Chapter 32

A couple of weeks passed and Harry got lonelier than usual. More people started ignoring him as well as his friends and only few people believed him that he did not perform the attacks himself, among who were Fred and George Weasley from Gryffindor house as well as Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw.

Harry did not really care for what others said about him but one certain redhead was extremely annoying as he for some reason believed that either Harry or his friend Minerva would become a future Dark Lord and as such the boy united the majority of the first three years in Gryffindor against Harry; similar thing happened in Hufflepuff as most people in that house were simply afraid of him but with help of some Prefects like Cedric Diggory, the Puffs were not as antagonistic towards the Slytherin duo. People in the Ravenclaw house seemed to be scared but did not show how they felt and burrowed themselves deeper in the books to avoid any possible confrontations. And Slytherins' reaction for the most part as many of them believed that Harry were the heir of Voldemort.

Five weeks passed and Harry together with his friends was no closer to figuring where the Chamber was or how would they defeat the snake as all Hogwarts roasters were killed. However, things turned to worse when Harry found that yet another group of students got petrified, among whom were three Muggleborns and Draco Malfoy.

"What should we do?" asked Harry his remaining friends Minerva and Luna who were as clueless as he was. The twins helped Harry at times but they were too busy with their schedules to spend more time with Team Potter and Ginny was still unreachable.

"I think that we need to speak to Hagrid. He may know what happened to the Slytherin monster," suggested Minerva and Harry smacked his head. "The girl really needed to go to Ravenclaw," he thought.

"Why did not you tell me that sooner?" asked her Harry

"Sorry Harry but I think that the knowledge of my cousin's petrification coupled with the fact of who my grandfather is did not help and I could not think about the snake properly for a while" the girl replied

"I think that it would be a good idea to see Hagrid tonight as his house is surrounded by swarms of Nargles" Luna commented although two of her friends did not understand what she meant. The trio took the cloak and just as they prepared to put it on after exiting from their common room, they saw Severus Snape.

"Detention you three and ten points off from each of you" he told them. The students looked at each other sadly and followed Professor Snape towards his office. However, Lily Evans Potter soon saved them.

"Sev, where are you taking them?" asked the woman.

"They were going out somewhere and I gave them detention so that they would not sneak from their dorm at night" Lily looked at her former friend with some anger in her eyes and even scary old bat backed down a step.

"I am taking them where they wished to go unless it is the place they could not go; and they will not have detention!" she exclaimed and angrily took the three kids with her, leaving Snape standing for a brief second in surprise; he then left to his office to prepare for another class.

"So where are you heading?" the older witch asked the trio

"We were going to see Hagrid and ask him about the Chamber of Secrets" Harry replied and after seeing that his mother was not against the idea the four people headed to the Hagrid's hut. They walked for a while, as the hut was located on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forrest. As the group reached the hut, Lily Evans knocked on the door and the group waited.

The group immediately heard a dog barking and then the door opened; they saw Hagrid's face. "Hello Lily, what can I do for you?" asked Hagrid

"We came to ask you a few questions if you do not mind" told Lily to her friend and as Hagrid entered his door fully, the group entered his hut.

After the four people got seated, Hagrid looked at their faces and it was clear that he was worried for some reason. "Hagrid, do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets? I learned from someone that you opened it and killed a student and then was expelled because of that." Harry could see that the half giant was somewhat scared but also confused as well.

"I did not open the Chamber, you got to believe me," the man told Harry with pleading eyes.

"I know that but I wanted to ask you if you could tell us anything more about the Chamber; I thought you knew more information that could help us"

"Follow the spiders" before Hagrid could help, the group heard a knock and after Hagrid opened the door he saw three people standing there.

"Hello Hagrid" greeted his colleague Professor Dumbledore.

"Hagrid, it came to my attention that more students got petrified recently and the Ministry cannot allow that to continue. I am sorry Hagrid but you have to go" finished Minster of Magic Cornelius Fudge before the three newcomers spotted Lily Evans and three students.

"And what are you doing here out of bed? "Asked the Minister

"Minster, as far as I am concerned I am a Professor and as such can chaperone the students even at night to go to places like Hagrid's hut. We were just visiting our friend." It seemed that the Minister did not really care, as he did not come to the hut to punish Harry.

A third man spoke and Harry knew that he was trouble. The man had long blond hair and had an aristocratic pose. He looked at the group with superiority and bore a strong resemblance to his friend Draco. "I think we are not finished Cornelius as I just arrived from the board of Directors who voted unanimously to remove Headmaster Dumbledore from his post." He gave the parchment to Dumbledore.

"As you can see, the board was extremely displeased with all the petrifications going on, especially when it came to the highly important people." The group knew that he spoke of his son and was mad. "I also got this petition to put you Professor Dumbledore to Azkaban with Hagrid as some people in Wizengamot, Minister included thought that the Headmaster should also share some punishment from allowing the students to get petrified as well keeping Hagrid protected."

"Mr. Malfoy, this is madness, you cannot expect Headmaster to leave Hogwarts! What if school will get attacked again and Professor Dumbledore will not be able to help!" exclaimed Harry

"Mr. Potter, I heard a lot about you from my son Draco. It seems that you made quite an impression regarding him. However, I will personally help to make Hogwarts safer as it is our priority to help all students, even Muggleborns" he told the boy and Harry saw that his mother sent an angry glare at the man as Lily and the students knew just how vile the man was.

"Who will protect Hogwarts when Professor Dumbledore will be away?" asked Harry as he wanted to know who will be the Headmaster and he knew from his Lordship status that he was on par with Lucius Malfoy and as such neither of them was superior in the social standing in Wizarding World.

"I think my old friend Severus would do a good job. I already sent an owl to him and he will begin his new duties from tomorrow. I am sure he will handle the castle well" the wizard smirked.

Harry saw that Dumbledore sighed and left the hut together with the other three wizards, and Lucius Malfoy in particular tried to leave the hut as quickly as possible as he could not stand to be present in such conditions for long periods of time. Soon, only Lily and three students were left in the hut.

"What are we going to do?" asked Harry his mother as he panicked.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I will ask Sirius to try to release both Hagrid and Dumbledore from Azkaban. However, I think that we need to return to the castle.

As the group was walking to the castle, they saw Severus Snape standing at its entrance. He looked rather happy and that scared the hell out of Harry. "Detention Potter, Granger and Lovegood. I expect to see you three tomorrow in my office" he told them but before the group could do anything else, they heard hissing behind their backs. The shadow itself was sufficient to tell them just WHO exited the castle.

"Ran away you fools, I will handle the snake." Severus Snape closed levitated the group of the harm's way and looked directly at the snake, as he wanted to buy the group time. The basilisk looked at its victim and everyone froze.

Severus Snape dropped on grass and it was clear to Harry and his friends that he wet his pants. Still, he stood directly in front of the snake and did not move. The basilisk lifted its head above the ground but was extremely surprised to see Snape not getting petrified. As the mighty serpent had not expected that outcome, the large reptile slithered back to the castle.

"You will not get away from me!" shouted Harry as he ran after the snake. Meanwhile, Lily and the girls ran towards Snape and sat next to him to check if he was alive.

"Professor Snape is alive. It seemed that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks saved the Professor from the mighty serpent's gaze." Lily did not even bother to listen to the two girls as she planted a deep kiss in her former friend's mouth and then hugged him; to her surprise the mighty and scary Professor Snape, the horror of the students, lost consciousness.

Meanwhile Harry ran with all the strength he could at the snake. The boy did not care on what would happen to him, as he knew that the snake hurt his friend who he loved. "Wait, loved?" Harry thought briefly as he approached the snake.

The beast crawled towards the Hospital Wing and Harry was horrified at the implications of what the snake wanted to accomplish. The young Slytherin ran like the lightning into the Hospital Wing and the doors got destroyed into small pieces as Harry's anger that manifested into accidental magic traveled across the room.

As Harry entered the room, he saw that the snake's head was already above his best friend and some saliva dropped on the bed. Harry knew that the snake intended to feast upon the girl and then later on other people in the wing. The boy sent a powerful Reducto at the snake but it did not accomplish anything important.

Harry's anger reached the new level and he started throwing a curse after curse, he already tried the levitation spell, the stunner and size-diminishing hex but none seemed to be working efficiently against the beast. Still, Harry was firing more and more spells at the snake.

However, the massive attack was not in vain as the snake got distracted from its intended victim and turned its gaze at Harry. However, nothing happened and the snake was now even more confused as it did not expect two people to be immune from its charm.

As the boy started firing even more spells, some of them getting closer to the Dark Spells category, a number of Professors as well as Prefects entered the room and saw the snake fighting Harry; the sudden entrance of new witches and wizards scared the snake and with last bit of strength Harry had, the boy sent the snake away from the Hospital wing by a powerful charm he did not even know about that exited his wand on its own without the boy's thinking. After the spell was done and the snake was pushed away, Harry Potter fell unconscious, as he was exhausted from the fight he just performed. The last thing the boy heard was the snake slithering quickly away to its chamber.