Disclaimer… See Chapter 1 & 10 for the standard Disclaimer… I OWN NOTHING… *sniff* My Author's Notes are after the chapter…
HOGWARTS AND BEYOND - TAKE 2
By Muirnin Cocan
PART 2 - Hogwarts, the Final Years
Chapter 17 - Midnight in the Caverns of Betrayal of Both Darkness and Light
As strange as it may seem, neither Harry nor Hermione were upset or afraid of their current situation. Harry knew that Voldemort was nowhere near, since his scar had not hurt… not even a twinge. Something about the cavern was unique as well, he slept better then he had in years. Lord Voldemort was not even able to enter his mind. In a way, he wished he would never have to leave… He had everything he wanted and needed in the form of Hermione. Harry knew however, that they would have to leave if for nothing else then to destroy Lord Voldemort.
When they realized they would not be escaping the caverns anytime soon, Hermione used a great amount of transfiguration and created clothing that is more suitable for them. They had discussed a great deal about the caverns and had even gone exploring only to find the one passage that had been mentioned in Hogwarts: A History had collapsed long before. They had gone back to the spot where they had fallen in and found no way to unseal the hole. Even a well-armed Reducto curse had no affect what so ever. They had found corpses of animals long since perished and even a few humongous skins that Harry surmised had belonged to the Basilisk he had slain during his 2nd year. He would not be surprised if the Basilisk had been able to come and go thru these caverns during his many years existence.
After 7 days inside the caverns, Harry could not shake the feeling of them being watched. 'Mione' he thought to her 'have you gotten the feeling that we are being watched?'. Harry felt it important to keep their voices silent, and had communicated to her thru their bond.
'Yes I have… In fact, it feels very familiar… almost like…' she began to say then stopped and suddenly transformed into her black bear and hurried down a passage.
Harry watched wide-eyed and then hurried to follow her. After what seemed like a half an hour running Harry skidded to a halt where he found Hermione back to her normal self and an unconscious Wormtail…
"I knew I recognized the scent…" she looked at Harry with sadness and added, "It was one of the last things Sirius had taught me during our Animagus training. He had been teaching me about Animagi during the summer before 5th year. It was our secret; well, sort of a surprise that nobody ever found out actually. He had told me that one of the best things I could ever do is to hone my olfactory modality…" when Harry's look of confusion hit her she corrected, "my sense of smell."
"So, this betraying bastard is down here as well… Figures, our paradise was going to be ruined by this rat…" Harry said sarcastically.
"Paradise?" Hermione said quirking her eye at him.
"Well anywhere alone with you is paradise…"
"Nice save Potter… So, what do you make of these walls?" Hermione asked pointing at the walls around them.
Harry studied them for a few minutes and then realized, "This is part of the Chamber of Secrets… at least what used to be Slytherins chamber."
"What do you mean? We are still in the caverns, right? So how can this be part of the Chamber?"
Harry began explaining about the shaft that led down from Moaning Myrtles Bathroom into the passageway that had been littered with fish bones and other carcasses. He then pointed out a number of metallic snakes woven into a circle on the one wall. He began to guess that Wormtail was trying to get them to this point so that Harry could open up the access to the chamber that they could get out of there.
"That rat bastard… I would love to leave his sorry ass down here, however… without Wormtail we cannot clear Sirius' name… Part of me really wishes I had let Moony and Padfoot off the rat that night in the shrieking shack. Then Padfoot would still be alive."
"But Harry you said it yourself, you didn't think your dad would want his best friends to become murderers."
"No but it's alright for me to be a murderer. Dad knew that… He knew the entire prophesy…"
"Not a murderer Harry… think of yourself as an Executioner… you have to rid the world of the evil that is Tom Marvolo Riddle…"
Harry smiled at Hermione's justification and leaned over kissing her gently on the lips. "This is another one of those reasons I love you, you keep me grounded but you also can help me understand what my destiny truly is."
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Author's Note:
On our way back from Canada, the children and I were in a car accident; totaling our car, however we walked away with no serious injuries. At the time I had my computer (at least the tower that is) in the trunk of the car, having taken it to my husband to work on. I also had in our possession ALL of my computer discs as well as my entire collection of Harry Potter Books on CD. When I had retrieved everything from the wreckage… I found that I had lost my entire collection of computer discs along with some of my Harry Potter discs. As I sat down to work on this story as well as others, I was terribly afraid that I had lost what I had written. I knew I had 'It Happened One Night' still on my hard drive, however, I had thought I had saved 'HBx2' to CD so that I could share it with my husband.
Not only did God look out for my children and I keeping us basically uninjured (I do have some back and neck injuries but nothing that can't be taken care of with Physical Therapy), but Merlin kept my story big story safe… I have lost some of my work… including some of my professional stuff… That I will have to start over with…
I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to update this story… I really feared having to start this one over again because of the accident and had already decided to revamp my story to carry it further into canon… even though it is REALLY AU anyway… So, for the time being this story is going to be paused… I will be updating my YAHOO! Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Muirnins_Musings/) first, before I update here… when I do update on Portkey it will be with the new and rewritten story… there will be a number of things I am changing but the storyline will be pretty much the same. There are also a few cookies posted of other Harry Potter Fan Fiction stories that I had been working on…
I will be moving August 13, 2004 to Canada so that the kids and I will be reunited with Lord Logan… But I want to take this time to THANK YOU ALL!!! for reading my work and reviewing it as well… I have a passion for writing and am trying to develop my storytelling so that it will be enjoyable to many others…
Hugs and Kisses…
As Always,
Muirnin, Queen Mother-Royal Family of Cliffies
"An imaginative mind is a terrible thing to waste..."
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