Harvest Time
DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you’ve seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: HARVEST TIME
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 nd , 1993.
Harry had to work out a deal with Wood and wondered whether he had made a bargain with a Quidditch devil. He needed time - real time - to get on with this year’s remaining big project, one which was not based upon any memory uncaps. It had to be on a weekend and, more importantly, on a weekend that did not involve a Quidditch Match or a Hogsmeade weekend. Below the Castle there still lay the remains of that Basilisk and thus far Harry had little time to deal with the thing. He had gone down just once with some Potter elves to check on the cave-in and to test a theory of his. He figured that once the elves were down in the Cave or the Chamber of Secrets proper they should be able to pop back and forth from there and the Trunk. This would mean he would not be needed to access the Chamber whenever they were down there butchering the carcass.
The experiment worked. The elves could easily pop in and out of the cave even if the entrance was sealed. For the last couple of weeks, they had been working on clearing out the cave-in and shoring up the cave to prevent any further collapse. Once that was done, he would be able to bring people down there both to see the legendary Chamber and, more importantly, to deal with the carcass. Specifically, this meant bringing Spidey and Mandy (aka Peter Parker and Amanda Crosby, once known as Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel) into the Chamber to instruct the elves on how to deal with the beast.
The problem was this had to begin on a weekend and that meant Harry had to deal with Oliver Wood. Wood wanted to spend hours each weekend they could practicing and Wood was not about to let something like a dead basilisks worth at least a small fortune to someone stand in the way of practice. It was obvious that being Wood’s final year he wanted the Quidditch Cup more than anything and it was not like Harry to try and pay for a day or two off from practice. Malfoy might pull that sort of stunt, but Harry would not. Still, some kind of “bribe” was in order otherwise Wood was not about to cut the Team and Harry in particular any slack from his grueling practice schedule.
But Harry had just the ticket. It was the main reason why the Gryffindor Quidditch Team had been invited to attend Manor Court. For the foreseeable future, Saturday practices would take place at the Estate Pitch and under a day of Time Compression which freed up all but an hour on every real Saturday for the Team to pursue other interests. Naturally, it annoyed Harry when Wood suggested including Saturdays where there would be a Hogsmeade weekend or where Gryffindor was playing a match as well. Harry considered it a worthwhile if not annoying deal.
The plan for today was easy enough. Harry, Ron and any of the invited students who wanted “the full tour” of the Chamber would enter “the normal way” from the haunted girls' bathroom on the Second Floor. Those who were less inclined to jump into the bottomless looking pit and those whose presence in the Castle might raise questions would be brought in by elves once the group gathered in the cave. The group that now gathered outside the haunted bathroom now included Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Lupin, Peter Parker and Amanda Crosby from Hufflepuff, Neville, Astoria, Tracy, Sally-Anne and Susan, Ron Weasley and Harry, Hermione, Luna and Ginny. Hannah and Daphne had heard vivid descriptions of jumping down the plumbing and decided not to have that pleasure. The rest of Houses Potter and Longbottom would enter by elf as would three others: Harry’s parents and Sirius Black. (Sirius had returned to the Trunk the night before and had yet to tell Harry about finding his wife.)
“Right,” Harry said looking at the group, “looks like we’re all here. Shall we?”
“Mr. Potter,” McGonagall interrupted before he could open the door to the bathroom, “perhaps one of the ladies should go first to be sure that the room is not currently occupied.”
“It’s almost always occupied,” Harry said. “Moaning Myrtle hangs around…”
“It has been known that despite that particular apparition, girls in desperate need will make use of this room.”
“You’re right, of course,” Harry conceded.
“I’ll go,” Hermione said and was through the door before there could be any argument. “It’s empty,” she called back a few moments later, “at least of physical beings.”
Harry led the group into the room. The nearly transparent figure of a girl in Ravenclaw Robes. “Hello Harry,” she said somewhat cheerfully which surprised more than a few people. “Not getting into trouble again, are you?”
“Hello Myrtle,” Harry replied. “Yes, no and maybe.”
“An odd answer.”
“Perhaps. Just taking this lot down the hole.”
“You must not like them very much, then. It must be horrible down there.”
“Was a bit creepy,” Harry admitted. “And there was the monster last time, but it’s dead now.”
“Dead?”
“I killed it.”
“Oh. I suppose that’s why you left me. You’re still alive.” She sounded disappointed.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Myrtle.”
“Oh I’m not disappointed. Death isn’t all that much fun, you know. Still, it would be nice to have a friend once in a while.”
“She seems nice enough,” Astoria said.
“When she’s in a good mood she is,” Hermione responded.
“Well, it’s not my fault I’m moody,” Myrtle huffed. “I was being teased at the time. Olive Hornsby was making fun of my glasses and it was my time of the month. Can you imagine? Perpetual monthlies?”
“Without the blood,” Susan added.
“It’s not as messy,” Myrtle agreed, “but it’s every bit as miserable.”
“Do we have to talk about this?” Ron asked in a disgusted tone.
Myrtle let out a whimper and then a moan and flew off to dive head first into one of the toilets.
“Really have a way with the girls, don’t you Weasley?” Tracy Davis said. Ron merely shrugged in reply.
“So where is the entrance?” Professor Lupin asked.
“Just over here,” Harry said as he walked over to a sink. He hissed at it and the sink seemed to transform and disappear leaving a large hole in the floor where it had been.
“That is? You just say open and it does?” Neville asked. “Not much of a password.”
“Except you have to say it in Parseltongue,” Harry replied. “Right now you and I are the only ones who can open it.”
“So, what do we do now?” Sally-Anne asked.
“Rather obvious, don’t you think?” Ron said as he walked up to the hole and jumped in before anyone could say anything.
“It’s safe enough,” Harry added again before anyone could say anything. “Bit of a ride, though.”
“Hey Harry!” Ron’s voice called from below. “Looks like they cleaned up down here. I didn’t even get covered with slime this time.”
“Right, who’s next?”
“I’ll go,” McGonagall replied.
“Professor McGonagall’s next,” Harry called down into the hole.
“Right then,” Ron’s voice replied as McGonagall leapt into the void.
“I figure ten second intervals or so should do,” Harry commented. “That’ll give the person at the bottom time to get up and out of the way of the next person. Who’s next?”
It actually took several minutes for everyone to drop through the hole. After all, even in the Wizarding World jumping into a dark and seemingly bottomless pit is not something most people would consider doing and the fact that intellectually they knew it would be okay did not change that psychology. Some jumped in although most took their time, sat on the edge and with a lot of encouragement both from the ones still remaining and their friends down below eventually slid into the hole. Some laughed all the way down, some screamed and some were silent. Finally, all that was left was Harry and he simply jumped in.
Professor McGonagall was one of the ones waiting for him at the bottom. The pipe or tunnel or whatever the hole was emptied into a rather small space where another masonry tunnel headed off to join with a natural cave. The space was not large enough for all of them particularly if people were coming down the pipe so it appeared that Ron had moved some of them off into the cave.
“Mr. Potter, I seriously doubt Salazar Slytherin jumped down that hole to access his Chamber,” McGonagall said. “As exhilarating as the drop was, I am forced to wonder how we can get back out were it not for elves. Surely there must have been a more civilized way to access this place?”
“Sorry Professor, wouldn’t know,” Harry said sheepishly. “Didn’t really bother to explore the last couple of times. The first time I was down here it was a little intense to say the least and the last time was only to see if the elves could pop in and out without difficulty. Let’s move off into the cave so those who chose a less exciting way of getting down here can join us.”
Harry led her through the tunnel to the natural cave which was lit with Lumos charms from several wands. He called for Dobby who arrived almost as soon as he stopped saying the Elf’s name and within a much shorter period of time the rest of their party was there as were about twenty elves who had volunteered to deal with the basilisk.
“I was expecting something a little more dramatic, to be honest,” James Potter said after a few moments looking around. “Not much of a Chamber.”
“This isn’t the Chamber,” Harry said. “It is what it appears to be: a cave. There’s a stone door several meters in that direction that opens into the chamber.”
“So what’s this place for then?” Sirius asked.
“It allows access to a large pipe that goes up into the school,” Harry said. “That pipe was how I got down here and how the basilisk got up there. Professor McGonagall suggested there might be another way up and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was, but I didn’t bother looking for it. Might do so now but not because we need to find it. It would be good to know about it ‘though. Right then, this way and stick together.”
They walked deeper into the cave. Harry was amazed at the things he noticed as they moved on, things he had not noticed before. Mostly it was the strange architecture of the cave which, thanks to Hermione had names although he was at a loss to remember which was which. One of them described columns of rock that grew up from the ground as lime was deposited from dripping water and the other described the pointy things growing down from the roof of the cave, again caused by lime deposits from dripping water. He had not noticed them before. He wondered if that was due to the fact that he only had one lit wand or whether it was because he was so focuses about what he was trying to do and so terrified about what was awaiting him up ahead. They came to one thing he did remember, a shed skin from the basilisk which drew gasps from just about everyone except Harry.
“That’s one big snake,” a voice said.
“Anyone know anything ‘bout snake skins?” Harry asked.
“Why do you ask?” his mother asked in reply.
“Just wondered if they shrink.”
“A little, but not much,” a voice replied. Harry saw that it was Peter Parker.
“Are you saying the thing is larger that this?” a voice asked.
“‘Bout twice as big,” Harry said as if that were an everyday thing.
“Bloody hell,” Ron exclaimed. “Twice as big?”
“Think so. We’ll see for certain soon enough,” Harry replied.
“I was somewhat doubtful,” Sirius voice said. “Thought you might be exaggerating, but even if it’s this big…”
“I can see now why you’re not into pranks,” his father said. “Life’s been a little too serious for you.”
“Not true,” Sirius said. “I was, after all, detained until recently.”
“I meant Harry, Siruis. A little too real then.”
“Guess you could say that,” Harry agreed. “The entrance is just a little further this way.”
“I’m surprised it’s so clean,” Hermione offered. “With all the dripping, you’d think it would be covered in deposits - unless it’s very recent of course.”
“Even shed skin from those things is magical,” Peter / Nicholas offered. “It’s probably the reason why it’s not covered in muck. Although the shed skin isn’t nearly as magical or as valuable as the true hide of the basilisk which is practically worth its weight in gold. How much was the estimate?”
“‘Bout a million sight unseen,” Harry replied.
“Fair guess it’s more than that,” Peter / Nicholas said. “I doubt there’s been a basilisk even the size of this skin in memory living or otherwise. You say the one in the Chamber’s even larger.”
“Yeah,” Harry said. “Then again, I was a little keyed up at the time what with that thing trying to kill me and all. Maybe it just seemed bigger.”
“The skin is plenty big enough if you ask me,” Lily said. “No twelve year old should have to face such a monster much less my son!”
“I do have that nutter Voldemort after me,” Harry said. “Truth is a basilisk is easier to deal with - once it’s blinded of course.”
“And how did you blind a thing like this?” Tracey asked.
“If he were Malfoy all he’d have to do is bare it all,” Daphne said. “I know I’d go blind if I saw that.”
“Okay, that’s an image I don’t need,” Ron complained.
“He’s not Malfoy,” Hermione and a few others said.
“Truth is I didn’t blind it. I had the help of a phoenix for that bit and the bit where it bit me… the basilisk I mean, not the phoenix. All I did was shove a sword in its mouth and through its skull.”
“The basilisk bit you?” Lily cried in alarm.
“And the phoenix tears fixed it up pretty quick,” Harry said. “And yes, I know it’s not like one can expect a phoenix to gift you tears all the time. But it did and I was good as new.”
“They’re healing tears, Harry, not curing tears,” Lily said. “You might be healed, but I’d be surprised if you’re as good as new.”
“Where did you get the sword?” James asked. “I’m pretty sure it’s not on your list of school supplied and swords weren’t standard issue when we were in school.”
“The phoenix brought the Sorting Hat and Griffindor’s Sword was in it or appeared in it or something,” Harry shrugged. “I just shoved the thing down it’s throat and it snuffed it, although I think I drove it through its brain to be honest.”
“He makes it sound like it’s an everyday sort of thing, you know?” Sirius said. “The ‘all I did was give it a ham sandwich’ sort of thing.”
“Nah,” Ron said. “More like the ‘what else was I supposed to do? Ask it for a game of chess?’ sort of thing. He doesn’t say much ‘bout those sorts of adventures really.”
“Neither do you,” Ginny said. “Not really, anyway.”
“Aside from the troll, I was never really there at the end, was I? Got knocked out playing McGonagall’s chess game First Year and was cut off when that ponce Lockheart nearly dropped the entire cave on top of us a couple months ago.”
“He was trying to obliviate us at the time,” Harry commented.
“Yeah. Everyone at school knew my old wand was dodgy - ‘cept him, of course.”
“What were you doing with a dodgy wand at school?” Lily asked.
“It wasn’t dodgy at first,” Ron replied. “Worked well enough once I figured out what to do - not always as easily said as done and no comments Hermione! Anyway, I kind of almost broke it at the beginning of last year…”
“And you didn’t get a new one right off?”
“Wasn’t about to tell Mum about the wand then, was I? I already had a record howler from her for crashing my Dad’s flying car into the Whomping Willow. That’s how I broke the wand in the first place.”
“You crashed into the Whomping Willow?” Remus asked.
“Not on purpose,” Ron replied. “Thing just went all dodgy all of a sudden and I tried to get it to stop but it didn’t work and my wand nearly snapped in two. You’d think a tree that can move like that would dodge.”
“A flying car? Where’d you get the flying car?” Lily asked.
“Was my Dad’s. We used it earlier that summer to get Harry away from his relatives and as we couldn’t get onto Platform 9 ¾ that year, Harry and I flew it to school.”
“You flew it, Ron,” Harry countered. “I was just along for the lift.”
“Turns out the flying part’s easy enough. Landing ‘though…”
“You crashed it into the Whomping Willow?” Sirius asked this time. “Must’ve done a number on that tree.”
“Actually, I think the tree did more of a number on the car, to be honest.”
“What was that about a Troll?” James asked. The truth was unless it came up in conversation, Harry had not told them much detail about his adventures at school.
“Oh that. Not much really,” Ron said. “We think Professor Quirrell let it in. He was possessed by You-Know-Who at the time, you know. Did it as a diversion of some kind. Anyway, we were all sent back to our dormitories - it was during the Halloween Feast, you know. Harry remembered that Hermione was off somewhere and didn’t know ‘bout the Troll so he went off after her and I went along. Locked the smelly bugger in a girls’ loo and thought that was it… ‘til we heard Hermione scream. She was in there, you know. So we rush in and Harry jumps on the thing’s back and jams his wand up its nose…”
“It’s not like I knew a whole lot of useful spells at the time,” Harry admitted. “But it kept the troll from having another go at Hermione.”
“… and I managed to do the Levitation Charm Flitwick had taught us that morning. Couldn’t get the feather to jiggle at all then. But I was able to levitate that thing’s club for a bit. Dropped it on the thing’s head and knocked it out.”
“What made you think to do that?” Flitwick asked.
“Harry said it,” Ron replied. “It’s not like I knew a lot of useful spells. The thing was trying to have a go at Harry and he told me to do something and it was the first thing that popped into my head.”
“I believe I said something similar then. You’re lucky it worked,” McGonagall said.
“As I recall, you were having difficulty with that spell,” Flitwick added.
“Wasn’t really thinking ‘bout it at the time,” Ron shrugged. “It seems I do better when I’m not thinking 'bout it. Pity I can’t not think about it all the time.”
“You know,” Sirius said, “you father and the lot of us thought we had adventures when we were here. You’ve been here what? Two years? It makes our time seem quite pedestrian.”
“I’d rather have pedestrian, thank you,” Harry said. “Nearly snuffing it a couple or so times a term isn’t a lot of fun, you know.”
“Let’s move on before there’s another one,” Neville suggested.
They soon reached a stone door that seemed carved into the wall of the cave. It was closed and covered with reliefs of snakes.
“This is the entrance to the chamber proper,” Harry said.
“What’s with the snakes?” Parvati asked.
“It seems Slytherin had a thing about them. He’s got whole columns of them inside, not to mention that basilisk.”
“Did you close it?” Ron asked.
“Don’t think so,” Harry admitted. “Maybe it closes with magic or something.”
“Doesn’t seem to have a handle,” Neville noted. “How do you get in?”
“Same way I opened the sink up top.”
“Really? That simple?” With that Neville hissed something at the door and the snakes seemed to move for a bit before the door opened outward. “Guess it was that simple,” Neville commented. To everyone’s surprise except Harry, there was light coming from the Chamber.
They entered and the Chamber was indeed lit by what looked like torches in sconces on every other column. As Harry had said, the columns had a very obvious snake motif, basically a coil of intertwined serpents stretching to the ceiling, their heads forming a capital of sorts. There were two rows of these odd columns on either side of a wide area not unlike the nave in a cathedral extending into the distance. At this point, no one could see the basilisk.
“Creepy,” Ron commented.
“Shadows are moving,” someone else said.
“It’s the flames from the torches,” Hermione said. “They don’t burn steady like candles so the shadows move.”
“Almost snake like,” Tracy added.
“Probably the idea,” Harry agreed.
“Who lit these torches?” Astoria asked.
“No idea. They were lit the last time I was down here as well. I wonder why they haven’t burnt out.”
“Gubraithian Fire,” Hermione said. “It’s a magical, everlasting fire. If not that, it’s probably something very similar.”
“Where’d you hear ‘bout that?” Ron asked.
“Read it in a book over the summer,” Hermione replied.
“So where’s this basilisk?” Sirius asked.
“At the far end,” Harry replied. “It’s near the statue of the ugly head.”
“The what?” several voiced asked.
“There’s a huge, ugly, bearded head at the far end of this place. It’s mouth can open. That’s where the basilisk was kept apparently. This way.” He led them down the open area.
“Reminds me of a church,” Sally-Anne said, “or a temple of some sort.”
“Git probably worshiped himself,” Ron offered.
“Or hoped others would worship him in time,” Neville added. “Didn’t work out that way.”
“I think Tom Riddle did,” Harry said.
“Who?” several voices asked.
“Tom Marvolo Riddle,” Harry replied.
“He was Head Boy back in the forties,” Ron added. “Got an award for Special Services to the School back then. I know ‘cause I cleaned the ruddy thing over and over again fall term last year during a detention with Filch.”
“For what?” Sirius asked.
“Does it really matter?” Ron replied.
“So who’s this Riddle character?” Susan asked.
“He was a student,” Harry replied. “He made the diary that Malfoy Senior slipped to Ginny at Diagon Alley before the start of last year and it was that diary that caused her to open this chamber. His father was a Muggle. Don’t know anything ‘bout the mother although it seemed he didn’t like his father all that much. Anyway, you rearrange the letters in his name and it says: 'I am Lord Voldemort.’”
“You’re kidding,” Tracey said. “The epitome of the Pure-blood Supremacists was at best a Half Blood?”
“So it seems.”
“What a bunch of hypocrisy!”
“Aside from themselves, no one ever said they were right about anything,” Sirius added. “My parents were huge supporters. Then again, I’m convinced my mother was insane and my father had no backbone as far as I could see. Most of those who joined his cause were either Pure-blood social outcasts, spineless wonders who wanted to feel important, wizards who could not get a job as the Village Idiot and psychopathic maniacs. It was hardly a reflection of our best and brightest. Don’t get me wrong. They were a dangerous lot. They believed they were in the right and because of that could do whatever they wanted. Give them leave to cast unforgivables and you have a real problem.”
“There it is,” Harry said. Everyone stopped and looked. They could now see the statue of the “ugly head” at the far end of the Chamber. At its base was a large, black, snake like object. There were more than a few gasps and a couple of whimpers.
“Bloody hell, Mate,” Ron exclaimed, “it’s huge!”
“You faced that a couple of months ago?” James asked.
“It was blind,” Harry said trying to down play the whole thing.
“It could’ve crushed you just as easily,” his mother said.
“Thing must weigh more than a ton,” Remus added.
“And I thought you were exaggerating when you said it was about sixty feet long,” Sirius began.
“Seventy-two and change,” Peter / Nicholas said. “Measuring Charm,” he added with a shrug. “A little over four-and-a-half across the middle. I’d put it at closer to three or four tons.”
“Doesn’t really look dead,” Neville commented. “It’s not decayed at all.”
“It’s the magic,” Peter / Nicholas said. “Until the magic fades completely, natural decay is not possible. Same’s true with dragons. You said the Goblins estimated a million?”
“Something like that.”
“If they only give you a million for this, you’re being robbed. Then again, maybe not.”
“Okay, why do you say that?” Lily asked.
“Well, these beasties are quite rare and never this big. If the Goblins tried to sell it quickly, they’d drive the prices for this sort of stuff way down.”
“My understanding is they intend not to do that,” Harry said.
“It’ll keep them in basilisk stuff for decades and maybe longer if they try to keep from depressing the market. But that’s their business, I suppose. Is that million firm?”
“Haven’t signed the paperwork or anything like that,” Harry said. “Why?”
“I’d try to get more. The hide alone is at least that much. It comes in four layers, you know. Each layer is at least as good and useful as dragonhide. But the outer most ‘live’ layer - that’s the one that’s not just about to be shed - it’s even better. You can temper it.”
“Um… what’s that mean?”
“Harden it magically. It can be tempered to be almost like steel but flexible like leather. It’s been used in some types of armor in the past, but never a full suit ‘cause there was never enough of a basilisk to make a full suit. This one? Several suits at least. Use an inner layer for an undergarment and you’re looking at the best magical armor ever made. Each such set would be worth a fortune on its own. Then there’s the other bits. The fangs have their uses, although ones that big are probably wasted on potion ingredients. You could make some terrifying daggers with them. The venom is expensive stuff and this one probably has quite a bit of that. The blood may have uses as well assuming it didn’t bleed out…”
“Don’t see any on the ground.”
“There was a lot of water in here,” Harry said. “It might’ve washed away.”
“We’ll see once we get to the task,” Peter / Nicholas said. “The meat’s no use to us, but Goblins consider it a delicacy. They’ll pay through the nose for that. We’ll need some sharp knives… very big ones…”
“What for?” Ron asked.
“To cut it up.”
“Won’t a cutting charm do the trick?”
“Thing’s resistant to most all magic. To butcher it, you can’t use spells and if the magic has faded to the point where spells will work, then it’s not worth nearly as much. Knives work.”
“You ever butcher a basilisk?” James asked.
“Been around nearly seven hundred years, haven’t I? I’ve had quite a few jobs over the centuries. Spent thirty years as a magical skinner back in the Sixteenth Century and carved up a couple of these beasties - although they were mere hatchlings compared to this monster. Also know how to temper the outer skin, but I can assure you I don’t think anyone has ever done one of this scale before. You’d better get at least a million for it, Harry, and probably more. I’d recommend dropping the goblins a note and setting a price for the bits now. Don’t mention exactly how much there is here but get them to commit to buy it by the pound or cup or square foot depending on what we’re talking about. Set the price and then unload it on them. Otherwise, they’ll try and get it for a steal. While Goblins are generally honest, they are businessmen and will try and cut the best deal they can. I also recommend we keep a fair bit of the outer skin and one of the inner layers. As I said, makes wonderful armor and the more we keep for our own use, the less can fall into the wrong hands. Two layers of this beastie will be quite the haul as it is.”
Harry was silent for a moment. The truth was, he really did not need the money. His plan was to keep anyone else from getting their hands on this thing and using it for their own purposes. Still, there was a part of him that did not want to be a pushover. He seemed to get on with the Goblins but he knew this was because he had been a sharp dealer. True, they were intermediaries and not really the other side of the transactions. But he had learned that if you appeared weak to them they would take advantage. “Makes sense. Should I give them an estimate?”
“Be vague. Get them to commit to the price they’ll pay. If they think it’s anywhere near this large…”
“I told them it was pretty big.”
“And they probably think you were exaggerating. They won’t give you a million sight unseen and will try not to give you anywhere near that amount for the whole thing. But if they commit to a fair price for the bits and pieces - and they probably will in the end - you could easily clear that and a lot more. They won’t like it one bit, but they will respect it. You’ll be a player in their eyes.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Means they won’t think they can walk all over you like they think they can with most wizards… and usually do, by the way,” Flitwick said. “You really killed this thing?”
Harry nodded.
“Too young,” Lily said. She had been mumbling over and over and now spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Young or not, the Goblins will see him as a Warrior of the highest order and a keen businessman,” Flitwick said. “They revere both in their culture although it is exceedingly rare that one is truly both.”
“Why did it have to be Harry?” Lily asked. “He’s too young to have to do this.”
“‘Cause my sister’d be dead if we did nothing,” Ron said. “No one else had a clue about what this was or where to find it, it seemed.”
“What about Dumbledore?” Lily asked. “I don’t trust him with a lot of things, but he is Headmaster and…”
“And he was sacked at the time,” Harry said. “When this thing petrified Hermione and that Clearwater girl, Malfoy Senior got the rest of the Board of Governors to give him the sack. He came back when Ginny was implicated for some reason.”
“Not that it matters,” Ron said. “You need to speak Parseltongue to get down here, right? Pretty sure Dumbledore can’t. We didn’t know Neville was one too so it was Harry or nobody and my sister’d be dead were it not for Harry. That coward Lockheart was more than willing to let that happen, you know.”
“Mrs. Potter,” McGonagall said, “as ashamed as I am to admit it, we were at a loss as to what was going on. If Dumbledore knew we were dealing with a basilisk, he kept it to himself and he seemed genuinely surprised when he learned that. After all, the students who had been attacked had been petrified, not killed and petrification is not associated with these things at all…”
“We figured it had to do with the fact that not one of the victims truly looked it in the eye - aside from Myrtle up there in the bathroom and she did that fifty years ago when Riddle opened this Chamber up,” Harry explained. “All of them only saw a reflection or caught the gaze through something. Filtch’s cat saw it reflected in standing water in the corridor that night. Colin saw it through his camera lens. Justin had a ghost between it and him and Hermione and that Clearwater girl saw it in a mirror Hermione was using to look around corners. No one truly looked it in the eye. Come to think of it, I might’ve only been petrified had it not been blinded.”
“Why do you say that?” McGonagall asked.
“There’s not much difference between glasses and a camera lens, is there? Of course, I’m not about to test that idea.”
“Makes our adventures look pedestrian,” James said after a pause.
“Doesn’t look like an adventure, mate,” Sirius said. “This is truly the stuff of nighmares.”
Ron snorted. “No. That was earlier. This is just a huge scary snake.”
“What’s worse?”
“A forest full of spiders - huge ones - bigger than a dog ones.”
“Okay, what’re you on about?”
“Acromantulas,” Harry said. “Hagrid suggested there was an answer of sorts to this puzzle in the Forest. Told Ron and me to follow the spiders which we’d seen fleeing the school.”
“We did all right. That was a nightmare!” Ron said. “Hagrid had this pet one once when he was at school. He let it go into the Forest. It’s still there! The thing’s huge! Size of my dad’s car at least! Bloody thing had hundreds of children and was more than willing to let them have a feed… on us! Don’t like spiders - especially big ones. Then again, I always thought bigger than my thumb was a huge one… ,” he concluded with a shudder.
“We’re dealing with them,” Luna said. “When we first met with House Longbottom it came up. Padma knew about these insects called Ardites that keep Acromantulas from getting out of hand in their native range. It turns out the Ardites like to lay their eggs on large Acromantulas and when their young hatch, they burrow into the spiders and eat them. We got some and released them into the forest over the part where the Acromantulas live. When the Ardite eggs hatch, it will be a plague on those creepies.”
“So they’ll be gone?”
“The big ones will be in time,” Padma replied. “Little ones will still be around, but they’re not as dangerous. Once they get big enough to be dangerous to more than just other insects or mice or such, they’ll attract Ardites.”
“Definitely make our adventures seem pedestrian,” Sirius said.
“To be honest, I wish my adventures were only that,” Harry sighed. “Something seems to think otherwise.”
“Not to seem greedy, but what’s my cut again?” Ron asked after a long silence.
“There’s a mood changer,” James said.
“You’re thinking about money?” Hermione asked incredulous.
“Hey! It beats thinking about giant spiders and nearly snuffing it each year!”
“It all depends on how much we get, Ron,” Harry said. “You get four sevenths of four tenths of whatever the total is.”
“Not much help.”
“That’s 228,571 Galleons if we get a million even.”
“Bloody hell!”
“‘Course, most of it will probably be in a trust 'til you’re seventeen.”
“Way to spoil the dream, mate.”
“But that’ll generate 20,571 per year in interest which you can spend as you wish…”
“Dream’s back on. Never knew I’d ever see that kind of money. How’d you figure that out?”
Harry shrugged. “I knew you’d ask. Did the maths last night just in case.”
“Hey guys? Over here!” Neville’s voice called out. Harry followed the voice for it seemed that Neville and a couple of his girls had wandered off.
“What’re you going here?” Harry asked.
“Well, I saw the dead snake and you did say you never had a chance to explore. I found something.”
“What?”
“Stairs going up.”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 th 1993
Harry had sent out a letter to Gringots that weekend asking for their offers. He asked for their offering price for each pound of meat, ounce of venom, cup of blood, cubic inch of tooth, square foot of skin by layer and so on. He was told not to take their offer as final and to counter offer at a higher rate and negotiate to a price somewhere in the middle. The Goblins would respect that. It was not as if he’d be in a position to sell for a time as it would take time to butcher the snake using only knives. He was told to figure that it might be two weeks before he could truly complete the sale for even a first shipment of snake bits. The butchering was only part of the preparation. If the elves also performed the preservation and initial preparation, the bits were worth even more and Harry agreed to do that as well. But a week later, as letters moved back and forth regarding the price, he had two other things on his mind. The first was Quidditch.
Slytherin had decided to play after all. Malfoy, on the other hand, still claimed to be too hurt and had not and the team took to the pitch without their Nimbus 2001’s. They still lost. They found someone to play Seeker but their replacement was about as useless as Malfoy had been. The only reason it was a match at all was because the weather was terrible. Harry had that sense of déjà vu about the weather. Something told him it would be pouring rain and cold and dark and no fun at all and he was not disappointed.
The Slytherin team played on lesser brooms and were almost evenly matched based upon brooms. Harry’s Nimbus 2000 was still the best broom on the Pitch although that was of little use if he could not find the Snitch and until Hermione thought to place the Impervious Charm on his glasses (and he had another sense of déjà vu), he could barely see the end of his broom. Still, seeing clearly through his glasses did not mean he could see clearly through the rain so it was a long time before he even caught a glimpse of the Snitch. Gryffindor had a comfortable lead by then despite Slytherin’s attempts at “unsportsmanlike conduct.” It turned out their usual brute tactics did not work nearly as well in driving rain and high winds so most of their efforts were useless. They did a good job keeping Wood away from the goals when they had the Quaffle but not one of them thought about using a sticking charm so they dropped it as often as not and soon refused to pass at all lest their teammate drop it as well.
The game was long and miserable. Sirius was in the stands as were Harry’s parents and Hermione’s for that matter. In fact, all of the families of House Potter and Longbottom with access trunks were there for a time - until it seemed that Gryffindor had an insurmountable lead (310-90) and they decided that getting out of the weather was a better idea. Only Sirius and Harry’s parents stayed to the end when Harry finally caught the Snitch after almost four hours of misery. In fact, when the match finally ended there were few left in the stands to see it the weather was that bad (and the game that one sided). Ron and Ginny wound up playing the final hour and more. Wood was soaked through and shivering so bad that he was sent off to the Hospital Wing and Ginny played allowing the other three Chasers chances to get out of the rain for a bit, dry off and warm up again.
“Wasn’t as good as Wood,” Ron said in the common room after the match drinking hot chocolate. “Still, it was brilliant. Had a few good saves. Let’s see… thirty-three saves for eleven allows in that mess out there? Not too bad. You were brilliant, Gin. Ten goals and nine assists?”
“Might’ve been more. Couldn’t see a thing half the time,” Ginny said. “It also helped that by the time I took the pitch that lot was knackered.”
“You both did well,” Angelina Johnson said who stepped in as “Captain” when Wood was ordered off the Pitch. “Real well considering the conditions, it was your first Match and it was against Slytherin.”
“And the best bit is Wood’s still laid up in the Hospital Wing,” Fred added.
“Otherwise, we’d be getting a play-by-play recounting of the match…”
“Wherein our illustrious leader and Captain…”
“Would point out every mistake we made…”
“Regardless of the score.”
“But it was a blow out!” Ron complained. “It was 480 to 210 before Harry caught the Snitch!”
“He’d find something we might’ve done better,” Katie said. “He always does. Guess that’s why he’s the Captain.”
“Worse this year, I fear,” Alicia added. “We should’ve won the Cup the last two years but Harry was in Hospital two years ago for our last match and you know it was cancelled last year. Wood’s obsessed with winning the Cup. But Angelina’s right. We can tell him not to worry too much ‘cause we’ve got two strong Reserves.”
“A 270 point advantage from one game? That should count for something,” Ron said.
“Wood doesn’t want to worry about points,” Angelina said. “We win the next two matches and points don’t matter at all and he wants to win those matches.”
“He’s a bit obsessed,” Alicia said.
“Look,” Ron said, “I’m not saying we can’t win those matches or whatever. I’m just saying we did well.”
“We did. But Wood wants more than just doing well, he wants the Cup.”
“And we’re just letting you know he’s gonna point out whatever it is we didn’t do as well as we could’ve or should’ve,” Katie said. “He always has.”
“What’s to point out?” Ginny asked. “The weather was horrid. No one could play well in it and we clearly played better than they did.”
“He’ll find something to harp on us about,” Harry said speaking for the first time. “Don’t get me wrong. Wood’s a good guy and a good Captain and most the time if he says you didn’t do something right, you didn’t. There might even be a good reason why you couldn’t. Even catching the Snitch doesn’t spare me. I didn’t see it this time or that and he did. I missed his cue to me to where it was. I was moving too little or too much. He just wants the best from us and we do try to deliver but it can be a little annoying at the time.”
“Especially seeing that we’ve never lost with Harry at Seeker - when he played of course,” Katie said, “and we’ve never trailed in points after the first five minutes of play… not with our line and Wood before the hoops. We had a hundred-twenty point advantage in the one game we did lose when that Donaldson caught the Snitch year before last. Our plan was to get an insurmountable lead and we almost had. He got lucky. We know it, he knows it, Wood knows it. Still, we did hear about it from Wood afterwards even though we all knew our replacement at Seeker was all mouth and no ability.”
“You make it sound miserable,” Ron said.
“Well, it’s different than watching a Match, that’s for sure,” Fred said.
“It’s the price we gladly pay,” George said.
“For Hogwarts Quidditch greatness,” Fred added.
“Which would be ours but for bad luck,” Alicia finished for them.
Ron nodded. “Thought for certain Malfoy wouldn’t have the stones to skive off after that meeting week before last,” he said hoping to change the subject.
“We’ll never know for certain,” George said.
“Oh? Didn’t see him on the pitch, did I?”
“Couldn’t,” George said. “He’s in the Hospital Wing.”
“Claiming his arm’s still maimed, no doubt.”
“Um… broken, more like,” Fred said.
“It was only a scratch!”
“Ah… That prior injury was.”
“Not the new one,” George added
“New one?” Harry, Ron and Ginny asked in unison.
“Yeah. Happened this morning. He said some rather rude things about what he wanted to do to Harry’s Daphne.”
“Most unfortunate a couple of our valiant Fifth Years overheard.”
“They decided he really needed a lesson…”
“So they gave him one…”
“And hit him in the family tackle…”
“With a mild bludgeoning hex.”
“Considering what he was suggesting, a prudent move.”
“What did he say to Daphne?” Harry asked angrily.
“Nothing,” George said.
“She wasn’t around.”
“Then why…?”
“‘Cause we don’t like snakes talking that way 'bout a fine addition to Gryffindor such as Daphne.”
“Or about our Seeker and good friend’s lovely wife,” Fred added.
“Little ponce needs to learn she’s off limits.”
“Little ponce needs to learn you say or think the wrong thing and you can expect consequences.”
“You broke his arm?” Ginny gasped.
“Technically,” Fred began.
“It was one of the steps he bounced into,” George added.
“One of many on that staircase he fell down…”
“After one of us…”
“And we won’t say which one…”
“Hexed him in the family tackle.”
“Of course, if he had been smart…”
“Which is asking more from him than can be expected…”
“And had waited several minutes…”
“Before trying to walk down those stairs…”
“He might not’ve fallen in the first place.”
“Of course, the lot of them seem to be thick that way,” George said.
“Yep. The bloke he was talking to was just as dumb.”
“But he bounced better…”
“Banged up but not broken.”
“Had to hex him too for encouraging the ponce.”
“You guys didn’t get into trouble, did you?” Ginny asked.
“No one saw us.”
“Not even the two idiots.”
“I’m allowed to enjoy that, aren’t I?” Ron asked. “Maybe even gloat a bit?”
“Leave our names out of it,” Fred said.
“And enjoy it to your heart’s content, little bro.”
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 th 1993
Anna Fitzhugh was a first year Hufflepuff. She had grown up mostly in the Muggle world - or at least that’s what she said to her peers. Her mother was a witch which she had learned only recently when she received her Hogwarts letter. She had attended Muggle Infants and Primary school in London and had grown up in that world except for the fact that her mother would not allow her not to believe in magic. She had been skeptical about magic and fairytales when she grew older and her mother did tell her that they were made up… to a point. Needless to say, she and her mother had a long talk once she got her letter from the odd owl.
She asked why she was not told this before and was told about the Statute of Secrecy and how long ago witches and wizards around most of the world - or at least Europe and the Middle East - chose to hide all truth about magic from the rest of humanity. This was mostly for their own protection. She learned that while their gift could be wonderful, there were Muggles who feared it and refused to understand it. It probably was not as bad as it once had been and as compared to a lot of places in Europe, England had not been that bad. But there were far more Muggles than there had ever been witches and wizards and over time they grew to be powerful in their own ways and not just by virtue of numbers. Add the fear, religious issues and other things to the mix and there certainly was a time when there were powerful Muggles who wanted to end magic. And so magic chose to hide away for their own protection.
She asked about why, if they were magical, they were living as if they were not. Weren’t there other witches and wizards out there? Did they hide from each other as well? Why would they have their own school and then live as if magic did not exist? It was then her mother told her about a terrible civil war in the magical world. She was born to non-magical parents and grew up as a non-magical child as well up to the day she got aboard the train that took her to a magical school in Scotland. It had seemed very exciting at the time. But it had been at the height of this terrible war and she had gone into hiding in part because her husband, Anna’s father, had fought in that war and had made enemies. Most witches and wizards could not function outside of their world unless they had grown up in the Muggle world so, oddly, it was easy to hide from them simply by crossing over into the Muggle World and living as a non-magical would. She had chosen to do this because Anna’s father was important in that world. He was their equivalent of a Peer of the Realm, or at least what a Peer once had been. This meant his daughter was important as well since she was all that was left of that line and Anna’s mother preferred to keep that aspect of that world at bay as long as possible.
Anna had been told that her mother had lost her father for as long as she could remember. Her mother never said exactly how this had happened, only that it had. Anna learned it was best not to ask. It did not make her mother angry to ask. But her mother never answered beyond saying it really was not important how he came to be lost to her, just that he was. It was clear to Anna from an early age that losing her father had made her mother sad and it sometimes hurt to remember the times before he had become lost. It was also clear to Anna later that her mother still loved the man who had become lost. This was a story from her life before Hogwarts she had yet to share with her classmates if for no other reason than that she did not really know all that much about her father.
None of this entered her mind that morning when she sat down at her House table with her friends for breakfast. None of it entered her mind at all when one of the Prefects handed her a note from her Head of House telling her she was to go to the Transfiguration Classroom immediately following her breakfast. The truth was, she had no idea why Professor McGonagall would want to see her or why Professor Sprout seemed insistent upon it. As far as she knew she had not done anything wrong and she was not aware of students being asked to see the Deputy Headmistress just for a friendly cup of tea. In fact, she was not aware of any other students - aside from Gryffindors - being called in for a chat with the Transfiguration Professor. Needless to say, she was worried about what this was about. But she was not about to try and avoid the request figuring that would be even more trouble than it was worth.
Nervously, she entered the classroom. There she saw Professor McGonagall and her own head of House Professor Sprout and the last person she expected to see…
“Mum?” she asked.
“Ah,” Professor Sprout said, “I see you got my note! And I am pleased I did not have to release the hounds to bring you here.”
“Professor?” she asked.
“An expression,” she replied. “You would be amazed at the reluctance some students have to attend such a summons.”
“Um… I suppose. Wh-what’s going on? I haven’t done anything!”
Professor Sprout laughed. “No, no, Miss Fitzhugh. So far as we know you have not. Then again…”
“Pomona,” McGonagall said.
“You’re right, of course Minerva,” she replied. “No dear, there is nothing wrong and you were not called here for something you may have done or may have seen. Your mother asked for this meeting and… well, certain aspects of her request require Professor McGonagall’s assistance although not truly in her official capacity…”
“This is a family matter,” her mother said.
“Family?” Anna asked. “Is… is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing at all. Your father has returned and we are going to see him.”
“But… but I thought he died!”
“And why would you think that?”
“You said he was lost at the end of the War and we couldn’t see him!”
“I always said that, didn’t I?”
Anna nodded. “I thought it meant he was dead,” she said meekly.
“It didn’t. It’s hard to explain quickly, but had he died I would’ve known about it. Had he died, I would’ve died as well. There is a magic between us which binds our lives and magic together such that we cannot live without the other. Back then, I thought it meant something like cannot live apart. That magic can mean that, you know. But we were old enough where it didn’t work like that so as long as he lived, I would live and the same worked the other way as well. So I knew he was alive.”
“But you said he was lost! Did he leave us?”
“No. That I can assure you. Or at least he did not intend to leave us or me - he did not know about you when he became lost to me. He was in a place where I could not follow and from where he could not leave…”
“Sounds like death to me.”
“Some would say it is a death of sorts. He probably would having been through it. But he was alive and he has left that place and returned and wants to meet the daughter he never knew he had…”
“Um… ,” she stopped. She looked at her mother for a clue as to what to expect. She wondered what this meant to her mother. The man had been gone for her entire life, after all. Her mother looked happy, quite possibly happier than Anna had ever remembered now that she thought about it. “Um… where was he all this time?”
“He was in prison…”
“But you told me he was a good man! How could he be when he was in prison all this time?” Anna protested.
“He committed no crime,” her mother began.
“Then why was he in prison?”
“That is complicated…”
“And why is he out?”
“Well, as for the ‘out’ part, he left…”
“Left? You don’t just leave prison, do you? They have to let you go!”
“He left,” her mother said. “He left because he felt he must.”
“But how? Oh. He was in a Muggle prison, wasn’t he?”
“No. He was in Azkaban.”
“But… Are you telling me my father is Sirius Black?”
“He is indeed, Little One. I take it you’ve heard about that?”
“I… I was at his trial. A bunch of us First Years were there. There were a bunch of us who rode to school with Harry Potter and his friends and we were invited to wherever it is that he lives to see the trial. That was my father?”
“He is your father, dear. That has not and never will change.”
“And he’s come back to you?”
Her mother nodded.
“And wants to see me? Why?”
“That is a silly question, don’t you think?” her mother replied. “You’re his daughter and I’m his wife and we were supposed to be a family. He missed twelve years of our lives…”
“I’m not even twelve!”
“I was pregnant with you when he was lost to us, dear.”
“Oh.”
“So, since you’ve been there, you know where we’re going.”
“Going? But what about school? Oh. That’s another silly question, isn’t it?”
“Had you not been there before, it would not be,” McGonagall replied. “But now you know why you are here and not in Madam Sprout’s office. The access is in Gryffindor tower and I am to take you and your mother there where you’ll be granted access to the Potter Estates to spend time with your father…”
“How long? Or is that a silly question too.”
“You’ll be back at school by dinner,” McGonagall said. “But you’ll be away for a week or so your time. I would suggest that if there’s anything you need or feel you should bring with you during your visit you should tell one of the elves you’ll meet. They’ll bring it along. Now, if you will all follow me, we shall head to where you can access the Estate.”