Chapter 13: The chamber
Disclaimer: Still own the plot.
The landing was a bit rough, but the dead rat skeletons helped to soften it a bit. Hermione bit back a scream when she first noticed what it was that was making the crunching sound under her feet and tried not to think about it.
Looking up, she moved towards the only tunnel that would have been big enough for a giant snake to fit through and it wasn't long before she found the squashed skin the snake had once shed and the pile of rocks that had collapsed around her friends with a small opening allowing them to get from one side to the other. Levitating a few more to make the hole wider, Hermione scrambled through to continue her journey.
Her luck seemed to increase when the door to the actual chamber was still open when Harry left a couple of years ago. Climbing through the tunnel doorway, she was now in Salazar Slytherin's inner sanctum. Sparing a quick glance around, she found that the mouth of the giant statue was still open. The basilisk lay dead in the water, it's skull sunk in on itself but it still gave her pause when she went past it.
Crawling up into the statue was not an easy task but it was worth it. There was a nest where the snake used to sleep with a door leading somewhere else. Upon opening it, she found a set of stairs that led even farther down underneath the castle. Next to the door was a scone that automatically burst into life when she passed as did others leading down the steps.
'It's now or never,' she thought to herself as she reminded her legs why they had made this journey.
She must have gone down over three flights before another door appeared. When it was opened though, it didn't lead to a room, but a hallway of sorts, lined with different tapestries that showed a different year of Salazar and Morgan's life together. One included their children, full of smiles at their parent's feet and it was clear that although the Godric and Salazar fought through their time here, none of his anger was directed towards his family.
After what felt like crossing the Quidditch pitch, it looked like one more door was in her path before she found what she had been searching for. There was a small gold plaque on the wood that read;
These are the housing chambers of Salazar Slytherin and family!
This was it, the moment of truth, She would finally learn who her soul mate was by finding Morgan's spell. She pushed this door open and was shocked to see a sitting room, it almost resembled the Gryffindor Common Room, except, there was a plethora of brown and green tapestries and rugs everywhere. The fireplace lit upon her entrance, and she was surprised to see that there was not a speck of dust anywhere. It was either house elves or an enchantment, but either way, Hermione was set on finding that book.
There was another staircase leading up across the room from the door she had just come through, and only one other door on this floor. Knowing it would help rather than hinder, she tried the latch on it. The heavy oak didn't budge right away, but soon gave way to a small child's playroom, still filled with forgotten toys and blankets. Not seeing any books here, Hermione sighed, closed the door, and headed towards the next set of stairs between her and her goal.
If Hermione thought that it was going to be easy to find the book, it was gone from her head by the time she reached the top of the stairs. She was glad that having to traverse the stairs from the Great Hall to the Tower twice a day had improved her physique, as well as, teach her proper breathing techniques, but these were going to kill her if she had to go up any more. If Hermione could guess, she would say she was even with the dungeons after that last bout of steps, and it wasn't until the bright spots had receded from her eyes that she saw the numerous amounts of doors in front of her.
'I will just have to peak into each one.'
This thought did not make the task any less daunting, but it did give her some hope to the otherwise bleary situation. Not knowing which door to start at first, Hermione tried to remember any spells that would point out what door had the next exit. Sadly, none came to mind as the only thing she could think of was the 'Point Me' spell that she had taught Harry the previous year to remember where the middle of the maze was.
Hermione, now back at square one, decided that she would start with door on her right, the one at the end of the hall, which made her pass two doors before arriving at it. Knowing it was foolish to just try and open it with no safety for herself, she cast a quick charm that allowed to see if their were any entrapments on the door. When she found none, only then did Hermione place her hand on the handle and give it a turn. The door swung inwards, and the fireplace immediately lit up once the door had touched the wall behind it.
A wave of sadness first went through her before she realized that there was still a small book shelf on the floor of the other side of the room. Walking into the room, she noted that it must have belonged to Salazar's only son as there were snake stuffed animals on the bed and a small model of what looked to be a first rendition of the Hogwarts Express. Above the book shelf was a window that allowed Hermione to see under the Black Lake and it was then that she was able to truly gauge how far under Hogwarts she was. As she had previously assumed, she was the same levels as the dungeons, except it was the very lower level of the dungeons where only the Slytherin house was.
Shaking her head in disbelief, she turned back to the task at hand and started to scan the shelves of books but it only showed her the oldest of nursery rhymes and a first edition of the Tales of Beetle the Bard, whatever that was. Hermione picked herself back off the floor and walked back to the door and the hallway beyond. She closed the door behind her, and placed a searing red cross on the door, marking the door she'd already been through.
Since Hermione was at the end of a hallway, there was now a door on either side of her, and from the way the last one had turned out, she was sure the other two on this side of the stairs would be the bed chambers of the children. Sure enough, when she opened the other two doors they were furnished for girls and their books were the same as their brothers except for a potion book in one and a charms book in the other. The charms book proved to be nothing of interest to Hermione as she had seen another copy of it in the Library under Madam Pince's care.
The door across from the stairs held a basic washroom which she thought was meant for any guests that they might have had down here, and it wasn't until then that Hermione realized there must be a door to the living chambers hidden in the dungeons, for who would want to trek up and down all of those stairs? With renewed vigor she checked the other two rooms before continuing to the door on the far left wall. The first was an office that held no books that she could tell, but a lot of potion ingredients that she had never heard of, the last was the bed chamber of Morgan and Salazar.
Hermione thought she might have found the room she was looking for at last, but again, there were no books in the room except for another first edition of the Tales of Beetle the Bard. Whatever this book was about, it obviously held some meaning to the family for there had been a copy in every room. After she found the book she was searching for, she would have to remember to check to see if the Library had this one as well.
It was now down to the final door and Hermione was practically standing on her toes when she reached for the last door.
'This is it, it has to be in here.' She thought to herself while grabbing the polished handle.
The door was only partially opened when she noticed that this room was different from the others, ye same at the same time. It was another Bed Chamber that branched off to a wash room and a sitting room, except it seemed that the door itself had been made into a bookshelf on the other side. It wasn't until the door closed and a man walked out of the sitting room and into the bed chamber that Hermione noticed she had made a mistake in her spell checking, she had never thought to check to see if anyone had been living in one of the rooms, especially not one dour Potions Master, Severus Snape.