was feeling a bit down about not seeing his friends in so long, but he was connecting well with Geoff and Gary and the letters to and from Ginny always lifted his spirits. "Are you expecting visitors today?" he inquired.
"At least six of them, yes," Geoff replied with a smile.
Harry was about to probe further into that answer when a knock came from the door. "Harry, get under the cloak!" Geoff whispered, though Harry was already a half-step ahead of him.
Once Geoff saw that Harry was gone, he went to the office door and opened it. "Ah, thank you Argus for getting them here so quickly," he greeted the Hogwarts caretaker warmly.
"I'm just wondering what you need these six suits of armor for," Filch replied, "Care to give me any insights?"
"You'll see for yourself tonight," Geoff denied the request, "Alright you rusty lot, get in!"
The six enchanted suits of armor marched into the room, one by one, stopping and standing in a line in front of Geoff's desk. Geoff nodded to Filch and closed the door, locking it before turning to the suits. "Under no circumstances are you to tell anyone who may be in this room besides me, understood?" he demanded.
All six suits of armor nodded their helmets to confirm their understanding. "Right then," Geoff replied, "I doubt you'll be able to hold your laughter in after I'm done with these six, so go on and come out of hiding, Harry."
As Harry removed the Invisibility Cloak again, he saw that all six suits had quickly turned their helmets in his direction, and those that could have their visors wide open, exposing their emptiness inside their helmets in a show of shock.
"Yes, yes, it's Harry Potter, I know," Geoff admitted, "You've all seen him before, I'm sure. He's here under my watch, so don't worry."
With this, the suits turned their attention back to Geoff, who grabbed something off of his desk and began to point to various parts of the armor, muttering various enchantments on it.
"What exactly are you doing?" Harry asked after about two minutes of this.
"If I get this right, you should get a real treat out of this," Geoff assured as he closed the face visor on the helmet, "Okay, lets give this a try." And with that, he pressed a button on the device he was holding.
The suit of armor immediately stood at attention and drew its sword as a tune that Harry recognized immediately began playing.
"We're Knights of the Round Table. We dance when ere we're able," the suit began singing in a deep masculine voice with its visor moving up and down in sync with the words it was singing, "We do routines and chorus scenes with footwork impeccable."
The suit continued to sing and began to dance as Harry and Geoff doubled over in laughter. Once Geoff was able to gain control of himself again, he proceeded to do the same modifications to the other five suits.
"Hermione will love this," Harry commented.
"I don't know if she even pays attention to this sort of stuff," Geoff pointed out.
"I think she'll know this one, though," Harry replied, "She has to. Who else is going to explain this to Ron?"
Geoff and Harry shared another laugh at this comment.
--
Megan was still giggling occasionally from the display she had seen at the Halloween feast as she sat in the Slytherin common room, waiting for midnight to come. At this time, it was a mere five minutes away. As Geoff had requested, everyone had been cleared out of the common room. Megan thought she would have to somehow encourage people to leave, but it seemed that everyone was stuffed and retired to their rooms early, leaving her alone for now.
The festivities brightened the mood of the Hogwarts students considerably, given that rumors that an Azkaban break out had just occurred yesterday. That was another thing she would have to ask Professor Gryffindor about. But whatever was going wrong in the outside world, everything seemed fine at Hogwarts.
Megan waited for the clock in the Slytherin common room to hit midnight, which it finally did. She immediately got up and walked over to the entrance, opening it slowly and looking out to make sure no one was watching in the hallway. Looking down both ways, Megan saw nothing at all in the hallway. I wonder where he is, she thought as she waited for Harry.
"Close the door," she heard a male voice whisper from inside the common room.
Startled and not recognizing the voice, Megan quickly looked back into the common room to see who was speaking. But again, she saw no one there. "Who's there?" she demanded quietly, "Where are you?"
"Close the door, and I'll show you," the voice replied.
Sensing that this presence was not a threatening one, Megan obliged and shut the door to the common room. "Are you some kind of ghost?" she asked as she looked back into the room.
"Oh no, I'm not dying yet," Harry replied as he removed the Invisibility Cloak that surrounded him, revealing himself to Megan's sight for the first time.
Initially, this caught her completely by surprise. Megan backed into the door she just closed, startled by the sudden appearance of this young man.
"Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you," the young man apologized, "But I needed to get around without being seen."
Megan still didn't know what to do until she caught sight of the young man's brilliant green eyes, which triggered something in her memory. "He has his mother's green eyes," she recalled Professor Gryffindor telling her once. "Are you Harry Potter?" she asked cautiously.
He nodded. "That would be me, yes," Harry answered, "You must be Megan Blaire, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," she replied as she studied the famous wizard in the glow of the green lamps. He was about six feet tall and was wearing brown robes over his thin body. He wore round glasses and had messy black hair. And between some of the strands of hair that covered about half of his forehead, she saw a thin scar, shaped like a bolt of lightning, on the right side of his forehead. She guessed that was where Voldemort had tried and failed to kill Harry.
"So, you have any ideas where this Horcrux may be?" he asked, "I can feel it around here somewhere."
Megan shook her head. She knew that something in this room caused her to feel slightly depressed, but not what it was exactly or even where it was. "I suppose it might be hidden in one of the walls somewhere," she guessed, "Is there any way you can figure out for sure?"
"Yeah, by finding it," Harry replied simply as he walked over to the wall and began to walk around the edge of the room slowly. A frown was growing across his face as he made his way around the room.
"Is something wrong?" Megan inquired.
"It can't be in any of these walls," Harry explained, "I'm not feeling its presence getting stronger or weaker as I move around the edge of this room." He then walked into the middle of the room and stopped suddenly. "But it's stronger here," he noted as he looked up to the roof of the common room and shook his head when he saw there was nothing up there.
"Are you saying it's in the middle of the room?" Megan inquired.
Harry nodded his head. "It must be," he affirmed, "But there's no chandelier to hide it in above us." He walked away from the middle of the room to make sure he was right about that. As he did, the floorboards that he was standing on gave out an audible creak.
Megan noticed that immediately. "It's under the floor," she muttered, "It has to be."
Harry returned to the middle of the room and laid himself down on the floor. "Yeah, it feels stronger down here," he confirmed as he got back and his feet and crouched down, "I just need to get under these things." He then began attempting to pry the floorboards out with his hands.
This struck Megan as an odd thing to do, considering that he could use magic. "Why don't you just use your wand?" she inquired.
"No, he would have thought of that," Harry pointed out as he continued to scrape at the floorboards, "He would have magically sealed these boards up to hide the Horcrux. But I think I can remove them like this."
Almost as if on a cue, Harry was able to slip a couple of his fingers underneath on of the boards. Almost effortlessly, he lifted the floorboard up and out of the way. However, Harry couldn't tell what was underneath until he removed four more boards.
"It's a staircase," he remarked as he pulled out his wand, "Lumos."
With that, a beam of light was emitted from Harry's wand. Megan thought it looked something like a flashlight beam. Harry shined the light into the opening in the floor. "It's a spiral staircase," he reported, "I'm going down there."
"I'll come with you," Megan said as she pulled out her wand and approached Harry.
"I don't think you should," he cautioned, "There's no telling what may be down there."
"Even if that's the case, I think it's better for us to face it together than for you to do it alone," she pointed out.
"Okay, fine," Harry relented as he stood up and got on the first stair, "But stay behind me."
Megan nodded as the two began their descent down the staircase. The stairs only went around once and went down about seven feet before they came upon a small circular chamber. As Harry scanned the chamber with the light from his wand, Megan caught a brief golden flash from the opposite side of the room. "What was that?" she asked.
"What did you see?" Harry inquired.
"I thought I saw a flash or sparkle of some kind from the opposite side of this room," Megan informed, "It was about halfway up the wall."
Harry turned the light toward the spot Megan had indicated. Indeed, about halfway up the wall there from the floor was something that shined with a golden light. "There is something there," he remarked as he slowly approached the source of the shine, with Megan right behind him. As he got closer to the object, he saw that it wasn't just gold. It also had pieces of red, blue, and green in it. And as they came up next to the object, he finally saw what it was.
"It's a necklace," Harry informed as he looked at the thick golden chain, embedded with multiple rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Around its back, a series of gold, linked chains with a fastener attached would allow one to attach the ornament around their neck.
"It's beautiful," Megan commented as she reached for the necklace.
Seeing this, Harry grabbed her hand immediately. "No, don't!" he half-shouted, "This is the Horcrux. It could be dangerous."
"Then how are we supposed to destroy it?" she inquired.
"I'll take it," he answered, "I don't want you to get hurt by it." And with that, Harry quickly moved his left hand in to snatch the necklace from its resting spot. That was not a wise decision.
"AHH!" Harry shouted in pain before Megan could muffle his cries with her hand.
"I guess you didn't know what you were doing, either," Megan commented as she looked at Harry's left hand, "Oh my goodness! Your hand!"
Not much could compare to the actual pain Harry had felt upon attempting to grab the necklace, but what he saw from his left hand made him wince. Already, entire parts of his left hand were turning into a burnt black mess. It reminded him of what Dumbledore's arm looked like after his encounter with the ring Horcrux. Suddenly, Harry was now extremely afraid for his future well-being.
"Megan, reach for the necklace slowly," Harry instructed his companion once she let go of his mouth, "It may be a speed-triggered trap."
Megan nodded as she slowly pushed her right hand toward the necklace. She winced slightly as she felt a small burning sensation, but it never became anything more than that as she was able to grab the necklace itself and remove it from its place. "I got it," she muttered.
"Now lets get out of here," Harry instructed her, "I may need some help getting back to Geoff's office on the second floor."
"You got it," she replied as she helped Harry up the spiral staircase.
--
"That was a close call," Geoff remarked as he finished his work on Harry's left arm, "Another minute, and that curse would have been a death sentence. I'm sorry Harry, I should have known that Voldemort was going to use that curse on this Horcrux. It's the same one that afflicted Dumbledore when he found the ring."
"If I'm going to be okay, then you don't need to apologize," Harry assured, "What about Megan?"
"She'll be fine," Geoff replied, "She has a few blisters on her hand, but nothing serious. Nothing that'll be lethal, anyway."
Megan winced at the pain she was still feeling on her arm. "Easy for you to say," she complained, "These burns hurt like hell."
Harry groaned. "At least your arm isn't charred," he reminded her as he looked at his left arm again and wanted dearly to think that it wasn't his own. Geoff's spells had reduced some of the pain, but it still hurt a lot. And the revulsion of seeing a part of his own body in this condition was weighing heavily in his mind. "Will this thing ever heal?" he asked Geoff, remembering how Dumbledore's arm never recovered.
"Given enough time, yes," Geoff affirmed, "But it'll take at least a month, perhaps even three, before it returns to normal. Dark curses like those are always tricky to deal with effectively, but I'm confident that your arm will recover on its own from here on out, so long as nothing else happens to it."
"Right," Harry replied, "Well, at least Umbridge's damage will be gone once my arm heals, right?"
"Oh yes, her damage to your hand has been erased," Geoff agreed, "Nasty bit of work she did to you. I would have killed her if I saw her doing it myself." He then took out his wand. "I'll take the honor of eliminating this abomination," he stated as he pointed his wand at the necklace on his desk, "Avada Kedavra."
And with that, a green jet coursed through the air between the tip of his wand and struck the necklace, which gave out a bone-chilling cry and quickly ceased. "And good riddance," Harry remarked, "One left to go."
Geoff nodded as he picked up the necklace and examined it closely. "That's interesting," he stated, "It isn't damaged at all. No fractures at all."
"Is that bad?" Megan inquired.
"No, it's just that these items are usually damaged in some way when the soul inside is destroyed," Geoff explained, "You know Harry, Christmas is just around the corner. I think I know of someone you could gift this to."
Harry smiled as he caught on. "I think she'd love it," he replied.
"Is there anything else you need from me, Professor Gryffindor?" Megan inquired.
"I don't believe so, Miss Blaire," Geoff answered, "You should probably go back to your room and get some sleep."
"Yes sir," she replied as she left the room and worked her way back to the Slytherin common room entrance, having to avoid Mrs. Norris along the way.
"Harry, the London Express leaves for London again tomorrow morning," Geoff informed Harry, "I think you should go back to Grimmauld Place on that one."
Harry nodded in agreement.
--
Author's Notes: I really don't have much to say about this one. New chapter next week. Until then, read, review and enjoy.