9 Horcruxes and Chamber

Hermione gave it some thought. "Does he know how many Horcruxes Tom made?"

Harry shook his head. "He assumes that Tom wanted a magically significant number, but he didn't even tell me which numbers these are."

Susan intervened. "Basically, all the primary numbers have magical significance, but since most magical people are not very good at numbers, only the first few numbers are used. That would mean two, three, five, seven, eleven and thirteen. There are more, of course, yet not even all these are equally significant. Two, five and eleven are not used much, if at all. I'm not sure why. Of the rest, seven is considered the most significant one. Does that make any sense to you?"

Hermione gave it some consideration. "Yes, I think so. Now, since Tom wanted to ensure his survival, he may have considered three too small a number. Thirteen may seem too large since he would need to make twelve soul shards to hide in them, which may turn his soul too fragile to survive anyhow. I believe he opted for seven, including his soul or seven Horcruxes and the soul in his body not counted."

She gave it some more thought before speaking again. "You already destroyed the diary and the goblins destroyed the one in your scar. Then, the way he controls his snake, I suspect he hid a Horcrux in it too. Then, the way he was obsessed with the founders, I suspect he used whatever he could find from them for the purpose. The only known relic of Gryffindor, except for the sorting hat, is the sword, that is still kept in the headmaster's office, where Tom couldn't use it. I suspect he used items from the other three founders. That leaves only one unknown item."

"It may be the Gaunt ring," Harry commented. "They were his ancestors from his mother's side. He wouldn't use anything from his muggle side, I'm sure."

Hermione smiled. "Has Dumbledore reached the same conclusions?"

Harry shook his head. "It may take him a few more weeks to reach them, I think. He has too much on his mind to be able to concentrate long enough on any single problem."

"He should have resigned from his other positions. Maybe even his position as Headmaster, if he wants to concentrate on fighting Voldemort. Even a younger man would have found it difficult to hold all these jobs and do well in all of them while leading a war." Hermione didn't hesitate with her criticism.

"Don't you consider him a great wizard?" Susan asked.

"Well, he once was great, but that's way before we were born. The way he led the fight against Voldemort about the time we were born shows that he can't be a war leader. Do you know how many Death Eaters there were at the time?"

Both other teens shook their heads.

"Less than a hundred. There were roughly thirty in the inner circle and a bit more in the lower ranks. He also used some imperiused people as cannon fodder, but not many. According to what I read, he barely trusted even the marked ones and used to punish them gravely for every mistake, real or imagined," Hermione told them.

Susan was quick to comprehend. "With so few Death Eaters, the Aurors shouldn't have had any problem, at least when using normal procedures. What stopped, then?"

Hermione smiled bitterly. "Our esteemed chief warlock and headmaster thought that using lethal curses in a fight makes one dark. He insisted on fighting like it was a school exercise, using nothing more harmful than stunners, while the other side killed and maimed freely. You can see the picture, can't you?"

Susan frowned deeply. "That's no way to act in a war. A soldier who can't kill the enemy is soon a dead soldier. A man his age should have known that."

Hermione sighed. "Yet he insisted, and he has a lot of influence. Too much, if you ask me. He's either way past his prime or maybe even a disguised dark wizard. In any case, he's unfit to lead in a war against the dark."

Susan sighed. "You're right, now that I look critically at it. Maybe we should 'ease his burden' and pass most of his duties as headmaster to somebody else, keeping him only as a figurehead?"

Harry chuckled. "I think McGonagall is already shouldering most of his duties. She should get most of his authority too, I believe."

Hermione frowned. "Can we do that? I mean, we didn't want to advertise our new positions."

Harry shrugged. "We have to. We can't do what we want to do without disclosing our positions. We may need to think some more about it, but shouldn't we tackle the Horcruxes first?"

"How can we?" Hermione asked.

Susan had an idea. "We can get the help of the house elves. Voldemort is their enemy too, you know."

She didn't wait. "Dobby!" she called.

Dobby popped in immediately. "What does Mistress Bones want Dobby to do?"

She crouched to be close to his height. "Dobby, can you sense dark magic?"

He shuddered. "Dobby can, and so can most house elves."

She smiled. "Good. I'd like you, and as many house elves as you think you can recruit for this, to scan the school for anything containing dark magic. Do you know where to find magic-suppressing bags or can you make such?"

"Dobby knows how to make such bags."

"Then, I want each dark item to be put in a separate bag and all moved to a closed room, where no student can enter. Make sure to check the Room of Lost Things too. It will probably contain many such items."

Dobby nodded seriously.

"How long do you think this will take?" she asked.

Dobby gave it a moment of thought. "If Dobby can use all of Hogwarts' house elves and all the Potter ones then it can be done in three or four days."

"A week would be good enough," Susan said, "but start as soon as possible."

Dobby smiled. "It will be done."

That reminded Harry of something. "I'd also like to check the Chamber of Secrets after you finish scanning the rest of the school. Just tell me when you need it and I'll open it for you."

Dobby nodded. "As master says. Will that be all?"

Harry nodded and Dobby vanished.

–..–

"You really know where the Chamber is?" Susan asked incredulously.

Harry shrugged. "I had to go there when a student was kidnapped during the second year, and then I had to fight a basilisk there."

Susan paled at the implications. "Slow down, please. I'd like to hear it in an orderly manner. Then, maybe during the weekend, I'd also like to see that place."

Harry shrugged. It was all old news for him.

"You've never told everything to me either," Hermione said.

Harry frowned. "I thought I did… Well, you were unpetrified that night, so I may have skipped over some parts, feeling too excited to finally have you back among us. Didn't Ron tell you?"

"Oh, he did, but he only knew a small part of it. Don't you remember he was left behind by the collapse of that corridor?"

He nodded. "I remember. It's just…"

"…that it feels like bragging," she completed the sentence, making Harry laugh.

–..–

That weekend, both young women took Harry to Myrtle's bathroom. He hissed at the sink and it moved to show the large tube. Hermione frowned. "You don't expect us to slide down this filthy tube, do you?"

He shrugged. "It was filthier the first time. The three of us sliding down cleaned it quite a bit."

Susan shook her head. "I can't believe Salazar Slytherin would have slid that way. Can't you ask for stairs?"

Harry concentrated and hissed something. A moment later, the walls of the tube seemed to turn into a spiralling staircase, somewhat similar to the one leading to the headmaster's office.

"That's much better, although it lacks a bannister, but I suppose they didn't care for safety that much at his time," Susan said.

The three started descending. A few seconds later, the stairs began moving on their own, lowering the three much faster than climbing down the stairs would have been and still much pleasanter than sliding down the tube. It still brought them to the same place, where a pile of small rodent bones covered the floor.

Both girls made a disgusted face. That didn't stop them, though. They all lighted their wands and started walking. After a short walk, they reached the shed snake skin. Hermione was the first to notice it and she could barely hold back an anguished cry. "What's that? It's huge!" she blurted.

"It's just a shed skin, as all snakes do. And it's not that big, either, at least when compared to the snake itself," Harry tried to calm her down.

"The snake is even bigger?" Susan asked, looking suspiciously at the skin.

Harry just shrugged.

It took the girls a bit longer to regain their breath and they continued walking. Soon enough they reached the door with the snake locks.

"I suggest you put on a bubble-head charm each. The carcass had stayed there since the end of our second year and it may be very smelly by now," Harry warned them.

Hermione had no problem with the casting. She was glad to see that Harry had also mastered this spell that proved too difficult for him two years earlier. By the time she checked Susan, she was also covered by a large bubble, much larger than necessary but just as good for the purpose.

Harry ordered the doors open and waited. They then walked into the large chamber and the torches on the walls lighted as they walked in. Hermione looked around, noticing the serpent carvings on practically everything. She then noticed some pillars that were damaged or even fallen – evidence of the fight Harry had barely survived four years earlier. She was so busy looking around that she failed to notice what caused Susan's surprised cry. "You fought this?! How was it even possible?"

She turned her eyes in that direction and could barely breathe at the sight. She could see a snake there, larger than she could have imagined, based on Harry's tale. Its body was as wide as she was tall and it was too long for her to estimate the length. The monster's mouth was still partially open, showing several rows of needle-sharp fangs, a few of them broken, the broken parts lying on the floor in front of it.

Hermione felt her breath quickening and she forced herself to breathe deeply and slowly, to not lose conscience, all the while scanning the dead monster and trying to imagine a twelve-year-old Harry fighting that. It was simply incomprehensible.

It took the two girls a few minutes to calm down. Harry just walked around, trying to comprehend how he managed to kill the huge monster when he was only twelve. Even his mere survival was simply incomprehensible.

Yet his scan found a certain fact that also seemed quite unbelievable. The carcass looked as fresh as if killed merely minutes earlier. Except for the drying blood and the dry eye cavities, of course. Cautiously, he cancelled the Bubble Head charm and took a breath. The air was stale as expected of old, sealed cellars or caves, but there was not even a hint of the smell of a decaying carcass.

This made him think some more. Once he reached some insight, he turned to the girls. "I think you don't need the Bubble Head charm. There's no strong smell here, although the air is stale, as expected in such places."

"How can that be?" Susan asked.

"Basilisk blood is also venomous, only slightly less than its venom, according to what we found in books. It probably kills all germs and other small organisms that cause the decay of carcasses. If you look around, you'll see some rodents who probably tried to feast on its meat. They all died of poisoning almost immediately, judging by their distance from the carcass. These decayed years ago and the smell no longer lingers, but the snake looks almost as if killed this morning."

Hermione gave it some thought and then smiled. "It makes a lot of sense. I prefer to keep the charm, though. I'm not fond of the air in cellars and caves, you should know."

"Can you tell us now?" Susan asked. She didn't need to elaborate.

Harry led them all to sit on one of the fallen pillars before starting to tell about how Ginny had been kidnapped, how he had found the note in Hermione's petrified hand, how Lockhart had tried to flee and then obliviate him and Ron before fleeing, causing the cave-in.

"We saw no cave-in," Hermione noted.

Harry shrugged. "I think the house elves can reach that part and they repaired it. I was actually wondering how we could pass it, since even I am no longer as small as then and I couldn't possibly crawl through that small opening we had created."

It took him much longer to finish the tale. The girls were mostly silent, only looking at the damage inflicted on the chamber by the fight and at the huge carcass nearby. It was still a wonder Harry had survived and had even managed to save Ginny.

Eventually, Harry's stomach growled, making him aware of the time. "I think we should go back. I only hope we didn't miss lunch."

Susan smiled reassuringly. "We can always go to the kitchen and ask for some food, or just ask a house elf for some."

Harry nodded. "I know, but it's much safer if we're seen in the great hall. No need to attract attention by skipping meals. We already got more than enough."