Chapter seven: Into the snake's den
"Ow, you stood on my foot." Ginny whispered.
"Shut it Weasely." Malfoy hissed.
Harry Potter wondered how he got himself into situations like these. He was stooping in the darkness, with Pansy Parkinson flush against the front of him, holding the invisibility cloak up with one hand and his wand with the other. He, Ron and Hermione barely fit under the cloak anymore, he didn't know what he was thinking when he agreed that he, Malfoy, Parkinson, and Ginny could all go.
"Potter." Hissed Parkinson furiously as she stopped dead. "What is that!"
"I've got a knife in my pocket you silly bint." He snapped, horrified that she'd think that of him.
"Not THAT idiot! THAT!" and she pointed.
Ms. Norris was slinking around the corner ahead of them.
"Bugger." Muttered Ginny from underneath Malfoy's chin.
Ginny was taller than Pansy, and Malfoy was taller than Harry. When they practiced fitting under the cloak together, they found it was best if a girl stood right in front of a boy. It was uncomfortable for Harry to walk with Ginny's hair in his face, and likewise Malfoy had a tendency to bowl Pansy over if she stopped and he didn't. Gruggingly, they'd agreed to walk like this, in the interests of not getting caught.
"Potter, tell me the cat can't see us." Pansy hissed.
"I think she can... everyone move to the edge of the corridor." They shifted over slowly and quietly as Ms. Norris grew ever closer.
She turned her lamp-like eyes on them, and started yowling for her Master. Their hair stood on end as they waited silently. Filch wheezed into view seconds later, looking just as bad tempered as always.
"What is it my sweet, caught someone have you?" He said, squinting around, trying to see through the darkness of the corridor. Harry could see his nostrils dilating as he searched. Filch held up a lamp and moved around the corridor, coming close to touching Pansy at one point.
Out of nerves Pansy jumped back and her rear banged into Harry's pelvis, then she nearly fell forward from the impact. Harry caught her by the hips and simultaneously hunched over in pain, making their position even more awkward than before. Amazingly enough, they manager the whole incident silently, and Filch eventually moved on.
Mrs. Norris continued to stare for awhile before reluctantly following her Master.
"That was close." Breathed Ginny as she let out the air she was holding.
"Hands off potter!" Pansy snapped, pushing his hands off her hips.
"Well, if you hadn't...." Harry began.
"He wasn't going to get me..." Pansy snapped back before he could finish.
"Shut up both of you, let's just get going!" Malfoy hissed.
They all reluctantly moved forward to the end of second floor corridor, where they stopped outside of a girls' toilet bearing an "out of order" sign. They stepped in.
Pansy was the first to fling off the cloak and step away with an over dramatic gesture of disgust.
"You didn't have to come at all." Harry reminded her through clenched teeth.
Malfoy had to step back to put space between himself and Ginny, who seemed petrified in place. Harry looked over at them, and took notice of Ginny's stature.
She was rigid, her fists clenched and her eyes wide as she stared at one of the faucets on the wall as though it were a snake.
"Ginny..." He began and a warm tone, but was cut off by a mournful shriek.
"Harry!" Harry groaned in response.
"Hello Myrtle." Harry replied automatically, turning to see the specter as she floated through the door of her toilet.
"It's been ages." Myrtle moaned miserably. "Why haven't you come to see me, you promised back in the prefects bathroom, but I never saw you..."
"Sorry Myrtle, I've been busy."
"We don't have time for your fan club Potter!" Malfoy spat.
"Prefect's bathroom?" Pansy asked. "When were you in there?"
"Fourth year, for the TriWizard... Cedric let me..." He trailed off. Pansy saw the haunted look on his face, and remembered what Granger had said about him blaming himself. Pansy decided to take his mind off Diggory.
"And she was in there?" Pansy asked suspiciously. "With you?"
Harry thought he'd take a moment to torture Malfoy.
"She's in there all the time, watching the prefects bathe." He said with a smile, his eyes flicking to Malfoy. He was not disappointed. Malfoy's face contorted with shock and disgust, before embarrassment colored his cheeks.
"You watch the prefects bathe!" Pansy hollered incredulously.
"sometimes." Myrtle said with disinterest, which did nothing for Malfoy's complexion.
"Are we going to do this or not?" Ginny asked in a hollow, low voice. Harry nodded and approached her.
"Are you sure you're alright. Maybe you should just stay up here..." Harry suggested, touching her arm reassuringly. She shook her head.
"I've been meaning to ask you to take me down again for ages.... I.. I need... to see it again... I've got to know... that it's dead... that there isn't anything left there... that.... That he's not there..." She said, her voice still hollow, but her eyes wide with awe.
Harry nodded, understanding. He knew what was behind those deadened eyes. It was the same for him when he thought of Sirius.
"I don't reckon I could do with going back to the death room... you're braver than me, you know?" Ginny's eyes filled with tears.
"I miss him too Harry..." She whispered, and took his hand.
"So do I." Draco said quietly, and only Pansy heard. She didn't know who Potter and Weasely were talking about, but Draco's meaning was very plain. The death room was where his father had been caught, and Draco had never seen him again.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Pansy said in a low voice, trying to keep everyone on task. She insisted on going to keep the peace, but it seemed she would also serve to keep every one on track as well.
"Right." Potter said, and stepped up to the second faucet from the end. What he said next wasn't English, it wasn't even a human language, but everyone understood its meaning.
The faucet expanded and warped into a large hole, big enough for someone to slide into.
"That's it!" Malfoy exclaimed. "That's the entrance to the chamber of secrets! The legacy of the great Salazar Slytherin!" He was rather put out.
"If you want snakes and other types of tacky displays, wait till we get down there." Harry said. He removed his wand and conjured a very long rope. He tied off one end to the pipe beneath the last sink and threw the rest of the rope into the gaping tube.
When he started to take off his robe, he noticed Ginny was shaking.
"Ginny..." He said, throwing his robe over the last sink and walking over to her. "You don't have to do this... really, it's dead, you saw it before." Harry reassured her.
"I... I know you killed it but... I need to make sure he's not there." Harry opened his mouth to protest but Ginny stopped him. "They aren't your nightmares Harry... you ..." Then her eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry Harry... your nightmares are probably worse than anything I can imagine...." She looked ashamed of herself, then she put on a bright smile. "I promise I won't be too much of a basket case down there." She said, then stepped up to the tube. Harry stopped her.
"Let me go first." He said, and pulled her back.
He took one last look at the bathroom, with the odd group assembled in it: Malfoy looking at Ginny like he'd never seen her before- Pansy, looking impatient- Ginny, smiling in a way that looked rather sad- and Mrytle, eyeing Malfoy from the rafter's with great interest- Then climbed into the hole and slid down.
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Hermione wondered how she got herself into situations like these. She was walking down the corridor to the transfiguration hall, and Professor Snape's new rooms, with a potion in her pocket that she planned to slip the potion's master.
Her mind wandered back to the great hall- had it only been a week ago? – when the ceiling gave and she opened her eyes to see Malfoy shielding her with his own body. Then last night when he'd told her how she could repay him, she began her work with Blaise Zabini, who seemed indifferent, if not scornful of her presence.
And now she was walking down the hall hand in hand with him. The irony of the situation did not elude her.
She looked over at the dark boy. His face was impassive, and he didn't look at her at all. She sighed and wondered whether life would ever be normal again. Then, remember all her past end-of-year adventures with Harry and Ron, she realized that this was quite normal after all, the only thing that changed was the company.
Still, it was enough of a change: She trusted Harry and Ron, after all. She didn't know how Blaise would react if something went wrong. Perhaps he'd expose her and leave her to suffer the punishment on her own, he seemed the type to do that. To be so incredibly unpopular, there had to be something wrong with him.
Blaise stopped suddenly, and gave her arm an unnecessary yank. Hermione heard it too, footsteps coming down the hall from behind them. She flattened herself against the wall next to Blaise, and reflected on how stupid she must look, trying to be inconspicuous while at the same time remaining fully visible. Had she not seen Blaise use this very trick on her, she wouldn't have believed him when he said he could make them unnoticeable.
Snape was walking down the hall with his usual sweep, looking bad tempered as normal. His robes flared dramatically with every smooth stride, leaving no one in doubt why he was compared to a bat.
Hermione's dread grew as he approached, and her heart positively stopped when he turned his head slightly and looked right at them. Then he looked away, never breaking his stride, and walked right past them.
She held the breath she'd been keeping until he had continued a little ways down the corridor, sure he'd turn around and realize his mistake, but he didn't.
"See?" Blaise muttered, and yanked on her arm to follow him. Only then did Hermione let out her breath, elated and incredulous that it had worked.
Apparently Blaise used a variation of an inconspicuous charm when ever he walked around the corridors and in classes, so no one would bother him. The charm he used was tuned to be wandless and stronger than the original. He could extend the charm to whatever he touched, within reason, which was why Hermione was holding his hand like a life raft.
They had to jog to catch up to Snape, who had stopped by a portrait of an extremely elegant woman in a 1920's flapper dress who was smoking a cigarette with relish. She did not ask for a password, but acknowledged Snape with a glance before swinging open to reveal a door.
Snape pulled his wand out and began chanting.
Blaise was inches from him, listening extremely intently, and occasionally reciting the next phrase of the ward-breaker under his breath before Snape said it.
The door creaked open and Snape pocketed his wand. He walked in, and spared them another small glance before he closed the door. The portrait was about to swing shut over it, but Blaise stopped it from closing with his foot.
"Whose there?" The portrait asked, unable to see Blaise and Hermione, because they were on the other side of it. They ignored her question and waited for a few moments.
"Remember, don't say anything, let me ask the questions... you just write down what he says." Blaise told her.
"Questions? How many are you asking?" She whispered. He didn't answer.
Blaise extracted his own wand, and turned his back on her. The size of it struck Hermione. It looked to be nearly sixteen inches, and much thicker than any wand she'd ever seen. She made a mental note to ask him about it later.
Blaise muttered the ward breaking spells just as Snape had done, keeping his wand pointed without any other movement. When he finished the lock clicked and door slowly began to creek open of its own accord.
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It was the same wild ride to the bottom that Harry remembered, except for the odd moments when the rope he'd thrown down the tube burned against his side. He barely had a moment to stand when his nostrils met the foulest stench he'd ever happened upon.
He coughed, attempting to rid his lungs of the reek, but it was everywhere. He drew his wand and cast a bubble head charm, then called up to the others to do the same before coming down.
Ginny appeared moments later, her head oddly distorted from the bubble around it. She got to her feet and attempted to wipe off some of the slime her clothes had gathered from the ride down. Harry realized he must look similarly woebegone.
After Pansy and Malfoy came down, Harry made his way to another tunnel, the scattered bones of rats crunching underfoot as he walked.
"Disgusting!" Pansy murmured at increments as they walked, her voice muffled by the bubble around her head. Occasionally she'd scream as she caught sight of a live rat or some other sewer dweller.
"Would you shut up!" Harry snapped at her the third time she did it. "The cave ahead already collapsed once, and it's probably still unstable... add that to the fact that Slytherin made this chamber, and Voldemort's trying to bring the castle down on our heads!" The other three jumped or hissed when Harry said the name, but he paid them no mind and continued on.
They stopped when they met the rock fall Lockheart had made when Ron's wand backfired. It seemed like a lifetime ago to Harry. He stood there starring and the hole Ron had cleared in the rock, almost wistfully.
"Well?" Pansy snapped.
Without a word, Harry climbed the rocks to the top most area where a small section was clear, and stepped through.
Harry's solitary wand light was all that relieved the pitch darkness, though he already knew what he would find there. Sure enough, when his feet touched level earth again, the outline of the ghastly snake skin was apparent.
Ginny appeared behind Harry, adding her wand light to his own, and further illuminating the twisted skin. They heard Parkinson and Malfoy gasp behind them.
"What... What is it?" Pansy moaned, her voice shaking with terror.
"It's a skin." Draco supplied in shocked tones.
Harry nodded and continued to the vault like door at the end of this chamber, raising his wand to illuminate the many serpent statues that guarded the door. Their jewel eyes glittered at him, and he shivered slightly.
"Open." He commanded, but only a hissing came out of his mouth.
Obediently the stone snakes withdrew from the door and the locks clicked open with a hiss of their own.
Smoke and dust filtered through the door as it swung open to admit them. Even through the bubble head charm, Harry could sense the stench intensify.
He turned to the others and took a deep breath.
"Listen, there is a dead basilisk in there.... I don't know what it's going to look like, but it's been rotting for four years now, so.... Just be prepared."
They nodded. Ginny and Pansy looked ashen. Draco looked strangely eager.
Harry turned and led the way into the chamber proper. It was as he remembered it from his first foray into its depths, but now he was able to take in more details.
The chamber had its own lighting, which seemed to come from everywhere, so the four of them were able to extinguish their wand lights, and take in the architecture.
Wide mouthed snakes lined the walkway like some horrible fence, preventing someone from stepping into the water which lined the path. The water reflected the serpent figures exactly like a mirror. At the end of the path was a type of dais, where the ceiling high statue of Salazar Slytherin presided.
"Is that Slytherin?" Draco said, his voice sounding so different with the flavor of awe in it.
"That's the bastard alright." Harry spat, walking forward to where the degraded body of the basilisk lay, exactly as it had died. Half of it was in the water, the other half on the dais at Slytherin's feet. Ginny took Harry's arm and walked with him, her freckles standing out against her sheet-white skin.
"Bloody hell." Pansy murmured a little bit behind them. "It's huge! How did it get around to attack people?" She asked.
"Pipes." Harry answered, looking down at the creature.
The skin was still intact, the same poisonous green that Harry remembered, but it was far too big for the basilisk now that the flesh had rotted beneath it. It's eye sockets were blank, hollow and black, giving a view into the empty skull. It's mouth was still wide open, a pool of dried blood stained the floor underneath where it's head lay, where it had dripped from the wound Harry caused.
Harry's vision was slightly obscured when Ginny hugged him, their bubbles banging together, and joining momentarily.
"You... You're so ...brave Harry... coming after me... and... fighting that thing... killing it.... And Riddle...." Her voice was unsteady, but she held the tears back. "I never... I never...." She looked into his eyes. "Thank you for saving me." She said.
Harry smiled at her. Their moment was cut short by the sound of Pansy gagging somewhere behind them. Ginny lowered her arms and turned towards the statue, blushing.
"Still, even I can't help but be impressed Potter.... Maybe your not all publicity after all." Pansy said coming up and winking at him. Harry smiled embarrassedly.
"You too Pansy?" Draco asked incredulously.
"What's that...." Pansy said, pointing to an enormous black stain that Ginny was now staring at with haunted eyes.
Harry looked over at the dried ink, that had spilled from the diary when he pierced it with the basilisk tooth. It had stained the floor, smeared in some places from where Harry had moved, like a fingerprint of what was.
"Tom Riddle." Ginny replied, her voice empty of emotion, and her eyes empty of everything.
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Hermione's grip on Blaise's hand was enough to break his fingers. She was understandably nervous as she inched towards the table which bore Snape's evening cup of tea. He was sitting in the chair next to that table, staring into the fire, and apparently deep in thought.
The vial in her free hand was shaking as she brought it to hover over his cup, pausing at the ethical dilemma.
Hermione needed the incantation for magical empathy in order to fulfill her life-debt, but she also had a responsibility to the order and to the school. She was slipping a teacher a truth potion, which was grounds for expulsion any day. But it wasn't just any teacher, it was Severus Snape, death-eater turned spy- and Blaise Zabini, a boy with a notoriously dark background, was going to be questioning him.
"What are you waiting for?" Blaise hissed, his lips right against her ear. She shuddered involuntarily, and turned to look at him.
He read the indecision in her eyes, and she was so busy staring at him, trying to make him understand without speaking, that she didn't notice his free hand until she felt it on her own. She looked down in time to see him tipping her own hand, and pouring the potentially damning potion into his innocuous tea.
He pulled her back, away from the table, and sent her a warning glare that clearly meant he wanted her to keep quiet. Hermione's insides squirmed with guilt, her eyes filling with tears as she watched the Dormis Veritas potion mixing with the infusion of jasmine. She blinked hard and fast, but nothing could hold back the guilt she was feeling.
To keep her mind busy, she scanned the room. It was cozy and warm- the walls lined with dozens of book shelves filled with an equal share of potions and defense against the dark arts, and some books not on the defense at all. She was surprised to see the burgundy, grey and royal blue theme, but then she surmised that these chambers were probably furnished before Snape moved in. Perhaps they were a guest chamber of sorts.
The area rugs were resplendent with color, and of oriental quality. The furniture was mostly cherry, except for the upholstered arm chairs which bore legs of a lighter teak wood. Snape was sitting on one such chair, staring blankly into the fire.
Hermione watched, as if in slow motion, her Potion's professor pick up the tea her hand had sullied, and sip it slowly. His face assumed an odd look after his first swallow. He sipped it again, and his face became pensive as he considered his tea. He set the cup down and made to stand up, possibly to examine the can of jasmine, but a wave weariness darkened his face for a moment, before he sat back and closed his eyes.
She could hear his breath even out, his mouth slightly ajar as he slept. The guilt she'd managed to distract herself from hit her ten fold again. Tears popped into her eyes as she looked down onto him, horrified.
"It's done Granger.... No use getting emotional over it now." Blaise muttered, pulling her close to the slumbering man.
He let go of her hand and pulled a muggle pen and paper from her pocket. She continued to stare at her potion's professor, seemingly oblivious to Blaise's hands in the pockets of her robe.
"Here." He handed her the pen and paper. "Write what he says." She took the proffered tools numbly, and didn't respond. "Granger!" He snapped in a hiss. She jumped slightly and nodded.
"Right." Blaise began, turning to Snape, and attempting to keep the triumphant smile from his face. How long had he wanted Snape in this position under his thumb, he'd finally be able to ask. "Snape, can you hear me?" Blaise called in a clear voice.
"Yes." Snape replied, his lips were the only thing that moved.
"I am going to ask you some questions, and you must tell me the truth." Blaise said.
"Yes." Snape repeated.
"Do you know the incantation for Magical empathy?" Blaise asked.
"Yes."
"Recite it, slowly and clearly."
Snape recited an incantation in latin, which Hermione dutifully copied down. Snape went on to describe the wand movements, and variations needed for spelling different things, such as potions, animals and objects- at Blaise's prompting of course. Hermione's pen never left the paper as she copied everything, nearly verbatim.
"Right, let's get out of here.." She whispered, and pulled his arm a bit to emphasize the point.
"Not yet." Blaise said, not moving an inch. His eyes narrowed in distaste.
Hermione's heart stopped.
"What do you mean? We've got what we need let's just..." But she was silenced by the look of determination and... hatred? In Blaise's eyes.
"Snape. Are you having sex with Ursula Sinistra?" Blaise asked in a clear voice.
Hermione was galvanized with shock.
"Yes."
She turned her wide eyed shock onto her professor. Snape and Sinistra?
"Do you love Ursula?" Blaise asked, contempt on every line of his features.
"Yes." This answer seemed to anger Blaise even more. The fire died and the room went almost completely dark. The temperature in the room turned to ice, and Hermione shivered.
"Then why don't you marry her properly?" Blaise spat through clenched teeth.
"Too dangerous." Snape replied tonelessly.
Hermione's stomach dropped away. She knew why it was too dangerous for Snape to be close with anyone, but Blaise couldn't know. She prayed he would stop the questioning, but all her hopes fled as the damning question poured from his lips.
"Why?"
The adrenaline pumping through Hermione's veins clouded her hearing, but even she could register the difficulty with which Snape tried to hold back the next sentence.
"Because I'm a s—"
"NO!" Hermione yelled, causing Blaise and her professor to jump in alarm.
Blaise's eyes widened in horror as Snape's eyes snapped open. Blaise grabbed Hermione roughly pulling her against him like a rag doll, clamping a hand over her mouth with enough force to bruise her.
Blaise backed against a bookshelf and tried to calm himself down, and recall the necessary emotional state to cast the attention-repelling charm.
Snape was now standing bolt-upright, keenly aware of every sound in the room.
The fire was still out from Blaise's anger, and Snape reignited it with a flick of his wand. He looked around the room beadily, his eyes passing over the two of them, standing in plain view, several times.
Belatedly, he noticed his tea cup, still sitting on the table half-drunk and half-cold. He picked it up and Blaise cursed softly.
Slowly, very slowly, Blaise maneuvered them to the door, half carrying Hermione who was flush against him, chest-to-chest. The wards were still down, but it was too much to hope that Snape wouldn't notice the door open and close. Blaise knew as soon as they got out the door, they'd have to run for it.
Snape carried the cup to a small potions table towards the end of the chamber. A tea pot stood on the table, next to a tin of jasmine tea. He was busy casting several revealing charms on all the items used in the tea process, his back to them. Blaise recognized his chance.
The second the door opened, Snape spun around, his wand ready.
"Revulus!" He called, aiming vaguely in their direction. Hermione felt the ripple-wind from the spell on the back of her neck, as it just barely missed them. Blaise nearly tripped over her as he hurled them both out of the door.
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"Tom Riddle?" Pansy gasped, staring down at the ink on the floor.
"The Dark Lord." Draco said, coming to stand even shouldered with Ginny. "The diary." He added, looking down at her head. Harry wondered if it was remorse he saw on Malfoy's face. Ginny looked up at him, her eyes glistening but no tears fell.
"Did you know about it?" She asked him, but there was no accusation in her voice.
"Not until afterwards." He admitted truthfully. "Though, I don't know if I would've done anything even if I had known at the time... I suppose... I thought it was a brilliant joke... sending a monster after mudbloods like Granger... like it was some kind of proof of everything we learned." He glared at the pool of dried ink.
"What made it real for you?" Ginny asked, not looking at him.
Draco snorted, and instinctively looked at Pansy. She was looking at him, her expression was full of emotion as she silently urged him to tell her... tell the Weasely girl who'd suffered so much at the hands of his father.
"Granger." Malfoy muttered at last. "Granger and you... and even Longbottom... you lot made it real for me..." Ginny didn't look at him, and he was grateful. He took a deep breath. "I watched you lot come in... covered in blood... you were awake, but barely... Weasely.. er.. Ron, covered in lashes like he'd been tortured, and perfectly insane... Longbottom's nose broken and spouting blood... and.. and Granger, unconscious, and for all the world looking completely dead. Her eyes... they were slightly open when they brought her in, and I was so sure... and then I remembered what I said in second year, about wanting her dead, but when I saw her like that and thought she was..." He trailed off, his brows furrowing.
Ginny turned her body towards him, still not looking at him, and hugged him like she'd done to Harry.
"Thank you Draco, for saving Hermione." Draco snorted.
"Save it. I didn't do it on purpose. I just saw she was about to die... it was automatic, I dunno..." He was uncomfortable with this type of gratitude, and the heat that filled every inch of him from it.
"Right." Ginny said and backed off thankfully, but she had a small smile on her face, and if Malfoy would've looked at Harry, he would've seen a similar smile on Potter's face as well.
"Well, we've got everything we need from here." Harry said, holding up a large fang he'd cut from the gaping mouth of the dead basilisk.
Everyone looked over at Harry, but he was looking up into the face of Slytherin thoughtfully.
"Is this what you really wanted? This war? This hatred? Did you mean for it to come this far, for two followers of your blood to battle each other?" He said it in parcel tongue, not wanting the others to know about the prophecy.
They all jumped when the structure began to shake violently. The floor vibrated so hard Pansy stumbled and fell. Small pieces of rock and dust fell from the ceiling miles above.
"Voldemort!" Harry gasped, drawing his wand to erect a shield, but seconds later, the shaking stopped and everything was still.
"No." Harry's heart turned to ice. Who ever had spoken, had used parcel tongue. He wheeled around, looking everywhere for the source. Then a strange suspicion struck him and he looked back up at the statue.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, hugging herself in shock. She saw his eyes go wide and turned to look where he was looking. Her mouth dropped open.
The statue of Slytherin's mouth was now fully ajar. Lolling out of it, like some horrible travesty of a tongue, was a small baby basilisk.
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Cliff hanger! Yes, I want some reviews before I post the resolution to this crisis! Next chapter shows the conflict between Hermione, Blaise and Snape! Review and I'll get it up faster!
Also, I want feed back on character development and dialogue... so shoot me some reviews on that. Thanks for reading.