Harry Potter and the Memories of a Sociopath, Ch 21: Hunting Dark Lords

Harry was slowly picking at the remains of his breakfast when Merry Tavington handed him an envelope and quickly walked away. He absentmindedly opened it and began reading, "Potter, meet me at 8:30 in previous meeting location. DM". Harry sighed.

"Good morning, Harry." Hermione sat down next to him.

"Morning", Harry replied.

"Harry, do you know anything about the rumors going around?"

"Rumors?"

"About missing Hufflepuffs? About the Chamber of Secrets?"

"That sounds bad. What are people saying?"

"People say lots of things. I was hoping you knew something more solid. You are the heir of Slytherin, after all. Don't you know something about the Chamber?"

Harry frowned, "I don't know anything about the Chamber that you don't already know."

Hermione's eyes narrowed, "Why aren't you more curious? Salazar left a room for his descendants. There must be something really important there."

Harry stared at her for a moment, then replied, "Well, there aren't many things that last for centuries. Odds are there's nothing of value left down there."

Hermione shrugged, "So what are you working on today?"

"Oh, just the usual."

"You think you could make that a little more vague?"

"Secret meeting, class, homework, secret meeting, lunch, class, secret project, class, dinner, secret project. You know, the usual."

"Whatever." She got up and walked away.

After a few minutes, Harry got up and went to his secret meeting with Draco.

"Potter."

"Malfoy. I guess you're talking to me again."

"This is important, Potter. Are you sure you weren't followed?"

Harry closed the door, and cast 15 privacy spells, "It's as secure as I can make it in the castle without asking someone else for help."

"I guess that will have to be good enough... I shouldn't have to tell you this, but there's something wrong with Hermione."

"What have you noticed?"

Draco groaned, "Have you seriously noticed nothing? What have you been doing?"

"I have my suspicions, but your observations might provide critical information."

"She's been pretty inconspicuous all year (which is odd by itself but not my problem), then first thing this morning, she tries to interrogate me about father's death. It was almost like a Weasley prank, except even more classless than their usual. And I heard she was asking the Hufflepuffs questions about missing students."

"So you first noticed her acting unusual today?"

"You heard what I said. Now stop pretending you don't know anything."

Harry sighed, "She was asking me about the Chamber of Secrets this morning. But I don't know what she's trying to do."

"That's... not a bad question. You are the Heir of Slytherin. What do you know about the Chamber?"

"Draco-"

"And we've never had a chance to talk about last year. We both know the story you told everyone at the quidditch stadium wasn't the whole truth. What do you really know about that?" After a pause, Draco added, "And that implies that you know something about the missing students, because this is all clearly connected somehow."

"Draco... I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can say now that you'll believe, so I'm just going to go."

Harry quietly said, "I should have thought of this earlier, but the map will show... whoever... is possessed by Voldemort as 'Tom Riddle'. We can use it to track him and confirm who his host is."

McGonagall wordlessly retrieved the map and opened it on the table.

Moody questioned, "Are you sure he can't fool it?"

Harry shrugged, "I can't be sure, but it's not confunded and it can see through polyjuice potion, disillusionment, and even my invisibility cloak."

Bones replied, "This is... good. We can use the map and find him right now. But what then? I assume he'll jump bodies as soon as he knows we know, and then we'll have to start over. And then what?"

Moody nodded, "I have some good aurors on stand-by. We'll have to take him down quickly. But it's Voldemort so we'll have to be prepared for everything."

Harry continued, "The core of my plan is for someone to time-turn back with information on Voldemort's location when he's alone. So we can guarantee that the aurors will be there in time (possibly even before Voldemort arrives) and that no students will be around. The details will be more complicated; for one, we have to assume Voldemort has a time-turner. So we'll need anti-time wards in place in addition to anti-apparition, anti-portkey wards and something to detect disillusioned or polyjuiced people or animagi, etc."

McGonagall replied, "With Mr. Lupin's help, the warding specialists are reportedly making progress, but I don't believe they can do something as complicated as anti-time warding yet."

Harry sighed, "Okay, we can fake that: in addition to information on Voldemort's location, someone brings some innocuous information from six hours ahead and announces it in the Great Hall at dinner, so no one in the room will be able to time turn for an hour. We'll need a location for Voldemort during that hour, but you can order an early curfew to get the students out of the way and send aurors straight to him."

McGonagall groaned softly, "I don't like plans involving time-turners. What if we get information about when and where 'Tom Riddle' is alone, gather at that place and time, and find that we only went there because you were there... because we got a message that you were there... I hate time-turners."

Moody scoffed, "That's easy enough. Harry, you're not hunting Voldemort. Either stay in a a crowded place or inform us of where you're going. And we won't plan a raid on your office or one of your classrooms."

Bones suggested, "If Trelawney makes the announcements, he probably won't dare not listen and it won't be as suspicious if the message doesn't make sense. But how many aurors are required for their combined power to match Voldemort? We're not talking about arresting a dangerous wizard so much as waging a small war."

Harry groaned and lowered his head into his hands mumbling, "It's not about power, it's about efficiency."

Moody stared at Harry, "I heard him say something like that once. We thought it was just a taunt. But you know what it means."

Harry answered slowly, "There's... Voldemort clearly knows some Interdicted spells that have been lost to everyone else. But there's a pattern in the way he fights... I've... heard about multiple instances where someone cast a spell at him- standard things that most wizards could shield against- but he'd neutralize them... somehow... that definitely didn't use a shield."

Harry paused for few seconds then continued, "I think Voldemort can absorb magic from spells, similar to the way his dueling targets can absorb magic. It doesn't matter if one person casts a stunner at him or if 40 people cast stunners at him, the spells will fizzle out in mid-air. I believe he can drain shields the same way... He might even be able to directly drain people's magical reserves until they pass out for a moment."

Moody nodded, "Something like that wouldn't work on unforgiveables. Or other dark magic."

Bones added, "I doubt you could imperius him. How many killing curses could you cast at him?"

Moody replied, "I think I could kill him at least a few times for friends of mine he's killed. But I can't imagine how he casts so many killing curses at total strangers."

Harry suggested, "I think we need a dementor; that's one of the only things Voldemort won't be able to deal with, so he'll have to abandon his host. We get info from the future about where he is and who he's possessing. Moody and other aurors cast killing curses (they can use the map to determine safe directions so no one else is hit) at Voldemort to back him into a corner. Some muggle explosives might also help. I can mask the dementor with a patronus so he can't sense it and then release it when he's cornered with it."

Moody glanced at Harry, "You aren't going to be there. We have other people who can cast a patronus."

Harry countered, "But with those, people can still sense the dementor. I think it has to be me."

Everyone else responded in the negative.

"Fine. But it is not acceptable to kill Voldemort's host. He's going to survive either way."

The meeting concluded shortly afterwards. As soon as Harry was out of the room, Bones stopped everyone and announced, "I'm authorizing lethal force. Do whatever you need to do, Mad-Eye."

"...as a result, a new curfew is in effect: until further notice, all students will return directly to their common rooms after dinner and remain there until morning. Professors will accompany students to verify that everyone is accounted for." McGonagall finished as the plates disappeared from the tables.

Trelawney's magically amplified voice boomed through the hall, "The location of importance will be 4-K-19 and the roll will be 3."

There was silence for a moment before the hall filled with whispers and the students hesitantly moved toward the exit.

"Yes, we just got the anti-polyjuice and anti-disillusionment wards in place a few hours ago", Lupin reported.

Moody nodded and turned to Lyall.

"He's going to pass through this hallway in 52 minutes", Lyall pointed at a room on the map. "I know it's cutting it close, but he's going to spend most of the next hour in this area where he will be relatively close to students straggling on their way to their dorms. How much other information do you want?"

Moody considered for a second, "Nothing until I specifically ask. We're already breaking normal protocol by deploying before you collected your intelligence. We're setting ourselves up for nasty time-turner side effects if we know too much. Wait, does anyone else other than my team walk through that hallway while my team is there?"

"Yes, Professor Lockhart enters the area a-"

"That's enough. Okay, no one kill Lockhart. Unless he gives you a good reason. Or a half-decent reason... So let's get the dementor in place back here, put the C4 here and here, the sniper nest here, and everyone else in here. Remember, I want the C4 hidden behind the statues, not magically concealed and, Lupin, I want fidelius charms around the sniper, the other aurors, and around the dementor."

"I can't set up three fidelius charms in an hour. Pick one."

Moody sighed, "Fine. You need a rectangle, right? Can you put two of the ward anchors in this room, one down the hallway here, and one in this room?"

"That should be fine."

"Okay, the sniper nest will be just inside of the hallway ward anchor and that will also cover most of these two rooms. Aurors will hide in this one, and the dementor team in the other. To summarize one final time, when Voldie's host crosses this line, trigger the C4. I want you twelve at this doorway, three prone, three kneeling behind them, three standing behind them, and three for backup. Your goal is to keep Voldie on the defensive after he ducks into the opposing room for cover from the blast. If you're not in the right state of mind to cast a killing curse, get out of the way so someone else can take your place. Unless the shooting has already started- in that case, switch to the cruciatus. Once he's pinned down, you three release your patroni and order the dementor in there. I'll follow up with fiendfyre. If Voldie turns back or goes anywhere besides this room, I want a headshot. And then empty the magazine. If you here a shot, release the dementor immediately. And this wall will be charmed so you can target killing curses through it if necessary. Any questions about what we're going to do?... Then what are you all waiting for? Move, move, move!"

The crowd of students had thinned out somewhat as they approached Ravenclaw Tower, as students from other houses had followed other paths back to their own common rooms. But the whole crowd still came to an instant stop when the students in front suddenly stopped walking.

While the other students were attempting to figure out what was going through a loud variant of the telephone game, Harry levitated above their heads and flew forward.

He stopped just as suddenly as the others had. Written in large red letters, possibly blood: "Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever".

Harry sped back over the crowd, headed for the fifth floor entrance they had found that morning.

A voice cut through the din, "Harry..."

"Sorry, Luna. I'm pretty busy at the moment."

"You're looking for something? Or someone?"

Harry stopped. "Yes. There's supposed to be a secret room in the castle-"

"You mean the Chamber of Secrets? That's where Ginny took Hermione."

"What?"

"Ginny took Hermione to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Where?"

"An entrance on the first floor girls bathroom, check the sink. Then straight down the hallway, first opening on the left."

"Thanks Luna, I owe you."

Time had slowed to a crawl.

"All units report", Moody whispered into his mirror for about the fifth time.

"Front line ready."

"Dementor team ready."

"Sniper nest ready... wait, I've got movement... It's Lockhart, approaching from downrange."

Moody growled, "All teams stand by." He leaned out the door and used a hover charm to pull Lockhart down the hallway and into the room.

After recovering his balance, Lockhart asked, "What's all this then?"

"Shut up, stand over there, don't move, and most importantly, shut up."

"You know I could help with whatev-"

"What did I just say?"

Lockhart stepped back and made a series of hand gestures indicating acceptance.

"All units report", Moody whispered.

"Front line ready."

"Dementor team ready."

"Sniper nest ready."

A few minutes passed.

"I've got movement... one suspect, cloaked and hooded."

Everyone tensed, preparing for battle.

"About ten seconds at current speed."

...

"C4 in three seconds... two... one..."

They had all applied silencing charms in preparation, but the sound that got through was still impressive. The figure managed to get a partial shield behind itself soon enough to survive the shrapnel and ducked into the room to its left.

The hallway between the rooms lit up with flashes of green light for a second before the figure cast a blindingly bright ball of white light. The aurors continued firing curses blindly into the room. The light dimmed significantly as the dementor glided forward, and went out entirely as the dementor entered the room and closed in on its prey.

"Expecto patronum", he said weakly. No patronus appeared and the dementor put its skeletal hands on his shoulders and pulled itself within inches of the man's face.

"Did Voldemort just try to cast a patronus?", someone asked.

"IT'S LOCKHART!", yelled Bahry, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" His patronus pushed the dementor back.

Moody started to spin around when-

"Avada kedavra."

Moody dove to his left, spun in midair, and brought up his wand, "Avada-"

Lockhart (#1) was half-smiling as he activated his time-turner and disappeared.

"DAMMIT!" Moody yelled. He ran to the other room and pulled Lockhart to his feet, "You are going to give me some answers or I will rip them from your mind!"

"I had no choice. No choice. There's no choice. Never any choice. All a lie." Moody released him, and Lockhart collapsed into a sitting position, mumbling to himself.

"The dementor kissed him?"

Bahry shook his head, "I don't know. I was sure I stopped it in time. His dementor exposure should have been minimal."

Moody quickly checked Lockhart for polyjuice and possession. "You four, take him to St. Mungo's and keep him guarded. Have them check for metamorphmagus magic and see if they can figure out what's wrong with him. And get a legilimens in there to dig some information out of his head about what he's been doing. DAMMIT!"

Harry reached the end of the sink-tunnel and the beginning of a hallway. There was a table with a cauldron, glassware, and potions ingredients he recognized as those required for liquid luck. Luckily for him, the potion had clearly failed. The floor was littered with empty containers that he recognized as ingredients for polyjuice potion. Clearly Luna had directed him to the right place. He proceeded down the hallway.

Harry quickly took in the Chamber of Secrets. It was a relatively plain room other than for the massive statue. And the robed figure standing over what looked like a ten-foot long dead snake.

The figure turned to face him and drew back its hood, revealing a redheaded girl. "Oh, good, you got my message. We're long overdue for a real conversation. You have a certain reputation. We'll see if it's deserved. Let's start with something easy: have you deduced who I am?"

Harry just stared at Ginny for a moment in disbelief. She was holding a book with "Tom Marvolo Riddle" printed across the front in large letters. Finally he answered sarcastically, "Let me guess: something of a Riddle?"

Ginny hissed at him then angrily announced, "I am Lord Voldemort."

Harry chuckled, "I knew Voldemort, and you sir, are no Voldemort. Voldemort was one of the smartest people I've ever met. You may be above average by wizard standards of intelligence, but trust me, you're nothing special."

Ginny continued, "My name is actually an anagram of-"

"Marvolo isn't even your real middle name! I mean, it wasn't even the real Tom Riddle's real middle name. And why would you base your alter-ego on an anagram? Do you think anyone even cares about that? It's just dumb."

"If you use that muggle name again, you will regret it."

"Would you prefer Ginny Weasley?"

Ginny chuckled, "I've gotten quite skilled at playing that role. Though I'm mildly surprised you remember that name."

"I admit this is the first time I've seen Ginny do anything interesting."

Ginny chuckled again, "Fair point. On a somewhat related topic, what do you think about us collaborating on a project?"

"You recently killed several people. Including some who were useful and interesting. So you can understand that I'm not particularly inclined to help you with... what is it you want to do?"

Ginny smiled, "Become Minister of Magic and lead Wizarding Britain."

Harry shrugged, "Naturally. To quote my old defense professor, you are ambitious but you have no ambition."

"You think I'd tell you any plans of significance just because you asked?"

Harry shrugged and gestured at the snake, "You seem like the kind of person who would do something like that. Anyway, you're breeding basilisks. And using them to kill for you."

"Yes. That's all part of my master plan. Those students would have inevitably opposed me at critical times, so I had to eliminate them as soon as possible. I certainly didn't let the basilisk escape accidentally."

Harry's eyes widened for a second as he tried to calculate what level of deception that was, then replied, "That means you didn't just lose your temper and kill it. You intended to have a basilisk corpse over there because that's just your taste in interior decorating."

Ginny scowled at him, "Fine. I want the knowledge Slytherin's basilisk had. Creating my own basilisk was a small part of one possible plan for accomplishing that." Her expression lightened, "If you can contribute to that end, I will acknowledge your usefulness. Perhaps I'll even share some of the lost spells with you."

"Honestly, I am more than a little interested in getting those spells, but what exactly do you bring to the table in that arrangement?"

Ginny hissed, "I have far more experience with basilisks in general and Slytherin's basilisk specifically than anyone alive, including you, annoying child. I also have some memories of using some of the spells, so small hints may allow me to remember much more. What can you offer?"

Harry shrugged, "If you don't know, why are you asking for my help?"

Ginny looked angry for a moment, then smiled sweetly, "If you don't work with me, you'll never find Hermione."

"'Never' is a strong word. This place isn't that big."

"I don't think you're taking me seriously. Don't you realize who I am?"

"I'm not and I do. You're a first-year witch who has absorbed some memories from a seventh-year wizard who was an egomaniac and a wannabe dark lord. You think you're Voldemort, but you don't don't have his battle magic skills or experience, you don't have his knowledge of magic or his magical power, you don't have his followers, and you don't have his intelligence. The only important thing seventh year Tom Riddle had done is kill someone to make that diary. That doesn't make you a dark lord or an evil genius, just a thug with an ego."

"I think you're trying to anger me into making a mistake. Not a bad tactic, but clumsily executed. And obviously, I'm younger than the Voldemort this world knows, but I have the same potential. My future will be even greater because I will gain the same powers without repeating his mistakes."

"You have no future. Ginny will go home to her family and you will cease to exist."

She giggled, "There is no Ginny. I obliviated every one of her memories except for a few I needed to fool her family and friends."

"Yeah, that's the lie I'd tell in your place."

She cast a bat-bogey hex at him, then announced, "You're testing my patience."

Harry let his robe reflect the hex, "I'm a scientist. I test everything."

"So be it. Diffindo." She cast the curse not at Harry, but at the ceiling above him, cracking it and causing several large stone blocks to fall. "Jellyfy." As Harry was running out of the way of the falling rocks, he slipped and hit the ground, continuing to slide forward. "Avada kedarvra." Ginny dropped to a knee from the magical drain, while the green curse flew out on course to intercept Harry.

Harry accelerated, flying along the ground and the curse entered the floor behind him.

Meanwhile, Ginny called out, "Bassilissk, kill the intruder."

Harry ascended off of the floor, but landed awkwardly, "Bassilissk, go back to ssleep." He kept his gaze down, but heard something large moving behind the statue. He then fired a series of somniums in Ginny's direction.

She raised a prismatic sphere. "Silly child, an inferius only obeys its creator's commands."

The large something was getting closer. "Do the eyes of basilisk inferi kill? Or does that magic stop when they die?" Harry fumbled with his pouch.

"That's something else we can investigate together. I'll be the researcher, and you can be the test subject. I think I'm starting to see the appeal of this 'science' thing."

Harry activated the deluminator and the room plunged into darkness as every light went out. He quietly said, "That's another point for you, Dumbledore." He then ascended toward the ceiling, cast ventriliquo, and pointed his wand at the floor below him.

Ginny giggled, "Even if my basilisk can't see you, it can still hear you."

"Snakes can't hear, moron, they only feel vibrations." Harry tapped his glasses with his wand to activate his newest set of charms, then muttered, "crap", when nothing happened.

"Then how do they respond to parseltongue, you idiot?" She cast a series of glisseos, trying to either find Harry or help the basilisk locate him.

"That's just a magical linguistic interface, not a sense snakes can actually use." Harry slapped his palm to his forehead. He ripped a strip of cloth from his robes and tied it into blindfold. Once sufficiently separated from the room with the active deluminator, his glasses lit up. It had taken half the year and ultimately Flitwick's map-drawing spell, but Harry finally had a decent way to see in the dark: his glasses emitted ultrasonic pulses and used the return signals to draw a depth map.

Harry almost screamed. The basilisk inferius was about 20 meters long and its head was less than 3 meters away. It sniffed the air, turned slightly and sniffed again, clearly zeroing in on Harry. He dropped quickly and flew to the other side of the room. He decided to use Ginny as a human shield, and slowly flew a few circles around her to leave a scent trail.

She yelled, "I command you, sstrike now, sstupid ssnake!"

Harry watched the basilisk follow the path he'd flown, open its mouth and strike. The momentum drove Ginny's prismatic sphere backward into the wall. The snake backed up and prepared to strike again. Harry cast a shield-breaker which easily popped the overstressed shield, then cast a hover charm to rip the diary out of her hand and propel it onto one of the basilisk's fangs.

Ginny screamed and passed out. The basilisk fell to the ground, dead once again.