A/N: Bold is parseltongue dialogues…
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The next week flew by very slowly, especially for Harry who constantly thought about the operation he and Snape were going to conduct the coming weekend.
As Friday's classes came to an end Harry went to Snape's office. The potions' master had requested that Harry bring his invisibility cloak. He wondered why but he did. When he entered Snape's office he was shocked to see Draco there. The boy looked very different from the last time Harry had seen him. He had grown rather tall for a boy his age and his body looked to be of a boy who took his workout very seriously. His jawline was visible and his hair was longer, coming to his shoulders which he'd tied into a ponytail leaving a few bangs hanging in the front.
The two stopped their conversation when Harry entered the office as Draco looked at him and smiled. "Hey, Potter," he said.
"Draco, what are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"He will be helping us in this operation, Harry," Snape said. Ever since their last conversation Snape had started mentioning Harry with his first name whenever they were alone which hadn't happen that much. Of course, Snape kept his appearance of a jerk professor in public, targeting Harry like any other student who didn't belong to Slytherin. Harry knew it was for show so he played along. It didn't matter anymore for him to worry about house points.
"So only the three of us are going down there?" Harry asked. Snape nodded. "Then how are we supposed to get the venom? Shouldn't we at least need the roosters to blind it?"
"We have you," Draco said.
"You've practiced your parseltongue like we discussed?" Snape asked. Harry nodded. Snape was glad that Harry didn't lose that ability after he came to know that Harry no longer had the horcrux of Voldemort inside him. "Then we will use that."
He then headed for the door before stopping to look at the two boys. He then looked at Harry's cloak in his hand. Harry realized what Snape meant as he unfurled his invisibility cloak and covered himself and Draco underneath it before following Snape towards the entrance of the secret chamber.
Harry didn't know where it was so when he realized they'd stopped at a girls' lavatory he was confused. He looked at Draco who had an expressionless face and sharp eyes. The boy was focused. Harry was still in awe on how much Draco had changed in a few months.
Snape opened the door and entered the bathroom. Harry and Draco followed in behind him before locking the door. Once inside the two boys came out of the cloak and Harry put it back in his pocket safely. He looked around. It looked rather old and unused. He knew this bathroom was unused because it was haunted. "This is the entrance?" Harry asked remembering how he'd been here asking Myrtle about Voldemort's diary.
"It is," Snape said walking up to the central pillar and looked at the tap of one of the basins. "See for yourself."
Harry walked forward and looked under the tap and saw the engraved snake on it. It seemed a bit weird.
"So, Slytherin made a secret entrance in a girls' bathroom?" he asked with a raised brow.
"This place was turned into a bathroom only about a hundred years ago," Snape said. "Before that it was a storage room. Now, open it."
"How?" Harry asked.
"Do you see these markings down here?" Snape asked pointing to the floor around the central pillar. Harry looked and found drag marks before looking at the pillar closely. He realized it wasn't just a pillar when he saw vertical partitions in the pillar after each sink. The pillar seems to be able to move, separating into sections. So this was the entrance. "Just say anything in parseltongue. We think the magic will recognize it as someone from Slytherin's family line and open the entrance."
"Okay," Harry said before focusing on his thoughts. "Open"he said and caught Draco shiver a little from the corner of his eye. Snape stood unfazed as a rumbling sound filled the bathroom and the sinks began to shake a little. Before Harry knew the Pillar parted into eight sections and began to move apart. He stepped back a little wondering how long it will go. The pillar stopped after about a minute and the sink in front of Snape went under the ground, opening an entrance. Harry and Draco walked up to him and looked down into the huge entrance which went all the way down. Fortunately the bathroom hadn't been used by anyone so all the dirty grime sticking to the wall of the entrance was dry.
Snape cast a strong wind charm and cleaned the wall of the entrance before looking at it curiously. "Hmm, it seems we'll be sliding down," he said. "I see a slight inclination. Remember, if you hear anything, even in the slightest close your eyes immediately." The two boys nodded. "Follow me," Snape said before jumping into the well of an entrance.
Harry and Draco stood there looking shocked. "I didn't know he was going to do that," Draco said. "Together, then?"
Harry looked at him and smiled. "Together," he said as they both jumped after Snape.
It was like what Harry had imagined sliding in a water slide would be which he'd seen on the telly, except for all the water. Surprisingly the walls were very smooth so it wasn't a rough way down. It took them around a minute or so to land on the floor where Snape was waiting for them. Harry saw they were standing on a bone pile of small creatures.
"Let's move," Snape said as they started heading forwards. After a while they came into a more open space although its roof was a bit too low. Harry looked around and found something a bit shiny and white in the darkness and the size of it scared him for a bit.
"Is that it?" he asked looking at that thing.
Snape and Draco looked at it, both of them on guard as Snape walked towards it very slowly. They all had silencing charms on them so that they didn't make any noise along with an odorless charm to hide their smell. He examined that thing from as close as he could before sighing in relief and then looking at the huge round door on his right. He signaled Harry and Draco to come forward.
The two boys saw that thing from up close as Draco touched it. "What is it?" he asked.
"Snake skin," Snape said. "Looking at its condition it's got to be at least a few decades old but…" he fired off a slicing hex at it and saw the spell dissipate without damaging the skin. "…it's still like new." He then pointed at the round door on his right. "And that is our way in."
"We haven't arrived in the chamber yet?" Draco asked. Snape shook his head before the three headed for the door.
Coming up close they saw it had a weird lock on it in the shape of eight snakes. Snape looked at Harry who walked forward and said 'open' in parseltongue like he'd done before. Suddenly a snake emerged from a round hole in the door, crawling through the entire circumference of the door before going back in. The door gave out a heavy, metallic clicking noise before it swung open. Harry and others stepped back for it to open completely before they walked in.
The door was at a considerable height so they had to use the ladder under the gate to go down as they saw the massiveness of the secret chamber. It easily extended beyond the castle and probably covered the entire school ground. They didn't miss the giant head statue of Salazar Slytherin in the middle, a tiled floor leading to it. There was water on either side of the path which Harry and others figured was from the black lake. Everywhere around water seeped through the cave walls. It made sense because it was this deep underground.
"This place is massive," Draco said.
"Indeed it is," Snape said.
"So where is the basilisk?" Harry asked.
"In there," Snape said pointing to the head statue of Slytherin. Harry looked closely and saw that the mouth of the statue was actually a door. "You call it out using your parseltongue and then tell it that it can trust us."
Harry looked at him as if he had two heads. "This is your plan?" he asked. "To make me ask the basilisk to trust us? Why do you think it will do that considering we're here for its venom?"
Even Draco looked at Snape in confusion. "Because there is no other way of doing this without angering the basilisk," Snape said. "And we don't want that because then we will all die and no one will ever be able to find us. If you must know, basilisks don't eat humans so our bodies will simply rot down here."
"Okay," Harry said nodding once and turning towards the statue. The three closed their eyes and Harry concentrated with his eyes closed. "Open"he said and heard a rumbling. He couldn't help but open one eye to peek at the mouth of the statue. He immediately closed it when he saw a huge tongue flick and knew it was the basilisk. He just stood there unmoved. He knew Snape and Draco hadn't seen it but he wondered how huge the basilisk was considering its tongue was at least the thickness of his arm.
He heard it slither out of the statue and approach them. "Nobody move," Snape mumbled as low as possible.
The wet floor of the chamber made it very clear for them to hear the basilisk's movements which only indicated that it was closing in on them. Harry did his best to not let his fear take control of him when he heard a familiar sort of hissing sound. It was similar to when he would talk to the boa python back in that zoo he used to visit with his relatives when he was small.
"You speak my tongue. Are you a descendant of Salazar?" he heard the basilisk say.
"I am not," Harry replied.
"Then how do you speak that tongue?" asked the basilisk. "No one but Salazar and his descendants can speak it. It cannot be learnt nor can one copy it."
"I was given this ability by the man named Tom Riddle," Harry said.
"I know that name," the basilisk said. "He came to this place a few decades ago. Because of my familiarity with Salazar which I had passed that down in his family line Tom used it to control me to harm the children of this school and even kill one of them – a girl."
Harry didn't know that Voldemort was actually a descendant of Slytherin. So probably his mother's line was Slytherin as his father was a muggle. He knew that because Riddle was a muggle name as Amelia had told him. This was good information which he knew he could pass on to Amelia for her investigation although now they knew where all of his horcruxes were because of Snape but still, knowing about Voldemort's past could prove helpful.
"Her name was Myrtle," Harry said. "And Tom has killed countless since then and tortured even more. Today he goes by the name of Lord Voldemort."
"Because of my bond with him due to him being Salazar's descendant I couldn't stop him," said the basilisk. "I watched helplessly as he used me and my powers to kill that one girl and petrify many more. I thought that maybe I could get out of this place but Salazar sealed me here fearing I might be harmed by the humans on the outside. If Tom is still the same even today then I would like to help you but I can't leave here."
"You can help us without leaving this place," Harry said. "All we need is your venom." He then heard her hiss loudly and almost decided to run.
"My venom has been previously used by you humans for many nefarious purposes. Why should I trust you?"
"Because your venom is the only way we can defeat Tom once and for all," Harry said. "This is the reason we are here."
"How does it help you defeat him?" the basilisk asked.
"Tom has created horcruxes to anchor his soul by breaking it and keeping them in objects," Harry said. "That way as long as those objects survive it won't matter how many times he die. He will always come back. In order to destroy those horcruxes we need your venom because the only other option for us is to use a flame curse which, although will destroy the horcruxes, but will also destroy everything. It is uncontrollable and unstoppable once cast. So your venom is our only option."
"Your words make meaning," said the basilisk. "You and your friends can open their eyes. You won't be harmed by my visual power."
Harry nodded before slowly opening his eyes. He had already prepared himself to not jump seeing the huge, monstrous basilisk in front of him as he looked at it from bottom to top. He tried not to stare for long fearing it might upset the beast. "You can open your eyes," he said to Snape and Draco without turning. They did and Harry was glad none of them cried in shock or fear or pointed their wands at it.
It easily stood over a hundred feet if not more and was as wide as the entrance door of the great hall which was a very wide and big door. The basilisk's face was pointier than what he'd seen in pictures back at the manor and he could see the portion of loose skin around its head which he was sure would expand to form a hood just like a king cobra.
Its bangs were visible slightly on either side of the mouth and Harry could see it was wet with small droplets of venom. It was causing the air around him to smell acidic. He'd read that basilisk's venom was very volatile – a reason why it reacted with everything so quickly. He saw the floor where a few drops of the venom had fallen and had created small dips. It was as if it had melted those tiles.
Harry also noticed just like Snape and Draco that the basilisk looked very frail and weak despite its monstrous size.
"I will give you my venom," the basilisk said. "But I need you to do something for me in return."
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"I became a familiar of Salazar when he helped save my life," the basilisk said. "That bond still exists even though he's dead and it has made me weak."
"How can we help?" Harry asked.
"I cannot go back from this step which I took – making someone my familiar," the basilisk said. "Because of that I need to have someone else as my familiar. That won't happen unless I get out of this place. Salazar's powers made sure I wouldn't be harmed in any way but in doing so he also sealed me in without realizing it. I need you to break that seal so that I can get out of here."
Harry thought about it for a minute. He then looked at Snape and Draco and told them about the situation.
"From the way you speak it seems that this basilisk has intelligence," Snape said. "What if it is lying?"
"I am not lying, human," the basilisk's voice rang inside their heads. Harry looked surprised and so did Draco and Snape.
"You can talk like us?" Harry asked.
"Indeed I can," replied the basilisk. It then looked at Snape. "I understand your concern but I will never harm any soul."
"You did almost fifty years ago," Snape said.
"I was controlled by Tom," it said. "I have told him everything regarding that," it said looking at Harry. "If you want my venom you will have to help me get out of this place. I am not strong enough to do this on my own."
"You can trust her," Harry said.
"It's a 'her'?" Draco asked. Even Snape looked a little surprised.
"And her name is Selandra," Harry said looking at her. "I know you are a divine beast."
The basilisk looked at him curiously. "How do you know that?" she asked. "Are you after my powers?"
"I am not," Harry replied. "I know about you because of a friend of mine who happens to have a divine beast inside of hers. She calls her Celia. There are three more here at Hogwarts and one of them, like Celia, lives inside another student. His name is Griffin."
"I remember Griffin and I think I know who Celia is," the basilisk said. "She must've changed her name. You do not strike me as someone who wants our powers so why did you mention your knowledge of knowing about us to me?"
"Because I also need your help on a matter other than Tom's," Harry said. "There is someone hunting you divine beasts for your power."
Snape and Draco stood there looking from Harry to the basilisk. Harry was talking to her in parseltongue so they didn't know what the conversation was about. Perhaps the basilisk was telling him how to get her out of this place. Snape still doubted whether or not to release her. Where would she go? Apart from the forbidden forest there was nothing but open fields and grasslands for hundreds of miles on all directions around Hogwarts. Someone would definitely spot her or she had some sort of power to hide herself from others. She obviously was untraceable almost fifty years ago when Voldemort used her to target half-bloods and muggleborns. A creature of her size moved around the castle undetected.
Harry seemed to have his parseltongue conversation with the basilisk complete as he looked at them.
"What were you two talking about?" Draco asked.
"She was telling me how to disable the seals that Slytherin set around this chamber," Harry said, secretly smirking. "Once we've done that she will give us some of her venom."
"Are you sure about that?" Snape asked.
"Without a shred of doubt," Harry said looking at the basilisk. "Shall we?"
Harry took them towards the head statue of Salazar Slytherin. Snape and Draco followed them while the basilisk followed those three from behind. It was still a bit scary and nervous to have a monstrous basilisk follow you as Snape and Draco thought about it.
They reached the statue and Harry entered into its mouth from where the basilisk had emerged. Draco and Snape followed him while the basilisk stayed outside.
Inside was totally different. It was obvious that Slytherin had magically increased the size and shape of the inside of the statue as there were many rooms, hallways and huge open spaces wherever they could see.
"This ought to be even bigger than entire Hogwarts," Draco said.
"It is," Harry said.
"So what do we do?" Snape asked.
"Okay, so Selandra told me that Slytherin had sealed her using ancient runes," Harry said. "He's placed those runes all around on the inside of this statue. We need to find them and break the seal. I hope you know how to do that?" he asked looking at Snape.
"I will know once I look at those runes," he replied.
Harry nodded before they started to work. Fortunately Snape recognized the runic symbols on the stones. Unfortunately it was a very powerful magic. Harry had guessed that considering Slytherin had sealed a divine beast using that magic. Surprisingly for him Snape said that he and Draco will be enough to break the seal. Harry looked at Draco wondering how the blond haired boy had become so strong.
So Snape and Draco got to work. It took them over five hours to search and break every single rune stone. Although Snape had found a much shorter way which is how Slytherin had put up the seal in the first place by creating the all the runes at the same time but it required the magical prowess none of them had. The founders were ridiculously powerful as Snape came to know about it by experiencing the powerful magic that was within these runes.
Eventually they were done and Draco and Snape were almost drained off of their magical strength. Harry couldn't believe as he looked at Draco. If he was in his place then he'd have given up after just a few stones. Draco clearly had undergone some sort of training which had changed him from inside and out. He couldn't believe it was the same Draco.
Once the seal was lifted the basilisk gave them a vial full of her venom. They'd found the vial inside one of the rooms in Salazar's statue. Apparently he used the venom in some of his potions and experiments so he'd made those vials magically strong enough so that they won't corrode away due to the venom.
As they were prepared to head out of the chamber the basilisk called Harry. Harry looked at her before telling Snape and Draco that he would join them later. He gave Draco his invisibility cloak as he already had his marauder's map to head back to his quarters without being detected. Once they were gone Harry looked at Selandra.
"Did you change your mind?" he asked.
"I haven't," she said. "If it is not too much to ask can I meet one of the vessels?"
"I can bring Celia's vessel but Griffin's vessel probably doesn't know what he has inside of him. I can't say for sure because I haven't talked to him regarding that matter."
"What we discussed about…about you," Selandra said, "I think it can be done but I would like to meet a few of my friends first."
"Can you help Fawks?" Harry asked.
"Not in my current state," she said. "I still don't understand how can someone capture a divine beast but humans have proven their unpredictability before. That is why we all got stuck here in the first place," she said looking at him or rather as Harry realized, looking into him.
"It surprised me, too, when I came to learn the truth," Harry said. "But not all of us are bad. If you give us a chance we can help you."
"I know that," she said. "Salazar, his other three friends, you and those two…I've seen some of your kind that actually wants to do some good."
"So where will you go from here?" Harry asked.
"If everything goes accordingly like you suggested then I think I won't have to go too far," she said as she lowered her heard to Harry's eye level. It was still intimidating looking at her from a few inches. "Thank you for freeing me. I know Salazar had good intentions but he didn't think it all the way."
Harry nodded and stepped aside as the basilisk crawled towards the gate from where they'd come. Harry looked around the chamber. He knew Selandra would be back for he'd promised her that he'd introduce her to Luna's divine beast in the coming days. As he stood their thinking about his 'private' conversation with Selandra he hoped it would all go smoothly and nothing bad will happen. On the back of his head he was also thinking about Grindelwald. Ever since he'd known that that wizard was after these beasts it had worried Harry. He had read about when Grindelwald first rose to power during the near end of the Second World War. He knew countless died and many more were tortured and taken. He made Voldemort look like nothing but now with the divine beasts Harry wondered what lengths could Grindelwald go to in order to get them.
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Thanks for reading…