A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof!

Chapter 69

Harry,

Congratulations on getting past the dragon. James would have loved to have seen you fly around a Hungarian Horntail. Remember you still have two tasks ahead of you. Figure out the next clue as soon as you can that way you won't stress too much about what might lay ahead.

I want you to watch yourself around Karkaroff and Snape. They were both known Death Eaters during the first war. Karkaroff only got out of Azkaban because he turned in some names of other Death Eaters. Snape was kept out of prison because Albus had said that he had turned spy for the light or some such rubbish.

I don't know why Albus believed Snape. Once a Death Eater, always a Death Eater.

I'm glad you and Ron made up. It's important to keep your friends close.

I hope you've not had any more dreams. If you do, make sure you go to the Headmaster.

Love,

Padfoot.

Harry re-read the letter. Snape and Karkaroff were Death Eaters? But that didn't make any sense. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't let Snape teach if he had been a Death Eater. As for Karkaroff, Harry wondered if he had been the one to put his name in the Goblet of Fire. After a few minutes more of contemplation, he stowed his letter in his trunk and went off in search of Neville.

Ron was currently serving a detention because he had kicked at Mrs. Norris and Filch had seen it.

It was December 3rd and Harry was getting ready to go to Hogsmeade. As he was putting on his shoes, Hermione came barging into the room.

"You know, one of these days you're going to do that and one of us is going to be stark naked," pointed out Harry.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Let's go. I want to run by the book store."

"For what?" asked Ron. "You already have a lot of books."

She was saved from answering, however, because a tiny elf popped up in front of Harry at that moment and launched itself at him.

"Harry Potter!" it squeaked.

"Dobby?"

The little elf pulled away. "It is Dobby sir. Dobby is being so glad to see you."

"I'm glad to see you too, Dobby. What are you doing here?" asked Harry.

"I is coming to work at Hogwarts sir. I is getting paid and time off too!"

"That's great Dobby," spoke up Hermione.

The little elf fell off the bed and stared at Hermione and Ron in awe.

"Harry Potter's friends are so great to be talking to Dobby," he exclaimed.

"Are you working today Dobby?"

"No sir, Harry Potter sir. I starts tomorrow but I be needing to go. I needs to help Winky settle in." The elf's ears drooped a little.

"Winky? Crouch's elf?" asked Ron.

Dobby nodded. "Winky has come to work here with me but she is not doing so well. She's addicted to the butterbeer," he whispered.

"Is she sick?"

"No. She is just missing Mr. Crouch but I is hoping to make her feel better."

Dobby then noticed that all three were dressed to leave. He reached for the book on Neville's night stand and started to hit himself over his head with it.

Harry quickly grabbed the book. "Dobby, why are you punishing yourself?"

"Because Dobby is keeping Harry Potter and his Wheazy and his Hermy from going to Hogsmeade."

"No you're not Dobby. We had just finished dressing when you came in the room," said Ron, clearly embarrassed at being called a Wheazy.

"Tell you what Dobby. As long as I'm not in class, you can come visit me whenever you want to."

"Really?"

Harry thought Dobby was going to cry, which was confirmed two seconds after Harry had nodded yes.

After he popped out, Ron muttered, "Definitely one of a kind."

Harry just smiled. He liked the little eccentric elf.

"McGonagall told me that I had to find a partner to take to the ball even though I told her I don't want to go. She said that the Champions open the ball by dancing."

Harry and Ron were currently in a study hall being prowled by Snape.

"Who are you going to ask?" asked Ron, as he dug in his bag for another piece of parchment.

Harry pictured Cho in his head but opted to stay silent.

"It shouldn't be hard for you. You're the boy-who-lived and you just flew past a dragon."

"Mr. Weasley. If you cannot keep quiet, I will give you a detention," snarled Snape.

Harry waited until Snape had walked away to whisper back, "I think I'd like to have another go at the dragon to be honest."

Snape heard the final comment of Harry's and smirked

The only person that he had ever seen his son look at with any interest was Cho Chang. The thought of telling the birds and the bees to Harry entered his mind and he shuttered.

'Too young,' thought Severus. That wasn't a lecture he ever wanted to give. Hopefully Harry would read up on it on his own. Of course, he could also con Poppy or Minerva into talking to him about it.

Severus pondered that idea while he went over to yell at a group of Hufflepuff's that were being loud.

Harry was in the book shelves in the library again. He was looking for something that could tell him what the glowy thing was while keeping an eye out for anything that might hint at how to get past the door in the Chamber of Secrets when he saw Cho enter the library.

His heart began to race. He waited until her friends walked away from her and slowly approached.

"H - Hi Cho," stuttered Harry. 'Bloody brilliant,' he thought.

"Oh. Hello Harry."

"I - I - I was wondering if you w-wanted to go to -"

"Hi Harry."

Harry jumped. Thankfully nothing exploded. Madam Pince would have killed him.

"Cedric. Hi. Uh. How are you?"

"Fine."

Harry watched as he pulled up a chair next to where Cho was about to sit. He turned beat red because he saw the answer in Cho's gaze.

"I'm sorry Harry. I don't know. Maybe Flitwick can recommend you a book about it."

Harry realized that she was helping him save face and he felt grateful for it. "Thanks anyway Cho. I'll do that. See you later."

Harry sullenly walked off after putting his books down. He wasn't in the mood for much anymore.

"Insomnia sucks," he muttered. "Tempus." 2:19 floated in the air.

Everyone around him was sound asleep. Deciding it was time for another trip to the Chamber of Secrets, Harry retrieved what he needed and carefully made his way down the pipe.

The chamber was still spooky but not as bad as the first time he was down there.

It was about 10 minutes to three when he reached the two hidden doors.

Harry knelt down to touch the brick with the four house symbols on it and smiled - again comforted by the magic within the walls of Hogwarts.

While touching the brick with the four symbols, Harry repeated the school motto in Latin.

Nothing happened.

So he hissed the school's motto in Latin using parseltongue (which was harder than one would think since it doesn't directly translate).

He grinned when the door opened. The idea had come to him a couple of days ago when Binns had lectured on something about the school.

Instead of a room like he expected, he found a stairway going up. "Lumos Maxima." Harry carefully made his way up the spiral staircase. After more than 200 steps, he came to another door. Praying that this door didn't open up into the Headmasters' office (can you imagine the explaining he would have to do?) he once again hissed the schools motto in Latin.

When the door didn't open right away, he placed his hand on it to brace himself so he could examine it closer but as soon as he had touched the door, it swung open.

"Hmm," he murmured as he warily crossed the threshold.

What he saw nearly made his eyes bug out. He actually pinched himself because he was sure that he had fallen into a dream.

"The legendary Founders Library," said Harry. It was one of those legends - like the Chamber of Secrets had been.

He was in awe.

Though why he didn't know. The Chamber of Secrets was clearly not a legend.

The walls were lined with bookshelves, most had a snake, a lion, a badger, or an eagle etched on the top of them. There was a table and several chairs in the center of the room. Strangely enough, they had no dust on them at all.

The room must have the same type of preservation charm on it that the Chamber of Secrets has.

He walked further into the room and saw a fireplace in the corner. Setting his broom on the table, he saw another outline on the wall next to it but it didn't seem like a door. It was more like a door used to be there but wasn't anymore.

After lighting the wall sconces, he walked over to one of the bookshelves with a lion on it and randomly pulled out a book.

But when he touched it, it shocked him.

"Ow," he muttered.

He reached for the book again, expecting another shock but didn't receive one. Opening it, he saw words in Latin. He could read a few words since he was studying it on the side but that was all.

Harry headed to the book shelves with a snake on it next. This time, instead of a shock, there was a pulse of magic that washed over him.

"Odd," he muttered to himself again.

Opening the book he saw a bunch of swirls and squiggles which slowly became words.

Parseltongue. The book was written in parseltongue.

"I didn't even realize that it could be written," he said out loud.

Again, the book was written in Latin on top of the parseltongue but he was able to recognize a few more words - enough for him to realize it was a book on spells of some sort. He carefully put it back on the shelf.

The books on the shelves with the eagle and badger were also written in Latin.

"Tempus." Harry started to panic when the numbers said 5:42.

It would take him at least 40 minutes to get back to the dorm. After grabbing a couple of random books from the lion bookshelves, he picked up his broom then headed toward the door, except he couldn't pass back through it.

It was like an invisible barrier had been erected when he wasn't looking.

Harry started pacing back and forth while trying to figure out how he had been able to enter but not leave. After a couple of minutes he realized that the only difference was the books.

He quickly put the books down on the table and tried to leave the room and this time he was able to.

"Ugh."

After dousing the lights in the room, he ran back down the stairs.

He got back to Gryffindor Tower at 6:45 a.m., barely dodging teachers and students alike. He had just managed to sneak back into bed and pull the covers over his head when Ron entered the dorm.

"Harry. There you are," said Ron. "Get up. We're going to be late for breakfast."

"I didn't sleep well last night Ron. I think I'm going to stay in bed for a little while longer. I couldn't even keep my eyes open long enough to go the loo." He did his best to try to sound groggy. He was pants at lying but hoped that Ron didn't pick up on that.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Tell Hermione I'm sick or something."

"Alright. I'll bring your homework to you."

Harry heard Ron leave and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still dirty from his venture and had been hoping that Ron wouldn't remove his blanket. Around 7:30, he got up to take a shower then really went to bed - exhausted.

December 9, 1994

I actually found the

Harry frowned. For some reason he couldn't write the Founders Library. It was like he was compelled not too. It was the oddest sensation that he had ever felt, which really was saying something.

... place where the secret books were hidden.

At least he could write that.

I need to tell Dumbledore about it.

The second he finished writing that, a flash of pain seared through Harry's head. Odd. He suddenly felt very tired again. After putting his journal away, he fell back asleep.

"How come you've not found a date yet?" asked Ron. "I mean, if you can't find one, how am I going to find one?"

"I don't know who to ask," said Harry.

"You want to take someone that you can talk to," said Hermione over her Arithmancy book.

"Huh?"

"Think about it Harry. If you take someone that you can't talk to, it's going to be a horrible night because you will both be bored."

"Oh." That made sense but he couldn't think of any girls, other than Hermione, that he was comfortable talking to. "Someone needs to write a book on this."

Hermione just rolled her eyes, and thought for the 10th time so far that year that boys really were clueless.

As Herbology class let out, Harry spied Susan and her friends leave the green house in front of where he, Neville, Ron, and Hermione were walking. Remembering what Hermione said about taking someone to the dance that he could easily talk to, he excused himself.

"Susan, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Harry flushed as her friends started giggling.

"What's wrong Harry? You look a little green."

"Uh ... well." Harry took a deep breath. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the ball with me."

She blushed. "Oh Harry. I would love to but I'm already going with someone."

"Oh. Okay then. See you later."

"I'm sorry Harry."

Harry turned and smiled at her. "It's okay."

"Well?" asked Ron and Hermione together. (Evidently Neville had forgotten something and had to go back for it.)

Harry shook his head.

"This is crazy," said Ron. "Harry, why don't you take Ginny and I'll take Hermione."

"Ginny's going with Neville," said Harry. "I asked her last night." It served as another reminder that he was a failure at this whole girl thing.

"And I already have a date," stated Hermione.

"Who?" asked Ron incredulously.

"That's not important," said Hermione as she blushed. "Keep trying Harry."

"C'mon Hermione. Who are you going with?"

"A guy," she said as she stalked off towards Arithmancy.

Harry and Ron headed back to the dorms, both boys feeling rather dejected.

A couple of days later, Harry looked up from his potions homework to see Ron fidgeting. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Ron, you're acting like you have ants in your pants."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. It's a muggle expression. Sit down. You're making me nervous."

"I ... uh ... asked Parvati to go to the ball with me."

"Please tell me you didn't yell it at her like you did Fleur the other day."

That had been really amusing and Harry doubted that he would ever let Ron live it down.

"No. I didn't yell it. Parvati said yes," he said after a slight hesitation.

Harry smiled. "Congratulations. I still don't have any idea who I'm going to take."

Ron fidgeted some more. "What about that Slytherin girl?"

Harry's head snapped up from his potion's homework. "Gabriella?"

Ron nodded.

"How do you even know about her?"

"Well ... uh ... after our fight, I saw you talking to her a few times and at first I thought you might actually be considering moving to Slytherin."

Harry started to interrupt but Ron continued speaking.

"I was an idiot of course, but you seemed to like talking to her."

"I do. She's nice. Plus it made Nott mad," Harry said grinning.

"I think you should ask her."

Harry thought about it. She had crossed his mind a time or two but he figured it would upset his and Ron's friendship if he went with a Slytherin.

"I'll ask her tomorrow. She's normally in the library after dinner on Wednesday's. I suppose the worst thing that could happen is that I get rejected ... again ... for the 5th time." He had (in desperation) asked Lavender Brown to the ball the day before only to find out that she was already going with someone else.

Ron just snickered.

Severus eyed the object in his hand. He had been contemplating on giving it to Harry for Christmas for a few days now.

It had been Lily's but she had given it to him during their first year, as a token of her friendship.

Severus reached over and pulled out a piece of parchment. After writing down some things, he headed off to Albus' office.

He was of the mind that if Albus so much as twinkled at him, he would hex the Headmaster into next week, and he would thoroughly enjoy it too.

"You did what Sirius?"

"I warned Harry about Snape and Karkaroff."

"Padfoot, you fool. Why would you do something like that? We talked about this."

"Harry needs to know who he can't trust."

"Harry seems to be a good judge of character on his own. Let him form his own opinions."

"But Mooney, Harry is just a boy."

"Sirius, Harry has never been 'just a boy'."

Sirius threw himself into a chair. "I do not trust Snape. No one should. How he hood winked Albus I'll never know."

"Sirius, I want you to listen to me." Remus took a seat opposite of him. "You lost thirteen years of your life. You're still thinking like a twenty-year-old man. Things came to light while you were imprisoned. Now that you have the house spotless, take the time to get caught up on all of the events that you missed."

"But Mooney, that's homework."

"No Sirius. That's life. That's being an adult."

"You're right, as usual," he said after a few minutes.

Remus smiled. "Trust in yourself Sirius but also trust in Harry. Despite all he's been through, he has a good head on his shoulders."

Sirius nodded.

"You also need to get over whatever grudge you have with Snape."

"But Snivellus is a Slytherin. They always have ulterior motives."

"Sirius, your godson almost became a Slytherin. What would you have done if he had been sorted there instead of Gryffindor? Would you have abandoned him to whatever fate that would have caused?"

"Of course not! What kind of question is that?" demanded Sirius.

"You told me that Harry seemed hesitant to tell you that the hat almost put him there. Why do you think that was?"

Sirius looked up curiously. "He wasn't afraid of telling me that. He had no reason to be. He just didn't want ... oh ... no ... he couldn't possibly think that I would reject him because he had almost been put in Slytherin could he?"

"I don't know Sirius, you tell me. You're the one spouting off that all Slytherin's are evil. What if there comes a time in Harry's life that he may need to get close to Snape ... to form a bond with him. Would you suddenly abandon Harry if that happened?"

"Why in Merlin's name would Harry need to get close to Snape?" Sirius looked horrified.

"There could be a variety of reasons. Harry knows that Snape and his mother were friends, maybe he wants to get to know her through him. That, in itself, could form a bond between them."

"I can tell him about Lily if he wants me to, but he never asks. I would expect him to want to know more about James though. He does look just like him."

"Sirius, Harry is not James. He is his own person. Looks are not everything."

Sirius put a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I don't trust Snape, not since I know for sure he was a Death Eater, but I suppose I could ease up on the 'Slytherin's are evil' bit. I just ... I want Harry to be safe ... and happy. Most of the Slytherin's that we graduated with did become Death Eater's. Between that and my own family, it's hard to see past what I've known all my life."

Remus stood up and put a hand on Sirius' shoulder briefly before heading to the kitchen. It was a start. Maybe the shock of Harry being afraid to confide in Sirius will make him grow up, or at least make him think before he speaks.

Harry was nervous. He was hiding in a stack of books in the library while waiting on Gabriella to arrive with her friends.

Twenty minutes later she did - right along side her brother and another Slytherin.

'This couldn't be easy, could it?' he thought sullenly.

Harry positioned himself out of sight of Theodore and Blaise but where Gabriella could still see him.

About ten minutes later, Harry managed to get her attention.

"Excuse me a minute," he heard her say.

"Good book Harry?" she whispered with a grin as she approached him.

"Very," he replied.

She snickered so Harry looked down and felt like an idiot. The book was upside down. To his horror, he then realized that it was a book on love potions (and why they were illegal). He fumbled it away.

She chuckled.

Harry looked around again and took a deep breath. "Gabriella, were you going to the Yule Ball?"

"No. No one's asked me yet and I can't go unless a 4th year or above does."

"Would you like to go with me then?"

She smiled. It done something funny to Harry's stomach the way her eyes lit up. "I would."

"Great." Harry let out a sigh of relief. He then saw worry flash through her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"My brother. He doesn't like you because you're a Gryffindor."

"I can handle him," said Harry with a frown.

"No. It's not that. He may write home and tell my father. He might make me go home for Christmas."

"I don't want to get you in trouble," said Harry.

"You know what? Don't worry about it. I'll come up with something. What color are your robes?"

"Er ... black with a green ... thing. My tie's also green." Harry felt like he was having trouble keeping up with the conversation.

She chuckled and nodded. Thankfully, she appeared to know what he was talking about. "Meet me here tomorrow after dinner."

"Alright. I'll see you later." Harry watched her walk off with a smile.

A/N: As you can see, I kinda, sorta veered from canon. *grins* Poor Harry just has no luck with girls. ;-) I thought Ron suggesting Gabriella meant a step of growth for the red headed boy. I re-worked Remus and Sirius' conversation like 5 different times and I think I finally got it the way that I wanted it to come out. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I really do hope that you all enjoyed it.

As for the Founder's Library ... I mean c'mon. There had to be books from that time still lurking around somewhere ... and if not, well there is now. *nods* However, as for finding it, while Harry may be the first to enter it in a while, he's not the only one to have ever found it, but that's in another chapter.

And Graven - You're review of chapter 68 had me in tears I was laughing so hard. My 87 year old grandfather that I take care of (who's very Hard of Hearing) actually came to see what I was laughing at.

I do want to thank everyone that leaves me reviews, especially on a regular basis. I really really do appreciate them. *leaves out cookies for everyone*

Up next, poor Severus is in for a shock. I need a couple of days to fix it. I'm not happy with one part of the Yule Ball but then it will be posted.

And as for you all wondering when Severus is just gonna come out and tell Harry, well I could tell *you* that .. but then I'd have to kill you. hehe. All I can ask is that you just keep being patient with me. *sets out more cookies as a diversion and flees*