As he got out into the hallway to see them, Harry determined that his friends hadn't leveled up but had retained their memories. Harry was hoping it was only that they hadn't quite gotten enough side quests to match him after his work during the summer, and would level soon. 800 XP was a lot compared to his level 2 quests, but seemed like it might be a little low for a level 20 monster, so he was figuring that it was just his split of the total spread across the whole party. It seemed a little unfair if they'd missed out just because they were unconscious.
"Let's get the lot of you to the headmaster's office before any more looky-loos," Dawlish ordered, having bound Lockhart's hands behind him with magical ropes and put a powerful locking charm on the bathroom door to seal the crime scene. "He's got the only working floo for me to take this one in, and he'll probably want to have a chat about…" he just vaguely gestured at the bathroom.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: So you all missed a lot…
On the slow walk up to the seventh floor, where Dumbledore kept his office, Harry silently used the guild chat to catch everyone up on what they'd missed. The procession almost crashed to a halt when Harry got to them nearly being obliviated by Lockhart. Lee had nearly put his foot into a trick step at the distraction of being told he'd almost had his memories erased.
And Hermione couldn't help it but burst out with, "Your books! Did you do all those things, or did you just take credit from other people and erase their memories?" She'd been doing some extracurricular research to try to prove Lockhart wasn't a total fraud, just enough to prove that some of the events in his books had really happened, but that none seemed to have clear corroboration of his heroics.
"I… um… That is…" Lockhart sputtered, glancing back at Dawlish and narrowly avoiding the trick stair himself, "Do I have to answer that?"
"Not to them. But I think our prosecutors are going to be very interested in the answer," the auror said, as Lockhart's face blanched. "Nice deduction, miss." He also mentally filed away the strange timing of the accusation, but figured the simplest explanation was that the Potter kid had very quickly explained the highlights to his friends while Dawlish was securing the bathroom.
Harry summed up the rest, including that he had leveled, but they hadn't yet, by the time they hit the seventh floor.
Ron Weasley replies: That's all a lot. But you need to choose your perks. How many'd you get?
Harry hadn't even checked, he glanced at his character sheet and answered.
Reply to Ron Weasley: I got two.
Ron Weasley replies: Well that's one mystery solved. Guess we get two per level. Finish off Agility and Willpower?
Reply to Ron Weasley: I don't know. I was really thinking about Fey so I can do Luna's quests…
Ron Weasley replies: I know, mate, but you've got years for that. You at least need to raise one of them to twenty and see if you can raise it further.
Reply to Ron Weasley: Fair point.
"I need to see Dumbledore. It's an emergency," Dawlish announced to a large, ugly gargoyle guarding an otherwise-nondescript section of wall. It nodded slightly, as if acknowledging the request, and then, about a minute later, shuffled aside. The wall behind it split open not unlike the bricks of the entrance to Diagon Alley, revealing a spiral staircase that went up. "Right. You lot stay here. I'm sure the Headmaster will send for you when we're done. And I may have follow-up questions when I'm back."
"Do we need a solicitor?" Lee asked warily, unconsciously putting the emphasis in a way that indicated he knew Lockhart had asked for one.
Dawlish filed that away as well, but shrugged, "You can at least have a teacher or guardian present." The more that they asked such astute questions, the more he began to suspect that he might need to arrest them someday. He didn't like the way they kept glancing at each other, like they knew each other well enough that they could pass information with just a look. Reminded him of some of the tighter groups of criminals he'd encountered…
Or crack auror teams, which could be just as dangerous when dealing with teenagers.
"Anyway, stay put," he instructed again, and then pushed Lockhart onto the stairs ahead of him. Harry, Hermione, and Ron gasped slightly at the stairs then animating to carry them up like an escalator. (This was, of course, not the older boys' first trip to the headmaster's office, so they weren't surprised.)
As soon as the two men were clear, the wall reassembled itself and the gargoyle shifted back into its guard position. Fred gestured at his ear, then the gargoyle, then upstairs.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: The gargoyle passes information to the headmaster?
The three older boys nodded. It made sense, with what Dawlish had done, but it was good information to keep them from saying too much out loud.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Okay. Should we get our stories straight?
While he relayed everyone's suggestions across the Marauders chat, Harry popped his character sheet back open and engaged the level-up dialog. Of the two attributes, Agility was the no-brainer, and he selected Gymnast again. With a flash of lights only he could see, that took his Agility to 20.
AGILITY 20 BONUS ACTIVATED: EFFORTLESS DODGE
Sure enough, Gymnast had turned gray and wouldn't let him select it again.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Looks like 20 in an attribute is the maximum. And you get a bonus power when you hit it.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Anyway, I think we should just say Ron figured out I was a Parselmouth when I mentioned the zoo to him.
Harry now had a crisis. Stoic or Fey? He wasn't totally sure what maxing out Willpower would do for him, but he also wasn't sure whether seeing the weird creatures Luna could was really worth more. After all, they didn't seem to do anything for her other than make everyone think she was crazy. Would the perk just make him one of a pair of weird kids talking about gulping plimpies and nargles (another creature she'd brought up when they ran into her in the library)? Feeling vaguely like he was betraying the girl, he went with Ron's suggestion and took Stoic.
WILLPOWER 20 BONUS ACTIVATED: MENTAL FORTRESS
He resolved that he would take Fey next time, which might be sooner than another year at the rate he was triggering main quests.
Between maxing out his Willpower and leveling up, Harry's Magical Stamina had gone from 270 to 350, which seemed like a pretty big bump. His Hit Points and Endurance had also gone up a bit. He wondered if all Willpower did was affect his stamina scores and whatever Mental Fortress was, or whether it was giving him other benefits. To be fair, since he'd raised it that summer he did seem to be having an easier time motivating himself to do his homework instead of messing around playing games with Ron. But that could just as easily be the game rewards.
Before he could agonize over it too much further but after everyone had more or less gotten on the same page, the gargoyle stepped aside again and motioned them into the reopened stairway. With six of them, they had to walk in a little further before the stairs started whisking them upwards and the wall closed behind. It turned out that a spiral escalator was a lot more dizzying than one of the conventional straight ones Harry had taken in the rare times Aunt Petunia had taken him to Woolworth's for items he couldn't just get handed down from Dudley.
The stairway decanted them onto a stone landing in front of a torchlit oak door, with a brass griffin knocker. Before they could choose who would knock, the door opened silently into what must be Dumbledore's office (they'd know it, even if the man himself weren't sitting at the desk across from the door). Harry, Hermione, and Ron all marveled at the circular tower room packed full of interesting magical apparati, bookshelves, and portraits.
Fred, George, and Lee shared a look of amusement at the kids gawking, forgetting that they'd done the same the first time they'd been there (dragged by their ears by McGonagall; she'd conjured an extra floating hand so she could get all three of them at once).
"I understand you have quite the story," the headmaster said, with a twinkle, though he wasn't fully able to form a grandfatherly smile. A basilisk had just been slain and a professor had almost obliviated Harry Potter, and he'd had no inkling of any of it in advance. "Please, have a seat."
He gestured with his wand and conjured up an overly-wide and overstuffed couch, upholstered in eye-watering magenta-and-green floral chintz. The kids packed into it a little snugly, unconsciously arranging themselves so Harry was directly in front of Dumbledore, with Fred and George on his left and Ron, Hermione, and Lee on his right.
The headmaster seemed inclined to wait for the kids to start talking to fill the silence, but between Harry's new Willpower score and the twins' advice to never volunteer information, that strategy didn't work. After a minute and a half of uncomfortable staring at one another, he started with, "Can you lead me through the events that made you aware of the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry nodded, "Of course, sir. A house elf showed up at my house over the summer. He was trying to keep me from coming to Hogwarts because he had heard something bad was going to happen this year and I'd be in danger. It came out that what he was worried about was the Chamber of Secrets." That nicely left out that Harry had suggested the term to Dobby, rather than vice versa, after reading it off his quest log.
"A house elf was able to find you at your home?" Dumbledore's eyebrow rose. He had not been aware of that flaw in the wards. Well, the elf may have only been permitted since his goal was to help Harry, but it was still something that might be exploited. "Do you know whose?"
"The Malfoy's elf, Dobby, sir," Harry nodded. "We saw him with them at the train platform. I think he overheard something Mr. Malfoy was planning over the summer. It was hard to get much from him, since he kept having to 'punish' himself if he came close to saying anything bad about his family."
"He sounds abused!" Hermione couldn't help but interject. "We have to figure out how to get him away from that terrible situation."
The old man nodded sadly, well aware of how some purebloods treated their house elves. "There is not much legal way to free a house elf, short of their master giving them clothing. It's a sign of dismissal." He saw the idea of tricking Malfoy into giving the elf clothes flicker across the faces of the students and nodded, then continued, "So this Dobby warned you of the Chamber of Secrets, and you suspected it had to do something with his household, but then…"
"The first weekend back," Harry continued. "I heard something in the walls talking about ripping, tearing, and killing. But Hermione and Ron just heard hissing. I followed it back to around Myrtle's bathroom, where we lost it." Again, not mentioning how much of an aid the map was in tracking it, or the chat log in making him sure he wasn't going crazy. "We figured that only I'd heard it because I'm a Parselmouth."
"Ah," the headmaster nodded, as if he'd considered that within the realm of possibility. "When did you learn you had this gift?"
Harry shrugged, "I've talked to snakes before. One at the zoo one time. I kind of figured out that everyone could do it, until I found out it was rare. Ron knew what it meant. I haven't spread it around because people think it's dark."
"It often is," Dumbledore confirmed. "In fact, it would not surprise me if it is a power you won from Voldemort," the Weasleys around him tensed nervously at the name, but failed to gasp. "He is the only other modern speaker in Britain that I'm aware of."
"He's the Heir of Slytherin!" Hermione leaped boldly at the conclusion. "Was he a student here, sir? Did he work on the bathrooms back when Myrtle died?"
"Indeed he did," a single white eyebrow rose as the young witch's deductive abilities grew in his estimation, and he decided to reveal a bit more information, "While he likes to hide his origins, I am quite certain that one Tom Marvolo Riddle eventually changed his name to the general public…" he flicked his wand at the edge of his desk and conjured small, standing letters in green metal to spell out the name, then flicked it again to to have them spell out "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT."
"There's a cup in the trophy hall for him!" Ron realized.
"Won for special services," the headmaster nodded sadly. "That service being turning in our own Hagrid for the attacks."
"But," Hermione almost yelled, "if you've known all this time that he went on to become Lord Voldemort," the twitch of the couch was less after the second naming so close in succession, "why didn't you clear Hagrid's name. It was clearly him!"
"Sadly, he went to such an extent to hide his origins that I never had enough proof for the Ministry," Dumbledore frowned. "An anagram and an old man's recollections of a troubled student are not sufficient legal proof."
"But now that we've killed the basilisk and can use the body to prove it wasn't Hagrid's spider?" Harry asked.
The old man nodded, "I'm pleased your thought at this time is for your friend, not the glory. I shall see to it. But, please, you have told me of the two pieces of information you had…"
Harry shrugged, "We did a bunch of research. Hermione and Ron found out about the basilisk. Luna Lovegood got us thinking about it maybe having to do with the founders. We mentioned it to Hagrid and that got us the year. And we eventually figured out that Myrtle was the girl who died and asked her about it." He gave it a beat and then laid out, "With all of that, it was just working out that the broken sink in front of where she died was a secret door with a password that only a Parselmouth could say, and bringing the rooster."
"I see, yes, Hagrid did mention that you'd borrowed his rooster. Though he believed it was for a prank on your friends," he gestured at the older Weasleys. When that failed to elicit an apology for the deception, he moved on to, "What I don't understand is why you didn't explain this to him, a teacher, or myself before taking it upon yourselves to slay the beast."
"Would anybody really have believed us with just the little information we had?" Harry fired back.
"Ah," the sad exclamation dropped into the room like a lead weight. "You still feel badly-done by Minerva not believing you about the threat to the stone."
Harry glanced around at his friends for support and admitted, "I mean… it wasn't really her fault because we had the wrong suspect. And I realized he couldn't have actually gotten the stone without me there, so it was pretty protected. But… maybe."
The headmaster calculated quickly.
He didn't want to punish Harry for doing heroic deeds on his own initiative, rather to encourage it. Truly, his only objection to this whole affair was that he'd been completely blindsided by it, so wouldn't have been available to step in if the boy had been overwhelmed by the danger.
And he was honestly impressed that the trio of second-years had added the three older troublemakers to their circle. While most of the teachers were aghast at the twins' antics (no doubt with Lee Jordan's organizational support), they very much reminded Dumbledore of Harry's father and his friends. And that kind of cleverness, properly channeled, had only been an asset in the last war. Well, at least until Black had turned.
That reminded and decided the old man, who explained, "I hope to re-earn your trust, in the future, if it has been broken. Rest assured, that any suppositions of yours that reach my ears will be taken seriously. And when I am in residence, you may inform me of dangers you have perceived. I believe you saw how to request admittance to the gargoyle?" The children looked a bit mollified so he suggested, "It's close to curfew, so you should head back to your dormitory. I shall consider proper point awards for this endeavor on the morrow, once I've had the opportunity to observe the scene.
"Well… actually, if I could ask Harry to remain behind. I have some information to share that he may choose to disclose to you all later, but which I believe should remain private for now."
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Don't worry. I'll let you know.
Everyone nodded and headed out, leaving Harry alone on the couch. As the door shut behind them with finality, he wondered whether he was actually going to learn some secrets, or whether the headmaster wanted to chew him out in private.
And he wasn't actually sure which he felt like he deserved.