AN: Enjoy!

Chapter 14 - Divergence

That evening, right after the end of the welcoming feast, Harry "forgot" to go to Bellatrix's quarters. He was not, under any circumstances, going to give her the satisfaction of poking fun at him about Fleur's company. Not when it was that fresh. Quietly ditching the older girl and the other two boys, he was among the first in his house to return to the Ravenclaw tower, to his dorm. By the time Terry and Michael found their way to their dorm too, Harry was already fast asleep, with the canopies of his bed pulled.

It was in the wee hours of the morning that the inability to breathe made Harry wake up with a start. Feeling the incredible weight on his legs and chest, he almost let out a shout of panic. Especially when he saw a behemoth of a snake coiled up on top of his body.

"How the hell did you get in here?! Are you trying to kill me?!" he hissed at the familiar snake on his bed.

It was none other than the green Anaconda that he had summoned a few hours before.

"Don't kick me out, Master, pleassse! It's too cold outside!" the huge snake pleaded and Harry had to quickly cast a Muffliato on his bed so his roommates would not hear the snake's terrible hissing.

"Didn't I tell you Scotland's weather is too cold compared to whatever tropical place you're coming from?" he said snarkily. "I'll just cancel the spell and send you back."

"So that's how it is... As you humans say, pump and dump. You used me and now that you don't need me anymore, you're throwing me away like a dirty napkin. I get it, I'm just a snake. You are the Master. Go ahead, send me back. Even kill me. I won't say a thing."

Harry was speechless. This blasted snake woke him up in the middle of the night by almost suffocating him to death and now it was playing the victim card.

"Pump and dump? What the hell?!" He started looking at the snake with narrowed eyes. "Are you an Animagus and you're fucking with me?"

With a nonverbal Summoning Charm, the fir and dragon heartstring wand flew up from the nightstand next to his bed right into his hand.

"What Animagus, Master, are you sleep talking?" the snake said innocently but when Harry pointed his wand at it, it quickly became silent. It even stopped flicking its forked tongue out. "You won't kick a poor snake out, will you, Master?" the snake begged. If it had been a dog, now it would have made puppy eyes and wagged its tail.

Harry let out a sigh. "What's the difference between me and Hagrid at this point..." he lamented.

Hagrid had hidden an Acromantula spiderling pet in the castle and now he was about to do the same with a big ass 30-foot-long Anaconda snake. "Come with me."

"I knew you were a great and merciful snake, Master. You wouldn't let-"

"I've had quite enough of your cheek for today, you little shit. Be quiet lest I change my mind."

The snake had it on the tip of its tongue to say that Harry was the little shit, not him, a snake weighing several hundred pounds but in the end, it decided that it loved staying alive and kept its thoughts to itself.

Harry cast a Disillusionment Charm on the snake and then one on himself to render themselves almost invisible. But, seeing as he had done it wandlessly, with his right hand, the wand in his left hand sent a small Stinging Hex at the palm wrapped around its handle.

"Why are you hexing me? It's your fault that I can't trust you to cast any spells!" he whispered harshly at his wand. "I won't use you for anything important until you learn to behave!"

In response to his words, Harry felt his connection with the wand suddenly get cut off. It had shut itself off, it was no different than an ordinary stick now.

"See? THAT is your problem! You think throwing tantrums would get you what you want? Well, not this time. To the corner with you!" he scolded.

He threw his wand into his trunk and locked it inside. When the trunk started to shake as if to burst apart, he said in a dangerous voice:

"If anything gets scratched, and I mean it, even the smallest scratch, I will feed you to Hagrid's Hippogriffs tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

The trunk instantly stopped shaking. His threat seemed to have been very effective.

With that problem solved, he cast a Shrinking Charm on the snake.

"Don't worry, it's not permanent," he said when he saw the Anaconda starting to hiss in panic. "Climb on my arm. We'll go to your new home."

⁂

"Magic all around, warmth, and even someone to carry me around. Now that's what I call life!" the shrunken snake said contently as it stood wrapped around Harry's right arm and neck, basking in the warmth coming from his body.

"You really got a mouth on you, you can't shut it for the life of you!"

"Hehe, Master, don't be angry, I'm only joking, just joking!" the snake said and rubbed its now tiny head on the underside of his chin.

"Merlin, stop it, it's gross!"

"Gross? What exactly is gross about my smooth scales. you hairless a- ...erm, I mean, you're perfectly right, I'm sorry, Master."

Luckily, with the snake so small now, its hissing was not loud enough to alert any ghosts or wake up any portraits and Harry had enough common sense to keep his own voice down.

Soon enough, they arrived at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He had wanted to go down in the Chamber of Secrets earlier that evening but with Fleur around, he had had to put it off for later.

"Who's there? I can hear you!" Myrtle yelled when she heard the splashes made by his steps onto the floor flooded with water. Given how dark it was and that he was Disillusioned, Harry was not worried that she would recognize him. Ignoring the ghost, he went to the sink and said in Parseltongue:

"Open!"

The sinks parted from the middle and a large opening appeared.

"Wicked!" the snake said in awe.

One wild trip down the large pipe later, Harry arrived in the rather unforgettable Chamber of Secrets. The floor was as dirty and filled with bones of dead animals as he remembered it.

"M-Master, what is this place?!" the snake asked, for the first time sounding very scared.

"I thought snakes were not supposed to have good eyesight, how did you see it?" Harry muttered as he looked at the enormous piece of skin left behind by the Basilisk after shedding its skin. Given that it had started to rot, it must have been shed a few good years before.

"I can't see anything in this darkness. But I feel it. The King of Serpents. Master, you didn't bring me here to kill me, did you?"

"Oh, just shut it already, you big crybaby! Would I come to this god-forsaken place just to dump your body when I can make you disappear with a thought?"

With another hiss, the last door of the Chamber of Secrets was opened and Salazar Slytherin's statue appeared in front of his eyes, as large and creepy as he remembered it. He did not even bother with trying to communicate with the thousand-year-old Basilisk lying dormant inside it. No point in having it come out of its hole and putting himself in mortal peril for no reason. With a wave of his hand, a rooster was conjured through magic.

"Imperio!" he said and the rooster fell under his complete control.

Following his command, the bird walked until it was very close to the statue and started singing.

"..."

Dying screeches, terrible hisses and a giant snake thrashing around desperately - it was what Harry had been expecting but there was none of that. Nothing except for the rooster's song could be heard.

After almost 15 minutes of singing without a pause, even the rooster was starting to lose its voice and was beginning to sound more like a crow rather than a rooster.

"Here goes nothing."

Vanishing the conjured rooster by pointing his finger at it, he then hissed towards the statue:

"Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"

The moment that the mouth of the statue opened, an intense smell of a corpse assaulted his senses so badly that he became momentarily dizzy. With a thought, a Bubble-Head Charm appeared around his head, giving him a way to breathe through that terrible stink. Climbing up, he saw the immense body of the King of Serpents lying lifelessly inside.

"No signs of a struggle... It looks like it died peacefully, probably in its sleep. Did it die of old age?"

The giant serpent was coiled up in an orderly fashion as if it was sleeping. As far as he knew, the song of a rooster (although fatal) could not kill a Basilisk instantly, especially one that was that old and powerful. The Basilisk would have thrashed around at the sound of the rooster's song, its survival instinct making it try to escape. It would have not remained unmoving, in a sleeping position.

⁂

The adventure in the Chamber of Secrets turned out to be far less exciting than he had been expecting. After all, an encounter with the most dangerous magical beast in the world would not be boring, to say the least. Deadly? Yes. But not boring.

'It makes sense that it died of old age. There are no records of other Basilisks living for even half as long as Slytherin's Basilisk. A few centuries, yes, but not a thousand years... Even so, it was still alive back in my world when I was in my second year,' Harry thought. 'I guess that's just another thing that changed in this world. But if that's the case, where does the Diary come into play?'

He involuntarily grimaced when a particular thought popped up in his mind:

'What if...what if there is no Diary at all?'

He had assumed that Voldemort had taken the same methods to ensure his immortality as in his past life. But he was being reminded so often of how different this world was from his that he could not help wondering: were Voldemort's Horcruxes still the same over here as well?

'What if all the Horcruxes are in different objects or maybe hidden in different places? ...Or what if there are no Horcruxes at all? What if he found other methods to preserve his life?'

With the Anaconda off his hands now, and with those alarming new thoughts in his mind, Harry broke into a run on his way to the Room of Requirement.

⁂

"I wonder what kind of thoughts kept you awake last night that you couldn't sleep..." Bellatrix mused, her smile filled with all kinds of insinuations.

Seeing as he had the body of a child, staying awake the entire previous night and wandering through the castle instead had taken its toll on his appearance. There were bags under his eyes and his entire look was dishevelled.

"Mhm. I was thinking about that lovely fifth-year blonde girl you saw me with yesterday," Harry said flatly.

He had too many worrisome thoughts on his mind to even feel embarrassed by her teasing anymore.

"Tsk, you're no fun," she pouted when she saw she could not get him riled up.

Harry had spent almost six hours last night, searching through the Room of Hidden Things for the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. He had used all kinds of Charms for detecting dark objects and he had used his honed sixth sense for discovering traces of Dark Magic too. But it was to no avail. He did find dozens of dark artefacts and other cursed objects but after scouring the entire room, there was no trace of the Horcrux.

That fact confirmed something for him: 'If Voldemort created Horcruxes, they are not in the same places as in my world'

His countenance darkened further when he thought about Bellatrix.

'Then, if the Diadem is not in the castle, what medium did Voldemort use to cast that Jinx over the position of DADA professor?'

He was beyond worrying now, he was starting to become anxious about Bellatrix. Glancing up at her, he realized that she was also looking at him thoughtfully.

"I'm worried about you," Harry said with honesty. "Not even Dumbledore knows how that Jinx works or how to dispel it and many professors didn't end up well after teaching DADA here. Some of them even died."

She rolled her eyes at him. "We've had this conversation before, Harry. A little appreciation for your auntie's capabilities, please!"

"Funny that you're 'auntie' whenever it suits your needs but if I call you 'aunt Bella' it starts raining fire."

She giggled a bit but she became serious after that and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't come to Hogwarts just to keep an eye on you, you know?" At his sceptical face, she conceded: "Alright, I did come for you first and foremost, but I also intend on finding a solution to this Jinx. Call it my pet project."

"If Dumbledore couldn't do anything about it-" he began.

"Dumbledore isn't all-knowing, nor is he all-powerful!" she said, starting to become annoyed. "Just because he couldn't do anything about it that doesn't mean nobody else can. There are things that he is better at than most but there are also people that are better than him in particular areas. I have yet to meet anyone as well-versed in the Dark Arts as I am."

Harry became momentarily silent at her claim. What she had just said was not something that most people would be proud of.

"So you mean you know how to dispel this Jinx?"

"I don't know yet. But I do have a few theories. Nevermind that. Tell me more about that girl," she suddenly changed the subject. "A girl three years older than you? And a French Veela at that? Colour me impressed."

"That's nothing to be impressed about. Not when compared to how popular you seem to be. I never knew. You never talk about yourself." Harry diverted the subject to her.

Bellatrix let out an exasperated sigh. "You tell me more about her and maybe - just maybe - I will tell you more about myself too~"

"Nothing to talk about really," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "She all of a sudden came to me and said she wanted me to be her friend. I think that's just because I'm not affected by her Veela Charm like most boys. Other than that, I know nothing about her. It's all one-sided, really."

"And here I was mentally preparing myself on how to give you the Talk..." she mused and laughed lightly when he groaned.

"Merlin, no. Save us both the embarrassment," he said and covered his face with his hands. "You don't need to tell me about the birds and the bees, or contraception. I know all about it. Besides, I'm only 12!"

"...You're right," she said, a strange look on her face. Due to his unnaturally mature behaviour and manner of speech, she often found herself forgetting that he was only 12 years old.

A soft chime came from the clock hanging on the wall in front of Bellatrix's desk.

"You should go. You have Potions next if I recall correctly?"

"Yes, together with the Hufflepuffs."

"A word of advice: be careful with Slughorn," she said in a light warning tone.

"Why? He seemed like a nice old man. Much nicer than Snape from last year," he said, pretending to not know what she was talking about.

"Slughorn was my Potions professor when I was at Hogwarts too so I know that he loves making connections with promising prospects. He does favours for people when they are still young and asks them to return the favour after they become successful. It's not a bad thing per se but you have to be careful not to be roped into his games."

"So, you think he'll take an interest in me?" he asked

"What do you think? First in your year by a landslide and the legal ward of Bellatrix Black, a rather famous Unspeakable-"

"How modest of you," he quipped in.

"-you will be one of his primary targets to add to his 'collection'. Of course, the Longbottom boy will be his top priority."

Bringing a finger to her chin a thoughtful posture, she said as if it was an afterthought:

"Your pretty French girlfriend will most likely be one of his targets too because she is rather interesting. Top of her year as well, and she became Filius Flitwick's apprentice this year. She's also the daughter of a wealthy wine-maker from Provence, France, known for their brand of rose wines both in the Muggle and Wizarding world. She's also a Veela... Slughorn will be all over her. You might want to give her a heads up."

"How do you know about her background? You checked her up?" he asked in surprise, conveniently choosing to ignore the 'girlfriend' part.

"I've been working at the Ministry for 20 years. I know a guy or two. A bit of information on a girl is nothing," she said dismissively.

She had arrived at Hogwarts only the evening before, yet she had already gathered information on Fleur Delacour. He was was both startled and impressed.

"Just curious, did you also check Terry and Michael's background?" he asked.

"Naturally," she said as a matter of fact.

For a moment, he was stunned by her frank admission of keeping tabs on his friends.

"If professor Slughorn is as well-connected as you say, I think I want to become very good friends with him," Harry said after a while. "He could be very useful."

"I'm starting to think the hat made a wrong choice when it put you in Ravenclaw. You would've been much better in Slytherin," she said.

"I admit the hat was pretty adamant about me being perfect for that house... but I did not want to. I told it to put me anywhere but there. Even Hufflepuff would have been better."

"And what exactly is wrong with Slytherin, eh?" she said, glaring at him.

"In the summer before my first year, everyone told me to avoid being sorted in Slytherin. They were saying things like 'it's a house of scheming backstabbers' or 'why are they even allowed at Hogwarts anymore, seriously'. Come to think of it, you were a Slytherin too, weren't you? Merlin, imagine the horror... can't say I'm surprised though-"

For the second time that day, Harry found himself on the receiving end of a Stinging Hex.

"Ow! Ow!" he yelped and quickly dashed towards the door, knowing exactly what kind of temper Bellatrix had. She was not going to stop just at a Stinging Hex.

She also stood up and ran after him. She was about to hex him again but with both of them out in the corridor now, she quickly got a hold of her ire and stopped herself in time.

"You better come back yourself or you won't like it when I finally catch you," she threatened him.

Her left eye started twitching when he started to laugh. He was already at the end of the corridor, at a safe distance away from her.

"See you tomorrow in class, AUNT Bella." he turned his head and taunted her over his shoulder as he ran down a staircase.

"It's Professor Black, you scrawny little prick!" she yelled after him.

In fact, Harry was well above caring about the pride of his House, the House Cup or House Points. He knew that all houses had both good and bad apples. He only said that to annoy her. He knew that Bellatrix took pride in being a Slytherin so what better way to quickly annoy her than that?

As he headed towards the dungeons, he thought about Slughorn and his club.

'Slughorn is a very well connected man. He could be a shortcut to my Quidditch career.'

He was confident about reaching the same level of success as in his past life. Making use of Slughorn's connections, he could achieve his goals with half the time and effort.

'I could probably get into Puddlemore United even before taking my OWLs if I played my cards right. Getting to play for the national team of England before I graduate wouldn't be far fetched either.' he mused.

He was going to make use of every opportunity available to him in this new chance at life. Now that he was no longer the Boy Who Lived, famous for a thing that he hated, and now that there was nobody like Ron Weasley breathing enviously in the back of his neck, nothing was stopping him from taking full advantage of the benefits of being friends with someone as well connected as Horace Slughorn.

With that thought in mind, he stepped into Potions Classroom confidently, intent on making the cunning old professor 'fall in love' with his talent.