I do not own anything. I'm just translating. The characters belong to the great J.K. Rowling. The story belongs to the amazing Brigi. Her e-mail: tbwtpbe [et] hotmail com

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THE BOY WITH THE PIERCING BLUE EYES

Chapter 38 – The greatest mischief (part 2)

A few minutes later, two boys descended into the dark tunnel.

"We don't have Fawkes here to take us out so this is the only way out. I really hope this rope will reach till the bottom…"

"Of course," Lamerin groaned while going down above Harry, taking care not to get too close to him. If he fell on the Gryffindor boy, they would both fall. "I put a spell on it. It gets longer until it reaches solid ground. And you heard the noise when it touched the floor. If… if only it didn't hurt my waist so much…!"

"We're almost th…"

He couldn't finish as the stone wall crumbled under his weight and he lost his balance.

"Lamerin!" he shouted quickly. "Catch my wand!" he threw it up then fell into the darkness cursing.

Lamerin tried to catch the thrown object but it only bounced in between his fingers. However, as it almost fell, he managed to lock it between his ring and middle finger.

"Harry!" he cried out. "Are you okay?"

As no answer came, he put the wand in his pocket and quickly descended after the boy. When the tunnel turned and he was able to walk, he let go of the rope and started running.

He found a spacious but dirty space with the boy in the middle. His face showed intense pain as he looked at his trembling hands.

"Broken?" he knelt down in front of him.

Harry didn't want to let him touch his hands first. His reluctance showed how much pain he was in.

"Let me see!" his friend commanded.

As he touched the Gryffindor boy's hands the younger paled and was suddenly covered in cold sweat.

"It really hurts…" he moaned.

The sight was terrible. Harry's hands were shaking in pain. All ten nails were broken leaving bloody shreds on some. The bruises and abrasions were already forming. As Lamerin slowly turned them around he saw that his palms didn't look any better. There were skeleton pieces sticking out of his hands where he fell into the rat corpses that covered the floor. The young Snape tried to pull out the bigger ones but saw how much the boy was suffering.

Harry endured the small surgery with his teeth clenched. Lamerin noticed that his mouth was turning red.

"Your teeth are bloody! Open your mouth! Maybe you bit your tongue or your teeth got damaged!"

However, his mouth was full of salvia and blood so he couldn't see any injuries.

"Spit! Come on, this is not a game anymore!"

When Harry did as he was told, he looked at his mouth again.

"Alright… it doesn't seem serious… you just bit the skin a little… Did you break anything? Did you hit yourself anywhere else? Legs, back, ribs… head?"

"No," Harry moaned. "I was trying to protect it with my hands…" he looked at his bloody fingers again.

Lamerin sighed and hugged him close like a brother comforting his little brother. Harry buried his head in the older boy's chest as he cried. He was very glad that Ron and Hermione weren't there to see him like that.

"Sh…Shit…"

"I told you not to go and play spy here! Now how do you plan to climb back up?"

"I can't…" his friend sniffed.

"There really is no other way out?"

"There is a steep rocky something that takes us out but…"

"Great! I'll summon my broom and take you out immediately!" Lamerin took initiative. "Come on!"

"Wait! If… if we're here already, let's look around!"

"Are you sure?"

Harry nodded.

"Alright," Lamerin helped him to his feet and the other boy groaned. "What hurts?"

"I fucki… I hit my elbow too," Harry tried to answer without cursing.

"Don't hold back because of me," the young Snape waved. "I know it makes it easier to bear the pain. Plus I got used to cursing while I was with Fred and George. They can say some nasty things to each other. Makes it hard to believe they are brothers and love each other…"

Harry only managed a brief, anguished laugh.

As they walked in the darkness, Lamerin kept looking around. The light coming from his wand only provided a small source of light.

"Where's mine? It's not broken, right?"

"No. I have it… Do you want it back?"

"I wouldn't be able to hold it…"

"This place is terrible… I expected something different… a safe or a warehouse… but not a tunnel system…"

"It's been a while since I last came here…" Harry muttered, squinting. "Everything happened so fast. I didn't even look around…"

They entered the room that was the main place of the happenings four years ago. The snake head sculptures sitting on each side of the room made Lamerin stop for a moment and even Harry sighed before starting again. Only their footsteps could be heard in the quiet chamber until they reached the place where Ginny lay all those years ago. Not far from there, Harry saw a dark, dried puddle; his own blood. In the water there was a huge skeleton.

"He was here?" Lamerin whispered.

"He stood in front of us… he looked young like you and me… There must be something here…"

He stumbled aimlessly in the dark peering behind the snake sculptures and limped into the various passages in which the basilisk had chased him.

His friend stood stunned and watched the monster's skeleton and the terrible sculptured face behind it.

"Could.." he said quietly but realized that Harry might not hear him. "Could there be something up there?"

Since Harry didn't come back, he walked to the sculpture and tried to climb up on its side. He saw that the smooth surface was damaged here and there. Once up, he sat down and watched the direction where they came from.

Some time passed before Harry turned up again. First, he was searching for his friend then found him sitting up on the head.

"What are you doing?"

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing… some torn paper. Nothing useful… nothing that could help…" he whispered bitterly.

Lamerin didn't speak for a long time.

"You know… sitting up here… everything is different… Maybe the real secrets aren't in this chamber… Maybe the real secrets are hidden in the soul. After all… just think about it… a bitter wizard was forced into exile because of his views and ideals… but in his hurt he made this last step and built this chamber… And still… there is no book or anything about what was going on in his heart. The only one who can look into it is the one who's just as miserable…"

He slowly climbed down and walked to Harry.

"Maybe that's what Voldemort saw in him too…"

"He's not the only one who had a bad life… Many others have suffered…"

"And many more will… there's not doubt about it…"

"I thought… we would get closer to the solution… to defeat Voldemort if we came here… I was hoping to find something…"

Lamerin smiled tiredly.

"You can't have everything go your way all the time. I'll look through the book you got me. Maybe we'll find something…" he patted his friend's shoulder and the younger cringed at the pain it ignited. "I'm sorry! Let's just go! I have to take care of your wounds!"

Harry was sitting in the bathtub in Snape's chamber and watched as Lamerin approached him with a basin full of warm water. The only thing he was wearing was his underwear; that was probably the only thing that remained clean after his fall. However, the tub was cold and made him shiver.

"Is it hot?" he asked, worried that Lamerin was going to scald him.

"No. But I'll pour it slowly."

He lifted the basin but saw Harry huddle.

"Look…" he sat down on the edge of the tub. "I won't lie; it will hurt like hell. But I can't wok on your injuries until we get all this dirt off of you. You bathe and it will be easier to get the bones out.

Harry glared at the swollen skin on his palm. Where the splinters pierced it, the skin was throbbing with pain.

"Are you ready?"

"No…" he moaned uncertainly but held out his hands to have plenty of water poured on them.

Lamerin carefully poured the water on him that didn't feel so hot anymore.

"You look like a wet dog!" Lamerin laughed as he opened the tap.

While his friend bathed he pulled out his father's antiseptic and healing potions. Some had a really putrid stench but he took those too. Along with some gauze and fresh pajamas he started towards the bathroom just as Harry walked out wrapped in a towel.

Treating the injuries required a lot of self-discipline from the both of them. Harry, very unusually, whined at every touch and Lamerin practically had to wrestle with him for every splinter.

"N-no! There's no need for an antiseptic potion!"

"Of course there is!" the young Snape chased his friend in the room. The Gryffindor boy ran away from him and the potion in his hand.

"It will heal from… my salvia!"

"In your dreams!"

Harry wanted to run through the bed but Lamerin tackled him and poured a great deal of the potion on his palms.

"Oh fuck…" the brave Gryffindor groaned in defeat. "I wish your father's hands would fall off! How could he make such a fucki… freaking stingy stuff?!"

"Don't talk about my father like that!" Lamerin muttered amused but he soon saw stars when one of Harry's flailing legs kicked him in the jaw. "You're acting like a hysterical child!"

"I don't like doctors! Instead of lessening the pain they cause more!"

"We would be long done if you didn't resist so much!"

After another twenty minutes of this, Harry was sitting in bed pouting, clad in clean pajamas. Lamerin looked at his work proudly.

"Now sleep. But don't be too happy. I'll come back in the morning to change your bandages."

The inflammation on Harry's hands subsided somewhat by the next morning but he was in no condition to be with the other students. The bandages would have been too striking and without them his injuries would have looked suspicious. He had to stay hidden from everyone and the Snape chambers seemed to be the best place for that.

Lamerin agreed to change places and attend his classes though there were some he practically dreaded. McGonagall was always highly respected in his eyes and even now he could only appear before her fearfully. The lessons that scared him the most were the ones he had to use his skills. During Quidditch practice it will be evident that he had never played that game before in his life and Remus will notice his movements being different during fencing practice.

"Okay, but what about you? I mean 'Lamerin'?'

"Well… we'll tell everyone that I'm really sick and have to stay in bed."

"With bandaged hands?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be difficult! No one will come down to visit anyway."

"Stupid! If you were sick, we would come down!"

"Enough! My head's about to burst anyway. You stay here. I'll bring you lunch from the great hall. Study and pray that it rains and Quidditch training gets canceled!"

Lamerin appeared in the Great Hall looking like Harry with a gut-wrenching feeling. While the others devoured the delicious breakfast he only ate a few bites. Soon after, owls arrived in the room and dropped their packages in their owners' waiting hands. Hermione and Ron also got something from home. Hedwig, Harry's beautiful white owl flew around helplessly then landed on the table next to her owner's friends. She hooted sadly at Hermione.

"What's wrong, Hedwig? Why won't you give that letter to Harry?" the girl gave some treats to the animal from her plate.

Some students looked at Lamerin and the boy paled. He won't be able to deceive the bird! She can feel her master! They didn't think of that…!

"Himeo, Hedwig!" he quickly said the spell that would call the bird to him and thanked his father for teaching it to him.

The bird obeyed and hopped onto his arm. Lamerin took off the thick envelope excitedly only to find Marie's handwriting on it.

"So man, aren't you opening it?" Ron poked his side.

Lamerin gulped and felt horrible for looking into Harry's letter. However, he knew that if he postponed opening it Ron would find it suspicious. After all, Harry practically trembled every time a letter arrived from his girlfriend…

He tore the seal and pretended to read it. But even this way, he caught some words of sappy confessions and eternal love, then something about lacy lingerie that he really didn't want to know more about.

When during lunch he heard the first thunder, some hope returned into his heart. The rain started soon but his team mates thought they needed the exercise because they didn't have practice since autumn. Lamerin relaxed a little; he could blame his poor performance on the weather at least.

However, at lunch…

"What are you doing?" Ron asked when he noticed his friend putting some food on a plate and wrapping it up nicely.

"Oh, well… I… I'm just packing some food for Lamerin. You know, he got really sick…"

"I thought it was strange he didn't come to have breakfast… Let's go and visit him!"

"Oh, no, you'll catch it from him…"

"Don't say that," Ron waved. "It must be depressing all alone in that dark hole…"

Lamerin felt a little offended by the comment on his home but he couldn't voice his thoughts. He scratched his neck as they approached the door of his chambers.

He knocked and listened in as if waiting to be called. When he saw Hermione looking at him funny, he added, "He can't really get up. He shouts when we can enter."

The two Gryffindors nodded as if the finally getting the picture. They entered, but Lamerin was afraid that Harry kept his own appearance so he took his robes off slowly.

"Lamerin, it's Harry, Ron and Hermione."

He didn't hear an answer only a faint hiss and the rustling of sheets.

"Are you feeling better now?" he continued aloud when he saw that Ron and Hermione also took their robes off. "We brought you some food. I hope you're not coughing as much as you did this morning!"

As an answer they heard a few coughs from inside. Hermione peered into the room.

"Can we come in?"

"Of course!" Harry greeted them kindly with long black hair and blue eyes. "Please sit down."

The three guests sat down on the edge of the large four-poster bed and politely asked him about how he was.

"And look what we brought for lunch!" the girl gave him the plate. "Enjoy your meal!"

Harry's hands started to move but then he remembered that he was bandaged up.

"Oh…" he began. "It's really nice of you. I'll… I'll eat it later. I'm not really hungry… now…"

His stomach, just to disagree, grumbled loudly.

Lamerin closed his eyes fearing what was coming next.

"You know, I don't like eating in bed…" Harry tried to come up with another excuse. "Dad always yells at me when he sees it… Now that he's not here, I remember his words…"

That got the desired effect on the girl as she looked at him with a sad smile.

"You… you feel alone, right? We can come down again, if you want!"

"Thanks, but I don't want you to get sick because of me," he coughed a few times for emphasis. "But I'm always happy to see you."

"Then it's settled," Ron nodded. "I'll skip History of Magic class and visit… Binns won't even notice me missing…"

"Ron!"

"Come on, Hermione, I…"

While the pair argued, Lamerin sighed in relief and carefully slid Marie's letter to the lying Harry.