Light in the Darkness.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter One
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Those were the sounds that Harry's trunk made as he dragged them down the stairs, the Dursley's watching his every move from the landing. With one final and rather loud thunk, Harry reached the bottom of the stairs where the Dursleys all stood and waited for them to say something. They all stared back into Harry's eyes for what seemed like ages before Harry's Uncle Vernon finally spoke up, his face turning purple as he looked at Harry in disgust. "We don't want to see you ever again," he bit out.
"Don't have to worry about that one." Harry muttered back, his grip on his trunk tightening.
"What did you say?" Vernon asked, not having quite been able to make out what Harry had said.
"I said, you great ball of fat, that you wouldn't have to worry about it. I have no desire to see any of you ever again!" Harry growled out. "I was only here as long as I was because Dumbledore asked me to come back, but seeing as you want me to leave early, I have no problem with that!"
"Fine! Don't let the door hit you in the ass as you leave!" Vernon nearly shouted back as he threw open the door and pointed for Harry to leave.
"May you have a dreadful rest of your pitiful lives!" Harry snapped back as he dragged his trunk out the front door in one hand, and Hedwig's cage in the other. As soon as he had cleared the door he heard it slam shut behind him and the lock quickly snapped into to place. The cool summer breeze, clearing Harry's thoughts as he looked around him and realized that he had no where to go now and it was the middle of the night.
He looked up at the clear night sky, the stars valiantly trying to shine through the light pollution that covered most of the neighborhood. Another cool breeze came by and Harry thought to himself, 'I wish I had somewhere to stay.' Unfortunately for him as soon as those thoughts crossed his mind he also saw a shooting star.
Harry could feel the magic slowly gathering up around him, and he began to panic. He remembered what his Astronomy teacher had said about making wishes on stars. She had said that it highly improbable that a wizard could ever time their wish just right that it would coincide with a shooting star. It had been one hundred years since the last recorded occurrence, and of course Harry happened to be the next.
Harry began to panic and desperately wished for the growing magical field around him to disperse, but it was too late. The damage was already done. He was going somewhere to stay and who knew where the shooting-star magic thought that was.
Harry felt the magic begin to push heavily around his body, until he was almost unable to breath and then with a soft pop he was gone.
Harry opened his eyes and peered into the darkness. It was still damp wherever he was, he could hear water dripping in the distance, but it was warm. It also stank. Trying to ignore the smell Harry slowly stood up from where the magic had left him. It was so dark that he could hardly make out any shapes. He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wand. "Lumos." He whispered. Soft light emitted from from the tip of his wand and he almost fell over in shock when he saw what was in front of him.
The rotting corpse of the basilisk he had killed in his second year. The smell had new meaning now, and Harry doubled over in disgust and lost what little sustenance he had gotten from the Dursley's. The sounds of his vomit hitting the cold stone floors echoed around the cavern. Whipping his mouth across his sleeve Harry looked queasily over at the corpse. The scales had sunken in around the skeletal structure, as the innards of the snake had decomposed quickly in the damp environment, leaving behind nothing more than the stench, bones, and scales.
"Bloody hell." Harry whispered to himself as he began to scan what little of the cavern he could see using his lumos spell. What little he remembered seemed unchanged. He backed up a little only to run into a small lump of rubble that looked like it had fallen from the ceiling years ago. Harry jumped a little as he heard something scurry behind him. He quickly turned, and saw a rat quickly race around the edge of his lumos spell. "I need to get out of here." He muttered to himself as he nervously looked around again, neither his trunk nor Hedwig's cage in sight.
He made his way across the moist flagstones and out into the passage way that had collapsed four years ago. The hole in the rubble that he and Ron had cleared was smaller than he remembered it being. Harry climbed over the rubble and began moving rocks out of the way. Each rock he moved echoed loudly when he set it down, and Harry kept looking back over his shoulder at the door that he had left open.
Shaking himself and trying to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about, Harry continued to move the rocks out of the way until he was able to push his body through the opening. Hope glimmered in his eyes as Harry saw the large plumbing pipes leading up to the girls bathroom. He quickly made his way over and looked up the seemingly never ending tube.
Harry placed a hand on the inside of the passage. It was slicker than he remembered it being. Harry looked at the plumbing and tried to decide the best way to get up. He would need both of his hands to climb up. He looked down at his wand and then back over at the hole in the rubble he had emerged from. "Lights out, I guess." Harry said nervously as he extinguished his wand and tucked it into his pocket.
Harry gripped the edge of where the plumbing meet the walls of the landing and heaved his sweat covered body up into the near vertical tube and began searching in the pitch black surroundings for hand holds in plumbing. He found nothing. Trying to use his sneakers to pull himself higher into the tube he only managed to slip and fall back down onto the bone littered landing.
Aggravated and getting more than a little freaked out in the darkness Harry lunged back up into the tube. This time making it a few more feet up before sliding back down, covered in the same slim that covered the insides of the tube. Again and again Harry tried to get up the plumbing. But, he never got further than a few feet up before he slip back down.
Harry rolled over onto his back and stared up into the oppressing darkness. He couldn't get back up the tubes. He had no broom, he hadn't seen Fawkes since Dumbledore's funeral, and he doubted he would be able to keep a wingardium leviosa on himself long enough to get up the tubes. "Bloody Hell!" Harry whispered furiously to himself as he stood up, only to trip on a rock and fall into the wall. Growling in frustration he furiously attempted to get up the pipe again, only to fall back down, this time hitting his head sharply on a rock.
Consciousness faded from Harry, but he hardly knew the difference. It was already so dark that he might as well be trapped in his own mind, than an actual space.
Harry woke again, not knowing how much time had gone by. It was still pitch black and he couldn't see his hand in front of his own face. He sat up and his head spun. Reaching his hand up to rub his head, his fingers came away covered in a wet gooey substance that Harry assumed was his own blood. Shivering slightly from the damp, Harry reached his hand into his pocket to retrieve his wand.
It wasn't there.
Harry panicked. He got on his hands and knees and started patting through the bone littered floor in search of that familiar wooden stick, but he couldn't find it. "Accio wand." Harry cried out, his voice horse. Nothing came. "Accio wand!" Harry cried out again, his voice cracking. Nothing. "No...oh, god. no." Harry cried to himself as he began to feel tears fall down his cheeks. Bloodied and cold, Harry curled up into a ball and leaned back against the slick wall. He cried himself back to sleep.
Harry woke up hungry. His stomach growled painfully and Harry stared out into the blackness. "I wish I had food." He said bitterly. "You hear that, you stupid shooting star! I wish I had food!" He yelled into the darkness, before breaking down into uncontrollable laughter. "I'm hungry!" He cried, his voice and laughter echoing back through to the main chamber.
And then suddenly it occurred to him. He was at Hogwarts. That meant house elves. Which in turn meant someone would figure out that he was down here! "Dobby?!" Harry asked the darkness happily as he leaned up away from the wall he had previously been slumped against, but he didn't hear the familiar pop. "Dobby?" Harry asked again, this time less sure of himself. "Winky?" Harry paused. "Hello, can anyone hear me!" There was silence.
He could hear the water dripping from the ceiling the main chamber. "Damn it!" Harry yelled as he slammed his fist into the ground. "Damn it." he repeated, before he felt tears begin to come to his eyes again.
Harry tried over what seemed like the next two hours to get back up the plumbing, but had little success. "Up!" He yelled as he lunged up the pipe, before he slid back down to the ground. "Up!" He yelled again. "Let me out!" He screamed. But it was all in vain. No matter how many times Harry attempted to pull himself up the plumbing he never got any further than the last tie he tried.
It was then, in the darkness, as Harry slid back down the pipes, that he realized that he would never be able to get back out this way, and if he didn't find any food soon, getting out of the chamber of secrets would be the least of his problems.
Fastening his resolve, Harry decided to venture back into the main cavern to try and find a second way out. He knew that the Main cavern was round and that at one end the statue of Salazar Slytherin himself came out of the wall. That would be his marking point in the darkness. He would go around the room, and count how many passages out of the main cavern there were, and then slowly he would begin to explore each one of them, one by one.
Standing, Harry slowly shuffled across the landing until his foot hit the rubble of the cave in and he almost fell flat on his face. His hands searching the darkness he patted the rubble until he found what he was looking for, the entrance back into the main cavern. Climbing an an almost infantile fashion Harry made his way over the rubble.
He made it back down from the rubble and he stood. Fighting his handicap, Harry ran his hand along the wall and made his way towards main cavern. It was the smell that hit Harry first. He had forgotten how badly the corpse stunk, and being in the landing area for the tubes had masked it somewhat. Doing his best to ignore the smell Harry turned to the right, and continued to walk and run his hand over the slick and slightly slimy wall. It took Harry almost ten minutes before Harry found another passage leading off of the main cavern. "Two." He whispered to himself, trying to avoid the echoing that was created in the large cavern.
He walked pass the entrance and continued on. Harry counted three more passages before Harry literally ran into the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Nervously Harry started to make his way around the statue, but stopped short in front of the statue. The mouth of Slytherin was still gapping open, and unlike the other four passage ways he had passes this one he could feel a slight breeze coming out of it.
Harry stood there and let the draft caress his face. This was the best solution he had seen so far. The air had to be coming from somewhere. Taking a deep breath, and gathering as much courage as he could Harry ducked into the passageway. The inside passageway of the huge statue was much smother than the walls had been in the main cavern. Harry let his fingers trail across the wall as he took a few more steps into the passage.
And then it happened. Harry heard the mouth of the statue snapped shut again. "No!" Harry shouted in distress. "God, no!! Fuck!!" He shouted as he ran back to where his entrance had been and started banging his fist against the walls. "Let me out. Please, let me out!" Harry cried for what seemed like the tenth time, but as he cried he could feel the slight draft again, and his hope was not lost. Whipping his tears away from his muck covered face, Harry walked further into the statue. Towards the source of the breeze.
His steps became more confident in the darkness and his pace quickened as he followed the long narrow passage. He had become so confident in his stepping that he did not have a chance to stop himself when the passage way widened and he fell five feet into a deep pool of freezing cold water.
Harry panicked, swallowing more of the ice cold water, as he struggled to keep afloat. He clawed at the wall from where he had just fallen. It was as smooth as polished marble. Coughing violently Harry pushed his way around the wall. There were however no edges. His body freezing in the deep pool of water, Harry shivered and began trying to swim towards what he assumed was the opposite side of the room. Not being able to see, Harry continued to swim with the hope that at some point the water would become shallow enough for him to stand.
Harry was not lucky enough to find that area however before he felt something swim past his side. He let out a scream before he heard the soft hissing voice. "New food." The voice hissed.
"No not food!" Harry cried out as he began to try and swim back the way he had come.
"Silly human. You are the food that master promises." The voice hissed back. Harry heard a few more hisses before he finally realized that it was a snake that he was talking to.
"Please, Please don't eat me." Harry begged, concentrating as hard as he could on speaking parsletongue.
There was a splashing in the water as the serpent reared back. "You speak as master does!"
"Yes, please help me!" Harry cried out as his sides began to cramp and he could feel himself losing buoyancy. "I..." Harry began, before he got a large amount of water in his mouth. He coughed and continued, "I don't think I can stay afloat much longer."
There was a long moment of silence as Harry tread the water. He was about to shout out again before he felt a large scaly mass come up from beneath him. It pushed him out of the water so that Harry was laying on the large serpents back, while he coughed up water. "Thank you." Harry murmured as he sat there, his body shuddering.
"Your welcome." The voice hissed back, as the mass of muscle below Harry began to move again.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he tried to rub warmth back into his body.
"The island."
"Island?" Harry asked as he continued to rub his arms.
"To see Master."
"Your...master?" Harry asked uncertainly as he looked in the direction that his savior was moving. There in the distance, Harry could see it, a soft glowing out on the horizon that was quickly becoming more and more bright. As the light grew Harry's eyes adjusted and he looked down at the serpent that he was riding on the back of. He almost fell off when he realized that it was not just a large snake. It was a second basilisk. Wishing it were dark again, Harry tried his best not to look at the head of the creature, afraid it might look back at any moment and kill him.
The basilisk slithered onto the rocky patch of ground that constituted as the island. In the center of the small island stood a pedestal and on the pedestal was a soft glowing chalice.
"I have brought the small snake, master." The basilisk hissed out towards the chalice.
"Very good, Sylvia." A deep and soft silky voice emitted from the pedestal.
Harry couldn't tear his eyes away from the glowing light that was pouring out from the chalice. It was such a powerful site after being in the darkness for so long that he was afraid that if he looked away he would never see light again. Hypnotized by the light Harry climbed down off of the snake's back.
"Come here, little snake." The voice said, and Harry complied, to entranced by the light to be offend at being called a snake. He slowly approached the glowing chalice and got a better look at it. Its rim was covered in small emeralds and the bottom was made of pure crystal. The light emitted from whatever the strange glowing liquid was. "Closer." The voice beaconed until Harry was standing right over the chalice. "Very good, little snake." The chalice's voice said soothingly as Harry stood transfixed. "Now run your finger round the edge of the chalice."
Harry didn't question the voice, he quickly did as he was told, and before he could react the sharp edge of the chalice brim cut his finger and his blood splashed down into the shinning substance.
It was as if a spell had been broken and Harry realized what had just happened. He had unwilling given blood to a magical item. It was too late now though. The glowing intensified and shifted into a dark green light. "Very good, little snake." The voice laughed, as Harry slowly backed away from the chalice. Slowly the glowing substance began to expand and float out of the chalice. Harry watched in horror as it began to take on human shape. Unable to do anything Harry continued to watch until before him floated a fully formed man, made of the glowing substance that had been contained within the chalice. It looked like a ghost, but it was too bright to truly be what Harry would call a natural ghost.
The man turned to look down at Harry.
"I, Little Snake, am Salazar Slytherin."