Harry tried researching horcruxes, but could find absolutely nothing about them, so he gave it up as a lost cause. He trusted Sirius to keep him informed if necessary, and that was all he could do. The rest of Harry's summer was rather uneventful, although he caught Sirius looking at him with tears in his eyes a few times. Harry made sure to prank him extra hard on those days, and he soon cheered up. As much as Harry loved messing around all summer, he missed his friends and he missed Hogwarts, and so he was delighted when September 1st came around.
Harry was seated next to Remus, who was apparently teaching Defence for the year.
"Harry!" Hermione screeched as she entered the carriage and threw her arms around him. Harry patted her on the back awkwardly.
"Hey Hermione. Hey Ron!" He said, spotting the other boy over Hermione's shoulder. Ron grinned and waved back, throwing himself into a seat. It didn't take long for them to settle and begin sharing stories about their summer.
The sorting felt as if it was taking forever, and he joined Ron, for once, in groaning with joy when the food arrived at their tables.
"Bout time." Ron muttered around a mouthful of potato he'd picked up with his hands and jammed into his mouth. Globs of gravy ran down his face, and Harry couldn't look away, watching with morbid fascination at the amount of food he managed to consume within seconds.
"Ron! Mind your manners!" Hermione scolded. Several first years were also transfixed, and one particularly small girl looked as if she was about to faint.
BANG! The explosion drew the attention away from Ron. Seamus was grinning ear from ear, his eyebrows burnt to cinders and parts of his hair and uniform still flaming. He held up a goblet.
"Finally!" He cried, and took a swig.
"Mr Finnegan!" Professor McGonagall appeared behind him, and despite the scorched appearance Seamus still managed to pale. "What in the name of all things do you think you are doing?"
Seamus took another swig of his goblet before turning to face her. McGonagall's eyes narrowed as she inspected the cup clasped in his hand, and she swiped it up and away from him.
She took a sniff. The entire hall watched with baited breath.
"An excellent water to rum transfiguration." McGonagall allowed. Harry cheered, even as Hermione glared at him. "Unfortunately, consuming alcohol is illegal for minors. Twenty points from Gryffindor. Don't do it again." Seamus turned back to the table, a mischievous grin upon his face. Several upper year students were eying him contemplatively, and Harry used the following uproar as they tried to buy the spell from Seamus to slip away.
"About time, Master." Baneofallrodent's hissed from her perch on his shoulders.
He raced towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and opened the passage to the Chamber of Secrets with a hiss.
"Sally! It's Hassa and Baneofallrodents!" There was the faint sound of scales scraping on stone, and Sally poked her head out of the pipe, her second eyelids firmly shut.
There was a loud scream behind them. Harry turned, wand drawn. Malfoy had both hands clasped over his mouth, but it did nothing to diminish the girly shriek. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he collapsed into a dead faint. Harry poked him with his foot, but he didn't move at all.
"Oops!" Harry muttered, and levitated Malfoy out of the bathroom. "Forgot to lock the door." He realised. "Colloportus." He turned back to the basilisk.
"How was your hot season?" Sally asked.
"Fun and filled with lots of food. Did the elves bring you the snacks I asked them for?"
"Yes, although they ran away whenever I tried to speak to them." Harry barely manage to contain a laugh.
"I can't imagine why." He replied. He stroked her large nose. "I'll come and talk to you when I'm next free, but I better go before Malfoy wakes up."
"If he gives you any trouble, send him to me, and I shall eat him for you." Harry grinned.
"Thanks Sally. See you soon." Her head retreated and Harry closed the entrance up once more. He could hear the sound of voices outside, and so pulled on his cloak before leaving the bathroom.
"For the last time Draco, what have I told you about telling tales about Potter?" Snape growled. Malfoy was quivering under his glare.
"But sir, I'm telling you, it was a basilisk!" Harry crept past them so that he was behind Snape's back.
"Enough!" Snape roared. "Detention!" Harry lowered the hood of his cloak, and winked at Malfoy. Malfoy gaped.
"He's right there!" Malfoy cried. Harry pulled the hood back up and Snape spun around. He narrowed his eyes and turned back to Malfoy once more, who'd gone paler than snow.
"Detention for the rest of the week." Snape said quietly in a voice more terrifying than when he shouted. "Now begone!"
Harry sneaked away, laughing silently to himself. Served Malfoy right for being such a prat.
"I'm worried about Draco Malfoy." Severus admitted at the first staff meeting of the year. "His jealousy of Potter knows no bounds. Several times he's come to me with fabricated excuses for getting Potter into trouble, and although you all know how much I'd like that to be true, the stories he comes up with are ridiculous."
Albus frowned. "Like what, my dear boy?" Severus sneered at him.
"The dragon in first year that Potter was apparently smuggling off grounds. The polyjuice Potter had apparently brewed. The time Potter apparently hid in Lockhart's office and escaped through a hole in the wall that disappeared before I could even see it. The girl's bathroom Potter apparently spends his time in. The basilisk that Potter apparently has at his disposal! It's ludicrous. He's seeing Potter when he's not even there. I think he might be delusional." Severus concluded.
"That is most worrying." Albus agreed. "Perhaps we should have a discussion with him this evening?" Severus nodded his approval. "Now, moving on. Any other matters we need to discuss?"
"Seamus Finnegan has finally discovered how to transfigure water into rum." Minerva said. Severus bit back a groan. Every few years a dedicated student managed to create alcohol, and the resulting year was chaos.
"Obliviate him." Severus suggested. Albus frowned at him over his half-moon glasses in disappointment. Minerva pursed her lips, and Severus was certain she was holding back a smile.
"That's unethical, I'm afraid." She said.
"You'll all have to keep an eye on your older students this year." Albus said. "And Minerva, please impress upon Mr Finnegan the importance of keeping that spell to himself."
"Fat lot of good that'll do." Minerva muttered.
"Did anyone see where Harry disappeared to during supper?" Lupin piped up. Severus turned to glare at the werewolf. Lupin smiled mildly back at him.
"Probably getting up to some sort of mischief." He growled.
"Undoubtedly. He's a thirteen-year-old boy." Lupin agreed.
"I saw him in the Gryffindor Common Room earlier." Minerva offered. "Whatever he was doing, it was brief."
"Thank you, Minerva." Lupin said.
"Is there anything else that ought to be brought to my attention?" Albus asked, and a litany of denials answered him. "Very well. Thank you all for coming, and good luck with your first set of lessons tomorrow. Poppy, would you mind staying behind? And Severus, would you be as good as to fetch Draco for us?"
Severus nodded and departed to find his troublesome student.
Poppy was waiting quietly in one corner and she cast a few subtle diagnostics as Draco walked in. Severus glanced at her, but she shook her head; nothing wrong with him, as far as she could tell. Draco was glancing nervously about the office, his eyes darting between the three of them.
"You asked for me, Headmaster?"
"Yes, my boy. Please, take a seat." Albus said. Draco settled into the seat before the desk, looking tiny against the large wooden chair. "Now, Severus has come to me with concerns that you've been seeing things that aren't there."
Draco's jaw dropped and he turned to glare at Severus.
"No sir! It's all true! I'm not imagining things, I know it!"
"Perhaps the best way to settle this would be for us to view the memories with you?" Albus suggested. Severus nodded. A sound idea.
"How?" Draco demanded. Albus frowned, but stood to retrieve his pensieve.
"This is a device that will allow us to extract your memories and view them as if we were standing next to you. Think of the times you believe to have seen something that no one else has." Draco grimaced, obviously deep in thought. Albus placed his wand against Draco's forehead, and withdrew a long string of memories, placing them into the pensieve. Both he and Albus plunged forward into the liquid.
As Severus watched each memory, inspecting it for signs of duplicity, his anger grew and grew. Eventually he fell out of the pensieve to be greeted by Draco's smug grin.
"I told you so." Draco said, while Severus was still trying to find words to describe his anger. Albus was chuckling beside him.
"POTTER!" He bellowed. "I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" He could feel his eye twitching, and his blood boiling, and his heart felt like it was going to explode. There was a piercing pain skewering his mind and he was swaying where he stood.
He took a step forward. The pain reached a crescendo, and his brain was shrinking, compressing, dying. His vision tunnelled, and then everything went black.