Marcus Flint arrived to the entrance to the Headmaster's office, anxious to impart his news. He found Lucius struggling to make it up the final steps. Marcus dragged him into the office, getting him to the Headmaster's chair so Lucius could collapse into it. Severus' potions had healed him, but he was exhausted, physically and magically – worse he felt very anxious about the possible outcome of all these events. Flint delivered the message from Albus and left, eager to get back to the Slytherin dorm and tell all he'd seen.

Minerva arrived shortly afterwards to find Lucius searching the desk for pepper-up potions and finally settling for a bottle of elfwine when he could find none. Minerva was quite alarmed at Lucius' appearance. His robes were not only shredded, but drenched in still-wet blood. She sighed and didn't bother to try and argue with him and simply grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the floo.

Lucius snarled and clutched the bottle of elf-wine after taking a very long swallow. They landed in the infirmary where Madame Pomfrey squawked at the sight of the blood-soaked Lucius who was downing another gulp of elf-wine.

She dragged Lucius to a bed and snatched the bottle away from the protesting wizard. He protested further when she started snatching his robes and shirt as well. "Hey … we haven't even been properly introduced, Madam." He slurred at her with a snicker, holding his tattered silk shirt to his chest like an offended maiden.

Madame Pomfrey flushed and her lips tightened. "Drop the shirt and get into bed!"

Lucius raised an eyebrow and smirked, dropping the shirt and flouncing onto the bed. "I usually demand dinner and drinks first ..."

"Lucius Augustus Malfoy...!" Madame Pomfrey sputtered at the chuckling Slytherin.

"Apparently elf-wine makes you even more insufferable than usual, Mr. Malfoy." Minerva gave him a quelling look. "And you should know that it's unwise to antagonize the mediwitch that is about to treat you."

Lucius looked at Poppy uncertainly, attempting a sheepish smile, almost regretting the elf-wine.

Poppy glared at him, but was soon engrossed in scanning for the recent curses that had marred Lucius' chest. Several long gashes that had been closed over were present – healed enough to not bleed, but muscle and tissue beneath was still damaged.

"You are smart enough to know that alcohol can slow the healing potion's work." Poppy tsked.

"Yes – but most calming draughts can halt healing for hours – wine only slows it minutely." Lucius countered, and he needed something to calm his nerves.

Poppy huffed and worked at setting the tissue knitting spells and the ones to make the muscles pull back together. "It will take a few hours for them to complete the work." She summoned a large jar of scaradicate ointment with her wand and handed it to him. "Start applying that in the morning." She glanced at a clock – it was getting quite late.

A glistening doe patronus galloped in and informed them that, "Things are now well in hand – will be bringing everyone to the infirmary soon."

Lucius sank back in relief. He had learned over time how to grit his teeth and endure waiting when he must – but that didn't mean that his nerves didn't fray during the wait.

Soon Severus, Albus and Hugo came in – Severus clutching Harry tightly to his side. Ginny was hanging onto Albus' arm and still looking confused. Hugo had two conjured stretchers hovering in front of him with Tom and Lockhart on them. Tom was placed on next bed beside Lucius and Harry quickly took a chair between them, grabbing Tom's hand and gripping it.

Lockhart was soon on a bed across the aisle, still grinning madly and muttering. "... 'Battling with Basilisks'? … yes, that sounds good, … or perhaps 'Heroics at Hogwarts' - 'Dastardly Deeds of Dark Lords?… hmm..."

The others looked at him in rather disgusted incredulity. Severus, however narrowed his eyes, thinking quickly. He knew they would have to explain all this to the wizarding world – and quickly. It couldn't all be covered up. A press release by Corneilius was all well and good, but … Gilderoy was a famous adventurer. People already believed him, however mistakenly.

Severus wandered over to stand by Lockhart's bed – glaring him into silence, while Poppy administered potions to Tom, altough Fawkes had already done most of the work, she was more worried about his obvious emotional distress.

Dumbledore set the bloodied sword down on a table at Tom's side and Tom pulled the sorting hat out of his pocket and tossed it down on top of it.

Severus eyed Lockhart's now worried face, "The events of this school year are not necessarily yours to tell – or at least not only yours to tell." Lockhart started to sputter, but Severus held up a hand. "We'll let you write this book – with a co-writer … so that all the facts will be known." Or the facts they wanted the public aware of would be known, at least.

Lockhart looked around in protest, hoping for support from the others. Minerva was talking quietly to Ginny and merely looked at Gilderoy in irritation. Albus and Hugo were giving him stern looks. Lucius was knocking back more elf-wine and glowering at him with malevolence.

Hugo strolled up to the other side of Lockhart's bed. "You realize that all of this will be highly regulated information – quite secret in fact. If you don't release it when and how we wish – you won't release it at all."

"Oh, ...well, as you wish ..." Gilderoy stuttered uncertainly. Hugo Savage was no one to cross any more than the stern-looking Head of the Wizengamot Dumbledore was, of course.

"Naturally you don't want to accidently release information on the book ahead of time … so perhaps a spell to prevent that ..." Hugo waved his wand, placing a geis to prevent Lockhart from speaking of the events at all. Lockhart sank back in resignation – knowing better than to bother protesting.

Ginny proved to have no injuries and Minerva took her back to the dorms, telling her to keep silent until the Headmaster – whichever one was in charge in the morning – made his announcement.

Poppy spelled Lockhart asleep and waved the spell at Lucius for good measure – levitating the bottle of elf-wine away and left. Hugo and Albus left to get some sleep – and to think things over. Severus pulled up a chair, preparing to spend another night in the infirmary. It was becoming a tradition Severus grumpily thought.

"I'm sorry, Tom – couldn't think of what else to do." Harry said as the reality of having essentially killed a part of the brother he loved crashed in on him once again. "I should have just left you to it ..."

"No, Harry – you had to step in." Tom drew Harry closer. "I killed the basilisk, yes, but that was not going to stop the Horcrux from leaving and making killing Voldemort even more difficult … he could have hidden in … in the Alps or Himalayas or the moon for all we knew and never been found. But I … I'd never have been able to bring myself to destroy the Horcrux and kill part of my soul. You had to do that." Tom squeezed Harry's hand in comfort. "It's a very good thing you were there."

"You needn't worry about Tom … as I keep telling him, the soul is a rather limitless thing." Yvane spoke so all three could hear. "Yes, the part that is now gone could have made you 'feel' more complete, but the fact that you are no longer working at damaging the soul you have with revenge and murders means much more."

Harry looked at Tom hopefully and Tom managed an encouraging smile before succumbing to the potions Poppy had given him and fell into a sleep. Severus urged Harry into the bed on the other side of Tom, and covered him up. He was asleep almost before Severus could turn his chair into a comfortable recliner. He threw a blanket over the snoring Lucius and accioed one for himself.

He sent his doe to Sinistra, telling her that the Heir was apprehended and the Chamber made safe so she could reassure the Slytherins.

Thank Merlin it was the weekend, now.

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Ginny woke the next morning still a bit tired. She'd avoided being interrogated by the Gryffindor's still awake by pleading tiredness. Oliver had gone on about the Chamber – the Professors hadn't thought to silence him or Marcus. Minerva had taken the time to reassure them that the Heir was no more and the Chamber had been found and was no longer a threat.

Ron had not gone to bed until ordered to by the last lingering prefects in the common room. They still hadn't found Scabbers and he was sure he'd lost him for good. Having a rat for a pet was a bit pathetic, but he liked the little beast – he'd been Percy's and Percy was now considered 'cool' by most of the students. Percy's plans to work on a Dragon Reserve were met with impressed looks by males and starry-eyed looks of appreciation by females. Now Ron would have to admit to his brother and parents that he'd lost the rat.

Ron followed the other children to the great hall for a Saturday morning breakfast, barely hearing the excited chatter of the others about the Heir and the Chamber. He sat at the first year table and filled his plate and stared at the french toast and syrup sadly – Scabbers always shared that with him.

"Oi, Weasley!" Marcus shouted. The twins looked over at him. "No – the younger one … Ron." Marcus held up a wriggling rat. "This yours?" The rat had been found in Slytherin territory – cornered by Pansy Parkinson's kneazle. The kneazle had been on the verge of pouncing when Pansy had dragged him off, squealing for him 'not to touch the filthy thing'.

Marcus had conjured a cage and promised to lecture Weasley about his pet. Draco had still been stuck to the chair furiously glaring at Marcus and ignoring Blaise's taunts.

Now, though, everyone was happier knowing the school was safe – except for Peter Pettigrew. He'd almost had to transform back into a person to excape being eaten by the kneazle. Oh, how he hated felines! Now to hear that he'd been too late to aid his master by only hours … it was intolerable.

Peter was tempted to give Ron a sharp nip … but he would need the continued protection – and besides Ron was waving a piece of french toast at him, and he was hungry.

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Corneilius jogged happily from the press conference – having Lucius and Severus give him an essentially ready – made speech full of opportunities to drop names like Gilderoy Lockhart and Hugo Savage – as well as Harry Potter and that other lad that lived with him … Tom Riddle. With Hugo in the mix, he could claim some points for himself and the Ministry.

The story itself was a bit short – the still incorporeal shade of 'He Who Must Not Be Named' had attatched itself to a rather famous artifact – the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw herself – and thereby had possessed an innocent student - and then Lockhart. In those guises he'd set loose Slytherin's basilisk, attacking students. When found out by the teachers, he'd attacked them and run to the Chamber with the youngest Weasley as hostage and tried to take over Lockhart permanently by using a very dark ritual. Afer the basilisk was killed by Tom Riddle, 'The Boy Who Lived' destroyed the Dark Lord once again with Lockhart's aid.

The Minister had been warned not to embellish or try to answer many questions – but to say that the full story with all details would be answered in Lockhart's next book, which would be co-written by Adrian Pucey - and added to by the other participants in events.

Fudge had not been happy to essentially have to admit that 'He Who ….etc' was not totally gone, but Hugo and Albus seemed to have the matter in hand, so he faced the infuriated Rufus firmly when the Head of the Auror Academy shouted that they would be causing a panic by endorsing the idea that the Dark Lord was back.

Fudge, quite bravely he felt, stood firm. "Ignoring it won't make it go away – and as long as we can say we are dealing with him, the public won't panic." To his relief Rufus had simply glared and left.

Fudge indulged in some particularly expensive caviar and lobster in celebration.

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Tom woke the next morning, blearily viewing Severus and Harry sleeping peacefully. Yvane had eventually convinced Tom that the loss of the horcrux was not the end of the world, though Tom still mourned it's loss a bit. Yvane said that grieving was normal, but not to despair over it.

The sorting hat was still sitting on top of the sword, and Tom glared at it's grinning countenance.

"Good morning …. Gryffindor." It said cheekily.

Tom grumpily ignored it and ducked into the bathroom at the end of the room, showering quickly and hissing for a house elf to fetch clean clothing. The house-elf squawked at the site of so much grunge from the chamber on his old clothing, and disappeared quickly with them.

Tom noticed that Lucius had already disappeared when he came back in the infirmary. Lucius had heard Tom stirring ... and the hat's little joke. Once Tom was in the shower he'd gotten up, called for his elf Ritzy and changed into something less – shredded. He'd had to set up a silencing charm when the elf had arrived – the elf had squeaked and squealed at the state of the clothing – and the freshly healed wounds.

Lucius glanced at Severus, but was reluctant to disturb his rest. He walked toward the Headmaster's office slowly, hoping that he'd find what he expected to find. Sure enough – there the twinkling old coot was sitting behind his desk as if nothing had happened.

"So – you have returned." Lucius gave Albus his best 'aggravated and disapproving school governor' look.

"Well – the suspension was 'for the duration of the crisis'." Albus smiled blandly at Lucius. Over the last two years he'd found that letting his Slytherin cohorts play out their little scenes made them happier.

"Well … is the crisis really over? I can think of a few other ...crisis' that might be going on … we could even view Lockhart's mussed hair as a crisis – I'm sure he views it that way." Lucius grinned evily.

Albus chuckled. "Yes, that was likely how Rufus intended to keep his friends in place – once he got them there – 'the crisis' would never have been over."

Lucius nodded shortly and looked at the portraits of the former Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts. "I wonder if I qualify to have a portrait placed up there?" He mused, making Albus sputter into his morning tea. "I suppose I can leave a clause in my will to have portrait of me put here – to see if the castle accepts it."

"Yes – just what we need – having your descendents peeking into the Headmaster's office anytime they wish." Headmaster Dippet sniffed.

"Well, I'm sure we don't need to worry about that for at least another century." Albus answered mildly, refusing to rise any further than that to the bait and ignoring the muttered 'cheeky boy' remarks from the affronted portraits. Lucius smiled in satisfaction at the portraits, but changed the subject.

"If you are agreeable, after reassuring Draco I am among the living I intend to spend a day at Spinners End." Lucius held up the jar of scaradicate cream. "I can't reach all the areas I need to." Lucius smiled innocently at the snickering Headmaster and left.

Albus chuckled a bit more, but was relieved that the only plots Lucius had at present involved getting more time with a fiance. Then he realized that Lucius had distracted him from getting the wards back from him - the sneaky wizard. Albus finished his breakfast and the the door chimed again – the parchment read Tom Riddle this time. Albus smiled – he was much more fond of this Tom Riddle than the last one.

He sighed unhappily, a few things about the young man didn't add up – and, of course Severus and Lucius had been plotting rings around Albus regarding the boy – Albus knew that. He just had to trust that they knew what they were doing.

Tom still looked tired, Albus noted, and he was clutching the Sorting Hat in one hand and a sword in the other. Tom waved the hat to float to it's shelf, making Albus smile at the show of wordlless and wandless magic. Fawkes chirped happily at Tom, making Tom finally smile just a little. Tom then carefully laid the sword down on the desk in front of Albus.

"I believe this belongs to the school, I don't think Godric really wants it to leave here unless there is a good reason." Tom managed a faint smile for the Headmaster.

Albus peered at the jewel-encrusted sword cheerfully. It had been such a long time since it had been seen – it had moved into the realm of legend. "Well, dear boy, this seems to confirm the hat's decision to place you in Gryffindor."

Tom merely glared at the words 'Godric Gryffindor' that ran down the length of the sword. Humiliating … that's what it was. Although, if he had to be part Gryffindor – at least he was one that could summon magic swords seemingly at will.

Albus smiled gently. "I know you feel that Slytherin is your true nature – and perhaps it is, but the hat saw you had some Gryffindor in there as well … and it is a side of you that can come in handy in certain situations – it's not a bad thing to embrace that part of you as well."

Tom shuffled his feet uncertainly. He was wary of mechinations, but Yvane's chuckling in the background seemed to endorse that Headmaster's words. Tom finally settled for an uncertain nod and muttered goodbyes.

Albus watched him leave, the young man troubled him at times. Perhaps Tom struggled with knowing his father had been such a dark wizard? Surely he should be eager to see signs that his nature was that of a Gryffindor, in that case? None the less Tom was surrounded by people that heartily endorsed him and trusted him. Severus and Lucius would not be simple to decieve, particularly since they had known the Dark Lord so well – they would notice if Tom was following his father's footsteps.

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Adrian Pucey had, luckily, finished off his translation / updating in modern language of the Helga Hufflepuff journal and it was being double-checked by Albus and Bathilda Bagshot for accuracy before getting sent off to a publisher. This left him free to 'take on' the newest Lockhart book.

He had the unenviable task of making a Gilderoy Lockhart book accurate and rein in the rampant self-aggrandizing of Lockhart. Lucius had promised that Lockhart would be sharing the profits of this book and that Pucey would be getting a good percentage. Pucey also realized that Lucius, Severus and Albus himself would owe him a pretty big favor, and was smart enough to know that was nothing to sniff at.

To the other Professor's relief Lockhart's magical core had been quite drained and would be unlikely to have regenerated enough to teach by year's end. Albus insisted that Lockhart stay in a set of very nice rooms next to the infirmary to recover – and be available to both Popppy and Adrian Pucey … and away from Rita Skeeter and everyone else. Lockhart was quite flattered and agreed happily.

Nymphadora had heard of the excitement and had taken a three day leave to fuss over the depressed Tom. Tom didn't stay depressed long and hovered between being pleased at her concern and embarrassed at the public displays of affection that seem to make the female students giggle – and some of the male ones as well.

On the last day she watched as he assisted in showing some upperclassmen the Thestrals. About half the class could see them and half not. Tom had no difficulty handling the creatures, tossing them bits of fresh meat. Many of the students lingered after the lesson to talk to Tom and quiz Dora.

The subject of Auror training came up and then animagus abilities. Dora showed them her cheetah, to the student's delight, and she quickly told them she hadn't done the transformation until after Hogwarts. "Your patronus sometimes gives a clue – my patronus is also a cheetah. But, Professor Mcgonagall's animagus form is a cat – and her patronus is a lioness. Sometimes instead of looking like your animagus form, the patronus represents something important to you."

The students wandered off, whispering excitedly. Tom smiled at Dora and cast his own patronus so she could see it. She sighed in delight … a cheetah, like her own.

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Lucius, Severus and Minerva nodded, finally in agreement with the goblins over the price of the basilisk steaks. The goblins grinned their faintly alarming smiles back at them, pleased with the outcome.

Tom technically had the rights to the dead basilisk, but he was uncomfortable at profiting at all from the basilisk that had killed Myrtle. He told Severus to 'do what he thought was best with the beast'. It wasn't like he was running low on galleons, his vault was still depressingly full.

Severus had briefly thought that keeping the basilisk all for himself and his potions was best, but then reconsidered. If only he had enough space to hoard all the scales, venom from the huge glands, the skin … but he didn't, so getting a decent profit to help fund all their little projects would have to satisfy him.

The Headmaster had sent Minerva, as there were centuries worth of shed skins down there that were also worth a great deal, that belonged to the school. He also figured that she could shame the Slytherins into giving part of their profits to the school as well.

Severus had suggested involving the goblins, as they would cheerfully do much of the butchering in exchange for part of the underbelly hide, as they used it for armor. More importantly, to them, basilisk meat was considered a delicacy that Goblins only rarely had the oportunity to obtain. A creature this size was a windfall that they were willing to pay quite a bit for. Lucius complained they were undercharging the goblins, but Severus was prepared to be generous. Keeping the Goblins viewing them – and Harry Potter - as allies was worth making a slightly smaller profit.

Severus and Tom lead a contingent of goblins through the school a couple weeks later, past hallways full of gaping students. Severus had already obtained the other venom-filled fang and carefully placed it in a stasis box and stored it carefully in a the warded cabinet at Dragonsrest. One of these had killed one Horcrux – it may do for another as well.

Taking apart the rest of the basilisk was painstaking and slow, but Severus was mentally reviewing the potions he could make and experiments he could do with the basilisk parts and that made it much less arduous. Harry, Draco and Dudley came to help at times, and Severus made sure that most of the Slytherin students had a chance to see the chamber in exchange for help with the beast's carcass. Slytherin pride took a huge leap, even with the iffy presence of a basilisk just made the other students more awestruck.

Other students were allowed to barter the chance to see the sight, if they were excellent enough at ingrediant gathering. Spring arrived with the school – and much of the wizarding world agog with the stories of the Chamber of Secrets. The Daily Prophet ran more than one letter from students describing the chamber – and the dead basilisk.

There was some backlash regarding the basilisk – the serpent being 'proof' of Salazar's dark nature. Adrian wrote a lengthy letter to the Prophet that the other founders had been quite aware of the creature – Helga's journal had made that clear. The chamber had been built to guard the castle from the outside world – there had been many entrances from the caves and caverns beneath the castle and dungeons.

The tunnel entrance that would only open to parseltongue, the labryinth of tunnels and the basilisk as guard had made invasion mostly impossible. Salazar had left the serpent when he'd left and the other founders had warned the students against exploration into the chamber.

Over the centuries the tales of the place had become more sinister and Salazar's dislike of muggleborns and their families that he felt brought risk to the castle had grown and become legend. Adrian's letter had sparked more questions that he had cleverly answered by saying to buy the book when it came out that summer.

Adrian was now deeply into interviewing everyone even vaguely involved in the 'entire adventure' and Hugo was helping him weed through everything that he would be allowed to reveal and the 'one or two details' he was to avoid mentioning. Hugo managed to dance around these and avoid using the word horcrux – insisting 'the spectre had latched onto an object'. Adrian knew better than to argue the point, though he came from a family that had sported more than one dark wizard. He conceded that it was possible and wrote the points in question the way Hugo said to.

Hugo was eager to not only get the book underway, but to start on his own next project. The whole werewolf issue had become at least easier to bring up in conversation at the ministry since the win in the Wizengamot over the victims who had changes but did not transform. Hugo – as well as Harry and his friends - had kept Jennifer – the Harpie's Beater - in the spotlight as a heroic figure to be admired.

Hugo had made sure that there were stories in the Daily Prophet on a weekly basis from all over the world about advances that werewolves had made to improve society. The werewolf reserves in europe had established schools decades before and now had a fair number of members who had become spellcrafters, potions makers. They also had research that was ongoing on how having a werewolf do spells or make potions might benefit the outcomes of certain treatments.

The latest article that had stunned Britain was how a certain class of curses that were based on moonlight and moon cycles were being researched by a band of italian werewolves. More than one british wizard and witch was reconsidering yelling for werewolves to be driven from their shores.

Hugo had managed to get some concessions – the werewolves led by Dex in the small community that Remus and Albus had set up was now allowed to do business with ministry supervision. Albus had wanted to push for much more, but Hugo knew that slow and steady won the day – not demanding much more than the nervous public would stand for. Dex had been pleased even though Remus had grimaced in derision.

Hugo understood that Albus and Remus were impatient, at least Dex was behind Hugo's plan to slowly desensitize the public with the propaganda war and then shoehorn in laws similar to those in Europe.

Now Hugo planned his next propaganda move. In the past Lockhart had written a book 'Wanderings with Werewolves'. Hugo doubted it's veracity, but it would come in handy. He lay out his plan to Gilderoy – that he intended for Gilderoy to go live in the 'Werehouses' with Dex and his little community … to research another book, of course, and be a bit of a advocate for the werewolves for a time while 'researching'.

Hugo knew the news would race through the wizarding world and many would change their opinion - assuming that if Lockhart thought the werewolves in Dex's community were reasonably harmless – they must be. Others – who had met Lockhart - might decide that if even a moron like Gilderoy could survive being around werewolves – they must be less hazardous than everyone assumed.

Lockhart had paled and refused, though he at least looked thoughtful after Hugo pointed out how brave it would be seen as - and Lockhart could leave during any full moon if he wished.

Hugo had then waited him out for a month and sure enough, Lockhart got bored at the school and escaped to Hogsmeade a few times. Hugo caught him leaving out the window of a house there at 2 am – from the bedroom of a pretty witch well known to have a jealous and vindictive husband who had already won several duels concerning her 'waywardness'.

Hugo later conceded to Albus that to Lockhart's credit he didn't argue – he just looked at Hugo's smug face in the light of the streetlamp and said. "While I'm living with the werewolves, will my fans be allowed to visit?"

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