Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Giving A Chance	By : Leania07 Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Slash - Male/Male Views: 17355 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I make money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
A/N: Apparently I missed something in my disclaimer but it's not corrected. Thanks for the reviews, all. Just a note, while there are things mentioned from the CoS, it was all by memory of both book and movie. I didn't want it 'word-for-word' so I thought memory recalling would be best and fit this chapter.
Chapter 7: 2^nd Year, Harry’s Tale
Draco looked at Snape, who stared at Harry, “How could you help? You know where to get scales and feathers from a Basilisk?” Snape scoffed at the idea.
“Actually, yes, though I don’t know how the corpse looks by now.” Harry was caught off guard by Snape’s confused look, “Don’t you know? I could understand Draco not knowing, but…”
“Harry,” Hermione interjected, her eyes wide, “perhaps Dumbledore didn’t tell him exactly what happened.”
Realization dawned on Harry, which in turns made him cringe.
“Tell me what?” Snape’s voice was low and cold, he didn’t like being made to look the fool.
“Second year, Slytherin’s monster was a Basilisk.” Harry looked to see if he had to tell the story or if they could gather the idea themselves.
Draco seemed to catch on, whether from snippets of conversation, speculation, or some other way, though Snape either denied the possibility or wasn’t quite as informed. Harry thought the former was more accurate.
“A Basilisk was petrifying all those people, how? How did you find that out? How are you not dead?” ‘How was anyone not killed?’ was the echoing question that Draco left hanging in the air.
“Why did you not tell a Professor what you knew and let them deal with it? Why must you always go searching for danger?” Severus pushed back the way his heart lurched at the thought of Potter in second year, facing a Basilisk of unknown size.
Hermione grabbed Harry’s arm as she noticed the stiffening of his shoulders, and looked at him calmly when that green gaze pierced her with the angry stare.
“Take a breath, Harry; Professor Snape does not know all that went on and so he asks things that make sense to him. You’ve only told Ron, myself, and Professor Dumbledore, and you know he won’t give much information.”
Harry took a breath and relaxed his shoulders and noticed that Draco and the Professor both seemed…afraid? No perhaps unnerved was a better term, perhaps something else he couldn’t pinpoint, but he could see they didn’t realize how much emotion they showed. Blaise however remained calm; perhaps it didn’t affect him as much.
“Alright, and Professor I ask you don’t take points for things that were done years ago.” Harry waited until Snape nodded before he began his tale.
He told about hearing the words in the walls, saying ‘kill, kill, kill’ and how he found out he was a Parseltongue, having thought the snakes he spoke with knew English and not that he spoke another language. That of course set off an explanation that it sounds like English to him and he doesn’t realize he speaks a different way. Severus got them back on the topic and had Harry continue. He told about how they thought Draco would know who the Heir of Slytherin was, and brewed Polyjuice and, under the guise of Crabbe and Goyle, got into the Slytherin common room. Severus was stunned that second years brewed Polyjuice successfully, while Draco was surprised at how well they did in fooling him, though he wouldn’t say so.
He then talked about how Hermione, though petrified, had left them a clue as to what it could be. Snape suddenly glared at the two of them, “Why didn’t you tell a Professor you’re suspicions?”
He looked at Hermione who merely shrugged, “It’s up to you, Harry; how much do you want them to know, and do you think they’ll give us more information than what we already have?”
“We all did take this oath, so I imagine we’re going to be helping one way or another, even if it is just giving information.” The other three gave a start as they had forgotten Blaise was there. He merely smirked and looked at the two Gryffindors.
Harry sighed, “This is true. Draco I don’t know if you were aware, but that meeting in the bookshop where your dad took the books out of Ginny’s cauldron,” Draco nodded, “he put them back with an additional book. It was a diary that belonged to Tom Riddle.”
Severus’ eyes widened and Harry glanced over at him. “Continue your tale, and we shall discuss the information after.”
Harry nodded, “I’m not sure what magic the diary was about at the time, but I wrote in it; my name mostly. I felt myself pulled inside of a memory; when the ‘beast’ was let loose the first time. This was before Hermione was petrified, of course. In the memory I saw Riddle walking along the halls, it was just after a Muggle-born student was killed. They were threatening to close down Hogwarts, and Dumbledore asked Riddle if he had anything to tell him. Of course Riddle said no, and being Head Boy allotted some privileges. He tracked down Hagrid and caught him trying to conceal something in a box. Riddle accused Hagrid of keeping the monster in the box, and Hagrid said his pet wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Hagrid does like ‘pets’ that are dangerous; it would be easy to come to that conclusion for anyone. I’m sure you refused to believe that such a thing was true, even seeing it as you did.” Snape refused to retract his statement, it was true enough regardless what they felt for the half-giant.
“While it is true that Hagrid does enjoy the more dangerous types, I don’t think the Professor means that the accusation was correct, Harry; merely that one could see how that conclusion could be made.” Hermione shot him a glare and Harry closed his mouth and nodded.
“Right; of course I didn’t believe it completely, I mean there were a few things that didn’t add up. First was Hagrid wouldn’t let anything into the castle that could hurt students. Regardless of what may have happened in the past, accidental or poor judgment, Hagrid would’ve alerted Dumbledore if one of the creatures got loose inside the castle.” Seeing no one was going to argue the point, Harry continued, “Secondly I could hear something in the walls saying ‘kill’, which no one else could hear, so it must be a snake. Third was the fact that every one of them were petrified, not poisoned, and no bite marks noticed. So we needed to find a snake that petrified without biting. Hermione must’ve found out what it was and was looking for us to tell us when she was petrified. There was parchment in her hand that no one else found, that gave us the answers we needed. We needed to find out where it came from, then that message about the Chamber of Secrets came and we figured that’s where the Basilisk was.”
Harry blinked as drinks appeared before them and he takes a long drink to quench his thirst.
“Where, pray tell, was the entrance located and how did you find it?” Severus was interested on how the found that secret, without the use of Granger, and how no one ever found it before.
“Myrtle.” Harry smirked as he said it, wondering what conclusions they would gather.
“Myrtle told you, I doubt it. She wails too much to speak to, and wasn’t a Slytherin to boot.” Draco knew the ghost haunted that bathroom because she died there, but no one knew from what.
“Myrtle was the Muggle-born killed by the monster, so I questioned her about what she remembered about that day. Of course she wailed and shouted, but she managed to tell me she was in the cubicle that she haunts, crying when she heard a noise. She opened the stall door to tell whomever it was to go away, when she remembers seeing a big yellow eye. I knew that the entrance, or at least the place where the Basilisk came and went from, was in that bathroom. Ron and I knew Lockhart was given the order to find the monster and slay it, so we went to tell him what we knew.”
Severus made a noise and Harry saw a disgusted look on his face.
“It would’ve been best if you found a more competent Professor to share your findings with.”
“Well during first year when we told Professor McGonagall about someone trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone, she didn’t believe us, nor did she tell anyone else or act on it. She just shooed us away and told us to forget all about it. However we knew a Professor had to be told in this case, so we believed Lockhart would listen. When we found him packing, we knew he wasn’t going to save Ginny. Ron and I pulled our wands on him…”
“You drew your wand on a Professor? Regardless of how incompetent Lockhart was, that was not a wise thing to do.” Snape sneered, wondering how two second years didn’t get so many points taken off.
“And he surrendered.” Harry continued, raising only an eyebrow at Snape, who merely motioned for him to continue.
“We brought him with us to where the entrance to the Chamber was, and after I opened it, forced him to go first.”
“At least he was good for something,” Blaise snickered, causing the others to chuckle too.
“True, however Ron went next, and I followed; unfortunately I knocked over Ron when I landed, and Lockhart got Ron’s wand.”
Draco’s eyes got wider, “Wait, wasn’t that the year Weasley’s wand was broken?” He could barely hold in the laughs, not really needing the confirmation. Severus however raised both brows and looked at Harry eagerly.
“Exactly; he admitted to being a phony and all his stories were of other witches and wizards, whom he had then used Obliviate on to erase their knowledge. He tried to use it on us, but with Ron’s wand being broken…well it backfired, with such force that not only were his memories wiped, but he was thrown into the wall. That caused some of the ceiling to come crashing down, I was on one side and Ron was with Lockhart on the side we came from. I continued on and came to where the door to the Chamber was. Entering in, I saw Ginny’s body; she wasn’t dead yet, but she was cold and the life was draining from her. I saw the figure of Riddle and asked for help; however he called forth the Basilisk and I admit I didn’t know what I would do. Fawkes came, and scratched out its eyes after dropping the Sorting Hat; I ran and hid in some of the tunnels, distracting it with sounds in the opposite direction. I saw something glimmer from the Hat and pulled it out; Gryffindor’s sword.”
“Wait, you mean to say you slew a Basilisk with Gryffindor’s sword? That’s impossible, Basilisks are impervious to spells and its scales wouldn’t have allowed you to penetrate it as long as it was alive!” Draco was flushed, his eyes bright, and while he didn’t doubt something happened, and it was hard for him to believe Harry managed to kill the Basilisk with a sword, Gryffindor’s or not.
“I did; there is this spot on the roof of their mouth that is soft and has no barrier stronger than skin and tissue between it and the brain. I stabbed it there, and got a fang in my arm for it. Riddle of course had no problem talking as he thought I would die soon, and I knew I had to do something; I pulled out the fang and stabbed it through the diary. The memory cracked and…dissolved I guess I would say, and the diary had ink running from it like blood from a wound. Thankfully Fawkes was still there and cried a few tears in the wound; after Ginny woke we made our way back to Ron and Lockhart, where Ron had made a hole in the wall big enough for us to get through. Fawkes was able to take us all back up to the surface, where I spent a good amount of time in the Hospital wing after.” He finished his drink and looked to Snape.
“You seemed to know who Riddle is, Professor; I know who he is, and so does Hermione. Would you care to enlighten Draco and Blaise, and also tell us what you know of him?”
Severus glared a moment, then sighed and sat back, “Very well Mr. Potter. Tom Riddle was a student of Hogwarts once, a very intelligent Slytherin student. He had grand ideas and the charisma to gather people to follow him; he later changed his name and became the Dark Lord.”
Harry waited for him to say more, “Is that all you are familiar with, Sir?”
“You know more, Mr. Potter, then by all means share it; yes that is all I am aware of the Dark Lord’s past.” Severus fought to keep his anger in check, his jaw clenched and breathed deeply through his nose.
“Of course Sir, I wasn’t implying anything against your intelligence, I didn’t know exactly what you were aware of and wanted to make sure you were finished. Tom Marvolo Riddle was a half-blood, born of a Squib mother and a Muggle father, raised in a Muggle orphanage even though he pleaded with Dumbledore to be put somewhere else.”
“Dumbledore knew of a wizard living among Muggles in deplorable conditions, when there were many wizarding families that would’ve taken him in?” Draco and Blaise both looked appalled.
“Yes, though I don’t know how many would’ve wanted a half-blood of unknown past.” He stopped as Draco waved that thought aside.
“There were, and are, plenty of families that would take in a promising wizarding child; a partial or full blood adoption ritual would ensure they carried the blood line of their new family. Even a pure-blood family would consider it if the child showed promise and agreed to a full blood ritual.”
“Anyway, he resented Muggles because of his treatment in the Orphanage and because his father abandoned his mother. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but she did use a love potion on him, and only stopped feeding it to him after she was pregnant, hoping he would stick around. He didn’t, and she left Riddle, as a baby, on the steps of the orphanage, rumor says dying not long after. From what I learned, Dumbledore knew he was a mean child, admitting to stealing other kids’ things and hurting them because he could. I don’t know why he didn’t see the signs and find a way to help him; I’m sure if Riddle was given to a normal wizarding family early in his life, he wouldn’t have become the twisted evil thing he is now.”
“Dumbledore seems to think he did something to keep himself alive; has he mentioned anything to you, Mr. Potter?” Severus cataloged the information in his head to review later. It seemed Riddle was treated similar to himself in a way, and if his hunch about what Harry said of his own life so far, there was a trend.
Harry shook his head though Severus nodded as he half expected as much.
“So back to the main topic at hand, you know how to get to the Chamber and there may or may not be a Basilisk of use” Severus emphasized the words with a look, “down there. How am I to get down there?”
“I will have to take you of course, sir.” Harry looked at him as if that should’ve been clear.
“Mr. Potter, while Dumbledore may allow you to do as you please with no regard to your safety, I do not think it wise for you to venture where there may be more danger.”
“How will you get through the doors, Sir? They only open to Parseltongue and it’s not a language that can be taught like French. Besides, if there is dangers, the likelihood of it being snakes is greater than anything else; I could speak to them and that would give you some warning, especially if you are busy gathering the components you need.”
“If I may?” The rest turned to Draco, who continued when everyone faced him. “It’s obvious you’ll need to have Harry with you to open the doors and such, however your concern is justified in the possible dangers that await. Trying to keep Blaise and me from seeing the famous Slytherin Chambers is going to be another argument, and I’m sure Hermione would not want to be left out. Since we are the only 5 that know of what is planned, why don’t we all go; you get 3 extra pairs of eyes to watch Harry, and 4 pairs of eyes to watch for danger while you’re occupied.”
Severus wanted to argue the point, having 4 students entering into an unknown and possibly dangerous situation, however he didn’t want to have the headache he knew would come along with it. Harry and the others were going to have to face dangers soon enough, it would be best to prepare them while he could.
“Very well, however no one will wander off alone.” He looked firmly at Harry and Hermione before Draco and Blaise. “Keep in pairs and let someone know which direction you are going in.” He showed them a spell that would illuminate the path they took, like a string of lights that would trail behind them.
“Shall we go after supper, or now?” Harry looked to each person, while he was eager to go, he knew Snape would be the one who decided when.
“After dinner shall suffice, and if we find no dangers, perhaps we may travel to the Chamber again, some other time.” Severus hoped he made the right choice. “Mr. Potter, where is the entrance to the Chamber?”

“Second floor girl’s bathroom.” They all agreed to meet there after dinner and Severus went down to his labs. He had some important things to take care of first.
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Giving A Chance