A/N: and here i am again with another chapter with the help form HowInMadeHowie. He also added some parts in this chapter to flesh out some character interactions.
Thanks to you readers once again for liking this story so far. Have fun and be safe
Harry was walking through the corridors later that night under his invisibility cloak. He had told the others that he was tired after this long day and retreated into his dorm room; where he formed a dummy on his bed out of the bedsheets and then closed the curtain from his four-poster bed. After taking his cloak out of his trunk and putting it over his shoulders and pulled up the hood, he sneaked out of the tower and walked towards the headmaster's office.
Even when he knew that he was invisible, he walked slowly and listened with his Witcher senses at every corner if someone or something was in the other corridor that could hear him walking by. He soon found himself in front of the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. Telling the password, Harry saw it hoping to get out of the way and leave enough space so he could walk past it and climb the stairs towards a wooden door, to which he knocked. Hearing that he could enter, he opened the door and took his cloak off to become visible. Professor Dumbledore sat behind his desk, holding the small book that they had gotten from Ginny last term. As there were no new attacks since then and Ginny now being healthy like Harry remembered her from last summer, all the people involved knew that this diary was the reason why the basilisk could leave the Chamber of Secrets.
Dumbledore placed the book on his desk, looking towards Harry with a smile and offered him a seat. "Ah Harry, thank you for coming so quickly. Now we must discuss how we will solve this problem with the basilisk under this castle. I was searching for the entrance over the Christmas break, but I was not successful. At least at first, as I then remembered that the girl that died 50 years ago was still in the castle, maybe you know her? She now goes by the name of Moaning Myrtle and hunts a girl's bathroom." Harry remembered when he, John and Geralt were looking for traces from the attacker on Mrs. Norris. It was right next to a girl's bathroom, but he could not think how an entrance to a secret chamber could be hidden in there. Of course, he was not inside the bathroom as he had to go to his class that day and so John and Geralt investigated the room for themselves, but now he wondered why Professor Dumbledore mentioned it.
Dumbledore steepled his hands together and continued his explanation. "So, I asked Ms. Warren how she had died, and she told me that she was crying in the bathroom because she was bullied. When she then heard a male voice saying something in a language she did not understand, she opened her door to tell him to go away, and then she just died while looking at some amber eyes. As I am sure that you also combined all the clues, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets must be in this bathroom. Ms. Warren could also remember where she had seen the eyes, so we know which sink we must activate to go down there. But to my disgrace I could not find out how to do that, so I wanted to ask you to accompany me the next weekend so we could try something else before we ask the diary itself, as according to the reports from Captain Lasky it would be dangerous to write too much into it." Dumbledore gave Harry a data-chip, something the UNSC used to store reports if there was no connection between two parties. Harry took it and pulled Callie's matrix out of his pocket, so she could show Harry what the scientists on the Infinity had found out when he inserted the chip.
Callie was asking herself why this report was not on the network in the first place, but when she saw the ONI logo on top of the document, she got her answer. Looking over it, she sent the report through a wireless connection to the projector hidden inside the headmaster's desk for the other two to see, so Dumbledore could explain what he understood and then Callie could fill in parts where even he was at a loss. Meanwhile Callie used her new projector to make herself visible to them like she was a normal adult woman. She decided to color her hair black and changed it to a ponytail, while she c her clothing to make it more believable that she could be an Auror, in case someone would enter the office without an invitation, and she was not looking at her sensor reading.
Just as she had processed this thought, she could swear hearing Cortana explaining to her that Callie should use a subroutine to watch the sensors and warn her, but as Callie already had activated the projector, she put it in her *next time* folder.
Dumbledore was informed what this specific upgrade entailed, because Captain Lasky found it beneficial for the headmaster to know. As Dumbledore had Cortana sometimes help him in his office when John was on his patrols, she now could also project herself as the headmaster's assistant if there would be a reason that would be necessary.
"According to the report, what Ms. Weasley had described about the diary was true and the scientist from the UNSC concluded that if they had not changed the people every day working on the book for those two weeks, they had it, whatever lives inside the diary would have been able to take control over them, even if they were not magical. With this knowledge and what I had theorized happened 50 years ago we can conclude that the wrong man was found guilty of killing the girl in the bathroom, which I will try to correct. Now Harry, I think you have prepared yourself over Christmas break for the fight ahead, as sadly I did not find another solution for this situation." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair while he watched Harry reading the report with the help from Callie highlighting the important parts. After he had finished it, Harry nodded to the question Dumbledore had asked him.
"Yes professor, I have prepared for the fight against the basilisk over my holiday break. I was even given a good set of armor for this fight, which should protect me from the fangs. Commander Palmer brought it with her into the castle, so as soon as we are ready, I can go to John's office and put it on before we go down to the Chamber of Secrets. With this situation resolved so far, do we have any more leads to catch the man who placed the book into Ginny's cauldron?" Harry now leaned back, as this question was placed for Callie and the Headmaster equally.
Callie answered this question first, as she had access to her own archive as well the main storage from the Infinity. "We have made some progress, but all the evidence we have is shaky at best. We cannot put him into prison before he did something even stupider as just placing a diary into the cauldron of a little girl, because if we confronted him with that, he would just say that he did not know what the diary could do when he had purchased it a day before and then lost it in the bookstore. As it would not have been expensive, he would not care about it as he had nothing written in it. At least that would be his answer according to the psychological profile from our undercover agent. And no Headmaster, the agent's name is even a secret to you as the security for this agent depends on it that only his superior knows what he is doing." Dumbledore nodded in understanding, as he was aware that Captain Lasky had placed some of his people in the Ministry to look for the rest of the Death Eaters or even Voldemort himself. They talked with each other for a long time, trying to think of any possibility.
The next day, when the sun was just rising over the horizon, Harry climbed out of his bed after he had planned deep into the night with Dumbledore how they would handle the opening from the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets that weekend and how far they would investigate it on the first day without consulting Riddle's diary. They had decided that if they could open the Chamber that weekend, Commander Palmer would use the different sensors to scout out as much as possible before they would enter whatever was behind this secret door. Harry also wanted to ask Triss if she would come with them as her experience with different kinds of magic could help them as this chamber could have been secured by now unknown traps.
When he stood next to his bed and grabbed his training clothes for his morning run, Callie told him that Hermione was in the common room already waiting for him and that she was also wearing some training clothes. Harry chuckled; he was sure that Hermione thought she could ask him her questions while running with him. Thanking his partner for warning him, he left the dorm and walked down the stairs towards what was surely a storm of questions.
Hermione sat next to the fireplace and read a small book while she waited for Harry to come down. She was glad that she had learned from another more advanced book in charms how to perform a silencing charm on her curtains, so Luke could wake her up early enough that she could go out with Harry on his morning run. Until now, Harry was always up before her and the first time she saw him in the day was when he returned from his run to the common room. She wanted to see how it felt to wear yourself out so early in the morning before breakfast; hoping a bit that Harry would slow down enough so she could keep up. Also, while they would be running next to each other, she could ask him if he knew what "family matters" Chief Wulf had to attend for a substitute teacher to take over his duties in the school. But she had to admit, at first glance this Palmer woman seemed almost stricter than Chief Wulf was, as the uniform she wore during dinner was even straighter than his when he was at dinner. Also, her body language was much more rigid than the Chief's, as if she had to prove herself to be capable of doing everything asked of her. Now Hermione just hoped that she would not be too harsh to the students in this castle, when she heard someone coming down the stairs that lead to the boy's dorms. She turned around with a smile when she saw that it was indeed Harry.
"Good morning Harry, how did yousleep? I hope you don't mind me accompening you on your morning run before we have breakfast." Hermione stood up from the chair she was sitting in and walked over to him, his smile betraying that he knew what she wanted to ask him.
"Good morning to you too Hermione. Yes, I did sleep well last night. And I do not mind you coming with me on my morning run, but if you wanted to ask me about John, I must disappoint you as I myself do not know where he is right now to take care of his family matters. Now let's go, and please try to keep up." Harry laughed at the shocked face from Hermione as she finally saw what she had gotten herself into.
When the two students arrived at the entrance hall and were about to step outside into the January cold Hermione was caught off guard when she saw Ms. Palmer waiting for them at the doors. The stern woman looked at Hermione with a raised brow and looked at Harry with a questioning look.
Harry nodded and introduced Hermione to Ms. Palmer and explained to the commander that Hermione wanted to join them for the morning run. Palmer smirked wondering if the young girl knew what she was getting herself into; not knowing that Hermione had asked herself the same question already. And when she saw Harry and Ms. Palmer began their run, she was just glad that she did not slack off her training back home. When she noticed that Palmer was just a bit faster than Harry, something that should not be natural as she was an adult, she caught herself thinking if this Ms. Palmer hid her true strength just like Harry and Chief Wulf did.
Later that day in Malfoy Manor, Lucius Malfoy was dissatisfied with his son's reports from Hogwarts, as it was now some time since the last attack on a student. He did not know why it was taking his master's diary so long to get the work done that was started 50 years ago. Lucius planned to use the death of students to get Dumbledore away from the headmaster post as he could not keep them safe and when Lucius had succeeded with this, going to the Weasley girl and taking the diary back would be easy enough. That would show that stupid muggle lover Weasley that he was powerless against him and his money, as even if he could prove that Lucius placed the diary in her cauldron back in Diagon Alley, without any backing in the Ministry Arthur Weasley just had to accept it that he lost against a proper pureblooded family, just as it should be,
Thinking about the Ministry, he saw that it was almost time for his next visit to give Fudge another *persuasion* for something Lucius was pushing for. If that would come through the Wizengamoth, it would be once again legal to own objects that are used in some rituals that others would call dark, but with those he would make a ton of gold with the parts for it. He opened a book where a ritual was described to summon a magical beast to protect the property of the summoner, but that was all he could decipher on his own, as the texts he had found were all written in such a way, that even the rune masters could not tell for sure what it would summon exactly. When he stood up from his chair, he called his house elf to make sure that any visitor would know how to reach him. After throwing some floo powder into his fireplace and standing in it, Lucius arrived soon after in the Ministry and walked with a purpose to the Minister's office.
Back in the Malfoy Manor, Dobby was cleaning the house as he was ordered to when he heard someone knocking at the door. As his master was away and his mistress sleeping, he walked to the door to tell the visitor that his master was not here and that he should come back later. But when he opened the door, Dobby looked up into the eyes of a man on a mission. Dobby knew of course Mr. Smith and his uncanny timing when he wanted to come to his master. Dobby bowed down to greet the visitor.
"Mr. Smith, sir, Dobby is sorry, but Master Lucius is not in the manor now as he has an appointment with the Minister, may you come back later?" Dobby looked back up to see if Mr. Smith was leaving or even followed his master, but Mr. Smith just stood there and looked at the small elf.
Mr. Smith then lowered himself to his knees, so Dobby had not to look up so much. He then asked the elf if Mrs. Malfoy was home and if he could please call her to the living room. He would like to talk with her. When Dobby bowed down and disapparated to call his mistress, the ONI Agent turned around to where the Spartan was in his active camouflage and nodded into the manor to signal the beginning of the search for a hidden room in the manor. According to their source in Azkaban as well as the rumors in the magical community, Malfoy was a proud supporter of Voldemort and almost no one believed that he was under the Imperius he told everyone he was put under by the dark lord. And what Mr. Smith saw while he was investigating Lucius only confirmed that rumor. Now he just could hope that the antidote to the potion Lucius had his wife under really worked, as the quantity used until now could make an impact on its effectiveness, as the body could have adapted the potion as something necessary to survive just like a smoker would have a hard time to quit.
As Mr. Smith arrived in the living room, he sat down on a wingback chair and waited for Mrs. Malfoy to arrive. He had not to wait long as he heard the door close soon after and stood back up to greet Narcissa as she was used to, but he averted his gaze when he saw that she was only wearing her nightgown. She returned the greeting and sat down opposite Mr. Smith, asking him what she could help him with.
"Firstly, Mrs. Malfoy, thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice. As for the reason for this visit, my associate wants to have someone to taste test this new wine his vineyard is producing this year especially for women. According to him, it should soothe your mind when you drink it, and it should also help you when you are in your menstruation cycle. Would you do me the favor and give me your honest opinion?" Mr. Smith decided to test the waters with this backstory why he produced a small bottle of red wine and placed it on the table. He watched her movement for signs that she was under an order to not drink anything without Lucius knowing about it, but he let out a breath as she called Dobby to bring her a wine glass. While Dobby was procuring the glass, Narcissa asked Mr. Smith if there was something else why he was here. Declining the hidden offer, he was sure it was an order from her husband in case he would come into their manor and Lucius was not here, he opened the small bottle and filled up her glass.
Narcissa lifted the filled glass up and looked at the contents, swirling it around and then inhaled its scent. "It smells nice and sweet, something that is unusual for such a deep red wine. It also looks smooth, so there will be no problem swallowing it." She then took a small sip from the wine and licked her lips to see if there was any after taste. Her eyes suddenly grew larger, and she looked around in surprise, panic visible on her face. Mr. Smith stood up and tried to calm her down, as he heard through the communicator that the other agent found the hidden compartment under the floor from the entrance hall and was now documenting his findings. Being distracted for a short while, he could not evade the slap Narcissa had thrown to his face.
Narcissa looked around for her wand, when she noticed that she was only in her nightgown and that her wand had to be in her bedroom. She then was looking for the exit from the living room, when she noticed that it was not the home she remembered. "What happened? What is going on?" Narcissa's panic grew, as she thought that she was kidnapped and abused, but she then saw herself in a mirror above the fireplace in this room. She glared at herself, looking much older than she was remembering and turned towards the only person who could have an explanation. "You, explain to me what happened to me."
The man caressed his check that was hit by Narcissa, but the smile on his lips told her that he did not mind. He then told her his name and the reason he was now here with her. He then called Dobby, hoping that he could help her put on some decent clothes as they discussed the rest.
Narcissa Malfoy looked disgusted at the explanation from Mr. Smith and Dobby; after ordering the latter to only tell the truth to her and his lack of self-punishment she had to believe that this was all true.
"So, you are telling me that I was under some loyalty potion that was keyed to Lucius Malfoy for at least 15 years since our marriage, possibly even more. I never liked him since I had the misfortune to meet him back when we went to school, but as there was a written marriage contract between our parents, I could not have spoken against this marriage even if I wanted to, but I cannot believe that he would stoop even this low. And now you have given me an antidote to this potion, so I am now in clear mind on what is going on." Narcissa, now in her robe, watched the man who sat opposite her with great interest. He had introduced himself as Mr. Smith did not divulge any more information about him, so she did not know why he was here or for who he was working for.
Mr. Smith tried to explain with as much detail as he could, telling her that he worked with some people to show the rest of magical Britain how corrupt their government was and that they would need to change some things to make sure the peace they enjoy right now would stay. But he had to admit, Narcissa was a very perceptive woman as she could surmise that he was not from this country at all. Mr. Smith also asked her if she could help him with gathering more information when she was able to, as it could be possible that Lucius would notice that she did not behave as he would like.
Narcissa huffed at that notion, explaining that she could fake it well enough if Dobby would help her in the background. "The house elf can give me signs how my 'husband' would expect me to act. And if he wants to sleep with me, it would not be the first time I fake everything without him noticing. He is not so good in bed anyways, or at least he was not the last time I can remember. And as you told me how I was put under the potion in the first place, I will order the elf to give me just the same brand of wine without the potion, with his magic it can mimic the potion without a problem." Narcissa called Dobby and gave him that order, but Mr. Smith asked her if Lucius could not overrule that order with his own. Narcissa shook her head, explaining that a house elf had to follow every order, but an older one would take priority so that should not be a problem. And even if it does happen, she can order Dobby to go to him and tell him what happened and ask for the antidote. Mr. Smith was agreeing to this arrangement and then said his goodbye when the other agent told him that he was finished.
Leaving the manor, he looked at his display from his contact lens, seeing that the Spartan walked right next to him. When they had left the property, they stepped into a camouflaged Pelican and the pilot lifted off. "I gather with this your mission is almost finished Master Chief?" Mr. Smith looked over to the spot where John dropped his active camouflage and took out another computer chip out of his helmet and gave it to Mr. Smith.
"I think so, but our work in the Ministry needs some revisions, as the places we first selected for the cameras were not as optimal as we hoped. So, I think we need a few more days until Red Team can go back to their previous missions. Any news from Jerome and the leak from the Wolf Corporation?" John held a sling on the ceiling in the troop bay of the Pelican as they would soon be descending towards Earth again when they would arrive at their target, an abandoned building in the countryside where they had hidden a FOB for this mission. After they landed inside the building, both men disembarked the dropship and walked towards the hangar door. As his work for today was not done, John walked over to his room where his station and Cortana was. His AI partner looked over all the inputs from the camera's that showed the Ministry with the camera feed that worked well enough. One was in the office of the Minister himself, where John saw Fudge and Malfoy talking with each other, with a large leather bag on the table between them. Cortana noticed John coming over and showed her work on the display next to her pedestal for him to see. John looked at the footage and knew that whatever the Minister and Malfoy were discussing right now, it was going to the plan Malfoy had with the grin he had on his face. Looking over the readouts, he saw that the sound was also recorded well enough, so John forwarded it to the Infinity and then was preparing for the rest of the day, as he looked over the video feeds to see more potential for improvements in the positioning of the cameras.