The Chamber of Secrets

Nymphadora Tonks was feeling slightly uncomfortable, and awkward, especially with the situation she currently found herself in. How else would someone expect her to feel when a friend of yours walked in on you making out with someone, practically half-naked, and with someone who was for all intents and purposes, a father figure to him?

It's not that she regretted her little make-out session with Remus, far from it actually. In her opinion, the man was hot, fun and incredibly manly, unlike the other boys her age who would seek to court her. Then there was the fact that she found his reluctance to try anything with her incredibly cute.

That being said and all, it wasn't like they were seeing each other. She had come in for a celebratory drink after finishing her last, and quite brutal, training exercise under 'Mad-Eye Moody' that qualified her as an Auror. Who could blame her for celebrating in such a manner, with a man she had secretly had the hots for?

Still, she felt compelled to talk to Harry about it. It didn't really make sense to her initially, because from what she knew of him, he probably wouldn't care much anyway; if anything, he was probably more pissed with the fact that he had to make his way home from a long ass train ride by himself because his guardian was making out with a sexy chick.

The reason she was feeling slightly nervous and uncomfortable about this 'talk' though was not because of what the talk would be about, as surprising and weird as that is. The last time she had sat down and just chatted with him, he was just little twelve year old Harry, a slightly too smart and talented wizard who helped her with her Auror training.

Now he was freaking super Potter, chaser extraordinaire, Quidditch prodigy and English hero. Moody was quite the fan of the sport, so she would often find herself listening to Quidditch talk-shows held over the Wizarding Wireless Network, ones that would often talk about Harry and his supposed skills after being signed on by the English national team of all things!

Imagine her surprise when they started singing his praises and claiming the cup as theirs after only one game? Granted, it was a game that practically guaranteed them a spot in the next round, but what surprised her was when they started saying that his tactical mind, superior flying skills, numerous assists and excellent goal scoring capabilities made him one of the best chasers in the world!

He was still only fourteen!

It wasn't all that unrealistic, after all, the Bulgarians had a seeker that was around the same age who was heralded as the best in the world too. . .

. . . But this was Harry! Not Victor-bloody-Krum!

Realizing how stupid her argument sounded, she just steeled herself and knocked three times on the door she knew lead to Harry's room.

"Come in" she heard him call, though his voice sounded a little strained.

Curious as to why his voice sounded so strenuous, she slowly turned the old fashioned door handle and entered slowly, only for her jaw to literally hit the floor when she saw what was within.

She may have been in his room in the past, she couldn't really remember, but she knew for a fact that even if she did, it certainly didn't look like this. Being a modern girl, she was firmly entrenched in her beliefs that boys, especially the younger ones, had no sense of fashion, taste or style. She had to reassess those beliefs when she constantly saw the way Harry dressed, it was obvious he knew what he was doing and took great care in doing it – but this was a little overboard.

Harry's room looked more like a small apartment now with thirteen foot ceilings, instead of a regular teenage boy's messy bedroom. There was no way a room this size could fit in the small space in which it had been originally built, so he must have charmed it to be this large; she would have immediately thought Remus did this for him, if it had been anyone else, but this was Harry she was talking about.

It wasn't the size that impressed her though, anyone who knew how to could increase the size of a bedroom, it wasn't hard; it was the way in which he decorated his room. Tonks literally felt like she walked through a door at Moony Nights and stepped out of one into Buckingham Palace.

A dark, hard wood floor covered in an elaborate rug and Victorian style tables and chairs spread out around a miraculous fireplace is what initially caught her eye. The table had a few open books strewn on it, one of which looked to be locked with an emblem of a snake, but it was clear he used this room to simply relax by the fire when he wanted to read. The room had two doors, one leading to the right and the other to the left, with the fireplace being directly in front of her.

Not knowing where Harry was, she randomly decided to go right and through the hard, mahogany door to see if he was in there, only to gasp when she saw what was inside. A desk made out of the same wood the doors and furniture were was at the head of the long, and somewhat narrow room, with chairs on either side of it. The desk itself was placed in a way that the user of it would have their back facing an enchanted window – she thought enchanted because she hardly doubted Harry could get a room in Moony Nights with a view of a huge mountain range surrounding a dark and beautiful forest. The part of the room which definitely let her know that it was Harry's though was that practically the entire left wall was one large bookshelf, the only thing stopping the whole wall from being one were rather large columns rising from the floor to the ceiling every two meters, each with a lamp on them.

Amazingly enough, the bookshelves were full with different texts that Harry must have collected over the years. Randomly taking one, she saw that it was on Battle Transfiguration and immediately put it back, that subject seemed right up Harry's alley. She silently vowed to never buy him a book for a present again; she doubted he hadn't already purchased whatever she could ever hope to get him from the book stores surrounding the inn.

Leaving his study as she felt like she was intruding on something private, she opted to go through the other door and straight into his bedroom, where she paused and gaped at the scene before her.

His room was in the same style as the rest of his little condo, don't get her wrong, it was what Harry was doing in said room that surprised her. A set of double doors, obviously leading to his wardrobe, were opened and Harry was hanging onto a black, metal bar with his chin touching his chest while performing pull ups with ease.

She recognized the exercise; it was standard practise for Aurors in the academy to perform five of these daily along with other exercises assigned to them by the Academy teachers or mentors. She also acknowledged that she could hardly do five without her arms feeling like lead and collapsing immediately after. In the time she had just been standing there and gawking at him, he must have done at least twenty and he didn't look like he was stopping soon.

"Are you going to talk?" Harry asked between grunts "or are you just gonna stand there all day? I'm not going to be done for a while" she could tell he was grinning, even though he was looking down while doing the pull-ups.

"How . . . what . . . never mind; what in Merlin's name are you doing? This is your Christmas break! You should be resting, or bludging around, or perving on girls or something!"

Harry gave a chuckle before dropping to the ground with unnatural grace and standing in the doorway while seemingly fiddling with something where you'd expect a light switch to be. All of a sudden, a small rectangular section of the floor began moving, very much in the same way a treadmill would, she noticed, as Harry began to jog to keep up with it.

"Whoever tells you Quidditch is an easy sport is a moron" Harry said with a grin as he continued to jog at a pace Tonks knew she couldn't keep up with if she was on the makeshift treadmill "This isn't even close to what coach makes me do for training, I'm just trying to stay in shape."

Tonks wanted to scream to the world about the injustice of it all, until she realized that he was playing Quidditch and probably getting paid a ridiculous amount to do so, as if any other dedicated teenager wouldn't give their life to be in the same position.

"Can you at least put some more clothes on?" Tonks asked with a frown, while Harry looked to her with that condescending grin she hated "it's kind of awkward . . ."

"Nymphadora, I've seen you half-naked too, it's only fair you're given the same consideration" he quipped, while Tonks flushed at the memory and the use of her name. Purely on reflex, she reached for her wand and sent a stinging hex right at his torso.

She barely had enough time to see the grin on his face when he did a backwards flip, the motion aided by the treadmill, to avoid it.

"That's not a bad idea, keep doing it, it should help with my flexibility" he informed her with a grin as Tonks was still gaping at Harry and her wand respectively. He . . . just moved so fast!

"Anyway, was there anything you wanted?" he asked, suddenly sounded bored and completely full of wind. If this is what Quidditch did for your body, maybe she should invest in a daily work-out regiment similar to Harry's . . . pfft, as if!

"It's actually about what you saw earlier. . ." she trailed off, not sure how to proceed.

"You mean Remus finally getting some?" he asked with a grin while Tonks sent another curse at him, one he simply side-stepped.

"He wasn't getting what you think he was!" she screeched, suddenly embarrassed beyond belief that she was having his conversation with a fourteen year old.

"Shame," Harry joked "is that why you're here? Do you need 'the talk'? I'm not all that experienced, myself . . . but I've heard stories . . ." he let out a bark of laughter and dodged the next curse she sent his way.

"Will you stop being a smart ass for more than three seconds and let me talk?" she shouted at him "this is hard enough as it is!"

"Fine, fine, though by all rights, I should be able to talk to you as I wish as you are so rudely interrupting my 'me time'" he joked.

"Like you interrupted ours?" she shot right back.

"Touché," he relented "so, what did you want to talk about?"

"Can you stop running and put a top on, it's distracting!"

"Fine, woman," he sighed and stopped the magic that was operating his treadmill and brought a towel from the wardrobe to wipe the sweat off his body "this better?" he asked, after reappearing with a singlet on to cover his chest.

"Much" she sounded relieved.

"Now what is it that's of such import to you that you saw fit to disrupt my workout?" he asked dryly as he towelled his face.

"We need to talk about what you saw earlier" Tonks said uneasily as Harry arched a brow.

"Do we?" he asked "as I said, I'm no expert on the subject, but I thought there was a 'no kiss and tell' rule or some such?"

"Will you shut up? You know what I'm talking about . . ." she looked really nervous and self conscious, so Harry let up on her and motioned for her to follow him.

Tonks followed Harry through his small apartment like room back into the main room with the fireplace. To her confusion, Harry stopped in front of a portrait and lifted it off the wall. Imagine her surprise when he revealed a safe. When he was about to put in the combination for the lock, he turned to glare at her over his shoulder.

"You mind?"

She sighed, though she couldn't help but grin at his antics. No matter how annoying he could be, he always had that effect on her. The safe opened with an audible click and Harry reached in to pull out . . . a bottle of coke.

"You cannot be serious. . ." she voiced her disbelief.

Taking out two pint sized glasses, he took a seat in one of the wingback chairs and poured himself a large glass.

"You want some?" he asked her, Tonks looked at the bottle with disgust.

"That has to be as hot as coffee by now, no thanks" she declined.

"Is that right?" he screwed the lid back on the bottle and left it in the middle of the table while placing his glass on a coaster. Tonks watched in awe as practically the third of the bottle Harry just emptied refilled itself before her eyes.

"There's just no way. . ." she muttered under her breath, ignoring Harry's twinkling eyes. She reached over and touched the bottle, only to find that it was ice cold!

"There's just no fucking way!" she exclaimed, only increasing Harry's amusement.

"I know, awesome right?" he grinned as she poured herself a glass, only to watch in fascination as the bottle refilled itself.

"One of the perks of being an international Quidditch star, you get cool shit like that" he pointed to the bottle.

"I never took you for the poster-boy type, and I never knew 'Coca-Cola' had a Wizarding franchise . . ."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" he frowned "anyway, you wanted to speak, so speak" he urged her.

Tonks forgotten nerves reappeared with a vengeance, as her hair changed through several different shades of red, Harry had noticed a while ago that this was a sign of her nervousness "About what you saw earlier . . ." Harry remained silent and let her speak, really wishing he had his nose buried in a book rather than listening to this.

"It really was nothing . . . but I don't want it to be nothing . . ." she seemed to be struggling with her words while frowning in a cute way before speaking them "Remus made sure to point that out after our make-out session" she flushed when memories of that flooded back to the forefront of her mind "and I agreed because I didn't want to seem clingy or needy . . . but I really like him, I have for a while now, since Moody began to bring me here when we were on lunch break."

Harry wanted to slam his head against the wall, but he liked the walls in his recently furnished 'room' too much to risk damaging them. Why do people keep coming to him with such problems? First Archie and now Nymphadora, do these idiots really think he's an expert? Hadn't he made it clear to everyone that he wished to avoid such relationships?

"Nymphadora, shut up," Harry cut off the fumbling woman, who puffed up in indignation, and a little hurt flashed in her eyes. This, Harry supposed, is what females wanted male friends for, just to listen, but he was having none of that "The only reason why Remus told you it meant nothing is because he figured you definitely wouldn't want anything long term with him," seeing as she was about to protest, Harry held up his with two fingers raised "first, he's thirty-four years old and you're, what? Twenty now?" she nodded her head in the affirmative at his guesstimate "he's probably thinking you just wanted a fling and nothing serious with an old-timer like him . . ."

"I don't think he's old!" she protested, while Harry pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, something Tonks was smart enough to realize as a sign of his growing agitation.

"It doesn't matter what you think, unless you prove it to him otherwise, it's what he thinks," he pointed out, and she couldn't help but find the wisdom in his words "secondly, have you forgotten his furry little problem?" seeing that she was about to object, he sent her a solid glare and she shut up real quick.

'Man that glare is scary. . .' she silently thought.

"I know you don't care about it, otherwise you wouldn't have wanted to make out with him in the first place – that and you know I'd kick the shit out of you for being a prejudiced bigot to set you straight . . ."

"Come now Harry, you may have been good back in school, but I'm an Auror now under the tutelage of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody himself" she proclaimed proudly.

Before Tonks could understand what the hell was going on, Harry had whipped out his wand and twirled it above his head before bringing it out in front of him and holding the tip of it against his opposite palm, as if forcing two polar opposites together.

At first, Tonks was going to laugh at him when nothing happened, but every door save the one to the room crashed open mere seconds after the spell was cast, allowing thousands of litres of water through, water that came bearing down on her with a vengeance. Before she could even think up a way to counter this obviously obscure spell, the water had already captured her in an impenetrable, spherical prison in mid air.

You think most trained Aurors would be hurting at having been bested by a fourteen year old so easily, but Tonks was more amazed at the ease in which he cast such a powerful elemental charm.

All the colour drained from her face though when Harry kept the prison intact by holding his left palm to it while conjuring a spark of lightning from the tip of his wand and waving it dangerously close to the sphere, before suddenly both the spark and the water disappeared into nothingness, allowing Tonks to drop to the floor, unceremoniously, soaking wet.

"I don't have time to have you second guessing me," he said with a glare "that was just one spell I know that would have killed you, now, where were we? Ah, that's right, you're not a prejudiced bigot anyway, and thus, you don't care that Remus is a werewolf," he restarted anew, as if his little display of amazing spell work had never happened "and he probably knows you don't care either, but he does care, because he has this irrational fear that he could possibly harm anybody he enters in a relationship with during a full moon – stupid, yes, but you tell him that."

Tonks was still a little shaken up and soaking wet from the spell, but she understood what he was saying to her.

"You're saying that this really is one of those instances where it isn't me, it's him?" she asked incredulously "does he have any idea how stupid that is?"

"I know that, you know that, the entire non-bigoted world knows that, but he doesn't," he said with exasperation "your job is to prove to him that his age and condition don't bother you if you're really serious about this," he eyed her for a moment before continuing "you might not want to give it up to easily either, make it hard for him. . ."

"Hey, what are you implying?!" she hollered at him, not liking being called easy at all.

"I call it as I see it Nymphadora," he said with a grin "you looked really into it earlier is all."

Before she could give a heated reply, Harry banished her out of his room and chugged the rest of his coke in one quick scull.

"Man that's good" he wiped his mouth and went back to his work-out; if the coach found out he was slacking off, there'd be hell to pay!

He was just heading to his bedroom when something was slipped under his door, a black envelope with a red wax seal. He recognized it immediately.

"Well, that's interesting . . ."

Harry had just returned home via the Floo at Moony Nights after a long night of training. The place was fairly empty, with only a half a dozen or so patrons still in the dining area with Remus cleaning the glasses at the bar.

"Rough night?" he asked, as Harry plopped down on the bar stool closest to him.

"You get used to it," he answered "you?"

"Kind of slow, to be honest, people are spending time with their families mostly this time of the year" he admitted.

"You know, I'm kind of surprised that you're not the least bit worried about the 'attacks' going on at school" Harry pointed out.

Remus shrugged "You can take care of yourself," he complimented "besides, I have no real cause to worry, you're not really Gryffindorish like we were at school - you don't go looking for trouble."

"Yet it seems to always find me" he joked, while Remus chuckled quietly.

"So, you and Nymphadora, huh?" Harry smirked when Remus flushed in embarrassment.

"It was a one time thing," he defended "she's cute, yes, but I doubt she'd want anything serious with me anyway" he shrugged. Harry would have cackled evilly if it wouldn't make things so obvious.

"She definitely is cute," Harry agreed "and fun, energetic, caring. . ."

"I get it Harry. . ."

". . . a minx, she has a great body, looked like she was a good kisser too. . ."

"Harry. . ." he tried to interrupt with a warning tone.

". . . She's got a weird fashion sense, but that just proves she's adventurous, and let's not forget the fact that she's a virgin. . ."

"I GET IT HARRY!" Remus yelled loudly, his face was flushed crimson in embarrassment as the remaining occupants of the bar looked over to him.

"Good, because there's no way you could net a fine catch like that," he commented flippantly, while he was laughing on the inside "she must have been drunk the other night when she made out with you, I mean, she had to be, just look at you. . ."

"What?" he asked angrily "are you implying someone like Dora couldn't be attracted to me?"

"Of course not, give her enough alcohol and I'm sure she'd even findyou attractive," he continued to provoke "no, what I'm saying is that you've obviously passed your prime and couldn't snag her even if you tried."

"I'll have you know that women who come in here are always flirting with me" he defended proudly.

"Yeah, that's because they haven't actually spoken to you yet, I hate to break it to you Remus, but you're a boring guy."

"I am not" he defended vigorously, feeling rather affronted.

"You are so."

"I am most definitely not!"

"You are so, and you know it!"

"Am not, and I'll have you know that I haven't tried to woo a women since I was in school."

"When was that, the seventeen hundreds? Who says 'woo' anymore, honestly?" By now, according to plan, Remus was getting angry.

"Who are you, to judge other's social lives?" he countered "If I didn't know you had the hots for Jessica Alba, I would have sworn you were a closet gay!"

"Jessica Alba is fairly hot," he allowed a small, dreamy smile to appear on his face "but I happen to be good friends with Nymphadora, and I can tell what she thinks about you already . . ."

"She told you I was boring?!" he asked in a fierce whisper, sounding devastated.

"She didn't use those words, but there's only one way to prove her wrong I guess . . ." he left the sentence hanging in the air.

"Alright, smart ass, you watch," he promised "I'll show you who was the real ladies man amongst the marauders and then you'll have to eat your own words" he grinned.

Harry just smiled mysteriously and walked away from the bar and up to his room, wondering when people will start to realize that trying to win against him always ends in failure.

Remus suddenly got a feeling that, no matter what, he could never win against Harry. That didn't mean he wouldn't show the little punk who's boss when it comes to the ladies.

As he had predicted, the team's training had been upped a bit more with the upcoming game against Brazil on Valentine's Day. Harry was certain that his current daily work-out regimen would have been quite impossible had he started with it at first, but the gradual build up made the transition easier.

He speculated that the coach may have lowered the entire team's regimens to account for him and his joining the team, but he didn't mind, he was keeping up fine and intended to give his all, especially if the money he was earning kept coming. He had already more than doubled the original amount of gold in the Potter's vaults, but he wasn't stopping there, he had plans to increase that very shortly.

"Did you see Stephanie on Christmas?" Harry asked, as he and Archie were bent over a cauldron in their Potion's class.

"No," he sounded disappointed "I spent it with the Zabinis, as you know, but she didn't come home – she needs to catch up to her peers and all" he answered with a sombre smile.

"So, Nymphadora has the hots for Remus," Harry informed him, right when Archie was about to slice the newt liver; the surprise almost caused him to slip and miss-cut the ingredient, which would have been a crucial mistake at this point in their brewing "I caught them making out when I got back from King's Cross."

"You waited a month to tell me this, why?" Archie shot back, though he sounded more interested than angered. He did have a point though; he didn't know why he had waited until February to tell him.

"Slipped my mind, I guess" he shrugged as the two continued to brew.

"Hey, your match against Brazil is on Valentine's Day, yeah?" Archie suddenly asked out of the blue, after Snape had stalked passed them and nodded at their cauldron. Ever since the Stephanie incident, Snape had wisely kept to himself and didn't try to antagonize the two, which Harry was somewhat thankful for, he was getting to be annoying.

"It is," he confirmed "speaking of which, do you have any long term Nutrient Potions? I don't think I'll have much time to sit down and eat with all the extra training we have to do" he explained.

"I don't," he answered "but I can brew you some tonight, how much do you need?"

"About two months worth, make it as potent as possible and get me around two months worth, no point in asking this again in the future" Archie was suspicious at first, knowing that excessive use of such a strong potion for a long period of time could create an addiction, thereby causing your body to start rejecting food, but it was for England after all.

The Nutrient Potion was a potion that, depending on the amount ingested and potency of the dosage, literally gave the body all the fibres and nutrients it needed to survive for a certain period of time, that was once again, proportional to the dosage – the more you drank, the longer it lasted.

For that reason, the potion was downright useful for anyone who found themselves lacking the time to sit down, and eat a meal for short periods of time; a month being the recommended maximum without actual food.

"I can have them ready by tomorrow morning if you do my transfiguration homework for me tonight, I have to do that by tomorrow" he answered.

"That's fine," Harry confirmed, he didn't have to do it anyway "I'll make a copy so you can read through it yourself though."

"Awesome, full marks in McGonagall's class, here I come!" Archie said with a grin – who says Potions brewing had little uses?

In the week before England's game against Brazil, the school and the majority of Wizarding Britain in general was thrown into an uproar.

Slytherin's monster had petrified three more students, yes, but that was nothing that couldn't be reversed. The one incident that practically had the ministry hounding and pounding at Hogwarts' gates was the death of a student.

Gryffindor's Lee Jordan was killed on the second floor, near the girl's toilets. He was found dead by none other than Harry Potter, quite the convenience, he had to agree. Instead of running and screaming in terror, he fired several loud bangs with his wand, alerting all to magic being performed in the halls, and his location.

The professors and many students arrived, horrified at the scene before them. Dumbledore had tried to minimize damage, having a lockdown with every student forced to stay in their common rooms unless escorted by a teacher, but it would do no good.

Hogwarts would inevitably close down if the culprit was not found and dealt with, within the week, if not sooner.

Harry sat by the fire in the Ravenclaw common room, finally able to think now that the other students had become wary of him. Why shouldn't they? Slytherin's monster was believed to be some sort of snake, he was a Parseltongue, and he was at the scene of Lee Jordan's death first.

"Archades, you usually know these things, how was every victim found? I mean how exactly?" he asked his friend, who was sitting opposite him by the fire.

"Um" he eloquently began, trying to recall all of the attacks "first was Filch's cat, she was hanging by the tail with the writing on the wall and water pooled out all over the ground . . ." he began, while recalling the scenes of the other attacks "There was that first year Creevy, who was found petrified with his camera still in his hands . . ."

"Where was the camera?" Harry interrupted.

"Still in his hands, as if he were about to take a picture," he answered with confusion, not sure where his friend was going with this "Finch-Fletchley was found petrified along with the Gryffindor ghost, it looked like the ghost was shielding him from something when they were found," he paused to gather his thoughts "then Granger and Clearwater were found petrified not long after at the same time, both were clutching broken mirrors in their hands, then finally we have Jordan who was just found dead on the second floor, no signs of what killed him" he frowned while Harry stared into the fire with silence.

Archie watched several emotions play out on Harry's face in the moment of silence between them, some of which looked to be confusion, annoyance, and comprehension.

"Archades, what did you say happened to the spiders Snape uses for ingredients during our classes?" Harry asked with a guarded voice.

"They all just disappeared," he said with amazement "either someone was stupid enough to break the glass and try to steal them, or something else, I dunno" he supplied unhelpfully.

"Did you see the empty container after they disappeared?" Harry pressed, trying hard to mask his annoyance.

"Yeah, I did, why?" he had been the one to discover their disappearance actually, when he needed them for a potion they were making during class.

"Where was the broken glass from the container?" he asked, with some urgency.

Archie frowned as he tried to remember "On the outside I think, I remember thinking how pissed Snape was going to be when he had to clean up all the glass . . ." Archie looked at his friend in confusion as he randomly just ran up the stairs.

"He must be tired; his game is tomorrow after all . . ."

Meanwhile, Harry was smirking at the regular serpent head lock on Slytherin's diary before hissing softly to it.

"You wish you were a Basilisk" the eyes of the serpent glowed a bright green before opening its jaws and releasing the Parseltongue written pages for Harry to see.

"I need to hurry, I don't have much time . . ." he mumbled to himself, as he pulled out his wand, several hundred pieces of paper and his quill.

Harry arrived, more tired than usual, at the great hall after England's convincing five hundred to three hundred and forty victory over Brazil, it seemed the news of his victory spread to the students, for the very second he entered the hall and was recognized, he was met with loud cheers and applause.

"Harry, mate, something bad is happening; Dumbledore was removed as headmaster . . ."

His worried friend didn't get to finish his sentence when the great hall's large doors were burst opened, allowing in Lucius Malfoy, Cornelius Fudge and a contingent of Aurors.

"Aurors! Arrest that boy!" Fudge ordered, pointing to Harry, to the shock of those in the hall.

Harry raised his arms in a non-threatening way and turned his back to them, facing the horrified Archie.

"Archades, I need you to listen to me very carefully" the boy's eyes snapped to his own and he noticed he had his undivided attention.

"There's a book, in the place where I keep things hidden, you need to read it and decide on the appropriate course of action" he spoke to his distraught friend as the Aurors continued to cross the large hall, wands raised, ready to fire a spell at him should he resist.

"Do you understand?!" he asked urgently, to which the boy could only nod, the horror of what was happening removing his ability of speech.

"There's one more thing you need to know . . ." with that, Harry leaned in and hissed something he didn't understand in his friend's ear.

At that very moment, the head Auror kicked Harry hard behind his kneecap, causing him to drop to the floor, on one knee, in pain.

"Harry James Potter," Fudge began imperiously, with a smug grin on his face. Harry kept his features set in stone, not willing to give anything to the pompous idiot "You have been found guilty of numerous, severe attacks using dark magic on the student population, one of which resulted, tragically, in the death of one of your peers. You will be sent to Azkaban for life, murderers like you don't deserve a trial," he sneered at him "Aurors, take him away!"

"Harry, what's happening?" Archie asked in a hopeless voice, as a set of large iron cuffs were placed on Harry's wrists and ankles, a chain holding them together.

"Archades, you're not an idiot, use your brain and do what I told you to do and everything will become clear to you" he assured. The Auror holding his chains searched his pockets and took out his wand, before handing it to the smugly grinning Fudge.

"Come now, we have a cell reserved for you, one that I'm sure you'll love" he continued to grin as the Aurors lead Harry out of the stupefied hall, leaving behind a room full of students and teachers with varying emotions, the most affected of whom were Archie himself.

"Hold on a moment, you just can't arrest a student without evidence and then refuse his right to a trial!" McGonagall's voice boomed out across the hall.

"Actually Minerva," Malfoy senior answered "you'll find he can with the backing of the board of governors, good day" he bid her farewell with his condescending smirk.

Immediately, as soon as the doors were slammed shut, and Harry gone, loud chatter and whispers broke the silence, steadily increasing in volume as students tried to speak to each other over the noise.

If anyone was watching Archie, they would see silent tears streaming down his face while he sported a look that would make you believe he was about to be sick.

"That no good Potter, I knew he was evil, and they had the gall to pin it on me" he heard Longbottom complain to his friends, as they all gave their own version of agreement.

Without even thinking of the consequences, Archie stormed on right over to the table and gave the 'Boy-who-lived' his best knuckle sandwich, knocking him to the floor with a busted lip and broken nose.

"You're trash Longbottom," his voice sounded out to the hall "no, calling you that is an insult to your idiot friends; you're worse than trash. Your parents would be ashamed of you" he hissed out in his most deadly voice, before storming out of the hall.

The only person who seemed to notice, or care, about Archie's state of distress was Cedric, and amidst the elevated chatter and professors rushing to Neville's aid, he slipped out of the hall to follow his friend.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Cedric heard Archie's recognizable voice yell in anguish from somewhere down the hall ahead of him. It wasn't too hard to follow the voice either because it didn't seem like it would stop any time soon.

"THIS IS ENTIRELY MY FAULT! GODAMMIT!" Cedric opened the door to an unused classroom to see Archie literally kicking the shit out of a random, rather weak in his opinion, cupboard door, splintering it with every punch or kick.

"Archie, calm down!" Cedric ordered firmly, as the Ravenclaw boy turned to him with bloodshot eyes.

"CALM DOWN?!" he roared at Cedric with question "HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN? HARRY'S IN AZKABAN AND IT'S MY FAULT!"

Cedric slapped Archie hard across the face, drawing a shocked look from the Montague.

"Calm down and tell me what in Merlin's name you're talking about!" Cedric ordered.

"Don't you see?!" Archie asked, "if I hadn't blabbed to everyone, like a fucking retard, that Harry was Parselmouth, they would have nobasis to even try and arrest him, IT'S – ALL – MY – FAULT!"

Cedric completely ignored the faulty logic and slapped Archie again, mainly because it was fun, but mostly because he had to start thinking straight.

"Will you stop slapping me?!" Archie bellowed while Cedric waited for him to calm down.

"You need to calm down and think, what was it that Harry told you before they took him away?" Cedric asked "no one could hear him, and I was one of the closest ones . . ."

Archie took several deep, steadying breaths and lowered his chin to his chest as he thought over exactly what Harry had told him.

"Cedric, follow me, we need to see if something is in Harry's hiding spot" Archie urged, pulling his friend by the elbow.

"What hiding place, what are you talking about?!" Cedric tried to ask as he was being led away.

"What most people don't know about Harry is," he began, as they turned a corner and headed towards the Ravenclaw tower "he's far more advanced than any student in this school, in fact, he could probably take his OWLs, no fuck the OWLs, he could probably take his NEWTs and pass them with flying colours," he informed the shocked Hufflepuff "yet, given that, what's one thing you know about Harry to be a constant?"

Cedric only thought for a few moments before answering "Aside from training for Quidditch, all he does is read and go to classes."

"Exactly!" Archie answered as he continued to lead Cedric to where the entrance to the Ravenclaw common-room was "tell me, what would someone spend the majority of their time reading about at school when there's practically nothing else he can really learn from anyway?"

"I don't know" Cedric answered truthfully "more advanced things?" he tried.

"Exactly," he answered again "but what you don't know is just how advanced we're talking here," he continued to explain while puffing from the exertion of running across the castle "he hasn't said anything, but I'm fairly sure he's going to be going for his mastery in Transfiguration, Charms, and Ancient Runes when he takes his NEWTs . . ."

Cedric suddenly stopped mid step, almost comically pulling Archie back from the unexpected stop in motion.

"That's not possible," Cedric said with absolute certainty "to obtain mastery in any subject takes years, decades in some cases!" he tried to make Archie see reason "there have been cases where one or two students in the last thousand years have gotten one mastery by the time they graduate, but the odds of that are so low, it just doesn't happen. . ."

Archie resisted the urge to tell his Hufflepuff friend that he himself would be going for his Potions mastery at the same time "Cedric, Harry was an Animagus by the time he was six, he achieved a feat of magic most wizards ten times his age at the time couldn't do, and you're telling me he can't get those masteries?" he asked incredulously "I've seen him transfigure a toothpick into a goldenspear, do you know how many laws of Transfiguration he broke by doing that?"

Cedric looked to his friend with an incredulous expression on his face "Try all of them? If what you say is true . . ." he answered quietly, his voice a little squeaky and broken due to his shock.

"Right, well, back to the point," he continued "Harry just couldn't leave the advanced books he learns all of this from lying around for all to see, especially in our house," he explained "the temptation to steal, or pester him about it is too great, and Harry is a very private person . . . when it suits him best . . ." he finished lamely, recalling the Coke adds.

"So . . .?" Cedric trailed off, wanting Archie to get to the point as they ran passed the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room and stopped before a statue of a beautiful woman in an elegant and old looking style of dress and holding an open tome in her hands.

"So, he found a room in the castle where he could study in peace," he answered with a grin, and to Cedric's horror and utmost amusement, Archie slapped the woman's stony behind seven times. Just when Cedric was going to call him an idiot for doing something so inappropriate at a time like this, the statue seemed to come to life, giggling once girlishly before moving aside and allowing them entrance "welcome, my man, to Harry's sanctuary!"

Cedric looked around in awe at the dozens of ancient looking tomes strewn about the small, candlelit, yet cosy room until his eyes fell on a pedestal that was illuminated by a conveniently placed lamp with a single book sitting on top of it titled:

The Complete, translated, diary of Salazar Slytherin

"Oh my god, he did it . . ." Archie whispered in awe, while holding the roughly put together book reverently in his hands. Cedric was in an equal amount of awe as well as confusion.

"Did what? And why is it a 'translation'?"

"Last year, Harry won the original diary of Salazar Slytherin from a Goblin during a high stakes poker game," he explained "he was highly reluctant to part with it, but as you can imagine, he was bound by Goblin law to do so. At first, Harry couldn't open it because it was password protected, he must have only done so recently . . ." he frowned, as he opened the first page and pulled out a note within the cover "it has to be translated because I imagine it was probably in Parseltongue . . ."

Dear Douchebag,

If you're reading this, then what I have expected to come to pass has already occurred. Don't busy your tiny brain on what that's supposed to mean, just read through the entire translated diary first, it's only one year's worth, but the information within is relevant to what is happening at Hogwarts currently.

The information within this diary, including the clues I have given only you, should be the key to my freedom and the completion of my plan.

There is another note at the end of the diary that will only reveal itself when you've read the entire thing once.

Don't let me down; Azkaban isn't exactly the nicest place on the planet,

Your Lord and Master

"What the fuck . . ." Cedric exclaimed, allowing a curse word to leave his mouth on this one occasion.

"That sneaky son of a bitch . . ." Archie muttered under his breath in amazement.

"What? What is it?" Cedric asked, not liking being left out of the loop.

"I'm not exactly sure," Cedric resisted the urge to palm his face "but if what I suspect is true, Harry Potter is definitely the most brilliant person I've ever known . . ." he looked to Cedric with a smirk "brilliant in a scary way."

"What are we going to do now?" he asked, and Archie smiled as his friend proved he was placed in the house of loyalty and hard-work for a good reason.

"We're going to read through his diary, and we're going to find the information within that will help us prove Harry's innocence" he instructed as the two took a seat beside each other on the two seater couch in the room before opening to the first page and beginning to read.

Harry had his wrist and ankle cuffs removed before being unceremoniously tossed in his cell, Lucius Malfoy, Cornelius Fudge and two Aurors watching the proceeding the entire time, the two responsible for this smirking the whole time.

"That'll be all gents, I need to have words with Potter here" the minister ordered.

"Of course Minister" the Aurors agreed and left the two adults staring at the calmly kneeling form of Harry Potter before them.

"Awfully calm for someone beginning their life sentence in hell on earth, aren't you Potter?" Fudge sneered, while Malfoy continued to smirk.

"It's a shame really, that you had to make a fool of me," Malfoy taunted "you were the best thing that's happened to English Quidditch in a long time. . ." he sighed dramatically.

"And now you learned what happens when you oppose me and discredit me in such a public audience" Fudge said imperiously.

"You're awfully loose-lipped minister, so certain of your victory, are you?" he taunted right back, intentionally ignoring the angered Malfoy Lord.

"As confident as I can be, swine!" he shouted back, and in one swift movement, he brought out Harry's wand and snapped it in two "Now you're locked up in hell on earth for the rest of your natural life, naked as the day you were born and without your wand – you're finished."

Using Occlumency to ward off the extremely cold he was feeling, Harry met his stare with a stony one of his own and said absolutely nothing in response.

"Even if your innocence is proven, which it won't be, the lack of all food and clothing will be more than enough to see you dead within the month, I wish you good luck in your next life where you may learn to respect your betters" Malfoy finished before escorting the minister out of the prison, leaving Harry behind, unsupervised, in his cell, alone and naked.

"Fools," he muttered under his breath while collecting the broken pieces of his 'wand' and unscrewing the tip of the handle to reveal a hollow compartment holding a single potion vial "as if I'd let him lay his disgusting hands on my actual wand" he muttered darkly before uncorking the vial and emptying its contents into his mouth before throwing the broken pieces of his wand and the vial out the single window.

Having nothing much else to do, and seeing as his only company was a sleeping and slightly skeletal looking man in the cell beside him, Harry sat in the far corner of his cell on his bed (a potato sack) and allowed the warm feeling of the nutrient potion to energize him.

The supposedly 'sleeping' man in the cell beside him had actually been awake the entire time, not much came and left in this section of the prison other than the hellish Dementors, so naturally, footsteps would rouse him from his slumber. Hearing the name of the person who had just been thrown in prison and the Minister gloating over it made his blood boil, if he didn't reach out to the boy soon, he would surely lose his mind in this place.

"Harry Potter?" a raspy voice called from the cell beside him, the voice echoed of the stone walls rather well making the usually quiet sound quite loud.

"What of it?" he answered gruffly, deciding to pass the time and do some exercises, the nutrient potion added with regular exercise would make sure he kept his figure and fitness, two things he wasn't willing to part with any time soon.

"Harry James Potter?" the voice questioned again, it sounded more dismayed than anything, which confused Harry slightly.

Harry leapt up and held onto the bars going across the ceiling of his cage and started to do some pull-ups "You seem to have me at a disadvantage stranger, you know my name but I don't know yours" he grunted while fighting the cold and exercising at the same time.

"My name?" he asked, probably not used to having someone ask his name if his appearance was any way to judge the amount of time he had spent in this prison "My name's Sirius Black, I'm your godfather . . ."

The only sound that followed the proclamation was the sound of Harry hitting the floor and moving further away from the cell, completely ignoring the man from this point on.

"Holy crap" Archie exhaled, those two words pretty much summed up how they were feeling pretty well, having just read through the entirety of Slytherin's diary.

"You said it" Cedric mumbled, sounding troubled "it makes several references in there to his 'beloved Matilda', which is probably the monster that's attacking us today . . ."

"It's a Basilisk," Archie stated with a dawning comprehension "it all makes sense now, Harry knew this too!" he proclaimed excitedly to the confused Hufflepuff student. Archie hadn't left the room since first joining, and Cedric only did when getting them food. They figured classes were still cancelled anyway, but even if they weren't, they didn't much care.

"What are you talking about? Basilisks kill with their gaze, not petrify – only Jordan was killed" Cedric pointed out.

"No, you don't understand, every time someone was petrified, they met the Basilisk's gaze through a secondary source," he listed off each attack "a puddle of water, a camera lens, a ghost's transparent body and a set or mirrors – they would have never received the full effects of the beast's killer gaze, thus the petrification!"

Cedric nodded, albeit warily "Alright, say there's a Basilisk running around the school attacking the students, what could we possibly do about it? It's got to be over one thousand years old, and with age, comes growth . . ." he pointed out warily.

Archie's eyes widened for a split second before narrowing in determination "It doesn't matter, I'm not going to fail Harry" he said resolutely "it says in here that the entrance to his chamber, and the beast's lair, was built under the sink of the teacher's bathroom, but from what I know, there aren't any teacher's bathrooms on the second floor . . ." he pointed out thoughtfully.

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Cedric hazarded a guess, making Archie's eyes go wide.

"It makes sense, not only that, someone once told me she died around fifty years ago in that bathroom, and that was the last time the chamber was opened!" he pointed out.

"So the entrance to the chamber is in her bathroom and the chamber holds the Basilisk, that doesn't help us bypass the Parseltongue password" Cedric pointed out.

"No, it doesn't, but I think Harry already told me the password!" he grinned excitedly and turned to the blank last page of the book.

"Ssahasssieth" he said, with his best imitation of Parseltongue. Both Cedric and Archie watched in amazement as text appeared magically on the last page:

By now, you must have realized that the monster within the Chamber is a Basilisk, the Chamber is in Myrtle's Bathroom, and the Parsel word I whispered to you is the password to gain entry.

What I need you to do, if you feel like you can, is lay in wait in the chamber for the culprit of the attacks and the controller of the Basilisk to appear, then subdue him. Unfortunately, I don't see a way around battling the Basilisk if you try and harm her master, in that case, all I can tell you is to stick to your strengths and you'll be fine. Theoretically . . .

Also, you needn't worry about my stay in Azkaban, if you think clearly, you will understand why . . .

Good luck and don't die, or I'll just escape from here illegally and shit on your grave.

With love,

Harry

Cedric sniggered quietly at his sign off while Archie appeared to be deep in thought "What the hell is he talking about if I . . . think . . . SWEET MERLIN'S TESTES!" he exclaimed and he started to laugh hysterically.

"Archie, are you okay?" Cedric asked warily, thinking his friend had finally gone insane.

"That magnificent bastard pulled the wool over everyone'seyes! He knew he was going to get imprisoned in Azkaban, he had to, he wrote about being imprisoned before it even happened!" Archie pointed out by pointing to the mentioning of Azkaban in the copy of the diary "hell, he must have known months ago!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Cedric finally snapped, not knowing what the hell was going on.

"Last week," he pointed out with a grin "he asked me to brew him some nutrient potions for 'Quidditch training', he said at the time that he didn't have time for meals, so I brewed him an extremely potent one that would last him a month!"

"Wait, you're saying that as long as we finish this in a month, he'll be fine physically?" Cedric asked, a smile growing on his lips. The question, however, made Archie pause.

"Mate, thanks for the help and all, but I can't ask you to help face down a thousand year old Basilisk of all things, you've done more than enough . . ." Cedric merely let him know what he thought of that with a cuff to the head.

"You're not doing this alone, especially now that Harry proved his innocence without a shadow of a doubt, there's no way I can let him rot in that hell hole and live with myself knowing that I did nothing . . ."

Archie smiled at his friend and gave his thanks.

"That still doesn't help in terms of the Dementors; no nutrient potion can shield their effects . . ." he paused "and how the hell did he smuggle the potion in there anyway . . . don't tell me . . ." Cedric made a face and motioned to his rear.

"Of course not!" Archie defended "if what I think he did is the truth . . ." Archie proceeded to rip the spine out of the copy of the diary, and to Cedric's surprise, Harry's wand fell out.

"But . . . I saw them take it!" Cedric protested.

"You saw a piece of wood that looked like Harry's wand, hollowed out and holding my potion given to the minister," Archie grinned "if he's as stupid as I think he is, he must have snapped it and handed it right to him!"

Cedric laughed with Archie until his original question made him pause "What about the Dementors?"

Archie winced a little at the mention of the hellish creatures "Harry's an Occlumens," he explained what exactly that meant to the Hufflepuff "it won't completely stop the effects over a whole month, but it will reduce it, we just need to hurry and save him as soon as possible . . ."

"Got it," Cedric grinned "what do we need to do?"

Archie looked off into space for a few moments before turning to Cedric with a tortured expression marring his features "I'll need three weeks to brew the potions I'll need for this to work, in that time, you can use this room to find any spells you can understand that will defend us against a Basilisk.

"Hey, don't worry Archie, we'll save him" Cedric reassured his friend, who only supplied a weak smile in return.

"I hope so . . ."

Harry grinned slyly at the Dementor that seemed angered not to find any positive emotions to feed off of, or bad memories to show as it floated away with a hiss. His only 'companion' had transformed into his dog Animagus to try and ward off the effects, though he looked pale and rattled, well, more so than usual.

Holding his hand before his face, Harry clicked his forefinger and thumb, causing his thumb to be engulfed in a dull, yet visible light. The result made him grin.

'Who ever said spending three weeks with only one's own thoughts was a waste of time?' he thought as he continued to practise small feats of wandless magic.

"Harry," his annoying companion called out to him desperately "you need to believe me, I'm innocent, Peter was your parent's secret keeper!" he sounded so desperate, begging like that for him to listen, but three weeks of ignoring his cries started to get annoying.

"What will it take for you to shut up?" he snapped, not in the mood to hear his moaning any more.

"I don't want anything more than for you to believe me," he begged, emboldened by finally getting a response from Harry "did you know I never had a fair trial? I would willingly make a testimony under Veritaserum if they offered it, but that bastard Crouch threw me in here without a trial!"

That was news to him, why had Remus never told him his 'traitorous' godfather never received a trial? Wouldn't he want to know the results of a Veritaserum testimony for some peace of mind at least?

"No trial, you say?" Harry mumbled "that's interesting. . ." Harry, for the first time, locked eyes with the man claiming to be his godfather and entered his thoughts using Legilimency.

It was hard to sift through his memories, as most of his thoughts were revolving around grief, vengeance, and hate, but he finally got to the memories that mattered.

"Prongs, it's a perfect plan, no one would suspect Peter to be your secret keeper, and he can go in hiding too while I lead them on a wild goose chase!" a younger looking Sirius proposed cleverly.

"I don't like using you as bait Sirius" a woman, no doubt his mother, frowned while holding a toddler to her chest. The unruly ebony locks and emerald eyes made it clear who the child was.

"Yeah Padfoot mate, it's a great plan, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure I want to risk your life like that" a young James Potter said warily.

"It's my life to risk and my godson to protect!" he boomed, causing the two Potters to lower their heads "look, I care for you all like you're my family, heck, you are my family, I want to do this . . ." Lily, who had tears in her eyes just hugged him tightly as James joined the embrace shortly after.

Harry wasn't satisfied yet, and continued to sift through his memories, the lack of any Occlumency skill what-so-ever made it harmless on Sirius and easy for Harry.

"I'll kill you Peter!" Sirius howled in rage "come out, Peter, you can't hide from me, you'll pay for what you did!"

"No! Sirius! I can't believe you betrayed James and Lily like that!" the rat of a man shouted with a smirk before cutting off his finger and blowing up half of the street, taking thirteen muggles with him. Before Sirius's memory faded out, he saw a rat run into the sewers from the scene of the crime . . ."

Harry immediately pulled out of his thoughts and stood up, the potato sack the only thing covering his nudity, but despite his new place of residence, he had kept his physique as best he could, which was almost exactly the same as how he went in.

Sirius watched as his godson clutched the bars to his cell and started laughing! This laughter however wasn't hysterical, or lacking sanity. If he had to describe it as something, he would say that it was dark.

"All my life, for as long as I can remember, I've wanted nothing more then to kill you for betraying my parents, Moony and me" he laughed "when the one who will be killed has been living his life as a rat" Harry's head snapped in Sirius' direction and the man almost back pedalled due to the look in his eyes "don't get too comfy Sirius, you'll be out before long; but not before Lucius and his minister boy-toy pay for it out of their ass."

Harry's laughter grew increasingly louder until he spun around to the wall behind him; arm outstretched, and sent a wave of pure magic at it, rocking the very foundations of the wing they were imprisoned in.

Harry was looking at his hand while Sirius looked on in shock "Well," Harry chuckled "imagine that . . ." and suddenly, without warning, Harry collapsed on the hard stone floor, completely exhausted.

Sirius quickly changed into his dog form and rushed into Harry's cell through the bars. Padding over next to the surprisingly extremely fit young man, he used his fur coat to keep him warm. He finally had his godson back! No Dementor could ever tear this feeling of joy away from him!

The past three weeks were filled with complete and utter chaos as the students waited to be sent home early for the year.

Following the public arrest of Harry, the school had essentially split into three groups, those that knew he was innocent and something larger than they could understand was happening, which consisted of the majority of Ravenclaw students, the professors and Cedric and his friends.

Then there was those who hated and spoke against him whenever they could, which included most of the Gryffindors, lead by Longbottom. The boy was still bitter about being pegged as a dark lord.

Then, finally, there was the majority of the Slytherins who gloating over the loss of Ravenclaw's star student and capitalizing wherever possible to win the house cup, not that anyone but them cared about it anymore.

Then there was Remus arriving at Hogwarts and demanding to know what happened to Harry, Archie had never been so scared of the man before when he found out Harry was arrested and sent to Azkaban without a trial. His eyes had shone an unnatural amber colour and he had let out a bestial roar of anguish. Remus had immediately left to seek help with any allies he had gained from Moony Nights.

Even though Harry's supposed 'reign of terror' had been stopped by his arrest, people were still wary to travel anywhere on their own, and today proved that doing so wasn't a very smart idea, for a Gryffindor first year, Ginerva Weasley, disappeared.

Currently though, Archie and Cedric were sneaking to the second floor bathroom, a fresh stock of potions ready and a repertoire of anti-basilisk spells ready to go. Rushing into the bathroom, Archie quickly spotted the required sink.

"Ssahasssieth!" his hissed loudly as Cedric tried to suppress the shiver that went down his spine. They both watched in fascination as the door to the chamber opened and revealed a narrow slope leading into darkness.

Before Cedric could even digest what was happening, Archie had leapt into the hole and slid down to the entrance to the chamber, he wasn't far behind. They rushed down the dark, mouldy and winding tunnel only to stop when they saw a sight they definitely didn't expect to be seeing, Gilderoy Lockhart and Ronald Weasley.

"What the fuck?" was Archie's intelligent question.

"It doesn't matter, someone got here before us!" Cedric panicked as Ron finally noticed them.

"You two, I knewit!" he called triumphantly "you're both here to attack someone with Slytherin's monster again, well, I won't let you!" he stood in front of the cave in with a broken wand protectively "you'll have to go through me first!"

Without even batting an eyelash, Cedric fired off two lightning quick stunners that knocked out the dazed professor and the second year Gryffindor.

"Idiot," Archie mumbled "how are we getting passed that?" Archie motioned towards the cave in.

"I've got it," Cedric assured with a determined frown as he started to twirl his wand in an elaborate manner.

"Wingardium Leviosa"

The spell, while usually quite useless, was used masterfully by Cedric to lift ten boulders from beneath the blockage and thus, create an opening for them to pass through.

"Hurry, I can't hold it for long!" he sounded strained.

The two rushed through and the boulders immediately dropped as they passed, back to their original location. Suddenly, they heard a loud crashing sound and they both made their way to the source, following the long, candlelit tunnel to the end and hiding behind a pillar before gaping at the sight before them.

A huge, eighty foot, basilisk was slithering around and chasing something from pillar to pillar while a small red head lay motionless at the foot of the stature of Salazar Slytherin. What confused them though, was the slightly transparent body of a boy a little older than them, hissing orders at the Basilisk, orders they couldn't understand. It was then that they realized that the thing the Basilisk was chasing was none other than Neville Longbottom himself, as he tried to avoid the massive, deadly beast.

"Cedric, drink this," Archie whispered quietly, uncorking a small vial of bright green liquid and handing it to his friend "it's an elixir that will increase your reflexes for an hour . . ."

"You can do Alchemy?!" he hissed quietly, not in the mood for any more surprises.

"Drink this too," he ordered, handing him a bottle of clear liquid and ignoring Cedric's question "it's Felix Felicis, liquid luck, we can use as much as we can get by the looks of things . . ."

"Right," Cedric accepted both gratefully "let's do this!"

Archie grinned, and with a silencing charm placed on their feet, the two snuck from pillar to pillar, closer to the Basilisk.

"Cedric, I need you to lure the beast right over by that pillar," Archie asked, as he took in his surroundings "that's the perfect spot, do it as soon as I take care of his senses, okay?"

Cedric nodded in understanding as Archie drank another potion which turned him invisible. Sneaking up to a spot closer to the beast, Archie picked up a rather big rock and tossed it at its gargantuan head.

Immediately, the transparent boy and the huge serpent whipped their heads in his direction, though both were confused when they saw nothing. Making sure to avoid its gaze, not knowing the particulars on how it kills with it, Archie tossed a vial with sludgy black liquid within right at its face and caught the massive beast unaware.

The second the vial connected with the beast's face, the vial shattered into thousands of tiny pieces of glass, releasing a large amount of black sludge, burning and scarring its eyes and nose. The serpent hissed in rage and began to thrash about in random directions as the unknown boy continued to yell at it, in what Archie could only assume to be Parseltongue.

To any observer, it looked as if the amount of black sludge originally in the vial and the amount currently dripping from the beast's head weren't proportional.

Archie pulled out three more vials, this time of a dark brown gassy substance, from another pocket and threw them in random directions around the Basilisk; the vials exploded and released small mushroom clouds of gas at random places around the chamber.

Had Archie not drank the elixir that increased his reflexes, he may not have been able to dodge the huge tail that swung in his direction in time – the blinded beast was now simply thrashing around in random direction, hoping to hit its target by luck. It was with that though, that Archie's invisibility potion wore off and he came into view again.

"What did you do?!" the boy finally shrieked to him in English "What did you do to it?!" he asked, while pointing a wand at Archie.

"And just who the hell are you?" Archie countered heatedly, in an annoyed tone as a putrid smell filled the air. Both Archie and Cedric simultaneously cast a bubblehead charm on themselves so they could avoid the stench.

"Now Cedric!" Archie shouted, as the Basilisk used its only remaining sense, its hearing, to track Archie down as it slithered at top speeds in his direction.

"Sanus Maximus!" he shouted loudly with his wand pointed up into the air.

A terrible, piercing screech tore through the chamber as the Basilisk screamed in agony when its overpowered sense of hearing was forced to absorb the incredibly high pitched sound; in fact, it was so high pitched, none of the people in the room could hear it – the Basilisk sure could though.

"Reducto, Reducto, Reducto!" Cedric fired continuous bolts of blue magical power at the ground near the Basilisk, shredding the stone floor apart and sending large chunks of stone in all directions around it.

Archie and Cedric were now ignoring the hissing boy, the Basilisk, however, having its eardrums destroyed by Cedric's spell, had no other choice but to attack blindly, using the direction the stones were being banished into it from as a guide. The pieces of boulder Cedric was banishing at the Basilisk were cutting into the open wounds caused by the black sludge, only enraging the beast further.

Cedric continued to back pedal while leading the basilisk right to where Archie had wanted it to be, until it was right next to the pillar Archie had pointed out earlier.

"Die!" Archie yelled angrily, tossing two more vials at the ceiling above the Basilisk with all his might. The vials of red liquid, upon making contact with the wall, instantly exploded, rocking the chamber to its foundations, and causing several huge boulders to fall down towards the beast.

Both Archie and Cedric knew though that blunt objects would never be enough to damage a Basilisk through its incredibly thick hide.

"Do it Cedric!"

Cedric nodded, determination in his eyes, as he began to wave his wand in intricate patterns and mutter spell after spell under his breath.

Neville Longbottom, the unnamed boy and Archie all looked on in awe as the boulders changed shape to look like several large, rocky, stalactites. They weren't aimed very well, but that didn't much matter when there were roughly a dozen rock spears, each the size of the half-giant, Hagrid, himself. In the end, five of them pierced through the beast's body, the momentum of the heavy objects and the amount of sharpening they went through due to the spells were enough to make it through the Basilisk's heavy hide.

The sight of the legendary serpent thrashing around in agony at his feet saddened Archie in ways he couldn't explain. It wasn't its fault its master had left it alone for a millennium, it wasn't its fault its masters were crazy, but he wouldn't allow it to be used to harm more innocents.

"I'm sorry" he said with actual regret before tossing three vials of bright red liquid down the throat of the thrashing creature, who had no other choice by to swallow them.

It didn't take long for the vials to be broken within the creature's digestion system, and when they did, a huge explosion blew up the creature's body from the inside, completely blasting the Basilisk in two.

"No!" the unnamed boy yelled "Look what you've done!" he sounded murderous "you'll pay for this!"

"Who the fuck areyou?!" Archie asked, fed up with this idiot.

"His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, he says he's Lord Voldemort and he's siphoning energy from Ginny to get his body back!" Neville suddenly appeared, looking worse for wear, from behind a pillar and warned them.

"V-Voldemort?!" Cedric gasped incredulously as he looked to the smirking boy.

"Siphoning energy, you say?" Archie mumbled under his breath "you don't say," he looked around the cave for anything that could be used as a medium to perform such a thing. He didn't know much about rituals, but he figured that if one were to siphon something, you would need a medium to make sure the energy is going from source A to source B. Seeing as that this 'Tom' wasn't casting any spells, something else must be doing it for him.

It was then that Archie spotted a glowing, and old looking leather bound diary sitting innocently on the floor near the Weasley girl. Archie continued to look around quickly while Tom advanced on them, twirling his wand arrogantly, before spotting the Basilisk's head and formulating a quick and reckless plan.

"Cedric, take cover," he yelled, causing Tom to snap his head in his direction, a spell ready on his lips, but Archie had already made his move. Throwing a smoky, black vial Marcus Flint would be able to remember at the ground, Archie used the cover it created him to rip out one of the Basilisk's deadly fangs and rush over to the discarded diary.

"I hope this works," he mumbled, and proceeded to stab diary with all his might "what the . . . ?" he mumbled in confusion as copious amounts of ink began 'bleeding' out of the stab wound and Tom began screeching madly.

Archie looked over to Ginny Weasley to see colour returning to her pale features, she looked like she would be okay.

"Hey, Archie mate?" Cedric's voice called through the black smoke.

"Over here, I think that shrieking noise means he's dead, the girl looks like she's okay too . . ." he mumbled as Cedric followed his voice and found him.

"That's all well and good, but how are we going to get out of here?"

Dead silence met his question "Well, fuck"

A scowling Cornelius Fudge, followed by Archie, Remus, Tonks and Albus Dumbledore made their way to where they knew Harry Potter to be imprisoned. After providing the Minister with solid evidence of Harry's innocence, paired with testimonies from Archie and Cedric, he didn't have much of a choice but to release him from prison.

"It won't do much good," Fudge commented "he was being rather difficult when we arrested him - so he was punished and placed in his cell accordingly . . ."

"I do hope you know, Minister, that should he have come under any harm, after it has been 'proven' that he was innocent, your days as a Minister are at an end," Remus informed the sad excuse of a man with a hate filled voice "I'm sure Wizarding Britain won't take too kindly to having their new sporting hero imprisoned in Azkaban for no reason" Remus himself looked exhausted and agitated, ever sine hearing of Harry's imprisonment, he hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep since.

The only visible sign of Fudge hearing Remus' comment was a slightly quickening of his pace.

When they arrived at his cell, they were shocked to see Harry, looking rather fit despite his situation, with only a potato sack for clothing, in the middle of some sit-ups with his back to them.

Rising silently, he turned slowly to face his visitors. His skin had become dirty and a sickly pale colour while his hair had grown out passed his shoulders during his three and a half week stay.

"Cornelius . . ." he addressed with humour in his voice "perhaps you will learn now, after our discussions, what happens when you mess with Harry Potter."

"Insolent brat, we arrested you because all the evidence pointed to you, you have no case!" he hissed, and sadly, Dumbledore who was listening and representing Hogwarts and the Wizengamot, knew he was right.

"I'm not talking about the evidence, dear Minister," he sauntered over to the bars that separated him from the group and leaned on them, placing his face close to the Minister's "I'm talking about the charges I am going to file against you for conspiracy to commit murder, defamation and unlawful imprisonment," he grinned at his shocked expression "I have more than enough evidence depicting you and Lucius Malfoy as being responsible for every single attack on Hogwarts grounds this year . . ."

"You have no such thing!" Fudge shouted, sounding alarmed.

"Trust me, I do," he grinned "but worry not, no charges will be filed so long as you submit to my demands, in fact, you do so and I won't even speak badly of you to every newspaper in the world . . ." he sent a wink to Remus and Archie, who were gaping at him incredulously.

"Name your terms" Fudge demanded, all too quickly.

"Twenty million galleons will be deposited into my vaults at Gringotts and you will hold a trial for one Sirius Orion Black."

His terms were met with complete and utter chaos.