Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter. This applies to the entire story.

"Hurry up or we'll be late for class for the third time this month, and McGonagall will kill us!" yelled Ron as he and Harry dashed down the deserted corridor on their way to class.

"Are you sure this is the way?" asked Harry after a bit.

Yes, I'm sure it was two rights, three lefts, another right and the first door on the right. Or was it the left?"

"Face it Ron, we're lost, and it's your fault."

"No! We're going the right way, look here's the door!" said Ron, gasping for breath. The boys were looking for the classroom that was being used temporarily for Transfiguration while McGonagall's classroom was being cleaned. Peeves'd had a tantrum involving many raw eggs and the entire school's dessert of rice pudding.

The friends approached the broad wooden door. Harry tried it and it swung open easily. They both stared into the darkness.

"This better be it, or I'm not giving you the money to buy Hermione's birthday present," said Harry, looking nervously into the doorway.

"It is, look," said Ron as he stepped inside. Two spelled torches in brackets ignited as he stood there. Ron was standing at the top of a flight of stone steps that went down into the gloom. As he went down another step, another set of torches ignited. Harry stepped after him, and they began their descent.

After a while Ron said "Can you hear something? It sounds like music." After a moment of strained ears listening hard, Harry replied

"Ya, I can kinda hear something. Sounds like a piano." Floating out of the shadows was some faint piano music. It continued as they walked.

"It stopped, did you hear that?" asked Harry. And it had. After a few seconds it restarted, this time it was a fast and furious piece.

"Wow, that sounds hard. I only ever heard someone that good at my muggle school when the music teacher played for us one time. He was amazing."

Then Ron spoke.

"What's a piano?"

"A large instrument that you play. It has white and black keys, and each one is a different note. Loads of people take piano lessons. The people who wrote the music were usually musical geniuses themselves, like Mozart," explained Harry

"I've heard of him. He was actually a wizard. Most of the wizarding world renounced him because he was really big muggle supporter,' said Ron. 'Have you noticed that we've been going down for an awfully long while, and we still haven't reached the classroom. We must be far underneath the lake by now." Just as he finished speaking, both boys stumbled. They had put their foot down expecting a stair and had stepped on solid ground.

"Finally!' said Ron. 'I was getting worried. Now you can still give me the galleons for Hermione's gift." Harry smiled.

"Not quite. Where do we go from here?" They both looked on into the dark tunnel.

"Lumos," they said together. They looked around as their wands lit up. More cold, gray stone. They started walking into the darkness. There were no more torches, and their wands only gave off a little light. They could still hear the ghostly piano player, this time making their way through a slow and sad piece. It was a haunting melody, and both boys found themselves aching with sadness and longing for something long lost. Neither of them found it at all strange.

"Damn! Were is the stupid classroom?" asked Ron in a frustrated voice.

"I dunno, but we better turn back soon before we get lost,' said Harry. 'I don't want to miss class if this does turn out to be the wrong place." He made to turn back, but Ron grabbed his arm.

"Let's keep going, just for a bit." Harry didn't fight him. He was being drawn by the mysterious music, and didn't want to give up yet. They kept walking until they came to a door.

They opened it, and were suddenly blinded by a bright light. They soon realized it wasn't all that bright, it just seemed so to their light-starved eyes. As their vision returned, they gazed about in astonishment. They were inside a room almost as big as the Great Hall. It had an ornate red carpet on the floor that stretched across the entire room. There were gold framed paintings lining the hall, but there were no people in the portraits. They were all empty. At the top of the hall was a raised platform, a stage of sorts. On it was a grand piano with a golden candelabra on top. The two boys eyes were suddenly drawn to a vase of fresh, bloodred roses. There was nobody sitting on the wooden piano bench.

The boys walked over to the stage and hopped up to stand beside the piano, still in shock. What was this amazing room doing buried deep beneath Hogwarts? And where had the talented pianist gone?

As they stood in front of the piano looking out over the room, a very strange thing happened. The piano started to play. The boys both held their breath without turning around. Their shoulders hunched, they looked at each other, and then turned around. At the piano bench sat a beautiful girl about their own age with long, straight, raven-black hair and a deep blue robe. Her hair hung down to hide her face as she played. She was looking over the piano at the empty room. After a moment, at a slow place in the happy jig she was now playing, she turned and looked at them. They both gasped. She had the most startling green eyes they had ever seen. They would have been beautiful, except for the fact that those stunning eyes were not alive at all. They were, in fact, quite dead.

The rest of her looked fine, no decay or anything. She could have passed for a normal person, if you didn't notice her eyes.

"I know what you're thinking,' she said. Her voice was light and musical with a certain haunting quality.

"Yes, I am dead. But not really. I used to be alive, in the days of the sons of Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin." She spat the last two words out with such a hatred that Harry and Ron flinched.

"I am kept alive by a strong spell of my own creation. It took away 30 years of my life, and placed them into this piano, so that when I died, I would stay at least somewhat alive until I had my revenge, or my time ran out. You see, because I don't actually have a body, those 30 years turned it into 3000. Yes, my spirit will be here for another 3000 years. You also may be wondering how I can play the piano if I'm like a ghost. This piano also became part of me when I cast the spell, so it and I are in the same plane of existance.'

"You also may be wondering how I died. I was killed in a freak accident while in Care of Magical Creatures Class.'

"I was in Gryffindor. I had a thing for Godric's son Danris. Handsome fellow, three years my senior. He was very taken by my piano playing. They used to have this piano here in the Great Hall. Then, when I died, they moved it down here. They also put a spell on the door you came in, but I broke that so you could come in. I also put a spell on it so you would find me. I need you to find the heir of Slytherin. There is an ancient continued bloodline that even Dumbledore doesn't know about. It has long remained hidden, and my spells tell me that her descendant is in the school right now. You must find the child, for I much desire to speak with him or her. Walk the path of thorns, for you will always find your way."

"Leave me, now. You may talk with me in seven days at midnight. I will be here, waiting. Don't tell anyone!" Her eyes glowed huge, until all either of the boys could see were the huge green orbs. Then there was a flash of light, and both boys found themselves lying stunned in the corridor outside the wooden door with the stairs.

"That was weird. We must have fallen asleep or hit our heads or something, because that could not possibly have happened." said Harry nervously. He looked at the wooden door more closely. Pinned to it with a slim silver knife was bloodred rose.

A/N Please review. I would love to hear your feedback. Just a couple of words would be nice as in "it sucked" or "it's good". Thanks.