Daisy Potter and the Heir of Slytherin (Book 2, Harry Potter ff)

Chapter 17 - Dobby and the Kiss

"So Hermione's okay!" Ron said brightly.

"There has been no lasting harm done." Dumbledore said. "You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School - yes, you too, Miss Potter, don't look so shocked - and two hundred points apiece for each of your houses."

Us Insurgent's high-fived, me swaying slightly. Terry caught me.

"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure." Dumbledore said. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?"

Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

"Yeah, how did he get like that?" I questioned the guys.

"Um, there was an accident. He tried to do a Memory Charm on us, and it backfired." Draco said, giving a look that said, 'We'll tell you in detail later, not here in front of Dumbledore!'

"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver moustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"

"Sword?" Lockhart said dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That girl has, though." He pointed at me. "She'll lend you one."

Fred, George, Terry, and I sniggered.

"Could all of you take Professor Lockhart up to the hospital wing?" Dumbledore queried. "I'd like a few more words with the Potter twins ..."

They all ambled out. Terry lay me down gently on a chair, then walked out. It was just us three now.

"First of all, Daisy, Harry, I want to thank you." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you.

"And so you met Tom Riddle. I imagine he was MOST interested in you ... especially you, Daisy ..."

"Professor Dumbledore ... Riddle once said that I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said ... he said that a part of my mind is identical to his, when I was talking to him ..." I said.

"DID he, now?" Dumbledore said, looking thoughtfully under his thick silver eyebrows at me. "And what do you think, Daisy?"

"I don't think I'm like him!" I said, more loudly than I'd intended. "I mean, I'm in Gryffindor, I'm ..."

But I fell silent. A lurking doubt was surfacing in my mind.

"Professor," I started again after a moment, "the Sorting Hat told me I'd - I'd have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought Harry and I were Slytherin's heirs for a while ... because we can speak Parseltongue ... and, and I can TORTURE people ... I sometimes get these dark thoughts where I really want to kill people ... torture them ... murder their loved ones ... make them PAY." I looked desperately at my brother and Dumbledore. "I think I really am like Tom Riddle!"

"You can speak Parseltongue, Daisy," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort - who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin - can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you those scars. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure ..."

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in US?" I said, thunderstruck.

"It certainly seems so."

"So we SHOULD be in Slytherin - the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in there too - the Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in us, and it -" Harry said.

"Put you two in Gryffindor." Dumbledore said calmly. "Listen to me, twins. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue ... resourcefulness ... determination ... a certain disregard for rules," he added, his moustache quivering again. "Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think."