Stormseeker: Borrowed Destiny

Halloween morning dawns. It's just as well that it falls on a Saturday this year, because I doubt I could concentrate on classes at the moment. My heart is pounding in anticipation. I can hardly eat, I can hardly sleep. I want it to be night already, and not have to deal with Dueling Club at the moment. Ah, well. At least I can hex the crap out of Ron for a bit.

"Stormseeker," Luna says after Dueling Club. "Would you like to come to Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party with us?"

"Who is going?" I wonder.

"I don't know," Luna says. "Probably primarily ghosts, one poltergeist, and perhaps a large number of nargles."

I would feel bad about dragging Storm Army to this event, although Hermione might find it fascinating. I certainly don't really care to go again. I'd much rather be down in the Chamber of Secrets, studying. Although I really ought to have at least some sort of excuse for where I am.

"Nah, I think I'm just going to go to bed early," I say. "Do some studying and get some rest. I've no interest in going to the feast or any parties at the moment, really."

"Alright," Luna says. "Do you think anyone else might be interested? Those poor ghosts seem so ignored."

"I don't know," I say. "You might ask Hermione. Could you let the others know that I'm heading back to my dorm and not to bother me unless it's an emergency, please?"

"I'll do that, Stormseeker," Luna says. She cocks her head and looks at me oddly. "Is that what you really intend to do?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"This is the strongest time of the year for dark magic," Luna says. "And you are a dark wizard. If you're intending to sneak off to take advantage of Samhain to perform a dark ritual, you might need a better alibi. One of your dorm mates might inadvertently realize you're not there."

Luna is entirely too perceptive at times. "Um..." I say, peering about the corridor to make sure that nobody hear that. "Muffliato. Not precisely, but you have a point. What would you suggest?"

"Well, if you intend to be out after curfew, then pretending to already be in your dorm would be wise," Luna says. "But I'll let Neville, Dean, and Hermione know that they should not check for you there no matter what happens."

"Thanks, Luna," I say.

"Do try to avoid anything bad happening to you, Stormseeker," Luna says. "There are an awful lot of nargles out tonight."

I head up to my dorm to put a Revulsion Curse over my bed. With that in place, I slip on my invisibility cloak and head out again. There are too many people in the common room to just go out through the portrait hole while invisible, so I quietly stand around by it and wait a few minutes for someone to go out, and creep out after them. From there, it's a straightforward matter to head down to the first floor girls' restroom, where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is.

The room is flooded with a layer of water. It looks like Myrtle is in one of her typical moods. At least she isn't paying attention to what's actually happening in the restroom at the moment. I pull out Tom Riddle's diary and write, "I'm at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. What do I do now?"

"You will need to let me take control of your body in order to open the way inside," Tom reads.

I frown deeply, and shudder at the thought. "I really would rather not have to do that," I write. "Isn't there another way? Couldn't you just tell me how to open it? What the Parseltongue password is?"

"You said you were willing to do whatever it takes," Tom replies. "Are you backing out now? You are not a Parselmouth. You won't be able to get inside without the help of one."

"Couldn't I just learn Parseltongue or something?" I write.

"No," Tom tells me. "Parseltongue is a magical language. You need to be born with it in order to speak it. It cannot be learned."

I frown deeply. I would really rather not let anyone control me, but if it's the only way to get me inside, what else can I do? There's no way I'm going to convince Salazar Slytherin's portrait again. I write, "Alright, but only for as long as is necessary to do what you need to do, and no longer."

"Agreed," Tom writes. "Prepare yourself."

My head suddenly starts spinning, and there's a strange sensation like worms crawling under my skin, and then the world goes dark.

When I come to my senses again, I find myself standing inside of the Chamber of Secrets. A surge of glee floods through me. Tom got me inside! This is wonderful! Time to do some exploring and see what all is down here.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I don't see any sign of the basilisk. What had happened before? It had come out of that statue, didn't it? After Slytherin's portrait had hissed at it... That might make it difficult to actually kill the thing. I set off my watch to crow on the off chance that it's close enough to hear, but if it works, there's no indication thereof. So I just go off to search for Slytherin's personal library instead.

After a bit of searching, I find it. The place is huge, and old. Shelves upon shelves of books of all different shapes and sides line the walls. I wonder how many books are here, and whether this place is magically expanded for space. Obviously, the books themselves must have preservation spells placed upon them, although in one section toward the back, the spells appear to have failed. I don't dare touch these crumbling books that look as though they'd simply fall apart at the slightest touch.

So, I start peering through the shelves of intact books, looking for any titles that sound interesting. That's when I realize something. These books don't even seem to be written in English! There's a large number that appear to be in Latin, as well as many more in languages I don't recognize, some of them even written in scripts I can't read. What am I supposed to do with this?

I pull out Tom Riddle's diary and write, "I'm in Slytherin's library. Tell me, are any of these books written in English?"

"Certainly," Tom replies. "Middle English, anyway."

"Middle English?" I wonder.

"Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, you know," Tom tells me. "You didn't think that they spoke modern English back then, did you?"

I stare at the words on the page, and have to laugh bitterly. All this trouble to get down here, and it's all useless to me! Well, I'm not about to give up that easily. I'll just have to learn Latin or Middle English or whatever some of these other languages are. How hard could it be? And then I can practice translating with one of these books. I should really take at least a couple of them out of here so that I don't have to come back anytime soon.

"Alright," I write back to Tom. "Help me out here, then. Give me an idea on where to start. Which of these books might contain magic that I might be capable of learning, or knowledge that I might wish to know?"

"Hmm," Tom replies. "A number of these books detail magic that is only useable by a Parselmouth, so that would not be useful to you. There's also a fair bit of obscure and complicated dark magic that's probably beyond your level. Salazar Slytherin didn't exactly keep beginner's guides to the Dark Arts in his secret private library. Now, as for knowledge, what are you interested in learning about? There are, after all, quite a large number of books in here."

I have to think about that for several minutes. Of course I fantasize about learning everything that I possibly can, but I know I have a long way to go. I'm on my fourth year of magical education, but my learning beyond the second year is patchy and uneven. Still, this is an opportunity that I don't want to waste.

"Something that has been forgotten by modern wizards," I write. "Something about the way magic really works, and not just spells and formulas to memorize. Is there anything like that?"

"Ah, Lexen, I knew I hadn't underestimated you," Tom replies. "You have the potential to go very far indeed." He gives me the titles of three books, and after some searching, I locate them and tuck them carefully away in my bag of holding. They're all written in Latin, so at least I won't need to delve into multiple foreign languages in order to try to decipher them. There's the Grimorium Antiqui, the Clavicula Potentiae, and the Ars Magicarum.

With that, I head on out of the Chamber of Secrets. I'd rather not go poking around at unknown books or dark artifacts on my first visit down here in this life. That sort of practice has a high chance of getting me killed by accidentally triggering safeguards on things. Instead, I just head out the doors, which slam shut on their own behind me, past a large shed basilisk skin, and to the pipe I slid down on a lifetime ago. Except that it's not a smooth pipe this time, but a staircase. Well, that makes things easier. I climb up the stairs and out into Moaning Myrtle's restroom, and the passageway closes behind me, looking like nothing more than an ordinary sink again.

I step outside of the restroom, splashing through the small flood on the floor, and almost trip over Mr. Filch's corpse.

Wait, what?

I poke the prone form of the Hogwarts caretaker with a toe. Looks dead to me. Did I somehow accidentally unleash the basilisk when I went down into the Chamber? And then I notice the writing on the wall.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

I groan softly. There must be some sort of automatic mechanism set into place for that. A contingency spell somewhere, I imagine. I hadn't anticipated something like that. I'd hoped to just be able to get down there quietly and look around without anyone the wiser.

"Potter," says Lockhart's voice as he approaches me from behind. "What has happened here?"

"I didn't do it," I say quickly, spinning around to look at him.

"Expelliarmus," Lockhart says, and my wand flies out of my hand and some way down the corridor. Crap. Well, I suppose when he sticks to real spells, he's not completely useless. "So, Potter, did you somehow discover Salazar Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I reply. "I was just walking down the corridor, and I stumbled over Filch. Is he... dead, sir?"

Lockhart clearly isn't buying the act. "How did you get into the Chamber of Secrets?" he demands.

"I don't know!" I say. "I mean, I didn't get in! I mean--"

Lockhart pushes up against me, pressing me against the wall with one hand and the other holding his wand to my face. "You know, I could always drag you to my office and introduce you to my private stash of Veratiserum if you're not willing to talk."

This is bad. "Look, sir," I say. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know nothing about the Chamber of Secrets."

"Perhaps you're right," Lockhart concedes. "Perhaps you're telling the truth. I really doubt that you have a drop of Slytherin's blood in your veins, after all, as much as you enjoy hanging around with them. You're no Parselmouth. Still, this could be a great discovery. If nothing else, I'm going to be the one to start this investigation, not some student who just got lucky and stumbled upon something completely by chance."

"I don't believe in luck," I mutter.

"So, my apologies, little brat of a Potter," Lockhart sneers. "But you're going to have to forget what you've discovered here. Obliv--"

Slam. My fist connects with Lockhart's jaw. It seems I've discovered a way to counter Memory Charms without a wand. Although it certainly made my hand sting.

"Why, you little..." Lockhart snarls, trying to restrain me.

I headbutt Lockhart in the face, and then knee him in the crotch. Neither of us is particularly good with physical combat, but at least I have agility over Lockhart's raw adult strength, and I was able to catch him by surprise. I manage to escape from his grasp and tumble down the corridor, to where my wand landed. I fumble at it to get it at ready again.

"Oblivia--"

"Flipendo!" I exclaim. "Expelliarmus!" Lockhart gets knocked back by my bolt of blue energy, but he manages to keep his wand from being disarmed by my second spell.

My mind is racing with any spells that I can safely cast upon him without undue consequences. Assuming someone doesn't try to arrest me for assaulting a teacher. But still, easier and safer to claim self-defense if I stick to the non-dark spells that I'm actually supposed to know. I've read up on the Stunning Spell by this point, but haven't had a chance to actually practice it on a real target yet, since it's a bit beyond where we should be at in the second year Dueling Club.

"Expelliarmus!" Lockhart casts, leaping to his feet.

"Stupe-- damnit," I say. Not quick enough. My wand flies out of my hand again. I don't even manage to see where it went this time.

"Obliviate!" Lockhart shouts as I duck into the restroom, barely avoiding the spell.

No good fighting him in the open corridor without a wand. At least in here, there's some things I can hide behind. If I do this right, I might even manage to get him trapped in here, rather than me being cornered in here as it currently stands.

"There's no use in hiding, Potter," Lockhart says, feet splashing as he steps inside. "Obliviate!" The spell harmlessly strikes a stall divider.

I tumble through the water underneath the dividers and into another stall. "Myrtle!" I cry out. "Distract him and I'll be your friend forever!"

"What's this?" Myrtle says, rising out of her toilet. "What's going on here?"

"Obliviate!" cries Lockhart as I slam the stall door in his face.

"See for yourself," I say, reaching under the stall door to grab at Lockhart's ankles and yank them out from under him.

Myrtle floats through the stalls and lets out a long, "Woooooo!"

I crawl out from under the stall dividers and back into the open part of the restroom again. Lockhart is poking into one of the stalls looking for me, now trying to chase after Myrtle's splashing sounds. I take advantage of this distraction to dart out of the restroom and hunt for my wand. There it is, lodged half underneath Filch's corpse. I retrieve it and go back inside.

A stall door opens, Lockhart standing inside and pointing his wand at me. "Obliviate!" he shouts.

I dive out of the way. The spell strikes the mirror behind me. There's a flash as it reflects straight back at Lockhart. It hits him square in the face. His eyes take on a glassy, distant expression, much like Luna bears much of the time.

"Stupefy," I cast, and Lockhart slumps to the floor, unconscious. I quickly reach in and grab his wand before he has a chance to regain his senses. I breathe a sigh of relief, leaning against the sink to catch my breath. "Thanks, Myrtle," I say. "I totally love you now. You're the most awesome ghost in the castle."

"Oh... that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," Myrtle says.

I make a mental note that, no matter what else happens or in what lifetime I find myself in, I'll see about doing what I can to make Myrtle happy. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," I say. "I'm Harry Potter."

"You already knew my name," Myrtle says. "Have they been telling nasty stories about me again?"

"I've heard mention of you," I say carefully. "But it's mostly that the girls don't want to use this restroom because you're always crying and flooding the place."

"They call me names!" Myrtle exclaims. "And I'm always so miserable, sitting in my toilet alone, thinking about death..."

"You can always feel free to visit me anytime you like," I say. "And if you don't, I'll come down here myself and see how you're doing. You don't have to always be alone and miserable, Myrtle."

"So you'd really be my friend?" Myrtle says. "I thought you were just saying that, you know..."

"I'd really be your friend," I say. "I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it. But I'll get back to your later. I promise. I just really need to take care of Lockhart here before somebody notices the corpse outside."

"Well, alright," Myrtle says. "But if you're not back soon, I'll come and haunt you for breaking your promise!"

I go over and try to lift Lockhart's unconscious body, thankful that my Stunning Spell has actually worked and kept him down. Umph, he's heavy. "Wingardium Leviosa," I mutter, but it doesn't really help much. What was that spell Snape used to haul him to the hospital wing before? "Mobilicorpus," I cast. Lockhart's body jerks and he slams his head into the toilet. Oops. I wince. Maybe I should just stick to dragging him myself.

I step outside of the restroom, and see Professor McGonagall approaching Filch's corpse in alarm. Well, I guess I don't have to worry about hauling Lockhart around, then. "Professor McGonagall!" I exclaim in feigned happiness. "I'm so glad you're here. Professor Lockhart hurt! Can you help me get him to the hospital wing?"

"Mobilicorpus," McGonagall casts at Lockhart's unconscious body, and I pay better attention to the wand movements as she does it. Maybe I should just look it up, if I can figure out what book it's in. "Tell me what happened here along the way."

"I don't know, Professor," I lie. "They were like this when I found them."

"And you just stumbled upon this scene by chance?" McGonagall says dubiously. "What were you even doing here so close to curfew?"

I didn't realize it was so late. I glance at my watch. How long did I spend down there? I must have lost track of time looking through Slytherin's library. "It wasn't curfew yet," I say quickly. "I was going down to the kitchens to get a snack since I missed the feast."

"Why weren't you at the feast?" McGonagall asks.

"I didn't really feel like going," I say, feigning sadness. "You know, my parents died on Halloween, after all..."

"Oh, of course, I'm sorry," McGonagall says. Thankfully, she doesn't bring up the fact that it didn't seem to have bothered me last year.

We get to the hospital wing shortly, and Madam Pomfrey gives Lockhart a look over. "Hmm, looks like he was hit by a Stunning Spell," Pomfrey says. "Rennervate."

Lockhart blinks and comes to. "Huh? What? Where am I? What happened?"

"We were hoping you could shed some light on that, Gilderoy," McGonagall says.

"The last thing I remember was being at the Halloween Feast," Lockhart says, frowning.

"It appears that Professor Lockhart has been Obliviated," Pomfrey says.

"No doubt he saw something he shouldn't have," McGonagall shakes her head. "Mr. Potter! Come with me. We must see the Headmaster at once."

"Yes, ma'am," I say, following her obediently, although I'd really rather just get off the hook and go to bed already.

We arrive at Dumbledore's office, and McGonagall says, "Headmaster, something has happened. There's a message on the wall about the Chamber of Secrets having been opened. Argus... I'm afraid I believe he's dead. Gilderoy was found stunned inside the nearby restroom. Mr. Potter here arrived on the scene first."

"What happened, Harry?" Dumbledore asks me.

"I don't know," I say, repeating my story about going down for a snack before curfew and stumbling upon the scene.

"I see," Dumbledore says. "It appears that young Harry here was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could you escort him back to his common room, Minerva? I will deal with the situation at the restroom in question."

"Of course, Albus," McGonagall says.

"And Harry," Dumbledore adds as we turn to leave. "Do be discreet about who you mention these events to. I would prefer if you did not mention them to anyone, but that seems to be asking a bit much from you."

"Sorry, Headmaster," I say sheepishly, looking at the floor.

McGonagall escorts me back to the Gryffindor Tower, and I step inside. I want to just head upstairs to my dormitory. I'd really rather not have to deal with answering anymore questions for anyone at the moment. I need to go tell Tom what happened and question him about how the basilisk got out.

"Potter!" Ron says. "Weren't you supposed to be upstairs in our dorm, asleep already?"

"I snuck out to get a snack from the kitchens since I missed the feast," I reply. Best to stick to the same lie. "Why, did you miss me?"

"That's funny," Ron says. "I don't think anyone here saw you leave."

There's some murmurs of agreement from around the room, until Dean pipes in, "I did. He walked right past me on the way out and told me where he was going."

Neville adds, "Yeah. Just because you were too busy playing Exploding Snap doesn't mean stuff isn't still happening right under your noses!"

"Well, of course you lot would defend him," Ron says, snorting softly. "He's got the lot of you brainwashed, I say."

"Alright, calm down, all of you," says a prefect girl. "No starting up a war in the middle of the common room."

"I wasn't going to--" Ron protests.

"Enough, Ronald," says the prefect.

Ron grumbles a little, but goes quiet. I sigh a little and go over to sit with my friends. So much for just quietly coming in and going to bed. "Muffliato," I murmur. "Thanks for covering for me."

"Where did you really go?" Hermione asks.

I flash her a small grin. "I found a secret library hidden in the school," I tell her. "I brought back some books to look over, but they're in Latin. Maybe you could help me translate them?"

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione says, brightening instantly. "That's wonderful! I'll be happy to help. But are you sure it's alright? This isn't like, sneaking into the Restricted Section or anything, is it?"

"I don't think there's any specific school rule that says I shouldn't be in there," I say, shrugging. "Although that might be because whoever wrote the school rules didn't know that the place existed, I'm sure. And it was still before curfew, so I didn't really break any rules at all, right?"

"What sort of books did you find?" Neville asks.

"I'm not going to pull them out here," I say. "We can look at them tomorrow in the sleeping dragon room. I don't suppose any of you have any books on Latin, do you? No? Not even Hermione? Blast. I suppose I'll have to owl order one myself, then."

I didn't really want to have to share my treasures, but it's all good. Hermione would be a big help in translating and deciphering the information. And the best lie is the truth, after all. I'm just not going to tell them that this secret, hidden, amazing library was actually inside of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. I just hope that none of the books I brought out have any particularly dark subject matter.

"Alright," Hermione says. "We can take a look after breakfast. How many books did you bring?"

"Just three," I say. "But there's a lot more down there. They're all really old, though, and I can't read the languages they're written in."

"You've got to show me this place sometime," Hermione says.

I shake my head. "That probably won't be possible. It was hard enough to get inside myself. I don't know if I'd even be able to get in a second time, never mind bring anyone else with me."

"Oh," Hermione says. "Well, we could still try. But these books will be good to start with. I suppose it would be kind of pointless to go back if we can't actually read the books yet."

"I wonder why they don't offer a course on Latin at Hogwarts," I say absently. "Anyway, I'd best get to bed. Tired."

"Good night, Stormseeker," Hermione says.

I head upstairs and tuck myself away safely in my bed, and pull out Tom Riddle's diary now that I have some privacy. "That was less than fun," I write. "On the way out, I stumbled across the corpse of that old Squib caretaker, and then got ambushed by Lockhart, who proceeded to attempt to Obliviate me. Thankfully, I managed to get him to accidentally Obliviate himself instead."

"You were most fortunate," Tom replies.

"But still, what was that, Tom?" I ask. "You didn't warn me that opening the Chamber of Secrets would make that message appear on the walls. I really need to learn more about contingency spells. And how did the basilisk get out? I got caught by Professor McGonagall and got dragged to the Headmaster, and had to talk my way out of trouble."

"Ah, my apologies," Tom reads. "I did not realize that contingency spell was still active. And I'm afraid that anytime you wish to enter the Chamber of Secrets, there's a very high chance that the basilisk will be able to get out and attack someone. It's unfortunate that it did not catch that Mudblood professor you hate instead."

"Yeah, no kidding," I write. "So that's a risk I have to take if I ever want to go down there, huh? Very well. ... I'm not going to mind that overly much if it goes after Lockhart next, though. I'm going to be spending all my spare time studying Latin for the next while, however."

"Do let me know if you should wish to descend into the Chamber again," Tom tells me.

"I'll do that," I write. Maybe I could do it after the students go home from school at the end of the year, and if I can get the house-elves to bring me food down there, I could spend the entire summer there reading. But otherwise, I'd really rather not risk any students being killed.