Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, he's owned by JK Rowling, Warner Brothers, and various publishing companies. I'm not making any money by posting this, and it was done purely for entertainment value.

Wiztergo

Chapter 1: Breaking the Chains

As Harry swung the fang towards the diary his glasses, that had been barely sitting in place after the battle, slipped from his face and landed square on the diary. Too late to stop his swing and save his glasses the fang pierce through where the frames and right lens met before plunging into the diary. As the venom was ejected from the fang upon the strike two things happened in rapid succession. The first thing to happen was a green smoke rose from the diary along with a scream coming from the shade of Tom Riddle, and second the glasses that Harry had been using since he could remember shattered into millions of pieces with a bright flash. When the flash had subsided Harry was shocked to realize he could see perfectly and memories were flooding his mind, memories that he never realized he was missing until this exact second. As he sat there frozen assimilating all of the memories he did not notice Fawkes ripping out a feather and dipping it into the venom that was still leaking from the fang. With a deft movement the phoenix spread the small amount of venom onto Harry's scar. This action caused the first reaction from Harry since the destruction of his glasses. With the application of venom there were two screams echoing throughout the chamber, one coming from the green smoke pouring out of the scar, and one from Harry himself. Once the screaming from the scar subsided he noticed Fawkes dripping tears into the hole in his arm where the fang had gone nearly all the way through. Once that was healed the immortal creature of light hopped up to his shoulder and dripped a single tear onto his scar immediately relieving all the pain he was feeling and closing the scar. When he would look into a mirror later he would only see a very faint line where the scar had once resided, the only evidence left from the attack when he was 1.

"Harry, are you alright," a young voice asked from a short distance away. Still assimilating memories it took him a moment to realize it was Ginny asking. The look in her eyes showed that she was scared right now, whether from their location, or because of the scream that had woken her he wasn't sure.

"I'm fine Ginny," he replied slowly while the memories that had been barred from his mind finally stopped coming forth. His mind was a jumbled mess as the memories had come too quickly for him to really go over any single one. That would come later, when he was lying in bed though, for now he had to make sure they got out of there. "Let's go find Ron and that twit Lockhart and get out of here."

"Ok, if you're sure you're ok," she said hesitantly. He nodded to her and carefully got up while stuffing the diary into his robe pocket. Once on his feet he held a hand out to her to help her up as she looked utterly exhausted.

"They're near the tunnel out, there was a collapse that separated us," he informed her as he guided her towards the exit. As they were walking along Ginny seemed to come out of her shock and began crying before trying to tell him all she knew.

"Harry – Oh, Harry – I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I couldn't say it in front of Percy – it was me Harry – but I – I s-swear I didn't mean to – R-Riddle made me, he t-took over – and – how did you kill that – that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary – beforehearing two people screaming as I came to." (section in italics taken directly from US edition Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, pg 325)

"It's alright Ginny, both Riddle and the basilisk are finished, you don't have to worry about them anymore, let's get you out of here," he told her as they approached the site of the cave in. Harry took a deep breath before yelling, "RON!"

"Yeah Mate, we're here, is Ginny ok," came the muffled reply from the other side of the rock wall.

"I've got here right here, she'll be fine," Harry yelled back while helping Ginny fit through the hole that Ron had managed to make in the rocks while waiting for them to show up. Once she was through he followed carefully, making sure not to disturb and of the rocks more than necessary given that they'd already collapsed once. After falling through the other side Fawkes glided through the hole and hovered in front of them all with his tail-feathers spread out.

"What's going on? Why's that overgrown turkey flying there? How are we going to get out of here," Ron asked after checking over Ginny to see if she had any injuries.

"He's a phoenix Ron, as Dumbledore told me, they can lift immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing properties, and they can transport themselves amazing distances," Harry recited, although he wasn't exactly sure where all that information came from as Dumbledore hadn't told him all of that.

"Hello, who are you," a voice asked from the wall of the tunnel. Harry turned to see Lockhart sitting there with a vacant expression on his face, not much different than normal now that he thought about it.

"Professor Lockhart," Harry started, only to see the older man look even more confused.

"He means you," Ron huffed.

"Me? A professor? Taught you everything I know I expect," Lockhart began before something shiny caught his attention.

"Everyone grab onto my robes," Harry instructed before grabbing onto the very warm tail-feathers. With a cry of phoenix song the group was enveloped in flames and disappeared only to reappear in the hospital wing. With quick instructions to Ron to get Madame Pompfrey and get Lockhart into a bed Harry grabbed Ginny's hand before dragging her out of the wing towards following Fawkes as he was apparently guiding them somewhere they needed to get to quickly. He had a gut feeling that if he didn't follow there would be a lot of problems coming quickly on their heels. Reaching McGonagall's office Harry knocked on the door before walking in after the 'enter' from inside. While walking in with Ginny at his heels there was silence until they had both cleared the door and then the shout came.

"GINNY!"

It was Mrs. Weasley who had been crying in front of the fire that shouted. That was the only warning the two had before she had crossed the room and enveloped her daughter into a crushing hug. While that was going on Harry took the time to check out who else was in the room. Dumbledore seemed to be standing by the mantle, Professor McGonagall was next to him trying to get her breathing under control, and Mr. Weasley was making his way slowly up to his wife and daughter with a large smile on his face. Fawkes, who had settled on his shoulder while he knocked on the door, took flight and landed on McGonagall's desk as if it were his perch. Before Harry had a chance to start things off he found himself enveloped into the same bone jarring hug that had held Ginny only moments before.

"You saved her! You saved her, how in the name of Merlin did you do it," The matronly weasley shouted into his ears.

"I believe that is something that we would all like to know," Dumbledore told her calmly while making new squishy chairs with a gesture from his wand. Molly seemed to get the hint as she let Harry go, only to grab her daughter and lead her towards the Hagrid sized chair that would fit the two of them. It seemed Dumbledore had an idea of what would happen and planned accordingly. Once everyone was seated it appeared it was time to begin telling an altered truth. Without meeting anyone's gaze Harry began telling the story of what happened: hearing the voices, Hermione figuring out it was a basilisk, the trip to see Aragog, speaking with Myrtle, about how he and Ron forced Lockhart to go down, the attempted memory erasure, the cave-in, the shade of Tom Riddle, the fight with the basilisk, everything. The only time he changed the story was when he neglected to mention his glasses going with the diary. He had brushed all the fragments off when he picked up the diary to ensure nobody would get suspicious and drug it against the inside of his robe pocket to be sure before placing it on McGonagall's desk. He finished up telling how they followed the tunnel back out to where Ron and Lockhart were and the journey back.

"That's pretty much it, the only other bit is my lenses were cracked during the fight and I left them in the hospital wing to get fixed. Although, I think I forgot to ask Madame Pompfrey to fix them. I can do that when we go back there." The story was finished and he was proud of himself that he gave a semi-believable excuse for not having his glasses in case someone asked. He also failed to mention grabbing the sword before leaving as that was safely tucked into his hospital bed that was waiting for him. He had only moments to stash it while helping Ron drag Lockhart to a bed. A feeling in his gut warning him not to give up the blade, no matter what.

"That is most certainly an interesting tale," Dumbledore began gently, making Harry worry for a moment that he would be discovered, "I am most interested in learning how Lord Voldemort could enchant the diary when all my sources state that he is currently in Albania."

"Sir, he enchanted it when he was a teenager, couldn't have been older than 16 or so," Harry answered, it seems he had neglected to mention the apparent age of the shade during the story. The rest of the people in the office seemed kind of bewildered about what the two were talking about so Dumbledore thought best to answer and head off any questions.

"Tom Riddle was one of the most brilliant students that Hogwarts has ever seen. Very few people know that Lord Voldemort once went by the name Tom Riddle while he was a student here," Dumbledore began.

"Sir, I think I can help clear up some confusion. I left it out of my story as I didn't think it important at the time," cut in the voice of the boy hero before performing the same trick Riddle had used in the chamber taking TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE and changing it to I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. Comprehension appeared on the faces of everyone as they finally connected the two. That little bit of magic seemed to drain him completely so he begged his leave before heading back to the hospital wing to sleep. Unfortunately, due to his exhaustion he completely missed Lucius Malfoy's visit, as well as the chance to free Dobby himself. It had happened anyway, as somehow one of his clean socks made it between the pages. While it might be said that house elves disliked free elves they also took care of their own. The Hogwarts elves were no exception to this, in fact, they were the instigators of this behavior as they had learned from watching the students what it meant to take care of their own. The only reason they had a dislike for free elves is because they felt that any elf that escaped an abusive environment should do their best to get a new family. And while Harry didn't know of this yet, he would certainly take advantage once out of the hospital. Dobby knew whose sock it was that freed him, even without the owner being present.

While Harry lay in his bed in the Hospital Wing following the meetings he pretended to be sleeping while he was going through all the memories that had been unlocked in the chamber. To say he was upset was putting it lightly, as he remembered shortly after teaching himself to read Dumbledore showing up at the Dursley's and giving him the glasses. As soon as they were on his face he found it harder to think and he couldn't access his special power that he used to entertain himself and Dudley. As soon as the sensations took hold he remembered the bastard pointing his wand and saying obliviate. From then on whenever his glasses broke apart he regained what was lost, for the most part, and had trained himself quite well in magic. It seemed that while his memories were free looking back he could tell that there were still some things happening. His comprehension and reasoning ability seemed to wake up for the first time in his life, it was almost like the complete destruction of his frames was the key to unlocking his full potential. Like clockwork though, within a month of the glasses breaking Dumbledore would show up again and repair them. Unlike the first time when the glasses needed to be on his face to be effective, the moment they were repaired the spells went back into effect and suppressed all the memories that had been locked away before, along with the new experiences with magic that Harry had gotten.

The memories from Hogwarts were different though, as he already knew of magic and was being trained, albeit not very well, all the memories from Hogwarts had been of Harry learning of wizarding laws that would allow him to escape his so-called relatives, and the studying ahead that he had done. Harry had gotten through the fourth year text books in the library before Dumbledore had caught on to what was going on. A couple of them though, those were like hitting a jackpot in his mind. Those memories supplied him with vital information, such as the person who had pointed Voldemort at his family. There were also instances where he overheard Ron gloating to people that he was friends with the boy-who-lived and getting a weekly stipend to give information to the Headmaster. They had no less than 10 falling outs in the last 2 years before Ron finally learned that he couldn't blab about that to anyone as he could, and usually was, overheard by Harry or someone who would tell him.

Once all the memories were gone over and the lessons from those memories learned, again, Harry used the remaining week before the end of term to scour the library for ways to block being obliviated again. He made sure to avoid the professors as much as possible due to the fact he no longer had glasses. He had gotten lucky that everyone was more concerned about Ginny and what happened in the chamber to notice that he no longer had them, and he had no wish to repeat the experiences from his childhood of his magic and memories being locked away. Dobby was a godsend during this time as he would stick to Harry like glue and tell him if anyone was coming so he could hide while studying the few books he found from the library. He had found a total of three books on a subject called Occlumency, and each book had a different take on the best way to achieve mastery. They all agreed however that a master occlumens would be able to block an obliviate due to the nature of the mind magic. Using what he had studied previously Harry was able to brew a perfect pepper up potion to help him stay awake during the week. He knew that once he was returned to the Dursley's that he would be able to get the rest that he needed, but right now he didn't have time to sleep. After finding those books after two days of searching he had spent every waking moment possible going over the books before starting the meditations to build up his Occlumency barriers. Luckily with the return of so many memories he had already done the first step to organize those memories which all the books said was the first step. Having to relive basically his whole life to organize them coherently and chronologically had cut out at least 6 months that the books stated was usually the minimum needed to organize ones mind. By the time the feast was upon him he had basic shields covering his most important memories, although he knew that a skilled wizard like Dumbledore would be able to get through them easily.

Hermione returning was both a good and bad moment for him. As when she returned it spelled the end of his self-imposed exile from the rest of the school, but his best friend was awake and healthy. He filled her in on everything that had happened, with the exception of the returned memories as he remembered the only fight they had after the troll in first-year was due to him being further ahead than her academically. When questioned about his glasses he told a half-truth and said that when they were broken in the chamber he realized he no longer needed them. While she would normally call him on it, and then head to the library to study what could possibly have happened to his eyes she was still a bit overwhelmed from his story of the chamber so that question went to the backburner until much later. Right after the feast Harry claimed a headache and went to bed as he knew that with Hermione up and about he would not be able to sneak back out of the tower that night to get one more night of studying. Once his head touched the pillow he was asleep and didn't wake until it was time to leave for the train. Luckily Dobby had noticed for him and packed everything up while the dorm was empty, including the Sword of Gryffindor, to save him the time of quickly packing everything up. He slowly made his way with Ron and Hermione to the train and once they had a compartment it was lights out again until the train pulled into London.

"Harry, are you ok," Hermione asked gently.

"I'm fine, just didn't get much sleep this week what with you in the hospital wing and all," he hedged.

"Are you sure? Ron said you were asleep when he went to check on you last night and that you didn't get up until just before we had to leave. Then you slept the whole way back," she prodded. Damn, looks like she's more suspicious than I thought Harry cursed mentally.

"Like I said, I didn't get much sleep this last week so I was just catching up. I feel a lot more awake now so I think I'm good."

"Alright, but promise me that you'll write me this summer and if you still feel off in a couple days that you'll get seen," she told him with a pleading look in her eyes. He felt his resolve crumbling quickly and made that promise even though he knew he would be fine by tomorrow. With the parchment she gave him last year he figured that he could easily write her by muggle post or call her as he assumed that his mail was being watched now. It would only make sense after everything that had happened to him in the past. With one last hug from Hermione and a quick goodbye to Ron, to keep the illusion going that he trusted the backstabber, he trudged towards the barrier to meet his uncle on the other side and get back to Privet Drive knowing that the less time he spent out in the open the better. Figuring that he only had a day to catch up on sleep before he needed to sneak back out or risk Dumbles showing up he started making plans.

"Boy, where have you been," Vernon roared before continuing much more quietly so as not to be overheard by other normal people, "And where are your glasses? I'm not spending good money to replace them again you freak."

"Train just got in Uncle Vernon, and you don't need to get me another pair of glasses as the nurse at school fixed my eyes," the lie came easily as he didn't care if Vernon believed it or not. Within 24 hours he would be out of their house, hopefully to never return.

AN: Just changing the chapter to the somewhat expanded version. Filling out details I didn't before and adding the conversation in the office. I'm going to start on chapter 2 right away, but after that's posted today or tomorrow expect infrequent updates on this story.