More Important Than Any Broomstick [Harmione]

26. The Dark Lord Will Have Your Blood

"You know what!" Harry said, "My cell phone, and I'll bet Hermione's too, can record sound as a memo. We'll try using that! If that will work, then it'll be perfect! We'll just get you each a phone."

"Sounds great," said Sirius. Hermione started performing another spell on the snake, while Sirius was looking closely at the open mouth of Slytherin's statue. "What's this hole for?" he asked.

"That's where the basilisk came from," answered Harry. "Why?"

"I was wondering where the passage leads to," said Sirius.

"I don't know," said Harry shrugging. "I've never followed it."

"It might be a good idea to find out," said Lupin, who had just finished putting his robes over his armor. "You never know what secrets were kept in the Chamber of Secrets by Slytherin and Voldemort."

"Alright," said Hermione, who had finished the spell that took all the skin off of the dead basilisk. "Let's go."

There was enough room so that they could all fit flying single file with Sirius in the lead with his wand lit, followed by Harry, Hermione, and Lupin. After about ten minutes, they came across an open doorway on the left. Sirius turned into it, followed by the others. They found it was a small room full of dust with a bookshelf full of books, a file cabinet, a desk, and a chair at the desk. On the desk were an old muggle spiral notebook and a cup full of muggle pens and pencils. Harry picked up the notebook and dusted it off. He opened it and read the first line written inside. It said, 'Tom Marvolo Riddle: I AM LORD VOLDEMORT!" At that moment, Harry's scar started hurting worse that it ever had before. He covered it with his hand and collapsed onto the floor.

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He opened his eyes to find himself lying on a dusty concrete floor facing Sirius, Remus, and of course, Hermione. He looked around to see where he was. He recognized the room he'd collapsed in almost immediately. "How long was I out?" he asked.

"About a minute," said Hermione. "Sirius revived you after you collapsed. You were holding onto your scar. Did it hurt when you read that notebook?"

"Yes! Voldemort wrote it. I think someone should read it, but it obviously can't be me."

"Lupin is checking it for curses. So far he's removed four," said Sirius.

"Make that five," said Lupin, who was sitting at the desk with his wand pointed at the offending notebook.

"I think this room contains a lot of useful information," said Sirius, "but I think it's guarded by some serious curses. I don't want you two coming back here snooping around."

Harry smiled as his godfather helped him up, "I'm hardly in a position to disagree. But I'll bet Hermione will be hounding Lupin until she finds out how he's detecting those curses."

Hermione blushed. "Anyway," said Sirius. "I think it's late enough. Moony, do you think you can safely levitate that book to your office?"

"Yes. I'll float it ahead of us so it doesn't touch anyone."

They left that room with the book. When they reached the main chamber, they didn't even stop as Hermione wandlessly floated the basilisk skin, along with her computer, behind them. The young couple went straight to Gryffindor Tower, forgoing their duel since Harry was still feeling a bit weak.

The next morning, Harry was fine and went through training normally. The rest of the week went by very quickly as they kept up with all their combat training, snogging, animagus training, snogging, muggle object charming, snogging, studying, and of course snogging. On Saturday morning, they were happy to see Tonks when they showed up for their training.

"Wotcher, Harry and Hermione! Have you spent more time training or inspecting broom closets since school started?"

They both blushed, but Hermione said, "Training."

Harry added, "I only wish we could spend that much time..."

"Harry James Potter!" said Hermione.

"Er, sorry," said Harry.

"Anyway," said Tonks, "Let's start exercising."

She worked them tirelessly for an hour, and then switched to dueling. She decided to have two separate duels. One would be Harry against Hermione, Tonks, Sirius, and Lupin. The other would be Hermione against Harry, Tonks, Sirius, and Lupin. The first duel ended after an hour when Tonks stunned Harry (they took off their armor for practice) while he was blocking a hex sent by Hermione. The second duel ended after fifty minutes, when Harry petrified Hermione while she was blocking a curse sent by

Tonks. After they were finished, Hermione made a basilisk armor suit for Tonks while the others put theirs back on. While Sirius and Harry were whistling at Tonks, Remus was stuttering and blushing. Harry left before the rest of them because he had to use the loo.

When he stepped out of the loo, he heard a vaguely familiar voice say something like, "Sectumsempra," and felt a hex hit his side, putting a hole in his clothes and stopping at his armor. He looked and for a second saw his former potions master with a shocked expression on his face holding an empty jar. He immediately turned around and started running, only to be wandlessly summoned back by Harry. Snape turned and fired another hex which Harry easily dodged, making his way toward the greasy git. Snape pointed his wand at Harry again, only to find it fall out of his hand and roll across the floor. While he was watching that, he didn't notice Harry had gotten close enough to punch him square in the nose, breaking it. Snape, who had never been in a muggle fight, didn't know what to do as Harry punched each of his eyes in turn, making sure to leave a 'signature.' Harry then kicked Snape in the crotch, causing the partially blinded and dazed potions master to collapse to the floor in agony.

At that moment, just when Harry was gonna kick Snape in the face, Tonks called out, "That's enough, Harry!"

Harry slowly backed away, finally pulling out his wand for show and pointing it at Snape. "Look what you did!" he called out at Snape, "You got blood all over my robes!"

At that moment, Snape reached into his pocket, smirked, and said, "This isn't over, Potter! The Dark Lord will have your blood!" and disappeared as he apparently used a portkey.