Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
The Sinful, wait for what I have in store for our 'favorite' headmaster for the 3rd year. It is but a beginning right now...
xavierp, I agree with you here - the only thing Neville was useful for in the first four years was having the rememberball that allowed Harry to join the quidditch team.
ChaosLord SilverLink310, and here I that I made McGonnagal _really_ professional... Oh well... =)
Thaumologist, Hanzo of the Salamander, Still Not Dead Yet, Penny is wise, Ratus, PastaSentient, thank you, folks!

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.

chapter 10: The man with two voices

As the door in front of Harry opened, he could see a well lit corridor faced with a light-brown marble tiles leading to a big circular room with eight pillars holding its high ceiling that, despite being deep under the ground, had windows that had warm sunlight pouring through them. Taking a deep breath, the green-eyed wizard started walking towards the room, flinching slightly when the door behind him closed with a thud...

When he approached the room at the end of the corridor. The young Griffindor saw that it had a pit in the center with the mirror of Erised standing in the exact center of the pit. Unfortunately, other than for the mirror, the room appeared to be empty... But as soon as he stepped closer to the pit, a stone wall rose behind him, preventing him from escaping the room.

"So you have come, Potter." A voice, laced with hate towards his family name, said. "In the end you were just a stupid attention seeking dirty-blooded Griffindor that would jump at a chance to show that he is any good. But you should not worry, your mudblood is still alive. I want you watch my master torturing her to death, after you will help him regain his body."

'So he is a supported of Lord Voldemort' Harry thought, still trying to find where the speaker was hiding. Most likely, he concluded, that the wizard was hiding under some charm to make himself invisible, as it seemed improbable that a fully-grown man could be hiding behind one of the pillars so well... Suddenly the young wizard saw a red beam approaching him at a great speed, but, thanks to the dodging training he had done for quiddich, Harry managed to dodge the curse. And knowing where it came from, he could tell where his invisible opponent was. "Petrificus totalus!" The still invisible 'evil man' effortlessly blocked the full body-bind curse with a semi-transparent magical shield, before sending another reddish curse at the green-eyed wizard.

"I'm surprised." The invisible man taunted. "How could the 'great' Harry Potter defeat the greatest wizard on the Earth ten years ago, when now you can't do anything to me, who is a mere servant of the Dark Lord? Hell, you even needed that traitor Snape to save you during Quidditch match!" Harry had to dodge the third curse from his opponent, while replying with an assortment of first-year hexes and jinxes... Seeing that the young Griffindor was too evasive to be hit with his incancerous curse, the invisible man changed his tactics, and summoned a flock of sharp-beaked birds, before ordering them to attack the preteen. While Harry was busy trying to fend the annoying avians off himself, he was hit with a curse that made red-hot chains, though they didn't do any real damage to his body or his clothes, bind him... Once the young Potter was rendered immobile and unable to defend himself – Harry's wand fell out of his hand too and was now lying somewhere on the stone floor of the room – his attacker dropped whatever the charm he was using to make himself invisible, revealing himself to be Quinius Quirrell in his turban'ed glory.

"So it was you." Harry hissed through the pain the chains were making him feel. The DADA professor made an offended face.

"H-How could you s-suspect poor stuttering p-professor Q-Quirrell?" He asked, using more of his (fake) stuttering than he did during his lessons. Then he 'put' his 'mask' of the Lord Voldemort supporter – what were they called, Death Eaters? – back again. "Now you shall tell me how do I get the stone from this blasted mirror, Potter. What should I do? I can see myself presenting the stone to my Lord, I can see him using it to gain his powers back! But I can't get the stone! Tell me what I need to do, or I will start torturing your mudblood!" And with a flick of his wand Quirrell lifted a disillusionment from Hermione, who was seated against the wall across from the entrance into the room, unconscious and bound by stone rings... But as her chest was moving slightly and unevenly, Harry could tell that the man in front of him told the truth about her being alive.

"I do not know." It was a honest reply: until Harry had reached this room he didn't even knew what was the final protection of the Philosopher's stone. Unfortunately, Quirrell didn't like this answer and cast some torturing curse at Hermione, making the unconscious girl stop breathing for a moment.

"Think again, Potter." The servant of the Dark Lord said, as he trained his wand on the bushy-haired girl again.

"I do not know." The green-eyed boy repeated, hissing in pain. He knew that pleading the man to stop torturing Hermione would be useless and only result in her being harmed even more: Harry knew this personality type well – hell, he lived for the last ten years with the man who was just as cruel as Quirrell was now! The 'Death Eater' once again didn't like the answer, but this time he sent a purplish curse that made numerous cuts appear on Hermione's upper body.

"Now, this is interesting." The evil professor taunted. "Who would have thought that the hero of the wizarding world would be a sadist who likes to see his associates suffer. But let's see what you will do when you are on the receiving end of my curses..." And the man launched a deep-red curse, that made Harry feel pain stronger than any he had felt before. I was like white-hot knives were piercing every point on his body, both from outside and not. The curse caused Harry to scream so loudly that Quirrell was a bit surprised that it didn't cause the ceiling of the room to collapse... Still, no matter how much he wanted to torture the boy for what he did to his master on that Halloween night ten years ago, he had to lift the curse. For one, he needed the boy to stay sane at least until the blasted Griffindor would tell him how to get the stone out of the mirror, and then the boy was his master's to torture and kill. "I ask you again, Potter, how do I get the stone?" Each word was spoken slowly and in such way that lesser men would run away in fear from hearing just the voice.

"I... Don't k-know..." Harry replied finally, after gasping for breath for good minute. Too bad, his answer set Quirrell over the edge...

"Why you? Cru-" The evil professor was about to curse Harry again, when the new voice spoke:

"Stop." The voice that said it was low, hissing and just radiated evil. And it also caused Harry's scar to throb with pain stronger than ever before... But the most surprising thing about this voice was the fact that it too originated from Quirrell. "The boy isn't lying."

"Y-Yes, m-master." The turban-wearing man stuttered. This time for real. Then the DADA professor looked back at Harry. "How come the great Dumbledore didn't confide in his golden boy how he hid the stone?" He asked with some surprise, though the young Griffindor couldn't tell whether it was fake or not, in his voice.

"The man is just a manipulative old coot." Harry replied, still hissing from pain the chains were causing him. Quirrell raised an eyebrow.

"What is it I hear? Griffindor golden boy is at odds with the so-called leader of the Light?" The DADA professor was about to rant about something, but the evil voice hissed him to stop.

"Quirrell! Use the boy to get me the stone out of this blasted mirror!" It said, before making the turban-wearing man's body tense as if a jolt of pain passed through it.

"Of c-course, m-master." Using his wand, the evil professor levitated Harry in front of the mirror. "What do you see in this mirror, Potter? Do you see how to get the stone out of it?" Adding some more magic, Quirrell forced the green-eyed wizard to look straight into the mirror... Even though the pain from the red-hot chains was still clouding his rational mind, Harry could see that the mirror of Erised showed him the same thing it did back in the December: it showed him his family. Thought this time the mysterious girl in his arms had her hand slip under his robes and take an uneven blood-red stone the size of a matchstick box out of his inner pocket. The reflection-Harry smiled, and the girl put the stone back, while the real Harry felt some weight appear in his own robe's inner pocket.

"What do you, Potter?" Quirrell repeated his question.

"I see my family." The young Griffindor replied, still hissing in pain. The evil professor was about to explode again, but the hissing voice stopped him again.

"Family, you say?" It spoke, causing Harry's scar to flare with more pain. "Potter." The voice hissed then. "If you tell me how to get the stone and promise to serve me I, Lord Voldemort, promise you to bring your parents back."

"Like hell I will serve you!" Harry managed to exclaim.

"Then you will die by my hand today, Potter." The voice that claimed to be Lord Voldemort hissed. "Quirrell, check the boy! I think he is hiding something." The possessed DADA professor nodded and approached the young Griffindor, who was still bound and levitated by man's magic. After looking at the boy for a second, Quirrell checked Harry's pants' pockets first, but found nothing of what he wanted there. Then he checked preteen's robe's outer pockets, getting the same results. Finally, after exclaiming 'Aha!', the DADA professor went to check Harry's robe's inner pockets... Not wanting the man to get the stone, the green-eyed wizard performed a powerful bout of 'accidental' magic that loosened the chains on his right hand, allowing him to move it freely, and tried to stop man's hand from checking his inner pockets. As Harry's hand wrapped around Quirrell's, pain started flooding his senses through the scar, but the professor was now screaming in pain too, trying to free his hands from boy's grasp that obviously was hurting him... In the end, the evil professor succeeded in freeing himself, and the pain in Harry's head languished. Also as Quirrell lost control over his spells when this happened, Harry was now lying on the ground and the chains, while still binding him, were now steel-gray no longer hurt him... Looking up, the green-eyed Griffindor saw that where he had touched Quirrell, man's skin was burnt away and the flesh underneath it was gray in color, heavily damaged and falling apart at some places.

"Master it h-hurts!" The evil professor cried, but the Dark Lord didn't care.

"Get me the stone, you, useless sack of a wizard!" The voice hissed. Quirrell reluctantly nodded and tried to reach for the stone in Harry's pocket again, but the young Griffindor, acting on his instincts, grasped man's wrist again and, as pain from it paralyzed the older wizard momentary, then wrapped his hand around Quirrell's neck, making him scream like he was put through the most painful torture... The effect was even stronger there as Harry could feel – even though his main was hazy from the amount of pain that his cursed scar sent through his nerves – how the flesh of the evil professor withered under his touch... And then man's head fell, as the neck that supported it was completely destroyed, while the chains that were binding Harry disappeared. ...For a couple of seconds nothing happened. Then a sickly-looking black and gray smoke rose from Quirrell's head, taking shape of some specter. It had reddish eyes and slightly snake-ish 'face'. "You've destroyed my host, Potter. But I will still get the stone from you." The specter hissed, before flying into the body of the young Griffindor and trying to possess it...

Harry's world exploded with pain, but somehow he managed to push the unwanted entity out of his body. The last thing the green-eyed wizard saw, before losing conscious, was the specter of the Lord Voldemort flying away, while swearing in its hissing voice...

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Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was once again unsure what to do... On one hand , it seemed that young Harry Potter possessed the power to defeat Britain's latest Dark Lord. On the other... the boy wasn't fit for the role the old man had for him. No, sure, young Harry risked his life to save his friend and the stone – though, later was done not so willingly – but at the same time the boy too much independent and too sneaky to be guided to his destiny.

Neville Longbottom, the other possible chosen one, thanks to his upbringing, was much easier to mold on as the hero of the wizarding world like Dumbledore saw it. And the boy, despite his shyness, seemed to be the better leader than the young Potter. Plus he was a pureblood, which meant more people would follow him...

Still, it was Harry who stopped Tom again and, thus, he and not Neville should be the chosen one. So, the ancient headmaster started building new plans around this ...assumption. But before he would start implementing any of those, Dumbledore needed to make sure that he kept his positions in the wizarding world – the incident with the stone, should it become the public knowledge, would shake the faith into him the average wizarding public had, thus making it harder for him to remain in the positions from where he could guide the chosen one towards his destiny. And to do that he would need to modify some memories...

The easiest one would be Hermione: the would need to forget only about the stone: she didn't see any of the so-called 'protection' that he had placed around the stone, though removing the golem from her memories would be a good thing.

Neville would be much harder, as the boy went down the corridor with Harry and hadn't seen only the final room, the one that held the mirror. And Dumbledore thought that he was lucky that he managed to catch the boy before he told Minerva where Harry and Hermione were – the old headmaster really didn't want to modify the memory of someone from the school staff... Of course, if the Greater Good required it he would, but... All in all, the scion of house Longbottom would have to forget about the stone and about everything that was behind the door of the right-hand corridor on the third floor.

Finally, there was Harry himself. Dumbledore didn't want to oblivate him too, but the boy could tell his friends what really had happened this day, and if they wouldn't have memories that corresponded to his story, the questions would be asked. Surely, there were oaths, but unless it was a wizard's oath, Dumbledore feared that the boy would find a loophole to tell his story to others... And the boy was too cunning and slippery to make a wizard's oath without realizing what it was, so there was a possibility of questions why he was under an oath arising – the questions Dumbledore didn't want to answer.

And since he would be modifying memories, the old headmaster needed to come up with some story that would be taking place during today's adventures of the 'trio'. And here the paper Harry and Neville gave to Minerva before going to rescue Hermione themselves gave the idea to Dumbledore. It would be like a Death Eater coming to kill Harry and avenge his master. Professor Quirrell tried to stop the man, but was killed protecting the school and the students. After killing the poor DADA professor, the Death Eater couldn't find an opening to kill Harry unnoticed and decided to use his muggleborn friend Hermione to lure the Boy-Who-Lived into his trap. Man's plan succeeded and he had captured Harry. Neville who was back then with Harry managed to escape and had informed him, Dumbledore, about what had happened, so he, Dumbledore, charged down there to save his students, but was a bit late and the Death Eater had already started torturing poor Harry and Hermione. After a quick, but brutal, duel he, Dumbledore, managed to subdue the Death Eater, but the man used an exploding potion and killed himself, while it was only his, Dumbledore's, magic that protected two children from the blast... A good story to cover what had really happened.

With is plans made up, the ancient headmaster went down to the hospital wing to make them real... Though he would have to stop by Minerva's office and ask her not to be too harsh on the boys: after all even if they did a really stupid thing, they did it to save their friend. They were true Griffindors, even if they needed to be less headstrong in their desire to protect their friends on their own and have more faith in the higher-ups if they wanted to survive in this world...

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For the next several days Hogwarts was buzzing with gossip about what, according to Dumbledore, happened to the 'golden trio' and why Hermione and Harry were in hospital wing. Neville, whose memories the headmaster had modified, only confirmed the official story.

Professor McGonnagal had taken a hundred points each from Harry and Neville for acting hastily and going against her order to leave the matter to the stuff to deal with. But then she gave them the total of one hundred points for trying to save their friend. So Griffindor lost just a hundred points which, while still allowing the house of red and gold to be in the lead for the house cup, brought it dangerously close to Slytherin – the house of snakes was now only seven points behind...

Hermione was the first one to leave the hospital wing as it took madam Pomfrey less than two days to fix the girl – healing broken bones and cuts, even made by a dark magic, was way easier than dealing with the post-effects of torture curses, including a brief exposure to cruciatus curse, Harry was placed under... Still, the medi-witch managed to have the young Potter healed up before the end-of-year feast.

The said feast was just as great as the one on the September first, though many students of the house Slytherin, which lost the house cup for the first time in the last seven years, would disagree with that... The Great Hall during the feast was decorated with red and gold, the colors of Griffindor, but not only the house of lions were celebrating – Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw cheered too, most likely because their students were tired of Slytherin winning all the time...

And on the next morning the Hogwarts express will take the students back to London and the summer brake will officially begin.

That's all, folks!
The eleventh chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.