Thank you to Hpfan for your kind words, you've definitely inspired me to keep on writing! I hope people enjoy this next chapter, I had a blast writing it :)
"Why are you two here?" Sally-Anne blurted out as she and Lavender peeked their heads through the bathroom door twenty minutes later. She stepped into the room and apprehensively eyed Terry and Seamus, who were leaning against the peeling green cubicle doors.
Terry snorted slightly as he pushed himself off the door and stood in the center of the bathroom, staring back at her. "Wow, what a greeting, Perks."
"Don't ask us, ask Neville," Seamus tossed his chin in the direction of Neville, who was sitting on one of the sinks next to Ernie. "He captured us on our way to the she-Carrow's class and told us we had a mission to complete. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I hate that bloody class." He then turned to Neville. "Why are we here, mate?"
"Sally-Anne mentioned something about the Chamber of Secrets?" Lavender supplied quietly, flinching as all eyes suddenly landed on her. Neville's face drooped slightly as he looked at her. She had cleaned up from the previous night but there was definitely still something wrong. The way that she held herself was all wrong and so not-Lavender of her.
"We need a basilisk fang for the sleeping potion," Ernie explained as Neville finally tore his eyes off of Lavender.
"Sleeping potion for what?" Lavender pressed and Ernie, who actually hadn't been told what the full mission was, faltered slightly.
"To steal the Sword of Gryffindor," Neville and Terry said in unison, jumping in to help Ernie.
Lavender and Sally-Anne blinked owlishly at them while Seamus and Ernie's mouths fell open. "Um, what?"
"Harry needs it and we're going to steal it for him, yada yada, we'll explain more later. Can we get this over with?" Neville asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot. It hadn't really hit him until that moment that they were really going down into the Chamber of Secrets.
"Sal?" Ernie looked at her expectantly. He and Neville jumped off the sink and quickly moved out of the way as Sally-Anne stepped forward.
"Ginny said it's the center sink you have to talk to," Neville supplied. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Seamus and Terry exchange confused glances.
Sally-Anne took a deep breath and began to speak in a foreign tongue nearly identical to the language of Harry's little speech in dueling club all those years ago. She hissed as she spoke and Neville couldn't help but shudder slightly. Seamus and Terry recoiled at the sound but based on Lavender's expression, she had already been told about Sally-Anne's…abilities. Neville briefly wondered what their talk last night had consisted of, for Ginny had told him only a week ago that the pair greatly disliked each other.
Whatever Sally-Anne had said was effective, for the sink was already undergoing a startling transformation. She jumped back as the top of the structure slowly levitated into the air and the individual sinks moved away in all directions. The six of them slowly backed away as the structure in front of them rearranged until there was a large round pipe surrounded by grates that plunged deep into the floor.
"Whoa," Seamus breathed out as he took in the transfigurated bathroom with wide eyes.
"Way to go!" Ernie cheered, slapping Sally-Anne on the back with one of his rather large hands. She glared up at him and muttered, ouch.
"You're a Parseltongue?" Terry squawked, gawking at the Hufflepuff. "But how is that possible?"
"No, I was speaking French," Sally-Anne retorted, causing Terry's shocked expression to melt into a scowl.
"Is that really the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets?" Seamus stuttered out in an uncharacteristically timid way.
"Seems like it," Ernie gulped slightly.
Neville noticed Lavender peering down the entrance with apprehension and immediately stepped in. "We need somebody to keep watch and make sure nobody comes in while we're down there. And to keep Moaning Myrtle from asking too many questions. Lavender, would you mind?"
Lavender looked positively relieved at the request. "Sure, no problem."
"Great," Neville nodded enthusiastically. "Let's get one more person to stay with you, then. What about you, Sally-Anne? Care to stay up here in the Land of Light?"
"Well I opened the damn thing, didn't I?" Sally-Anne huffed, gesturing towards the transformed sink. "Might as well see what all the excitement is about."
"People have almost died down there," Terry reminded her as he crossed his arms. "I wouldn't really call that excitement, unless you're into that kind of stuff."
"I hate smartasses, you know," Sally-Anne said with distaste as she eyed him.
"That's rich coming from you," Terry immediately shot back. "From what I've heard, at least."
"He's got you there, Sal," Lavender said with a faint chuckle. Neville beamed, realizing it was the first time she had smiled all day.
"I don't like smartasses because I'm the superior smartass," Sally-Anne said, glaring at Terry.
"I think I might be able to give you a run for your money," Terry smirked. "I've been told by Snape on multiple occasions that I'm incorrigible."
"Why do I feel like this is the start of a beautiful friendship?" Seamus leaned up to mutter into Neville's ear as he eyed the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
"More like a beautiful rivalry," Neville whispered back.
"After you," Terry grandly gestured towards the entrance as he stared at Sally-Anne. "Since you were the one who opened it, after all."
"No, you first, I insist." Sally-Anne's voice was full of venom but her smile was sickly sweet as she gestured for him to jump down the entrance.
"Please, lead the way."
"Bloody hell, I'll go first!" Ernie grumbled, pushing past the pair. "Just please stop arguing!"
"I'll stand guard with Lav," Seamus volunteered, and Neville could tell that he was also very clearly worried about Lavender as he walked over to stand by her side.
"Looks like it's the four of us going in, then. Ernie? Care to start us off?" Neville said as he watched Seamus study Lavender's blank expression. He turned his gaze to the Hufflepuff, who gulped slightly.
"All right then," Ernie said in a high-pitched voice, staring down into the dark opening. "Yeah, sure. Down into the dark, scary, chamber…"
"Just do it, Macmillan!" Sally-Anne groaned, tapping her foot impatiently.
Ernie turned to Neville. "And you're certain there isn't a monster down there anymore?"
"Not one that's alive," Neville repeated Ginny's words, not only to reassure Ernie but also himself.
"That's good enough," Sally-Anne said, shoving Ernie forward without warning. He tripped over his feet and went tumbling down the hole. She winced slightly. "Oops, promise I didn't mean to do that." She was met with unconvinced expressions and raised eyebrows.
"Sally-Anneeeeeeee!" Ernie's scream grew quieter and quieter as he slid deeper and deeper into the underground chamber. A muffled oof! indicated that he had finally reached the end. "I'm okay, come down!"
Bidding goodbye to Lavender and Seamus, Terry, Sally-Anne, and finally Neville leaped over the grates and into the darkness. Neville gasped as his back hit the cold metal and he began to slide down the pipe with rapid acceleration. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming as the air around him whizzed by. And suddenly he came tumbling out of the mouth of the tunnel and into a pile of ivory objects.
Neville realized with a start that they were bones and immediately jumped to his feet and looked around. Nearby, he found Ernie hopping from foot to foot in an odd sort of dance, Terry on his hands and knees looking intently down at the bones, and Sally-Anne dusting off her robes.
"I wonder what kinds of animals these are from?" Terry wondered aloud as he inspected a small skeleton that must've once belonged to a rodent of sorts.
"Who cares? This is so gross," Ernie whined, quickly stepping up onto the tunnel they had come from so he was no longer standing on the bones.
"But it's fascinating to think about what this creature had to feast on for centuries to keep it sustained. Basilisks produce other valuable potion ingredients, you know, not just fangs. The scale of a basilisk can-mmph!" Terry's little Ravenclaw rant was cut off suddenly as Sally-Anne kicked him in the elbow, sending him sprawling face-first into a particularly large pile of skeletons.
"Are you really a Hufflepuff?" Neville asked her skeptically as Terry picked himself up off the ground, moaning about all the germs.
Sally-Anne gave a little curtsy. "I'm an anomaly. Now can we get going already?"
"Why? Are you scared?" Terry taunted, glaring at her as he rubbed at his face with his sleeve until it was red.
"No!" Sally-Anne haughtily tossed her blonde curls over her shoulder. "But I bet you are."
"They are actual children. Is it too late to trade one of them out for Seamus?" Ernie asked Neville under his breath, jumping down to stand by his side.
"Afraid so," Neville sighed, also beginning to regret their choice of team members. "Sally-Anne is right, though, we are on a tight schedule here."
"So which way do we go?" Ernie asked as he spun around in a slow circle, observing all the different passageways around the small, bone-filled space.
"We could split up?" Neville proposed, also eyeing their surroundings. "That way we'll be able to cover more ground quicker."
"But didn't we bring Terry along so he could properly identify the basilisk fang?" Ernie protested. "We shouldn't split up, in that case."
Sally-Anne's lit up and she slapped Terry on the back. "Ah! So you do have a purpose of some sort, Boot. Nothing compared to the importance of mine, however."
"Charming, Perks," Terry sneered. "But anyway, there's no need to split up. Point me!" A burst of blue light flew out of his long wand and shot down a tunnel to Neville's left.
"Alright, well done Terry," Neville complimented, causing Sally-Anne to frown. "We don't have much time to waste, let's go."
After another round of bickering, Sally-Anne was chosen to lead the way (so that she "could talk to any snakes we encounter and convince them not to eat us," as Ernie had so eloquently stated). Their four wands combined managed to light up the dark chamber as they filed single-file down the tunnel.
"Is that the basilisk?" Ernie suddenly squawked, recoiling and hiding behind Sally-Anne as the four of them made their way into a new section of the chamber just as dark and damp as the last one. Sure enough, there appeared to be a limp, motionless snake of over forty feet long spread out across the room. "Sally-Anne, talk to it!"
"It's just dead skin," Terry reassured him. He poked the object with the end of his wand. "Basilisks, like snakes, shed a portion of their skin every couple of months."
Sally-Anne knelt down to brush aside some rubble and plucked a small object nestled between two boulders. "This must've belonged to Lockhart," she muttered to herself as she held her wand up to inspect the mother-of-pearl brooch. "Meggie used to love him." She slipped the pin into her pocket.
"If Lockhart was here then so was Harry. That must mean we're going in the right direction," Neville supplied, earning nods from the rest of the group.
With Sally-Anne in the lead, they wove around the giant snakeskin and through another passageway that led to a great, round door adorned with little metal snakes.
"Salazar Slytherin had good taste," Sally-Anne commented, nodding towards the snake door. She took in the nervous faces around her and rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly! You three need to lighten up, I was only joking!" She composed herself and hissed out a quick line of Parseltongue. Nobody was even surprised as the snake decorations rearranged themselves, allowing the door to swing open.
"Oh," Ernie gasped as the four of them peered out the door and into the heart of the Chamber of Secrets. There was about a seven-foot drop that led to an elaborate marble walkway surrounded by water on both sides. Horrifying snake figurines with flicked out stone tongues donned the bleak walls. At the end of the path, a man's stone face frozen in a scream covered the entire back wall. The whole room sent shivers down Neville's spine, not to mention the giant basilisk skeleton splayed out across the dark marble.
"Thinking about moving down here, are you, Perks?" Terry's snide voice suddenly broke the silence. "I mean you thought the door was nice but get a load of this."
"Funny," Sally-Anne's laugh dripped with sarcasm. "Why are you here again, Boot? Oh yeah, to identify the basilisk fangs. But how will you ever do it?" She then looked pointedly down at the basilisk carcass. "Oh wait, that's the only snake skeleton with teeth here in the chamber. Hmm, guess your job won't be quite as hard as we thought now, will it?"
"Well if you don't need me then why don't you go get it yourself, then?" Terry shot back, moving away so she had access to the ladder.
"As if!" Sally-Anne crossed her arms and turned away from the door.
Ernie was looking at Neville with nervous eyes. "Looks like I'm going, then," Neville sighed. He gripped the sides of the ladder and climbed down the couple of rungs, landing on his feet on the marble walkway.
He was surprised when Ernie clamored down a couple of seconds later and stood at his side. "I wasn't going to let you go down here alone," his friend chuckled nervously. "We are supposed to take an Unbreakable Vow soon, you know."
Neville had to admit that he was touched by the fact that Ernie was willing to go with him even though the Hufflepuff was visibly shaking due to the Chamber's eeriness. As they walked across the marble, Neville swore that a strong breeze was moving the water despite there being no draft in the large room. The two of them cautiously approached the glowing white skeleton of the monster that had terrorized the school their second year.
"It really is a basilisk skeleton," Ernie swallowed loudly as he stared up into the white jaws of the basilisk.
Neville, wanting to be out of the Chamber of Secrets as soon as possible, stepped forward and pulled the arm of his sweater up over his palm. He reached into the mouth of the beast and grabbed one of the pearly fangs, twisting with all his strength until it came loose. A gust of air blew through the chamber and ruffled his hair, followed by a cool stillness. No snakes appeared, no ghosts shouted at him, he was all right. He breathed a sigh and turned around. "Got it," he said with a satisfied grin. Ernie stared at him as if he had just single-handedly killed Voldemort.
"Oi, Boot, it's your time to shine! Identify it for them!" Sally-Anne's high-pitched voice rang out across the chamber as she hung off the ladder.
"Shut up," Terry rolled his eyes and then groaned, "Neville!" in a betrayed voice as Neville cheekily held up the fang above his head for the Ravenclaw to look at. "Bloody hell, yes it's a basilisk fang!"
"Brilliant," Ernie chuckled, patting Neville on the shoulder. "We've got the Boot seal of approval, now let's get out of this hellhole."