Chapter 5: The Chamber
Harriet ran into Gryffindor tower at full speed looking to see if Ginny was there. She wasn't in the common room. But Ron and Hermione both were. Hermione was reading, so fat chance that she would have noticed if Ginny had left. But Ron might not be much better.
She had to chance it though. "Ron, have you seen Ginny?" she asked, trying hard not to sound out of breath.
"Yeah, she's up in the girl's tower," said Ron.
Harriet nodded, and turned towards the tower only to see Ginny walking down the stairs.
"Hey Ginny, do you have a moment?" Harriet asked.
Ginny ignored her and marched on towards the portrait into the common room.
"Ginny, I really need to talk to you right now!" shouted Harriet. This started to get attention from the other students, but not Ginny. Harriet had been given strict instructions not to engage with Ginny until Dumbledore arrived. But she couldn't let her leave the common room!
"Tom Riddle!" screamed Harriet.
Ginny stopped and turned around. Her wand was in her hand. She looked at Harriet for a moment. Then lashed out with a spell Harriet barely managed to dodge.
"Ginny!" yelled Ron angrily, "What was that for?"
"She's possessed!" replied Harriet, "Don't let her leave the common room!"
But it was too late. Faster than Harriet could believe, Ginny leapt through the portrait hole and began to run.
"McGonagall and Dumbledore will be here shortly," shouted Harriet, "Send them to the second floor bathroom!"
And Harriet sprinted after Ginny, Hermione and Ron hot on her heels.
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Draco was as stealthy as he could be as he watched Nott, Crabbe and Goyle drag Colin into the girl's loo. Malfoy couldn't quite believe that Crabbe and Goyle knew what they were doing. They were just too stupid to realize the ramifications of what they were doing. Nott on the other hand should have understood those consequences. He had to know he couldn't get away, that his entry into the girl's loo had been noted. Which meant…
Nott was Imperiused. But who would do that?
Draco heard footsteps running. He slid into the closest shadows trying to remain hidden. And was surprised when Ginny Weasley ran into the girl's loo.
Wait, what? That makes no sense, thought Draco.
And that is when it hit Draco. Ginny was also mind-controlled. Which meant…
More footsteps were running down the hall. Draco could see Harriet, Ronald Weasley and Hermione running for the same bathroom.
Draco sighed. He hadn't wanted to get involved, but it looked like he had to.
And he stepped out into the light.
Harriet stopped, raising her wand towards Draco. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Nott, Crabbe and Goyle just abducted Creevey," said Draco, "I'm assuming your sister is also mind-controlled, so she's meeting them, in there."
Draco pointed to the bathroom. "No points for figuring out what they plan to do. Someone really wants to kill a mudblood. We have to get in there now."
"How do we know this isn't some sort of trap?" asked Ron suspiciously.
"We don't," said Hermione, "But we don't have a choice."
"I don't want anyone to die Weasley," said Draco.
"There is no time for this," said Harriet, "If Draco betrays us I'll just beat him up again."
Draco should have been indignant at that, but he realised that Harriet wasn't actually threatening him, she was just trying to placate the Weasley moron.
Harriet led the way, and Draco followed second. Inside the bathroom they saw Ginny by a sink, standing next to Nott. Crabbe and Goyle were near the stalls with a now bound Colin Creevey, who seemed to be awake but very out of it.
Ginny snarled as she saw them enter and began speaking Parseltongue. The sink suddenly began to open up.
Draco immediately saw that the space between the two groups was a tactical disadvantage. " Sepensortia!" shouted Draco, conjuring a snake directly between the two groups. That should keep Colin away from the giant hole now forming in front of Ginny.
And then Ginny began talking to the snake in Parseltongue, and Harriet began talking right back. Potter was a Parselmouth!
" Petrificus Totalus," said Granger, freezing Goyle in a body-bind. Ron cast a disarm at Crabbe. It wasn't very good, but it did knock his wand out of his hand. As Crabbe bent over to pick up his wand, Granger body-bound him as well.
Nott pulled out his wand and pointed it at Harriet, but Draco had already aimed his wand at Nott. " Depulso," said Draco. Draco hadn't wanted to hurt Nott, not really, so the pureblood was sent sprawling and his wand fell out of his hand. Unfortunately he crashed into a sink, shattering porcelain and causing water to spray everywhere, causing Ginny to be soaked.
Harriet ran to the side of the snake which suddenly fizzled away. Draco really needed to work on that spell more! But Ron and Hermione ran behind Harry, one each on either side. Draco decided to run towards Colin. With a single wave of his wand Draco freed the first year Gryffindor.
"So, you deny me even this mudblood," said Ginny in a voice that was not a young girl's.
"Ginny," said Harriet, "resist him."
"I… I can't," said Ginny this time in her normal voice.
"Yes, you can," said Harriet, "Whatever is going on, just come to us. We love you, and we'll help you."
Ginny closed her eyes. Then she smiled. She took a step towards Harriet.
And she slipped on the water on the floor. Ginny fell backwards. Into the hole.
"Ginny, no!" screamed Ron as he leapt forward and jumped into the hole after his sister.
"Harriet, do NOT…" started Hermione, but it was too late. Harriet had jumped into the hole after Ron and Ginny.
Hermione's shoulders slumped in resignation. She turned to Draco. "Get help please," she asked quietly. Then she leapt into the hole. Which promptly closed after her.
Draco stared in disbelief. "Bloody Gryffindors!" he said finally.
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Harriet wasn't particularly happy about her landing in what felt like a pile of ancient refuse, but it was far softer than when Hermione slid down on top of her. Managing to extricate herself from Hermione she turned to see Ron holding up his wand. It was lit, giving him a view of this dark place. Indeed they seemed to be in the pipes, enormous pipes built for massive quantities of water or possibly waste. Harriet didn't want to think about that.
Ginny had fallen on her backside, but she took her feet unsteadily, then pulled out a black book from her robes. Trembling, she dropped it at her feet then ran over to Ron and buried her face in his shoulder. Ron wrapped his free arm around her and pointed his wand at the book.
Harriet walked over to the book. It was unassuming looking, yet as she got closer to it she felt it pulling at her mind. Something was telling her that she should write in it.
"Bloody hell," said Harriet, "This diary is cursed. Where did you get it Ginny?"
"It was in the stuff we brought home from the Harpies match," said Ginny.
Harriet immediately thought back to their collision with Barty Crouch Jr. She was certain that was the moment that the diary had been planted, she was also certain that she wouldn't be able to prove it.
Harriet gingerly picked up the diary, then stuck it in a pocket inside her robes.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Hermione.
"No," said Harriet, "but it is the best we can do. Above all else we need to keep Ginny away from it. It has a partial hold on her mind. I don't think it can get the same on us unless we write in it."
Harriet looked around. The pipe they were in was full of various detritus, as she'd already noticed. What she was just now noticing was the enormous snake skin that had been shed there. And that the trash contained bones. Old bones, but not necessarily ancient ones. Well some seemed to be ancient, but others weren't.
And then it hit her. "The basilisk isn't contained," said Harriet, "it can come and go from this space to hunt."
"Why hasn't the basilisk attacked the school then?" asked Ron, "in the years in between being summoned I mean."
"It was ordered not to," said Harriet.
"It does as it's told," realised Hermione.
"The Heir of Slytherin must control it," agreed Harriet, "but with the Heir now silenced, maybe I can talk to it."
"That's… that crazy!" shouted Ginny, "you want to seek out and talk to a basilisk?"
"If we don't, our only other option will be to kill it," said Harriet, "But what if Morgan is right about Slytherin? What if this creature was never intended to hurt anyone at Hogwarts? This could lead us to so many more answers about Slytherin. And allow us to end this peacefully."
Hermione seemed pensive, and Ginny seemed to calm a bit as Harriet explained herself. Ron still seemed scared, but he was trying to hide it.
"Okay," said Hermione, "What do you propose?"
"I'll go deeper in, to the Chamber itself, and try to talk to the creature," offered Harriet. "You guys…"
"I am not letting you go alone," said Hermione adamantly.
"I know the way," said Ginny in a small voice, "at least I think I remember."
"I, uh, suppose I should come too," said Ron, though his voice was an octave higher than usual.
Harriet looked at her friends. "Thanks, but…"
"No buts," said Ginny, finally pulling away from Ron.
"We're doing this together," said Hermione.
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"Are you sure this is the correct location," asked McGonagall, indicating the sink.
"Yes it was the sink next to the broken one," said Draco, beginning to lose patience.
"Is that correct?" Morgan asked Colin.
"I wasn't really paying attention," said Colin apologetically, "I was a bit woozy."
"But there absolutely is no passage behind here!" said McGonagall.
Draco was getting fed up with this. He had really put himself out here in order to help, and he was being treated rather shabbily. He knew he'd made a bad impression with both of these teachers, but he was trying his best!
"The passage was there," said Draco simply.
"So it was there, but now it isn't? Does it move?" asked Morgan.
"It is transfigured," said Dumbledore suddenly, "That's how it stayed hidden. The path is a transfigured pipe."
"That sort of static transfiguration would require an immense amount of magical energy!" McGonagall protested before suddenly slapping her forehead in understanding, "Like a leyline nexus. Which Hogwarts is sitting on!"
"How do we activate it without using Parseltongue?" wondered Morgan.
Dumbledore looked at McGonagall seriously.
"We can do it," he said.
"I suppose," agreed McGonagall.
Dumbledore and McGonagall began casting at the wall. Slowly, the hole in the wall opened up again.
"I guess I know who this means is going in," said Morgan with a twisted smile.
"I knew you'd be glad to help," said Dumbledore.
Draco was certain to stay very far away from the hole. Who knew what was down there? And it was probably dirty as well. He didn't want to fall down.
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The big door was kind of obvious.
Harriet had to admit that it would have been easy to get lost down here. But all roads led to the chamber, and the big door was hard to miss.
"How do you get in?" asked Hermione.
"I spoke in Parseltongue to it," said Ginny
"Well in that case," said Harriet as she stepped up to the door. But she didn't need to say anything. The door suddenly shimmered and opened.
"Was it supposed to do that?" asked Rob, clearly not trusting this development.
Ginny just shrugged. She clearly didn't know. Well, time for Harriet to step up then. She gingerly walked into Slytherin's Chamber.
The room was oppressively dark, the walls made of some black rock. At the far end of the hall was a giant statue of a head of a man. Harriet suddenly felt as if she was entering the lair of a dark wizard. She suddenly wasn't very sure of this course of action.
"Hello," she said nervously.
"Harriet, talk in Parseltongue," said Ginny anxiously.
"I'm trying, but I've never actually tried to do this deliberately," said Harriet.
Harriet thought very hard about snakes.
"Hello," she said again.
"There you go!" said Hermione encouragingly.
"Who is it?" asked a voice. It was a strange voice. The basilisk.
"I am Harriet Potter," said Harriet politely, "I came to say hello to you."
"Hello Harriet Potter," said the Basilisk, "You are very polite."
"Well it is only good sense to be polite to such a dangerous creature as you," said Harriet.
"Thank you," said the Basilisk, clearly seeing that as a high compliment, "I am going to come out now, but my inner eyelid will be closed. I will not harm you or your friends. Please don't let them scream, screams disturb me."
"What is the basilisk saying?" asked Hermione.
"The basilisk is coming out," said Harriet, "It has its inner eyelids closed so don't scream, it isn't going to hurt us."
The basilisk emerged from the mouth of the statue at the end of the hall. It was enormous. But true to its word, it's eyes were covered by a membrane.
"Do you have a name?" asked Harriet.
"No," said the Basilisk, "Salazar had a name for me, but I never liked it."
"Did you like Salazar Slytherin?" asked Harriet.
"He was a clever human, and very rational. Yes, he was a good friend," said the Basilisk, "But his name for me was hard for me to say. I hated it."
"Did he leave you here to attack muggleborns at the school?" asked Harriet. She noted that she had difficulty getting the concept of a muggleborn into Parseltongue.
"What is a muggleborn?" asked the Basilisk.
"Hard to explain," said Harriet, "they would be students…"
"Salazar forbade me from attacking students," said the Basilisk approvingly.
"Why did you attack the students 50 years ago then?" asked Harriet.
The Basilisk paused. "He made me, the one who called himself Voldemort. He was the heir of Slytherin."
Harriet thought about that. It certainly sounded as if the Basilisk was divided on whether that had been a good idea.
"Did you want to do that?" asked Harriet.
"No," said the Basilisk, "But I can't ignore Slytherin's heir, can I?"
"Why not?" wondered Harriet, "if he doesn't stand for what your master did, why follow him?"
"I don't care about that," said the Basilisk, "I just want a new master. But Voldemort abandoned me. Until recently. He spoke to me through that girl."
Harriet saw her opportunity. "This is what spoke to you," she said as she pulled out Riddle's diary.
The Basilisk hissed. "Give that to me!" it practically shouted at Harriet.
"What?" asked Harriet.
"Give it to me!" demanded the Basilisk. It was visibly upset. Ginny, Ron and Hermione all began to back away.
Harriet put down the diary in front of her. As soon as she backed off the Basilisk lunged and picked up the diary in its teeth. And then it bit down. A scream came from the diary, and black ink went everywhere, and then the diary stopped making sounds.
The Basilisk spat out the chewed remains of the Diary. "I could feel the evil in that thing," said the Basilisk, "it was not a thing for children to have. But you were right. Voldemort made that. It was a trick, to control me. I am ashamed to see that it worked."
The Basilisk looked at Harriet appraisingly. It went over to Harriet, and sniffed her. Then it pulled back.
"You drank from the Grail, didn't you?" asked the Basilisk.
"Yes," said Harriet.
The Basilisk nodded. "That was how you got in here. The door opens for those who have tasted from the Grail. Very well. I will not follow Voldemort again. Salazar told me that the day might come when there was conflict between his heir and one who drank from the Grail. He told me to follow the one who had tasted the Grail. This place is now open to you."
And suddenly the whole room lit up, magical lights appearing everywhere. And the walls, which had seemed to be black basalt before, were now covered in murals. Everything was light and colourful.
"Farewell, Harriet Potter," said the Basilisk, "I will go back to my vigil, until I am called by the Guardians, by the words of waking. I will not trouble the students of the school again."
And the Basilisk headed back into the mouth of the stone statue.
"What happened!" asked Ron.
"I think the Basilisk just gave me the Chamber of Secrets," said Harriet.
"Wicked," said Ron.
Harriet looked at the two murals, one was of a castle that looked vaguely familiar, while the other was of some small settlement on an island. It had Roman architecture, and looked like it came from some ancient time.
"What are these?" asked Hermione.
"The castle is Hogwarts, as it was at the founding," said Morgan as she walked into the Chamber of Secrets, "The other is Avalon."
"Professor Solaire!" said a surprised Ginny.
Morgan stood in front of the mural of Hogwarts. The paint looked fresh, somehow preserved by magic. The main keep had four towers off of it, as well as what appeared to be a dome at the top, and the Great Hall was smaller. The Dark Arts tower and the Astronomy tower did not exist. And there were gardens, all around the castle.
"Helga loved those gardens," said Morgan sadly, "And they were wondrous. I burned them to the ground when I invaded. Along with that." Morgan pointed to an elaborate sort of gazebo in the middle of the gardens.
"That was where Rowena used to do her work," said Morgan sadly, "she loved the smell of roses. It burnt down along with the gardens."
Morgan turned to look at the other mural. "The big building was the Library of Avalon," she said, "many of the tomes there were ancient. Some were even rescued from the wreck of Atlantis. I loved it there. So did Salazar, from what he said. As did Godric. But in the end, both of them had a higher duty here. But Salazar always regretted the necessity of leaving Avalon. And then Merlin sealed it away, and even Salazar couldn't get in."
"It was all my fault," said Morgan, "Godric and Salazar started it. They were the first humans to swear the oaths since before the Roman conquest of Britain. And with them as mentors, where else would Arthur, Percival, Merlin and myself go after school but here?"
Morgan turned to Harriet and Hermione, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "We didn't just want to restore Atlantis. We wanted to make something better. Something new. And we failed. Because of me."
Morgan shook her head. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to get so emotional. Salazar was a good artist, and he did a good job painting both of those places from memory."
"Wait, Salazar Slytherin painted those?" asked Ron, not able to believe it.
"Do you think he let anyone else down here?" asked Hermione.
"You never know!" said Ron defensively.
"Though I don't remember the dome on the Main Tower," said Morgan, "though maybe it was built after I left."
"In any case," said Morgan, "We need to get out of here."
"I think I can open the way back," said Harriet, "I think now that the Basilisk has recognized me I can come and go as I please."
So Harriet led the way back to the slide that had dumped them down in the pipeway. And sure enough Harriet was able to cause the floor at the bottom of the slide to rise up to the top and open the way into the first floor girl's loo.
Dumbledore and McGonagall both jumped back as the sink opened up. All of the students were gone.
"You're safe!" said McGonagall.
Harriet shook her head. "Someone managed to get multiple agents into this school in an attempt to kill someone. Until we find out who is behind this, no one is safe."
And that was something even Dumbledore couldn't deny.
Author's Note: This was kind of a short chaper. Originally there was supposed to be a battle with the Basilisk here, but that goes back to the genesis of this story. So Guardians of Atlantis actually started out as two stories. One was "fem Harry is taught by Morgana," or as I will now call it, the Morgana story. The second is what I will now call The Guardian story. I'm calling it this because the idea of a secret society hidden within the magical world came from that story, but none of the details of the actual Guardians as I ended up writing them existed at that point.
I bring this up because from here until the end of this part elements of both stories are actually present and intertwined. But looking at it most of it is so divorced from the original plot of the Guardian story that it is unrecognizable. A good rule of thumb, everything in the rest of Part 3 involving Umbridge would not have happened without the Guardian story, though it is clearly developing the Morgana plot as well.
The fight with the Basilisk was supposed to be the start of the Guardian story. But when the stories merged I pushed some major moments in that story into later years. So there really was no reason to fight the basilisk, and so I removed it from the story. I found a better use for it.