Harry Potter and the Chest of Death

Chapter 8: Finding New Secrets and Losing New Hopes

Harry and Ron's detention had finally come to an end, but they had written so many cards that Harry visualized them as he was sleeping. It was now the first day of the Christmas Holidays, and the Great Hall had been filled with wonderful trees. It was a little chilly inside the castle, but that made the fire in the common room all the more enjoyable. Hermione and Michelle were playing a game of Wizard's Chess, and Harry and Ron were filling out Christmas cards.

Harry would have liked to send one to Sirius, but he had been clearly told not to correspond. Harry missed his godfather very much, and he hoped to hear from him soon. 'I just want to know if he's safe,' Harry thought to himself. The only letter he had received so far was vague and only alluded to what may be going on outside the protective walls of the castle.

A shriek from Hermione told Harry that the game had not gone in her favor. She and Michelle cleaned up the broken pieces and headed over to where Harry and Ron were seated.

"Is that card for me?" Hermione said as she pointed to the card Ron was writing on.

"Nope," he said. "It's already done. This one is for Melinda."

"O, Melinda," Hermione said as she pursed her lips. "I almost forgot about her."

Michelle muttered something that bore a resemblance to, "I don't believe this."

"What was that?" Hermione asked with her eyes narrowed.

"I said that Harry just passed some gas," Michelle said waving her hand in front of her face.

"What!" Harry screeched. "I did not!" He looked at Hermione and Ron who were gazing at him with disbelief. Michelle still had her hand in front of her face, but Harry could tell it was to hide the fact that she was giggling. "I didn't! I swear!" he protested.

"Whatever you say," Ron said with a raised eyebrow.

"O forget it," Harry said as he stomped towards the dormitories.

As he was climbing up the stairs he heard Michelle call to him, "Harry wait!" He paused and she stood on the stair below him. "Come back," she said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Why? So you can say that I just flicked a boogie across the room?"
She giggled a little more before saying, "Yeah, sorry about that. It's just I know something about what Hermione thinks of Ron, and well...I just...It gets me a little aggravated when people play games like that. Do you know what I mean?"

"I think I do," Harry said grudgingly.

"Good. Now come back and let's finish our lovely conversation. I think Ron and Hermione are about to have a row as to how he should sign the card to Melinda."

"I better not," Harry replied. "I'm tired anyway. I think I'm just going to go to sleep."

"What?" she said to him with surprise evident in her voice. "It's only seven!"

"I know, I know..." Harry said and he headed up to the dormitory, leaving a bewildered Michelle on the steps. He of course had no intention of going to sleep. Thinking about Sirius had left him restless and eager for news. So, while no one was in the room, he put on the Invisibility Cloak and tiptoed into the hallway.

Once outside of the common room, he took off the Cloak. Harry had wisely put his bathrobe on; no one would expect that what he was up to was anything more than a late-night stroll through the castle.

As he was passing by the staircase to the deserted North Tower (it had never been used his entire time at Hogwarts) he heard the murmuring of voices. Harry could just understand what they were saying:

"I don't know," said a harsh voice. "This doesn't seem safe..."

"Shut up you fool," said a second and deeper sounding being. His accent was not English. It sounded North American. Harry couldn't tell whether it was Canadian or American, but he was sure that it wasn't Mexican. "We know that Dumbledore's got it in here somewheres, and all Wormtail said we had to do was find out where the old fogy is hiding that little chestie, see. It's easy. Then we's just go back to Dartmouth and tell Mister Wormtail. He'll pass on the info to his boss. We's hardly got anything to do."

"Who is Wormtail working for?" said the first voice. "What is in that box that his boss wants so badly that he'd risk breaking into Hogwarts?"

"I don't know, and I don't care," said the second voice. "I'm not being paid 2,000 bucks to think. I'll admit I was surprised when I was told to be in Hogwarts. The reputation of this school has gotten to us back home, but like I said before, I don't care. It's a lot of money for a little work and we should just keep our mouths shut and be grateful." Harry could hear their footsteps moving closer to him, and thinking fast, he slipped underneath the Cloak.

Soon after doing so, two men came out of the door to the North Tower. One was tall and thin. He had greasy black hair that stuck to his head. His eyes were black too, and they were beady and seemed to dart all over all the time. The second man was tall as well, but that was as far as similarities between them went. He was very muscular and he had strawberry blonde hair that was curly and tousled. His eyes were a hazel color, and they were unwavering.

Harry heard a meow not far off in the distance and Filch's footsteps. "I'm coming Mrs. Norris, we'll find those night walkers." Harry darted off as quickly as possible, but as he was running he saw a green light flood the landing, and a terrible sound came from Mrs. Norris.

"STOP! MURDERERS!" Filch screamed. Harry suddenly became aware that the two men were running not far behind him. Harry darted into the corridor that led to the Gryffindor common room, but he paused and looked back. He saw the two men run past, and then Filch came bounding after them shouting possible every Forgivable Curse known to magic kind. Unfortunately, he was on the borders of being a Squib, and his wand barely made any sign of magical practice. Harry had an urge to help Filch, but being caught with the Invisibility Cloak, and having no reason for being out and wandering about, Harry decided it was in his best interest to slip away.

Once he was almost at the Portrait Hole, Harry took of the Cloak and shouted the password to the Fat Lady. He rushed up the to the dormitory, not taking notice of who may be in the common room and flung himself onto his bed, drawing the curtains. He was breathing hard, and his mind was racing through the night's events. Question after question came into his mind:

Was Mrs. Norris dead?

Were those two men looking for the Chest?

Was Filch okay?
What did Dartmouth, the town Michelle was from, have to do with any of this?

Did Voldemort really have Wormtail find those men to search the castle?

How much did Voldemort know about the Chest?

Harry lay on his bed for hours, just trying to make any sense out of what happened. He couldn't remember when he fell asleep, but when he did wake the next morning, the just days before Christmas, he couldn't forget any of the thoughts that had plagued him the night before.

Harry headed down to breakfast by himself. He quickly found his friends seated and already started on an unusual looking dish.

"What is this?" he asked the group.

"It's Papas de Maria," Michelle responded. "It's Portuguese. Very good too. Put a little sugar or cinnamon on it though."

"O," Harry said prodding the tan mound and watching it jiggle on his plate.

"Harry," Ron said through a mouthful of the mysterious substance, "did you hear what happened last night?"

Harry almost choked on his own breath, "What happened last night?"

"Filch said that two men were creeping around the castle, and one of them killed Mrs. Norris!" Ron's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"O really," Harry said. Mrs. Norris was dead. Dead. Although he never liked the prowling cat much, she was dead, and the fact that someone had broken into the school and done an Unforgivable Curse frightened him.

"Harry," Michelle said as she looked at him with her head cocked, "why did you run into the common room last night after you had supposedly gone to bed?"

"Hm?" Harry said trying to sound like he hadn't been listening. Maybe she wouldn't ask again.

"You didn't hear me?" she asked with her eyes narrowed.

"I did," he said not looking at her. "I was out for a night time stroll, and I heard Filch yelling...I just ran back." It was almost the truth.

"O," she said with an unusual sound in her voice. "I see."

"Actually," Harry said unable to control himself, "I snuck out and I saw the two men that Filch was talking about. They were looking for the Chest. They said that Wormtail had sent them for his boss. They said they were going back to Dartmouth once they found it." He took a deep breath and looked at Michelle, "I'm sorry I gave you pieces instead of the truth."

Michelle didn't say anything. She looked into his eyes, and then turned her face away. Hermione spoke in a whisper, "The Chest? Then Voldemort knows it's here...He's coming for it..."

"Dartmouth?" Ron said, looking at Michelle. "Do you know anything about what's happening in that place?"

She looked squarely at Ron and said, "No. Well...Maybe...Now that you mention strange goings on...There was this little short guy that moved into my neighborhood just about a month before we moved. He was kind of startled all the time, and he had these tiny little eyes that kind of reminded you of a mouse. I don't know his name, but I do know that he gave me a bad feeling."

"That sounds like Wormtail," Ron said quietly. "What do you think Harry?"

"I don't know..." Harry said thinking things over. "I just don't know..."

"Well," Hermione said with a calm and steady voice, "what are we going to do now? Is there anything we can do?"

"If You-Know-Who is really out there," Michelle said with a quiver in her tone, "there's something we can do. Like Harry said so long ago, we can get the Chest before Voldemort does, and when he does eventually find it, we use it on him."

"There's only two problems with that," Ron began. "If there's evil inside the Chest, then when we open it there's a good chance it'll just kill all of us. The other possibility is that Merlin's sprit is inside, in which case I doubt any of us will be able to open it..."

"You're right, Ron," Harry said as he tried to think of every possible action they could take. "You're right, but we have to do something, and if we have the Chest then at least that means that Voldemort doesn't."

Hermione spoke in a barely audible whisper, "Where is it?"

They were all silent. No one knew where the Chest was. The best ideas of where it might be were just guesses. They all sat thoughtfully at the table for what must have been two hours, before the subject was abruptly changed by someone who had come over unnoticed.

"Harry," Cho said with a soft voice, "I just wanted to say...I wanted to say hello. And I wanted to ask how you were, and to say that I am doing fine..."

"I'm good too," Harry said looking up at her. Her face was milky white, and what used to seem like graceful beauty now seemed like infinite sadness. Yet, when she looked at him she smiled, and Harry knew that there are many roads, and though hers is longer, they'll all end up in the same place. "I'm good."

She nodded, "Good. Thank you." She left. Harry couldn't remember a time he had felt better. So few words had so much meaning. Too much for him to even understand himself.

*

By some miracle of fear, they had all seemed to push the issue of the missing Chest out of their minds for a few days after Harry had seen the men. Of course, he could not live in this blissful ignorance forever.

He was walking past the entrance to the Great Hall when he noticed something he hadn't seen before. Over the large doors there was a wooden carving of mermaid. It seemed old. She had graceful sunshine-yellow hair, and her scales covered her whole body, though sparingly around her face. (Harry thought that there was a faint resemblance to real mermaids.) As he was looking at her he saw it. The mermaid had her hands outstretched with her palms facing up, and resting in them was the Chest. It had the chains on it and the look of being older than Hogwarts. Harry could not believe what he was seeing. The Chest had been hidden in plain sight. In fact, it was so obvious a hiding place that Harry was surprised that he had not noticed it before.

He stood in that spot for what seemed like ten minutes short of forever. He finally regained his mind when he realized that he was just standing there with his mouth open like a fish. Harry wasn't sure what to do. He was still looking at the mermaid when he heard a slightly familiar voice:

"Hey Harry!" It was Kevin Reeves. "Whatcha up to?"

"Nothing," Harry said as he diverted his eyes. "I was just looking at that painting...Is it new?"

"What?" Kevin asked looking at Harry with an indescribable look. "That painting of that crazy knight? Wasn't he in the Gryffindor portrait hole for a while?"

"O yeah," Harry said. He had to think of something to say and fast. "So, what did you get Hermione for Christmas?"

"O, nothing."

"Nothing?" Harry asked with an obvious sound of being flabbergasted.

"Why would I? She dumped me." Kevin's brow became furrowed. "I had so many hopes that depended on her... I've got to go Harry, but nice talking to you. Tell Hermione I said hello."

"Okay," Harry said. Hermione had 'dumped' Kevin. Was this because she knew what Harry and Ron had both willingly and unwillingly found out?

Harry walked into the common room and found Ron and Michelle playing a game of Wizard's Chess with Hermione sitting close by.

"I need to talk to all of you in private..." Harry said as he looked around. "It's about the Chest. I've found it."

"What?" Hermione replied to him. "Where is it?"

They snuck over to the out of sight couch and Harry recounted the entire event to them.

"I did break up with him. It was a little while after you asked me if he asked about all of you...I started to pay more attention, and I noticed that he did ask about all of you a lot, and he seemed desperate to know more than what I was telling him. I dunno, it just seemed suspicious to me."

"You were right to do it," Ron said softly. "Harry and I found out he was funneling information he got from you to Fudge in order to get his dad out of jail."

"O my gosh!" Hermione exclaimed as she threw her hands in front of her mouth. "That's horrible! His father has been in jail since July for illegally importing potion ingredients without a permit..."

"Well, Fudge was keeping him there to get Kevin to find stuff out about Dumbledore and Harry," Ron seemed too calm.

"That's not important now," Harry said. "Kevin saw me just standing there. It must have looked suspicious. We have to go and get that Chest tonight if we are going to get it at all."

"What's the plan?" Michelle asked.

The strategy was set. At ten o'clock Harry, Ron, and Hermione would sneak out under the Invisibility Cloak. Michelle would stay behind so she could open the portrait hole for them. They would sneak over to the Great Hall, Hermione would levitate Harry, he would grab the Chest, Ron would keep watch, and then they would all hurry back to the dormitories, where Harry would hide the Chest in his trunk under all his belongings and use the strongest locking charm he could find. (Hermione had done a little research and had found one that was believed to have been the curse that had been used to lock the Chest itself. Only the caster could reopen it, unless a specific charm had been cast to make a certain person other than the caster able to open it.)

Ten o' clock came and Harry snuck out with Ron and Hermione. They went slowly through the corridors and we ever watchful of their surroundings. It was dim throughout the castle, and as they made their way down, the wind could be heard moaning against the stone walls of the castle. Before Harry realized it, they were almost at the Great Hall. They paused frequently, and in the darkness they were almost lost twice. Harry was breathing heavily. The doors of the Great Hall were in sight.

Suddenly they were right in front of the massive wood entrance, and the mermaid that hung overhead was a shadowy figure.

"Should we cast some light?" Hermione asked as she took out her wand.

"Better not to," Harry responded. "We want to stay as much out of sight as possible."

Ron went around to the corner and kept watch. Hermione used a levitation charm and got Harry up in the air. Harry was eye-to-eye level with the mermaid. He put his hands towards her to grasp the Chest. His hands met the air.

The Chest of Death was gone.