Wet!

She automatically tried to pull away from such a thing, spluttering in disgust as she realized she was sunk in water with hands and knees.

Splashing and flailing as Alice tried to get up in protest, she realized there really wasn't anywhere too go that wasn't covered in a thin layer of water.

Heart still thudding painfully in her chest from the last near death experience, she tried to lurch to her feet to find the new chamber. The first realization was how sick she was of the color green. Though it had no visible source, the hue managed to highlight the large stone pillars spaced ever few feet in the shape of yet more snakes, as if she hadn't enough of a fright from those knowing the king of the species was slythering about somewhere.

Still gasping painfully for normal breath, she latched onto a new bit of color with painful glee and quickly hurried to Lily's side. "Oh thank goodness you're okay!"

She just nodded, getting to her feet in the same shaky but hurried way with Alice supporting her elbow. "Potter pulled me out of the way," she muttered, sounding quite like she'd been hit over the head anyways she was in such disbelief. "I, I've never frozen like that-"

"I'm so sorry, I thought you were right behind us!" Alice wasn't even listening, pulling her into a tight hug, nearly sobbing in relief, guilt, and lingering worry.

Lily patted her awkwardly on the back before trying to pull away, and Alice let her with the excuse of rubbing still dripping fingers over her face to brush the strands away clinging to her eyes. Together the two went about to everyone else, rounding their group into a tight circle with no protests. It was no secret that the dangers behind them were only the start of their worries. This was the basilisks layer.

Several heavy moments of silence not even broken by the drips of water anymore persisted before the eldest Black finally spoke up, "can you believe I'm related to such an atrocity? Moony, promise me if I ever start to looking like my ancestors, you'll put me out of my misery."

Regulus turned slowly on the spot from one of the too life-like statues to see Sirius gazing up, and up, at a statue of a brutish man with broad features and a cruel expression. He had to admit, Sirius was right in one regards, there didn't seem much of a family resemblance.

"We're supposed to be looking for the book to get out of here you bloody idiots!" Frank snapped.

"Well I don't see anyone wandering off to go find it," Potter snapped right back, no one even daring to shift their weight, let alone move from each other in pursuit.

"Anyone else going to give summoning it a try?" Pettigrew finally asked in the smallest voice imaginable. None yet had, they were all aware any trace of movement could summon the beast even faster to them, but it was either that or stand here like the most delicious thing this snake would have had in centuries like a waiting bufe'. So taking one last breath of dread, he cautioned, "everyone close your eyes," following his own advice before finishing, "accio book."

His ears had been expecting a splash, but instead the book fell into his outstretched hand perfectly dry. They waited several more agonizingly long moments for anything but surely a beast of this size would have made itself known. Hissing the air, moving about in the pools of water, something. Cracking his eye open just beyond the lashes and letting out the smallest puff of breath in relief, Peter quickly began muttering out Harry's story.

James made a mad attempt at a laugh as his son described Salazar Slytherin as monkyish, giving Sirius a look that promised this would come up later in much better circumstances. For now, they had more important things they had to concentrate.

Ginny was alive! That was honestly the first bit of good news any of them had been given in such a long time!

That was the last bit of good news they were likely going to get, as a ghostly figure arrived in front of Harry.

Small mercy though it was, they were all grateful no such apparition appeared before them. Unlike Harry, more focused on poor Ginny, every one of them were well aware something not right was happening for this to be appearing. Had the diary been some sort of magic supplicant? It was impossible he looked the same now as he did fifty years ago, but they were all at a loss what answer that could be. One thing was clear, he was somehow connected to this place, no way was it a coincidence otherwise. Explaining yourself away as a memory didn't seem like a good explanation at all.

The longer it kept going, the worse it got. None of them had ever wanted to sit around and laugh at a little eleven year old like this Riddle was doing, and the chills in the air as talk turned to souls only grew worse.

Amidst Riddle's rant of how he got Ginny to do all this was a sad story indeed, but what came next would quite honestly take the cake for surprising things he wasn't sure he'd believe for the rest of his life.

"Wormtail, I swear, now of all times! To be playing one of you're bloody word games! Tom Riddle's Voldemort, honestly," Sirius turned around to face him fully, eyeing him like he'd hand fed his mind to the awaiting basilisk. "He's a muggleborn from an orphanage, remember."

He didn't answer, his mouth was half hanging open, the words still echoing off his tongue leaving him with a nasty taste left over in surprise. Not a muggleborn, but a halfblood. Voldemort/ Riddle's mother was a descendant of the statue behind them as surely as Sirius, but only through half the lineage!

There was an odd noise Peter only noticed in the back of his mind, but one he quickly realized he should be paying attention to. It was a grinding, sort of scraping of stone moving across stone, and suddenly his heart ran colder than the murky water still covering his shoes. He did not want to look up. He did not need to look up. He knew better than to do it, even before he heard the horrified voices around him, and James' whispered, "Merlin, no."

Peter could only pray now in between reading faster than he ever had in his life that he was almost done, that he'd rather be sent anywhere else in the world than where they were now! He couldn't be shocked over the biggest news of their modern life if he didn't survive this place first!

Where was Fawk?! Why hadn't what Peter said in echoing Harry summoned the phoenix to them in here again? A bird with healing tears would have bloody come in handy with where they were! No time to think about it, no time to think about anything-

Too late, he was always just too late on the uptake on everything, and this time was no different. No sooner was Riddle calling forth the basilisk through his words than the horrendous noise of something larger than their life was crashing into the waters below.

No sooner did he realize what was coming for them than suddenly he couldn't see anything, the cloying black of an endless smoke over his face only just barely covering the sound of the spitting and hissing frustrations of a hungry beast.

There was no prompting to run as the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder thickened in the air, but the problem was, there was no where to run. The only way to get out of this place had to be opened by a parslemouth, and none of them had miraculously gained that ability! The only way to get away from this king of serpents was to finish reading the text, but the moment he gained his sight back he'd surely be faced with the golden eyes of death.

Someone reacted, there was no telling who, the eight tried to break into a run while desperately shooting any number of spells as the darkest of creatures edged forward. No matter what color the magic or where it struck, their only saving grace was a streak of black colliding with its eyes, but no one had the chance to check if the damage was permanent.

"Regulus!"

"Sirius-no-"

Too late, the brothers collided, falling headfirst into an even deeper pit of water. Both remained face down, for fear of moving of the creature above them or a worse reason he couldn't tell, and he wasn't going to wait around.

James and Remus were already on Sirius' heels the moment they'd realized he'd turned around, Peter right behind, but it was his slightly shorter pace that saved them. The basilisks tail struck him across the chest, and he sailed out of sight up the tunnel when the other two had a chance to duck out of sight.

"No, no, no!"

"Finish the damn chapter!" Potter shouted, sidestepping back to where he'd last seen Peter as Remus kept trying to dance through the poisions skin and teeth to Sirius.

Neither could move more than an inch without meeting scales, the snake encircling them and still spitting and hissing madly every second. It's tongue flickered the air again, head turning towards Evans as Alice tried to keep going, pleading with her voice to stop cracking. They were all cornered, the beast having every one of them pinned down-

Squeak!

A rat should not have been the very last thing Frank would have expected to find down here, but really, where was the surprise? After seeing all the bones of its brethren in the previous chamber, of course it should make sense more would come out of hiding and run for better cover in all this chaos! It was also somehow their saving grace, as the gray rodent continued squeaking in fright, darting from one patch of water to the next. The basilisks tongue flickered curiously in the direction, jaws widening and saliva dripping to the ground as a more common meal finally came across its path that wouldn't fight back.

The basilisk lunged, as Alice reached the final word.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's one I've been really looking forward too! The implications of who could and couldn't summon Fawk was one I went crazy over thinking about, but I didn't reach a proper conclusion honestly. I kicked around a few ideas of the lot of them all trying to say Harry's Dumbledore loyalty speech, but none really fit so I left that out. Of course Regulus' reaction is one I know a lot of you were excited to see! More to come in the next chapter as the shock wears off, hope you enjoyed!

As a bit of celebration for Harry's birthday next week, if you come back to this chapter July 31st I'll have a short teaser in place of this note for the starting chapter of Deathly Hallows which I'll leave up until Sept. 1st. Can't leave you guys hanging forever, and it is a further solidifying promise of what's more to come!