Chapter 35

Mc POV

Standing in the secret basement, looking at the progress of my private greenhouse and I am very satisfied with the results 

Rook has gathered a huge variety of magical plants including many rare types 

He must have spent a lot of Galleons to acquire them but it should be alright because I had allocated a huge number of Galleons to him to take care of the day-to-day and my personal expenses

The orbs were working perfectly taking care of the plant's needs so everything was progressing smoothly 

Rook opened the greenhouse door, came in with a file in hand and gave it to me 

Going through the report, everything went as planned and Lockhart is now working under Eve 

"Rook, the new orders for Eve are on my study table. Give it to her"

"Understood, Master" Rook replied and went to take care of it 

The new orders for Eve contained specific instructions on what Lockhart has to do in the following school year at Hogwarts 

With everything set in place, it's time to go back to Hogwarts 

1st of September 

Inside one of Hogwarts Express's Compartment 

3rd Person POV

Harry was seated alone in a compartment with a book in hand. Students and parents started to gather in the platform and many have started to board the train. 

Sometimes the door to Harry's compartment is opened by students of Hogwarts but when they see him, they just greet him and go to find an empty compartment because they know that his friends will most probably join him 

Mc POV 

Even though I had a book in my hand and looked like I was reading it alone in the compartment, I was actually working on a new concept in my mind 

My Occlumency has improved to a level where I was no longer worried about facing the Headmaster Dumbledore or Professor Snape.

It was simply impossible to break into my mind and it would be a miracle to do so without me knowing about it, with me actively defending my mind, nothing could break-in 

With Voldemort's experience with me, it was easy to master the art of Legilimency. Now that I have completed those two, I trying to work on a new concept with the help of Occlumency

Using Occlumency, I was checking if it was possible for parallel thinking. Parallel thinking can make a person have two or more thoughts at the same time without disturbing the other and I'm able to do this, it will make me more powerful because I can cast two or more spells at the same time 

I have been working on it for a few days but haven't made any noteworthy progress on it. A door opening sound distracted me so I looked to see if it was my friends or someone else. 

It was a first-year student with straggly, waist-length dirty-blond hair and she had a dreamy look on her face. 

"Can I sit here?" she asked with a dazed expression with even greeting but I didn't mind 

"Sure" She nodded to my reply and sat in the opposite seat 

I concentrated on my new Occlumency project even though she was staring at me without taking a breaking 

After a few minutes with a knock on the door, Hemione and Parvati opened the compartment door.

Seeing me seated they entered but when they saw the blond girl seated opposite to me, both became curious 

"Who is your new friend, Harry?" Hermione asked 

"Not sure, we haven't been introduced yet" I replied while looking at her 

She came out of her dreamy state and spoke to me with a happy expression

"I'm Luna." she said with excitement 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Harry" and we shook hands

Hermione and Parvati had a weird look at our interaction, but also got acquainted with Luna. Later Neville, Ron and Ginny also joined us and the six of them spoke about our holiday experience 

I knew that Ginny was interested in me but her staring at me was annoying but I had to live with it for now because she was just an eleven-year-old girl and also my best friend's sister.

We reached Hogsmeade without any trouble and the first years in our group joined the rest to take the boats under Hagrid

We had to take the magic carriages pulled by thestral which I was able to see but my friend didn't. 

I let my friends take a carriage together and in my carriage were a few second-year Ravenclaw students and they also involved me in their conversation because of my first-year academic performance 

We arrived at Hogwarts and took our seats in the Great Hall. Except for Professor McGonagall, the rest of the staff was present including Headmaster Dumbledore.

Lockhart was also seated along with the professors but unlike his usual flashy clothes, he was wearing a proper suit fit for a professor and he also maintained a proper demeanor.

'Looks like Eve made sure the Lockhart behaved himself in public to make sure his image could be built properly for the future.'

The first years came in and there was anxiety, excitement, and more types of expressions on their faces.

The sorting ceremony didn't take long to complete and I only paid attention for a few first years.

Luna and Ginny were sorted into Gryffindor, while Astoria Greengrass the younger sister of Daphne Greengrass was sorted into Slytherin house.

The reason I paid attention to Astoria Greengrass was because few of my future plans involved her to make them work.

Both Luna and Ginny were seated close to our group, the feast began after Dumbledore's small introduction of the new professor of the subject Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The students who were Lockhart's fans were excited to be taught by him but they didn't know that Lockhart was going to teach with the material provided by me.

That's right, I had already handed Eve the study material that Lockhart will be teaching for the year so that he could get the recognition of Dumbledore and help his future 

I just gave study materials that were a level up from the current one because if I gave something extraordinary then Lockhart could be easily found out by Dumbledore.

After the feast all of us returned to the dorm and the day came to an end.

Classes began as usual and my friends didn't face any trouble with them. Neville and Ron's performance greatly improved with magic casting and Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick.

In Professor Snape's case, he was unable to find faults in my friends work and the most surprising thing was he actually gave me book suggestions to improve my potion skills, but apart from that he didn't speak with me.

I was happy that he could put his grudge for James and he knows that my potion skills are beyond the second year's curriculum and that's one of the main reasons why he gave the book suggestions, I think.

Lockhart's class was enjoyed by the students because it was designed by myself. His class had worked with casting a few defensive spells, the stun spell and a little bit of theory to make the students understand the intent behind the spells.

The weekend is here and the time has come for me to explore the Chamber of Secrets.

Night Time 

Under my Cloak of Invisibility, I was on the way to the girl's lavatory located on the second floor and I didn't face any problems along the way.

I looked around and made sure that Moaning Myrtle wasn't there right now. After confirming that she wasn't here, it was easy to find the snake-engraved sink-tap and speak the words used by Riddle in Parseltongue which was in my memory, the sinks gave space, and the snake-engraved sink went below, giving an opening

I didn't feel threatened by the basilisk because I was confident with my preparations and didn't hesitate to jump inside and the tube-like structure slid me down to the underground structure 

I dusted my robes and proceeded forward, many bones of small animals and creatures were present along the way but it didn't bother me, and I reached the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets

"Hisses..Hisses..Hisses" The door opened under my Parseltongue and I entered with my wand ready. The chamber had water and snake statues on both sides and at the end was a giant statue of a bald-headed elderly man with and a thick beard and below it was covered with water. 

I prepared myself and spoke in Parseltongue "Hisses..Hisses..Hisses" and the old man statue's mouth opened.

Seconds turned to minutes but nothing came out and I knew something was wrong. It was not possible to directly enter the mouth because it would be dangerous to swim in the water because of surprise attacks, so I climbed the statue, it was easy because of my strong body, and I entered the mouth.

The inside of the statue was carved out like a cave and I am sure that this is where the basilisk sleeps, but it was not here. 

'Maybe it is hunting right now?' but I had to confirm its existence because something felt wrong. I looked for any secret doors but did not find any so I exited the statue and waited in the chamber to see if the basilisk returned

After a few hours of waiting and in that time different scenarios kept running through my head but the answer was not clear.

I had to leave so I cast all the spells that I created that would warn me if there was any movement in the Chamber of Secrets and went back to the Gryffindor dormitory 

A few Weeks Later

Mc POV

"Let's continue from chapter eight." said Hermione and the rest followed. 

She was in charge of today's group study and our study group numbers has increased by a lot so we had to move to the great hall.

When we started the study group again from the second week and many have joined since then 

Not only the Second years but all the first years of Gryffindor had also joined, so due to the lack of space I requested Professor McGonagall to use the great hall and she approved without any hesitation

She was happy that her young cubs could score more in their academics with the help of the study group because when it comes to academics, Gryffindor lacked compared to the other houses.

I was also seated among the second years, with Hermione explaining some topics and the others were working on their own or with a study partner by my focus was not there, my thoughts were elsewhere

The warning spells placed in the Chamber of Secrets didn't get triggered which meant that the Basilisk was not in the castle. 

My only suspect for now was Dumbledore, but if he truly handled the Basilisk, he would have left some of his own security measures to prevent students from entering the chamber 

Even without the Basilisk the Chamber of Secrets was a dangerous place where students could get hurt or worse, get locked in and die. But I didn't find any such spells when I explored the chamber which made me question who else can access the chamber without anyone finding out.

'It looks like I have to speak with her, she is the only who could possibly know if anything happened in that lavatory' 

After few days 

Mc POV

Sitting in the great hall and having breakfast with my friends by my sight was set on a boy in Slytherin who was talking to Astoria Greengrass. 

I was able to meet with Moaning Myrtle yesterday and based on her information, it was boy with white-blond hair who was lurking constantly last year and also during the year end holidays 

She was not able yell at that student like usual because the boy had a dangerous aura and he was speaking a different language and it was like sake's hissing sound

Based on her description of white-blond hair, the only one who came to my mind was the boy who was right now, talking to Astroria Greengrass.

'Draco Malfoy' 

He is my current suspect because he is the only one, right now in the school to have the description that Moaning Myrtle gave

Draco doesn't have the powers to handle the Basilisk, but when Draco became a suspect, some of the imaginary scenarios based on him had a high possibility of coming true 

The one that has the highest probability was Draco coming in contact with the Riddle Diary.