Chapter Ten

Note: apologies for how long this one took. In my defense, I had a very rough couple of years.

Note: This chapter sounds very goood with Tomb Raider's St. Francis' Folly Ambience and Warnings on endless loop. h t t p : / / e n d l e s s v i d e o . c o m / w a t c h ? v = A S V r A V v - f T 4

"How deep do the dungeons go?" Harry whispered. It only seemed right to whisper. They were alone in what felt like miles of dark corridors, but the still air compelled them to speak in the tiniest voices. "I didn't know they went this deep."

"They didn't used to," Draco said back. He'd slid close to Harry as they waded through water that crept higher up their calves, trying to slosh silently around walls that had cracked and broken in, but after an hour-maybe just minutes?- he'd all but huddled under Harry's robe. One hand held the tincture leading them on, and the other held his wand, hex at the ready.

"'Didn't used to'?" Harry echoed. "That doesn't make sense."

Draco paused, giving Harry a look. When Harry just blinked at him, Draco sighed and kept going.

"It's Hogwarts," Draco said as if that should explain everything, but it didn't and he went on in exasperation. "It keeps changing itself. There's probably lots of tunnels down here. The school just closes them up to...I dunno...save space. Or energy."

"Oh." Harry considered that. "And that's why Dumbledore doesn't know where everything is. Even a map couldn't show what isn't there. I wonder why he never made one like the Marauders did."

Draco didn't even ask. Harry had given him the vague idea that James Potter and a few others had made the map of the school, and Gryffindor exploits bored him. He only knew that the map had been damaged if not destroyed by soaking in the water during the battle, and he made a mental note to ask if he could help restore it. The spells on it had to be interesting.

But that wasn't his most pressing question, and he reminded himself to stay focused.

"What I wonder," he said, whispering as the air grew more oppressive and silent, "is why you didn't give Dumbledore everything he wanted during tea."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, glancing down as Draco leaned so close that he bumped into him. With a smile, he put his arm around Draco's shoulders and brought the side of his robe around with it, covering his husband with the warm, heavy cloth.

"I mean," Draco said, not commenting on being held like a child afraid of the dark. "He kept angling for an invitation back, but you never gave him one."

"Oh, that," Harry nodded.

They came to a fork where the tunnel split into several smaller passages. The faint glimmer in the water hesitated, then glided towards the right into an arched drain that a child would have found a tight fit. Harry held his wand to the entrance, and his light only went a few feet before the tunnel grew dark again. He patted the stone along the sides and grimaced at the layer of muck that had gathered. The flood had fully submerged this route, and even with the waters receding, the water would be uncomfortably high as they went. All too easy to carelessly splash their wands.

Edging into the tunnel, Harry grimaced as he had to lean forward over water that increasingly crept up to his waist.

"I don't think it'll collapse on us," he said. "But we're gonna have to walk bent over. And it's bound to be packed with debris."

Draco frowned and looked over his shoulder again. His instincts urged him to hurry, and his imagination kept calling to mind the hags and rawheads that liked to frequent underground lairs like this. Something might be lurking on the other side. Or worse, something could rush up behind them. If they couldn't fight or get away, that narrow drain would be their tomb.

"Do you think you can apparate over there?" he asked.

Harry screwed up his face in disgust. "I don't want to try apparating to the other side. There's no way of telling where it is. We could end up stuck inside a wall, and I'd probably splinch myself."

Or both of us, Draco thought, if Harry tried to take him, too. The image of them splinched in half in a dark tunnel, drowning in fetid water, made his mind up. One of them had to be able to fight.

"All right then," Draco said, reaching up and undoing the buttons at his throat. "I'm going first. I'll be able to move things easier."

"You?" Harry laughed despite the dirty look it got him. "You hate touching slimy stuff."

"Yes, and I expect a lot of chocolate and books and late mornings to make up for it," Draco said, shrugging out of his tight robe and tossing it over Harry's shoulder. "But you're too big to maneuver down there without getting your wand wet. I'll clear some of the way."

"You're not much smaller," Harry said, but his voice trailed off as he realized what Draco was doing. He accepted Draco's pants and took the vial and his wand, standing guard as the blonde lowered himself into the dark water. Without being asked, he tilted his wand, moving the light off of Draco as he transformed.

Draco was grateful but couldn't bring himself to thank Harry. The feeling of scales replacing skin, of bones twisting inside him disgusted Draco, and it would have been all the worse if Harry watched, no matter how much his husband protested that his halfbreed form was beautiful.

Pearlescent snakeskin gleamed under the grime that quickly coated him. He gave himself a moment to stretch, testing his tail, too short to support his weight or let him rear up off his stomach. His claws proved more useful, finding the crevices in the floor and wall to pull himself along, and the water helped carry his weight so that he turned easily to face Harry.

"You okay?" Harry asked, touching his shoulder. "You sure you want to do this?"

"Not in the slightest," Draco muttered. He listening for the smallest sound in the silence, for any footsteps or splashes beyond the constant drip and eddies of water all around them. "Stay close behind me?"

"Promise." It wasn't easy for Harry to stay within arm's reach, especially not if he didn't want to step on Draco's tail, but he stayed close enough so Draco could whip around and curl behind him if something attacked.

Although he was thankful that Harry kept up the strong lumos spell, Draco was uncomfortable being in the light. The narrow walls meant the lumos spell lit up their little bubble of space like the sun, and he knew Harry was staring at his body as he slithered through the water. At least Harry didn't comment on it, but Draco felt caught between two rotten options, to submerge up to his shoulders or to creep along with half his body on display. If it had been anyone besides his husband, he would have sunk up to his chin.

Within a few minutes he forgot that he was being watched as he shoved dead grindylows and decomposing plants against the side of the tunnel, splashing his hands in the water to get the worst of the mold and decay off of them. The flood's first mad rush of water must have slammed the poor creatures around like bludgers and packed them into the offshoot drains. Worse-this was what Voldemort had intended for the Slytherin children, to pile up their bodies so deep under the school that most of them would never be found.

Draco choked off that train of thought before he grew sick, making himself think about something else.

"You didn't tell me why," he said suddenly, speaking louder than he meant to.

"Why what?" Harry asked, startled as Draco's voice echoed back down the tunnel.

Draco's winced and reminded himself to whisper. "Why you didn't invite Dumbledore back. He was trying to get you to invite him but you didn't. I was afraid you would, but you were perfect."

"Was I?" Harry asked.

There was a strange tone to Harry's voice. Draco paused and turned to look at him, wondering why he looked so sadly at the water, staring as if it was a scrying pool. Hesitating a little, he touched Harry's hand, relieved that his snake skin at least made Harry look up and smile again. Taking the moment to pause and rest his back, Harry knelt beside him. Water came up to his chest.

"You know, I used to worship him," Harry said. "He didn't treat me like a servant or a monster. He was nice. He got me away from the Dursleys. And he knew so much about everything it seemed. I...I got to fly because of him."

Draco nodded once. He didn't want to imagine what it was like living with those muggle pigs. Learning magic and how to fly must have been a miracle to the young Harry. He pushed aside a pile of wood, a broken door, making room for both of them.

"I worshipped him," Harry said. "And today..."

Harry laughed once and stared at the wall. "I would've invited him. I knew what he wanted. Bloody obvious, really."

"Why didn't you?" Draco asked.

"He didn't ask me," Harry said. "He only asked you."

Rerunning the conversation in his head, Draco had to agree. In fact, the old wizard hadn't really even looked at Harry, had he? Draco had been so worried about what Dumbledore had been after that he'd missed how Dumbledore treated him. Draco fell silent, not sure how to respond. For someone that Harry had looked up to suddenly dismissing him like that... It clearly hurt. And Draco had noticed nothing.

"I'm sorry," Draco murmured. "I was so busy countering him..."

His voice trailed off. Dumbledore's uninvited appearance, Severus disobeying Lucius, and his earlier exhaustion were poor excuses.

"I think that's why he didn't notice me," Harry said. "He was busy with you. You're the one he was concentrating on."

Draco laughed once. "He's losing his edge. The whole world knows you control me. 'Potter's tamed the Malfoys' s'what everyone says."

Despite his hurt, Harry grinned. "Only because they don't see how you twist me around your little finger, especially when you're not trying to manipulate me."

Although he didn't agree, Draco didn't argue. He felt much better if Harry was smiling, even in a dreary and dank tunnel into nothingness. Heroes were supposed to smile as they did heroic things. He was sure of it. The children's books with heroes fighting monsters always had the good wizard smirking or laughing as he cast spells at trolls and giants. And heroes always won, so Draco would be fine if he just kept lurking behind him like a proper dark wizard.

Especially as he heard the faint rumblings of something massive breathing further along the tunnel.

"I think I'd better go first now," Harry said, stepping over Draco. "Stay behind me."

Nodding, Draco opened his mouth to ask for his wand, then cut himself off. He couldn't maneuver down this tunnel and keep his wand dry at the same time. He settled for following stealthily at Harry's heels, but so much broken stone and wood lay in his way that it slowed him down. Harry drew out of arm's reach, but not far enough to make Draco worry. The light shone around Harry like a sun.

And then the light vanished. Draco gasped and curled against the side of the tunnel, making himself small as he froze, and his heart clenched up tight. Harry had dropped his wand-Harry was hiding from a terrible monster-Harry had been eaten by a silent monster that was creeping towards Draco-

Harry laughed. Draco peeked up from behind his arm, unclenching his claws from the wall.

"It's all right," Harry said, coming back to the tunnel. "Come on."

Easing back into the dirty water, Draco pulled himself along until the tunnel opened into a giant chamber. No wonder he'd thought that Harry's light had gone out. The lumos charm couldn't light this much darkness, fading to shadows towards the walls.

"What do you suppose it is?" Harry asked. He aimed his wand at the farthest corners, but he there were no candles to light along the ceiling.

Draco gingerly crawled forward, coming up out of the water onto smooth stones. Black grime covered everything, absorbing the lumos charm so that the dark water seemed to surround them and swallow them up. Only the vaguest shapes lay within the shadows, and Draco blinked, wishing his wyvern eyes saw as well in darkness as water. Harry ventured farther in, oblivious to the water rising to his knees, and Draco grimaced as he trailed after him, wincing as he crept into deeper water.

"Hey," Harry called from the center of the room. "Look at this."

Unwilling to slip completely underwater, Draco put his hands down and crawled along the bottom, keeping his head above the surface as he slithered to Harry's side. His tincture glowed faintly pink as it trickled out of sight beneath a broken chair and sodden books pressed against the rotten upholstery. Harry flicked the chair out of the way, revealing a pile of stones that he carefully removed one by one until he found a quartz crystal in the center. Smooth and almost clear, the only reason they even noticed it among the muck and ichor was the trail of tincture and the zigzag rune carved in its side.

"Jera," Draco muttered. "Harvest. There's a sick joke. Harvesting magic and the students."

Harry didn't care about the meaning. He half shrugged and pushed the surrounding stones out of the way so he could see it clearly. "Now what?" he asked.

"Don't touch it," Draco said, curling around Harry's leg for support. "It could be warded by the dark lord."

"I don't think it is," Harry said, rubbing his scar just to see if it would hurt. "It doesn't feel like his magic at all. You sure he cast the spell?"

"Well, no," Draco said slowly. "Filch just had to write the mark. I guess. But Voldemort cast the spell that used the crystal."

"If it's dark magic," Harry said with the deliberate tone of solving a math puzzle, "then it's just the rune acting out its basic meaning. Harvest, you said? But it can't take the power of anything it doesn't touch. So..."

Harry drew up the corner of his robe and wrapped it around his hand like a mitt. Before Draco could cry out, Harry had grabbed the quartz and then slid it into his pocket. With a grin, Harry patted it securely.

"Relax," Harry said. "It's fine. Not touching me, see?"

Draco hissed and slapped the water with his tail, splashing them both. "Potter, I swear I don't know how you survived this long-"

A splash, and a dull snap like a piece of brittle stone crunched under a boot-something was climbing over the debris in the tunnel. Draco froze, but Harry stepped over him and aimed at the entrance. The mouth of the tunnel glowed faintly at first, then stronger, as whatever was coming drew closer and closer. Draco curled up and eased into deeper water, submerging to his eyes.

Severus stumbled into view, grimacing as he shook excess water from his sleeve. Draco blinked. His master looked like he'd fallen at least once, soaking himself through-even his hair straggled worse than usual. His wand dripped as he held it straight, lumos charm flickering unsteadily. He took a few steps forward, sighing to himself, when he heard Draco's tail swish. Standing straight, he peered into the darkness and groaned when he made out Harry and Draco's silhouette in the darkness.

"Damn," Severus grumbled. "I was afraid you'd be here."

Harry snorted. "Thought you'd be too busy having tea with Dumbledore to notice we were gone."

"And you," Severus said lowly, "are so clearly self-absorbed in your own little adventures that you've neglected to notice the tail you've picked up. I'm only a few minutes ahead of them."

"'Tail'?" Draco glanced at Harry's backside. "What?"

"Muggle term," Harry said quickly. "Someone's following us. Who? Fudge?"

"If only," Severus said, nodding at the mouth of the tunnel. "Seal that up. It won't stop her, but it should buy us a few more minutes."

Her. Draco closed his eyes. His aunt was somewhere in the castle looking for him.

"We need to find a way out," Severus said. "I don't expect you've found the artifact?"

"In my pocket," Harry said absently, mind somewhere else. He levitated some of the larger chunks of brick and slag and piled it all in front of the tunnel until he'd blocked it up. "Draco, what was the word for fire again?"

"Fyria." Draco winced as Harry created a long ribbon of flame that melted the stones into a glowing slag. No simple wingardium leviosa would raise those again. "Great, now we're trapped."

He looked at Severus, expecting his master to have a plan already in mind. Instead he saw worry, frustration. Severus was making this up as he went along, without time to think of an escape route. Draco laughed humorlessly.

"Malfoy recklessness," Draco muttered. "Must be contagious."

Severus shot him a glare. "And what are you doing here? If you were coming here, you should have told me."

"So you could tell us not to go?" Harry scoffed, turning his attention back to Snape. "And then you'd be here in the same position without any help."

"Some help," Severus shot back. "I wouldn't have left a glowing trail right after myself."

"No, you'd just be wandering around aimlessly," Harry said.

"Hardly aimless," Severus said. "The wreckage settled here in these lower chambers. Anyone with half a brain could see that."

"Enough!" Draco snapped at both of them. "Find another way out. Then you can bloody well argue."

Looking like they'd rather keep arguing, Harry and Severus huffed and turned their attention to the walls.

"Start looking," Severus said. "Look for low spots, places where the water might be draining. And be careful what you touch."

"Wait, use my wand," Draco said suddenly. "Harry has it. It's still dry, and I can't use it while I'm like this."

"Like...?" Severus looked more closely, then breathed in sharply when he realized why Draco was on the floor. "That's how you came through that narrow passage."

There was an awkward silence, and then he glared at Harry.

"You have no idea what you have in him," Severus said lowly. "And I don't need a wand. You must have drawn the artifact from the water before mine submerged."

Turning his back, he went to search the other side of the chamber, sparing Draco the exposure the extra light would bring.

Harry blinked, not sure what he'd done to receive that insult. Usually when he and Snape sparred, the reasons were obvious.

Draco tugged on the hem of Harry's pants, drawing him to one side so that his lumos revealed the rough walls and rusted sconces that once held flames.

"What'd he mean by that?" Harry whispered, kneeling beside Draco as they searched the floor.

"That I let you see me like this," Draco breathed. He looked over his shoulder to see if Severus could hear them talking. "I don't think father ever has."

"That's...sad," Harry said. His hand brushed against Draco's hair and touched the scales of his cheek. "I know you feel self-conscious when I watch you, but I love seeing you this way."

Draco didn't answer. He wasn't comfortable enough in his skin to stay in the light, let alone think that Harry found him attractive. If he hadn't been so dependent on Harry that night he transformed in the Slytherin bathrooms, he never would have let Harry see him at all. If he hadn't desperately needed him to open the door, to flood the room, to-

Draco lowered his eyes. No, he couldn't blame all that on Harry. He'd begged him to stay. He reached up and took his hand, squeezing once.

"Found it!"

Waving them over, Severus touched the wand to one of the large stones that made up the wall, carefully dragging it halfway out. The castle groaned around them and he paused, waiting for the sound to fade before pulling it the rest of the way. Another stone, square and smooth, lay behind it, and Severus drew it loose from a crumbly mooring of ancient mortar. Gray stone flecks showered around their feet.

"What is it?" Draco asked, sitting up as high as his tail would support and leaning heavily on Harry, watching as a third stone drifted by. "How deep does that wall go?"

"Not far," Severus said, waving the light inside the small hole he'd made. "It's the reason this chamber isn't flooded. The lake has been draining through the crevices here. There's another part of the castle beneath this one."

"But it was walled up," Draco breathed. He stared into the pitch black darkness as if something with claws and fangs might lunge out. Wizards did not idly seal off rooms-there was always a reason. "If the founders themselves didn't want people in here..."

"If it's what I think it is," Severus said, "then the founders had nothing to do with it. The castle itself sealed it off."

Ignoring his son's fear, Severus began on the next stone. A moment later, Harry was tugging the stones out of the wall as well. Between them, the chamber was soon filled with the cracking rumble of the wall coming apart, and Draco curled up at Harry's feet. With their wands consumed with levitation spells, the lumos spells faded to the mere glow of Harry's magic, and the new chamber swallowed up even that spark like a gaping mouth.

Which made spotting the light from someone else's wand that much easier. Draco turned his attention to the way they'd come in and found a golden glimmer coming from behind them, through the spaces around the slag Harry had melted.

"Hurry!" Draco hissed, rearing up as high as he could and losing his balance, hastily settling back in the water.

As usual when he was transformed, he cursed his useless tail. Still clinging to Harry, he grabbed his wand out of his husband's pocket and aimed at the mouth of the tunnel. But what spell to use? Collapse the tunnel and cut themselves off from escape, maybe even causing a cave in? He couldn't summon a wave like Pansy, and the water...

Draco blinked. The crystal could no longer leech magic, but whoever was in the tunnel wouldn't know that.

"Wæter æt min calla, blæc loch, ruschen hom," he whispered, pointing his wand at the water by the tunnel.

To his relief, it moved readily at his command, rippling and then flowing backwards through cracks and crevices in the debris. He cast the spell again at the deep puddle around his tail, and as it moved past him to join the water at the tunnel, a hollow echo rumbled from behind the stones. Still levitating blocks, Harry and Severus paused to listen, surprised as water cascaded over the bottom-most stones.

His spell did nothing to dry the chamber, but it was enough to threaten to flood the tunnel. A handful of startled cries were followed by the light fading away again as their followers ran back for fear that their wands would submerge.

"Clever," Severus murmured, pulling out one more stone.

There were no more layers of rock behind that one. Harry and Severus both leaned close, sending a lumos charm into the darkness.

"Can you see anything?" Harry asked.

"Just a torch sconce," Severus said. "Nothing else."

They cleared away enough of the stones to allow them through, although Severus had to stoop under the low ceiling. It was easier for Draco as he slithered after them.

Harry knelt beside him, resting his hand on Draco's shoulder. "Are you all right? I could carry you if you like."

Draco shook his head. "No, the ground's pretty slick. Just don't walk too fast."

"We won't," Severus said firmly. "Who knows what the castle may have locked down here?"

"I thought you said you had an idea," Harry said.

"A guess..." Severus said, then turned his attention to the corridor. "Fyria."

The torch fastened against the wall sputtered to life, giving a weak orange flame. The iron sconce was rusted through and the corner fell off, clattering across the floor as they walked by.

"We won't be able to trust these for long," Severus said, nonetheless lighting each torch he spotted.

Following close at his heels, Draco looked over his shoulder as the opening grew smaller and smaller. Soon the darkness swallowed it completely.

"Where do you think we are?" he asked.

"One of the castle's hidden rooms," Severus said. "Hogwarts likes to hide things, like the Room of Requirement. The Chamber of Secrets."

"That little room in the library," Draco said, remembering the cramped space they'd hidden from the dark lord in.

"Exactly," Severus said. "It'd be shortsighted to think there were no other secrets."

"But those-" Harry winced as his voice sounded a trifle too loud. He continued in a whisper. "Those were made by the founders."

"I don't think the founders were as all-knowing as everyone likes to believe," Severus said. "They were human. And more importantly, Salazar was a Slytherin."

"No kidding," Harry said. "No one sane keeps a pet basilisk."

"His...sanity aside," Severus said, not arguing that point, "he was a Slytherin. And we keep secrets. It's simply part of our nature. We'll keep secrets even when we don't really need to."

Smirking, Harry started to comment, then considered who he was with and decided not to. "So he buried something in the bottom of Hogwarts?"

"No," Severus said slowly, sounding as if he was piecing his idea together. "The castle did. Because it was influenced by him."

Not understanding, Harry glanced at Draco to see if he knew what Severus meant. Draco noticed his look and nodded assurance at him.

"It's different if you cast a spell than when I do it," Draco said. "My fyria rabaena is a long glowing ribbon that burns slowly. Yours is a bloody firework that singes everything around it."

"So if Salazar hadn't been so secretive," Harry slowly reasoned, "then the castle wouldn't be so secretive?"

"Exactly," Draco said. "Your personality affects the spell, too."

"Kind of like our wands," Harry realized. "Mr. Olivander said mom's wand was good for charm work."

"You never noticed because you're naturally powerful," Severus said. "You have classes you do not like, but none that you could not do."

"Oh."

Now that was odd. Draco paused and wasted a moment looking up at Harry. The tilted head, slumping shoulders, hands searching for pockets he didn't have-all signs of a self-conscious Potter. Now was hardly the time for a heart to heart, not with Severus there, but he knew he'd have to ask later.

When he started crawling along again, he put his hand into a puddle that was elbow-deep. Shuddering, he yanked his hand back and wiped off what he was sure was dead grindylow slime. Harry and Severus were several yards ahead now, and he grimaced and pulled himself faster along the ground.

Dripping water over the years had left a layer of soft clay, and while Severus and Harry had to grab the wall occasionally to keep from falling, Draco dug his claws in and easily hauled himself along. The floor didn't seem to be at an angle, but the water went from puddles to ankle deep, slowly rising up to his shoulders. The end of his tail floated as the water took most of his weight.

Draco glanced over his shoulder-most of the flames had burned out, dribbling red ashes into nothingness. He blinked. Perhaps the flood had drained all the magic from them so that they burned like muggle torches. But if they'd been soaked, then they wouldn't have dried out enough to burn, would they? Shouldn't they have come apart before? The more he thought about it, the less sense it made to him.

But the flood must have come through here, he thought. The water was now high enough that he had to hold his head above the surface. He pushed himself up, locking his arms as he stretched, then shivered and submerged again, grateful that the water was finally covering his tail.

Before he could swim past, though, Severus knelt and grabbed his shoulder.

"Stay by us," his master warned him.

"But the water doesn't go any deeper," Draco said, glancing at the corridor ahead.

"Don't trust it," Severus said. "It looks smooth on the surface, but it might be hiding something below. If there's something in there, you're in the most danger. Your tail effectively cripples you."

His master's blunt disregard for his feelings didn't surprise him, but it didn't sting when it wasn't true. Draco ducked under his grip and slithered several feet ahead, turning to face them with a cocky smile.

"Not really," Draco said, bringing his tail around to his side and rising up on one arm, reclining comfortably. "I found out I can swim pretty well, and as long as there's enough water to take some of my weight, I ca-ahhh!"

His hand slipped as the floor behind him suddenly ended and he toppled backwards, the edge scraping along his side, knocking his head as he plunged into deep water. For a moment, everything was silent as he drifted, completely submerged as he tried to get his bearings. There were stairs under him, and he twisted around, gathering his tail under himself and grabbing the edges of the steps, breaking the surface again with a gasp.

"-aco! Are you all right?"

He winced as Harry grabbed his arm with bruising strength and pulled him back onto the floor. Sputtering, Draco wiped his hair from his eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he grumbled. "S'just stairs. I didn't see how far they go."

"To the keystone, I'd wager," Severus said.

"'Keystone'?" Harry asked.

Severus stared at the water as if he could see through the darkness. "I'd always wondered where it was. The original foundation of Hogwarts."

"What?" Harry said. "But why's that important now? I thought we were trying to get out."

"We are," Severus said as if Harry was mentally deficient. "The foundation may allow us out. No one can say how the founders built the castle. Or why they chose this spot. Our best hope is that something powerful resides at the bottom of this chamber."

"The Chamber of Secrets was pretty far down," Harry said. "I thought that was the lowest point."

"Magically, perhaps," Severus said. "But no matter how much magic they used, no matter how much they tried to shape reality, the founders could not escape certain physical truths. They had to start building somewhere."

"Down here?" Draco asked.

Now that he took a second look, the stairs were obvious. The water wasn't black, just dark, and there were no torches here to show them how far down they went or how large the chamber was. The corridor didn't even seem to end-it simply widened out in a broad circle with no way to see the other side. The walls faded into darkness, and their whispers didn't echo, swallowed up in nothing.

"So now what?" Harry said. "We can't go back."

"We may not need to," Severus said. "We should try to reach the bottom of this chamber."

"Bubble charms, then?" Harry asked. "But what if something's alive down there?"

"Like the triwizard tournament, there are ways of fighting underwater," Severus said. "But I don't think we'll have to. This section was sealed, and if there were other entrances, the castle would have sealed them off as well."

"So...it should be empty," Draco said softly, looking over the edge again. "Just hard to see."

"Potter," Severus said, drawing his wand. "You'll need to charm yourself completely. If the artifact you're carrying touches the water, it may start leeching magic again."

"Got it." Harry nodded and listened to Severus' spell to remind himself of what to say. "Ebublio."

Effervescent bubbles billowed around Harry, taking Draco's breath away. Although the charm was translucent, Harry looked like he was behind a shimmering shield of silver that wrapped around his whole body like a cloak. It glowed a faint blue, coloring the stone walls and shimmering on the water's surface.

Draco touched the edge of his shield, marveling as raw magic glowed on the tip of his claws. It even tingled like a soda pop. Harry took a cautious step into the water, careful not to slip as he descended. The bubble charm hissed and churned the water around him, but he stayed perfectly dry.

"Needlessly flashy," Severus muttered. "No wonder he fit into the family."

Leading the way down, Harry didn't hear him, sloshing through the water until he completely submerged. Draco followed after, using the stairs at first and growing more confident that he wouldn't sink. Grabbing the edge of each step, he pulled himself down and caught up with his husband, mesmerized by the light gleaming off the small currents they made and Harry's luminescent magic left behind on the steps like a trail, scuffed in small part as Severus came behind them, casting a lumos that couldn't reach the walls.

In the Slytherin dungeons, he'd become used to the sounds of grindylow songs, bubbles rising from the deep and the rush of the squid swimming by the glass. Even the castle's own groans and creaks had been amplified by the lake. Down here, the water was silent and clear. There was no slime or silt. Nothing had been alive down here for centuries.

As they walked, the staircase grew wide enough to accommodate all of them, then broadened out and out until they couldn't see the edges. The last step led them to a stone floor with a handful of large, crudely cut stones placed haphazardly around the chamber. Each stone was waist-high and looked hand-chiseled, with rough hewn carving down the middle. Nothing else was visible.

Making a guess, Draco crept along the floor into the deepening shadows, casting his own lumos charm. His spell only lit a few inches around himself, fainter than a candle against the sheer depth they were in, but after a moment he found the wall and an old torch fastened to the stone. His touch made the wood crumble to nothing, and the sconce was little more than a smooth basin worn into the stone.

With his claw, he scratched the rune cen into the hollow and touched his wand to it, whispering its name so that a bubble left his lips. The rune glimmered like a firefly, then grew bright enough to light his face.

Satisfied, he turned and pushed away from the wall, swimming with the faintest waves of his tail. The weightlessness of his movements, without the awkward heaviness on land that made him flop around like a fish, brought him closer to flight than his broom, holding him aloft like a bird. He flicked his tail and swiftly came up to the opposite wall, putting his hands up to catch himself. In the clear water, he felt as if he was hovering.

There were precious few sconces to light. As he swam back to Harry's side, he circled his head and floated in front of his face. He'd been underwater long enough that his chest started to burn for air, and he leaned close, pressing his lips against the larger bubble over Harry's face. For a moment he shared his husband's breath, stealing a little for himself and letting Harry touch the scales on his shoulder.

Satisfied, Draco floated a few inches away and looked questioningly at Severus. There was nothing else in the chamber, just the seven or eight large rocks. The castle had sealed the chamber well, but there didn't seem to be any reason.

Not nearly as comfortable in the water, Severus took a slow step to the closest stone and ran his hand over it. As large as the rest, it held a deep gash down the middle, large enough for a man to fit. One end of the stone was lower than the other, and broadly flat. Severus closed his eyes, deep in thought, then turned and eased himself down into the deep hollow of the stone, now clearly a primitive desk.

Draco marveled. How obvious it was now that Severus was sitting there! He darted to the next desk and curled up inside, running his hands over the flat part. It was just large enough to set parchment and write. He grinned and looked up at the blank wall, feeling lighthearted despite himself. For years, he'd nursed a long grudge that Harry got to explore the school and discover all its secrets. So this was what that felt like. If school had been in session, perhaps Gryffindor and Slytherin would both have won house points.

On his other side, Harry came around him and floated over to the wall, touching it with his fingertips. It was obviously where a teacher would have stood, and perhaps there was nothing more to see. Just an empty classroom that hadn't been remembered, let alone used, for several lifetimes.

He looked over his shoulder at Severus. "Now what?" he mouthed.

Severus frowned and considered, resting his head in his hand. Draco held back a smile. His master must have looked just like that when he was a student, ignoring everyone else as he thought over a question.

With a quick lift of his head, Severus looked at the wall, the answer obviously in mind. But then he hesitated. He tentatively tried to speak, resulting in a few bubbles and no sound. He then turned to Draco and looked him in the eye, and a command formed in Draco's thoughts.

Ask what we should do.

Draco blinked. The problem with occlumency, he knew, was that even if you could hear someone's thoughts, you didn't always know what they meant.

What on earth are you talking about?

Severus gave him a very familiar look, one that he usually wore when Draco spoiled an easy potion.

You're the only one who can speak underwater. I think. You have to ask-out loud-what should we do with the stone.

A dozen questions ran through Draco's mind-Ask who? Why? Should I face a certain way? How'd you figure all this?-but he'd learned not to badger Severus with questions. Pretending he was in class asking the teacher for help, he looked at the wall and spoke.

His voice sang through the water, surprising all of them. A handful of bubbles left his lips, but only out of human habit. Wyvern instinct formed his words, long and thin, like a bell underwater. The chamber swallowed the sound quickly, and Draco glanced sideways at Severus, wondering if he should ask again. His master stared at the far wall so intently that Draco kept looking between them, trying to keep it all in sight.

But it was the echo of something else from above, soft splashing and the burbled sounds of underwater spells, that had Draco out of his seat and staring up into the darkness. He couldn't see her, couldn't really hear her, but he knew.

His aunt was coming down those stairs.

tbc...

Author's Notes:

1. Wæter æt min calla, blæc loch, ruschen hom - water at my call, black lake, rush home. (Basically Draco just sent some of the water back into the lake. Not much, though.)

2. fyria - old English fyr, fire, raebaena - old French riban, ribbon

3. ebublio - the bubble-head charm has no obvious incanation, but apparently the video games used this one, so I snagged it.

4. This underground classroom is inspired in twofold by the Scholomancy school and by a room in El Paso High School, here in my hometown. It's the most haunted building in the city, bar none, and rumor has it that a classroom was found walled up in one of the tunnels under the school. Everything was left behind as if the students had simply stood up, everyone walked out, and then the room was bricked up.