Hogwarts a History – Mazes and Monsters year 2 remix
Chapter 02 – Harry go down the hole

…

"So, how does this work? What happens now? Come on, let's go."

The bouncy blonde was practically vibrating with energy as they all stood around the sink.

"Can you stand still for five seconds so I can do this."

"Maybe."

"Lavender!"

The blonde was unapologetic, "I can't help it. We've been wondering about this ever since Mrs. Norris was petrified. Now we're actually going to see it."

"Not if you don't stand still and let me concentrate. This Parsel speak isn't something I really understand, and I need to focus."

The tiny snake marking on the faucet helped, it gave him a point to center on, a reference to visualize. His tongue caressed the strange, hissing serpent speak from his tonsils and, with much ado and shifting of masonry, the entrance was revealed.

"We're really going down there again?" Ron, standing at Harry's shoulder, mumbled dejectedly.

"Least your sister's not down there this time," Harry said, trying to be positive.

"I thought this bathroom was supposed to be haunted," said Neville suddenly. "Is it bad that she's not around?"

Harry shrugged, having no strong desire to see the mopey and oddly flirty ghost. "Sure she's around somewhere."

"She was here when we got here," said Su Li. "Lovegood scared her off."

"I did not," said the much-maligned maiden of positive affection. "I only asked if she was feeling alright? How was I to know that would upset her?"

"Pretty sure everything upsets her," said Harry. "That's just Myrtle."

"Come on, enough stalling!" said Lavender, squealing and bouncing again, "let's go already."

"Ladies first," said Harry, giving a gentlemanly gesture toward the big, dark, hole.

"Uh…" that shut her up.

"Why don't you go first, Harry," said Luna, "so we all know it's safe."

"It's not safe," he glowered at the other blonde.

"But we don't know that," she beamed back.

"Pwease Hawwy," Lavender threw in with a wobbly pout.

"Pwetty pwease," the twins double pouted, which was just plain unfair.

"Fine!" God he was such a sucker. "Who wants to live forever anyway."

Stepping up to the hole he stared into the abyss. It winked.

"Count to ten before you follow," he said.

And with a short hop, he was on his way down.

It wasn't a bad trip, all told. This had been the least harrowing part of his last adventure, a leap of faith into the unknown darkness, after it was tested by a bumbling buffoon. The truly harrowing bit came later, after he lost his meat shield.

"Bottom floor, leather goods, tribal headgear, ancient chambers of evil," he quipped as he approached the end.

Knowing it was coming this time he had opportunity to slow himself to a gentle stop rather than shooting off the end.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," he said out loud.

And fate responded, "Weeeeee, gah, oof!"

From his new position on the ground, Harry pondered, as he often did in such situations, when he would learn to stop saying things like that.

"Hullo Harry," said the tiny blonde missile laying on top of him.

He grumbled several depreciations before pulling his face off the floor, "I thought I said count to 'ten' then follow."

"I got bored after five," she readily admitted. "Six just wasn't doing it for me."

"I see."

"I dee."

"Iyeeeeeeee…oof! Oh, hi Harry. Fancy meeting you down here."

"Yeah, fancy that," he grumbled, as there wasn't much else he could do with two blondes on top of him. "This night is turning out to be much longer than I'd hoped."

"Yeeeeeee—look out be—oof! Oh, hi everybody," said Parvati.

"Hello Parvati," said everybody.

A squealing Padma was added to the heap before they all finally got off so he could stand up, just in time for him to catch a flying Su Li and lay back down.

"I'm almost certain I haven't done anything to deserve all this."

Ron came next, then Neville, Seamus, and Dean. Filene was the last, squealing and squeaking all the way down, and small wonder. The slide was designed for a serpent, not human children and definitely not a centaur, no matter the age.

"I did not enjoy that," she sniffled, once her feet were back on proper ground.

"It just occurs to me but, how are we supposed to get back up?" said Dean.

"Don't worry," said Harry. "That part I've got figured out."

He felt no need to say more than that, though several unsubtle gestures were made that he should. They'd dragged him down here on a whim, well now they could just have a little faith that he could get them out again, since none of them had bothered to plan that far ahead.

"Come on, it's down this way."

The tunnel led, straight and true just as he remembered. It was but a few minutes till they came to the cave in, which had caved in again.

"Aw, bloody hell," Ron complained. "Took me forever to clear that out."

Forever being the approximate amount of time it took Harry to find his way into the chamber, battle the basilisk, slay Tom Riddle, and return with his friend's very clingy sister.

But it wasn't the obstruction or Ron's complaint that had Neville's attention. Ever alert to danger, as most prey animals are, he was the first to spot the long, scaly shape in the shadows. Pants peeing terror seized his throat via his balls and a pitiful mumbling squeak drew everyone's attention.

"You alright there Nev?" said Dean.

He was not, as anyone ever grabbed by the balls can tell you. Raising a shaking finger, he pointed to the source of his despair, causing the expected amount of gasping.

Harry and Ron did not contribute.

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that," said Ron with little interest.

"FORGOT!" Lavender shrieked, then covered her mouth when she realized what she'd done.

Harry found the whole thing very funny. Served them right for dragging him down there. "It's just an old skin," he said, giving the shrouded shedding a kick to demonstrate. "The real basilisk is in the chamber."

A collective sigh of relief was breathed, as well as an unclenching of sphincters. Just an old skin, nothing to fret over. A good warm up for what was to come, a little start before the real pants peeing terror.

Only…

"How are we supposed to get past this?" said Dean.

"I ain't movin em," said Ron. "Done it once already, not doing it again."

"We can do it," said Parvati, nudging her sister.

"We can?" said sister boggled.

"Sure we can," said the first, drawing her wand.

"Oh," said the second, doing the same, "I got ya."

Skipping up to the rockslide, the mostly identical twins went to work, transfiguring the big pile of rocks into a good, sturdy arch.

"So, what're you planning to do with the skin?" asked Su Li as they waited for Parvati and Padma to finish.

"I don't know," he hadn't thought about it, but the skin did basically belong to him, it's not like anyone else could get at it. "Get it on the way back."

The tiny Asian girl nodded, worrying her lip like she was trying to keep the words in, but they demanded out, forcing her to get the teeth involved so they didn't get any ideas. It was cute.

"Something on your mind?"

"Yes," she said bluntly. "That's an old skin. Snakes only shed their skin when they grow. The creature—when it was alive—it was even bigger than that."

"Yeah," bigger than that, and more importantly, bigger than him.

"And you killed it?"

"Uh huh."

"How?"

He couldn't help wondering that too. And he'd been there. "A lot of help and no small amount of dumb luck," he said, "and even then, I almost died."

"Was it," she paused, unable to look him in the eye, speaking softly when she did, "was it worse than the spiders?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation. "I'd go back into the spider nest before I'd try and fight this thing again. Lucky I won't have to do either one."

"You shouldn't say that," she chastised quietly.

"Why not?" he asked, though the answer should have been obvious.

"Given where we are, it seems too much like tempting fate."

It did, didn't it, "Shit!" He'd just been thinking about that.

"All done!" Parvati declared, beaming in anticipation of the praise she was surely about to receive.

Instead, "Let's just go," said Harry glumly, cutting any praise so short it might as well not have been there.

Parvati frowned but Harry easily ignored the look. He could feel it, like the sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Fate was watching, grinning, smirking, waiting. He'd already tempted her twice and they weren't even to the chamber yet.

"I'm sure he thinks we did a good job," said Padma, typically more melo than her sister and used to being a calming influence on the more passionate twin.

"Wouldn't kill him to say so," she pouted, annoyed at having her work dismissed. This did not stop her from looking around the tunnel as they walked, looking for any other surprises. "Hey Ron! Anything else you've forgot you'd like to remember."

Ron shrugged, "That rockslide was as far as I came last time," he said, looking at Harry expectantly.

"Well Harry," Parvati prodded when he failed to live up to the ginger's expectations, "what's next on the agenda."

"Ever seen a picture of Salazar Slytherin?" he asked.

"No. What did he look like?"

"Ugly," he said.

"How ugly?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said, then refused to say any more till they arrived.