Forged In War:
Chapter 1, The Light
The only thing that came into Harry's mind was fear; fear for himself and for Ginny as he raced through the tunnels trying to make as little sound as possible. The snake may have been blind but the twelve-year-old savior knew it could still hear. As he turned a sharp left he slipped onto his bottom and began sliding down the tunnel at an ever-increasing rate. With a sudden up-lift, the boy was launched out of the tunnel and onto a ground of smooth marble. The impact knocked the wind out of him and it took a moment to get his breathing back up to normal levels, or slightly increased with the situation at hand. Looking around the room he was in he was struck by how well preserved it was, there was no accumulated dust or signs of decay on any of the nice looking pieces of furniture strung about the place. After that observation came the realization that the room looked as though the owner had simply left for a moment and turned the lights off.
Climbing to his feet, Harry cast a frightful glance back the way he had come and didn't see or hear any sign of the Basilisk. As he reached his full height, the room lit with an eerie green glow emanating from the surrounding candles. The candles seemed to light a path from where he was standing to the far door on the other side of the room. Being naturally curious and hoping for a way back to the main chamber he followed the light. The room that Harry was led to was immense, larger by far than the Main chamber where he had found Ginny and Voldemort. The path that the candles made stopped at the entrance to the room and as he stepped inside they extinguished as though they had never been lit at all. Plunged suddenly into darkness the young hero couldn't suppress a yelp of surprise. He turned his head every which way in search of some sort of light source but could find none.
"Hello?" He called out into the room, hoping with all his heart that somebody would answer but dreading if they did. It was a terrible way to die, he felt, to die in the dark as Voldemort sucked the soul out of Ron's sister. He would have continued to lament his fate if it were not for the soft groan he heard from further in the room.
Staying completely still and as quiet as possible Harry listened for a further sound, and there was the groan again. But it was not a groan of pain or exhaustion; it was the kind of groan that came when metal plated that had not been active in a very long time began to move again. Harry looked at what he thought was the source of the noise and was surprised to see two lights about the size of human eyes flared suddenly. The light was not from candles either; the lights were of the intensity one would expect of a light bulb.
Harry began to slowly approach the light and was startled to see the shape of a man take form. The man was on his knees and his head was down and there seemed to be those two lights coming from the top of a metallic face like mask that he wore on his head. The lights seemed to follow Harry as he slowly approached… then they blinked. Harry jumped back at the sight and stared more closely at the man. But as he gazed more intently, Harry could see no skin or cloth, only a metal shell on his body. Then Harry realized that that was the body, he was staring at a machine.