raised by dementor

chapter 35

The tunnel stretched down for miles and by the time Harry's eyes adjusted to the darkness he had stopped moving and his feet were now resting on what felt like a thousand skeletons compressed into a landing. He looked down and found quickly he was not far from the truth, centuries of decay had created a corpse of a welcome mat for the monster.
"Draco, Crabbe, Goyle!" Harry whispered aloud and the echo carried all around the chamber, he waited a few moments but there was no answer, until he turned and was faced by a pale face with the colour seemingly bleached out of it. He had seen something terrifying all right, something that had destroyed his usual charisma and ego at least for now.
"Harry!" Lockhart realised suddenly looking at the boy who jumped back in fright, he had been cowering in a corner all this time waiting for someone to come down and rescue him
"Professor," Harry greeted slightly coolly, there was no point in acting as if he liked him down here, the truth was he did not like the man but at the moment he was his only lead.
"You came for me! You can fly us out of here!" he announced triumphantly as if that had been his idea all along,
"What happened to Draco and..." Harry questioned and the blond man looked nervous, his eyes were once more alive with fear
"When I woke up, someone was dragging them out of the room, someone hooded and they radiated black, I hid away so I could escape and bring this person to justice," he tried to replace his fear with charisma and in the darkness of the chamber Harry lost his patience. The air was colder and Lockhart started to shake as Harry's person chill dug into his bones,
"Enough!" he hissed "I know you're a fraud, I know you were scared and I also understand but this crap about you trying to help people has to stop, now I'm going after my friends and you can either stay here and cower away until I come back or you can come with me and actually live up to your books, you can show the world that you are brave man and the next time you write it will be true!" Harry faced the man off for a few seconds and as he expected the man shrank away, unmoving
"I can't ok, you're right I'm not a hero I'm a man who can write. I want to go home, I want to write and be anywhere else than this chamber but here I am and you're the only person who can help me!" Lockhart whimpered in something reminiscent of a sob,
"I'm not like Dumbledore, I'm not like any of the hero's and I'm not like you! I'm scared of what's out there and I'm scared what's going to happen to me if I go after that hooded nightmare, I just can't," he broke off and Harry felt a stab of pity for the man, if he wasn't a liar and a fraud he would have helped him but Harry had bigger problems.
"Everyone's scared of something, you think I want to go into this chamber; do you think I enjoy it? I'm going to save my friend and because I couldn't live with myself if I let him die, now I'm going after them, feel free to join me," Harry sighed turning away, knowing the man would be of no help today. The man did nothing and Harry turned away for the last time, he had wondered for a second if he had gotten through to Lockhart but there were limits to even his powers, it would have been nice to have company in this place.
"Please don't leave," Lockhart cried, Harry ignored him
"If you were half the man you say you are then you would follow me," he sighed,
"If you go after them then you'll die too," Lockhart warned trying one last time but Harry found himself not listening, Lockhart had shown who he really was and Harry wanted no part of it. So he progressed through the chamber and only when he came to one chamber with a giant snakeskin laying on the floor did he stop, so the monster was a Basilisk and that meant he was in trouble, He had eyes and if he looked directly at the monster would he did? He had no idea and it was nothing something he wished to try, not now or ever but then he saw Draco's face as he was chased by a black swarm through the castle he knew he had to go onward. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had stood by him all year and he would not let them rot down here,
Don't worry we'd get eaten by the Basilisk long before we rotted, he could hear Draco's witty remark in his mind eye and despite everything he smiled. Then he saw the opening to the chamber,
"Parsletongue," he deduced by looking at the snakes on the wall and then he reached inside himself, Aragog had said the power was within him and he hoped the old spider was right; he needed the old spider to be right. The soul of Tom Riddle was in him and he knew everything that it knew so maybe he had picked up something else along the way, something that unlocked his inner abilities perhaps.
"Open!" he ordered and he heard a slight hiss in his voice, something that echoed in the air and sure enough the snake guarding the door moved, it slid around the small covering and unlocked it, then it swung open and Harry walked inside. Snake statues overlooked a pathway leading to a giant bust of Slytherin himself, it's giant vacant eyes looked strange but Harry's eye was drawn to the three altars before the bust. Three bodies being offered to the statue but the three bodies took the form of Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, he knew it was a trap but despite himself he moved forward, and then he was knocked back by a great force unlike anything else he had ever felt, so this was it was like to be on the receiving end of one of these things.
"Sloppy," a voice crooned from afar, it was slightly high pitched and yet underlined with something else, something that reminded Harry of pain; a croakiness.
"Who are you?" he demanded to the opening air, then he was flung into one of the snake statues
What being enters my chamber? A voice asked in his mind as he tasted something akin to blood in his mouth, he had no time to ask as suddenly he was flying through the air again but this time he regained himself and dodged another wave of energy. This person was powerful, more powerful than him and he quickly spun round and fired waves of power in all directions, he realised too late that this was his most potent weapon and it was nothing compared to what this person had.
"So this dragon has fangs," the figure mocked and it was almost pride Harry detected from his invisible assailant, he turned in time to see a black light throw him into a wall and hold him there, it clutched his throat and tightened around his chest as he tried everything he could in order to escape. Nothing was working and it then he realised that he could not save himself this time.
You are not of this race are you? No you are not a serpent but you are not human either, the other mental voice elaborated as the dark light tried to choke him, he could see a flicker of light and he threw a wave of energy at it, the light stopped and Harry smiled when he realised he hit whoever this was.
Yes something else? Something that escapes even my perception but I see you are in trouble young one, but what from?
"You may consider yourself powerful but you are a child compared to me," suddenly Harry was hit by a physical fist, then another; his attacker was invisible well two could play at that game.
"Nice try," the voice was slightly more feminine now but it was still underlined with pain, as if whoever it was had experienced or was still experiencing great pain. Harry was hit by another wave of energy and another statue exploded as his body made contact with it, his head was hit by waves of pain and his body fell to the ground,
"Who are you?" he demanded darkly refusing to be afraid of this figure, this clearly more powerful figure who seemed to delight in torturing him. There was no response only laughter
Yes the dark one foreseen in the end of times exists here, that can only mean. Harry suddenly was hit by a jet of black lighting which made him feel like white hot knives were ripping him apart
"Yes a little something I cooked up," the figure hissed gently as it hit Harry with another round of lightning, he cried out in pain and for a second year he was doing well not to cry. Then he was hit by another round and suddenly his body was arching out of control and there was nothing he could do, nothing what so ever,
I must help you, the voice inside his head decided but it was not it which acted in that moment, the figure moved to hit Harry again with an even more powerful torrent of lighting when it was hit by the weight of a middle aged man who had made the first good choice in his life.
"Get off him!" Lockhart demanded, he had entered the chamber, he had decided Harry was right and while he was also concerned as to what the press would say he decided that fear would not rule his life any longer. Then he was knocked back by the same pain the monster had hit Harry with, he would never know why he changed his mind and would have no time to elaborate or discuss why. Lockhart knew in that moment he was going to die but in some bizarre way he had done some good before he died, hopefully that would be enough. That would be enough to leave his mark and it would be a real mark this time, not fake real.
"So the coward acts, what a profound effect you have Harry Potter, first a death eater repents and now this, a coward acts in defiance of power, clearly the last mistake he will ever make," the figure cackled as the bust of Slytherin exploded in a giant snake, the great Basilisk had acted and Harry scrambled out of range as it charged forward. Stone chunks flew everywhere and the stone eyes of Salazar Slytherin fell to the floor,
"No," the Figure hissed in Parsletongue but the monster did not stop, it had broken free of control and as the figure tired to jump Lockhart pulled at her robe and caught the glimpse of scarred burnt flesh before he was hit by a giant snake and impaled on a giant fang. The figure was sent to the floor, bones broken, blood running down her body like a river and she looked up and met Harry's gaze. There he saw deep burning green eyes like something out of a horror film, they were the eyes of a monster and whatever enchantment on the veil to stop people seeing them had failed. They were glowing green and he saw the briefest illumination of charred flesh and then nothing as the figure vanished and he lapsed into darkness.
I am here to help you son of darkness but know this is not the last pain you will feel, you will go through much worse towards the end. Towards that final end.