Later Harry would learn precisely why he was having trouble duelling. He couldn't use martial magic effectively at his age, because his "magical core" wasn't fully developed yet. And so with the use of heavy spells like the reductor curse, he needed a space of recovery time, which meant effectively that he couldn't use it in a duel for another couple of years.

Realizing that it wasn't something that he could overcome until he was old enough was a source of great frustration to Harry. Having taken out a book from the Restricted Section on magical development, he learned that the magical core usually expands in tandem with physical puberty, and thus girls would undergo it first. So in all likelihood, at the moment, Hermione had a larger core than him, in addition she was almost a year older.

Furthermore, Harry tested his magical limits on several watermelons that he had filched from the breakfast table and found that he could not pull off more than three reducto curses in a row without getting light-headed. The more powerful expulso curse, he couldn't quite use, as he simply didn't have the raw latent, magical power in him yet. So Harry contented himself with reading up and practicing basic duelling stances, movements, and wand strokes.

On the other hand, the entirety of Slytherin House, or at least the lower year students was in an ecstatic mood of glee. Granger was much hated among the second years of Slytherin House, presumably because her constant question-answering was making them all look bad in public and it challenged their preconceptions of what it meant to be muggle-born.

So as could have been predicted, their reaction was one of unbridled joy at Hermione's comeuppance to Harry's great disgust. They spent most of the following day complimenting him for his knowledge of the curse and him daring to use it against that uppity mudblood. It was sickening to listen to and even more sickening to have to pretend. Harry felt guiltier and more depressed than ever. He had only used that spell in the heat of the duel and in a state of near exhaustion at the very end and regretted it almost immediately.

On the plus side, Hermione was now quite popular within her house for having stood up to that budding dark wizard Potter who clearly must been gifted in the Dark Arts to have survived Voldemort, which was an explanation that Harry himself found half-convincing. There was simply no longer the possibility of her being bullied by her fellow House Mates, they now stood by her in her absolute defence, every time he chanced to pass her way. And even though Harry wanted to sarcastically say that Hermione didn't need their pathetic protection, when she was ten times the witch that any of them could yet hope to be. But he hardly wanted to make his name even more mud among the Gryffindors.

But their constant whispers in the corridors of how he was a dark wizard with hidden fearsome powers unnerved him as well, although he didn't show it and was careful to maintain a stoical facade. It did explain how he could have survived, and perhaps was an indication of his magical superiority. But upon reflection, he dismissed the idea when he contemplated all the times he had been bullied by seventh years (even if he did manage to get his revenge on them later), and the great amount of struggle that had been involved in learning advanced magic. He felt he could even detect the professors looking at him with a deeper mistrust, and Madame Pomfrey seemed much less friendly than before.

.

Professor Snape was soon due to the Headmaster's office to give his account of the events that had swept through the school. Personally, feeling quite conflicted over the turn of events, who knew that Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter would show himself to be interested and talented in the Dark Arts? But more importantly, was that cause for worry or was this simply the fulfillment of the prophecy, the necessary means by which Potter would ultimately challenge and defeat the Dark Lord? So Snape found himself forced to reevaluate what he thought he knew about Potter again. And that annoyed him greatly, when he felt he could never really pin down what Potter was about.

He entered the office automatically without a greeting and Dumbledore was, as always waiting for him.

"Ah, Severus. Have you mused on Harry's duelling performance enough?"

Snape paused before turning to address Dumbledore. "And what you think I should be thinking about the boy?"

"That depends on what intuitions you have drawn from the events that you have seen. Care to leave your memory of the incident in my Pensieve to examine?" Snape walked over to the silver container of Dumbledore's in response and withdrew a single strand of memory with his wand. "I sentenced him to a week of detentions."

"That will do."

"So what do you think about this with respect to your immediate intuitions without actually seeing the incident?"

"I believe I have faith in Harry and the purity of his intentions and will continue to have such faith until I see evidence to the contrary. I am inclined to believe that it is merely a confused twelve year old's wayward experimentation with magic than anything truly serious."

"Absolute faith in the prophecy," Snape asked scrutinizing Dumbledore with the closest thing resembling a sneer that he ever could muster before the venerable Headmaster.

"Always, Severus. It is after all, the only hope we have left. Voldemort cannot be overcome by any other way… as he seeks to be the nothing less than the embodiment of hatred and power."

Snape said nothing but stared instead at Fawkes who had suddenly burst into flame to be reborn again as a featherless hatchling. "I am actually more troubled as to where he might be learning such spells, that second years certainly do not normally have access to," Dumbledore continued,

"I believe you have other reasons for believing as you do, that you are refusing to share…"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled but he said nothing about it. "My concern is that perhaps whoever is behind the opening of the Chamber of Secrets may be teaching Harry dark magic, even if he doesn't know what they are doing. I really don't see how he could have learnt it otherwise…"

Snape's eyes flashed as he made the connection.

.

From then on, Harry could no longer access the Restricted Section easily (except sometimes under the cloak), but over the weeks and months he had copied using magic numerous relevant and important books so that he could continue to progress long into the future.

It took several days, but finally he managed to find some time alone to apologize to Hermione, again the Library was essentially the only place they could ever converse discreetly, without other Gryffindors and Slytherins goggling at them and making their inappropriate remarks about how Gryffindors and Slytherins should never get too friendly, or that it was a waste of time talking to muggleborns, ect, ect.

He saw that she had been half-avoiding him all the while, and so he was unsure how to proceed or how she might have processed what he had done to her so Harry felt terribly nervous, as nervous since the last time when Hermione had almost been killed when he had been forced to retrieve the philosopher's stone, and he had bluffed with her life

He went over to the usual table where she worked where she was scrawling absent-mindedly what looked like potions homework and hesitated when she didn't look up.

"May I sit?"

Hermione nodded, still not looking at him and gestured. He sat down heavily and began tapping the table lightly with his wand, feeling like an utter fool.

"About that other day," he finally began…

"I saw you that other day during the Quidditch match," she said smiling in a false sort of way at him. "You're a great flier…"

"I thought you didn't like Quidditch very much." She was apparently avoiding the topic.

Hermione made a noncommittal sort of sound and returned to her homework.

"Listen, about that day when we duelled at Lockhart's stupid club, I sort of lost my temper." Harry said speaking as honestly as he could. "That spell I used… way out of line I understand. Shouldn't have taken it so seriously after all. So I'm sorry and I hope you weren't injured badly…"

He was babbling kind of and it was really quite embarrassing and a sight to behold.

Hermione had finally stopped writing, pushed the parchment away from her, and looked at him directly in the eye. "Honestly, Potter. I think I understand now that you are a wizard learning dark magic, or at least a wizard who aspires to learn such magic. I know this because you were willing to use dark magic without warning in a practice, friendly duel, when there was nothing at stake except your pride."

"I also want you to know that obviously I will not be competing with you in this regard, because unlike you apparently, I am not a power-obsessed lunatic."

Harry shrank from her words, but he could offer no rebuttal to them, except the shrieking voice inside of him that insisted he was learning all this stuff just to defend against Voldemort. But how true was that exactly?

"I mean, how exactly am I supposed to feel as a muggleborn, being cursed by you in public, with all your Slytherin pals jeering afterwards? In front of everyone, at a time when muggleborns are being subject to attacks…"

"Essentially by pulling off that little stunt of yours, you have excused the casual use of dark magic, by learning and using it against me." Hermione said carefully.

Harry could think of nothing further to say, so he offered an apology again, which Hermione sort of half-accepted with a fair amount of doubt before returning to her work.

That very day, Justin Finch-Fletchley, a second year muggleborn from Hufflepuff was left petrified next to the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick and the castle and its students formally entered a state of sheer panic. Half the muggleborns of the school were withdrawn and the rest were escorted to and fro their classes by teachers.

.

Dear Father

It has been a month since I've written to you about my victory in the Slytherin Quidditch match against Gryffindor and already there have been two further attacks as I'm sure you've been told. The Mudbloods in the castle are scurrying in fright and very soon it seems that all of them will be withdrawn altogether. If it really is the Chamber of Secrets and its monster doing this, it seems Salazar Slytherin was correct in predicting that his monster would one day purge the school of unworthy elements and purify this sacred learning institution.

However I write this time mainly to inform you that I have at last seen signs of dark magic prowess in Potter, that you told me to look out for ever since he and I made acquaintance. In a duel with Mudblood Granger, Potter lost his temper and performed Angustio Fatalis, a spell I was initially unfamiliar with. Upon asking several seventh year Slytherins, I learned that it was a very powerful dark spell that second years simply could not easily learn for themselves.

You told me that should I be confident that Harry will become a powerful dark wizard or perhaps the next Dark Lord of the future, that I should befriend him for the benefit of this family. Initially like you, I was disappointed as Potter seemed to be an ordinary first year, exhibiting no extraordinary power about him. Even after having encouraged the seventh years to bully him to test whether he had hidden powers, which is what you suggested, I was unable to discern how he had survived the Dark Lord as an infant? Was it simply dumb luck as you and I speculated in previous letters?

This time however, I advise that we should invite Potter to our annual Christmas Eve's Party even though it has only ever been attended by pureblood families of the Sacred 28. I believe that the recent reveal of his powers warrants that we get to know him better to find out what he might be hiding. I personally am confident that Harry Potter will be a great dark wizard for the future and thus I will be doing all I can to befriend him.

Your faithful son

Draco.

P.S. As an additional plus, it seems Potter's friendship with that mudblood Granger has been wrecked forever following these events, in addition I have overheard that Granger's muggle parents are contemplating taking her out of the school. It can't be long before we can have her removed from our midst.

.

Harry's response to being invited to the Malfoy's party was to say to Draco's face that he would be glad to come and couldn't wait for it. Of course implicit between their exchange was the understanding that Harry had nowhere else to go for Christmas anyways (out of all the Slytherins), and so of course he would be free to attend.

Harry immediately began to work on learning the art of portkey creation. Having decided not to inform the Headmaster if he was successful in doing so (no need to make himself any more dependent), thus providing him with a fail-safe exit route if Lucius should attempt to kill him or hand him over to Voldemort, he would spend the following weeks focused on that task. Even though unauthorized portkeys were strictly speaking illegal, like many Ministry edicts such as the prohibition on underage magic, practitioners were hardly ever caught.

Harry's rationale for becoming a "dark wizard" as perceived by the pureblood elites, was an attempt to wrest Voldemort's pureblood support away from him. Having been weak for so long, with no prospect of returning to power, and with great doubts as to whether he was even alive, Harry calculated the pureblood community would be amenable to the prospect of an up and coming Dark Wizard who would defend their interests in the future against the "progressive" Ministry. So by apparently being just such a dangerous prospect, Harry would use fear, intimidation, as well as greed namely the desire to control and influence him if he should grow very powerful, to gain influence and connections within pureblood circles. He would make use of the mystique surrounding his name and the circumstances of his survival against Lord Voldemort to counteract Voldemort's pureblood support, to divide and weaken his enemies. To trick them perhaps into believing that he also believed in their ideals and so if Voldemort returned, they would be split at least initially between helping him (who had defeated Voldemort once) or siding with the Dark Lord. In any case, Harry needed to learn dark magic anyways to stand a chance against Voldemort in the future

If that would make many conclude that he was the natural powerful heir to Voldemort's rule, that would just be a psychological bonus. Just as many who had concluded the opposite, that he was the saviour of the wizarding community from all Dark Wizards, but Harry saw that ultimately he needed the support of Purebloods more than the rest of the wizarding community. That was because Voldemort was sufficiently terrible enough that the rest of society definitely wouldn't hesitate to support him if they really had to choose between him and Voldemort.

It was all really stupid to Harry to be honest, but he was willing to make use of whatever was given to him. In addition, going to the party was also an opportunity to observe Lucius and the Malfoys of course, maybe he would find more clues as to how the attacks were occurring?

"What are you idiots doing here?"

Harry had spotted Crabbe and Goyle at the entrance of the Great Hall after supper looking uncharacteristically thoughtful and worried. That had been enough to suggest that something was off but Crabbe and Goyle was showing some very odd facial mannerisms and body movements like they didn't feel at all comfortable in their own skin.

"Yeah we were just looking to get back to the common room?" The other scratched his head and looked even more nervous. They obviously had no idea where that common room even was and Harry knew that Crabbe and Goyle weren't nearly that stupid.

"Well, follow me you dolts," Harry said playing along and he led them to the dungeons where under the cover of relative darkness he stunned them both and removed their wands, and found they had a pair of wands each. So, Polyjuice then. Harry conjured ropes, threw his trusty invisibility cloak over them and levitated them both into an unused classroom.

Ten minutes later they both came to, staring sheepishly at Harry who stared back at them fingering their wands. One of the two, "Goyle", was looking absolutely terrified.

"Well you've obviously done a very thorough job, whoever the hell you are," Harry said. "Uniforms, wands, plus hair, not to mention the other ingredients for Polyjuice Just tell me please what exactly did you hope to achieve with this little stunt?"

"Goyle" looked at "Crabbe" with even more fear and Harry just instantly knew that that this one was actually "Neville Longbottom."

"I don't know what you're talking about Potter," said "Crabbe" with what was an admirable attempt to look outraged. "Unbind us immediately or we'll go to Professor Snape on you."

Harry's eyes flashed as that one stung. Pulling out his own wand as "Goyle" flinched massively and closed his eyes, he simply conjured a chair for himself and sat down. It was absolutely hilarious to watch such physical specimens that Crabbe and Goyle really were, reduced to near tears. "I'd love to see what Snape would do to two students from other Houses who tried to infiltrate his beloved Slytherin House for unknown purposes," Harry replied nastily. "In any case if you refuse to confess, we'll simply wait out the potion and then I can hand you both to Professor McGonagoll or Snape, or both." Harry withdrew a DADA book from his bag and calmly began to read.

There was a moment of silence then "Goyle" said tearfully, "I'm Neville." "Crabbe" glared at him for a second before looking defiantly back at Harry. "And I'm Ron." "I see," Harry said still surveying them as he put away his book. "Well now, I want to know what you were thinking and why you pulled off this particular plot, before I decide whether or not to hand you off to a teacher…"

"It's the Chamber of Secrets," "Crabbe" said reluctantly. "We're sure that one of you snakes must be behind this."

"A reasonable conclusion to make," Harry agreed. "So you decided to infiltrate Slytherin House for the purposes of acquiring information. Not a bad plan I suppose, although the pair of you are really terrible actors. Not that Goyle and Crabbe are particularly easy to imitate, they may be stupid, but they're stupid in their particular way you see. Anyways, why didn't the two of you consider asking me what I know? I'm part of Slytherin house."

There was another moment of awkward silence before Harry chuckled. "I guess you thought that I was possibly involved as well. Makes sense logically. Speaking for myself, I guess that sometimes when you're so busy thinking of the problem, you forget that you yourself may not be entirely above suspicion to other people."

The tension between them was starting to lighten somewhat and "Goyle" managed a weak smile, Harry vanished the ropes allowing them to sit up and spent the next few minutes relaying everything he knew about Slytherin house and what various people had said regarding the Chamber of Secrets.

"Come off it," Harry told them, "Who brewed the potion for you? I know you could never pull off something this complex..."

"Well looks like Hermione was right to suspect Malfoy first," Ron said without thinking which caused Neville to eye him reproachfully.

"So she's involved in this then?" Harry regarded them. "Well at the very least she doesn't suspect me…"

"Crabbe" and "Goyle" both fell silent.

"So you did think that I had something to do with this?" Harry asked, aghast.

"We thought that Malfoy was behind this, me and Hermione never suspected you," said "Goyle" honestly. "As for Ron…"

"I thought you could have had something to do with it," admitted "Crabbe", "Wasn't sure. Guess I was completely wrong…"

Harry snorted. "Seriously, Weasley, you might have remembered how much I tried to keep you from bullying Hermione, a muggleborn, since the beginning of this year as well as the last, before you start accusing me of wanting to murder them." But judging from their reserved expressions, he still wasn't sure whether they believed him entirely or not, or what they would go on to tell Hermione.

"I'll keep you posted with developments that occur in Slytherin House," Harry said finally, "at least stuff that is at all related to the Chamber of Secrets. Even though it technically makes me a traitor… Or I'm willing to speak to Hermione directly, if she's at all inclined to listen to me."

"Crabbe" glowered, obviously remembering Harry's curse. Harry sighed, then let them leave, allowing them to claim their actual wands, while he went back down to the Slytherin dormitories to return the other pair.