Chapter Sixteen: Into the Chamber

Fallen narrows down his suspects for the Heir of Slytherin, Harry figures out the location of the Chamber of Secrets, and a student is kidnapped and taken to the Chamber to die.


Fallen eventually decided that the experience of nearly being eaten was enough of a punishment for Harry, Ron, and Draco.

Harder to deal with was Blaise's own disapproval.

He seemed to have adopted Hermione's stance on rule-breaking since the girl was petrified and had spent an hour telling his friends exactly what he was feeling.

"Yoko is dying!" he finally hissed tearfully. "He's dying and I can't lose everyone. So please, stop trying to die!"

Fallen, though he had by that point already decided that the boys had pretty much punished themselves enough, felt that the guilt-ridden looks on the Gryffindors' faces, was the icing on the cake, so to speak.

To ensure they didn't get any more ideas on how to be helpful, Fallen had remained in the common room the night before and was, therefore, still there when Harry nearly killed himself coming down the stairs, hopping on one foot because he was struggling to put a trainer on the other.

He would later recall that he only remembered Harry's near-death because it was the beginning of a pattern that would last nearly as long as he would know the human.

XX

Fallen had heard the dorm beginning to wake and was preparing to leave and visit the infirmary.

He wanted to be sure that there had been no changes to Yoko's status during the night, though intellectually he knew that he would have immediately been informed if such a thing had occurred.

Instead, he was nearly to the portrait hole when he heard something thud heavily against the stairwell and continue doing so nearly the entire way down.

Harry was a hot mess when he arrived at the bottom, one trainer half on as he struggled to put on the second, his shirt had barely been pulled down, coming to a rumpled stop around his midsection, and his trouser leg was rumpled and near the knee, probably from his attempt to put on that first trainer.

Fallen eyed the boy oddly as he opened his mouth to ask the obvious, but Harry beat him to it.

"I figured out who died fifty years ago!" he said breathlessly, abandoning any attempt to put his shoe on and simply leaving it dangling from one hand while he grinned brightly and triumphantly at the wolf.

Fallen dropped back to the carpet and gave the preteen his full attention. "What?"

"I've-I've been thinking-thinking about it-"

Fallen rolled his eyes. "Breathe, Potter, then explain yourself."

As though he'd needed permission, Harry hunched over to get his breathing under control, and Fallen wondered just how fast he'd had gotten dressed - if one could call it that - in order to ensure that he got to him before he'd left the common room.

"I've been thinking about it all night," Harry said, straightening and pulling his shirt all the way on. "I think I know who died fifty years ago. The one the basilisk, or whatever, killed the last time the Chamber was opened. Moaning Myrtle, the one in the second-floor girl's bathroom? I think she was the last victim."

Fallen approached Harry slowly, before sitting in front of the boy. "Explain your logic," he said, though his own mind was racing and making connections. It didn't not make sense.

"Well, of all the ghosts here at the school, she's the only one who could have been a student when she died. I mean, she even sort of wears a uniform."

"Not everyone who dies, becomes a ghost, Harry," Fallen told him, causing the boy to sag, disappointed. "However, given the circumstances, the logic is rather sound. And there's a simple way to validate your theory."

Harry blinked at him.

"To ask her how she died."

XX

Though Fallen had made it seem so easy, the thought of even interrogating her was driven from the minds of all four preteens, because McGonagall told them in class what Fallen could have told them if they'd asked, given the type of homework they were all receiving.

Exams would proceed as scheduled.

"Exams!" Seamus howled. "We're still getting exams?"

From the back of the classroom, there was a loud bang, which startled even Fallen, who looked ready to tear into something, only for it to turn out to be Neville.

The other brunette had dropped his wand and vanished one of the legs of his desk, causing the whole thing to topple over, spilling his things everywhere.

Fallen muttered something uncomplimentary about the Longbottom heir, as McGonagall waved her wand and restored it.

The professor turned, frowning, back to Seamus.

"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly, looking out over the rest of the grumbling class. "The exams will, therefore, take place as usual. I trust that you've all been studying hard."

"Given the rather questionable state of the school's future, you can't expect that of them," Fallen pointed out drily.

McGonagall's lips pressed together. "Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible. That includes finding out how much has been learned this year."

"I'm not saying you're wrong," Fallen agreed. "I'm telling you that you've been at the hooch too much, Professor, if you think these students have been studying over the last few weeks."

The grumbling turned into sporadic snickering at the rather bluntly driven comment.

"Then I highly suggest you all begin doing so," the Gryffindor Head of House said firmly, lips twisting downward.

Harry, Ron, and Draco looked like they'd been sentenced to death.

Even with Ron's wand as broken and mostly useless as it was, it was still a wand.

How were they supposed to take exams without them?

XX

The three boys had, for the most part, gotten away with warnings during their morning classes for not having their wands, a surprise given that none of them had been willing to tell them how they'd lost them.

McGonagall had given them until the following morning to find them, or letters would be sent to their parents regarding the loss.

Ron had gone very pale and started hissing about going back to the forest to find it, only for Fallen to shut him down immediately.

"The Forest is as Forbidden now as it was last night when you walked into it," he told him. "And it will be no less dangerous during the day than it is at night. I will go and see if I can find them tonight, until then, you best hope that your afternoon professors are as lenient as your morning ones."

Thankfully, that turned out to not be required.

An owl delivered the wands at lunch, wrapped in a scrap of parchment with nothing to indicate who had found them and how they knew they belong to Harry, Ron, and Draco.

Fallen had smirked but refused to say why or if/how he knew the sender.

XX

Draco left lunch early to retrieve his wand holster from his trunk, having resolved not to need it because he didn't have his wand when he'd gotten dressed that morning.

He was surprised to find Neville in the room as well and scowled at the back of the other Gryffindor.

"Neville," he said, closing the door and leaning against it, preventing his target from leaving.

Neville nearly jumped out of his skin. "Draco," he said, voice high and scared.

"You've been pulling away for months," Draco said bluntly. "Is it because of the attacks?"

Neville meekly shook his head.

"Because they all seemed to be associated with Harry?"

Again, Neville shook his head, though he opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, only to hunch his shoulders, shut it, and turn his head away.

Draco scowled, before abruptly sighing. "I can tell you're worried about Blaise," Draco said. "You watch him when you don't think he'll catch you. Since I haven't seen you around during the day, I assume you likewise haven't asked about Yoko."

Neville bit his lip.

"You feel guilty, that much is obvious," Draco continued, oblivious, and forgetting that he'd wanted to keep Neville in the room, drifted to his own bed to kneel down and look for what he'd come for. "Though what you could possibly feel guilty about I have no clue, given that you've been the one abandoning Blai-"

"I th-think I-I'm the o-one attacking p-people," Neville blurted out, before slapping his hands over his mouth with an embarrassed squeak and bolting.

Draco gaped after him.

XX

Predictably, the first person that Draco sought out was Fallen, though he was prepared to hunt down his godfather if he couldn't find Fallen, given how important this unintentional admission was.

"I'll take care of it," Fallen told him. "Do not corner him again, am I clear?"

Draco nodded. "Fallen, why would Neville attack muggle-borns? I mean, he's Neville."

"Knowingly, he wouldn't," Fallen agreed. "I'll speak to him after class. Don't corner him again, Draco. I mean it. If he is attacking these students, knowingly or unknowingly, he could be highly dangerous, regardless of what he outwardly appears to be."

Draco frowned but nodded.

XX

Fallen had intended to question Myrtle during dinner when he could be sure that the Gryffindors were under Severus' watchful eye and not getting themselves into more trouble.

Instead, he tracked down Neville, who had been missing since Draco had cornered him in their dorm.

Thankfully, Neville was rather predictable, and Fallen found him by the greenhouses.

"Neville."

Neville scrambled to his feet and looked fully prepared to find out if he could outrun the wolf.

"I'm faster than you are," Fallen reminded him. "I'm also more coordinated than you are. You'll take yourself to the ground before I have to gather the speed to try and catch you."

Neville flinched. "Draco told you."

"That you think you're attacking the muggle-borns as the Heir of Slytherin? Of course, he did," Fallen told him, sitting and looking the boy over. "Though admittedly you were on a rather short list of people I thought it could be."

Neville sagged in relief even as he was paling.

"You've been pulling away from Blaise and Yoko for months. Have you suspected that you were attacking people as far back as the second one and not said anything?"

Neville burst into tears. "There's a spot, in my memory," he sobbed. "It feels weird like it was put in sideways and doesn't fit right."

"Just the one?" Fallen frowned.

Neville nodded.

"Longbottom, you're not attacking your classmates."

If anything, this made Neville cry harder. "I-I'm not?"

"No," Fallen said, rolling his eyes.

Why was everyone crying around him? Couldn't they wait until Yoko was up and around again?

"There have been four attacks and you have a poorly adjusted memory for one of them. Odds are higher that you witnessed the supposed Heir of Slytherin doing something they didn't want to be known, than those of you being the Heir yourself."

Neville dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around his middle, and was promptly sick in the space between himself and the wolf.

Fallen took a step back and wrinkled his nose.

'You know, it's possible that he is the Heir, or an agent thereof like you think, and whatever was taking control of him had gotten much better at hiding what he was doing,' Brandon pointed out.

'Unlikely,' Fallen countered. 'If someone had access to his mind that frequently, they would have fixed the shit job they did in modifying it in the first place.'

Fallen was distracted from his other half, by Neville throwing his arms around the wolf and sobbing into his neck.

The wolf groaned. Seriously?!

Brandon was too busy laughing at him at that point to further argue his point.

XX

Once Neville had gotten himself back under control, he and Fallen spent the better part of the evening pinpointing the beginning of the poorly modified memory.

Without Tarana's Talent, which was heavily geared to modifying a person's mind, though not nearly to the permanent extreme that a memory spell did, it was a trial and error sort of process, given that Fallen didn't truly know what he was looking for, simply figuring that he'd know it when Neville found it.

Neville, though it takes him a great deal of time, does manage to figure that the starting point of the odd memory, though he couldn't remember what it was that made him think that it was at this point that things felt off, to an unknown time of day, but definitely around the second-floor, specifically, the second-floor girl's bathroom.

XX

Given the time he'd devoted to first Harry's concerns, then Draco's, Fallen didn't make it to speak with Myrtle that day. Instead, he returned to the infirmary to spend the night with Yoko.

There are mixed feelings at the Gryffindor table the following morning when McGonagall announced to the school that the mandrakes were finally ready for cutting.

Considering there were three days until exams began and the school was in a crucible of sorts, the twins couldn't simply let her 'I have good news' go without at least some tomfoolery beforehand, which McGonagall took with unusual good grace, though with the news she was giving them, it wasn't surprising.

"Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified," she said once the students had, more or less, gotten it out of their systems. "I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who - or what - attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

The Gryffindors exchanged nervous looks.

Fallen had mentioned that two students had fallen on his short-list of suspects, and Neville had been taken off the list.

That left only one, which didn't require the victims to identify the culprit.

XX

While the others were celebrating the happy news, however, Blaise found it difficult to join them.

While he was sincerely happy that Hermione and the others were going to be revived soon, it didn't help to fix Yoko.

Saying this aloud to the others did put a bit of a damper on their enthusiasm.

"Bad luck though, isn't it?" Ron mumbled, half-heartedly picking at his eggs, appetite lost in the atmosphere given off by the three Heirs. "Had to be the one Valerian who could probably have fixed it, right?"

Before anyone could do more than throw Ron an equally half-hearted glare - because he was right but none of them were quite ready to mention it in front of Blaise - Ginny pushed her way between Blaise and her brother.

Like Blaise, Ginny didn't look entirely happy about the revelation that the victims of the basilisk were going to be revived that night.

In fact, she looked rather miserable.

Her eyes were rimmed red nose was raw around the edges, as though she'd spent a great deal of time blowing or rubbing it. Her hair hung in lanky strips, though it wasn't unclean it was simply her aura, or whatever it was that Fallen had described to Harry that the Third Eye saw, poisoning her physical self, if that was even a thing.

She even had massive dark bruises under her eyes and there was something about her that reminded Harry of something or someone, though he couldn't put his finger on it.

"What's up, Ginny?" Ron asked, shoveling a forkful of porridge into his mouth, hoping it would be more appetizing than his eggs suddenly were.

"Everything alright?" Harry asked, eyeing her warily, still struggling to figure out who she suddenly reminded him of.

"I've got to tell you something," she said, voice barely a whisper, and causing Draco and Harry to lean forward in the hopes of hearing her better.

Blaise tilted his head toward her hands, drawing Draco's attention to her restlessly, and rather brutally, wringing them together.

"What?" Ron asked, looking a little annoyed that she wouldn't just spit it out.

"Something about the Chamber?" Draco asked, watching her arms shift as she continued to wring her hands in what he recognized as a nervous habit. "Or did you see something else odd?"

Ginny appeared ready to finally speak, only for Percy to come over and ask for her seat, causing her to spook and bolt like a startled colt.

Ron hissed at his brother that she had been trying to tell him something important, but Harry barely heard it.

He'd figured out who it was that Ginny had reminded him of.

A house elf.

A house elf on the cusp of revealing something they shouldn't.

She reminded him of Dobby, the night he'd arrived to warn him that the Malfoys were planning something at Hogwarts.

XX

Fallen watched the youngest Weasley as she took off through the Great Hall doors below him, having been on his way to join the boys for their classes.

'You realize that without Longbottom you've narrowed your search to one, don't you?' Brandon pointed out.

'Don't point out the obvious,' Fallen rumbled, turning his attention from the First Year, who hadn't even noticed she'd been watched, though she had run by within a meter of the wolf.

'Fallen-'

'I've likely done all I can with Pomfrey,' Fallen interrupted. 'I can't avoid Myrtle forever, though getting answers out of her is likely going to try my vastly dwindling patience.'

Brandon snorted because it was obvious to them both that that was an understatement.

XX

The mixed feelings continued that afternoon, as Hagrid returned to the castle just in time for lunch.

Many were eager to see him return, though given that Lockhart had likely been spreading the rumor that Hagrid had been 'arrested' as the Heir of Slytherin as opposed to because the Ministry was full of 'a bunch of bigots and hypocrites - willing to deal with the powerful Valerians and Vampires, but not with the less fortunate like Giants and Werewolves - who listened to the first person to flash coin in their direction' (Fallen's words, not Draco's, though Draco was sure to repeat them), there were just as many who were wary of his return, fearful that another attack lay around the corner.

Hagrid had made it a point, however, to stop at the Gryffindor table on his way up to the Head Table and apologize to Harry, Ron, and Draco.

"Woulda never said nothin' if I'da known yeh was there. Nona that was fer yer ears." He insisted. "Them answers was promised ter Fallen, figured he could take care 'o himself."

The boys, Harry more than any other because this was the second time that Hagrid had come to him, crying and apologizing for nearly getting him killed, were uncomfortable with the apology.

The last time, at least, he'd had the photo album that he kept wrapped in a cloth in his trunk to keep him semi-distracted.

They'd been the first photos he'd ever had of his parents and they remained his only photos of both them and now, of Tarana, and he cherished and looked over them at least three times a week, whenever he missed them the most.

Once Hagrid had finally moved on, Draco scowled down at a seriously unapologetic Fallen as everyone prepared for their next class.

"It was as much a reminder for him to watch his fucking mouth as it was for certain Gryffindors to stop being so damn foolish," Fallen told him, stretching out.

Draco cringed when he heard Fallen's spine crack, but the wolf merely shook out his fur and followed them out the doors.

He didn't speak again until they were nearly halfway through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

"I assume the lot of you can avoid getting into trouble while I speak with Myrtle?" he continued, as though several minutes hadn't passed since their 'conversation' in the Great Hall. "I find myself with less and less patience for this buffoon, and considering I had none months ago, I suppose that says a great deal."

"We'll be careful," Harry promised.

Fallen narrowed his eyes on the boys because that honestly wasn't what he'd asked.

It said a lot about the way the Defense classes had gone over the last few months, that barely anyone batted an eye when Fallen walked out of the classroom and Lockhart flinched hard even though the wolf never went anywhere near him.

XX

Fallen was never what one would call a nurturer.

He had little patience for children of most ages and considered even the First and Second Years in his care to be highly tedious, though Abraxas, Lucius, and Draco had proven that not all children were resistant to some of the things that Fallen endeavored to teach them, among which was strategy and war-games, though Lucius had forbidden him from teaching Draco war-games until he turned at least fourteen, as the lessons had terrified the current Lord.

Even teenagers, with their hormones and relationships, generally irritated the General who would most certainly prefer a killing field over such things any day of the week.

He likewise had little patience for the dead, considering many of the problems they carried around with them like chains - literally in the Baron's case - to be tedious.

Which explained why, of all the ghosts at Hogwarts, Moaning Myrtle was the one he avoided most, as she was the epitome of both things he wished he could have as little contact with as possible.

He'd been more than happy to leave conversing with the teenage ghost to Yoko, who despite his own potential feelings on the matter, was both of softer heart than Fallen, and had more patience for such things, taking the same method of sitting for hours and waiting for his target to appear and turning it into patiently waiting until the conversations were done before he could even get to the point.

Despite the similarities to politics and sitting at his King's right hand, Fallen could never translate the skill of sitting in a war council to sitting through the boring conversations of 'who-liked-who-that-did-this-last-week'.

It was honestly very likely the reason that Yoko was the Scout/Assassin and Fallen led armies of warriors into battle.

It worked for them.

Brandon thought it was hilarious that Fallen needed to work himself up to a conversation with Moaning Myrtle, whereas just two nights earlier he had jumped into battle against a colony of spiders almost five times his size with nary a thought.

"Myrtle," Fallen called, pushing the door open with his head, almost hoping that the ghost was currently elsewhere, even though if Harry's theory held water, she had information he needed to find the Chamber of Secrets.

"Someone else who needs something from me?" the girl called, a mix of miserable and conceited.

Fallen grit his teeth, sensing a difficult conversation if she was already in a mood.

'Remember,' Brandon told him. 'She's of no use to us if she dives into that toilet of hers.'

"I do, actually," Fallen said, following her voice back, where she was sitting with deceptive calmness, on the toilet tank of her favorite toilet.

Myrtle narrowed her eyes suspiciously on the wolf.

"I need to know how you died," he told her.

Myrtle's pearly eyes lit up behind her glasses.

'Did you offer to sire her children or ask how she died?' Brandon asked, a little unnerved.

"Oh, it was dreadful," she said gleefully. "It happened right here," she gestured to the stall around her, "I died in this very stall. I remember it so well," which didn't surprise Fallen any, given that most ghosts remembered how they died in rather vivid detail. "I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses," she reached up to touch the round frames on her face. "The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something in a funny language," she said, floating up and over Fallen, forcing the wolf to turn to keep her in his sights. "It was a boy speaking though, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go and use his own toilet and then-" she trailed off, swelling and almost glowing, though the dead couldn't do so.

Fallen raised his eyes to the ceiling when it became clear that she was waiting for prompting from him.

"And then," he growled, exasperated already, despite how easy the conversation had gone thus far.

"I died," Myrtle said, giggling excitedly.

"What did you see?"

Myrtle tilted her head, slightly startled by the question. "See?"

"I assume you were the only victim of the creature in the Chamber of Secrets," Fallen told her, trying to make it sound like an honor, though he wasn't sure how he was doing, given that he didn't truly care. "I know what the creature is, so I assume you must have seen something immediately before you died."

Myrtle blinked, looking toward the ceiling and tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Fallen got the feeling that she already knew the answer, she was simply making it difficult for him.

"There was this pair of big, yellow eyes," she said, looking down at the wolf. "Then I just sort of…floated away." She grinned viciously. "And when I came back, I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby. Ooh, she was sorry she ever made fun of my glasses."

Fallen didn't much care for the fate of the girl that had, by all accounts, bullied Myrtle when she was still alive. "Where did you see those eyes, Myrtle? It's important."

Myrtle made a mou of displeasure, given that Fallen wasn't reacting to any of her theatrics, but she'd given up her advantage.

When she turned to dart into the nearest toilet, effectively ending the conversation and not giving the wolf what he wanted because she wasn't getting what she wanted, she found that she had subtly been boxed in by six, wide walls of almost solidified air.

"Fallen!" she cried angrily.

"Lives are at stake, Ms. Warren," Fallen told her, unapologetically. "And I honestly don't have time for the theatrics today. I need to find the creature that killed you in order to, hopefully, concoct an antidote to the poison still flooding Yoko's veins. Where did you see those eyes?"

Myrtle huffed and put her hands on her hips, but it was entirely for show.

Fallen had won her over the moment he'd mentioned saving Yoko, something he was determined to remember for the future.

"Over there," she said. "By the sinks. I don't remember which one though," she admitted.

"That's more than enough of a start," Fallen said, moving toward the standing circle of sinks.

"Yoko…he's going to get better, right?" Myrtle asked. "He's the nice one."

Fallen's lip twitched unconsciously. "Most people say that," he told her. "And I can't promise anything until I can get my hands on the basilisk's venom."

Before Fallen could investigate the sinks, however, McGonagall's voice echoed through the bathroom, and likely through the rest of the school.

"ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THEIR HOUSE DORMITORIES AT ONCE! ALL PROFESSORS AND FALLEN TO THE STAFF ROOM IMMEDIATELY."

Fallen's blood ran cold and he bolted.

XX

Nearly twenty minutes earlier, the Gryffindors had been finishing up their Defense class and, when the bell rang, were to be escorted by Lockhart to their History of Magic class.

Harry and Draco took the opportunity to trick the hair-brained professor into letting the Gryffindors make their own way to the class, allowing the professor the chance to go 'plan his next class', which Ron, likely rather accurately, derisively translated to 'curl his hair'.

Blaise led the group from the corridor down as far as the infirmary, where they met their greatest obstacle: Madam Pomfrey.

Between Harry and Blaise, however, they did manage to convince the medi-witch to let them in to visit Yoko, given that it had been nearly three weeks since he and Hermione had been attacked.

She warned them, however, that it still didn't look good.

"You get ten minutes," she added, pointing a stern finger in each of their directions.

She hadn't been exaggerating.

If anything, 'not good' hadn't been warning enough.

When Blaise had mentioned that Yoko hadn't been healing, they'd thought that the wound he'd suffered was simply not closing or he just wasn't waking.

In reality, the fox looked as though the attack had happened moments ago instead of weeks ago.

There was a chunk of flesh missing where Yoko must have torn himself free of his attacker, and the fur around it had been trimmed away so the team of witches and wizards struggling to keep him stable could keep a close eye on the, even now, bleeding wound. Though they were difficult to see with all the blood, the veins around the wound were an angry, pulsing black-purple, like they were bruised, where the poison had rapidly spread before the fox had been found and stabilized.

The blood wasn't trickling from the wounds either, it was pulsing with the fox's slow, steady heartbeat, and there was an IV, something Harry was surprised to see given the magical nature of the hospital wing, attached to the fox's neck, pumping fluids and, what he hoped was blood, given how much of it he must be losing in an hour.

Even his fur, usually a glistening silver, was dull and gray where it wasn't dyed a dark red.

Despite how often he must have seen it, Blaise teared up at the sight of his guardian, the truest definition of the word, lying nearly lifeless on the bed, and Harry pulled him into a tight hug, his own eyes wet at the sight of the usually so vibrant Valerian.

And Fallen's been staring at this night after night. He thought to himself miserably.

Ron and Draco each put a hand on Blaise's shoulders, offering their friend additional support, support that he likely hadn't really been getting except for that first night back in the dorm when he'd curled up with Harry and Draco and cried himself to sleep.

"He's strong," Draco reminded him quietly. "He's still fighting."

Blaise nodded. "I know," he whispered, burying his face in Harry's shoulder. "But seeing him like this…."

"I get it," Harry said.

Blaise said nothing because Harry was likely the only one who did.

"Has there really been no change?" Ron asked, looking down at the fox, jerking slightly when he noticed the fox appeared to be watching him, eyes half-lidded and cloudy with pain, but watching.

Blaise shook his head, pulling far enough away from Harry that his voice wasn't muffled completely. "Fallen and Madam Pomfrey say he's not really conscious, even though he looks like he's watching us. She says there's no pupil response, which means he's in some sort of coma or something."

"Professor Snape has been in contact with every Potioneer in and around England that might have basilisk venom on hand, hoping to test it against Yoko's blood and create an antidote, but this is the first time that basilisk venom hasn't killed its victim immediately," Pomfrey revealed. "Yoko's enhanced and, quite honestly alien biology is what has kept him alive this long. A human, no matter how strong-willed, would have been dead twice over already."

After a couple of minutes, Blaise finally approached his guardian, running three fingers between Yoko's ears and down his muzzle in a restless gesture. Harry quickly pulled himself away, the blood on the Valerian's fur and flesh causing him to relive the moment Tarana had died, but Draco pressed close to take the brunette's spot, wordlessly shoring up Blaise as he whispered words too quiet for the blond to hear.

Ron and Harry moved on to see Hermione, who was just as stiff and lifeless as all the other petrified victims.

"Do you think she saw who sent the basilisk after her?" Ron asked quietly, staring at her.

Harry shrugged.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. If they came at them from behind, we'll never know, will we."

"Fallen's already got his suspect, right?" Harry pointed out. "I'm pretty sure we'll know who did it, even if no one saw the person controlling it."

Ron nodded in agreement.

Harry took a step closer to the bed and glanced over his shoulder at Pomfrey. "Ron, look at this," he whispered, pointing down at Hermione's right fist.

Ron took his own look in Pomfrey's direction, before shifting to block her view. "Can you get it out without tearing it?" he asked.

Harry risked another glance at the medi-witch before turning his attention to gently coaxing the old piece of paper from Hermione's grasp.

"Crazy bint," Harry muttered under his breath. "Even petrified she doesn't want to give up her bloody research."

Ron choked on his tongue, utterly surprised to hear such a thing come out of Harry's mouth, but Harry couldn't retort because the page he was struggling to get slipped free.

"Time's up, boys," Pomfrey said, approaching them.

"But-"

"Yes ma'am," Harry interrupted Draco, trying to subtly push the paper in his hand up his sleeve before she noticed it. "Thank you for letting us visit."

Pomfrey eyed him suspiciously before she sighed, relenting. "I know this is hard on those who were friends with the victims," she told them. "But this will all be over in the morning." She looked apologetically in Blaise's direction. "I'm sure we'll come up with something," she assured him. "We have the best minds working on a solution."

Blaise nodded, but couldn't find it in himself to answer.

Even though he'd promised Fallen to not lose faith in Yoko, it was getting harder and harder to keep that promise the longer Yoko didn't make any significant recovery.

XX

Harry showed the others the paper that Hermione had in her fist as soon as they were out of Pomfrey's line of sight, but it was too dark in the corridor to read more than it was a page on basilisks.

Hermione's tight, cramped handwriting was scribbled on the bottom of the page, so they all but ran for Severus' office, where they knew they'd, if no one else, find the potions master.

Severus and Grubbly-Plank had been forced to give up teaching their classes to devote all their time and attention to saving Yoko, especially after Hagrid had been 'arrested' and Fallen's wrath had begun to build.

The last thing anyone wanted, was for Yoko to die in their care.

With Fallen supplying what he knew of Valerian biology, Grubbly-Plank supplying the anatomy of the fox, and Severus devoting everything he knew to poisons, they had, at the very least, managed to get the Assassin stabilized.

Now, however, it was a headlong drive to figure out how to cure him before the spells and other methods failed and the poison began to spread again.

When Draco and his friends shoved their way into his office, it was immediately clear that Severus likely hadn't left it all that often.

There were mugs and cups of tea spread around on varying surfaces, all likely from that day given that the Hogwarts house elves came twice a day to clean such things out of the professors' offices and chambers, and all the essays and homework scrolls had been piled up and tossed, rather haphazardly, onto an armchair, allowing space for dozens of books to be spread out over the professor's desk.

The man's robes had been abandoned, tossed over the back of the couch, and there was a fading streak of black ink along his inner wrist, where he had likely dragged it through a line of wet ink.

He scowled when he realized who had just barged into the office.

"What are-"

"Hermione figured it out!" Harry told him quickly, rushing to hand the professor the basilisk information.

Severus' gaze drifted over the page, zeroing in on the information he didn't already know, like the word 'pipes' scrawled across the top of the page and the tiny, narrow gibberish that was cramped onto the bottom.

"What is this?"

"We went to see Yoko and Hermione," Draco told him, ignoring his godfather's scowl. "Hermione had that clenched in a fist. She had probably been spending the time before the match researching and was heading to give that to someone when she was attacked."

"You understand that none of this information is unknown to me," Severus drawled, putting the paper aside and returning to the book before him, picking the quill back up.

Draco, rather bravely in Harry and Ron's opinion, put the paper back before his godfather and pointed to the bottom of it.

"Draco," Severus said, scowling up at his godson through his lashes. "You're trying my patience."

"It's worth it," Draco insisted, desperate to make him listen. "Hermione figured out why no one was killed by the basilisk and how it was getting around the school. That's got to narrow down where it is, right?"

"On the bottom, sir," Blaise said. "Hermione takes notes in some kind of muggle shorthand so she can cram as much information as she can into her notes during class."

"Ron and I," Harry said gesturing to the two in question, "use her notes all the time. We're getting pretty good at reading it."

"That list is every attack," Ron added. "Including how they managed to avoid dying, we're positive."

"And you believe the basilisk is moving through the pipes of the school," Severus said slowly.

The boys nodded frantically.

"Explain to me how you, Potter, are hearing it through both the pipes and the walls, yet the Valerians, whose hearing is far more sensitive, do not."

Harry opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again as his eyes lit up.

Before he could answer, however, McGonagall's magically amplified voice echoed through the halls.

"ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THEIR HOUSE DORMITORIES AT ONCE! ALL PROFESSORS AND FALLEN TO THE STAFF ROOM IMMEDIATELY."

Severus got to his feet, expression grim, and pointed at the boys sternly. "Stay. Here." He said shortly.

Blaise's lip quivered, but he nodded along with everyone else as the potions master swept from the room.

"What if it's Yoko?" he whispered.

"It's not," Ron said with more confidence than he felt. "We were just there."

XX

It was hours before Severus and Fallen returned to the office and the boys jumped to their feet immediately as the door opened.

The wait had obviously not been a peaceful one for any of them.

"Yoko is fine," Fallen said, putting their fears on that front to rest.

"Was there another attack?" Harry asked, wringing his hands together. "I swear I didn't hear anything this time."

Fallen and Severus exchanged a grim look.

"There was," Ron whispered. "Who was it? Did someone die this time?"

"Sit down," Fallen told them all firmly as Severus went to his desk and pulled his decanter from his warded and locked drawer. It said a lot about the year thus far that it was nearly two-thirds empty.

"There wasn't an attack, per se," Severus said once everyone had sat down. "However," he glanced at Fallen.

"A student was taken to the Chamber," Fallen said bluntly. "A roll was taken of the students and only one is unaccounted for." He glanced at Severus, before looking at Ron. "Ron, Ginny is missing."

Ron shook his head. "No, she's probably in the girl's room or something. She's here somewhere."

"She is not," Severus told him. "We've done an extensive search of the school and can't locate her."

Ron's eyes watered. "But-"

Harry leaned into Ron's shoulder. "So, what happens now? Are you going to find the Chamber?"

Fallen's lip curled. "I am honestly beginning to see why Tarana hated the staff of this school so much," he said. "Lockhart is being sent on a wild goose chase to find the Chamber because he claimed to know where it was located. The entire staff is aware that he's a lying sack of shit and even if he wasn't and he did know where it was, they'd essentially be sending him to his death."

"But you're not just leaving her down there, are you?" Ron demanded angrily. "You have to know where it is by now, right? You've been looking for it for days!"

"And we have been searching the school for over a thousand years, Weasley," Severus pointed out. "We can't know for certain where the Chamber is even now."

Ron jumped to his feet; fists clenched. "What does that mean?!"

"Sit down," Severus said, dangerously calm.

"It means the school is looking to do damage control, right?" Draco said quietly. "No one knows where the Chamber is, so they don't know where to find Ginny."

"More or less," Fallen agreed. "Because the school doesn't know where to find her, the next best course for them is to try and salvage what they can of the situation. By this point, however, unless the culprit is caught and Ginny returned hale and whole, the school will be closed within the day."

"But we know where the Chamber is, don't we?" Harry said hesitantly. "Didn't you talk to Moaning Myrtle? Did she die there?"

"She did," Fallen agreed. "And additional information has been brought to light that further evidences your theory."

"So, we can go and get her!" Ron said, eyes lighting up with maniac glee.

"No," Severus said. "We cannot."

"Unfortunately," Fallen sighed. "I have a theory as to why we haven't been able to find the Chamber in the last millennia and it has everything to do with Salazar being the only Parselmouth in Europe at the time he created it. If that's the case, we're a little light on who we can ask to open it."

Harry looked nervous but straightened his shoulders as Severus and Fallen looked at him.

"If he's going, I'm going," Ron said firmly.

"You seem to forget who you're talking to, Weasley," Severus said warningly.

"But she's my sister!" Ron shouted. "If Harry gets to go and save her, I should go too!"

"We did manage to protect the Stone without a professor last year," Draco pointed out, crossing his arms and averting his eyes when Severus narrowed his warningly on him.

"You did," Fallen agreed. "However, there are other options this year. Professors who are more qualified, and equally as invested, in the destruction of the creature and the retrieval of Ginny."

Blaise raised his head but didn't meet anyone's eyes as he pointed out, "Convincing a professor to take the risk will take time. Time I'm guessing Ginny doesn't have."

Fallen looked up at Severus who was doing a rather impressive impression of Tarana's 'I-disapprove-but-can't-find-a-way-around-this' expression.

"I suppose we could always grab Lockhart and task him with watching out for them," he pointed out.

Severus' expression twisted and it was very clear what he thought of any time spent in an enclosed space with the charlatan.

XX

Though he was obviously against the very idea of taking Lockhart down into the Chamber, Severus was the one to give two, sharp knocks on the man's office door.

There was absolute silence on the other side and Fallen tilted his head.

"I don't believe the man is preparing to even pretend to be going after the girl," he told the Potions professor.

Severus gave the door one last sharp knock before the door was opened only wide enough to see half of Lockhart's sweating and frazzled face.

"Severus," he said breathlessly, a weak smile on his face. "Can I help you?"

Severus gestured to Draco and Blaise, the two boys before him, Harry and Ron a little further to the side and, therefore, out of Lockhart's view.

"These boys came to me this evening with an idea of where to find the Chamber of Secrets," the man drawled. "Given that you were sent to find it and claimed to already know where it was, I figured you would be the best one to tell them whether their theory was correct or not."

Lockhart swallowed, sweat sliding down the side of his face.

Fallen chuckled.

It wasn't a nice sound.

Lockhart looked down at the wolf in time to see the last of his red eyes eclipsed by the demon-black of his Element.

And the door crashed inward.

XX

Lockhart's vision was spinning when as he struggled back to his feet and he shook his head to try and clear it.

"Sham magician," Fallen murmured.

Lockhart squeaked.

The wolf was surrounded by waving tendrils of blood-red air, tendrils that weaved, and lunged toward the Defense professor like a hunting dog still on the leash.

"One of the worst I've ever met," the wolf continued, stepping further into the office.

He looked around at the bare walls and the many trunks, some of which were only half full of terrified, identical faces of the man cowering before him.

"You've never done an ounce of real work in your life, have you?" Fallen asked. "Every moment of fame you've collected was off the backs, blood, sweat, and tears of others."

Severus snorted. "Don't tell me you're surprised, General? You've been listing his faults all year to any and sundry."

Fallen's lips peeled apart in a vicious smile.

"We don't have time, however, to do so now," the Potions professor added, tapping the doorframe before pulling his wand out and flicking it in the direction of Lockhart's desk.

The blonde's wand shot to Severus' empty hand like a guided missile. "I do question the logic, however, of bringing him down to babysit your Gryffindors if he can't even remember to keep his wand on him in a time of serious crisis like this."

There was a rather predictable outcry from the students still in the hallway regarding their need of a babysitter at all but Fallen turned his head just enough to glare at them with one black eye.

"Remember that the only one we are required to take into the Chamber for any length of time is Harry. The rest of you should be on your way back up to the Tower at this moment and will remember that if you wish to continue even as far as Severus and I have agreed to let you at all."

"Yes, Fallen," the boys chorused, some more mutinously than others.

By the time Fallen had given Lockhart his full attention again, his eyes had returned to his natural red and his Element was once more completely under wraps.

"On your feet, mortal," Fallen barked. "You have one more lesson to teach before you depart your position."

Lockhart felt all the blood drain from his face and could feel himself get, very suddenly, lightheaded.

XX

They were nearly to the second floor when Severus made the group stop and put a hand on Blaise's shoulder.

"I want you to return to the Great Hall," he told him, causing the dark-skinned Gryffindor to blink up at him, startled. "The rest of the staff is gathering there as they finish going over the school again in a fruitless attempt to find Ms. Weasley. You'll likely find McGonagall there. Explain to her everything you boys have found out, including what I know Fallen has revealed to you, about the Chamber and make sure that she follows us into the Chamber. Is that within your ability or should I find someone more capable?"

"I can do it, sir," Blaise assured him, before turning and darting back the way they'd come.

"As for the rest of you," Fallen said, turning to the remaining three boys. "As soon as we're sure that we've reached the den of the basilisk, or the location they're holding Ginny, whichever comes first, you will all be turning back. Harry will only remain with us as long as his ability to Speak is required and then he will join you. Above all else, everyone stays out of our way and do exactly as you're told. I have no idea what condition we will find the Heir of Slytherin, given that I haven't had time to verify any of my suspicions on that front, and we may be walking into a fight with a serpent older than the Valerians have been on this world and the wizard that commands it."

Ron looked rather mutinous but obediently replied his agreement to the conditions with the others.

"You really seem to have this all in hand," Lockhart said, voice high pitched and rushed. "You don't seem to need me; I'll just be heading-"

Severus put a hand on his chest and shoved him back in an impressive display of strength, keeping the other man pressed against the wall there, whimpering and eyes crossed as he struggled to see the tip of the potions master's wand.

"The alternative," the dark-haired professor murmured silkily, "is allowing Fallen to tear your throat out. You've certainly given him enough ammunition over the course of the year."

Fallen slunk around behind the potions master, flashing fangs at him. "I can probably get away with it if I call it a sign of 'increased stress'."

Lockhart whimpered quietly but ducked his head and didn't have much else to say, even when Severus stepped back and gestured grandly for the man to follow Fallen toward the bathroom.

"Keep in mind, he'll run faster than you," Severus drawled quietly as he passed.

XX

Draco was rather uncomfortable once they arrived in Myrtle's bathroom, as he had forgotten how fixated she had become on him at Nick's deathday party all those months ago.

"You're back," Myrtle said, almost brightly, as she caught sight of Fallen coming through the door with Lockhart and Severus, the boys trailing in afterward. "And you!"

Draco shifted, just slightly, away from her as she drifted in a circle around him.

"Do you remember me?" she asked him, getting rather close to his face to stare him in the eye, likely in the hopes that being that close would enable him to remember her better.

"How could I forget?" he asked, giving her a rather weak smile.

His response clearly delighted her because she squealed and rocked back and forth in midair.

While Ron and Harry were having a lighthearted moment on Draco's behalf, Severus and Fallen turned their attention to examining the sinks that the wolf had been forced to abandon when McGonagall had paged him to the staff lounge.

"I admit that I'm not totally sold on this information of yours, Fallen," Severus told him quietly.

'We have little to lose in trying,' Fallen pointed out. 'The only thing that hasn't been tried is using a parselmouth to open the Chamber.'

"I was more concerned with where you got the information from," Severus drawled, looking over his shoulder where Myrtle was clearly making a rather uncomfortable nuisance of herself as far as Draco was concerned. "She is not the most reliable source."

'Of course, she isn't,'Fallen snorted. 'She's a dead teenager whose greatest desire is someone's undivided attention. Who wouldn't find the information suspect? However, I've also factored in the fact that the diary, which I'm certain is somehow connected to this, given the rather suspicious time of the attack in comparison to when it was stolen, was found here, and Longbottom's tampered memory is from around this area. We don't have a great deal of time if we're going to keep Hogwarts open for the foreseeable future.'

Severus didn't retort, but only because his fingers had found a rough patch on one of the sink taps.

With a deft twist, he tried it, and nothing happened.

"That taps always been broken," Myrtle said suddenly, far too close to Severus for his liking and the scowl on his face was enough to make her duck her head and float back a meter or so.

"Oi!" Ron cried suddenly.

With the reflexes of a duelist who actually used them, Severus spun on his heel and flicked his wrist in Lockhart's general direction.

The man abruptly toppled, ropes wrapping tightly around his ankles and wrists, as well as over both arms and around his midsection.

He tsked in irritation and disapproval.

"Do stop being bothersome, Lockhart," he sneered, before turning to Fallen and Draco, who had taken Severus' place by the apparently broken tap. "Any ideas on how to open it?" he asked the wolf.

Fallen shook his head.

"Why does it have to be complicated?" Harry asked, tilting his head curiously.

"Harry," Draco said slowly, as though the brunette was being particularly daft. "This is supposed to hide one of Salazar Slytherin's most secret and prized possession. His tool to cull the muggle-borns from Hogwarts. He's not just going to make it easy to open."

Harry rolled his eyes and nudged the wolf and preteen aside. "Slytherins always overthink things," he said, before tilting his head to see the tap better. "Open."

"Erm, I understood that," Ron said, raising his hand slightly.

Harry squinted. "Open," he repeated.

Draco shook his head.

Severus glanced at the firelight around them and waved his wand.

The torches immediately swayed as though in an invisible breeze.

Harry's eyes lit up because with the swiftly changing lights, the snake appeared to have come to life and the next thing out of his mouth was most definitely not English, Queen's or otherwise.

Almost immediately, the snake emblem glowed a bright white and spun so swiftly that Harry felt dizzy for a moment before he stepped back and away.

The sink began to move almost as soon as he did, before sinking down and out of sight.

In its place was a large, exposed pipe.

Harry smirked, looking far too smug for Draco's liking. "See? Too complicated."

Draco scowled.

XX

Fallen took one whiff of the sludge coating the pipe and wrinkled his nose.

"Well," Severus said, turning to Lockhart and jerking his wand, causing the man to be pulled to his feet. "Come here. I suppose we've found our first real use for you."

"Se-Severus, please-" Lockhart stuttered.

"Let us know if something tries to eat you," Fallen said, sounding far too gleeful about it, given what was supposedly down there.

Severus slashed his wand, cutting the ropes that prevented Lockhart from moving, and promptly shoved him into the pipe.

He screamed the entire way to the ground.

"You know in hindsight, we probably shouldn't have warned the entire underground Chamber that we were here," Fallen said, tilting his head.

"Whose to know that they don't already?" Severus asked. "I can do a rudimentary scan for Nets and Webs, but I wouldn't be able to detangle one the way Yoko does."

"Good point," Fallen said.

The scream abruptly cut off.

"Do you think he died?" Ron asked when there was no immediate call from the blond professor.

"It's very dark down here!" Lockhart called shakily. "And very disgusting!"

"Pity," Draco muttered mutinously.

"Draco," Severus rebuked half-heartedly.

The blond Gryffindor shrugged, totally unapologetic given what Lockhart had put he and his friends through over the year.

Fallen was the next down the pipe, though he created a 'squeegee' effect with his wind that got rid of the worst of the slime stickiness as he descended.

Once he hit the bottom, he warped the thickly covered barrier into sharp spikes and spread them out in intervals around himself and Lockhart, pushing them forward to grant them all enough space to descend without leaving their immediate protection.

"Clear!" the wolf called up, scanning the darkness around him. With so little light, it was difficult to make out Lockhart, a darker shadow in a sea of shadows, but he was certain that if the basilisk or its master were around, Fallen would hear it even if he couldn't see it.

One by one, the children descended the pipe, but as even Fallen couldn't have completely cleaned the filthy pipe full of centuries full of slime and other wonderfully gross things, they spent more time trying to get the worst of the smelly substance off their robes than scanning for danger.

"Look alive, boys," Fallen said sharply. "If the size of the scale Yoko found is any indication, this snake could probably swallow one of you fairly easily in a bite or two."

One of them made a rather embarrassing squeaking nose, and then two wands were lit, giving light to the darkness.

Fallen kept his attention ahead of him, not ready to give up his 'night vision' just yet.

There was a muffled curse as Severus joined them, his own wand already lit and Fallen didn't dare take his attention away from what potentially lied ahead, even as Severus came to stand alongside him. Out of his peripheral vision, however, Fallen noticed with satisfaction that the war-duelist had left his cloak up in the bathroom.

"Ready for war, are you?" the wolf teased quietly.

"Aren't you?" Severus asked in return, eyeing the sludge coated spine by his head. "Unusual tactic for you, to let the enemy see where your weapon is."

"Given the stupidity he has shown thus far this year, I didn't want to risk Lockhart impaling himself before he'd out his usefulness."

Severus snorted, before spinning to look at the students behind him. "Weasley, put that wand light out, I have no interest in blowing up tonight. Lockhart, stand up straight. You're in charge of ensuring that no harm comes to the children," he said, handing the man his wand back. "And you'll do so even if it means throwing yourself bodily in front of the beast because as Fallen has made you aware, I'm a rather accomplished war-duelist. I've also developed a rather heavy interest in the Dark Arts and there will be nowhere in the world for a fraud like you to hide from myself, from Fallen, and certainly not from Lucius Malfoy if his son and heir comes back in anything less than pristine condition. Are we clear?"

"And if I come back but Harry or Ron don't, I'll make sure Father comes down on you all the same," Draco said brightly before Lockhart could answer.

Lockhart looked rather pathetic in the witch-light put off by three wands, and his hand shook as he reached out to take his wand back from Severus.

The potions master didn't release it.

"Are we clear?" the man asked, dangerously quiet.

"Yes," Lockhart squeaked.

"Good," Severus said, letting the wand go and turning back to the tunnel ahead of them.

Now prepared to move forward, Fallen released his Element and the sludge made a heavy, wet sound as it hit the ground, causing Lockhart to whimper in the darkness.

Most of them ignored him and followed Severus, wand held high, and Fallen as he slunk along at the professor's side.

XX

They'd been walking for nearly twenty minutes when Fallen broke the silence.

"If my sense of direction remains the same, we'll be coming up near the edge of Black Lake shortly," he said. "This tunnel needs to either end, or the fall from the bathroom dropped us farther than I realized."

Ron ran a hand along one wall and wrinkled his nose. "Honestly, I thought we'd already been beneath it."

The group fell silent again for another few minutes until Severus' wand light fell on the long tail of a giant snake.

Everyone immediately froze.

Fallen slunk forward, ears pricked up and ahead. "I think it's just the skin," he told them. "It smells…stale. Old."

Ron took a step forward, but Severus extended an arm to prevent him from moving.

"It's not the basilisk though!" he protested. "We have to keep going!"

"Silence," Fallen barked. "It will be easier to hear and see the basilisk, but it isn't the only threat down here. Calm down and don't rush forward into a battle you're ill-prepared for. The skin of the snake, though obviously outdated or it wouldn't have shed it, will give us an approximate of how big an opponent we're looking at facing in the near future."

The group huddled around the entrance to the large cavern, watching as Severus and Fallen swept around the snakeskin quickly.

Once satisfied, Severus wordlessly urged them to follow, as Fallen continued down the tunnel.

'Have we even seen a basilisk that size before?' Brandon asked.

'Honestly, I don't know if there's even a record of a basilisk that has lived as long as this one has,' Fallen admitted. 'The castle was built nearly nine hundred years ago, and Salazar left sometime in the decades immediately afterward. The basilisk must have been here just as long.'

'Hope this isn't one of those creatures that evolve with age,' Brandon said.

'Don't borrow trouble,' Fallen snapped, before taking a breath. 'Thus far, though there's never been a basilisk almost a thousand years old, there have been several who survived centuries. There's been no evidence of that kind of evolution.' The wolf remained grim. 'Honestly, our biggest problem isn't going to be a potential evolution of the basilisk, but whether or not Salazar spliced it with something else. We weren't able to prove it either way.'

For the children, the trip through the tunnel was more terrifying than the entire adventure to protect the Stone the year before.

At least then, there had been something happening.

The long walk through the tunnel, with every twist and turn potentially hiding a creature that could kill with its eyes, had their every nerve tingling and on edge.

It was another ten minutes or so before they came to the end of the tunnel, blocked by a massive set of stone doors, almost a wall, with entwined serpents serving as the lock, each with a single emerald to serve as an eye.

Severus flicked his wand and gestured to Harry to come forward. "Stay behind me," the professor told him sharply.

Harry's throat was dry, and his voice cracked as he croak-hissed out the command for the two snakes to open.

The emerald eyes seemed to flash at the boy, and he hunched his shoulders as the wall cracked down the middle and slowly slid out of sight.

As soon as the wall began to move, Severus swung his arm in a wide arc, pushing Harry as far behind his body as he could, while keeping the blue, pulsing shield between them and whatever was beyond it.

Fallen was hunched low opposite them, ears pricked forward and belly almost to the floor, the air around him seemed to be bleeding, his power thread through the air around him, though there was no purpose to it yet, though the wolf could make it so in a heartbeat, either a physical shield or a cutting blade.

But nothing happened.

There was no lunging serpent, there was no spell.

Just dim lighting that did little to illuminate what lay beyond.

"Take them back to the skin, Lockhart," Severus said quietly, not taking his eyes off the darkness ahead of them. "Send McGonagall to us when she arrives."

"But-"

"Harry will be joining you shortly," Fallen interrupted. "As soon as we're sure that this is the Chamber of Secrets and not simply a stop along the path. Go."

"Time to go, boys," Lockhart said eagerly, not wanting to spend any more time than he already had down in the dank tunnel and in mortal danger. "Come on!"

Severus kept Harry well behind him, wand still raised before him, as, once the children were clear, Fallen slowly slunk inside, cutting a diagonal path to the side of the chamber that was blocked by the wall beside Severus.

"Stay close," the professor murmured to the boy at his back.

Harry swallowed again, trying to bring some moisture to his throat so he could speak, and tightened his grip on his wand.

Once the wolf was out of sight, Severus cut the same diagonal path in the opposite direction, pulling Harry into the chamber with him.

XX

Above them, Blaise stood in the doorway, twisting his fingers nervously together as the remaining House Heads argued over the best battle plan in the Great Hall.

Behind him, the doors in the Entrance Hall creaked open.

"That must be Albus," Flitwick said eagerly, turning toward the sound.

Five jaws hit the floor, however, when their visitor finally stepped through.