82 Chapter 82: The First Move

I decided to change things up a bit and alter the schedule slightly. From now on, I'm uploading a chapter every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

15 October 1992, Hogwarts

After the end of September, the weather over the grounds and the castle of Hogwarts took quickly a turn for the worst. The practical potion classes were especially bad, considering the humidity and how cold the dungeons were, the heat from the cauldrons was simply not enough to offset the cold. Most of the upper years were relatively fine, having learnt the warming charm before, but the younger students, including Harry's classmates, were often sick, and commonly necessitated visits to the infirmary.

However, warming charms were prohibited in the Potions class. Apparently, ambient magic could affect potions in unpredictable ways, so enchanted torches and charmed clothes could easily cause an explosion. So, yeah, people barely tolerated potion class, and Snape's personality did not help. Harry still didn't know why Snape didn't add a fireplace or at least something warm. Not everything had to be magical to work. There had to be a reason because it was hard to see why Snape would be so spiteful as to make his students freeze to death and the fact that they had shaky hands caused a lot of accidents.

Very few people actually stayed in the corridors or hung out outside near the lake. Summer was definitely over, and Autumn was showing itself to be quite miserable. If this was any indication, then Winter would be horrible.

Hell, the constant rain that started since October began caused the Black Lake's water level to rise so high that it was submerging many students' summer spots, and the way to the greenhouse was so muddy that Filch almost gets a stroke every time he tries to clean up. Why he was even cleaning up, Harry had no idea. It wasn't anywhere in his duties as caretaker since the house elves were supposed to take care of it. The fact that he was a squib didn't hurt matters.

Still, for Harry things were going relatively well. Longbottom and Malfoy were so focused on Quidditch that they forgot entirely about him, and even when they tried, word of his duel with Flitwick seemed to spread quite quickly, and they were pretty wary of him now.

So, yeah, for the first time in almost a year, Harry was completely at peace at Hogwarts. No one tried to harass him, no one tried to get him in trouble. Things were just quiet and if it wasn't for the Diary still being on the loose, it would be a perfect year.

Unfortunately, on that front, Harry got nothing. His experiments with refraction lenses were going quite poorly. The good thing was that the enchanted magical absorbent rubies and the Orichalcum worked well but the lenses were the problem. The results were there, but the glass was very fragile, even if it was enchanted. Ideally, these things would be made up of diamonds, but Harry had no idea how to synthesize diamonds in the exact shape of the lenses. So far, he's been attempting to use quartz which seemed to work quite well, but with the predicted date of the first attack beginning, he was starting to get worried he won't have a prototype in time in case the Basilisk attacked him.

Fortunately, a combination of ice magic and his Arcane Hearing might be able to save him. There would be no reason a creature as massive and as magical as a Basilisk wouldn't be sensed by his Arcane Hearing. He could technically fight with his eyes closed, or at least escape while slowing down the King of Serpents with his ice magic. Speaking of his Cryokinesis, his progress in the field was quite good, both in his control and raw power.

The books on elemental magic were vague and he could now understand how. Pure elemental magic required a certain mindset that was unique to every person and there were no standard spells. Well, there were technically a few fields, like creating ice, freezing something, manipulating ice, animating ice, and so on. But there weren't normal spells like Latin, and that was why learning it was so difficult and teaching it was nigh impossible. It was like magic used to be before Hogwarts, you figured out how it would work yourself. Even wands in this case were barely more than a focus and their biggest functions as the manipulation of one's magic with wand movements, were not used.

As for the magic crest, Harry figured out that the repelling magic circle really was the easiest one, especially since it took weeks to figure out another spell, which was just a standard shield. Damn, the Potter scion could understand how the Romans annihilated all other opposition with the sheer number of wizards trained with a couple of years of magical training. Memorizing some Latin phrases, and wand movements were so much easier than making a magic circle and understanding it. No wonder they conquered most of Europe.

All things considered, while things were slow, Harry was making progress. It was currently a Monday, and he sat down for lunch as he usually did next to his friends. Unfortunately, Tracy was being her moody self, to everyone's exasperation. The brunette just looked at Malfoy and sneered, "I want to punch him in his lanky face."

Blaise rolled his eyes, "Let it go, Tracy…"

"Let it go? Do you realize what this idiot did?" the girl responded.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Yes, he bought the Quidditch team new brooms to buy himself a place in the team, and that got Flint to not hold any trials this year."

Yeah, the Quidditch trials being cancelled were a bit of a scandal. The trials were supposed to be useful not only for new talent to show itself but also for the current team members to not grow complacent and keep training so that they wouldn't be replaced. It was a good system that served the team for years, where everyone had a shot if they were ambitious enough. That was, of course, until Malfoy ruined the entire thing by buying his way in, and since he technically gave the brooms to the team members, not the team itself, or it would have been considered as a bribe and Madam Hooch would have banned the brooms and Malfoy from participating, Flint couldn't afford to lose the brooms, so decided not to hold the tryouts at all.

It was hard to be angry at the Quidditch captain since he was in a somewhat difficult position. He couldn't really refuse Malfoy's 'donation' but the strings that came with it threatened the standing of the team as an organization.

Harry sighed, "Look, Tracy from the look of it, most of our house's team members aren't taking it seriously, since their positions in the team are secured because of the broom, Malfoy and Flint being the surprising exceptions. So, either they'll embarrass themselves so bad Flint will have to do the tryouts, or they win, and in this case, you'll have to wait until next year after Travers and Smith leave the team, and you'll have your shot."

"It's just not fair," the brunette grumbled.

"I know it's not, but life rarely is fair. Sometimes, you just lose for no reason," the Potter scion explained calmly.

Daphne interjected, "And don't forget that this 'donation' is really hurting Malfoy Sr. in the school board. Apparently, he got reprimanded for it being an unethical action and asked to pay a fine. Not one that mattered to someone as rich as him, but enough for people to raise their eyebrows."

Harry was prepared to reply when he suddenly got a ping on his magic. He was confused for a moment, only to remember that this was the small alert that came when his rune moved. Someone had just opened the chamber of secrets. Damn, he stood up suddenly startling his friends. He ignored his questions and looked around. Lunchtime was variable in Hogwarts, depending on the schedule. That meant that most of the hall was empty. Damn, he looked around and decided to look for his suspects.

From a quick look, none of the first years in any house were there. He looked at the Hufflepuff table and saw Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones talking to each other animatedly. Similarly, Zachariah Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchley were still there, if only they were eating in silence, so that's them cleared.

The Gryffindor team chasers were also not there, not that it was a surprise since Oliver Wood wanted to squeeze every single training moment for no reason, Cormac McLaggen was also absent from the hall. However, Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe were there but Penelope Clearwater was absent. Damn, out of the sixteen suspected students, he barely eliminated more than six. As for Lockhart, he wasn't there, but neither was most of the staff, so that wasn't surprising.

Fucking hell, this was a disaster. Harry took out a piece of parchment in his hand to figure out the house of who was opening the chamber, but it was a lost cause. It was the middle of classes. There were a few students in the classrooms, but dozens were still in the corridor. He couldn't narrow down who the possessed victim was.

Seeing that there wasn't any other choice, Harry stood up and ran towards the entrance to the chamber. It took a couple of minutes to arrive, but when he did, Myrtle wasn't there. It was a longshot too, since Riddle knew about Myrtle's existence since you know, he killed her and everything. It was too much to hope for a mistake.

Still, he knelt down trying to see if the runic stone he had put under the sink had been activated. The rune was connected to one of the sinks, specifically the one with the snake engraving on it, but there was something odd. Yes, it was activated and that meant that someone was currently in the chamber. No one tampered with the enchantment itself, but the location of the rune was different. The wasn't an accident, you could only move the stone if the sticking charm on it failed, and that only happens if the magic in the rune is drained while sending the message. The only conclusion was that Riddle now knows that someone is going after him.

Harry didn't want to stay because he didn't fancy his chances against a fucking magical weapon of mass destruction that killed with eye contact and had a magical negating venom. Instead, he found another idea. Especially since this might be a counter trap of sorts.

Now that he thought about it, casting a spell in a bathroom wasn't really forbidden, was it? Only messing with the enchantment activated the ward. It was why Harry used a small stone and enchanted it instead of directly enchanting the sink itself.

What if Harry was able to create a more elaborate spell, like one that divined the information from a magical signature and connect it to the sink again? It's not like he needed to be subtle anymore; Riddle knew that someone was going after him.

Harry nodded to himself, he needed to move fast. He quickly carved another rune, on a new stone and put it in the same location as the first and fled the scene. He quickly went back to the Great Hall and sat down again, "Sorry, I really needed to go to the bathroom."

Ignoring his friends' doubting looks, he went back to eating his meal. Half an hour later, he got another ping from his runic stone. It tried to figure out who was responsible. There were two magical signatures, that were combined somehow. Yeah, it was the possession victim. Both signatures were male, so whoever had done it was a male too. Whoever it was divining must have noticed the magic and destroyed the stone. However, not before something critical was sent as well. The perpetrator's body's age. Twenty-six. Yes, whoever had the diary wasn't a student, and from the sounds of it, there was a suspect that already fit this profile. Lockhart.

Gilderoy Lockhart had just opened the Chamber of Secrets. And for the first time in over a month, I grinned wholeheartedly. I had my first true suspect and now I only needed to steal the damn thing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.