raised by dementor

chapter 30

"You realise the chances of this plan actually working are about a million to one and that's with some generous rounding?" Draco wondered as he and Harry stood a few feet away from the huge imposing eagle that would lead the way up to Dumbledore's office. It was night now and in the darkness of the corridors no one was around to see Draco or Harry, they had been planning to break into his office for two weeks and had finally worked out a plan
"Luna poured her blood, sweat and tears into this plan to make it work. So everything is going to be just fine," Harry decided
"This is the same girl who believes in a giant spaghetti monster?"Draco wondered aloud and Harry looked at him with his eyes raised, Draco for his part sighed and shook his head.
"Well might as well start the impending disaster now, so let's pretend I'm a random guy who has no idea why we're doing this or how we're doing this, so we're going to do what? walk in? don't teachers sleep in their offices?" He asked casually.
"Remember I said I had a distraction planned? well it should be starting any second... now,"
Meanwhile
"Ready Fred?"
"Ready George?" the twins were masked and on their broomsticks on the seventh floor of the grand staircase with wide grins on their face, Harry had come up with this idea and they were proud of the fact he had trusted them to do this while he burgled Dumbledore's office.
"Yes," the two nodded with wide grins and suddenly like a switch had been pulled in their minds they took off, the plan was simple but they had decided to take creative licence, both of them now held a bucket of paint. One that had been enchanted to never run out and all the portraits were suddenly watching with interest as the two zoomed up, a few ran off to get the professors but the rest were suddenly hit by a wave of orange paint which hit the walls in a splash, this was followed by a red splash and after a moment the wall was a stripy orange mess. The twins high fived each other in mid-air but the still had the rest of the room to do and only a short amount of time to do it in.
Dumbledore's office
Dumbledore came running out of his office a few moments obviously having been told what was going on by the many portraits in his office who as Harry suspected would be worried. Portraits moved through each other often which also meant they had formed attachments to paintings and other things which meant they would be running there now to see what had already been damaged and hopefully save whatever they wanted. The other's would just go to see what was going on, it was not every day two people through paint over the walls of the grand staircase
"Let's go," Harry whispered knowing their two main issues were gone, Dumbledore himself and the portraits
"That actually worked !" Draco remarked actually sounding surprised and Harry clicked his tongue, but he had to admit even he was worried Dumbledore wouldn't bite the bait.
"Yes now while standing here and remarking how well the distraction work is productive is it helping us break into his office at all?" Draco asked dryly,
"Sometimes Cho really does have a point when she mentions killing you," Harry muttered darkly as the two moved from their hiding place behind the pillar and moved towards the eagle, Harry grabbed Draco by the shoulders and quickly lifted them both up, Draco reached for the door
"Little bit forward, little more," he suggested reaching for it, Harry complied and made as if he was about to drop him; Draco opened the door pretty quickly into the dark dimly lit room.
"Wait did we consider wards?" Draco asked suddenly as he caught his breath,
"Yes, his office is protected from anything that can't fly so why would he need them?" Harry announced as they began looking through the many books and papers Dumbledore kept on his desk.
"So we're looking for anything to do with the chamber, us, Quirrel or any of the weird stuff going on around this school," Draco checked and Harry nodded in confirmation, he had no idea what he was looking for but luckily that question was going to be answered for him.
"If you're looking for something interesting then I'd try looking in that trunk," a voice snaked through the air and both Harry and Draco turned to see the sorting had looking down on them from high up.
"I must say well done, you're the first students ever to break into the headmaster's office and distract every portrait at once, thank you so much for giving me a moment of peace, but if you are looking for something interesting then that trunk under his desk would a good place to start," the hat stated silkily.
"Why would you help us?" Draco asked as Harry looked under the desk , sure enough there was a trunk there but it was locked and tightly.
"The headmaster is many things and what you perceive him to be is wrong. They say he is the most powerful wizard and that it is true but there is more power..." suddenly the hat trailed off. Draco frowned and as Harry searched for the key he looked up wanting to hear more.
"I must not talk any more, listen to me both of you. It was a mistake coming here tonight and you will not find what you are looking for, this night of all nights was more dangerous than you could possibly imagine but you have a chance to flee, the key to that trunk is on his desk luckily for you he was just looking at it. Now open it, take out the contents and go, answers are in it but you will need to decode it, you will have more luck but you must go now!" that hat urged in a wary and almost frightened voice.
"Is it something to do with the chamber?" Harry asked picking up the key, the hat looked at him for a few long seconds as if considering his answer.
"Possibly, I do not know but what I do know is that it is important, very important to both of them, take the book and the key. Dumbledore is not supposed to be looking through it and he cannot look for the key without confessing his crime," the hat announced solemnly as Harry opened the trunk, the moment the shining gold gleam hit his eye he gasped. It was a book with a gold square on the front with a name sticking out and it was that name which had stunned him, the name and words which read This is the Journal Of Lily Potter
"Go now!" the hat ordered and Harry could hear the scraping of stone outside which indicated the staircase was moving once more, they had spent to long here talking and now they were in trouble.
"Leave, the window!" the hat ordered and Harry wondered how it knew about his abilities, Dumbledore must talk to him or it overheard a lot more than Dumbledore thought.
"Thank you," Harry smiled at the hat who nodded deeply
"Unlike you two I know what could happen but I cannot tell you, it would be too dangerous but to ensure you have a chance of fighting it I will do everything I can to stop them, and right now there is only one thing I can give," the hat nodded and Harry looked confused.
"What's going to happen?" Draco asked first
"I wish I could tell you, both of you but Dumbledore and the other is a master of the mind and a secret spreads like a disease, if I told you then you would tell your friends and while Dumbledore cannot get into your mind he would either break your friends or worse, there is a way to stop and the answer lies in your hands Mr Potter," the hat replied looking at the book. Harry looked at it obviously still confused but there was no longer time to question, Dumbledore was coming; he slipped the key into his pocket and held the book tight.
"One day you will understand everything, but that day is not today," the hat announced darkly, their eyes met for a moment but then Harry broke away and moved to the window.
"No, no and no there is no way I am... ahhhhhhh!" Draco cried as he was dragged out of the window and into the sky, Harry would land on one of the towers and everything would be just fine. At least for them
"It was a privilege to have known you Mr Potter,"
the hat muttered to itself before appearing on Dumbledore's desk, then it that moment the door burst open and both Dumbledore and a hooded figure walked in. They seemed surprised at the hat looking at them with nothing but hate but neither had time to question
"I know what was in that trunk and what was in that book and I am going to tell you both that you will never see the key again, without the key the trunk won't open until the enchantment fades in a thousand years or so, good luck until then..." and then before either could react the sorting hat burst into flames and then he was no more.
"You have a lot of explaining to do Albus, that book was essential to the plan," the figure growled in a voice that seemed higher than normal and laced in a croakiness associated only with great pain.
Later
The library was their meeting point and after Cho and Hermione distracted everyone with a spell so Fred and George could get away they had all met up, Luna's role in the plan was opening the secret passage Fred had shown them so the twins could hide their brooms. Everyone suspected them but no one had any proof, though this was not the main focus right now
"So you found a diary belonging to your mother, not Lucy your rea... biological mother?" Cho asked aloud obviously surprised, Harry nodded but decided not to mention the fact he considered Lucy his real mother.
"Yes two things happened that were surprising, firstly Luna's plan actually worked and we found that... also the sorting hat talked to us a bit and he was kind of cryptic and I think he's now dead," Draco trailed off slightly awkwardly
"So what's the bad news?" Hermione asked realising there was going to be some, Harry opened Lily's journal and threw it on the table , all of it was in some kind of strange runes and they already knew that these were not the normal type of runes.
"There is literally no way of translating it, there is no code, not language gap, no nothing we have no idea what it says," Harry confessed, he looked at Luna wondering if she had any idea. The girl had been around a lot of strange things during her childhood and she might have some idea as to what the language was but even she shook her head.
"So in summary we have the one thing that could answer every question we have but we can't use it, unless we learn what language it's in which you know the odds are about eight million to one," Draco sighed sadly. Then they heard a thud and click
"Wait what's that?" Crabbe suddenly asked aloud, on instinct Harry grabbed and hid the book not wanting it to be seen by anyone he didn't trust, however he didn't need to worry about someone seeing them because the person in question wasn't transfixed in the opposite direction and a petrified Colin Creevey fell to the floor with his camera at one side engulfed in smoke.