Having heard their voice, Selena ran into the bathroom struggling to catch her breath. She didn't question that they were in the old girls' bathroom and she didn't have time to wonder about the presence of Professor Lockhart.
"Ron, Harry!" she gasped. "Don't go!" She stopped a few steps from them, panting. Her rose bun had fallen apart into a braid swung over her shoulder, reaching past her waist. The Slytherin leaned against the wall.
"Well, I think I'm gonna listen to her!" Lockhart said with a smile, but Ron caught his cloak.
"You're not going anywhere!" he glared at the professor. "What are you doing here, Selwyn?"
She took a moment to find her voice again, as her throat was dry. "There's a monster, a serpentine creature that awaits in the flooded level below Hogwarts. Please, don't go there! Please..."
Harry noticed how distressed she was. They hadn't spoken much, but Selena had always seemed quiet and unimpressed by anything that was going on. He never thought he'd see her on the verge of tears. "Ron's sister is missing, that's why we have to go. I believe this is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."
Selena shook her head. "You can't go in there, please!"
"I'm not about to abandon my sister," Ron stated bravely. "Harry, try to say something in Parseltongue. Maybe that will open it."
With a nod, Potter did just that. The three students watched in awe as the lavatory unit separated itself and shifted to reveal the entrance into what looked like a tunnel. A stale scent of stagnating water and graveyard soil came from below. The professor turned around to leave again, but the boys stopped him.
"You've opened the passage, you no longer need my assistance-!"
"Sure we do," Harry said as he aimed his wand at him.
Ron copied his gesture. "You first. Better you than us!"
Selena tried to hold back her tears. "Maybe there's another way... Maybe we could lure out the monster with something?"
After pushing Lockhard down into the tunnel, Ron turned to her. "Doubt it. You don't have to come with us, you've got nothing to do with this, but I do. If my sister is down there, I have to find her."
"I'm coming with you, then!" the girl stated bravely, even if her voice was shaking.
In the meantime, the three Slytherins had come up with a last-second plan. Katherina and Draco were to go after Selena and make sure she didn't get herself in trouble, while Anna had to find Professor Snape and tell him what they had deduced. It was a plan made on the spot as Draco and Katherina ran after Selena, using the sound of her steps as a guide. The last thing they wanted was for her to be running into the Basilisk.
They had followed her into the old girls' bathroom and hid behind the corner. They listened to the conversation until they heard everyone going through the passage: Lockhart, Potter, Selwyn, and Weasley. Poor Selena had screamed the entire way. Once it was quiet, Draco pulled her hand.
"Let's go!" he ordered.
"Wait," Katherina stopped him. "I have a bad feeling about this. How do we even battle a Basilisk?"
Draco took a moment. "The severing charm? Diffindo. I doubt it can harm us if we behead it."
"Good idea. What if it doesn't work? Bombarda? No..."
"Why not? It's good!" he argued.
"Not. It might collapse the tunnel on us. Incendio, rather?"
"Let's just use Diffino twice, or combined with Incendio." He walked towards the entrance and took one long look at it. He shot some green sparks to light up the way. "Looks like a slide. Alright, I'm going-!"
Once again, Katherina stopped him. "I'm going first."
"Why? Let me do it, it's fine. I'm heavier than you, I bet!"
The girl didn't want to point out the fact that she was in a skirt. She has simply thrown her hair into a ponytail so it won't come into her face and watched Draco take a leap of faith down the dark slide. A few seconds later, she inhaled deeply and did the same. In secret, she slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent any sound of fright to escape her lips, while she gripped her wand tightly with her other hand.
As she reached the bottom, Katherina felt sharp pains in her legs. She had fallen on her knees, but there were fragments of bones on the ground which scratched her skin.
"Ow... Bloody hell, Draco, why didn't you-!"
Draco placed his finger over his lips, signaling her to be quiet. She did as instructed and between Selena's whimpers, they heard a conversation between Harry, Ron, and their charlatan professor. Lockhart was admitting to everything - he had done none of the things of which he spoke in his books, but merely witnessed some of the events at most!
"I knew it..." Draco said between his teeth. "He's been a fraud all this time! Wait until my father hears about this...!"
"We first need to get out of here alive, Draco. Let's join Potter and Weasley, for now." Katherina saw the disgust on his face. "I know, I know, but they're all we've got! This isn't the time to be choosy, Draco - we're in here with a bloody Basilisk, and I doubt we can get out the same way we came in."
Harry hushed his companions and cast Lumos. "...Malfoy, is that you?"
"You know I'm right," Katherina whispered back.
"I can still hate it," Draco grumbled as he took a few calm, confident steps into the light. "Did you think I was going to let you enjoy the glory of this alone, Potter? This is a Slytherin business, I suggest you leave it to us!"
For the first time, Ron walked up to Draco. "No. My sister is in danger because of your house's sick founder and his ideas! This is a Weasley business, Malfoy!"
Before they could argue any longer, Katherina stepped between them. "I'm always willing to watch a duel, but do you honestly believe it's the right time or place for this? Focus, boys - we've got a Basilisk on the loose and we're heading into its den. You can duel when we get out of here!"
Lockhart tried to sneak past them, only for Harry to call on him.
"You're not going anywhere, Lockhart!"
"Oh, yes, I am! I didn't sign up for this, so bye-bye! Ciao! Sayonara!" The man rushed back towards the tunnel when a flash of light came out of Selena's wand.
"Immobulus! I don't think we have time for anyone quitting!" Selena said as she dried her eyes.
"That's alright," Harry began saying as he led the group forward, "something tells me he wasn't going to be of much help anyway."
Katherina followed to his right, while Draco went through Harry's left side. Selena and Ron looked at each other.
"I think I should stay here, make sure this guy doesn't get eaten," Ron suggested.
That earned him a harsh judgemental glare from Draco, but an approving nod from Harry. "Your wand is broken, though."
"I'll stay behind as well, then," Selena volunteered.
The three of them who were already a few steps ahead looked at each other, silently questioning if these two could be trusted together. "If Ron agrees..." Harry eventually said.
"Um, yeah, sure." The redhead sighed, looking at his wand in disappointment.
"Be careful," Katherina said for both of them, as she knew very well Draco meant it but wasn't about to say it - especially in front of Weasley and Potter.
With a last nod of agreement, they had split up and the three stepped over large portions of shed snakeskin. They took turns in casting Lumos to save their energy and have a clear view of their surroundings, keeping mostly quiet.
"...So how exactly did you losers open the passage to the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco asked Harry as they kept advancing. Everything was stale, dark, filthy, smelly, and creepy. It was quieter than a gravesite and there were skeletal remains of all kinds of animals every here and there.
"I thought you said it was a Slytherin thing. Don't you know how to open the Chamber of your own founder?" As the passage became narrower, they were forced to walk one after the other and Harry assumed the leading role.
Draco decided to cover their backs and make sure nothing would surprise them, and so, Katherina went in between. She slapped Harry over the back of his head. "You can just answer, you know!"
Her slap didn't hurt so Harry assumed it wasn't meant to do that. He sighed. "Fine! I'm a Parselmouth. That's how."
"But you can't be descended from Salazar Slytherin. Unless..." Draco began piecing the puzzle together when suddenly, they stopped. He found himself walking into Katherina. "Sorry-!"
The girl felt his breath on her exposed neck and shivered away. "Sorry," she said at the same time as Draco. "What's that...?"
"The door of the Chamber, I guess," Draco said as he pointed his lit wand towards the round door blocking their path. "Time to prove your abilities, Potter."
Harry was baffled for a moment. Did Malfoy just apologize to someone? Had he hit his head on the way down or something? Well, never mind that. Harry asked the door to open in Parseltongue and the weirdest locking mechanism he had ever seen reacted. A snake slithered over the door, while several others withdrew to clear its path. It would have been truly quite beautiful if it hadn't been built with such a creepy image on it and used to seal the Chamber of Secrets and its Basilisk.
The image of the snake was better represented there than it had been in the Slytherin house. Draco looked past Harry to get a better look at their surroundings. It was a very welcome and absolutely stunning change of scenery, from filthy sewage passages to what could have been a royal runway franked on both sides by statues of hissing snakes. He couldn't be sure, but he thought them to be pythons.
Katherina nudged Harry forward. There wasn't enough space for them to be getting through at once and Harry was blocking the way. Once he did, she followed, and soon after, Draco too. The girl found it all rather... creepy. Sure, she liked snakes to some extend, but those statues looked like they would come to life any second now, and being caught in the middle of a giant serpent buffet wasn't her first option for the evening.
"Is that... Salazar?" Katherina asked Draco as they caught a better view of the giant portrait sculpted straight ahead of them.
"I believe so, only with... hair that looks like snakes."
Katherina nodded slowly. "It reminds me of the imagery used for Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. My mother always believed the gods of the ancient world to be wizards, worshipped as supernatural because that's what the muggles saw. Considering Poseidon could be seen as the creator of Medusa, and that our house is situated below the surface level of the lake..."
"You've got to tell me about it once we get out," Draco mumbled.
For a moment, Harry stopped. "You don't know Greek mythology?"
"Are you a master of mythology now?" Draco snapped at him.
The three of them took a few steps down the podium, looking around, talking about the symbolism used, and getting a sense of confidence in being alone. That's when Harry noticed Ginny's body motionless on the ground. Panic took over as he began breathing rapidly, banishing the thought that she might be dead from his mind. He ran to her side, threw himself on his knees, and dropped his wand.
"Ginny! Oh, Ginny, please don't be dead," he pleaded breathlessly.
"Potter, wait!" Katherina yelled after him. "That looks like a trap! Potter!"
"Wake up... Wake up! Please, wake up...!" he continued to plead, too scared of facing a gruesome reality to actually touch her skin and feel for a pulse.
Draco and Katherina rushed after him, wands in hand, looking everywhere. "Bloody hell, Potter, that's the most obvious bait and you just took it!" Suddenly, he noticed a figure in the darkness and held his arm in front of Katherina to stop her from advancing. "...Now you've done it!"
Following his gaze, Katherina noticed the stranger too. He stepped forward slowly, revealing himself as a young and rather handsome young man, a few years older than them. He had dark wavy hair and pale skin, pink lips forming a well-defined smirk, and he was rather tall. The two immediately recognized his robes and the badge he was wearing - Prefect of the Slytherin house.
"She won't wake," the stranger said, which finally caught Potter's attention.
"Tom...!" he gasped. "Tom Riddle!" The joy of recognition was obvious in his eyes and in his voice.
"What...? You know each other?" Draco asked. It was obvious that Potter recognized him... but did he really?
Harry turned towards his companions. "It's... complicated. We communicated using his journal, he's not really here."
"Yes, but also no," Tom mocked Harry's simplistic explanation. "I am a memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years. Ginny Weasley is still alive, barely, but not for long."
Finally gathering his courage, Harry touched Ginny's hand. "She's cold as ice... Tom, you've got to help me! Um, us... You've got to help us, we need to save her! There's a Basilisk down here," he began explaining, but as Tom began to chuckle, Harry followed his gaze to see Katherina and Draco stepping away in terror.
"...This explains everything," the girl said in a shaking voice. "We shouldn't have come here!"
Author's notes:
Surprise, surprise! I decided to publish a few chapters this Christmas so I won't leave you hanging too long.
Thank you, Sarapha, for taking the time to put your thoughts on the story in a private message. I'm glad you are enjoying it this far.
