Chapter Twenty-One

Corey Willowby and the Chamber of Secrets

Rasputin wasn't too happy about leaving his nice warm box by the fire only to end up being carried off by Corey into a cold girl's lavatory. At least he wasn't the only one; it appeared that Corey's cat Cheshire, Danny's owl Redwing, and Taylor's owl Rigel were also there. The owls looked around with interest while Cheshire rolled over on his back, ready for another catnap.

"Do you think anyone will notice the door being unlocked?" Taylor said nervously, "I'd hate to be trapped in here, especially since it's supposed to be off limits and all."

"You don't want to be trapped in here? How do you think I feel?" A voice suddenly whined from around them. A phantom breeze passed by them, causing them to look around. Cheshire suddenly stood up, arching his back.

"Calm down, boy, I think that's just Moaning Myrtle," Corey said.

"Yes, just Moaning Myrtle, just poor, pathetic, nobody cares about Myrtle," the ghost said, sounding miserable.

"Harry told me all about you," Corey explained.

"Harry Potter?" Myrtle said, brightening in a way only a ghost could or should. She brushed back wisps of her incorporeal hair, smiling at them. "So he did notice me? What did he say about me?"

"He said you were very helpful. You helped him find the Chamber of Secrets," Corey said quickly. "You know, he couldn't have found it without you, you're very clever."

"Why, thank you," she said giggling, sniffling only slightly now. "Who are you?"

"I'm Corey Willowby, and these are my friends, Danny, Doug, and Taylor," he said. "Do you mind if we walk through your bathroom? That is, you see, we need to get down to the Chamber," Corey explained.

"Oh, but you can't," Myrtle said with surprise. "They sealed it. you know, and then they closed my bathroom, and now no one ever visits me anymore," Myrtle said, threatening to break into another whimpering sob. "It's a personal affront, I know it now. I didn't even get to go to the party. I probably wouldn't have found anyone to dance with, even if I had gone!" she wailed.

"Nonsense! Why, I'm sure any student ghost type boy would gladly go out with you! You just need to come out of your stall every now and then, that's all," Corey assured her emphatically.

"Oh really?" Myrtle asked, sounding interested but suspicious. "Like who?" It was at that point that Corey realized he didn't remember seeing any male student ghosts around, and wondered if there were any. Still, the school had been around quite a long time.

"Oh, anyone," Corey said quickly. "You just need more self confidence, really. I mean, I know being a ghost is miserable and all that, but maybe if you didn't wallow in it so much, maybe you could find someone cute to hang around with."

"You're just trying to be nice to me so I'll show you where the Chamber is, aren't you?" Myrtle asked warily.

"Well, maybe that's what I was thinking when I first came in here," Corey admitted. "But seeing as how you're such a nice ghost and all, I think you really should take some initiative. Next time there's a dance ghosts are allowed to go to, I think you should go."

"Would you go with me?" Myrtle asked, floating closer and batting her eyes at him. Corey blinked back. "I mean, well, perhaps you could introduce me to some people and maybe stay with me until I feel more… confident."

"Sure, Myrtle," Corey said slowly, "but right now, we've got to get down to the Chamber. It's really important."

"Oh, of course, of course!" Myrtle said, giggling. "I wonder what Olive Hornby would say if she knew a mortal was going to take me dancing!" she said gleefully, heading over to the sinks.

"You do realize what you've done, don't you?' Doug whispered to Corey as they walked behind her. "Ghosts are allowed to go to the spring dance, you know."

Corey glanced back at Doug with an expression that showed quite clearly that he hadn't realized that at all. Groaning softly, he quickly caught back up to where the others were standing.

"This is the one. I've seen all sorts of people go through it over the last few years," said Moaning Myrtle. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? Corey, do you mind my hair this way?"

"It's fine, Myrtle really," Corey assured her, looking at the sink with the snake on it. Danny already had her wand out, looking over the spell she'd copied, shaking her head.

"This is a really complicated spell. I'm not going to be able to break this alone, especially considering who put it here," Danny said.

"We'll use the synchronous spell and do it together," Corey agreed. "Four magics are better than one they say." One by one the four looked over the spell that Danny had copied, Doug pausing to work out the wording in his head several times before passing it on. It was an eight-verse chant, and it all had to be said backwards to break the seal. In fact, none of them had even attempted to do anything like this in class above five words. Corey waited impatiently for each one to pass it along, each one muttering slightly to themselves as they got it. Reading through it once, he passed it back to Danny.

"All right, I'm ready," he said, getting glares from the others.

"You lead then," Danny said, trying not to sound annoyed for obvious showing off. "Since you're the only one who has it down pat."

"Don't worry, I've been listening and I'm sure you have it," Corey said, taking Danny's hand.

The others joined hands as well as Corey cast the spell to put them all in harmony, his hand raised just as the others raised their wands, all pointing towards the sink and the invisible seal they knew was protecting it. With a steady voice Corey began, hearing the others chanting the rhythmic verse in time, feeling his own building power begin to mingle with Danny's then Taylor's then Doug's, the long verse giving time for the four swells of magic to create one solid force. As the last word was spoken, the power suddenly dissipated and a sound much like shattering glass could be heard from in front of them as a spray of tiny sparkled lights scattered through the air.

"I don't believe it, we did it!" Danny said, but sounded quite tired indeed.

"Yeah, but that's just the beginning," Taylor reminded her wearily. "You still have the potions, right?"

"I'm on it," Danny said, taking out one of the vials from the pouch and drinking it down. "What am I supposed to say, anyhow?"

"I dunno, we didn't talk about it in that much detail," Corey said, trying to think back. "Open sesame?"

"Open what?" Doug asked, looking at him oddly.

"Never mind, just try something," Corey urged her. Shrugging at the others, Danny turning around and tried to concentrate on the snake.

"Open sesame," Danny hissed. But as soon as she said the word 'open', the sink began to tremble, and the four students took a giant step back as it slid away, revealing a dark, sinister pipe.

"Open what?" hissed Rasputin. "I'm hungry. Where are we going?"

"Brilliant, Corey, it worked," Danny said approvingly, eyeing the basilisk.

"I noticed that," Corey agreed.

"And Rasputin says he's hungry."

"So what else is new?" Corey grinned. "I'll feed him when we get back, that way I can bribe him into not telling Dad about it. But Rasputin might be able to get into places we can't down there, and since he speaks a snake language, it should protect him from any sort of traps that might be in there. In fact, maybe we should let him down so he can go first," he decided.

"If anything happens to Rasputin, your Dad is gonna kill you," Taylor said as Corey heaved Rasputin up and slid him down the hole. "In fact, he'll probably kill all of us."

"Hush! Let me listen!" Danny snapped as the four of them huddled near the open pipe. After a moment there was a hissing noise. "He's down, and I think he's okay. And he wants to know what's for breakfast."

"I guess the only bottomless pit down here is the one in that lizard's stomach," Doug smirked, moving out of the way as Corey climbed into the pipe.

With one last shove Corey slid down the slimy hole, quickly covered in gunk as it twisted down in the darkness, reminding him of the toboggan slide at the Christmas carnival his first year. As he hit the ground, he rolled slightly to the side to get out of the way, feeling around to try and find Rasputin. Instead, he heard a meowing wail as a very unhappy Cheshire landed nearly, walking gingerly on his mucked up paws and trying to shake it off of them one by one. Moments later, Doug appeared, complaining loudly about the smell, then Danny and at last Taylor, followed by the two owls, swooping in and somehow managing to have come through slime free. By then, Corey was busy trying to clean some of the slime off Cheshire with a spell, while Rasputin took it upon himself to scout ahead, having realized that the sooner they got this over with, the sooner that he'd get fed.

"So far so good, I think," Corey said, trying to wipe off his own robes. "Does anyone have a clue what we're looking for down here?"

"Information about the Cauldron," Danny said impatiently, taking out a lantern from her pocket and restoring it to normal size.

"Well we knew that much," Corey said. "Watch out for traps, Mom once told me there was a ton of them down here. Don't touch anything," he added as they came to a partially caved in area. "Well, except rocks, when we have to," he amended.

"I'd rather not even touch those," Taylor grimaced, working his way through the tight tunnel. Danny, can you see Rasputin?"

"No, I can't hear him either, I think the potion wore off. Hang on while I grab another," Danny said from in front of them, trying to get a hold of her pouch.

"I hope you brought enough," Corey said, pushing ahead until he was right beside Taylor.

"I brought enough just in case we needed to unlock Parseltongue seals. I wasn't expecting having something down here I'd actually have to converse with," Danny admitted.

"Use it sparingly then, let Rasputin know that you might not always understand him. He's pretty smart for a lizard, I'm sure he'll figure out a way to warn us if there's danger or something," Corey said.

"I dunno, he doesn't seem to be all that smart to me," Doug said. "All he ever does is eat, sleep, and look menacing."

"He says there's a door up ahead," Danny informed them, heading up to join Rasputin.

But before she got all the way to it, Rasputin hissed and the snakes in the door seemed to come alive, slowly opening to reveal the chamber within. Danny inhaled in complete awe as she stepped in, a strange feeling beginning to creep through her. What power he must have had to accomplish this! Not to mention the unbending will that had forced him to build it in the first place. It had always been that unwavering will that she had always admired, in him as well as her uncle, and something that she wished she could have… torches flickered to life, illuminating countless statues of serpents and a large statue of Slytherin himself, a token perhaps, to leave as a reminder of the lasting impact he had here, and on the school.

"Danny, are you all right?" Taylor asked her as they stepped in. She nodded, pulling herself out of it and looking over at the others. Doug grimaced at the statues.

"Snakes, I'm sick of snakes. Why does it always have to be snakes?" Doug asked. Corey snorted.

"It was built by Slytherin, dimwit, what were you expecting, puppies?" Corey grinned. "Come on, Indy," he added, following behind Rasputin.

"What did you call me?" Doug demanded, but was distracted by the basilisk suddenly stopping in the center of the chamber, testing the air with his tongue. "Is something wrong?"

"He wants to know which direction to take. He says he smells water in most directions, and two ways where there isn't any," Danny translated.

"Water?" Corey repeated thoughtfully.

"Down the pipes I'd think, away from the chamber," Taylor said. "We should check the other ones first."

"Water is good, that means there might be another way out if we get into trouble," Danny said.

"I doubt any of us brought any Gill Potions though," Corey said.

"Look here, I think there's another room over here behind the Slytherin statue," Doug pointed out.

"Don't go near it," Corey warned, "especially without running curse tests on it."

"I'm not a first year, you know," Doug protested. "I already ran some tests. It's got another seal on it, rather like the one upstairs, only bigger."

"Bigger?" Danny asked, looking at it thoughtfully. "It's going to be harder to break."

"You know, if that one is sealed by Snape too, I bet it goes to that room the Apprentice's built. It might be worth looking into," Corey said. "Let's head there first."

The four of them joined hands again and in perfect synchrony chanted the words again, following Corey's lead as before. But as the energy from their magic blended and burst towards the seal, the spell suddenly pushed aside before it finally dissipated, leaving them all drained and discouraged when their spell finally broke, causing them to sink to their knees.

"It's no use, Corey, we didn't even make a dent in it," Danny said.

"Maybe the first one tired us out too much," Taylor suggested.

"No, I think Mom might have helped him with this one. We might be able to get passed one of them, but there's no way we're going to get passed it when they team up like that," Corey said, slowly standing up. "We still have that other route to try."

"Where's the other way, Rasputin?" Danny said, realizing belatedly that she said it in English. But the monitor basilisk must have understood at least in part of what was going on, because it turned and walked slowly up the center of the chamber and into the open jaw of one of the snake statues. Suddenly there was a trembling sound as the jaw of the snake dropped all the way to the floor, leaving a gaping passage behind it. No one said anything for a long moment.

"I don't remember Harry or Mom saying anything about that happening," Corey finally said.

"I'm sure they didn't mention everything," Danny replied, standing up beside him and helping Taylor up as well.

"I don't think we should go in there," Doug decided, getting up. "Maybe we should go back up."

"Then everything we've done so far would be totally pointless," Corey said. "I didn't come this far to turn back right when it's starting to get interesting."

"Me either," Danny agreed, rummaging out another bottle and drinking it. "Stay behind if you like, but I'm going on at least. I have to," she added, a strange sensation going through her, knowing it was true. The other three gave her an odd look. How could they understand, she thought to herself. How could she explain that she was meant to come here?

"If you go, I'm going," Taylor said. Doug finally got up.

"Well, I'm not staying out here by myself. Lead on then," he said, gripping his wand tightly. Danny hissed softly, pausing to listen before she nodded to the rest. Taking a deep breath, Corey led them in, quite unprepared for what he was about to see. Torches burst into flames, lighting up the chamber around him, and Corey knew with certainty what he was looking at.

The pomp and circumstance of the outside chamber was without doubt only window dressing…like an ancient tomb filled with traps an false rooms. This one, it seemed, was also built with a false chamber, just in case anyone ever got that far. And that was when, of course, the guardian of the chamber came to dispose of them; the ancient basilisk that Harry had rid the school of ten years ago. But Corey knew that he had not passed through the door that they had just entered, a door which could only be open… by a basilisk. He had little doubt of that now, and as he heard his heart pounding in his chest, he tried to let it sink in that the chamber in which he now stood in was the true Chamber of Secrets.

A large stone desk took up one side of the back wall with instruments both easily recognizable and not, alongside a corner bookcase paned in glass long caked by dust. A dark symbol had been painted on the floor in red, although none of them wished to imagine what the red color was from. They could perhaps guess from the startling skeletal figure shackled against the far right wall, dead for over a thousand years. Inscribed upon the wall beside the crumpled form were the words, "Death awaits all who defy the will of Slytherin and his heirs!"

"I don't think that was written by Salazar," Danny whispered.

"Voldemort was here, or rather, Tom was," Corey agreed. "Don't touch anything," he said, enunciating each word for emphasis.

"Who do you think he was? Or she?" Doug asked, carefully stepping around the symbol to get a better look.

"He," Taylor said with certainty after studying the skeleton a moment. "I say, I knew Salazar wasn't a likable chap, but I didn't think he'd stoop to this and in the school no less."

"Does anyone recognize the symbol?" Danny asked.

"No, but look, the outside edge has an item protection on it. It's meant to contain a powerful item of some sort," Corey pointed out.

"Like the cauldron?" Doug asked.

"Perhaps, it's hard to say," Taylor shrugged. "You don't suppose this man could be Janus Craw and he's been dead here all along?"

"No, Janus didn't leave until after Salazar was buried, remember? It was Janus that helped build his tomb," Corey reminded them. "Doug, be careful."

"Don't worry, I have every intention of being careful," Doug assured him as he looked over the items on the desk. "There's a book laying out."

"Don't read it," Danny warned. "Here, let me do that. You can cover me."

"Why you?" Doug challenged her.

"Because I'm a Slytherin," Danny retorted, "now get out of the way."

Muttering her identify spells she cautiously sat down, chanting spells to reveal to her any hidden powers the book might have. The book began to glow as the spell started to work, but suddenly the pages started flipping on its own. As Doug tried to contain the book, Corey dove towards Danny to knock her away, inadvertently hitting the desk and knocking off one of the instruments into the symbol. There was a sudden flash, and Danny found herself alone, surrounded by mist.

Awakened again…how long has it been? And he is gone now, isn't he? I should have known, in fact I did know, that although my blood ran through his veins it had been too muddied to be of any true use. And what of you? No, no. Your blood is pure but you are too weak to serve. Pity.

It hadn't taken Danny long to figure out what the voice was. It was an imprint of memory attached to the Chamber of Secrets itself, left behind to record the events that had taken place there over the course over the centuries. Which meant, Danny realized, that it also must have within it all the knowledge that had been discovered or kept here, and all the Secrets within it. Still, such things could be dangerous and manipulative, even to those it wished to help. Often Lucius had spoken of the Diary he had consulted, reduced to an ink soaked relic, and Danny had heard tell enough in Hogwarts about what had happened to Harry. Had this room's imprint then given Voldemort the idea to create the Diary, so that his work too could be preserved?

"Do you remember Dagda's Cauldron?" Danny asked carefully. The mist suddenly began to lift, and Danny found herself standing in the Chamber again, but this time, it was different, for in the center of the room was a large Cauldron, bubbling with a thick porridge like substance even though there was no heat beneath it. The tall man who stood before it she recognized at once as Slytherin himself. He sifted a powder through his fingers and into the Cauldron, the mixture turning an unhealthy shade of green as he picked up a book, making a notation within it before ladling out a sample to test.

Just then, a thin, dark haired man wearing a robe with a Ravenclaw insignia entered, followed by a rather large serpent basilisk perhaps six feet in length. The bedraggled man seemed calm, but not completely pleased to be there.

"What is it now, father?" The man asked with a stoic expression. His words sounded strange in her ears, but for some reason, Danny found she could plainly understand them.

"Tell me what you see," Salazar said. Salazar's son sighed.

"Concerning what?"

"The Cauldron, boy, the Cauldron," Salazar said impatiently to the other wizard, looking back at the mixture. The man turned to it with a frown, looking back at Salazar.

"I see many innocent people dying from the famine," his son said quietly, "because you chose not to follow Gryffindor's advice on how to use it."

"Please, I hear enough of that dribble upstairs, I won't hear it in here. If the Muggles want to ruin their farmland with war, it's not our concern. Feeding our protégés are one thing, but I did not risk life and limb to bring this Cauldron here to feed undeserving mud eaters."

"If they eat mud it's because they can't find anything else," his son said.

"I asked you here to See, not to preach," Salazar snarled at him. "Do you not realize that the Cauldron is more than just an endless food source? It is substance without matter… an endless supply of a workable, versatile material without costing one ounce of outside resource. With minimal effort and ingredients, it can be temporarily altered to make the entire array of potions needed for the school. Consider, within seconds with just a small amount of sleep sand, I am able to create enough Sleeping Potion to put the entire school to sleep."

"And with another ingredient you could make enough poison to kill them," he said.

"So is that what you believe me capable of?" Salazar asked, frowning in disappointment. "I think the only poisoning here is the kind done by that adopted mother of yours. The students are our future, Icarus, and our blood must carry on. It is pointless to gain control of the present if it can't continue into the future, and I very much intend to make sure it does continue. With your help, we can be certain of it."

"Well, I'm afraid you won't hear like I have to say, because moving the Cauldron isn't going to protect it. It'll still be gone within a week to a location beyond my ability to see," Icarus said.

"Impossible," Salazar said. "No one can get in here without my help, no one. Not even my most faithful of apprentices can get in without Sssagawrath's assistance."

"If you wish to believe that, I cannot stop you," Icarus said evenly. "You asked me what I saw and I told you."

"Do you still see my influence extending on this school for generations?" Salazar squinted at him.

"Yes, I still see that," Icarus said quietly.

"Good, then there is still hope," Salazar said. But what exactly he meant by that he did not say, for the basilisk, attracted by a wandering scent, suddenly slithered out the door, coming back a moment later with a auburn-haired man with a thin mustache wearing a Slytherin robe. He nodded respectfully to Icarus before turning his attention to Salazar.

"Here are the test results on the potions we made last week, m'Lord. I'm happy to say you won't be disappointed. In all cases, they retained the properties and strength of whatever ingredient we added to them," the man said.

"Well done. I think I'll take this to Gryffindor himself," Salazar said, his look betraying a deep satisfaction at being able to rebut another of his arguments.

"He'll probably ask you where it is again," the auburn haired man said knowingly.

"Let him ask, he'll never find it," Salazar said evenly. "And even if he did, with his mixed blood, he would never get out of this room alive. The best part is, I wouldn't even have to lift a finger," he said, reassured by the thought.

Danny was suddenly surprised as the mist started to return and envelop her again, and she was left wondering about what she just saw, wondering if she should ask more. But then she began to get the feeling that perhaps she might have been gone a lot longer than she might have realized, and began to worry about the others. The more she thought of her own time period, the more the mist begin to fade, and suddenly she began to see her friends, huddled over something. That was when she realized it was her own fallen form.

She blinked and rubbed her eyes, feeling a strange tongue flick against her face and heard the hoot of an owl. Realizing the basilisk just kissed her, she made a disgusted noise and sat up to the exclamations of the three boys around her.

"Thank God you're all right! You are all right, aren't you?" Taylor asked in a panic.

"What happened?" Corey asked.

"The room, it spoke to me," Danny said, trying to clear her head. The other three stared at her. "This room, it's charmed with a memory charm of Salazar's making, and everything that happens in here gets added to the memory," Danny explained, feeling more alert. "I think I might have found out some of what we needed to know. Anything in the books?"

"We haven't dared looking at them, we've been more concerned about you," Doug said. "The book on the table seems to have potion formulas in it, but it's cursed."

"I think I figured that part out," Danny said dryly, standing up. "It's going to take us forever to try and countercurse this room to go through it, and this room's memory seal is probably chalked full of all sorts of useful things. We're just going to have to come back some other time. It'll probably be morning soon, if it isn't already."

"Come back?" Taylor echoed, not too thrilled with the idea.

"If we have to, we have to," Corey said, helping Taylor get Danny back on her feet. "But first I want to make sure nothing else got attached to you during that memory transfer, Danny. Those charms have lingering effects sometimes, you know."

"All right, but let's not do that here," Danny said. "If you don't mind, I'd really like to get out of this room. I think I've had enough secrets for one night."

"I couldn't agree more. Besides, I feel like I'm going to drop of exhaustion," Doug said, stepping out of the chamber, followed by Danny and Taylor. But just as Corey began to step out, the entrance began to shake, and as the others turned around to look, the jaw of the snake statue they had climbed though snapped shut.

Only one of impure blood has ever tried to leave this room and lived, a hissing voice boomed in Corey's head. And you are not He.

Out of two small dragon statues to either side of the entrance came a foul green mist, and Corey's blood ran cold as he realized the trap he had fallen into. He quickly muttered a spell to clear the air but it was too much, and it was seeping in from all directions. Before he could try another spell, his head began spinning wildly, only barely aware of his screaming friends on the other side of the statue, trying desperately to get to him.

He fell to the floor, breathing in what little air was still free of the gas, and found himself thinking of his brother and real parents, wondering if he was about to meet them again. I hope not, Corey thought to himself in a coughing fit, feeling his skin tighten, I'd hate to have to explain how I died to them. As he began to lose consciousness, he suddenly heard a snap and felt a tremble as the door reopened. Just as he was beginning to think there was a glimmer of hope, a baleful red eye stared into his.

Grabbing onto his stiffened, stony limbs, Corey's three friends managed to pull him out of the gas filled chamber. But even as they got him into the next room, the trembling ground continued to get stronger and stronger.

"Hurry! We've got to get him out of here!" Danny said in a panic, picking up his shoulders as Doug grabbed his legs.

"Wait, where's Rasputin? And Cheshire?"

"Don't look, you idiot, the basilisk has its eye patch off!" Danny snapped over the roar of the shaking cavern. "RUN!" she ordered as they awkwardly tried to get Corey to the door. Taylor didn't waste another instant, taking off after them towards the door just as the larger two snake statues by the door began to wobble. As they scurried through, the statues came crashing down followed by a heavy cloud of rubble, covering them all in a thick layer of dust. Danny, Taylor and Doug, all huddled over Corey's paralyzed form, slowly sat up as the dust finally settled and the trembling came to a stop, all of them turning their attention to Corey's grey face.

"He's dead, isn't he," Doug said. "This is all my fault. I never should have let him in there alone."

"No, it's my fault, I forgot something that I heard the room say about no one of pure blood getting out alive," Danny said. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Come on, stop this. He's not dead yet, okay? We need to get him back upstairs."

"How? You know what those pipes are like," Doug asked.

"Well, one thing's for sure, it doesn't look like we're going back in there," Danny said, gazing up at doorway, entirely blocked with rubble.

"No, Danyelle Nelson, you are most decidedly not going back in there," said a gentle but stern voice behind them.

The three of them looked up to see Dumbledore, Snape, and Craw hurrying over to them. Danny couldn't make up her mind whether to feel relieved or frightened of that fact.