The Medium Between Life and Death

Lockhart is the Threat, Voldie is Cliche

"Stir it three more times, counterclockwise. It'll make the potion more potent," Salazar Slytherin instructed as Harry stirred the base for Veritaserum while Hermione chopped ingredients in the second-floor girl's washroom.

"Thank you," Harry mumbled to the spirit as he followed the directions.

"Tell her to chop those finer, and use a silver blade with the Jabberknoll feathers," the man continued.

"Er, Hermione, I think those roots need to be chopped a little finer," Harry spoke up over where Ron was prattling on about the fallout of the dueling club where everyone found out Harry could speak to snakes.

"I'm following the recipe exactly," she raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her friend who never did more than the bare minimum in any of his classes.

"If they are smaller, they integrate with the king snake venom faster," Slytherin explained with an impatient huff. It seemed he didn't like having to talk through another person. Harry explained this to Hermione as well as the silver knife. She looked at him very suspiciously but did actually follow his directions since there was sound reasoning behind them.

"I don't see why you can't do this well in actual Potions class," Harry's friend mumbled, but he just smirked and continued to stir.

"It's quite serendipitous you all chose this washroom in particular to brew your potion in," the founder mused as he seemed to be keeping an eye on their progress. The man had shown up almost every time they had worked on the potion so far, always correcting and instructing. "This room has one of the exits I constructed for Sammy if he ever needed to come into the castle. Of course, there is a much better way for you to get in, but if Sammy leaves, you'll be here to see."

"Didn't you say he can kill just by looking at someone?!" Harry whispered quietly in concern as he looked around the washroom at his friends.

"Of course, he's a basilisk, but he's perfectly capable of hooding his eyes so he doesn't. Sammy is a good snake. If he weren't being ordered around by a lunatic, I'd lead you down to my chambers right now."

"Any updates on who's being possessed?" Harry whispered next.

Harry heard a tired sigh. "None of the professors or Slytherins. I'll follow the Ravenclaws next, then Gryffindors. I seriously doubt a Hufflepuff would allowed themselves to be possessed."

"What's your issue with Hufflepuff?" Harry quietly snorted in amusement. "Aren't you and Helga Hufflepuff friends?"

"I have no issue, but they tend to be the most likely to avoid dark artefacts. Those sorted into that house generally have a very strong moral compass...at least they are supposed to. I have no clue what the hat is currently doing. Anyway, it's obviously a dark object that's possessing someone or you would have noticed someone like your late Professor Quirrell that was dying," Salazar explained with a verbal eyeroll in his tone.

"Right...I think that's all we can do for today," Hermione spoke up as she went to tip the ingredients on her cutting board into the potion. "Stir that a few more times Harry, and we can head out."

"Thank Merlin!" Ron exclaimed in relief.

~

Harry was very upset that Nearly Headless Nick was petrified next. Frankly, with the way he'd been treating Harry, Justin Finch-Fletchley wasn't a huge concern of his. It's not like the boy had been hurt...just shut up for a while. Nick though had always been extremely kind to Harry and had invited him to his first party; he'd even been willing to share the party as Harry's death day too. The Veritaserum had been completed around Christmas, but Harry had eventually talked his friends into saving it for the time being. Salazar had already cleared Malfoy, to Harry's surprise. And it wasn't a good time to get rid of Lockhart in the middle of what was going on.