The next day after classes had finished, Harry decided to head straight to his room, not really in the mood to do anything.
Hermione had been avoiding him all day, likely due to their conversation yesterday, something that annoyed Harry a lot. Harry could admit that it was very irritating when Hermione always went off on him for keeping something secret from her when she was fine doing it against him, she would even huff and complain if he ever told her to wait. Harry recalled how last year Hermione had guessed that the basilisk was attacking students from the Hogwarts pipes but didn't tell Harry and Ron, instead she decided to rush off to the library to confirm her theory first. As far as Harry was concerned, it would have been a lot better if she had told them her theory first and then went off to the library, that way they could've gone with her to help her check and maybe they could've helped her avoid getting caught by the basilisk.
'Or maybe you all would've gotten caught by the basilisk.' Venom thought.
'Shut up,' Harry thought back in a tired voice as he walked to the common room on his own, Ron not being with him thanks to getting detention with the 'loveable' bat of Slytherin, Snape. Harry walked at a calm pace, alone in his own thoughts as the corridor was empty at the moment, though he stopped a second later when his enhanced hearing allowed him to hear someone say something rather interesting.
"It's a shame about Tonks." One voice said.
"I know, do you think she'll be okay?" Another voice asked. Harry walked ahead and peeked around the corner and saw a couple of aurors talking with each other. One of the aurors was female while the other was male.
"I hope so," The male auror replied. "I hope the high-ups don't give her a hard time about it as well."
"They might," The female frowned. "do you think this will mess up her chance of graduating to a proper auror?"
"Well, it won't help matters," The male auror sighed. "I mean, getting kidnapped doesn't look good for an auror."
"What?!" Harry hissed before he ran around the corner and rushed towards the two aurors. "Excuse me," He called as he quickly
stopped in front of the aurors. "did you guys say Tonks has been kidnapped?!"
"What's it to you?" The male auror frowned before the female spoke up.
"Holy quidditch, it's Harry Potter!" She blurted out, recognising his scar, a moment later the male auror also stared at him with wide eyes.
"Look, Tonks is my friend, and I want to know what happened to her!" Harry said impatiently, he was definitely not in the mood for adults over-reacting to his scar and treating him like a celebrity.
The two aurors exchanged looks before they turned to Harry.
"She was kidnapped," The female auror said in a soft voice. "during a walk around Diagon Alley, last we heard she had been taken into Knockturn Alley.
, IT
'Tonks is in danger!' Venom yelled, sounding quite distressed.
"But I wouldn't worry," The male auror said in a reassuring voice.
"the aurors will get her out."
"Yeah, exactly," The female smiled. "now, you should run along, don't worry about Tonks. She'll be perfectly safe."
'I doubt it.' Venom snorted while Harry dumbly nodded and walked off.
'Do you think that Tonks will be safe?' Harry mentally asked
Venom.
'No,' Venom answered bluntly. 'we should go and help her.'
'Help her? You mean dress up in black and go there?'
'Yeah, I can get a good meal or two while we're there.'
'Fine,' Harry said after a few moments of thinking. 'but you're not eating anybody's head.'
'Please!' Venom begged.
'No, but if you be good then l'll let you eat a limb or two, as long as you keep that person alive.' Harry sighed.
'Deal.' Venom agreed, he knew that this would be the best compromise he would get from Harry, at least for now.
'Good, now how the hell do we get out of the castle without getting caught?' Harry wondered.
'The chamber of secrets,' Venom replied. 'go in there and then use the pipes to sneak towards the forbidden forest. Once we get out of the pipes then we'll teleport.'
'You can teleport?' Harry asked with amazement.
'No, but you can.' Venom quickly sent Harry a memory of Harry running from Dudley's gang and suddenly appearing on top of a school roof.
'That was accidental magic,' Harry pointed out. 'I can't do that
again.'
'I can make you do it again,' Venom said confidently. 'once we get into Diagon we can sneak into Knockturn then l'll be able to track her down, now, get on with it.' He said once Harry stepped into an alcove and looked around, spotting no students or teachers or even ghosts. There were a couple of paintings but thankfully they were currently sleeping at the moment. Harry nodded and a second later Venom turned him invisible.
'Let's do it.' Harry took in a deep breath before he started heading towards the chamber of secrets.
"How long do you plan to keep me here, you gormless, knobs?"
Tonks said quite loudly.
"Quiet!" A voice snapped, causing Tonks to roll her eyes.
Tonks looked around the large room she was in, once more assessing her situation. She was currently tied to a wooden chair with her feet tied to the chair's front legs and her arms tied to the armrests of the chair, inside the room were nine hostiles dressed in black, one of which was a nervous-looking female that appeared to be missing a hand. A few meters behind her was a small table with a few cups of tea on it, behind that was a large window that allowed her a view of the outside but was clearly charmed so that nobody could see the inside unless these people were bigger idiots than she thought. The floor, wall and ceilings were wooden and easily breakable (Unless they were charmed) so she had another way out if she could get to her wand, which was currently in the female's pocket.
"I don't like this," The female shivered. "we should finish this quickly in case...you know, 'it', comes here.
"Oh, 'it', yeah, right scary that." One of the men laughed.
"You weren't there!" The woman hissed angrily. "That bloody thing cost me my hand!" She snarled, holding up her stump wrist.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a wizard with an illusion charm?"
Another asked, sighing as he did so.
"It was no illusion!" She shrieked. "I saw the thing with my own two eyes! Rose up like it was too horrible for hell and stared at me with its white eyes and sharp teeth!"
"Calm yourself," He replied. "we'll just hold up here until the aurors finish their search, when they find nothing we'll sneak the metamorph out."
"The 'metamorph' has a name, you know," Tonks spoke up. "and the correct term is 'metamorphmagus', asshole."
"Whatever." The man before he walked past Tonks to where the table was before he picked up a cup of tea and then turned around to face the others.
"We need to leave as soon as possible," The woman insisted, shaking her head.
"Look," Another man said. "we..." Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the sound of the window smashing.
Everyone turned to face the window and saw that it had indeed been smashed as there was a massive hole in the middle of it, the man that was about to drink his tea was now lying face down on the floor, his head had made a noticeable dent in the wooden floor. But that wasn't the biggest point of interest for everybody in the room, it was instead the person that had his hand on top of the man's head, the person who had actually landed on top of the man and had one knee on his back.
This new arrival had a thin body, covered from head to toe in black except for the white spider logo that was on his front and back, not to mention the white tear-drop shaped eyes on his head. The new arrival looked around the room as his upper body swayed in a circle motion, the swaying continued for another ten seconds before his gaze stopped upon the woman.
"We remember you!" He grinned, his mouth shifting to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth, causing the woman to let out a frightened scream as she took a step back before tripping and falling on her butt. He laughed as his teeth disappeared once more, his deep voice not helping the situation as it sent shivers straight down everybody's spines.
"Who the hell are you?" One of the men demanded, aiming a wand at him.
"Who we are?" The figure asked. "That's easy, we are Venom." He laughed before he pushed himself off the man and performed a backflip that caused him to land behind the table, he kicked the table and it flew across the room before crashing into the man who had aimed a wand at him. The table sent him flying back and crashing into the man behind him, taking them both out. The others (with the exception of the woman who was still paralysed with fear) fired at Venom who quickly jumped up in the air, he shot out a tentacle from each arm that grabbed two of the men and pulled them into the air with him. Venom spun around and tossed the two into two others, taking out all four of them.
Venom eyed the last two, they both fired a spell at him, Venom lept over the spells and grabbed the nearest one before tossing him straight at the ceiling. Venom turned to face the last one and got hit with a spell just as the other one had fallen down from the ceiling and landed on the floor with a loud crash.
"Ow." Venom's dry voice was accompanied by a bit of black on his shoulder shifting briefly before returning to normal.
"Oh my..." The wizard who had shot him trailed off in horror. "I..."
The man was cut off as Venom grabbed him by the neck and raised him in the air before viciously executing the wrestling move known as a 'chokeslam', leaving the wizard knocked unconscious and likely to be in tremendous amounts of pain when he woke up, providing that his injury didn't cause death.
"And there was one left," Venom chuckled as he turned to the woman who was now recovered enough to begin reaching into her robes for a wand with her remaining hand. Unfortunately, for her, she was cut off when a tentacle from Venom grabbed her and yanked her to Venom who caught her by the neck. "naughty, naughty, very naughty girl." Venom laughed as he effortlessly held her up with one hand. "We took away a hand and you didn't learn, maybe we should take away your head instead."
'No, Venom,' Harry's voice interrupted. 'no eating heads.'
'Spoilsport.' Venom thought back.
"One more chance," Venom told her. "the next time, we eat your head."
"Oh yes!" The woman said quickly. "Please, thank you! Thank you!
I…l'l change my ways! Turn a new leaf! I promise!"
"Good, good," Venom purred. "but...maybe we should give you proper motivation, just in case."
"What?! NO!" The woman barely managed to get the word out before Venom bit off her other hand, he dropped her to the floor as she rolled around, screaming in pure agony.
"Baby." Venom snorted at her behaviour before picking up a nearby wand and flicking it at her, causing the wound to become covered in bandages. "You'll live long enough to see a healer." He told her as he tossed the wand away and walked to Tonks.
'Apparently, I can do magic when I'm in control, good to know.' Venom thought just before he stopped in front of a wide-eyed and completely shocked Tonks.
"Who the hell are you?" Tonks barely managed to get the words out of her mouth without stuttering. "What are you?"
"We are Venom," Venom told her proudly, giving her a small bow as he did so.
"But…..but there's only one of you." Tonks couldn't help but point out.
"If there was only one of us then we wouldn't have said 'we', would we?" Venom asked Tonks in a patient and logical manner.
"Is there somebody else here?" She asked in a confused voice as she looked around the room.
"No," Venom sighed before he pointed to himself. "WE are
Venom." He emphasised by jabbing himself in the chest with his finger.
"I…am really stupid right now, and very confused," Tonks admitted, still staring at him with wide eyes. Venom let out a deep huff, he was about to say something before he paused and patted Tonks on the shoulder.
"Not your fault, you're in shock." He told her comfortingly. "When you get better then you'll remember how awesome we were and you'll understand."
"Probably." Tonks nodded as she agreed, not knowing what else to
do.
"Good girl." Venom fingertips on his right hand sharpened before he swung his arm in her direction, Tonks flinched and closed her eyes, though a moment later she opened them when she realised that he had actually been cut the ropes that kept her tied to the chair.
"Um...thanks."
"You're welcome." He told her as he grabbed her by the arm and gently helped her up.
"Wow!" Tonks let out a deep breath as she stepped past him and looked at the destruction that he had left behind. "Are you sure that..." She trailed off when she looked back and saw that he had disappeared. A moment later she expertly expressed her thoughts through a series of well-spoken words. "What the fuck?!"