*AUTHOR'S NOTE*: Wow! 150 follows in less than week! Thank you guys so much, this is my first fic and I was really nervous about posting. Thank you guys for the confidence booster! Please leave a review if you enjoy the story.

We get more into the meat of the plot in this chapter so please enjoy!

Chapter 2:

Unfortunately, the inside of the statue was exactly what Harry had expected.

He was standing in a massive, mostly empty cavern that seemed to stretch on forever. Water cascaded down the smooth limestone walls from some unknown source, gathering in pools on the floor, before falling through another large hole set in the floor.

Bones of unknown animals littered the floor around him, some much too large to have been anything that could have been found in the Chamber. Harry could swear that he thought he saw dinosaur bones against one wall, but it was too dark to tell.

There was no ceiling to speak of, just more gloom that seemed to stretch above him for miles. The cavern was much, much bigger than it had any right to be considering it was inside a statue which was itself inside an underground chamber. As he looked up, Harry got the strange feeling that he was at the bottom of some huge dry well.

"It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside" Harry said with awe

It was beautiful, in a dank underground way, but there was one glaring problem with it.

There was no way out.

Harry could see no visible exits, tunnels, or cracks in the walls. No indentations in the walls that could be used as handholds. In fact, the walls looked as though they had been intentionally smoothed out as to prevent climbing. The only other exit that he could see besides the door he had come in was the massive hole in the floor that he presumed the Basilisk had come out of.

Harry turned around and made to leave, not having the slightest inclination of going down the hole and probably facing another giant snake.

Unfortunately, at that moment, as if on cue, the massive door began to smoothly slide upwards back into place. Before he could do anything but blink, the door rumbled shut

The cavern was plunged into absolute, oppressive darkness. Up until that moment, he had never experienced true darkness before. Even when he was locked in his cupboard in the dead of night, or deep in the Forbidden Forest there had always been some light.

Harry began to hyperventilate. The darkness seemed to drive the air from his lungs and replace it was ash. He began to hack and wheeze violently.

He fumbled for the wand and quickly lit it. The light from his wand was dim, as if the darkness was trying to swallow it whole.

He raised it, scanning the cavern. There was still no way out.

He turned and repeated the phrase that Riddle had used earlier on the door. Nothing happened. It appeared that only worked on the statue from the outside.

A horrible realization dawned upon Harry: nobody was coming to look for him. Even if Ginny, Ron, and the memory-less Lockhart could get out of the Chamber, it could be days before they moved all that rubble. Also, because he had entered the statue nobody knew where he was. However, even if they did know where he was he was the only one capable of opening the door.

"Nice going Potter," he thought angrily, "You just killed yourself"

With a sinking feeling, Harry realized that he was probably going to have to go down the hole in the middle of the room. It currently represented his only possible hope of escape before he starved to death.

Feeling a sense of doom, Harry moved to the edge of the hole and illuminated it with his wand. There was nothing he could see, just water flowing down the hole and disappearing. He couldn't even hear it splash against the bottom.

Harry sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Harry was just contemplating how far he would have to fall before he was turned into a pancake when something caught the corner of his eye.

Up against the far wall was a series of carvings that threw odd shadows across the floor. Harry moved to investigate before he stopped in his tracks. He could not believe it.

Stairs.

They were carved out of the wall of the cavern. In the even light from outside, they would have been almost invisible even when looking directly at them. Only in the light from his wand did they give off any shadows.

Harry stopped at the base of the stairs and tested the first one. They were tiny, barely big enough for him to put both feet on at the same time. They also extended hundreds of feet into the air with no guardrail of any kind. One wrong step at that height…

Harry took a second to consider his options. It was either go up the stairs or go back to the hole and see where that went.

With a deep shudder, Harry began to climb the stairs.

45 minutes later, Harry was seriously wishing that he had chosen the hole. At least whatever monster lived there could have made his death quick. The stairs just kept going and going and going…

The fight with the basilisk was catching up with him. He hurt all over. The sword tucked in his belt felt like an anchor against his tired frame.

His legs had long ago stopped burned and settled into being frustratingly numb. This was a problem as the stairs were too narrow to stop and sit on and he had long ago lost sight of the cavern floor into the gloom. He had to look down and consciously watch his feet to make sure they landed on the right steps. The steps were slick and covered in moss from the centuries of damp conditions inside the cavern. He had to be careful or he would end at the bottom of the cavern again. The hard way.

Still the stairs went on and on

Another ten minutes and Harry began to sing to himself just to hear a voice

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts, teach us something please…"

Another 15 minutes and Harry was seriously wondering if he was going to grow old on these steps.

Suddenly, Harry's head collided violently with something. He saw brilliant stars and began to sway dangerously over the side of the stairs. He grabbed ahold of the wall to steady him and looked up to see the offending object.

There was a trap door.

Interlocking wood planks covered the ceiling of the cavern like a roof. Not wanting to be on the stairs a second longer than he had to, Harry pushed with all his might on the trap door. To his great relief, it swung open smoothly. Harry boosted himself into the room, slammed the trap door shut and lay on it panting.

'You aren't getting up again today' his legs told him sternly

Harry was only too happy to agree. He began to rub his much-abused legs with a groan.

He forced himself into a sitting position and got his first good look at where he was.

He was in a sitting room.

In a way, the secret room reminded Harry of a Slytherin version of the sitting room at the Burrow. It had the same shabby and worn but loved feeling he had encountered at the Weasley's, but everything was a shade of green or silver.

An assortment of mismatched chairs and couches, again all green fabric, faced a large marble fireplace with a Slytherin crest carved into it. A roaring fire was already crackling in the fire. Large portraits and tapestries adorned the wall in a variety of faded colors.

It seemed like the kind of place Hermione would get lost in for hours. Books and scrolls were piled everywhere, stacked to the ceiling in some places. One stack actually extended onto and across the ceiling to come back down across the room. Most of the chairs were inaccessible due to massive piles of books that have been strewn haphazardly across them.

A thick layer of dust lay on everything making it clear that nobody had stepped foot in this place for decades, maybe even longer. There were also no other exits except for the trapdoor he had come through.

Once he had rested for a few minutes, Harry slowly got to his feet. He took a few shaky steps in order to regain some feeling in his legs. He slowly made his way over to a large wooden door that sat in the opposite corner from the fireplace.

A small glass case sat behind the desk. Inside were a variety of objects including a group of small clay figures, a dagger with a brightly glowing emerald set into the hilt, and a human skull. Harry attempted to get into the cabinet, but it was resistant to his attempts. Giving it up as a bad deal, Harry turned his attention to the desk.

Papers and scrolls were strewn across the desk in no discernible order. Harry rifled through a few hoping to find a clue leading to an exit.

Eventually, he came across a thick book bound in scaly leather. The book sat in the middle of the desk, as if writing in it was the last thing the original owner of this desk had done.

Suddenly desperately curious, Harry picked the book up. A piece of parchment slipped out of the pages and onto the desk. He picked it up and began to read:

Our secret is written here, and may I be forgiven in the next life for divulging it: after a lifetime of study it became clear that the Infinity Stones were too dangerous to be allowed to be used. We knew they must be hidden away forever. We entrusted the protection of the stones to our trusted allies with the instructions to travel to the ends of the earth and disappear forever. This was both our greatest mistake and our most important contribution.

My pride may prove to be our undoing, but I cannot in good conscience take this secret to my grave. The other founders might have thought that the stones are too dangerous to be trusted with, but I disagree. Despite their glowing optimism, I am a realist. I know that one day, long after we are gone, a threat will come along that will be so great that it will require the combined power of the Infinity Stones. This is a fact that I have foreseen. But I am not a fool. I know that a special person is required to wield the stones.

You have proven yourself, O Seeker of the Stones, by finding my chamber, surviving the monsters and deadly traps and breaking the enchantment on this room. If you have come this far, I must assume from my limited vantage point, that your need is truly great. This is why I have left you my personal journal and of our findings into the workings of the stones as well as any hearsay I have heard as to their location. I hope it will prove useful in your quest.

I will be frank you Seeker, I do not trust anyone who seeks to use the stones. They corrupt too thoroughly and grant unlimited power. But I am an old man who must strive to repent for sins, and in this way I have done that. I just hope I have not doomed us all.

Salazar Slytherin, the year of our lord 1117 AD.

Harry's head swam. The end of everything? Unlimited power? Infinity Stones? Despite not knowing of the danger the note was telling him about, he knew a dire warning when he saw one. He moved towards the hearth and held the book over the fire. This note spoke of the end of everything. He should cast this book into the fire, walk away, and take the secret of this room to his grave. That would be the smart thing to do.

The air held a pregnant pause as if the universe was waiting to see what he did.

But he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was as if an unseen force stayed his hand, compelling him to freeze. He drew the book back to his chest and the universe exhaled.

In that moment, without him knowing it, the fate of Harry Potter was sealed.

Harry felt a gust of air on his back. Tucking the book under his arm, he turned and saw one of the tapestries fluttering slightly on the wall. He moved it aside and almost cried at what he saw.

Set into the wall was a large wooden door.

An unlocking charm and a short flight of stairs later and Harry found himself outside yet another trapdoor. Harry sighed. If this was yet another dark underground chamber he was giving up and waiting for death.

Holding his breath, Harry pushed opened the trapdoor and was met with blue sky. He let out a loud whoop and scrambled out of the hole.

He was standing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. It appeared to be early morning or maybe sunset. With a start, Harry realized that he did not know how long he had been underground.

He shut the trapdoor and marveled at how it blended perfectly into the forest floor. He needed a way to find this place again. He had a feeling that he was probably going to be coming back here again on next year's set of adventures and didn't want to have to travel through the Chamber again if he could help it.

He cast a Diffindo spell on a nearby tree, carving his initials and an arrow pointing down. He also levitated a large rock onto the exact spot of the trap door.

Figuring this was as good as it was going to get, Harry limped out of the clearing.

15 minutes later, the trees began to thin. Picking up his pace, Harry emerged from the edge of the Forbidden Forest 100 yards from Hagrid's hut.

The sight of the familiar castle filled Harry with an intense feeling of relief. It felt like so long since he had last seen the familiar spires and towers.

Harry trudged over to the hut and was about to knock on the door when he realized he was still holding the book. He knew for certain that if he made himself known while he still had it, it would be confiscated, and he would never see it again.

Harry couldn't let that happen before he had read it. He had been through too much to not even read the damn thing. He needed a hiding place.

He spied a loose brick in the side of Hagrid's house. He pulled it free, placed the book in the hole, and replaced the book. Perfect. No one ever came down here except Hagrid, and he would never think to look for books in the walls of his home.

Harry rapped loudly on the door. Fang's roaring bark could be hear immediately.

"Down Fang, ya great bloody beast. Down I say!" Hagrid's boomed. He opened the door.

"Now I told ya lot that I don't know where 'arry is and even if I did…" Hagrid's voice trailed off as he realized who was at his door.

"Arry?!"

"Hi Hagrid" Harry said with a massive grin before he passed out on the doorstep.