Tom smirks as Evelynn's eyes widen in shock…at the stairs built into the tunnel. "You didn't seriously…wait, nevermind, you slid down there the whole way."

Evelynn gives him a mock glare, saying "Well, its not like I could've known! There wasn't exactly a note anywhere saying 'there's stairs built into the secret entrance' or anything!"

Tom just shakes his head, saying "I found the Chamber while you were unconscious, but haven't done anything in regards to it, yet. Beyond piling up the endless shed skin that was laying everywhere into a corner." And he was so glad he muttered about wishing there were stairs, it was pure luck that they reacted to the word. Not that he's ever admitting to it.

Evelynn nearly trips on a stair at that point, but Tom manages to catch her before she falls all the way down below - she may be immortal, but he's not eager to test that state of things. "What?! You mean you've got…what did you do with it?! All the shed skins?!"

Tom gets a look of confusion on his face, even as he steadies Evelynn and keeps her away from the edge, and says "Piled it up in a corner, at the time. I hadn't yet learned the Banishing Charm, that was only last we-"

"Don't Banish it! Tom, that- I'll explain when we're down there!"

Thankfully, the stairs have something much like a reversed Expansion Charm on them - it compresses the space into the…twenty or so steps they have to walk down. Because she's looking too urgent and hasty for it not to be something big, and Tom's more than a little curious now.

Evelynn chuckles when they get down to the bottom, and says "This looks familiar. Bones and all. Open."

Tom heads in, asking "Why shouldn't I get rid of all the Basilisk skin? Your reaction would suggest there's a very good reason."

Evelynn glances at him, asking "Tom? How much do you know about Basilisks?"

He frowns at her, saying "Everything I could read up on them after I found the Chamber and met Salazar's. Why?"

"Well, here's what most of the Wizarding World knows. Gigantic, extremely dangerous…and the Potion ingredients that one can harvest from them - don't give me that look, just listen! - such as shed skin, and venom are worth a bloody fortune."

Tom's furious glare disappears when he realizes she's not suggesting they kill the Basilisk, a connection to his ancestor, for potions ingredients…and then the implications really hit him. "Bloody Merlin!" He doesn't usually swear, ever - he's of the opinion is a foul habit for lesser people, and has worked rather hard to keep his vocabulary clean even if his actions aren't so clean even now - but this is...this is almost as big as Evelynn's 'everything.'

Evelynn glances over at him, asking "Just how much Basilisk Skin was there when you got down here?" Tom doesn't usually swear, so this has got to be amazing. She's yet to hear him even lightly swear, even in Parseltongue.

"The piles were all taller than I am, Evelynn. And there were quite a few piles. Now it's a veritable mountain." The look on her face is priceless, absolutely priceless.

"A thousand years, and if it shed even just one a year…oh. My. Bloody. Merlin…" Tom quickly leads her into the Chamber, showing her the not-so-small mountain of Basilisk skin. Evelynn's legs actually give out under her, her eyes gone wide as she stares at the gigantic pile of shed basilisk skin. "That…that wasn't there last time I was here…"

Tom sits down next to her, before his own legs give out under him, and he asks "Just how much was something like Basilisk Skin worth in your time?"

Evelynn just shrugs, saying "I don't know. Never knew it was worth anything at all until I mentioned it to Griphook in my Seventh year at the Shell Cottage. Rather, what should've been my seventh year. He asked what happened to the sword, you see, because it wasn't just Goblin Silver any longer. He was utterly amazed I'd…well, you know, survived. Gryffindor's sword had become infused with Basilisk Venom from it, making it worth more than most of the vaults in Gringotts had at the time apparently. And then he asked what I did with…you know, the rest." She glances at the wall, clearly trying to put the death of a thousand-year-old Basilisk delicately for Tom. Something he appreciates, given the detail that its Slytherin's own Basilisk.

He gets why she did it, really - it was do or die, literally, and she didn't want to die. Had the roles been reversed, he probably would've done the same - or he'd have died, he's not stupid enough to think a Basilisk bite couldn't have killed him. That memory in particular was absolutely terrifying, made all the worse by the detail that she was completely alone - it shouldn't have been her. It shouldn't have even been her and Weasley down there. It should've been the entire damn staff, not a lone twelve-year-old with a Bound Core and no idea how to even kill a Basilisk. To get his mind off his darkening thoughts, Tom asks "Do you think Gringotts could sell all this?"

"For a fee, of course." They both let out slightly hysterical laughs at the imitation of one of the Goblins, and then Evelynn asks "You want me to sneak you out to Gringotts the next Hogsmeade Weekend to get an account opened in your name? So we can get the skin sold?"

And, oh, that particular realization was not a good one for her, that a Head of House could sign off on the permission slip to let a student go. That had her fuming, no matter how well she tried to hide it. Not without good reason, but still. Tom's pretty sure there's a smoking - or, more accurately, frozen - crater where an abandoned classroom deep in the dungeons used to be. The more she learns in this time, and the more he learns of her original time, the more it seems like her entire life was scripted out ever since she got that scar on her forehead.

Tom glances over, asking "You can get us to Diagon Alley without any of the teachers the wiser?" She's got to teach him that!

"Yeah. We wouldn't even need to go to the village, I could shadow us directly from Hogwarts."

Tom grimaces at once, saying "That method of travel is…" Horrible, absolutely nauseating, the list seems endless.

Evelynn just shrugs, and says "For one, completely undetectable. It comes with being the Master of Death."

"Alright," Tom has to concede, "it has some benefits. But, still…it is utterly revolting."

Evelynn just shrugs, saying "I can't see it, sorry. And since you're the only person I've ever shadowed before…maybe its an acquired taste. Or maybe you need to learn Shadow Magic yourself for it to become bearable." Everyone said Apparition would get easier if you did it yourself, but she hated it every single time. Her shadows, by comparison, have always felt infinitely better.

Tom shudders, she's only done it once, and it was the single worst mode of travel he's ever known. The shadows seemed to seep into his body as well as coat him in an oily substance, and it felt like his body was dissolving. He didn't retch when it was over, but it was a near thing. A bit too near for comfort, to be honest.

After Evelynn gets introduced to the Basilisk, a female who is rather delighted to find Tom suddenly has a Mate - again?! Seriously?! No, we're not Mates! Or offspring! - he shows her the hidden rooms he found while exploring. A Potions Lab - one that Severus Snape would gleefully kill for, Evelynn's sure - a ritual room with what looks like the Wardstone for the entire school, and a library that Evelynn's utterly amazed Tom managed not to get lost in permanently. There's books on every conceivable subject, and a few inconceivable ones as well. Languages, Runes, Wards, Charms…you name it, its in there.

Point of fact, she can actually see Tom's fingers twitching as she looks around in shock. And he gets an honest-to-Merlin pout on his face when they get out. An adorable pout, she concedes, but a pout nonetheless. She didn't think Tom Riddle pouted!

"How, in Merlin's name, did you manage to leave that room?!"

Tom clears his throat, and mutters "I was just lucky it was winter break when I found all this…"

"So that's where you vanished to for those three days! Merlin, I'd just thought we kept missing each other. Wait, bloody hell! You didn't actually spend three solid days in there!"

Tom nods, saying "In my defense, I'd only thought it was the end of the first day when I came back up." He doesn't miss how Evelynn shakes her head in exasperation, or how the corners of her lips twitch upwards as she fights not to smile.

And then, she lightly says "Well, I guess there's only one thing for it then."

Tom glances at her, half-warily and half-confused - he never knows what she's going to suggest, and wants to brace himself for it now. "And, what's that?"

"We take the library with us when we graduate."

Tom blinks, that was…not, in any way, shape, or form what he was thinking she'd say. Somehow, given all the twists and turns her life has taken - including getting sent back into the past! - it seems…far too simple of an idea. Then again, this is the same girl that seems to delight in confusing him, defying any and all expectations. Of course she'd think of something simple when he was expecting a complicated or even ridiculously convoluted idea.

Both of them are still feeling slightly hysterical over the pile of Basilisk skins when they get out of the Chamber, even with Evelynn promising to get him to Gringotts at the next Hogsmeade weekend - but, bloody hell! Tom's currently got a shrunken Expanded briefcase of shrunken Basilisk skin in his pocket! How's he supposed to remain calm when he's got a fortune in the form of 'snake-skin' as Evelynn semi-hysterically put it just sitting there?!

He puts it at the bottom of his Trunk, layer upon layer of protective spells and Wards on the case until further notice. He's still trying to process the detail that he almost got rid of thousands of Galleons with a wave of his Wand!