So year 2, this is the farthest I've gotten in a Harry Potter fanfic. I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, and as I've said before, any and all criticisms will be welcome in the review section. Still no one has guessed the plot idea.
Hope you all will enjoy it.
-WhatTheFAQ
Harry Potter and I'm bad at titles
Chapter 3: Wait I have a plan for this fic?
Harry sat in his home, waiting patiently for a letter. He knew it wasn't likely to get here while he was waiting but he had enough patience to sit there until something changed. The change came when Vernon knocked on his door hesitantly. Harry guessed it made sense he'd be hesitant, Harry had left without warning the year before to go to a school to learn magic, and now he was back and had gone into his old room without a word.
"Yes?"
"It's your uncle"
"Come in" Harry rather liked the way his uncle was treating him.
"I-We were wondering why you came back?"
"Because I can't stay there all year, you'll see me here for a few weeks, or less, since I'm expecting a letter from a friend to invite me to his summer home"
"Alright, well would you like anything?" Harry expected he was trying to get on his good side. Harry didn't do anything to stop him.
"No I'm fine for now." He left quickly.
The letter came in the next few days, he replied and sent it with Congelo. He smiled and thought wonderfully about what the next few weeks would bring until Hogwarts again. He set to finishing a Charms paper that he had been assigned.
When Harry announced he'd be leaving the next day he could feel the relief pouring off the others. He nodded and finished his meal, before going to his room and packing his things. Slash, he noticed, was on his bed and staring at his closet Harry wondered at the strange behavior and went over to the closet. He opened it and out popped a little creature.
"Dobby is sorry sir, Dobby is liking the feel of robes."
"Sorry, do I know you?"
"Know Dobby? No Harry Potter doesn't know Dobby, Dobby is a house elf, sworn to serve his family for all his life."
"And who is your family?"
"Dobby mustn't say. If master knew he was here, he'd punish Dobby very badly."
"And why are you here?"
"Dobby is here because Hogwarts School is not safe, dark things are taking place there"
"I think I can take care of myself thank you very much."
"But Dobby... Dobby must protect Harry Potter"
"Thank you Dobby, but you need to serve your family, I can handle myself." Dobby turned around and Harry noticed a symbol on the back of the raggedy pillowcase Dobby was wearing, a small symbol, a W, or maybe an upside down M, with dragons and spears. It was some kind of crest.
"Harry must not go to Hogwarts this year, if Dobby is still to serve his family then it must happen."
"Dobby, I'm going to Hogwarts one way or another"
"If that is what you wish, then Dobby must keep you another way" He turns and runs down the stairs, Harry right after him. Dobby stops at the bottom and snaps his fingers, a red bolt flies out and hits Dudley on the back of the head, he snaps his fingers again and disappears as Harry grabs him. Dudley falls to the floor, and Petunia goes to her son's aid while Vernon rushed at Harry, without thinking he used a spell taught to him by Quirrell, the knock back jinx.
"Flipendo" He said, pointing at Vernon, who was knocked back, "Let me explain" He said as Vernon rushed at him again. "Flipendo" He said again, knocking him back again. "It was a house elf, and-"
"Vernon he's not dead" Petunia screamed with joy, hugging the head of her son.
"What?" Vernon stopped dead in his tracks.
"He's just asleep."
"Ah, is that it? You aren't powerful enough yet to kill us? Or did you make it that he can't wake up again? Is that it?!" He was starting to yell.
"No I didn't. This house elf didn't want me to go to Hogwarts, so he did that so you would keep me here, like you could" Harry had allowed a bit of condescension to get in his voice at the end, which only made Vernon angrier.
"What in the blazes is a house elf? And why isn't it here now?"
"He disappeared, and they're little people that serve Wizarding families."
"Well that's just perfect isn't it, put our son into eternal sleep and then claim a disappearing gnome did it"
"It's a house elf and-"
"I DON'T BLOODY CARE IF IT'S FATHER CHRISTMAS'S HEAD ELF!" He roared.
"Flipendo" Harry said again, knocking Vernon back and hopefully quieting him for a second. "I didn't do it! But I might be able to fix it"
They got quiet at that, and right as it looked like Vernon was going to yell again, Petunia said quietly, "Let's see what he can do Vernon"
He took out his DADA book and looked for what it could be. He found the spell. It was called Stupefy and its counter was Rennervate. He said the counter spell and pointed at Dudley, he woke up and looked around like an idiot. Harry sighed and walked back up to his room.
Harry left the next day at 8:00, not talking to any of them, and walking to the train station. Harry saw Malfoy and Garrett and waved. The two returned it and they sat on a bench.
"I don't know how the muggles can stand just waiting around here for a train"
"You got on the train for last year, and you will this year, right?"
"Well, yes. But we should be able to get there another way" Harry ignored his contradictory statement.
"So whose going to pick us up?"
"One of our servants, it should be here by now?"
"My father, he is taking time out of his very busy schedule to pick us up." Little time passes until he then says, "There he is". The man in question had the same pale blond almost white hair. He wore long black robes with silver thread interspersed through the material, he held a cane that didn't appear to be needed, and had a figurehead that Harry could tell was strangely shaped yet he couldn't see what it was through his gloved hand. The most interesting thing to Harry though was the crest on the left breast of his robe, a large M with dragons spears and a color combination of green and black. Ergo, the same symbol he had seen on Dobby's raggedy cloth. Possibly it was a symbol that meant something in the Wizarding world, but given Draco's attitude and the M of his last name it was likely a family crest, which meant they owned Dobby. He kept this to himself, but he'd have to find a way to corner Dobby and question him about what he had meant by dark things going on at Hogwarts.
They went to the Malfoy's summer home through a very strange form of travel. Holding onto Garrett and Draco's arms they spun around and Harry felt a force grip his abdomen and wrench him backwards and forwards and finally it let him go and he fell to the ground coughing and trying to keep his stomach in him. Garrett and Draco were at his side helping him up and the Malfoy head looked at least a little sheepish. "I must apologize for that, it didn't occur to me that you hadn't Side-Apparated before"
"I've lived with my muggle relatives for most of my life so I haven't had the pleasure of doing that before."
"Yes Draco told me about your living conditions and said it was part of the reason he wanted you here." At the end of the sentence he gestured to the house at the hill. It was modest, much more so than Harry expected, a mere two room shack."
"Let's get you guys set up" Draco said and grabbed their arms to pull them along, making sure not to crush Slash by mistake.
Draco opened the door and led them inside, Harry was prepared to drop his stuff where it was when he saw the massive entrance hall they were in. Most everything was a deep green with silver chandeliers and windows, somehow there seemed to be more than 10 in that room alone yet at most Harry had seen 3 when they were first walking to it. He would have to learn the spell that can do this.
He fell onto the bed that Draco had shown him. His room was bigger than the one he had had at the Dursley's and that alone made it great, but this was so much better. The bed filled up half the room but the ceiling was 20 ft. up and had a second level that from a quick glance over seemed to be filled with reading material, Wizarding novels and biographies, he even found some books that he knew were muggle written but had a different author named and he laughed at how easy it probably would be to do this, of course the book would have to be highly fantasy and changes would have to be made to the creatures and magic but you would be able to pass it off as historical fiction and probably make a lot of money off of it if the Malfoy's were a good representation of the Wizarding majority. It didn't bother him too unduly that the Malfoy's were racist against muggles, it probably stemmed from a superiority complex. As useful as magic was he could see so many ways that muggles were more advanced than wizards. He didn't intend to bring it up though, that would surely get him thrown out and he'd have to return to the Dursley's with his tail between his legs.
The rest of the room was great as well. A closet filled with robes and such. With sizes ranging from Garrett's tall height to his shorter height. Harry slipped them on and went back to exploring the reading loft.
Dinner that night was enjoyable. Surprisingly enough Lucius Malfoy was good company. He didn't look down on them really, or any more than a normal adult would that is. Harry was particularly interested in what he did at the ministry. He had wondered how similar it was to muggle politics and which was more advanced.
Lucius had done a quick run through of their politics a system similar to the muggle Aristocracy. There was the appearance of an Executive power with the Minister, yet this very easily seen by Harry to be a Dictatorship with him having extreme power and a life long term, unless he retires. The only body close to his political clout is the Wizengamot which from it's ranks the Minister is chosen. Making it incidentally similar to the Catholic Church's system of electing the Pope.
Lucius mentioned giving generously to the Government which Harry quickly assumed meant he paid the right people, probably the Minister himself so he can get certain laws passed and other laws removed. Harry understood the purpose of this, it gave one extreme political power with none of the accountability. Harry found it distasteful in the extreme.
Harry tried to change the subject, he knew his views on the subject would come out if he kept talking. He kept this up until it finally did change. He then continued to converse as normal. The new subject was on the pros and cons of the current Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry admitted he knew very little about the Headmaster. He hadn't really had any interaction besides merely seeing him at lunches and dinners. He did get a run down of what he'd done for the school and Harry watched in wonder as Garrett seemed to grow some backbone. Draco and his father were very much against Dumbledore, as judged from their comments on him, but Garrett was a big supporter of him, noting his work in bringing down Voldemort and the increase in trained and powerful wizards ever since he became Headmaster.
"The Dark Lord was not brought down by Dumbledore, he was brought down by the very soul we have here, Harry Potter. Harry what do you think?" Harry wasn't prepared exactly to be asked his opinion and tried again to get out of it.
"I don't really know enough about him to say for sure"
"But you've heard what we've said about him, surely that's enough to gain a vague view of the man, enough for an opinion" Lucius continued to question him.
"If I have to, I'd say his heart is in the right place, and he does get results, but his methods are flawed, or at least that's what I'm getting from what I've heard so far."
"Well that does about sum him up, after all he brought you to those relatives of yours, dreadfully bad decision if you ask me, even if it was done with good intentions"
"Oh, he brought me to them. I'd have to agree with you there and I must say that I'd much prefer having grown up knowing I was a wizard than otherwise."
Finally Lucius sent them off to bed, their talking keeping them up until 3 in the morning, not a good time for anybody to be up. Harry crawled into his bed and was out like a light, and it was noon before he woke up.
When he did wake up he got dressed in new robes and walked around the home, noting that a large portion of the house seemed to be inaccessible . And speaking of that, there seemed to be no servants at all. His lessons in Transfiguration told him you couldn't make food out of nothing so there must be someone making the food. He'd have to ask Lucius about it when he got back from work.
That night when Lucius did return he told Harry that he had brought some house elves with him from the Malfoy's mansion. This bit of information made him determined to find Dobby if he was here. So as he lied in bed that night, he slipped out when he thought all were asleep, he walked as silently as he could to his bag, inside of which was, among his books and school supplies, his invisibility cloak. He had gotten it at Christmas and there wasn't a name in the message left with it. He didn't know who gave it to him but he hadn't had too much of a reason to use it in the last few months, but now was a perfect time. He pulled it over his head and saw in the mirror on the wall that he was no where to be seen. He had a grin that no one could see as he slipped out of his room in socks and crept along, noticing quickly that someone, or possibly more than one someone, was up and about.
Harry reached the place where he heard the most movement and watched in wonder as a little creature walked out of the wall right next to him, almost running into him but missing him by mere centimeters, Harry had to hold himself still for 10 whole seconds before the house elf got far enough away that Harry was able to trust that he wasn't found to let his breath out.
It was simply a waiting game at that point, as house elf after house elf came and left the room on the other side of the wall that Harry was not able to access. He felt where the house elves had entered and left the room but that section of the wall was as solid as any other. Finally Harry was forced to return to his bed, and wait for the next night.
This pattern continued until Harry was forced to accept that he was mistaken and Dobby wasn't owned by the Malfoy's, maybe the dragons and spears were a common part of a crest and it really was a W, not an M. And it was with an unfulfilled desire in his chest that he bade farewell to Lucius and walked with Draco and Garrett to the entrance to the magical train station. They got their tickets and found an empty compartment. They discussed many things including their studies and how the classmates they saw from the window had changed.
Draco was talking quite a bit and seemed very excited, until Hermione showed up. Harry didn't notice it immediately but when Hermione arrived Harry noticed how Draco immediately was less involved, only talking when directly spoken too. Harry wondered what was wrong, surely his racism wouldn't extend to Hermione. He needed to talk about it with Draco when they got back to Hogwarts.
At Hogwarts things settled into a routine almost forgotten, yet easily remembered. Harry wished it would never end. The only part he wished would end, he wished would end quite soon: Lockhart's teaching. It seemed to be almost the exact opposite of Snape's teaching style, where Snape was uninvolved, focusing solely on the instructions, Lockhart was annoyingly involved, ignoring even the most basic of the instructions in the standard books and instead having them act out scenes from his book. Unfortunately for Harry, Lockhart seemed to have taken a liking to him given that they were both celebrities, and this caused him to choose Harry whenever possible to be part of his little plays. Further unfortunately, Hermione seemed to be head over heels for him, as was almost every other girl in his year. Harry was unable to convince her of how egotistical he was, she'd simply brush it off and say he was simply confident in his abilities, or just pretend she didn't hear him.
It was almost a relief when the cat was petrified, that at least broke up the monotony. And the message on the wall was fear inspiring as well, the words "Heir to Slytherin" were heard by Harry as whispers around the school and even from Draco who told him what the chamber of secrets supposedly was, and it just brought up memories of their first feast. And how Draco mentioned he could be related to Slytherin himself. He needed to find more about his family history and see if he was related to Slytherin in any way.
He headed to the genealogy section of the Library and found books upon books for pureblood families, notably the Malfoy's and the Potter's. He found the most recent volume of his line and found it covered in dust, and the date it was published put it from a guess as to when his parents would be in school, around his parents' 5th and 6th years here. And he found it so, no mention of him at all, but a section on his father was there. He read about his achievements, seeker, good amount of Owls, guess it puts it in his 6th year, and little else besides a physical description of him, he found it matched him quite well, with the exception of the green eyes he had, which he figured his mom would have given him. The memory of his talk with Snape flashed through his mind, Snape's hesitation at his eyes, and how he talked about his father. They must have been in the same year. Harry guessed his father was probably a prankster, probably a very harsh one given the way Snape reacted. And he guessed Snape probably liked his mom, it seemed like that was what his reaction pointed to. He considered that unimportant and moved on.
He checked at the very oldest book and found it surprisingly holding together well over the years. He looked through and found page after page of ancestors, past the time Hogwarts was assumed to have been built, and no mention of any relation to any of the founders. He felt a knot of stress around his stomach relax, he wasn't the Heir to Slytherin and could prove it, this should prevent any talk of him being that if his Parseltongue gets out.
Another kid gets petrified, that Gryffindor with the muggle camera, and a dueling club is announced. Harry is happy about this, he'd enjoy seeing the faces of anyone when he wipes the floor with them in the simplest ways. The first meeting is the day after tomorrow so after he finishes his homework he starts reading his dueling book again. In fact after reading it cover to cover a few times he has attracted the attention of his fellow schoolmates. Draco and Garrett hover around him, wondering why he's so forcefully turning the pages of the little book.
"What are you reading Harry?" Garrett asks.
"A book"
"Well obviously, he meant what book" Draco interrupts.
"I can't tell you, it's for a project"
"Wizarding Duels: Tips and Trick-" Garrett reads from between Harry's fingers. Harry pulls the book away and hides it behind his back. They're about to argue about it when Slash slithers out from Harry's sleeve.
/Harry, we must leave/
/Why Slash?/
/I hear something, something is talking, saying its going to kill/
/What? I can't hear anything/
/Be quiet and you will/ Harry does so and when Draco starts to talk he shushes him. A faint sound can be heard and he starts walking towards the door when Draco starts talking.
"Harry you can't leave now, its past curfew" Harry acknowledges it but holds up the finger again, he turns around and burrows through his things until he finds his invisibility cloak and puts it on, to the clear astonishment of Draco and Garrett. He slips off his shoes and walks out of the dungeon and into the hallways of Hogwarts.
The sound is getting louder to him, he can hear vague words in Parseltongue, like kill and rip. /Slash you were right, but we can't leave. There's no way we can convince everyone what we're hearing, and even if we can there's still no gurentee that something is wrong/
/Yes there is, I can feel the snake's presence now, and make no mistake it is a snake, the snake is a female for one thing, I can tell that, and... it resonates strongly with myself, it's like me in some way/
/Could it be a basilisk?/
/I don't know, but it's dangerous, that's the overwhelming feeling I'm getting from this snake, we can't stay here/
/Slash will you agree to stay here at least until we can confirm that it is dangerous, or at least until we find out if it can affect us in some way/
/Fine, but you must promise me that if the snake tries to attack us you will unshrink me so I can properly defend you/ It was true, he'd had to cast multiple shrinking charms on Slash to get him to stay the same size. If Harry had to guess he'd assume Slash was about as tall and wide as a bike is tall in his fully unshrunk form.
They returned to the Dungeon and Harry told Draco and Garrett about the voice he had heard, and how it was a snake. They agreed to keep it a secret only when he agreed that they'd go with him under the cloak the next time he heard the voice and tried to follow it.
The next day seemed to take forever to Harry, and he had to force himself to go to sleep for the next day, a free day, for the Dueling Club. To his displeasure one of the instructors of the club was Lockhart. Harry put down his annoyance and reassured himself that because of this he'd most likely get to go first because of Lockhart's fondness for him.
This was true when he was called up and the other instructor, Snape, called Weasley up. Harry remembered him as the Gryffindor with the loudest red hair you could imagine. And the duel was over in seconds, a whispered Accio charm caused Ron's wand to fly out of his hand and into Harry's, the first time he'd cast it perfectly. He smiled and was sent down. More were called and a tournament of sorts was set up. People being charmed, transfigured and even cursed, admittedly only mildly. Finally Harry was up against one of the few 4th years there, a Hufflepuff named Cedric Diggory, Diggory was smiling, he had seen Harry's trick, using the Accio charm to pull away a wand, and he thought he had found a trick. He stuck his wand to his hand with a sticking charm and knew he could hold hold his ground even if the spell pulled him toward Harry.
This happened somewhat when Cedric was pulled forward and onto his face, Harry quickly finite'd it and grabbed his wand from his hand. He was declared the winner. Cedric got up and asked kind of sheepishly for his wand back, Harry was a bit embarrassed at having beaten him so easily and handed it to him, he shook Harry's hand and congratulated him on winning. He seemed like a good person to Harry. Harry was sent down and the next semi-final was started, it was Draco against another Slytherin that he couldn't name, and he did the exact same thing Harry did, getting Draco's wand away and then being declared the winner. Harry wondered what he'd have to do, his secret about wandless magic might get out. Harry realized he didn't really care.
The match seemed to end quickly, the spell was cast and Harry felt his wand slip out of his hand and his opponent then had his wand. He saw Snape open his mouth to declare the Slytherin the winner when he stuck out his hand with his finger pointed and said very clearly, "Stupefy" The red spell burst from his finger and hit the kid straight on the chest. He flew back and was out cold. Everyone was speechless. He had the biggest grin of his life and calmly walked over to the Slytherin and claimed his wand from the clutched hand of the student. He walked back to his spot and the only person who didn't look surprised was Snape, he had acknowledged Harry, but he had that angry look again. Harry wondered if his father had done something similar to that.
The club was called to an official end, but the tables would still be here if anyone wanted to duel. Harry stayed around and waited for the inevitable as Draco and Garrett both assaulted him with question after question, he explained as simply as he could, how he had discovered that he could use wandless magic and he was finishing up when Hermione came up with her bucktoothed smile, "Harry does this mean I can show my friends wandless magic now?"
"Yes Hermione you can" Hermione screeched and gave him a hug before running off to presumably show her friends.
"You showed the M-Hermione how to do it?" Harry caught the catch and assumed it was a slur that he was going to say and tried to ignore it.
"Yeah I did, its how I've been doing charms, its to hard to relearn all of the spells I've learned without it, and she saw me and forced me to show her how, she's pretty good at it, even if it took her a few days"
"A few days?!" Garrett was a bit incredulous. "But according to what you said that should be months for us, since we're so used to wands."
"Yeah, sorry about that"
"Asshole" Draco kind of playfully insulted Harry. He put away his wand and tried a spell he had mastered on his wand already, the levitation charm, saying the words and pointing at a stool. Nothing happened. He did it again. Same result. He tried it again and again until Garrett had an idea. "Draco maybe it has to be a spell you aren't used to using your wand for"
"That's a good idea, it makes sense." Harry said.
"Alright, how about finite, you use it a lot"
"Yeah, I found it really easy so I think it'd be a good starting point" Harry takes out a quill and quickly engorges it and steps away. Draco points at it and says the spell, nothing, he does it again and it doesn't work, but third time's the charm as it finally works and shrinks down to normal size. "Great Draco, now let's let Garrett do it and then we'll work on spells that you've already learned"
And they work from there, once Garrett could do the spell without his wand they worked on spells that they had already learned, the first one being the levitation charm simply because it's easy to see it's effects. By the end of the day when they had to return to their common room they had successfully performed about half of the spells they already knew without a wand, and only finite done perfectly without it, but they were making remarkable progress and if this pattern continued then they should be done in about a week.
This didn't happen as they saw there progress slow down quite a bit when they reached spells that they had learned in their first year, spells that were quite easy for them with a wand, were extremely difficult for them without it. They were quite angry until they realized that they would be learning new spells in charms and transfiguration that they could learn from the ground up without a wand, allowing them to learn them easily without their wands.
But there was still one thing that he kept to himself, one use of wandless magic that he kept from getting out. It was how potent raw magic was. When magic isn't changed and formed to do something it simply obliterates. Harry found it over the summer. He had been practicing some of the spells he'd have to learn and had swung his arm. The giant cut in the floor was difficult to explain. It seemed after using so much magic he had accidentally called upon it without using words. And so Harry discovered, outside this time, that when he focused on the magic within him and moved his hand or finger swiftly he could cut practically anything. He didn't have the chance to test to many things but out in the forest where he was sure no one would see him, he was able to cut a tree in half horizontally. It was worthy of awe, but he didn't want to tell anyone about it, if someone used it wrongly things could go wrong.
Later that week Slash told him that he heard the snake again, this time Garrett and Draco came with him under the cloak. Harry hoped to find an entryway to the snake's lair by following it's voice. Until they followed it and Harry heard it shout /Kill!/ And ran out from under the cloak, following the voice, the two got out from under it and ran after him, Garrett holding the cloak in his hands. They rounded a corner and found a black and smoky ghost, the Gryffindor ghost if Harry remembered correctly. And a kid on the ground, one of the Hufflepuffs, judging from his yellow scarf. They tried to pick him up but found him as hard as stone. They all realized that somehow the basilisk was doing the petrifying, yet how could it have done it. Until Harry spoke, "What if you see a reflection of the Basilisk's eyes?"
"That's just crazy enough to work" Harry couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or not but he continued.
"But think about it, the Gryffindor kid had a camera, the cat probably saw it through a window or something, and this kid saw it through the ghost"
"You might be right, but let's not be too hasty, we'll mention it to the headmaster and he'll think of something"
"We can't tell the headmaster, he'll mess it up somehow"
"Didn't you admit that he was good at fighting dark magic?"
"But he doesn't always succeed, I'm sure if we bring this to the proper authorities"
"Who? Who could be more qualified to fight a dark monster than the most powerful wizard of our time"
"Enough!" Harry interrupted, "We're going to go back to our rooms and pretend this didn't happen"
"Why?" They said in unison.
"Because its none of our business" They, grumbling, started to turn towards the dungeon and walk home when Peeves appeared and started yelling at the top of his lungs that "POT BOY, WOLFY AND MALFY HAVE PETRIFIED ANOTHER VICTIM, FEAR FOR YOUR LIVES, COVER YOUR EYES AND HOPE TO GOD YOU AREN'T NEXT, NOT EVEN GHOSTS ARE SAFE" Harry rather wanted to find a spell that can kill a poltergeist.
They ran for the dungeon but were stopped by Filch and Snape, and brought to the headmaster's office.
Inside the office was a strange place, it was filled with tables that had silver machines on them, and the walls were covered with bookshelves that were filled to the brim and spilling onto the ground. The man in question was nowhere to be seen, and though Filch had been left behind, Snape had followed them up. Dumbledore soon came out in robes of a deep shade of purple that hurt your eyes to look to long at it. Harry almost wanted to laugh.
"I'm assuming from the yelling outside that another victim of the petrifications has been found." He said solemnly.
"Yes, Justin Flinch-Fletchley, and Nearly-Headless Nick" Snape said.
"One of the house ghosts has been petrified?"
"Yes"
"And you have brought these students here because?"
"Because Filch and I caught them fleeing the scene"
"Innocent until proven guilty Severus. Do you believe any of them committed the act?"
"Not necessarily, but they might have helped the perpetrator, it is up to you to make the final judgment of course" Harry didn't like the way he said final.
"Severus, please leave us"
"Yes headmaster" And he left the office.
Dumbledore spent a long time looking into their eyes before speaking.
"Garrett, Draco, Harry, why were you there?"
They all looked among each other, Garrett and Draco not wanting to reveal Harry's secret without his permission, but Harry not seeing a way out without it. Harry decided to admit a smaller secret.
"The truth is professor, we were trying out a Christmas present I got last year"
"Hmm. And what is this present that managed to get you to the exact spot of the petrification?"
"An invisibility cloak"
"And you hadn't tried it before now?"
"I had, but not with Garrett and Draco, they wanted to see what it was like wearing it"
"And you didn't do this during the day because?" Harry's mind raced, there wasn't a plausible reason so time for the ever useful tool, being vague as fuck.
"It felt like this was the right time"
"And why was it the right time?"
"I couldn't say, but its gone now"
"And what was this feeling like"
Their verbal spars went back and forth until Dumbledore was forced to admit defeat in the face of exhaustion. And so at 1 in the morning Harry and his friends returned to their dorms, where they found from Snape that they were getting detentions for being out so late. They accepted them reluctantly and went to bed.
The detentions were in the form of menial tasks like helping Filch clean, and such. For an hour every day after classes were over. They were not allowed to use magic to do the chores, and their wands were taken away. Luckily they still had wandless magic.
It took two more walks around at night to find where it went, an abandoned girl's bathroom. They looked inside and found something strange, a swirling sound was coming from one of the stalls. They opened it and Hermione screeched, almost dropping the cauldron.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?" Garrett asked
"I-I just..."
"Hermione what is that potion. It smells horrible"
"Its called the Polyjuice potion"
"My father told me about that, its supposed to transform you into someone else for a time, its supposed to be really hard to make. And is restricted by Hogwarts" Draco interjected, stressing the part at the end.
"Hermione what were you going to do with it?" Harry asked.
"I-I was going to sneak into the Slytherin common room"
"Why would you do that Hermione?" Garrett questioned
"I wanted to hear if any of you were-"
"Well that's just great," Malfoy interrupted, "the 'smartest witch of our year' can't learn to see past some stereotypes, like the Slytherin house is only for dark wizards"
"It-it wasn't just..."
"It wasn't just what Hermione?" Garrett asked, rather softly after Draco's outburst.
"I'd guess its my Parseltongue, right?" Harry interjected.
"What?" Garrett asked.
"It is supposed to be an attribute of dark wizards right? And I'm in the Slytherin house, which as Draco pointed out shouldn't mean you are instantly dark, but you have to acknowledge that Ambition really isn't all that good compared to something like Loyalty," Harry took a breath, "But, I can't be the heir of Slytherin, the library has book on genealogy and I checked my line out, the Potters go past the time when Hogwarts was supposed to have been built and there wasn't any of the founders there"
"R-Really?" Hermione asked
"Yeah, even if I wanted to control the basilisk I doubt it would listen to me"
"B-Basilisk?"
"Yep, it slithers through the walls, I hear it all the time, going on about killing and ripping, apparently its death vision becomes petrification vision when something like a mirror interrupts it"
"But... And if it is, how are we supposed to kill it?"
"We aren't, the big good Dumbledore is gonna use his magic and blow it up or something, he's that old of a reason that he should be able to do that at least"
"And why are you guys here after curfew?"
"This was where the sound went, an entrance to whatever chamber she lives in is around here."
"She?" Draco asked
"Yeah, Slash mentioned that, he could tell from how she talked apparently"
"Well... Alright then"
They left the bathroom, Harry was fine with admitting his secret to the teachers, it wasn't worth it when they were in Dumbledore's office but over something like this they needed proof. They walked to the staff room and were about to knock when Garrett heard someone say 'taken by the monster' and stopped them. A voice they recognized as McGonagall's was talking.
"...And with Dumbledore suspended" Hermione gasped but Harry covered her mouth, "we must close the school effective immediately, being taken into whatever chamber Slytherin made is not a fate we can assign to our students simply by keeping them here, tomorrow the students must be told to pack up their things" She started talking about ways to evacuate the students safely and they walked away silently to discuss what they heard.
"This is bullcrap, we know where it is, but we've lost our sword" Garrett said
"I think the teachers could still take it" Hermione said
"They won't do a damn thing, you heard how scared they are"
"And what do you think we should do?" Hermione asked
"Leave, there are other magical schools"
"There's no way we can leave that kid there to die" Garrett said
"Guys, there's only one thing we can do" Harry said.
"What Harry?" Hermione asked
"We're going to go kill the damn thing"
They returned to the bathroom and looked around for the entrance, or anything resembling it. Finally Garrett found the snake carving on the sink. Harry realized what it meant, here was the entrance.
/Open/
The sink fell through the floor and the other sinks pulled forward, revealing a tube, Harry looked at his three friends standing beside him and jumped in.
The way down was full of spinning and confusion, going this way then that, at one point he even heard talking, probably from the Slytherin common room given how low he was. He heard his friends slip around after he passed a corner, finally he slipped out and rolled on the... crunchy ground. He looked down and the ground was covered in little animal's bones. He checked on Slash and found him annoyed at the constant movement but relatively ok. Draco came flying out next to him, still laying on the ground. He saw Draco freak out when he saw what covered the ground when Hermione flew out and landed on him with a loud bang. They got up and he adjusted his robes and Garrett flew out and landed the same way on Draco. They got up and looked around. The ground was disgusting and so they crawled through the opening on the wall.
The pipe led them to another door with yet another snake symbol on it. Harry did his open sesame trick again and it opened up. They ran forward and saw a girl laying on the ground.
"Its Ginny" Hermione said
"Weasley's sister?" Draco asked. "How could a Gryffindor be an heir of Slytherin"
"Because she wasn't" A voice behind them spoke. Harry looked up and found himself looking at a 6th or 7th year Hogwarts student, he had black hair and was reasonably good looking, but his eyes were full of hate, insane hate that swore vengeance on anyone who crossed him. "You think a girl like that could be Salazar Slytherin's heir, greatest founder of Hogwarts"
"Who are you?" Draco asked
"She's not waking up" Hermione said, she'd been trying to wake Ginny up.
"She isn't dead, not yet anyway, little Ginny's soul is feeding me at the moment"
"Who are you?" Draco repeated, stronger this time.
"I am Tom Marvolo Riddle" He held up Ginny's wand and started writing in the air his name, and then spun the letters around. "Also known as," The letters settled. "Lord Voldemort"
They were shocked, none of them had expected this.
"But I defeated you" Harry said.
"Oh yes, I still don't know how that happened, but it doesn't matter now, I am nearly alive again" He turned and stared at the now apparent statue head. He spoke and Harry heard his words.
/Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four/ The mouth opened and Harry shook the others to look at it, a massive snake slithered out of the mouth and Harry held his friend's heads down and then got them to start running. Hermione broke free and shouted "Conjunctivitis" Harry, looking down, saw the snake rear back and then slither around but much slower, Hermione turned and said in a low whisper, "Its eyes are swelled shut, you can open yours." Harry looked up and opened saw Hermione smiling at him, as the snake had opened it's mouth and was about to strike, he dove forward and tackled her to the ground, the snake passed just by his head and he felt it's body next to him, he knew they'd never be able to escape without talking, they needed a distraction. He could get a few words out without the snake immediately killing him and so said to Slash as quietly as he could.
/I need you to fight the basilisk, its blinded so it should be easy enough./
/Alright/
He threw out his arm and Slash slithered out of his sleeve into the air, when he was clear of his sleeve Harry shouted "Finite" and Slash grew to a massive size. Around half the size of the basilisk, Slash wrapped himself around the larger snake. He held the snake still and Harry got them to run toward the exit and he ran toward Ginny. Voldemort tackled him and held him down, one hand around his throat and the other on Ginny's want, shooting spell after spell trying to hit Slash, Harry rolled and managed to make Voldemort miss his target. Harry saw something on the ground next to Ginny, a book. There were small words written on it, he could only read them because of the gold ink they were in, "Tom Marvolo Riddle". It was what he is trying to protect by attacking him. He's lost his wand during the roll but things are starting to go dark because of the hand on his throat.
Hold, hold her still, wrap tighter, tighter. I have to hold her until Harry can help me, maybe shrink her down. I see, I see him, he's doing what I'm doing, holding it still, I have to help him, no, that let her get loose, she's going for Harry's friends. I have, I have to hold her still, why can't she stay still. I have, I have to keep her still.
Harry stood solemnly, covered in magical dust. Two halves of a book in his hands, a damn book.
"You're Harry Potter right? Where's Tom? I swear I didn't do it Harry, he made me, he-"
"Its alright, he's gone now. I-I killed him" Harry fell to his knees. Tears streaming down his face. Harry looked over and saw his friends running to him. Hermione let him cry on her shoulder and Draco and Garrett were helping Ginny up. Harry looked around for Slash and saw him laying next to the basilisk. Harry got up and ran to him. His friends couldn't understand what they said but they let him talk with Slash.
/I killed someone Slash, he was going to kill you, I couldn't let him/
/I understand. I-I did too, one of my own kind, I've killed before, for food. But this, this just feels wrong/
/Well I don't think you have a word for it in this language but in mine they call the people that do this/ "Murderers"
/Well brother, I guess we're both murderers/ Harry almost wanted to laugh at how he said it, hissing in the pattern of the syllables and then a longer one to show pluralization.
/Yeah we are/
Harry shrunk Slash down and he slithered up Harry's arm. He retrieved his wand and gave Ginny back hers. For the first time that night, as they walked out of the chamber, Ginny on Draco's back. Harry felt the pain of his wounds, from the bruises around his neck, to a sharp pain on his arm, he pulled up his sleeve and saw the long cut from when the basilisk had missed Hermione but it's tooth had clipped his arm along the way. He fell to his knees and was knocked out.
He regained consciousness at strange times, he heard his friends' voices, and then Snape's, another time he felt the pain leave his arm. And then finally he woke up in a hospital bed.
He looked around and found Slash sitting curled up on the chair next to the bed, fast asleep. He got out and noticed what was wrong. Their was no feeling in his right arm. He checked it and found he couldn't move it past his elbow. Harry was in shock. When he finally decided he wanted answers he woke up Slash with a word and slid him up his arm and started walking out of the hospital wing.
He had no shoes on but the floor was cool to his feet, soothing. He was wearing the hospital robes they had put on him, he walked and walked until he eventually reached the Great Hall. The doors were open and he walked in. His feet were not very loud on the tile floor compared to everyone talking, and walking to the Slytherin gathered very little attention for him, up until Draco and Garrett noticed him and stood up to hug him.
"Harry, did Madam Pomfrey let you out?" Garrett asked
"No, I just walked out"
"Harry you're insane." Draco said. "So how's the arm?"
"Its useless below my elbow, I guess that's better than dying" Harry gave a little chuckle.
"Harry that's still not good, here, let's get you back to the hospital wing and then we'll see if there's anything that can be done about your arm"
"Alright"
They walk him back to the wing and Madam Pomfrey comes in within a few minutes, having apparently not noticed he was gone.
"Now dear, how's your arm?"
"I can't move it past my elbow, and its numb from there on too"
"Yes, well its lucky that your friends brought you to Professor Snape, otherwise you'd be in a worse state"
"Professor Snape helped me?"
"Yes, had a bottle of phoenix tears he told me, got 'em from Dumbledore's pet apparently. Most likely you most likely won't be able to use that arm again"
"I understand, luckily I know wandless magic right? Otherwise I'd have to use my left arm, and it doesn't work as well"
Harry was thinking when Dumbledore came in, he paused momentarily at the sight of the snake around Harry's left arm. Before walking forward again and sitting in the seat Slash had previously occupied.
"Harry" Dumbledore said with little to know emotion on his face
"Headmaster" With the same lack of emotion on his face.
"Harry I am sorry" The look had faded into a sad expression on his old wrinkled skin.
"Sorry about what?"
"I am the headmaster of this school, I should handle all threats to its security, and though I was suspended for some time I should have dealt with this earlier on, I simply didn't realize it was a basilisk"
"It isn't your fault headmaster, everyone makes mistakes"
"But my mistakes tend to be monumental, and because of my mistake you have lost the use of your arm"
"Headmaster its not all bad, I can still function without it"
"Harry I want to give you something, it isn't enough but it might help, do you accept it?"
"What is it?"
"Do you accept it?"
"Fine. Yes!"
Dumbledore raised his wand and lightly tapped Harry's hand, a silver sheen went over his hand, and he felt the sheets and could move it, he lifted it up and looked at it, it seemed to actually be glowing lightly. It moved just as he wanted it too. And then, it changed again, a golden hand replaced it, just like the previous one, it then does this over and over again, going through color after color until it finally settles on green, the color of his eyes.
"Harry, are you ok?"
"Yeah, I am. What is it?"
"An ancient spell, not known by most people, it requires quite a lot of magical power to focus pure magic into the shape of an arm, admittedly its easier when I have the hand as a mold"
"Can I still use magic with it?"
"I don't know, I haven't used it before now" Harry raised his arm and spoke, "Wingardium Leviosa" and pointed at a quill. Rather than the slow ascent the spell usually gave, the quill instead flew up and was buried into one of the ceiling's support beams. "Whoa"
"Harry I wouldn't recommend using magic until you have that arm mastered, it seems it magnifies your control of magic, most wizards give all they can on any spell they do, but without the control you gain with age most aren't able to use all the magic they have at their disposal, you on the other hand can use more of the power you have, it'd be wise to find a good range of how much magic to use in your spells" He stood up to leave the hospital wing.
"Headmaster, how can you tell I'm not using all of my magical power?"
"Because that quill would've broken through the ceiling, and you'd be dead" He promptly left.
When Harry left the school he was at a loss, Garrett had invited him to stay at his house once he got his parents' permission and he accepted. But how was he going to explain the green hand to them. He'd gotten by without being found out by keeping his sleeves rolled down even in the hot weather and wearing gloves. He'd tried to change it's color already but the charm didn't take. He shook his head and decided to deal with it when it came up.
Things on the road settled into a routine almost forgotten, but easily remembered. He walked home. The grass was green and the sun was hot. He had rolled up his sleeves and presented a strange sight. A young boy had green snake wrapped protectively around his left arm, his right arm was a deep emerald green from the elbow down and he wore his robes unbuttoned, showing a green dress shirt and black dress pants under his black on the outside, green on the inside robes, he had a bag over his left shoulder and a bird cage with an owl in it in his right arm. He approached the house and walked inside the unlocked door. The Dursley's were presented with the strange sight when he walked in.
So sorry sorry sorry for how long it took to get this out. Extreme writers block is a fault of mine, if I'm not inspired than I can't write at all.
I know I didn't include anything about Christmas in the last chapter so I included it here that he got the invisibility cloak. And speaking of unexplained things, from Harry's POV I couldn't find a way to stick it in so I'll say it now that Lucius still tried to get rid of some of the dark artifacts from his house, notably the diary, and an argument still broke out between him and Mr. Weasley, and the diary still ended up in Ginny's possession. Also their books and other school supplies were gotten by some of Lucius' servants.
Yes the hand is a similar spell to Wormtail's in #4 but this one is born out of love and so aligns with the person's soul more, its why it turns green rather than silver.
Oh, one final thing, would you guys want me to continue doing each year in 1 chapter or would you prefer to get chapters more often but have it be split up into like 2 or 3 parts and have them be shorter?
Hopefully you all enjoyed this belated chapter.
-WhatTheFAQ