Albus Dumbledore was proud to know many things that was rooted in magic, even if he sometimes was sad that some magic requires sacrifices and are not without reason it should be forbidden or never spoken of. That includes the item he has now in front of him, the small book that Ginny Weasley had in her possession and was now given to him thanks to Harry Potter, who turned out just as he had hoped all those years ago when he decided against it to place the boy with his relatives and allow other, stronger people to take care of him. Harry saw the danger for the school and his friends and acted on it.
But this was now neither here nor there, as in front of his desk stood four people who knew about the situation they were now in. How Captain Lasky could arrive this quickly without a portal like Triss or Yennefer did, Dumbledore could only guess that the AI partnered with Harry reported their findings, and Lasky left the place he was as soon he had read everything about it.
"Hello to you all. I am glad you all found your way to my office, as I think we need an update on the situation in this school. Master Chief, please warn me next time when Captain Lasky comes to this place, but I see the benefits for him hearing about those items directly, as he can use this information. Now, this little book on my desk is a very dark magical item, called a Horcrux. And yes Professor Merigold, this confirmed that Voldemort had made multiple of these, just as I have feared. For your information Captain, this item is one of the reasons that Voldemort is still alive, if you could call his state even living. We know how to make these, but it is frowned upon as you must murder another human being in a special ritual to tear your own soul apart and then seal that part in the item of your choosing. After it was made a horcrux it is almost impossible to destroy by any means we know, maybe you can find a solution that is safer than the ones we know of? But until then, one of the solutions is coincidentally in this castle, as the venom of a basilisk can destroy it." Dumbledore was interrupted by Triss, as she looked at him angrily when she asked him if he really wanted Harry to go down in the chamber and fight the basilisk on his own. She was backed up from Professor McGonagall, as she also could not believe that this was the plan of the headmaster.
Dumbledore just shook his head, explaining that this was the last thing he wanted to do. But as much as he thought about it, it was the most logical solution. "But as long as the book will be in my office under a stasis charm the monster cannot be released into the school, so we still have some time for a proper plan to form." Dumbledore told them his thoughts, as this was calming them down quite a bit.
But Triss just remembered another problem that would give Harry a disadvantage towards the basilisk, as he had no silver sword to use against this monster. To her surprise, Dumbledore was looking at the sorting hat after she told them her worries, and she could swear that the hat grinned at her.
Captain Lasky, who was silent until now, asked the headmaster for more information about Horcruxes. "You know, Mr. Dumbledore, we are kinda in a dead end with the clues about those Horcruxes from Riddle. Our intelligence service could not find out much, as all the information we could gather was from you and your book. If we could take this diary with us only for a week or two, we could find out something about it and maybe even find out how many he made. If you want to ask us how we could do that, one of our own professors has a theory that the magical signature from these Horcruxes had to be unique for every person who created them, but if one made multiple ones, they had to share the signatures. If you do worry that the same would happen like to the young Ms. Weasley, we have a system that the scientist investigating the object would change every day and leave his notes for the next one to continue. This system was developed as we sometimes had prisoners of war who were gifted enough to control the minds of other people, just like your little book here."
Dumbledore thought about it and decided to give them the book for a week, but he would have to be informed about the progress in the investigation, which Captain Lasky agreed to give Dumbledore limited security access.
That evening, all the students were curious what would happen after dinner in the dueling club, as Malfoy had announced that he would challenge Potter to a duel and then he had no way to back out of it. Harry did not care for anything Malfoy was talking about, but he was also wondering what would happen tonight. Harry was also eager to learn some new skills with his wand, as he was sure that the Professors Flitwick and Snape could teach them many things about dueling; he just had a feeling that those two had real experience fighting against other wizards. But he hoped that John and Triss would also come to the dueling club and watch them for security reasons.
Just a short time later, almost all the students gathered in the Great Hall as the normal room for the dueling club was too small to accommodate all the students now present. He then greeted all the students and introduced his helpers for tonight's meeting, as with this many students only two teachers would not be enough to keep up the discipline necessary for this kind of activity.
"Now, before any of you come to the stage, Professor Snape and I will show you how an honorable duel will be fought. There are rules written down many centuries ago, like that there will be no spells used above a stunner. Of course, those spells that are illegal will also disqualify you in an official tournament and if a spell is one of the unforgivable curses, you can be sure that you will be transported to Azkaban right away. As we do not teach those to you, we are not afraid that this will not be necessary. Now Severus, if you may." The small teacher was now walking to one side of the dueling stage like they had seen earlier this week as Mr. Lingley dueled Lockhart while Professor Snape was walking to the other side.
"Now you see that we will bow before we lift our wands, as this is an official duel and this is one rule in the rule book: You must always be respectful to your opponent, even if you think you could beat him easily." While Flitwick explained the proceedings, Harry noticed that Malfoy was once again talking with his entourage, as Harry was sure that they were not really his friends and only followed Malfoy because they wanted someone to lead them, and they thought that the biggest bully was the strongest. Now if Malfoy really would follow through with his challenge to him, Harry was sure that he finally could show Malfoy that he was not as strong as he thought he was. As a pureblood supremacist, even a half-blood like Harry, was below them it would hopefully humble Malfoy a bit if Harry would at least give him a run for his money.
Callie, who was listening to Harry's thoughts, almost snorted in disbelief. She and the other AI had a good read on Draco Malfoy's psychological profile by now and they all agreed that the spoiled boy did not know the meaning of the word humble.
Harry soon was pulled back to the present, as he felt the magic build up on the stage as Flitwick cast the disarming charm towards Snape, who put a shield up in time and countered with the push-back jinx, Flipendo, but Flitwick evaded the spell by stepping out of its path. As the spell was about to hit a spectator, it splashed against a shield that was placed around the platform to protect them from being hit by stray spells.
Both professors shot spells at each other until Snape cast the disarming charm after he distracted Flitwick from it by conjuring fog to the dueling stage. The applause after the duel concluded was the loudest from the Slytherin students, as this had shown the other students that their head of house was better than the former dueling champion and now head of house Ravenclaw. After both professors bowed to each other again and Snape giving Flitwick his wand back, they asked the students if they wanted to try it for themselves.
Just as Flitwick had ended this sentence, Malfoy walked up the stage and issued the challenge to Harry, proving the rumors about what he had planned. Harry felt all the eyes on him, asking him silently if he really would take up this challenge. Harry had no reason to agree to it, but he had also no reason to just leave this room, so he walked up to the stage and asked Malfoy what the stakes would be, as if he really wanted this to be an official wizarding duel, they would have to agree to some stipulations and prizes for the winner. Harry grinned when he saw how much paler Malfoy got when he arrived on his spot on the plateau as Harry knew the finer details of an official duel. But as Malfoy had issued the challenge to Harry in front of all his peers, he could not take it back without losing his reputation. But Harry was not an evil man, so he agreed to the prize of 10 galleons for the winner. For a child this seems like a great amount of money, but that would be the minimum for someone like Malfoy to be acceptable.
Flitwick stood in the middle of these two students and explained to them how they should duel and what spell they could use. "So in summary, as long as the spell you use is not lethal or otherwise dangerous, you can use whatever you want. But as you both are just second year students, the only spell which would be cause for the other feeling pain is the stinging hex. To gain the win in your duel, you must make the opponent submit defeat or make it so that he can no longer fight, like the disarming charm. Do you both agree to these rules?" The small professor looked at Harry and Malfoy, both nodding to him. After he made sure with Snape that the shield was still up and their safety precautions were in place, he told them to begin their duel.
Right after the professor opened the duel, Harry had to evade the push-back jinx that was cast by Malfoy towards him. He was so quick that Harry thought that he had cast it before the professor gave the signal. But as the spells flew a bit slowly in Harry's eyes, he just evaded most spells thrown at him. He wanted to wait until Malfoy would have used up his magic or his endurance would run out so he could just cast the disarming charm and end this duel. But he was surprised that Malfoy had seemingly more endurance as he had anticipated and now he was put on his back foot as some spells came rather to close for comfort. The last one of them caused a small fire on the shields around the stage and the teachers just wanted to end this duel as this was a dangerous spell to use in a duel, as Malfoy cast another spell that summoned something out of thin air.
"SERPENSORTIA!" Malfoy yelled his spell, as a snake appeared out of the tip of his wand and was now moving towards Harry with its mouth wide open and its fangs ready to strike.
"Stand still Potter, I will take care of this." Snape was pointing his wand at the snake to vanish it before he would berate Malfoy for using this spell, as everyone watching them heard someone hissing and the snake stopping right where it was.
"*Stop little snake. I am not your enemy*" Harry was crouching down to the snake, stretching his hand out as everyone could hear him hissing at it, some were getting afraid of him as they recognized what tongue he was using to talk with the snake. The small black snake was moving away from him and towards the edge of the stage towards a spectator as Harry almost screamed for it to come back to him. The snake became rigid and turned around, now climbing into his hand and coiling around his arm. Harry looked up and saw that everyone except his closest friends were looking at him in fear, while he stroked the head of the snake to calm it down. When Snape, together with Flitwick came up to him and asked him if everything was all right with him, Harry just nodded and asked what happens now with the duel. But just before they could answer him, they heard a scream from the spectators, asking Harry what his game was.
Harry turned towards the voice, seeing a Hufflepuff boy looking at him with fear in his eyes. Harry lifted an eyebrow and asked him what he meant, as Harry had done nothing for this reaction to occur. All he did was tell the snake to come to him and wait until they decided what to do with it.
The Hufflepuff-boy, Zacharia Smith, almost yelled that it looked like Harry ordered the snake to attack him, as he stood there where the snake wanted to go before. At the shocked faces around him Harry saw that Zacharia was not the only one who was thinking like that. He was still looking around to the others, as he heard another voice from the crowd, dressing Zacharia down.
"Are you really that stupid? Harry obviously just saved your life as the snake had ignored him the first time around. I guess that his pronunciation was a bit off, but the snake returned to him as Harry raised his voice. And yes, I know how parseltongue sounds, as the country where our parents come from it is not as feared as in this country and those who speak it do even use it in some spells." Padma stood between Harry and Zacharia together with her sister, who looked at Harry and asked him silently to keep the snake in his arms. Harry just nodded to her as Hermione and Daphne together with Neville, Hannah and Susan also came to his side to show that they were not afraid of him. Harry was happy knowing that he just had shown the whole school that he could speak to snakes while all the others would think that this was a dark ability.
While all this was happening, Malfoy saw his opportunity to frame Harry for the attacks that happened earlier this year, as the monster in the Chamber of Secrets had to be a snake, as this would fit Salazar Slytherin the best and now Potter had given him some ammunition to bombard his reputation and spread the rumor that he was the heir of Slytherin. If he would just know how close he was with this assumption, but luckily this was still a well-kept secret in Harry's life.
But before he could issue his suspicious, Malfoy was interrupted by Snape telling the students to be silent. "As one of the judges of this duel, I have to declare a winner, even if this situation now is asking for something different. As Mr. Malfoy had used a spell that was potentially lethal, he will be disqualified and now owes Mr. Potter 10 Galleons. With this, the duel is concluded. Mr. Potter, please step down from the platform, so other duelists can participate." Snape tried to calm the students down and was succeeding thanks to his calm voice. Harry noticed that Professor Snape's voice was devoid of any surprise to hear Harry speaking Parseltongue, especially because Harry asked Professor Dumbledore to keep his ability a secret. Harry would let Callie investigate if there was a spell that had a similar properties like the one Professor Dumbledore had used at him once to look at his memory and could be cast without Harry noticing. Just as Harry stepped down from the platform, an older student in the colors from Hufflepuff climbed up and asked for Fred Weasley to duel him.
Fred was almost running up the platform, holding his wand already in his hand. "Oh Diggory, you really think you can beat me? Let me show you how wrong you are." After Professor Flitwick told them to begin, Harry's worry was put in the back of his mind as he watched the two older students dueling with a smile on their lips. Harry even could hear them insulting each other in good spirit as Fred used a spell that had let some flowers spread from his wand, which he then took them and throw them towards Cedric. Harry could even hear some spectators laughing at this view, while Cedric just waved his hand in front of his face to get them out of his way.
"Weasley, please leave the flowers for your girls, as I am not interested in blokes." Cedric felt his wand leaving his hand and saw it flying towards Fred, who smiled at him and declared his win. Cedric also was laughing and asked Fred if he could have his wand back. After he received his wand back from Fred with a flourish, he turned around and walked towards Harry, asking him if he had learned something from this duel. Harry nodded, as he told the older student just loud enough that the other spectators could hear him, that he would not smell the flowers thrown towards his face.
Thanks to this friendly duel between the two older students, the tension that could have been felt before because Harry could understand snakes was lessened substantially, as other students now climbed the stage to duel some of their friends or get some rivalries out of the way. Even Neville got in on the action as he asked Ron for a duel. All spectators and the teachers were surprised that it was a draw that resulted out of this duel, as both parties hit the other with the disarming charm at the same time and both could not catch the wand of the opponent to use that and fight on.
Malfoy was standing on the side of the classroom and was still thinking on how he could use the fact that Potter could speak parseltongue, as Snape and Flitwick told them that the next duel would be the last one. Malfoy perked up when he heard a girl challenging Potter and he accepted. When he looked up to the stage, he saw that Susan Bones seemed to have bigger guts then most other students as she squared up against Potter. Even if her aunt was the head of the DMLE, Potter had shown that he could hold his own in a fight against someone skilled as him.
"Well then Harry, please do not hold back against me only because I am a girl. Or else we will see you on your behind." Susan bowed towards Harry, who told her that he never would hold back in a fight. Of course, that was a white lie as in his eyes this duel was not a serious fight against an opponent who does not want to kill you. Flitwick told them to begin and so the spell begun to fly around.
Harry tried the same strategy as Fred had used before and produced some flowers to throw them towards Susan, who just used a shield-charm with a smile. "You really think that I would fall for this after seeing it work on an older student? Are you underestimating me?" Susan cast a Flipendo towards Harry, which he blocked with a shield of his own.
"Well, you can't blame me for trying right? But as you are better than Malfoy before, I will ramp it up." Harry used a Bombarda on the floor to create a dust cloud between them that he could use as cover to get closer to Susan. What he was not accounting for was she used a spell that created wind and blew the dust cloud out of her way, sending a red colored spell afterwards at him that he did not know, as he could not hear her incantation correctly, as all he could hear through the wind noise was her murmuring. He evaded the spell and decided to ask her later, as he did the same thing again, but this time he used more magic so the dust would be harder to remove. As soon the ground exploded again, he moved to the right and flanked her, getting behind her as she dispelled the dust again and was now looking for him.
"Surprise Susan." He called out, just as he was in reach of her wand arm, which he took into his free hand and removed her wand, making her unable to duel anymore. As he did not use a spell to do this, the teachers saw it necessary to explain why the strategy from Harry was not well liked in a duel, but as Professor Merigold could explain better in her class, in a fight outside of any rules, it was a viable option for someone to take his opponent alive. When they asked Harry where he learned that, he just answered that during the private training with Chief Wulf they had learned some self-defense techniques and he just tried it to use them like that.
Malfoy's mouth was open wide in shock, that was something that he had to tell his father in his next letter as well that Potter was a Parseltongue. He was sure that his father would use his position to expel Potter for this, as it was not without a reason why those who could speak with snakes were looked down upon, even if some of the other students seemed to believe these Patil twins and even and older students was now talking with him like it never happened. But Malfoy would make sure that this stupid half-blood would leave this school for sure.
As they left the Great Hall after the meeting with the dueling club, Hermione and Daphne both grabbed Harry by his arms and pulled him towards an empty classroom while some older students were now snickering about youth nowadays. But just as Hermione wanted to close the door, she saw that the Patil twins together with Lavender, Neville, Hannah and Susan stood before the classroom, asking if they could come in too. As even Ginny and Luna walked over to them, Hermione relented and let them in before she closed the door and put up the privacy charm that she had read about in the library, to make sure that all what they were talking about would not leave this room.
"Now Harry, could you please explain to us why you can talk with snakes? And why do you still carry the snake with you that Malfoy had conjured to fight you?" Hermione sat down on a table looking at Harry, while Daphne did sit beside him with Neville and the rest sitting around them.
Harry took a deep breath, making himself ready to tell them another secret. Callie told him that she would warn him if he was about to tell a secret that they should not know for now. But before he could speak, the Patil twins spoke up and explained that Parseltongue could be learned, but it was very hard to understand the snake in the heat of battle. As they had told them before in the Great Hall, they knew that Parseltongue was not evil in itself. She and her sister went on a holiday with their parents to India once and visited their grandparents. While they were there, she learned that many people could talk with snakes and even held some as pets. Harry listened carefully, as these people could also control a basilisk if needed. He told Callie to send a report with this information to Doctor Halsey and Cortana.
"And with that, I think Harry should ask the little snake on his shoulder where she came from, so he can bring her back home. It seems like a small viper that is most common in South America. But as the spell Malfoy had used only works if the snake is in the same country, thus it had to come out of a zoo or a breeding station nearby. Maybe it was even in a household from another magical as the venom can be used in some potions." Padme showed that she was a Ravenclaw with her reasoning and recognizing what the snake could be. Harry asked the snake where it came from and it was confirmed that it was in a cage in a magical household, it even could tell him the address, so they could send a letter to its owner and telling him what happened and that he can come to Hogwarts and collect her when Professor Dumbledore allows it that is.
"Alright Harry, please be assured that whatever you can or can't do, i hope you know that you can count on your friends to have your back." Neville stood up and held his hand out towards Harry, as to show him that whatever happens he will be there to help.
Meanwhile, Hermione was looking at Harry with great interest and was also thinking about what happened earlier in the year. Harry once asked them if they could hear a voice talking before the attack on Mrs. Norris happened, and all she could hear was a hissing of some sort. But then it clicked for her, it was the same hissing as Harry had just demonstrated so the attacker also had to speak parseltongue to control something like a snake. But what kind of snake could petrify its victims? She was going through her mind about what she had read about magical creatures when she found out what was down in the chamber.
"Ehm, listen guys, could you leave us alone for a bit? Harry, Daphne and I have to discuss something private." Hermione looked at Parvati and Lavender apologetically and hoped that they would know that she would tell them later in their dorm room. Neville just nodded and asked Hannah and Susan to come with him, while Ginny and Luna walked out the class room and wondered if they still could go to the library. Harry looked at Hermione with a questioning look, as she asked him if he would know what a Basilisk is.
Harry nodded, knowing where this was now headed. Hermione was really a small Doctor Halsey. "Yes, I know what a basilisk is, Hermione. I did find it mentioned in one of the books in the library while you were looking for house elves. And i guess as you asked me about it, you also combined what sleeps down in the Chamber of Secrets. Sorry that I did not tell you both sooner, but I was afraid that when this information was overheard, it would cause a panic inside the student body. There was some more information, but in summary only someone who could speak parseltongue would survive its gaze and has a chance to control it. And as I had my mutation, my Witcher abilities would make me the prime candidate to fight it. But I hope I can talk it down to behave itself and stay down there." Harry explained to his two friends; glad that Callie did not interrupt him as this was all they could know. She was still compiling all the information about this monster that she could get her digital hands on, and thanks to Cortana and ONI she had a detailed profile on this snake Harry had to fight when needed.
"You know Harry, I still don't understand how you manage all this. I mean, you are the future Lord Potter, a Witcher, a good Quidditch player, good in the classes. How do you do all that? I am only the heir of one house, not two like you." Daphne looked at Harry, understanding too late that she had let slip something that she should not know.
Harry and Hermione looked at her, as the matrixes of all the AI beebed. Harry took his out and Callie activated her projector at the same time as Luke and Sissi did the same. Callie turned first to her *siblings* and asked them if they had dropped this information. Both shook their heads, so Callie turned towards Daphne with a serious look on her digital face.
"Please be honest with us Daphne, how do you know that Harry is the heir of two houses?" Callie stood on her projector with her hands on her hips and her head tilted. Daphne was thinking about what she could tell them, but decided to tell them the truth.
"My father told me over the summer. He has good connections in Gringotts, as he befriended some goblins and they keep him and our lawyer in the loop for all important happenings inside the goblin nation. They are paid handsomely, so the other goblin do not care about this leak. Now my father was told that Harry would get a second lordship when he gets of age, and that it was the House of Black that he would inherit. But that is all we know, i swear on my magic if you want Harry." Daphne was watching those emerald eyes of his to find something like disappointment in them, but to her surprise he just nodded and told Callie to let it go. As far he knows, this information will soon be common knowledge as the Mafloy family will soon find out that they had no more access to the main Black family vault, only to the trust vault of Lucius Malfoy's wife, Narcissa.
"And how do you know that?" Now it was Hermione's turn to ask Harry how he knew what he knew, but he just shrugged his shoulders and pointed towards their AI.
"Callie told me, and as she did not specify that it was a secret, I saw no harm in telling you this. But we have to go back to our commonrooms now, curfew is almost here." They said their goodbye for today and did run towards their respective common room.
A/N: and here i am again with another chapter. Thanks to HowInMadeHowie to betareading and telling me that i should add some stuff to make it better. Have fun and stay safe