Just freshly wrote 09/03/2023

I will edit later. I have to get chapters out of my head first and this was written today.

Chapter 6

"Sorry," Harry said. "I just wanted to point out that Hagrid was the one who changed my life more than most."

He seemed apologetic but Su did not understand why. He had all rights to get angry by what she had said.

He may not have lost more than most by losing his family. Plenty of people did and they actually knew theirs.

But nobody could ever argue that he was the single most impacted wizard throughout all of the Wizarding World by the man known as V-V-Voldemort.

"But you were saying something about saving lives?" he said.

Right, they were talking about that. Throughout all of this Su had forgotten about their conversation about the basilisk remains.

"Well, I am not sure if it is due to the sheer amount of magic located down here. Hogwarts is located on the single most powerful leyline on these aisles. Or if it is just the fact that that creature was so old and full of magic that it had yet to decompose."

"But that beast has some of the most potent venom of any snake," she replied. "One bite from that thing could kill a man in under a minute."

Looking at Harry he froze, and she saw him cringe.

"You are lucky that thing did not bite you."

She was beginning to get really confused at all of the expressions ranging upon this boy's face.

Quietly she heard him whisper "Thank you Fawkes."

Fawkes, that was the headmaster's phoenix. Tears from a phoenix were so powerful that they were known to cure any and all lethal poisons.

Did he?

"Harry, why did you mention the headmaster's phoenix?"

"Oh, you know Fawkes?" Harry asked, not meeting her eyes.

"Yes, he tends to hand out phoenix tears to the apothecaries every few months to help cure dire cases," Su replied.

There was a flipside to this. The man was horrifyingly scary at one point. The tears were meant to be used free of charge. There were incentives to do such things, like the fact that wizards were often very social and when somebody is saved by its use, they talk.

That talk in turn increases their revenue.

"But you did not answer the question."

I may have gotten a little bit bitten," Harry replied. "I knew I was probably dying; but I didn't think it was that poisonous."

"Thankfully Fawkes was there."

Su looked at Harry incredulously.

"What!?" Harry asked rather amused. "You think I was killing that thing with a sword and could do it without sacrifice?" Harry showed her a scar where the fang pierced his arm.

That was a rather good point. But what type of luck would you need for such coincidences to coincide? You would need more than the devil's own luck.

But with some of the stuff she'd heard today, would that luck be good or bad?

"If Fawkes wasn't there, I would have died. No question."

"And yes, I was prepared for that," he said in a somber tone.

Finally, a few minutes after their conversation died they made it to the top of the staircase.

At the top of this enormous climb was nothing…well there was but what confused Su was the fact that there was just a small cove, lit up with an eagle emblazoned in the trademark of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Seeing this, Harry walked towards it as Su watched and he touched it.

Oddly enough the picture moved.

It was not an uncommon thing but this was not a portrait and not only did it move but faced them and spoke:

"A stone a stick and a cloak, what am I?"

Looking back at Su, Harry seemed confused but thankfully did not say anything. This was the same voice that riddled you as you entered the Ravenclaw entrance.

"The deathly hallows," Su replied.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"Something to do with Tales of Beedle the Bard," Su replied as the eagle replied correct and slowly opened up.

"You are the first in decades to enter this way and I am obligated to tell you not to enter until I give the go ahead as this passage is secret. When no others are around, you may enter or exit from this passage as it is undetectable to those who have never been through and cannot be accessed in anybody's view."

"To gain access a simple riddle is due."

At this the common room of Su's dormitory could be seen as people bustled to and fro, or even just sat reading, studying, experimenting and all such things she was used to.

Seeing this, Harry touched the disillusioned potion of wall, which seemed to be solid.

"I think this area can only be accessed at night, as it is the only time the common room is empty," Su responded to the confused look Harry gave.

At this the two began walking down the stairs. Su was glad for Harry that it wasn't up more, as he looked exhausted.

HPatW-TS

"To answer your question," Su said, as the two walked the steps. Boy was Harry tired from all this walking. But at the same time, he felt invigorated. He had just found some passages that neither marauder nor Weasley twin had found, and it enters the common room of Ravenclaw.

"I don't know much about it; but in the Tales of Beedle the Bard—"

"The what? Harry responded.

Su seemed surprised at this.

"They are wizarding folktales," she responded almost incredulous. "Almost every witch or wizard learns them young.

It was Harry's turn to give her an incredulous look.

"Right. Sorry," she responded.

"I tend to forget that you weren't raised here."

Harry didn't take offense to that, most people were under that impression

"But there is a story about Death and three wizards tricking him. In turn they gained some items and only the youngest survived," her story was brief but Harry could somewhat understand the context.

"They gained the elder wand, the stone of resurrection, and the invisibility cloak," at this mention Harry startled.

"Aren't invisibility cloaks common?" harry asked, interest piqued.

"Not really but yes," Su replied. "But a simple disillusioned cloak will run out of juice after a few months to a year, then you have to enchant them again."

"They cost a lot of money and are generally used by a rich prick like Malfoy, an Auror for stealth, or thieves."

"But if you see the person while paying absolute attention you can still see their outline. This one is supposed to be completely undetectable, and people have been searching for that for centuries," she finished.

Harry began to sweat as he reached for the pouch at his side.

Could his cloak really be that great? He hadn't done anything to reenchant it and has been using it for years, very few knowing about it.

Keeping quiet, he was curious about the other two. But he also wanted to end the conversation for the moment. So they walked in silence.

As they made it to the bottom it took nowhere near as long as the travel up. They still had hours until lights out. Quickly checking the other rooms he noticed all four founders had a room down here.

Though Godric's room seemed to be tore up.

The other thing he noticed, dirt, dust, and animal droppings aside. He thought there was some sort of preservation charm on this place. Nothing seemed to have aged.

Each room for each founder they guessed had a way into each common area, or somewhere located in each house dorm. But right now they dared not check, as it would probably take until tomorrow with all that walking.

But what made them even more interested, was the fact that just beyond the founders dorms, were more areas, the first being a library.

Now, Harry was no Ravenclew; but at that, he was no Ron either, and his inner Hermione did seem to come out a bit.

Now out of the other rooms they had been, Salazaar's had by far been the cleanest. Harry thought it had to have been around 50 years since it had been last used. But that was definitely much cleaner than one thousand years or so.

But from what Harry could see, this was even cleaner than that.

Had Tom used this area even just two years ago?

After staring for a bit, Su magicked the couch clean before heading over to the couch, where a lone book sat.

Darkest Magic of the Ages

So Harry sat down opening to the marked page and read:

Herpo the Foul was the first known user of the horcrux. It has never been divulged on just how this man accomplished his goal.

It is quite possible that he was the one who invented this curse; but even that had never been recorded.

Now this spell, which nobody had ever discovered how to duplicate has always been considered even more discomforting than the Avada Kedavra, as it is a spell where instead of killing. Killing is believed to be needed to perform it.

Was it a spell you cast? Ripping your soul into half, all the while putting the other half into a container. Tethering your soul to life.

The thing is, Herpo had used the spell putting it into the body of a servant and the madness this servant lived was never known until the day Herpo died. That day the man killed every servant his lord had, until he was the last. Taking on the name Herpo the Foul.

In all likelihood, that spell or maybe it was a ritual had lain dormant for years until Herpo had died.

But then, other than such unethical spells, Herpo had never shown the madness that he'd had until that day.

So, if he merged the soul from within himself into that young serving boy, maybe he'd actually had two souls and the death triggered the other half to take dominance of the young boy.

But if that had actually happened, who is to say that this boy was not fighting back, causing the madness to trigger.

It is unknown if the man named Herpo is dead. But after years of his tyranny as Herpo the Foul, at some point he was killed by an uprising.

This worried Harry.

He did not know if it was just his imagination; but grabbing Su by the hand, Harry led her to the dorms. Gryffindor to be exact, he just hoped he would be able to make it through.

As they made it to the top, Harry tried pressing on the head of the lion statue, before the Fat-Lady replaced it.

"You know, you are lucky I am bound by magic to do this? A magic that prevents me from speaking of this: but well, I guess it is no worse than that one girl. Her brothers I liked; but she just creeped me out, almost as if she was possessed."

"But I would like the password, please. And do use that nifty little cloak to hide yourself, or I cannot let you in. shouldn't even be letting her in, but rules are rules and this I am bound to," she said, sighing.

Turning to Su, his hand way forced way too soon. Thinking about it, how did she know about it?

Looking up at The Fat Lady he asked, "How did you know about it?"

"The headmaster of course," she replied incredulously.

"And do not worry, as long as that man is headmaster we are bound not to tell. But you get yourself into too many dangerous situations and he needs to know if anything has happened."

"Other than if we hear you during any dangerous situations, we do not speak of you. Until an new juicy rumor is spread."

"Wait, you spread rumors about me?" Harry asked.

"Of course not, the twins would hate me."

Harry sighed in relief.

"But some of the other portraits do," she smiled ever so sweetly and Harry wanted to cry.

Turning to Su, he asked, "Can I trust you with another secret?"

"Yes," she replied, confused.

Pulling out his wand he asked, "Make a vow with me?"

She looked at him puzzled.

"You think I am making an unbreakable vow?" she asked, utterly incredulous.

"No. wait…they actually have such a thing? I was just joking."

"Please don't ever do that again, joke or not," she sighed, seeming relieved.

"Those things have killed people just by an accidental slip of the tongue.

Harry dropped his wand. Sometimes he thought the Wizarding World was just trash…sometimes."

Taking out his cloak to lighten the mood, he veiled himself. Completely disappearing from view.

Shocked, Su stepped forward grasping at the air, looking dead at the place he stood before, grabbing at the cloak but he stepped aside.

Turning to the sound she grabbed again, this time grabbing the cloak and pulling it off of him.

"But…" she replied.

"I inherited it," he answered the unasked question.

"We can talk tomorrow morning but I need to speak to the headmaster tonight."

"Want to meet after breakfast at the same place I took you this morning," she nodded.

He knew she was going to ask a bunch of questions then.

He would answer to the best of his ability but he could only answer so much.

"I think I am going to have to start asking about the Deathly Hallows," she then said.

"Do you mind?"

"I am not even sure if this is," he replied.

"I know, but I am not going to ask anything specific. But a simple question goes a very long way in Ravenclaw Tower," she said.

"One question gets fifty answers and I can just tell them that my family mentioned them and never gave me an answer."

Harry nodded. He could understand what she meant. He did hang around Hermione after all.