Chapter [XIII] The Ghost of a Girl
"Frona there's nothing here," Leonidas cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation after going through the 50th history book. He had searched through books with even the slightest mention of Harry Potter-Diggory, 113 books if their totals were added together. "Well, what do you suggest then? I don't know where else we're gonna go to get information about the chambers," She groaned, having given up as well after going through so many books.
"Looking for the Chamber of Secrets, are you?" An unfamiliar voice startled the two, with Frona looking around in shock while Leonidas let out a squeal of fear upon seeing a ghostly forehead sticking out, having to muffle it with his own hand since they were in the library.
"Why don't you ask around instead of reading? I'm sure there are people here who were present when The Boy Who Lived and his friends studied here," She grinned rather mischievously, letting out an oddly evil giggle before flying upwards into the ceilings.
"Of course! The ghosts!" Leonidas exclaimed, both of them soon getting kicked out of the library due to the ruckus they were making even though there were no other students inside that they could've possibly disturbed. "Great, there goes that. Who should we go to? We can't ask every ghost in school, we don't have time for that," Frona groaned out loud as they slowly made their way down a random hall, hoping to bump into a ghost for a start. "How about... Professor Binns? He'd been here longer than any of the professors around," Frona suggested, remembering how the ghostly professor had been there for centuries.
"Oh come on, he's so boring! What if he goes on and on about something else? I struggle to stay awake in his class," Leonidas cried in annoyance as they made their way to the professor's office, Frona completely ignoring his complaints the entire way. It only took them 5 minutes to reach his office with how fast they were going. They needed to be fast, they were racing against time with neither of them knowing how long their professors could last, or if Jamieson's condition could drop dramatically out of the blue.
"Yes? What may I be of help with?" The professor, with his voice ever so slow and ghost-like, the two students were practically squirming in their seats while waiting for him to finish asking. "We need to know about the Chamber of Secrets. professor," Leonidas asked ever so politely.
"Very well then, since we are out of class..." He began telling the story of who, how and why the chamber was formed, taking far too long. Leonidas and Frona had to keep pinching, punching and startling each other behind his back to avoid falling asleep, deeply regretting the fact that they came to Professor Binns. "So... Do you know how to open the chamber, professor?" Leonidas piped up once the professor finally finished, "Of course not. The existence of the chamber was simply confirmed, I have no needs to go open it myself. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare the lesson plan for the upcoming term," He soon floated away, the two students slowly getting irritated upon realizing their time was wasted. At least 2 hours had gone by with the two sitting as if they'd gone through a personal lesson with the professor, something they definitely didn't need.
"Professor, wait! Surely you know someone who knows where it is! Our friend is dying, we really need to know," Frona cried out as the professor floated away, her voice laced with desperation. Somewhat annoyed, Professor Binns spun around, "Ask someone else child, I know not. I simply don't have time to deal with student matters. Ask Peeves, he's the closest to all the students here," He simply grunted before disappearing behind a knobless door.
"Ugh! He's more pointless than an unsharpened pencil!" Leonidas cried in anger, not even caring whether the ghostly professor heard them or not. Plus, he was sure everyone disliked Professor Binns, not only was his class long and boring, he could be quite rude towards other students at times.
"No time? He's a ghost! He doesn't have to eat or pay rent, he doesn't have to do anything but teach, surely he has a few minutes to spare!" The blond boy continued quite angrily, Frona silently guiding them down a bunch of corridors, somewhat agreeing with him in silence.
"Where are we going anyways?" The boy asked as he blindly followed the messy ginger-haired girl down a bunch of random hallways, eventually ending up near the charms classroom, where they hid behind a Christmas tree, somewhat glad the decorations weren't taken down yet.
"How'd you know he'd be here?" Leonidas asked as they hid, watching the mischievous poltergeist plant a few dungbombs underneath snow piles. "Wild guess, but he loves pranking people here to be specific, it's one of the spots in Hogwarts with the highest foot-traffic. She explained before the two sunk into another silence, continuing their observation. "Peeves!" Frona leaped out, startling the creature and Leonidas, who didn't expect her to jump out so suddenly.
"Whad'dya want?" Peeves screeched as he hid the dungbombs under the snow, hoping the two students hadn't spoiled his prank. "We need your help, do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" Frona asked, careful with her steps as they trotted over to him. "Oh, I do, in fact. I know where it is," His mischievous grin growing ever so big, both of the students not liking his look.
"Please, we need to know where it is. Our friend is dying and—" Before the boy could finish his sentence, Peeves had let out a wicked laugh, clutching his stomach as he spun around. "You didn't think I'd give it to you freely now, did ya?" He cackled, taking his time with his laugh, the two students were visibly irritated by his scratchy voice.
"If you want to know, then you need to do something for me. It's only fair," He clasped his hands with his ever so mischievous grin, floating closer to the boy. "As we all know, my traps have remained untouched throughout the schools, with so little students around. I'm not having fun with them. I want you two to set off all of them," He instructed, the two students horror growing more and more, realizing he had way more untouched traps than they initially thought.
"How... do we go about this?" Leonidas asked, realizing he had set up traps all over the school, from the entrance to the astronomy tower all the way down to the duelling room corridor. "We have to split up if we want to finish them today," Frona frowned, both of them soon splitting up, with Leonidas going for the dungeon first, wanting to deal with the scariest, dingiest place in Hogwarts first.
"Right..." Leonidas looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the trap so he'd at least know what to expect, but ultimately failing once he'd slip while walking down the duelling corridor, realizing the floor was covered in Slippery solution, he didn't even have time to think where the poltergeist got the potion as he struggled to stand up, slipping and falling with time he tried to stand, hearing a wicked laugh from somewhere nearby, he knew he had the right trap. Given up on trying to stand, the boy simply crawled towards where the solution wasn't covering the floor... Only to find the entire dungeon floor, including the stairs, now covered with the slippery solution.
"Oh come on!" He cried, another wicked laugh coming from nearby, igniting a spark of anger within him which prompted him to crawl that much faster towards the stairs, struggling and slipping on almost every step.
Meanwhile, somewhere near the top of the Clock Tower, once she'd climb up the steps past the cogs and giant contraptions, Frona leaned against the railing overlooking the Clock Tower Courtyard, enjoying the beautiful view over the tower before she'd begin looking for where the trap was... until the railing she was leaning on disappeared. With a pop, it was gone. It didn't even turn invisible... It just disappeared. The poor girl was screaming with pure fear as fell over, holding on to the ledge while crying her eyes out.
"Help! Someone help me!" She cried, her hands began hurting as she tried to pull herself up, struggling due to how little physical strength she had. She was never the muscles of the group, she knew that and it was far more obvious right then.
'Someone, please help," Frona cried silently, tears streaming down non-stop as the stinging cold of winter slowly set in, her strength dissipating. Unable to hold on any longer, Frona silently apologized to her two friends, thinking she'd be first to leave them as her grip faltered, falling from the clock tower, a million thoughts racing through her head. Shutting her eyes and expecting a quick and painless splat, she instead felt softness cushion her fall.
Opening her eyes, she realized she'd fallen onto a huge, soft... thing? Wasting no time, Frona crawled off the giant thing she'd landed on, realizing it was a huge, cloud-like, snow-coloured... thing. She'd never seen anything like it before and was glad she didn't die, but upon hearing a loud poltergeist cackle from nearby, her blood boiled higher than it ever did, she almost thought she'd die from being too angry. "I am going to kill that thing," She whispered under her breath, angry thoughts swimming in her head as she marched down to the next trap location Peeves told them. "I am going to MURDER it!" She cried in anger.
By the time they'd set off almost all of the traps in the school, the sun had already set. Hogwarts fell into yet another quiet, wintry night, the only activities in the somewhat silent school were in the infirmary where Ajax, Professor Ancum and the rest did their best to keep Jamieson alive, unaware of the younger student's attempts in trying to get into the vault nor the older two's in snatching ingredients from Professor Ancum's stash for a Polyjuice potion.
"PEEVES!" Frona roared in anger, somehow grabbing the poltergeist by his bells and pointing her wand at his throat. "You better tell us where the chamber is now, or I'll make you regret haunting Hogwarts!" Her voice seething with animosity, scaring even the prankster himself. "Alright, alright! I-It's in the 2nd floor's girl's bathroom!" The poltergeist cried, squirming to free himself from the girl's strong grip, seemingly forgetting he has the ability to phase through things at will.
"How do we open it?" Leonidas asked, a bit confused as to why the poltergeist was flailing around instead of just flying through her. "That wasn't part of the deal! The deal was that I'd tell you where it was!" He grunted, seemingly remembering his ghostly powers as he phased out of Frona's grip and straight into the floor, letting out a scared screech.
"Ooh! He's dead the next time I see him!" Frona cried out in frustration, still angered at the prankster. Leonidas decided not to console her, he himself stinking from head to toe and he wasn't sure he wanted to touch Frona at the moment, with what both of them had gone through the whole afternoon.
Following along quietly, Frona lead them both towards the aforementioned spot which was easy to get into, considering there were no students around and the fact that nobody actually uses the bathroom with an infamous ghost haunting it.
"Nothing here either!" Leonidas yelled from one end of the room, the duo had checked every crevice of the bathroom, not finding one lever, button or activator of some kind. "Peeves wouldn't dare lie to us, would he?" Frona asked, the familiar angered scowl back on her face. "I mean, it kind of is in his nature," Leonidas responded, seeing the ginger-haired girl's left eye twitch, he knew he shouldn't have said that.
"Looking for the entrance, are you?" A familiar voice called out from somewhere in the toilet with silence soon falling upon them. "Eep!" Leonidas cried as a glowing light blue figure shot out from a nearby toilet bowl, splashing water on the two. "Great, now we're covered in toilet water," Frona frowns as the ghost descended towards them, knowing full well the worst wasn't over yet.
Why would it be? First day back at Hogwarts and they're covered in various gunk and substances. "Please tell me you know where the entrance to the chamber is?" Frona asked, practically begging her, she was physically, mentally and emotionally tired after all they'd gone through that day.
"I do, but you have to say please, your majesty," The ghost cackled, Leonidas wincing as he prepared himself for the worst, remembering what Frona did to their residential poltergeist. "Please, your majesty. We need your help, our friend is dying," Frona begged, shocking Leonidas with the complete change in demeanor.
In truth, Frona knew she could catch the poltergeist off guard and grab his bells, but since Moaning Myrtle was 100% ghost, there was no way she could threaten or intimidate the non-living girl.
"That's more like it! And because you've entertained me for a whole day, I shall accompany you down," Moaning Myrtle grinned, floating towards one of the taps near the pillar in-front of the entrance, the ghostly girl whispered something in Parseltongue. "Wait, you know parseltongue? And you've known about the chamber the whole time?" Frona asked in exasperation, realizing they could've found the entrance much sooner if the ghost had been straightforward with them in the library, even more annoyed at her question being ignored.
"Whoah," Leonidas waltzed towards the giant hole once half the pillar had transformed, revealing a ginormous, seemingly endless gap in the floor. Both of the young students peered into what seemed like an infinite abyss, "Are we going or not?" Myrtle huffed in annoyance as both hesitated to jump in.
"For Jamieson!" Leonidas cried, breaking the silence between them before leaping straight into the giant hole, Frona following quickly afterwards. Both students screamed in both excitement and fear as the fall turned into a slide, neither of them being able to see the end since everything basically turned pitch black.
"Oof," Leonidas squeaked, once they'd finally reach the end, the speed they were going basically shot them out of the pipe and into a huge pile of... bones. "What took you two so long?" Myrtle huffed once they emerged from the pipe, her ghostly glow giving slightly more visibility to the surrounding area.
"Please let this all end quick," Leonidas whispered once they both collected themselves, whipping their wands out the two students then cast the wand-lighting charm. With everything they've gone through, landing on a pile of various sized bones weren't all too weird for them.
Climbing off the bone pile, the duo then began their journey down the rocky cave, having to climb over boulders and rocks, part of the area looking like there was once a cave-in before, the duo did their best to ignore all the snake skin around, knowing full well the basilisk was around.
"Frona, are you okay?" Leonidas asked, realizing the girl was huffing and taking sharp breaths. "I... I think I can't proceed anymore," She cried, starting to feel dizzy, she knew she was pushing her body far beyond her usual limit in terms of heavy physical activity. "We're here," Moaning Myrtle called out as they approached a large circular door with 7 life-like stone snakes embed into the center, an eight one around the hem.
Frona sat down on a large boulder nearby as Myrtle unlocked the door, whispering something in parseltongue, the 8th snake retracting in response. "How do you know parseltongue?" Leonidas asked as they stood, peering into the dark hallway.
"I was there, you know, both times when the chamber was opened. I picked up on the snake language not too long after and I've been practicing with the basilisk," She proudly answered, Leonidas being horrified once it was confirmed that there was a basilisk near their current location.
Looking over at his tired-out friend, Leonidas let out a small sigh. "Myrtle, stay here. I'm going in alone," He stated as a sudden surge of courage washed over him, remembering his dying friend in the Infirmary. "But... Leonidas," Frona gasped, still feeling slightly dizzy as fatigue finally caught up to them.
"Frona, if you keep going, you might die," Leonidas cried out, knowing he was exaggerating, "With Myrtle around, at least you won't be alone. This won't take long," He ended, stepping over the door hem, his courage-surge didn't last long as fear crept in. Now that he was truly alone, the ringing in his head grew even louder, the only other noises around was from his own footsteps.
The fact that there were large snake-head sculptures along with the walkway narrowing, replaced by water canals on both sides only made it worse for the boy. His surroundings were pitch black, with only the light at the tip of his wand providing a slight bit of visibility.
"H-Here goes nothing," Leonidas whispered, finally reaching the room at the end of the walkway, he still couldn't see anything past the glow of his wand's light charm. 'May Merlin protect me,' Leonidas chanted, stepping into the room, startled by a set of giant bones, which he soon realized belong to a snake-like creature.
'Wait... Is the basilisk dead? But Myrtle said she talked to it! Unless... That was the basilisk's ghost?' Leonidas began wondering, his fear of their journey being wasted slowly growing as the truth set in, he remembered reading something about Harry Potter-Diggory slaying a basilisk during his time in Hogwarts.
Eventually, Leonidas reached the end of the bone-made structure, noticing one fang missing among the many others. As the blond boy inspected the empty fang-slot, he hears a foreign noise, finally breaking the deafening silence in the giant dark room.
A hiss.
The boy immediately extinguished his wand's light, knowing full well he didn't mistake it for any other noises. Leonidas quickly shuts his eyes, fearing the petrifying gaze of the basilisk, a dooming thought loomed over... He didn't know how to kill the basilisk. He soon realized that not only did he know zero duelling spells, he didn't have any weapon on hand to even pierce the snake's skin. 'Welp, I've set myself up for death,' Leonidas thought, readying himself to be devoured by the basilisk... Instead, feeling a touch of cold metal on his forearm.
He wondered what it was, only to hear a soft hiss a few inches from to his left. Letting out a whimper, he retracted farther from the basilisk, feeling another soft poke at his forearm. Wondering why he wasn't eaten yet, Leonidas risked a quick peek, opening one of his eyes slightly, he saw a glimpse of glowing red eyes staring back at him, he immediately shut his eyes.
A few more seconds passed, the blond boy soon realized he wasn't petrified, feeling a few more soft pokes, he finally opened both eyes, startled by the same glowing crimson snake eyes staring back at him, confusion filled him, wondering why he was still able to move.
"What...?" Leonidas whispered, he lit his wand up, the snake's silver scales sparkled somewhat thanks to his light. Leonidas soon found himself face to face with a rather large silver snake, half the height of Grawp, but still scarily larger than him.
His fear was quickly replaced by adoration once he began gently petting the basilisk's head, the creature seemingly enjoying his touch as it shut its eyes, occasionally flicking its tongue out. "You're... harmless?" Leonidas whispered, realizing he was full on petting the basilisk, its silver scales quite cold to the touch. "You're not gonna kill me?" He asked, seemingly getting the answer he wanted as the snake slithered closer, resting its head on Leonidas' thighs, the boy finding the basilisk's head to be moderately heavy.
"Frona's gonna love this! C'mon," Leonidas stood up with an excited grin, motioning for the snake to follow him as he sprinted down the narrow walkway, back to the entrance, the snake slithering behind him, matching his speed.
"Frona! Look!" Leonidas cried out excitedly, Myrtle's ghostly glow coming into view as he neared them. Both girls let out a scream of fear upon seeing the giant snake slithering behind an excited blond boy.
"Leo, what are you doing?!" Frona cried in fear, turning herb back against the two as they approached them. "Frona, wait! He's harmless, I swear!" Leonidas squeaked, waiting for the two to look at their new reptilian friend, who adorably flicked its tongue out a few times at them.
"I... I don't understand," Frona's jaw dropped as the snake slithered closer to her, seemingly asking for head pats, which further bewildered the ginger-haired girl. "Myrtle how come you were scared? I thought you said you'd been talking to it?" Leonidas asked, finding the rather small basilisk adorable as Frona pat it gently a few times.
"You didn't think I'd be crazy enough to come down here and talk to it, did you? It kept saying 'free me' and all that, we didn't have full-on conversations," Myrtle hissed, somewhat wishing she could pet the basilisk as well.
The trio stayed there in silence as they adored the silver-scaled, glowing-red eyed basilisk, chattering away with myrtle being the translator between the two, who soon learned that the basilisk in their possession was quite young and hadn't developed the ability to petrify, and lived purely off of water, air and magic from its surrounding, no longer needing to feed off of meat after adapting to such a life underneath Hogwarts.
"C'mon, we gotta get him back up," Frona squeaks, her strength had recovered enough for them to make their way back to the entrance of the chamber, peering into the huge pipe that they were shot out of earlier, "We can't climb back up, can we?" Leonidas wonders out loud, trying to remember whether there were such spells to assist them or not.
"This is where I leave, goodbye," Myrtle simply said, phasing into the stony ceiling and disappearing out of sight, leaving the duo with their snake friend. "At least she was actually helpful in the end," Frona hissed remembering the pointless goose-chase they'd gone through thanks to their beloved History of Magics professor and their local poltergeist.
"What is it?" Leonidas asked, feeling the basilisk poke his palm repeatedly with its cold, silvery head, the duo watched it slighter forth, climbing onto the giant hole, they realized the basilisk could climb onto the walls. "Brilliant!" Frona squealed delightfully, climbing onto the basilisk's back, Leonidas soon followed, they held onto quite hard as the basilisk slithered up the walls, the duo feeling like they could fall off any time soon, they hoped they weren't hurting the poor basilisk as they held on for dear life.