Harry staggered into the Chamber of Secrets, his hands filled with boxes of obscure magical components.
"I've gotten what you've asked for!" yelled Harry, dropping the boxes gently onto the cobblestone flooring of the chamber.
It had been just more than two weeks since the start of term, and had gone by rather fast for Harry. The leaves that were once a luscious green now littered the Hogwarts Grounds, colours varying from yellow to red. A gentle breeze had begun to develop, serenely caressing anything that went against its current.
The first of the several special events of the year would be taking place today. It was currently two in the morning, the date September 17th. Last night all of the students had been told that their Head of House would lead them to breakfast at seven tomorrow (which was unusually early for a Saturday), in order to meet the Auror guards. Salazar had wanted Harry to attempt his first ritual today, stating that he would be more than ready for breakfast in a few hour's time.
Harry had come up with a schedule that would allow him to spend around six hours with Salazar, learning under his tutelage. He would sneak out at night every evening, returning a few hours before class started. On the weekends, Harry would spend nearly twelve hours with the portrait. He would also sneak in for an hour or two across the day, whenever he had free time.
This was thanks to an old spell Salazar had taught Harry when the portrait noticed Harry was barely remaining awake. The spell allowed Harry to only need a few hours of sleep, so long as he remembered to cast it on him before he dozed off. As a matter of fact, the only thing that had kept Harry from entering a deep sleep was Salazar's constant swearing. The portrait seemed to curse quite a bit more than he should, something that was definitely not mentioned in the History books.
Luckily for Harry, Ron had not seemed to notice his 'best mate' constantly disappearing. Instead, the redhead spent most of his time telling anyone who would listen about how he would be the next great Hogwarts Champion. While Harry privately found the idea absurd, many others seemed to follow his train of thought, all believing they would be judged worthy to fight for their school. Harry had heard from Dean that every single one of the Gryffindor first years had planned on competing in the tournament, much to the annoyance of Professor McGonagall.
It seemed as though nearly all of the Gryffindors seemed interested in the tournament, even Neville and Hermione (although the latter was more interested in the different types of magic they might see than they were the actual tournament).
Harry had walked into the Gryffindor common room one evening to find the entire house listening to Cormac McLaggen, who was reading aloud news clippings from 1529 through 1684, all editions on the Triwizard Tournament's first task. Apparently, the first task had a particular theme of using dangerous magical creatures.
"'The first task of the 1634-1635 Triwizard Tournament involved stealing a highly valuable treasure from a Gryphon.' " read McLaggen, "'The champions were all told that they were allowed to keep the treasure, should they succeed in stealing it. The treasures were all valued at around five hundred galleons.' That's like fifty thousand galleons with today's currency!"
The Gryffindors had all cheered loudly, many hugging the person beside them. They had all seemed less enthused, however, when Harry had snatched the news clipping and continued to read, "'Regrettably, all three champions died during the task, leaving none capable of claiming the treasure.' "
He had been scorned by the other Gryffindors for a bit after that one. Particularly Ron, who was upset Harry was trying to 'discourage his chance at making a name for himself', or something equally absurd.
Hermione, on the other hand, had immediately noticed Harry's disappearances, the only others who noticed being the three Quidditch Chasers (though they rarely commented on it). She had initially noticed when Harry suddenly started performing much better in his academics; Harry was now the first to complete all magic involving assignments in Transfiguration, Charms, Defence and Runes. While his written work in his classes was still fairly average, everything that involved using magic had suddenly improved, earning immense praise from all of their professors (except Snape, of course).
Hermione had not seemed to like the change, and had chosen to spend much more time in the library studying, likely hoping to be the best once more. She had also been rather annoyed at Harry lately; perhaps she was not used to being second at anything. Harry didn't understand her reaction; she was still far ahead of him on the academic leaderboard, even if he was showing skill in using magic.