Chapter Two: The Bloody Baron and Breaking Secrets
The next afternoon Max was pulled out of the common room by Tom to go look for the Bloody Baron. Tom was bouncing more than usual but it was understandable in their current situation. They were just about to crack one of the biggest myths of Hogwarts after all; Max just prayed that this plan of his would work.
They finally found the Bloody Baron floating around the entrance to the Dungeons. "Lord Baron," Tom said bowing slightly, "May we have the pleasure of speaking to you?"
The Baron looked over the two of them critically before nodding, "Come. We will go somewhere more private," he said before turning and floating past them. Max and Tom followed him until they reached an area of the Dungeon that wasn't often, if ever, visited and they entered a deserted room.
"Now tell me young men, what did you want to talk to me about?" The Baron asked them.
"A few years ago I discovered the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, which was supposedly left by Salazar Slytherin before he left the school. In my research I discovered that I am his heir and the two of us would like to find the Chamber if possible. We believe that Slytherin might have left some of his research or other things there," Tom explained smoothly bowing his head in Max's direction at the last statement. That last bit was entirely false but it seemed more plausible than the truth… that they wanted to know if Salazar's monster was still down there.
"An honourable cause young men but what makes you believe that I might know anything about this chamber you seek?"
Now it was Max's turn, "We believe you might know something as from what we could discover you were at Hogwarts during that time period and therefore might know something that has been lost over time."
"That is true," The Baron told them before studying them carefully. "There was a rumour about it while I was here but the best idea for you will be talk to Salazar's portrait himself." At the boy's confused look he added, "His portrait is to be found further down this corridor along with the rest of the Founders. They were moved there not long after Dumbledore started teaching here in the early 1900's. I believe that he had something to do with the movement as he is well known for wanting things down his way. It wouldn't be good if the Founders could dispute anything that he was saying."
Both Tom and Max thought it made sense but they were outraged at what Dumbledore had done. Max silently wondered if Dumbledore had done other things that no one was aware of… and what those things were. "Thank you, Baron," Tom said bowing his head slightly. "We will be sure to seek out his painting."
Once they Baron had floated out through a wall Tom turned to Max and grinned. "So what do you think? We're close to finding the Chamber. I do hope that Slytherin will let us know where the Chamber is located."
"It sounds like a good idea though I still can't believe that Dumbledore did what he did. Do you believe that he did it so he could have more influence over the school?"
"I know…" Tom trailed off and shuddered slightly. "Who would have thought that he would do something like that? True he favours Gryffindors and hates Slytherin's but to go so far as to hide the Founders portraits? I'm sure someone should have noticed and done something about it."
Max looked pensive for a moment, "Do you think he was the one that instilled this rivalry between the two houses? I'm sure it will have been there for awhile but to his extent? It is getting worse and worse everyday. True the Gryffindorks are Bloody Do-gooders who worship that light and believe everything Dark is Evil but surely it couldn't have always been present. Now let's go find this portrait of Slytherin. I want to know where this chamber is."
Tom let out a small laugh and said, "Impatient much?" but Max didn't take offense, Tom wanted to find the chamber as much as he did.
Max rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, we might as well get this over with."
They slowly left the classroom and made their way down the corridor. Neither would have admitted it but they were both nervous about the thought of meeting the esteemed Founders… no matter what they thought of some if them- in other words what they thought of Gryffindor.
They walked for about ten minutes though it seemed like forever before they came across the four portraits that were all sleeping. It made sense that they would be though, from what the Baron said they wouldn't get that many visitors since no one knew they were down there.
Tom softly cleared his through and said, "Excuse me?" They both realised that they had to be extremely polite to them to get the information that they both desired to have.
The other man looked the two of them over before saying, "There some of yours Salazar." Max and Tom blinked at that. Gryffindor, as that who he had to be, looked nothing like they had imagined. Truth be told he looked a lot like how they had imagined Slytherin to look like. What also surprised them was the use of Slytherin's first name. they had assumed that the two of them wouldn't get on. Looking at the man who had to be Slytherin they saw he looked quite a lot like Gryffindor. It was then that they realised that history had indeed been greatly warped. Slytherin and Gryffindor had to be related to one another.
"Indeed they are some of mine, Rick," Salazar said. "Now what may we do for you? You were after us weren't you?"
"Lord Slytherin," Tom said bowing slightly. "It is an honour to meet you. I am Tom Riddle and this is Maxwell Jones. We are both sixth year Slytherin's. Awhile ago I was researching all I could find on you as when I started here I discovered that my ability to talk to snakes was passed down through the Slytherin line. It took me awhile to discover that I was indeed your heir." This statement made Slytherin look very smug. "While I was researching your history I discovered something called the Chamber of Secrets which was supposedly left behind by you. Though many believe it to just be a myth both Max and I believe it to be real. We beseech you Lord Slytherin to tell us whether it is real or not and where we can find it. It would be a great honour to both of us to be allowed to access your historic chamber." Tom said greatly sucking up to the founder. It seemed like a good plan as Slytherin seriously seemed to be thinking about letting them know the truth.
After awhile Lord Slytherin said, "I am honoured that you are of my line. You seem to be a powerful wizard, your friend too for that matter. As you are sincere in your request I will tell you. The Chamber is very real and in it should still be my pet who I placed there to protect the school among other duties. While I will not tell you exactly where the Chamber is located I will give you a clue as finding the Chamber is half the challenge. To find the Chamber you must find the tap with the snake on it. It will be where you least expect it."
Max and Tom glanced at each other. The first bit was unexpected but they had guessed the second bit. "So," Max said slowly. "It will be in a girl's bathroom?" At that Salazar smirked confirming their theory. "Now all we need to do is figure out which one." Turning to the Founder, Max asked, "Is their any chance of a more direct clue?"
Salazar pondered their request for a moment. "I suppose I can tell you. To find the bathroom you need to look on the second floor. Now scam. That is all I am willing to tell you."
"Thank you Lord Slytherin," Tom told him tilting his head in thanks.
"We greatly appreciate your help," Max added copying Tom's motion.
As they left the hallway they heard one of the female Founders say, "What polite young men. I do hope they come back and visit some time though Salazar I do not know why built the Chamber. I thought you had agreed not to build it."
"My dear Helga," Salazar replied. "I only built it as a last defence and I am sure the two young men won't abuse the knowledge of knowing what is in it. No harm will befall them or anyone else."
Once they made it back to the Slytherin Common Room they headed up to their dormitory and talked about what they had discovered. Agreeing it was too late to go out now they decided to look for the Chamber during the next weekend as it was a Hogsmede weekend the majority of the students and teachers wouldn't be around to stop them.
*****
The Hogsmede weekend came quicker than either of them expected it to and before long they were on the second floor searching through the bathrooms. So far they had been at it for a couple of hours without any luck. Max of course new that when they had entered this bathroom that they would find the chamber as this bathroom would in the future be Moaning Myrtle's.
So far they had looked in the walls and the floor before Max had an 'idea' of where the chamber might be.
"Tom, do you think there is a chance that it could be apart of the sinks?"
Tom titled his head to the side and looked at the taps. After a couple of minutes he said, "You might be right. It would make sense if it was and whatever creature was down there would have easy access to all of the school through the plumbing."
So for the next few minutes they looked at the taps for any sign of the chamber. It wasn't long until Tom found what they were looking for. There on one of the taps was an engraving of a snake. Now all they had to do was figure out how to open it.
They assumed the password was in parsletongue so the two of them tried all they could think of with Max purposely avoiding the actual password for awhile. It wouldn't do for him to get it right away.
Tom finally got frustrated enough to hiss, "Why won't this bloody thing open!" of course it opened upon that last word startling the two of them. Switching back to English Tom said, "Open? That's all it took? Bloody hell…"
Max let out a small laugh, "It makes sense though. He wouldn't need a complicated password for how many parseltongues are there? Not many and most of them would probably end up doing what you did to get it to open."
"That's true," Tom replied. He then looked at the hole in the ground. "Please don't tell me we have to jump down there. I don't want to get my clothes ruined."
Truth be told, Max wasn't looking forward to it either. "Why don't we close it up, and go ask Slytherin if there is another way in or out or we could just get some brooms to fly in and out of it."
"Let's stick with brooms for the time being. We might find another exit by ourselves anyway," Tom finally decided.
"Fine by me, do you want to get them now or come back tomorrow? It is getting pretty late," Max said looking at his watch.
Glancing at his watch Tom said, "I suppose you're correct. They should be coming back from Hogsmede soon and if we go tomorrow we will have the whole day to explore the chamber." With that the two of them headed back to their common room to wait for their friends to arrive back.
The rest of the night they spent in their dorm helping their friends plan the Christmas party and snacking on the lollies that they had brought back from Honeydukes.
Soon enough Sunday morning arrived and Tom and Max, with their brooms in hand, made their way to the Chamber before anyone else was up and about. They knew that everyone would sleep in late today and that no one apart from their friends would notice them missing and they knew not to mention it to anyone.
"Open," Tom hissed causing the sinks to slide down. Straddling his broom he flew down the tunnel which was quite a tight fit for him but he made it anyway. A few seconds later Max landed on the ground behind him.
Looking around Max said, "This place is disgusting."
"Tell me about it," Tom said sneering in disgust.
For the next few hours they explored the chamber and its tunnels without finding anything of interest. All that there was, were skeletons of dead animals and a statue that they had yet to explore.
Looking up at the statue Max asked, "Doesn't that look like Slytherin to you?"
This caused Tom to have a closer look at the statue's face, "You know, I think you might be right. I wonder why its here."
Looking around the statue Tom ended up finding some words in what turned out to be parsletongue but they were unable to translate them.
"I suppose we should talk to Lord Slytherin again," Tom suggested. "He could probably tell us what they say. I need a shower anyway," he added looking down at his grim covered body. Max was equally as bad.
They cast quick cleaning spells on themselves before heading back to their dorms for a proper shower. By the time they were back and clean it was only eleven and they hadn't been missed- in fact their friends were just waking up.
That night they headed back to the portraits that the Bloody Baron had shown them a few weeks previously.
"Lord Slytherin," Tom said before Max echoed him.
"Boys, it is a pleasure to see you again. What may I do for you?" Slytherin said shortly.
"We have managed to find the chamber in a girls bathroom and have briefly explored it but we need your help with something. We are wondering if there is another entrance as the one we have found is just a massive slide and it is a tight fit to fly down it. Also we found your statue and am wondering what the Parsletongue says, we could not translate it," Max explained to the founder.
"Ah very good you boys," Salazar said congratulating them. "That entrance is the only one." At their depressed looks he further explained, "If you say stairs in parsletongue though the tunnel will change to a pair of stairs for easier access. The parsletongue writing that you find translates to 'Welcome guests. Speak to the greatest founder of them all and knowledge will be yours.' I do hope that helps you in your quest."
"Thank you, Lord Slytherin," Tom said. "You have been a great help to us. We thank you for your time."
"The pleasure is mine, my heir. I am proud to have on powerful and clever as you to be my chosen heir. The two of you will go a long way."
"Thank you," the two of them said before heading back to their common room.
It wasn't until the next weekend that they managed to go back to the Chamber. Doing as Slytherin had instructed they said in parsletongue, "Speak to my Lord Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
At first they thought nothing had happened but then the mouth of the statue opened and a massive snake- a basilisk they realised, slid out of the statue. They quickly averted their eyes but the snake hissed, "Who has summoned me?"
Still looking away Tom hissed, "We did though we didn't realise there would be a snake. We were just trying to open the mouth of the statue to find some knowledge left by Slytherin himself."
Replying the snake hissed, "I cannot harm speakers with my gaze. My master sent you so you are trustworthy. Climb onto my back and I will lift you up. Slide down the statue and you will find what you are seeking."
Tom and Max looked back up and saw the magnificent snake properly for the first time. Hissing, Max said, "Thank you. May I ask your name?"
"So polite," the snake hissed. "You may. My master named me Selene."
Selene lowered her head allowing the two of them to climb on. "A beautiful name," Tom told the snake.
"Why thank you. It isn't often I meet ones as polite as the two of you." Selene raised her head and allowed the two of them to climb off her and onto the statue.
"Thank you," Tom hissed back at her. The two of them looked at each other and nodded. They jumped down and were surprised when they only fell a foot or so. There were stairs after all. They looked at each other sheepishly for assuming it was a tunnel and then made their way down them. At the bottom they found a large cavern with rooms coming off it.
Exploring the rooms they found a private library and potions lab as well as an armoury, the basilisk's room and Slytherin's private suites which included a kitchen still full of food which had preservation charms all over it.
They spent the next couple of hours exploring the rooms spending most of their time in the library looking at all the books that had been left over. Their greatest find would have been Slytherin's personal journal which was found on the desk in there.
The rest of the term went quickly and the two of them spent the majority of their spare time down there reading and just exploring the rooms. It wasn't long until they were leaving the castle of the Christmas holidays as they were staying at the Rosier's so they didn't have to travel to and from the school for the Ball.