Chapter Text
"Are you sure we should be doing this, Harry?", Ron whispered softly, worriedly scanning the hallway as he clambered out of the entrance to the Gryffindor dormitory in the dead of the night.
"Of course, Ronald," Harry said back, not even trying to keep his voice down, as he stood waiting for Ron outside the said entrance with his head peeking out from under his invisibility cloak draped over his shoulders. "Why are you so worried? Look, even the Pink Lady's not here! I'm sure she's been wandering around, partying with the other portraits. If they can do that, why can't we?"
"Because," Ron explained, his voice barely more than a whisper, while he quickly moved to tug half of Harry's invisibility cloak over himself to hide himself and his stupid friend away from view, "they are portraits and we are students! We can't go around breaking curfew every time you feel like it, mate! Both Hermione and Riddle are going to kill us!"
"Oh, come off it!", Harry muttered, waving Ron's worries away with his hands. He began to lead them down through the hidden hallways and steep stairs, while making sure to duck away from the patrolling prefects and professors alike. "They won't kill us! You are being overdramatic!"
"Don't you remember how mad they were at us when we destroyed that patch of Forbidden Forest and got everyone banned from entering the place by the centaurs and the unicorns?", Ron asked after sighing, annoyed. "Their potions grades suffered quite a lot, along with everybody else's, not to mention how much cross Snape was with us since he couldn't get the ingredients for his unholy concoctions!"
Harry snickered. "That was so amazing, mate," he muttered, sighing fondly. "I really couldn't believe that Professor Snape got all his ingredients from in there. I thought he got his supplies from the top suppliers of Europe, you know! I can still remember those nasty glares." Harry shivered.
"You were quite a lot protected from those glares by Riddle, you know. Me and Neville got the brunt of it, mate," Ron remarked, rolling his eyes while they hurried down the grand staircase and then went into the small adjacent chamber to the Great Hall - the same room where they had first come in when they had been first years and had been anxiously anticipating their sorting. He still remembered feeling so goddamn nervous after the twins had told him how he needed to fight trolls to get sorted, while Hermione was reciting every spell she had read about in the books. Riddle had gotten quite annoyed then and had snapped at Hermione, which had led to Harry defending her honour quite bravely.
Ron had thought Harry would be sorted into Gryffindor because of that. Who thought the brat would end up in Hufflepuff and cause havoc?
Come to think of it, how had Harry and Riddle become best friends when they had been at each other's throats at the beginning?
Ron came out of his musings when Harry crouched down, pulling the cloak down with himself, and pulled out his wand to tap at a particular piece of the stone wall. There was a soft creak, before a small part of the wall slid open, revealing a small, dark tunnel.
Harry clambered down and Ron followed suit.
"Ah.... oh, did I tell you about Snape threatening me again?", Harry asked suddenly, turning around to face Ron while the stone wall closed shut behind him.
Ron blinked, lightening their surroundings with a soft lumos with his wand. He raised his eyebrows at Harry questioningly. "What did you do this time?", he asked.
"Why do you guys always assume it's me who's in the wrong?", Harry asked while pouting at him.
"You were the reason behind Snape's lack of ingredients the previous year, Harry," Ron answered, a tired sigh escaping his lips. "I won't be surprised if you did something again to make that dungeon bat upset."
"Well....", Harry said slowly.
Ron raised his eyebrows higher, both judgingly and questioningly.
"I did have the twins steal this," Harry admitted sheepishly, pulling out a small black pouch from his pockets and opening it to show its contents to Ron. Under the wandlight, Ron could make out what appeared like wet grass or leaves.
"What is that?", he asked worriedly.
"It's gillyweed!", Harry answered enthusiastically, motioning for Ron to start moving. "Neville told me about its properties. This can make me able to breath under the waters of the lake without any problems. I just need to eat it when I get inside the lake and then I'll be able to breath underwater and swim around without much problem."
"But is it really necessary for you to go in there, Harry?", Ron asked yet again. "Why do you need to measure it's depth anyway?"
"It's for science?"
"What?"
"Fine!", Harry muttered, morose. "The twins challenged me! It's their fault, alright? Do you think I want to get in trouble with Tom? Hell, I even had to figure out his patrolling schedule to not sneak around when he's loitering around the castle, most likely being all cuddly with Medusa!"
"Who's Medusa?", Ron asked slowly. Was Harry jealous and doing all of this to get that Riddle's attention subconsciously? He – and the whole castle for that matter – have all figured out both Harry's and Riddle's remarkably disgusting pinning for each other for the past year, but Harry was quite oblivious to everything. He just did whatever came to mind and thought nothing about his intentions behind it.
Just a few months ago, on Riddle's birthday, Harry had begged the elves and Headmaster Dumbledore to let him bake a cake and throw a birthday party for Riddle in the Great Hall respectively when he had found out that Riddle had never celebrated it with a party, all the while forgetting that Riddle hated such extravagant things. Dumbledore had seemed quite amused when he'd approved the idea, even going so far as to show up at the party with robes specially made in green with snakes wearing birthday hats slithering around the fabric.
Riddle had not been amused. He'd quite remarkably however, endured the whole ordeal because Harry had been behind all the planning.
Ron often wondered when these two idiots would get together. He hoped it was soon. Riddle needed to keep a leash on Harry, lest the guy went and blew up the castle in their seventh year.
And seeing how the events were transpiring each year, Ron was sure something of that scale might be evitable.
"Oh, she's a dear friend!" Harry grinned, bringing Ron out of his thoughts.
"Yours or Riddle's?", Ron asked carefully. "And who is she anyway? I don't think I've heard about anyone with that name here."
"She's friends with the both of us, Ron, don't be stupid!", Harry answered, looking annoyed. "She's just able to talk better with Tom, is all. She totally does not favour Tom!"
"Uh-huh," Ron mumbled. "Who is she?"
Harry mumbled some inaudible gibberish under his breath.
"What are you saying?"
"She's a snake!"
"Ah," Ron muttered, nodding his understanding. Everyone in the whole of wizarding Britain knew how Tom was the only known Parselmouth and the only remaining descendent of the Slytherin line. It was highly likely Harry felt jealous of Tom being closer to a snake than himself. Ron tilted his head when it finally registered. "Wait," he suddenly stopped right before the exit wall, wincing when Harry crashed into his back, "did you just say that Riddle likes to cuddle with a snake?"
"Well...", Harry snickered, "I didn't explicitly say that, but I've seen them do that several times."
"You...", Ron sighed, "Harry, mate, you did explicitly say that two minutes ago, and please, never, ever tell me something like that about Riddle again, okay?"
Harry hmphed, crossing his hands across his chest in annoyance.
"So, what did Snape threaten you with this time?"
"With the Veritserum, of course," Harry muttered, petulantly. "The same old thing. I mean, when is he gonna get more creative?"
"Why are you challenging your fate, Harry?"
Harry hmphed yet again, pushing past Ron to open the wall with a tap of his wand. Both of them stumbled out through one of the outer walls of Hogwarts adjacent to the great lake, its water glistening and shimmering a brilliant silvery white under the faint moon light, the moon hanging high in the clear night sky, with thousands of stars twinkling merrily over them.
Ron tugged the invisibility cloak over himself again which had fallen off of him while they had been traversing the tunnel and then followed after Harry as the Hufflepuff led him across the ground along the shoreline of the lake. The both of them were quite as they walked, Ron lost in thought about how much trouble he was going to be in for sneaking off with this idiot of a Hufflepuff in the middle of the night to measure the depth of the lake - which he still couldn't understand why Harry had to know - when they were already at thin ice due to their past escapades with death.
Contrary to what Harry said, Ron was sure this time either Hermione or Riddle were going to kill them, considering how they were their closest friends and the top scorers and perfect Prefects of Hogwarts. Ron tried to tell himself he was engaging Harry so that he could keep an eye on the guy, but deep down he knew he enjoyed going on adventures like these with Harry to create memories with one of his best friends so that they could reminisce about them when they were much older and probably dying.
Ron stopped beside Harry who was now waving his wand and mumbling to himself, looking partly confused and partly annoyed. "What happened?", he asked cautiously.
Harry frowned, looking downtrodden. "Somebody messed with my property," he mumbled, staring like a lost puppy at a particular patch of bush.
"What...property?"
"I, uh, temporarily borrowed a boat from that underground harbour," Harry replied sheepishly. "You know, those boats which we used when we were first years and came on them with Hagrid?"
"...."
"What?!", Harry asked defensively. "Don't give me that look!"
"That boat isn't your property, Harry," Ron said, sighing.
"I said I temporarily borrowed it, didn't I?"
"That still doesn't count," Ron replied, crossing his arm, oddly feeling like Percy for some reason. "And, whom did you borrow it from anyway? I mean, Dumbles' crazy but he isn't that crazy, is he?"
"I borrowed it from Hogwarts," Harry mumbled, avoiding looking into Ron's eyes.
Merlin, Ron really was feeling like a responsible older brother now. Alas, how times have changed!
"And when, exactly, did you get the chance to go and borrow it from Hogwarts, then, what, tow it to hide it here?" Merlin forbid, was Riddle rubbing off on him?!
"...." Harry smiled sheepishly at Ron. "Yesterday night."
"What, did Riddle not had his patrolling duty yesterday as well?", Ron asked curiously this time.
"No, he did!", Harry replied, grinning for some reason. "We even went to visit Medusa! It was quite fun to run around the pipes, you know. Then, I came out here to get the boat!"
"I bet it was Riddle who removed it then," Ron muttered, deciding to ignore the comment about running around in pipes. What did Harry and Riddle get up to these days? Did they not have anything better to do nowadays, like improving their spell casting skills the way they had in the past?
Ron watched with curiosity as Harry turned pale and immediately turned to stare towards Hogwarts. "Do you think he's watching us?", he whispered.
Ron shrugged. "I don't particularly feel like someone's staring daggers at me with the intention of murder, so I don't think he is," he replied.
Harry deflated. "That's good," he mumbled. "Let's go!"
"What?", Ron asked. "Back to our dorms?"
"No, Ron!", Harry replied, rolling his eyes as he began walking towards the castle. "We need to get another boat!"
Ron paused. "Oh, come on! Weren't you afraid of Riddle just now?", he whined.
"Well, didn't you say he wasn't watching us?"
"I said I don't think so, not that I'm sure!"
"Same thing, Ronald."
"Not the same thing, Harry!", Ron snapped, getting irritated at Harry for using Hermione's tone of 'you are being an idiot, Ronald'. "And why do we need a boat anyway?"
"So that you can sit on it and hold the measuring tape for me."
"I also have to get on the boat and go in there?!"
"Not in there, Ron, above it! Why do you think I brought you here?"
"Uh, for moral support, maybe?"
"No," Harry rolled his eyes as he stumbled on the steeply declining path that led down into the underground harbour. "I don't need moral support from you. I'll get that plenty from the merpeople."
Ron frowned, confused. "Why would you get moral support from the merpeople in the middle of the night?", he asked.
"Cause Dumbledore told me so!"
"He told you that the merpeople will appreciate you entering their territory in the middle of the night and give you moral support for that?"
"Uh, not necessarily in those words, no," Harry replied, walking on the gravel of the underground harbour, Ron following just behind him. "He told me that the merpeople appreciated me greeting them in their own sign language. Did you know they have their own sign language, by the way? I learned a few words from an old, dusty book I found in the library and greeted them once."
"When did you get the chance to greet the merfolks, Harry?" Ron asked flabbergasted. "Didn't those guys not like coming up to the surface?"
"Yes, they don't," Harry replied, stopping beside one of the small boats docked at the harbour. "And I didn't greet them from up there."
"You have already gone inside the lake?!"
"No, silly," Harry laughed. "I saw them through the Slytherin's common room. They've got a huge see-through glass window that looks into the side of the lake. I greeted them from there."
"What were you doing in the Slytherin common room?"
Harry turned slightly pink.
Ron blinked.
Harry cleared his throat, mumbling something about a teddy bear and camera, before turning his attention on the boat. He tapped his wand twice on it, gave a firm nod before urging Ron to get on it.
"Uh," Ron asked hesitantly as he looked from Harry to the boat and back again, "you know how to row this thing?"
"It will row itself from magic, Ron," Harry replied, getting onto the thing, before turning to tug Ron onto it as well. "Come on then, off we go on our fine adventure!"
"Joy," Ron mumbled, getting a gut feeling he was going to get into a lot of trouble.