Chapter 22
Harry was perfectly fine the next morning, and after a quick examination, Madam Pomfrey allowed him to leave in time for breakfast.
Coming into the Great Hall, the energy was very grim.
“What’s happened?”
Tracey looked up and rubbed her red nose. “Collin Creevey was petrified last night, we thought you might have heard something from the infirmary since he was taken there.”
Harry frowned and shook his head. “Pomfrey got me on some sleeping potion that knocked me out cold, I can’t even tell you what I had for dinner last night.”
Goyle leaned forward. “The basilisk attacked again, it’s taking mudbloods one by one like the legend says.”
“But who is the heir?” Draco asked. “A basilisk doesn’t attack on its own without someone telling it what to do. It can’t possibly tell who’s a muggleborn and who isn’t.”
“Mrs Norris isn’t either of those and it petrified her.” Pansy added.
“But did the Basilisk write those words on the wall?” Blaise sassed. “I think not.”
Harry looked to the staff table and saw Remus already looking at him with a small frown. He then blinked and grinned widely at the boy. Harry grinned back but felt the adult knew something he didn’t.
Potions was the first class of the day with the Gryffindors and to say they were nicer to Harry would be a lie. Professor Snape was getting the class to make Swelling Solution and in the middle of cutting bat spleens whilst Draco stirred the liquid, Goyle’s cauldron exploded everywhere. The solution landed on all the Slytherins who shrieks and screamed. Harry looked down to see his hands becoming the size of a dinner plate and he felt his right cheek swelling bigger and bigger.
Draco got a massive glob of it on his nose and it swelled to size of a balloon but Crabbe and Goyle got the worse of it. Their whole faces were swelling to astronomical sizes, so large that their head got so heavy they couldn’t lift them up.
The Gryffindors all found this hilarious and Harry saw Ron fall to the floor in laughter, he also saw Hermione’s robes bulge in the pockets when she retuned to her desk from doing… something.
“Silence! SILENCE!” Snape roared. “Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft, and when I find out who did this-“
They all hurried forward. Snape gave a small vial to each of the victims and Harry chugged his down before his cheek made his head too heavy to hold up. Crabbe and Goyle’s faces were still expanding so Snape had to tip the vials into their mouths himself.
On the desk, in the middle of Goyle’s exploded cauldron, was the remains of a firework. Snape cleaned up the mess and picked the firework up before glaring at the Gryffindors. They all quietened.
“If I ever find out who thew this,” Snape whispered, “I shall make sure that person is expelled.”
Harry saw Ron visibly gulp.
“It was Ron,” Harry said when they left the classroom, “I know he did it.”
“We’ll just have to get back at him then.” Blaise smirked.
“Once I get my hands around his fuckin’ neck-“ Goyle threatened, turning his hands into fists.
“What Blaise meant,” Draco started, “was to get back at him in a way he won’t expect so the punishment is even worse.”
“Like what?” Crabbe questioned.
“Let’s be spontaneous on this, see what we find.” Draco grinned proudly.
Pansy cackled evilly as they headed to lunch.
——
A week later, Snape put a piece of parchment on the wall next to the exit of the Slytherin Common Room.
“A Dueling Club?” Tracey repeated. “At a time like this? Tell me they’re joking?”
“My father taught me how to duel when I was five years old, let’s hope I get some real competition.” Draco smirked.
Blaise and Harry grinned at one another. This was the perfect way to get back at Weasley.
“I agree, let’s go.”
In the Great Hall at 8 ‘o’ clock, after dinner, the Slytherins went back to the hall to see the long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared, most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.
“This is very extravagant for a school Dueling Club.” Pansy commented.
As she said that, Gilderoy Lockhart walked onto the stage wearing a robe of deep purple with Professor Snape following behind him in his usual black robes.
“Of course.” Harry groaned. No revenge was worth this punishment.
Lockhart waved an arm around for silence. “Gather round, gather round! Can you all hear me? Excellent”
“Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works.”
“Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape,” said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. “He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry — you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!”
“Sir, please just destroy him, for all our sanity.” Draco quietly begged.
Snape seemed to have the same idea as his lip curled in the most ‘I wanna kill you so bad’ way. It was a miracle Lockhart was still smiling.
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them. “As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position,” Lockhart told the silent crowd. “On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.
“One…two …three…”
Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: “Expelliarmus!”
There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. Harry and his friends all cheered except for Pansy and Tracey who were asking one another if they thought Lockhart was alright.
“Who bloody cares, Snape dominated him.” Draco said proudly.
Lockhart got up unevenly, his hair was a mess and he dropped his wand five times before returning to the stage.
“Well, there you have it!” he said, tottering back onto the platform. “That was a Disarming Charm…as you see, I’ve dropped my wand again— ah, thank you, Miss Brown — yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don’t mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy. However, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…”
Snape was looking murderous. Lockhart had noticed, because he said, “Enough demonstrating! I’m going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you’d like to help me—”
The professors starting partnering people and Harry saw, with a smirk, that Snape was over with Ron, Hermione and Neville.
“Be partners?” Draco asked him.
“Definitely.”
“Mr Potter, come over here-“ Snape called from over where he was standing with an angry looking Weasley. “Let’s see if your father taught you anything, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, you can partner with Miss Bulstrode.”
Draco patted his shoulder sympathetically but moved to partner with Blaise right away. Harry swore internally but puffed out his chest and strutted towards his ex-best friend. Millicent was walking next to him and looked even angrier than Weasley. Luckily for her, Hermione was nice and Harry was tempted to ask for a switch.
“Face your partners!” called Lockhart from the stage. “And bow!”
Harry and Weasley slightly bowed, not taking their eyes off one another.
“Wands at the ready!” shouted Lockhart. “When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents. And I mean, only to disarm them, we don’t want any accidents. Okay, one… two… three —“
Weasley put his wand up at ‘three’ but Harry struck at ‘two’. He shouted a charm he had seen a seventh year use to blast a chess board across the common room and he was pleased to see it work on humans too. Weasley fell backwards and hit his head on the ground, making him groan in pain.
“I said disarm only!” Lockhart shouted over the battling crowd.
Weasley pointed his wand at Harry and casted “Rictusempra!” which made Harry feel a tickling in his abdomen and he tumbled over in giggles.
“Enough!” Lockhart shouted, but Snape took charge with ”Finite Incantatem!” and Harry stopped laughing.
Around the hall, everyone else seemed to be just as competitive. Millicent had Hermione in a tight headlock which Harry moved to stop, Crabbe and Goyle were getting their fists ready, and Blaise and Draco looked like they were on the verge of blasting an unforgivable. Out of all of them, only Tracey and Pansy looked the least bit frazzled.
“I should really teach you all how to block unfriendly spells.” Lockhart thought allowed. “Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-“
“Bad idea, Professor.” Snape said. “Longbottom can’t be trusted to do the simplest spells and Finch-Fletchely would be sent to the infirmary with nothing but his foot.” Longbottom round face flushed redder. “How about Potter and Weasley?” offered Snape with a cruel smile at Weasley.
Harry pouted and tried to beg his head of house silently to pick literally any other couple but Snape didn’t look at him.
“Excellent idea!” said Lockhart, gesturing Harry and Weasley into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room.
“Now, Ron,” said Lockhart loudly. “When Harry points his wand at you, you do this.” He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, “Whoops, my wand is a little overexcited—”
“Now Harry,” Snape whispered, leaning into Harrys ear, “use Serpensortia. It will make him wish he never pranked your friends cauldron a week ago.”
Harry had no idea what that spell did but he smirked anyway and walked confidently to the middle of the stage. His friends were cheering him on and Pansy was sitting on Crabbe’s shoulders.
Weasley didn’t look confident at all and instead asked Lockhart if he could teach him the blocking spell again.
“Ready, Weasley?” Harry muttered.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Lockhart smiled dumbly and patted Weasley’s shoulder. “Just do what I did.”
“You gonna drop your wand?” Harry chuckled.
Ron scowled but raised his wand when Lockhart counted down. “Three, two…one!”
Without hesitation, Harry shouted ”Serpensortia!” and casted his wand in his opponents direction.
At the end of his wand a long black snake shot out and fell heavily on the floor between them, it raised his head and shot forward to attack. Screams came from all directions and the crowd backed away from the stage. The Slytherins screamed at first but cheered him on none the less.
“Don’t move, Mr Weasley,” said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Ron standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. “I’ll get rid of it…”
“Allow me!” shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Everyone screamed even louder. Enraged and hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed and ready to strike.
Harry wasn’t sure what he was doing, he was the one to cast this dreadful thing in the first place, but without his mind reacting to his body, he walked towards the snake and screamed,
“Leave him alone!” And miraculously, the snake slumped to the floor like nothing more than a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. Harry felt the fear drain out of him. He knew the snake wouldn’t attack anyone now, he couldn’t explain how he knew, he just did.
He looked up at Justin, grinning, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, or puzzled, or even grateful but certainly not angry and scared.
“What do you think you’re playing at?” he shouted, and before Harry could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.
Snape stepped forward and with the flick of his wand, the snake vanished. He was looking at Harry strangely, calculating, and Harry felt very uncomfortable. He was aware of the muttering and wide eyed stares students were giving him around the hall but he didn’t dare look up. Weasley was still on the stage with his jaw on the floor and only the slight tug on his hand brought him out of his shocked daze.
“You’re a Parselmouth.” Pansy said in awe, holding onto his sleeve.
“Er…”
“Oh for the love of Salazar,” she breathed, “you’re the Heir of Slytherin.”
“I’m am not!”
“The Heir of Slytherin could speak Parselmouth, that’s how he controlled the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, it’s not a very common gift-“ Hermione whispered, looking terrified.
“Bloody hell, Potter.” Draco shook out. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Harry tried to think of something, anything to say but he only looked helplessly at Snape.
“I didn’t mean too.” He muttered.
“But you did!” Millicent gawked. “I knew something was wrong when you were hearing those voices! You were probably controlling it with your mind without even knowing!”
Harry was still looking at Snape who raised an eyebrow, the whole room was deadly quiet with fear and mistrust. He couldn’t handle it anymore and jumped down from the golden stage and ran out of the hall. Students created a pathway as he ran threw, probably terrified he’d do something to them like what happened to Collin. His friends followed behind but he didn’t speak to them until they were in the empty Slytherin Common Room.
“Oh my god! I’ve been sleeping in the same room as the Heir of Slytherin.” Blaise wheezed out. “I should have known, this is too good to be true.”
“How is this good?” Harry shouted, pulling on his hair. “I just talked to a fucking snake!”
“It was brilliant, Harry,” Draco praised, coming up to his face, “so very brilliant, it scared the shit out of Weasley and all the others.”
“I don’t want to scare anyone.” Harry groaned.
“Fear is power, Harry.” Pansy said excitedly. “You’ve got the whole school under your fingertips right now.”
Harry just stared at his friends in shock. “You guys know I didn’t write that on the wall? You were all with me the whole day when it happened.”
“Have you got some secret slave we don’t know about who might have done it?” Draco asked, looking around.
“No!”
“That would’ve been even cooler.”
“Someones sabotaging me.” Harry thought aloud.
Tracey sighed. “With what just happened in the hall, there is not an excuse in the world to take the blame off of you.”
“Yeah, mate, you talked in a weird voice and the snake stopped attacking Finch-Fletchey, it will be the talk of the school for weeks.” Blaise added.
“Years even.” Goyle nodded along.
Harry sat down on a couch and put his head in his hands. He felt the couch dip and a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Since everyone already thinks you’re the Heir of Slytherin, why don’t you use it to your advantage?” Draco suggested.
“You’re a king, Harry, to everyone in Slytherin that is.” Pansy said, sitting on his other side.
“And while you have everyone fooled, we can help you find the actual chamber and stop the Basilisk once and for all, then not only will you have been the Heir, you are also the schools saviour.” said Tracey.
“We’ll find a way to stop the Basilisk, it can’t be that hard.” Blaise chuckled with a wink.
Harry looked up and made a small smile.
“What should we do?”
——
It was the next morning and everyone was brain storming. Still in their pyjamas, at 4 ‘o’ clock in the morning, the girls barged into the boys dorms and made them all get up to make a plan. It was two hours later and his friends were all satisfied, Harry personally wanted to jump off the astronomy tower but the plan sounded good too.
“Breakfast is an hour away.” Pansy moaned, she belly flopped onto Draco’s bed and wailed again dramatically.
“Good, we can catch up on sleep.” Crabbe said angrily.
“But I want to do the plan now.”
“Isn’t this all a bit much?” said Harry.
“We’re Slytherins for a reason,” Draco called out from the bathroom, “too much is never enough.”
Harry hummed in response. “I have always wanted to do this.”
“Haven’t we all. And like I said yesterday, you’re a king now, Harry, we just have to tell people that.” Pansy reminded.
“All you need is a crown.” Tracey sighed dreamily, coming up behind Harry to brush his hair.
“I thought kings weren’t supposed to look like they lived with ogres.” Blaise laughed out.
“Well I certainly won’t participate if I’m going to be insulted.” Harry huffed.
“I’m not insulting you, I’m describing you.”
Harry got out his wand and spelled every pillow in the room to attack the boy.
They were walking down to the Great Hall an hour and a half later, they would have gone earlier but Blaise predicted it would be more crowded now.
Except Harry wasn’t walking. He was on the shoulders of Crabbe and Goyle like a makeshift throne, and they were all wearing the muggle sunglasses Sirius forced Harry to pack in case of emergencies. Draco was out the front with Pansy shouting stupid things and shoving people out the way.
“Move peasants, let the heir through!” Pansy shouted when they got to their table.
All the Slytherins already at the table got up and cheered, cat calling and whistling, some of them even bowed. Harry was trying to keep a straight face while he waved like the queen and blew kisses to the pissed off faces of his peers around the room. Fred and George Weasley stood up and clapped, blowing kisses and catching the ones Harry blew to them.
Funnily enough, none of the teachers even got up from their seats. Remus was laughing into his hands and Lockhart was frowning - “jealousy,” Tracey giggled once they down. Professor McGonagall just shook her head, Snape looked on the verge of laughing, Sprout looked annoyed, and Hagrid, bless his soul, looked so very confused.
“Excellent, Harry.” Flint praised as he came over. “You surprise me every time.”
“I try my best.”
“I still think we should’ve played Baby Got Back.” Blaise pouted.
“With what muggle stereo?” Pansy tutted.
“You still haven’t told me what song that is, I’ve not heard of it.” Draco demanded.
“It’s not just a song, it’s a cultural phenomenon.” said Harry seriously.
Blaise nodded solemnly “It’s shaped me into the man I am today.”
“And how do you know the song?” Millicent asked. “Aren’t you a pureblood?”
“A pureblood with taste.” Harry commended, patting his friends shoulder.
They looked at each other for a moment before bopping their heads and singing the chorus at the same time. “I like big butts and I cannot lie, you other brothers can’t deny. That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist, and a round thing in your face. You get sprung, want to pull up tough, ‘cause you noticed the butt was stuffed-“ Before they got rudely interrupted, Harry and Blaise were moving their arms like the hip hop rappers do in the music video.
“Those lyrics are horrible!” Tracey gasped.
“Sir-Mix-a-Lot is genius and has made a timeless classic.” Harry defended.
Blaise nodded. “Legitimately one of the greatest songs ever written.”
“Men are disgusting.” Pansy scowled.
It was snowing a blizzard outside and the Slytherins had a double Transfiguration first thing with the Ravenclaws, hopefully they wouldn’t give Harry a hard time, not that he cared anymore.
Professor McGonagall didn’t even mention what happened with Harry the night before and continued to teach the students. Todays class was on Reparifarge, an untransfiguration spell that is used to counter the effects of a Transformation spell. McGonagall gave everyone a mis-transfigured object and Harry and his friends spent the whole double trying to repair it.
Ravenclaws were normally very good at minding their own business, hence why they were normally closer to Slytherins than any other house is, but the side eye glances and shuffling away whenever Harry passed one of their tables made Harry think they weren’t so chill about this.
Only Luna Lovegood didn’t seem to care and she came up to Harry’s desk to ask if he had made any progress.
“Mine still looks the same but I think I’ve done some repairing, we just can’t see it.” She said.
“My object might be the same, Luna.” Harry replied grimly, looking at his unchanged plastic circle.
After lunch, the Slytherins had potions with the Hufflepuffs and Harry was nervous about seeing Justin Finch-Fletchey. Even though Harry was obviously trying to save him from that snake, the boy just looked at him with pure anger and terror. When they got down to the potions classroom, the room was empty, not even Professor Snape was there.
Each table had a cauldron already set up and a bunch of ingredients were sitting on the front desk, ready for students to chop and stir. Snape had already written something on the board in his loopy handwriting about what the second years would be doing today.
“Do we have a free period we’re unaware of.” Blaise wondered.
Tracy frowned. “We shouldn’t-“
Then Snape walked in, looking irritated and tired, he was followed by the Hufflepuffs, all expect Justin. One Hufflepuff Harry thinks is called Eric glared Harry down the minute he saw him, they all looked pale as a sheet and Hannah Abbott was even shaking at the hands.
“What happened to you?” Pansy asked accusingly.
Eric pointed a finger at Harry. “It was him, he str-struck again!”
“Oh not this again.” Harry muttered. “What did I do this time?”
“As if you don’t know.” Eric spat. “Justin told me he was waiting for something like this to happen, ever since he let it spill that he was Muggle-born and got into Eton-“
“Ernie, calm down.” One of his friends muttered.
“Eric- Ernie, if something happened it wasn’t me.” Harry defended.
“You were just parading about it all morning! Not only did you get Justin, you also got Headless Nick-“
“Mr Macmillan, do be quiet now class has started.” Snape called from the front.
“Did you hear that, Potter?” Draco whispered. “They’ve been talking about you.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Blaise had been listening in and whispered. "Maybe you should tell them you’re going down to the Chamber of Secrets to have tea after class.”
Harry covered his mouth to try not to laugh. His friends always knew how to make him feel better.
“Wait.” Harry said suddenly, he had had an epiphany, he grabbed onto Blaise and Dracos hands.
“What?” They asked.
“If we stay here for Christmas then we get the castle to ourselves to explore. To find the chamber before anyone else is hurt”
The boys were silently pondering and they agreed it was a good idea.
“But will our parents allow it?” Draco thought aloud.
“Say it’s to catch up on schoolwork, we’ll get presents either way.”
Blaise grinned. “I do adore receiving presents.”