A/N: and here i am again with another chapter with the help form HowInMadeHowie. He also had a big part in this chapter, as with his help a giant plothole i had in my first draft was closed, so thank you once again
Thanks to you readers once again for liking this story so far. Have fun and be safe
The ground shook in the chamber as the mouth of the statue opened and revealed a giant corridor inside it, where Harry could hear a snake slithering over the ground. He took the stone that he had from Triss out of the compartment of his armor and held it in his hand, asking Callie if the connection to her matrix outside was still stable enough so she could project what he was looking at. She nodded, while telling him that she would disconnect the transmission while he was looking at the snake, just in case that it would be already enough to petrify those who were looking at its eyes. Harry thanked her for that information when he looked back up and just saw the head of the basilisk coming out from the mouth of the statue.
The basilisk lowered itself down to the ground thanks to its strong muscles almost silently, it turned around when it was out with its whole body and fixed its gaze on Harry. Callie measured its size and sent the data towards her matrix, commenting that it was bigger than the skin they had found the day before.
The basilisk approached Harry slowly appraising the boy before it. *You have summoned me, mortal. But even if you are the heir of House Slytherin, you are not his blood. So tell me why I should listen to you and not outright kill you.* The basilisk continued getting closer to Harry, who just stood still and only took his pistol from his holster. Seeing it in his full size, Harry suppressed his fear to show before the fight would start. Afterall, it will be the first serious fight that could cost him his life that he fought himself.
*I give you one chance to live, familiar from the wizard Salazar Slytherin. If you can feel my magic, you can also feel what I have become and what we do with beasts that threaten the lives of innocent people. So you must decide: will you stay in this chamber until your true purpose will reveal itself, or do you want to fight me in hope to be free and kill all the students that your last master wanted to kill.* Harry now drew his sword, making himself ready as the body language from the reptile in front of him did not show him any signs that it would retreat back into its lair. He then heard the snake laugh, if the hissing and the shaking of the snake's head could be counted as that.
*You have some nerve, hatchling. You have not been a Witcher long enough to even hope to defeat a beast like me. When I am finished with gulping you down, I will break out of this chamber and then eat my fill up in the castle. And afterwards, I will hunt more prey outside of it, as there will be no challenger out there. Now, it is your decision on how fast you will die.* The basilisk opened his mouth and attacked Harry at speed that almost surprised him.
Thanks to his training, Harry's reaction was quick enough to throw the stone to the ground and shatter it, while Callie darkened the visor of Harry's helmet so he would not be affected. The basilisk was blinded from the bright flash of light just as it felt something ricochet from his skin near its eyes. The sound from whatever threw these projectiles towards it was too loud to be something magical, but soon it felt one of its eyes being penetrated from something hot and metallic. The monster then closed its other eye to protect it, as its eyelid was also strong enough to repel those things.
Harry grimaced as he holstered his pistol and drew his sword. 'So, its eyes work like the ones of an alligator? Well, this is something that the books did not cover at all. Even Letho did not know that, so I will write him and Geralt a letter, if I survive this encounter that is.' Harry thought and jumped out of the way from the tail of the basilisk. Harry also held his sword as a defense in case the snake would pull its tail around and chase Harry with it before it would turn its head around to where Harry was and attack with its mouth again. As the basilisk pulled up its tail to hit Harry, it struck the sword and threw Harry across the chamber. Harry managed to roll his body to cushion his landing and quickly rose to his feet to assess the damage.
Callie reported that the sword bounced off the skin of the basilisk without making a mark on the scales, Harry saw that he really had his work cut out for him. He would need either more force in his cuts or more force in his thrusts. He changed his sword into a glaive and grabbed it with both hands as he changed his stance to accommodate his weapon.
The basilisk felt a shift in the magic around it and opened his remaining eye to look at the boy before him. It noticed that the weapon had changed, remembering how his original master had placed the knowledge in him. *I see that you have the weapon of Godric Gryffindor, hatchling. Now this is a challenge. Let's see if you can handle it.* It then opened its mouth and showed all its fangs as it pounced towards Harry with great speed.
Harry on his end of the charge held his glaive with the bladed end of it pointing towards the ground, Harry opted to angle the glaive like he was plowing it into the ground for maximum thrust into the beast. He was getting ready to turn it around and thrust it up and jump out of the way. As the basilisk was right above him, he thrust the glaive upwards and the bladed tip from it was now in the basilisk's mouth, piercing its roof just lightly before Harry had to let go to evade the bite from the basilisk. He could call the sword back to his hand, as he had trained it beforehand enough to catch it when it flew towards him at full speed.
As the glaive impacted with the ground again, the tip was pushed further into the head of the basilisk, severing its spine just behind its brain. As it felt limp on the ground, Harry called the glaive back, while the eye from the basilisk looked at him. *Well hatchling, it seems I underestimated you. You dealt a deadly blow to me, but I will not beg for you to kill me right now. I am a proud familiar of a mighty wizard and his bloodline, and I will die as such.*
Harry changed his glaive into a stiletto, just in case the basilisk would try to attack him when he got closer. Even if Callie assured him that it could not move, he just wanted to make sure that he could defend himself, when he looked the basilisk in its one good eye as Callie deactivated the polarization in the visor. Harry then took the diary from the compartment of his armor and showed it to the basilisk. *Yes, you are a mighty beast, basilisk. But as I know from this diary, which was used to get a young girl down here to order you around, I do not know if you could call yourself a loyal familiar. As this was only magic, and not the bloodline at play the last time you were called, you should have also followed my command and just stayed down. But now you lay here defeated and waiting to die, defeated from a boy that also had defeated your last master just a year ago. And I have to say, luckily this wound did not kill you immediately as I wanted to ask you more before you attacked me. Why did you even follow the orders from a wizard, who wanted you to kill muggle-born students without asking? As far I know, Salazar Slytherin wanted you to protect the school and its students.*
Harry could feel how life was beginning to leave the basilisk as it breathed out. He stepped a bit closer, but still out of range from his mouth. The one eye of the basilisk was still tracking him, and its tongue was flickering out of its mouth. *Hatchling, I do not know what you are suggesting, but I am not aware that I broke any orders from any of my masters. But I feel that the true heir from my master resides in this book you are holding. And I know that he wanted to use the girl to leave the pages and have a body again. And he will resurrect me when he takes over your body, so my death will not be permanent. Until then, hatchling.* The basilisk took its last breath as it closed its eye for the last time. Harry let Callie check for any lifesigns to make sure that it really was dead, even when he could not hear any kind of heartbeat from the snake. His AI partner confirmed it, the snake was dead as not even any airflow could be measured from its nostrils or mouth. She then told him that Cortana would now try to open the entrance to the chamber with Harry's recorded voice as John and Triss were no longer in any danger becoming petrified or killed. Harry heard the entrance open, telling Harry that Cortana's recording worked well enough for the future when they would need someone to render the carcass of the basilisk to make it into usable parts.
John walked through the opening, putting his rifle on his back when Cortana had assured him that her scans did not reveal any other threats in the chamber. Triss walked just behind him, clasping the Callie's matrix in her hand. When both were standing next to Harry, Triss hugged Harry so hard that he had to let go of the stiletto to not hurt Triss. Callie had informed him that a goblin forged weapon would absorb anything that would make it stronger, and repel what it would make it weaker, and this would include the poison from the basilisk.
Harry grunted in Triss's tight embrace. "Triss, I need air. Seriously, even Hermione is not that clingy after a Quidditch game." She pulled her head back a little and looked at him angrily, then hugged him even harder.
Meanwhile John was looking at the dead snake, especially at the scales as he had seen how the skin of the basilisk could repel bullets and a sword. He took out his battle knife and placed it under one of the scales, twisting it, penetrating its skin so he could remove one scale and bring it to Doctor Halsey so it could be possible to make it artificially and upgrade the armor even more for the future. He would also ask the goblins for what they could use the rest of this carcass, because Cortana had told him that it was most likely that they would have to hire the goblins to render it. When John turned around, he smiled under his helmet when Triss took Harry's helmet off and looked him over. The armor itself had just some scratches, from when Harry had to evade the strike from the big snake's tail.
John walked over to Harry and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You did well Harry. For what we know from Geralt and Letho, even they would have had to fight with everything they got to defeat such a monster, even after all their preparation. But they also do not have a sword which can shift its form on the spot to get a better suited weapon for the fight or your ability to speak with snakes. Now there is still something to do right now. The diary?" John held his hand towards Harry, who finally could get out from the hug Triss had him in and took a deep breath. Harry then grabbed the stiletto from the ground and stood back up, while he let the diary fall to the ground. As Harry looked at the diary, he noticed that it was vibrating on the ground, as if it knew what would happen next.
The diary flipped open, with something like a window appearing on the pages. Callie knew what it did, as the reports from the scientists on the Infinity mentioned that sometimes it did something similar, but as the magic stored in the book was not enough to pull the scientists into it, they had only noted how it tried to communicate with them. Harry heard a hissing from the window in the book, so it also tried to bargain with him.
*Wait, do not destroy me. I can help you achieve your deepest desires, my boy. I know many things that even your current Headmaster in this school is afraid of using. I can teach you these things.* The voice from the diary was high pitched, Harry could hear its fear. But it also sounded angry because Harry did not want to listen to it, so the window became bigger and something transparent came out of it. Harry looked in the face of a young man, maybe 16 years old before he became what he was now. It introduced himself as Tom Marvolo Riddle, and asked why Harry wanted to destroy the diary in the first place.
Harry knew that Tom was talking to him in parseltongue, but he would not indulge the part of the soul of the man who killed his parents and was now residing in those pages. "I know who you are, Tom. You changed your name later in your life and became Voldemort. I also know what you have become in our past, so this will be at least some closure for me and others that had lost family due to your attempt to take control of magical Britain, and later the world. I would wish you a good afterlife, but that would be a lie on my part. I hope you burn in hell." Harry then slammed the stiletto down to the book, which caused it to let out something that looked like blood and an ear piercing scream that echoed in the confines from the chamber for a long time.
Harry, knowing that this part was now over, changed the stiletto back into a folding knife so he would not be in danger of killing himself with the venom from the basilisk. Looking to the statue of Salazar Slytherin he saw that there was a door behind the statue. Pointing it out to John and Triss, they decided to investigate what could be behind that door, so John took his rifle from his back and aimed towards it. Harry took out his pistol while Triss prepared a fireball in her hand.
As they arrived at that door, John stood on that side where the handle was. Harry placed his free hand on the handle, preparing to open it quickly so John could scan the other side for any threats. Triss stood a bit away from them taking a rear guard position in case they flanked on the sides from whatever was still in there. Harry pulled the door open with enough force to almost pull it off its hinges, as John sprinted inside and looked around. He soon gave them the clear sign. The rifle still in his hands, John looked around as the torches begun to light up, so he scanned the room once more, but the only difference was that Harry walked over the threshold to this room.
Concluding that these torches have been charmed to burn when the heir from Slytherin would enter this room, by magic or blood, they looked around in this room. They soon saw that it was a larger study with books on shelves and some flasks in cupboards with glass doors. John and Harry put their weapons away after Cortana had told them that there were no lifesigns inside the silence of the room was almost eerie; Harry had to wonder if Slytherin set up this room to escape the chaos of the school to explain its silence.
Triss looked at the door frame for any indication that there was a hidden trap working with a timer after the door was opened by force. She soon found some runes, but the only thing that she could read from them was that this room was protected from any kind of detection magic, so no one could find it before they would have stepped into the chamber itself. When she looked at the chamber, she also could understand that the basilisk was here to protect this room by killing unwanted visitors.
Harry was looking over the books on the shelves, but they were ancient and looked like they would fall apart as soon he touched them. Thinking on his feet, he pulled his wand from a compartment in his armor that was positioned on his thigh, and cast Reparo on the books, hoping that they could be preserved this way. Else he would ask Professor Dumbledore to come here and see what he could do.
John walked beside the cupboards looking at the labels from the flasks. Cortana had to translate all the potions for him to understand what they could do, but as far he knew none of them were dangerous on their own. But according to Cortana's databank, some combinations could explode like a bomb or kill a human just by touching the liquid. He also found some preserved animals, but as they were stored almost a thousand years ago, even sealed away, there were only bones in these containers.
Harry, having no luck with his spell on the books on the shelves, turned around and asked the other two if they should go back and tell Professor Dumbledore that the basilisk was now dead. Receiving two nods, they left the study and walked through the chamber towards the pipe to go back up to the bathroom.
When Harry walked out from the pipe before Triss and John, he saw Dumbledore already waiting for them. Harry also noticed that the headmaster and Ms. Palmer were standing in the bathroom, just in case that not them would be coming out from the pipe. Smiling his grandfatherly smile, Dumbledore put his wand away and congratulated Harry on a successful task and asked Harry if he could tell him what had happened down there.
Just as Harry was about to tell the headmaster, he heard from the door his name being called. Turning towards the door, he saw two girls standing there with McGonagall breathing hard behind them. Paling at the ferocious look on the bushy haired girl and the almost deadly glare from the blonde, he thought that it would be better to jump back down the pipe again until they had calmed down a bit. Callie unhelpfully pointed out that he'd have to run down the stairs to which Harry internally rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, don't remind me'.
Hermione was angry, when she asked Luke if he could locate Harry so they could do their homework today, Luke had told her that Harry was hard to locate right now as he was almost a mile under the school. Combining the facts that there was a basilisk in the castle and that Harry was a Witcher as well that Dumbledore could not find another Witcher or hit wizard with the ability to speak with snakes, or else they would have arrived by now, she did not to think hard to know what Harry was doing right now. She ran out of the common room much to the surprise of the other Gryffindors inside it. When she ran down the stairs and through the corridors, she met Daphne in a similar mindset it seemed, well according to her red face at least. After comparing "notes" they ran up to the corridor where the bathroom was where they had suspected to be the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, only to see that Professor McGonagall standing before it and asked them what they were looking for. Hermione told her that she knew that Harry was down there, and demanded to be let in so she could make sure that she could give him a of her piece of mind not to endanger himself.
As Hermione pounded on Harry's chest, Dumbledore tried to defuse this situation. "Miss Granger, I must ask you to calm down. Harry only did what a Witcher would have done after receiving a contract to fight a monster. Yes, I asked him to do this, but only because he was the only logical choice we had that could fight the basilisk on even footing until the eyes were taken out of the equation. And I am sure that as soon as Harry can tell us what happened down there, we have to agree with each other that he did spectacularly down there." Dumbledore then was hit by a death glare from Hermione and Daphne, while Daphne walked in front of the headmaster demanding that Harry would at least be compensated for this risk.
"As much as I would like to give Harry all the credit he deserves for the service he did for the school, it is rather difficult to do so without telling everyone that Harry is a Witcher. But I would suggest we discuss this in my office, where we can be sure that we are not overheard by someone just walking by the door. Harry, I take it that you have your cloak with you? Just in case someone sees you in your armor." Harry nodded, grabbing his cloak from a compartment around his waist.
Hermione, only now noticed that she was hitting a metal plate on Harry's chest, she saw how well it fit him and how much he looked like her fantasy in their first year after he had saved her from the troll. She allowed herself to admire him for a bit longer until she heard him asking her if she could take a step back, so he could throw his cloak over himself. Hermione was now blushing even more as she let out one of her "eeeps" and jumped back to stand beside Daphne, who was also ogling Harry's body.
Daphne asked herself if she could find out who made his armor for Harry, before she noticed how similar it looked to the one the Chief and Ms. Palmer wore. She decided to ask him later if they had a contract with someone special or if they had issued a special order with the goblins. But she had begun to suspect that whoever those people worked with there had to be more than just a very advanced muggle organization. But as she wanted to make sure that she was correct in her assumptions, she would see if she could ask Harry if she was allowed to visit Kear Mohen again, so she could talk with Doctor Halsey a bit more.
Later that day in Gringotts, two women were walking towards one of the counters where a goblin was counting how many galleons he had on his table. "Excuse me sir, we have an appointment with the account manager of the Potter family. May we walk further in?" Yen talked with all the regality she could muster, as there were other magicals around listening to them. the other, older woman right beside Yen just stood there and let Yen do the talking.
The goblin at the counter looked up and asked them to wait for a bit so he could go and check if Grankor was ready for them. Yen knew that this was a standard security measure, so she decided to talk with Doctor Halsey quietly to pass the time. Seeing the recognition in the goblin's eyes, Yen grinned as he was telling her to wait a bit as he left his counter and walked through the back door towards the offices from the account managers. Soon he came back out and told the two women to follow him to the back.
Yen could hear someone leave the bank when they walked through the door to the offices, looking at Doctor Halsey and nodding towards the exit. Doctor Halsey just nodded and placed two fingers on her glasses she wore. "Kalmyia, tell the agents that followed us here that someone has left the bank, of which we think he would tell someone that we were here to see the Potter account manager. One of the men should follow him and see who he will meet." In her thoughts, Catherine could hear her AI acknowledge this order while she let her hands fall to her side again. Halsey then looked over where the outline from a tall person could be seen in her glasses, even if this person was camouflaged for their protection. Spartan Alice-130 was like John, a Spartan II, a member of Red Team that had become Halsey's main security detail to protect her. Captain Lasky saw that all the remaining Spartan II were more loyal to Doctor Halsey and because of this, they were better suited to protect her.
They soon found themselves in the office of Grankor and waited for the chief of the goblin nation to discuss what they had heard from ONI. While they waited, Yen discussed the investments they had made with some of the gold from the trust vault from Harry. "I must say Ms. Yen, your idea on investing in a muggle business gave us a good amount of gold. We decided to make more investments like that and would like to sign it off, so we can proceed with those." Grankor handed over some parchment with the written contracts on it, so Yen read through them while they waited.
Soon after, Ragnok came into the office and closed the door behind him. "Please excuse me Ms. Yen and Doctor Halsey, but I had to be certain I was not seen coming into Grankor's office as your letter stressed this meeting be discreet; so what was so urgent that required my attention?" Ragnok took a seat across from the two women as he waited patiently for their explanation, normally he would dismiss such requests, but he knew these two ladies were not people to ignore.
Catherine nodded at the chief of the goblins with a polite respect for being granted this meeting on such short notice. Collecting her thoughts, she sought to start with the simplest explanations. "As you know, my superiors are rather wary of Fudge and his administration. As such he has ordered our intelligence network to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and set up a surveillance system to monitor them more closely. Recently it has come to our attention that Lucius Malfoy is using Fudge as a parrot to gain access to private information, specifically to identify the heir for House Black. In the next Wizengamot session Fudge will introduce a motion to would force Gringotts to reveal future heirs as a form of 'guidance'" Catherine used her fingers to emphasize the air quotes, so the two goblins understood this was a subtle way for Malfoy to take over House Black. "While we would love to go after Malfoy for this the fact remains this is politics, and it has to be played carefully. We cannot afford to have our intelligence network exposed so soon hence why we had to organize this meeting to discuss our options."
The two ladies are surprised that the two goblins seemed to find this news amusing. Yen frowned at the two goblins, as they did not stop smiling at the revelation. Yen was losing her patience with them and snapped. "I fail to see why this is funny. I was under the impression you had an interest in protecting Harry."
Ragnok held up his hand to forestall her anger and hastened to explain. "I apologize for my reaction, but it is rather amusing because we goblins often wonder if wizards ever think about their actions thoroughly. Truly, I had thought Lucius Malfoy knew how to be a true Slytherin to always look at the downsides and prepare for the possibility that it backfires, but it seems in his arrogance he ignored them completely."
Grankor nodded and explained the first mistake Malfoy made and one that would have people suspecting him if this notion came to pass. "Firstly, Malfoy doesn't take into account this motion would be construed as attempted line theft, to have the Wizengamot pass it would be attempted line theft by proxy. No pureblood would want to be party to this motion." As Grankor laid out the first major issue that Malfoy ignored, Ragnok nodded his agreement with his subordinate and picked up the thread to explain the larger implications.
Ragnok smiled viciously as he pointed out the glaring flaw in Malfoy and Fudge's thinking. "After the Minister had told them what and why he wanted us to tell them everything, he would find out that this would negate the privacy clause that some of the purebloods rely on for their business. That would also include the Minister himself, as it would reveal his bribes when someone would ask us after this motion would become the law as the Minister and his adviser planned for. We are sure that it will be voted against by the largest margin ever recorded. As for the reason why all the accounts would be targeted by this motion, the treaty we have with the wizarding community makes clear that the only way to single out a one House they would have to be convicted by the Wizengamot of line theft. On a similar note, we did manage to find new evidence regarding the case of Sirius Black. I think Amelia Bones will be very interested in this." Ragnok gave a thick folder to Doctor Halsey, knowing that she would see to it that Amelia Bones would get this evidence.
Yen sat back and thought for a moment and digested the information that was brought to light. Nodding slowly, Yen verbalized her thoughts. "So, in order to protect where we got the tip that Malfoy is using Fudge we need people to shoot Fudge down and embarrass him in a way that would either make him withdraw this motion or have the Wizengamot vote against it. I think Dumbledore is best suited to bring up the privacy clause, so that just leaves the line theft issue." Yen looked over at Halsey if she had any ideas.
Doctor Halsey thanked him for this consideration, as nodded at Yen following her train of thought. "Amelia Bones would be the best to handle the line theft, as it falls under her department's purview. I can have ONI pass the tip about the motion as they hand her over this new evidence. With that situation resolved I have something I think you'd like to see." She pulled out a tablet that worked even in this magical enriched bank. "Chief Ragnok, we have received something that you would find interesting. In Hogwarts there was a basilisk, please note the past tense. Harry fought it earlier this morning and won, here is the proof. We would like to hire someone to render the carcass, would you know someone?" Ragnok told her that the goblin nation would most likely do that, also informing her that they would buy the meat from the basilisk.
Looking over the footage, Ragnok tried to guess how big the basilisk was to estimate how much gold it could be worth. Asking how old it could be, Yen told him that, according to their information, it should be almost a thousand years old as it was the familiar of Salazar Slytherin himself. Nodding, Ragnok told them that he would see it done and then could give them an estimate how much gold Harry would receive for the kill. In Ragnok's mind he had to wonder if the boy was not already a Witcher, as his sources had told him he would have received the rank of Master Warrior for this kill.
After some time, Catherine and Yen left the bank and walked out to Diagon Alley. Catherine received two notifications, one was about the man they had noticed leaving the bank. He was just a small-time criminal that had promised after some "gentle" persuasion to not tell anybody that House Potter had a proxy at all. He had just planned to sell this information to someone who would like to know this.
Doctor Halsey made sure that the agent knew that she wanted to know who would have paid this small-time criminal for this information. She would need their name just as much as Captain Lasky to plan ahead in case the war would break out sooner than they would like.