Chapter- 10 : Aftermath Part - 4

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She gasped. "He'd try to kill him."

He looked up. "Might succeed, too. But I can't keep it from him. Merlin, it's a mess. And there's only a week left before summer hols."

"Harry… Are you doing okay? About not being able to save Ginny, I mean?"

He was seconds from making a cutting retort when the genuine concern in her eyes stopped him. Finally, he shrugged. "I'm okay. Not great, but okay. But I never want to feel like that again." Then, vehemently: "I hate feeling helpless.

The silence stretched for several minutes before he asked, "So, do you get some extra time to study for exams?"

As far as changing the subject went, it was a fairly graceless effort. But Hermione picked up on it, sliding into a lengthy disclosure about where she was in revising for all her classes. Grateful for the distraction, and for the normality of it, he listened to her chatter.

Madam Pomfrey showed up at around 7:15, and she brought breakfast for him and Hermione when she noticed them awake. The rest of the Basilisk's victims she started waking at around 7:30, and after a thorough checkout she sent them off to the great hall to find themselves breakfasts of their own.

Professor McGonagall passed the last one leaving as she entered. "I'm pleased to see you awake, Miss Granger. And you unharmed, Mr. Potter." Then she turned to Madame Pomfrey. "Poppy, after Mr. Weasley's woken up - and maybe eaten something - he'll be going home early this term. The house-elves packed his things for him, and we'll be shrinking and flooing his trunk on ahead. Mr. Potter, I'm afraid I have to ask you to come with me."

He started, surprised. "What? No. Please, professor, I want to be here when Ron wakes up." He looked at her, not above pleading, "Hermione doesn't have to leave. What can possibly be more important?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, but they need to ask you to open the Chamber of Secrets. The aurors want to search all of it." Her expression remained stern, but a hint of concern softened her mouth. "And they need to retrieve Miss Weasley's body."

The words were said kindly, but not even the nicest delivery on Earth could have softened that blow. His stomach hurt and he looked away. "Oh." Then he turned back to Hermione. "I hope I'll be back in time, but if I'm not, tell Ron- tell him I wanted to be here, please? And that I'll write to him."

She nodded. "Of course, Harry." She reached out and grasped one of his hands. "It'll be okay. It has to be."

He wasn't sure how to tell her that things wouldn't be the same kind of 'okay' ever again.

He met the waiting group of aurors at the entrance to the headmaster's office. Professor McGonagall introduced him to the ten men and women, (one of whom, it turned out, was actually not an auror, but an expert from the department for the Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures) and only about three of whose names he remembered by the time the introductions were over. Then the professor rested her hand on his shoulder a moment before she murmured her best wishes and vanished up the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

He was left staring at the aurors, feeling just slightly abandoned, while most of them watched him passively back, and the remaining few stared.

"Um, this way, then. The entrance is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, so it's not too far."

The head auror, something Peters, had salt and pepper hair, a commanding presence, and was attempting to be professional. Harry caught the edge of a whisper as Peters said something to the group behind him. Whatever it was, it was enough to jolt the two or three of them that had been staring at him into suitably blank faces. Actually, most of them had seemed pretty impervious to the normal hero-worship he was subjected to.

"So, Mr. Potter. Dumbledore said that there was a Basilisk down in the Chamber before you killed it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you think there are others still down there?"

"Mmm," he bit his lip, considering. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Riddle – Voldemort – would have called upon them to fight, too. And I think there would have been more shed skins if more of them were about." He peeked into the bathroom, but it seemed empty of Myrtle. "I'm not sure if Basilisks are territorial or not. In here, guys. Er, sir."

It took him a minute to actually locate the exact tap again. Then he took a deep breath, stared at the scratched snake, and hissed out, "Open."

There were several intakes of breath behind him at the sound of the parseltongue, but he refused to acknowledge them as the sink smoothly sank away in a repeat of last night's events. "Um," he turned to them, "it's pretty dirty down there, so if you have some sort of clothing protection spell for the ride down, you might want to cast it. I'm not sure how much we cleaned it up on our slide down last night." The aurors all drew their wands and cast a spell or two, Peters was even kind enough to cast one on him. "Thanks," he said, then he turned and dropped down into the slide, a muffled shout echoing after him from the entrance.

The trip was as long as he remembered it, and he quickly scrambled out of the way once he hit the bottom. Peters missed him by mere seconds.

"Don't do that." The auror captain said, wand out as he stepped in front of Harry.

"But I thought I was supposed to be your guide down here?"

"Guide? Yes. Scout? No. Let us go first into danger. That's what we're here for, okay?"

He couldn't entirely mask his doubt about that command, but he shrugged and acquiesced. They did know more than he did. He just hoped Peters didn't seriously expect him to turn and run if the aurors found trouble. Especially snake trouble. The ramifications of having a parselmouth around couldn't be that hard to grasp, could they?

By now a third auror was emerging from the chute, so Harry moved a few feet down the passageway to leave more room. "There's a rock fall ahead where Lockhart almost brought the ceiling down on our heads. We might need to clear it out a bit; I could get through but I'm not sure you would fit. There's another parseltongue gate before the actual chamber of secrets, though."

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