Chapter 5 – The Chamber of Secrets

Over the course of the next month the castle expanded and grew, floor after floor was created and the building rose higher and higher.

Gryffindor Tower was completed first although the problems they encountered with that one as they built the other floors of the main school forced them to put the construction of the rest of the towers on hold until last.

"Is this definitely going to be the top floor?" Godric asked after they had relocated the base of his tower yet again with the construction of the seventh floor of the school.

"I hope so," replied Rowena. "I really think there are more than enough rooms in the main school now. We could probably accommodate the entire magical population of the country without too much difficulty."

"You think we've overdone it a bit?" asked Godric.

"Maybe ever so slightly," Rowena replied with a laugh. "But who knows how many students this place might one day have?"

"Well I'm going to finish this and then turn in for the night," Godric announced with a wide yawn.

Rowena nodded and left Godric to rearrange the furnishings of his tower once more.

She headed back downstairs to find the others and had just reached the fourth floor when a rather irate looking owl swooped towards her. She took the note from it and sent it on its way again. She smiled to herself as she read the note and quickened her pace as she made her way to the second floor.

"Could you please stop sending notes with Zeus," she pleaded as she approached Salazar.

"He's bored, he needs to feel useful," Salazar explained.

"But he's getting annoyed because none of us have anything to feed him every time he makes a delivery. I ran out of treats for him over an hour ago."

"He doesn't mind."

"Oh I think he does," Rowena argued. "You should have seen the dirty look he gave me just now. Anyway if he wants to feel useful give him a nice long trip instead of having him flapping about the corridors here. You could write to your mother for a start."

Salazar ignored her complaints; instead he steered her into the open doorway behind him.

"What do you think?" he asked with barely contained excitement as Rowena looked around the room.

"I think we're standing in the men's privy chamber," answered Rowena. "Er…why?"

"First of all, this is the ladies room, weren't you listening last night when Godric changed his mind about this one and the one up on the sixth floor?"

"I must have drifted off at that point," Rowena admitted.

"Well we did a recount and realised there were more men's rooms than ladies so a couple got switched. You really should take more notice of these things."

Rowena rolled her eyes as Salazar continued. "Well, what do you think of it?" he asked with barely contained excitement.

"Did Godric agree to you including this experimental plambing?" Rowena asked.

"It's plumbing, and I thought I'd surprise you all," Salazar answered. "They used plumbing in Rome for years without any problems. It's hardly what you'd call experimental."

"I don't recall any buildings in Rome being quite this big or tall when we were there," Rowena pointed out.

"Well there might be a few little problems but nothing a little magic can't fix."

"Well if this is now the ladies maybe Godric will never know," Rowena suggested. "Unless you…?"

Salazar nodded in response to her unspoken question. He'd done the same to the rest as well. Oh dear.

"Now watch this," he said as he reached past her. "You turn this tap here and you have running water whenever you need it. Perfect for the younger students who won't know how to summon water by magic."

Rowena put her hand under the stream of water and pulled it back with a gasp. "It's freezing," she spluttered.

"Yes…er…well, it's from the lake and I haven't figured out how to heat it up before it gets here yet," Salazar replied with a sheepish expression.

Rowena squinted towards the bowl that the water was pouring into. "Is that a fish?" she asked.

"Er…looks like it," Salazar replied as he too looked into the bowl. "Not to worry though, you just pull out this little plug and the water will drain right back to the lake."

"There was a fish in the water!" Rowena exclaimed.

"Best place for a fish, it'd be dead if it wasn't. It'll be back in the lake in no time, perfectly well and none the worse for it's little journey up here."

Rowena, for one of the few times in her life was completely speechless. She couldn't quite tell if he was teasing her or whether he really couldn't see what the problem was with fish swimming about in the water they were supposed to be washing in.

She reached to turn off the tap and as she halted the flow of the water she felt a spark of childish delight bubbling up inside her. She turned it back on again and giggled with delight. Then she moved to the next tap and turned that one on too, then the next and the next.

When she reached the fifth one she realised that something was wrong. Although the tap turned like the others, no water appeared from the spout. She twisted it to the off position and back on again but it still didn't work.

"Ah, now that one won't work," Salazar said in a mysterious tone. "That one right there, is ever so slightly different."

"It is?"

"You're going to love this," Salazar said as he turned off the rest of the taps and pulled Rowena back from the sinks.

Rowena watched as he pulled out his wand and tapped the side of the tap. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped as Rowena stepped forward again.

"Is that a snake you've engraved on that?" she asked as she bent down to take a closer look.

"Yes, it's a snake," Salazar replied, a touch impatiently. "Now step back."

Rowena dutifully obeyed and Salazar pulled out his wand to tap the snake once more. This time Rowena waited beside him as he spoke something brief in parseltongue.

"What did you say?" Rowena asked curiously. But before Salazar could reply the sink started to move and a moment later an entrance in the form of a pipe sloping downwards appeared.

"I just told it to open up," Salazar replied. "So are you ready to go and see what's down there?"

"You've been down there?" Rowena couldn't keep the scepticism out of her voice. The pipe disappeared into darkness and it seemed an awfully long way down. Somehow the thought of Salazar hurling himself down the pipe wasn't something she could see happening.

"I went down the pipe as it was being constructed," Salazar replied. "A far slower and steadier journey than this one is going to be."

"I'm not jumping down there," said Rowena as she took an involuntary step back towards the door to the corridor.

"If I can do it, you can. I'll be right behind you," Salazar assured her. He took her hand and guided her back to the pipe. "Just sit on the edge and push yourself off. There's a surprise down there for you."

Rowena looked at the entrance to the pipe and took a tiny step forward so that the toes of her shoes were on the very edge of the precipice. She'd never been afraid of heights or of falling, not like Salazar was. If he could do this then so could she. She sat on the edge of the stone floor and pushed herself off into the darkness.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she raced through the twisting pipe, downwards and downwards with nothing but blackness ahead of her.

She was starting to wonder just how far the pipe went down when a glimmer of light at the bottom signalled that her fall was coming to an end. The pipe smoothly decreased its incline and she shot out into a dimly lit room below.

Rowena groaned as she picked herself up off the damp floor. She moved to the side as she waited for Salazar to join her.

A minute passed and he didn't appear.

Another minute slipped by and Rowena began calling up the pipe for him but he neither replied nor appeared. She amplified her voice and called again but got no response for her efforts.

After five minutes more had passed Rowena had come to the definite conclusion that Salazar's nerve had disappeared and she decided to levitate herself back up the pipe. It was time consuming and took immense concentration but she succeeded in summoning powerful currents of air to lift her higher and higher within the pipe.

She reached the top of the pipe before she saw it. There was no tell tale light to guide her way and she hit her head on the underside of the bowl in the darkness. Her concentration faltered with the shock of her collision and she fell once more down the pipe into the darkness below.

She swore loudly as she reached the bottom of the pipe for the second time.

It looked like she was going to have to find another way out of the mess that Salazar had landed her in. She looked towards the underground tunnel ahead of her, and moved in that direction, contemplating just what she'd do to Salazar when she saw him again.

The tunnel branched off in other directions every now and then as she walked down it but the lights of Salazar's bluebell flames guided her way. She only hoped they were guiding her to an alternative exit.

She carried on down the tunnel at a fairly brisk pace, her head down to avoid stumbling on the far from smooth surface.

"It's about time," a familiar voice echoed down the tunnel. She looked up and saw Salazar standing near an open doorway.

"You…you…" Rowena stammered as she brandished her wand in his direction.

"You didn't actually believe I was going to jump down that pipe did you?" Salazar laughed. "How gullible are you?"

"You climbed over those railings for me," Rowena pointed out, the barb about her gullibility raising her temper once more.

"That was different," Salazar replied, stepping aside as he did so to wave her through the door. She remained rooted to her spot and ignored his gesture. "If there had been no other way of getting down here then I'd have been right with you in the pipe. But since there is…"

"But since there is another way you thought you'd give me a fright and have a good laugh at my expense," Rowena fumed.

"I'll admit to the laughing, but I didn't mean to frighten you. I thought you'd just follow the flames I left out for you this morning and then I'd meet you here."

"Fine," Rowena grumbled. "Now I've seen the interior of yet another damp tunnel can we get out of here?"

"The tunnel isn't the surprise. The surprise is through here." Salazar waved her through the doorway again and this time Rowena complied. As she passed him, Salazar playfully placed his hands over her eyes and carefully guided her footsteps.

"Are you ready?" Salazar whispered into her ear after they had stopped walking.

Rowena nodded, impatient to get this surprise over with once and for all. Salazar removed his hands from her eyes and waited for her response. "What do you think?" he asked.

Rowena stood transfixed by the sight before her.

"Well?" Salazar asked again after she had stood silently for several minutes without responding.

"You've got a strange idea of what I would consider a surprise," Rowena finally muttered. "A statue of your father glaring down at me isn't something I'd want to see at any time and certainly not down here after all this build up."

"Er…that's not the surprise," Salazar explained. "Though I should warn you that I'm told that I look exactly the same as he looked when he was my age so in thirty years time I will probably look exactly like that statue."

"You wouldn't glare at me like that though," Rowena said with a shiver.

"I doubt if my beard would ever grow that long either," Salazar replied. "Now can you at least look at my surprise."

Rowena turned slightly at the pleading, slightly impatient tone and saw what it was she had been meant to see.

"I thought we'd have dinner alone this evening," Salazar explained as he pulled out a chair from the immaculately laid table in front of her. She sat down and he took the seat opposite her. "Helga's provided the food – and before you ask, no she and Godric don't know about this place – so there'll be no complaints about my cooking. The music however is mine."

Salazar pulled out his wand and suddenly the sound of pipe music surrounded them.

"Where's it coming from?" Rowena asked as she looked around.

"From the snakes of course," Salazar replied. "They're all hollow in part and designed so that when the wind, provided by yours truly, blows through them they'll make sounds at different pitches."

"When did you come up with the idea for this place?" Rowena asked as they began to eat.

"Well the main chamber here was naturally formed. I found it when exploring and filling in some of those excess tunnels. One of them had burrowed right into this room. The wind was howling through here that day from an opening I've now sealed up and I got the idea for the music from that. I've been working on it for weeks."

"And I assume you got in here through that original tunnel?"

"Yes," Salazar replied with a smirk. "Though I'm going to seal it behind us before we open the school. Only we'll know where it is."

"So why have the entrance in the ladies' privy chamber?" Rowena asked.

"More dramatic, and until last night it was the men's," Salazar replied with a shrug. "Plus that entrance has better security. Only someone who can speak parseltongue can open it up. Our descendants will be able to gain access but no one else. I think eventually I'll seal up the other entrance permanently."

"Well that explains the excessive number of snakes," Rowena said. "But why, in the name of Merlin, did you put that thing down here?" She pointed at the statue of Salazar's father with distaste.

"Well he said that if I must insist on disgracing the good name of the family by going into the teaching profession the least I could do was to place a prominent statue of his good self…"

Rowena snorted at this point, causing Salazar to pause before he continued.

"…somewhere on the premises. Since he didn't specify where I figured this was as good a place as any."

Rowena smirked as she imagined the look on the elder Salazar's face if he discovered where his son had placed his likeness. She had only met the cantankerous old goat once and that had been bad enough.

They finished their meal in companionable silence and Salazar vanished the pots to the kitchen and the table and chairs to his own chambers.

"May I have the pleasure of the next dance, My Lady." Salazar bowed low with exaggerated courtesy.

Rowena curtseyed in response as she murmured "of course Kind Sir."

Salazar swept her into his arms and twirled her about the chamber to the sound of the enchanting pipe music.

A dreamy expression appeared on her face as she recalled Salazar's casual comment about their descendants. That they hadn't been blessed with children already was more through luck than judgement although Rowena privately hoped that they'd be married before they had children so that they could take their father's name. There was only one reason why they hadn't wed already and that reason was currently glaring down at them from above.

Authors Note: Yes I know the Chamber of Secrets wasn't supposed to be built until much later. In case you've not already gathered - I am throwing caution and canon to the wind with this story. ;-)

Part six will be posted tomorrow. Please stop back then if you wish to meet the parents of the starcrossed lovers.