Chapter 35
Three weeks passed and Harry's Professors started assigning even more homework, as the exam would start soon. Professor Flitwick was generous to his students as he did not give much more homework than he usually did; however some Professors were not as generous and the Heads of Slytherin and Gryffindor houses almost doubled the usual amount of homework required by each Professor. Even Professor Evans was giving more homework than usual, as she wanted her students to do well in her class.
On May twenty eighth, Harry Potter entered his Defense class and saw that all the desks were pushed to the side and the room got expanded. The boy then saw Professor Snape, who stood at the end of the room, waiting for the students to arrive.
"Today we will have a practical lesson as I wish you all to practice your dueling skills against each other. Potter, you will be fighting against Parkinson and Weasley. The rest assemble in groups and duel." Harry saw that two of his enemies approached him and drew their wands.
"I hope you are for this Potter, as you will pay for what you did to Ginny!" threatened Ron.
"Yes, I will be so glad to vanquish that smile from your face, it is unfortunate that I could not duel the mudblood as well.
Harry smirked and prepared to duel. The three duelists looked at each other and the curses began flying around. As Harry saw two red rays of light flying at him, he made a shield charm and defended himself. Ron then sent a stunner at Harry, which the boy deflected with ease. "Rectusempra" shouted Harry and while Ron was laughing from the effects of the tickling charm, Harry focus on Pansy, who appeared to be a formidable opponent unlike Ron.
"Everte Stratum" shouted the girl and threw Harry a few feet backwards. After Harry stood up, he quickly dodged another stunner from the girl.
"Ascendio" shouted Harry as he lifted the girl in the air. But before he could stun her, Ron re joined the match and sent a disarming spell at Harry. Harry defended himself with ease and then threw Ron on the ground.
"Incendio" shouted the girl and Harry defended himself with "Aguamenti"; water flew from his wand and destroyed the fire.
"Expelliarmus" shouted Ron and accidently hit Harry. His wand flew from his hand and dropped on the ground.
"You are defeated Potter!" shouted Pansy with happiness and send another Incendio at Harry. Snape was surprised that the witch would actually try to burn her opponent and tried to defend Harry but then the entire class saw a very impressive magic. As Harry saw that the fire flew at him, his wand immediately flew in his hand and the boy instinctively created a powerful shield around him, which the fire could not penetrate. With his next move, Harry sent a silent shockwave, which went through entire classroom and threw everyone on the floor save Snape, as he quickly applied a wordless spell to stay put on the ground.
"What just happened?" asked Harry as looked at everyone. He then remembered and got confused at first as he just performed an intuitive dueling first wandlessly then silently with the use of a wand. After that, he remembered just why he got disarmed. As he saw his two opponents stand up, the boy remembered a spell Snape taught him that could be used in duels against multiple opponents although from what he remembered, it was a very simple spell.
"Expelliarmus Maximus. Aguamenti" he sent two spells at his opponents at first, with the first spell knocking their wands out of their hands and then sending water at them.
"Parkinson, detention and fifteen points from Slytherin for endangering a student." Snape told the girl and then gave the points to everyone he deemed worthy of getting any points at all; Harry was surprised at receiving thirty points from him. As the class ended, Harry took his bag and quickly left the room as he did not want to hear any praise from people for performing wandless magic, albeit unintentionally.
Next day Harry was extremely lonely as most of his friends were missing, some were petrified in the Hospital wings, Luna was there too albeit for different reasons and Ginny vanished from his site at all, only Minerva talked to him out of all of his friends.
In the evening, the two were walking in a doorway and saw words written in red that were painted on the floor. "Harry, this is blood," the girl pointed out. The two came closer to the line and read the horrible sentence.
"Her skeleton will remain in the Chamber forever." The two looked at each other and did not know what to do when they heard Hogwarts Professors walking in their direction. The students quickly hid behind a column and saw Professor Evans and Snape seeing the writing.
"This means that the school will be closed. The parents will be furious at this." Said Snape coldly.
"Severus, we need to help Miss Weasley."
"But Lily, we don't even now where the chamber of secrets is!" The two students looked at each other with horrified looks and realized that their friend was now a victim of the snake.
"I must fight it," said Harry to Minerva
"But Harry, we do not know where the entrance is" told the girl but then remembered something. She hit her head with the palm of her hand.
"I know where the entrance is" the girl told Harry, who was extremely confused by that point and did not follow his friend's train of thought.
"Professors!" shouted the girl and saw that the two Professors noticed the two students. Harry could see the evil glares Snape was sending him as the boy knew that the Slytherin bat always tried to put him in trouble, while his mother had a mixed look of concern as well as some anger as the older witch did not appreciate her son walking around Hogwarts at night.
"Harry, what is it?" asked the witch
"Minerva said she thinks she knows where the entrance to the Chamber is"
"Yes, as I recall, the big ugly spider told that the girl was killed in the bathroom" Before the girl could continue, she was interrupted by the older witch, who said two words.
"Moaning Myrtle". Those words confused Severus Snape and he looked at his friend, not following her logic.
"Who is this Myrtle?" he asked. Snape did not like to admit that he did not know something and now he was extremely embarrassed to ask his friend about something that he did not know.
"Moaning Myrtle is a ghost that lives on the third floor in the bathroom. I first met her in my fifth year when you said that word and I cried as I lost my best friend that day. " The four people then ran towards the bathroom to ask the ghost about the chamber.
As they entered the bathroom, they saw that it quiet at first; however, the silence was interrupted by a ghost that flew towards them crying. "Who are you? O, I know you, little girl. You found the book that some other girl threw at me" she looked at Minerva.
"Myrtle, could you tell us how you died?" asked Harry the friendly but annoying ghost.
"Oh, yes, it was a horrible time. Once, Olive Hornby teased me and I came here to cry. Soon I heard some boy speaking in here and tried to tell him to get out but then I saw large yellow eyes and the next thing I knew that I was dead. I saw the yellow eyes from there" she pointed at a sink in the front of the bathroom.
"Thank you Myrtle" the group approached he sink and after a close inspection found out a small snake statue on it. The snake was similar to one of the paintings Harry saw in the Slytherin room, where Salazar Slytherin held a small snake that looked like the statue.
"Open" he guessed and after a couple attempts the sink got hidden and a large hole appeared in the bathroom. It was now clear where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets lay.
"You are not going!" shouted Lily after pushing her son from the hole.
"Mother, you will need all the help you can get and we don't have time to call others as Ginny could be killed by then. We have to go now" Harry stood in front of the hole and saw that his mother looked with admiration at him.
"Alright but be careful. I am going first." The elder witch jumped in the hole, and then was followed by Severus Snape.
"Harry, if you die, you could always share my bathroom" suggested Myrtle and after saying "thanks" the two students jumped in the hole.
Harry had an unpleasant experience in traveling in the tunnel as he did not enjoy the slide, only Gringotts rides were worse than this and harry was extremely glad when he landed on the ground at the end of the tunnel.
"Where to now?" asked Minerva. After the group looked around, they found one tunnel, in which they walked until they reached a door. After Harry opened it, the two adults and two students entered it and saw an unexpected sight. In the middle of the room stood young Tom Riddle, with Slytherin status being behind him; Ginny lay on the floor motionless.
Harry ran towards the girl and in the process accidently dropped his wand. He touched the girl and felt her skin being extremely cold. "She is not dead, not yet. I have not drained her life force yet; however, soon she will die and I will escape this diary." He took Harry's wand
"Give me my wand, Tom! Or should I say Voldemort" Harry saw that the older boy was furious that Harry knew his secret.
"Well done Harry Potter, you amuse me. But you wont need the wand, as the snake will not come if not called for. However, I will deal with those three pests." He prepared to first kill Minerva but Snape transfigured a rock and saved the girl.
"Impressive, but no one can defeat Lord Voldemort." The boy started dueling with both Lily and Severus and soon disarmed both of them. Snape also received a spell in his stomach and started crying from pain.
"Why did you jump in front of me?" asked the Potion Mistress.
"Because I love you Lily!" said Snape and the two kissed for a minute before Lily felt that her friend had died. She started crying.
"Good, another witch had lost her loved one. Now I would like you three to see my pet Rowena kill you! "He shouted and called the snake. The snake appeared and Lily unfortunately saw its reflection in the water while crying and got petrified.
"Prepare to die Minerva Granger and Harry Potter," he said with a cold voice although the two students could tell that he was enjoying the fight. Harry and Minerva were horrified and ran from the snake; however it was very fast and soon reached the two.
"Don't hurt us" cried Minerva and got paralyzed from fear and Harry tried to defend the girl.
"Another speaker?" said Rowena confused.
"Yes, we are Parselmouths as well. Minerva is the descendent of Salazar Slytherin and it appears that I might be too" said Harry quickly. He did not know why he spoke to the snake but at that point he was barely thinking as he tried to defend Minerva.
The basilisk looked at Tom Riddle and then at Harry and Minerva and stood silent and motionless for some time above the students, as she was unsure of what to do. "Kill them!" shouted Riddle.
"Please, don't kill us. "The two students hugged each other, as they were scared to die. "I do not want to die before I tell Hermione I love her" thought Harry and cried before he actually realized what he just said in his mind. As Harry thought about Hermione and how he loved her and then thought about all his friends and family, he started glowing and white light flew in different directions, some of which hit the snake.
When Harry opened his eyes, he found out that the snake was inspecting him and before he could do anything, the basilisk licked his face. "Thank you for freeing me from mind control charm he put on me" Before anyone could react, the basilisk crawled quickly towards Riddle and put its fangs in the diary.
"No!" screamed Voldemort as he disintegrated. Ginny Weasley immediately awoke and saw her saviors, as well as the snake. The girl was extremely confused and did not know what to do as she though that the snake would kill her.
After the snake destroyed the diary, she turned and looked at Harry. "Thank you for freeing me, now I can actually control my sight and look at people without actually killing them. I was put here as a guard of Hogwarts since Salazar hated Muggles and was afraid that they would try to wipe out the population of people in the castle and left me to guard Hogwarts. But Tom Riddle controlled me and made me kill that girl fifty years ago" the snake finished her story.
Harry looked at the two girls, then at the snake and finally at the two Professors, of whom one was petrified while other was dead. The snake took the adults in her mouth as it would be easier for her to carry them and then the students climbed on the snake, as it would help them escape this dungeon. The snake delivered the five people to the bathroom, after which she crawled back in the Chamber. Harry closed its entrance and then sat with his friends on the floor, looking at his mother and Snape.
A/N: Next Chapter: the aftermath of the events of Chamber of Secrets as well as people's reactions to it.