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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 34: Stink
"You think he would know what's happening?" Harry stood over the two cursed artifacts with the basilisk fang in hand.
"I don't have the answer to that question. It's not like I ever experimented by destroying any of them while I was still human. But I would be surprised if he doesn't feel anything," V said to him.
"We could wait until we have all of them." Harry considered the possibility, but V immediately pointed out the downside.
"We don't know if he has created any more. If he has made additional ones, there is a good chance he's keeping the last one on himself." V was merely speculating, but knowing how he used to be, it was more than that.
"Mmm…" Harry didn't like the idea of risking a warning reaching Voldemort. If he realized what was happening, his actions would become unpredictable.
Right now, they had a decent advantage, knowing more about him than he could possibly imagine, but that could easily change.
"However," V continued, "it could be fine to put this on hold until we secure the ring and the locket. If he hasn't moved them, then we know exactly where they are."
Harry nodded. "The Slytherin locket is inside that cave near the coast. And the old family ring is at the Gaunt house. We can get those over the summer. It shouldn't be a problem to get away from the Weasley family for a while."
It wasn't like they could stop him if he wanted to leave.
"Then you'd better find a good place to hide those two. Close the boxes and use the charm I taught you to seal them. Just to be sure."
Harry did as told and also made a box for the basilisk fang before looking around the main chamber.
They weren't going to find a better place to hide these items than this one.
Only a few people even knew it existed, and one would still need to speak Parseltongue to access it.
Harry used a simple transfiguration on the giant snake statues surrounding the chamber and created pockets on the backs of their heads where he could place the boxes.
From the side of the passage, it was impossible to spot any difference.
"That should do," Harry said, feeling satisfied with the hiding spot. "It will only be for a few months at most."
"Do you want to take a look at that basilisk corpse now?" V asked.
Harry wrinkled his nose involuntarily at the thought of dragging the dead basilisk out of the water.
"You may want to reinforce that clean-air charm," the hat reminded him. For V, this wasn't an issue for the magical hat, as he had no sense of smell whatsoever.
Harry approached the waters at the end of the platform and took a peek down.
"Lumos." He aimed his wand at the surface and produced a sphere of light that floated down on its own.
"There it is! It doesn't look too bad," the hat said.
"It's not the looks that worry me. Okay… here we go." Harry braced himself, channeled a large amount of magic through his wand, and cast a powerful variant of the levitation charm.
A moment later, the corpse of the basilisk emerged from the water.
"Urgg…" Harry groaned.
"Too heavy?" V asked. "Do you need my aid?"
"No… it's just even more stinky than I thought." Harry set the dead creature onto the platform.
As soon as he did, the corpse collapsed in on itself, and large amounts of liquified remains burst from all its openings.
Harry quickly took flight and hovered above the platform to avoid being splashed.
"Oh… It's a bit worse than I thought," V commented. "Looks like its flesh is all rotten and liquefied."
"There's some of its venom mixed in there as well… it's going to be difficult to salvage anything," Harry said.
"The skin still looks good. You can make a nice reinforced tunic with that," V suggested.
Harry cleaned the mess as best he could and proceeded to analyze the rest of the corpse.
"Too bad the eyes are gone. Those were the most valuable ingredients here. What a waste…" V lamented.
"If I remember correctly, the Headmaster's phoenix damaged them beyond repair, so that was never a possibility." Harry pulled the other fang from the basilisk's mouth. "I'll hide this one too before leaving."
"Flesh gone, blood gone, organs gone, and eyes gone… it appears that you can only make use of the skin," the hat sighed.
Harry shrugged. "It's better than nothing. And it's not like we needed it. We have enough money to buy any materials we want."
"Yes, well, you won't be able to buy a pair of thousand-year-old basilisk eyes."
"Forget it, V. No point dwelling on that. I should receive the materials from Lady Rose today, then I can work on my runes." Harry cast a spell at the basilisk remnants and covered his nose.
"The charm isn't enough… let's get out of here for now. I'll come back to collect the skin once the air has had a chance to clear a little."
Harry was about to walk back toward the tunnel when a thought struck him.
"Wait… I should be able to use this now." He waved his wand. "Gate."
A circular portal manifested in the air.
Harry needed a perfect mental picture to open a gate, and now he had fulfilled that requirement.
"From now on, we no longer need to go through the girls' bathroom," Harry said.
"How convenient," V replied.
With this, he could return here anytime over the summer. Harry had just gained a perfect hideout.
Or it would be perfect, once he got rid of the bad smell.
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