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(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 126: Shedding Skins
🕑 Added 2023-09-03 11:38:22 +0000 UTCChapter 126: Shedding Skins
19 March 1993, Hogwarts
With a sad smile on his face, Harry turned and made his way to exist the infirmary. Of course, thatâs when he felt a spell coming at him with his arcane hearing and ducked out of the way.
Of course, he couldnât have a peaceful evening for once. It was Neville Longbottom who was pointing his wand at him with a look of rage on his face, âWhat the hell, Potter?â
Harry pretended to be outraged, âWhat the hell is wrong with you, Longbottom? Weâre just outside the Hospital Wing you insensitive troll.â
The boy who lived didnât seem to care about Harryâs answer, âWhy did you lie?â
He waved his wand around to emphasize his point, which produced sparks. A small crowd started to gather around them.
âLie about what exactly? Seriously stop with the waving here. Why do you have to always resort to violence? Just for once in your life, calm yourself and talk like a rational person.â
The boy lowered his wand arm, but still looked angry, âWhy did you lie about the Chamber of Secrets?â
âI really have no idea what youâre talking aboutâŚâ
âStop it, for Merlinâs sake, stop it. We went to the chamber of secrets together. We found the secret room; I killed a Basilisk with a sword!â
Harry snorted in amusement, âSeriously, thatâs what youâre going for? You killed a Basilisk, one of the most dangerous magical creatures in the world, without even using magic.â
âI used the bombs you gave meâŚâ
âWhat bombs? Seriously, why would I be making bombs in my spare time?â
âThe cold bombs, the flashbang bombs, and the concussion bombs,â Neville cited, âDo you honestly donât remember them. You made them to fight the Basilisk.â
The last Potter hummed, âThatâs interesting. I can certainly see how useful those would be. The cold because snakes are cold blooded, so that would slow them down. The concussion and flashbang to blind the Basilisk, itâs a theoretically good tactic. Still suicidal, but somewhat plausible. But thereâs a problem, how did you aim if you couldnât meet the basiliskâs gaze?â
âYou enchanted some goggles to protect against its gaze,â Neville commiserated.
âNo offence, but thatâs a little beyond the capability of second-year students. I know I would remember making something like that, and I definitely would be bragging about it.â
âStop lying, you little snake,â the Longbottom scion exclaimed.
Harry let out a big sigh and spoke up, âLook, Longbottom, I donât know if youâre lying to get attention, but telling the headmaster that Iâm some kind of mastermind that somehow succeeded in a few days where he had failed, found the Chamber of Secrets, and defeated the monster inside, is just ridiculous. I was just in his office being interrogated about the events of the Chamber of Secrets, when I havenât even left my dormitory the night you got attacked or whatever it is you think happened.â
âIâm not lying.â
âLook Dumbledore told me that he spent an entire day looking for any evidence of what you said happened. He did find a secret room, but the Chamber of Secrets wasnât there. You didnât have any bombs on you, or any goggles. Hell, they didnât even find the sword.â
Longbottom protested, âThe sword was there, it just disappeared.â
âYeah,â he answered while scoffing, âbecause swords tend to do that. Look, I donât care what you say, because itâs not my problem. I donât care that you snuck into the Chamber of Secrets where the entrance didnât exist, I donât care that you fought a monster that massacred entire teams of wizards and witches by yourself with just a sword, I donât care that you were found without any of the equipment you said you had. However, I care that youâre trying to use me as a witness when thereâs proof that I was in my dormitory that night.â
The boy gritted his teeth, âTell them that Iâm saying the truth. Iâm a hero. Iâm a hero.â
Harry gave him a pitying look, âLook, man, Dumbledore thinks that you were under some kind of illusion curse, that made you experience something you craved, being a hero, slaying the legendary monster with absolute bravery, clearing your name from the stigma of being a Parselmouth, while you stayed unconscious.â
âNo,â Neville protested weakly.
âI know you donât want to deny it, but donât you think that your feats are just too great, to unrealistic. If it was another student, would you believe that they did, in fact, kill a Basilisk with a sword?â
Longbottom kept shaking his head and Harry pressed, âDonât you think itâs too much of a coincidence, that according to your narrative, I came out of nowhere, like some kind of quest giver in a fiction book, giving you all the explanations that you could need to heroically save the say, as well as the location of the chamber of secrets, the nature of the monster attacking, and the exact methods to defeat it. Donât you think itâs too lucky that weâre separated by some weird earthquake, that your sword somehow materialized when you needed it, and you used it to kill a mighty monster. Why wouldnât I just go tell a professor? Surely, theyâre more qualified than both you and me.â
The crowd nodded in affirmation, but the boy just wouldnât let go of his story, âNo, you were there. YOU WERE THERE!â
âNeville, just get some help. I donât know if youâre going crazy or this is a side effect of whatever curse you had on you, but you need to accept reality. Hell, even the headmaster is sure that there was never a Chamber of Secrets in the first place, that it was all a diary that trapped the userâs mind inside it, and that could also hypnotize them to cast some kind of obscure petrification spell on random people and write about the heir of Slytherin coming for Muggleborns in blood. It was probably made by some kind of perturbed student that wanted to cause damage even when after he graduated and left the castle. There was never any BasiliskâŚâ
âNo, itâs a Basilisk. You said it yourself in the Slytherin common room,â the boy who lived exclaimed.
âFirst thing first, using a conversation where you deceived me by impersonating someone else is not a good argument to make. But what I said was that if Slytherin had a monster that could do all of this, that it would probably be a snake that was long lived, and could petrify people. A Basilisk was theoretically possible, but I donât think that Dumbledore would let students stay in the same castle as something like that. You trust Dumbledoreâs judgement, donât you?â
Neville gave him a heated glare and gritted his teeth, âYes, I trust Dumbledore.â
âSo, you canât tell me that thereâs a small possibility that the old man wouldnât let an entire generation of students die for not reason, can you? Because if thatâs true, then he doesnât deserve to be the headmaster, does he?â
The boy nodded, and Harry went for the kill, âSo, if you think about it, either your story is false, or youâre saying that Dumbledore shouldnât be the headmaster⌠So, tell me, which one is it?â
For the first time, the Longbottom scion hesitated. His rage began to wane as the weight of Harry's words sank in. He looked around at the growing crowd, some of whom were nodding in agreement with Harry's logic. He just answered bitterly, âYouâre playing dirty, Potter.â
âNo, Iâm just being logical. But for all your lies, all your delusions of heroism, thereâs something thatâs really bothering me. You see, everybody lies, itâs a normal thing. Sometimes itâs because itâs shameful. Sometimes itâs because weâre being stubborn jerks. Sometimes itâs because weâre ignorant about something. Sometimes itâs because we donât even know that weâre lying, since itâs far better than the ugly truth. A twelve year old boy lying isnât a big deal, celebrity or not, but whatâs really bothering me about you, whatâs really making me want to punch you, is the fact that your friend is dying. Her cold comatose body is in the hospital wing, which is just next to us. I just came for visiting my friend, but you just donât seem you care about yours. You just care about being proven right, about being the hero, about people not calling you a liar, and thatâs just pitiful. Thereâs a good chance your friend would die and here you are picking a fight with me because I wouldnât go along with your lies. Thereâs a good chance that her parents would never talk to her again, and all you care about is your own ego. Look at me, I was literally visiting my friend because I missed her, but you donât care at all about yours, do you?â
The Longbottom boy blanched, and Harry continued, âTake a good long look at yourself, Neville Longbottom. Are you happy with the person that you are, with the man that youâre becoming? Do you think your parents would have been proud to see what youâre doing, right now? I know I wouldnât. So, why donât you be a decent person, get in the hospital wing, and sit by your friend.â
Longbottom just stood there, frozen in shock at anyone daring to say that to him. Harry was running out of patience, âI said, DO IT!â
The boy stiffened and nodded meekly. He slowly walked towards the hospital wing. Harry shook his head and addressed the crowd, âWhat are you all looking at?â
They all looked away and left one by one, looking down in shame. With the crowd dispersing, Harry watched Neville Longbottom's retreating figure until he disappeared into the infirmary. Honestly, there was a lot of real anger at Neville. Sure, he was successful at making the boy doubt himself, and there would probably be rumors circulating in the afternoon about the boy who lived going crazy, but the way the boy didnât seem to care about Hermione grated Harry immensely.
It was the guilt, Harry realized. To be perfectly honest, he stopped really caring about Hermione. They were barely friends for a month before she decided that she preferred Neville and Ron. Harry had long moved on with this, and his decision to ignore the plot from the previous stories, to not live in fear â a wise move in hindsight â just turned her into a regular lonely bookworm in his eyes, which wasnât worth the headache of being near Longbottom, and with it, Dumbledoreâs attention.
But there was something that Riddle said that bothered him. In Hermioneâs perfect world, when she bore down her soul to him, she said that she missed Harry, that they were still friends. Had he really forgotten about a girl that still hoped that deep down in her heart, that they would one day reconcile or something?
It wasnât logical, but if Hermione dies, Harry knows that he would regret not making peace with her, at least.
Harry had won; he had literally gotten everything he wanted, he had gotten one over Dumbledore, ensured that he wouldnât be under his thumb, defeated Riddle, killed a divine beast that was probably thousands of years old, and had free reign on what to do with the Basilisk corpse, which he would leave alone for later after preserving the body, that is. It wouldnât do to have Basilisk parts available in the market while there might be rumors of a Basilisk being in the castle. Staging a fake expedition in the Amazon Forest in a couple of years might be better, after memories started to fade about the whole incident.
However, for all that success the possibility that a child could die made the whole thing bittersweet. Hermione Granger was an innocent in the matter, and she died because Lucius Malfoy decided to plant the diary to get rid of a political rival.
Harry wished he could have saved her, but he knew that it wasnât really his fault. Itâs not like he could have done anything differently. If he hadnât gone after Riddle, then the entire school might have suffered the same fate, or maybe Luna would have taken her place, which wasnât really all that better.
Turning away from the infirmary, Harry let out a deep sigh and continued on his way out of the school. It had been a long and exhausting day, filled with confrontations and emotional turmoil. No, this entire school year was filled with confrontations and emotional turmoil.
Harry hoped that it wouldnât be the case for the rest of his school years, yet he knew that this was a vain hope at best.
Comments
Alex Hinsley
Harry Potter and the lighting of gas
Doubledoor
I'm very much pro Hermione living. She not only doesn't deserve to die for this, Neville's mental health would be completely destroyed if she died, making it unrealistic for him to do anything against Voldemort. Maybe have her get some sort of disability out of this if you are going for permanence? It would have nearly the same results but without leaving as bad a taste as death.
DraconianGreed
I donât see this ending well for anyone.
ha vu
Gaslight is not a good thing, especially for a kid like Longbottom.
Tyrant615
living in the fake World in the diary, would probably force her to live in a world were her friendship with Harry never ended.
Tyrant615
If you do decide to have her wake up I feel seeking Harry's forgiveness would be the first thing on her mind. I feel she probably views being Neville's and Ron's friend has been a huge mistake on her part.
Tyrant615
I believe Hermione should get a second chance at being Harry's Friend. Hermione really regret betraying Harry and longs for a chance to be with him again. She
Frozenfang
Thanks for the chapter
T
Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss Harryđ
athass_prkr
I have something planned for him, which should set up the third year.
athass_prkr
Honestly, I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking of making a poll or asking for suggestions. I'm seriously considering letting her die, or get stuck in her world of illusions, or somehow get her back at a later date, probably as a pawn to Dumbledore, or a way he could exert more influence over Neville. It's a growth moment for Neville, so that he would think before leaping next time, like proof that he's not invincible.
cnr
Please F over Lucius in an anonymous but embarrassing way.
Sefa Baah
Thanks for the Chapter. Will the Mc be able to breaker Heminoe's self induced illusions?
