Chapter 20
As Severus was incredibly busy after Christmas he`d asked Jen to accompany Harry on his mission to ask the portrait of Slytherin where the chamber of secrets was. Harry had of course been admonished not to wander too much while alone as the castle was full of old and unused passages. As soon as Severus finally had some free time he searched them out finding them in the lab where Jen was instructing Harry and Neville in the making of some easy potions. Severus chose to stay outside, as not to set off the potions that were brewing but sent a message to Jen, who joined him outside. "Nev is a bit unsteady on potions, so I can`t leave him alone long" she said looking back into the room.
"Did the portrait confirm that there indeed is a chamber of secrets?"
She smiled widely answering "Yes there is, and he explained how to enter it safely too. I`m afraid he insisted on being transferred from where he was currently in exchange, and Harry kindly offered to have him as your entrance portrait."
Severus shrugged, he`d liked his current portrait well enough but Slytherin would probably fill the role as guardian of his quarters better.
"Where is the chamber then" Severus asked.
"In the unused girl`s bathroom, but there is one complication: we will need a parselmouth to open both entrances and as far as I know Harry is the only resident parselmouth.
"Typical" Severus said resignedly, "I`d hoped to keep Harry out of this altogether."
Jen looked at him thoughtfully before saying "I know it is not my place to say this, but Harry is not going to be held out of anything if he can help it. I strongly suspect he will take a hand himself in finding out things, if you insist on keeping him in the dark".
As she turned to walk into the potions lab a scowling Severus was left standing outside muttering "definitely not your place to tell me what to do about my son."
At dinner Severus had calmed considerably, and as he told Harry about the need for him to open the entrance to the chamber he was forced to admit to himself that Harry did seem the type to rush into thing. Maybe it would be better to keep him informed to a degree suitable for someone not yet eleven. Harry was all for rushing directly to the chamber, but Severus forced him to stay still long enough to eat his dinner. Shortly after dinner Severus grew sick of Harry`s pleading and finally they set off.
"This is the entrance to the chamber of secrets?" Harry said disbelievingly as they stood inside the bathroom in question.
"You know better than I, as it was you who talked to Slytherin"
"Umm, I kinda let Jen do that as Neville was coming. I just introduced them, and asked Slytherin to tell everything to Jen".
Sighing deeply Severus waved his wand in the customary movement for making a patronus message saying out loud "message for Jen: would you meet Harry and I in the unused bathroom as we seem to need your assistance". Minutes later she joined them and after she explained what they were looking for they found the right spot immediately.
"Now you must say `open` in parselmouth Harry" Jen said, "open" said Harry in an uncertain manner. "That was English", Severus told his son. "Try again while you are holding your snake and looking at it".
Harry took his snake out from around his neck, and looked intently at it before speaking something the two others could not understand. As a result a hole opened itself in the floor, and a dirty tunnel was revealed.
"Yuk" Jen said and sending a strong cleaning spell at the tunnel, before they lined up to jump into it.
In the end they found the sleeping basilisk without any problems, they then sampled some scales and took some of its poison before transforming it into the shape of a giant anaconda and sending it to live in the Amazonas. "It`s too bad it couldn't have stayed" Harry moaned "knowing there was a Basilisk in the cellar would have been so cool even if no one else knew".
"I`m sure the creature will enjoy living in the Amazonas more than staying down in these cold and damp cellars" Jen said smiling slightly and patting him on the back.