Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
Naginator, Highvalour, Aura Knight-Lyrin, obsessivegirl73, Penny is wise, god of all, Victorules, Hanzo of the Salamander, thanks, folks!
The Sinful, interesting idea. I love it.
Elfwyn, how? because author said so! same with JKR: she needed a bad squib, she wrote one. =)
Still Not Dead Yet, oh well... maybe, or maybe not. time will tell.
RE5 forever, I do have an idea (another HP/OC story), but so far I have enough epics to write - no new ones till I finish at least one of the current.

* 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.

Also, before you comment the first part of this chapter: I myself don't like it, I had to rewrite it four times, and I still don't like it... So bear with it and try thinking that there's nothing wrong with it.

chapter 18: Attacks

It was the Friday after the Halloween, and the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins were working on swelling solution during their Potions hours. Harry like they usually did, was working with Neville – the scion of house Longbottom was good at preparing the ingredients, but seemed to be unable to mix them in the potion properly for some reason... The young Potter turned to partner to pick the next ingredient for their potion, and when turned back to his cauldron, he saw that their solution had changed color for some reason and started boiling away, while the cauldron was shaking slightly. Not a good sign, not good at all...

"Protego!" Harry shouted, while pushing Neville out of his seat. Just in time as their not yet finished potion exploded out of the cauldron, strangely enough, only towards the green-eyed boy (and he was not standing over it!)... Normally, the shielding spell Harry used was very bad at blocking physical attacks, but since the potions are magical substances, it worked pretty well to prevent him being covered in god knows what from head to toe.

"Potter!" Of course, the potions professor was there, ready to make the lives of the Gryffindor students more difficult than it was. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for being unable to brew the simplest swelling solu-..." Professor Snape couldn't finish the sentence as six cauldrons with potions in different states of readiness rose into the air and aimed themselves at the young Potter, before splashing their contents towards the boy. Since protego couldn't block attacks from all sides simultaneously, Harry had to duck under the desk while still having the shield active to avoid the liquids and not-so-liquids that were flying towards him...

While he somehow managed to avoid being hit, the mixture of potions that now was on top of his work table proved to be quite acidic, as it started eating through the aged desk at an alarming pace. And Snape was surprised by what was happening in his classroom – even though his face didn't show this – and didn't even think of vanishing the dangerous mixture. Or maybe he did think, but decided against it...

Anyway, by the time Harry, who was trying to avoid the growing puddles of potion mixtures on the floor, had realized that the hissing sound above his head was due to the acidic mixture eating through the desk, it was already late: the first drops already landed on his right shoulder, eating through the fabric of his robes in a second...

"A-ah!" The green-eyed boy screamed as his body was attacked by the acid. Instinctively rolling backwards to avoid the danger, Harry actually got hit in four more places – thankfully, all of those were on his chest and stomach, where he could deal with the burns to come himself, if the worst come about. And since the professor was yet to do anything to help him... But, as only so much of the acid landed on him, it ended quickly and saved Harry from doing a risky move of trying to wash it away with water or neutralizing it with some basic substances. It still left some nasty chemical burns, though. Hopefully, madam Pomfrey would be able to heal him really quickly...

Unfortunately, as the young Potter was concerned about his own health, he forgot that the acidic mixture was eating through the desk... And it had destroyed enough of it for it to break into two, and one of these two pieces hit him on his head as it collapsed, knocking the young Gryffindor out.

As the whole event come to an end, professor Snape decided that it was time for him to act. And no matter how much he would love to take more points from the boy for trying to get even more attention to his person by this, it was obvious that it wasn't done by the boy. And since he didn't do anything to help the boy in the first place, he had already dug his metaphorical grave... Albus Dumbledore was a very powerful political figure, but there was a limit of what he could do, and the greasy-haired professor had ignored his duties to the school and its students enough as it is.

"Longbottom!" Snape ordered. "Take Potter to the hospital wing." While Neville busied himself with the task, the potions professor continued. "Is there anyone else, who need medical attention?" Tracey raised her hand: her cauldron was one of those used in the 'attack', and once it had splashed its contents away, it fell down on her foot. "You can go to the infirmary too." Nodding, the girl quickly collected her things and limped out of the classroom. "Class, dismissed. Next week you all will be redoing the swelling solution. Be prepared as I won't tolerate any dunderheads in my classroom!" That done, Snape headed to his office to floo to the headmaster.

~/ *** \~

"Albus, we have a problem!" Severus Snape as he entered the headmaster's office via the inter-school floo connection. "A student was attacked during my double with the second years today." Dumbledore looked up from whatever paperwork he was doing.

"Severus, my boy, you sound like someone tried to assassinate your student! Surely, the children can be handful at times, and often hurt each other over simple things, but I don't think that they would do that with the intent to kill." The ancient headmaster replied.

"You don't understand!" It was rare for Severus to raise his voice. And he was now shouting at the only man that had saved him from Azkaban years ago... "Someone tried to kill a student in my classroom. Normally incomplete swelling solution isn't that dangerous, but when many such potions with various mistakes mix together... They created a strong acid, Albus! Madam Pomfrey will inform you of the exact amount of the damage done later, but I can tell that there will be chemical burns, third degree. You as well as I should know that those aren't easy to heal even with magic!" Potions professor took a deep breath to calm down a bit. "What is worse, I do not know who was behind the attack. I scanned the minds of everyone in the room, and none of them had done this!" Dumbledore merely nodded: he would have to look into what had happened and try to keep it all under the rug. Though with lady Longbottom becoming a more active member of the Board of Governors it wouldn't be that easy...

"Just one question, Severus, who was attacked?" Snape answered only after a couple of seconds...

"Harry Potter."

~/ *** \~

It took madam Pomfrey about an hour to finish with the burns Harry had received, but even if his body no longer showed visible signs of what happened in the Potions today, the young Potter still felt pain in places where the acidic mixture came in contact with his skin. As such, the medi-witch decided that he had to spend the night in the hospital wing, in case something happened to him...

It was about midnight, when Harry was woken up by a squeaky voice that unmistakeably belonged to a house elf... Opening his eyes, the green-eyed wizard found himself face to face with Dobby. It must have been Dobby, as Harry knew only him and a couple of house elves here, at Hogwarts, and those wore much better 'clothes' with school crest on them.

"Harry Potter came back to Hogwarts!" The house elf whispered miserably. "Harry Potter lied to Dobby and returned to school! Why didn't Harry Potter heed Dobby's warning? Why didn't Harry Potter return home, when he couldn't go through the barrier?" The young Gryffindor raised an eyebrow: this elf was obviously crazy as he tampered with the barrier at platform 9¾. "Why didn't Harry Potter leave school when blu-bludgers attacked him?.. Why didn't Harry Potter heed the warning and return home? Dobby be forced to use potions on..."

"So it was you?" Harry hissed. The house elf took a step back, despite being used to threats on his life. "It was you who tried to kill me! If only..."

"Dobby not be trying to kill great Harry Potter." The house elf said, while using his hands to 'protect' himself – heavily bandaged hands, as the young Gryffindor noted absentmindedly. "Dobby be thinking that if he showed great Harry Potter how dangerous it is at Hogwarts, Harry Potter would leave before the monster from the... from the Chamber of Secrets gets to him..." This cooled the green-eyed youth a bit. Only a bit. He was still angry as hell that the house elf almost killed him with the 'potions incident'. Harry was about to yell at the elf, but he suddenly heard some people approaching the hospital wing, while whispering lowly. Dobby had heard them as well and, not wanting to be discovered, disappeared.

Next moment, Dumbledore was backing into the ward, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonnagal appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed.

"Get Madam Pomfrey." Whispered Dumbledore, and Professor McGonnagal hurried past the end of Harry's bed out of sight. Harry lay quite still, pretending to be asleep. He heard urgent voices, and then Professor McGonnagal swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack," The ancient headmaster said. "Minerva found him on the stairs."

"I found a bunch of grapes next to him," said Professor McGonnagal. "We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit mr. Potter." Careful not to alert adults about him being awake, the green-eyed Gryffindor raised himself, trying to see, who was attacked. It was Colin Creevey. The boy's eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" Asked Madam Pomfrey in a whisper.

"Yes," Replied Professor McGonnagal. "But I shudder to think... If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate – who knows what might have..." The three of them stared down at Colin. Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip. "You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" Professor McGonnagal asked eagerly. Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera instead.

"Good gracious!" Said Madam Pomfrey, rather loudly, as a jet of purplish steam had hissed out of the camera. Harry, three beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic. "Melted, all melted..." She said wonderingly.

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonnagal asked urgently.

"It means," Dumbledore said after a moment of silence "That the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again." Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonnagal stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus... surely... who?"

"The question is not who," The ancient man said, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how..."

The following morning madam Pomfrey deemed Harry to be healthy enough to leave her care, though, she recommended that he didn't do anything straining with his right arm (his right shoulder had the most severe chemical burns) for another day or two...

When he was leaving the hospital wing, the young Potter noticed that there now was a screen around Colin's bed, preventing anyone from seeing the petrified boy. Stopping next to the screen, Harry silently wished for the mandrakes to be ready soon, so that his housemate would be revived as soon as possible. Then the green-eyed youth headed to the Great hall for some late breakfast. After that, he had to have a serious talk with a certain blond witch about house elves and what they did in their free time...

By the time he had reached the library, Harry had heard so many different versions of what happened to Colin Creevy, that it seemed that each student thought up at least two of those. And one was just as ridiculous as the other... Just like he hoped, Draconica was in the library, in the far corner of the reading room with some tome in front of her.

"Good morning." He greeted her awkwardly as he sat across the table from her.

"Good morning, Potter." The blond witch replied, not looking away from her book. "It is nice to know that you've already recovered from the incident yesterday."

"About the incident..." Draconica raised her elegant eyebrow: Potter knew who was behind the attack yesterday? Professor Snape questioned almost every Slytherin in the second year and the higher years who were capable of using disillusionment charm, sometimes even using legilimency, to find out who did that – even though the man hated Potter, he took a great offense at someone trying to kill his student, no matter who this student was. "You family does own a house elf named Dobby, right?" Draconica raised her eyebrow further: what a Malfoy elf had to do with this?

"Yes, that would be correct." She replied, still barely looking away from the book she was reading.

"House elves can't go against their master's direct orders, right? Please, order him to stop trying to save me – he might succeed in killing me instead."

'So Dobby was behind the potions incident.' The blond witch surmised. 'And behind the strange behavior of the bludgers during that quidditch match as well, most likely.' "I will have words with him." She said. "But not now, later today." Harry nodded.

"Thank you." And with that he left, knowing well by now that his friend didn't want to be seen friendly with him when they weren't working together during DS meetings or other similar occasions.

~/ *** \~

It was the beginning of the dinner on the following day, when a very distressed professor Sprout ran into the Great hall, heading straight to the headmaster. Harry couldn't make out what was said, but judging by Dumbledore, and professor McGonnagal quickly following the Herbology professor out of the Great hall not a minute later – both with a concealed fear on their faces – something bad had happened.

Thanks to the rumor mill of the Hogwarts institution, by the curfew entire school knew that there was the second attack: a sixth year muggleborn Hufflepuff student named Thomas White was found petrified in the eastern wing of the castle on the third floor, not far from boys' toilets. What was surprising, the boy was found in the position like he was staring out of the window when he was petrified.

While the petrification of Colin had disturbed many, what happened to Thomas caused panic. Professors tried to assure their students – with various degrees of success – that the attacker would be caught soon and the victims would be revived, but it wasn't working as well as one could have hoped...

And of course, the news that something sinister was happening at Hogwarts couldn't be contained within the walls of the castle, so the arrival of lady Longbottom, accompanied by several other members of the Board of Governors, during the dinner on Monday was kind of expected. Well some might have expected them earlier...

The group headed straight to the professors' table and demanded explanations from Dumbledore why this was happening. The old man proved to be quite slippery, as didn't answer right away and led his 'guests' to his office instead... No one knew what was said there, but the members of the Board of Governors left the castle two hours later, and while the prefect patrols were now reinforced, nothing else seemed to have been done about the situation with the mysterious attacks...

A week had passed since the attack on Thomas White, and there were no new victim to whatever was hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. The school population started relaxing a bit, though, no student ever walked anywhere alone now...

The 'golden trio' was heading to the Great hall for some lunch, when they saw a pretty large group of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment pinned to it with interest.

"What's happening?" Neville asked, as they approached the group. Seamus Finnigan, they classmates was the one to answer:

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons – they might come in handy one of these days..." Ronald Weasley, who also was there, turned away from the parchment to look at Seamus.

"You think the Slytherin's monster can duel?" He asked. And it was possibly one of the cleverest things he had said in a while as he usually was talking either about professors being unfair, assigning 'ridiculously long' essay for homework, or about food or about games like chess.

"It still can be useful, right?" Seamus replied. Many nodded in agreement with him.

"I hope professor Flitwick will be teaching us." A third year oriental girl from Ravenclaw said. "He was a dueling champion in the past, after all. I'm sure he has things he can teach us." Everyone from the house of blue and bronze, as well as anyone else who knew about Flitwick's past agreed with her. Hoping that the girl was right and the club would be led by their Charms professor, Harry decided that he will go...

That's all, folks!
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