Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 40
Christmas break
Time passed and Christmas arrived once again. There had been no more attacks since the one on Filch's cat, and the alarms that Harry had placed in the chamber had not been triggered.
Whoever opened the Chamber was being patient or maybe he/she was waiting for something.
Susan, Hannah, and Luna had all gone to visit their families for the Holidays, so Harry was by himself in the castle, since those were the only three people he tolerated for more than a few minutes.
He spent most of his free time visiting the Room of requirements for practice.
His magic keeps growing more and more with no signs of stopping so he needs constant training to keep it under control.
If a normal wizard tried to control that much power, they would end up blowing up the entire class while trying to cast a Lumos.
'And I still haven't performed that last ritual. I will be unable to hide my magic any longer after completing the ritual, which means that I need to deal with Dumbledore before that. Mmm, or maybe I could just use the old man for the ritual.'
The image of Dumbledore laying on the ground, drying, looking at him in horror while He absorbs all of his magic and accumulated knowledge brought a smile to Harry's face.
He is suddenly interrupted from his happy thoughts when an owl he did not recognize flew into the great hall and stopped in front of him while carrying a small parcel.
He carefully picks up the package and inspects it for curses.
'One can never be too careful.'
There were none. He then opened the note that was stuck on top of the package.
"Dear Harry, MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you like it, we bought this together. From your friends, Susan and Hannah."
Inside the box was a very beautiful and rather elegant feather pen. It seem to be made of silver and had many elaborate engravings.
Harry was surprised, he did not expect any present.
He has received presents before, but those were more like offerings from his followers than actual presents.
"Friends uh?..."
'I suppose is only proper to send them something back.'
—---------------------------------------------------
He was on his way to the room of requirements for some training after sending Nagi with a message for Lorry.
'It would be so much easier if I could just call my elf here…'
He gave his elf the task of buying three presents and sent them to Susan, Hannah, and Luna and gave him a limit of 10.000 galleons to spend.
It may seem like a lot but he already had more money than he would probably ever need.
Not only does he have over a million galleons from the Lestrange vaults, but he still has the Potter vaults untouched.
And of course, there is the Philosopher stone. He hasn't even tried to create the longevity elixir since that requires a master in Alchemy. But he did try the stone's second ability to turn any metal into gold and it was surprisingly easy to do.
During the summer, he had Lorry provide him with several samples of metal and used the stone to transmute them into gold, then sold the gold to Gringotts. He would never have to worry about a lack of gold ever again.
—--------------------------------------------------
Headmasters office.
"Come on in," Dumbledores said in a relaxed manner.
Snape came into the office and notice that McGonagall was already inside and she seems very angry about something.
"Ah, Severus. Is good to see you, my friend. Are you enjoying the Christmas break?" Dumbledore smiled.
"Albus! Don't change the subject!." McGonagall seemed exasperated.
"My apologies Minerva." He looked towards Snape for a moment.
"Please take a seat, Severus. I will be with you in a moment. Minerva and I have some minor issues to solve." He finished and pointed at the other chair close to his desk.
"Minor?. Albus, have you really read those tests? They are ridiculous!." McGonagall's face was getting red.
Snape decided to intervene.
"May I know what is this about? What tests?"
McGonagall took some papers on top of the desk and with out saying a word she pretty much threw them into Snape's hands.
When he finished reading them, Snape's eyebrow rose up.
"Is this real?" he asked.
"Unfortunately. And Albus seems to think that this is a minor matter." McGonagall almost spat the words.
"Well, let's not get carried away, He is a new teacher after all," Dumbledore said in a placating manner.
"Headmaster, these are seventh-year D.A.D.A tests and the first question is, and I quote. 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's most secret desire that was revealed in his critically acclaimed novel 'Voyages with vampires''. End quote" Snape put the papers back onto the desk and looked at the headmaster, who was trying to look away.
"The man is a fraud, Albus and He is not teaching anything!. You have to do something." McGonagall demanded.
"Well Minerva, is not like we had a lot of choices for a professor this year. And I am sure that young Lockhart will do better, after the break. " Dumbledore adopted a serious pose and continue.
"But now that Severus is here, we can get to the reason I called you here."
"Is this about the Chamber of Secrets?" Snape asked and Dumbledore nodded.
"Indeed, I have written down some security measures that I wanted you to read and then pass to the other professors." He gave a piece of paper to Snape and another one to McGonagall.
After reading it carefully McGonagall asked.
"Are you sure this would be enough? These measures seem very lax. The last time that chamber was opened a student died."
"This time, the only victim so far has been a cat and is only petrified. I am not even sure anymore if the Chamber has really been open. Those security measures should suffice." Dumbledore responded.
"What made you change your mind Albus, the lack of attacks on students?" McGonagall asked.
"Well, that too. But I have a theory. A very special and rare ability is required to open that chamber and He doesn't seem to have it." Dumbledore answered cryptically.
"Albus what are you-" McGonagall was going to inquire further when the Headmaster raised his hand.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot say further for the moment."
"Fine, have your secrets." McGonagall rose up from her chair and left the office looking very frustrated.
Snape looked at the headmaster for a moment before speaking.
"Parseltongue... that's the ability required to open the chamber, isn't it?"
Dumbledore looked at Snape in surprise after he said that word and Snape continued.
"That's why you instructed me to teach that spell to Nott. You wanted to see if Potter had that ability. But why would you think that Potter-"
Dumbledore raised his hand again and looked at Snape.
"You can't tell me... very well, I'll take my leave." Snape rose up from his chair and turned to leave but then addressed the headmaster once more.
"Just…remember the promise I made. I will not brake it, no matter what your game is."
And then he left, leaving the headmaster alone once more.