A/N: And here we go...right into the middle of the action. This chapter
holds foreshadowing for the RP, as well as sets the stage for Ael's sixth
year.
~ Chapter Seven - Wolfen ~
Late one evening in January, Ael was sprawled across her bed, reading the parselmouth book that Zel had gotten her for Christmas. "The first known parselmouth was Salazar Slytherin blah blah blah." she read aloud, and skipped a page - then stopped. There, halfway down the page and painted in shining silver and green, was a dagger. Not just any dagger, this one seemed to have a hilt made of two entwined, living snakes - of a type she'd never seen before - that held three bright emeralds in their coils. The blade was fairly plain and gracefully curved, but that was ignored due to the strangeness of the hilt and the fishlike snakes that composed it.
"Slytherin's Dagger," she read, "was created by Salazar Slytherin as the anti-blade of Godric Gryffindor's sword. It holds untapped powers that can only be accessed by a parselmouth, but as there are no parselmouths trustworthy enough to test what powers it holds, this remains unknown. A basilisk is said to guard the dagger, although its hiding place is unknown but rumored to be the fabled Chamber of Secrets. In the event that the basilisk died, Slytherin charmed the serpent so that its body would create an heir from its own flesh in the form of an egg, then incubate it in its own blood." She stuck out her tongue. "Yech, that sounds really gross."
"The infant basilisk would remain dormant for several years, then awaken and search out the dagger before moving on to find a food source, which is usually the parent basilisk. However, in cases where the basilisk does not provide enough food, the young serpent may venture forth and search out live prey, including wizards."
["Blood."]
THAT was not in the text. Ael's head jerked up as the near-forgotten voice whispered its chilling message from a few floors down. ["Ssso hungry.find food."]
"It -is- a basilisk," she whispered. "A -baby basilisk- is in the school."
~~~~~~
"Harry!"
Harry Potter looked up from staring into the common room fireplace. "Ael?" he asked, sounding confused and somewhat sleepy. She guiltily remembered that it was almost midnight, but continued down the stairs. If the basilisk was keeping him awake too, he might as well know what it is.
Wordlessly, she shoved the open book into his hands and let him read for himself. After a few minutes, he gave the book back. "So, it's a hatchling, then." It wasn't a question.
"A -hungry- hatchling," Ael agreed. "And judging by the last thing I heard it say, it might not wait much longer before finding a tasty wizard snack, and I don't mean chocolate frogs."
Harry nodded absently as he stood up, preparing to leave. Mid-motion, he changed his mind and looked back at her. After a long moment, he jerked his head towards the door and they left together under the refuge of Harry's invisibility cloak.
"Just out of curiosity," she whispered as they made their way toward Myrtle's bathroom, "why did you decide to bring me along? You've got a reputation for going into these things alone, and I haven't known you to let someone else come without a great amount of arguing on their part."
"You're the only other parselmouth I know and trust," he explained under his breath. "You also have an impressive amount of spells that you've learned. Not to mention I've learned the value of lycanthropic comrades."
The rest of the trip was made in silence. Upon arrival at Myrtle's bathroom, Harry hissed, "Open," to a particularly grimy sink. With a swirl of light, it was replaced by a large, dark, damp pipe, which he took no time at all in sliding down. Shrugging, she likewise jumped in, and the next few seconds became one thrilling roller coaster ride to the bottom, completely in the dark.
"Less glamorous than I expected," Ael remarked as she followed him deep under the school, crunching rat skeletons underfoot. Brackish water seeped around her sneakers, soaking her socks and chilling her ankles.
"I was no more impressed," Harry agreed, ignoring the filth and pulling out his wand. Ael did likewise, and followed him to the next chamber within the caverns. Part of the ceiling was caved in, but a man-sized hole had been created near the pile of rocks caused by the cave-in. There were scorch marks on the floor, as well as several sets of footprints and bits of shredded snakeskin.
"If you see something moving, close your eyes," Harry advised as he turned to step through the hole. He waited for her to catch up, then turned to the nearby wall. Set into it was a huge round door made of cast bronze, with nine basilisks seemingly carved into it and reaching out from the leftside hinge, clamping their jaws onto pins on the wall.
["Open,"] Harry hissed to the door, and the basilisks released the clamps as another bronze basilisk slithered out of the hinge and past their noses. As it vanished into the hinge again, the door creaked open outwards, revealing an enormous chamber hall of snake head statues, deep pools of black water, and a sixty-foot tall bust of Slytherin at the far end that had its mouth open. An old snake skeleton, twice as long as the Slytherin statue was tall, was strewn in front of the open mouth, surrounded by old blood and ink stains.
["Intrudersss..."]
Ael glanced around nervously at the voice, looking for any sign of scales glinting or eyeshine. Harry appeared slightly anxious as well, but kept searching for any sign of Slytherin's Dagger rather than risking Petrification (eye contact wouldn't kill either of them, thanks to their glasses, but if Harry was an immovible statue it wouldn't help Ael any and vice versa).
A glint of silver caught Ael's eye, and she looked up to see a small, snake- engraved knife, cleverly camoflagued into the forehead of Slytherin.
"Harry, there!" she called, pointing up to it.
["PROTECT!"]
A huge mass of scales and slime barreled out of the shadows, slamming Harry across the side and knocking his wand out of his hand. The basilisk - for that's what the creature was - wrapped its long tail around The Boy Who Lived twice as if to constrict, crush, and then eat him...which it probably intended to do, had Ael not acted.
Being cautious not to catch the serpent's eye, she snatched up Harry's fallen wand as if drawn to it, feeling a faint strain of phoenix song as she did so. Concentrating hard, she called up the feelings of surprised joy and acceptance she'd felt when Zelgadis admitted he liked werewolves and wanted to be her friend...
"*EXPECTO PATRONUM!*"
With a melodic cry, a silver-white, swan-sized bird erupted from the end of the wand, spreading its impressive wingspan and glowing a bright, fiery aura. The phoenix Patronus cawed loudly, then dove for the basilisk's face.
Though Harry's eyes were closed, a faint smile tugged at his lips as his mind returned to another battle between noble phoenix and basilisk several years prior. However, the battle was not to replay the same as before, thanks to a new element - Ael.
The lycanthropic girl whipped out her own wand and shot a ball of slime into the basilisk's eyes, temporarily blinding it. While the Patronus raked its illusory claws over the serpent's snout - causing it to loosen its grip on Harry - she transformed to werewolf and lunged for the snake.
The poor hatchling didn't know what had happened until it was sent, reeling and dizzy, to crash unconscious on the stone floor.
"Nice spellwork," Harry complimented her as she helped heave the slack coils off him and handed him his wand. "I've never seen a Patronus quite like that one."
"It's a new development," she explained. "Although my wand has phoenix feather at its core, I know yours is not just any old feather, but one from Fawkes and therefore more powerful than mine. If you hadn't dropped it where I could get to it, it wouldn't have worked."
"Well, the means don't matter. What matters is that you have progressed remarkably since your first day." He grinned at her. "Now let's get what we came for, shall we?"
The pair approached the statue, and Ael sent her Patronus up to retrieve the gleaming dagger. The phoenix pried it free of the crumbling stone and flew overhead, vanishing midflight. Harry caught the dagger by the hilt as it fell.
Upon contact with his hand, the two strange-looking hilt snakes sprang to life, craning their sinewy necks to look up at Harry, emerald eyes glinting in awe. ["Massster'sss touch,"] they hissed in eerie unison. ["Massster hasss come back for usss!"]
["Excuse me,"] Ael hissed politely, ["but what do you mean?"]
The twin serpents blinked at her in surprise, raising their heads to examine her. ["Two Massstersss..."] their double-voices spoke. ["Massstersss of ssserpentsss...long have we waited for your return. Pleassse, take usss and ussse usss asss you will. We are your ssservantsss."]
Harry and Ael exchanged a glance. "You can keep it," Ael said. "You're the Boy Who Lived, you deserve it more than me."
"No," he disagreed. "It wants to be used, and it would just sit on a shelf or buried in a closet if I took it. Besides, I have a feeling you'll need it." He held the knife out to her, hilt-first.
After a moment's thought, she reached up and accepted the dagger. The hilt- snakes hissed in contentment under her hand like a cat purring. ["Ssshe- Massster..."]
She looked back at the unconscious basilisk hatchling. "What about him? He's got nothing to guard, nothing to eat...but we can't take him with us unless we blind him, and that would be beyond inhumane."
Harry pondered this, then snaped his fingers. "You need a familiar," he decided, and pointed his wand at the snake. With a few well-chosen words of Latin, the basilisk shrank and became a moderately-sized python - considerably less dangerous.
"How's that?" he asked.
She smiled. "Perfect."
~
To be concluded...
~ Chapter Seven - Wolfen ~
Late one evening in January, Ael was sprawled across her bed, reading the parselmouth book that Zel had gotten her for Christmas. "The first known parselmouth was Salazar Slytherin blah blah blah." she read aloud, and skipped a page - then stopped. There, halfway down the page and painted in shining silver and green, was a dagger. Not just any dagger, this one seemed to have a hilt made of two entwined, living snakes - of a type she'd never seen before - that held three bright emeralds in their coils. The blade was fairly plain and gracefully curved, but that was ignored due to the strangeness of the hilt and the fishlike snakes that composed it.
"Slytherin's Dagger," she read, "was created by Salazar Slytherin as the anti-blade of Godric Gryffindor's sword. It holds untapped powers that can only be accessed by a parselmouth, but as there are no parselmouths trustworthy enough to test what powers it holds, this remains unknown. A basilisk is said to guard the dagger, although its hiding place is unknown but rumored to be the fabled Chamber of Secrets. In the event that the basilisk died, Slytherin charmed the serpent so that its body would create an heir from its own flesh in the form of an egg, then incubate it in its own blood." She stuck out her tongue. "Yech, that sounds really gross."
"The infant basilisk would remain dormant for several years, then awaken and search out the dagger before moving on to find a food source, which is usually the parent basilisk. However, in cases where the basilisk does not provide enough food, the young serpent may venture forth and search out live prey, including wizards."
["Blood."]
THAT was not in the text. Ael's head jerked up as the near-forgotten voice whispered its chilling message from a few floors down. ["Ssso hungry.find food."]
"It -is- a basilisk," she whispered. "A -baby basilisk- is in the school."
~~~~~~
"Harry!"
Harry Potter looked up from staring into the common room fireplace. "Ael?" he asked, sounding confused and somewhat sleepy. She guiltily remembered that it was almost midnight, but continued down the stairs. If the basilisk was keeping him awake too, he might as well know what it is.
Wordlessly, she shoved the open book into his hands and let him read for himself. After a few minutes, he gave the book back. "So, it's a hatchling, then." It wasn't a question.
"A -hungry- hatchling," Ael agreed. "And judging by the last thing I heard it say, it might not wait much longer before finding a tasty wizard snack, and I don't mean chocolate frogs."
Harry nodded absently as he stood up, preparing to leave. Mid-motion, he changed his mind and looked back at her. After a long moment, he jerked his head towards the door and they left together under the refuge of Harry's invisibility cloak.
"Just out of curiosity," she whispered as they made their way toward Myrtle's bathroom, "why did you decide to bring me along? You've got a reputation for going into these things alone, and I haven't known you to let someone else come without a great amount of arguing on their part."
"You're the only other parselmouth I know and trust," he explained under his breath. "You also have an impressive amount of spells that you've learned. Not to mention I've learned the value of lycanthropic comrades."
The rest of the trip was made in silence. Upon arrival at Myrtle's bathroom, Harry hissed, "Open," to a particularly grimy sink. With a swirl of light, it was replaced by a large, dark, damp pipe, which he took no time at all in sliding down. Shrugging, she likewise jumped in, and the next few seconds became one thrilling roller coaster ride to the bottom, completely in the dark.
"Less glamorous than I expected," Ael remarked as she followed him deep under the school, crunching rat skeletons underfoot. Brackish water seeped around her sneakers, soaking her socks and chilling her ankles.
"I was no more impressed," Harry agreed, ignoring the filth and pulling out his wand. Ael did likewise, and followed him to the next chamber within the caverns. Part of the ceiling was caved in, but a man-sized hole had been created near the pile of rocks caused by the cave-in. There were scorch marks on the floor, as well as several sets of footprints and bits of shredded snakeskin.
"If you see something moving, close your eyes," Harry advised as he turned to step through the hole. He waited for her to catch up, then turned to the nearby wall. Set into it was a huge round door made of cast bronze, with nine basilisks seemingly carved into it and reaching out from the leftside hinge, clamping their jaws onto pins on the wall.
["Open,"] Harry hissed to the door, and the basilisks released the clamps as another bronze basilisk slithered out of the hinge and past their noses. As it vanished into the hinge again, the door creaked open outwards, revealing an enormous chamber hall of snake head statues, deep pools of black water, and a sixty-foot tall bust of Slytherin at the far end that had its mouth open. An old snake skeleton, twice as long as the Slytherin statue was tall, was strewn in front of the open mouth, surrounded by old blood and ink stains.
["Intrudersss..."]
Ael glanced around nervously at the voice, looking for any sign of scales glinting or eyeshine. Harry appeared slightly anxious as well, but kept searching for any sign of Slytherin's Dagger rather than risking Petrification (eye contact wouldn't kill either of them, thanks to their glasses, but if Harry was an immovible statue it wouldn't help Ael any and vice versa).
A glint of silver caught Ael's eye, and she looked up to see a small, snake- engraved knife, cleverly camoflagued into the forehead of Slytherin.
"Harry, there!" she called, pointing up to it.
["PROTECT!"]
A huge mass of scales and slime barreled out of the shadows, slamming Harry across the side and knocking his wand out of his hand. The basilisk - for that's what the creature was - wrapped its long tail around The Boy Who Lived twice as if to constrict, crush, and then eat him...which it probably intended to do, had Ael not acted.
Being cautious not to catch the serpent's eye, she snatched up Harry's fallen wand as if drawn to it, feeling a faint strain of phoenix song as she did so. Concentrating hard, she called up the feelings of surprised joy and acceptance she'd felt when Zelgadis admitted he liked werewolves and wanted to be her friend...
"*EXPECTO PATRONUM!*"
With a melodic cry, a silver-white, swan-sized bird erupted from the end of the wand, spreading its impressive wingspan and glowing a bright, fiery aura. The phoenix Patronus cawed loudly, then dove for the basilisk's face.
Though Harry's eyes were closed, a faint smile tugged at his lips as his mind returned to another battle between noble phoenix and basilisk several years prior. However, the battle was not to replay the same as before, thanks to a new element - Ael.
The lycanthropic girl whipped out her own wand and shot a ball of slime into the basilisk's eyes, temporarily blinding it. While the Patronus raked its illusory claws over the serpent's snout - causing it to loosen its grip on Harry - she transformed to werewolf and lunged for the snake.
The poor hatchling didn't know what had happened until it was sent, reeling and dizzy, to crash unconscious on the stone floor.
"Nice spellwork," Harry complimented her as she helped heave the slack coils off him and handed him his wand. "I've never seen a Patronus quite like that one."
"It's a new development," she explained. "Although my wand has phoenix feather at its core, I know yours is not just any old feather, but one from Fawkes and therefore more powerful than mine. If you hadn't dropped it where I could get to it, it wouldn't have worked."
"Well, the means don't matter. What matters is that you have progressed remarkably since your first day." He grinned at her. "Now let's get what we came for, shall we?"
The pair approached the statue, and Ael sent her Patronus up to retrieve the gleaming dagger. The phoenix pried it free of the crumbling stone and flew overhead, vanishing midflight. Harry caught the dagger by the hilt as it fell.
Upon contact with his hand, the two strange-looking hilt snakes sprang to life, craning their sinewy necks to look up at Harry, emerald eyes glinting in awe. ["Massster'sss touch,"] they hissed in eerie unison. ["Massster hasss come back for usss!"]
["Excuse me,"] Ael hissed politely, ["but what do you mean?"]
The twin serpents blinked at her in surprise, raising their heads to examine her. ["Two Massstersss..."] their double-voices spoke. ["Massstersss of ssserpentsss...long have we waited for your return. Pleassse, take usss and ussse usss asss you will. We are your ssservantsss."]
Harry and Ael exchanged a glance. "You can keep it," Ael said. "You're the Boy Who Lived, you deserve it more than me."
"No," he disagreed. "It wants to be used, and it would just sit on a shelf or buried in a closet if I took it. Besides, I have a feeling you'll need it." He held the knife out to her, hilt-first.
After a moment's thought, she reached up and accepted the dagger. The hilt- snakes hissed in contentment under her hand like a cat purring. ["Ssshe- Massster..."]
She looked back at the unconscious basilisk hatchling. "What about him? He's got nothing to guard, nothing to eat...but we can't take him with us unless we blind him, and that would be beyond inhumane."
Harry pondered this, then snaped his fingers. "You need a familiar," he decided, and pointed his wand at the snake. With a few well-chosen words of Latin, the basilisk shrank and became a moderately-sized python - considerably less dangerous.
"How's that?" he asked.
She smiled. "Perfect."
~
To be concluded...