Chapter Thirteen: Mysteries Solved and Chilling Confrontations
Over the months following the Quidditch game against Gryffindor, the tension in the school heightened as teachers now escorted the students to classes, and all students moved in packs. It was rare to find students alone or in anything less than a group of three or four. The teachers were snappish and took points more than they gave them out, and the prefects were harder on rule breakers. The petrifications had continued, including the shocking petrification of the Gryffindor House ghost, Sir Nick.
The thing which cemented the Slytherin quartet's determination to solve the mystery once and for all was when the terror struck close to home, taking one of their group members.
Draco, Raiden, and Blaise were waiting in the Slytherin changing rooms so they could go out and beat Ravenclaw, thus cementing their position as Quidditch Cup champions. Their hopes were dashed when Snape came into the room and beckoned the three quartet members over to him.
In hushed tones he told them, "The game is cancelled, the monster has struck again." He looked at them with sympathy and suddenly Daphne's absence took on a painful clarity for them.
"She's been Petrified hasn't she," Blaise whispered. Snape nodded, his eyes showing his sadness. While he might not outwardly display emotion very much, if you knew what to look for, his eyes could be quite expressive, at least round the Slytherins. Daphne was one of his students and he cared about all of the Slytherins.
"Yes she has, Mr Zabini. I'm to take you all to the hospital wing to see her. Miss Granger was with her at the time and she has also been Petrified. They had a mirror with them."
"Probably to look round corners," Raiden muttered as they walked to the hospital wing. Snape nodded silently in agreement. Once they reached the hospital wing the three conscious members of the quartet sat round their friends' bed and simply looked at them. Once Snape and Pomfrey had withdrawn to give them some privacy, Raiden spotted a piece of parchment in Hermione's hand.
Carefully extracting it he read it before chuckling. "Seems like Hermione figured it out guys. Now we have to end this problem, you heard McGonagall this morning at breakfast, the school might be closed if the attacks don't stop."
Looking round to assure privacy, Draco hissed, "Our mutual advisor told us not to interfere, Harry. He'll go nuts if you continue on this train of thought. What did you expect to do, find the entrance, go down to the Chamber and ask the monster politely to stop?"
Seeing the serious look on his friend's face Draco sighed. "Merlin you were weren't you," he muttered before sitting up straighter. "If you go down then we go down with you. There's no way that Blaise and I are letting you go alone" he stated firmly.
Raiden smiled. "Thanks guys," he said before squeezing Daphne's frozen hand. "We'll stop this Daph, you'll see," he murmured to her, before repeating the same assurance to Hermione. Neither answered but it made Raiden feel better to have said it anyway.
Standing up he said, "Let's get back to the common room; I have something I want to tell you regarding the hidden entrance." His friends nodded and rose as well, walking back to the common room at a fast pace, with Raiden having all his senses on high alert in case the Basilisk was still roaming around. It wasn't and they reached their dorm room without incident.
"So what's this information you had to tell us Raiden?" Draco asked, using his friend's Dark Apprentice name since they were alone with only Blaise as company and the door was locked with multiple locking charms and layered with multiple silencing charms as well. Raiden shrugged.
"You remember McGonagall saying that the Chamber was opened almost fifty years ago as well?" he asked. Receiving nods he continued, "A girl died in a bathroom that time, and I thought, well, what if that girl never left."
Seeing realization dawn on Blaise and Draco's faces he nodded. "Moaning Myrtle was the Basilisk's victim last time, the only one to die, and I talked to her about it."
He stopped and shuddered. Seeing this Draco asked, "What's wrong?"
Raiden smirked. "She was rather, ah, entertained by the prospect of retelling how she died. It was disturbing really." After giving enough time for the chuckles to die down he continued, "So she pointed me in the direction of the sinks. One sink has never worked and that sink has a carving of a snake on the underside."
He waited for one of his friends to grasp the implication but when they didn't he huffed and said, "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!"
"Slytherin must have been a right old pervert then," Blaise commented, to chuckles from the other two.
Draco leant back and then asked, "What are we going to do though? I mean, both Raiden's mentor and Professor Snape have told us not to go poking round on our own. And, no offence Raiden but your mentor is scary enough when he's being halfway nice; I'm not about to chance pissing him off."
Raiden chuckled. "At this point in time Draco, I'm the only one he can really hurt so you should be safe."
He stopped short when he saw the look on Draco's face as he snapped, "Pain doesn't have to be physical, Raiden, and it would hurt us emotionally if the Dark Lord punished you for this. Don't risk it."
Raiden was touched by his friends concern but a steely determination entered his eyes. "I'm going down there guys, this needs to stop. Besides, whoever's controlling the Basilisk has my master's diary and I need to retrieve it. I'll be fine I promise."
Draco and Blaise looked at him skeptically but realized that they couldn't talk him out of his plan. Finally they shrugged and turned their attention to their homework, unlocking and de-silencing the room so others could enter if they wished.
A few weeks later after reading everything he could on basilisks; Raiden was ready to put his plan into effect. Just before he could get to the bathroom though, a message rang through the school requesting all students return to their common rooms. Swearing mentally, knowing that Snape would notice if he were missing, Raiden turned round, after vowing to come back as soon as possible.
What he heard in the common room reinforced his decision to act that day, apparently Ginny Weasley, the youngest Weasley child had been taken by the basilisk down into the Chamber itself. When he told his friends of his intentions they were horrified.
"You'd save a Gryffindor!" Draco snarled, his disdain for Gryffindor as well as the hatred spawned by the Malfoy-Weasley feud coming through in his tone.
Raiden rolled his eyes and replied, "I need to stop the monster Draco, and you heard Snape, if the monster isn't stopped then the school will be closed. Think of it this way, I'll be taking a student away from the snake but giving it a much nicer alternative."
At his friends' puzzled looks Raiden smirked and then said "Lockhart will be coming with me."
The other two Slytherins choked with laughter before Blaise commented, "We're coming with you though."
"You're serious?" Raiden questioned, wondering why they'd want to accompany him.
Draco and Blaise nodded firmly. "Yes. Just leave the chamber entrance open, only a parselmouth can close it, and Professor Snape will probably join us."
Raiden looked at them and saw that they were determined to do it their way. Shrugging he said, "Follow me then."
The three students crept out of the common room, hardly able to believe their luck at not being noticed. They weren't though. Snape had noticed them and silently followed, taking care to use all his considerable skill to remain undetected. The group of five headed up to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom as the students had convinced Lockhart to accompany them. Snape merely smirked and remained in his undetected position when they arrived at the bathroom. Raiden found the snake on the sink and hissed "Open" in parseltongue.
The sinks sank down into a wide tunnel, wide enough for a Basilisk the students absently noted. They shoved Lockhart down first, and then followed. Snape waited for about two minutes before following, casting several charms first to hide the fact that he was following them. They found themselves in a large, damp tunnel filled with skeletons and other things that didn't bear identifying.
T
he walk along the tunnel was punctuated by various comments by the students and Lockhart's whimpers when he wasn't pretending to be brave. They were shocked when they saw the enormous snake skin on the floor of the tunnel and Raiden began to rethink this adventure he was on. Then he remembered Hogwarts and knew he couldn't let it be closed so he continued on.
Voldemort had heard this last thought and gently slipped into Raiden's mind, taking care that his apprentice didn't notice his intrusion. What he saw enraged him, Raiden was deliberately walking towards his possible death and he'd taken his friends with him! Now, Voldemort let Raiden get away with quite a bit, more than he'd put up with even from one of his Inner Circle Death Eaters, but he didn't condone outright disobedience of the sort that Raiden was currently engaged in. Snarling to himself the Dark Lord abandoned his research and headed to Hogwarts, having perfected the almost instantaneous method of travel that ghosts used. He appeared behind Snape and floated along, invisible to everyone and watched as they reached the Chamber entrance.
Raiden swallowed as he opened the Chamber of Secrets and strode inside, his eyes on the pale form of Ginny Weasley lying next to a small black book that he surmised was his master's old diary. His companions spread out, searching the area but wary of meeting the Basilisk.
Raiden picked up the diary and thumbed through it. He was almost finished when a voice from behind him made him turn round.
"Interesting isn't it?"
Raiden spun to face a younger version of his master. The slightly translucent look about him caused Raiden to realize that this version of Voldemort, who looked to be around 16 was a ghost of some description.
"You're partially right," the boy in front of him said. "I am a memory, preserved in the diary for nearly sixty years. I used Ginny here to gain corporeal form. The more life energy I take from her the more real I become."
"So you're Tom Riddle then?" Raiden enquired.
The boy looked startled for a second before a calculating look entered his eyes. "Yes, and you're Harry Potter. Why aren't you afraid of me?"
Raiden smirked. "Mainly because I've been your older self's apprentice since I was eight and I'm a Slytherin. Not only that I'm also a Parselmouth."
Tom grinned. "So you agree with my goals then, Harry" he said.
Raiden shook his head, deciding to hurry things up. "Not quite. Your older self had a slight change in viewpoints and he wants you to stop this attack on the school."
"Why?" Tom asked with a dangerous edge in his voice.
Raiden shrugged. "Because if the girl dies then the school will be closed and I'll have to return to my disgusting muggle relatives, with no chance of finishing my education. I'd hate to stop learning before I knew how to properly curse them after all."
Riddle laughed. "I like you, Potter, but the process is almost complete. In a few minutes Ginny will be dead and I will live again."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Voldemort said, becoming visible for the first time since entering the chamber. Everyone with the exception of Ginny looked shocked, and Raiden swallowed hard, he was in two minds about his master's appearance here.
On one hand he was grateful that his master was here to reason with his younger self but on the other he was also worried. From the glare that Voldemort had shot his way he knew that the Dark Lord was seriously displeased with him and that always had painful consequences. Swallowing again he said, "Hi, Master. Could you reason with your younger self here please? I need to talk to the basilisk."
Voldemort and Tom glared at him before beginning to argue viciously over which one of them should live. Tom wanted out of the diary while Voldemort wanted to continue his research and get a body back that wasn't inhabited by his previous self. While they were arguing, Raiden had wandered over to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, amused to see that Snape had tied Lockhart up, and gagged him as well to prevent him from both talking and escaping. Draco and Blaise were also wandering the massive chamber, excited at being able to explore it.
Raiden stared at his house founder and was shocked to hear Tom's voice float over to him, "The password is speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four, in parseltongue."
Raiden shrugged but repeated the phrase. The statue's mouth dropped open and Raiden levitated himself up and inside. After walking along a short passage he found the basilisk coiled up.
#Who are you?# the great snake hissed.
Raiden bowed respectfully, keeping his eyes away from the snake's gaze. # I am Lord Raiden, apprentice of Lord Voldemort great one, and I come to offer you a deal# he replied.
# What deal?# the basilisk asked.
Raiden thought for a moment. #You need to stop petrifying the students of the school. What did you normally do for food down here?#
The basilisk sounded annoyed when it replied, #My master, the great Lord Slytherin left a doorway down that tunnel where I could get out into the forest. I do not wish to harm the students but I must follow the commands of a parselmouth. It is not my fault that I was being commanded to hurt the little hatchlings up above.#
Snickering at the snake's description of the students, Raiden nonetheless replied, # I will ensure that you are left in peace down here, free to hunt in the forest at will as long as you don't come up above anymore. No one will tell you to do that now. But, before you go, may I ask you to do one thing for me?#
#Name it# the basilisk said.
Raiden grinned and then asked, #Are you hungry?#
Back in the main chamber, Voldemort had finally decided to absorb Tom's energy from the diary, giving back Ginny's life energy in the process. This had the effect of turning the diary into a harmless book, which Voldemort then had Snape duplicate and place the necessary charms on both books so they were linked to each other. Thus Raiden and Voldemort had a secure method of communication for when Voldemort got his body back. Ginny had not yet woken up thanks to a stupefy spell from Snape, and they were waiting for Raiden to reappear. They weren't expecting to see the basilisk slithering behind him like a faithful puppy though. Even Voldemort was shocked.
#Tell your friends that they can meet my gaze, I will not harm them# the basilisk hissed to Raiden.
The Dark Apprentice shrugged and said, "She won't harm you guys, she's got her third eyelid covering her eyes which blocks the effects of her gaze."
The other members of the party looked at him dubiously but when Raiden stared up into the huge yellow eyes of the Basilisk with no harm coming to him they were more confident. Snape in particular came up to the snake, examining the creature with awe.
The basilisk was hissing to Voldemort, and complimenting Raiden highly, something which Voldemort grudgingly accepted, given that he was still pissed off with Raiden for disobeying him. The huge snake then coiled its tail round Raiden to get it away from Snape and hissed,
#Tell the man examining my scales that he can have as many as he wants, as well as some of my venom and teeth as long as he stops tickling me#
Raiden chuckled and relayed the information to Snape who hurriedly unshrunk some glass vials that he always carried with him. In short order the ingredients were collected and Snape stared at the snake with admiration and respect.
"Thank you for agreeing to this," he said with a slight bow. The basilisk lowered its head for a moment before hissing something at the Potions Master who looked to the two Parselmouths for translation.
Voldemort answered the unspoken question. "She said that you are welcome and that you may collect more ingredients if you need them as long as it isn't painful or fatal for her." Snape once more thanked the snake before it slithered towards Lockhart, hissing quietly with anticipation.
"What did you ask her to do?" Voldemort asked Raiden quietly. The rest of the Slytherins moved closer to hear the answer.
Raiden shrugged. "I explained the situation with Lockhart and said that if she agreed to never come upstairs, into Hogwarts again, then she was able to feed in the forest at will. I also said that I would visit her as she gets lonely down here if she would do us one small favor, that being getting rid of him for us."
There was a terrified, soundless scream from Lockhart as the basilisk struck, immense fangs tearing through the fraudulent DADA teacher with the ease of a hot knife through butter. Within seconds, Lockhart's body had disappeared down the snake's throat and the snake itself was hissing in appreciation.
#A delicious snack, thank you young Master# it hissed to Raiden who merely bowed slightly in acknowledgement. The basilisk then turned and slithered off into a nearby tunnel, presumably the one that led to the forbidden forest. With that done, Snape turned to wake up Ginny but a head shake from Voldemort stopped him.
"Not yet. There is still one thing that needs to be dealt with," the Dark Lord said coldly. Snape looked worried, he'd heard that tone of voice before and knew that someone, namely Raiden, was about to be in a lot of pain. Voldemort turned to face his apprentice and hissed coldly, #Come here#
Raiden swallowed, he had a good idea of how Voldemort was going to punish him and he didn't like it. It wasn't that he feared the pain, oh no, he was used to that after living with his relatives. It was the fact that he'd forced Voldemort into punishing him when the Dark Lord only rarely did so and only for serious offences. There was also the matter of this punishment being a somewhat public affair, given the fact that his friends and Head of House would be witnesses. Seeing that there was no mercy to be found in his master's gaze though, Raiden resigned himself to the inevitable.
Voldemort floated over to Raiden when the boy stopped about a foot away from him. Activating what he and Raiden had come to call the "pain receptor" part of the bond he pressed one finger firmly on Raiden's scar and then left it there, moving with Raiden so no matter how hard the apprentice tried to move away, he couldn't do so.
Draco and Blaise were watching in shock and horror as they realized what Voldemort had meant when he said his punishments were highly painful. They also remembered, with a sick feeling in their stomachs, that those punishments could sometimes be lethal.
Snape watched in well hidden sympathy as Raiden shook under the effects of the pain from his scar. He hadn't yet make a sound, although he was close. Snape watched the reactions of his other two students. out of the corner of his eye. As much as he might not have wished it, both Draco and Blaise would someday end up as followers of the Dark Lord so it was perhaps best that they see his version of discipline now so that they would have time to adjust before joining him later on. Snape also privately thought that Raiden deserved it, but even so, witnessing it was still painful for him as Raiden was one of his students that he had sworn to protect by virtue of his position as Head of House.
As he was contemplating this, Raiden let out a low moan of pain and Voldemort stopped the punishment. Thanks to his life with the Dursleys, Raiden had a very high pain tolerance, meaning that what was causing him to moan would make a normal witch or wizard scream uncontrollably. Voldemort floated away from his apprentice and closed off the pain receptor before watching as Raiden collapsed onto the ground.
#Do not disobey me again# Voldemort hissed, watching as Raiden struggled to stand up. Draco started towards him but one glare from the Dark Lord froze him in place. Raiden fell a couple of times but finally stood on his feet, swaying slightly but steadying himself in minutes.
Looking at his master Raiden said, "I'm sorry, Master. I felt I needed to come, but I could have talked to you first. I won't do it again."
Voldemort snorted. "Somehow I doubt that, Raiden, but thank you for the sentiment at least. May I suggest that you go back to the main part of the school now, I'm sure you're being searched for."
Snape, Draco, Blaise and Raiden nodded, before Snape picked Ginny up, not waking her yet, and they walked back to the tunnel entrance. Once at the place where the tunnel sloped upwards, Raiden grinned.
#Stairs# he hissed. Stairs appeared promptly and the group walked up, Snape canceling the stunning spell as soon as the Chamber entrance had been closed. Ginny woke up, not only surrounded by Slytherins but also found herself being held by her Potions Professor. After blushing a shade of red which matched her hair she asked to be put down, which Snape gladly agreed to, as he was uncomfortable holding her anyway, and it had nothing to do with her being a Gryffindor and more the fact that she'd been unconsciously snuggling against him on the way back from the Chamber.
The group headed outside the bathroom and up to the Headmaster's office where they were met with cries of relief from the two adult Weasleys. After giving a highly edited series of events the Slytherins left and went back to the dungeons, all of them silent and contemplating the day's events. After dinner the students went to bed while Snape stayed up for a bit, thanking his lucky stars that things hadn't ended much more messily. Smirking he put the memory of Lockhart's rather gruesome end into his Pensieve before falling into bed wondering what sort of havoc the Slytherin Quartet would think up next.