Lilja looked back down at the cloak. Her fingers tightened on the fabric. She wasn't just surprised, she was rattled. Her eyes had that distant, calculating look she got sometimes. "This cloak is part of James Potter's legacy," she said slowly. "If we survive this, you should give it to her. She is his daughter. It belongs with her bloodline."
"Fine by me," I said honestly. If it was hers by birthright, then she deserved it. "I'm not attached to it. I'd rather rely on my own devil tricks anyway."
She nodded once. Then she straightened her shoulders and switched tracks fast. "For now, I will use it to get Jasmine out while you distract the stray devil."
I held the cloak out properly. "Then gear up, Valkyrie."
She took it from me and swung it around her shoulders with an almost practiced motion. Lilja disappeared from sight-only the faint outline of the fabric shifting gave me any hint where she stood. The air moved slightly when she stepped closer.
"All right," she said. I could hear her, but I couldn't see her mouth move. That was an impressive artifact. "This is a lot to process later. For now, the plan is simple. You draw the monster's attention. I grab Jasmine and put this cloak over both of us. Once I have her, I'll take her out of the chamber before coming back to fight with you."
"Sounds good," I said. Then something had been nagging at me for a while, and I finally voiced it. "You know, for a 'transfer student,' you seem to know a lot about Hogwarts. About James. About that cloak. How?"
There was a pause. The cloak's edge shifted as she moved. Her teeth caught her lower lip, I knew that look now even if I couldn't see it. She did it whenever she wanted to dodge my questions. She was gorgeous but also so mysterious sometimes...
"Could you ask me that question later?" she said. Her voice dropped lower. "It is a...whole story. Not one we have time for when Jasmine may be dying."
I held her silence for a second, then nodded. "All right. Later. But I will ask again."
"I know you will," she said. There was a tiny bit of warmth in her tone. "Focus now, Harry."
I turned toward the huge circular stone door at the end of the passage. It towered over us. Heavy stone, scale patterns carved across it in neat, repeating lines. A snake head formed in the center, fangs bared, eyes empty. Moisture trickled from somewhere high above, leaving dark streaks down the stone.
I walked right up to it until I could have touched the carvings with my fingertips. I closed my eyes for a moment and drew a slow breath. I pictured the basilisk that attacked me in my mind, the sound of its hissing voice.
I summoned up the feel of Parseltongue in my throat. Then I opened my eyes again and stared straight at the carved snake. "Open," I said. The word slid out of my mouth in harsh, sharp hisses. I didn't hear English. I heard something that belonged to reptiles. The magic in the air twisted in response.
The stone snake's mouth shifted. The carved scales rippled. Lines in the door split. The heavy circular slab began to pull apart into thick rings, sliding away into the walls.
Behind me, Lilja sucked in a breath. "You really are a Parselmouth," she said. There was no judgment in it. Just shock.
"Apparently," I replied wondering where I inherited that power. "We can add that to the ever-growing list of weird shit about me later."
The last ring slid open and locked with a deep thud, leaving a dark archway gaping in front of us. Cold air spilled out of the chamber beyond.
I stepped through.
The Chamber of Secrets stretched out in front of me, bigger than I'd expected even after all the stories. A long stone walkway ran down the center, bordered by water on both sides. Giant stone serpents coiled along the walls, their heads jutting out over the water, mouths open. At the far end, a massive stone face rose up. Slytherin's ugly mug, most likely.
The air was heavy. Every sound bounced back at me. My own footsteps on the stone, the tiny drips from somewhere above, the faint rustle of the cloak as Lilja followed invisible at my side.
I could feel the faint, greasy trail of stray devil aura hanging in the space. It clung to the air near the floor, to the water, to the stones. It felt wrong in my senses, all hunger and decay and twisted magic. Fresh in some places, faint in others.
I didn't see the monster. What I did see stopped my heart for half a second.
Jasmine lay on the stone about halfway down the walkway, sprawled on her side. Her messy brown hair fanned out across the floor. Her glasses were gone. Her Gryffindor robes were rumpled, one sleeve torn at the shoulder. Her legs were twisted at an uncomfortable angle, sock half off one foot.
She wasn't moving.
I forced my feet to keep walking. I wanted to sprint, but that would have been stupid. This evil thing wanted me emotional and reckless. I was sure of it, and I could almost feel it hiding and watching me. I had no intention of handing it what it wanted.
I kept walking slowly into the massive, echoing chamber, every muscle in my body tense and ready. I kept my hands loose and open at my sides, my senses on high alert. The whole room felt ominously still, too quiet-like it was holding its breath and waiting for me to make the first mistake.
Keeping my voice steady, I glanced around the deserted chamber with open contempt. "Where the fuck are you hiding, Voldemort?" I called out, deliberately using the name to provoke him. "I didn't come down here to play hide-and-seek with some pathetic coward. Come on out!"
My taunt hung in the air for barely a second before the surface of one of the large pools lining the walkway erupted violently upward, sending a cold spray of filthy water splashing across the stone and soaking my robes. From that murky fountain of slime-covered water, the ugliest damn creature I'd ever seen burst out and landed hard on the stone platform ahead of me.
I blinked in mild disgust as I took in Voldemort's "new look." The asshole wasn't just ugly-he was revolting. His body was some sick, twisted combination of human and snake, covered in wet white scales. His torso was elongated and muscular, merging smoothly into a thick, sinuous serpent's tail that whipped back and forth aggressively behind him. His arms and chest were disturbingly humanoid-lean muscles clearly defined beneath slimy scales-but his hands ended in wicked black talons, dripping with water. Most disturbing of all was his face-a grotesque blend of reptilian and human features, his nose flattened into a pair of slits, lips thin and pale, mouth crammed full of pointed, shark-like teeth.
Crimson eyes glowed angrily beneath a heavy, ridged brow, slitted pupils fixed with burning hatred right at me.
"Holy shit," I muttered aloud, curling my lip with blatant disgust. "You know, I expected fucked up-but damn, Voldemort, did you actually choose to look this disgusting?"
He roared furiously and lunged forward, his thick serpentine tail slicing through the air toward my head. I threw myself forward and dropped into a tight roll, feeling the heavy, scaled mass of his tail pass just inches over me, close enough to whip wind across my neck.
I sprang back up onto my feet smoothly, turning to face him again.
Voldemort hissed loudly, spittle flying from his twisted mouth. His clawed hand rose sharply, and an unmistakable sickly green glow swirled into existence around his fingers. "Avada Kedavra!" he snarled viciously.
I reacted instantly, pulling moisture from the air and the pools around us. I thrust my palm forward, forming a dense, swirling vortex of water. The deadly curse struck my watery shield head-on, the green energy bursting apart on impact and exploding into thick clouds of superheated steam. The air hissed and filled rapidly with hot, billowing vapor, engulfing nearly half the chamber in moments.
Perfect cover for Lilja, I realized quickly. Even through the steam, my senses tracked her movements easily as she sprinted silently toward Jasmine's unconscious form on the ground.
I had to buy her time.
But a thought flashed into my mind-Voldemort was basically a snake now, and snakes could often sense heat signatures.
I had no intention of letting him notice Jasmine's body disappearing right out from under his ugly snout. Concentrating my power, I rapidly thickened the steam and heated it even further. Soon, it became a nearly impenetrable curtain of boiling mist-completely blinding thermal vision.
Voldemort let out a furious, frustrated hiss as he lost sight of me. "And now who hides like a coward, Harry Sitri?" he growled. His voice echoed through the chamber, slithering around me unpleasantly as he began circling my position slowly. I could hear his massive body dragging itself through pools of water, scales scraping loudly across stone as he searched blindly for me. "Come out and face me, little half-devil. Or are you afraid of true power?"
I laughed mockingly, deliberately projecting confidence. "Real power?" I taunted back, carefully moving in the opposite direction, staying hidden in the steam. "Don't kid yourself, Snakeface. You're a washed-up poser hiding in Hogwarts' sewers."
His voice erupted again, enraged. "I am perfection now!" Voldemort bellowed furiously. "The true Dark Lord reborn! My glorious form will inspire terror when I claim my rightful place ruling the Wizarding World!"
I rolled my eyes openly, though he couldn't see it through the steam. "Buddy, if you think looking like a giant mutant dick is inspiring anything besides nausea, you're even crazier than I thought."
Another furious roar echoed, and suddenly, beneath my feet, I sensed a surge of deadly magic. I didn't hesitate-my devil wings burst from my back in an instant, launching me upward as the stone floor where I'd stood moments before dissolved into bubbling pools of smoking acid.
The steam around us dispersed instantly as Voldemort used a violent gust of wind magic to clear the air. He glared upward at me, but I felt a rush of relief-Jasmine's unconscious form was already gone.
Lilja was insanely fast-thank fuck for that.
I hovered steadily about ten feet off the ground as I stared Voldemort down. My blue eyes locked fiercely onto his glowing red ones, holding them without flinching. His gaze burned with insane hatred-focused entirely on me, unaware that his victim had vanished right out from under his slimy nose.
We stared at each other, neither of us blinking. He cocked his disgusting scaled head, showing sharp teeth that looked like they belonged more to a shark than a snake.
"At lasssst, we meet properly, Harry Ssssitri," Voldemort hissed slowly. Each 's' stretched uncomfortably, like he was savoring the way my name rolled off his forked tongue. His thick, muscular tail coiled and twisted lazily behind him, scraping unpleasantly against the wet stone floor.
"Oh, we're talking now?" I mocked, flexing my broad black wings to hover comfortably out of his reach. "Sorry, man, got the wrong impression-I thought you just wanted me dead without all the chatter."
Voldemort's lipless mouth stretched wider into a nasty grin. He looked disgustingly pleased with himself. "Oh, I will certainly kill you, half-devil-there is no quesssstion about that. Especially ssssince you were foolish enough to confront me alone. But," he spread his taloned hands theatrically, his thin chest rising with grandiose pride, "given that you've somehow managed to survive my impeccable ambush, I'll grant you the glory of conversing with true greatnessss before I devour you whole."
I rolled my eyes dramatically, barely bothering to hide my contempt. "Damn, is every stray devil this fucking arrogant and insane, or are you just special?" I floated slightly closer, just out of his striking distance. "Get to your point, dickface. I've got better things to do tonight than entertain a narcissistic snake-man's ego."
Voldemort tilted his grotesque head, ignoring my insults entirely. His burning red eyes narrowed intensely, studying me with a weirdly fascinated look. His clawed fingers curled, digging impatiently into his palm. "There is one question I have been dying to know ever since I discovered your bizarre existence, Harry Sitri." His voice grew lower, rasping with obsessive curiosity. "You might be some sort of half-breed devil, yes. But even then-how was it that an infant managed to destroy the greatest wizard Britain has ever known? How did a pathetic, powerless baby defeat Lord Voldemort nineteen years ago!?"
I paused, genuinely confused. Was he fucking serious? "Wait-wouldn't you know the answer to that yourself?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Dude, I was literally a baby. You think I remember jack shit about that?"
Voldemort let out an irritated hiss, obviously displeased with my casual dismissal. His twisted mouth curled into an annoyed grimace. "Fool! I was not there personally!" His voice was bitter, resentful. "My memories only extend until my fiftieth year, then abruptly cease. A shameful gap in knowledge-one that I deeply resent."
I blinked slowly, filing that weird bit of information away for later.
So, what the fuck was he then? Some kind of weird copy of Voldemort? I mean, I was hardly an expert on magic shit, but I'd been around enough crazy crap lately to guess. Had Voldemort made some creepy magical portrait of himself? Did Katarea Leviathan shove an Evil Piece into it and bring it to life somehow? Nah, that sounded batshit insane even for my world. Maybe some twisted cloning ritual bullshit as a backup plan?
Honestly, nothing would surprise me anymore.
Finally, I shrugged dismissively. "Yeah, sorry, I honestly have no fucking clue," I admitted bluntly, giving him a bored stare. "And even if I did know, I definitely don't like you enough to bother telling you."
His already-creepy face twisted further, a wave of violent rage flaring in his red eyes. "It doesn't matter!" Voldemort snarled violently, saliva dripping off his pointed teeth. "Once I tear your limbs apart and feast upon your flesh, your mind and soul will surrender every secret to me! Every morsel of your memory will belong to-"
He suddenly froze, mid-threat, his body jerking sharply upright. His crimson eyes widened in shocked disbelief. For a split second, I thought he'd finally realized that Jasmine had vanished from the stone platform behind him, but-no, it wasn't that. He wasn't looking behind himself at all.
Instead, Voldemort's hateful stare fixed directly on my chest. His entire face contorted with a new, furious kind of horror. "You...!" he whispered, voice suddenly shaky and brittle with panic. "I CAN FEEL IT, you damned devil spawn! You consumed a fragment of my soul! You devoured one of my Horcruxes!" His voice rose rapidly into an enraged scream. "RETURN IT IMMEDIATELY!"
