章 320: 9
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.
Weeeee! Oof.
"If only our landing wasn't just a pile of bones, eh?" Sirius groans. "What is this place?"
"A dungeon underneath the castle, I believe." Fred grins. "This is pretty cool, if you can ignore those bones."
"How would a monster like the Beast of Slytherin survive on just rats?" George kicks around a few tiny skulls for emphasis. "Isn't it…I don't know, massive?"
I snap my fingers. "It's probably got a super-slow metabolism. Now stay focused."
"Right…" The two of them nod.
"I never knew something like this was underneath the castle." Percy breathes. "This is incredible…"
"It could do with some better drapes." Sirius mutters. "When do we see our guest of honor?"
Our party advances deeper into the chamber.
"If we see it we're going to have some problems." Harry mutters.
Percy catches the fear in Harry's voice. "What are we looking for? Besides Ron, I mean."
"A Basilisk. It kills with its eyes." Harry replies.
"Here we are." I breathe.
We've reached the massive gate that separates the outer chamber from the inner one. It is still ringed by triggerable rocket punches, though in the current lighting conditions they're near impossible to see.
I hold up a hand. "Harry, get that thing to open. Fred, George, get your triggers ready."
"Triggers?" Percy echoes. "What triggers?"
"These." Fred pulls what looks like a flashlight from his cloak.
"Looks like that muggle torch thing dad had." Percy mutters. "What do they do?"
They unleash the rocket punches at the target.
Harry hisses at the massive circular stone gate and gets it open.
I'm surprised that none of the rocket punches have been accidentally set off…though that's a little worrying in of itself. "Alright, stick to the walls."
So how do we stop ourselves from being insta-killed by the eyes?
I have a spell that detects reptiles. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't…at the end of the day I figure "keep eyes shut and listen to doomsnake" is a good enough alternative. Here's to hoping that I'm right.
"I don't know about you, but I'm terrified." Fred mutters.
I just realized that there's a surprising amount of natural light down here. Wonder why that is?
…
We advance along the massive…what would this place be described as? A tunnel? It's like a stone tunnel made to hold a four lane highway going both ways. It's huge.
It's a vault.
What did Salazar do down here, anyways?
Well, either way, we advance long enough down the only way forward until we come to a massive stone face at the end of the wall, much like the movie.
First off: Making a giant face of yourself is incredibly narcissistic, but hiding it in a chamber with incredibly limited access is not really pride.
Second: Ron is lying on the ground next to the black book.
"Ron!" The other four shouts and rush forward.
"It sucks souls, right?" Sirius asks me quickly as he puts a hand on Percy's collar. "That book thing."
Fred and George were out of reach.
"This is a trap." I hiss. "Take to the shadows."
"But-" Percy starts to say before Sirius strong-arms him away.
"I know, kid." Sirius says calmly. "But this is obviously a trap. Stay sharp, and he'll be alright."
Spoken from personal experience, it sounds like.
Percy seems to catch Sirius' tone, and settles down accordingly with his wand drawn.
So.
Big massive hallway:
Stone face is at the northern end.
Harry, Ron, Fred, George are in the center.
I'm in the southern right corner.
Percy and Sirius are in the southern left corner. All three of us are hiding behind statues.
…
[3rd Person Camera]
…
"Ron! Ron!" Harry yells, shaking his best friend roughly.
"Harry! Calm down." Fred says soothingly after giving his youngest brother a basic medical check. "Ron's just asleep."
"Magically, I bet." George points his wand at the wall at random. "Ash! What should we do?"
No response.
"…Ash?" Harry repeats hesitantly, his hand wandering to his wand.
Instead of a reply from the American, rope fly from the shadows and bind the three kids where they stand.
Surprised, the three of them struggle against the rope, but it only seems to tighten in response to their exertion. Figuring that out real quick, Fred and George stop and wait patiently for an opportunity…while Harry struggles himself to the point where he can no longer move.
"Well done, Pettigrew." The three of them hear a young man's voice from the shadows.
"Who's there?!" Harry demands.
"I must admit, I never expected to simply catch you like this, Harry Potter." A wispy, ghost-like Tom Riddle replies, striding to the center of the room. "It was far easier than I had anticipated."
"Amazing plot, really." Fred mutters. "You must've been a genius to plan this far ahead."
It was difficult to miss the sarcasm in Fred's voice, and Riddle's smirk widens accordingly. "But of course."
Peter Pettigrew, the short, somewhat fat bastard, sneaks up from the shadows and, with rat-like agility, takes the wands of the three tied up kids.
"Now then…where is your friend?" Tom Riddle smiles. "He certainly wouldn't abandon the three of you to die down here, would he?"
"Eh…" Fred shrugs (to the best of his ability). "He just might."
Hey! Ash sulks while putting a hand into his belt.
"Some friend." Pettigrew mutters with just a tinge of bitterness.
"I would have loved to speak with him." Riddle laughs. "But it looks like that is far from an option."
"Who are you? What do you want?" George demands.
"Silence." Riddle replies coldly. "I am speaking."
What an arsehat. George rolls his eyes.
"What did you do to Ron?" Harry demands.
"I used him as a lure." Riddle replies evenly. "Though it seems my catch has escaped me. Pettigrew, search for him."
"Yes sir." Peter stammers out, pointing his wand shakily at the darkness.
Che. Ash scowls. I wish this played out a little differently. "Wind o-"
"WORMTAIL!" Sirius roars from his hiding place and charges out with the full intent of murder.
Peter raises his wand in response. Sirius, while weakened, is stills significantly stronger physically. He crosses the distance befer Peter could cast and buries his fist in the small man's face, sending him flying.
"You little bastard." Sirius growls. "It's high time you got what's coming to you."
God dammit, Sirius. Ash can't help but think. He stays put.
"Oh…an old friend of his?" Riddle smirks. "My, Pettigrew, you've been untruthful."
Peter, using one of the stolen wands, fires a total petrification curse while scrambling to his feet.
Sirius blocks it with a shield charm. "You've got a little more bite now, Wormtail." He snarls. "Did all that crawling around finally give you a spine?"
Pettigrew's response is to squeak in terror and retreat closer to Ash's hiding spot.
"Good deal." Pettigrew hears and spins to face his new enemy, before his wand arm is suddenly blown upwards from a gust of wind.
"Wind of Sleep." Ash casts. Pettigrew's sensitive rat nose knocks him right out.
"Quite impressive." Riddle claps. "You fight with a talent I've never seen before."
…
[1st Person Camera]
…
Ok, now what?
I'm confronting Riddle, but he hasn't established himself as the primary enemy. I need him to talk to Harry properly.
That's kind of hard to do when he's out for us.
For now, task at hand. "It's not talent, Riddle. Just foresight."
"Indeed." Riddle nods, but I don't think he actually cares. "Think of all the good you could do…as my equal."
…
Really Riddle, Really?
Nobody besides us knows what's going on, but the people who looked could see the look of sheer disappointment on our face.
"Dude." I finally say. "You're literally a diary ghost. Being called 'equal' by you is incredibly insulting."
This is the part in the movie where the thematic music completely stops.
"What?" Riddle has a hard time believing what he just heard.
"I'm way beyond just your equal right now, kid." I point out…perhaps a little too crassly.
He's pissed. "It seems as if you've forgotten who you're talking to."
I grin. "Oh no, I haven't. I just don't care."
"You know him?" Fred and Sirius both ask.
"The dude lives in a diary." I point out. "Look, Riddle, just skip to the part where you summon your giant snake so we can tear it to ribbons."
Riddle is unamused. "You seem to have forgotten." He draws his name in burning letters in the sky. "Allow me to remind you exactly who you're speaking to."
He does the name rearranging thing.
Tom Marvolo Riddle - I Am Lord Voldemort
All in attendance are suitably shocked and horrified.
"Er…wait." I hold up a hand. "So when you introduce yourself, you say 'I am I am Lord Voldemort?'" My tone is one of extreme lightness, like I'm describing the weather.
"You care about the littlest things." Riddle mutters, though it seems like he's heard that comment before.
"How long did it take you to anagram it out, bud?" Keeping up tone. "Must've felt like a million dollars when you finally got something that looked cool, huh?"
Riddle growls.
So, fun fact about being an old, scary danger from yore: when the societal pressure of being afraid of you doesn't match your visual appearance of being an otherwise normal teenager, the danger goes away real fast.
"He looks pretty good for someone who is seventy years old." Percy notes. "What's this 'diary ghost' thing, anyway?"
"Don't ignore me!" Riddle barks.
"He's attached to that book thing. It's going to be tough, but if we can destroy it, we can get rid of him." I answer.
Harry and Sirius are suitably bewildered. Fred and George on the other hand…
"I think we can make something that works on the diary." Fred muses. "It's an enchanted book, right?"
"Why not just toss it into a fire?" George asks.
I just realized that I never tried tossing the book into a damn fire. I don't remember if that was ever tried in the original timeline though.
"You seem to believe that you can still leave here alive." Riddle smirks. "Do you realize where you stand?"
I've started concentrating magic power for the inevitable snake, so I just shrug.
Riddle's grin doesn't vanish, and he loudly hisses at something.
…
My god, the idea of someone loudly hissing is like the most anti-climactic thing to face. He went into a hardware store and bought out all of their upper case S letters.
Why do we have to concentrate magic power again?
Through experimentation I came across a serious problem with the Prismatic beam: it was a beam of light. Light can only be as powerful as its base source, and all things considered I'm not that powerful against biological targets.
More accurately: by the virtue of us not being a trained soldier or a homicidal maniac, we will unconsciously reduce the power of the beam when facing live targets.
Against something as naturally terrifying as a giant basilisk I'm considering terror induced power drops as a given. So, collecting extra power.
But how are you concentrating power?
Uh…magic?
But
Shh pay attention to the plot
…fine. We hear a rumbling that seems to be all around us.
"Hoo…that's not good." Fred mutters while shaking off the cut pieces of magical rope around him (Percy cut them free). "Ash? Do you have a plan?"
Blast them to pieces? I'm concentrating.
"Move away from that face." Sirius orders. "Keep your eyes closed and your ears open!" He then tosses the wands he retrieved from Pettigrew back to the kids.
He also glared at Pettigrew's sleeping body for a few seconds before apparently making a decision he wasn't happy with.
Sirius revives Pettigrew.
"On your feet, Wormtail." Sirius orders as Pettigrew groans back to life. "Or you'll be eaten."
"S-Sirius…" Pettigrew gasps.
"It's coming!" Harry yells before turning around to face away from the giant stone head.
"Front and Center, Ash!" Sirius yells a few seconds later, with the last word of his warning eaten up by the Basilisk's warcry.
On the plus side, I now know his mouth is open. "Eat shit and die!" I roar.
Three layers of prismatic lens align and we fire a ray bright enough to turn everyone blind.
Judging by how much yelling there is we might've actually turned everyone blind.
Well, everyone except the ones who had their eyes open.
So basically just Wormtail and Ghost Riddle, but since Riddle is a ghost, just Wormtail.
And the basilisk?
…
[3rd Person Camera]
…
Ash collapses to his knees after firing his prismatic ray.
"Bloody hell, Ash." Fred mutters. "Nothing could survive that." His eyes are still closed.
"It takes more than just bright light to defeat my basilisk!" Riddle yells towards the wall, away from where Ash actually was. "You may have blinded him, but it takes far more than just a parlor trick to defeat the Beast of-"
Ash, inherently distrustful of Riddle's claims that the snake that can kill with its eyesight has lost said eyesight, didn't bother opening his eyes.
Instead, he yelled "Fred! George! Triggers!"
The two of them were surprised by Ash's yell but caught on fast enough. They activate their triggers and flatten themselves on the ground.
"Sirius! Perce! Hit the deck! Now!" Ash yells next while dragging Harry to the floor.
Sirius obliges well enough (taking Percy down with him) and they leave Wormtail and Ghost Riddle standing in confusion.
For a second, nothing happened.
And then the dungeon sky…airspace…filled with a thousand rocket-propelled stone drill-fists (some of which turned into smaller fists upon impact per George's imagination) and all of them flew towards the general direction of the basilisk currently reeling in pain.
"What in blazes?" Ghost Riddle, who was unharmed by the flying fists of fury, exclaims.
Wormtail was small enough and knew how to get out of the way and was thus mostly unharmed.
The Basilisk got its face punched in repeatedly by fast moving drill-tipped fists.
Unfortunately Ash couldn't figure out how to get the drills to work like drills.
…
[1st Person Camera]
…
Did I get it? Did we get it?
Is it dead?
Open your eyes and find out?
Fuck no.
Uh…
Cast…detect light.
What?
I use a spell to pick up reflected light (while casting a light source as well). It's about the best reptile-detection technique I can think of.
…You do realize that this isn't a videogame with shiny specular maps, right?
Yeah, yeah…it does work pretty well, though. I'm picking up a vaguely snake-like shape in front of me, and judging by the shape of the hole its mouth is open.
…Based on the twitchy movement pattern of the beast, it's taken quite a lot of damage and is stunned…
"You bastard! How dare you injure MY pet?!"
…or Riddle could offer commentary. That works too. I don't necessarily trust him, but as a generically evil bad guy he's all about chewing the scenery and less about making said chewing work for him.
Whatever that means.
I have one last little trick left to play. Too bad this one requires a dancing buddy, though. "Sirius, you there?"
"Yeah." I hear in reply, followed by a low groan. "Goodness, Ash. You're quite violent for a boy." I hear two footsteps, so he's probably on his feet now.
"Can you get ready to cast? We need to finish the monster first." I ask him.
"It's a tad hard to do that with my eyes closed." Sirius chuckles. "Just my arm is fine, right?"
"Yeah, it's fine." I reply. "I can aim it; just do what I tell you."
"You're a tad young to be a boss, don't you think?" Sirius levels his wand somewhe…forward. It's pointing directly forward.
Let's see…
"Whoa." He murmurs as I begin directing his arm with wind. "Where did you learn how to do this?"
"Magic." I reply automatically (and get a sigh from Fred and George as a result). "Ok, target marked. Sirius, make a spear or something and throw it as hard as you can on the same trajectory as your arm."
"NO!" Riddle yells, utterly ineffectual in his ghost-like state…or he could use parseltongue and warn the snake, that works too.
"Yes." Sirius says flatly, pleasantly, and simply, and fires something heavy at the Snake.
We hear some savage hissing, I see the snake head image thrash about as best as it could in its death throes before it stops moving.
…
It…its dead now, right?
Riddle?
"How…how dare a mere mudblood…" He says in a voice full of cold rage.
So I'm guessing the snake's dead as shit now.
And then we open our eyes and find out that the Basilisk can kill us even when it's dead. GG.
No.
Looks like Sirius opted to go for the thorough route. There's a massive stone pillar (I assume with a sharpened spike) nailing the Basilisk's open mouth to the stone face, and a myriad of smaller stone spikes all over its face, with quite a few of them perforating the eyes.
Shame, really. I would've liked to study the eyes later.
Riddle's just standing there utterly livid…
…how's he maintaining physical form? None SHIT
"PETER!" I roar.
Though Sirius picks up on my shout and wheels around, the little guy's long gone.
Son of a bitch.
"You won't hear the last of me, mudblood." Riddle spits at me. "I'll see you dead." He then fades from existence.
I assume, since I don't see a little black book lying around, that Pettigrew took the damn thing.
Shit.
Hmm…this would've resolved better had I not been involved, I imagine. Oh well, what's done is done.
Also, take note of the Basilisk's teeth.
What?
"Well, Pettigrew fucked that up for us." I sigh. "Can you carry Ron, Prefect?"
Percy blinks in surprise. "Uh…yes, of course." He glances at the basilisk corpse. "Is it alright to leave that there?"
"We're not carrying a giant dead snake through the castle." I reply tiredly…it's pretty late, isn't it? "Besides, our mission objective is complete, we're going home." My adrenaline is draining. Hoo.
…
As we make our way back up the tunnel we realize…two things.
One: it's awfully nice of Pettigrew to leave our rope uncut.
Two: I just realized that since the Basilisk wasn't technically attacking us his teeth would thus not be coated in venom. Ergo I would need to dig out its venom sacks if I want to make use of the venom in the future.
Two and a half: I should research into the venom and see what I can find out about it. We've actually got a little while to go before the school year ends, too…
As everyone leaves, no one notices the little ratty mass huddled in a dark corner of the massive Chamber of Secrets. Say what you want about Peter–his skill at hiding has been honed to perfection.
…
[Later]
…
So apparently Fred and George could not keep a secret and now everyone knows I punched a giant basilisk to death a thousand times.
I think they were trying to hide the fact that we had unknowns in the dungeon with us, but…their method of hiding the truth has some issues.
To hide a tree, burn it to cinders.
Sigh.
So this means I'm now the center of attention, which is good for Harry, since he gets to live like a normal person for once.
It also means that I "accidentally" Fus-Ro-Dahed my way past a gaggle of first years blocking my way to class. I didn't think that through too well, because now I'm a monster killer with a fearsome voice.
Fortunately, I…annexed, the Chamber of Secrets, so now I have a place to hide.
Myrtle also took up residence in the Chamber. She's disturbingly clingy.
Ron was shaken but otherwise fine. He's a bit miffed at the loss of his pet rat though.
Harry promised to buy him a new pet but he steadfastly refused.
…
Well, this is ultimately an egocentric story, so let's get on with it.
Concerning the basilisk:
I reported the corpse to Dumbledore, and he seemed genuinely surprised that his castle had a doomsnake inside it. He knew that something dangerous was operating either in or around the castle after the last time the chamber opened, but he didn't know exactly what it was.
Then again, if the castle is magical and shifting constantly it's easy to understand how Dunny would've missed the carefully hidden doomsnake.
I feel like the only reason we were able to kill it so easily (and by extension how Harry would've been able to kill it so easily in the normal timeline) was because the snake has been starving for the past fifty years.
Anyways.
The corpse itself is being handled by Hagrid after its venom sacks have been removed and stored carefully for further examination. Snape took one, I took the other.
Winner's rights.
So.
Basilisk Venom.
…
It's overhyped.
...
Or, more specifically…
Actually, let's back up for a second. I asked Snape to do the basic assessment for me since he knows potions and magical lore much better than I do…plus, he has more access to supporting gear than I do.
Professor Snape, quite happy at getting his hands on something as rare as Basilisk venom, sullenly agreed to do the examination.
Alright, now we can list things out.
First off, Basilisk venom is actually not that venomous. By itself it acts as a mild neurotoxin, capable of causing labored breathing as the strongest symptom. Thus, the immediate danger of the venom comes more from the fact that the Basilisk's teeth deals more damage and causes death by bleeding.
It's kind of like a cat in that sense: a cat releases some kind of toxin upon bite that paralyzes its prey, but since cats hunt small animals the bigger danger is the fact that, say, a cat biting into a small mouse would involve the cat penetrating the mouse's body entirely with its fangs.
Note that the part about kitty venom is hearsay, and I don't remember where I heard it. Point is: big sharp teeth make big bleeding ouchies.
Thus, what makes basilisk venom incredibly dangerous is its ludicrously high magic concentration. Like…it's the equivalent to having a plutonium reactor injected into your body. It sucks.
We obviously have no way of verifying our comparisons.
That extreme magical concentration is what causes the damage…and now we go into 'weird magical bullshit' territory. To the best of Snape's examination and the documentation I've been able to find (and after doing some really tenuous extrapolation because magical documentation is horrendous) basilisk venom is 'magically destructive'.
I don't know if there's a technical term for it and I don't know enough chemistry to break the venom down for further study, so that's about all I know of it. I could send it to a lab or something for further testing, but that causes its own problems and puts me on the ministry's radar, so…meh.
So far as I can tell it's not possible to separate the non-magical portion of the poison from the magical part, so the information is only interesting from an academic standpoint.
Second, the venom is impossible to reproduce by any means except from the body of a basilisk. The natural magical concentration is way too high for any human (Dumbledore included) to attain. When the venom comes into contact with a Horcrux the high concentration magic of the venom just blasts the soul thingie to smithereens.
Plus the whole 'magically damaging' bullshit.
I assume this is why Fiendfyre is effective against Horcruxes as well: difference in magical concentration.
So this makes me wonder…would it be possible to craft anti-Horcrux munitions if we had the ability to concentrate magic power in high enough density? Obviously we can't make it as good as the venom, but if we could get an idea of how to measure the concentration value…
Given how difficult FiendFyre is to learn and control…
…the odds of us figuring out how to make the bullet through trial and error is literally impossible. Or, at least, impossible in the time frame of a few years.
Speaking of Fiendfyre, it's also a spell that requires immense concentration to cast.
Tangent time!
I didn't look too deeply into it, but Fiendfyre is basically a semi-active radar guided missile. The caster needs to have full concentration of it at all times and all of that concentration needs to be focused on killing its target. The instant the caster loses concentration the spell will slip and the caster needs to refocus to regain control.
I don't think we'll dive down this particular rabbit hole, since the counter to Fiendfyre (as casted by, say, Crabbe) would literally be something loud and annoying, followed by, say, a high-velocity bullet to the head.
In other words, the protection against Fiendfyre would literally be a handgun and Nyancat.
Sheesh.
Tangent over!
Back to the basilisk. I don't have a particular use for the rest of it, so it's being taken off the castle and sold to prospective apothecaries, with all profits going to the castle.
"You didn't want any of the money." Ron had commented with total disbelief. "Must be nice to be so rich."
I didn't feel like dealing with the fallout of telling him about my financial situation, so I just shrugged and moved on. Truth is, having magical money for me would actually be dangerous right now, as I have no place to store it.
Gringotts?
I don't know if the place collects interest.
Seriously…
Come to think of it, does the magical world deal with inflation at all?
Better question is, what's the economical link between the magical world and the real one.
…I wonder how Mrs. Weasley shops for groceries…though it's probably done at a conventional market. What's the exchange rate between a galleon and a pound? Where does the traded gold go? You can't transfigure food, right? So where're the staples like flour coming from?
So does this mean the Weasleys have a real bank account?
Hmm…
We're also assuming that the Magical world doesn't have its own dedicated economics system.
True.
The tangent ended several lines ago, mind you.
Oh, right.
…
Concerning the Chamber of Secrets. I plan to remodel it into something more fitting for a base of operations and workstation…the plan is still in its infancy though.
For the time being I'm just working on restructuring the place so it's not just a giant hallway with a face at the end.
…
I also found Basilisk eggs.
They were just chicken eggs though. Grade A, two dozen.
We gave 'em to the castle house elves.
…
[End of Year]
…
"I haven't seen you at breakfast since you killed that snake." Harry says with surprise.
"Yeah? I've been pretty busy." I yawn. "I never thought remodeling would be so hard."
I just have the house-elves deliver food to the Chamber while I'm down there. They were initially reluctant until I reassured them that the murdersnake was, in fact, no longer there.
We pretty much spend every waking hour in the chamber at this point, except when we need to attend classes.
Flitwick and McGonagall gave me 50 points for killing the giant serpent.
Snape gave me 10 for bringing him a Basilisk venom sac.
Percy, Fred, George, and Harry all got 25 apiece from Dumbledore for their heroic rescue of Ron.
We all got 10 for finding the Chamber of Secrets.
…and?
And…
Dunny gave me 300 for "Outstanding Services to the School" for killing the snake, 100 for "Outstanding Services to the Wizard Community" for the basilisk corpse and the hastily written paper on basilisk venom (per Snape's prodding, no less), and an extra 100 for "Demonstrating the Spirit of Hogwarts" by giving the money from the basilisk to the school.
And then he gave me an additional 50 because I split the reward money from the paper with Snape.
In other words, Dumbledore just bought like a theater full of spotlights and shone them all in my direction and now I can't go anywhere without being bothered.
In other words, until this issue blows over it'll be impossible for us to leave the country undetected.
McGonagall was beaming so hard and all I felt was annoyance. Bah. Like I'm happy for her being happy, but…
Lockhart also tried to get me into a book deal. I know enough about him to know that it was a shitty idea.
Lockhart's also quitting the job, though I don't remember the reasons.
…I think the one good thing right now is that since I'm constantly swarmed by people I'm in less danger from having Lockhart suddenly sneak up and try to blow my memories out.
Not that it can't happen, mind.
He tried about a week after we left the Chamber. Though he's certainly skilled with memory charms, he can't out-cast our sucker punch + wind of sleep combo.
It's the most practical thing I have, I think. It takes me about 0.2 seconds to shoot a sucker punch at a wand, and 2 seconds to fire a wind of sleep.
…
Now for the big one: Sirius.
I've had a chat with Dumbledore concerning Sirius Black.
Sometime between the end of the fight and right now, Dunny received a letter from the Ministry of Magic concerning Sirius's escape from Azkaban.
"I imagine that he was in attendance in your battle against the basilisk?" Dumbledore had asked.
"Yep. Were it not for him we would've been much worse off." I nod.
"I see…" Dumbledore sighs. "I must apologize for the current attention you're receiving, young Ash."
I laugh. "It is a little annoying, but it's better than…well."
We stopped short of mentioning the event and Sirius in name just in case if some of the portraits were connected to the ministry.
"I understand." Dunny nods sagely. "It seems that next year there will be undue consequences for the school, now that Sirius Black is on the run."
Murmurs from the pictures.
"Ain't that a hoot." I mutter. "I just hope the ministry doesn't go overboard."
"Considering who is at danger…who might be at danger, it is entirely probable that they will." Dumbledore nods. "I want you to promise that you will…ah…be more careful, next year."
Are they planning to send out Dementors already…? "Aye aye, sir." I say with a salute. "It's a bit of a non-sequitur, but can I stay at Hogwarts over the summer?"
Dumbledore looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. I avoid the gaze. "While I understand that you have an immense undertaking currently in progress, Hogwarts does not support students in the summer."
Darn.
He pokes our brain about the diary we found for a few minutes afterwards.
…
Before I left Dunny's office though, he got my attention one last time. "Again, young Ash, I'd like to formally apologize for placing you in the limelight."
I had to think on it for a bit before I figured it out. "It makes Harry's summer a little easier, right? I'm ok with it."
…
Well, in the end Sirius still has to be on the run. We (I) can't provide any information to help him until his escape is at least 'official', because Fudge's incompetence knows no bounds.
I've suggested to him that he at least escape overseas for the summer, but he seems to have other plans in mind.
Mm…oh well. He's smart and resourceful, so it shouldn't be too bad.
"You alright there?" Ron asks and brings me back up to present time.
We were just sitting there not doing anything.
"Yeah." I say blankly and dig into the food.
He doesn't believe me.
…
What other notable things happened?
Uh…
Oh!
Right.
We met Malfoy Senior, as he wanted to do a tour of the school to ensure that the doomsnake is actually gone. "To ensure the safety of the student body, we should not leave things to chance", as he put it.
In my month of construction I removed the original entrance (via blowing it up) and replaced it with one of my own. In other words: instead of it being a hidden entrance it's now just a hole in the ground with a pole sticking out.
We probably should add some kind of security to the entrance at a later date.
Our current form of front-door security involves just the 'out-of-order' sign on the bathroom.
Either way, this is another point of divergence: because I lost the diary we had no evidence to actually pin it on Malfoy Senior, which might not be that bad of a thing in the long run.
Also, through careful manipulation and masterful deception, we were able to free Dobby despite the lack of hard evidence.
In other words…
…I made a fake Riddle's diary and had Harry put a sock in it. I then gave it to Malfoy Senior and said "this is a replica of what we believe is the culprit of the issue."
He…just threw me a dirty look and then tossed it aside for Dobby to catch and emancipate himself with.
As a tangent, I wonder about the rate of accidental house elf freedom if all it takes for them to be free is for the master to accidentally leave around a piece of clothing. Does that mean house elves can never do laundry?
They can never have alternative outfits either, I guess? Since giving them an article of clothing is considered freeing them.
So…can they be accidentally un-freed or something? I dunno.
House elves are weird, Dobby is weird.
Malfoy Senior tried to kill us.
Despite hearing from the ENTIRE SCHOOL that we killed the Beast of Slytherin.
It didn't end well for him.
Dobby didn't move to protect my life though, so I had to do the morally upstanding thing of shattering the man's wand into his arm.
…
…
We done?
We're done, only a few last notes left.
Number one: Harry has been unofficially adopted by the Weasleys and will be spending time with them over the holidays. Per the situation, the security around the Burrow has been greatly increased.
Number two: Mrs. Weasley extended an invitation to me as well. I couldn't rightfully refuse as her invitation was given while we were in a smothering hug that could've easily turned into a chokehold.
Which meant that Number Three: I had to get Sirius to act as my guardian so I could move away from the Burrow after a few days.
…
So what are we going to do about Peter? If he gives his…whatever it is, to the little black book we could easily be looking at a situation where we have two Voldemorts alive at once.
I wonder if that means that the other Horcruxes share the same life-draining ability?
Only if you open up to it, right? It's kind of hard to intentionally share the innermost secrets of the soul with something that doesn't talk back.
That being said, I don't think Peter is the kind of person who would actually share his secrets, so we should be ok there.
What if the Diary asks to be planted elsewhere?
Hmm…
At the end of the day, the question is: can we risk letting Peter go free for a year while he knows about what's going on? Can we leave the diary alone while Riddle knows what's going on?
Moreover, there's Voldemort's main body still out there somewhere.
…
I can't help but feel like I've won the battle but lost the war here.
He thinks, while Arthur Weasley drives his family plus us back to the Burrow.
.
.
.
{ === + === }
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