I expect most people will have noticed that there have been a few changes to this story. While some of them, like the name, may appear to be a big thing, the fact is they aren't really, they're mostly just things that haven't seemed quite right to me from the start so I eventually gave in to the overwhelming need to change them. I had originally called this story Witches Coven, but I talked myself into changing it and have been regretting it ever since so I've changed it back to stop that voice nagging me. For the sake of argument the Coven's name changed at the same time the Druids Council became the Wizards Council, around 1000 AD.

The same goes for changing the cludgy 'Magical Family' to 'Wizard Family'. The line on the 100 year rule is that it was imposed when Wizard Families were defined in the Tenth Century to try and prevent Wizards who had been bribed with titles by British Kings to come across from the old countries to serve them from immediately using their new titles to create magical fiefdoms and subjugate British Witches and Wizards.

Druid Families had had family members who'd made significant contributions as part of Magical Britain's formal Druids/Wizards Councils or Druidesses/Witches Covens, the Heads of the Druid Families were all made Lairds at the end of the Fifteenth Century by the Kings of the Three Kingdoms. Druid Houses had had family members serve as part of the Druids/Wizards Council of Britain or Druidesses/Witches Coven of Britain, the Heads of the Druid Houses were all made Minor Barons at the end of the Fifteenth Century whether they had other titles or not.

Wizard Families had either had family members do something that was deemed by the Druids/Wizards Council of Britain to have significantly benefited Magical Britain, or had been actively working in the interests of Magical Britain for over 100 years. Very few Most Ancient Wizard Families had been established, the most famous of these being that of Salazar Slytherin's Brother-In-Law, Corvinus Gaunt, who followed the process to have his family recognised as magical at Salazar's recommendation. Unless they had been recognised as a Druid Family, anyone wishing to have a family seat on the Wizengamot had to get their family recognised as a Wizard Family as the first step towards becoming a Noble or Minor House.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.

As the closing doors cut Harry off from the others, Hermione and Luna continued to send the messages that they and his Mum had been sending with the looks they were giving him as the doors closed, and after living mostly with women since he was just turned eight he knew better than to comment about the fact that the threat of bloody retribution if he did anything stupid to get himself killed was a direct contradiction to the promise of love and support they were all sending him. He didn't doubt either message, or that the three witches who were the centre of his world would find a way to follow through on the threat of retribution in the afterlife if their love and support didn't manage to stop him doing anything stupid.

With that in mind, Harry kept casting life detection charms around him as he progressed towards Grandpa Salazar's bust and watching the shadows for any sort of movement, because while these charms were supposed to display any living things in range, he hadn't forgotten that basilisk skin was more magic resistant than any other creature's, and they didn't know whether that resistance increased as they got older and more powerful. With goblin bred basilisks being killed and harvested long before they were a hundred and fifty years old, there was no way of testing this, so they had no way of knowing whether an ancient basilisk would be uncovered by the detection charms or not.

The fact that the flickering flames of the magical torches that lit the chamber made it appear that the carved serpents that festooned the columns supporting the ceiling of the chamber were moving didn't do anything to reduce the tension. He could see an open space at the other end of the chamber and he hurried towards it, hoping to get away from worrying that a serpent could be right beside him without his knowledge, but that hope was dashed when he reached the beginning of the open space, because there were large pools on either side of the walkway leading up to Salazar's bust and the basilisk…. or basilisks, the legends never really said that there was only one…. Could be hiding under the water beside him without his knowledge.

Harry tried to put that out of his mind as he hurried down the walkway to the small figure he could see laying at the base of Salazar's bust. As he grew close to the figure he realised that he knew the girl and had talked to her a few times, it was Penny Clearwater, a friend of Susan's… and others of their group in Third Year, but especially Susan. He quickly cast diagnostic scans over her which confirmed that she was alive and not physically harmed, but her life force was weak and repeated scans showed that it was fading noticeably for some reason. He fell to his knees and tried to wake her, shaking her shoulder and calling out. "Penny? Penny, come on, wake up, we need to get out of here before the basilisk shows up..."

His attempts to wake her were abruptly cut short by a voice behind him. "She won't wake up..."

Harry spun to his feet with the Elder Wand in his hand, if this got serious he'd be replacing it with one of his older heirloom weapons but he didn't want to show his hand just yet. A boy who looked around the same age as him had stepped out of the shadows at the base of Salazar's bust. Two questions were going through Harry's head, why hadn't he seen him before and why hadn't he shown up on the life scans? No three, why could he see through him? And questions Two and Three led to yet another question, was he a ghost?

"Who are you, and what do you mean about Penny not waking up?"

"I'm Tom, Tom Riddle, and you are?"

Oh great, just what he needed, but if he played this right he may be able to get him to give up some information, and buy some more time for Penny.

"Harry Potter, but you haven't explained what you said about Penny not waking up."

"Ah, the famous Harry Potter! No, I didn't answer your question, did I? Would you prefer the short answer, or would you like the full story?"

"I want to know how to revive Penny, but why don't we start with the short answer?"

"Well the short answer is that once she started writing in my diary, she came under my control. I am not overly happy that someone transfigured the outside of my diary to make it look like something which would belong to some silly schoolgirl, but I can't really complain because it worked to snare me a subject who is strong and relatively unsullied. While she is not the Pure Blood she was supposed to be she seems to be sufficient to be bringing me back, though I presume this Susan the diary was supposed to go to would have been better as Abraxas is no fool and he would have taken all due care in choosing the proper subject to give the diary to, this Lockhart must have taken it upon himself to change the plan..."

He broke off when Harry snorted. "Is there something amusing about what I said Harry Potter?"

"I was just wondering what year you thought this was? By the way, I presume that you're referring to Abraxas Malfoy?"

"I must admit I had paid no attention to the date…. I had just presumed it to be sometime in the Nineteen Seventies…. Now that you mention it though, I didn't recognise any of the students here... And yes, I am referring to Abraxas Malfoy."

"Hmmm, just as a matter of interest, what's the last date you remember?"

Tom was getting aggravated by this boy. "The last events I remember were in Nineteen Sixty Nine, why is that relevant?"

"It's relevant because we're now coming into December Nineteen Eighty Nine and Abraxas Malfoy has been dead for nearly ten years, so you're a little out of date! His son Lucius is Head of the Malfoy Family now, but he's hiding from the DMLE at the moment so if Lockhart has been working with him with any luck the idiot will be arrested for aiding a fugitive."

Riddle mused. "Yes… I remember Abraxas' son… he was halfway through Hogwarts when I gave Abraxas the diary for safe keeping. Abraxas would have passed the responsibility on to him..."

Harry cut him off. "And you still haven't told me why my friend Penny won't wake up."

Tom chuckled. "No I haven't, have I? Well there's no harm in telling you because there's nothing you can do about it now. Your friend will not wake up because I've been drawing magical energy from her and taking control of her since she first activated my diary. I had enough of a hold over her by the time I heard in her mind that the DMLE were coming to try and locate the girl who was leading Lord Salazar's familiar around the castle to force her to come down here so that I would have the time to drain all her energy into the diary and regain my body without interruption. There is no longer any way to stop the process before she is totally drained and I am returned to a corporeal form, but enough of that…. We have more important things to discuss than some silly Half Blood who's fulfilling her purpose, tell me how you managed to defeat Lord Voldemort, the greatest wizard in centuries! That silly girl knew nothing of any value."

Harry kept surreptitiously casting the diagnostic charms at Penny and he saw that her life force was fading a lot more slowly when Riddle was concentrating on him, so he kept him talking.

"How do you know about Voldemort, and how do you remember anything from Nineteen Sixty Nine for that matter? Your robes seem to be from the same era as Myrtle, and she died back in Forty Three…. And by the way, everyone knows that Professor Dumbledore is the greatest wizard in centuries..."

Riddle laughed at him. "I do not know about Lord Voldemort you stupid boy, I am Lord Voldemort!"

He waved a wand, Penny's presumably, and fiery letters that spelled out 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE' appeared in mid-air, then he slashed the wand across the words and the letters rearranged themselves into 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'.

Harry gave an involuntary shudder at the evidence that Riddle could not only hold, but use a wand, that put paid to the idea of him being a ghost. He just hoped that that wand was a bad match for Riddle/Voldemort so he'd be able to defeat him if they crossed wands.

Riddle left the name hanging there as he continued. "I convinced those fools at Hogwarts that I was the newly accepted Lord of my house, but I was remaining incognito because members of my house wanted to kill me and take my title. As for how I know about events in Nineteen Sixty Nine when I appear to be from an earlier time, I created the diary and saved my image in it in Nineteen Forty Three when I was sixteen, but I kept adding my memories to it up until Nineteen Sixty Nine when I gave it to Abraxas for safekeeping, so I will return with the appearance and vigour of a wizard in his teens, but the knowledge of one in his forties…."

"And I bested that fool Dumbledore and everyone else when I was sixteen, so I am obviously a greater wizard than him! I had to cover my tracks after I used that stupid Warren girl for a more advanced ritual than any of them were capable of in Forty Three, so I framed that Half Breed oaf Hagrid and his pet for killing her. It was a simple matter to convince Dippet to expel him and snap his wand, though if I'd known that Dumbledore would stop him being sent to Azkaban and actually get him hired as the Gamekeeper's assistant I would have made sure that the oaf was executed…. I had to put up with watching the stupid oaf bumbling around Hogwarts for another two years before I left because my plans depended on me getting my NEWTs..."

Even though the drain on Penny's magic had slowed while Harry kept Riddle focussed on him, she was still getting weaker, so Harry decided that he needed to try and get Riddle upset enough to break the link to her and come after him….. He smiled as he thought of something that should do the job.

"Thomas Marvolo Riddle! I, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses, hereby challenge you to an honour duel under the rules of Druid Law for your cowardly murder of my father Duke James Charlus Potter Peverell, your attempted murder of my mother, Duchess Lily Rose Potter Peverell and myself, falsely assigning guilt for your crimes against Myrtle Warren and other Hogwarts students in Nineteen Forty Three to Laird Rubeus Hagrid, Head of the Ancient Druid Family of Hagrid and Vassal of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter, and your attempted murder of Miss Penelope Anne Clearwater, Heiress to the Ancient Wizard Family of Clearwater. Will you face me or will you concede and agree to pay whatever compensation I deem appropriate?"

Riddle was confused, as like most Muggle-Born and Raised, he'd never really learnt the forms of Noble House Etiquette and Law, but his ego would only allow him to give one answer. "I accept your challenge!"

Harry gave up trying to tune out the girls asking what the hell he was trying to do and snapped at them to shut up and let him deal with Riddle.

It was no great surprise when Riddle's shade attacked before they'd followed the accepted forms to begin the duel, so Harry was ready for him and easily batted away the curses being thrown at him, but he got a nasty surprise when he tried to return the spell fire, because his hexes, charms and curses were having next to no effect on Riddle's shade. Harry wasn't the only one getting worried about this though, because while they weren't having much effect on Riddle, they were having an effect and the idea of being destroyed as a shade was enough to make him break off and turn to Salazar's bust, calling out a flowery phrase in Parseltongue.

Harry started to snort in derision, but that was cut off when the chin of the bust began to grind down like the wall in Myrtle's toilets had, revealing an opening as big as the one in the toilets. In the silence that had fallen over the chamber, he heard a faint scraping sound and then an enormous head emerged from the opening, followed by a body that didn't seem to stop, it must have been three times the size of the shed skin out in the tunnel.

Luckily the girls were making an effort to keep their screams at the sight of the basilisk to gasps so he could try and concentrate on how the hell he was going to deal with this monster…. The legends got that part right, anyway.

When the basilisk went to Riddle's shade and asked what his wishes were, he smiled smugly and pointed at Harry, saying "Kill him!" in Parseltongue. Luna whispered over their link that the basilisk had not been Salazar's pet, it was his familiar! That gave Harry an idea, so before it could come at him he cried out "Stop!" in Parseltongue. When it did, confused to discover that there were two speakers there, he went on.

"You were the familiar of Lord Salazar Slytherin, were you not?"

It nodded. "Yes."

"Then you must be able to recognise by my magical signature that I am the current Lord Slytherin, so I am your true master!"

It was obviously confused as it looked back and forth between Harry and Riddle's shade, but in the end it said. "No! It is true that you are the current Lord Slytherin and the other one was never a true heir of Slytherin, but he is of Slytherin blood and he is more true to my Lord Salazar's thoughts than you are. I submitted to his will when he called me forth before and he remains my master!"

Harry sent the Elder Wand into its holster and called the Potter shield and great spear to him as the basilisk began to move towards him. He'd left them configured as the mirror shield that only the original Druid Lords and the High Goblin Chieftains of the Goblin Clans and their personal guards had ever received and an eight foot long spear that was six feet of 'shaft' and two feet of blade so that he could call them in an instant like this, but as he did so Luna called for Ushas to help him and she flashed into existence right in front of the basilisk. Ushas attacked the only vulnerable part of the basilisk, its eyes, which gave him a chance to run past it with the mirror shield held high to protect him from its gaze, as he would have a better chance if he was fighting it among the columns than he would out here where it could move more freely.

Ushas used her talons to gouge into the surface one of the basilisk's eyes and then flamed out in a big ball of flame as she had when she was matching her behaviour to Dumbledore's flashy personality to melt the eye, diving in to do the same to its other eye while it was reeling back, keening in pain from having its eye burnt out, so in the space of thirty seconds she had taken away its deadliest weapon, its lethal gaze, and it was now focussed on trying to catch her and get retribution for what she had done to it.

That didn't give Harry more than a brief respite though, because Riddle's shade was shouting at the basilisk in Parseltongue. "Forget the bird! Use your other senses to find and kill him!" The basilisk's need to obey the one it had accepted as its master overcame its rage at Ushas and it pulled back, ignoring Ushas' continuing attacks because she couldn't harm it aside from its eyes.

The basilisk reached out with its other senses to find Harry, following his scent towards the columns. Harry had vanished his shield once he got into the columns because it would just get in his way if he needed to move quickly, so he just had the spear in his hands. He was getting enough from Ushas to know that the basilisk was coming after him and how to avoid it, but he could see that it was managing to track his movements to a degree, because whenever he moved it changed direction to come after him. There was another problem though, as he was still casting diagnostic charms at Penny whenever he had the chance and now that it was the basilisk that was coming after him instead of Riddle, her life force was being drained faster, so if it took him too long to deal with the basilisk she would be lost.

The basilisk was also apparently more cunning than he expected (possibly because it had been Salazar's familiar), because by the time he realised that it was herding him back towards the open space in front of Salazar's bust it was too late to get around it, even conjuring decoys to distract it didn't give him enough time to get past it.

In the end the images he was getting from Ushas gave him the time he needed to get ready for the basilisk as it came around the column he was hiding behind and he thrust the spear up through the roof of its mouth into its brain and sent a blasting curse through the spear to, in non-magical parlance, blow its brains out.

Harry stepped back as he tried to come down from the adrenalin rush of defying death like that, but he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings so he had to desperately dive to one side as he spun around when Ushas came around the column and sent him an urgent image of another basilisk rising out of the pool behind him to strike at him. He brought the spear up as he did so and frantically sent another blasting curse through it as he felt it bite into something, but he was sent flying as the basilisk's head hit him.

He didn't need anyone to tell him that something was seriously wrong as he rolled across the chamber floor in agony, because his leg was on fire and that burning was quickly spreading up his body. When he looked down, he saw nearly a foot of the basilisk's broken off fang embedded in his leg, which had gone right through so the tip was sticking out the other side. He went to pull the fang out, but he was reminded of the intense corrosive qualities of basilisk venom by the burning that was coursing through his body so he used the hem of his robes to protect his hand as he pulled it out and dropped it on the floor, he was in enough pain without getting his hand burnt as well.

Riddle had come to watch him being destroyed, and while he was furious about losing Salazar Slytherin's two great basilisks, he wasn't about to miss out on the chance to gloat at the whelp who had supposedly defeated him eight years ago as he died. He thought he had the perfect opportunity when Dumbledore's phoenix which had aided him landed beside the boy and start crying on him.

"See boy, even Dumbledore's pet phoenix knows you've lost! How does it feel to know that the only one who will mourn your passing is a bird that had to be sent by here by his master? Remember this lesson as you die boy, you are nothing and you mean nothing to anyone!…."

Wait…. What was going on? The boy had been obviously dying in excruciating pain before, how could he be sitting up and smiling now? Oh no! He'd forgotten about the healing effects of phoenixes' tears! He tried to shoo the bird away from the boy but it was too late, as its tears had already countered the basilisk venom in his blood.

Harry stroked Ushas' head. "Thanks Ushas, you were brilliant! You not only blinded the first basilisk and gave me a chance against it, you saved my life!"

The phoenix trilled at him and took off, then the boy turned to Riddle's shade, laughing. "How does it feel to be wrong about everything Tom? I didn't interrupt you before because I was hoping that you'd tell me something I didn't know, but I've already faced another version of you about a month ago. That version was the shade of the Tom Riddle who killed my father and tried to kill Mum and I eight years ago but the protections my Mum placed over me were still working well enough to destroy his host…. And don't insult Ushas by calling her Dumbledore's pet, she never belonged to him, not even when he used dark magic to bind her to him and he thought she was male and called Fawkes!…."

He was cut off by Ushas dropping the diary on the floor beside the fang and sending him the thought that he needed to destroy it because it was anchoring Riddle to this realm. He used another part of his robes to grab the fang and stabbed it into the diary a few times before letting go and quickly casting the binding spell on the diary to prevent the shade that was being sucked screaming into the diary from escaping.

The finality of the way the shade was sucked back into the diary reminded him of the formal challenge he'd issued to Riddle, so he completed the ritual. "I, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, hereby claim all magic, titles, holdings and assets rightfully belonging to Thomas Marvolo Riddle by right of conquest!"

He felt the magic judging him and then there was a flash as his claim was accepted, but the process made him feel more drained than he'd expected it to and he didn't seem to gain anything from it, so perhaps all he'd get out of it was the family title. He shrugged, as he'd mainly challenged Riddle to distract him anyway.

Harry was watching in sick fascination as a disturbing wrongness was roiling around the diary, until Luna urgently sent a message over their link to get away from it because she could see other pieces of dark magic being drawn to where he was and she thought something bad was about to happen. He called the spear to him and used it to haul himself to his feet and support him as he hobbled to where Penny was trying to sit up, sinking down beside her and helping her sit up but watching the growing bubble of wrongness around the diary. He saw something happening there even before Luna cried out "Watch out!" and cast a strong shield over himself and Penny, so that when it sort of exploded, they were protected from the blast.

That blast was felt outside the chamber, so Hermione and Luna were frantically calling out to him to ask if he was alright. He knew he was going to get it for worrying them but he couldn't respond to them straight away because that external blast was only part of what happened. He was simultaneously blasted with the magic he thought he wasn't getting from Riddle, because apparently magic didn't consider it done until all those other pieces of magic that Luna had seen were included and then it filtered what was collected and rejected what it considered wrong, for want of a better term.

The end result was that Harry's head felt like it was exploding and he knew far more about dark spells and rituals than he wanted to, but he also had acquired the wealth of arcane Parselmagic that made up the Gaunt Family Magic (and even more that didn't seem to be related to the Gaunts) and felt as though the magic in him was straining at the seams. He expected that when he was scanned they'd find that his magic had expanded quite a bit. He gave the girls a hasty explanation as he helped Penny to her feet and then they headed for the doors, but after a few steps he levitated her a couple of inches off the floor and guided her along with an arm around her shoulders because she was so drained that she could hardly stay awake.

Before they left the chamber, he pulled out his communications mirror and expanded it enough to act as a transportation floo before calling Uncle Ragnok and asking him to step through. Luckily Ragnok's outburst when he turned around and saw the two basilisks was in High Goblin, because it most certainly wasn't suitable language for a young lady to hear, but to the best of their knowledge, no-one in the Wizarding world outside of their immediate family spoke High Goblin. Harry smiled as he though about how terrified most people in the Wizarding world who recognised Ragnok would have been to hear that much shock and anger being expressed by the Leader of the Goblin Nations, but he settled down after a while. He was still speaking High Goblin as he addressed Harry though.

"Would you care to explain how there are not one but two basilisks of legendary proportions here Nephew?"

"I don't have long to discuss this Uncle Ragnok, because Mum and the girls are outside those doors and they're upset, but the short answer is that we found the last of Riddle's soul anchors. Apparently Lucius Malfoy had it and he found a way to get it into Hogwarts, they'd apparently planned for it to go to Susan so Auntie Ami's going to go on a rampage when she hears that but Penny here somehow intercepted it. I think she was trying to protect Sue by finding out who was trying to get to her but she was possessed by the soul anchor herself. It turned out that Riddle was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets in Forty Three and he managed to get Slytherin's familiars to serve him..."

He waved to the basilisks and Ragnok's eyes widened. "They were both familiars?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, I expect that before he went mad Salazar Slytherin considered the fact that one beast on its own would be likely to succumb to insanity over the centuries so he arranged for it to have a mate. Being a familiar became a problem though when the female, and I thought only, basilisk decided to keep serving Riddle rather than me as the current Lord Slytherin, because he was closer to Salazar's thought patterns at the end after he went crazy. Anyway, Ushas came to me and she managed to destroy the female's eyes to give me a chance against it and I managed to stick the spear into its brain and send a blasting curse through it, but as I was trying to get my breath back she came around the column and warned me that the male had come out of the pool and was striking at me from behind. I managed to kill it with a blasting curse to the brain as well but it had caught me so I had the tip of one of its fangs broken off in my thigh. Ushas healed me with her tears and then brought the diary to me, indicating that it was a soul anchor so I stabbed it with the fang that went through my thigh and cast the spells to seal the dark magic into it…. I also claimed all of Riddle's magic, titles, holdings and assets by right of conquest because I tricked him into an honour duel to distract him and that seemed to turn the soul anchor into some sort of magic bomb as it collected all of Riddle's magic and then exploded once it had filtered out what was too foul to pass on. That's part of what Mum and the girls are worried about because they felt the explosion outside the doors…. Oh yeah, that's another thing, those doors are over a foot thick and Uncle Filius says that they're solid Mydrril, so please swear everyone you bring in to process things in here to a Clan Secret. Unfortunately Dumbledore's out there too so I'd like to have the tunnels out there collapsed and the chamber warded so that it is impossible to get in here except via our magical transport."

Ragnok shook his head at him. "I will see to it, but why can you never find a safe way to resolve the problems you face Nephew?"

Harry gave him a wry grin. "It's not my fault Uncle Ragnok, these things just keep happening to me! Anyway, I need to get Penny to Auntie Poppy because she's just about drained and I need to show Mum and the Girls, and the rest of my Aunts, that we're both okay."

Ragnok nodded and walked them to the doors, standing out of sight off to the side when Harry called for them to open in Parseltongue. Hermione and Luna raced up and jumped on him the moment he exited the chamber, so Harry gave Uncle Filius a grateful smile when he felt him taking over control of Penny's levitation. Harry was just grateful they were so focussed on making sure that he was whole to take the time to look at what had everyone else's attention as they looked into the chamber, the two enormous basilisk carcasses down near the far end of the chamber. He caught the greed on Dumbledore's face when he saw the basilisk carcasses and made a mental note to make sure that the goblins collected that shed skin and then sealed off and collapsed the tunnels before the old bastard could find a way to get back down here.… The pipe down from Myrtle's toilets too for that matter.

Harry turned away from Dumbledore and saw Uncle Filius looking concerned as he scanned Penny. He could understand that look because he was worried about how low her energy levels were too. At that he made a snap decision, asking Hermione and Luna over their links to pop Penny and Uncle Filius up to the infirmary and whispering to Auntie Minnie that they were going to do what they could to protect Penny, and part of which would be obliviating Dumbledore of everything he'd seen and heard since before he left his office to rush down to Myrtle's toilets.

Minerva didn't hesitate, she just nodded and gave him a push, telling him to get on with it and she'd fill the others in on what they were doing.

When Hermione and Luna disappeared with Penny and Filius, Dumbledore and some of the others wanted to know what was going on but Harry spoke over the top of them.

"Quiet! Penny is very weak because the spirit that was possessing her was also draining her, so the girls used their ability as Founders' heirs to apparate her and Professor Flitwick up to Myrtle's toilets to take Penny to the infirmary to help Madam Pomfrey heal her. I am going up to get checked over as well and we will return as soon as we have news of how Penny is. You're probably best off waiting for us here where it's dry because Professor Flitwick told me that the entrance in Myrtle's toilet was closing as we came down, he almost didn't get through."

With that he popped away before Dumbledore could think to demand that he take him with him.

When he arrived in the infirmary with a quiet 'pop' the others were all gathered around Penny's bed. Poppy was looking concerned as she cast diagnostic scans over her, but not overly so, which Harry took to mean that her condition wasn't life threatening. Poppy and Filius knew about their abilities and Poppy agreed that Hermione channelling the ley line energy into Penny would probably be the best way to get her energy levels back up to what they should be, so she monitored Penny as Hermione pushed the energy into her, telling her to stop when it started to get above what she would be expected to have in normal conditions.

Hermione stopped him when Harry suggested that they go back and retrieve the others though. "You're not going anywhere until Auntie Poppy has checked you out!"

Poppy looked between the two of them, trying to work out what was going on, but a glance at Luna and Filius made it clear they were looking forward to the show.

"What do you need to be checked out for Harry, what happened to you down there?"

"It wasn't anything to worry about Auntie Poppy…."

"What the hell do you call that basilisk bite on your thigh?"

"What?"

It only seemed to take Poppy seconds to have him on the bed beside Penny with the leg of his trousers vanished so that she could examine the bite and cast diagnostic scans over him.

When she had grudgingly admitted that the scans didn't show anything wrong with him and her heart rate had settled down she asked.

"Would you like to explain how you are not only alive and apparently fine, but the wound that went right through your thigh is healed except for the entry and exit scars young man?"

"When Ushas cried on the wound the burning as the poison went through my body faded away and all the poison seemed to be coming back out through the bite and evaporating. It only seemed to take a minute or two between when it was burning its way through my veins and spreading over my body to when the hole had closed up, my leg still hurt like hell but that was just residual pain I think…. By the way, you should vanish this bedding and mattress Auntie Poppy, I had basilisk venom on my clothes too and I don't think that's something you want anyone without phoenix tears in their blood touching."

She looked thoughtful at that. "No, you're quite correct about that, in fact I want you to go straight into that bathroom, vanish everything you're currently wearing and wash yourself thoroughly then get dressed in fresh clothes from the skin out." She looked at Hermione and Luna. "And that goes for you two as well as I'm sure you've been in contact with him since he came out of the Chamber… Go on! I'll get the elves to bring you fresh clothes."

They toddled off to do as they were told with "Yes Auntie Poppy"s as Poppy scanned Filius for any trace of venom on him. She and Filius were still discussing the situations those three got themselves into and shaking their heads when the three students came out of the bathroom. Poppy scanned them all for any residual venom traces before she let them return to where the others were waiting.

None of them were too surprised when Dumbledore made snarky comments about them taking their time having showers and getting changed while everyone else was trapped down in the tunnels with no way out, but they just ignored him and started popping everyone up to the hallway near his office. Needless to say he was even more narky when he was one of the last ones to be taken out of the tunnels.

Everyone else was in on the plan by then, so they just made sure that no-one else could see them and obliviated Dumbledore of the last couple of hours, leaving while he was too confused to register who was was there. The portraits Dumbledore had had placed near Myrtle's toilets had been those of people personally loyal to him rather than Hogwarts, so they had called some elves to collect them and move them into out of the way abandoned storerooms that gave them no way of identifying where they were before they left the infirmary.

One good thing about portraits was that their memory of events while they were portraits was rather flaky, so without something to prompt them the portraits in the Headmaster's office weren't likely to bring up what he'd been doing before he left and with any luck Dumbledore would just put the missing time down to doing something boring (like work) that he couldn't be bothered remembering.

Another thing that worked in their favour was that while the sheeple of magical Britain swallowed all of the supposedly brilliant Albus Dumbledore's self advertising without question, the vast majority of the stories about the Great Albus Dumbledore really should have started with 'Once upon a time'. After all, being hailed as brilliant by most of Magical Britain wasn't so impressive when the facts clearly showed that they'd been actively driving out their best and brightest for the last two or three hundred years purely because they weren't inbred idiots who came from the shallow end of the gene pool.

One thing that the Ministry of Magic would never admit, if in fact they knew it in the first place, was that the Goblin Nations had access to all the same raw information as the wizarding governments right across the Magical world. The key difference was that the goblins valued knowledge so they carefully filed and used every piece of knowledge they were getting, not just the bits that supported their agendas. This meant that the British Goblin Nation had records which clearly showed that between those they called Muggle-Borns, Half-Bloods, Squibs and Werewolves, Wizarding Britain had consistently driven out over half of every generation for the last two centuries, and most of the best and brightest of each generation were among them.

The population of Magical Britain had tended to remain fairly static at thirty to forty thousand over this period, ever widening the gap between it and non-magical Britain, which was over twice the size it had been at the end of the Eighteenth Century. In Grindelwald's War and the Blood War the population of Wizarding Britain taken even more of a hit because the war losses were added to the forcible rejection of anyone the so-called Pure-Bloods deemed unworthy, which had dried up their gene pool even further because most of those who died in the wars weren't proper Pure-Bloods.

The declining intellectual and magical ability of the sheeple who made up most of Magical Britain weren't the only damage done to the country by the Pure-Bloods though. In their last two centuries of dominance over the Wizengamot, Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts, they had aggressively blocked nearly every meaningful advance in knowledge and technology. Other parts of the magical world that weren't under the Pure-Bloods' control had learned from the advances made in the non-magical world and kept enough in step with the non-magical world that they could mingle in that world without screaming 'Look at me, I don't belong here!', but those raised in the Pure-Blood enclaves (and Magical Britain was just one big Pure-Blood enclave) couldn't be trusted to go anywhere near the non-magical world without threatening the Statute of Secrecy. Their so-called 'Muggle Studies' course was for the most part a century out of date and they made no attempt to cover up the fact that they regarded all Muggles as being something less than village idiots who could never be a threat to Wizards. They also called everyone who tried to explain to them that no matter how powerful they thought they were, they had no chance of beating the ten to one odds against non-magical Britain's Military, let alone the two hundred to one odds against non-magical Britain as a whole liars.

The important part of that though was that Albus Dumbledore was unlikely to cotton onto the fact that his knowledge of where the Chamber of Secrets was or what happened there had been removed.

They had been discussing what happened in the Chamber of Secrets for a while in Harry, Hermione and Luna's chambers when Ragnok came through to fill them in on what the goblins had come up with. His news was a mixture of good and bad, both to the extreme. One of the first things he raised was that Harry would need to return to the chamber to give them access to anything outside of the main chamber because their curse breakers had discovered the hard way that the wards struck back against anyone but a Parselmouth of Slytherin blood trying to access anything in there.

As far as the basilisks went, the female was around seventy five feet long and the male was over ninety feet long, and between them and the mountain of shed skins in their den, they would yield far more than the last century of basilisk harvesting had when rendered. Luckily the most valuable parts extracted would keep well enough that they could afford to release them slowly and maintain their value.

Their silversmiths had also confirmed what Filius told Harry when the doors were opening, they were solid Mydrril and represented more refined Mydrril than they had on hand in the world at the moment. Once they were demounted and melted down, the Mydrril could also be released slowly so that it maintained its value, which could could conceivably double the worth of the House of Potter with the basilisks added in.

Other interesting news was what he had successfully claimed by right of conquest from Tom Riddle, who by the way was now confirmed as dead, as were many of the remaining marked Death Eaters. Apparently the pieces of dark magic that Luna had seen being drawn to the diary when the last piece of Riddle's soul was being destroyed had been pulled from the Death Eaters' Dark Marks, and as far as the goblins could tell every marked Death Eater had either died or ended up in St Mungo's when that happened.

The most interesting part of that though was that while the Most Ancient Wizard Family of Gaunt had been stripped of just about everything but the shack outside Little Haggleton, its Wizard Family title and the Family Magic when the Gaunts squandered their fortune, it turned out that the Riddles were descended from a Squib line of the dormant but intact Noble House of Fitzroy. This meant that as well as the Riddles' Baronetcy, estate and fortune (Which Tom Riddle had never been able to touch because he couldn't prove his claim in the non-magical world. The Baronetcy in no way invalidated their position that he was a common Muggle-Born bastard because a Baronetcy isn't a Noble title.) Harry acquired the British titles of Baron Fitzroy, Head of the Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Fitzroy, along with the associated holdings, estates and vaults. This Squib line also represented the last of the Ancient Noble French bloodline of Fitzhugh which had otherwise been wiped out in the French Revolution, so Harry also won the French titles of Comte Fizthugh, Chef de la Noblesse Ancienne Famille de Fitzhugh and the associated holdings, estates and vaults. If Riddle hadn't held Muggles and goblins in such contempt and had performed the formal inheritance tests, he could have been an actual Lord with status and fortunes in both Britain and France.

That was where the good news finished though, because they had taken Penny Clearwater to the Healers Hall under Gringotts to be seen by the mind healers there, and while they had successfully healed her of the effects of the compulsions and possession that forced her to release the basilisk, what they found was very disturbing. For a start, Lockhart's intentions when he tried to coerce her into delivering the enchanted diary to Susan Bones were extremely questionable, the memories the healers took from Penny supported her belief that he was fully intending to seduce his thirteen year old student into having sexual relations with him, so that would be added to the charges of attempted line theft of a Senior Noble and Most Ancient House if they could prove their suspicions that Lockhart knew that the diary was essentially cursed to trap Countess Bones, Head of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Bones into marriage to whoever was supposed to have the other diary.

An even bigger problem though was the fact that the mind healers had uncovered the fact that Penny had been raped by an older student at the beginning of the school year and then healed and obliviated to cover up the rape. What they had managed to recover of her memories of the event appeared to indicate that it was a prefect who raped her, presumably with his partner covering for him. It had to have been a teacher who performed the healing and obliviation as no ordinary student could have managed to cover up what had been done to her that well…. and their prime suspect on that front was Horace Slughorn.

Another question that was disturbing them was whether the rapist or the one who covered it up had told Lockhart about the rape and that had influenced his choice to attempt to seduce an innocent thirteen year old girl… When they picked up Lockhart he was going to be leaking Veritaserum out his ears until he'd told them everything he knew about this and the diary, because there had been something about that diary which compelled Penny to use it…. and if their suspicions about Slughorn were confirmed he'd be joining Lockhart.

Ragnok told them that Penny's parents were currently with her at Gringotts and Amelia was going to be meeting with them tomorrow to get authorisation to go after everyone involved in her attack. Minerva and Filius (as Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress and Penny's House Master) insisted on being in that meeting and Ragnok just nodded, saying that they'd been planning on that.

Harry discussed making an offer to protect Penny's reputation and position in the Wizarding world with Hermione and Luna over their links and with their wholehearted agreement, told Ragnok that he wanted to get Ted Tonks in to discuss a couple of things to help protect Penny with the Clearwaters. Ragnok and Lily could tell from the approving smiles the older women were giving Harry at that what he was suggesting would be good for Penny, but he had to spell it out for them.

"Well the first part is mainly using the Noble House biases that rule this world. I want to try and get the Clearwaters to accept the Gaunts' Most Ancient Wizard Family title and the Riddles' Baronetcy, along with Riddle Manor and the Gaunt shack in Little Haggleton, as that will elevate their family to a Most Ancient Minor House and raise their status quite a bit in the eyes of the Pure Bloods. More importantly, their being a Most Ancient House will allow us to use the Druid Laws to add attempted line theft to the charges when we go after the ones involved in Penny's rape, and line theft is something the Noble Houses take very seriously. I'm sure that magic will allow the titles to be transferred to them because Penny was very much Riddle's victim."

"But the bigger issue is… You know that witches must be magically verified to be virgins for marriages to be magically accepted in the Wizarding world?" They both nodded angrily.

"And you must know if it was ever discovered that any girl wasn't a virgin when she was married, the harridans of Wizarding society would absolutely crucify her, making sure that everyone heard about it and that she was publicly branded a harlot?"

Lily growled at that, but she nodded tersely, none of them liked any of this but they knew that it was how Wizarding society still worked.

"It's common knowledge that while wizards can have several wives in the wizarding world, a witch can only be married to one wizard at a time, but there is a loophole in that rule which states that a witch who is in line for her own houses can in fact be betrothed to more than one wizard up until she actually gets married to one of them. For that reason, Uncle Ted used a little known exception to the traditional marriage laws in our betrothal contracts to protect the girls against anyone trying to force a marriage for their houses, female line continuation contracts."

"These were created a couple of hundred years ago during the bloodiest of the so called Goblin Rebellions to supposedly try and prevent families dying out when there were no male heirs left to continue the name. The point is, female line continuation contracts don't have to be permanent like the marriage contracts are meant to be because while they're treated like any other betrothal contract at the start, under the line continuation contracts the witch becomes the wizard's consort, rather than his wife. Once she has borne an heir for her family, or if she is unable to bear an heir with that wizard for some reason, the line continuation contract can be terminated, leaving her free to get married and bear heirs for her husband's family with no stigma attached to her not being a virgin."

"Female line continuation contracts are usually arranged with the same wizard the witch marries, which is what we've done with our betrothal contracts, but it is allowable for them to be arranged with another wizard if that's deemed to be necessary for some reason. Penny's mother was the last member of the Ancient Wizard Family of Powell but after she married Penny's father, who is Muggle Born, they went through the process to have the family name formally changed to Clearwater to keep it going. If they accept my offer of the Gaunt and Riddle titles, that means that Penny could be legitimately entered into a female line continuation contract to prevent what will be the Most Ancient Minor Wizard House of Clearwater dying out. There is a requirement for the union to be consummated at some point for it to be accepted as legitimate, but if Penny and her parents wish to do this to protect Penny's name and reputation I will do everything I can when that time comes to minimise any trauma associated with it for her…."

That had his mother in tears and squeezing the life out of him. "I know you will sweetheart, that's what makes you and your wonderful girls so incredible, the fact that you're prepared to do something like this for Penny and the girls are supporting you in doing it."

Minerva was furious when they watched the memories that had been recovered from Penny of her rape, because she identified the rapist as her Gryffindor Seventh Year male Prefect, and saw her female seventh Year prefect in the background, which confirmed what they'd suspected when Ragnok told them what had been recovered from Penny. She went back to Hogwarts and called the two to her office, where they were shocked to find that they were immediately whisked off to Gringotts to be questioned under Veritaserum, being held in Clan Gringott's secure cells overnight.

Early the next morning, Harry went to Gringotts with Ted, Hermione, Luna and Susan and they sat down to discuss Harry's proposals. Natalie Clearwater had been taught enough about the old ways to see the protection that the titles being offered would give them and her husband Robert was no fool, so when he saw her look of hope he agreed straight away and Harry magically transferred the titles then and there. Natalie also cottoned onto how Harry's other offer could protect Penny quite quickly, but it took a bit of discussion before Penny got her head around it and agreed, and quite a bit more for Robert to accept that allowing his little girl to go through with this before she got married would be in her best interests.

As soon as the titles were magically transferred and Penny officially became Heiress to the Most Ancient Minor Wizard House of Clearwater, Amelia took a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers to Hogwarts to arrest Gilderoy Lockhart and Horace Slughorn on charges of attempted line theft of Most Ancient Houses among other things. Dumbledore of course tried to stop them, but he quickly shut up and sat down when Amelia threatened formally charging him with interfering with official Department of Magical Law Enforcement investigations.

The Gryffindors who had asked Minerva what happened to the Seventh Year prefects and were told to keep it quiet, but they were assisting the DMLE with some inquiries, started wondering whether they were going to see their dorm mates again as they watched two of their teachers being dragged out of the Great Hall. Some of the braver or more dutiful students owled their parents about what was going on at Hogwarts, so their parents were less surprised than others when an Emergency Wizengamot Session was called that afternoon.

As Griselda and Tiberius took their places at the Chief Witch/Warlocks bench with Elphias Doge, they smiled to themselves about how many Wizengamot members were missing after last night, because the Death Eaters who had slipped through the cracks before had either died with Riddle, or were in a bad way in St Mungo's. Very few of them had Heirs who would be able to claim their titles and votes any time soon, so the Pure-Bloods would be considerably weaker in the Wizengamot for a while.

They were rather less pleased to see Albus Dumbledore bustle in in his usual flamboyant robes, ignoring the dress standards of the Wizengamot as he always had, and head for the Noble House members' benches. Griselda signalled for Tiberius to handle the idiot, because she didn't think that she'd be able to stay civil, he nodded and called out. "Mister Dumbledore, what are you doing here?"

Dumbledore drew himself up to his full and admittedly impressive height to respond. "That is Lord Dumbledore Lord Ogden, as you yourself have stated on numerous occasions, members of the Wizengamot should be addressed by their proper titles!"

Tiberius and Griselda looked at each other, but neither of them could work out what the old fool was going on about, so Tiberius turned back to Dumbledore. "Forgive me Lord Dumbledore, I was not aware that you had been elevated to a Noble title. May I ask how this came about, and when?"

"That is alright Tiberius, it was just over a month ago that my good friend Baron Nicolas Flamel died and passed his titles on to me, so it is quite understandable that you may not have been informed of it yet."

This made Tiberius give Griselda an evil smile of anticipation, and he caught a similar smile on the Clerk of the Court's face. The Heads of the Fawcett Family had been the Wizengamot's Clerks of the Court for centuries and no-one knew more about the ins and outs of the British Magical Houses and Families than them, and they knew more about the British Magical Laws than the vast majority in the Wizengamot too for that matter as they served as the Wizengamot's knowledge repository. Eugene had been one of Magical Britain's leading solicitors before he became Clerk of the Court and other sons and daughters of the Fawcett family still were, which was part of the reason that Rhys, Fawcett, Fleamont and Tonks was the pre-eminent legal firm in Magical Britain. The proper form of address for Eugene Fawcett was actually Sir Eugene, because the title of Head of the Ancient Minor Wizard House of Fawcett had been passed on to him when he took over the position of Clerk of the Court from his father. Lady Marchbanks, Lord Ogden and Doge and most of the other Acting Chief Witches and Warlocks had always made a point of addressing him properly in private but at his instigation held to the convention of using 'Mister Fawcett' publicly, so the fact that Dumbledore had never acknowledged his title in all the time he'd been Chief Warlock and believed that he would have missed any change of this nature was quite insulting.

Tiberius waved his hand to the Stone of Truth. "I'm sorry, I had not heard of Baron Flamel's passing. In that case we must meet the Wizengamot's requirements to have you accepted by the Magic of the Wizengamot, please identify yourself with The Stone."

"I hardly think that is necessary after all my years of service to the Wizengamot Tiberius…."

"I will remind you that it is required that every member of the Wizengamot be accepted by the Magic of the Wizengamot before they take part in proceedings, and please address me as Chief Warlock when I am officially sitting in that capacity! Please identify yourself to the Magic of the Wizengamot."

Dumbledore obviously wanted to say something about that, but he gave an angry huff and flounced over to the Stone of Truth. The Stone's voice rang out when he placed his hands on it. "Albus Percival Dumbledore, Head of the Wizard Family of Dumbledore, not a member of the Wizengamot."

Tiberius looked like the cat that ate the canary now. "Oh dear, it would appear that you were mistaken Mister Dumbledore. Sir Eugene, are you able to shed any light on this matter? If Mister Dumbledore did not inherit Baron Flamel's titles when he died, who did?"

Once again, Eugene matched his smile. "Most certainly My Lord Chief Warlock. In the first place, you will be happy to hear that Baron Flamel has not died and he remains Comte Flamel in France, he has merely abdicated his British titles to his Heir."

Dumbledore exploded. "That it is not true! I am his Heir so they should have come to me!"

Tiberius took over again because he wanted to make Dumbledore's supporters come after him if they came after anyone for this as his house was more powerful than Eugene's. "Apparently not Mister Dumbledore. Were you in fact officially notified of Baron Flamel's death by anyone? Did you make any attempt to check with Baron… sorry, Comte Flamel's family when you heard of his passing?"

"There was no way of contacting the Flamels except through their Steward and he has disappeared! I was magically notified of their deaths over a month ago but I have been blocked from taking possession of their estates…. I demand to know who has stolen the Flamel inheritance that is rightfully mine!"

The carrying voice that spoke from the top tier of the Wizengamot benches chilled his blood. "Stolen, Dumbledore? You dare to publicly call me a thief without a shred of proof?"

Dumbledore found himself unable to speak as he watched Harry Potter gracefully descend to the floor of the chamber. Harry surreptitiously uncovered the Flamel rings and placed that hand on the Stone of Truth so its voice rang out. "Baron Henry James Flamel, Head of the British Junior Noble and Ancient Wizard House of Flamel and Baron Henri James Flamel, Heir to Comte Nicolas Flamel, Chef de la Noblesse Ancienne Famille de Flamel in France."

"As you have heard, I have been magically accepted as Heir to the French Flamel titles and Comte Flamel has decided to abdicate from his British titles so that they came to me. Now that we have proof of your lies and insults Mister Dumbledore, I must decide what to do to you…."

He was cut off by Tiberius' voice from the Chief Witch/Warlocks' bench. "I hesitate to interfere with a matter of honour Duke Potter, but is this really the time or place for this?"

Harry bowed to the bench. "My apologies My Lord Chief Warlock, you are correct, if you will just bear with me for a little longer I will attempt to defer the matter..." He turned back to Dumbledore. "Albus Percival Dumbledore! I, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, challenge you to a duel of honour for your false accusations and insults to my honour under the terms of the Druid Laws! Will you face me or will you concede and agree to pay whatever compensation I deem appropriate?"

"What? You can't do that! Duels have been illegal for over a century!"

"As someone who held the Chief Warlock's position for over forty five years, you should know that the Druid Laws protect the Noble and Ancient and above Houses' right to resolve certain matters in honour duels Mister Dumbledore…. Answer me! Will you face me or publicly admit your lack of honour and pay compensation of my choice?"

"I refuse to accept that you have any legal right to force me to duel with you!"

Harry nodded and said "Very Well." then turned to the Clerk of the Court. "Sir Eugene, may I ask a boon of you Sir?"

Eugene nodded, smiling inside as he had a good idea of where this was going. "If I can be of service, I will Duke Potter."

"Thank you, my request is this... Would you be willing to formally bear witness to the fact that the false accusations and insults made to me by Albus Percival Dumbledore, Head of the Wizard Family of Dumbledore, are sufficient to justify me challenging him to an honour duel under the terms of Druid Law, and furthermore that he has refused to accept my challenge and therefore is legally required to forfeit whatever compensation I see fit to call for to satisfy the insult to my honour?"

Eugene bowed to him. "I am indeed willing to formally bear witness to the fact that the false accusations and insults made to you by Albus Percival Dumbledore are sufficient justification for you to challenge him to an honour duel under the terms of Druid Law, and that he has publicly refused to accept your challenge and is therefore legally required to forfeit to you whatever compensation you see fit to require to satisfy the insult to your honour Duke Potter Peverell."

There was a flash as the magic of the chamber accepted this ruling, which sparked a considerable amount of whispering and chatter because most of the people in the chamber had never heard of the old laws that ruled matters of this nature, let alone been present for the only time they had been publicly invoked in the last century, right there in the chamber in the session where Sirius had called out Delores Umbridge and Lucius Malfoy.

Dumbledore's knees were shaking as he began to register what was happening, but it wasn't over yet as Harry spoke again.

"I will be brief so that we can proceed with the more important matters we have been called here to address…. Albus Percival Dumbledore! I, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, hereby call on you to forfeit your position as Head of the Wizard Family of Dumbledore and all vaults you control to me, and as the new Head of the Wizard Family of Dumbledore I cast you out of the Wizard Family of Dumbledore! You are no longer Albus Percival Dumbledore, from this moment you will assume your mother's maiden name and be known as Albus Percival Jones!"

There was another flash as the magic of the chamber accepted his decree and Albus Jones collapsed as he lost the Dumbledore Family Mind Magic that he'd been jealously hoarding to himself ever since he became Head of the Family in the early Eighteen Nineties. At the Hogs Head pub in Hogsmeade, Albus' brother Aberforth felt a change in the Dumbledore Family Magic wash over him, but there was no change to what little family magic he had access to so he thought that he'd imagined it until Harry Potter came to visit him the next day.

Tiberius waved for the Officers of the Court to remove Mr… Jones as Harry bowed to the Chief Witch/Warlocks' bench and apologised for delaying the proceedings they had been called there to address. All in all, Albus Dumbledore, or rather Albus Jones as he now was, would have been better off staying in bed that day.