Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 23: Lost Things
Harry sighed. "Must we do this again? I'm growing tired of your impertinence."
"S-shut up!" Ron pulled his wand with difficulty as his hand was trembling.
"See your hand? It is your instincts warning you to back away from the danger. I am not someone you want to face… boy." Harry's green eyes seemed to glow for a moment as he spoke.
Ron lowered his trembling hand while beads of sweat fell across his face. When he looked at Harry, it felt like he was underwater and couldn't breathe or move properly.
Both Seamus and Neville were also feeling the same.
Harry was an expert in the mind arts, and Legilimency could be used for more than just reading people's thoughts. It could be employed to create illusions or completely mess with people's minds if they didn't have enough defenses.
He was not used to having to consider a non-lethal option when dealing with those who got in his way, but given his current situation, Harry was doing his best to improvise with the tools at his disposal.
"Let's go." He said to Hermione before he began walking away.
None of the three boys had the will to try to stop him now. He passed completely unencumbered this time.
"Sigh…"
Hermione glanced at him. "Something wrong, Harry? You look disappointed."
"I am very disappointed." He looked down at himself as they walked. "It appears I no longer possess the Parseltongue ability."
"You don't? But… on second year…"
"I know that." He was really looking forward to using that. Parseltongue was an extremely rare skill that only a handful of dark wizards could use.
Upon learning about it from the memories he had received from the previous owner of this body, and discovering what had occurred in the second year, he…
'I was looking forward to testing that… and this also means that opening the Chamber of Secrets will be much more difficult.' He already had a few ideas on how to put that room to good use.
Now he will have to figure out how to get inside without that ability.
It was also unknown to him if the Headmaster had put some security measures in place after learning about its existence.
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"This selection is quite poor." Harry looked down at the books in front of him.
"Should I look for something else?" Hermione asked.
"No… I will take a look anyway. I shouldn't have expected much from a school library in any case." Harry rested on his chair and began to browse through the books that Hermione had provided him with.
Everyone in the library was staring at them with interest.
Harry had been the center of attention since his name came out of the cup, but this had become even more intense now that the tournament was over.
Since the Headmaster had given the news about the fate of Cedric Diggory, countless rumors had been circulating about Harry.
Despite Dumbledore insisting that Harry was not to blame, this was not something that would deter the majority of students who already saw him in a negative light.
The most popular rumor blamed the death of Cedric on Harry, saying that there was never a mysterious attacker and that it was Harry who murdered Cedric to win the tournament because he was jealous of Cedric's popularity.
And that was just in the morning. After lunch, another rumor started to go through from mouth to mouth, claiming that Harry had sent a group of Slytherin students to the infirmary when they confronted him about Cedric's death.
Now they were seeing him at the library with Hermione Granger. Everyone knew that they used to be best friends but got into an argument at the start of the tournament and barely talked after that.
"Everyone is staring at us," Hermione pointed out.
"I don't find it particularly pleasant either. But it's not like I can kill them all." As much as he would like to do just that.
This was another reason for wanting to enter the Chamber of Secrets. It could be a good, tranquil place to be when he needed to focus on one task, like right now.
He continued to browse through the books for a while longer, and his face began to show an increase in his displeasure.
"This won't do… the information I want is not going to be found here."
"Perhaps the Forbidden Section?" Hermione suggested.
"Ah yes… I almost forgot about that." Harry's eyes moved towards the closed section of the library.
If there was a chance to find a book on the subject that he was researching, it would be there.
'I wonder what they did with my library.' Harry thought. After all, he had spent decades collecting valuable tomes and storing them in Azkaban.
However, during his brief visit there, he noted that what used to be his library was now being used as dormitories for the many Aurors who work and live in the prison.
Seeing how restrictive the current Ministry is when it comes to the use of dark magic, it was very likely that his old collection was either destroyed or locked in some secure room that no one could access.
Now he was regretting not storing some of those books in his secret treasury. In his defense, he had little time to prepare after learning about the imminent attack on his fortress.
"Very well… let's not waste more time in here." Harry placed the book down. "Take these back to their places and then we will leave."
"Yes, Harry." Hermione obeyed his command with no hesitation and got to work.
'I will have to return here tonight, when no more students are around, and take a look at that Forbidden Section.' Luckily for him, this was something that the original Harry had already done before.
He knew exactly how to accomplish this task without fail.
'Just need to grab my Invisibility Cloak.'
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