Harry made his way to Dumbledore's office with a set of his school robes on. He had a long day of lessons and had gone straight to the chamber after his rather dramatic lesson with Snape with the man sending him confused glances at every chance he could as if trying to convince himself that their encounter had not been real or a bad side effect of a wrongly-made potion.
~~~
Harry had been copying down the notes of the first chapter of Confronting the Faceless when he felt a presence in his mind. He looked over to Snape who was completely still, a side effect of a person performing high-level Legilimency. He dived into his own mindscape and sensed Snape snooping around the perimeter of his Occlumency walls.
Deciding to mess with him a little, he sent a blast of Pure Dark Magic towards him. He had learnt how to harness his pure magic without the use of spells. He sent the wave of pure magic towards the DADA Professor - nothing harmful.
Harry pulled out of his mindscape and looked at the man at the teacher's staring daggers at him. He knew it had worked. Snape started looking at him as if he was insane. Harry continued with his work and when the man wouldn't stop, he looked up at the 'Greasy Git' as Ron called him. Harry had deduced that due to being amid potions all day, his hair had adjusted somehow.
Harry winked.
The man quickly stopped looking at him and continued with whatever work he had. He wasn't quite sure what kind of work it was as it was only the beginning of the school year. Harry, feeling quite pleased with himself, continued writing his notes, an almost unnoticeable smirk on his face.
~~~
Harry collected his things and shoved them into his bag that had been temporarily enlarged due to not having enough space for books larger than an A3 paper size. He was dropping his Self-Inking quill into his greenish-grey rucksack when he heard Hermione call out for him.
"Come on, Harry," she whined bossily, "We need to go!"
Harry was sick and tired of hearing that annoying voice always nagging at him but he never said anything and he wouldn't waste all that effort now so he reluctantly swung his backpack on and was going to leave when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He swung around and within a second had his wand pointed at the man.
"What do you think you're doing, Mr Potter," Snape sneered taking a step back.
Harry, realizing who it was, quickly pocketed the stick and sighed, "Apologies, Professor, reflexes."
Hermione had already left. On top of being bossy, impatient and overbearing, apparently, she was also rude.
"Detention for pointing a wand at a professor," he sneered, to Harry's dismay. He had been waiting to crack open a new book on Dark Mind Magicks for days.
"Of course, Professor."
"Tonight at 8 in my office," he said before walking out of the classroom not leaving Harry a chance to even answer. He had that meeting with Dumbledore at eight so Snape wasn't going to be happy when he didn't show up. Great.
Harry shrugged to himself before adjusting his backpack and running out of the door before Hermione could lecture him again.
~~~
Harry walked up to the Gargoyle he had spoken to on numerous occasions. He had been to the Headmaster's office more times than he could count on both hands.
"Acid Pops," he said calmly, smiling at the stone animal. The sound of scraping stone filled his ears before he stepped into the winding staircase hidden behind the beast of stone.
He walked up to the Headmaster's door and before he could knock he heard the voice of the bearded man, "Harry! Come in, my boy."
Trying to contain any disgust at the name, he opened the door and put on his best dopey smile.
"Professor Dumbledore," he greeted cordially.
"Harry, my boy, you must be wondering why I called you here?" he put on a grandfatherly smile and a seemingly ever-lasting twinkle in his eye.
Of course, I am wondering why you called me here old man. Who wouldn't? Stating the obvious much?
Instead of saying that and ruining the 'mentor/student-that-doesn't-want-to-be-mentored relationship, he stuck to the usual, "Yes, Professor."
"Before we get into that, I will just like to say that Professor Snape's detention has been postponed to tomorrow."
Harry faked relief the best he could and smiled, "Thank you, Sir."
***
Harry was walking down the corridor to get to the Chamber. Dumbledore had shown him Bob Ogden's memory and Harry understood straight away. Dumbledore wanted him to understand Voldemort's past to build up to something that would help him in the upcoming war. But what?
Of course, Dumbledore wasn't going to tell him until the very last minute. Why would you tell someone something that could end the war until the very last second?
He found his way to the chamber and quickly slipped inside. Luckily, he didn't have to deal with the annoying teenage ghost. He dropped down and landed on the floor with a soft thud. Cushioning charms had been set in place by Salazar himself and so were very powerful. He had cleaned the place after the fool had foolishly destroyed it with his foolish tomfoolery.
***
He apparated on the spot with the piece of parchment held carefully between his index finger and his thumb, careful not to damage it. He wasn't sure why he was handling it so carefully as it would be near impossible to forget the address. Nevertheless, he did and made his way through the confusing network of paths that was Knockturn Alley.
He had a Glamour put in place so that he would not be recognized or underestimated. It would not end well for the attacker and Harry didn't want to waste his energy on common-folk. It was a win-win situation.
Careful to not accidentally bump into anyone and spotting people under sloppy Disillusionment Charms and promptly nodding at them, he found the street he knew was adjacent to Colten Alley. He practically ran over to the Alley and subtly sent Compulsion Charms to those on the street away, looking for the 'sign of the serpent'.
After about 20 minutes of looking around for any 'sign' of a 'serpent', (the wording was pretty vague) he found a tiny wooden and worn out plank with a small snake carved on it delicately. The entire design was only about a centimetre long and a centimetre wide with the plank being about the of a muggle garage door. It was normal to see random discarded pieces of junk from metal sheets or wooden planks to brand new furniture and even muggle contraptions like fridges.
He wasn't exactly sure what was behind it so he tried to pull the wooden plank away but to his surprise, his hand just went through. Feeling quite brave, he was a Gryffindor after all, he stepped through the not-so-solid wooden plank. It appeared to be a small room. It was dusty and worn-down and all-around out-of-use. The smell was ghastly and the amount of dirt and grime was substantial. He quickly stepped through the piece of enchanted wood, partly because of curiosity and partly because his balance was not on point and he was about to fall through if he didn't.
He looked around and not being able to stand the amount of dirt, began t cast as many cleaning charms as he knew. Those books weren't all on Dark Magic. Relatively satisfied with the cleaning process and how fast it was coming along, he decided to retire for the night. The next day, he needed to see Griphook about purchasing the place. If he was going to use the place, for a reason he didn't know, he would need to have ownership of the place.
He checked the place for Anti-Apparation wards and when he found none he apparated to Hogwarts; noting to put wards in place as soon as he could.
Finding himself in the small Apparition room, he ran to the office and grabbed his backpack and dashed out of the Chamber. On the way, he cast a non-verbal Tempus and his eyes widened when he found that it was already 9:49 pm. Hermione was going to be fuming.
With this newfound knowledge, he picked up his pace, which was considerably faster than the average adult thanks to morning runs and Quidditch. Too caught up thinking about how Hermione was going to nag him to Timbuktu, he didn't see the man with a billowing cloak leaning against the windowsill, presumably waiting for the curfew to begin so he can continue to make students' lives miserable.
Harry, still rushing like a madman, stopped in his tracks after hearing the familiar drawling tone of the Professor, "Where do you think you're going, Mr Potter?"
"Still the same treatment, Professor? Here I was, thinking that with newfound knowledge we would know each other on a more personal basis," he smirked at the face of the Potion Master's fuming features.
Expecting some sort of snarky retort, he stayed silent. Upon realizing that he would not be hearing anything of the sort, he spoke up again, "I do know about Lily and James' association with you," he added before winking and continuing his pursuit of the common room.
Snape just stood there, "5 points from Gryffindor," he muttered under his breath, in hopes of making himself a wee bit better. It didn't work. It was his worst nightmare. Someone knew of his deepest secrets - the Potter brat of all people. Then again, even with James' looks, he was Lily's son and he would trust his life with Lily. He had to remind himself of that. On top of that, the boy was more Slytherin than he thought and as a Slytherin., he wouldn't reveal such a secret unless needed. Gryffindors were much more irrational.
Harry, momentarily forgetting about Hermione and her almost-certain nagging, was focusing on more important things like what he was going to do about Colten Alley. He was brought out of his thoughts by a familiar scream.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" she yelled as if she owned him. It reminded him of Molly Weasley and her insistence of becoming a mother figure. She was not his mother and would never be. Just because he spent a total of about a month at her house and he was friends with her 6th son didn't mean he was her mother. He shuddered at the thought. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it if he didn't want to risk his 'friendship' with Weasley. Yes, he was Weasley in his head; not Ronald or Ron, Weasley.
Harry, still very tired, just shrugged and trodden off to his dorm where he knew Hermione couldn't follow. Unfortunately, he shared a dorm with the red-headed 6th 'wanted-a-daughter-but-ended-up-with-yet-another-son' of Molly and Arthur Weasley.
"Where have you been, mate?" the boy asked, yawning. He had gotten up from his bed. Harry assumed that Hermione had asked him to ask as he looked like he just wanted to sleep.
"Places," he answered vaguely, going into the bathroom to change his clothes. Neville, Dean and Seamus were already knocked out cold as was evident by their loud snoring. Neville wasn't snoring but he swore that he could here him talking in his sleep.
Ron, deciding that he was too tired to even ask, fell back into his bed to sleep. Harry exited the bathroom in his pajamas and, upon seeing the boy asleep, rolled his eyes before the tying into bed and trying to fall asleep. Thanks to using charms all day as well as Occlumency, he managed to conk out within 20 minutes; a miracle in his mind.