Stormseeker: Borrowed Destiny

On the fourth of April, quietly make sure that Tom Riddle's diary is firmly tucked away into my robes, and take the Floo with Remus up to Hogwarts, straight to the Headmaster's office. There's a man I don't recognize already in the room with him, who has one glass eye and a peg-leg. He's holding an object that looks like it might be a cage, covered in a white cloth. There's also a young woman with vivid pink hair.

"Ah, there you are," Dumbledore says. "Harry, this is Alastor Moody, a highly skilled Auror, and his protege, Nymphadora Tonks."

"Just call me Tonks," says the pink-haired girl, making a face.

"Some call me 'Mad-Eye'," says the man with the glass eye.

I smirk faintly, and say, "There are those who call me the Stormseeker."

Tonks' eyes widen, and she says, "You--"

"Let us begin," Dumbledore says, interrupting whatever she might have been about to say. "Harry, Remus tells me that you know something about the Chamber of Secrets that you weren't telling us."

"I didn't actually find out until I got back to the Burrow, sir," I say. "And by that point, you weren't listening to a thing I said."

"I apologize if I treated you unduly harshly," Dumbledore says. "You must understand that it has been rough here in the aftermath of that battle."

"It was all very foolish," Moody says. "But we won't make the same mistakes this time." He pats the cloth.

"If I might ask, what's under the cloth?" I wonder.

"Heh," Moody says, pulling it off to reveal... a rooster? Once I get a look at it, Moody covers it up again.

"What, is that for bait?" I ask.

"Didn't you know, boy?" Moody says. "The crow of a rooster is fatal to a basilisk."

I blink at him. "Wait, what?"

"And unfortunately, all of the roosters at Hogwarts had been killed before Christmas," Dumbledore says.

"This thing can be killed by a rooster?" I say incredulously. "Are you bloody serious? Why didn't someone mention this before?"

"We had no roosters available," Dumbledore says. "So it was a moot point."

"Couldn't someone have brought in one from elsewhere when we realized it was a basilisk behind the attacks?" I ask.

"We were still trying to cover things up at the time," Dumbledore says. "And we were afraid of tipping our hand and letting our culprit know that we knew about the basilisk."

I put my face in my hands. "Sometimes I think this is why I'm really here," I say. "If an ordinary twelve-year-old can poke holes in your plans, you need to think of a better damned plan!"

Moody gives a short bark of laughter. "I like the way this boy thinks. Now, we've got a plan for dealing with the basilisk. But how are we going to get into the Chamber of Secrets?"

"I have an idea for that," I say. "Can we go to the Founders' Room again? I must speak with Salazar Slytherin."

"Very well," Dumbledore says. He leads us off down the hallway and into the secret room where the paintings of the four Founders are kept.

On the way there, I say to the others, "Last time I was here, I told Slytherin that I'm a pureblood named Lexen Chelseer."

"Why didn't you just claim to be a pureblood under your real name?" Remus wonders. "It's not like he'd know the difference, and the Potters are an old pureblood family."

"I'm paranoid," I say.

"Constant vigilance!" Moody says. "It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you."

We arrive in the Founders' Room, and Dumbledore goes over to wake the painting of Salazar Slytherin. "Salazar, Lexen here needs to speak with you again," Dumbledore says.

"Thank you, Headmaster," I say, approaching the portrait and giving it a polite bow.

"Ah, Lexen Chelseer, you've returned," Slytherin says. "Have you caught the imposter trying to steal my secrets yet?"

"Not yet, but I've got a solid lead now," I say. "I know where the Chamber of Secrets is, and I believe the culprit to be hiding inside. I need your help to get into it, however."

The painting frowns. "I dislike the idea of helping outsiders get into my chamber... however, the thought of an imposter holed away in there, claiming my secrets for their own... yes, I will help you. But you must promise me that you will steal the place up again afterward and not try to claim that which does not belong to you."

"Bloody right we'll seal it up again afterward," Moody says.

"Headmaster," I say, turning to Dumbledore. "Can you remove the painting from the wall and shrink it down a bit?"

Dumbledore pulls the painting off the wall and taps it with his wand, and it shrinks down to a third of its original size, much easier to carry. "I'll admit, I never would have thought of this myself," Dumbledore says. "How do you know this will work?"

"Luna told me that a painting of a Parselmouth is still a Parselmouth," I say.

"Indeed so," Slytherin agrees. "And I certainly wouldn't have agreed to do this for any of you mere half-bloods, either."

Carrying the painting of Salazar Slytherin, I say, "Alright. I'll show you where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is located."

I head out down the empty corridors and make my way to the so-called Forbidden Lavatory. The castle seems so quiet without any students in it, it's almost unnatural. The others follow along behind me as I enter the restroom. Myrtle seems to be either absent or feeling quiet at the moment, at least. The place isn't even too badly flooded at the moment.

"This is it," I say. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is apparently behind that sink."

Tonks lets out a snicker of amusement. "Here? Really?"

"A girls' restroom?" Remus says, raising an eyebrow.

"Why in Merlin's name would I put my Chamber of Secrets in a privy?" Slytherin wonders.

"If even you don't know, then I certainly have no idea," I say.

"How do we open it?" Dumbledore asks.

"The password is simply the Parseltongue word for 'open'," I say.

A hissing sound emerges from the painting in my hands, and the sink and the wall behind it suddenly shift. My heart leaps as I peer into the passageway leading downward.

"Right, before we head down there, let's make sure nothing stupid happens," Moody says. He taps himself on the head with his wand, and a blindfold covers his good eye. Then he turns to Tonks and taps her with his wand, and a pair of protective goggles appears on her head. He does that for each of the rest of us in turn. They're very strange to look out of, and feel a little disorienting. "Try to avoid looking into the basilisk's eyes regardless, but with these on, the gaze will merely petrify rather than kill you."

One by one, the five of us slide down to the bottom. The place is dark and ominous, and there's an enormous shed snake skin laying on the ground.

"It's that big?" Tonks says, eyes widening.

"Indeed," Dumbledore says grimly.

"It is a thousand year old magical creature," Moody says.

A little further on, we come to a door that seems to have no immediate way of getting open. "Parseltongue again?" I suggest.

The painting hisses again, and the huge door slowly swings open, revealing a long, dimly lit chamber.

Moody peers about the place thoroughly with his magical glass eye as we creep through the Chamber slowly. "Empty," he says as we reach a large statue of Salazar Slytherin at the end.

"There's nobody in here?" I ask.

"Nope," Moody says.

"Liars!" Slytherin's painting exclaims. "Interlopers! You tricked me!" He makes a dreadful hissing sound, and the mouth of the enormous statue starts opening... and the basilisk slithers out.

I feel dizzy and light-headed. The room spins, and my vision blurs. My skin is crawling, as if tiny snakes are worming their way just beneath the surface. I black out.

I wake, to find myself staring at a distant ceiling. Where am I? This isn't where I woke up this morning, so I must have just been knocked out, rather than killed. I'm still in the Chamber of Secrets. What happened?

My protective goggles have been knocked away, so I carefully take a survey of my surroundings. Tom Riddle's diary is lying on the ground beside me. I relax a little once I realize the basilisk isn't in the room anymore. But that relief only lasts a brief moment before I see the bodies on the ground.

Moody, laying next to a broken cage, without a mark on him, the rooster motionless as well. Remus and Tonks, laying side by side, both pierced by large venomous fangs. And Dumbledore, laying flat on his back as his phoenix cries into his chest. What did they do, stun me for my own protection or something? I wouldn't put it past them, at this point. But a fat lot of good that'll do any of us now. What in the Abyss happened? Another disaster, that's what.

I look around for Slytherin's painting, and find it laying dropped face-up nearby, still shrunk. I clamber over toward it, shaking a little. "I'm sorry," I murmur. "This was all my fault..."

"Don't fret over it, Lexen, my boy," Slytherin replies. "At least someone here is still loyal to me."

I hear a soft groan behind me, and look over my shoulder. Dumbledore is getting up! He's still alive! "Dumbledore!"

"What?" Slytherin says. "That lying, scheming Headmaster isn't dead yet?" He hisses, and the statue at the end of the room opens again. Oh, no...

"Damn you," Dumbledore murmurs.

"What went wrong?" I murmur, shaking and staring at the ground, not even caring about the deadly giant snake behind me. The far greater mercy if it kills me.

"You failed," Dumbledore says darkly.

I stumble to my feet and turn to watch as Dumbledore is locked in a life and death battle with the enormous serpent. How did everything go so wrong? Moody's plan was perfect. And then, in the blink of an eye, everything came crashing down. Moody or Remus must have stunned me in a misguided attempt to keep me safe, and then the effect wore off when they died.

"This Headmaster is stronger than I gave him credit for," Slytherin comments. "Why don't you give my snake a hand, boy?"

"Are you insane?" I say, casting a glare at the painting.

I turn to look back at the battle. But I'm not careful, or I just don't care anymore, and my eyes meet those of the basilisk. So big, so yellow... so deadly...

I wake slowly, wearily thinking about needing to do something differently, needing to warn them. If I hadn't been along, they'd just have walked into the Chamber of Secrets without any inkling that something was going to go disastrously wrong. I just wish I knew what had gone wrong, and quietly curse them for taking me out of the action like that.

And then I look up at the ceiling and realize that this isn't the Burrow. Wait, what? Where am I? I look around. A small, private room, with a bed and desk, sparsely decorated. It seems familiar somehow, but I can't immediately place it. It's not the Burrow, not my dorm, and not the hospital wing, though. I'm also wearing different clothes, a loose night robe. I look around for my wand, but I don't find it. Damn it, just what I need, to be unarmed in an unknown place.

Cautiously, I creep over to the door and peer around outside. A corridor with a number of doors leading off from it. There's a plaque on the outside of my door that reads, "Lexen Chelseer". My own name? How odd. And why is this all so familiar? I feel like I'm forgetting something.

I make my way down the hallway and come to a very familiar cafeteria. There's an elf woman at the counter serving breakfast. Not a short creature like Dobby and Rispy, but a tall, human-like, graceful figure with elegant ears. There's several others in the cafeteria getting breakfast. A few humans, a gnome, a dwarf, a flying monkey. And then I see what she's serving.

Pancakes.

I sit down at a table, staring at my plate of pancakes, and it hits me where I am. Somehow, I'm back in Torn Elkandu. I'm back where this all began. No wonder this all seemed so familiar. I didn't even recognize my own room at first. I only spent a week here, after all, before the Dark Elkandu attacked the place.

But here I am, eating pancakes in Torn Elkandu again. I don't know how it happened, but I've found myself back at the start. Back on the day I first died.

It takes a few moments for the impact of this to really hit me. I can start over? I can really start over? It's possible to start over? This... this changes everything.

I can save Moody, and Remus, and Tonks.

I can save McGonagall, Flitwick, Luna, and the others.

I can save Hermione.

I can save my family.

Sweet, syrupy pancakes never tasted so delicious as they do at this moment.

I finish up with my breakfast and head back to my room to get changed. There's jeans and robes intended for outdoor wear in my wardrobe. That is, robes that aren't soft and floofy with little yellow duckies all over them.

I then head out of the school. Out onto the streets covered with faintly glowing cyan runes, underneath the swirling black and purple sky. There's no mistaking it. This could not be anywhere but Torn Elkandu, the center of the universe. I make my way down to the Nexus, to the connection to all worlds. Eight rune-covered obelisks standing in a circle, crackling with the power to send people almost anywhere in the multiverse.

"Hello, Stormseeker," says the elven woman standing on duty at the Nexus. Keolah the Seeker. I remember her. I remember how, two years ago, she was supposed to contact me if she survived the attack, and never hearing a word from her, I had to assume the worst. Will she perish again, or will things go differently this time? "Looking to go somewhere today?"

"Keolah," I say. "Sedder and his Dark Elkandu are planning to attack the Nexus today. I'm getting out of here. I just thought I should warn you. What you do with that information is up to you."

"Very well," Keolah says, raising an eyebrow but otherwise taking the warning in stride. "Do you want me to calibrate the Nexus to a destination?"

"I can handle it," I say. "I know where I'm going."

Of course I'm going back to Wizarding Earth. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of my magical training there. And I have friends there that I want to see again. Not to mention, I have knowledge of the future that may make it possible to avert potential disasters before they even start. Oh, yes, I'm going back. I'm not nearly done with the place yet.

I step into the Nexus, and bring firmly to mind the image of Hogsmeade. It's been a while since I've been there, but I remember it well enough. I remember staring off across the lake, standing absently on the shore and looking off at the castle in the distance, when Dumbledore approached me. That's where I'm going now. Back to that spot, to that moment, where I can make a difference.

The glowing mists of the Nexus sweep me away to another world...