A shrill whistle cut through the chatter of hundreds of people, owls and cats, signalling the impending departure of the Hogwarts Express.
"Be sure to write me tonight after the feast ends, ok?" Amelia told Susan sternly, while the auburn-haired girl nodded back impatiently.
"You aren't going to act like that that, right?" Harry asked Sirius nearby warily.
"What? My darling godson doesn't want to say goodbye to his beloved godfather?! He's becoming rebellious!" Sirius declared dramatically, drawing several eyes towards them as he tried to envelope Harry in a hug. Only, he grabbed empty air instead as Harry seemingly vanished before calling from the train itself.
"I guess we'll be back for the holidays."
Susan quickly said goodbye to her aunt before following after Harry, having already stored their luggage away in their chosen compartment. When she reached said compartment, Susan was momentarily stunned to find it significantly larger than before, going from being able to fit six people comfortably to well over ten.
"I figured that I might as well make preparations." Harry told her lazily from where he was laying on one of the seats, a hood pulled down over his eyes to keep the light out.
He had been working nearly nonstop for the last few weeks of the holiday, either running jobs for the Thieves Guild or making items to fill up the inventory at Potter's Place while he was attending school. So naturally even Harry was completely wiped out, and planned to spend the trip to Hogwarts sleeping. If their travel companions allowed it.
Sure enough the door to the compartment was promptly opened, revealing an untamable mane of bushy brown hair and bucked teeth that belonged to one Hermione Granger.
"Harry! Susan!" Hermione greeted him enthusiastically, before greeting Susan as well when she noticed the Hufflepuff's presence.
"Hello Hermione." Susan greeted her in return, while Harry just lazily raised a hand in greeting. That was all either of them had the chance to do before Hermione began to rapid fire questions to them about their summer, only to immediately tell them about her own despite the fact that they had all seen each other four weeks prior at Harry's birthday party.
"Give them a chance to breathe, Hermione." A new voice said from the still open door, before the figure of Ronald Weasley appeared as well.
While he greeted Harry and Susan, Hermione just huffed as she went to sit down across from Harry's head. Incidentally, or perhaps by design, this position allowed her to monitor Harry for signs of him awakening since he was obviously trying to sleep.
The next to arrive was Neville, then Susan's friend Hannah, and finally Daphne and her friend Tracy to round out their group. And not a moment too soon, as another whistle sounded before the train lurched forward.
"Did everyone have a good summer?" Daphne asked with a tone of perfect polite indifference as she took her seat, which there was plenty of space for thanks to Harry's expansion charms before they all arrived.
Either not noticing or not charging that Daphne was only being polite in asking, Neville quickly launched into a tale of his uncle taking him to look at some exotic plants over the summer. Apparently now that Neville was recognized as an actual wizard, they got along much better.
Everyone else told their stories as well as they went around the compartment, with Susan telling them of studying Restoration magic under Harry for the duration of the summer since it wasn't picked up by the Ministry of Magic. What she didn't tell them about though, was the funerals they held for her entire family in the last couple weeks after recovering their bodies from Voldemort's cave.
Harry, Sirius and Amelia all stressed upon her the importance of keeping the recovery of Regulus and her family's bodies a secret to keep word from getting back to Voldemort. Regulus himself wasn't such a big deal since the details of his death weren't widely known, but the entirety of the Bones clan was. As such, they had small ceremonies with just the four of them attending as Susan's family were buried on the grounds of the Bones estate, while Regulus was entombed within the Black family mausoleum with his and Sirius's ancestors.
After the funeral for his brother, Sirius then took Harry to visit his parents grave for the first time. A trip that, admittedly, affected Harry more than he cared to admit. After all, he had been told his parents were drunks who got themselves killed in a car crash when he was a baby, and believed it for several decades even after finding himself in Tamriel. Despite knowing the truth for over a year now, seeing their grave had made the entire situation feel all the more real to him.
None of this was said to the rest of them though, not by lack of trust towards Ron, Neville and the others, but by practicality.
As talk of their summer ended though, talk of the coming school year began as Hannah brought up the topic that was apparently on everyone's minds.
"Can you guys believe that Gilderoy Lockhart is actually going to be our teacher? He's a real living legend!" Hannah practically swooned at the use of his name, and she wasn't the only one.
Daphne, who usually remained stoic and composed, had her cheeks redden slightly as Tracy went on and on about Lockhart's greatness. Hermione said nothing, but was busy studying one of his books with a shocking amount of intensity. Even Susan started fidgeting shyly as Hannah continued gushing over their new teacher.
"Blegh. I can't believe you all." Ron practically gagged in disdain towards their new teacher, immediately making himself the center of their combined irritation.
"Are you jealous of our teacher, Ronald?" Tracy taunted while standing from her seat to lean over Ron provocatively.
"Why would I be jealous of a fraud?" Ron snapped back irritably.
"He's not a fraud! You'd know that if you read his books!" Hermione snapped back at him just as irritably, if not more.
"I have, and he is." Harry suddenly spoke up from where he was laying.
"And how do YOU know?" Hannah asked Harry pointedly.
"Because I saw him in Flourish and Blotts when I was getting my own school books, and saw nothing that even remotely resembled the skilled warrior his books portrayed." Harry explained to them patiently.
The two guys puffed their chests up at Harry's words, while the girls shared uneasy looks with one another.
"Jealousy isn't pretty Harry." Hannah said to him finally, before turning back to Susan and talking about something else as if that had ended the conversation entirely.
Oh well. It was no skin off his back, and they would all see what kind of person Lockhart was sooner rather than later. Harry just hoped he wouldn't have to kill this one like he effectively had Quirrel.
The trip from Kings Cross to Hogsmeade was uneventful as Harry passed in and out of consciousness on the way, the daylight shifting each time his eyes opened. Eventually he opened his eyes to see it had grown dark outside, which was a good indication that they were almost there as he sat up in his seat.
"I miss anything major?" Harry asked as he stretched so that several of his joints popped.
"No. Not unless you count Draco slinking up and down the corridor the entire way here." Daphne stated as Harry pulled out a set of school robes to slip over his muggle jeans and shirt.
"So he's still being ostracized." Harry stated in observation. Not that he was too surprised. No one builds as much wealth and influence as what the Malfoy's had without stepping on as many toes as possible. Now Draco was the one bearing the weight of the decisions made by his father and his father's father without the slightest bit of wealth to back himself up.
Harry was curious to see if the young man would crumble under the weight of such a legacy, or if he would find a way to come back despite it. He certainly seemed to have found some kind of determination over the summer while doing his chores.
The sudden shift in the train's movement drew Harry from his thoughts as they began to slow, the lights of Hogsmeade glowing in the darkness like beacons beckoning them in their direction. Soon they came to a complete stop, and students began to disembark.
"FIRS' YEARS! FIRS' YEARS OVER HERE!"
Hagrid's voice boomed over the drone of children talking and moving, drawing the attention of the first years that were stepping off of the train for the first time.
"You all go ahead. I need to fix this up before leaving." Harry told the others, pulling out his wand as he did so. The second he was alone in the compartment he waved his wand while saying "Finite Incantatem."
The compartment around Harry rapidly shrunk back down to its normal size, returning it to a state where nothing seemed out of place. Then he called out to the empty air.
"Kreacher."
With a crack, the elderly House Elf appeared in front of Harry before giving a bow so deep that his nose brushed the floor.
"What can kreacher do for young master Harry?" The elf asked, his tone and demeanor completely unrecognizable from a month ago. And that wasn't considering the elf's physical appearance, as he was now dressed in a clean toga that had the emblem of the house of Black stitched onto it, and Regulus's locket that Harry retrieved from Voldemort's basin in the cave was now hanging around his neck.
"I need you to keep an eye on my trunk for me while I attend the feast, and it's brought up to my dorm. Don't let anyone try to get inside." Harry ordered him, and kreacher gave another deep bow.
"Of course. Kreacher will keep all of the filthy little thieves from trying to break into master Harry's trunk." He stated with conviction, making Harry have to fight the urge to snort since he himself had been one of those thieves just a few weeks ago.
"Very good." He stated instead, before leaving the compartment to rejoin the others as they boarded the carriages to head up to the castle.
Harry ended up sharing a carriage with Hermione, Susan and Daphne, while Ron, Neville, Tracy and Hannah all ended up in their own carriage since they were all limited to four people. And Harry didn't feel the need to expand them like he did the compartment for a trip that would last only a few minutes.
Sure enough, the trip was quickly over after they passed through the front gates with their group was disembarking before filing into the Great Hall to take their seats for the opening feast, with Daphne, Tracy, Susan and Hannah all going to their respective tables. This left Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville to join the Gryffindor table, easily the loudest and most rambunctious table of the four as the teens and children eagerly recounted their break to one another.
Soon enough they were all silenced though, right in time for Minerva to lead the group of frightened first years into the Great Hall for their sorting. Amongst them the only one who Harry recognized was the flaming red hair of Ron's little sister, Ginny, who Harry met at his birthday party a month ago.
The sorting ended with Ginny, who was placed in Gryffindor along with the rest of her siblings, before Minerva took the sorting hat away and Albus stood to give his speech.
"Welcome, one and all to Hogwarts. I am pleased to see all of the new faces joining us, as well as all of the faces of everyone who has returned. A few words before we stuff ourselves with our excellent feast! As always the Forbidden forest is forbidden to students unless accompanied by a teacher, magic is forbidden in the corridors, and you can see the board by mr. Filch's office for a complete list of banned items and rules to follow while you are here. And finally, I would like to introduce you all to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Gilderoy Lockhart."
There was a surge of applause from the female population of Hogwarts as Lockhart was introduced, while the man himself stood and waved cheerily to them all. Then, perhaps taking Albus returning to his seat as an ok, he then opened his mouth to address them all.
"Thank you. Thank you, thank you, for the wonderful introduction and welcome to this illustrious school, headmaster. I am very much looking forward to teaching each and every one of you wonderful students how to combat the Dark Arts, based on my own personal experiences of course.
"I'll have each of you in tiptop shape to face any beast, ghoul, or dark wizard by the time this year is up. That I swear to you! And if any of you would like to see me for a more hands on lesson, then my door will always open to each and every one of you. BUT FIRST! I think we have a wonderful feast to devour! Am I right, headmaster?"
Looking towards Albus as he finished his speech, the headmaster stood once more as he declared, "quite right you are Gilderoy. Now please, tuck in."
As soon as the word left his mouth, the tables before them were all suddenly groaning under the weight of hundreds of pounds of food. And the students, suddenly feeling as if they were starving, eagerly tore into the feast with gusto.
Harry, who had napped the entire way here and hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, also made his appetite known as he tore into the food with the same zeal as his classmates. But as he ate he also listened as they shared different stories of their summer holidays, while some, like the twins, created as much commotion as possible.
Soon they finished dinner, then dessert, and now everyone in the hall felt bloated and content as they awaited the go-ahead to make their way to their dorms. Harry however noticed someone rapidly approaching him from the staff table.
"Mr Potter, professor Dumbledore would like to have a word with you before you retire for the night." Minerva said, earning Harry numerous looks while the twins began to hum a funeral march as if he had been in trouble.
"I'll head up there now." Harry replied as he grabbed his bag, and followed Minerva through the corridors to the Griffin statue that guarded the headmaster's office.
They were the first to arrive, as the others were seemingly performing their start of year duties as heads of houses. So Harry decided to pass the time by pulling out a small black book and writing in it.
Minerva of course did not pry into what Harry was writing, assuming it was a journal or diary of some kind, before the door opened a moment later to admit Albus and the three remaining heads of houses.
"Good evening Harry." Albus said to him in greeting as he moved to sit behind his desk.
"One moment Albus." Harry said without looking up from his journal, making the old man blink while the four heads of houses looked at the back of his head incredulously.
"Such arrogance, just like his father." Snape sneered, but Harry just ignored him as he wrote a few more lines, before finally closing the journal so that the back cover of it was facing up.
"Done. Sorry about that." Harry said to them apologetically, ignoring Snape as he did so.
"It's quite alright Harry. Keeping a journal is always a good way to organize one's thoughts." Albus said good-naturedly, before turning serious. "I called you here, because I made what I feel to be significant headway into discovering what items Voldemort used to make his Horcruxes, as well as where a couple of them may be hidden."
Every one of them immediately straightened up when they heard that, even as Albus pulled out a container holding roughly a dozen or so glass vials.
"These contain a number of memories pertaining to Tom Riddle as his background, going from before he was born, all the way to the day I last talked to him. Shortly after I became headmaster. Seeing as you have your own Pensieve to view them with, I'll just give them to you to peruse at your own leisure." Albus said while handing them over to Harry, who carefully stored them away in his bag.
"While I have you here though, I will go over some of the more important points that I uncovered. Firstly, I believe I identified three of his Horcruxes." Albus repeated his earlier revelation as he stood and retrieved his own Pensieve and placed it upon the desk, before waving his wand to draw two images out from within it.
"Tom seemed to have placed great importance on the items he turned into Horcruxes. Two of them are items left from the founders of Hogwarts themselves, men and women considered to be the greatest wizards and witches of their age. The cup of Helga Hufflepuff, and the locker of Salazar Slytherin."
As Albus spoke they all saw the image of said locket and cup emerge from the Pensieve, and Harry heard Sprout suck in a breath when she saw the cup, while Snape noticeably tensed.
"The last known owner of these two items died under suspicious circumstances several decades ago, only a few short days after she showed them to Tom while he worked for Borgin and Burke's. It's one of the memories I gave you Harry." Albus explained as the two images faded, before being replaced with that of a ring that had a black stone in it.
"This next item is the Gaunt family ring. The Gaunts were the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin, with one of them being Voldemort's mother, Merope. While Tom was still in school, he met with the only other surviving member of the Gaunt family, his uncle Morphin, and presumably framed him for the murder of his own father while Morphin was unconscious. And since he had a history of violence against muggles, no one thought twice about Morphin's guilt as he was taken to Azkaban to spend the remainder of his life. And no one aside from Morphin himself even acknowledged the fact that the ring was missing.
"In this particular case, I believe that the ring has been hidden in the Gaunt family home. Unfortunately all records and traces of the dwelling have since vanished, while those who have even visited it in the past no longer have any recollection of where it is. Thus I believe that Tom placed numerous powerful veils and charms that not only hide it from sight and repel those who get too close, but also to erase it from memory and record."
"You mean the Fidelus charm?" Flitwick asked worriedly.
"Though that does seem a likely culprit, I highly doubt it." Albus quickly assured them.
"Voldemort doesn't think like we do." Harry said suddenly, even as he continued studying the image of the ring.
"His mind is twisted and warped by his own delusions of grandeur and supremacy. Rather than rely on a spell known to be the ultimate protection, he would try to outdo it with his own 'superior' version of it. And on top of that he would have his own little collection of surprises for anyone foolish enough to try and get through it."
Albus tapped his nose with a grin, before turning towards Flitwick. "Precisely. Such is the downside of being so predictable I'm afraid."
"But it also makes things harder for us." Snape drawled in an unimpressed tone.
"That may also be part of it." Albus admitted.
"What does that symbol mean?" Harry asked suddenly, drawing their attention back to the ring. And it was only then that the professors noticed a symbol carved into the surface of the stone, a triangle with a circle and line through it.
"Ah! That is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows." Albus immediately stated, making the image vanish before he stood and collected a book from one of the shelves behind his desk.
"A long, long time ago, a story was created that told the tale of the Three Brothers." The old man continued as he put the book down and opened it to a specific page. "As the tale goes, the three brothers cheated death using their magic. But death, being clever and patient, pretended to congratulate the brothers instead while offering them gifts.
"The eldest brother wished for a wand that was stronger than any other wand in the world." At this point Albus paused as he drew a line on a piece of parchment.
"The second brother, wanting to humiliate death further, wished for a stone that could bring back the dead." Now Albus drew a circle that enveloped most of the wand.
"And finally the youngest brother asked death for a piece of its own cloak of invisibility, so as to hide from death until he was ready." Finally Albus drew the triangle that surrounded the previous two, completing the symbol on the ring.
"I've seen this before..." Harry murmured, before recalling where. "It was on one of the grave stones in the cemetery at Godric's Hollow!"
Albus nodded thoughtfully. "That's not too surprising. Many old families became infatuated with the story, as it ended by stating that whoever claimed all three gifts would themselves become the master of death. Naturally, you can see the appeal to powerful witches and wizards who do not wish for death."
"It is just a foolish old children's story." Minerva snapped irritably, waving her hand dismissively at the mere idea.
"In my experience, such stories usually have a grain of truth to them." Harry pointed out to her, his mind going to his own collection of storied artifacts and relics. None more so than the fabled White Phial, an item that replenished itself with potion every single day from nothing. In fact, it was the same White Phial that Harry was using for his research into creating his own Philosspher's Stone.
"But we are getting a bit off track." He added a moment later, filing the information about the Hallows away for later. After all, Harry did spend several years hunting treasures.
"Indeed. As fascinating as the Hallows are, it is not the reason we are here." Albus said in agreement, and they decided to drop the suject for the moment.
"So at the moment we only know about the ring, cup and locket. Is that, correct?" Snape asked in his usual disdainful drawl.
"We also know that one of them must be hidden in the Gaunt family home!" Flitwick piped up.
"Indeed. One other location that I suspect, though it will take quite a bit of work locating it, is a cave on the coast that the orphanage Tom was raised in visited. Apparently he brought two other children to said cave and terrorized them. Such a location where he first tasted power by inflicting fear unto others, I have no doubt that such a place would have special meaning to him, even today."
"So three relics that are only half our quarry. A house that no one recalls and seems to be unplottable. AND a cave amongst the hundreds dotting the coastline of this forsaken island. Any other requests?" Snape quipped irritably.
"You're complain a lot for someone who hasn't lifted a single finger in this project yet." Harry remarked, earning him a scowl from the greasy-haired potions master.
"And you have?" He drawled back.
"Now now, Severus. I specifically asked Harry to leave this matter to me during the summer. Speking of, how did your summer go Harry? We didn't quite get the chance to speak during your birthday." Albus asked curiously, obviously trying to soothe the atmosphere after all of the heavy discussion.
"Well, I did manage to work on some projects that I needed to get done, and I learned a lot about this world's potions from Horace." Harry replied, earning him another scowl from Snape before he added, "I also located a few treasures to add to my collection."
"Oh? What kind of treasures?" Albus asked, intrigued.
"This little beauty was just lying around the Black family home." Harry said as he pulled a length of chain from his bag, attacked to a locket with an ornate S on it. "According to Kreacher, Regulus Black gave his life trying to retrieve this from a cave on the coast. Unfortunately there was a lake of Inferi within it that dragged him to his death."
The atmosphere in the office changed as every set of eyes focused on the locket, which perfectly matched the same locket that Albus had shown them earlier. Harry meanwhile continued to act oblivious, as he pulled something else from his bag.
"This one however was bit tricky. After figuring out where it was, I comissioned the Thieves Guild to steal it for me from the Lestrange vault in Gringotts." Harry told them as he placed an ornate golden goblet on the desk next to the locket, one with a badger carved on the front. And as he looked at it, the life seemed to drain from Albus's eyes.
"This one surprised me quite a bit though." Harry said as if the previous two revelations were nothing, as he flipped the diary he had been writing in earlier over so they could see the name on the front. Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"You see, after their manor burned down and their entire fortune was stolen, and with Lucius being sent to Azkaban for lobbying, conspiracy, and just about anything else you can come up with, Narcissa and Draco came to live with us at Potter Manor. She had this with her, and claimed it was the only thing that survived the fire. Not only that, but apparently Lucius told her it was given to him by Voldemort himself for safekeeping."
By this point Albus seemed to have deflated entirely as he reached out to pick up the diary with a shaking hand, only for Harry to grab him by the wrist.
"I wouldn't do that. The diary has a mind of it's own, and would know if you, especially YOU of all people, touched it instead of me." Harry warned him.
"It is aware?" Albus asked with interest.
"Yes. I've been talking to him all summer long, telling Tom about how much I hate my muggle relatives and how horrible they are to me because of my magic." Harry explained.
"Amazing... And has he said anything of importance?"
"Only about something called the Chamber of Secrets." Harry replied, and the tone in the room shifted once more.
"I take it you've all heard of it?"
"In a manner." Minerva said, before they all turned to look at Albus.
"It was last opened fifty years ago, when Tom still at school." He finally admitted after a moment.
"There were several attacks throughout the school by a creature said to have been left here by Salazar Slytherin himself. Numerous students had been petrified, and one was even killed with no leads on what was attacking them, who was driving it, or how they were being left in such a state. When it looked as if the school was going to be shut down, one student was apprehended by another and convicted for the crime despite there being no evidence. And when the attacks ceased afterwards, there was no doubt they were the guilty party."
"And let me guess, Tom Riddle was the one who apprehended the other student?"
"He even received an award from headmaster Dippet for special services to the school for it." Albus said while nodding in affirmation.
"And no one ever suspected what the creature might have been?"
"No traces of it were ever left after any of the attacks. I could draw up a long list of suspects, but without any evidence it would only ever be speculation that could be incredibly dangerous if we guessed wrong before confronting whatever it is. The only known creatures capable of petrification are Gorgons, Cockatrices, and the Catoblepas found in greece."
"Yeah, That would definitely be a bad idea." Harry said in agreement, having experienced his own fair share of bad fights thanks to mistaken identities in the past. "Hopefully, I can convince the soul fragment in the diary to entrust me with the identity of the creature before I go and kill it. I have been feeding him a constant stream of muggle-hating rhetoric for the last couple of months."
"I implore you to use the utmost caution when dealing with Tom, Harry. His entire life has been spent manipulating and controlling those around him." Albus cauntioned Harry worriedly.
"I'm well aware Albus. I take everything he says with a grain of salt, and as far as he's aware we're of the same mind." Harry assured him, though he could tell that his words didn't completely alleviate Albus's concerns. Not that he expected them to.
Harry spoke to the professors a bit more about the Chamber of Secrets and how they planned to deal with it once Harry learned where it was located, before he decided to call it a night. He was still tired from all of the work he'd had to do the last few days, and wanted to catch up somewhat on sleep before beginning classes.
Recollecting the Horcruxes to store them back where they would be safe, Harry made to leave the office before recalling something else.
"And by the way Albus. Lockhart? Really?" He asked with a tone full of judgement, making the old man chuckle wryly before he closed the door and left.