Keep Me In Your Memory

Chapter Nineteen- The Chamber of Secrets

Hermione remained in the Hospital Wing for several weeks. Harry, Haiden, and Neville visited her everyday, sometimes Luna and Myari would accompany Harry while he visited. The first time Harry and Haiden sat with Hermione without anyone else there, it was very awkward. Neither boy knew how to act around each other, and probably would have sat in silence trying to avoid looking at each other the whole visit had Hermione not demanded they talk to each other.

And Harry did not expect the very first thing from his brother's mouth to be a very sincere and tearful apology and explanation of why he had acted like he did. This caused Harry to tear up and nearly launch himself across Hermione's hospital bed to crawl into his brother's lap and hug him. After a good, long crying session from both brothers, the three of them talked about everything with Harry refusing to get off his brother's lap, not that his brother tried to move him.

With Hermione's help, Harry and Haiden slowly began to get closer again. And when Harry found out about them dating he was so happy for them and told them he supported them. As did Myari, Luna, the Weasely Twins, and even; surprisingly enough; Draco. Hermione had even gotten Harry to agree to help search for clues about where the chamber could be after she got him to tell her and Haiden about his nightmare.

When the rest of the school returned for the next term, there was a flurry of rumors about Hermione's disappearance, most of them about Harry attacking Hermione. And no matter how much Haiden tried to defend Harry, no one believed him. And the whole situation became a clusterfuck once Ron was allowed to come back. The second Ron found out about Hermione being in the Hospital Wing, he hunted Harry down and probably would have attacked him again if Haiden hadn't been there to defuse the situation. Harry was kind of happy that Ron was focused on him, instead of Hermione and Haiden's budding relationship. Because he had a feeling that had Ron been able to focus on it he would have destroyed the budding relationship with his jealousy.

After the first time Ron visited Hermione at the same time as Harry and caused a huge scene that distressed Hermione, Haiden and Harry silently agreed to not visit at the same time seeing as Ron would only visit with Haiden. They began to take turns and slowly made a schedule that would have them passing each other to and from the Hospital Wing. And whenever Harry wasn't with Hermione he was searching for the Ravenclaw student that died when Dumbledore was a teacher. And weeks after school started, he found the student. Her name was Myrtle Elizabeth Warren, she had only been 14 when she died.

Harry was walking down the hallway that led to the bathroom Myrtle was rumored to occupy when something strange began to happen. The walls around him started to bend and twist, and his head started to pound and felt as if there was something trying to break out of his mind. With every step closer he got to the bathroom, the worse everything became and spider web cracks began to form around the edge of his sight causing him to sway, stumble, and crash into the walls with every few steps he managed to take. Harry had made it right outside the bathroom door when everything exploded.

He fell to his knees as he yelled in pain, it felt as if that something was clawing it's way out of his head. And with the pain came flashes of images. None of them made sense. Some were of a young man with short, black hair and dark, haunted eyes in a Slytherin robe writing in a journal. Some were of Ginny Weasely writing in what appeared to be the same journal. Some were of the young man talking with an elderly, balding man. And every now and then he would see a beautiful woman with long, wavy red hair and bright emerald green eyes dying in a flash of green light.

After what felt like an eternity, he heard a familiar voice. The voice both freaked him out and calmed him down at the same time, because it was the same voice that had possessed him last year. The voice had a soothing effect on him, like a cold balm on hot flesh. But the voice wasn't alone, it brought a separate presence in his mind, sweeping through it taking both the pain and the images and the thing trying to claw out to the back of his mind.

Build a box. The voice whispered. Build a box around the pain and images. Use the box to keep them out.

Harry tired to do what the voice wanted, but it was hard. But the box kept being destroyed by the thing trying to claw it's way out of his mind.

The box needs to be stronger than that. The voice told him.

Harry didn't know how to make the box stronger, and after a few more failed attempts the presence took pity and wrapped around him and gently showed him how to make the box stronger. After the box was built he felt the presence pat him on the head and for just a split second Harry could swear he saw two figures standing in front of him, one of the figures had what looked to be wings. But both figures disappeared before he could be sure.

Right after the two figures disappeared another appeared, this one was a woman with long dark hair and kind, yet firm hazel eyes. When she noticed him looking at her, she smiled kindly at him and looking remarkably like Myari. "Do not be frightened." She told him softly as she slowly made her way closer to him. "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm only here to help you."

"With what?" Harry asked never taking his eyes off her. "Who are you?" He asked as an afterthought.

"I am Krystan Rose. Mimi's mother." She informed him pausing in her quest to him.

"Who?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes at her.

"Sorry, I suppose she does not go by that name here, I mean Myari. Mimi is the name we call her in our tribe." Krystan informed him.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked. "Are you not suppose to be leading your tribe?" Krystan laughed at this.

"Yes, I am the Chieftain of my tribe, but I am also a powerful mind healer. I was brought in to help heal your mind so that you can return to your friends." Krystan told him with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Heal my mind?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we are in your mind right now." Krystan said gesturing around them. Harry looked around and finally noticed he was in what seemed to be his cupboard, but there were now claw marks and larges chunks missing from the walls, ceiling, and floor, the box he had built was nowhere in sight. "This is, what we mind healers like to call, your mind palace. A place you can go to escape reality to hide when you feel threatened or scared. Some use it to store memories or information." Krystan informed suddenly sitting next to him on the cot.

"Why does it look like my cupboard." Harry asked pulling his knees to his chest. "And what happened to it?"

"Your mind palace takes the form of whatever you want it to." Krystan explained.

"If that is so, why this cupboard and not my dorm room?" Harry asked as he looked around the small, destroyed space.

"I do not know what connection you have with this cupboard, and you do not have to tell me, but somewhere deep inside you feel safer here than anywhere else." Krystan informed Harry who stayed silent in thought. Did he really feel safer here than in at Hogwarts? For the first 11 years of his life this room represented torment, abuse, and hate. Yet, Harry thought, he was never attacked or abused in this room, just tossed into it. His relatives rarely ever entered the cupboard, so he could see why he would feel safer in here.

"Why does it look like this?" Harry asked.

"Your mind was attacked by something. It nearly destroyed your mind and by extension you. You were found outside the second floor girls restroom by a Miss Ginny Weasely, you were convulsing and your magic was lashing out at an invisible foe, you frightened her greatly. You were brought to the Hospital Wing, only to be transferred St Mungo's when it was revealed that you were trapped in your mind, fighting your invisible foe." Krystan explained.

"My mind was attacked?" Harry asked in shock, "What attacked me?"

"We do not know. You would not let anyone in your mind for weeks, I can only guess you were trying to protect us from whatever you were fighting. I am only here now because you allowed me in." Krystan told him. "You're mental shields are unusually strong for someone of your age, do you study Occlumency?"

"Study what?" Harry asked and Krystan gently laughed.

"From your answer I can safely say the answer is no. Occlumency is the art of magically shielding your mind. It is very rare, rarer that a natural born Legilimens, but with how strong your mental shields are, you could be a natural born Occlumens." Krystan informed him seriously before smiling and clapping her hands together. "Now, let us start healing your mind so that you can leave it and joins us back in reality."

~Keep Me In Your Memory~

Weeks after being able to leave his mind palace, Krystan and the other healers at St Mungo's finally released Harry to go back to Hogwarts and found that many things had happened while he had been gone.

First: Haiden and Ron had stumbled upon a magical journal that someone had tried to flush down the girl's toilet in the second floor bathroom, flooding the whole floor the very same day Harry's mind had been attacked.

Second: Haiden had stupidly began writing in the book and the soul that was trapped in the book showed him a memory of Hagrid getting accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets by a Slytherin 6th year named Tom Riddle.

Third: Cornelius Fudge, the Minister, and Lucius had come to the school to arrest Hagrid on suspicion of Opening the Chamber 'again' and attacking students. Haiden had in formed him that him and Ron had been hiding under his invisibility cloak in Hagrid's hut when he was arrested and was told by Hagrid to 'Follow the spiders'.

Fourth: Haiden and Ron had been stupid enough to actually follow the spiders into the Forbidden Woods. They met with Aragog, a gigantic talking Spider that informed them that he was not the 'Monster' from the Chamber and they him and his children feared the 'Monster' and actually flee from it. And then nearly got killed by Aragog and his children.

Fifth: Hermione had gotten petrified while trying to searching what the 'Monster' could be, even though she already knew what it was. And, though she had ended up petrified, she had been able to 'figure it out'. Or so Ron and Haiden thought because they found a crumpled up piece of paper on the Basilisk with the word "Pipes" elegantly written on top of the page. And had Harry not known Hermione would never have ripped out a page from a book, nor seen the handwriting, he might have believed she had ripped the page out of a book. But he did know and had seen the handwriting and knew it had been Draco who had figured it out.

Six: Everyone now believes that Harry is innocent since this all happened when he was not at the school. And though Harry was glad about this, he was getting sick and tired of people approaching him and telling him they 'had never truly believed he had been the one to attack everyone'.

Seventh, and final: Ginny had been taken to the Chamber so that "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever".

~Keep Me In Your Memory~

Harry ran towards the bathroom he had collapsed in front weeks before, it was time to put an end to this. He was going to find Haiden who he knew was going to try and fight this Basilisk to not only defend Hermione but also save Ginny. Harry got to the room and threw the door open and found Haiden and Ron with his wand pointed at a terrified Lockhart talking Myrtle. All of them looked at Harry, shocked to see him.

"Let me guess, you're here asking how Myrtle died." Harry asked ask as he calmly walked over to the group.

"How did you-?" Haiden started.

"It's not hard to figure that out." Harry said before turning to look at Myrtle. "May I take a guess at how you died?" Myrtle giggled and nodded.

"I'm guessing you were in this bathroom when someone came in, an older boy? He hissed something out and then you died?" Harry asked.

"Yes!" Myrtle cried excitedly. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking, just as you said Harry! So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then-" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?" Haiden asked.

"I don't know." Myrtle whined out glaring at Haiden. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body seized up, and then I floated away…" She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"I'm sure she was." Harry said with a gentle smile causing Myrtle to giggle again. "May I ask, did you see these eyes any where near the sink?"

"Yes actually. I did see them somewhere there." Myrtle said pointing at the sink in front of her toilet.

"Thank you." Harry said before moving over to the sink and examined every inch if it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny Snake.

"That tap's never worked." Myrtle said brightly as he tried to turn it. Harry smiled at her before turning back to look back at the sink and took a deep breath. He was sure this was the entrance to the Chamber, he pictured a living snake in front of him.

"Open up." He hissed in Parseltongue shocking Myrtle.

"That's the language the boy spoke!" She cried as the tap began to glow a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. The second Harry had seen the pipe he suddenly remembered his nightmare and fear began to take the place of his determination to help his brother.

"You okay?" His brother asked as he stepped up beside him.

"I'm going down there." Harry said and before he could change his mind he jumped into the pipe. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as this one, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear the girlish scream of who he could only assume was Gilderoy Lockhart.

And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Knowing he had only seconds before Lockhart came shooting out of the pipe, he rolled out the the way and seconds later Lockhart took his place. Harry grabbed Lockhart's cloak and yanked him out of the way just as Haiden shot out of the pipe followed closely by Ron.

"We must be miles under the school." Haiden said, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably." Ron muttered quinting around the dark slimy walls. All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead. Before the others could bring up their wands, Harry snapped his fingers and magically summoned a ball of light that floated over his head.

"C'mon." Harry said, they needed to start moving forward before he allowed his fear to cause him to move away. And off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the light.

"Remember," Haiden said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away…" But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry magically lowered the ball of light to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying hard to not let his fear control him, Harry lead the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Haiden - there's something up there -" Ron said hoarsely. They all froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep." Haiden breathed.

"Stay here." Harry ordered before he began to inch closer to the thing before Haiden could stop him.

"Who made him boss." He heard Ron angrily whisper as he did so, thanks to the echo.

"He's the only one that can speak to it." Haiden whispered back as Harry stopped inching closer when he got as close as he dared. But he could still barely make what it was out.

"Which makes him dangerous. What's stopping him from ordering it to kill us." Ron quietly hissed as Harry called some magic to his eyes to enhance them.

"He's my brother, and I trust him." Haiden told Ron causing warmth to fill Harry. And thanks to his magic enhancing his eyes, Harry was able to tell that it was just the skin. It wasn't alive.

"It's alright." Harry called back to them. "It's just it's skin." He let go of the magic in his eyes to magically move the ball of light over the skin. Now that it was lit up, they all saw the gigantic snake skin of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The Basilisk that shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey." Ron said weakly as the rest of the group came up beside Harry. There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way. "Get up." Ron ordered pointing his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet - then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Haiden went to jump forward, but Harry stopped him seeing that it was too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's broken wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his ashen face.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" He said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's Spellotaped want high over his head and yelled "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Out of instinct, Harry quickly raised a shield around both him and his brother just seconds before the magical backwave hit them sending them both flying over the skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, the twins were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.

"Ron!" Haiden shouted stumbling over to the wall. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock-fall. "I'm okay - this git's not, though - he got blasted by the wand -" There was a dull thud and a loud 'ow!' It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins. "What now?" Ron's voice asked, sounding desperate. "We can't get through - it'll take ages…" Haiden suddenly turned to look at Harry who had just finished summoning another ball of light, his other one was on Ron's side of the wall.

"You're magically powerful, can't you, I don't get rid of this wall?" Haiden asked. Harry looked at the structure of the tunnel around the wall, the ceiling had large cracks, and the walls didn't look any better.

"Not unless you want the rest of the tunnel to come crashing down on us." Harry told his brother who sighed.

"Lying git." He hard Ron call from the other side, and even though Harry knew Ron was talking about him, he chose to believe he was talking about Lockhart.

"Shite. We're wasting time. Ginny's already been in the Chamber for hours." Haiden muttered and Harry chose not to comment on his language, it was a desperate situation. "Wait there, Ron." Haiden called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on… If we're not back in an hour…" There was a very pregnant pause.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock." Ron said, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can - you can get back through. And, Harry, you better not be tricking Haiden so you can kill him, because if you are -"

"See you in a bit." Haiden said cutting Ron's threat off quickly as he grabbed Harry's hand and began to quickly walk past the rest of the giant snake skin. And as soon as the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone Haiden slowed to a stop with his head bowed.

"Harry-" Haiden started but Harry cut him off by taking the lead and practically dragged Haiden forward. They couldn't stop, for if they did Harry would find away to head back to the safety of Draco.

"Don't worry." Harry said as he forced himself to keep moving forward. "No matter what happens I'll make sure both you and Ginny get out safely." He vowed.

"And you as well." Haiden said. "You'll be leaving with us." The memory of his death in his nightmare played on repeat in his mind as Harry turned to look at his brother with hollow eyes and an empty smile.

"Of course." Harry said, and maybe his body would leave with them, but Harry felt certain that he would not leave the Chamber alive.

It didn't take the boys long until they made their way to another wall, this one had two entwined serpents carved on it, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds. Harry let go of his brother's hand to walk up to the wall, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snake were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. Harry could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seem to flicker, as if they had just turned their attention to him.

"Open." Harry ordered in Parseltongue. The serpents seemed to smirk at him before they parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot with both fear and excitement, walked inside with his brother following him, just like in his nightmare.