Heir of Slytherin

Disclaimer: HP characters, the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort… none of it is mine. They all belong to JKR!

AN: I have a presentation and paper coming up so I can't promise the next chapter in a timely manner, but I'll strive to keep writing and post as soon as I can, as always! After all, writing is all that keeps me sane some days. Special thanks to reviewers who shared prank ideas! I'll be incorporating them to the story as it progresses.

ooOOoo

"Here it is!" Leevi shoved a book at Christelle. She studied it and smiled.

"Roosters. Who knew?"

Leevi shrugged, putting the book back in the shelves and headed out of the library with Christelle. "Now the question is how we get one away from Hagrid without him noticing."

"The basilisk is stirring!"

Leevi stopped abruptly. "The basilisk is awake!" he said urgently to Christelle. "No time for planning," he said with a smirk. "You go grab a rooster from Hagrid's pen, I'll keep the basilisk from attacking anyone and lure it back into the chamber." She nodded, dropped her bag just inside of the library doors before running outside. Leevi turned to his mind bond with his familiar and followed its instructions to where the basilisk was.

ooOOoo

Neville walked down the stairs with Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

"Do you hear that?" he asked them.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked him, curiously. "I don't hear anything."

"Kill. Mussssst kill. Huuungry…"

"Something's hunting!" Neville looked around urgently.

"Neville, there's nothing here." Ron said nervously.

Neville took a couple of steps forward, then doubled back. "It's going this way—come on! We have to stop it!" The kids followed Neville as he ran down the hall.

ooOOoo

Christelle ran outside, barely pausing as the doors opened for her and headed to the direction of Hagrid's hut. She could see smoke coming out of the small chimney. She would have to be a little more careful since Hagrid was home. Swerving to the right, she leapt over the small corral where the roosters were sleeping. Fang poked his nose out of the door. His head soon followed and he looked at her inquiringly. She gave him a little wave and put her finger to her lips. Amazingly, the large hound seemed to understand and went back into the hut. Holding her hand out, she approached one slowly and hummed softly to it while taking her wand from behind her ear. "Stupefy." She said softly, then shrunk the rooster and tucked it in her robe before running back to the castle, smiling at how easily that had gone. The rest of the night probably wouldn't go quite as smoothly though.

ooOOoo

"Return to the Chambersss!"

"Sssspeaker?"

"Yessss."

"Kill! Huuuungry. Musssst kill."

Leevi was having a hard time convincing the basilisk to follow his voice along the pipes back to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Sssspeaker, I have ssslept for long… and have finally been given permission to hunt. Huuuungry… Dirty blood polluting, weakening, Massster wissshesss them gone!"

"Basssilisssk, you may not hurt any of the sstudentsss here."

The basilisk hissed angrily.

"Master would not be pleased!" That seemed to make the basilisk waver.

"Follow me!" Leevi commanded, using the tone he had developed in the previous war. The basilisk hissed submissively and followed the sound of his footsteps towards the second floor girl's bathroom.

As Leevi ran through the hall, hissing at the basilisk to keep directing it, he missed a group of incredulous second years that had been running along the hall. Neville Longbottom stopped so suddenly that Harry and Ron knocked into him. Hermione had been a couple of steps behind them and slowed to a stop.

"What's going on?"

"Leevi." Neville said in a whisper. "Leevi's ordering the monster around the school." He peeked around the corner and watched him go into the girl's bathroom. "And he just went into a girl's bathroom?"

Hermione looked out. "That's the bathroom haunted by Moaning Myrtle."

Ron held her back. "Wait Hermione, you didn't hear him. He was hissing." Neville nodded.

"It was parseltongue." He said softly. "The monster must be some kind of snake."

"Getting around the school—leading it to the bathroom—pipes!" Hermione said suddenly. "It must be getting around through the plumbing!" She paused for a moment. "You aren't seriously thinking that Leevi was ordering the snake to hurt someone!" she said exasperatedly.

"Besides," Harry said, "It's Leevi. He pranks people, he would never do anything to hurt a student."

Neville shook his head. "There's no reason for him to be a parseltongue, unlike me. At least we need to find out what that's all about." Ron nodded in agreement.

"We should go to a professor—" Hermione started to say.

"And tell them what?" Neville asked. "That he was hissing to himself?"

They heard the sound of someone running and looked out to see Christelle ascending the stairs and running into the bathroom. She followed Leevi down the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, neither one of them noticing the bathroom door opening slightly as four second year students shuffled in quietly under an invisibility cloak.

The four Gryffindors entered the bathroom to watch the swirling sinks close over a large hole.

"Somehow," Harry muttered, "that looked less inviting than the secret passage to Honeydukes."

"I still think we should get a professor." Hermione huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as Harry pulled the cloak off of them. Neville was looking at the sinks curiously. "Look, you don't know what they were doing, all right? Maybe they have a reason to be talking to snakes—or did you guys forget they have snakes as pets? They could have been going off to find them. I think they were just trying to head off their pets from eating someone else's pet. You boys are making a big deal out of nothing."

"Don't you understand, Hermione?" Ron looked at her exasperatedly. "Par-sel-ton-gue." He emphasized.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Is this some pureblood prejudice?"

"There's a symbol of a snake at this sink." Neville muttered. Harry walked over and leaned in to look at the symbol. Pushing his glasses up higher along his nose, he reached out to trace it with his hand and gasped as the snake seemed to shimmer. He looked at Neville and smiled.

"Want to go take a look at what they're up to?" he asked.

"Harry!" Hermione stomped her foot.

"Hey," he held his hands up in a non-confrontational manner, "If they aren't up to anything sneaking up on them will be all in good fun. And if they're doing more than catching up with their pets, then we can do something about it—help or hinder." He paused as Hermione sighed. "Why don't you go grab a professor, Neville and I will go after them, and Ron can stay here to guard the entrance?"

"Hey, why do I get left behind?" Ron protested.

"Because someone needs to guard the entrance. If we can get it to open, that is."

"Why not Harry?" Ron pouted.

"Because," Harry said simply, "I have the invisibility cloak."

ooOOOOoo

They cautiously approached the young shimmering Tom Riddle sitting crossed-legged in front of the body of another student.

"Is that Malfoy?" Leevi whispered, surprised.

Tom looked up to see two students—Gryffindors of all things!—walking into the Chambers of Secrets. How did they get in? , he thought angrily. "Attack the tresspasssersss!"

Christelle and Leevi readied their wands as Christelle discreetly removed the stunned rooster from her pocket. Tom took hold of Draco's wand and threw a cutting curse at Leevi. As he put up a shield against it, the basilisk emerged out of the statue of Salazar Slytherin.

"Incendio turrita!" Identical columns of fire launched themselves from their wands to the opening as the basilisk emerged.

"NO!" Tom roared as his basilisk hissed and retreated temporarily in pain. He threw a whipping curse at both Maximus twins. "Who are you and why do you defy me in my chambers?!" he demanded. Leevi ducked out of the way in time but the fiery whip caught Christelle's ankle. She lost hold of the rooster as the spell spun her through the air and landed in front of the statue at the center of the room.

Leevi turned to Tom and they started to duel. The spirit was much stronger than the one he had faced in the other Chamber of Secrets and he wondered if it was because Malfoy had not fought against the possession the way Ginny had tried to do. The Slytherin had probably been happy to offer the Dark Lord control from the beginning.

"Who I am is of no consequence." He declared, as he cast spells in quick succession. Thankful that Riddle was dueling with Draco's wand and thus avoiding the effect of priori incantatem, he proceeded to try to find out what Voldemort's horcrux knew. "Why have you possessed a Slytherin student?"

"Why do you care?" Riddle countered, "I've seen that you have no love for this particular student."

"That is irrelevant!"

Cold laughter hit his ears. "Young, impetuous Gryffindor. I have observed you to be advanced in your magic compared to the other students, but you are no match for me!"

"You'd be surprised."

He could hear hissing in the background and the sounds of Christelle battling the basilisk. If he could have taken his attention off of his own duel, he would have seen her dodging the basilisk and throwing charms and illusions to confuse its senses as most offensive spells simply bounced off its scales. Her movement was stilted by her swollen ankle, but she managed a small reprieve to accio the stunned rooster to her. As she returned it to its normal size, the basilisk slithered up to her and wrapped itself around her, holding her in its coils as it turned its head towards her. Recognizing the danger, she closed her eyes tightly, aimed her wand towards her feet but slightly to the side and incanted a powerful reducto. Part of the spell hit the basilisk and was mostly harmless. However, another part left a large gauge out of the floor of the chamber and the sudden change unbalanced the basilisk enough to loosen its coils. Keeping her eyes firmly on the floor, she slipped out of its grasp and enervated the rooster as she rolled out of the way. Christelle was careful to aim her next spell away from the basilisk so that the rooster wouldn't turn around and see the giant magical snake.

"Solis ortus!" The spell was thrown at the wall opposite her and as the illusion of a rising sun covered the wall, the rooster began to crow.

The basilisk hissed in pain and fell heavily to the ground.

"NO!"

"Accio diary!"

Riddle growled, but Leevi already had the diary in his hand. "You impertinent fool!" he hissed, throwing an Avada kedavra. Knowing he couldn't shield against that particular spell, Leevi threw the diary in the way of the spell as he leapt out of the way. Riddle's cry of fury was drowned by his cry of pain. Looking up, he saw Christelle watching quietly as Tom Riddle's spirit glowed with the green light of the spell encasing the diary. Energy seemed to tumble out of the spirit in waves before it disappeared.

Leevi gingerly picked up the diary.

"It's still whole."

"I doubt the horcrux is destroyed," she winced as she made her way over to him. "And I doubt that would have happened if anyone else had thrown that curse."

Leevi smiled at her. "We did well for coming into this without planning it out, didn't we?"

She smiled back and looked him over. "Yes, he seemed to force our hand this time. Are you all right?"

"A few burns and scrapes. You?"

She shrugged as she limped over to Draco. "Mostly fine. Malfoy's not waking up." Her voice was worried. "Didn't Ginny wake up after you banished Riddle's spirit?"

"But that time the horcrux was destroyed." Leevi moved over to the head of the basilisk and cast Diffindo a few times before removing one of the fangs carefully. "Here goes nothing." He said as he stabbed the cover of the diary. Black ink spilled out of the paper as the basilisk venom permeated the small book. He looked up as Malfoy groaned and stirred. Christelle sat near him, her wand held in a deceivingly relaxed manner in her hand.

"Malfoy." She said softly.

He looked around blearingly and swallowed painfully, his throat dry. Christelle conjured a glass of water and handed it to him. Seeing him look at it suspiciously, she sighed.

"Come on, we didn't save your arse for you to die of thirst." She held the glass to his lips and helped him drink as Leevi walked over. On the way, he tripped over something and stumbled. Christelle and Draco looked up to see him lift something from the ground. The form of two petrified students came to view.

The Maximus twins groaned.

"Who is it?" Christelle asked.

"Neville and Harry."

Christelle sighed and got to her feet painfully. Draco laid a hand on her ankle and she hissed painfully as he jerked his hand back. Leevi had his wand trained on the blond Slytherin in a second.

"Maximus--sorry." Draco whispered hoarsely. He struggled to sit up. Christelle gave her brother an exasperated look and he grudgingly dropped the cloak and moved over to help the Slytherin.

"So. How did you end up in this situation?" he asked, woefully aware that he had had years of experience with the Dark Lord that this version of Draco Malfoy had not.

Although Malfoy didn't seem to want to talk, he did venture to ask "The diary—?"

"It's gone." Leevi said curtly. "And no, you aren't getting it back. The spirit in that diary almost killed you."

"Possession does not result in death." Draco retorted, although there was no bite to his remark.

"This one would have." Leevi said, holding Draco's arm to steady him while he leaned over and pointed his wand at Christelle's ankle. "Episkey." She smiled at him thankfully and walked over to the other boys, pocketing the invisibility cloak.

"Do you think it would be all right to shrink them? It'd be so much easier to leave the Chambers if we didn't have to lug them through the tunnels." She commented looking at the two petrified boys.

Leevi gave her a pained look. "I have no idea."

She slipped her robe off her shoulders, then looking around her, she waved her wand loosely in the air. "Accio rooster." She caught the rooster in her robes and quickly stunned it. Placing her robe back on, she shrunk the rooster and tucked it in a pocket before levitating the boys. "I don't know what the results of petrification and shrinking would be, so I guess this'll have to do." Draco couldn't seem to decide between showing his confusion or hiding behind a seemingly all-knowing sneer. He wasn't too keen on staying in here by himself though so he settled on a blank mask as he thought furiously on the last couple of weeks. How had things gotten so out of hand?

Leevi levitated Christelle back up to Myrtle's bathroom.

"Oh, hi Ron!" she said cheerfully. He gulped at the sight of her tattered and messy robes. "Here, give me a hand okay? Leevi's going to levitate Neville and Harry up next." She added as an afterthought, "They were petrified, unfortunately. But don't worry—no matter how bad they look now, they would have been infinitely worse. They'll just have to wait until the mandrakes grow up and sprout beards to get better."

Ron nodded silently, wondering what was taking Hermione so long to find a professor.

After helping his petrified friends to the bathroom floor, Ron trained his wand at Christelle. "What's going on here? What did you do to them?"

Christelle was leaning over the edge of the hole, reaching out her arm and performing Lumos with her wand so it would be easier for Leevi to levitate Draco who was already grumbling at the method of travel. She looked over her shoulder at Ron.

"We didn't do anything to them. The basilisk did." She turned back to grasp Draco's hand and pulled him up the rest of the way.

"Thank you, Maximus."

"Malfoy!" Ron sputtered. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting levitated out of snake pit, what does it look like?" the Slytherin snapped. "Why are you holding a wand on us?"

"Us? It's us now, is it?"

"Ron, don't be a git." Christelle said. "I'm going to levitate Leevi out and then we'll tell you all about it, all right? But right now, just be quiet." She was starting to get a headache. Ron kept his wand trained on Malfoy but refrained from saying anything else. Just as Leevi was dusting himself off and the sinks swirled back into place, closing the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, Professor McGonagall walked in with Hermione in tow.

She looked at the swirling sinks with wide eyes. Her watchful gaze raked over her students and the color drained from her face when she saw the petrified forms of Neville and Harry. She moved quickly to check on them.

"They're only petrified, Professor McGonagall." Leevi offered.

"Only petrified, Mr. Maximus?" She looked at him disapprovingly. "I don't know what you children have been up to, but we will set it straight momentarily. Now everyone—and I mean everyone, Mr. Malfoy, is marching straight to the infirmary to get checked by Madame Pomfrey. Go on." The professor carefully levitated the two petrified students in front of her as she herded her charges and one Slytherin down the stairs. She would floo Albus and Severus from Poppy's office. And probably the Potters and Mr. Longbottom's uncle. This was going to be a long night.

ooOOOoo

AN: Well, I hope our venture into Slytherin's lair was fun. I have to admit to being a little less than happy with my writing for this chapter… anyway, please review! I love hearing from you all.

Oh, and I know the story has been following major canon events—it'll continue to do so, but there may be several sharp turns ahead. You've been forewarned!