So, this is essentially the penultimate chapter. There's one more full chapter after this, and then an epilogue, which won't be as long as a full chapter.

Chapter Nine – The Chamber of Secrets

The atmosphere in the dorm could be cut with a knife. Scorpius and Albus both sat on the end of Scorpius' bed, watching silently as Carrow and Thorne avoided each other, not even looking in the others direction. Colt looked as shocked as they did, quietly moving around the room, getting ready for bed though its hours till lights out. Albus and Scorpius chanced a quick glance at each other, checking that the other was as confused as shocked as they were, but even that was spotted by the glowering boys.

"What?" Carrow snapped, glaring at them both like they were the ones being obscure. He sighed loudly, aggrievedly and pulled the curtains around his bed shut so forcefully Albus thought they might rip. Thorne sent the curtains a sharp glare and then did the same.

Now that Albus was free to look at his best friend, he did so, to see Scorpius' blonde eyebrows so high they were almost in his hair, looking utterly ridiculous. He snorted, trying to fight down his laughter, burying his head in Scorpius neck, grateful for the distraction.

"Come on," Scorpius whispered, reaching down to pull something from under the bed. "Let's get out of here." He placed the Marauders Map on his lap, picked a place and they were off.

What would have been grey morning light, now tinged green as it filtered through the Black Lake, flooded the common room. Finally, it was Saturday, no classes, no studying to be done, just a huge terror crime to solve.

Albus and Scorpius sat together in an armchair that was really not big enough for the both of them, still in their pyjamas, watching as Lucinda yawned, Colt thought and Carrow and Thorne avoided each other, still. They were the only ones up, due to their early bedding, and the common room was silent bar the snoring of portraits and the quiet sounds of their breathing.

"We need more proof before we go to Professor Flitwick," Colt said eventually after a long few minutes contemplation.
"But how are we going to get more?" Thorne snapped. "We need to go now!"
Albus agreed, and said so, less angry about it than Thorne, but Lucinda shook her head.
"We know nothing more than we did last night, there's nobody else in the hospital wing, we still have no evidence other than a feeling you two have."
"But she could still be questioned!" Albus exclaimed, the utter dismissal of his and Thorne's knowledge unacceptable.
"Yes, they could question her, and find nothing, and find out we were all making an illegal potion and spying on other students. We'd end up in more trouble than her," Scorpius said softly behind him, mouth almost at his ear. He could see sense it what Scorpius was saying, let the words wash over him, calm his fraying nerves.
Colt and Carrow were nodding, Lucinda having shifted herself practically into Carrow's lap, feet in Thorne's. He glared at her as Carrow started running his hands through her hair, but let her bare feet stay. Albus smiled to himself, no longer jealous at the obvious displays of affection, not when Scorpius was pressed up all along his side, subtly drawing circles on the back of the hand nearest him.

Still, they all practically jumped out of their seats and Calin came bounding down the stairs, grinning when he spotted his girlfriend, even in her strange position. He sprang up to her on his long legs, bending down to kiss her softly. They all watched, Colt rolling his eyes as Lucinda leaned further into him, letting him lift her bridal style off the sofa and carry her away to another part of the common room. For a moment, they broke away from each other, Calin sending them all a wink before they curled up on a spare armchair. Albus, without being noticed by the rest of his companions he hoped, leaned into Scorpius, he changed from doodling on his hands to holding it, twining their fingers together. Not subtly enough, apparently, from the look Thorne gave them and the raised eyebrow. Scorpius only shrugged and tugged Albus closer.

Albus was so high up in the air, the players below him were little more than ants. He shouldn't be this high, it was stupid, unless he was chasing the snitch. Which of course he wasn't, he was flying high to think; about Grove and Thorne and Carrow and how in hell they were going to get more substantial proof of Grove's guilt and of how lovely Scorpius had been that morning, kissing him softly, lazily in his bed until the others had woken up.

Grove was guilty, Albus had no doubt. The way she'd acted, all innocent and naïve, had been completely at odds with the looks she'd sent her 'friends'; there was no way it was just suspicion of them. Even if she had been suspicious, acting the way she did just made her seem guilty, and that surely hadn't been her intention, had it? Why would anyone purposefully act guilty, without giving any solid evidence of them being so, if they weren't? So that when they reported her, they be in trouble not her? That was obviously why she'd been so subtle about it, so that even though they knew, they couldn't prove it, admitting to having been spying or otherwise.

Albus was briefly distracted from his ponderings by a fierce roar from the Slytherins' signalling another score. He could almost make out the sound of Hugo announcing it, probably sounding utterly scathing, like he always did whenever they scored, or worse yet, won. The thought sent a prickle on anger coursing through Albus, he dropped lower, eyes finally casting about for the golden spec that would be the snitch, convinced now that they had to win, if only to show Hugo up.

Except he was too late. The Hufflepuff seeker was racing, fast as lighting, towards something Albus couldn't see, hand outstretched. Albus gave chase, but knew it would make no difference. Indeed, he was still meters away when the other seeker's hand wrapped around the snitch, raising her fist into the air causing wild, deafeningly loud cheering from everyone but the Slytherins. Albus lowered himself to the ground as the seeker was carted off on her teammates shoulders, ignore the glares from his own, and sighed, running a hand through his dark hair.

Calin, of course, came storming up to him as soon as they were inside the locker rooms.
"What was all that about?" he yelled, startling everybody. Calin never shouted, ever. Albus' gaze dropped to the floor, guiltily fiddling with his gloves. It was his fault, entirely, he knew he should have been paying attention.
"Leave it." He was surprised to see Avery coming to his defence, glaring openly at Calin.
"There's a lot of shit going on right now, no one if completely focused," Lucinda added. Calin looked once from his girlfriend to Albus and sighed, nodding.
"Alright," he conceded, throwing his arm around Lucinda's shoulders. "But pay more attention next time."
Lucinda sent him an encouraging smile over her shoulder and he returned it gratefully before heading to the showers.

Albus watched as the blond man swirled the dark red wine in his glass and looked up at the dark haired woman through his eyelashes. Albus felt a stab of pain shoot through his chest, as if someone had sent an arrow straight through his heart. The blood that oozed out of the wound was green, and when Albus looked back at the pair on the other side of the room, his vision was tinged green.

How can he do this to me?! The voice in his head screamed. He's supposed to love me!
Albus didn't flinch.

He didn't know the man, or the woman, but they had a vague sense of familiarity to them. The voice in his head was as familiar as his own now, the same voice he heard in his head every day.

And her, she's just a slut, a whore! She's just using him! He must know that, surely he must know that? He isn't an idiot, but then neither is she. Neither am I. I know what she's doing, doesn't he understand? It was supposed to be just us, just the two of us, together. This was our project, our work, and she thinks she can just worm her way in, does she?

"Are you alright, dear?" A voice said from beside Albus. He turned to face the round, short woman, still furious with the blond man and unaware of whom he was.
"I'm not your dear, and I'm perfectly alright," he snapped at her, turning back to the pair as pain and worry settled in the woman's face. Except it wasn't really him that snapped at her, he could hear it now, it was again the low, rough voice that lived in his head. She too looked familiar, but he had no clue as to who she was.
"It is wonderful here, don't you think? You and Godric have made it quite lovely. How brilliant it would be to live here, as you two do."

Albus ignored the plump, ginger woman's insistent chatter, and watched with the green eyes of envy as the blond man tucked a lock of dark hair behind the other woman's ear, and she laughed at something he had said, her voice like soft, high bells. Her hand: pale, elegant, delicate, moved to rest on his knee. He took it and brought it up to his lips, kissing it gently as she blushed, his eyes not moving from hers. Albus, still unknowing of who they were, could kill them both, and this annoying woman beside him.

She's manipulating him, and if I don't do anything about it she'll ruin everything! She'll be the one he tells his secrets to, not me, she'll be the one he takes long walks with around the garden, not me, she'll be the one in his bed, not me!

I can't let that happen. I must distract him, but how?

Albus spotted a sword beside the blond man, its golden handle encrusted with rubies. He stood and walked over to the man, forcing a smile. Startled, the pair looked up at him. A scowl grew on the woman's face, but a surprised laugh burst from the man.

Albus woke with a start, ripped from his dream with a hand to his shoulders, someone holding him close, sobbing into his shoulder. He moved to pull away before realising that the someone was Scorpius, and that they were standing upright. A sinking feeling came over him, of dread and understanding finally settling in. Albus didn't look around, was terrified to, and instead buried his face in Scorpius' shoulder.

He didn't deserve this, didn't deserve him, not after what he'd done, conscious of it or not. His family had been right, of course, Slytherin was an evil house, but it wasn't his friends that were the problem, it was him. He was the Heir to Slytherin, and he'd been opening the Chamber, night after night in his sleep.

Scorpius arms suddenly tightened around him and then let go, just as fast, almost entirely, still holding one hand tightly in his own. Finally, Albus drew up his courage from the soles of is feet and looked around.

He didn't recognise the room they were in, a bathroom, clearly, stalls all along both sides. Lucinda, Colt, Thorne and Carrow were all there, all in their pyjamas, looking variations of sick and terrified and horrified and hurt, all staring, not at Albus, but at whatever was behind him.

He knew without having to turn, that the entrance would be there, open and glaringly obvious for all to see who'd opened it. The snake might even be there, ready to do his bidding. He wanted to hide, to run away and never come back, to cry and cry until his lungs burned and he couldn't see. Instead, he looked at Scorpius, brushed his fingers down his cheeks, wet with his tears, and span around.

Behind him a stall of sinks, except one was missing. Where it should have stood, a huge gaping hole, plenty big enough for two people to fit in, was in the ground, the entrance to an underground pipe. It stank of damp, and where the light hit the inner walls he could see thick slick slime, green and black marbled together, the pipe leading straight down into absolute blackness.

Albus felt sick, waves of nausea rolling over him, his hands were clammy, he felt both too hot and too cold. He shook his head, still peering over the edge, fighting the sickness, knowing what he had to do. He had to go in, kill the snake. Only he could do it, it would only listen to him, even if he died in the process.

A hand grasped his wrist, slipping down to hold is hand, twining their fingers together. Scorpius didn't say anything, looking at him with those beautiful pale eyes, understanding written all over his face. He nodded to Albus' unspoken question Will you come with me? and Albus nodded back.

"One," he said, quietly enough that their friends wouldn't hear them.
"Two," Scorpius whispered back.
"Three." And then they jumped in.

"Albus! Scorpius!" The shouts of their friends filled the pipe as they fell into nothingness. It was pitch black, Albus could feel Scorpius all up against his side, but couldn't even see his bright white hair in the gloom. His back was slick with slime, speeding up their descent. Suddenly they passed another hole, probably an entrance to an adjacent pipe, the air rushing past them, smelling even worse than the air in the main pipe.

A clang sounded somewhere further up the tunnel, immediately followed by what sounded like another body speeding down the pipes and terrified shouts of, "Carrow!
"What are you doing?" Scorpius shouted behind them. "Stay there!"
The clanging sounds happened again, three times, one after another, followed by the slick sliding sounds of the rest of their friends slipping down the pipe.
"Idiots," Scorpius hissed beside him as they passed more pipe openings.
Albus stayed silent, secretly glad they'd followed, though he knew it just meant they'd all die. Maybe, just maybe, they'd survive with all of them.

After what felt like hours of falling straight down, the pipe seemed to flatten out and then they were flying out the end, slamming into a cold, hard, damp ground. Pain flashed through Albus as his head smacked off the floor, but he forced himself up, feeling for his best friend and hauling him up along with him.
"Scorp, are you alright?" he asked, feeling for him still stuck in the blackness.
He felt him nod, heard the faint, "Yeah," before something else came crashing into them. Scorpius threw himself backwards, dragging Albus with him, wand out and ready to fight the enemy.
They heard a scuffling, a muttered, "Sorry, sorry-"
"Lumos maxima!" Lucinda shouted behind them, the room flooding with light as Lucinda, Colt and Thorne all exploded out the end of the huge pipe at once.
Carrow stepped out of the way and leaned over to pull both of his best friends up. Relief washed through Albus as he watched Lucinda stand and attempt to brush slime off herself, Carrow and Thorne, checking them all for injuries.

"You bloody idiots!" Scorpius shouted, he opened his mouth to continue, but in the silent pause between one breath and the next, the sobbing, quiet and half-muffled reached their ears.

Albus turned, looked at Colt, still kneeling on the floor, cradling his right arm to his chest, and vomited up the remains of his dinner from that evening that felt years away from this moment. One of the smashed bones of Colt's arm had ripped through the skin, the second half of his forearm and hand twisted at a revolting angle, blood soaking the floor at his knees, covering his pyjamas, his arms, spattered across his face.

"Fuck," Carrow hissed, staring at Colt with wide eyes, hands threaded through his hair. Lucinda was staring, still as a statue, face grey and scared, and Albus found himself still dry retching loudly.
"Shit shit shit," Scorpius was muttering to himself, pacing in the tiny room. "We have to get him out of here."
Thorne seemed to be the only person doing anything. He said a spell Albus couldn't hear over the rushing in his ears, and summoned a bandage. Quick as a flash, he'd wrapped up Colt's arm and put it into a sling, helping him stand and looking along the pipe.
"How do we even get out of here?" Carrow shrieked, looking more terrified even than Lucinda, who was still staring speechless.
"Colt," Thorne was whispering, trying to calm him. "Do you think you could fly?"
Colt only continued sobbing, crying harder when his shoulders shook.
"Accio Lucinda's broom!" Thorne called out.
This seemed to bring Lucinda out of her daze. "I can't-"
"You have no choice, Luce!" Thorne shouted at her. She was crying now, Carrow joining Scorpius in his pacing and Albus was still desperately trying to breathe and not vomit some more.
"I can't," she cried. "I'm sorry!"

They didn't have more time to argue as Lucinda's broom came shooting down the pipe, Thorne grabbing it before it, like Colt arm, shattered against the ground. He maneuvered Colt onto the broom, threw his own leg over and zoomed off back up the pipe, without saying another word.

"Go to Flitwick too," Carrow called after him.
There was no answer, and when they heard crashing and a shout, Albus found himself well enough to shout, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, we'll be fine!" Thorne shouted back, his voice echoing loudly. "Just kill the snake!"

Finally, Albus looked around, taking in the long tunnel, the stone walls slick with what he hoped was water, strange coloured mould growing in patches where the wall met the ceiling and floor. Fear crept up is spine, whispering in his mind run, run, run. He forced it down, reached into his pyjama bottoms for his wand and took a step forward, the voice in his head cackling all the while.

The four remaining Slytherins walked for what felt like miles, the tunnel twisting and turning, the only sound their breathing and their footsteps against the hard stone floor. Albus still felt faintly sick, the feeling overpowered by the fear pricking at the back of his neck, making the hairs there stand on end. Lucinda didn't look good either, and Albus thought it best not to say a word when he noticed Carrow holding her hand tightly between them.

Eventually, once Albus' leg muscles were aching from their slow, constant progress, they came across small pieces of rubble lying in their path. Albus shot Scorpius a questioning look, but the other boy, looking so tired and scared Albus hated himself completely for bringing him here, only shrugged and tried a tiny smile.

"Keep going," Lucinda said from behind them, her eyes trained ahead. She and Carrow were close enough to their backs to reach out and touch, to grasp on if they needed to.
Scorpius nodded, and grabbed Albus' hand, and they continued on.

They didn't get far. Another turn and they found out when they rubble had originated from. At the other end of the never ending tunnel was what Albus guessed had once been a wall of rubble that was now punctured with a massive circular hole, big enough, presumably, for a basilisk to pass through. Albus didn't let himself think about it, just bit his lip and crawled through, his friends following behind him.

The other side ended abruptly in a solid wall, emblazoned with two intertwined silver snakes.

"Shit," Carrow hissed, finally letting go of Lucinda to take a closer look at the wall. "Have we missed the turning?"
"That's the door to the Chamber." Lucinda spoke as if she knew, without any doubt, but Albus heard to slightest quiver in her voice.
"How do we get past it?" Carrow was looking at Albus, his brown eyes scared, so so scared.
"The same way we got here. Albus has to open it," Scorpius said, quiet, his grey eyes trained on Albus'.
"How?" he whispered. He could feel the tears burning behind his eyes, the need to cry building in his throat.
"You told it to." Scorpius sounded so confident, like he trusted Albus could get them through, defeat the snake, fix what he'd destroyed. Albus wanted to believe him so badly he could almost taste it, and staring into his face he knew what he had to do.
He turned to the wall, looked at the eyes of the snakes that looked completely alive, and said, "Let us enter the Chamber of Secrets."

Except he didn't actually get around to saying it. Instead, something was ripped from him.

He screamed, white hot pain flooding him, filled him up till it was spilling out of him, blasting from his eyes, his mouth, his fingers and toes were burning and he was going to die he was going to die he was going to die.

He felt arms around him, pulling him up, people talking to him over and over, but he couldn't hear what they were saying, couldn't accept help or comfort, he was too busy burning from the inside out.

When the pain faded, he was in a different room. His knees hurt, he assumed from falling to his knees and his eyes were stinging from unshed tears. There were voices, voices he knew but couldn't place, joining with the voices of Carrow, Lucinda and Scorpius. He forced his eyes open, looked around the room and got stuck on the two figures beside Scorpius, all three arguing and looking back and forth between each other and him. Rose and James, both in day uniform, the red from their ties looking strange in the dim greenish light of them room.

"What are you doing here?" he croaked, his voice half destroyed from his earlier screaming.
"We came to save you from these idiots!" James shouted, lunging forward to kneel at his side, Rose fast on his heels. Scorpius stared at him for a moment before walking away, turning towards Carrow and Lucinda who stood a few paces away, leaning against a pillar covered in snake paintings.
"It's me," Albus admitted. "It's my fault."
That brought Scorpius rushing back. "This is not your fault," he snapped, shoving Rose and James aside to hold his hand, his other hand going for his hair. "This is the voice in your head, this is not your fault."
Albus reached out for his face as the other boys tears fell onto their joined hands, streaking wet trails down his face to drip slowly from his chip. And Albus couldn't help himself really, no matter that his brother and his cousin and his friends were all looking at them, he needed comfort, and to comfort, and it was the easiest way to go. He leaned forward and kissed Scorpius gently on the mouth, pouring all is love and gratefulness into that one press of lips against lips.
"It's not your fault either, Scorp."
Scorpius smiled sadly, and brushed his hand through Albus' hair, pointed not looking at James and Rose. Albus arose, sending a reproachful look at James and Rose, and let himself be led to Carrow and Lucinda.

Shockingly, it was Carrow that got to him first. The other boy, leapt for him, throwing his arms around him and hugging him so tightly Albus couldn't breathe.
"We thought you'd died!" he shouted, pulling back enough to send him a heated glare before pulling him close again. Albus felt a surprising wash of love pass over him, from Carrow and again from Lucinda who pushed him away to hold Albus close too.
"I'm so glad you're okay."

"So," Albus said once his friend had let him go, surreptitiously wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Where are we?"
"In the Chamber," Rose said. "We got here just after that thing burst out of you and opened it."
"What thing?" Albus' gaze snapped onto his cousin who was peering at him with questioning eyes.
"Something, like a ghost, came out of you when you tried to open the chamber," Scorpius said, coming to stand beside him.
"It opened the chamber then disappeared," added James, looking strangely guilty.

But Albus didn't have time to think about James' guilt, because Lucinda was screaming.