Harry spun around as the door creaked open, the three Gryffindor's had only just arrived and had barely shrugged off the cloak when the Slytherin's entered the room.

'Dray, thank God I was so worried,' Harry threw himself in to his boyfriend's arms, he wrapped his arms around the thin shoulders and hugged Draco close to him as though he was finding comfort from feeling the blond's heart beating against his chest. Draco returned the hug for a moment relishing in the heat resonating from Harry's body before lightly pushing Harry away. 'Me too,' he whispered placing a light kiss to the other boys lips,' but I'm glad we are all here safe, and we have so much to talk about, so much to figure out, we need to help Hermione.' Harry nodded and opened his mouth as if to say something but was interrupted by a sound from behind them;

'Where the hell are we?' Pansy was stood, just beyond the threshold of the room and her question had been barely louder than a whisper.

In the rush of relief from seeing Harry was ok Draco had forgotten that his friend had never been to this room before. He turned to look at Pansy who was currently staring around in wonder, she took in the almost floor to ceiling windows that flooded the room with a bright sunlight that could not possibly be real, then looked in awe at the huge open fire place that already contained a blazing fire, her eyes grew wide as she noticed the luxurious sofas that stretched almost the width of the room and her mouth dropped open and the array of food and drink spread before them. Draco, watching her, hid a smirk at the knowledge of how mortified she would be if Pansy could see the dopey look on her face at this moment. He walked over to her and placed an arm around her shoulder, he led her to centre of the room as though he was the Master of the House showing around a new guest, he drew his arm in a large arc;

'This, my dear Miss Parkinson, is the Room of Requirement.'

Pansy stopped looking around, closing her mouth with a snap and stared at her friend, 'The what? What does that mean? How did you know it was here?'

'Guys I don't mean to be rude,' Neville interrupted quietly, heat rising a little in his cheeks as though he was embarrassed at his own outburst 'but can we fill her in later, we kind of have some important business to discuss.' Blaise stood at his side with a hand on the small of his back in a silent show of support and nodded his agreement.

Pansy had the grace to look at least slightly abashed and nodded her head sharply in their direction. 'Sorry Longbottom it's just shocking you know, I had no idea it was here.'

'It's ok Parkinson,' Neville said with a small smile,' I was the same when I first discovered it, come and sit down, let's talk and figure out what we are going to do.'

The four students who thought of this room as their own walked over to the usual plush sofas they frequented, Pansy followed, chosing a place next to Neville and Blaise, which left Ron, through no choice of his own, sitting with Harry and Draco on the opposite sofa.

Ron leaned forward and looked around Harry at the blond sitting on his other side, 'Malfoy you said you had a hunch?'

Draco leaned back and steepled his fingers under his chin, immediately stopping when he realised where he had learned that particular habit, and hummed quietly to himself for a moment. 'Hmm, well it was what you said about the mirror. It got me thinking about something I read.'

'What was that?' asked Blaise leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together in front of him.

Draco dug around in his trouser pocket for a moment before pulling out what looked like a page torn from a very old library book, 'Here listen to this,' he said before proceeding to read out what it said about a creature called a Basilisk.

...

By the time Draco finished Ron's mouth was hanging open, 'That has to be what it is, it explains so much, from Hagrid's roosters to Hermione carrying a mirror but if that's true how has it been getting from place to place? Someone would notice a great bloody snake roaming the halls I'm sure.'

Silence fell for a moment while the group thought for a second, digesting what Ron had said, suddenly Pansy sat forward excitedly, 'Pipes, it has to be the pipes, It's getting around in the walls.' Ron looked wide-eyed at the Slytherin girl as though surprised at her intelligence, Pansy couldn't help but smirk at him.

Draco leapt to his feet, 'Pansy you genius! That has to be it. Harry it has to be what you were hearing in the walls!' Draco spun excitedly to Harry, Harry stood up and took a step towards Draco, eyes wide, 'It has to be, a giant snake, that's why only I could hear it. I thought I was going mental. This explains so much!'

'Draco?' Pansy's voice was barely a whisper, breaking the excited tension within the room 'that noise, on the way here, do you think? It couldn't have been, could it?'

Blaise sat back with a thump, 'Shit!'

'What?' Neville asked worriedly clasping his boyfriends arm, 'Blaise what is it?'

Blaise swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and turned scared eyes to his boyfriend; 'On the way here we heard a noise, it was as though something heavy was being dragged along the corridors, we hid, we had no idea what it was, I didn't even try and guess, but imagine, imagine if it was that great big murderous snake and it had looked at us, shit, we were so close' Blaise dropped his head in his hands and Neville turned big, scared, brown eyes to Harry, 'Harry?'

Harry looked askance at his boyfriend; the colour drained from Draco's face, 'It was, it had to be. We were so close to losing our lives. Fuck.'

Draco felt his was slowly over to the couch and lowered himself down, Harry followed and wrapped his arms around the Slytherin. Pulling the shocked boy close to his chest, as over on the other sofa Neville did the same.

...

The Slytherin's were in shock, they all realised how close they had been to danger, to almost certain death; Ron looked around noticing that the Slytherin boys were being comforted by their attentive and reassuring boyfriends, but Pansy was sat trembling and alone at the end of the sofa, her face was ghostly white and her eyes were slowly filling with tears. Ron watched for a moment unsure of what to do with himself and then, when she brought her long, thin arms up to around herself he made up his mind; in two quick steps he had crossed the gap between them and gathered the shaking girl in his arms. Pansy stiffened the moment he touched her but Ron did not relent, he squeezed harder pulling her in close to his chest, eventually she relaxed, collapsing on to his chest she began to cry, whimpering sobs that racked her whole body, 'Sssh it's ok,' Ron whispered reassuringly, 'You're here, you're alive, I've got you' unconsciously he began stroking the dark hair at his chest, Houses and old grievances didn't seem to matter when lives were at stake.

...

The next morning found all six of the students curled together on the floor of the Room of Requirement, sleep hadn't come easily, they had talked until the early hours of the morning making, and then scrapping plans over and over again until sleep had won the battle that each had been fighting with it. One of the things that had been decided was that Moaning Myrtle had to be the Basilisks victim when the Chamber had last opened and someone needed to talk to her. The decision over who it was to be had not been made yet.

Harry woke first and for a moment forgot why they were all there, he felt content and happy as he felt Draco's strong arm wrapped around him, his back pressed snugly against the boys firm chest. He glanced to his left and saw the, now familiar sight of Blaise curled protectively around his smaller boyfriend, but Harry got a shock when he turned to his right and saw his best friend tightly pressed against Pansy's back with one long arm wrapped around her middle, pulling her in close to him, something about the picture they painted niggled at Harry but before he could think anymore about it his friends began to wake around him.

...

The House Elves had delivered breakfast at some point before they woke and now they sat in relative silence, even Ron only picking at the food in front of him. A decision to speak to McGonagall had been made but they knew they couldn't be seen together so the Slytherin's were going to take the cloak and head down to speak to Myrtle and the Gryffindor's would go to the staff room to find their head of house and tell her what they knew.

...

'Her Skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

'Who is it?' said Madam Hooch , who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. 'Which student?'

'Ginny Weasley,' said Professor McGonagall.

Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.

...

Draco was in the middle of a deep conversation with Moaning Myrtlet, buttering her up enough to convince her to share the details of her death, she was just pointing out the exact sink where it happened when Harry burst in to the bathroom followed by Ron and Neville, who, inexplicably, were dragging Professor Lockheart between them.

'Ginny, Dray, it's got Ginny.' Harry burst out turning panicked eyes to his boyfriend.

Ron's face was ashen as the colour dropped from his cheeks at the reminder.

Draco looked around the room and was faced with several pairs of eyes looking at him questioningly, apparently he was in charge; 'Right ok.' He said, taking a deep breath; 'let's go get her back.'

...