Harry put down Matt's letter as he thought about what Matt had said. Harry knew it himself that he was unnecessarily bringing the Greengrass family into his messed up life when they took him in but Matt was also right. They couldn't do this alone so he'd proposed the idea of bringing Sirius into this after proving his innocence through the trial Harry's godfather never got and Harry loved that idea.

However, he knew that Matt approaching Sirius directly would be a bad idea and because he couldn't write to Sirius as it was possible that the ministry would track the letter to him he decided to write to Remus instead as he knew of Sirius' location. Remus was also a more sensible and understanding man compared to Sirius who was a little hot-headed. So he wrote back to Matt and Remus to have a meeting together after which the two could go to Sirius and tell him everything.

Once Harry had posted the letter he thought about Daphne's from last night and wondered where he could find such a place that no one else knew about when he thought of something. He was still in doubt whether Daphne would like to see it in person but at the moment he had nowhere else he could call a secret enough place to meet her.

He had been surprised when she had offered to help him with the tournament challenges. While it was a shocking move from her side it was definitely welcomed by Harry. Daphne was a brilliant girl with only the second academic position in their year behind Hermione and because Harry wasn't on talking terms with his former best friend this helpful gesture from Daphne was nothing short of a blessing.

It was because of that that Daphne had asked him to find a place where they could meet and discuss what to do once the challenges started. It had to be a place secret enough that no one knew about as Daphne had reminded him again that she could not be seen with him otherwise her housemates won't be kind to her.

He just hoped that she wouldn't ask too many questions about the place he had in mind to show her.

00000

Remus didn't know what to make of this. When he received Harry's letter he was quite surprised. While Harry had said things vaguely along with a reason that it was possible that his letter might've been intercepted Remus wondered why Harry was being so careful. He knew someone had put Harry's name in the goblet and it was probably because of that that Harry was being so careful?

He shoved his thoughts aside when he felt an apparition behind him and turned around, his hand in reach for his wand just in case. Matthias appeared out of thin air with a soft pop and stood there looking at Remus when he realized Remus' position and slowly raised both his hands to let him know that he had no evil intentions. "Shall we?" Matt asked as Remus slowly pulled his hand away from his holster.

00000

Flipping through the pages Harry smiled when he didn't see any article written on him, Cedric, Fleur or Viktor by Skeeter when his mirror buzzed. He put the Prophet down and went back to his dorm where he was alone as he applied some privacy charms just in case someone decided to overhear him. Swiping his finger on the mirror he saw Daphne's face appear. It looked like she was outside.

"Did you find any place, Potter?" she asked coming straight to the point.

"I might've however, I wonder if you'll like it," he said.

"Stop wasting time and just tell me where it is," she said.

"It's not that easy to get there,' Harry said as he looked away. "I don't know how to tell you this…"

"Just…spit it out!" Daphne said already sounding impatient and not to mention angry.

"Alright, alright," Harry said. "Meet me in the girls' bathroom on the third floor." Daphne looked at him with shock and disgust. "See, I told you that you might not like it. Trust me it's a really secret place that no one else knows about. That bathroom holds the entrance to that place."

Daphne said nothing as the mirror went blank. Harry smiled a little as he put the mirror in his pocket.

Ten minutes later Daphne was in the bathroom as Harry saw in the map so he headed there as well. He slowly opened the door hoping Myrtle wasn't there and he sighed in relief when she wasn't otherwise it would've been very hard to convince her not to tell anyone about the situation or why he was with Daphne in the bathroom.

Daphne was standing by the basins on the side when she saw Harry enter and stood straighter. "A non-functioning bathroom isn't really a secret place for holding meetings, especially if it's a girls' bathroom haunted by a crazy ghost," she said.

"Oh, don't say that," Harry said. "You'll hurt Myrtle's feelings. Besides, like I said, this bathroom isn't the secret place. The secret place is through there," he said pointing to the giant hexagonal central pillar holding basins around it.

Daphne looked at the pillar with a raised brow. "Stop playing around, Potter," she said.

"Don't worry," he said with a smile. "It only leads to Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber."

Daphne's eyes opened wide as she looked from Harry to the pillar to back to Harry as she stepped back. "Don't worry I won't do anything to you," he said as he reached for his wand and tossed it to her as a sign of trust. She looked at him a little confused before picking it up. "That's a way for me to say that I won't be harming you or have any malicious plans in mind once we go down. You trust me enough now because I don't have any other place in mind that's secret or more private than this other than all the empty classrooms which are nothing but meeting places for other students."

Daphne looked at him for a second before looking at the pillar. "Is this place real?" she asked.

"If it wasn't would I really be taking you there?" he said. "Don't worry. I've slain the monster that used to live there." She looked at him again before gulping down a load.

"Alright fine!" she said, "but no funny business, Potter."

"Just one more thing," he said as he stood in line with the pillar's part that opened as the chamber's entrance, "opening the chamber requires me to speak in parseltongue. I want you to be prepared just in case it creeps you out."

She nodded as Harry looked at the basin in front of him in the central pillar before closing his eyes and focusing. "{Open}" he said.

She felt a chill run down her spine when she heard him speak in parseltongue as she stepped back. To her ears it didn't sound like a normal hissing voice but more like an echo inside her head. It felt weird. Harry slowly opened his eyes as a soft rumble echoed throughout the bathroom and the central pillar began to shake and slowly moved apart, dividing in six sections revealing a deep hole in the ground. The section of the pillar facing Harry then moved down creating an entrance to the hole as Daphne couldn't believe at what she was seeing.

Gathering enough courage she walked up to Harry and looked down the hole. It was quiet deep and damp and smelled of stagnant water.

"Yeah, I know it's disgusting but we have no other choice but to slide down the hole," Harry said.

"You expect me to slide down through that?" she asked.

"Well, the last time Ron, I and Lockhart had to slide down," he said. "I have to say though that it was pretty dry that time. I think Myrtle has flooded this bathroom quite a few times after that. Maybe that's why it's all wet and slick."

Daphne sighed. "You honestly think that a wizard as great as Slytherin slid down through this hole in order to get to his secret chamber?" she asked.

The realization hit Harry. "Now that you mention it, it does make sense," he said. "Step back. I'll try something." Daphne did as Harry focused again closing his eyes. "{Stairs}"

'This will take some time to getting used to,' Daphne thought when she heard Harry speak in parseltongue again when another low rumbling sound filled the bathroom as the walls of the hole protruded out in a stair-like pattern going all the way to the bottom of the hole.

Harry couldn't help but smile as he looked at Daphne who rolled her eyes unimpressed but underneath she was impressed with all of it and her curiosity was only getting bigger as she wondered what was down there in the infamous secret chamber of Salazar Slytherin.

And so they headed down, Harry in the front and Daphne following him close. It was a long way down. Harry remembered that he, Ron and Lockhart were sliding for over two minutes the last or rather the first time he'd gone into the chamber. So this was going to take some time and after about half an hour of climbing down the stairs they finally reached the underground sewage channel and Daphne was shocked to see all the small bones underneath her feet. She saw Harry walk towards the left so she followed; her wand in her hand and pointed at Harry's back just in case he decided to do something funny.

Sometimes later they reached a cave-like place and the first thing her eyes fell on was the huge snake skin a few meters ahead of her as she shivered in fear. Harry simply walked up to it and touched it. "It's a basilisk skin," he said.

"Is that the monster that Slytherin kept here?" she asked slowly walking close to the skin before hesitatingly touching it. It felt like touching a dry bark of a tree. Despite appearing translucent it was very thick and very hard to break and not to mention heavy. "But why didn't anyone die?" she asked. "Basilisks aren't known to petrify their prey. They have deadly vision."

"They do," Harry said. "And yes, they cannot petrify others unless someone looks at their eyes indirectly."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Filch's cat looked at the basilisk's reflection in the water," he said. "Colin Creevey saw it through his camera. Nearly Headless Nick being a ghost couldn't really die again so he was also left petrified even though he looked directly into the basilisk's eyes and Hermione," his voice broke, "she'd figured out that it was a basilisk that was petrifying everyone and why so instead of killing them so she started to look for it. To keep herself from dying just in case she encountered it she used a mirror. With that she would only be able to look at its reflection which wouldn't kill but only petrify her. To be honest whoever was petrified was lucky. Things could've been a lot worse if you know what I mean." Daphne couldn't disagree to that.

Without waiting for Daphne to say anything he walked ahead and towards a round metal door with a unique looking lock on it that consisted of metal snakes. She saw him close his eyes and realized that he was going to speak in parseltongue again so she prepared herself but she couldn't help and shiver hearing him talk like that once more.

The round door opened slowly and from the distance she could see that on the other side of the door was a huge space. Harry turned around and walked through the door as Daphne realized that there was a ladder in order to go down. She walked up to it and saw that the place was amazingly huge. She looked up trying to figure out the ceiling of the place but couldn't because of the scarce light the place was receiving when her eyes fell on the monstrous head statue of Salazar Slytherin and the huge skeleton carcass of a basilisk.

Her blood froze in shock and fear when she looked at the skeleton before looking at Harry who was waiting for her at the bottom of the ladder. There was no way he'd slain that monster all by himself and at a mere age of twelve! Gathering enough courage she climbed down the stairs as she felt the dampness in the air. It was a bit colder than she'd like even though being a Slytherin she was used to a colder than normal common room and dorms.

Knowing how deep down they'd come she knew that this place was definitely below the base of the black lake.

"So, how do you like the place?" Harry asked as her feet touched the ground which was slightly covered in water. She was standing on a tiled path with silver snake heads taller than her on either side going up to the head statue of Salazar Slytherin. Her eyes never left the skeleton of the monstrous basilisk. Harry noticed that. "You can look at it up close," he said grabbing her attention. "It's safe now."

She said nothing and stood there for a minute before slowly walking over to the skeleton. She knew that basilisks were the most venomous beings on the planet and even after being dead every single part of their body still produced the venom. Also, its venom was very rare and was sold as a very expensive potion ingredient. The acidic smell in the air because of the venom increased as she walked closer and closer to the carcass so she cast a bubblehead charm around herself. Harry did the same.

"It wasn't as acidic as it is now when I was here first," he said, "or maybe I didn't notice it. So, you believe me now?"

"How did you kill it?" she couldn't help but ask.

"To be honest I couldn't," he said, "not without the help of Fawks, Dumbledore's phoenix. I would be lying if I said I did it all by myself. How can you win against something you can't even look at? That is when Fawks came to my rescue. I don't know how the basilisk's glare didn't affect him, probably because phoenixes are on a whole different level than all the other magical creatures. Fawks took out its eyes so the basilisk couldn't use its power anymore so that was a huge help, even for a twelve year old boy who had no idea how he was going to defeat such a monster. No spells can penetrate through a basilisk's scales and even though they could I didn't have my wand."

"You fought this basilisk without a wand?" she asked in disbelief.

"You don't know the full story about what actually happened," Harry said. "Before the start of our second year Lucius Malfoy secretly put a diary in Ginny's collection of books when we accidentally met him and Draco in Diagon Alley. It was actually a diary of Tom Riddle, otherwise known to the world as Voldemort." Daphne flinched at that name but it did get her attention.

"Riddle isn't a magical name," she said sounding surprised.

Harry nodded. "He's a half blood," he said. "His mother's family descended from Salazar Slytherin's and his father was a muggle. That's all I know."

"But…But if he's a half blood then why is he preaching about pureblood supremacy and killing people with no pure magical blood?" Daphne asked.

"He doesn't care about blood supremacy," Harry said. "He's a mad man who just wants to kill everyone and destroy everything. The people who support his ideologies are too blind or too scared to know of his real identity. Tom knew that which is why he made up the name Lord Voldemort to sound like a very old pureblood wizard. He's using the blind discrimination of the pureblood fanatics to his favor. There's nothing but anarchy and destruction in his mind and he'll go to any length to accomplish that."

Daphne couldn't believe it and her shock and surprise grew even more as Harry told her the rest of his second year experience. The part where a sword appeared from the sorting hat sounded a bit unbelievable and weird but seeing everything around her she found no reason not to believe him. At the end they decided that this place was indeed very secret and no one would be able to find them here. Yes, it took some time to get down all the way to the chamber and they'll have to use the bubblehead charm while in here but unless they found some other place they had to use this one and despite the fact that it was scary, creepy and cold down here Daphne wasn't complaining.

00000

When the wards informed him that there were two people Sirius was in battle mode, his wand in his hand pointed right at the entrance as the door opened slowly. The place he was living was under the fidilius charm with Remus as its secret keeper. No one else could've known about this place unless Remus had told them about it…or they had it out of him. Either way Sirius knew Remus was also here but his interest was in the other person who was with Remus as he wanted to know who this person was. So when the door opened completely and Sirius saw his face and Remus standing beside him looking completely unharmed Sirius didn't know what to make of this situation. Either way he had his wand pointed at Matt.

"There's something we need to discuss, Sirius," Remus said entering the room with Matt closely behind him with both his hands raised.

"What is he doing here?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius, please," Remus said in all seriousness as Sirius looked at him. He saw his friend's face and realized there was something important to discuss.

"Is it about Harry?" he asked. "Did they get him out of that blasted tournament?"

"Yes and no," Remus said. "If you'll lower that wand we'll tell you everything."

00000

Thanks for reading…