Rating:
PG-13
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
Sirius Black
Genres:
General Action
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 09/29/2005
Updated: 10/20/2006
Words: 47,099
Chapters: 14
Hits: 17,198

Harry Potter and the Curse of Ages

quintaped

Story Summary:
Harry and his allies have won the war against Voldemort (read HP and the Goblin Rebellion and The War of Shades). Now it is time to get on with living, but Harry finds it more murky and conflicted than he is prepared for. In his search for a solution he encounters a greater danger than he had ever met before.

Chapter 12 - The Curse of Ages

Chapter Summary:
Harry, Dumbledore and Dobby continue their inspection of the Chamber of Secrets. They examine the many enchantments and charms of the place and Harry tells more about the first time he entered. Dumbledore explains about the lore of the Chamber, including the Curse of Ages.
Posted:
12/03/2005
Hits:
1,313


Chapter 12 The Curse of Ages

While Harry and Dumbledore had been talking, Dobby was looking around the Chamber. Suddenly he squealed and apparated by Harry's leg, then held onto it like a toddler with the arm not holding a torch. Harry could not miss the shivering.

"What is it, Dobby?" Harry asked, but Dobby would only point. Harry and Dumbledore pulled their wands and cautiously made their way over. They looked through a hole in a pile of rubble that blocked their path and reached the ceiling, except where the hole was. Suddenly they saw the sinuous outlines of an enormous snake. Harry straightened up.

"Oh, that!' he said lightly. "I should have warned you, Dobby. There are dozens of shed basilisk skins around here. When we first came down here, we liked to have soiled ourselves when we came across this one. After we were distracted by that, Lockhart tried to attack us - that's when all this rock fell."

Having heard Harry's explanation, Dumbledore was feeling around the edges of the wall and ceiling where the rubble had fallen.

"Do you feel the magic here, Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

Harry moved his hands about. "Yes. There's that general surrounding charm on the walls and I think I feel a spell similar to that around the entrance in the loo, and ... there's something else, very crude clumsy magic."

"Very good. That's what I feel, too. I think the crude magic is the backfired memory spell Lockhart attempted. He was quite capable with those, but of course, with a broken wand, he did not get his expected results."

Harry grinned. "It's a wonder Ron made it through that year at all."

"Or his teachers. It's good that he only really needed his wand in Charms and Transfiguration that year."

"And that exams were called off," agreed Harry, with a light laugh. "Look at that, Albus - the smoke from the torches gathers where the ceiling is broken, but it's not rising beyond a certain level. That must be the barrier."

"Yes. Good, Harry - in a place like this we should use all our senses, not just magic. It looks as though Lockhart's misfire was sufficient to temporarily disrupt the barrier and allow rock above to tumble in. I can't see far through there, but there appears to be some open space."

"Hmm," said Harry. "We're under the lake, I believe, but that doesn't seem to be water above the smoke. Say, remember the tunnel the Marauder's Map showed that started behind the large mirror on the fourth floor corridor. When Fred and George gave me the Map, they pointed it out and said it had collapsed the previous winter. You also said that connected to the tunnel Ron, Ginny and I explored two years ago, the one with the snake head opening on that tiny island in the lake. I wonder if that's it."

"Interesting. Are you saying that Lockhart's spell collapsed it as well?"

"The timing's not right - the other passage was already collapsed. But this could have been an additional portal for the basilisk to be let out. Perhaps the movement of the basilisk collapsed the tunnel. That would be near the time of the last two or three petrifications."

"If you would like to explore that other passage from the mirror, feel free. I would recommend you do not use parseltongue to test the barrier here, however, lest you allow the tunnel to collapse completely. Now, as to continuing - are you certain you and Miss Weasley crawled through that hole there?"

Harry grinned. "It's hard to believe how much smaller we both were back then. Rather than shift or pulverize rock, I think Dobby had better apparate us to the other side."

After Dobby had gotten him through, Harry walked over to the basilisk skin, where Dumbledore was already examining it. Dumbledore's wand was still out as he tried several spells on the skin.

"Impressive!" he observed, to himself as much as to Harry. Then continuing a bit louder, he said, "It seems to be as spell-proof as any creature's skin I know of, as well as making a fine heat shield. Is this the largest one, Harry?"

"Take that end - I'll need to see the size of it to know."

They grabbed opposite ends of it and pulled it out. It stretched to over 35 feet.

"No, this can't be the biggest," answered Harry. "There must be at least ten bigger than this, plus the one it died in." Dumbledore suddenly looked particularly pale, and Harry could have sworn his jaw was quivering.

Dumbledore sighed a bit, and then began rolling the skin up. When he was done, it made a roll the size of a very large sleeping bag and considerably wider. "Dobby, please take this to the bottom of the pipe and then catch up with us again. When we're done for the day, we'll take it to the school for further study."

They continued down the tunnel to the entrance marked by snakes. Harry was surprised at how close the door to the main chamber was - the first time he had come, he had been alone, in the dark but for his wand's meager light, and every step seemed a mile.

"This is the door I took," said Harry. "I remember the snakes. That's odd - these others are as dusty as the rest of the Chamber, but this one snake is completely clean."

Dobby shuddered audibly. "Those eyes scare Dobby - they are too much alive."

"Are you scared of snakes, Dobby?" asked Harry.

"Not regular ones, Harry, no more than healthy caution," he replied. He had gotten more at ease calling Harry by just 'Harry' since he had been Harry's bodyguard two summers earlier. "And normally carved snakes are not a problem, but these are strange - the eyes seem alive. They seem to look into me."

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "They are disquieting. The magic around them is strong and it is not friendly. If they were not before, I am sure the enchantments of this place are now aware that it has been invaded."

Harry looked quizzically at the snakes. "They had the same effect on me the first time I was here. Now it is much less so - now the eyes seem more like they're sad, mournful even."

Dumbledore looked appraisingly over his half-moon glasses at Harry. After several seconds, he asked, "What led you to open this door and proceed this way, rather than continuing down the original tunnel?"

"I really don't know, Albus. It was instinct, just as when I stabbed the diary with the basilisk fang."

Dumbledore nodded. "Instinct has been a good guide for you. Well, despite the advice about the road less traveled, I think it is better that we follow the path you and Ginny took five years ago. So if you wouldn't mind ..."

Harry hissed 'open up' at the snakes around the door. They shifted and the door swung open. The trio stepped through, Dobby clambering and the two wizards having to squeeze themselves through.

"This was an easier fit when I was twelve," said Harry with a chuckle.

"No doubt," said Dumbledore. "I find myself all the more amazed that you could come through all of this, particularly at such a young age."

Harry grinned. "It helped to be thick. I couldn't feel the dense layers of enchantments I can now feel about this place, and even though I expected a basilisk, I didn't know it would be as enormous as it turned out to be. I also didn't anticipate finding Voldemort."

"No one expects Voldemort."

"No one ever need do so again," said Harry.

"Yes, but don't fool yourself, Harry - he was just one man. Where his power and his evil came from, others may arise again."

"Well, that's really what you have in mind in working with me, isn't it? That I could carry on the watch and resistance to dark wizardry when the Ministry has not been able to deal with it?"

"Yes, Harry, that and to perhaps prevent the rise of such as he. Now, Harry, you seem to be quite cheerful, considering the gloom of this place."

"I don't find it gloomy, Albus. It's dark, but it has a certain serenity to it."

"I wish I could feel that way here. I am filled with an evil foreboding."

"There is a negative aspect here to be sure. But it is quiet and ... it feels safe as well, even welcoming."

"N-not t-t-to m-me, Harry P-p-potter," shivered Dobby, grabbing Harry's leg like a toddler. "Look up to the top of those columns. They disappear in the dark, and yet I can feel dark magic over us. And this vague light that fills this place - it seems wrong and evil. The only light here should be that brought from above. Even the paving stones here make me wince."

"Are you going to be able to help me in here, Dobby?"

"Dobby will do his duties and wants to help Harry Potter," Dobby replied, "but Dobby hopes that the number of visits can be few and short."

"It will get easier, Dobby," reassured Harry, as Dumbledore gestured them to slowly proceed, as they surveyed what they could feel and sense about he place. "Albus, you mentioned an evil foreboding. Is that just a sense of the place, or is there something more?"

"Your instincts guide you well again, Harry," admitted Dumbledore. "Sometime after the split with the other Founders, Salazar Slytherin tried to convince the pureblood wizards to subjugate the muggles. He claimed that wizards were the natural rulers of the Earth and that even the muggles would be better off placed under spells to make them be productive, docile and obedient."

"Like robots?"

"Like house elves!" muttered Dobby angrily.

"Yes, indeed, Dobby," agreed Dumbledore. "Slytherin had just invented the Imperius Curse and used it to demonstrate how much more useful muggles - and all non-purebloods - would be when the purebloods directed all their activities. The other founders opposed his plans, saying that all humans, magical or not, were ensouled beings, entitled to the same freedom of thought and conscience as any other. He might have succeeded, except that too many wizards and witches began forcing those they were controlling to do very degrading and immoral things. The depravity of it became so shocking that it turned the great majority of sorcerers against the use of spells to control others. Imperius was added to the other two Unforgiveable Curses. A wizard war broke out, and most of those who had sided with Slytherin were killed or exiled. Before Slytherin left, reportedly for eastern Europe, he claimed to have placed a curse which would afflict the wizard world through all time, until his great Peace through submission was achieved. The curse came to be known among those who knew of it as the Curse of Ages."

"And he was someone who could have placed such a horrible curse, right?"

"Very much so, Harry."

"What form did the curse take?"

"That," Dumbledore began and then paused, "is not really known. His movements were traced as well as could be done, given the disruptions and deaths of the war, and places examined for traces of any such curse. Suspicion centered on his claimed Chamber of Secrets, but then, no one available had ever seen the Chamber and there were no confirmed openings of the Chamber until Myrtle's death."

"'Confirmed openings' - so you suspect others."

Dumbledore shrugged. "Perhaps. I remember one of the things you said the Tom's 16-year-old self said was that you and he were probably the first parselmouths since Slytherin to be at Hogwarts. Well, that is known to be false. There have been parselmouths occasionally through the years. Grindelwald was one, as well."

"Grindelwald!? He's mentioned on your famous wizard card!"

Dumbledore smiled. "I'm so glad you took note."

"I would have saved myself a lot of time if I had remembered all the names on your card."

"Yes, you did have a time finding Flamel's name, didn't you? But then it was an excellent exercise in teamwork for you three to go searching."

"I always thought he was foreign - was he actually British?"

"An immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian empire. He came to Hogsmeade in the late 1800s after one of the last great anti-sorcerer uprisings amongst the muggles in Europe. The eastern European wizards were not so far along as we were in hiding themselves from the muggles. He operated an export-import business in Hogsmeade and was reputed to be able to get quite a selection of contraband materials if one had the galleons to afford them."

"Well, I could say the same thing about Dung, but stopping his activities wouldn't get someone's name on a famous wizard card."

"No. In fact the Ministry was fully aware of his activities. So long as things didn't get out of hand - and contributions were made to the right interests - the Ministry has long been willing to avert its attention. It was around 1935 that he sold off his entire operation to Mr. Burkes, who eventually merged operations to make Borgin and Burkes. Then Grindelwald disappeared for several years, apparently gathering supporters throughout Britain and Europe. He never was the threat that Voldemort was to become, but I did have to become involved to finally eliminate Grindelwald himself. The various national Ministries took care of his supporters. I regret that I was distracted from keeping an eye on Riddle while I was hunting Grindelwald - I'm afraid that caused you to have the overly dramatic life you've led."

"Well, what's done is done. Grindelwald had to be dealt with, as did Voldemort. Too many good people have died."

"Precisely."

"So what has the result of the curse been?"

Dumbledore seemed very reluctant to speak. "Well, of course, very few have even heard of the curse - though it was even more ominous than the monster of the Chamber, it also was very vague, so it was easily forgotten. Those of us who make it our job to know such things, however, have not forgotten. The problem with hunting a vague curse is that it is so easy to blame every unfortunate event on the curse. Sometimes a tragedy is just an isolated event."

"Are there some that do not seem to be isolated?"

"There are plenty of recurrent unfortunate circumstances that might be part of a curse - many goblin rebellions, the various dark wizards who have vied for control, several werewolf and vampire uprisings, the very low birth rate of pureblood wizards, many magical accidents, the terrible run of Defense teachers Hogwarts has had - you could link any number of events and suspect that they are related to a curse."

"Can you eliminate any?"

"A few. The so-called Defense Against the Dark Arts jinx only started after Tom Riddle himself had applied for the job, soon after I had become headmaster. I felt it would be putting the fox in the henhouse to hire him, but after that we could only keep a defense teacher for a year at a time."

"Remus mentioned that you thought the Defense curse was over. Now I know why."

"Yes. He was concerned about taking the job this time until I laid it all out for him. I also don't think the various accidents that have killed excellent witches and wizards are related to each other. I certainly could be wrong, but they don't seem to be related. Miss Lovegood's mother had a taste for potions experiments with very potent ingredients, and it led to her death. Mr. Ollivander's father was always trying new magical substances in wands and more than once lost body parts when he put together unfortunate combinations; the last one was, well, his last attempt. Clovis Hagrid, Rubeus Hagrid's father, was very fond of breeding experiments. I believe this interest was as much of a reason for marriage to Rubeus's mother as anything else: certainly an erudite conversation was not part of the relationship, although she may have had other, erm, attractions. Anyway, he was killed in a breeding experiment. There have been many more. Does the curse make talented wizards take foolish risks? It's hard to say, but it doesn't seem dramatic enough."

"But you think the curse resides in the Chamber?"

It certainly would be a good location from which to place effects on anyone who went to or worked at Hogwarts, or who spent time in Hogsmeade."

"Pretty much everyone in the British wizarding world."

"And a fair proportion of non-British sorcerers who have business or holidays in Hogsmeade."

"Well, now that we are in here, shouldn't we disable the curse?"

"Ah, yes, Harry," said Dumbledore, with an uneasy smile. "All we have to do is find the toggle switch."

"I see. We still don't know much about it, do we?"

"Exactly. The curse may reside in an object, or the Chamber as a whole, or maybe in the basilisk. Or there may not be any curse at all."

"But you think there is, right?"

Dumbledore gave a sideways nod which acknowledged doubts. "Very few people believed there was a Chamber of Secrets or a monster either: after what you have seen, where would you place your bets?"

"I'll be very, very aware of any unusual traces of magic, but that's going to be hard in a place bristling with magic like this."

"Yes, certainly - the whole Chamber seems to be maintained and protected by magic."

"Any theories?"

"I suspect an object, but that does not narrow it at all, really. Those carved snakes at the entrance are clearly charmed with some form of magic, but it does not seem potent enough. Can you not feel that the magical presence gets stronger as we proceed?" Harry nodded thoughtfully. "The problem we may run into is that so much of the Chamber may be so highly charged with magic that the locus of the curse may not be distinct."

Very soon they had entered the largest portion of the Chamber, with the huge sculpture of Slytherin and the basilisk carcass. The stench was awful.

"I would have thought it would have rotted away more completely by now," said Harry, holding part of his robe over his mouth and nose. "This is so foul I can barely think."

"It's a very large carcass, Harry, and I suspect the intense magical fields around this area impede rotting. Dobby, when you come back down here with Harry, bring several large sealable bottles. We will want to study both intact and rotted flesh, whatever organs might remain, and the remnants of the eyes."

"Yes, sir."

"Over here is where I found Ginny, Albus."

"That's more important to you than the large blood stain near it, Harry?"

Harry looked down and nodded. "Yes. I didn't mind spilling a bit of blood - for a good cause - and after all, Fawkes healed me."

Then it was Dumbledore's turn to look down. In a second, he looked up and said, "Tell me again about how Tom operated the statue."

"He approached it and raised his arms like a supplicant, and said in parseltongue, 'Speak to me, O Salazar Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.' Then the mouth opened and the basilisk slithered out through it."

"I wonder if it needs such a subservient request as that, or if any parseltongue request would do."

"Shall I find out?"

"Not today. I'm afraid we are running out of time. You'll have other opportunities to explore the magic of this place. Just let me examine around it." Dumbledore approached the statue and examined the workmanship and placement.

"Any idea what's behind it?"

"1000 years of basilisk droppings?" said Harry, with a laugh. Dobby giggled as well, and even Dumbledore grinned.

"As good an answer as any. There has to have been a home for the basilisk - else why would it have stayed there?"

"But it can't have been confined there, Albus. We have come across several skins it had shed in various parts of the Chamber. If it was confined behind the statue until five years ago, even the short period 55 years ago when Tom Riddle opened the Chamber would not have allowed the opportunity for that many skins to have been shed."

"Good thinking, Harry. There must be another access the basilisk used, although for whatever reason it was available behind the statue when Tom sought it."

"He may have ordered it there before I arrived."

"Very possibly, he must have enjoyed the horror it caused you seeing the snake emerge from Slytherin's mouth. But many animals adopt particular small nooks as their homes for various reasons - dogs sleep under porches, rats choose tight tunnels, cats like drawers, snakes go for caves and other crevices.

"Well, Harry, the time is getting late. I think we had best be getting back to the school. You should have enough to keep you busy for quite a number of trips down here. Try not to wear Dobby out too much, will you. He's a recent father, you know."

Harry smiled down at Dobby. "Ready to go, Dobby?"

Dobby nodded very enthusiastically. "Yes, sir, very much, Harry Potter."

"Then we are off," said Dumbledore. "If you don't mind, Harry, I'll point out areas I believe are of special interest, but please - this is your investigation. I am only your collaborator on this. Investigate wherever you feel your time down here is used best. It is important that you develop your own sense of such things."