"We can't just do nothing, Albus!" Harry yelled.
He stood opposite the aged headmaster in the empty hospital wing, surrounded by the occupied beds. Magic crackled in the air, green sparks and flashes of phoenix fire dancing between them.
"I know that it may feel that way, but we will not do nothing. We will continue our efforts to-"
"Our efforts have done exactly jack shit, old man!"
"I understand that there is nothing that I can say that will-"
"YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING! You may have fucked it up with Arianna and Gelert, but I will not-"
"HARRY POTTER!" Dumbledore's magic was suddenly drowning him in ancient fire, his power endless and absolute. Harry could feel the boiling, unstoppable power of the Elder Wand and he stepped back involuntarily as the headmaster's eyes blazed with eldritch, burning light.
"Do not take me for a genial teacher of children." The headmaster's voice rang with power and certainty, "I am the master of the Elder Wand and the Immortal Fire! I too have Walked with Death! It is precisely because I understand that l forgive your insolence. I watched as my Love's soul broke, and he slaughtered innocents by the millions. I went to war against him alone with the knowledge that he possessed the Deathstick, a fragment of divinity that can deliver any foe into the Dark. Do not presume to speak to me about the consequences of inaction!"
Harry's breath caught in his throat as he suddenly felt very, very small.
He took a deep breath and tried to force down the anger, the guilt, the grief and overwhelming feeling of helplessness that raged within him.
"I'm… sorry, Albus. I should not have said that."
"No, you should not. But you are forgiven. We must work together in this Harry. We are short on time and resources. As you previously stated, we will not do nothing. We must locate the Chamber. We must find Tom Riddle and uncover how he is acting within the school. To do this, we must search. The board will undoubtedly call for the closure of the school, but until that time we must do everything in our considerable power to accomplish these ends. Do you agree?"
Harry nodded, and with one more long look at Hermione's petrified body and one more gentle caress of her frozen soul, he turned on his heel and strode out of the hospital wing.
…
Harry searched for the rest of the day. Invisible and untouchable, he scoured corridor after corridor, classroom after classroom, for any sign of the Chamber. He let his magic loose and touched the souls of everyone in the castle, checking for signs of possession. He ran, and walked, and ran some more, and he found nothing.
He gritted his teeth as he tried to keep from drowning in his traitorous feelings. He did his best not to think of the determined, unflinching expression on Hermione's frozen face. He knew that they would be able to bring her back, he knew that her soul still glowed brightly even if it was still.
But it still felt like he was alone.
For the first time in years, he didn't have Hermione to ask for advice. Didn't have her at his back to support him or tell him that he was going too far. Didn't have her to tell him to come back to her. He tried not to let his soul drift too far as the melancholy of the Dark encroached upon him.
Still, he searched. And found nothing.
It was dark out when he completed a full circuit of the castle. He stopped in the entrance hall and took a deep breath, allowing the endless peaceful Dark of the cloak to comfort him and sooth the ragged edges of his soul. His magic extended away from him in every direction, and he sensed every spark in the castle.
Hmmm. Why was Dumbledore out for a walk? And he wasn't alone.
"-you must understand, Albus, this type of incident cannot be allowed to continue unsupervised. While a full investigation is completed, it is only proper that you step aside and allow the ministry to do its job. If, following a full investigation, you are still found to be fit for duty, it will then be appropriate for you to return, but-"
Harry's teeth clenched and his magic crystallized as three figures walked into the hall. A short, heavyset man in a lime green hat who nonetheless walked with a bounce in his step, a tall, aristocratic wizard with long blond hair and face that looked suspiciously like Draco, and Dumbledore, calm and serene as ever.
Harry processed what the shorter man was saying, and his rage overwhelmed him. How dare they remove Dumbledore from the castle? How dare these pathetic excuses for mages, with sparks that were barely a candle, remove the only wizard in the world who could truly do battle with their foe? How dare they condemn the children of the castle to pain and death with their incompetence?
Before he could stop himself, Harry reached for his power. He would break their souls. He had done it before. He would press his power into their pathetic sparks of magic and identity, and he would make them understand the consequences of their actions.
Even as his magic reached for their souls, Dumbledore's eyes snapped over to stare into his. The headmaster's magic was suddenly all-encompassing, saturating the stone and the air and the souls of everyone in the room. Harry felt the ancient wizard's magic pull him along as they both infused their bodies and minds with power, drowning in it together as the other two wizards in the room slowed to halt, frozen in time compared to the speed that Harry and Albus experienced.
Dumbledore sighed heavily and walked over to him. Harry dropped his invisibility as they stood in the entrance hall of the ancient castle, the world still and quiet around them.
"You were about to go down a path that I could not abide, Harry. I'm sorry."
"But you can't just leave! You know what will happen! I can't stop both Voldemort and the Basilisk on my own."
"I know. But I will have to ask you to try. You must understand Harry, the world is not a place of purely good and evil. There are many choices to be made, and there isn't always a right one."
"Why are you even going along with them? You could just force them to let you stay."
"This is a lesson of vital importance that you must learn, Harry. As a person of great and terrible power, you have an obligation and a responsibility to be more righteous than the average man, not less. It is precisely because you can act on your desires that you must always be aware of the consequences of doing so. You must tread lightly upon the world, lest you trample it underfoot unintentionally. You must learn to pick your battles, and you must learn to lose."
Harry breathed hard, trying to process the headmaster's words while he fought against his instincts to destroy the ignorant wizards frozen on the other side of the hall.
"What happens now, Albus?"
"I will leave, and Hagrid will go to Azkaban while he awaits trial. This will be the opportunity that Voldemort has been waiting for to make his move. You must find him when he does. At that point, you must use your best judgment. No plan survives contact with the enemy. The teachers will do their best to help you, but we both know that with an enemy like Voldemort, you will be the castle's last line of defense. Once Voldemort makes his move, I will return as soon as I am able. Together, we may yet survive this trial."
Harry took several deep breaths. "Alright. I'll do my best, Albus. For the school. For the students, for Hermione, for everyone."
"I know you will, Harry. Good luck, and do not go quietly into the Dark."
Dumbledore strode back across the room and took his place exactly where he stood before he called on his power. Harry returned to invisibility as the headmaster's power waned and the world joined them in time. The three wizards continued out the front door, and Harry left. He would try and get some sleep, and hopefully he would still be alive tomorrow night.
…
The next morning came early, and Harry resumed his search for the Chamber on the off chance that he stumbled on it before Voldemort realized that Dumbledore was gone. After searching for several hours with no sign of the Dark Lord or the Chamber, Harry was getting antsy. He was sure that he would know the signs when he felt it, but he was getting tired of all the waiting. This whole year had felt like he was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then still being unprepared when it did.
Harry jolted to a stop when he finally felt it. There, on the second floor, a small spark was moving to the bathroom where Mrs Norris was originally attacked. It may have seemed like any other soul, but as Harry's magic ran over it, he got the specific, sickening sense of malice and glowing red eyes staring back at him from within the child's soul.
Harry took off at maximum speed with no hesitation. He had lots of practice controlling his power while he ran, bouncing off of ceilings and walls as he threw himself through the Dark. He dropped through floors and blasted straight through classrooms, invisible and intangible as he approached the bathroom on the second floor.
Just as he was about to drop through the ceiling of the bathroom, the possessed soul inside just… disappeared.
The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. It had to be.
Harry regretted that he didn't have time to grab Rocky the rooster and wondered if Luna had foreseen that bit and just wanted to mess with him. He focused on the matter at hand so that he didn't think about the innocent blond girl falling into Voldemort's clutches.
He dropped into the bathroom and landed on the flooded floor. He wasn't sure exactly where the entrance was, so he went ahead and just yelled "Open," in Parseltongue in the hopes that it would work. He was slightly surprised when it did. One of the sinks fell away and revealed a dark pit with no bottom in sight.
Beast of the deep, indeed.
Harry threw himself down the hole with zero hesitation.
…
Harry made his way down the damp passageway after arriving at the bottom of the slide. He unconsciously used his power to remove the grime and muck from his clothes. He tread lightly and focused on his magic, ready to react at any sign of Voldemort or the Basilisk.
He reached a door with two snakes carved into it, their gemstone eyes glittering dangerously. With another command to open, they unlocked and the door to the Chamber itself swung open.
Harry walked into the wide hall, rows of pillars extending in every direction and supporting an intricate ceiling several stories above. He must have been deep beneath the lake at this point. At the end of the hall was a dark pool with a huge statue of a man's head above it, presumably Salazar himself.
In front of the pool lay a prone figure. Harry briefly recognized her as Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister. He felt her spark with his magic and strangely did not feel the presence of Voldemort anymore. All he could feel was an odd type of connection, a feeling that her soul was being drained like a bathtub with the plug pulled.
"She won't wake."
Harry whirled around and stared in confusion at the boy behind him. He hadn't seen anything like this before. He could sense the soul of Voldemort within the mirage, but his body didn't feel real. He was a spark with no vehicle, a soul sustained by magic alone. Harry didn't even know that was possible. Underneath the angry and malevolent soul of Voldemort, Harry could feel the magic being drained from Ginny Weasley. Voldemort was somehow consuming her in order to return to life.
"What are you, Riddle?"
Voldemort looked taken aback momentarily. He quickly regained his composure before smiling crookedly. "I am a memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years."
Harry almost groaned out loud. He wasn't dealing with his Enemy, but a broken, fragmented, sixteen-year-old version of him. That was both better and worse than Harry expected.
"What do you want from me, Tom?"
Riddle's face twisted and he suddenly looked quite a bit more dangerous, the monster underneath showing through the handsome boy on the surface.
"I want to know how a child like you defeated the greatest wizard that ever lived. I want to know how you managed to survive when a wizard as powerful and magnificent as Voldemort decided to end you."
Harry couldn't help it. He laughed in the memory's face.
"I didn't do anything, Tom! Your future self delved too deeply into the abyss and something in there stared back. You tried to invoke a ritual that you didn't understand and had your body deleted from existence by a god as punishment! I am just the product of your mistakes, an enemy created by your own hubris."
Riddle's face twisted even more at Harry's mockery. "So, it was nothing then. You are just a child, a lucky child who managed to slip through my fingers. That does actually make me feel better, thank you. Better to have been bested by my own ambition than a helpless babe."
"Keep telling yourself that, Tommy boy."
"ENOUGH!" Riddle yelled, his eyes flashing red. "We shall now finally pit the great Harry Potter, the failed sacrifice, against the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, and the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets, tasked with cleansing the filth from this castle once and for all!"
Riddle turned to the statue and spoke in Parseltongue.
"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"
Harry could have made another quip back, but instead he closed his eyes and let his magic extend around him, infusing the stone of the chamber and the broken soul of the boy who would become Voldemort. He felt the still draining life of Ginny Weasley and the huge, massively powerful spark approaching them rapidly from behind the statue.
"...rip…tear…MARK BEARER! HE OF THE FORFEITED SOUL! DIE!"
Harry repressed a shudder at the Basilisk's words. He should have known that his Mark would be able to corrupt the ancient creature.
He would be fighting blind, against not only the thousand-year-old demonic beast in the deep but also the sixteen-year-old shade of his Enemy.
There was no one else. Hermione was petrified, her brilliant soul frozen within her prison of flesh. Dumbledore was gone, banished from the castle by both the stupidity of lesser men and his own flawed morality.
If he did not slay the Basilisk and send this errant shade of his nemesis back to the Dark, the ancient castle would fall.
He had been unable to triumph against the Cerberus. He had been unable to defeat Voldemort. He hadn't been fast enough to save his Ice Queen.
He would not fail again.
