I should probably give up on any kind of updating schedule since I'm crap at following it :x

Death And Its Problems

Almost everybody signed up to go home Christmas that year, the reaction to Gerald's Petrification had been taken badly by all of the school.

The hidden trade of talismans, amulets and other protective objects that had swept the school drove Harry up the wall. Especially after Neville brought himself a handful of strange objects. Harry had pointed out to him that none of those objects would help him whatsoever, but the boy refused to let go of his new trinkets.

Furthermore everywhere there went up notices announcing the formation of a Duelling Club.

"Could be useful", said Ron as they eyed the notice in the library.

Harry snorted, "Sure", he said sarcastically.

"At least it might be entertaining", said Draco.

The others were all for it, so at eight o'clock that evening they hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?", said Hermione as they edged into the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a duelling champion when he was young – maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not –", Harry began, but he ended on a groan. Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Severus, wearing his usual black.

"Why?", Harry gave a mortified whisper and had to be dragged into the Hall by Draco and Ron.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

A white flash from a camera followed and somewhere in the crowd Harry could hear Amethyst Ethelwine drawl importantly, "Excellent Collin, be ready for another one."

Lockhart gave an extra wide smile and began speaking again, "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works."

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape", said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile.

"How did he get dragged into this?", asked Draco in a whisper and was promptly shushed by Hermione.

"He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry – you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Please let Severus kill him off accidentally", whispered Harry as he crossed his fingers and received a glare from Hermione.

Severus' upper lip was curling in obvious repulsion. Lockhart seemed to be immune as he just continued to smile.

Lockhart and Severus turned to face each other and bowed. At least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Severus jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position", Lockhart told the silent crowd, "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that", Harry murmured hopefully, watching Severus baring his teeth.

"One – two – three –"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent Severus cried, "Expelliarmus!", there was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

The Slytherins cheered. Hermione was dancing on tiptoes, "Do you think he's all right?", she squealed through her fingers.

"Who cares?" said all the boys together, including Neville.

Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!", he said, tottering back onto the platform, "That was a Disarming Charm – as you see, I've lost my wand – ah, thank you, Miss Brown – yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy – however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see –"

Severus was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me –"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Severus began teaming some of the Slytherins with Gryffindors and Lockhart came to Harry.

"Good, Mr. Riddle with – ah! Mr. Boot, come here!", Terry Boot strutted over, smirking. There was a brief moment of chaos as everybody found their partner.

"Face your partners!", called Lockhart, back on the platform, "And bow!"

Harry and Boot barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.

"Wands at the ready!", shouted Lockhart, "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents – only to disarm them – we don't want any accidents – one – two – three –"

But Harry had already started on two.

"Rictusempra!"

A jet of silver light hit Boot in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing.

"I said disarm only!", Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Boot sank to his knees. Harry had hit him with a Tickling Charm, and he could barely move for laughing. He smirked at the fallen form of Boot, wishing he'd done something worse than the Tickling Charm to him.

Boot suddenly choked, "Tarantallegra!", in between his laughs but Harry had enough training in duelling and quickly dodged it.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart, but Severus took charge.

"Finite Incantatem!" he shouted, Boot stopped laughing, and Harry gazed around.

A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Both Neville and Justin were lying on the floor, panting. Ron was holding up an ashen-faced Seamus, apologizing for whatever he had done. But Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were still moving, engaged in Muggle fighting.

"Dear, dear", said Lockhart, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels, "Up you go, Macmillan – careful there, Miss Fawcett – Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second Malfoy-"

Draco glared at him as he held his bloody nose, courtesy of a particularly irate Gryffindor.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells", said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Severus, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away, "Let's have a volunteer pair – Riddle and Boot again, what about you? And Malfoy and Macmillan-", he continued to pair them up.

Harry wasn't about to protest on another duel with Boot and nodded at Severus to go to aid Draco instead and watched how Lockhart tried to teach Boot something and ended up dropping his wand. Severus whispered something to Draco that made him smirk, making him wonder what it was.

"Three – two – one – Go!"

Harry did some quick wand movement and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Boot's wand flew right out of his hand and fell into Harry's stretched out one.

At the same moment, Draco shouted, "Serpensortia!", the end of his wand exploded. Harry watched, captivated, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between Draco and Macmillan, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Macmillan", said Severus lazily, clearly enjoying scaring the Hufflepuff, "I'll get rid of it-"

"Allow me!", shouted Lockhart.

He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang. The snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Neville and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

Harry was in front of Neville in record time. He stood right in front of his cowering friend and hissed in what probably sounded to the others in an inhuman way.

"Leave him or I'll make you regret it!", he hissed and the snake instantly relented, slithering away from them.

Looking up he saw the whole crowd looking at him strangely and murmuring. Ron, Hermione and Neville were looking at him wide eyed.

Severus stepped forward and vanished the snake with his wand as Harry felt a tugging on his robes. Turning around he saw Draco, "Come on", he whispered and he followed, his friends following after him.

They entered the first empty class they could find.

"You're a Parselmouth", breathed Ron.

"Th-thank you – for saving me from the snake Harry", said Neville, looking very relieved.

"I didn't mean the snake to get near Neville or you, Harry", Draco began explaining, "But that idiot Lockhart blasted it across the room and-"

Harry held up his hand, "I know Draco, I know – and Ron, really? How are you even surprised?"

Hermione was still looking pale, "Harry, this is bad – this is very bad – oh, Harry they're going to accuse you of opening the Chamber now."

Draco paled, if possible, even further, "There is no way denying it now, they'll all know you're Slytherin's heir now!"

"Calm down, they have no proof-"

"They won't care about proof to call you murderer – or Petrifier – or anything else!", shouted Ron in exasperation.

Harry's expression darkened, "I'll like to see them try call me murderer", he said darkly.

"Harry, you can't go on saying things like that!", said Neville concernedly.

"As much as I hate to agree with any Gryffindor, they're all right", said Draco sombrely.

Harry huffed, "I won't say it'll be fine, but I'll manage – there's still that pureblood that'll prevent anybody from thinking it was me."

Harry was right, for the next few days, even after the story had spread of him being the many times great-great-great-great-grandson of Salazar Slytherin, they still couldn't bring themselves to point at him and accuse him of Petrifying Mrs. Norris and Stim.

Though as Harry found out two days before the start of the holidays, they were spreading terrible rumors about him.

"Come on, or either you tell me or I'll find out by Boot next time I meet him in the corridors or in one of our shared classes", he said, his book in front of him forgotten. They were all sitting around their usual table in the library, trying to finish all their homework before the start of the holidays during the time off they had due to a snow blizzard.

"You mean what they are saying besides you being Slytherin's great-great-great-great-"

"It's thirty-nine times great grandson if you must know", he interrupted Draco.

"Besides that – well, there is rising a story that the attack on Gerald Stim was actually an accident", said Draco with a wince, "If there is another attack that theory is going to sweep the school."

Shaking his head Harry stood up, "Nonsense, nobody with the ability to control such a beast that can Petrify people and animals would be stupid enough to let it go around freely."

"And if the impostor only wants to create chaos?", suggested Hermione.

"Then – then we would actually have a problem, a true psychopath just sitting back, waiting for no apparent reason besides be bored to let the beast loose, get it back to the Chamber in time and watch how all the blame is placed on me", Harry paused, "Something here isn't making sense – I'm going for a walk – stay here", he said as soon as he saw Draco moving to get up.

Walking through the library he passed by a group of Hufflepuffs whispering about hiding Justin Finch-Fletchley for being a Muggleborn or something. He rolled his eyes, not believing they still thought it was about the blood status Slytherin's beast cared about.

Going out into the corridor he saw Hagrid. His face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow-covered balaclava and he was holding a dead rooster.

"All righ', Harry?", he said, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak, "Why aren't yeh in class?"

"Cancelled, snow blizzard not only got to Herbology but someone forgot the window open in the Charms classroom, well, could have been on purpose", said Harry with a shrug, "What're you doing in here?"

Hagrid held up the limp rooster.

"Second one killed this term", he explained, "It's either foxes or a Blood-Suckin Bugbear, an' I need the Headmaster's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop."

He peered more closely at Harry from under his thick, snowflecked eyebrows.

"Yeh sure yeh're all righ'? Yeh look all hot an' bothered –"

"It's nothing, just a few things that don't make sense, but nothing to worry about. I better be going, I have to make sure Draco gets to classes after all", he smirked and left down the corridor, intending to walk at least a bit more before he went back to the library for Draco to go to their next class.

Harry strolled up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark. The torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. He was halfway down the passage when he tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

He turned to squint at what he'd fallen over and had to stop himself from going down memory lane again like last time he'd seen something as stiff as this.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.

It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

Harry felt as he'd been Petrified. He couldn't move and his breathing was becoming erratic, his eyes could only focus on the stiff body on the floor and the abnormal ghost floating in the air.

Before he could do anything he was in a tropical jungle somewhere in the Americas. A guy from their expedition group had just woken them all up with his screaming. A Lethifold was already halfway through eating him, but someone send a Patronus to scare the creature away. The enormous silvery serpent slithered through the camp, causing the Lethifold to dump the guy. The man landed face up, a scared look etched forever on his face as he lay unmoving one the ground, blood seeping from several wounds in his body.

The cries of, "Attack! Attack! Another attack! No mortal or ghost is safe! Run for your lives! Attaaaack!", momentarily brought Harry back but as soon as he saw Justin's scared face he was back in the jungle somewhere in the Americas, staring at the scared face of the nameless man. The Lethifold still looming in the darkness of the night in the jungle, the Patronus was gone now, the other people as well, only the scared dead man was left over.

Then his world began shaking and Draco was in front of him shouting something – though it was as if someone had cast the Silencing Charm as Harry couldn't hear a word of what was being said to him.

Draco was looking frenetic, it must be for a good reason. So Harry strained his hearing, willing himself to hear what Draco was saying and finally not only heard what he was saying but also saw his friends, all of them looking scared and worried.

"Don't get near him – I know what's happening – I've seen this happen before", were the only words Harry could make out before he saw the crowd of children and teachers surrounding him, Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He froze and everything Draco said was tuned out, the whispers of the teachers regarding the ghost were lost, not even the shouts of accusations against him remained.

He was halfway back to the jungle in the Americas when he realized he was being led through one of the corridors he knew to be not too far from the infirmary. Again he heard a few words that were being said around him.

"-this happened before-?"

"-in a state of shock-!"

"-is normal-?"

"-take home-"

One of the voices Harry recognized to be from Severus and he relaxed a bit. Becoming a tad more aware of his surrounding Harry noticed he was being gently led to the infirmary by Madame Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore and Severus were walking behind her.

Soon he was sitting on the edge of one of the beds in the infirmary as Madame Pomfrey examined him and got minimal responses of him even being aware that she was there. Harry couldn't bring himself to show any reaction whatsoever to her, maybe he would with Severus – but even then it would be fairly little. Truth was he wished he was at home, he dearly wished it – and perhaps it showed on his face.

"Harry", Severus was now in front of him, "I have arranged for you to go home early this holidays, we'll use Madame Pomfrey's office fireplace and floo you home – are you listening to me?"

Harry just stared at him for a moment and then gave a small nod. Severus seemed to breath in relieve and then began leading him to the fireplace. They both flooed together and seconds later were in the Riddle Manor's study.

His father wasn't anywhere in sight, so Severus quickly left to look for him. His Grandmother was already greeting him and making her usual fuss over him when he came home from school, but he ignored her and just stood stiff as a plank, looking at nothing in particular.

Voldemort then came through the door and it was as if something snapped in Harry and made him run towards his father and hold him tightly.

Harry didn't even notice as Severus left, he only cared for his father's slow patting on the back and the complete silence that was only broken by an occasional sob that escaped Harry.

They stayed like that for a long, long time until Harry began to speak softly and then progressed into solid speech as he recounted what had happened to him. How he'd seen the face of the boy and got reminded of the Lethifold attack and how he then remembered a nightmare that had plagued him after he'd lived that day. The nightmare where he was, alone, just with the scared-faced dead man and the Lethifold still lurking in the dark jungle.

He spoke of his previous encounter with the petrified cat and how that had reminded him of the time he'd seen Bella poison a man. His father listened patiently, which wasn't normal but wasn't unheard of either. This wasn't the first time Harry had experienced a flashback in his life due to having witnessed a death recently, but it definitely was the worst he'd ever suffered due to it.

When he was finished Voldemort ordered him to sit down and then he began speaking with Harry about death. Harry wasn't even sure where his father was trying to get at but listened to him speak about how death was the worst thing that could happen to you but you still have to be able to see it if you are ever to overcome it. How true power came with having a stare-out with death and being the winner. How he would never have to fear death again when he became older. Passing past midnight Harry was still somehow wide awake and was now much more responsive than before. He nodded and shook his head as he found points he agreed and disagreed with respectively and spoke up once or twice when the conversation demanded it.

Harry had always agreed when his father had said that there was nothing worse than death, but after the recent event in Harry's life he was now wholeheartedly agreeing with him.

It was nearing dawn when Harry gave his first yawn and was dismissed to go to his now ghost free room. Somehow, his father had banished the ghost to the lake in their backyard and Lycander was now forced to only haunt the fish and magical creatures that lived in the lake.

Waking up past midday, Harry found that his Aunt Bella had arrived. She was still apparently more than concerned with Harry's shock at the school and kept fussing over him and giving lots of sweets. Rodolphus had also come along and decided to give him a little more training in duelling and potions during his holidays. 'So as to not waste his time', they'd said and immediately cleared one of the cells in the dungeons for him to use to make his potions. It was a good idea too, the potions they were teaching him were rather complicated and he accidentally melted almost half a dozen cauldrons before the end of the holidays.

Harry's only free time now was spend outside collecting ingredients in the greenhouse for his potions and greeting Frank, their Muggle gardener that had come with the Manor and had been given the job because according to his father, 'that is where Muggles belong, doing work like the house-elfs'.

Frank had known Harry since he had first ventured out to the backyard when he was a toddler. He was the first Muggle Harry met and the first one he was taught to hate. But since his first year at Hogwarts had gone by Harry was now more open minded and actually listened to the old man when he had something to say. Harry had to admit that listening to the Muggle perspective was a bit entertaining.

"No roses, pansies or begonias, tis a pity nobody wants 'em", said Frank as he weeded one of the pots in the greenhouse.

"But what purpose would they have? They are all useless", said Harry as he plucked himself fluxweed.

"Useless? Bless me, they do have a use m'boy! They are there to be pretty, to make us happy with their sight!"

"That sounds like the words Dolohov uses to describe women", said Harry and Frank laughed.

Harry stood up, examining the pile of ingredients he'd already collected and noticed the Devil's Snare plant trying to coil around his ankles, "Say, Frank, how do you deal with the Devil's Snare with no magic?", he quickly jumped away from the plant and took his ingredients with him.

Frank grinned, "Have me matchbox with me at all times."

"Matchbox?", asked Harry curiously and walked over to him as he took out a small box from his pocket.

"Here, lemme show you", he took a match and lighted it with the edge of the box.

"Impressive, let me try", Harry took the box and by his fifth try had a burning match.

"Watch yer fingers boy", advised Frank and Harry dropped it when his fingers began to feel too warm.

"Good Muggle invention, same as the fellytone you have at your home."

"It's telephone", corrected Frank.

"Right", nodded Harry, "I need to go now, still have a potions lesson with my Aunt."

It had become a sort of a habit for Harry to speak with the Muggle, and he seemed to appreciate the change in Harry's attitude towards him.

By the time the holidays were over and Harry was again being dragged to the study's fireplace by his Aunt Bella to go the King's Cross station, Harry was completely back to normal.

"Come on, into the fireplace!"

"You haven't thrown in the floo powder Bella!"

"Oh right", she swiftly threw in the powder and the flames turned emerald, "Get in now, the train leaves in twenty minutes!", she ushered him into the fireplace.

Fifteen minutes later Harry was on the train looking for his friends when Hermione came pelting against him and hugged him tightly.

"Harry! We were all so worried about you!"

Stiffening first and rolling his eyes he started to pry her off him, "I'm fine now Hermione, where are the others?"

"Just here", she guided him to the compartment of their little group. Neville and Ron shot up when they saw him, "Harry!"

"Yeah, that's me, nice to see you too", said Harry and put away his trunk in the luggage rack.

"They were worried you weren't coming back", said Draco with a barely concealed snicker.

"You yourself saw him, he looked really bad, like he was having a breakdown or something."

"Ron!", shrieked Hermione.

"What? It's not like I think he's lost it or anything, I would also have one if I'd seen somebody snuff it."

Harry turned to Draco who was still seated and gave him his best glare. Draco sunk deeper into the seat, seemingly trying to will himself to disappear into it, "Sorry Harry – I had no choice."

"He's right, we cornered him, demanded him to explain what happened", Hermione defended Draco.

"It's true, he didn't want to tell us", added Neville.

Harry was still furious, "There are no excuses! He betrayed my trust!"

"Actually, you never told me it was a secr-"

"Do I look like I care?!"

"Calm down mate!", yelled Ron.

"I AM NOT CALMING DOWN!", bellowed Harry and stormed out of the compartment.

Telling them how deeply seeing dead people affected him, how dare he?! It had been Harry's weak point his entire life and he did NOT appreciate Draco telling anybody about it.

Seething with anger Harry walked to the back of the train, looking for an empty compartment.

Betraying his trust, how dare they?! He had trusted Draco to know that he was a very secretive person and did not, under any circumstances, want his secrets told to anybody. Not even his friends. Especially not this one – he really didn't feel ready for that.

"Damn them all", he muttered under his breath as he continued to walk.

"Hello", he heard a dreamy voice behind interrupt his fuming and spun on his heel.

"Oh – hi – er-"

"Luna", she supplied dreamily.

"Luna! Yes, I still owe you two quills", he said awkwardly.

"It's okay", she gazed at him with her pale eyes.

He waited for her to say something but she just stood there, without saying a word or looking uncomfortable about it at all.

"Do you know of an empty compartment?", he finally spoke.

"No", she answered simply.

"Oh."

"But I'm sitting alone in one, you can come if you want", she proposed.

"Sure", he smiled at her and walked with her to the very end of the train.

"What is that?", he asked as she took out an issue of the Quibbler and began reading it.

"The Quibbler", she answered dreamily and turned the magazine upside down.

"Anything good?"

"There is a very good article of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and where to find them", she answered.

"Of what – wait, nevermind", he shook his head.

The train ride was fairly quiet, but Harry was fine with it, though he did feel a bit exasperated when she began speaking about Nargles and Wrackspurts.

When they arrived at Hogsmeade was when the most interesting thing happened. Harry was looking at the Thestral pulling carriages when Luna came behind him to stare at the Thestrals as well.

"I can see them too", she said dreamily and then was called to the boats to cross the lake. Harry smiled at her retreating form, so he wasn't the only one, eh?

Waiting till a large group of Slytherins arrived he mounted a carriage with them and went up the castle where he was planning to ignore his friends, especially Draco, for the next couple of weeks.

You know, as I was proofreading this it occurred to me that Harry's most iconic spell, the one he later on uses to defeat Voldemort - Expelliarmus, was introduced to him by Snape.
Its just...Snape was helping Harry even when he didn't know it... *clutches heart*