Draco Malfoy, Seeker Of Souls

Chapter Three

Help From Salazar Slytherin

**~~~~~**

Tom and I crept along under the invisibility cloak towards the girl's bathroom that was continuously out of order. I didn't figure any female pupils would be lurking around, but in Hogwarts you couldn't know for sure. I half expected Harry and Company to be out for a nighttime jaunt. They had gotten in trouble multiple times for doing just that.

Once we reached the bathroom I pushed the door open and whispered to Tom, "Do you remember this?"

He nodded. "Well."

We were suddenly accosted by Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunted the bathroom where the Chamber of Secrets was hidden. She couldn't see us under the cloak, but she knew we were there. She sniffled and dripped toilet water on our covered heads. "Who is it? Don't keep hiding from me. I know you're there! I can hear you breathing!" At this point she burst into tears. "You think you can all sneak around in here and laugh at me, just because I'm dead! Well, it's horribly cruel indeed!" She snuffled into the transparent sleeve of her robe.

Tom shuddered. "She's the same as she was the day my Basilisk killed her!"

I elbowed him. "Shut up!" I stepped out from under the cloak.

Myrtle jumped back (as well as she could while floating in mid-air). "It's you! Are you a ghost too, now?"

I gave her a superior grin. "I don't need to be a ghost to be invisible. I'm magical!"

She quirked an eyebrow at me. "I don't think you're so wonderful." She flicked a drop of water at me.

"Dry up, Myrtle. I'm going down to the Chamber now. Go back to your toilet like a good little girl."

She flew through the air to sit directly in front of the movable sink, which had been repaired since I blew it to smithereens earlier that year. "If you go down there I'll tell Harry Potter! He'll stop you!"

I laughed. "We're friends now. I'm sure he'd join me." I sneered and slashed my hand right through her. Needless to say, she moved. As for Harry going down to the Chamber again, I sounded more sure of myself than I felt. It would be better if Harry never knew.

Meanwhile, I heard a distinctive hiss next to me. I jumped. I had forgotten that Tom was a parseltongue. The sink obeyed his command and it slid out of sight, exposing the pipeway down to my old hideout. I crawled in and was soon sliding down over the slippery metal. The cloak fell off of Tom and the two of us yelled and whooped the whole way down until we bounced onto the pillows that Ginny and I had put there the year before to cushion the fall.

Once we were up and walking, I began to ponder my stupidity of coming down here with the Heir to Slytherin himself. I looked at him nervously. "Say Tom…I'm not going to be corrupted down here, am I?"

He glanced at me, a slightly gleeful expression on his handsome face. "You mean the pool? Don't be afraid, little one…it's lost all its magic by now. Even though it was awfully funny to see you and Ginny hop right in the water in your skivvies!"

I tried to hide a smile. It had been fun, even if it was twisted.

**~~~~~**

Soon enough, we were in the main part of the Chamber, staring up at the huge statue of Salazar Slytherin. I pulled out my wand and handed it to Tom. "Go on…wake him up, will you?"

He gave me a funny look. "That's why you dragged me down here? To wake up a statue?"

I nearly stamped my foot in irritation. "I know you can do it! He's alive, I tell you! He was alive when Ginny and I were down here. His eyes glowed green. Only you can wake him up!"

Tom just looked at me like I was mad. "That was me watching through the statue, using its eyes with my declining magic. That's how I could see you and control you. The statue itself was never alive."

I was disappointed and feeling dumb. "Oh."

Tom shifted awkwardly and patted me on the back gingerly. "Well, don't be such a prat. Maybe you can wake him up. There's not much I can do with this little wand of yours." He handed it back to me. "My power is still pretty spent. But this place is generally evil. Maybe you could bring him to life. You have Slytherin blood in you too."

I cradled my wand. "I have to try." I kneeled down in front of the statue and closed my eyes. I opened one of them to see what Tom was doing. He was standing there, gawking at me. "Humor me, will you?"

He shrugged and kneeled down beside me. "I'm game."

I closed my eyes firmly again and concentrated with all my might. "Oh, great Slytherin whose blood courses through our veins. We ask your help to find your Heir Virginia Weasley. I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, beg your assistance."

"You're dreadfully amusing, little fellow…" Tom was saying, but his voice faded out. My eyes popped open, but I wasn't sitting in front of the statue and Tom wasn't beside me. Instead, he was sitting high above me on a throne in the middle of a round stone room. There were bright balls of golden light swirling around the ceiling and each one was humming with life. My mouth dropped open and I gazed up at them. "Souls…" I breathed.

"They are indeed Souls, Seeker. Which one do you come to claim?"

I jerked my head around to look at Tom. He was floating an inch or two off the throne and he had a small white form in his arms with red hair swirling as if it had a life of its own. It was Ginny. I reached out my arms instinctively. Tom smiled and his eyes glowed green. "I am Salazar Slytherin. Why have you awakened me, Seeker?"

I moved towards him and I found I was floating as well. "Ginny Weasley's, Master. It's her Soul we have come for." I gestured towards her.

"Ah, but she is sleeping and is not ready to awake yet. You must find her first. Travel to Spain and retrieve her body. Then you may come back for more instructions. You must find the Hall of Lost Souls, but you can not take what you seek without a body to fill." Slytherin blinked slowly and drifted off the throne. He held Ginny's bare body in one arm and held out a large golden key with the other. It was at least as large as my hand and glittered gloriously in the white light. "Travel to Spain, Seeker. You must have the body. The time is now. Her Soul grows weary."

I reached out and took the sparkling golden key from Slytherin as a giant golden Soul sunk out of the sky right over my head. I reached for it, but as my fingers grasped it it grew little wings and flew away. "Come back!" I mouthed silently as I fell backwards into nothing.

**~~~~~**

I opened my eyes and found myself staring up at the darkness that was the ceiling of the Chamber of Secrets. I was lying on my back, drenched in sweat. Tom was trying to pull me up to a sitting position. "Are you alright? Oh, Draco, did you see what I saw?" His eyes were glittering. "There was this room full of light…gold balls! And I was Salazar Slytherin and words came out of my mouth that I couldn't control!" He was obviously delighted.

"You mean, you were there too?" I raised my hands with a jerk. There was no key. Had I lost it? Where had it gone?

"Oh yes, I saw what you did. I handed you a golden key and I was holding Ginny. I can still feel her body in my hands." His arms made a cradling motion and he sighed. "I don't know how you did it, Draco, but it was purely amazing. I'm not even convinced that Voldemort could have pulled magic like that out of a statue."

I allowed Tom to pull me to my feet. It was all so puzzling and so maddening. "Do you think we actually went anywhere?"

Tom hugged himself and looked up at the statue before he started walking towards the exit. "I doubt it. I think it was a vision." He looked beautifully tortured in the dim torchlight. He was such a mystic.

As for me, I had no idea what it was, but it gave me a glimmer of hope. I needed to find that golden room, but first I needed to pay a visit to the Black School with Snape's help. But before anything I decided that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley needed to know what was going on. I felt dreadful having Snape and I lying to them about what was going on. It was against Dumbledore's better judgement to keep it a secret from her parents, but the Ministry would have possibly spoiled everything. Even so, I thought it was time that Ginny's parents knew. It was with this plan in mind that I left the Chamber of Secrets with new resolve.

**~~~~~**