A/N: On a bit of a grind, so here's another chapter. Harry and Hermione finally get rid of a Horcrux.
As shocking as it may be to some, I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.
Thanks again to BananaCarrot5 for beta reading
Harry walked down to the common room, holding his invisibility cloak. He made his way over to the fireplace.
Hermione was seated in an armchair, library books spread around her while she furiously wrote in her notebook. She looked up from her work as Harry drew closer.
"Time to go?" she asked, snapping her notebook closed.
"I'm ready," he said, holding out the cloak for her to see. "Bathroom first, right?"
Hermione nodded as she stood and stacked the library books on the table next to the chair. Whipping out her wand, she placed the notebook on the chair and shrunk it with a flourish.
Slipping the miniature notebook into her pocket, she gestured to the portrait hole.
"Shall we?"
As they walked towards the portrait hole, they heard footsteps coming from the stairs to the boys' dormitory. They turned to see Ron peeking his head around the corner, dressed in his pajamas.
"Harry! I knew I heard you leave the room," he said, stepping down into the common room. "Where're ya going?"
"Harry's going to practice for the next task," Hermione said quickly, before Harry could even open his mouth. Playing along, he nodded in agreement.
"Isn't it a bit late for that?" Ron asked, yawning. "What're you practicing anyways? The second task isn't for a couple of months?"
"Just doing some research in the library," Hermione said.
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Reading books and such. Rather boring."
Ron frowned. "Sounds like. Well, goodnight then. Enjoy reading your dusty tomes."
"Night Ron," Harry said, as the redhead made his way back up the stairs.
Hermione grabbed his arm. "Let's go," she said, pulling him through the portrait hole.
Shaking out his invisibility cloak, Harry draped it over both of them and quietly closed the Fat Lady's portrait.
"It's too late to be out, don't you think," she complained, rubbing her eyes.
"Shhhh!" Hermione hissed at her as they crept away.
-:-:-:-
Harry pushed open the door to the second-floor girls' lavatory, the door creaking. As he shut it slowly, Hermione shed the invisibility cloak off them and rolled it up lengthwise, trying it around her waist.
"I forget exactly which sink is the entrance," Harry said, turning to Hermione. "We're looking for a faucet with an engraving of a serpent on the side."
Taking opposite sides of the row of sinks, Harry knelt to get a better look as they began examining the taps for anything resembling a snake.
"Found it!" Hermione exclaimed after a minute, standing up and pointing to a sink roughly in the middle of the room.
Harry walked over, leaning to take a look at the tap. Sure enough, there was a small engraved snake on the underside.
"Right then, allow me," he said, as Hermione took a step back.
He stared at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive.
"Open up," he said.
Silence. Harry looked at his reflection in the mirror.
He tried again, leaning closer. At this angle, light seemed to ripple across the engraving, making it appear as if the snake was slithering along the faucet.
"Open up," he said, louder this time.
Nothing happened.
"Harry," Hermione said from behind him. "You've said 'Open up' twice now."
"And it's not opening," he grumbled.
"Wait, since when could you understand parseltongue?"
Hermione looked at him, confused. "I can't, but you didn't speak parseltongue just now."
Shaking his head, Harry tried again. "Open up."
"You just told it to 'Open up' again in English," Hermione said.
Realization dawned on Harry. "Oh that's right!" he exclaimed. "Death removed the piece of Voldemort from me before we got sent back."
Hermione's face flickered with understanding. "And that piece of Voldemort was the reason why you could speak parseltongue," she surmised.
"I'm not sure how we're going to get in now," Harry said with a frown.
"I might have an idea," Hermione said, tilting her head as she examined the wall.
She pulled her wand out of her jeans pocket.
"Muffliato."
Perplexed, Harry looked at her, "What-"
Reaching for his hand, Hermione tugged him back, away from the wall of sinks. "Put up a shield, please," she asked.
Unsure about what Hermione was doing, Harry resigned to just following instructions.
He took out his wand. "Protego."
A shimmering, translucent barrier erected itself directly in front of them.
Hermione pointed her wand at the sink with the snake engraving.
"Bombarda Maxima," she said matter-of-factly.
The wall exploded, showering the bathroom with a spray of stone shards, many of which bounced off Harry's shield.
Hermione's Muffliato proved crucial, since what should have been a loud bang only sounded like a dull thump to Harry, as if he was hearing it underwater.
Most of the wall of sinks had been completely fragmented, and ceramic and glass shards covered the floor. Before them, however, was the opening to a large pipe, wreathed in jagged plaster and tile.
Harry gaped at the wreckage, before shaking himself and dismissing his shield with a wave of his wand. Beside him, Hermione dispelled her Muffliato.
"Ladies first," Harry said, gesturing towards the pipe.
Hermione grinned as she rolled her eyes.
She lowered herself slowly into the pipe, then pushed off, disappearing downwards out of sight. Harry slid his into the pipe, and let go.
The long slide through the darkness was made marginally better now that the pipe was no longer slimy. It must've dried up in the five - no, two - years since I've been here last, Harry thought as he flew by the maze of branching pipes.
The pipe leveled out, and Harry shot out the end, almost colliding with Hermione as she got to her feet.
"Sorry," he said, pushing himself up.
"Don't worry about it," Hermione said, as she dusted herself off.
"Lumos," Harry said, his wand lighting the dark stone tunnel. Hermione flicked her wand, and the tip lit as well.
They passed the shed basilisk skin, its green scales sparkling against the wandlight. After squeezing through the hole in the rockfall from two years earlier, they walked through the rest of the tunnel, reaching the main chamber.
Before them lay the slain basilisk, the King of Serpents. Its limp, scaly carcass lay twisted on the stone floor, a puddle of blood surrounding its half-open mouth.
"Oh my god," Hermione gasped. "Harry, that has to be at least fifty feet long! I-It's incredible that you managed to kill it."
Harry walked over to the mouth of Salazar's pet, "Honestly, you're as surprised as I was." He paused, taking in the monstrosity before him.
"Seeing it again - it's a bit surreal," he breathed.
Hermione knelt next to the basilisk's maw, examining its fangs. She reached down, picking up a sizable piece of stone. With a wave of her wand, the stone turned into a lidded wooden box, just big enough to fit several fangs.
"Nice transfiguration," Harry said appraisingly. "You don't learn how to do that until sixth year, unfortunately," he teased.
Hermione gave him a smirk and a little shake of her head.
"So here's what we're gonna do," she said, standing to look at Harry. "I don't think we should touch them in its mouth where we could possibly stab ourselves, so we'll sever them at the root with a cutting charm, then levitate them into the box."
"Alright with me," Harry said. "You do the cutting and I'll levitate them?"
"Deal," Hermione said.
After a few minutes, Harry and Hermione had filled the wood box with five basilisk fangs, carefully cut and levitated from the basilisk's maw.
Harry shut the box and tucked it under his arm. Hermione shivered as she gave the basilisk corpse one last look.
"I'm glad we got that over with," she said. Harry couldn't agree more.
They retraced their steps, once more finding themselves at the mouth of the pipe.
"Any thoughts on getting back up?" Harry asked.
"I could transfigure the floor into steps," Hermione mused, looking up at the sloping passage.
"Like the steps up to the girls' dormitory?"
Hermione nodded. "Just like that."
Walking to the mouth of the pipe, Hermione gestured at the floor with her wand and the light at the tip immediately vanished. Harry raised his still-lit wand, illuminating the brand-new set of stairs leading back up to the bathroom entrance.
They walked up the bending pipe, Harry's wand casting a pale light onto the wall and stairs around them. Seeing faint light ahead, Harry lowered his wand.
"What a mess," Harry said as he and Hermione walked out of the pipe into the partially-destroyed second-floor bathroom.
"I'll fix it," Hermione said.
Harry watched as she waved her wand in a slow sweeping fashion over the fragments covering the bathroom floor.
Shards of stone levitated off the ground, flying back towards the gaping hole; bricks re-formed in midair; glittering slivers of mirror pieced themselves together; sink basins repaired themselves; tiles were mended and hovered, waiting while the flakes of plaster settled back onto the wall.
"Harry, could you reverse my transfiguration?" Hermione asked, briefly breaking concentration on her bathroom repair job.
As the hole in the wall progressively repaired itself, Harry pointed his wand at the stairs beyond, undoing the transfiguration. The pipe staircase immediately disappeared, morphing back into a smooth slide into darkness.
The cracks in the mirror sealed themselves as the last bits of tile fused to the fully repaired wall, leaving the bathroom looking identical to when they had just walked in.
"Brilliant," Harry breathed, as Hermione grinned in satisfaction. She untied his invisibility cloak from around her waist.
He ducked as she threw it over both of them.
-:-:-:-
Harry paced back and forth in front of the tapestry leading to the Room of Requirement. Waiting patiently, Hermione leaned back against a nearby wall, clutching the cloak to her chest.
I need a place to hide a… a book, Harry thought, his eyes shut in concentration.
Opening his eyes, he found that a familiar set of large wooden doors had appeared on the previously empty wall opposite the tapestry.
He glanced back at Hermione.
"What… what are you doing?" he asked her.
Hermione was facing the tapestry of dancing trolls, doing her best to mimic the pose of the wizard who was teaching them ballet. Her left arm was outstretched over her head, the invisibility cloak trailing around her like a ribbon.
"Oh, nothing," she said sheepishly, dropping her arm as she broke the pose. "Just wanted to see if I had it in me. You know, in case I ever have to teach trolls ballet."
Harry laughed as he pushed open the doors.
They stepped into the gigantic room, whose high windows let in shafts of moonlight, which spilled across the mountains of objects abandoned by centuries of Hogwarts students. Pathways cut their way through the vast chaotic mess of books, bottles, and various other items. Piles of broken and badly damaged furniture reached upwards towards the vaulted stone ceiling, like skyscrapers overlooking a city of debris.
"Accio Diadem," Harry said, waving his wand.
"I tried that last time - it didn't work, remember?" Hermione reminded him.
"Oh… right," he replied lamely, pausing to think for a minute. "I think I remember where it is."
Gesturing for Hermione to follow him, he set off down an alleyway, the brunette girl trailing just behind him.
Making a right at a gigantic plush troll, the two of them continued on a new path, before happening upon a battered, dark gray cabinet, large enough to fit a person.
"This is the Vanishing Cabinet that Malfoy used in our sixth year to sneak in his band of Death Eaters," Harry said, pointing his wand at it.
"Confringo."
The cabinet burst into a spray of charred splinters, which scattered across the floor. Harry and Hermione walked on, taking a left at the fork in the path where the cabinet had stood.
Spotting a worn, blistered cupboard ahead, Harry quickened his pace. They stopped right in front of it.
"This is it," Harry said quietly.
Taking the box of basilisk fangs out from under his arms, he placed it on the ground and opened the lid. Five pristine ivory daggers lay on the velvet lining.
"I think you should do the first one," Harry told Hermione.
"Me? Why me?"
Harry shrugged. "Out of the two of us, you were Voldemort's most recent kill. Seems only fair to me."
Hermione chewed on her lip, before nodding. She reached down and grabbed the base of a basilisk fang.
With a creak, Harry opened the cupboard's doors. On the shelf was a cage that held the skeleton of some five-legged creature, and a small, unassuming jewelry box.
Harry opened the box carefully. Inside lay an ancient, tarnished tiara.
Hermione raised the fang over the diadem.
"Is it knowledge you seek? Wisdom? Guidance? One only needs to wear the diadem on their head.
She paused, holding the fang aloft.
Go on, Hermione Jean Granger, put on Ravenclaw's Diadem."
She slowly lowered the fang, her free hand reaching for the tiara.
"Hermione, stop!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing her wrist. She blinked, looking away from the diadem.
"I-I can hear it," she said, her voice trembling. "It wants me to wear it."
"Hermione," Harry said, holding her gaze. "Don't look at it, don't listen to it, just stab it. You can do this."
"Unparalleled knowledge, more than enough to make up for the inadequacy that you feel."
Squeezing her eyes closed, Hermione raised the basilisk fang once more. Ignoring the tempting whispers emanating from the tiara, she plunged the fang straight at the glittering sapphire in the center, shattering the gem and the silver band.
With a wail of pain, a dark shade burst from the diadem fragments. As Harry and Hermione watched, the shadow dissipated into the air, its painful scream fading into silence.
Harry wiped his clammy hands on his jeans. Hermione trembled next to him, basilisk fang still in hand. She carefully knelt, placing it back into the box at their feet and closing the lid.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked her.
Hermione took a deep breath. "That was… far more intense than I expected," she admitted. "Voldemort must've placed a curse on the diadem to protect it."
She gave Harry a feeble smile, "One down, four to go."
After vanishing the shard of what was once Ravenclaw's Diadem and picking up the Basilisk fang container, Harry and Hermione made their way back to the doors. As they walked through the winding alleys of junk, their hands found each other, fingers intertwining. Far above them, the first light of dawn peaked through the windows.
"Back to Gryffindor tower?" Harry asked as they stepped into the corridor.
Hermione hummed. "We could go out to the lake; watch the sun rise," she suggested.
"We do have the invisibility cloak," Harry agreed, as he threw it over them once more.
-:-:-:-
They sat with their backs to a particular cherry tree as the clouds overhead lit a brilliant pink. At the foot of the castle, the Black Lake glittered as the light peaked over the edge of the forbidden forest. Fall had taken over the Hogwarts grounds, and the forest was awash with hues of red, yellow, and orange.
Hermione's notebook lay open on her lap, momentarily forgotten in favor of admiring the view.
"It's gorgeous," she sighed.
Turning her attention back to her notebook, she settled against Harry, who leaned in to get a better look.
"What's next on the list, after the Diadem?" he asked. Hemione flipped through the pages, making notes as she went.
"The Gaunt Ring, but I think we should find it over the Christmas holidays when classes aren't in session. Before then, we should really start training," she said. "I have a list of useful spells we can practice, as well as some ideas for how to use transfiguration. When do you want to start?"
"We can start right now."
Harry stood, pulling out his wand. He offered a hand to Hermione and pulled her to her feet.
She grinned at him, taking her own wand out of her pocket.
"Let's begin," Hermione said, twirling her wand. "We'll start with simple transfiguration and banishment charms."