Harry Potter :Diamond Heart

'It's today?'

'Yes,' Harry replied, giving the portrait a flat look. He'd said that twice already.

'I told you to come see beforehand so I could teach you things,' Salazar exploded, in parseltongue. 'I did,' Harry responded. 'I'm right here.'

'I can't teach you right before the task begins. You'll need your strength for the competition and blood magic is demanding field. It's sacrifice based, after all.' The snake slithered around his ancestor's neck before coming to settle on the other shoulder.

'You can't even teach me about the theory?'

'There's not much point, is there?' the portrait groused. 'Magic is best learned practically and actively, not listening to painting.'

Harry shoved Secrets of the Darkest Arts to one side and sat on the edge of the desk. There was still an hour or so until the task started and nothing to do while the portrait decided not to teach him. 'What is the task?' Salazar asked, after a brief silence.

'I have no idea,' Harry shrugged. 'I think it's probably meant to be a surprise.'

'Where is your cunning?' Slytherin demanded. 'What kind of Heir of Slytherin are you? You should have gone and found out.'

'From where?' Harry asked incredulously. 'The big book of future tournament tasks?'

Salazar sniggered and pointed at the desk behind him.

Harry swivelled and inspected an oddly new looking piece of parchment. 'The big book of future tournament tasks,' he read, amused.

'You left that just before you arrived,' the portrait smiled, 'said I'd understand in about an hour.'

'I used the time-turner, didn't I.' Harry turned to look at the desk only to find the golden necklace gone. 'Where am I?'

'You said you were going to practice occlumency exercises,' Salazar replied. 'Read the rest aloud for me.'

'Dragons,' Harry continued, work best. Don't ignore Katie.'

'distractions

'Dragons,' the painting mused. 'Could be worse.'

'Dragons are pretty bad,' Harry responded.

'Could be another basilisk,' Salazar countered. 'A dragon normally attacks by breathing fire, which they can only do in one direction, and is fairly easy to see coming and dodge. The stare of the king of serpents is much more subtle, and deadly.'

'If I'm hit by the fire. It won't matter.'

'You survived to warn yourself,' Salazar reminded him. 'The plan must have worked, and now you know it, because you will have done it, succeeded and told yourself.'

Harry blinked. 'Run that by me once more.'

'You left yourself a message telling you how to do the task after completing it,' Salazar reiterated. 'Just trust yourself and go with it.' He peered over Harry and frowned. 'What else does it say?'

'The small confused.

one

bites,' Harry told him, 'I have no idea what you were trying to tell yourself,' Salazar admitted. 'I hope it wasn't important, or that it becomes obvious later.'

'I can't imagine leaving myself an ambiguous note if it didn't need to be,' Harry decided. 'Know anything about dragons?' he asked the painting.

'I am Salazar Slytherin,' the portrait told him.

'You only ever say that when you don't know,' Harry grumbled.

'I wasn't stupid enough to ever pick a fight with one,' Salazar said testily. 'Avoid the fire, the claws and the teeth, their senses of smell and hearing aren't amazing, so once it's blind it's easy enough to remain undetected.'

'Some of that sounded conceded in mock surprise.

useful,'

Harry 'I hope the dragon gets you,' his ancestor groused.

'So do a lot of people, no doubt,' Harry admitted. 'I'll have a think about what to do on the way there. The rupturing curse should work on the eyes.'

'Cruel,' the effective.'

'If it works…'

painting

commented,

'but

'I suggest you try and use simple spells to find an elegant, easy solution,' Salazar began. 'Keeping your potential a secret is generally a good idea if you don't want to suddenly make a lot of powerful wizards and witches feel threatened.'

Harry had to admit he was probably right. Conjuring a vast basilisk out of dragon fire was a very tempting thought. The idea of such a spectacular piece of spell work was captivating, even in his mind's eye, but it would rather give away his strengths to everyone and only in the first round too.'

'An easy distraction and the rupturing curse then,' he decided.

'If that fails, don't hold back,' Salazar said sagely. 'Better to have potential enemies and be alive, than to be eaten by a dragon.'

The new motto of House Slytherin, Harry smiled.

'You don't seem very worried about your last living family member,' he noted.

'I know you survive,' the portrait replied. 'You're sitting in the pipes somewhere out there, after all.'

'I suppose,' Harry conceded grudgingly. He wasn't all too convinced about Salazar's theory. As far he was concerned if leaving the note changed anything he could very well die.'

Harry supposed that the version of him to first undertake the task had made such a mess of things he had no option but to resort to this. That version would not exist if the note changes things and so long as Harry remembered to leave the note afterwards the loop would close and things would progress as he hoped.

Of course, I could make a worse mess of things because of the note.

It was just best not to think about it. 'You should go,' the painting reminded him. 'Don't want to be late and miss watching the other champions try and avoid being toasted. You might pick something useful from them.'

Harry left the chamber rather swiftly. He didn't want to be late and upset any events that needed to happen for him to survive and leave the note. He'd been very careful using the time-turner up until this point, so whatever was about to happen must have been important to persuade him to try and change things.

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