The Boy Who Could Not Die

Wanda: Where's the snake?

Tyene: (wearing sunglasses while searching through a dark room) How would I know!? I'm still trying to figure out how you let it get past you in the first place!

Wanda: I was writing! Just find it before we all die! (shudders and puts glasses on) I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 6: Dangerous Returns

Harry convinced Ginny and her friend Luna to sit in the car with the rest of them as they went into their next year at Hogwarts. Ginny was very nervous (though she would rather die than admit it to his face) since it was her first year, though she had Luna looking after her. Harry liked Luna; they had a lot of the same thought processes and saw the world in similar ways. Luna found him very interesting, though she did say something he didn't understand.

She asked him if the snake coiled around his forehead had always been there. When he asked her about it, she blinked and said she must have been imagining things.

For some reason, the question made Harry intensely uncomfortable – not a feeling he was very familiar with.

Either way, school seemed to start out on a pretty comfortable note – though Defence Against the Dark Arts was once again a huge disappointment.

Harry was pretty sure Gildroy Lockhart was a fraud of some sort, though how he was slipping under everyone's radar he couldn't fathom. The man's first class involved him releasing a bunch of cornish pixies into the classroom, which he proceeded to loose control over. The creatures destroyed a number of books and hung poor Neville on the chandelier before Hermione got fed up and cast a charm that froze them all in place.

Harry was fairly certain that Lockhart should have been capable of that charm if he had done half the things he claimed to, especially since Hermione could handle it. Granted, Hermione was super smart and always seemed to have an answer for things that Harry couldn't just stand in front of and stop in their tracks, but Lockhart was a lot older than her and had way more experience...or so he said.

He complained about this to McGonagall, who pursed her lips together and told him that it wasn't her place to question the Headmaster's decision. Harry guessed by her expression that she didn't care much for the newest addition to the staff either.

Fred and George took this as a carte blanche to make as much disruptive chaos in Lockhart's class as possible. Harry heard all about it from them over lunch, the twins having dubbed him the perfect partner in crime. (mainly, because he could drink anything and make it look like it had no effect on him. Perfect for suckering unsuspecting people in)

For the first week or so, Harry took everything at his own pace. (which, according to McGonagall, was giving her another few white hairs when he jumped on top of a venomous snake and twisted it into a knot when he spotted it creeping up on Neville in the Greenhouse.) But there was something he couldn't help but notice.

Ginny, usually boundlessly energetic, independent and always prepared to either help Fred and George or retaliate with a prank of her own, seemed rather down cast and tired all the time. Harry was tempted to butt in, but he doubted the fiery redhead would appreciate it.

She had expressed her annoyance at Ron's coddling enough times over the summer for him to be sure of that. Said annoyance came along with a curious burst of magic that caused bats made of boogers to attack annoying brothers.

Harry, laughing the whole time, suggested to Ron that he take the hint the second time that happened.

However, the seemingly idyllic autumn was not to last – nothing ever seemed to around him.

Sometimes Harry wondered if he was cursed. In a way, he was, but not in the way he had thought of – and he wouldn't discover that for quite some time.

**A week into October**

Harry ran out of the Great Hall when he heard Hermione shriek, Ron hot on his heels. Zeroing in on his bushy haired friend, the two boys came skidding to a halt when they saw what she saw.

Filch's annoying cat Mrs Norris was hanging from the ceiling like a dead cow in a meat processing plant, her body frozen in place and unmoving. Directly above where the gruesome ornament was hanging, there was a message.

Confusing words. Deadly words. All written in a bright crimson red that Harry knew from experience wasn't paint.

The Chamber of Secrets has been Opened. Enemies of the Heir beware.

Harry didn't quite understand, but the smirk on Draco Malfoy's face when the rest of the students arrived and saw the message as well told him it couldn't be anything good. The head Slytherin in his year always acted like a child from Super Sweet 16 mixed with the generic bully you saw in every underdog sports movie ever. He was incredibly annoying towards Harry, treating him like a rival even though Harry could care less about him and payed him little attention.

Unfortunately, that only made Malfoy more aggressive – how dare anyone not pay attention to him or kowtow whenever he entered the room! When he realized that Harry didn't give a damn what he thought no matter what he did, he instead turned his attention to pestering Hermione and Ron. He had a predictable attack pattern – sneer at Ron for being poor, and Hermione for having muggle parents.

While Hermione was developing a thicker skin (though it certainly bothered her), Ron was very easily baited and often got into trouble with fighting with Malfoy.

Harry hoped that his way of handling the boy would rub off on Ron eventually.

Draco would say, "I would expect as much...after all, you were born in a bin."

And Harry would respond, "How do you know that? Did your father stalk Mrs Weasley when she was pregnant for hours on end? This is getting a bit out of hand Draco, you know the Weasleys can press charges on that right?"

Draco would stare at him, Harry would smirk and pull his friends down the hall leaving the pureblood ponce to fume impotently.

There had been a few occasions where Harry contemplated dropping the Malfoy scion out the window when he was asleep. It wouldn't leave much evidence behind, he just had to do it in the middle of the night and be in bed before morning! Unfortunately, he had to nix that plan when he remembered that the ghosts patrolled the entire castle fairly regularly and would probably catch him.

Harry shook his head, pulling himself back to the present and looked up at the wall. Dumbledore was babbling something about safety and being careful. (Yeah, like that had helped when the troll came in or when Voldemort waltzed right in the front door on the back of Quirrel's head...come to think of it he might want to give Lockhart a check, just in case.)

The Chamber of Secrets...where have I heard that before? Did Hermione mention it to me at some point last year? Or did I read it whenever I crashed in the library, hiding from fangirls and aurors last year when my ability became common knowledge?

And why am I feeling like this...? This feels unfamiliar...it's almost like dread...of course, I'm worried for Hermione, but she's smart and careful... ...and if not for her, there's Ginny, she's got her whole family looking after her...

...Am I afraid? That's crazy. And if I am, why am I feeling this way? What is it about this proclamation, this...chamber, that frightens me?

Harry closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to clear his head...and a very old nightmare flashed before his eyes. The woman screaming and the green light.

What...what is this? How is it connected to me?

Dumbledore explained that Mrs Norris was petrified, not murdered. Lockhart, bumbling idiot that he was, upset Filch even further (the man was going to be intolerable until his cat was back, and he was pretty nasty already) and bragged about brewing potions in his sleep.

Thankfully, Snape shut him up. There was a sort of strained truce between Harry and the Potion's Professor. The man clearly disliked him with an inexplicable intensity, not that Harry particularly cared. (the boy didn't care about much of anything, aside from his friends and finding new ways of amusing himself when he was bored. And, quite often, he was very bored indeed – potion's class brought this on the most)

But whatever image the man had of Harry had been pretty thoroughly shattered throughout his first year. Now, the man seemed to begrudgingly leave him alone most of the time.

"So much for a normal year." Ron sighed as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. "On Ginny's first year here, too. She doesn't need this kind of stress in her first year, especially without mum here for her."

"Can somebody explain to me what the Chamber is?" Harry asked.

Surprisingly, it was Ron, not Hermione that answered this question. "It's supposed to just be a myth, a bedtime story." He looked worried, which bothered Harry even more. Ron wasn't one to let his concerns override his natural blustering bullheaded energy he always seemed to emit. "Mum says that a long time ago, Salazar Slytherin – one of the founders – thought that only children of wizarding families should be allowed to use magic."

"Where have I heard that before?" Harry asked sarcastically before adding, "I take it the others didn't agree?"

"No. When he couldn't convince them, Slytherin left the school. But they say before he left, he built a chamber that only his Heir could open deep inside the school. He put a monster inside, something his Heir would be able to control someday in order to destroy anyone he thought wasn't worthy of magic."

"That must be the heir the bloody message was referring to," Harry noted. "So where do you think it might be?"

"Hogwarts has been searched multiple times over the years," Hermione said with a troubled look in her eyes, "They've never found anything matching the description of the Chamber."

"So we've got another mystery on our hands." Harry said, casually stretching his arms and winding them behind his neck. "Just like last year. I wonder if this will be a pattern until we graduate."

"God, I hope not." Hermione muttered.

End Chapter

Oh, poor Hermione. You've hardly seen the half of it. honestly I'm surprised more kids in the books don't complain about how ridiculously unsafe Hogwarts tends to be whenever Harry's there...I mean, obviously it isn't his fault but it's like the teachers aren't even trying when it comes to making sure a couple of barely teens don't have to clean up their messes.

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