Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: Harry's Power of Adaptability (Working Title)

Posted Date: July 30 2023

Tags: OP Harry, Harry having Creature Blood, Harry x Multi, Well Meaning / Slightly Manipulative Dumbledore, Goblins being a slight pain in the ass

Magics involved: Magical Animagus Forms, Phoenix Regeneration / Flight, Mystic Eyes of Petrification

Possible Pairings: Harry x Penelope, Harry x Fleur, Harry x Chaser Girls, Harry x Lavender

Harry Potter was really hating his second year. If he was less restrictive with his vocabulary, he would be cursing enough courtesy of Vernon to have Petunia use her frying pan on his head to curb it, or Hermione berate him big time with her wand or trusty thick book, or even McGonagall to hex him with the 'Mouth Cleaning' Charm.

You are wondering why? Here is the context.

To boot, Harry had to deal with a crazy elf that kept trying to warn him of some dangerous plot that was hazardous to his health, and subsequently getting him into trouble with Vernon, a black mark in his records for supposed magic usage (which he did not do, thank you very much!), and causing him to miss the train, forcing him and Ron to hijack his dad's car to fly to school and subsequently earned detention with Snape along with a bucket load of points lost. Then on Halloween, Mrs. Norris was found petrified and hanging next to a bloody message proclaiming the return of Slytherin's Heir, marking the start of eight months' worth of paranoia among the student body, not helped with the revealing of his unknown ability to speak with snakes that had everyone pointing fingers at him and declared the Heir of Slytherin, having him shunned and targeted by them while the teachers did nothing to curtail it as other students got petrified along the way. He also had to deal with Dobby's increased interference in the form of a rogue Bludger that broke his arm, which later had its bones removed by the incompetence of Lockhart, and other actions that got him in a lot of trouble. Hagrid then got arrested by the Minister of Magic in an effort to be seen doing something about the situation, when it was clear that Lucius Malfoy was the guy pulling the strings in hopes of ousting out Dumbledore with all that was going on.

Sometime after, Dumbledore got sacked and Ginny Weasley was taken to the chamber roughly a day later, prompting Harry and Ron to go to Lockhart to rescue her with the information they had obtained from Hermione's petrified hands (Harry was still snickering at the thought that Hermione, consummate book reader, would dare to rip a page out from a very old volume, under the nose of Madam Pince) only to have the man reveal himself as a fraud who had taken other people's accomplishments for his own and tried to remove their memories with Ron's broken and "Barely Held by Spell-o-tape" wand, and got blasted into the wall for his effort and bringing down the ceiling, separating Harry from Ron and forcing the boy to go and confront the enemy alone.

Oh, and to finish it off, he was now battling for his life against the shade of Voldemort in his youth that was sucking the life-force out of Ginny, and the actual Slytherin's Monster which happened to be a thirty-foot-long thousand-year-old Basilisk with its death-petrifying gaze, deadly venom and extremely hard scales, while he had his wand, a sword, Fawkes the Phoenix and the Sorting Hat. The fact that said sword belonged to Godric Gryffindor, forged by Goblins and therefore imbued with great magic was of little comfort to Harry at the moment.

That was just bloody perfect!

"DUCK LAD!" Harry dropped to his knees to avoid the mouth full of teeth in time and scrambled on his feet across the ground as the giant serpent hissed in agitation for missing its prey and smacking into the wall, grabbing the hat along the way. Harry was really thankful that Fawkes was able to peck the eyes out, because there would have been no way he could have dodged the attack with his eyes closed. Harry pushed himself off the ground and swung the sword at the body only to get a minor gash on it and a very angry Basilisk turning to take another bite at him.

"I do not think that is working well for you, Mr. Potter." The Sorting Hat chimed as Harry leaped to the side and stuffed the cloth around his belt. "Also, Ouch!"

"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious." Harry snarked as he used the momentum to get behind a pillar to catch his breath. "This is not going the way I want it."

"What were you hoping for?" The Sorting Hat had a way of conveying its words with a very flat tone even when muffled.

"I was kind of hoping that the magic sword would be sharp enough to cut through all of the skin." Harry answered lamely.

"Mr. Potter, the Basilisk is infamous for more than just the petrifying gaze and its deadly venom. The hide is extremely resistant to both physical and magic attacks, making it an ideal material for protection vests for Aurors and warriors long gone around the world. You would require entire teams of competent wizards or seasoned goblin warriors to deal with your regular run-of-the-mill Basilisk, and there will always be casualties from those fights. None of them were certainly like Salazar's guardian serpent." The hat admonished him in a severe tone.

"Well, you can't blame me for not trying." Harry spun and headed past the pillar that got destroyed by another strike of the Basilisk's fangs. "I could really use some advice right now."

"Well consider this Mr. Potter. You cannot attack the outside thanks to its hide, and you have to avoid the eyes. You need to find another soft target." The hat answered. "Also, take a right in ten seconds."

"What?"

"Now!" Harry just moved in time to avoid another strike, while thinking of all the possible spots that he could try to attack the snake with, not that it was of much help given that he knew very little in combat spells no thanks to the shoddy education in the defense subject, and the only weapon he had right now was not of much help against the hard scales of the Basilisk. The only way he can use the sword would be to stab it in a soft spot, but where would he!

The sound of hissing drew his attention again to the serpent hissing in frustration for missing him again, its mouth wide open as it tried to taste the air about itself. For a while Harry looked at the head when the figurative light bulb lit up.

"I might have an idea."

"... Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" The hat let out a groan. Harry did not answer as he dodged the next attack and made his way to the giant mural of Slytherin's face and started climbing it, his grip and footwork occasionally slipping in time to avoid a strike from the serpent. With a few unsteady steps, Harry managed to climb to the top of the statue and positioned himself unsteadily as the Basilisk hissed angrily while lengthening its body. Harry took a few swipes at it in hopes of cutting something while agitating it even further.

'Come on, ugly! Just a little more!'

The serpent snapped at him before opening its mouth wide to reveal all of its razor-sharp teeth and dripping venom and lunged straight at him for the kill.

'There!'

With a yell, Harry Potter went to perform what had to be the most incredibly stupid act of his young life to date: he willingly stepped into the jaws of Slytherin's Basilisk just for a chance to stab the beast in the only soft spot he could think to find on its body, mainly the flesh of the great serpent's mouth. With a bit of effort, Harry shoved the blade up right through the roof of its mouth as the Basilisk closed its jaws around him.

The incredible pain that Harry felt in his arm alerted him to the fact that one of the Basilisk's huge fangs had punctured him and was injecting perhaps the most powerful venom in the world into his veins and spreading into his body. The only thing that distracted Harry from the searing pain that was traveling up his arm was the massive weight that was suddenly pressing down on him as the Sword of Gryffindor pierced through the Basilisk's brain ending the snake's life and causing the now dead weight of the serpent to crash down on both the boy and the sword that was still stuck inside the beast.

'This is a really bad idea; I'm going to be crushed.' Harry thought as he sank to his knees under the dead serpent's weight, the Sword of Gryffindor still in hand and the constant pain of the venom spreading through his body the only things he was aware of anymore. At least they were, until with the sound of a metallic crack, the blade of the Sword of Gryffindor started breaking only inches above the guard. 'Now what?' Harry questioned mentally as he continued to hold the sword with the same arm that had been pierced by the Basilisk's fang. A small part of Harry's mind wondered if he'd be in trouble for damaging the sword that belonged to Gryffindor before another sharp piercing pain appeared and drew his attention to the slivers of metal piercing his arm like a pin cushion.

"Oh great, just what I needed. More holes in my arm!" Harry groaned and hissed in pain as more venom and blood swirled around the slivers and into his body. With a bit of effort, he yanked the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Basilisk's mouth and practically fell backwards on his bum out of the giant snake's partially opened jaws as it crashed to the ground. Even with his darkening vision, Harry could still see the metal fragments and the big fang sticking into his arm. 'Better not remove them yet, I still need to save Ginny.' Harry finished in his head as he stumbled closer to the blurring figures a couple dozen meters away. The venom at this point had circulated throughout Harry's body causing breathing to cease up at intervals and his body to start shutting down with a pain that felt like boiling water was forced through and circulating inside.

"It cannot be! How did you kill the Basilisk?!" the shade of Tom Riddle aka Voldemort demanded as he stared in horrified disbelief and anger at the half dead Gryffindor wizard that was slowly stumbling towards him and the Weasley girl. "How are you still alive?"

It was then Tom noticed the broken fang and metal fragments stuck in Harry's arm. "Or perhaps not, I guess it doesn't matter now, does it Potter?" Tom questioned with a sneer, the anger now replaced with smugness that reminded Harry of the ferret named Draco Malfoy. "The poison will kill you shortly, if not the blood loss. Whereas I will be reborn when this girl's life fades. Though I imagine you must be in so much pain you probably can't even understand me anymore, hmm?" Tom finished with a cruel grin.

In a sense of cruelty, Tom Riddle was correct; the pain was now blinding to Harry who had gone down on one knee and was barely hanging on to the sword. With another grunt, the sword slipped out of his hands, forcing him on both his knees and barely having the strength to crawl towards the paling form of Ginny who was now so still that one would think she had already passed on to the next life if not for the light raising and dipping of her chest.

"So ends the Great Harry Potter. Alone in a place where no one can ever access, and no one to save you." Tom taunted Harry as the boy struggled to take even a breath. "Fret not, you would be joining your mud-blood mother soon. Even the bird is mourning your death."

'Does he ever shut up?' Harry could not help the thought and mental eye-roll as he managed to get to Ginny by her side, feeling it harder to take even a shallow breath. At the corner of his blurring vision, Harry could barely see the phoenix trying to make its way to him while crooning sadly as though to comfort him in his final moments. Harry felt a little lighter at how the beautiful creature came to help him, at a time when even the adults did nothing this year. He just wished that the bird did not feel guilty over his death, even through the blurry eyes he could see the bird trying to come closer. Harry turned to look at the black journal that was held in Ginny's hand and recalled what Tom had said about it draining her life-force. 'If this thing is the reason for this craziness, then destroying it ought to stop him and save Ginny. But what can destroy it?' That was when his eyes wandered to the big fang still piercing his arm and killing him with the poison.

'Well, as Wood would likely say: Win this or die trying.'

Harry reached out to remove the journal from Ginny's hands and placed it on the floor with the pages open. With a grimace, Harry grabbed the fang and pulled it out, gasping in pain as the wound stung from the open air and fresh pain went through his body.

"Wait, what are you doing? Stop!" Harry merely gave a pained smirk as he raised the fang above his head and drove it down to the diary, stabbing it deeply into the pages. Thick black ink began to spew forth from the book eerily like blood leaking from a wound, and at the corner of the eye, Harry spied Tom Riddle screaming as cracks started appearing on his incorporeal body and light issued forth like fire from a fissure. Harry pulled the fang out and stabbed the other side, making Tom scream again as Ginny's wand slipped from his now vanishing hand and clattered to the floor. Harry hissed as more pain went through his body, pulling the fang out while closing the book. Gripping the fang tightly, Harry gave a glare at the shade of Voldemort before delivering the final blow.

"This is for Hermione and the others!" With a yell, Harry drove the fang right into the middle of the journal, with the ink issuing forth like a geyser and splattering over his arm and the floor, while Tom Riddle gave one final scream as the cracks now covered the body and began to glow ominously before the shade appeared to collapse on itself and exploded with a loud blast, throwing Harry onto his back and sending vibrations off in the chamber. Harry winced from the impact and the shards digging deeper into his arm, his chest seemingly burning more from the pain and venom coursing through him. He forced himself to get up just as a groan from Ginny signaled her awakening. She opened her eyes and screamed at the dead Basilisk staring in her face before fainting again.

Well, that was quite the reaction.

A thrill brought his attention to the phoenix that came to his side, the sound of sadness evident in the tone. "Hey Fawkes." Harry coughed and doubled over from the pain now pushing through his body. With the action over, Harry could feel exhaustion washing over him and hear his fading heartbeat in his ears. "You did great with the big snake." Fawkes let out a soft coon that managed to ease his suffering a little.

A gasp drew Harry's eyes to Ginny who shot up from the ground and looked about in confusion before screaming at the dead Basilisk in front of her, scrambling on her limbs to move away from the creature. She then moved her head about to look around her in panic only to spot Harry.

"Harry!" She scrambled to him only to stop at the sight of his wounded arm and the basilisk Fang by the leaking diary. "Oh no. This is all my fault."

"Hey Ginny. Feeling better" Harry tried to grin but likely gave a grimace thanks to the new burst of pain that shot through his system and forced him to double down while grunting.

"I'm sorry!" Ginny wailed suddenly. "It was Tom! He made me do things! I couldn't control myself and I started blacking out and…and…." By this point the redhead was bawling and incomprehensible. Harry wanted to comfort her but he was losing his strength and needed to get her to listen.

"Ginny, please listen carefully." Ginny hiccuped but tried to control her crying. "Right now, I don't have much time. You need to go out of the entrance and get to Ron, he is waiting at the end of the tunnel where there was a brief cave-in. I am hoping he got enough rocks out of the way to get a small opening. Get out from there and find Professor Dumbledore or any others. Worst case, get Snape." Harry coughed to let out some blood and to get the idea of having Snape saving him.

"What about you?" Ginny asked as her arms moved about.

"I can't move right now. You need to get going." Harry was stopped from saying more by Fawkes that dropped down by his side and let out a trill that calmed them both and lessened his pain by a bit. It then lowered its head to where his wound and started to tear up, the drops of water hitting his open wound and the other cuts on the arm. Harry could see that the major wound was closing itself up and becoming new skin, but at the same time, the shards of metal appeared to be melding to his body. And from the looks of the phoenix staring at them, this was not supposed to happen.

That became more so when Harry started feeling his body heating up to very uncomfortable levels like that of a fever. His skin that was previously cold from the poison in his body and the wetness of the chamber started drying up and seemingly steaming. His heart was pounding hard and he could hear his heartbeats in his ears, and his infamous scar started to feel like someone had placed an open flame on it to try and burn it off. Harry breathed heavily as he hunched on his knees and grabbed his chest, Ginny's panicked queries and Fawkes trills barely registering in his ears. Whatever bits of magic inside his body started sparking like fireworks and he was trying to keep a handle on it.

Then his clothes started to smoke and Ginny panicked even more at the sight of them doing so with some actual flames. Ginny looked about for her wand, found it and rushed to grab it before pointing her wand to fire off a water spell that she had seen her mother use countless of times back home. The water splashed on Harry to give him temporary relief only for the water to start evaporating and his clothes beginning to smother more. "Harry, what is happening?!"

"I… Don't Know!" Harry gasped as his heartbeats filled his head and he started to hear the screams of a woman before a bright flash of green appeared in his eyes and then he screamed in both fear and agony right as his head felt like it was splitting and he burst into flames, the screams from Ginny and the cold laughter of a man being the last thing he would hear before blanking out.

~ooOOoo~

Saint Mungos, the only hospital in Magical Britain that dealt with all sorts of medical issues regardless of whether it was magical in nature or not, from the common cold to spell damage. Hidden under the façade of an old building, this was the hospital that had survived the 2 World Wars from the muggles and the Blood Supremacy civil war that gripped the nation. It may have its holdups, especially with the decreasing number of qualified Healers and Potion Masters / Mistresses due to the deaths and a certain potions professor at Hogwarts, but it was still able to perform its duties properly.

The staff had seen much in their lives, what with all the hijinks and accidents that can come about from magic. It would take a lot to get them to lose their composure since they were more or less senitized to the occasional death or child abuse the DMLE would send their way, or the unusual accident that had the subject spouting multiple tentacles from the arms and legs while having a crow's head, squawking away in frustration as they attempted to fix him.

In that sense, one can forgive the staff members on hand for freaking out when a literal firestorm appeared in the Apparition room, dispersing moments later to reveal a phoenix resting on what looked like a charred statue covering parts of its face and a young girl appearing to be in her first year of Hogwarts screaming her lungs out with some cloth stuck to her waist. That did not stop the staff from going about with their duties to try and ascertain the situation as they checked on the girl, although she was giving them a bit of a fight as she did not want to leave 'Harry' behind, supposedly the statue currently being looked at by one of the others. The Healer tending to her had to resort to stunning her to get her to stop moving in order to examine her properly.

"What is going on here?" An elderly man came into the room with a stern glare at them. "The alarms started ringing like crazy in my office. Do we have a Code Cyan or something?"

"We are ascertaining the situation right now, sir." The Healer checking on the little girl frowned at the results being shown to her. "This is odd. The girl is showing magical exhaustion, heightened anxiety and minor malnutrition, nothing too serious. What is bad is the traces of a recent possession, a wraith if I am not mistaken. I would need a second opinion." The one nearest to her took out his wand and did a more in-depth check, only to get the same results.

"Not only possession, I am detecting traces of dark magic and some weird venom on her." Disbelief was evident in the man's tone as he looked at her closely. "How on earth does a first year end up with Basilisk Venom getting all over her?! We need to strip her of her robes and neutralize the venom now!"

"I think the answer may lie with the statue and the phoenix." The sole Healer looking at the statue and the phoenix piped out as the phoenix in question trilled and nodded its head. "I am also getting Basilisk Venom along with Flame Magic and…" He paused as he waved his wand again before turning pale. "Erm, Director Kaine? Could you double check this for me? I am getting some weird readings, and I am really hoping to be wrong on this."

"What are you talking about?" The elderly Healer took out his wand and cast some general spells only to pause at the readings. With a growing sense of dread, he started casting diagnosis spells normally meant for living beings on the statue, only to get confirmation of an actual heartbeat and active magic. "Sweet Merciful Merlin! This is a goddamn person!"

"I could have told you that." Everyone turned to where the voice was only to find themselves seeing the Sorting Hat now removed from the girl and looking at them. "That is Harry Potter, and right now he needs a lot of help before he kicks the bucket after saving the girl." Director Kaine took the news of the statue being the body of the Boy-Who-Lived better and faster than the rest of the staff and immediately went into serious mode.

"Jenkins, Lance! Prep the Emergency Ward for Mister Potter, mark it as Code Umber and seal it off! Boot, I need a team off the roster to see if we can get Mister Potter out of his condition. Take the Sorting Hat with you, it may provide answers for his recovery! Elaine, you take that girl to Estera and get her checked out with the full prognosis! Move people!" The Director grabbed the nearest Healer to stop him from moving on as the others scrambled to fulfill his orders. "I need you to contact DMLE, something is going on in Hogwarts and I do not like it. The fact that a phoenix brought the two here with the hat means something is really wrong."

"Understood. Should we alert someone at Hogwarts that we have students here?"

"Not yet, I would rather have the Aurors come along. Explain it as detailed as possible. I have a bad feeling we may even require the services of an Unspeakable for Mister Potter, if that is him and he is even alive by the end of it." The young Healer gulped at that reply. He did not know what was going on at Hogwarts but he had heard a few rumors from his niece that sounded a little outlandish, and while the old wizard meant well, the Healer knew of the headmaster's penchant of keeping matters in-house; odds were high that there was something very wrong going on at Hogwarts at the moment. And if this was really Harry Potter who had been turned into a statue, the DMLE would definitely need to be involved, along with an Unspeakable.

Somehow, this felt like a bad time to be on night-shift duty.

~ooOOoo~

Albus Dumbledore was starting to consider if he needed to apply a silencing charm on Molly to have some peace and quiet from her constant worrying and rambling.

He had returned to Hogwarts after dealing with the stupidity of the School Board of Directors when news came from Minerva that Ginny Weasley had been taken to the chambers and Hogwarts was about to close down. The people got worried and 'politely asked' (read: demanded) that he returned to Hogwarts, but not before Albus extracted the truth from them about Lucius effectively strong-arming them into dismissing him, along with the consensus that Lucius would be removed from the Board of Directors. Small victories, but he would have to think about it later, right now he was more concerned with what had happened in his absence.

His heart dropped when he heard about the youngest Weasley having been taken to the chamber. This was becoming a repeat of the last time the chambers opened 50 years ago, and he was still as powerless as before. Dumbledore had tried to find out more about the mythical chamber of Salazar Slytherin but few texts were left that spoke more than just speculations and hearsays. Even if it had occurred before in his lifetime, Dumbledore admitted that he was a little skeptical at the possibility of the chambers actually existing in the first place, thinking it was Tom Riddle who had used the dark arts to bring about petrification. Only the destruction of Mr. Creevy's camera film and the near death state of a ghost were the confirmations that there was an actual animal in place.

Dumbledore had to hope that Harry was able to get into the chamber to save young Ginerva and end this mess for good. Of course, he also prayed that the boy could forgive him for the mess he was in. Admittedly he could have handled the matter of the school treating Harry like a pariah after the dueling session, but he only had notions of what would happen, and Harry's ability of parseltongue had introduced new variables that needed consideration. It pained him, but Harry needed to know how fame could be a double-edged sword and how he needed to be careful with the populace like Dumbledore had experienced over the years with all of his positions.

There was also his rather desperate plan that he hoped to keep on the back burner until he could figure out what Voldemort did to ensure his immortality. He had a rough idea on what Voldemort did, but a small part of him was praying that he did not do it if only to console himself that the young man he once knew would not cross boundaries best left untouched. But if he did, then Dumbledore needed to do the one thing to ensure his defeat, even if it meant endangering Harry more than ever.

His thoughts got interrupted by two things. Firstly, the sounds of a phoenix song filled the room before Fawkes appeared depositing Ronald Weasley and Gilderoy Lockhart, the latter done a little harder than normal along with the phoenix giving a glare at the older male before making an exit to somewhere. The second came from his fireplace with the flames turning green as a sign of a Floo connection made, with Amelia Bone's head appearing in the flames and looking very displeased.

"Albus Dumbleodre, why am I getting a call in the middle of the night from a Healer of Saint Mungos about your phoenix having brought to them the Sorting Hat, a first year covered in basilisk venom with signs of recent possession, and more importantly, a burnt statue that people are claiming to be Harry Potter who is still alive?"

Oh bugger, this certainly was not the plan.