As for my reviewers:
Wink at J00: Request granted!
JaimynsFire: Me, demented? JUST, demented? I was hoping for something stronger. hehe. As for Snape, he's testing his baits. *chuckle*
t.a.g.: Not directly to Salazar Slytherin, because I am not entirely certain what this guy Salazar was all about. The books don't give us such a big idea of what he was exactly save for a rather one-sided person. *coughs* But there is a good reason why Harry is there, that Snape has to figure out, true enough. You are getting close. Kind of. *chuckles*
On with the story.
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We could not get in. Although the passage was now known, it was impossible to get inside. No professor can speak parseltongue, and that is the only way the door to the Chamber would open. Building frustration made me swear about Potter and his abilities, earning glares from both Minerva and Lupin.
But blast Potter and his Parseltongue! How the hell can I save him when I cannot even get inside the place he is? He could very well be dead already, and all I am doing is casting random charms at a sink like an idiot. Lupin puts a hand on my wand arm.
"Severus, it is no use. We will not get into the chamber through the front door," he says, and I lower my wand even if I scowl, because I know the bloody werewolf is right. There is dripping from a toilet drain or pipe that is not allowing me to concentrate, as if wanting to tell me something. But I don't know what. I feel like kicking the sink.
"Is there no other way to get there that is accessible without Parseltongue?" Minerva is asking. I am quick to answer, as a let out to my frustration more than anything.
"Rest assured, Minerva, that had there been any other way to the Chamber I would already be using it even if I had to crawl through it, rather than be here and listening to mindless prattle."
My voice is scathing and resentful, and I see that it makes Minerva flinch. It was not proper of me to speak that way when in all accords there was no prattle between us three at all. I shut my eyes in the silence, interrupted only by the dripping of one faulty toilet drain. I should not have said that. But it is far more difficult to control my tongue when I am sleepless and worried beyond measure with things I feel are slowly slipping out of control.
"Severus, anger won't help y--"
"Hush!" I cut Lupin off, but with no venom this time. Finally, I can clutch at a hope, even if it is not entirely appealing. Drains! Pipes! Wasn't that what the basilisk from the Chamber was using to get around and back to the Chamber? There IS another way in. Without telling anyone why I am doing it, I curse a toilet to smithereens. And not just the toilet. Its drain, too, so that I will be able to fit through it. Moaning Myrtle emerges screeching, but for some reason, she flees when she sees me. Perhaps word got around that I know ghost-affecting charms.
Lupin and Minerva stare at me as I lower myself into the pipe.
"Severus, what on EARTH are you doing?" Minerva asks me in that irritated way she used with me when I would refuse to understand how to transfigure a rat in a cup. I look up at her.
"I said I would crawl if I have to, and I shall. I am going into the Chamber; that is what I am doing. Lupin, either give me that infernal map or follow."
Of course, Remus wordlessly lowered himself down behind me. I do not want to describe what we had to crawl through, but I can attest to its being smelly, slightly squishy and disgusting. By the time I was out of the drain pipes and into the ones no longer in use, I was positively rabid from all the anger and the ruminations of what would befall our charming Mr. Potter when I got my hands on him. My currently rather filthy hands on him.
The Chamber was musty and damp. It didn't help in lifting my mood any.
"We are in the by tunnels, Severus." Lupin's croaky voice indicated he was as suffocated by noxious smells as I was--probably more so, considering his acute senses. I nod, rather impatiently.
"Which way to Potter, quickly, Lupin, we don't want him to rot in here!" I snap at him. He looks up from the map, again with that hurt look in his eyes I had managed not to provoke since that day I brought Potter in from the battlefield. That look that makes me feel I have let down Albus. I growl as he points, and walk past him. I don't have the time or energy to give to apologies. Let's hope he understands I did not mean it.
I find myself in a duelling hall flanked with snake heads. It is quite intimidating even to me. I can only imagine what it would have looked like to a second-year. I look around for Harry.
"Potter! Enough is enough! You will come out right this minute!"
My voice reverberates off the walls, and there is no reply, no reaction to my call. It scares me, and I do not scare easily. But I had thought that I had left all mortal perils behind me, that danger would never be so high around the students or myself after Voldemort. At least not so soon. I get my wand out and clutch it as hard as I used to when I still bore the Mark.
"Lumos!"
The Chamber is illuminated. At the far end, I can discern a nebulous mass pulsing around something I can't see. But my feeling of foreboding grips my heart and sends chills down my spine. I run there, and as I approach, the light from my wand clears up the darkness and I can see better.
It is Harry, and he is standing straight, as if someone Petrified him. But he is not petrified. He is staring straight ahead and gasping for breath as he is surrounded by what seems to be a dark cloud. It pulsates angrily about him, and it keeps licking him like flames lick a log that won't be burned just yet. Wisps of it try to penetrate him, sharp like daggers, and every time, Harry flinches or moans, but is unable to do anything else, and every time the wispy blade is denied access into the boy's body.
I do not exactly know what it is that I am seeing, but I am certain this is dark magic out of the ordinary. I point my wand at it, uncertain of what to cast against it initially, but then I decide to do what I know will get the creature's attention a bit.
"Expecto Patronus!"
I watch as my silvery basilisk attacks the dark cloud of a creature. It does attract its attention. But, unlike in the case of dementors, it does not disappear. Instead, it engulfs the Patronus and consumes it. I am ready to cast it again, but it seems I have somehow angered the entity, which leaves Harry and assaults me instead.
I never thought that through all the morbidness of my life and the several occasions I have been subjected to the proximity of several dementors, I would still have to experience the feeling of utmost pain, despair and horror. I feel all the pain I felt in my life, but amplified. I feel all the horror I have seen, but through my victims' eyes. I feel my heart straining as if under crucio. But that is not the worst of the thing. The worst is that I see... I see what it wants to do, and I visualise it. I live it in the few seconds I am under its spell. This is not a regular entity. And it wants me punished by eradication.
"Arte Nigra Incantae!"
And the pain lifts. My vision clears. I am staring up at a steadfast Remus Lupin, eyes shining wide with anger and defiance, standing between both me and Harry, protecting. The mass of darkness screeches. Remus keeps the silvery net coming from his wand, barring the entity until it disappears.
The ensuing silence is deafening. I am still getting my bearings when Remus calls my name.
"Severus, you need to help me. Harry is under severe shock. I dare not use any spell on him."
"He must not fall asleep!" I croak. Every inch of my body is shaking.
"He is unconscious, I'm afraid." Lupin says. Apparently he has no idea how this is positively lethal.
"No! We have to wake him! Now! Right now!" I clamber on my knees and get to the boy. He is a bloody mess again, from all the bleeding from his scar. But that is not what scares me. It is the fact his eyes are half open. I put my hand to his carotid. The pulse is irregular but strong.
I shed more light against his face to inspect him, and the boy shuts his eyes. He is not unconscious, thank whoever is responsible.
"Potter. Can you hear me?" I ask in a low voice. He slurs something I do not understand, but at least he tries to respond. I pull out one of the potions I always have on me. You can never be too energetic in a school, especially if the school is Hogwarts without Albus. The boy breathes more easily as it goes into his system and gets the much-needed energy boost. Harry is more alert. His eyes are haunted by fear.
"How.... how did I get here?" he mutters as Remus and I help him up.
Remus looks chagrined and worried.
"I am afraid that you came here in a trance of some sort, Harry. This is quite serious. I had to use the strongest banishing charm I knew that remotely fitted what was attacking you, and it still gave a worthy fight."
"What does it want with me?" Harry asks in a young voice.
"I don't know, Harry," Lupin says gently. But I do. And I hear myself explain, as each word gets the migraine a few notches stronger.
"It wants -you-, Mr. Potter. It wants you as its host."
There is a stunned silence from both Lupin and Potter. Then Harry angrily retorts.
"I have a -name-!"
I do not understand why he is so flustered.
"Yes, and I called you by it."
"You tell me all these things, and you are so... so... so calm! How can you call me by my last name when you tell me that I am still not done with Dark Magic?"
Harry's voice amplified by the echo in this place is madness. Remus comes to my rescue.
"Harry, be reasonable. It is very straining for all of us. Why don't we get out of here and talk about it in a cozier place?"
Fortunately, Lupin conjured up two brooms and we flew back. Harry was brooding and would only ride with Lupin. He is still brooding, curled up in the armchair in the Main Hall, and sullenly drinking hot chocolate. I want to slap him to his senses. But the brat is so frail and with dark circles under his eyes and that bandage around his head... it worries me that the scar won't stop bleeding now. I contain my frustration by pacing.
"Happy now, Potter? I am not calm now. I am on the verge of being violent! Is this a more appropriate reaction to your plight? Does it change anything?" I snap at him as Remus is trying with his eyes to warn me not to.
"Yes it does!" Harry yells back at me. The he sips his chocolate and says in an embarrassed voice, "It makes me feel I am not a coward."
"You are such a child still, Harry." I am careful of my wording as I sink down on a chair. I feel so tired.
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double Christmasy rations...