Quest of the Seekers: A New Haven
Year Three at Hogwarts
(----)
Chapter 5: The Chamber of Slytherin
The prospect of this new chamber on the map made Tyler get up having an abundant amount of energy. He went and got dressed in lightning speed. He was about to head out when he saw the gel that Reggie gave him for hair. He decided to try it and then applied some to his hands and shaped his hair just like Reggie told him. He went to the mirror and after he finished, he thought he looked good. He had his hair up in a series of fluffy spikes that made him look cooler than he had ever looked before.
He went to the common room with high spirits and ran right into Morgan in his rush.
"What's wrong with you? Don't you know when there are people in front of you, you don't go into them but around them?" She looked up and saw that it was Tyler. "Tyler?"
"Sorry Morgan, it's just that I feel very happy now."
"Happy?...What in the world made you feel that? Last night at dinner, you seemed distracted and lost after the sorting, even before Regulus said what was going on with him."
"Wow Morgan, I didn't know you were that observant?"
"What do you mean Tyler?"
"I mean that you really paid attention to me in order to get how I felt. Why were you?"
"Don't change the subject," she said a little too fast and started to get a little pink. "You aren't telling me why your mood just changed."
"Oh, I just had a very good sleep. That's all there is to it."
"Tyler, what did you do to your hair?"
"Oh, I put on something that my friend Reggie gave me. What, is it bad?"
"No...you look great."
"Listen, you want to join me to breakfast?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"Wow, you must be hungry."
Strangely, to Tyler anyway, Morgan didn't say anything else after he said that. She also was avoiding eye contact with him. It was like she would look at him when she thought he wasn't looking but turn when he caught on. Tyler just shrugged it off as nothing to worry about.
Tyler and Morgan found a good secluded part of the slytherin table to sit down in. Tyler saw that Jacke was already eating over at the Gryffindor table with a few of his fellow Gryffindors but wasn't joining in conversation; he was just sitting there. He caught Jacke's eye and Jacke gave him a nod and smiled over at him, which Tyler gladly returned.
"Jacke Walker, he's your friend right?"
Tyler saw that Morgan was looking in the direction that Tyler was turned to before toward where Jacke was sitting.
"Yeah...he is...Actually, he's my best friend."
"Your best friend? I always thought that Matt was your best friend."
"Matt is my friend alright, it's just that, with Jacke, it's...different...I can't really explain it to you."
"Try me."
Tyler turned to her with a meaningful gaze. She slightly backed away from its intensity. "You really wanna know?" She nodded slowly and the look in her eyes was enough for Tyler. "Well, Jacke just happens to be the very first friend that I've actually made."
"He is?"
"Yeah," he said smiling at the memory. "We met on the train ride over here during our first year. We instantly became friends before the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station. That's also the time where we met up with Brad and Reggie and all four of us hit it off instantly. It did get hard when we all were split into different houses but we maintained it so far. Ever since that day, we've always been close, especially me and Jacke. Reggie and Brad often say that we could pass off as identical twins that look completely different."
Morgan laughed at that last bit and then looked over at Jacke. She stared at him with wonder and curiosity. "He doesn't seem to be the same way as you."
"No, when you know him as well as I do then you realize that we aren't completely alike. We may have similar likes and dislikes but we're completely different people."
"Yeah, I do remember how he was when I dueled him at the tournament last year. He doesn't have your calm attitude under pressure and he seemed to take more risks than what I've seen you do. He also was a little playful in our duel and he seemed distracted unlike you were."
"Wow," Tyler said interrupting Morgan. "You really got a lot to say on Jacke, don't you? If you want I could personally give you a good word," he said as he nudged her with his shoulder.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Morgan said turning red from anger and humiliation and slapping his arm.
"All right, I'll stop. So what about you? You know a lot about me but I don't really know all that much about you," Tyler said a little embarrassed at the thought of not knowing too much of one of his friends.
"Oh, well, I live with my father close to Ottery St. Paul. My mother died about the time I was 9."
"Oh...I'm sorry."
"Thanks, and it's okay. I'm really over it by now. She got really sick and potions weren't helping much. My dad tries to put a strong face for both of us but I can tell he gets a little sad over it sometimes when he thinks I'm not around. He always tells me "Be strong and you won't ever overpowered", which I do for him and he does for me."
"Wow, you always did strike me as strong," he said honestly.
"Thanks Tyler. That means a lot."
They both stared at each other for a while before Morgan turned away suddenly. Tyler opened his eyes in surprise at her sudden move but dismissed it with another question.
"Morgan, I've always wondered. Why did start hanging out with me and Matt?"
"Oh...you see, I never really had any friends."
"What? When I first met you, you were with the other girls in your dormitory. Aren't you friends with them?"
"No, I wasn't really. I just hung out with them because there was no one else. In case you haven't noticed because of your out of house pals, we slytherins aren't too well liked with the other houses."
"I wonder why?" he asked with sarcasm.
"Hey, I never was a git to anyone outside slytherin," she said and Tyler turned to her. He gave her a piercing gaze similar to the one his father gave due to his slipup about his friends and Chaos until "Okay I was a little, but only if they were annoying first."
"Don't worry, I have my own little experiences with some non-slytherin people. So anyway, why did you start hanging out with me?"
"Oh..." she said turning to her food. "I really took notice of you when you dueled against Jacke Walker last year. All of the other girls and some of the other boys in our year and older said that you were a house traitor especially since you were seen hanging out with a Gryffindor and that you weren't even worth talking to. But when I say you dueling very hard against Walker, the Gryffindor that you were such good friends with, I saw that there was more of you than meets the eye. You looked like a really nice guy so I decided to give you a chance and I must say that I loved...er...liked my choice."
"Well I'm honored."
"Yeah...and Matt and Regulus were with you so I gave them a shot too and found that there great, Matt can be a pain but he's okay."
"Hey, what are you guys just talking about?" called Matt's voice
'Speak of the devil,' thought Tyler. "Oh we're just talking about the new classes that we signed up for last year to take this year."
"Oh, by the way, which did you sign up for? I decided to take Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures."
"Well, I chose to have Care of Magical Creatures only," Morgan said.
"As for me, I chose Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures."
"Well, it seems that we'll be in Care of Magical Creatures together at least," Matt unnecessarily said. "Oh here comes Reckler with our timetables."
Their head of house and potion master, Professor Reckler, was passing out slips of paper out to the slytherin students and handed the three third year slytherins theirs.
"Woo, not a bad Monday," Tyler pointed out. "We have Herbology first, then Double Charms, lunch and finally Care of Magical Creatures tomorrow."
"Look, we won't have defense classes until Tuesday. We have to wait an extra day to find out what Professor Squall's classes are like."
"Yeah, and he doesn't seem like a very old fossil does he?"
"Okay, okay, I heard wrong, don't hang it over my head Tyler."
"Sure I won't...unless you need to be reminded of it," Tyler said earning a glare from Matt. "Well, it looks like the rest of our week is okay. This year's schedule seems great."
"It'll be great now but soon it's going to be looking like torture. Especially when it comes to charms, I'm not too good at that," Morgan said drowning her worries over pumpkin juice.
"Cheer up Morgan, it'll be okay. Regulus usually helps us out if the work is too hard and I'm sure he would help you with your charm work too so stop your blubbering," Matt said flatly.
"Morgan, he's right, except for the blubbering. I'm pretty okay with Charms especially when you have a friend with a knack for charms. My friend Jacke helps me out and I'm sure I can help you out too. Okay?"
"Er...okay why not?"
"Because, you might not get any better," Matt said sarcastically making Morgan hit him over the head and causing him to spit out his latest intake of water.
"Hi guys," a new voice said.
"Hey Regulus."
"Good morning."
"Have a seat."
"Well, I see you all got your timetables. I have to see Reckler later today. All the sixth years do. We have to say which classes we're dropping and which we are going to continue in NEWT level."
"You're on your way to get the career you want," Tyler said proudly to him.
"Yeah, just imagine, all the wonders of the Department of Mysteries open to me. I can't wait."
"You'd better wait Regulus. We'll be down one friend if you leave," Matt said continuing with finishing his breakfast. "Although, ministry secrets do sound good. Any chance of letting me on it?"
"I'll see," he said chuckling.
When the three slytherin third years got up and left the great hall, Tyler hung back and broke away from them.
"Tyler? What's wrong?" Matt asked.
"You're not going to hang with us?"
"No, I have something I want to work on."
"Work on? Classes don't begin until tomorrow."
"Yeah, I know Matt but I already had something planned...with my other friends," he said thinking fast.
"Oh them, well okay, just don't be gone too long. You promised me a wizard chess match today."
"Oh I won't forget. Until then, why don't you practice play against Morgan."
"Like I NEED practice," he said smugly.
"Hey!" Morgan shouted in her defense.
Tyler walked off and headed over to the second floor corridor that was on the map he found. He was nearly there when he ran into Reggie who had come from the direction of Professor Flitwick's office.
"Oh, sorry Reggie, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"It's alright. Where are you going?"
"Oh, just out for a little walk for today. Where did you come from?"
"Me? I came from Professor Flitwick's office. He called for all the members of the Ravenclaw team to see him. He said that he had someone in mind to replace Doris Crockford, our keeper, who left last year."
"I hope you got a good one for your team's sake," Tyler said with a hint of humor, which Reggie caught immediately but decided to play along.
"Oh, I'm sure alright, besides I think that you going to have a problem getting a replacement for your former captain Oakmire. By the way, do you know who the new slytherin captain is?"
"Oh, not yet. Besides, even if I did, I can't really tell you that. Secret weapons, ever heard of them?"
"Okay, I can understand that. I see you're using my gift."
"Yeah," Tyler said touching his gelled hair lightly. "It's great, thanks Reggie."
"No problem. It's high time you fixed up your hair. Sometimes it could get really messy. I'm heading down to the grounds to hang with Brad by the usual tree on the grounds. Jacke is going to join us, how about you?"
"No thanks, I'm going to continue my walk, then do something I've been meaning to do and then join up with Matt and Morgan."
"Alright, see you later mate. I do hope you're going to work on something."
"Classes haven't even started yet."
"Yeah, but figuring that you're trying to do work now, I say that you saved your summer homework for the last possible moment. See ya."
He left with Tyler shaking his head at how Reggie's interest in studies. 'Even though me and Jacke are trying to lighten him up, he's still unbreakable when it comes to work, especially homework. I just hope that Brad doesn't get too influenced by Reggie,' he thought since Brad and Reggie where as close as Jacke and himself.
He continued walking on until he got to the exact part of the corridor on the map. 'Let's see, according to the map, my ancestor's office used to be right here.'
He looked at the door that he knew was a classroom.
'The map says that the entrance to this hidden chamber is around here.' He followed the trail to the room where the indicator led, which turned out to be a girl's bathroom.
"Out of Order" he read silently to himself.
Tyler looked around for anyone and when he realized he was alone, he opened the door and went right in. The bathroom looked a little damp but he saw it was empty. There were a circle of sinks and to the left there were about ten cubicles. From the cubicles, Tyler could hear a little bit of wailing.
'Sounds like a girl,' he nervously thought.
He went to hide on the opposite side of the sinks so that he couldn't be seen when he saw that the sound was coming from a ghost of a girl. She caught sight of him and then made a dirty look.
"What are you doing here?! This is a girl's bathroom. You shouldn't be here!"
"Oh sorry, I just...strayed in here."
"Strayed? I'm not buying it. You came in here to laugh at me, didn't you?"
"Laugh at you?"
"Yeah, all the girls who know me. They think I don't know they tease me. Moping Myrtle. Mourning Myrtle. Poor Moaning Myrtle. I know and I don't like for you to ruin my death!"
She then let out a scream and then flew right into a toilet with the lid closing shut. Tyler just looked at the display with unbelieving eyes when he remembered why he was there. He went back to the map and read the little note of instructions to do at the marker.
Say Open Up in Parseltongue to open passage.
He opened his mouth and then hissed the words nice and clearly "Open Up."
The sinks then did a little shake and then started to move. They spread themselves out and one of them lowered to the ground leaving a space to jump down inside a tunnel or a pipe. He looked at the map again to read the next pair of words.
"Important: The passage to the chamber is very deep underground. There is a trick footstone in the tunnel entrance. Just hiss "Trick Stone Slide" and there will be a good supply of ropes that are charmed to bring its holder up by pulling four consecutive times.
Tyler followed the instructions written on the parchment and hissed out loudly, "Trick Stone Slide"
He heard the sound of stone rubbing against each other and was that one of the stones that made the floor was overlapping the other. Inside there was a small compartment full of the ropes described on the map. He took one and finally did he notice that on the side of the pipe was a hook, which Tyler deduced was to put the rope on. He put on lasso on the hook and tightened it. He threw the rest of the rope down and saw it disappear down the dark pipe.
He was about to jump down when he heard a rustling sound. He turned around with his wand pulled out during that brief second but found that it was only Chaos.
"Chaos, why are you sneaking up on me?"
"I wasn't sneaking, you're just paranoid."
"Well, can you blame me? What are you doing down here anyway?"
"I saw you come in here alone and I decided to come with you. I got bored with staying in my little place and decided to be with you."
"I'm going down this long pipe. Care to join me? It might be dangerous."
"What kind of familiar would I be if I don't help you master?"
"Chaos," he said as his snake wrapped himself to his leg. "How many times must I say it, don't, call, me, master," he said emphasizing every word.
He took a deep breath and then jumped down the hole. He felt like he was sliding down a slope. It would've been fun had it not been for the plumbing exterior. He finally landed on a hard rocky covering that was completely dark. He took his wand out.
"Lumos"
He found the end of the rope and left it at the edge of the slide so he would know where it was if he needed to find it. He took his wand and placed it to the map to read the next pair of instructions.
Say close to the statue of a miniature gargoyle in parseltongue to close the entrance up above.
Tyler looked around and saw a small gargoyle statue on the wall to the left of the pipe and then said, "Close" in parseltongue. He heard something echoing all the way down to where he was and then the sound of something heavy closing. Apparently, the gargoyle closed the bathroom entrance.
Tyler walked on down the trail. There were stalagmites and stalactites coming from everywhere. He kept seeing this display until he came across a big iron door. This door had a good bit of green stone snakes around it to act as a lock. If Tyler didn't know any better than he could've swore that these snakes were actually real.
Tyler looked at the next pair of instructions on the map, which read: Say Open.
"Open," he hissed.
The sound of locks opening was heard and the iron door soon started to move aside revealing a hole and a lit room in the distance.
"Tyler?" hissed Chaos. "Are you sure that this is safe?"
"There's only one way to find out Chaos. Besides, no one could've possibly been here unless my ancestor made two maps to this place. Unless that happened then I'm holding the only way anyone can even know this is here."
They moved into the chamber together and came into a big room, which had a slytherin style décor. There were snake statues and Tyler saw a few giant sized pipes leading to and from the chamber.
"Wow Tyler, what is this place?"
"Well Chaos, according to the map I found at the house, this is called "The Chamber of Slytherin". Let's look around."
Tyler moved throughout the chamber until he came to the end of it. There was a statue of a person who Tyler did not have to guess hard of his identity. He had seen his picture on family portraits and on school tapestries and statues.
"Chaos, look, this is my ancestor Salazar Slytherin."
"Whoa...Tyler, do you mind if I look around?"
"Okay, but don't slither off too far. Stay where I can see you...I don't believe it, you have me acting like my mother."
Chaos laughed at him and slithered off to check out the chamber himself while Tyler stayed at the statue.
'Well, I can tell that my ancestor really knew how to decorate,' he thought with sarcasm. 'I wonder what is so special about this place. Surely, if a place like this doesn't have it's secrets then it wouldn't be secret. Might as well look at the map to see if there is anything.'
He scanned the parchment again and saw there were only two lines left on the parchment. The next one read: To call forth the Guardian, hiss "Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four" and he will emerge.
'Why do I feel that my ancestor had a very big head?'
He turned to the statue and hissed very clearly to it. "Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
His ancestor's statue started to open it's mouth revealing a giant hole. He heard Chaos slither towards him and bare his fangs for protection. Tyler heard a faint hiss coming from the statue and then he was something start to come out. It was a giant snake. It slithered out and stood up tall and Tyler thought it must be about 20 or 30 feet high. Tyler didn't recognize the species of the snake but he had a feeling that he seen something like this before like the answer was in the back of his mind. The snake just stood there and looked at Tyler with it's big yellow eyes. The stare was piercing and many feelings were shared during the exchange such as wonder, excitement, curiosity, surprise and many others.
Tyler walked closer to it with Chaos by his side and asked simply "Who are you?"
It answered back immediately. "I am the Guardian Basilisk for Slytherin."
'A Basilisk? So this is how one looks like up close. Grandpa told me about these snakes but he never actually showed me a picture or anything.'
"Who are you young one?" it asked.
"Oh...I am Tyler and this is my faithful familiar Chaos," he said introducing him and his snake in the most introducing voice he could muster.
"Are you by any chance related to Master Salazar Slytherin?"
"Yes, I am. I'm a direct descendant of him, why?"
"I was commanded by him to only obey him and those who share his blood. Other than that, I answer to no one."
"So, if you answer to no one else then how come you talked to me when you weren't sure of who I was?"
"I smelled the scent of my old master and thought he had returned to me. But, I saw you and became confused."
"Smelled my ancestor's scent? How?"
"It's coming from your side."
'My side?' He looked at his side but found nothing that would give off his ancestor's scent until he felt his wand holster and then it dawned on him.
"You were smelling the scent he left over on his wand. I just happen to be his wand heir."
"Oh I see. Well, what is your bidding master?"
Tyler let out a frustrating breath of air and put his face in his hands in annoyance. He could hear Chaos talking to the Basilisk.
"He hates when I call him master so you'd better not also."
"Excuse me," he said cutting in shutting Chaos up. "I was wondering if you have a name by which I can call you."
"I have no name at all. My old master always called me Basilisk."
"Basilisk? Well, excuse me Basilisk but do you mind if I call you something instead of that."
"Your wish is my command."
"Well...how about...I call you Basil, short for Basilisk? Would you be okay with that?"
"Whatever you wish."
"No, I'm asking you if you like it."
"Whatever you wish."
'I don't believe this' he thought frustratingly. "Don't you have a will of your own?"
"No."
"Fine, Basil it is. Answer me from that."
"As you command master."
"And, Don't, Call, Me, Master. Call me Tyler please."
"Very well."
"Excuse Me Basil. But what is your purpose for being here? You said you were a Guardian, what exactly do you guard?"
"I protect and serve the Slytherin bloodline to the fullest of my abilities in any way I can."
"So, you've been hidden in this chamber for around a thousand years waiting for a descendant of my ancestor to let you out so you could carry out their commands all this time?"
"I was waiting all 1000 years. I was let out of my seal of about 35 years ago by a young man named Tom Riddle who was also of Slytherin's blood."
"My Cousin?!" he hissed angrily.
"Your cousin released me and I did his bidding since it was my duty to follow those of Master Salazar Slytherin's blood."
"What did he command you to do?"
"He sent me out through a series of tunnels and pipes all inside the school and attack students of his choosing and try to kill them with my penetrating gaze. He called these sets of humans that I attacked "Mudbloods"."
'That's right,' Tyler thought. 'A basilisk can kill you with a look.' He then became angry when he put thought into what his cousin used Basil for.
"You attacked innocent students just because they were muggleborn?" he hissed angrily at Basil.
"I did only my duty and what I vowed to Master Slytherin."
Tyler looked at Basil and then to Chaos then to put his head down. 'So Tom Riddle was in this chamber too. I can't believe he used something of the Slytherin family for his sick twisted pleasure. He was even sick when he was at school here.' He looked at his watch and realized that he had been gone for almost 3 hours.
"Basil, get back into the statue. I will return another time and I have a few more questions to ask."
"It will be done."
The basilisk headed for the opening in the statue but Tyler suddenly had one more question that he felt couldn't wait.
"Wait! I have one more question before you go." The basilisk stopped and then he asked his question. "You said that you could kill with a look. So how come I didn't die when you looked at me in the eye?"
"Simple, only parselmouths are immune to my look when I'm using it's power. Also, I can control the power in my eyes if I or my master doesn't wish death on anything I gaze at."
"Thank you Basil. Now, rest until I return."
The snake went inside and Tyler hissed, "Close" to the statue and it sealed Basil up again.
"Come on Chaos, I better get back before Matt and Morgan go out looking for me."
"Okay Tyler. I happen to be happy to be away from Basil. He doesn't have any self esteem and that makes me mad."
"Yeah, I know. No will of his own. Imagine having to serve anyone of a certain bloodline no matter who it is."
On their way to the rope exit, Chaos said one final thing.
"I'm going to look long and hard for a way to get down to the chamber by the tunnel network like Basil said."
When they got to the rope, Tyler pulled on it four times and he was shot up the passage back to the entrance in the bathroom of that loud ghost girl.
(---)
End of Chapter 5SwollenFridge: Great to hear from you again. I'm glad that this story is turning out to be your favorite. I'm honored.
Tigercub15: I didn't get what you were trying to ask about Lily and James. But your question on how old Tom Riddle is. If he was 69 in the 5th book then right now he would be right at 50.
Author Notes:
Well, Tyler has found the Chamber of Secrets. To those who ask why the map says that this is the Chamber of Slytherin, there is a good answer to that. Salazar Slytherin named this place the Chamber of Slytherin but after he left Hogwarts, the public called it the Chamber of Secrets.
The next chapter will have the start of the school year's classes. One favor to ask, if anyone knows the name of the previous Care of Magical Creatures teacher then feel free to tell me and help me out.
Review.