Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Escaping the Chamber proved to be a bit of a trick, given the fact that the tunnel back to the girl's washroom was a slime covered slide. Ron and Wednesday carried Harry out that far while Xander put the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley over his shoulder in a fireman's carry like he'd been taught in gym class and followed along.

"How the hell are we going to get up that?" Xander muttered, looking at the slide with distaste.

"I doubt that Salazar would have designed his chamber with this as the only way in and out." Wednesday replied, looking around.

"That doesn't help up much," Ron complained, "Unless the snake over there has some Slytherin secrets to spill."

Xander and Wednesday exchanged glances, but neither commented.

"Any alternate is probably guarded the same way as this one," Xander said instead, "So with Harry out cold, unless either of you two can speak snake, we're looking at the only way out."

Ron grimaced, and Wednesday shook her head.

"No, the Addams' never developed a talent for Speaking, pre say." She said, shrugging her shoulders, "We can understand almost any language, and make ourselves understood, but we don't actually speak the other languages. That's why Father loves French so much, he's never been able to speak any language but English but always had a fascination with the romance languages."

Xander half smirked, "I think your Dad loves French cause your Mom is the one speaking it."

Wednesday smiled slightly, then shrugged.

"Ok," Xander looked up the tunnel, "That's a long way up and we've got two people who need medical attention in a hurry. Suggestions?"

"One of us could climb out," Ron said, brow furrowed, "Go for help?"

"Maybe." Xander nodded, "You think you could make it up that thing?"

Ron grimaced, "I don't know, but we've got to try, right?"

"Unless we find another option, yeah."

"So I'll try."

"Wednesday?" Xander asked, "Any ideas?"

She looked up the tunnel, shrugged, "Wingardium doesn't work on people, Mobilicorpus will help for a bit, but that's well out of its range."

"We could chain it." Xander suggested, "lift each other up in steps."

She nodded, "true. Or we could ask the Phoenix."

A trill of amused joy filled the air, startling Xander, who spun around. "Huh?"

"I suspect that he's been following us for a reason," She said.

"Son of a... I never saw tweety sneak up on us," Xander muttered. "How can he help?"

An impromptu lesson in Care of Magical Creatures later, Xander watched as Ron hung on to Harry in a death grip while Fawkes extended a tail feather to him. He grasped it and with a breath of surprise they vanished up the tunnel in a rush. Fawkes was back in instant later and the remaining three were rushing through the air with an ease that surprised Xander. It was like he was floating, even his grip on Ginny Weasely wasn't weighing him down in the slightest.

At the top he grinned at the bird, "That was a rush, Tweety. Thanks."

Fawkes trilled out another uplifting note, then pecked him on the head before vanishing in flames.

"Ow! What the hell!?"

"Come on," Ron cut him off, " We have to get them to the infirmary."

They burst into the infirmary, shocking Madam Pomfrey into immediate action as they deposited the two onto the beds and then collapsed themselves. It only took moments for the doors to burst open again, the headmaster leading a whole clan of redheads along with Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Sir!" Ron blurted, " Mom, Dad! We got Ginny... we found her!"

"Yes, we see Mr. Weasley," The kindly old man said, smiling, "May I ask how...?"

"Weren't you kicked out of the school?" Xander asked, his mouth running ahead of his brain.

Dumbledore looked at him intently for a moment as everyone else scowled openly at Xander.

"Indeed I was, Mr. Harris. I came back as soon as I heard of Miss Weasley's predicament."

Xander nodded, laying back as he waited for Madame Pomfrey to have a moment to patch up his minor scrapes. What the headmaster said made sense, he supposed, except that if he hadn't been able to do anything to help the others, what did he expect to be able to do for Ginny Weasley? Probably a family thing, he decided, as he watched the Weasley clan pour over their injured daughter/sister.

Ron was telling the tale, and Xander just tuned him out as he lay back and watched Wednesday from across the room. She was looking back at him with that dark intensity of hers, and for the moment the others in the room faded away. They didn't matter, the only ones who mattered were the ones who went down into the chamber.

Even Ron, Xander thought with a quirk of his lips.

Wednesday seemed to pick up on his thought, eyes turning to the redhead for a moment as he extolled on the 'battle', then she rolled her eyes expressively and lay back to rest. Xander did the same himself, only listening long enough to hear that Harry and Ginny would be fine before he let himself doze off.

The next few days were a blur, people coming through and asking questions, other's celebrating, most just staring at the subjects of the latest rumors. Hermione and the other victims were returned to normal and rejoined the school, much subdued from their former attitudes, and Harry was released from the infirmary to wild acclaim when he joined the school for his first feast since the incident.

Xander was getting the cold shoulder from his house, as was becoming normal he found, since the rumors had him working with Potter and that was tantamount to betrayal most vile. He shrugged it off, spent his days with Wednesday and Hermione, and tried to relax. Harry's awakening was the time they were waiting for, though, so he and Wednesday ambushed Harry, Ron, and Hermione right after the feast.

"Hey."

Harry turned, smiling, "Xander. How are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"Better. I didn't see you much while I was in the infirmary," Harry said, sounding hesitant.

"Nothing personal, dude," Xander half smiled, "But I knew you'd be ok, and frankly it's getting dangerous around certain members of my house who shall go unnamed."

Harry grimaced, "Sorry."

"Nothing to do with you. My choice, dude." Xander shrugged, "But look, we've got to talk."

Harry nodded and they retreated to a more quiet position.

"We want to go back down there," Xander said.

"Are you bonkers!?" Ron blurted.

"A Basilisk of that size should not go to waste." Wednesday said calmly.

"Waste? It's a dead snake." Ron countered, "Good riddance."

"Dude, I told you. I'm getting my boots out of this mess, at the least." Xander countered, then shrugged, "besides, I need some magical material for some side projects. I scored a couple unicorn hairs from Hagrid, and some other random stuff, but a thousand year old snake? Come on, tell me that doesn't sound like some powerful stuff?"

Harry shivered, "I don't know, Xander. I don't really want to go down there."

"Don't have to." Xander said, "Just open the door, we've worked out how we'll get back up. Come back later and make sure it's open for us. Deal?"

Harry shrugged, "I guess."

"Barmy, the lot of you." Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, Ronald," Hermione cut in, "They're right, you know. But do you know how to properly harvest the materials? This sounds like something the Professors should..."

She cut off, nearly jumping out of her skin when two large and gleaming knives appeared in Wednesday's hands.

"I have experience."

Everyone, Xander included, moved quickly away from the dark girl. Xander shook his head, "Jeez, Wednesday, that's just creepy!"

"I know." She smiled.

Harry swallowed, "How long do you need?"

"Five hours if I do it alone, seven if Alexander helps."

"Hey!"

The plan made they waited until the weekend to execute it. Xander and Wednesday went down alone on Saturday morning, with Hermione fretting and Ron shaking his head as Harry closed the passage behind them. They found the snake again and Wednesday went to work while Xander poked around for the most part, helping only when the girl had a specific job for him.

The Chamber was a mess, all things considered, but that was to be expected he supposed. After a thousand years things were going to be a little run down. Xander checked out some of the side tunnels, and found that they extended out some distance from the castle in all directions.

"I think it's a bolt hole," He said, coming back to where Wednesday was joyously cutting into the big snake.

"That is likely," She told him, excising a venom sac with quick motions.

"No way anyone built this place after the castle was constructed," Xander mused, "At least not normally. Maybe with magic, I suppose."

Wednesday was humming slightly to herself, not responding, but he wasn't really expecting her too.

The day passed quickly like that, until they were done. The materials were properly stored in their trunks, and they made their way back to the tunnel. This time they were ready and proceeded to leapfrog each other, and their trunks, up the tunnel with a combination of Mobilicorpus and Wingardium spells, along with sticking charms so they could rest for a few minutes at a time.

At the top, Xander knocked on the secret door and it instantly opened to reveal Harry.

"You ok?"

"We're good. All done." Xander said, "Thanks, man."

Harry shook his head, "You two helped save Ginny, thank you."

"That thing hurt Hermione," Xander said, glancing at Wednesday. "Nothing hurts one of our friends and gets to brag about it, even if it is a giant snake."

The Addams girl nodded once in satisfaction, "Exactly."