Disclaimer: See Chapter 1, please.
______________________________________________________________
The Ten Commandments Of Salazar Slytherin. (Part 1)
________________________________________________________
"So," said Hermione, her voice barely above a whisper. She could not even hear her own voice, against the thunderous banging of her heart against her ribcage. "You will help me?"
The Bloody Baron remained unspeaking, but it was the unmistakable, universal movement that he made, that evoked a silent cheer of relief from Hermione.
He nodded. It was a curt, downward movement of his head, nothing dramatic, but it was a nod. A deal had been made. A pact between the living and dead. I hope it'll prove to be better than my previous collaboration with a painting, Hermione thought. That was disastrous.
She could have hugged him, if he wasn't the spectre that he was.
"And, what do you suggest?" she asked eagerly. The silvery blood that stained him still sent goose bumps up her spine, but she decided to overlook that. She was about to delve into the realm of the forbidden, and not even the sinister, unicorn-like fluid would deter her. "If you exist concurrently, can you tell your future self to ask Dumbledore for help?"
The Bloody Baron stared at her for three whole minutes, before shaking his head.
"Why not?"
"Dumbledore already knows."
Hermione frowned. Then why isn't he coming for me? He has a time turner, doesn't he? Or………don't tell me that one's broken too. Or, maybe he hasn't found the password that activated the portkey.
Okay, thought Hermione, a little frustrated. We're back to running around in circles. So far, no luck.
"There is a way, that you have yet to find," he suddenly said. Hermione jumped a little. She had been contemplating his sanity, and hers too, when the ethereal, monotonous voice spoke.
"A way? What? Where? How? When? Who?" she demanded. I may be brash, blunt and crass, but I'm desperate, she told herself, mentally excusing herself for her discourtesy. Even George Washington would put aside his impeccable manners, if he was in my shoes.
"There is a time turner, an hourglass. You may use it."
Hermione's heart sank. It's probably locked up in somewhere restricted. Such as the Department of Mysteries. Yup. I'm not particularly excited about that place. Sirius…………
"One is inaccessible. There is a second. It is in the Chamber of Secrets."
Hermione gave a start. The Chamber of Secrets? "But, Johnson said that the other was broken," she argued. However, after saying it, Hermione felt a little foolish. Johnson says. Brilliant. I should never have trusted that sneak. How naïve of me. "What is it doing in the Chamber?"
"The originator of the House of Slytherin passes it to his heirs. None, so far, are worthy enough to find it………….yet. None, not even the wizard Johnson, who claims himself as Salazar's heir……" rasped the unmoving mouth.
Hermione's eyes grew bigger. "You mean that I have to search the entire chamber for it? If Johnson can't find it, how can I?"
"Johnson did not know of its existence. He assumed that the other was broken. Johnson was killed, before he had the chance to discover it."
"I'll be killed too, remember? I'm just a student, and I have no 'flesh of witch' to bribe that………..that…….to bribe Valar."
The Bloody Baron did not contradict her. Why should he? He has nothing to gain out of this, thought Hermione. But she felt a little comforted. It meant that he also has nothing to lose, by assisting me. Perhaps an eternity of unsleeping existence bores him. That's why he's living his life out through me.
But like the speed of which a vulture pecked a carcass clean of flesh, the joy and hope abandoned Hermione with equal rapidity. If it's in the Chamber of Secrets, which happens to have a blood-thirsty security guard, then I'm as good as dead. What a nice piece of news. Harry almost died, battling the basilisk. Even then, he had the help of a phoenix. And Godric Gryffindor's sword. I have no one……..except for this passive ghost.
"Is there an alternate way?" she asked, although the answer was as clear as Veritaserum. "Like, perhaps I can get his time portkey, and say the same words, or something?"
This time, the Bloody Baron did not meet her eyes. Was that sorrow being displayed on his gaunt, blank face? "The time portkey belongs to Tom Marvolo Riddle." The words were said slowly, and as he delivered it, the ghost settled his hypnotizing orbs on the girl before him. "You will find the portkey hidden in the exact same chamber. Find the hourglass, and you shall find the portkey. Either way, your journey begins in the chamber."
Hermione felt as though she was shot in the chest with a disarming spell. She shook her head, in defeat, and in denial. My journey begins in the Chamber? What journey? The journey to the present, or to the land of the dead?
The answer was obvious. Sinisterly obvious.
********************
"It is time," hissed a cold voice. It was a hiss that was indistinguishable from a snake's. But it was no serpent that had just made the chilling sound. It was a human. "Time to show the world what I can do. We will start with Hogwarts, will we not?"
The answer to the hissing was an impatient swish of a long, scaly tail. "I have waited for too long a time," came the reply. This time, the hiss was that of a snake's. "You will lead me, as my past master had done. I shall obey, if you are worthy of my servitude."
Tom's blood almost froze in his nerves. The basilisk was actually questioning my abilities? How dare it? I have gone through all the trouble, just to gain its acceptance. Flesh of a witch, countless hours of research, and illegal trips to the girls' bathroom. I will prove myself worthy, of the beast's loyalty. I will.
But deep in his heart, Tom had an unnerving intuition that Valar may be a basilisk, but like any other snake, she was a serpent. And serpents were not to be trusted. Not unless you were truly the Heir of Slytherin. I am, aren't I? I am Lord Voldemort. I discovered Salazar's works…………..single-handedly.
He straightened up a little, his eyes running along the smooth longitudes of his wand. Every fibre in his body was in conflict. Who would be the first casualty? Ah, Hortense, maybe. She and her simpering, her whining, her pestering. But there was a certain student that he was longing to get rid of. A particular girl who haunted the girls' bathroom so frequently, that it was getting hard to enter the Chamber without her noticing. He hated her pudgy face as much as he detested Hortense's angular visage. Myrtle. Valar would soon have her first kill.
It is only when love evaporates, when we can truly see someone for who they are. He ran that line though his mind several times, as he visualized the first time he actually locked lips, with feelings present. And I was….electrified. She may not be the most stunning of girls, but there is a certain aura…..
Tom was mulling over his forsaken life, when the basilisk spoke to him.
"Massster, I sensed an unguarded prey….she is a muggleborn. I await your wordssss…"
He jumped. Am I ready for my first kill? "Where is the filth, Valar?"
"Close to Hogwarts's head…but none too close…….lissstening to a ghost."
He frowned a little, as a nagging consciousness warned him that there was something else about the 'prey' that he should know. Of course…..I met Hermione outside Dippet's office. Talking to a ghost? Wait a minute………His blood turned to frost, and out of the blue, a very sharp icicle pierced his mind. She can speak with the Bloody Baron…….
"Valar, servant of Slytherin, tell me about this unarmed prey that speaks with spirits."
"She is a witch…..and her blood doesss not deserve to stain the grounds of my master………she is from the mudbloods."
It can't be Hermione then, thought Tom a little relieved. But just to make sure……..
"Does she have bushy brown hair, and a Prefect's badge on her breast?"
"Yesss, master."
Tom gripped his head by his hair in anger. She told me that she was a Pureblood…….But a little voice in his head was contradicting him. No, she didn't. You assumed that she was. You wanted to believe that the blood of pure magic runs in her veins. Just as you wanted to believe that she is the one.
He let out a cry of anguish, and clutched the cool stone to his chest, to calm himself down. The Slytherin common room was almost empty, and the few students were scattered around the cold room barely paid Tom a knut of their attention. He was strange, chiselled to perfection, perhaps, but still eccentric. That was their opinion of Tom Marvolo Riddle. Only those who were closer than blood brothers to him knew of his alter ego.
His eyes fell on a statue of a king cobra, poised to strike. The figurine's predator-pose was a metaphor for future undertakings. In a way, I am the serpent, and Mudbloods will be my prey. She knew about the Chamber. She knew that I am a half-blood. She knew that she had toyed with the disallowed.
"Hermione,' he whispered under his breath. "Are you ready for the Father of the Slytherins?"
********************
Hermione sat down on the stone cold floor, right outside Professor Dippet's office. The gargoyle that she kicked loomed behind her, while the Bloody Baron hovered in front. In a strange way, it was as though the both of them were sentinels, which guarded her front and back.
I don't believe this, sitting here devising hair-brain schemes to sneak into the Chamber with a ghost as an advisor. First, I arrived here and immediately had a stupid crush on………oh, confound it! Now, I'm racing against time to free myself from this era before he actually releases his Valar. My goals are constantly switching. But now, the true quest has finally shown itself. How can I return?
Her brilliant mind raced and whizzed with bizarre schemes. She clutched the cylinder in her pocket nervously. Should the time comes, to face Valar, I hope it isn't empty. Or I will die where no one will find me. No one, but Tom. Voldemort.
"Do you mind telling me how to get in there, at least? I need some input, you know," she said matter-of-factly, when the Bloody Baron remained as silent as Johnson, after he had been hit with the silencing charm.
"To enter, you must tread carefully. All is not what it seems."
"I know that," she snapped. "First and foremost, I have to be a Parselmouth."
"No," he replied slowly, as though he was unsure of himself. "That is not the First."
"Huh?" asked Hermione, confused. "What are you talking about? What First? You mean that there's an order or something, of what comes first?"
"There is."
This time, the Bloody Baron opened his mouth. "Thou shalt now behold, the Ten Commandments of Salazar Slytherin."
Hermione frowned. It was strange, the way the Bloody Baron switched from 'you' to 'thou'. Even the ghost's voice seemed to have changed. Slightly deeper, though no more impassive than before. Something told her that she was about to listen to the prohibited. But suddenly, her brain registered the fact that he had opened his mouth. If he had no need to move his lips before, why now?
"First, thou must understand,
The commandments, and the banes;
That comes with thy force,
So that thine gift shalt never be lost."
Hermione stared, forcing herself to make sense of the cryptic poem. She blinked. It sounded……gothic, dark, even to the point of being ominous. But there was a better word for it. It was familiar. Though she had never heard anything like that before, her brain seemed to have an ability for decoding the message. By reading between the lines, Hermione realised what the Bloody Baron was trying to tell her. Her stomach turned over.
"Is-Is there……….more?"
Once again, the wraith's grey lips parted, and the nerve-racking, sing-song voice emerged. Hermione had never paid any attention more rapt, than as she now did.
"Second, thou must then seek,
Magic pure, potent, but weak;
The essence of soul, ripped,
Shalt take thee further, to thy keep."
This time, Hermione was shaking not from cold or even fear. She shook, because the understanding that dawned upon her was too huge to be acknowledged. I am just Hermione Granger, Prefect, teenager, and I'm not even a Pureblood! Why am I being told the Ten Commandments of Salazar Slytherin? Can this help me return to where I belong?
"Umm…..Sir?" she whispered. "Why am I being told these………sacred verses? How is this going to help me defeat Tom or find the hourglass?"
Her answer was another verse.
"Third, thou wilt hunt Hogwarts,
For the minion, that guards;
The door, the entrance and the rules,
That holds peril for errant fools."
With each stanza uttered, Hermione turned a shade paler. It was confirmed that her ears were trespassing into regions forbidden to a Muggle-born. It was stated in a book, as old as it was dusty, that Salazar had many devious and cruel traps to punish those who wrongly claimed to be his Heir. These rhymes were one of them, created to warn false power-seekers. At that time, Hermione had dismissed the sentence as a pure falsehood, but now that she knew that those verses really did exist, the book, "An Unabridged History of Hogwarts" didn't seem so flimsy, after all. She preferred Hogwarts: A History, though. It was less dark, and had more relevant information. But now…………
"Fourth, thou wilt stand as one;
And say thy first command;
To thy minion, and I shall see,
If none is as worthy as thee."
Hermione never once drew a breath, while the Bloody Baron was reciting the verses. She was terrified of missing a word, as she scribbled the sacred lines on a piece of spare parchment with her trusty, well-sucked quill. I'm probably the first Muggle-born to hear these things! Her cheeks were flushed with excitement.
Goodness me, she thought. If anyone were to catch me writing the words of the most fearful of ghosts like my life depends on it,, I'll never have an explanation. The now-moving mouth had stared to speak again, and Hermione's quill flew like a wild owl in pursuit of its prey.
"Fifth, thou shalt remain passive,
Unspeaking, and submissive;
And behold, if he lets thee in willingly,
To power arcane, to my legacy."
"Sixth, thou must knowest,
Before delving into my secrets;
That thou shalt be tested once again,
Fail, and thy breath shalt never remain."
Hermione actually raised her hand to halt the Bloody Baron. Her arms were shaking too violently to pen down the words properly. Each verse seemed to be edging a step closer to hinting about never returning. Ironically, the gaunt apparition obliged, and the mouth was closed.
"Fail, and thy breath shalt never remain?" asked Hermione shakily. "What are you trying to tell me? Who will be tested? What test?"
"Seventh, thou wilt now proceed,
Into the clandestine, my innermost deed;
But beware, seeker, of the Eighth,
For it is treachery, that She hates.
Eighth 'twas the virgin encounter,
Between a servant and Her master;
If thine self still remains,
Thou must complete thy destiny and my pains.
Thou haft now arrived at the Ninth,
Thus proving thyself as one of mine;
But dost thou possess the strength,
For what awaits thee at the Tenth?"
Hermione swallowed nervously, and her cheeks were so colourless that she was almost as translucent as the Bloody Baron himself. 'Virgin encounter'? It was not hard to guess who 'She' was, but in Hermione's opinion, those verses alone were enough to cure any tomb raider of their inquisitiveness. Even more direful was the threat of what the Tenth held. She shuddered, as he began to speak. As the words poured out of the Bloody Baron's lips, it was as though someone had suddenly said "Lumos!" in her brain. She had seen the light.
"Tenth is …………"
__________________________________________________________
End of Part 1
_____________________________________________________
Em: How's that for light reading? Oh, and I must apologise, if you have any doubts. You see, I'm not very good at archaic words and terms, so forgive my errors, okay? I'm always half-asleep during English class. =P It's just that I can't imagine anything a thousand years old speaking in everyday English! =O Review, please? I need to know if anyone's reading at all.
Ps: No Poems at the end of this chappie, I'm afraid. I'm done with rhyming! =D
__________________________________________________________________
Now, a little something for my reviewers (luv ya and Merry Xmas!) :
Dear Miss Mina Murray: Merry Xmas, and a Happy New Year to you! May you be showered with gifts, love, and all that you wish for. Too bad I can't mail ya a gift or somethin'.
Dear mrs.shigwa.cobain: *chews fingernail nervously* Thank you for your review, I smiled when I saw that it was you. I hope that you won't be bored, or with regret I shall roar. Okay, how freaky was that? *squirms*
Dear warriorangel15: Don't go yet, I haven't wished you a Happy New Year!
Dear Heart of The Phoenix: Merry Xmas, and a Happy new year. *sings*
Dear Jun: Ooooh! Are you still gonna poke me? I have a Shield of Valour, you know! *laughs mischievously*
Dear Koko: I'm really glad, no, let me rephrase that. I'm extremely jubilant that you love the twists! Sometimes, I wonder if anyone can still think straight, after reading this story.
Dear Lady Nessa Fefalas: Good to see you again! Sorry if I freaked you out with my e-mail. You really sound like a friend of mine, you know. I mean the unicorn-animals-LOTR thing.
Dear Kiki: Merry Xmas, dear!
Dear Emma Ackroyd: Whoa! I never knew that you read my fic! *Salutes this new reader*
Dear Dragonbrat: Sometimes the simplest reviews are the sweetest. No flames, no constructive critism, no nitpicking, no complaints. Just easy, smiles-provoking reviews. You knew that, didn't you? Anyhow, I still wish that your Christmas would be better than mine. *Thumbs up*
Dear Dragoness Kaei: Hold your thestrals, Lady Dragoness! I've updated, and you simply must read it. Can I wish you a Merry Xmas now? Huh? *holds out a gift*