PSA: I'm going to be super busy this week with exams and I've somehow managed to injure my wrist while studying and typing hurts, so I may not have a chance to complete and proofread the next chapter on the queue, and thus the next update is likely to be on Tuesday instead of Saturday. Hopefully this will give me a chance to catch up and (maybe) start drafting the finale chapters also.
If you guessed the Chamber of Secrets... you guessed right!
In this spin-off of HP canon, Harry's Parseltongue ability is a permanent genetic change that can be passed down to his descendants.
Also, the English to Latin Google Translate spells strike again! Since the Disillusionment Charm doesn't have a known incantation in the series, I've made one up.
This chapter also uses the text from CoS where Myrtle explains how she died, because I didn't think I could do a better job of writing it than JKR.
"C'mon Lil. It'll be just like old times. You, me, and Al avoiding Filch and the prefects and getting up to all sorts of mischief."
I sighed as we left the office and James locked the door behind us.
"Right. Just like old times, wandering around the corridors after hours with the Transfiguration TA."
"Professionalism be damned, it's Friday night. Where's your sense of adventure?"
Chapter 8: The Chamber and the Map
I turned to Albus, who was checking the map for professors, prefects, and most importantly, Flich.
"So, will you tell us what the theory is, now?"
"You know the The Tale of the Three Brothers, right? The bedtime story with the three Peverell brothers?"
I side-eyed him, "Yes, Al, believe it or not, we grew up in the same house where our parents told us the same bedtime stories."
"There are three Peverell siblings. And three Potter siblings."
"And?"
"The three brothers are gifted the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak after passing Death's test."
"I thought Death was angry that the brothers managed to cross the bridge."
"Context, Lil."
"So you think it's some kind of test?"
"Yeah. Whatever it is, it clearly requires three siblings. Why, I don't know."
"Oh. That's kind of unimpressive."
We had fallen a few paces behind James.
Albus snorted. "What were you expecting?"
James stopped short, and I nearly bumped into him.
"Shit! I hear Peeves, we have to hide!"
The hallway was too brightly lit to disappear into the shadows, so James tossed the Invisibility Cloak over Albus and me, and muttered 'Calamitatis,' while twisting his wand over his head, leaving barely a glimmer against the wall just in the nick of time.
Peeves careened into the hallway.
"I thought I heard Potty Wee Potter's voice! Ah, never mind, there's no mischief about in this hallway!"
I stuffed my hand in my mouth to stifle a giggle. Albus elbowed me in the ribs.
Peeves's voice faded and we continued down the hallway.
"We're here," said Albus, looking down at the map as we stopped in front of a bathroom with a permanent out-of-order sign.
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? You've got to be kidding me."
Albus shuddered as he reached for the handle. "I hope you're feeling especially brave today, my dear Gryffindor brother."
"You go first."
"No, James, you should. Gryffs before Slyths."
"Children before adults."
"Merlin, you two are so annoying! I'll go first!"
I swung the door open and marched into the bathroom. It was eerily quiet, as usual. She was clearly moping in one of the stalls.
"Myrtle? Are you here?"
"Oh Lil, what'd you do that for?" My brothers had appeared behind me. I smirked as a giant splash sounded in the stall furthest from the door and the ghost of a girl about my age appeared before us.
"I'm always here. Where else would I be?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe in the boys' bathroom like you were last time I saw you. You know, the time when I wasn't wearing anything and you were perving on me. And Scorpius," Albus said dryly.
Myrtle giggled and floated over to James and Albus, ignoring me.
"You two look so much like your father. He was so nice to me. And so handsome, hehe..."
I rolled my eyes as Moaning Myrtle continued to shower praise on my very uncomfortable brothers, while I didn't even receive a hello. I guessed she had a thing for Potter men. And Malfoys, that was new information. Super creepy.
Currently, she was giggling over how strong James was.
Albus handed me the map, which currently displayed the words 'Speak to ghost' in the same violet script.
I motioned at James to ask Myrtle about the secret passageway.
"Listen Myrtle, would you do us a favor?" James gave Moaning Myrtle his most winning smile.
"Ooooh... anything... for you... I'd love to help." She perked up instantly at the prospect of helping James. He was her favorite, after all.
"You wouldn't know anything about a secret passageway in here?"
"There is one thing..."
Myrtle had a predilection for dramatic pauses and suspense. Must have been the boredom of living in an out-of-order bathroom for all eternity.
She looked particularly gleeful. "Do you want to know... how I died?"
I failed to see how this was relevant, but I supposed that we had to humour her if we wanted to know where the passageway was.
"Of course, Myrtle," I responded wearily.
"I didn't ask you," she said.
Albus gritted his teeth and forced a grin. "How did you die, Myrtle?" he asked as sweetly as possible.
She did a joyful somersault into her favorite toilet and came up with a euphoric splash.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then — I died."
"What did the language sound like, Myrtle?" asked Albus. Neither James nor I had the patience to deal with her.
She grinned wickedly. "Oh, some awful hissing thing. Same as Harry Potter did when he opened that tap over there. But no-one died that time." Myrtle pointed at one of the several sinks. She seemed very sad about the fact that no one died.
Albus looked James, James looked at me, and I looked at Albus.
"No one died that time. Doesn't sound very promising."
I checked the map. The next instruction was to 'Discover password.'
"Myrtle, do you think it could have been Parseltongue?"
She did another giant splash, spraying water across the floor.
"Don't know... but it couldn't hurt to try," Myrtle offered coquettishly.
I looked at the sink that she'd pointed at, and then back to Myrtle.
"What happened when Dad spoke Parseltongue to the sink, Myrtle?" I asked.
Thankfully for my sanity, she decided that she enjoyed talking about herself more than she disliked me.
"Ooooh, it turned in a pipe and him, that horrible boy, and some professor went down it and came back all covered in muck, with that awful girl he married."
"Are you talking about Mum?"
Myrtle did another giant splash, so that probably meant yes.
Albus leaned over the sink, staring at the snake carved on the tap intently for a few minutes. The only sound in the bathroom was the other sinks dripping water intermittently. Even Myrtle was still. Then he unhinged his jaw slightly and emitted a strange, low hissing sound. Myrtle floated back out of her toilet to investigate, looking extremely interested.
I'd heard him and Dad speak Parseltongue before but it never ceased to be disturbing to me to hear snake noises coming out of a human. Neither James nor I could understand it or speak it.
James whistled.
"You're creepy as fuck Al, do you know that?"
"Shut up, James!" He backed away as the sink sunk into the floor, revealing a slightly slimy gaping hole wide enough for a person as Myrtle said it would. Gross. I was hoping the passageway would be a little... classier.
"What did you say to it?"
He shrugged, "I just asked it to open."
James lit his wand and peered over the edge of the hole. He conjured a stone the size of a tennis and let it go over the hole.
Albus leaned over to listen for the sound of the stone hitting the bottom.
"Well, do you two fancy getting covered in muck today?"
Albus looked at Myrtle, who was currently floating beside him. "What's down there?"
"Oh, a dead basilisk," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
The three of us looked at each other in shock. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was a sink in an abandoned girls' bathroom?
Albus crouched down by the hole. "This goes miles under the school?"
"The map says we should enter."
"What the hell is this, a treasure hunt or something?"
Albus smirked, looking up from the dark passageway. "Scared, James? Didn't know it was possible for a Gryffindor."
"I'm not bloody scared. In fact, I'll go down there right now."
James clambered over the rim of the hole and disappeared into the darkness.
"JAMES!"
Myrtle floated behind us. "If he's dead, do you think he'd share this bathroom with me?"
I ignored her and checked the map. The current instruction said 'Follow the white rabbit.'
The map had an odd sense of humor.
Drawing on my reserves of Gryffindor courage and foolishness, I scooted over to the hole and dangled my legs over it, clutching my lit wand to my chest. I tucked the map under my shirt to keep it safe.
"Well, here goes. If I die, I'm sorry to say I won't be sharing your bathroom, Myrtle."
"Lil, just because one person goes down a hole doesn't mean you have to- LILY!"
Albus's voice petered out as I shot down the pipe, landing in a heap at the bottom. I checked for broken bones. Both me and my wand seemed to be fine. I retrieved the Marauder's Map and stood up.
"James?"
There was a moment of complete silence, and fear gripped me. But then his faraway voice cut through the damp darkness.
"Yeah, I'm further up the corridor. Where's Albus, is the scaredy-cat still up there?"
"I'm right here, you moron!" Albus's voice came from behind me. His landing had clearly been more graceful than mine.
"Just checking."
Albus and I lit our wands again. As we continued down the passageway, it became brighter, and I could see that the walls and floor were made of stone and looked to be covered in a layer of slime mold, fungi and bacteria. A strange, pale light shone shone at the end of the hallway.
As we got closer, we could see that the light belonged to a silver capuchin monkey. The owner of the Patronus leaned against the wall, looking extremely self-satisfied.
"James, you're such a show-off!"
He shrugged. "What, it's dark in here! You never know what's hiding in these passageways. You two look a right state, by the way."
"So do you. Your precious hair's covered in slime. At least it draws attention away from your eyebrow, ha ha."
James aimed a light punch at Albus, which he dodged, laughing.
I looked past my quarreling brothers to see a nearly-caved in entrance. The rubble had been cleared away enough to accommodate one person to step through at a time. I squinted at the map. The instructions said to proceed to the Chamber.
I clapped a hand to my nose and mouth as a revolting stench availed my senses as I stepped up to the entrance.
"Unbelievably gross."
The lighting inside the Chamber was bright, though it still felt grimy and dank.
The centerpiece of the room and the source of the stench was an enormous rotting snake-like corpse. It was a poisonous green that reminded me of Rita Skeeter's Quick-Quotes Quill, and at least fifty feet long. Dark stains that could only be the creature's blood covered the floor beneath it, and the floor itself was covered in about four inches of water. I peered closer and saw a gaping wound in the giant reptile's head. That must have been what killed it.
"I guess that's our basilisk."
"Whoa. The Serpent of Slytherin. I always thought people were exaggerating the size."
James chuckled. "Look, Al, it's your kin- OW!"
Albus's punch had clearly landed.
"I will push you in!" screeched James.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Would too."
While they were bickering, again, I steeled myself and stepped into the Chamber. So gross.
I attempted to wade through the water without splashing it too much, which was extremely difficult.
"D'you think I could Banish all this water somewhere else?"
"Better not. What if it lands on someone?"
James laughed. "Now, that'd be a prank."
"Don't get any ideas. Besides, it's got basilisk blood in it and who knows what else."
I checked the map. The message had changed to 'Obtain basilisk heart.'
"Does one of you happen to have a scalpel?"
James pulled a pen-knife out of his pocket.
"You're not really going to do that with your bare hands, James!"
He knelt by the body of the basilisk and began to make an incision along the midline of serpent.
More dark blood spilled into the water.
"Ugh, I can't watch."
"Didn't realize you were so squeamish, Lil."
I cupped my hand over my nose to block out the offending odor of decomposition. "It's disgusting, James."
Albus strode over to the basilisk and made a slashing movement with his wand.
"Diffindo!"
"Yeah, I guess that works too."
Albus looked very pleased with himself as James severed the basilisk heart, and stood up, holding the grimy penknife in one hand and the lizard heart in the other.
Surprisingly, the heart looked as if the basilisk had been killed seconds instead of years ago. In the dim light of the Chamber, the heart appeared to beat slightly.
"Put it away, it's gross."
I looked down at the map.
"Relic retrieved. The basilisk heart is your next clue. Best of luck, young seekers of adventure," I read aloud.
"What do you think that means?"
James slung an arm around both Albus and me. "Who cares! We'll figure it out later. Mischief definitely managed tonight. I, for one, need a shower."
Getting out of the Chamber took a couple tries and required some creative solutions, but we managed to emerge into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, tired and covered in muck. I never thought I'd be glad to see the place, but I was. We agreed on the way out that James would keep the basilisk heart in his quarters, as that was the safest place available.
"People never die down there." Myrtle splashed back into her favorite toilet when she saw us, clearly upset at the prospect of not getting to share her bathroom with James for all eternity.
"Bye, Myrtle!" called James as we left, "Thanks for the help, we found what we needed!"
"Oooooh, come again soon!" she responded giddily, poking her head out of the toilet.
Jasmine Flores and Annabel Wood were standing over me when I woke up.
I groaned and attempted to pull the covers over my head.
"Morning, sunshine! Welcome to your new reality!" chirped Jasmine in a tone that was much too bright for six-thirty on a Saturday morning.
"Get your uniform and your broom. We'll meet you in the common room in twenty."
I somehow managed to get dressed and find my broom in the early-morning light of the girl's dormitory. Carla and Maddie were still asleep, to my great envy. I trudged downstairs, where Jasmine and Annabel were waiting for me, looking wide-awake.
I, however, needed an IV of caffeine.
Jasmine, Annabel and I got changed into our uniforms and I followed them out onto the pitch. Rhys, Nate and Seb were already there. We were still waiting on Jamie McLaggen.
Nate and Seb were perched on their brooms and chatting animatedly with identical grins. Clearly, they were morning people.
Rhys was sitting in the stands and was staring off into the distance thoughtfully with the Quaffle under his arm. He stood up as we approached, jumping lightly off of the barrier.
"Morning Anna, Jazz, Lily."
He squinted into the distance.
Maybe he needed glasses.
"Where's Jamie?"
Nate and Seb shrugged. "Beats me. Did you guys see him in the common room on your way here?"
Annabel shook her head, catching the Quaffle effortlessly as Rhys tossed it to her.
"Probably still sleeping, what do you expect?"
Rhys frowned.
"Fine. We'll wait ten minutes, and if he doesn't show up, we'll just start without him."
Nate and Seb dismounted their brooms as we all sat down in a circle on the pitch.
"Right. As you all know, our first match is with Slytherin. First week of November."
Rhys turned to Nate and Seb. "You two know the drill. Make sure you keep Malfoy and Potter apart. When they're together they have a really high score rate. Let's not make Jamie's job any harder than it needs to be-"
"Who says my job needs to be easier?"
Jamie McLaggen had just arrived and was standing behind Rhys, the latter of whom looked very annoyed.
"Well, turning up on time proved to be difficult for you," he snapped. "Sit down, Jamie."
"Merlin, Rhys. Sorry I'm not your best mate. James bleeding-definition-of-Gryffindor-Mr-Popular Potter with his hair and his attitude and his broom and his fanclub of girls fawning over him. But we all know deep-down he's a arrogant piece of-"
I stood up, drawing my wand. "Oi, McLaggen, do you want to keep talking about my brother like that? I'd be happy to fix your mouth for you, Albus has taught me quite a few tricks."
I stared at Jamie McLaggen.
He stared at me.
Rhys exhaled hard. "Lily and Jamie, sit down and put your wands away. I'd like my Seeker and my Keeper in one piece. No more fighting and no more tardiness. May I continue?"
He turned to Nate and Seb again.
"And as I was saying, one of you needs to protect Lily, Nott and Pucey like to go after Seekers."
What do you guys think of my choice for James's Patronus form? I seriously considered giving him Harry's stag, but I want the Next Gen to stand on their own two feet and so I picked something that I think matches James's personality a bit better. He might grow into the stag later in the series but I think I like the cheeky and troublesome capuchin monkey for him right now.
I've picked Patronus forms for almost all of the main cast. Albus's is particularly badass and my personal favorite, so I can't wait for you guys to see it.
I hope my portrayal of Myrtle was decent! I think she's hilarious and sadly underused. I've never written her before so I hope she wasn't too OOC.
Thank you as always for reading! and Chapter 9 will be up either Saturday or next Tuesday.
