Updated: 11/07/21

Chapter 10-Chamber of Secrets

Harrison stepped forth into the eerie green glow belonging to the Chamber of Secrets. He looked around the chamber and noticed the snake heads with their fangs pointing out, as if ready to attack. His footsteps echoed with the wet puddles on the dark, concrete path making his shoes soaked, and causing a mark of wet footsteps. At the very end of the chamber was what he assumed was Salazar's head, with a mouth that looked like it would open if he spoke the right thing. There were open areas belonging to very large pipes for Salazar's monster if someone who wasn't a Slytherin called it. The said monster wasn't a monster at all, just a Basilisk who could kill you if you made eye contact or the reflection of the snake caused petrification.

Harrison could still hear Draco's words echoing throughout his head,

"How long have you spoken Parseltongue?" Draco asked him.

"You should really hide your curiosity better and keep your thoughts to yourself." He brushed off Draco's question, as if it wasn't anything important. He knew it was the blonde's curiosity, but it was something he really wasn't ready to share fully yet.

He knew the blonde was never going to give up, and would keep on persisting about it. There were several memories that should remain hidden, deep within his occlumency shields to where it would truly take someone who didn't mind all the horrors he planted in his mind, to discover them. It was some deeply personal memories that didn't deserve to see the light of day especially when it dealt with the Potters directly.

He smiled as he stepped forth, until he was standing right in front of Salazr's head. He did it! He finally found the Chamber of Secrets and hopefully its uses would be able to help. Salazar told him that the chamber held several helpful items to aid in his journey and for his own benefit. At least, he would be able to hide in the Chamber of Secrets without worrying that his secrets or any prying eyes would be able to tell. Besides, he didn't have to be in the company of his annoying pupils who acted like spoiled brats at times, who had everything handed to them while he was rotting away in Azkaban.

He put his mask back into place, as he couldn't risk anyone knowing about what he was doing. He knew there hadn't been a parselmouth at Hogwarts within thousands of years besides when the Dark Lord came about. He also wasn't stupid, and perhaps someone with curious intentions discovered the chamber.

He studied Salazar's mouth, and a thought popped into his head. Salazar didn't really say if there was another password, so he thought he'd try the one he used to get into the pipe trailing into the Chamber, and the one in getting in.

It had been about fifty years or so when the basilisk was last called, by another parselmouth. He always thought it was the Dark Lord as there wasn't another parselmouth who went to Hogwarts. The petrifications stopped right after it killed a mudblood girl, a girl who now lingered as a ghost, haunting the girls' loo right where she died. The culprit and the 'monster' which turned out to be an Acromantula, was caught, with the student being expelled.

He couldn't help but find it funny that an Acromantula got blamed for being the monster. Of course, Hogwarts was desperate to find the monster who was doing all the petrifications, but everyone who cracked open a book and actually read about the species knew that the spider couldn't cause petrifications, and wouldn't leave the victims intact as the spider is known for its venom, and eating human prey.

While the real monster was indeed a snake, and had been in slumber for fifty years right after the attacks stopped, Hogwarts was quite contemptuous with its monster.

*Open,* Harrison hissed.

Salazar's mouth opened, and he couldn't help but let a glint of glee escape through his eyes, before it disappeared as if it was never there.

*Amara, reveal yourself.* He ordered.

*Why should I?* came the rhetorical response from the snake, as the snake slithered out of its mouth.

Harrison quickly lowered his gaze to avoid petrification, or worse, getting killed by looking into the eyes of the was no way he wanted to die especially as he had yet to find and resurrect the Dark Lord. Besides, he wanted to finish his investigations into the suspicious Professor Quirrell with his spurious stutters. He wanted to know who he was taking in for the ride and if in fact, it was actually the Dark Lord.

*What do you want, speaker?*

*I wish for a safe passage so I could do some research... I won't be setting you on the students,* He told her.

No matter how much it might bother me, he silently added in his head. There was a small part in his head that wanted to set the Basilisk onto the students, but he wasn't going to do that. Doing that, would give him trouble for what it was worth, and it would set him off on the mission that he planned for himself. Besides, he doubted Amara would want to do that, be used by another parselmouth for their own gain.

A few moments past, Amara hissed her response,

*Very well.*

*Is there any way I could look at you without me being petrified or killed at your eyes?*

*My species has a second eyelid that conceals of being petrified or killed by looking at me,* Amara said. *You could look now, speaker.*

*Thank you.*

Harrison studied the Basilisk. It looked like she was about fifteen meters long, give or take. She was around the same size as the old, shredded snakeskin that was located outside the chamber. She had dark green scales that were smooth to the touch, and reflected against the lighting of the chamber. She looked rather well for someone who probably hadn't eaten in fifty years, of course being in hibernation helped her case. The next time he came down here, he would give her a couple of roosters or something else that the snake wouldn't mind eating. She was such a beautiful snake that Harrison could spend a while on just studying her.

*Beautiful,* Harrison told her.

She flicked her tongue out as a response, and disappeared back into the mouth, with Harrison right behind her. It took her a few moments before she was fully in, before Harrison stopped being cautious and looked around the room.

It was a rather roomy room as there was still plenty of space with Amara already curled up, her head resting on her body, and her yellow eyes were now closed, napping until she was called on later. He casted a lumos with his wand, as he took a step forward, watching out for Amara's body as he looked around.

He spotted another room, with another door with a handle and he opened it. It was a much smaller room than before, and looked like it hadn't ever been touched before. Dust lingered everywhere, and Harrison had to stop a sneeze that was coming on from the amount of dust. It looked like no one ever stepped forth in this room ever since Salazar's time-over a thousand years ago.

Harrison casted a quick cleaning spell, and the room looked cleaner. There was no dust, and it looked like it was now habitable. There was a small fireplace with logs that he quickly casted incendio on. The flames licked the logs, and cracked in the background but the fire also gave more light to the otherwise dark room. He noticed bookshelves with scrolls stacked up on top of one another, and several books with spines on them written in parseltongue.

He picked up several scrolls and opened them, looking at its contents before putting it back. He did this several times and eventually did it to the books. The books looked like they were freshly new and hadn't been read before, as he flipped through the pages, curiosity getting the best of him.

He placed the books down right next to him, before he picked up a small, shabby looking book with its pages dogeared, and well-worn looking. It was well hidden and Harrison probably would have missed it if he hadn't been digging around at the books. He raised his eyebrows, curious on why this book was hidden as if no one should know of its existence.

Harrison conjured the time and he sighed. As much as he wanted to spend a little longer, he had to get back before any one missed his presence. It would complicate things if he wasn't back before curfew, so he pocketed the book and exited out of the chamber. He sent one last look at the hibernating snake and headed out of the chamber.

He said close several times, making the chamber sealed again and making surenot to leave any trace that he was ever there. He headed out of the girls' loo and headed down towards the dungeons.

He was almost to the common room before someone interrupted him.

"Harrison!"

He tensed up, his wand at the ready before lowered his defenses as he recognized the voice. It was Draco.

"What do you want?" Harrison asked him coldly, turning around to see the blonde standing behind him.

"It was tactless of me to encroach on your personal life that I doubt you'd wish to discuss with me," Draco apologized. "I'm sorry."

Harrison raised his eyebrows at the apology, but he realized that the blonde desperately wanted to be friends with him. As much as Harrison didn't want to have friends, but he realized that Draco was also the key to the pureblood circle, and could even get him some powerful allies that would indeed help him later on. Curiosity was going to get the best of the blonde at times even despite his perfect pureblood mask.

"You were curious to find out what secrets I have . I suppose I can't blame you for that, but in time you may know. It isn't exactly a secret of why I was sent to Azkaban for doing something I didn't do if you bother reading the Daily Prophet. … But I suppose I could accept your apology," Harrison told him.

Draco sighed in great relief which Harrison rolled his eyes at. He had no idea why the blonde was so worked up about such matters.

"Thank you," Draco breathed.

"But if you really want to know I could tell you later, or you could ask the boy-who-lived to tell you my secrets. He'd love to tell you how much I'm so evil and deserved to be locked up in Azkaban. But considering the aspects that Potter thinks of us as a slimy snake and a Death Eater? He wouldn't tell you anything."

"Just tell me," Draco begged.

Begging didn't suit the blonde, but he was going to keep pestering about his secrets until he gave in.

"Very well."

…

"Sit," Harrison ordered, gesturing to Draco to sit on his bed.

He casted a privacy ward, wordlessly and wandlessly causing the blonde's eyes to widen in surprise. The last thing he wanted was for prying ears to eavesdrop on their conversation and potentially report to someone in power; particularly Dumbledore. He knew his housemates were either dark or grey, and didn't like Dumbledore, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Draco made a move to speak, but Harrison merely glared at him, sending a little pulse of magic into the air. He got the message and bit whatever was on his tongue. Harrison straightened up his posture and stared at Draco's silver ones, making the blonde one fidget.

"You wish to know my secrets don't you?"

Draco nodded enthusiastically, and Harrison sighed in response.

"I'm only sharing one secret with you and that's it… I'll share how I discovered I was a parselmouth."

"It all started one day..." Harrison's voice cracked slightly, as he realized he would have to unbury the memory.

He wasn't ready, but it was only to appease Draco's curiosity and that was it. He took a deep breath, before he continued on, his voice void of any emotions. He looked at the blonde and noticed that he was leaning forward, and his eyes looking at him all wide, wanting to know more.

AN: I was supposed to upload this a few days ago on my birthday but I only had 500 words done and it wasn't even completed nor was it proofread so it had tons of mistakes. I'm aware of I left on a cliffhanger so you have to wait until the next update. It is my late birthday present to you readers. I'm in my last week of school then on winter break so the next update should be here before 2017 ends.

Update (11/07/21): Realized that my writing was really poor back then so I added details, fixed grammar, spelling, missing words and improved it to current standards.