A few weeks go by and Harry has been finding himself too distracted for his liking. He has been loving it though. He hasn't been able to do as much research as he would like, but he has been loving all the time he has been spending with a certain blond. The two boys are even more joined at the hip than they were before.
The end of the school year was fast approaching and Harry could not stop stressing about the ritual. He still hasn't found it. Harry was struggling to get to the Chamber at night because Draco just wanted to stay up and talk for hours. By the time Draco was done talking, Harry would be too exhausted and fall asleep before escaping to the chamber.
The next morning, Harry awakens early. Casting a quick tempus, he sees that he has at least four hours before Draco wakes up. He untangles himself from his sheets and changes into his robes. He leaves his dorm and passes through the common room. The corridors of the dungeons are pitch black. He thanks Merlin that he knows the way to the girls bathroom so well, no matter how dark it is. Upon entering the bathroom, he quickly opens the chamber and slides down the pipe rather than asking for stairs. He lands on his feet and strides into the chamber.
"Aphrodite, I need you and Odessa to search the entire chamber, and I mean every last corner, and see if there are any other books that I haven't read yet. There has got to be a book with the right ritual in here somewhere." Harry hissed out.
The two snakes nodded before slithering off in opposite directions.
Harry continued to the library to finish reading the last book in there.
Three hours pass and Harry slams the book shut. He makes a copy of the book and flicks his wand, sending the original book back to its place on the shelf. He then casts a wordless incendio on the copy of the book and lets out a growl in anger.
"Aphrodite! Odessa! Return and tell me good news!" He hisses out to the snakes.
The nearly silent slithering sounds reach the room, only one of them enters.
"We have only come across one more book. We will return to our search now. Here is the book, we hope it has what you need." Odessa hisses.
The snake slithers back out of the room and the sounds of the two snakes slithering disappears as they return to their search. Harry opens the book and begins to flick through the pages. His eyes widen and he flips back to a page that he flicked past. His mouth turns up in a huge grin as he reads the page.
"Finally! Oh Merlin! I could not be happier right now!" He shouts.
The two snakes quickly slither back to the library.
"Did you finally find a ritual?!" Aphrodite asks.
"Yes!"
Harry copies the book then tears the ritual page out of the copy. He begins to walk towards the entrance to the chamber. He can imagine just how excited Tom will be when he receives it. His walking slows down before he stops in his track. If Tom even receives it. What if Albus intercepts Harry's letters? Then the man would know that Harry is helping Tom and that they've figured out how to restore him to his body. No. Tom is just going to have to wait until the end of the school year. There's only a couple of weeks left anyway. It's safer to just wait. Harry looks up from the ritual parchment and looks around. Now that he has found the ritual and has spare time, he may as well restore the chamber to its former glory.
***
A week goes by and Harry has been restoring the chamber every spare second. He vanished all the old Basilisk skins from Aphrodite shedding, vanished all the animal bones on the floor, and scourgified every last area of the chamber. It took a lot of time and energy, so he wasn't spending a lot of time with Draco. But he was absolutely determined to finish it before the end of term. Over the last week, he continued to restore the chamber, he polished everything top to bottom. He repaired furniture and other bits and pieces he came across. By the last morning of term, he was finished. He looked around the chamber and took in all his work he had done. The chamber looked glorious. Harry could only imagine that it must've looked like this back when Salazar Slytherin was still alive and used it. Harry could hardly contain his excitement to go to Malfoy Manor and tell Tom that not only did Harry finally find the perfect ritual, he also restored the chamber to its full glory. In fact, being excited was an understatement, Harry was beyond ecstatic. He couldn't wait to see Tom's face. Harry cast a wordless tempus.
"Oh Merlin!"
"Odessa!"
He began to run towards the entrance. He saw Odessa slithering towards him and he quickly stopped and picked her up, then continued to run up he stairs.
"I'm going to be late if I don't hurry! Bye Aphrodite! See you after the Summer!" He hisses to the Basilisk who was watching him sprint up the stairs. Harry was happy that he had put his trunk in the pocket of his robes before heading to the chamber that morning. He closed the entrance and sprinted down the corridors to the entrance hall. When he arrived, he nearly ran into the back of Draco. Draco turned around at that moment and a frown was evident on his face. They climbed into a carriage and Draco turned to face Harry.
"Where have you been? I couldn't find you anywhere and everyone has basically left on the carriages already!"
"I was in the library reading. Forgot to keep track of the time."
"No you weren't! I checked the library."
"The one on the seventh floor?"
"There's no library on the seventh floor!"
"Yes there is. It's across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy."
Draco looked confused.
"Is there really? I've never been to that one."
"Yes of course. It is very good. Much better than the first floor library. Even better than the restricted section."
Draco's eyes lit up and a small smile appeared on his lips.
"Remind me to visit it when we come back!"
"Of course. I will go with you."
The pair clambered out of the carriage and boarded the Hogwarts Express. They entered an empty compartment just as the train began to move. Draco and Harry sat together on the same seat, Draco sitting against the wall of the compartment. Harry let out a yawn and repositioned himself. He laid down on the seat on his side and rested his head in Draco's lap. His eyes began to shut as he thought about how excited Tom will be. He quickly fell asleep with a small smile on his face
Hi everyone!
I am so sorry that I haven't updated in so long! I'm not going to lie and make up some excuse about being extremely busy or anything. Because honestly, I just couldn't be bothered with this chapter (and going off how long it has taken me to update, I seriously just couldn't be bothered at all with it). I apologise for such a boring chapter. It is just a filler. And the book will start getting more interesting from here. I just needed to finish off Harry's second year before I got to the actual exciting stuff. I hope to update soon! No promises though. Now that I'm up to the stuff I actually want to write, you hopefully won't be waiting so long between chapters! Once again, thank you all for all the support! I really do appreciate you all.
