章 1557: 19
Chapter 19: The BasiliskNotes:
Good morning everyone! Here is this week's chapter.
But first of all I want to thank you all, because with the last chapter the story reached 50k hits (and more). I still can't believe all of that to be honest :)
But anyway, have fun reading!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Only minutes later the kids rushed through Remus' office door and before he had the chance to ask a question Mione ran to his fireplace and floo-called Minnie and then Severus. Afterwards she dropped onto the couch next to Harry.
"What was…?"
Mione shook her head, telling him that they only wanted to say it once and Remus nodded. Minutes later, first Severus and then Minnie arrived.
"The diary is here. I heard the god-damn basilisk. It's already longing for blood."
What followed was a vivid discussion between the faction "we want to keep the students safe, just command that damn beast to lay low or kill it, and if that's leading to damage control" (yes, very long description, but that was basically their opinion) and the "let's keep the timeline steady" faction, with Mione in the end convincing the three professors to worry less and trust her. Not that she knew it, but the three just accepted that because they were expecting the timeline to go crazy any second now.
But that didn't happen.
Not until now at least.
The number of notable events until Mione's birthday about two weeks later was close to none. Oliver continued his quidditch practice (torture), classes were as boring as usual, at least for Harry and Hermione. Because of that they did invest quite a lot of time in study groups, especially with Nev, Daphne, Susan, Hannah and Padma. Parvati was, at least currently, not really on speaking terms with her twin sister. She had made the mistake of making a joke about Luna, which Padma didn't find funny at all.
Not on speaking terms as well were Daphne and Tracey, especially because the latter was very stubborn. That tended to make Daphne a bit moody, though not as often. She had accepted it and her - well, you couldn't call it a relationship yet - with Neville as well as her other friends made up for that.
Only one thing you could actually call notable, and that was the Prophet article about Lockhart that finally came out. Most of the students of Hogwarts got the newspaper delivered every morning and so the shock was huge. Yes, it was a Skeeter article, but co-written by Minnie and thanks to that not as bad as Skeeter's usual writing.
Crimes of the worst sort - Gilderoy Lockhart an evil fraud
By: Rita Skeeter and Professor Minerva McGonagall
Gilderoy Lockhart. One might think he is a successful wizard, but the truth is that he's nothing but a fraud. Researching his background before he would be employed as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, the professors McGonagall and Snape both independently found many conflicting statements within Lockhart's books.
Not only had he accomplished none of his tales, no, it was even worse. Professor McGonagall recognised one of the stories from an old and well-known colleague of hers, Professor Galatea Merrythought. Gilderoy Lockhart had simply just stolen that tale and claimed it as his long after Merrythought's death.
After a thorough review of the evidence by Headmaster, Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the extent of Lockhart's crimes became completely clear. Dumbledore recognised even more of the stories and realised that Lockhart had obliviated the wizards and witches who had actually accomplished all of those things.
Head of the DMLE, Lady Amelia Bones stated "I have been made aware of those facts as soon as Professor McGonagall had finished her research. We have an own investigation checking those claims, but on a personal note: I think we will bring charges forward within the week.
For more details on the contradictions within the stories, read page 5
For more details on the wizards and witches, whose memories Lockhart stole, read page 8
Gilderoy Lockhart, who had not yet read the Prophet on said morning, just walked into Flourish and Blotts for his book signing, when two dozen angry witches stared at him. He just put up his usual charming smile, but almost instantly got hit in the face by a newspaper.
It was then that he saw it. An article about his crimes. He didn't even need to read it, the headline gave it away. Add to that, that there were two pictures below, one of him and one of Professor Merrythought. Meaning he would have to get away.
And with that Gilderoy Lockhart turned around, hurrying out of the store and quite literally running into a woman. The shield charms on her auror robes made the man fly backwards, getting tossed into a wall. Then she walked up to him and smiled.
"Mr Lockhart. I'm Head of the DMLE Lady Amelia Bones. We have some questions for you."
Things were really not looking good for Gilderoy Lockhart.
On Mione's birthday they had two parties for her. Well, the latter was hardly a party, but they celebrated together with Remus, Minnie and Severus in the Room of Requirement. Before that they had gotten the permission to use an empty classroom for a small birthday party with their friends. Among the guests were Neville, Luna, Daphne, the Patil twins, the Weasley twins as well as the rest of the quidditch team (all of whom were more than familiar with their little seeker's best friend), Fay and Lily Moon.
As one might expect, most of them gave her either books or gift coupons for Flourish and Blotts. Luna gave her something that looked more or less like a self-made dreamcatcher, but apparently it was good for "finding and catching all the evil spirits in your life", whatever that meant. From Daphne she got a set of beautiful formal witches' robes in Gryffindor red and Nev had a magical flower for her, something he had seen her adore in the Longbottom greenhouses, where she said that something like those would be a beautiful addition to their garden.
The birthday party was fun, thanks to the Weasley twins the house elves supplied them with a variety of food from the kitchens, making everything even better. But after a bit more than one and a half hours it slowly ended, then giving Harry and Hermione the opportunity to meet up with their three favourite professors.
None of those had ever heard of something like the Room of Requirement and so they were all waiting on the seventh floor in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. When Harry and Mione then finally arrived, they were being carefully watched by the three professors, all of whom having no idea what to expect.
"Well, the Room of Requirement can basically create anything you want and need. I mean aside from food, we all know Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. During fifth year we held the DA here, our secret defence class. So basically you just walk up and down in front of the hidden entrance here, thinking about what you need. There we go."
A wooden door appeared, which Mione then opened. To her surprise the room did look like the reading room at Potter Manor.
"Seems like that is a "private space to relax with friends" to the room. But yes, it is not wrong. I love the reading room."
All of them walked in now, the professors being damn surprised. Severus was already considering the possibilities of using it as a hidden potions lab out of Dumbles' reach while Remus thought about implementing it on the Marauders Map.
What none of them noticed was the soft glow coming from Mione's satchel.
Remus and Severus had both gotten Mione a book from their respective areas of expertise, and none of the usual ones. Neither was available in any normal bookstore, maybe one dealing in antiques would have a version, but that's about it.
While opening the wrapping of Severus' present and seeing what was in there, Mione burst out laughing, which did confuse the potions professor.
"Sorry, Severus. Don't get me wrong, that's a fabulous present, thank you. Funny thing is though, last time around, sometime this November, I tricked Lockhart into signing me a permission slip for that book so we could brew Polyjuice and sneak into the Slytherin common room."
Now Harry started to laugh as well, remembering that incident.
"Oh yes, and you wanna guess who tried to steal a hair from Bulstrode's robes and ended up as a mutated cat? That sight… I don't even wanna know what Madame Pomfrey must have thought."
The picture of Mione as a fusion of cat and human made them all laugh, even Severus. Somehow that ended with Harry showing - against Mione's laughing protests - the memory of that to Severus and Minnie. Remus wasn't able to do Legilimency, that was generally hard for werewolves. The beast in their mind rarely played along with mind magic. Yes, they possessed something like a natural Occlumency, but not on purpose. Anything more than that was hardly achievable.
From Minnie Mione then got a little charmed crystal that would light up red if she was under the influence of any potion or spell. A neat little magic trick that she had gotten from a Peruan Warlock on one of her trips during the summer break.
Then, last but not least it was time for Harry's gift.
The box he handed her was rather small and with absolutely no idea what could be in there she slowly opened it up.
"Oh no, Harry. That's so beautiful."
She took out the small silver bracelet, which was very beautiful. Undoubtedly goblin-made…and were those runes?
"Before you ask, yes, I enchanted it myself over the summer. Remus had a look to ensure I'd done it properly. That thing has been sitting around in the vaults, completely untouched and forgotten about."
Once Hermione had put the bracelet on, she practically beamed out of joy and kissed Harry on his cheek. Minnie and Remus were just grinning at the display of emotion there, while Severus shook his head.
"Be careful, you two. Don't give him a proper kiss without thinking about it, if you're really soulmates. I think I told you once, that would activate the bond, which will be magically registered at the ministry. It could be possible that they inform the old meddler when he's got a pair of soulmates at his school. Never happened during my time here. Minerva?"
She just shrugged, but agreed that this would be a possibility.
"But wouldn't that at least make Molly Weasley stop? A soulbond is impossible to break."
Harry just laughed at that while subconsciously scratching his head again, it had been itching since entering the room.
"Oh come on, Uncle Moony. They'd just see that as a reason to kill Mione off so in my sorrow I'd stumble into Ginny's arms. Don't think that good old Molly "Howler" Weasley would back down from something as benign as a soulmate bond when it comes to her daughter's wishes. I mean, look at the potions she used. I'm pretty sure that wasn't this way last time, my friendship with Mione and hatred for Ron made her do that."
Harry scratched and rubbed his forehead again, while Mione was now putting away all the presents. It was then that she realised that something was glowing inside her bag.
"Wait, what is that? Oh, Luna's present, but why's it glowing? And can you stop scratching your scar again, that…"
Then she paused and looked at Harry, who now realised that he had been rubbing and scratching his scar for quite some time.
"Didn't Luna say that it would…"
"...find and catch evil spirits…"
"...and the fact that you scratch your scar…"
The professors were absolutely confused, such kind of behaviour was normally only shown by the Weasley twins. But now, as the kids came to a conclusion and stated it together, both grinning.
"The Horcrux is in the Room of Requirement!"
After explaining why they thought that, the five of them instantly left the Room to try opening it again, this time asking for the Horcrux.
That didn't work, and neither did asking for the Diadem of Ravenclaw. After several attempts Harry suggested the Room of Hidden Things, which Mione first deemed crazy (thousands of students had hidden things there, Riddle probably thought it was not safe enough) but then conceded that it was plausible that all things stored in the Room, no matter which form it took, ended up in there.
They spent around two hours - Harry and Hermione had to get back before curfew - searching in the Room of Hidden Things. Not that they were successful, but all of them had found other interesting stuff, be it old potions equipment, ancient wands and brooms, books, clothing and a surprising amount of furniture, some things probably as old as the castle itself.
Harry had found and collected some old goblin relics, which he would return the next time he would meet with his account manager. A bit of friendliness with the goblins wouldn't hurt. Since some of those objects were cursed, he tossed them into a bag with an undetectable extension charm and curse protections on it, something Remus had offered to borrow him.
With all the classes and Oli Wood's way too hard training they only managed to get through a very small percentage of the Room of Hidden Things. With the help of some Potter elves they not only looked through the stuff but also sorted it, vanished some and kept some. AFter having a look at the school rules and checking in with the goblins they agreed that as finder and as Lord of three founder-houses plus the (not yet official, but blood-wise) affiliation with Hufflepuff, he could easily claim those items without any problems.
But he didn't keep everything. Not even remotely.
Much went into the trash (they vanished it), and the rest they split between them. Goblin artefacts were to be returned, wands were put into safekeeping by all of them together (so the professors could hand out a spare in case of a wand being destroyed until a new one was bought), brooms would be checked and at some point (with a valid story behind them) added to the school's brooms. All of worth was collected and put into an "emergency fund" for things like the possibly upcoming war. For that Harry rented, via mail, a new vault at Gringotts, from which withdrawals could only be made by at least three of the five together. Books they divided amongst them, everyone took what interested them. Everything else they sorted and kept there.
In those cases where they could actually identify the owner, like books with the name written in it, clothing with name tags or things with family crests on them (except goblin-made things. Those they returned since most of those had been stolen or loaned. The goblins had promised to give everything to its legal owner), they returned the items, mostly with Minnie or Severus writing a letter to said person or his/her heir, stating that it had been found in the castle.
Still, until now no diadem (or Horcrux in general if they were mistaken about which item it was).
A few days before Halloween Harry, Hermione and Neville came across Nearly Headless Nick in a deserted corridor. Just like last time he was rambling about the fact that he was not completely headless and his upcoming deathday party, and as soon as he saw them he invited the trio to the celebrations. Despite the fact that Harry and Mione knew how boring that would be, they accepted. Preserving the timeline above all else.
Nev then spoke up and addressed the ghost.
"Sir Nick, am I allowed to have a friend of mine accompany me to that celebration of yours? Though out of Slytherin house, she's a brave and brilliant witch."
The fact that Nev was asking about a Slytherin - Daphne of course - made the ghost hesitate briefly, but then he gave the young Heir Longbottom permission. All the ghosts in the castle knew that those three were admirable students and people (and he knew of the close relationship between Neville and Daphne, whom he considered a worthy witch despite being a snake).
"Of course, young man. If she wants, then bring Heiress Greengrass with you."
And with that he was gone, floating through the next wall, leaving a flabbergasted Neville alone with both Harry and Hermione laughing.
"Well, Nev, seems like even the ghosts know of your girlfriend. Better hope they don't gossip or Ron will shun you even more."
Neville blushed, though he didn't even try denying the fact that he and Daphne were a couple. It was not common knowledge, but Harry and Mione were well aware of that.
Daphne was somehow actually looking forward to spending the evening of Halloween with the trio, since she still didn't really speak with Tracey, her - former, it seemed - best friend. Besides, when did you get the chance to see a real deathday party, and on Halloween of all days.
Once she met with the three in front of the Great Hall, she hugged Neville, then heard Harry groan. She turned around and looked at the black-haired wizard, who then explained to her that she didn't need to act differently just because they were with them, he and Hermione were well aware of their relationship.
The girl sighed with relief and then grabbed Nev's hand, grinning and blushing lightly.
"So Harry, Nev said you insisted on meeting upstairs. Why's that, we could have met in the dungeons, our common room is there?"
Now it was Harry's time to grin.
"You really don't want to know what ghosts "eat" so we're gonna make a short trip to the kitchens first to grab some food for us."
"You're joking! How do you know where the kitchens are?"
Both Harry and Hermione just smiled and began to lead the way. One day soon they'd tell them about the map, but not today.
"So, there we are, guys. One of you now has got to tickle the pear."
After some confusing looks followed by shrugging, Daphne stepped forward and did as Harry had asked, revealing the entrance to the kitchens. There were hundreds of house elves down here, all of them well-fed and smiling. Apparently, at least the elves had said so, Hogwarts had become a refuge for all the elves which had been mistreated and managed to get away, elves no one wanted anymore.
"Mr Potter, Miss Granger. How can Twinkly be of service for our favourite students?"
Twinkly was one of those elves born in the castle, coming from a long line of Hogwarts elves. She had been around during the Marauders' time at school, but back then not her but her mother had been head elf. But for a few years now this was her job. And she had grown rather fond of Harry and Hermione since they started visiting them occasionally from last year on. That is why she supplied them with snacks or even full meals whenever they asked.
It took less than two minutes until Twinkly brought them a basket filled with sandwiches, snacks and butterbeer. After thanking the elves they left, now heading for the dungeons.
To be honest, the deathday party was damn boring. Even Daphne, who had thought it might be interesting, realised that. But leaving would have been unfriendly, especially because Nick was very delighted to host them all.
At some point Harry was able to spot a female ghost on the opposite side of the room, looking lonely herself. It was Myrtle.
Harry walked over to her, accidentally startling her since she hadn't expected to be addressed by anyone this evening.
"Miss Warren?"
"Oh hello. At least someone who doesn't call poor Myrtle the Moaning Myrtle . Tell me, young man, how do you know who I am?"
Harry then claimed to have read about the whole incident regarding her death in Hogwarts: A history, which wasn't entirely true, but not wrong either. In the versions from 1945 and later (she died in '43 but there was no revision of the book until two years later), the incident was somehow explained. Not properly, but at least well enough for him to claim he knew it from there. In truth he obviously knew about it from her and Riddle.
After some chatting with the ghost, the other three had long joined them and invited Myrtle to visit from time to time, it was slowly getting late and they thought it would be better if they left now to get back before curfew.
Once they were on their way back up the stairs they ran into Minnie, already looking for them.
"Ah, Messrs Potter and Longbottom, Miss Granger, Miss Greengrass. I thought it would be wise to check on you, since I've heard about you rather - unusual, I might say - Halloween plans. Have you already eaten?"
The kids all nodded, while Harry and Hermione were already busy thinking why the witch was here, but that didn't take them long to realise. She was giving Harry an alibi for the - hopefully - upcoming petrification to avoid the hate he had to endure last time around.
But it would be boring if that plan would actually work out. Or that is at least what destiny must have thought.
Harry heard the basilisk when they were walking down a corridor with Minerva. Daphne was still with them as Snape had asked Minnie to bring her to the great hall so he could then lead all of his students into the common room and do some house business. Seemed like he didn't want Daphne alone in the common room because he feared she might head to bed and miss all of his announcements.
The damn beast was apparently very eager to hunt this evening, much more than he remembered it to be. But then, after a minute or so it was quiet again, which made him feel both relieved and terrified of what exactly had happened. Which was something he was just about to find out.
"Argus!"
Minnie's outcry startled them, but then they saw it too. Not only was the cat of the old caretaker laying there in a puddle of water, petrified, but also Filch himself. How did that happen?
Thanks to Minerva's outcry, which was even heard in the Great Hall, students started to rush towards them, wanting to know what happened.
"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
I pity you, Granger, seems like you mudblood will be on top of that list after the old squib here. Well, actually I don't pity you."
"Mr Malfoy! Twenty points from Slytherin for insulting a fellow student."
Draco, just like most of the entire school, was by now aware of what happened and was standing around the scene of the crime, reading out the writing on the wall behind them.
Amongst the students was also Ronald Weasley, already spouting wild theories some started to believe.
"Hah, Potter! Now we know you're evil. You did that. Being friends with all the snakes and not with us lightsided wizards should have made that obvious long ago. I hope you'll get expelled for that, but only after your stupid mudbl…muggleborn is dead."
Ron Weasley couldn't believe that all the other teachers and students were just standing there, while Potter was next to the dead caretaker. Not that it bothered him much that old Filch was dead, but it seemed like no one was able to come to the obvious conclusion. Potter not only avoided, but hated him, a light-sided wizard and instead befriended the bloody snakes and mudbloods. His mother and Dumbledore had always promised him that Potter would be his best mate, not good at school and without friends. But they were wrong. Potter must have changed his affiliations, ending up on the dark side. Otherwise he wouldn't be so strong.
And why did no one bother that he hadn't attended the feast, but instead ended up at the scene of the crime together with a damn snake. McGonagall even caught him, obviously.
"Thirty points from Gryffindor for insulting another student and wishing another one harm, Mr Weasley."
Before he could protest against McGonagall taking points from him, Snape and Dumbledore appeared, followed by Lupin.
"Minerva, what happened here?"
"It was all Potter, headmaster. He's a dark…"
Snape's silencing spell hit him in the face.
"Severus! That was not necessary."
"Oh, I think it was, Albus. Thank you, Severus. Mr Filch and his cat are petrified, they're not dead. You see the message yourself, someone claims the chamber was opened again. And while I usually don't condone the usage of spells on students, Mr Weasley here began to insult and accuse Mr Potter here, saying he was an evil wizard and did all of that, because he was, and I quote: being friends with all the snakes and not with us lightsided wizards. "
Then she addressed all the students around her:
"For all those who are stupid enough to believe Mr Weasley's accusations here, Mr Potter and his friends all spent the evening at Sir Nicholas' deathday party. There are around three hundred ghosts, including all house ghosts, who can verify that. And I myself picked them up from the party downstairs, they haven't been without supervision since before the beginning of the feast. And since we all saw Mr Filch during the feast in the Great Hall, I can tell you without doubt that neither one of those students was even remotely able to do this. Besides, there are probably no students able to petrify a human being. So I hope that not a single one of you, including you, Mr Weasley, will bring up those accusations ever again. Those who do will get detention with me and a loss of twenty points."
Severus, as well as Remus, Sprout, Flitwick, Hooch and Sinistra, basically all the teachers which were standing here, nodded in agreement. Dumbledore just sighed. Why was Ronald Weasley such a brainless idiot? He should have been Harry's friend, not biggest enemy.
Notes:
So, that's it. I do hope you liked it. Let me know about it in the comments and see ya all next week
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