Chapter 33 – Hogsmeade
It was dusk and the London tower bridge was filled on both sides by an angry mob of men and women.
There were a few budding reporters about with cameras and voice recorders weaving through the crowd looking for rational people to interview.
Vernie was one such young reporter.
"Come on Greg," she snapped at her huge camera man. "A two year old could easily crawl faster than you run!"
Greg glared at her. "What are we doing here anyway?" he shouted over the noise of the people yelling. "Instead we could be enjoying a beer or something now."
"We're here for a story you thick lump of cow shit. Now quit complaining or I'll kick you in the nuts."
"I'd rather have you suck on them," he muttered under his breath, but loud enough for her to hear.
Vernie glared at him furiously wondering for the hundredth time why had she been assigned the most useless camera man in the company.
"Excuse me, excuse me mister," she cried, pulling the shirt of a short surly looking man who wasn't shouting and yelling like the rest of the crowd.
"Yes?"
"Tell me sir," she said while beckoning Greg over. "What do you think of the government's decision to cut the pay of you postmen?"
"What do I think?" he said incredulously, looking at her as if she were stupid. "I think its fucking bullshit! That's what I think! We bring you your mails and packages travelling in all sorts of weather and what do we get in return when the economy breaks down!?"
"What do you get sir?"
"We get pay cuts! That's what we get!" he yelled angrily. "Half my co-workers got fired for no reason of their own. But here's the most pissing of part," he said. "The MOST pissing of part is that the employee's higher up keep getting bonuses and I don't see any of them loosing their jobs!"
Chest heaving the man glared into the camera. "And do you want to know something else?"
Vernie hurried forward eagerly and placed the recorder closer to him.
"I think this…"
His words were drowned when a high pitched scream tore through the atmosphere effectively silencing the entire mob.
Greg pointed his camera in the direction of the voice and spotted a woman with a fear struck face looking up. She was pointing up and he followed her line of sight and froze.
There was a man falling from above and the strangest thing was he was falling slowly!
"Come on Greg!" shouted Vernie excitedly pushing people out of her way as the man hit the ground.
Greg had a bad feeling but followed the budding reporter none the less and focused his lens on the man's face.
His body went cold when he made contact with the man's eyes. They were completely black.
"Excuse me sir!" said Vernie excitably, "But what kind of a stunt… was…"
Her eyes widened as she suddenly felt a sharp pain erupt in her abdomen.
"Oh," she said in a small voice as she saw her shirt slowly turn red.
"Muggles are filth," hissed Lord Voldemort as Vernie collapsed. He then slashed his wand at a person nearby slicing him clean into two.
Then the panic set in. What started as a strike was turning into a blood bath. Everyone started screaming in fear and began to run trying to get away from this demon who had suddenly appeared in their midst.
The dark lord kept slashing his wand cutting down anyone in his path with an evil smile on his face.
Greg let his camera clatter to the ground and froze in shock and horror when he saw Vernie collapse in a pool of blood. But then the screaming began and his senses came crashing back to him. He ran forward, slung the bleeding girl over his shoulder and began to run.
"It's going to be okay Vernie," he said in a panicked and terrified voice as he ran for his life.
His heart rate spiked when the man next to him simply exploded spraying blood on his face. Greg suppressed the urge to throw up and simply closed his eyes and ran faster praying that this was just a nightmare and he would soon wake up.
A few men bravely tried to attack the dark lord but when they were merely a few feet away they were simply beheaded.
Voldemort sighed in pleasure on seeing the amount of blood being spilt. He slipped his wand back into his black robes relishing the sound of terror.
"Running is futile," he said and slowly raised his hands to the blood red sky.
He was right, from shadow of every person in the area a swirl of darkness began to rise from their own shadows.
"No, NO, NO! Please!"
"HELP ME!" screamed someone trying to run away from the darkness that was slowly began to change to the form of a spear.
The screams continued to increase in volume as people tried everything possible to get away from that unnatural darkness but it was useless.
Voldemort thrust his hands forward and suddenly all the screaming stopped.
Each and every person who was on the bridge had a gapping hole in their chests with flesh, bones and blood all around.
They were all dead and an eerie silence engulfed the bridge at the centre of which stood Lord Voldemort.
Blood was flowing everywhere and slowly dripping down the edges of the bridge into the river below.
Voldemort glanced to his side and found the camera man's camera facing him.
His lips curled. Despite the hate he had for the muggle world, he did have a little knowledge about their technologies thanks to his stay in his orphanage.
"Bow down before me," he said softly, "Or embrace death."
That said he slowly rose into the air and hovered above the bridge.
"I AM LORD VOLDEMORT!" he shouted and from the shadow of the bridge dark black ropes sprung out and began to wrap themselves around the massive structure.
The dark lord curled his long fingers into a fist and the London Tower Bridge was crushed to pieces.
Voldemort sighed in content at the sight still floating in the sky his black robes fluttering in the wind.
Once the sound of the falling debris had stopped Voldemort saw the muggle police arrive at the scene and point their weapons at him.
"Muggle weapons," thought Voldemort in disgust.
"C-COME DOWN WITH YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD," blared a voice from below.
Voldemort sneered. He could practically smell the fear radiating from these low lives.
He frowned when heard an odd buzzing sound. He looked behind and saw a helicopter hovering a little distance away from him with a man inside pointing a rather long metal weapon at him.
"Lower yourself now or we will open fire," repeated the voice from below with a little more force and confidence.
The helicopter began circling him and another news helicopter joined it a second later taking a video of the entire thing.
"Confringo," said Voldemort lazily blowing the helicopter out of the sky leaving the one news channel one intact. After all, the point of this attack was to make the world aware of his existence!
"Open fire!" someone screamed and suddenly Lord Voldemort found himself in slight discomfort as holes were punched into his body.
He quickly conjured a silver shield to prevent damage to his body and pressed his thumb into the newly tattooed, slightly modified dark mark on his left palm.
Instantly there were loud cracking sounds heard all around and people in black robes began appearing in the midst of the muggles. They immediately began doing what they did best. Killing people and blowing up everything in their sight.
It was a massacre. The muggles didn't even stand a chance.
Green flashes of light were seen all the time and men and women kept dropping like flies swatted out the air. Their screams for mercy was in vain for the deatheater's of Lord Voldemort show no mercy.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Two things were happening simultaneously, the Order of the Phoenix was having a meeting and the new Minister of magic was meeting the Prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Number 13 Grimmauld Place
There was a grim silence lingering in the kitchen as Dumbledore explained the latest events that had occurred.
"More than three hundred people dead," whispered Molly Weasley in shock.
"Three hundred and twenty three," corrected Sirius absently.
"What's the muggles reaction?" growled Moody.
Albus sighed. "For now that video recording has been removed from all possible news channels and they are running a story that the video was fake and it was actually a terrorist attack on their nation."
"But why?" question Remus. "Why would he try and expose our world to the muggles? He didn't bother doing anything like this before."
Severus Snape chose that moment to enter the meeting.
"He's doing it because he's not thinking rationally," said the spy.
"Ah Severus, right on time," said Dumbledore with a smile, ignoring the swear words streaming out of Sirius's mouth.
"Well?" growled Moody.
Snape sneered at Moody.
"Why are you late?" asked Hestia Jones.
"The dark lord is celebrating his success and all this minions were supposed to be there."
Remus snorted, "What kind of celebration does he do? Torture people?"
Snape shifted his gaze towards the werewolf. He considered just insulting the wolf but instead decided to enlighten them.
"Not people, muggle children," he said viciously.
The entire room gasped.
"He'll ask each of his deatheater's to choose a child and do whatever they wish to do and we have to be there to witness those children scream and die."
He paused and took a deep breath to get those awful images out of his mind.
"That is what his celebrations are like."
"And what did you do?" said Sirius glaring at the potions master.
Snape was about to reply when Dumbledore cut across.
"Severus my friend, what news do you have for us apart from the celebrations."
"The dark lord has new powers," he said shortly. "As you all might have heard, he can control shadows."
"A power quite fit for a dark lord," muttered Charlie Weasley.
Ignoring the mutterings Snape continued.
"The dark lord is not the same as he was. He is becoming reckless, unpredictable, unreasonable, and... Sometimes he argues with himself."
"Talking to an imaginary person, the first signs of insanity," said Tonks sagely.
"This is not funny Tonks," snarled Moody. "Do you know how dangerous this power could be!? We all could surround him and he'd just kill us with our own shadows!"
"Then fight at night," said Tonks indignantly. "He attacked in the evening because the shadows are the largest then and at night there are no shadows but darkness."
There was stunned silence.
Dumbledore cleared his throat bringing everyone out of their stunned stupor.
"Thank you Tonks, for that piece of err… advice. But Severus, you were saying?"
"Ah yes. All in all, the dark lord has changed. He cares not for blood purity but for ruling the world."
"And so the mad scientist in him is born," said Charlie lightly.
"Hasn't that always been his goal?" asked Arthur. "He always wanted to rule the wizarding world."
"He has always wanted for the wizarding world to reign supreme," corrected Dumbledore.
"And now it's the world which is larger than our world," snapped Snape. "But that is not my point. My point is the dark lord has clearly lost his mind after his rebirth and his magic is twice as strong as before."
"Which makes him even more dangerous than he already is," said Dumbledore solemnly.
"So what are we going to do about it," asked Sirius. "Frankly speaking, we are quite a useless order."
Immediately there were angry shouts and nasty words flying at him.
Sirius just raised both his arms in surrender and stood up. "Hear me out," he said calmly.
"All we do is guard a damn prophecy which none of us know what it says. We trail known deatheater's and do nothing when we see them carry out illegal activities. We try to find out the dark lords plans but do nothing to prevent them.
So tell me, what is the usefulness of this order?"
"Then what do you suggest Sirius, that we start killing deatheater's?"
"No, capture them, interrogate them. Stop them from joining Voldemort. Attack them before they can attack us."
"Well said lad," said Moody banging his wooden leg on the floor. "What do you think I've been trying to tell Dumbledore all these years? If you don't fight fire with fire we will be consumed by that raging inferno."
"And if you fight fire with fire, everything in its path will burn," said Dumbledore quietly. "I will not tolerate the use of violence in this order."
"Then if that's the case I quit this order," said Sirius furiously.
"What are you saying Sirius!?" gasped Remus.
"How can we win if we do not do anything!?" he shouted. "You keep sending Remus to the werewolves to gain their allegiances to what purpose? So that you can tell them to sit around and do nothing? You sent Hagrid to the giants for what? So that you can order them to stay in mountains and do nothing!?" It took you three years to realize that you had to fight Grindelwald to stop him and I am NOT going to sit around and wait for you to realize that you have to fight Voldemort to stop him!"
"As much as it pains me to say it, the dog is right Dumbledore," said Snape. "You have nothing to offer to the werewolves and giants whereas the dark lord has everything."
Kingsley Shacklebolt to that very moment to walk into the room much to Dumbledore's relief.
"Ah Kingsley, I see the Madam Bones has finished her meeting with the Prime Minister."
"Yes she has," replied Kingsley in his deep voice taking a seat next to Moody.
"Would you mind enlightening us?"
Kingsley grinned. "The prime minister started threatening us and made Madam Bones loose her temper."
Moody winced.
"So?" asked Tonks confused.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Why don't you ask Alastor. He knows first hand what happens when you make Amelia loose her temper."
"You see this eye," he said wearily pointing at his magical eye. "I never lost it in a battle with deatheater's."
Those who didn't know the story gasped in shock.
"Madam Bones did that!? Why!?"
Moody now looked increasingly uncomfortable. "Amelia and I were in a relationship a long time ago."
This brought about more gasps of horror. Sirius fainted and was quickly revived by Arthur Weasley.
"And then I cheated on her," he added regretfully.
"You cheated on her!" screeched Tonks.
"I was young," said Moody defending himself. "The girl was smoking hot and I couldn't resist!"
"Oh my god," whispered Sirius. "I can never imagine Moody with a woman."
"And then Amelia found out and we had a fight, which from a shouting battle became an all out duel which leveled a five storey building. During that battle I lost my eye to her great satisfaction."
"Did she loose anything?"
Moody grinned. "If you ever feel her breasts, you'll realize one of them is missing."
Wide eyed, Tonks and the rest of the order stared at him.
"I think that's what made her go mad and gouge my eye out," he added as an after thought.
"I would have gouged a lot more than that if I were her," said Jones.
"Aye," said Moody inclining his head. "But let's get back the topic being discussed before Kingsley came in. I want to know if Albus is ready to use force, or not."
All heads swerved to the headmaster while Bill filled Kingsley on whatever he missed.
Dumbledore closed his eyes. "To take such a decision requires time," he said softly.
"We don't have time Albus," Moody wisely pointed out.
Dumbledore sighed. "Alright, I shall think over it tonight and you shall have an answer tomorrow at the same time. Kingsley can give his report then. Goodnight Ladies… and gentlemen," he said and swiftly walked out of the room and flooed back to the castle.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A day before Voldemort attacked.
It had not been a good day for Harry Potter.
First he had been given detention for skipping Transfiguration. Then some moron, probably the twins, had seen fit to prank the entire Slytherin house by changing their hair pink. Not just the hair on their heads but the hair on every part of their body!
Added to that, Ronald Weasley had almost killed him by accidently dropping a suit of armor with a sharp sword on him.
Added to that, Austin's stupid friends were with her all the time so he still could not get a hold of her to make a trip to the Chamber of secrets.
Added to that, his place in the Quidditch team had not yet been given back to him, thanks to Malfoy stealing his spot when he was off dimensional travelling.
And to top it all of, Daphne Greengrass had asked him out on a date!
How screwed up was that?
He was pacing up and down in his room and Blaise was watching him thoroughly enjoying himself.
"You should be ashamed of yourself Harry," said Blaise.
Harry stopped pacing and turned towards his roommate. "What gave you that idea genius!?"
"First of, she asked you out and then you like an idiot told her I'll think about it!"
"What else was I supposed to say!?"
"You should have said yes! She's good looking and she likes you! Isn't that reason enough?"
"I was caught off guard! And I had a lot more things on my mind at that moment."
Blaise rolled his eyes. "Are you afraid she'll kiss you?"
Harry's eyes bugged out.
"Kiss me!?" he squeaked. "Why would she kiss me!?"
"Huh? Why are you freaking out?"
"But why would she kiss me!?" yelled Harry waving his hands around frantically.
"She's a growing girl, you're a growing boy, haven't you ever looked at a girl and thought she's cute?"
Harry stopped pacing and then began rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Well, yeah sometimes."
"Oh!" said Blaise excitedly. "Who do you think is cutest or rather hottest in our year!?"
"Why are you getting all hyper?"
Blaise ignored him. "Have you seen Hannah Abbot in Hufflepuff? The rack on her… Ohhh…" he said dreamily. "And Katie Bell in Gryffindor, if she were in any other house, I would have asked her out in an instant, and how can we forget Tracey and Daphne… … and of course Dominique Morgan, the hottest and most beautiful girl in school, too bad she's a bookworm!"
"Blaise, BLAISE!" shouted Harry. "Calm down you crazy fool!"
Blaise had a little glazed look in his eye. "Ah, I wish Daphne had asked me to go with her," he said with a sigh. "But instead she asked you, you who don't know the difference between a guy and a girl!"
Harry frowned, "I do know the difference between a guy and girl. But what I don't understand why on earth you want me to go with Daphne to Hogsmeade."
Blaise smacked his head against his bedpost. "Harry, have you ever felt a little weird or a sort of a strange feeling deep within you when you see a really beautiful, stunning girl?" he asked calmly.
"Of course, but that doesn't mean anything!"
"Of course it does you… you idiot! It means you're attracted to them!" yelled Blaise. He turned swiftly and slipped his hand under his bed and removed a red colored magazine.
"Here," he said and tossed it to Harry. "Maybe you'll learn something from that."
"Hmm, what's this?"
"That is the greatest invention of the muggles," he said while regarding the magazine with reverence as Harry face slowly turned red.
"Playboy!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The next day Harry woke up very early. Yawning he rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes and turned to his side table to drink a glass of water but instead turned red.
The magazine was wide open and had a very interesting picture on it.
Harry shut it quickly and threw it at Blaise who didn't even twitch when it hit on the head.
But he couldn't help but be thankful to him too. That magazine had been very informative about a lot of things that had been happening to him lately.
His gaze shifted back to the magazine and he quickly averted his gaze to prevent certain thoughts from drifting in his mind.
But he couldn't resist.
"I'll never be able to look at girls the same way again," he said with a sigh and slowly tiptoed over to Blaise's side and took the magazine back and opened it again.
"How in Merlin's name to they get into those positions," he said in fascination before cursing out loud.
"Crap, getting a reaction again! Down, down, down!" he hissed at little Harry frantically.
Red faced he shut the magazine, shoved it under his bed and practically ran to the bathroom.
He really, really needed a cold shower.
Fifteen minutes later when his head was finally clear; he changed into his jogging outfit and headed out to the Quidditch grounds for his daily exercise.
It was still only five thirty. Staying with the Flamel's had certainly altered his sleeping routine.
Light was just beginning to enter the atmosphere when Harry entered the grounds and began his rounds.
Half an hour later just as he began his stretches he was surprised to see another figure enter the grounds.
"I thought you preferred the lake?" he asked Lillian who was wearing a thick jogging outfit. No doubt to keep the cold away.
"I-it's too cold," she managed to say and began her rounds.
This was a routine Harry and Lillian had adapted to after a month with the Flamel's.
Harry shrugged and joined her silently. He always found it amazing that he no longer felt irritable or repulsed by her presence. She had certainly grown on him.
After ten minutes of running Harry decided to break the silence. "Have you decided when you want to go to the chamber?"
"Vacations, when no one is around," she replied.
Harry sighed. Lillian had been avoiding going the chamber ever since they came back.
"I'm going back for the vacations and I really don't understand why can't you just sneak out at night and come!?"
"Why don't you just tell me where it is and I'll go whenever I want!"
"No way, I know you'll ditch me," said Harry flatly. "Don't you want to know if you're related to Slytherin or not?"
Lillian hesitated and Harry's eyes widened in realization.
"You're afraid that you might be!"
"Yes, I am alright," she snapped. "I'm afraid I'm related to the founder of the house of stinking snakes!"
"There's nothing wrong with our house," Harry snapped back. "It's yours which needs to get your head out of your asses."
Lillian stopped with a scowl on her face. "I don't want to know if I'm related to him alright!? I don't care and it doesn't matter!"
"Well I want to know what's hidden in that room so you have to come tonight!"
"I don't have to do anything Harry," she growled. "And if you force me, you know I can stand up to you in a fight."
Harry laughed. "Of course you can, or maybe it appeared that you can. But one way or another, you are coming to the chamber tonight."
Lillian's fist snapped forward suddenly and Harry caught it before it hit him.
They both stood there glaring at each other just inches apart.
Suddenly Lillian's left foot flew to Harry's head and he caught that too and slammed his knee into her right side.
She fell and landed with a painful thump and quickly got back to her feet radiating fury.
"Why do always resort to violence when you feel trapped or at loss for words!" asked Harry exasperatedly.
"You want to duel Potter?" she growled angrily. "There's still time before everyone got up."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "No thank you," he replied coldly.
Suddenly Lillian smiled and straightened up looking relaxed. "I understand," she said. "Our last duel did leave a lasting impression."
Harry's anger shot up with a vengeance but he crushed the feeling remembering Penny's most important rule which she had drilled into his head… literally.
"Deception is the key to winning a battle. Cheat, lie and never ever show your true power to anyone no matter what the case may be, unless you absolutely have no choice."
He hated pretending to be weak in front of a bug.
"It did," said Harry, even though it hurt his ego and pride to say that. "But that doesn't matter."
He took a deep breath and looked at her with strengthened resolve. "We are going to the chamber tonight. You owe me that."
"Why the hell do I owe you that!?" she asked looking shocked.
"I told you about your elemental power when you were confused, I kept it a secret from others, I haven't told anyone about you being a Parselmouth and if it weren't for me, you would have never met the Flamel's and improved your control over your element."
"Let me tell you something mister," she began, her voice shaking with anger. "I would have found out about my element sooner or later, with or without your help. I would have met the Flamel's either way because they said it was their duty to impart some knowledge to an elemental and you haven't told anyone about my special language because I haven't told anyone about the secrets that are yours which are a hundred times bigger than mine!"
She was panting by the time she finished her rant.
Harry decided to play the emotional card, or rather the pleading card though he'd never call it that. It was too much of a bruise to his ego.
He sighed and looked down. "Listen Lillian," he said awkwardly, using her first name. "I know you don't want to go down there but can't you do this one thing for me? I really need to know what's in that chamber and you're the only one who can help!"
Lillian glared at him. "Won't work on me Potter," she said seeing through his tactics but Harry could see that she was already melting.
"Come on Austin! After all that we have been through together can't you do this one favor for me? Haven't we become friends!?"
She pointed a shaking finger at him but there was no real anger behind it. She was loosing the battle and Harry could see that.
He decided to use the magic word.
"Please Lillian," he said, his eyes pleading for a yes.
"Alright," she said with a low growl. "Alright we'll go! But I still don't like it."
Harry hid the feeling of victory that just erupted in him and settled for a smile.
"So where is the chamber?" asked Lillian.
"Meet at nine outside Myrtle's bathroom," he said.
"Myrtle's… bathroom?" she asked mystified.
"9 'o' clock," said Harry again tapping his wrist and began to jog back to the castle but not before waving cheekily at her.
Lillian stared at his retreating back until it disappeared through the entrance to the grounds.
"Oh what have I just agreed too!?" she said with groan. "Argh, damn that bloody… bloody…!"
Words failed her.
"Damn him!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Morning classes had just finished and Blaise and Harry were on their way to the great hall.
"Are you going home for the holidays?" Harry asked Blaise.
"Of course. Mum has been planning to take us to Italy to meet her sister. What about you?"
"Yup."
"Not planning to go anywhere?"
"Maybe," replied Harry vaguely, "Depends on a lot of things."
"Like?"
"A lot of things," Harry said again.
"Like!?" asked Blaise again.
"A LOT of things."
"LIKE!?"
Harry just smirked and didn't reply.
Suddenly the pair were ambushed by Daphne and Tracey.
"Hey Harry, have you made up your mind yet?" she asked cheerfully, her eyes sparkling.
Harry opened and closed his mouth without a sound coming out.
Blaise, not so subtly nudged him in his ribs sharply.
"Y-yeah. Let's go together," Harry stammered.
She smiled widely, "Great, wear something nice and I'll meet you at three at the carriages," she said and hurried away. Tracey whispered something in her ear and they both started giggling furiously.
"I'm dead," said Harry flatly when they were out of sight.
"Oh, don't be so negative. It'll be fine!"
"Are you going with anyone special?" Harry asked him.
Blaise shook his head. "Malfoy, Nott and I are going together. Parkinson tried to get Malfoy to come with her but he refused."
"Hmmm… I wonder why Daphne wanted to go with me then?" he said out aloud.
Blaise snorted.
"Even though I hate to say it, you've changed after that accident of yours. You're taller, look more grownupish and you look good... yuck! I can't believe I said that!"
"Must have been the effect of the potions," said Harry grinning and wincing at the same time, remembering how exactly his body had developed.
"Lucky you," mumbled Blaise.
A thrill of excitement ran through Harry as he thought about his first date and suddenly, he found himself looking forward to visiting Hogsmeade with Daphne Greengrass.
-x-x-x-x-x-
It was late in the evening when the school returned from the trip to Hogsmeade.
All the Slytherin third years were in the common room leaving out two.
"Where are those two?" growled Tracey irritably. "Daphne was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago!"
"Maybe they got lost," said Nott.
"Or maybe," she said suggestively.
"Or maybe what?" asked Draco cluelessly.
"They're in a broom cupboard," said Tracey rolling her eyes.
"What!?" squeaked Pansy. "They wouldn't!"
"Why not?" asked Blaise.
"She doesn't have it in her," she said scornfully.
"What's that supposed to mean," said Tracey angrily coming to the defense of her best friend.
Pansy shrugged arrogantly. "She's not me."
Everyone was stunned. They knew Pansy was a spoilt arrogant pain in the ass but this was taking things to an all new high.
All of them started laughing uproariously at the same time.
This was the scene Harry and Daphne found when they entered the common room. All their class mates rolling with laughter and Parkinson, her face red with anger marching back to her dorm.
"What's going on?" asked Daphne.
All heads swerved towards them so fast that it was creepy to look at.
"Oh, you're back!" they exclaimed together leaving out Pansy who was giving Daphne the evil eye.
"Yeah we're back," replied Harry rolling his eyes. He started to move towards his dorm before stopping and turning towards Daphne.
"I… Erm… had a nice time," he said in a low voice with a hint of a smile. He didn't want the others to hear him.
Daphne blew a kiss at him. "So did I," she said whispered and skipped towards Tracey and pulled her along back to her room ignoring her friends protests.
Just before heading up Daphne turned back and blew a kiss to Harry.
A second of stunned silence passed before all the girls quickly hurried after the duo, themselves eager to know what happened.
The rest of the boys were simply dumbstruck.
"Did, did Greengrass just give you a flying kiss!?" asked Nott finally, his voice quivering.
"Hmmm, I guess she did," Harry replied and winked. "Well anyway, don't expect me to gossip about it. See ya!" he said cheerfully and hurried back to his room before they could stop him.
And just as he expected Blaise came rushing in two seconds later.
"Tell me EVERYTHING!" he said panting.
Harry grinned and lay down on his bed, his hands behind his head.
"Nothing much to tell you know."
Blaise narrowed his eyes. "Nothing much? She just freaking gave you a flying kiss!"
"Yes she did," said Harry calmly.
Blaise goggled at him. "So did you kiss her for real or not!?"
To his great surprise Harry actually turned a light shade of red.
"You did, didn't you, you sly dog," he said in delight.
"Not exactly," he muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"First swear to me you what you hear now, you will never ever mention to me or anyone else ever!"
Blaise's eyes widened. What in Merlin's name could have happened to make Harry this embarrassed, he wondered.
"Roommates honor," he said solemnly.
Harry looked at Blaise critically. "Does that even mean anything?" he asked dryly.
"What goes on in the room stays in the room," said Blaise putting his hand on his heart.
Harry rolled his eyes and jumped on to his bed.
"Well I guess it started of fine. I met her at the gates and we took a carriage with two other Ravenclaw's to the village."
Blaise folded his legs on his bed and looked on with rapt attention.
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and plowed on with his story.
"After that it was like a normal date I guess. We went to Honeydukes first and had a bite out of almost all the chocolates for which I had to pay I might add."
"The guy is always supposed to pay Harry!"
"Don't interrupt," said Harry sharply. "Anyway, then we went to all these weird small stores which sold fake jewelry, some allegedly sold enchanted pendent's and there was this funny store which sold kitchen items which do their own jobs!"
"So you two had a good time then?"
"Yeah, we did. Until we entered that accursed Gladrags store! I don't know what got into her but we spent literally two hours in that place which was spent by her trying on every thing that her hand could reach and I was supposed to choose the best one out of thirty dress robes which all looked the same except for their color," said Harry waving his hands animatedly.
"At last we left that store and checked out all the other stores. We even went near the shrieking shack but Daphne refused to go within 100 feet of it.
Finally we made our way to the three broomsticks. We had agreed we'd leave that place for last."
"Did you see what Rosmerta was wearing!?" asked Blaise excitedly.
"Oh yeah," breathed Harry forgetting his story for a moment. "That was practically cruel on her part."
"I know," muttered Blaise. "Either she should cover herself up completely or wear nothing at all. She shouldn't wear something as teasing as that! But didn't Daphne mind you staring at her? I mean you were on a date with her."
"Oh she was too busy bitching about the other guys who were staring at her to notice me too," said Harry grinning.
"Nice!"
Suddenly Harry's happy expression turned sour.
"What? What happened after that!?"
Harry sighed. "We chose to walk back instead of taking the carriages. And on the way back she pulled me behind a couple of tree's."
"OH MY GOD!"
Harry grimaced. "What happened next was pretty embarrassing and later shocking."
"What happened!?" asked Blaise eagerly leaning forward.
"Weeelll, she asked me if I enjoyed myself and I said yes." Harry took a deep breath. "Then she leaned forward to kiss me and I leaned back."
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Blaise screamed jumping to his feet.
Harry was glad he had locked and silenced the room.
"I leaned back," snapped Harry turning red.
Blaise opened his mouth to express his disbelief but Harry cut him off.
"Of course she couldn't believe that I did that and looked very hurt herself and so I leaned forward before she could react and kissed her instead."
Blaise this time remained silent with his mouth wide open and slowly sank back on his bed.
"So you dramatically kissed her," whispered Blaise in awe.
Harry didn't say anything and instead of looking pleased to have had his first kiss he looked rather dull.
Blaise didn't fail to notice this.
"So you kissed one of the best looking girls in our year. Why the long face?"
Harry sighed. "Because the first words out of her mouth after I kissed her were, how cold my lips were."
"H-how cold your lips were?"
Instead of explaining Harry just stuck out his hand and asked Blaise to touch it.
Blaise slowly extended his hand forward as if he were afraid his hand would get burnt and gasped in shock on making contact with his hand and withdrew it as fast as he could.
"H-Harry, you're literally freezing!"
"Hmmm… she reacted much better than you. At least she seemed to think I was really cold and even suggested we go to a broom cupboard to warm up," said Harry with wry grin.
Blaise didn't know what to say. On one hand he was stunned, no super stunned that his best friend had kissed a girl and on the other hand he was shocked at how cold he was! It was simply unnatural!
Suddenly a grin spread on Blaise's face.
"So it wasn't that she was revolted by your kiss and body temperature but wanted you to get warmer so that you could kiss her again."
Harry tried to smile but it didn't work. For the first time in his life he wished he were just a normal average wizard. It was much too frustrating to think that he couldn't kiss a girl or even let them touch him after liking it so much.
He wanted to shout and scream at the unfairness of his plight.
"Well maybe its temporary," said Blaise reassuringly sensing that Harry was close to exploding. "Maybe it's a sort of transition or something."
"Yeah, maybe," replied Harry glumly.
His expression turned even sourer even the clock in the common room rang out loud nine times reminding him of his meeting with Austin.
"This day couldn't get any worse," he mumbled dejectedly. "I see you later Blaise, I got some stuff to do," he said and walked out of the room leaving a slightly confused Blaise behind.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
By the time Harry reached Moaning Myrtles bathroom it was already fifteen minutes past nine and he spotted Lillian waiting for him impatiently.
"You're late," she said angrily. "For a moment I thought you were playing a prank on me and sent me here for the fun of it!"
"Don't need to act up Freckles, I'm just fifteen minutes late," he snapped back.
"Try spending ten minutes with that crazy ghost and then tell me whether fifteen minutes is not much!"
Harry didn't have a retort for that and slowly a smile spread across his face.
"Touché," he said with a slight tilt of his head.
Lillian huffed appearing mollified. "So care to tell me why we're here?"
"This," he said with a grand flourish of his hands, "Is where the entrance to…"
He was interrupted when someone rushed in.
Harry hated being surprised. So it was no shock to him that he hand his wand digging to the intruder's neck while slamming him into the nearby wall.
Except it was a her judging from the cry of pain that left her mouth.
"Hermione! What on earth are you doing here!?" cried Lillian. "Harry let her go!"
Harry slowly moved back. His expression was slowly changing from surprise to fury.
"You told your damn friend's where you were going!?" he hissed.
"No I didn't," shot back Lillian looking angry herself. "What the hell are you doing here Hermione!?"
"I followed you. You've been disappearing almost every night since you've come back and I was worried about you! And now I see that you're sneaking around in bathrooms with Potter!?" she said and shot a venomous look at Harry.
"Hermione, it's not what you think!"
"Austin," said Harry breathing slowly and deeply. "Get this bitch out of here before I throw her out myself."
"I'm not about to leave her alone with you, snake," sneered back Hermione.
"Don't kill her, don't kill her," Harry muttered to himself under his breath.
"Hermione, this is none of your business and you had no right to follow me!" said Lillian walking swiftly towards her friend.
"How could it not be my business," shot back Hermione. "You've hardly slept in your own dorm ever since your trip to the other world."
This was news to Harry. Lillian had not been sleeping in her dorm? And wait, what did Hermione say!? He thought to himself.
"You told her!?" he said with a gasp.
"I told her and Ron," she said irritably. "It wasn't just your secret to keep and I can tell whomever I damn want to."
Harry took a deep calming breath. "Austin, your friend has got five seconds to leave before I loose it."
"I'm not going anywhere," said Hermione stubbornly. "I want to know what's going on here and the two of you are meeting in secret."
"Nothing's going on here Buck tooth," spat Harry leveling his wand at her. "Now leave before I make you leave," he threatened.
Lillian groaned. She knew how stubborn Hermione could be and she knew Harry's patience was wearing thin.
"Harry wait," she said quickly. "She could help us you know."
"And how can she help us?" asked Harry acidly.
"She's brainy, she's read loads of books regarding the founders. She could find out something that we might miss or you know…"
"Founders?" said Hermione interestedly temporarily forgetting her mission.
"And you're okay with what she might find out down there?" Harry asked her with raised eyebrows.
Lillian understood what he meant.
She went to him and whispered in his ear so that Hermione wouldn't listen. "We'll be extra careful and you know she won't leave."
Harry sighed. "Alright, we've wasted enough time as it is," he said and went to the tap with the snake engraved on it and hissed 'open' in Parseltongue.
Both girls looked on in surprise and wonder as the sink began to spin rapidly and slowly sink out of sight to reveal the entrance to the legendary Chamber of Secrets.
"Is that what I think it is?" breathed Hermione in excitement.
"Get in," Harry said shortly.
"Into that smelly hole," asked Lillian cringing at the smell that was coming from the hole.
"Yes," replied Harry and suddenly shoved Hermione in, who was peering inside with her wand lit.
Her scream resonated loudly through the pipe walls as she went down.
Lillian rounded on Harry, her eyes burning in anger and horror.
Harry just smiled. "Your turn," he said cheerfully and pushed her head first into the slimy pipe with a wave of his hand.
He sighed in pleasure as he heard her scream decreased in volume as she went sliding down.
"My day just got better," he said to himself and got into the pipe himself.