Harry snapped awake in the cloud bed in the Sanctum of the chamber. He sat there still for a second as he reviewed mentally what had happened as Mind Harry caught him up with what had happened. Something had clattered to the floor out in the hallway. Harry stood and put on his Gryffindor school robes. There were much more comfortable robes in here, but they all had a prominent Slytherin crest on them and were enchanted so Harry couldn’t modify them. So scratchy school robes it was.

Harry thought about the noise as he walked out the door into the main hallway of the Sanctum. Did Salazar want to talk to Harry about something? He did shove things over and make loud noises sometimes to draw Harry’s attention if he wasn’t somewhere near a painting frame Salazar could travel to.

Harry walked into the library.

“Salazar?” he said to the empty frame, and a few seconds later the man came rushing up.

“You’ve been challenged for the heirship,” Salazar said, “The person seems rather confident, and is definitely not a student at the school. Calls himself ‘Roachmort’ of all things. He’s not human, some sort of transfigured half human half insect hybrid. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“His name does sound rather similar to Voldemort doesn’t it?” Harry said thoughtfully, “You think he’s his brother or something?”

“I don’t know,” Salazar said shortly, “Prepare yourself, I’ve told Nidhogg to delay as long as he can. But as an official challenge you must respond or lose access to the chamber and turn control over to him.”

“What is this? Some sort of duel?” Harry asked, “What are the rules?”

Salazar cocked his head, “I make the rules to an extent. He was carrying two powerful enchanted items that I’ve disallowed. Besides that there isn’t much more I can do. Anything goes, as long as it remains in the chamber itself. First one to verbally submit to the other or die will lose, and Nidhogg will defend the victor from any false surrenders. Nidhogg will signal when you can begin attacking each other.”

“Any suggestions on what I should do?” Harry asked, staring down at the wand in his hand. He was good, but as he remembered where he had heard of this person before. This Roachmort sounded like the one who had dueled with Dumbledore in the center of the Ministry a few days ago. Harry wasn’t confident in being able to take on someone who could go toe to toe with Dumbledore and who knows how many Aurors at the same time. He quickly told Salazar what he had heard and the connection to the man outside.

Salazar thought for a second before replying, “I would put your wand away, it seems you have no chance in outspelling your opponent. Good thing you have your second form to fall back on. The outer Chamber is an enclosed space and you have the advantage if you can manage to get your hands on him. Move unpredictably, and remember your lessons in spell dodging with your Godfather, for they will serve you well here. You are especially lucky that he will be unable to apparate or you would truly stand no chance. Show no mercy when you have a chance of finishing him. Do you understand, my Heir?”

“Yes, Salazar,” Harry said before turning and started walking away. He stopped and turned back around, “Thank you for all the help over the years. I just wanted to say that in case I lose.”

“You won’t lose!” Salazar scoffed, but there was a little worry in his eyes, “That’s defeatist talk, have some pride in yourself. I haven’t invested so much time in you just to have you taken out by some greedy upstart.”

“Thanks, Salazar. I’ll just have to win then I guess,” Harry replied before walking back to his bedroom. He took off his robes and carefully placed his wand on the bedstand. He transformed and took a few deep breaths to prepare himself. Then he went down the tunnel and emerged into the chamber. The smaller man standing across from Harry really did look like an insect. His skin was covered in reddish brown exoskeleton and his head was fully inhuman with mandibles and little mouth bits squirming around as he stood there with his wand drawn.

Harry stood there silently as Nidhogg loomed above the two of them. He flexed his hands in preperation to jump forward and close the distance. It was hard to tell what the insect man was thinking as it stared at him with its antennae twitching slightly. Roachmort. His soul was massive but cobbled together. It wasn’t circular and had little spikes and little imperfections dotting its surface like nothing Harry had ever seen before. But this person would be magically powerful if the sheer size of their soul indicated anything.

‘Begin,’ Nidhogg hissed and they both sprung into motion at once before he even finished speaking.

Harry rushed forward and ducked down as Roachmort jumped high in the air and fired a green killing curse downward at him. Roachmort’s body turned smoky and he started flying unassisted back as Harry continued his charge.

Harry opened his jaws and leapt forward towards the wizard, but Roachmort managed to twist out of the way in time. Harry’s jaws slammed shut on open air and he continued forward and landed on all fours on the ground. He rolled to the side as Roachmort fired a series of curses from his cloud, the cloud now floating near the ceiling of the chamber. A ceiling about double of Harry’s height and Harry knew the man was just out of his reach without him jumping up.

Harry recovered and lay splayed with all four limbs on the ground and leapt in the air again for another charge. The wizard blasted Harry’s chest with a trio of quick blasting charms, carving fist sized chunks out of him. The wizard tried to dodge Harry’s extended arms by dropping down like a stone, but Harry managed to brush the man's shoulder with one of his hands, throwing him off balance. Harry landed and rolled for a bit, recovering as quickly as he could. Roachmort was already flying back up to the ceiling, sending a trio of green killing curses this time as Harry moved.

Harry twisted to the side and dodged two of them by twisting his hips to the side, but the third landed directly on his shoulder. Harry felt it enter him and dissipate slightly as it passed through his skin. It latched onto his soul and chipped away at some of Harry’s soul strings weaved around his soul. He stumbled in shock at the sensation of a few of the strings in the network unraveling as the killing curse expended itself. But Harry was still alive and relatively uninjured. Luckily for him, Roachmort seemed similarly surprised by the failure of his killing curse and simply hovered there, seemingly stunned that Harry had recovered from the strike.

Harry leapt up again, and Roachmort launched three more killing curses into Harry’s chest, waiting to dodge for the last moment. Harry's soul strings frayed even more, but he continued. He opened his jaws wide…

And screamed in Ascendant as his soul vibrated wildly.

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“SHRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

The cloud became lighter and Roachmort dropped slightly, seeming disoriented as Harry flew at him. He raised his wand and managed to blast Harry with another killing curse before Harry impacted him. Harry wrapped both hands around Roachmorts torso and bore him to the ground with a blow that shattered the floor on impact.

Roachmort squirmed as Harry brought his jaws down on his shoulder. But he had trouble sinking in his teeth, they kept skittering off of the creatures bone plates. He ripped off of one of the reddish plates covering its left torso by getting his teeth in the gaps and ripping His head to the side. A second later Harry spat the detached plate to the side and turned his head back to Roachmort.

Harry struggled to keep his grip on the creature squirming wildly in his grip and letting out a high pitched squeal. It was surprisingly strong, nearly as strong as Lupin had been when he had transformed into the alpha werewolf. Harry saw that Roachmort’s wand was pointed at him and in the next instant there was a massive flash of light. Harry’s hands slipped, and Roachmort squirmed out of his grip as Harry felt like he’d been burned. As soon as Roachmort left Harry’s grip, the black cloud formed around Roachmort again and he flew away at high speed.

Roachmort rushed over to a little shelf on the wall, bleeding from the shoulder where the the missing plate revealed black leathery skin beneath.

Nidhogg reared high and hissed angrily as Roachmort’s hand landed on the shelf.

‘Duel forfeited. Banned items,’ Nidhogg hissed a second later as Roachmort placed the little crown on its skull and quickly slipped the ring on its finger, ‘Die, coward!’.

Roachmort looked at the ground as Harry ran towards him, Nidhogg’s protective transparent eyelid sliding back as Nidhogg stared at Roachmort. Nidhogg’s eyes stared fully revealed down at Roachmort who had thickened his flying cloud so much that Harry could only barely see the man's body through it. Little drops of blood dribbled down out of the smoke as Roachmort ascended to the ceiling and began verbally casting something. Harry leapt upward again to intercept him, but when he closed his jaws and flailed his arms, the man somehow managed to dodge him even while he kept casting. Harry landed on the ground, and Roachmort finished his incantation.

The room shook, and dust trickled from the ceiling as the outer door to the chamber was blasted open in one massive spell charm. Roachmort darted forward to dash through the gap, and Harry ran after him at full speed. He almost had caught up when Harry saw a flicker of movement in the dark cloud. The thing was still holding back Nidhogg’s gaze from meeting Roachmort’s. A small burst of pure white flames shot out of Roachmorts wand and struck Harry’s right shoulder. It burned intensely and Harry immediately fell to the floor and started rolling around trying to smother it.

After a few seconds it went out, but it still stung intensely. Harry looked up and saw that Roachmort was through, in the pipe system between the chamber and the main school. Nidhogg slithered forward until he was next to Harry.

‘Heir, should I pursue and kill him? He broke the terms of the duel,’ Nidhogg hissed.

Harry took in his own state, severely burned in one shoulder and many of his soul strings unraveling even as he stood there, snapping after being weakened by the killing curses he had taken. That couldn’t be good.

‘Go ahead, Nidhogg,’ Harry hissed somewhat reluctantly, ‘But if he escapes the grounds don’t chase. Just make sure that neither he nor you hurt anyone as he leaves.’

‘I undersssstand, Heir,’ Nidhogg hissed before slithering into the hole left behind by the shattered door. Off on the hunt for Roachmort.

Harry went back to the Sanctum, hoping that Salazar would know how to heal him. He went back over to the painting as his soul strings kept dissolving not showing any sign that it would stop anytime soon. If he was guessing correctly then once it finished, then Harry’s soul would be launched back into the void again. He didn’t want to risk flying away from the tether again and never finding his body. And he really didn’t want to lose another year with his friends especially now that things were going so well.

“Harry? Harry?”

“Yes?” Harry replied to Salazar's painting, realizing that he was becoming distracted even in his larger form.

“You need to eat live souls to heal, it may let you heal the damage before it goes too far,” Salazar said, “But there is something important you have to do first. Roachmort is on the surface and fighting someone outside of the wards and their battle is destroying parts of the castle. You have to activate Hogwarts defenses.”

“H-How…?” Harry asked.

“Here, just focus on what I’m saying,” Salazar said, “First you need to…”

— — —

“And after your done, just imagine one of your friends in your head and the wards will tell you their location so they can take care of you.”

Harry nodded after Salazar finished explaining. “Do you have a scrap of parchment and a quill?” he asked.

They appeared on the desk in front of him and Harry transformed back into his human form. More of his soul strings snapped as he moved them to complete the transformation. He nearly vomited as his head swam, but he managed to hold it in. He stumbled forward and wrote a short message on it, before slipping it into his pocket. Hermione would understand it.

Harry stumbled out into Nidhogg’s cave outside the Sanctum, barely able to take a step without drunkenly falling to the side as he went. His Slytherin locket appeared around Harry’s neck and he touched it and went to the place Salazar had ordered.

The seventh floor corridor. Harry thought of some strange sets of words in latin while imagining an empty room with flat gray stone on all sides. He walked three times in front of the blank wall while doing the same thing, and on the fourth time there was an elaborate black door made of metal where there had only been an empty wall before. Harry clumsily shoved open the door and went inside. It was the room that Salazar had told him about, except there was a raised pedestal in the center.

In the center of it was a massive round stone larger than Harry lit up with golden glowing runes. The ward core of Hogwarts controlling everything. Harry said another stream of words that Salazar had told him to say in latin. Harry knew their meanings, but he was too out of it right now to think too much about it. Harry tripped forward slightly and rested his hand on the ward core, and went through the sequence Salazar had told him.

Full War defenses. Rogue Wizard assaulting the school. Deactivate when threat eliminated. Secondary objective to protect the lives of all students and staff. A long string of passwords and more advanced manipulations to fully activate things properly. The ward flashed three times before repeating back everything that Harry had ordered it to do. Harry barely registered its voice and only noticed when there was silence after it stopped speaking. He mentally confirmed the orders and the Hogwarts Ward core began to light up even more as he watched.

'Locate Hermione Granger', Harry sent the ward core and after a seconds delay received an image in his mind of a room in the girls dormitory wing of the Gryffindor tower.

Harry took his hand off the ward core and walked out of the room, the door shutting behind him. He felt his soul strings still snapping even as he opened another opening in the walls with his locket, heading back down to the chamber. He made it into the chamber after only falling once due to the world spinning around him. He grabbed the locket again and a new tunnel opened up, which he went into. At the end of the tunnel he emerged right next to the painting leading into the Gryffindor common room.

“P-Pinca Graduci,” Harry said as the password and the painting swung open without a word, revealing the crowded common room behind it. Everyone looked afraid and a second later Harry found out why. The world shook like an earthquake and Harry realized that the booms in the distance he had been hearing were not thunder but a massive clash of spells in the distance. Under the eyes of the rest of the Gryffindors, Harry stumbled inside the room the painting closing behind him.

“Hermione, Pocket. Note,” Harry announced to the crowd before finally letting himself collapse to the floor. She would know what to do to save him… Hopefully she could get them to him in time.