Chapter 31: A Scary Boggart
"But which one of the two Terries is the real one?" Ginny asked.
"Marauder's Map!" Harry exclaimed softly, but then he grabbed his mokeskin pouch since he had a habit to never take it off as he shoot a quick glance at the nearest group of fifth-years who were still having fun chatting joyfully with each other in the late evening. "The Map will tell us if Terry in Hogwarts is the true Terry or someone else."
Harry opened the Map right away and whispered the spell, after which the outlines of the castle twisted on the parchment like black snakes. Meanwhile, Ginny and Ron tossed their notebooks on the couch so that Harry could easily spread the Map on the table, but Hermione gently pushed her Potions book to the corner of the table, where Crookshanks instantly took his wanted spot on the top of it as he put his tail over the edge of the table, lightly swinging the tip of it.
"He should be in the Ravenclaw Common Room," Ron said, "along with all other Ravenclaws." Harry immediately found the Ravenclaw Tower on the Map, but there was crawling with people, their dots overlapping each other.
"It's impossible. I can't read any of those names in that crowd," Hermione said hopelessly.
"But what if it's just some kind of misunderstanding?" Ron asked, while Harry prodded feverishly the name labels of the Ravenclaw students with his wand.
"It can't be a misunderstanding. In D.A. we had only one Terry Boot, and why should he be here and at the same time in St Mungo? It's not only impossible, it's also illogical," Hermione pointed out.
"But it may be that everything's fine with our Terry here." Then suddenly Ron fell silent and widened his eyes like having imagined something scary. "What if Lockhart's assistant is only disguised as Terry? What if he's someone else, someone everyone's looking for?"
Hermione gasped, too. "You mean he may be Lestrange?"
Meanwhile, Ginny softly exclaimed, pointing at the bottom of the Map, "Harry, who are they?" Harry folded it out more openly and saw two dots in the dungeons not very far away from the Slytherin Common Room.
"It's Romilda Vane," he read in a whisper, "and… it can't be!"
"What's wrong?" Ron asked anxiously.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle," Hermione announced, a cold shiver running over her spine.
"Romilda is meeting You-Know-Who in the dungeons?" Ron said in disbelief. "Indeed – it can't be!"
"Wasn't Romilda Terry's girlfriend?" Ginny asked.
"So what? How does it relate to the fact that now she has a date with You-Know-Who in the dungeons?" Ron asked as he gave his sister a confused look like asking her why such a question.
"But of course, Ginny!" Hermione praised her idea. "Romilda is meeting Terry there. I met them both there last Saturday."
"So you mean that our Terry is Voldemort?" Harry finally concluded as soon as he had understood what she meant.
"It turns out so," she said slowly.
"But how? How is this possible at all?" Ginny asked. They had discussed this thoroughly many times before that, if he had survived at all, Voldemort most likely would have stuck in the form of a tiny ghost, roaming somewhere around here. But now it meant that he had disguised, wearing a fake skin of Terry the whole year?
"The Polyjuice Potion?" Ron asked. "It provides a complete physical transfiguration."
"It's hardly that," Hermione rejected his idea. "One has to drink it hourly and one needs something from the other person to produce it. I think there'll be something else."
"But if Romilda doesn't know whom she's meeting now, I think we should go save her. Who knows what this monster has decided to do with her. If he's been luring her into the dark tunnels of the dungeons in the past two weeks," Harry said, speaking quickly and anxiously. "I mean, he can no longer torture anyone with his magic, but all the techniques of the Muggles still work."
"Yes, you're right. Let's run downstairs," Ron agreed immediately, and the four of them jumped to their feet in an instant, and Harry grabbed his Map while holding his wand in his other hand tightly.
"They aren't moving," Harry said as they had hurried down to the third floor like a wind. A few more minutes, and they had reached the door to the dungeons in the Entrance Hall.
Harry lit a light at the tip of his wand and rushed down the stairs leading them further. Since it was the beginning of the summer, it was pleasantly warm on the upper floors, but the dark dungeons were still cold and gloomy. They ran past the Potions classroom, and Harry stopped for a second to check, where exactly the couple they were searching for was.
"A little more down the corridor and then to the right," Harry said in a soft whisper and hurried forward. A faint glow was shining from the nearest corner, and soon they turned to the right and saw a wider room lit by some candles, hovering in the air, and for their surprise they saw a couple, kissing passionately in one of the corners of this dungeon chamber.
Harry checked the Marauder's Map again – there with a black ink on the parchment, illuminated by the yellow light of his wand, was clearly legible, Romilda Vane and Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"Kh-km," Ron cleared his throat loudly, and the two young people immediately pulled away from each other in surprise. Harry studied Terry carefully – the young man had the same curly brown hair, honey brown eyes, and an oval chin, perfectly matching with his earlier memories of how his fellow Ravenclaw classmate should look like. There was nothing that would give away any sign that under his disguise there could have been hiding the most hated dark wizard in the Wizarding world. Only there seemed to be something weird in his gaze now, when Harry had a suspicion that he might actually be someone else.
"Um… Is there anything wrong?" Terry asked in confusion and looked at his wristwatch. "Oh, it's already so late. My dear Romilda, time has flown so fast this night," he said, smiling at the girl. "However, I don't really understand why our violation of the curfew has deserved a full attention of all of you?" Terry asked as he switched his questioning gaze from Hermione to the other of them.
Still holding the Marauder's Map tightly, Harry got the ball rolling. "The question is of a very serious matter: do tell me, who you really are?"
Terry looked confused. "What do you mean – who am I?"
"You see, we have a strong suspicion that you're actually Tom Riddle," Harry announced and looked closely at his classmate. Terry laughed at this statement.
"What a nonsense!" he exclaimed, and Romilda added, "How did you actually come up with such an idea? We were just a little bit for too long here in the dungeons after our studies in the library tonight. It's not a reason to offend anyone so terribly. And who's that Tom Riddle?"
"Well, then listen to this, Romilda," Harry began explaining to the girl, "This Map is charmed to show any person's real name, regardless of his or her appearance, and it had told the truth about some other transfigured wizards who had tried to hide their true identity. And Tom Riddle, well, he is better known to the general public as Lord Voldemort." Harry felt Hermione waving her wand behind him, most likely to perform a couple of defensive spells wordlessly.
"Lord Vol-Voldemort?" she said with a shudder as her eyes widened. "But, Harry, you did destroy him the last year. He's gone! How could my dear Terry be You-Know-Who?"
"Well, I would also like to know what kind of arguments you do have in this regard," added Terry.
"The Map never lies," Harry asserted.
"But look, Harry," Romilda objected. She was about to cry – the girl didn't understand why they were offending her boyfriend in such an aggressive tone, and she gripped tighter his hand. "Everyone saw him collapsing and perishing in the Great Hall."
"Well, you see, Voldemort was a particularly dark and evil wizard, and he made sure it wasn't so easy to kill him. He had torn his soul into several parts, which he hid in the Horcruxes," Harry explained it to her. "And in the same way as when he did destroy himself when I was an infant," – he put his fingers to his scar in the shape of a lightning bolt – "this time too, he would have been pulled out of his body and have become an elusive ghost, an invisible spirit. That way he could have escaped all of us unnoticed."
"No, no, no," Romilda said as she shook her head in disbelief. "This sounds too unbelievable. And why exactly he's Terry? If he could turn into a ghost, he can't be a living person!" Romilda exclaimed almost hysterically, and Terry had a curious look in his eyes, too, in which – as Harry thought – there should have been more surprise. "And there were so many people in the Great Hall. And we wizards are able to see ghosts."
Now Hermione spoke, "The Great Hall has both a charmed ceiling and a charmed floor. After his downfall we all saw his dead body, but the last part of his soul could have fallen through the floor in the kitchen and hide there."
"And why Terry?" Romilda asked insistently and a tear ran down over her cheek. This situation seemed utterly absurd to her.
Harry opened his mouth, but he didn't know the answer. He didn't have even the slightest idea why he's chosen especially Terry and how he had been able to acquire a human form at all. He himself could barely believe this discovery, too.
Terry noticed that neither Harry nor Hermione nor anyone else would give an answer to this question. "Okay, I understand your concern about this weird error of the Map, but we'll have the exam in Potions tomorrow, so I think we should leave this strange misunderstanding and we all should go to bed, now." He was about to leave this place.
To Romilda's horror, Harry pointed his illuminated wand at Terry. "You are going nowhere. If you really are Terry Boot, then do answer me where the first D.A. meeting took place. And do look at me!" Harry ordered, when Terry had turned his gaze at Romilda.
"Um, in the Room of Requirement," Terry said.
Romilda looked at him with suspicion.
"In the Room of Requirement, there our practices took place, but where did we have our first meeting Hermione had held?" Harry demanded.
Terry hesitated. Harry felt Terry's gaze getting more intense on him, and some of his memory scenes began to appear in his mind against his will – they had just left the Room of Requirement and the Ravenclaw's Diadem turned into dust in his hands; Harry run into the Room of Requirement, desperately wanting to hide the book owned by the Half-Blood Prince; Luna had just managed to conjure up her Patronus, a silvery hare, which hopped next to his own deer, otter, and swan; Harry leaned down slowly closer to Cho's face – "No!" Harry exclaimed, and the stream of his memories instantly ceased. "I won't let you in my mind, Riddle!"
"What is he talking about? Terry, dear, just tell us where did Hermione told every one of us to meet the first time!" Romilda asked anxiously, while Terry blinked vigorously. Meanwhile, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione pointed their wands at him.
"You know, my dear sweet Romilda, there is one such a teeny-tiny thing," the disguised Terry said as he pulled the girl's arm, bringing her closer to him, and as he spoke, his face turned even more cunning and evil. "I'm not able to say that, because Harry Potter is absolutely right." He moved the girl in front of him and pressed his wand in her neck. Frightened, Romilda began to gasp.
"Let her go!" Harry immediately ordered.
"So now," said Riddle looking alike Terry, ignoring Harry's recent exclamation. "I promise not to hurt her in any way if you in turn are willing to answer some of my questions and then you'll let me go."
"What kind of questions?" Harry asked stiffly.
Meanwhile, Ginny said to him in a half-whisper, "Harry, you deprived him of the ability to hurt other people, right? Unforgivable curses won't harm her."
"An interesting thought, Miss Weasley," Riddle answered her as he had heard her, since in the cold damp dungeon, every whisper sounded as loud as a blast. "I may not be able to do any harm to her with spells, but, regardless of how much I wouldn't like to admit it, there's one technique that could be even very effective – try to guess what exactly this round sharp tip of my wand would do to the life of my dear Romilda if I stab it deep in her neck?"
"You won't do it," Harry warned.
"Why not? You can't kill me, but if I stab Miss Vane, I doubt you'll be able to save her life. So now you'll listen to me," he said in a calm tone. "Now answer the question – it's just for my curiosity, since we have already gathered here – how exactly did you reveal my personality? Did you really just saw my name on the Map?" Riddle asked as he looked at the sheet of parchment in Harry's left hand.
"Not exactly," Harry admitted reluctantly. Riddle held Romilda in front of him, so they couldn't stun him, and even if they try it and succeeded, he had pressed his wand in her neck so tightly that it could actually pierce her skin and her carotid artery at the moment spell hitting him. Harry couldn't risk that. They needed more time; then maybe they could come up with something. "We happened to learn that the real Terry was doing an internship at St Mungo's Hospital, so we checked the Map and found you here."
"It's very interesting," Riddle said, almost with admiration. "I guess if I weren't here in the Dungeons, you wouldn't have been able to verify my identity on the Map at all, am I right?" Harry's grumpy face served as a confirmation. "Unfortunately, I needed these travels to the dungeons to take in my strengthening potions. When we had active studies, I was able to get them after the Potions classes, but now I have been using the cover of my dear Romilda. Before I spill too many beans, would you please tell me your own theory of how I got so far to be able to stand in front of you here?" He looked at four of them with curiosity.
"Um," Harry began, but then paused, since they didn't have any theory. He hoped Hermione would come up with something, but her gaze seemed particularly thoughtful like she was desperately trying to solve some puzzle she found especially hard.
"There's no theory needed," Ron said sharply, "you have no shortage of your Dark Art tricks."
"I see," he said with a grin. "So we haven't done our homework, have we?"
"I don't think it's important to know how you regained your human form. I'm more interested in how did you manage to fool everyone pretending to be Terry?" Harry asked angrily.
"You know, Potter, I even want to answer that question. I suppose it's a pleasure for every great mind to find an enthusiastic listener," Riddle said as he grinned coldly and cruelly, making a chill run over Harry's spine. "When I managed to fall through the floor of the Great Hall in the form of a ghost, as Miss Granger had just told, I found myself in an empty kitchen; it seemed that all of the elves had participated in the battle. I got out of the kitchen and hid in one of the dark corners. When the entire bustle was over, I snuck to here, stayed here and pondered what to do next. My mind, that was all what was left of me. So I thought maybe I should possess someone, like I did with my loyal Quirrel. At first, I reasoned that I could obsess Filch, but then I gave up this option as too dangerous – he might not want to obey me, he could tell McGonagall about me, and then it would truly be the end for me. In addition, Filch would probably look ridiculous wearing a turban. So I gave up on this idea completely and decided that I needed to try my luck in the Potion master's office, hoping to find a potion that could be useful for me. And there I found my great opportunity for freedom, for power, for having another chance." Riddle's eyes gleamed with excitement. "But let's keep the intrigue – I won't reveal this secret. The next part was quite simple; I soon learned from the professors' conversations that McGonagall was going to offer the previous seventh-year students to finish their studies, so I needed only to find out who's not going to come back – it turned out breaking into her office and finding the list of the students wasn't difficult at all. Then I looked into Filch's memory and learned what Terry Boot looked like and took his form. After the Battle of Hogwarts, many were having their pain and some weirdness, so no one really noticed that this Terry Boot sometimes behaved strangely. Just put it there a little emotion and a few smiles and the suspicions disappeared for good."
"But why did you stay here?" Hermione asked. "Why didn't you take the appearance of the Minister for Magic; why wasting your time in the skin of a teenager boy?"
"It's an indeed good question, Miss Granger." Riddle looked up at her, appraisingly. "It may sound strange to you, but I was truly determined to learn from my mistakes. As Dumbledore would have liked to say – not acknowledging your mistakes is a double mistake. You know, it's amazing how our minds work in a similar way, because that was actually my first thought to secretly take the position of the Minister for Magic, but then I decided that it's the fastest way to destroy myself since someone would eventually reveal my true identity, but here I could gather my power and grow my strength. In addition, this year had turned out to be both unexpectedly pleasant," – Riddle gripped Romilda's stomach tighter – "and unexpectedly successful; I am indeed very close to my goal. Well, we have chatted like some fourth year gossip girls enough for now, so I would like to excuse myself – since you have revealed my disguise, I'll better go and collect an unpaid debt. So long!" Having said it, Riddle began to slowly move around the four of them to the exit of the chamber, keeping his back to the wall and pressing his wand deep in the neck of sobbing, gasping Romilda.
The four of the friends silently stepped away from the exit, allowing him to sneak away. Voldemort slowly moved to the exit, step by step, then he waved his wand making smoke and ran quickly away as he let go of the girl – the sound of his steps soon started fading as he approached the doorway out of the Dungeons.
Hermione had to wave her wand a few times until she got rid of the smoke, but Ron and Ginny rushed to Romilda, who had collapsed on the floor. The girl was frightened, she gripped tightly Ron's robes, clinging to him in the fear for her life. "It's all right, you're safe, now," Ron assured her.
Harry just watched as the dot on the Map, labelled with the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle, reached the Entrance Hall and turned to the front door. There was no point in running after him, because he was going to teleport away to some unknown place as soon as he'll get out of the Hogwarts grounds. And they weren't able to destroy Voldemort since he was still guarded by the last Horcrux, the location of which was not certainly known. He said he was about to go and collect an unpaid debt. Harry right away imagined an unfortunate Death Eater, cowering down at his feet in pain. He's going to punish someone who's betrayed him, Harry realized. And Voldemort has been betrayed the most by two people – Snape, who had constantly deceived him and had already died for it, and Narcissa Malfoy, who had protected Harry in the woods lying to him, when both he and Harry had collapsed after Voldemort himself had cast the Killing Curse on Harry.
"He's heading to Malfoy's place!" Harry suddenly exclaimed as he looked around. Ron was free of Romilda's hug and now Ginny tried to calm down the girl, but Hermione seemed to be deep in her anxious thoughts, also being very close to tears.
"Then we have to go there quickly!" Ron agreed. "We just need to figure out, how to defeat him. Do you have any idea how exactly we can get there?"
Harry felt like something has stuck in his head, making his thoughts form with great difficulty. They had only been in Malfoy Manor once as captives, so Harry didn't know where exactly it's located. "Malfoy Manor was somewhere in Wiltshire, but I don't know the exact location. The Thestrals always know the way, don't they?" Harry suggested, remembering that three years ago that way he had gotten to the place he had wanted.
"I suppose," Ron said, not liking such an idea.
"Ginny, take the Marauder's Map and take Romilda upstairs to the Common Room. Try to look after her, okay?" Harry said as he crossed the room to the two girls and handed Ginny the Map.
"Well… okay," Ginny agreed reluctantly, but she knew Harry wouldn't let her come with him, and Romilda couldn't be left alone in the dark dungeons. "Just be careful."
"Of course." He pressed a quick kiss on her forehead and then hurried forward along with Ron, who had grabbed Hermione's hand.
Hermione suddenly widened her eyes. "Malfoy! He knows where he lives. This way it'll be much faster and easier than wandering into the Forbidden Forest after the Thestrals."
"You're right," Ron said, but in his voice, there sounded both relief and dislike. This meant they didn't need to go in the scary forest, but they'll have to bear Malfoy as their companion.
Their trio immediately hurried to the door of the Slytherin Common Room, while Ginny took shocked Romilda to the exit of the Dungeons. Harry shot at them the last gaze. "How can we call him?" They were short of time, but they seemed to be stuck in their place delayed by so many obstacles. Voldemort is going to have his revenge with the Malfoys and then he'll run away in an unknown direction.
"Try to knock?" Ron suggested. Harry tried it, but he only hurt his fist, and it did no good for them.
"If we could somehow send him a message," Hermione thought out loud, and an idea right away popped up in Harry's mind – the Patronus – Dawlish had taught them to conjure up speaking Patronuses!
Making a Patronus with an included message in it, of course, was even much more complicated spell than simply summoning one – which already wasn't a spell of the beginner level. Harry first focused on a particularly happy moment with Ginny, and then desperately saying in his mind Malfoy, come out!, tried to conjure up his Patronus. Due to the great anxiety, only a pale mist conjured out of the tip of his wand.
"Damn," he muttered and tried to clear his mind more. Now he succeeded and the silver deer jumped out of Harry's wand right away, slipping in the thin gap between the wall and the door and disappearing into the Slytherin Common Room. The faint glow of the Patronus faded, leaving them again in the darkness which was illuminated only by the three tiny lights at the tips of their wands.
"I hope he'll take our message seriously," Ron said.
"I think he'll recognize Harry's Patronus," Hermione said. "I still don't understand how Voldemort was able to regain his human form, in addition being able to freely choose his appearance."
"I'm sure he did use some Dark Arts," Ron said, while Harry listened intently at the door. So far there couldn't be heard even the faintest noise behind it.
"Somehow I have a hunch that it's not the right answer at all. I have a feeling that the solution must be much simpler…" Hermione said thoughtfully.
"What could be much simpler?" Ron asked. "If he planned something here in the dungeons, wouldn't you have noticed it while patrolling when you and Malfoy came here to catch all those Boggarts?"
"A Boggart!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly. "That's right, Ron, it's a Boggart!"
Ron didn't seem to understand anything. "So, would you like to explain it more clearly?"
"He's coming!" Harry said excitedly as he heard a sound of footsteps coming closer behind the door.
"He possessed a Boggart, Ron!" Hermione said excitedly. Her face seemed to be glowing with joy. "All the facts fit! That way he can transform into whatever form he wants. And there was really no shortage of the Boggarts here in the dungeons. And there were a lot of wands, too."
"And please don't say that one simple Riddikulus would have worked on him?" Harry asked.
"I'm almost certain it would've," Hermione said, realizing. "It means…" At that moment, the door of the Slytherin Common Room opened and Malfoy appeared. Harry knew what she had wanted to say, It means they could have easily defeated Voldemort with the Boggart-Banishing Spell Riddikulus.
"Oh, it's you," Malfoy said, sounding a little surprised. "So what happened? I assume you didn't come to me in the middle of the night to check whether I know the usage of Asphodel or Wormwood in Potions for the tomorrow's exam." He lifted up one corner of his mouth in his usual grin as his grey eyes showed curiosity and amusement at the same time. The door closed behind the blond young man.
"Listen, Malfoy, we don't have much time," Harry said quickly. Now, Voldemort has probably reached the gates of the Hogwarts grounds and is going to knock on the door of Malfoy Manor at any moment. "We have to get to your parents' house as fast as possible. They're in a great danger."
"Hold your horses," Malfoy said confusedly as the smile on his face disappeared. "Why do you need to get to my parents? In what kind of danger they are?"
"In short, we found out tonight Voldemort wasn't as dead as we thought," Harry tried to explain all of it quickly, casting an anxious glance at the exit – they had to hurry up, "and he said he was about to go collect some debt. So I think he's going to take a revenge on your mother for treason. That's why we need to get to your manor as soon as possible."
"V-Vol-The Dark Lord?" Malfoy stuttered, looking as shocked as someone would've poured ice cold water on him. "He was here?"
"Yes, we just met him," Harry confirmed. "So we don't have much time. We have to run." He urged Malfoy and everyone else to hurry to the exit of the dungeons.
Malfoy shook his head as he threw himself in a run after the three of them. A second later, he asked, "But where are we actually running to?"
"We have to get out of Hogwarts in order to teleport away," Ron explained, still running, as he turned around the corner to the stairs that led up to the Entrance Hall.
"But why can't we teleport from this exact spot?" Malfoy asked with a frown.
"Oh Merlin, another one," Hermione said over her shoulder as she rolled her eyes. She had educated Harry and Ron many times about this. When she opened her mouth, Harry already started to give the answer.
"You can't teleport in the Hogwarts grounds, so we have to get out of it."
"The kitchen!" Ron exclaimed suddenly as they ran in the Entrance Hall. He stopped and looked at the part of the wall behind the grand marble staircase, where there was a doorway, leading to the staircase going down to the kitchen and the Hufflepuff Common Room.
"Ron, now definitely isn't the right time to think about food!" Hermione snapped angrily as she and Harry rushed to the large exit door, but Malfoy stopped behind Ron, confused, not having run into him just by an inch.
"It's not about food, it's elves," he explained right away. "Elves can teleport in Hogwarts."
"Indeed," Harry exclaimed, his heart pounding in an anxious rush. "That way we could save time. Kreacher!"
Instantly and old house elf with loose skin and big tufts of fluffy hair coming out of his large ears appeared with a popping sound. "Did you call me, Mr Potter?" the elf asked, bowing deeply, almost touching the floor with his nose. The Regulus's locket, the fake Horcrux, slapped on the Hogwarts towel the elf had put on himself as a toga as he straightened.
"Yes, Kreacher. I need you to teleport us to Malfoy Manor," Harry ordered him.
"All of you?" Kreacher asked, glancing a second at Hermione, then at Ron and then finally at Malfoy. "Oh, the Malfoy boy, the grandson of my dear lady's brother," the elf said under his nose out of his old habit.
"Are we really going to teleport with an elf?" Malfoy asked, surprised.
"If you're going to die of shame because of that," Ron said, "you are not obliged to come with us. Kreacher knows where you live."
"He knows it even too well," Harry muttered to himself, but now was not the right time to think about the fact that Kreacher was the one who used his opportunity to go to the Malfoys and tell them all the secrets about the Order and Sirius. Now the elf had proved his loyalty and nothing else mattered.
Malfoy looked at Ron, wincing. "If anyone is going to hurt my mother, I'll personally rip his head off," he said quite boldly, though Harry thought he sounded more bravely than he looked. But he may come along with them; maybe he'll turn out to be useful after all.
All four of them a second later gripped Kreacher's arms and shoulders tightly. Then the elf, having looked at Harry, Ron, Draco, and Hermione, disappeared from the Entrance Hall with a loud pop, dragging the four young people along with him.