Revelations and Retributions
It was hard to spread the new knowledge among the Heralds. Notes passed in class, whispers at meals, and quick comments while passing each other in the halls was the most they could do. Harry flung himself into studying the Protean charm, almost on Hermione’s behalf, planning ahead for a potential project that would let them talk across distances, for times when they couldn’t just meet in the Nook.
A thought in the back of Harry’s head had him worried that Ozzy was feeling lonely.
Or so he thought, until he heard that after Hermione’s petrification, many of the Heralds were suddenly sneaking out at night, retreating to the Nook to study, to research, to plan.
It all came to fruition one evening at dinner, when Harry was poking idly at cauliflower he had no appetite for.
He didn’t hear the slapping of uniform shoes on the floor of the Great Hall until they ended behind him.
Harry looked up at the sudden gust of wind, blinking at Hannah, who was clearly trying to catch her breath after running.
“Luna’s found something. The Nook. Now.”
Harry didn’t even spare a look to anyone as he got up to leave, Ron not even a step behind, even as Slytherin prefects were yelling after them.
They nearly fall through the door to the Nook, Ozzie hissing laughter. Harry’s gaze landed on the small blonde who was worrying at her lip.
“Luna?”
She looked heartbroken. “Hadrian, I’m sorry. I should have realized sooner.”
He immediately wrapped her in a hug. “Lu, it’s fine. What is it?”
She pulled out their favorite book, the full almanac of Scamander’s creatures. “I finally put the pieces together. Why you’ve been hearing voices. Why the roosters keep dying. Why the people are petrified but no one’s died. Why the spiders have been fleeing.” She flipped the book open to the page with a massive, feathered serpent.
She took a breath. “Hadrian, it’s a basilisk. Slytherin’s protection he left the school is a basilisk gone mad, and someone’s helping it.”
Harry stumbled, hand reaching up to smack his own forehead. “Blimey. It all makes sense, of course.” He leaned forward, scanning the text. “But how would it get around? The thing would be massive, after centuries of life.”
Luna looked fit to burst into tears. “The girl who died, Hadrian. Fifty years ago. She was a first gen named Myrtle. And she never left, not the school, not the spot where she died.”
Ron was the one who’s voice answered her unspoken question. “Moaning Myrtle. The girls bathroom. It’s using pipes.”
Harry set his jaw. “We need a game plan. Now. If the thing is going around petrifying students, we can’t rely on me talking to it. We don’t even know who it is that’s controlling the thing. C’mon Ron, surely one of the Slytherins will know the story of Myrtle.”
He pressed a kiss to Luna’s forehead. “You’re a blessing, Luna Lovegood. Get back to your common room, be safe, tell the other eagles what you found. I’ll come find you when all this is over.”
They left the Nook, not even bothering to use the cloak as they ran corner to corner, peering around to ensure they were alone.
They had just made it halfway across the castle when Harry stopped at the top of a staircase, looking down with a pensive expression.
“Harry?”
He blinked a few times, trying to push through the nerves and fear in his stomach as he looked back at a worried Ron.
He swallowed dryly. “I want to go see Hermione. And Justin. Just...” He took a breath. “Just in case.”
“There won’t be a ‘just in case’, Harry. We don’t even have to fix this. We could let the adults handle the death gauntlet this year. We could…” Ron looked up, trying to compose himself. “We could just go back to the common room and tell Avery everything we know.”
“Adults like Lockhart? Like Dumbledore?” Harry shook his head. “I won’t leave Hermione and Justin’s fate to people who only help when it’s convenient, or easy.” He reached out blindly, hand on Ron’s arm. “There’s too much at stake to just stand by. I just…” Another breath. “I just need to see them. Let them know what’s going on, even if they can’t really hear me.”
Ron took his own shaky breath, and nodded. “Okay. Hospital Wing.”
They ran quickly, trying to ignore how each step shook, how each breath didn’t quite catch.
Harry stopped at the door, pressing his forehead to the wood as he tried to settle himself.
Silence fell as their breath evened out.
“We should have dropped out. We could have gone to live with Charlie, seen Norbert.” His voice was barely audible, even in the dead silence of the castle.
Ron smiled, looking heartbroken. “Norberta. I forgot to tell you, he told me Norbert was actually a girl.”
Harry laughed. “I told Hagrid I didn’t think it was a boy.”
“Hagrid needs to listen to you.”
“Be sure to tell him that if he ever gets out of Azkaban.”
They fell silent again, tension heavy in the air.
“Ready?” Ron asked, running a hand up to Harry’s shoulder.
“I don’t want to see her like this. I definitely don’t want this to be the last time I see her.”
Ron wrapped Harry in a hug from behind. “Please don’t talk like that.”
Harry nodded. “Sorry. Let’s go.”
They pulled the door open, barely enough room for them to squeeze through. Pomfrey wasn’t in the main room, but Harry thought he could hear noise from the office in the back.
He paid no mind as he walked to the two beds his friends were in, going between them and sitting stiffly on Justin’s mattress.
Ron followed, perching on Hermione’s.
“Hey, guys.” Harry’s voice echoed throughout the room. He absentmindedly reached for the book on Hermione’s nightstand, the one she had when she was found. “We found out what did this to you.” He sniffed. “You two would be so proud, we solved the mystery. Luna did most of the work. You’ll really have to take her under your wing when you wake up, Mione, she’s wicked smart, even if she doesn’t always make sense.” He started flicking through pages.
Ron chuckled. “Ginny, too. Merlin, those two will take over the castle if we don’t keep an eye on them.”
Harry stifled a sob when he opened Hermione’s book to the bookmark just peeking out of the pages.
The Nimue card that he had given her on the train to school their first year.
It was starting to get well-worn, slightly soft around the edges from the apparent daily use as the bookmark.
Harry took a deep breath and closed the book, turning back to his friends.
“Justin, Hannah actually broke school rules today, she and Luna snuck into the Nook to do research. She was so worried about you she forgot we weren’t allowed to go anywhere outside of class, the Great Hall, and our common rooms.”
“And Susan’s written to her aunt at least six times since you’ve been in here.” Ron murmured. “We aren’t sure why Aurors haven’t shown up to check things out. I’m sure Amelia will hear an earful once we get out for the summer.”
“Gerard, too. Marcus hasn’t heard anything from his da since Yule. Snape was right. It’s almost as if…” Harry looked towards Ron. “It’s almost as if letters aren’t getting in or out.”
Ron looked back with a sigh. "Can the headmaster really do that?”
Harry shrugged. “Or the house elves on his behalf. I’m sure he’s trying to keep things under wraps.”
A sound from the office made them both jump.
“Priorities, later.” Ron stood. “We should go.”
“Yes, you should.” The boys looked back at the office to see Pomfrey standing there, hands on her hips. “I don’t know what part of curfew you two don’t understand, but it’s time to return to your common room. Be glad I don’t permanently ban you from visiting after the chaos you caused last week. Say your goodbyes.”
Ron patted each of their friends briefly, before backing up.
Harry, eyes dead, pressed a kiss to both of their stone cold foreheads before standing. “We’ll be back soon enough. Hopefully you’ll be awake, and we can freak out about how stupid I am together.”
Harry gave Pomfrey a shallow bow, and the two boys turned to leave.
The infirmary doors had just closed behind them when McGonagall’s amplified voice echoed through the castle.
“All students return to your common rooms immediately. Prefects will need to take attendance. All staff members, mandatory meeting in the faculty office at once. I repeat, all students to their common room, all staff to the faculty office immediately.”
“Something must have happened. Something more serious than a petrification,” Ron whispered into Harry’s ear.
Harry nodded. “Should we?”
“We’re right by the faculty wing. Wouldn’t be hard to sneak in now, before all the professors start showing up.”
Harry reached into his bag, pulling out the cloak. “Let’s go.”
A few minutes later, the two of them were wrapped in the cloak, under a side table in the faculty office, just as McGonagall and a few of the other professors began filing in.
“Minerva, what’s going on? Is it Albus? Is he coming back?”
“Did you discover the monster?”
“Did someone else get hurt?”
McGonagall held up her hands. “Patience, please. I’d rather only have to get through this once. Let us wait for the others.”
Harry and Ron didn’t move, not even risking shifting a leg when they went numb as faculty members began filing into the room.
Not even the teachers making a fool out of Lockhart could lighten their mood, as the weight in the air was near tangible, a fear that the adults just couldn’t lock down.
After Lockhart fled from the room, the door slamming closed behind him, the professors all turned to McGonagall.
“Who is it? Who’s missing?”
McGonagall sighed. “Neville Longbottom.”
Ron felt Harry tense beside him.
Harry’s mind was flying. Each time Neville looked the slightest bit off that year, each time he shrugged it off and told them he was fine. How pale he had gotten as months passed by, just swearing it was pressure from his Gran. How rarely he had just shown up to the Nook, swearing he was just studying in the library or in the Gryffindor common room.
How even Theo, after just a few Herbology study sessions, had made a point to tell Harry of his worry for the other boy.
The boy who couldn’t fight for himself, but would put himself in harm’s way for someone else at the drop of a hat.
The boy who, had fate been kinder, would have been as good as Harry’s brother in this world.
Who still could be.
Harry wasn’t about to let that chance fall to some fundamentalist bullshite.
Or his own obliviousness.
He was in his own head the few minutes it took McGonagall to give orders to the rest of the staff, directions about closing the school and starting a search.
Only Ron’s hand on his shoulder made him stay still when the fear in his chest turned to anger.
As soon as the door closed behind the last faculty member, Harry pulled the Cloak off with an irate huff.
Ron reached out. “Harry, we don’t know what it means. For all we know, he could be an imposter or possessed or something, and it could be a trap.”
“I don't care, Ron. That’s my godbrother that’s missing. And if there’s even the slightest chance he’s down there, scared and alone, I’m going.”
“Of course you are. And of course I’m coming along. I’ll follow wherever you lead, Hadrian Potter. Just make sure you know where you’re leading.”
Harry watched his best friend, one of his first friends, watch him with anticipatory patience. The gaze felt too heavy, almost like the training weights they used in practice to help work on agility. He turned to stare around the portrait-adorned room, where a flash of blonde ducked just out of frame. “We need bait.”
Harry rolled his shoulders before knocking on the door.
A pause before it opened, a bright blue eye peering through the crack.
“Ah, Mr. Potter. Terribly sorry, quite busy…”
As soon as the eye disappeared, Harry slammed his hand on the door, opening it just enough for a body to squeeze through. He let the door close behind him a few seconds later as he watched Lockhart flitter in the middle of the room.
“Are you? Surely studying up for your trip to the Chamber?”
In another moment, Harry would have chortled at the look of shock and fear on the professor’s face.
“Well, see… the thing about that is…”
“That you’re a fraud, and now that someone’s asked an actual task out of you, it’s time for you to run away. I understand, Professor.” Harry walked around the edge of the room, tracing the seemingly empty portraits on the wall, one eye on the man. “You’d rather portray yourself as a coward than reveal the truth. Your precious reputation could handle some snobby Hogwarts staff members claiming you ran away from a crisis. But Merlin forbid someone find out you didn’t do anything in those books of yours.”
At once, some of the man’s fear turned to an amused defense. “Now, now, Harry. I did plenty. I traveled all over the world, interviewed villagers and researched this and that.” He stared the boy down. “How do you know?”
Harry laughed, low and dark. “You think I didn’t do my own research when I realized the man who tried to profit from the worst night of my life was going to be standing in the front of my classroom all year? You’re a coward, Gilderoy, but you’re not an idiot.”
“Nor are you, even at your age. I do appreciate you keeping my secret all these months. It is quite unfortunate that you’re about to have a terrible accident.” He whipped out his wand. “Can’t have you sharing what you know.”
Harry didn’t bother moving. “Oh, I think there’ve been enough accidents this year.”
“Indeed, so many, what’s one more? Poor Harry Potter, alone in the halls after ignoring the curfew, sees the monster, tries to be the hero one last time, and falls, hitting his head and losing his memory. So terrible.”
Harry chuckled. “You do tell a good story, Gilderoy. But there’s one fact you’ve got wrong already.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not alone. They tend not to let me do that anymore.”
The look of confusion on Lockhart’s face morphed back to fear when a disarming charm hit his back, sending him a few steps forward as Harry easily caught his wand.
“Cheers, Ron. Perfect timing. Shall we all take a quick trip to the Chamber together? It has something I rather need.”
Lockhart turned to look between the two boys, Ron appearing from underneath the Cloak. “And… and what would that be, Potter?”
Harry’s eyes met his, and the man gulped at the intensity a twelve year old could carry.
“My godbrother.”
As soon as they were safe in Myrtle’s bathroom, after a few hallways of Harry scouting ahead while Ron and a tied-up Lockhart waddled behind, the boys let out a sigh of relief.
“Where’d you learn Incarcerous, mate?” Ron asked as he threw a simple locking charm on the door.
Harry shrugged, poking the frustrated Lockhart on the forehead. “Quirrelmort used it on me last year down in the stone room. Figured it would be a good spell to learn. Marcus has been working with me after dueling lessons.”
“How did you find the variation with the gag? Daddy’s not been able to find the incantation for it,” a soft voice called from one of the stalls.
Ron and Harry both jumped, wands out, towards the blonde hair that was peeking out from the door.
Harry groaned. “Luna, I told you to go back to Ravenclaw. Anthony and Padma are probably worried sick.”
She gave him a sheepish grin. “I did, but I came back down. Myrtle was just telling me her story again.”
The ghost floated out of the neighboring stall with a sneer. “You two. Have nowhere better to be than hearing my sob story?”
Harry gave a shallow bow. “We’d rather help you gain some closure, Myrtle. My friend is caught up in this all, and I have a feeling that whoever was behind your unfortunate death is involved this time as well. Tell us what happened?”
Myrtle eyed them for a moment, and then giggled. “You really want to hear?” She swam down through the air, perching on a sink. “Well…”
The boys listened to her story, but Luna had wandered towards one of the other sinks. Head tilted to almost an impossible angle, the first year was nearly pressing her nose to the faucet.
As soon as Myrtle gestured her way, pointing that sink out as the origin of the hissing, Harry was at her side.
“We are fairly close to the Slytherin dorms, but why does only this sink have serpents on the metals?” Luna asked him as he bent to look at it with her.
Harry sighed, answers starting to click into place. “So the heirs could figure out which sink was the entrance.”
After a year of gossiping with Ozzy, reaching for Parseltongue was almost as easy as speaking in English.
“Open.”
The mechanics instantly started working, and Harry had to pull Luna back before she fell down the widening hole.
Harry looked back at Ron, who was watching with his wand pressed to Lockhart’s back, both with wide eyes. He jerked his head forward, and Ron shoved the professor, who wobbled before approaching the hole.
The gag in his mouth made his words indistinguishable, but the panic in his eyes was clear.
A swift kick to the back of his knee and the man fell forward, instantly catching on what sounded like an angled floor underneath.
All three students and a curious Myrtle listened to the sound of fabric on stone as it fell further and further away.
Ron cast Lumos, the light just barely catching on a slide-like structure, before nodding to the others and stepping off the edge.
Harry watched him go before looking back up. “Luna, stay here. I’d prefer you go back to the tower or at least go get a professor, but do not follow us. Just because you have Malfoy blood doesn’t mean you have to pull a Draco, yeah?”
She tearfully nodded. “Just be careful, Hadrian. Nothing would work if you don’t come back up.”
She ducked around to give him a quick hug, and then took a few steps back.
“If you don’t hear from us in two hours, either see if Myrtle here would be willing to check on us, or just go straight to Snape.” Harry sighed. “Or Susan’s aunt. Somehow.”
She nodded again.
He gave her a wink and stepped into the darkness.
Maybe I could have asked for stairs, he thought to himself as the harsh turns of the channel buffeted him around, finally spitting him out onto a grime covered floor at the feet of Ron.
“Ow.”
Ron grabbed his arms gently and pulled him up. “Yeah, not the easiest of landings. C’mon, let’s see where this leads.”
Harry led them, a few steps forward of Ron prodding Lockhart, who Harry had released from his bindings in case they needed to run.
“Whoa, Harry, do you see that?”
Harry had already frozen in his place. “Is that…”
Lockhart made a whimpering noise and fell, passed out.
“If that’s the size of it, I don’t know…” Ron trailed off.
Harry was staring at it, smile growing as he inched forward, letting his bag fall from his shoulder as he moved. “It’s beautiful.”
“Harry, I need you to focus right now. Neville needs you. We know how to get down here now, you can come back and tear it apart later.”
“Of course, you’re right.” Harry shook his head, even as he took another few steps forward. “But just think how long this thing has been living down here, to get this big…”
He stepped forward once more, and then he heard a series of noises, including Ron hissing in pain.
Harry turned quickly, and with an instinct honed from defending himself in hallways, in duels in the Slytherin territory, he snapped his wand into his hand and threw up a shield charm within the next second.
But even as the spell flared into place, he could tell it wasn’t right.
Too shaky.
Not reliable.
Whatever Lockhart cast with Ron’s wand ricocheted up, and the next thing Harry knew, he was thrown back, landing hard on his side as he skidded across the distressed marble floor.
Instinctually, Harry reached for the bag at his side, meeting air.
The bag that he had dropped to investigate the skin before the explosion, and now sat on the other side of the massive rock wall.
He hit the ground with a fist. “I swear I’m going to use a sticking charm on that bag. Second year in a row this happens.” He sat up, uselessly dusting off his robes. “Ron? You alright? I’ll be pissed if you die before we even find Neville. And you’ve got my bag over there, somewhere, don’t lose it, please.”
A pained chuckle crept through the wall. “I got it. And cheers for that, mate. I’m fine. Lockhart took a blow to the head, though. He’s out for the count.” Ron paused, and Harry heard the shifting of rocks on his side. “You good to keep moving forward? I can try to just make a hole for you two to get back through. Just don’t tell any of the other Heralds I let you go on alone, I’ll get murdered.”
Ignoring the pain in his head, and the shoulder that was sore and most likely bleeding, Harry stood and looked down the damp, eerie corridor, too wide for comfort, too dark for relief.
“Yeah, Ron. I’ll keep going.”