Bound To You

Chapter 35: First Task's Hint

"Come in, Harry," the Headmaster's jovial tone made said boy gulp, since he didn't add the 'my boy' he usually used. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but a dim room instead of the Headmaster's office was usually quite bright and inviting, filled with clinking trinkets everywhere, was not it.

"Headmaster Dumbledore?" he called out timidly, slightly afraid of what he might find.

"Come in..." the Headmaster's voice said once more, yet he couldn't see him anywhere. In fact, he could only see Fawkes, being the only bright thing in the otherwise dim room, and the Sorting Hat on the Headmaster's desk. "Welcome, Harry Potter..."

Only then did he realize that the one talking in the Headmaster's voice was the Sorting Hat himself.

The door closed behind him, making him jump. Fawkes then trilled at him, dissipating his initial panic, before he placed the Sorting Hat onto the black haired boy's head. "No worries, young one, you are not getting re-sorted," a voice chuckled inside his head before he could even recognize the worry forming in his head.

"Then, why are you on my head again?"

"I need to tell you, Mister Potter, that the danger has not passed yet."

Harry blinked.

"I know that this might sound confusing to you, but Jamila's protection will not be enough. Lady Fate wanted me to warn you of this hurdle--it may not seem like it, but she likes you quite a lot, you see?"

The Hat chuckled in his head, and Harry wondered why Lady Fate would need him to be warned of this at all.

"That is not all, young one," the Hat said in his head. He worried about what more he'd need to be warned off of, but the Hat's word's dissipated that worry immediately; "I just want to have a chat with you, that's all. I'm quite lonely, sitting on a stool in the Headmaster's office all year, so I'd love to get this one reprieve."

Harry giggled and agreed readily.

"Please, Hermione! I need your help! I beg of you!" Ginny pleaded towards her Harry's best friend. She hasn't given up yet--there was still time. Until the Tournament ended, she would be kept out of Azkaban, and if she would rather die than go to Azkaban. But if she dies, then she wouldn't be Lady Potter, and the title would go to someone else. She can't have that, definitely not!

"I'm sorry, Ginny," Hermione said in an exasperated voice that hid her annoyance. She knew of Ginny's actions, where she wanted to put Harry into the Tournament despite him saying that he didn't want to go. She knew because Harry had told both her and Ron, and Ron had told the twins, and now the Weasley brothers were creating a vendetta against Ginny.

But she didn't need to know that. Yet.

"Please!" she pleaded.

Hermione sighed.

"Fine, I'll point you out to the books that will help you with guessing what the First Task is, but no more, understood?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the younger girl said, relieved. She knew she still had a hold over Ms. Know-It-All! After all, she's the little sister of her best friend--she'll always help whenever she needed it!

Hermione watched the girl go, bounding in the direction of the library, wondering when she'd realize that the books she mentioned were all kept in the Restricted Section.

Umbridge grinned evilly as she made her rounds late at night, passing through the second floor. She couldn't hear Moaning Myrtle's wails, and she grinned in triumph. There were times when she's not in the unused bathroom, which meant that someone might be using this to their advantage.

She'd be very cross if it was one of those foreign creatures from those no-good schools. Hogwarts weren't any better, since she knew that a few of them had a bit of those idiotic creature's blood in them, and some of them even as idiotic as said creatures! Look at Dumb Lackey Goyle and Dumb Lackey Crabbe! They must have some sort of giant inheritance--they were too dumb to be purebloods!

She scoffed at the Veela's, Dragon-Born's, Lamia's, and all those other animals that could complete a whole zoo and more. Even Draco Malfoy had a bit of creature blood in him, but since his father was someone very high up in the Ministry, she had to resort to favoritism. She had to treat him somewhat like royalty even though all she wanted to so was berate him so much that he became the dumb animal he was.

But enough of that--animals aren't worth her time. Ones that are worth her time thinking about was Harry Potter, the Golden Boy-Who-Lived, getting detentions and his blood spilling so copiously to her office floor... She didn't know why she's attracted to his blood, she'd never had that kind of attraction before, but she did. Especially when it came to Harry bloody Potter, pun intended.

She stopped in her tracks when she heard grinding sounds, like stones grinding against each other, moving, shifting, but that's impossible right? Well, unless there's someone who's doing it.

An evil grin made its way to her face and she sneaked to peek into the haunted bathroom, the words 'detention' and 'points from' at the tip of her tongue, ready to lash out to whoever was caught. To her surprise, there was no one. Confused, she went inside, and heard a hissing sound. She yelped and suddenly her locket opened, and her consciousness was no more.

Harry jumped when he heard footsteps outside of the bathroom, hastily hissing a 'close' to the entrance to the Chamber. He was under his Invisibility cloak, hiding behind the stall closest to the Chamber's entrance. When he heard nothing else, he hissed an 'open' a little bit loudly so that the snake on the sink could hear him.

What he didn't expect was a loud thud at the bathroom's entrance. He cursed himself for not thinking nor waiting longer so that he'd be very sure that there wouldn't be anyone inside the bathroom so that the secret entrance wouldn't be found by just anyone. He knew it was cowardly to just stay in the stall, trying to stay quiet, but he had to do that lest it was Umbridge who'd seen the entrance to the Chamber.

Unbeknownst to him, said person was struggling to push off the dark force which was coming out of the locket she'd swindled out of a lowly thief in Knockturn Alley, fighting a losing battle.

For a long while, there was no sound, and Harry was afraid that he'd done some damage to whoever was at the bathroom's entrance--he didn't even think about hissing a quiet 'close', fearing that he'd be found.

Then a dark, high-pitched chuckle which sounded not unlike his Tom's chuckle. He shivered as a dark, foreboding feeling blanketed him. Something had happened, and he knew that he was the one to pay the price... eventually.

There were footsteps again, but this time, it was going away from the bathroom. He stayed until there were no more sounds before he jumped forward, sliding down the Chamber's entrance, hissing a quick 'close' as he passed the sink, wanting nothing more but to tell Jamila about everything. And he meant everything.