Chapter 72: Of Mysterious Traps
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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2 September 1992, King's Cross Station
Blaise nodded, looking just as stupefied, "Wanna bet they get away with it?"
"That's a sucker's bet and you know it," Harry replied.
A first-year girl who had sat next to him after being sorted, Harry didn't really remember her first name, but she was a Yaxley, asked meekly, "Is this normal?"
Harry snorted and raised his goblet filled with his coffee, "Welcome to Hogwarts kid. I hope you survive the experience."
Harry woke up far later than usual and he knew that he wouldn't be able to have his daily Occlumency lesson and get to class in time. He was still exhausted because of the train ride, and the nightmares didn't help. The Potter scion didn't know if he was back at the castle or something, but that night, he dreamt of Voldemort looming over him, sending a killing curse his way.
The young Slytherin looked around and saw that most people were still asleep. What did he expect? It was still seven in the morning, and most students had spent months waking up far later than that. Choosing to simply clear his head, Harry took out a book in the common room and started reading it. It wasn't even an academic one; it was a fiction book which was a guilty pleasure of his. Yeah, he liked reading about adventures and such, and the authors in the magical words are very dramatic, which was something that he didn't think he would like but quickly learned to enjoy.
Although Harry would have rather been exploring the Room of Hidden Things instead. Yeah, Harry did his best not to remove anything from it with Voldemort possibly being in the castle. The man probably had wards that Harry didn't even know existed near the Diadem. Yeah, he didn't want to accidentally trip them and make the man start panicking for one reason or another.
Well, now his younger version was here, not him, meaning that he shouldn't really be notified by the wards. He was a fraction of a soul without any magic which wouldn't really make him a living being to any magical protection.
Harry's musings were interrupted by a pitiful groan and the sight of a familiar brunette with messy hair dropping herself on the couch next to him.
"Good morning, Tracy," Harry cheerfully stated.
The girl just replied by groaning miserably. "Don't take it personally," another familiar voice replied in her stead, "she's been like that all morning."
Harry turned and saw the familiar figure of Daphne who was immaculately dressed and didn't look worse for wear.
"Well, at least you're actually awake," Harry said.
The girl pouted, "You're supposed to say that I'm beautiful, Harry."
"Of course, you are, Daph. Now, do you know if Blaise is still sleeping?"
"Yeah, I tried to wake him, but he told me to get some breakfast without him."
Harry simply shrugged, "Fine, I guess we should get going so that we could eat before classes start."
They all walked in silence to the Great Hall. Honestly, Harry was kinda hunger, but when they arrived, the entire room was busy staring at Longbottom. His crashing arrival the previous day was the talk of the school. For some reason, people seemed to admire him for it.
It honestly confused Harry immensely. The boy had broken laws that would have gotten most people arrested and possibly in Azkaban. He had broken the Statute of Secrecy out of pure stupidity and negligence. The same Statute that happened to be one of the globally sacred laws in the magical world. People were taught since the moment they could talk to not reveal the existence of magic and yet a national icon did this.
A soft hoot interrupted his thoughts when Hedwig came to perch on his shoulder with a letter and his subscription to the daily prophet.
"Thanks, Hedwig, here have some," Harry spoke up while handing his companion a piece of bacon. The snowy owl nibbled on it and snugged into his face slightly before flying away once more.
Harry opened his letter first and saw that it was simply his timetable. Did everyone get their timetables this way, or was Snape just not bothered to give them face to face?
It didn't matter, only that while the organization was somewhat different, his practical lessons were still with the Gryffindor. There was actually a full-blown war between Longbottom and Malfoy because of this last year, and they are just left it as is? This was honestly getting ridiculous. And as expected, the front page of the daily prophet was a picture of Longbottom and Weasley in a flying car, breaking the statute of secrecy.
The Potter scion took a deep breath and decided to just continue eating. He wouldn't think about Longbottom, it just wasn't worth it. At least that was what he told himself until Tracy suddenly stiffened, "Look, Weasley got a Howler."
Remembering how the Weasley matriarch was yelling at her husband, Harry simply put his hands over his ears. Tracy gave him a confused look, "what are you doing?"
Of course, that was when the youngest Weasley boy decided to open the letter, whose volume was so high that a few people were pushed away by it. For a moment, most of the students were left reeling, as a roar of legendary proportions had echoed in the Hall who was almost shaking. Molly Weasley really had a point to put across.
"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —"
Dear lord, this woman had some lungs on her. Did she enchant the Howler to be extra loud? Or was she just so loud that the Howler was probably damaging the hearing of everyone in the vicinity? Hell, the implements and the plates were rattling, and the sound was echoed magically off the walls of Hogwarts. The poor redhead had practically sunk so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.
"—LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND NEVILLE COULD BOTH HAVE DIED —"
Honestly, this was public humiliation at this point. The Weasley boy, while annoying as hell, had a very fragile ego that the woman kept battering on with this howler. Harry started to pity the boy if he was perfectly frank. He didn't like it. Although the fact that the Weasleys just revealed that they were directly contacted by the headmaster reeked of favouritism. The woman must have been too angry to care for subtleties. It was understandable somewhat because if it wasn't for the fact that Neville was with him, Ron would have been expelled and probably arrested.
"—ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."
A loud silence fell in the Hall, the children and teenagers still under the shock their eardrums had recorded in all its fury. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ronald Weasley's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Everyone was just too stunned to react or do anything, really.
Of course, just as people started to talk, another Howler appeared at the Gryffindor letter, but this time, it was in front of Longbottom.
"NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM! NEVER I HAVE FELT SO ASHAMED OF BEING YOUR GRANDMOTHER! HOW DARE YOU STEAL A CAR AND BREAK THE STATUTE SO BRAZENLY. FRANK AND ALICE WOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOUR ACTIONS. WHAT YOU DID WAS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS AND I WILL HAVE NONE OF IT. WHEN YOU COME BACK HOME –"
Yeah, Longbottom wasn't spared from the humiliation as well. When the entire Slytherin house burst into laughter, Harry stayed silent.
Tracy had tears in his eyes, "That was the best thing that I've ever seen in my life."
Even the stoic Daphne was openly laughing, although she stopped when she noticed Harry's serious expression, "What's wrong Harry?"
"What happened the last time Longbottom was humiliated publicly?" he explained.
They both frowned in thought and the Potter scion decided to just give them the answer, "Remember the Quidditch match, the one that Snape was refereeing and that he lost badly. Do you remember what he was like afterwards?"
Both girls paled, "You're saying he's going to start attacking Slytherins again?" Daphne asked with visible concern in her eyes.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that our dear boy who lived has a very fragile ego. I only hope the professors will stop him or just keep him busy afterwards."
With that said, Harry decided to ignore Longbottom entirely and focus on the bigger problem at hand, the chamber of secrets. First of all, he needed materials to build his glare resistant artefact, but more importantly, he needed to eliminate a few of his suspects. They were too many. As far as he knows, he could only remove them by confirming their alibis during the attacks. But that was just too much of a risk to wait for a student to be hurt.
Wait a minute, Harry didn't need to wait until an attack, but until the chamber opens. Riddle has to make preparations before taking out the Basilisks, like making sure it's still there. Harry could make a ward alert him whenever the chamber opens. He already knew the entrance, and it's not like he's losing anything if he does it.
Choosing to take the initiative, Harry told his friends, "I need to get to the bathroom. I'll see you in a minute."
The young Potter slowly walked to the second-floor bathroom, home to the infamous Moaning Myrtle. Thankfully, the ghost didn't seem to be there. Harry walked towards the sink and using his Arcane Hearing heard a very subtle hissing. It was well hidden, Harry would give Salazar Slytherin that, but the obvious engraving of a snake kinda made it obvious.
Still, Harry was sure that this was the entrance, and just under the sink, Harry took out one of his engraving tools and put a small runic array underneath. When he touched it, the writing started to glow and just melt into the stone. The array was simple, it would simply send a pulse using his arcane hearing whenever it was moved in space, something that was impossible unless the sink itself was moving, which was what happened when the entrance was opened.
However, Harry wasn't done yet. He needed something else before it was useful. As far as he's concerned, what he's done is simply a warning system whenever the chamber was opened. Considering that the attacks were mostly random, Harry needed the location of most students. The Marauder's map would have been perfect right now, but Harry didn't even know if the thing was real, let alone if the Weasley twins had it. He certainly wasn't going to risk breaking into the Gryffindor common room. Common rooms were protected by more than just silly passwords.
The very design of the map didn't make sense. It was made in two ways, either it was hooked up to the wards somehow, or the Marauders somehow put detection charms that lasted for decades all over the castle. It was probably the wards since the detection charms wouldn't really have access to any student's name.
Dumbledore certainly wasn't going to let Harry mess with the castle wards. That left the detection charms. Yeah, Harry needed to somehow put on charms in the entrance of each common room, counting the number of people getting in and out, revealing if there's someone going out from any house just before the entrance to the Chamber opens. It would help focus on the house of the possessed victim.
Still, he had to do it at night or very early in the morning. As for now, he walked towards the greenhouses. He was almost going to be late for Herbology class.
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.