Halloween
Harry dragged his feet to potions it was the last class of the day on the Friday before Halloween and he was not looking forward to it. Harry told Draco he needed to talk to Professor Snape, left his friends in the library and headed down to the classroom early, Draco had let him go. Harry had not needed an escort in weeks; Ginny had not bothered him since the day she had confronted him in the library but Harry had barely noticed.
Severus however, was an astute man and he had been watching Harry carefully. Harry had already felt the man’s concerned eyes on him several times in the Great Hall during meals and in class, he knew Severus was on to him.
Ron Weasley had been blessedly quiet since school started back he did not so much as look at Harry these days which was a vast improvement. Granger had attempted conversation a few times, Harry was not particularly averse to talking to her as long as she was not telling him how to study. However, he had been very distracted by his thoughts about the diary and did not have the energy to concern himself with being nice to the lions.
Hermione had apologised to him for the Philosopher's Stone debacle. Harry thanked her but advised her to apologise to Neville and Professor Snape. It had been Neville after all who had been dragged into it against his will and ended up unconscious in the Hospital wing and it had been Severus who had been forced to save them when they failed in their quest.
Surprisingly, Hermione agreed and a few days later she gave Harry a letter addressed to Professor Snape and asked if he would deliver it to his Head of House. Harry was tempted to tell her he was not an owl, but in the end, he agreed to deliver it because she had looked genuinely terrified at the idea of going anywhere near Severus. He knew the Potions Master had read the letter and that he had actually appreciated the girl's gesture.
As a result of Hermione's apology and Ron’s indifference, potions class was much more subdued and most of the students seemed to benefit from the lack of open hostilities between the houses. Neville and Ron were not destined for greatness in brewing but so far neither of them had blown up a cauldron. Seamus Finnegan had the skills to be a decent brewer, if only he would pay attention to what he was doing, when he did not focus he was a liability. However, without Neville and Ron to worry about Snape had caught all of Seamus’ disasters before they blew up.
Harry arrived in the empty dungeon classroom and put his bag on his usual table; out of habit, he glanced around the room looking for his lost diary. He had looked at every potions class since he had realised it was missing. It had been a few days before it had dawned on him that he had not felt the pull to write in the diary and started to look for it. When he realised it was not in his school bag he was worried but when he tried to remember where he last had it, his mind became foggy.
He was on his hands and knees looking under the teacher's desk when he felt the presence of his betrothed. “Harry,” Severus said softly. “Are you all right?”
Harry sat back on his haunches and looked up at the man standing next to him. He was fairly terrifying, standing there towering over him in black teaching robes, which were buttoned to the neck, his white shirt only just visible at his neck and wrists, and his robes spilling around his boot-clad feet.
Harry rubbed the back of his neck and tried to make himself say, “I am fine sir,” but the words stuck in his throat and he hung his head.
“I am sorry,” he whispered. “I have really made a mess this time,” he confessed.
Severus reached down and drew Harry to his feet. “I get the feeling this won't wait until Sunday?” he said narrowing his eyes.
Harry looked up into the black orbs. “I don’t know any more sir, it has been three weeks and I just don't know any more,” he confessed.
Severus studied Harry’s demeanour carefully. “If you stay in the class can you focus enough not to blow up your cauldron?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Weasley, Longbottom and Finnegan are overdue for catastrophes and I would prefer not to have one of my snakes beat them to it,” he stated calmly.
“I can focus, Sir,” Harry told him.
“Alright then take your seat but remain after class,” the teacher said evenly. His deep reassuring voice sliced through Harry’s worries and he felt himself letting go of the tension he had been holding, talking to Severus was the right thing to do.
“Yes, Sir,” Harry replied as the rest of the class began to arrive.
🐍🐍🐍
Hermione spent the whole potions class watching Harry as she brewed her swelling solution. There was something wrong with him and she wondered if it was connected to the diary Ginny had taken from him.
There was something wrong with Ginny as well; The girl was not herself. She had slept in and missed her first class three times now, she was withdrawn, she had huge black circles under her eyes and she looked like death most mornings.
However, she had stopped chasing after Harry so that was one good thing at least, still, Hermione was worried. Ron had not been interested when Hermione tried to talk to him about his sister and the twins were too focused on keeping an eye on Ron to worry about Ginny; so Hermione had turned to Percy. He at least had talked to Ginny, but he had accepted her story about her feeling homesick and he advised her to write home more and spend time with her friends.
It was the diary which had caused the change in Ginny; Hermione was sure of that but she could not fathom what Harry could have written in his diary that would have this effect on Ginny. She needed to get a closer look at the diary but Ginny never left it unattended. So Hermione continued to watch her from a distance.
Ginny knew Hermione was watching her and she even considered confiding in the older girl. The trouble with Hermione however, was that she was far too likely to go running to McGonagall or the Headmaster. Ginny could not risk her dad hearing about whatever was going on. The Weasleys might be considered blood traitors but they were still purebloods and Arthur Weasley had drilled into his children the dangers of enchanted objects.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain,” he had told them.
Her Dad would be so disappointed in her if he found out she was writing in a diary which wrote back, but Tom was her friend. He understood her worries about Harry and he never made her feel bad about her feelings. It was just a coincidence that she had started sleepwalking, it had to be.
🐍🐍🐍
When potions class ended with no explosions Harry breathed a sigh of relief and stayed in his seat to wait for the teacher. He told Draco he had not had the chance to talk to Severus before class, as the man had been too busy. Draco accepted that and left with the rest of the class, he was honestly relieved that Harry was actually going to talk to Severus about whatever was going on.
Severus approached Harry and gently touched his shoulder. “Perhaps we should move to my office?” he asked.
Harry nodded and followed Severus into his office. Once wards were in place and tea had been poured Harry told Severus all about the diary. To his credit Severus did not once interrupt the story, not when Harry told him about finding the diary in the box of dark objects Lucius sent to store in his vault, not when he admitted the diary and called to him, or when he explained how he had smuggled the diary to school for fear of it being discovered in the Ministry raid, he had not even interrupted when Harry told him he had written in the diary and it had written back.
However, when he finally told Severus who the person he had been writing to was, the professor almost choked on his tea in his rush to reply.
“The Dark Lord? Harry, you have been writing to the Dark Lord?” he splutted.
“Yeah, in the diary he is only sixteen. He’s been helpful with school work and well it was nice to talk to him, he reminds me of you,” Harry justified.
Severus’ brain went into overdrive the diary had to be a Horcrux. In order for it to behave the way Harry described, it had to have a piece of the Dark Lord’s soul in it, his sixteen-year-old soul! That meant that the man Severus had been so captivated by had already started making Horcruxes when teenage Severus had sold his own soul to the man. The Dark Lord had been in his fifties when Severus met him and if what Harry was saying was true, that he made his first Horcrux at sixteen, then by the time he attacked Harry and his parents his soul must have been in tatters. Severus' stomach turned but he held on to his control, drawing on every one of his spying skills he maintained his calm exterior.
“Harry, I don't think I need to tell you I am disappointed with your behaviour,” he said softly.
“No sir,” Harry said miserably.
Severus put down his teacup slid closer to Harry on the sofa and wrapped his arms around the distraught young man. “It will be alright Harry, we will figure this out together. Thank you for coming to me, I am so proud of you for telling me,” Severus whispered.
Harry could not reply he buried his face in his betrothed’s shoulder and nodded, while Severus held him close and soothed him.
🐍🐍🐍
Halloween dawned and Harry rolled out of bed feeling much better for having confessed to Severus. He had been so scared but Severus not yelled at him; instead, he had held Harry while he sobbed and apologised, and then he had told him he was proud of him for coming to him and that he would help him.
Harry was in uncharted waters; he had never had someone say they were proud of him when he had done well, let alone when he messed up. His Uncle would have taken the belt to him, his aunt would have used the wooden spoon, no one was ever proud of him and no one had offered to help him fix his mistakes. Well Miss Daniels had but that was different, she had encouraged him to find a solution himself but she had never said she was proud of him when he messed up.
He lay in bed later than he usually would, even on a Saturday, not moving to get out of bed until the other boys started to stir. He showered and got dressed in the same unhurried manner, he even managed to smile at Theo and Blaise’s ridiculous banter as they headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.
The Great Hall had been decorated overnight; it was covered in pumpkins, cobwebs and spiders; there was a low-hanging mist sitting just above most people's heads and the ghosts were out in force adding to the spooky atmosphere.
Breakfast was as incredible as always and Harry found he was able to eat a decent amount for the first time in a while. When they had eaten he and the others headed back to the common room where they all sprawled out and relaxed on the sofas either reading or watching Blaise beat everyone at chess. In all, it was just what Harry needed a normal Saturday with his friends.
The day passed uneventfully and when it finally came time to head to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast Harry was feeling good about his day and he was ready to celebrate with his friends.
The feast contained an inordinate amount of pumpkin. There were three different types of pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasties, roasted pumpkin and a root vegetable salad. There was even a strange-looking tart with pumpkin caramelised onion and goat cheese. Harry feeling adventurous gave it a try and it was not half bad.
The feast also contained all of Harry’s usual favourites including roast chicken and a variety of vegetables, mashed potatoes and corned beef as well as a pot of Irish stew. The feast made no logical sense but Harry did not care it was all delicious.
When the main meal was completed the remaining food vanished and dessert appeared. Even dessert had a pumpkin flavour with several dishes containing the vegetable. Harry had never seen such things before, there were pumpkin scones, pumpkin cauldron cakes and pumpkin pie, which appeared with the usual dessert fare. Harry decided to stick with what he knew and ate three pieces of treacle tart.
The feast went off without a hitch which was nice after the troll incident the year before. It was not until they were heading back to their common room that anything untoward occurred. Harry and Draco had just walked passed the grand staircase on their way to the dungeon entrance when a man’s pained scream sounded from the direction of the Grand Staircase. Draco reached for Harry intending to drag him away from the screaming man but Harry was gone almost before Draco had moved he had only one thought in his mind - Tom Riddle’s diary.
Reaching the stairs Harry took them three at a time, fortunately, the castle seemed to be on his side because he did not get stuck in any trick steps and the stairs moved the right way for him to end up standing in front of the girl's bathroom on the second floor.
There was quite a crowd already gathered. Harry pushed his way through to see what everyone was looking at; hanging on the wall, was Mrs Norris, and she appeared to be frozen solid. Ron, Hermione and Neville were standing at the front and Filch was screaming at them for killing his cat. Harry looked back at the wall written in what looked like blood was a message -
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware!
Harry felt a lead weight settle in his stomach; he froze staring at the wall for a moment before the Headmaster’s voice brought him back to the present moment. He was speaking to Mr Filch. “It is alright Argus,” he said calmly. “She is not dead, she had been petrified but I cannot say how it has happened,” the old man said in his usual unconcerned tone.
“Ask them,” Filch yelled waving at the three Gryffindors.
Albus stroked his beard and considered the three students standing in front of him. He did not actually know what was going on here. Naturally, he was aware of the Chamber of Secrets but he had thoroughly searched this bathroom and had not been able to find the entrance. He did see how Neville, Hermione or Ron could possibly have found it when he had failed.
However, before he could reply to his caretaker, Hermione started shouting “It wasn’t us, Professor Dumbledore we were just walking past and we found this,” she exclaimed waving her hands wildly towards the petrified cat.
“And where were ya going eh? Why weren't yer at the feast with all the other nasty brats?” Flitch demanded.
We went to Sir Nicholas’ death day party,” Ron whined.
“So why didn’t ya go to the feast after, ghosts don't serve nothing for you to eat,” the caretaker pressed on his red-rimmed eyes almost bulging out of his head.
“We weren’t hungry,” Ron muttered but his stomach betrayed him by growling hungrily at that very moment.
Dumbledore made a placating gesture at both students and caretaker and replied “I don’t believe any student is responsible for this, Argus,” he said soothingly. “We will be able to restore Mrs Norris to full health once, Professor Sprout's Mandrakes are fully grown, and Professor Snape can brew the antidote.”
The Headmaster then turned to his staff directing them to see their student to their dorms. Harry was the only Slytherin in the corridor and he soon felt his Head of House’s hand on his shoulder, he looked up to meet the man’s eyes. He knew Snape was thinking the same thing as he was; Tom Riddle was only a soul fragment contained in a diary, he could not write on walls.
🐍🐍🐍
Ginny was losing time, she had not made it to the Halloween Feast but she did not know where she had been. She remembered leaving her last class and heading back to her dorm to get ready for the feast. She had written to Tom for a while and then she remembered nothing, until she woke up in her bed, in the middle of the night, hungry and covered in something she really hoped was red paint.
🐍🐍🐍
Amelia Bones sat in her office and smiled in satisfaction. Lady Magic had destroyed the contract Albus had forced Esther Daniels to sign and the woman would be in tomorrow morning with her lawyer.
Amelia knew it was very likely they would not be able to prosecute Albus Dumbledore, not even with Essie’s memories. The man was slippery and he would never have said anything which would implicate him, he talked around subjects hinting and suggesting but never directly saying anything.
Unfortunately, she could not charge the man with not believing Essie’s claims. He had not at any time viewed her memories and he had already made it clear he believed he was doing the right thing by Harry leaving him with the only blood family he had left. The best that could be hoped for was for the wizarding public to at the very least begin to question the man's actions if not his motives.
The blood wards Albus had cast on the Dursley’s house had been in tatters when the Goblins had gone to put up the new wards as per the agreement with Lord Prince. The report from the goblins stated that the wards had been so badly destroyed they could not tell what the original purpose of them had been and there was no way to know when they had been broken. Their best guess was that the wards were old blood magic based on Lily’s sacrifice and Petunia's shared blood. They concluded that the wards broke when Harry stopped considering the house his home, though when that might have been was anyone’s guess.
Fortunately, however, the case against Vernon and Petunia Dursley was strong and they would both be punished for their crimes. Dudley may or may not be charged, Amelia was happy to leave that to the muggle authorities to decide, along with Petunia’s punishment. Vernon however would be going to a secure facility for muggles and squibs who had committed serious offences against the wizarding world. Muggles could not go to Azkaban because of the dementors, without an active magic core prisoners would die in only a few weeks. Therefore a separate facility had been built in Wales with the cooperation of the muggle government of the day, for such prisoners. Vernon would be spending a very long time there because of his threats against the Statute of Secrecy and he would be obliviated on his release from prison.
Harry would see some justice at least, not that Amelia was giving up on catching Dumbldore but it would take time, patience and a thorough, ongoing investigation. Amelia was a patient person and she had every intention of seeing this investigation through to its end.
🐍🐍🐍
In the days following Halloween Harry had an uneasy feeling in his stomach, it was different to the feeling he had about losing the diary; this feeling felt more like foreboding. It did not help that Bindi seemed to be unwell, she stayed close to Harry at night rather than going to hunt for rodents. Harry ended up asking Severus to order him some mice with his usual potion supplies for him to feed Bindi; he could not order them himself as students were not supposed to have snakes.
The atmosphere of the school had changed too, people were wary and Harry could feel the students from other houses watching him in class. It started in defence when Lockhart released a cageful of Cornish Pixies. The foolish idiot had laughed and shouted for the students to round them up, before failing to stop them himself and retreating to his office leaving the students to fix the problem.
Harry was frustrated as as far as he could remember they had not been taught how to round up pixies, and whatever spell Lockhart had tried to use had failed completely. He was trying to swat the pixies away from himself using Flipendo when he noticed Hermione using the Immobilius charm. Groaning at his own stupidity, he waved his wand and shouted “immobulis,” and instantly every pixie froze.
Fortunately, most of the class had fled when Lockhart ran into his office so only Hermione, Neville and Lavender remained from the Gryffindor second years however somehow the news of Harry’s powerful spell spread and whispers began.
The following Monday at breakfast, Professor Lockhart stood up and in his usual long-winded manner he announced he was implementing a duelling club with the assistance of Professor Snape. Harry looked at Severus as the defence teacher insinuated he would be teaching students spells they would need to keep themselves safe in light of what happened at Halloween. He told the student body that the first meeting would be on Wednesday night in a specially prepared classroom on the fourth floor.
On Wednesday night almost the entire school packed into the magically expanded and heavily warded classroom. Professors Lockhart and Snape stood on a raised duelling platform as the students filed in. Snape, dressed in his usual attire looked annoyed at the interruption to his after-hours routine. Lockhart was dressed in tight trousers, a loose white shirt with a short black cloak which, Harry thought, made him look like a character from a muggle pirate movie.
The defence teacher strutted up and down the stage, regaling his audience with his duelling exploits and telling them all how very fortunate they were to be learning to duel from such a distinguished teacher as himself. He then proceeded to call on Professor Snape to assist him in a demonstration.
“Don’t worry, you will still have your potions professor when I am done with him,” Lockhart said with trademark, blindingly white, toothy smile.
Harry rolled his eyes and hoped vaguely that Severus did not actually kill Lockhart. The two men bowed to each other and then turning around paced back to the end of the raised dais. Lockhart raised his wand in a showy manner but before he could cast any spell Severus sent him flying with a powerful expelliamus. Harry was not sure if the Potions Master had even spoken the spell it happened so fast.
Lockhart true to form jumped to his feet and claimed he had known exactly what Snape was going to do. “...an excellent idea to teach them that spell,” the idiot said. Severus did not even try to avoid rolling his eyes.
Students were soon paired up and instructed to practise expelliarmus. Harry faced Draco and the two boys tried to engage in a practice duel, while chaos erupted around the room.
Hundreds of students indiscriminately firing spells at each other in a relatively small space was probably not the best teaching method, Harry thought as spells exploded on the walls and coloured smoke filled the room.
Ron and Hermione were duelling behind Draco, Neville and a girl from Hufflepuff were to the left of Harry, who had his back to the wall. Harry was trying to disarm Draco when a spell exploded on the wall beside him, Harry startled causing him to accidentally hit Draco in the chest with the full force of his expelliarmus. Draco flew backwards crashing into Ron who fell landing on his wand and snapping it with a sharp crack.
Ron, realising his wand was broken turned angrily towards Harry and pointed his broken wand at him and screamed “Serpensortia.”
Instead of the small harmless snake the spell was supposed to conjure a huge black snake erupted out of the broken wand and landed on the floor between Harry and Ron. The snake was clearly unhappy to have been conjured in a noisy smoke-filled room and it quickly turned on Ron, lunging towards the horror-struck Gryffindor.
Harry did not think he just reacted yelling at the snake to stop. The snake froze at the sibilant tone of Harry’s command and it fell back into its coil turning it head to look placidly at Harry, who continued to speak to the scared serpent soothing it in a soft voice.
When the snake was calm Harry became aware of the silence surrounding him and he looked up and saw everyone staring at him. Draco’s head was in his hand and even Severus looked worried. Harry was not sure what had happened until Justin Finch-Fletcherly yelled,
“He can speak to snakes, Harry Potter is the heir of Slytherin.”