So, people? What do you think: good, bad, horrible, awesome? Please review, so I can know how is this going! Thank you :D
Back to the Chamber
That same night, Harry decided to act. He hid the invisibility cloak as he went down to the Common Room, full after the classes of the day. As always, Lily's friends were apart from the marauders, but Harry saw Ginny and Hermione dragging an annoyed Lily towards them.
James and Sirius were telling jokes to amuse them, although Harry wanted them to go upstairs, so he could sneak to the bathroom and do what he needed. When the clock stroke midnight, Hermione saw how Harry was nervous, and tried to help, yawning.
"I'm going to bed… Come on, girls."
The other girls followed Hermione, sleepy. She blinked to Harry, and Ron decided to do the same.
"But we're not sleepy, are we Padfoot?" James asked Sirius, relaxed. Padfoot shook his head, smiling.
"Not at all."
Ron and Harry gazed at each other, and Neville, who was with Frank, cleaned his throat.
"Let's go! Frank and I are going."
The marauders looked suspicious, but went upstairs. Harry felt a burst of relief when the door closed, and quickly pulled the invisibility cloak on, walking out the Common Room.
The corridors were dark and empty as the boy walked through them. Suddenly he heard a noise, but when he turned nothing was there. Scared about the noise, he pulled his wand, and noticed that, in a hurry to leave; he had forgotten the marauder's map.
He got to the first floor, withdrawing his wand to open the restricted bathroom's door. It was like he remembered, and didn't take long for him to find the sink with the Slytherin symbol.
"Open." he heard himself whistle, thanking his parseltongue for the first time in his life. Another noise. Slowly, Harry took his wand and started turning. He was almost throwing a spell when a yell stopped him. His face went hot and he lowered his wand, the heart fasting in his chest.
"James?" he asked shocked. Standing at the door was James, pointing his wand at him, pale. Frightened; he gazed at the sink behind Harry, the secret passage slowly appearing.
"Harry." He recovered his voice. "What are you doing here?"
Harry froze in his feet, still holding the wand. Remus, Peter and Sirius showed up behind James.
"Yeah, Harry. What are you doing?" Sirius joked. Harry noticed his mischievous face, reminding of Snape's memories, and how his potion master was so afraid of Padfoot's hex.
"G-go a-way." Harry burbled as the marauders stepped forward.
"Look, New Kid. I dunno if you know, but we four know this castle. Why didn't you tell us of this passage?" James asked, curious and angry.
"I… Really, go away. It's better, nobody gets hurt."
"Are you threatening us, New Kid?" Sirius growled, standing beside James. As he stared at him, Harry started to fear his godfather. Seeing Sirius was getting aggressive, Remus decided to interrupt, putting his arm between the two boys.
"Let's solve this in a civilized way, shall we?" he asked, pissed. Sirius, annoyed, backed.
"Okay, but I need to understand something. Didn't you come from another school?"
Harry, who was starting to feel relieved, stopped dead again.
"I-"
"I've always thought there was something wrong with you, new kid." James looked trustless. "What are you hiding from us?"
"Look, I need to do something down there." He pointed to the dark whole. "When I come back, I tell you everything."
"We're going with you." Remus firmly said. Harry's hands went sweaty.
"You can't."
James's mouth opened to protest, but a female scream echoed in the place.
"Won't you stoppit!"
The five of them turned to the boxes, where a girl stranded. Harry reckoned the Moaning Myrtle. James and Sirius exchanged excited looks, asking:
"Who are you?"
Harry wanted to tap his ears when Myrtle's eyes filled with tears.
"You don't even know me!" she started crying. Harry took advantage of the boy's lack of attention and jumped on the passage.
When Harry fell onto the ground, he heard a weird noise of bones breaking. Nervously breathing, he started walking to the chamber. Thank God I distracted them, he thought. They'll be talking to Myrtle, and when they turn, I'll be gone. Perfect. Harry has just thought about the excuse he'd say about his sudden disappearance when the bones broke again. The boy turned to see what happened, and the four marauders appeared, taking bones out of their clothes.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!" Harry yelled, but the boys didn't listen. They got closer to him, and Remus said in a smart tone:
"This is the Slytherin Chamber, isn't it? What'd behind this?"
Rolling his eyes, Harry decided to walk away and ignore them, but the boys followed him again. Noticing that, he turned towards them, pissed off:
"Ok. You want to die? Great. This is the Chamber of Secrets, what do you know about basilisks?"
"King of snakes. His direct gaze kills, non – direct gaze petrifies. It's born when a chicken egg is hatched beneath a toad. Last basilisk in Europe: 100 years." Remus vomited the words of the book. "But that's the point: 100 years." He completed. Harry grinned.
"How many years do you think this chamber has?"
They stopped dead, and Peter asked with a shaking voice:
"Are you the heir of Slytherin?"
"No, but I need to kill this basilisk." Harry laughed "Open."
"YOU'RE A PARSEL TONGUE?" James yelled as the snakelike stones started moving as pulled by invisible strings, opening the door. The great room with the Salazar Slytherin's statue appeared, and Sirius yelled loudly:
"LOOK AT ALL THIS SPACE, PRONGS! WHY DIDN'T WE SEE THIS BEFORE?"
Sirius ran through the place and Harry walked to the statue, remembering the day he rescued Ginny from there. So defenseless and beautiful, he thought. And your best friend's sister, his mind completed. He let her go. Walking closer to the lake and statue, he wondered how he would call the monster without being the actual heir. He turned to ask Remus for any idea, and saw James and Peter laughing at Sirius, who motioned to random places of the room with his hands:
"Here will be the bar, where the kitchen elves will serve food! They love me, would do anything I wanted them to! Then we hire Rosmerta for the drinks, here we'll dance and over there we'll put some beds, so tired people can rest a little before they return to the party!"
Harry gazed at Remus, who looked completely confused.
"Can you help me here? What's he doing?" he pointed at Sirius, who was waltzing around the salon.
"He's planning a party here."
"Is he mad?" Harry said dander.
"Relax, he always gives up.
The two of them, then, turned to the statue, and Remus said:
"It's over there, I suppose."
Harry nodded, and Lupin looked at the water.
"What if we swam in here…?"
"Better not."
"Where does it hide?"
"Inside the mouth. It opens, the basilisk comes out."
"Then, call it and we see what happens."
Harry wasn't really comfortable with the idea of calling the beast, but concentrated and closed his eyes. As if he was out of his body, he heard himself whisper:
"Talk to me, Slytherin, the biggest of Hogwarts, and come, Slytherin's beast, to serve the noble blood."
He looked beside him, feeling normal again. Remus stared scared at him.
"Please, don't do this anymore."
All the noises stopped, the silence only broken by the blustery sound of the statue's mouth opening, revealing a big dark hole. Harry barely noticed he was backing off until he saw the marauders beside him, as scared as he was. Trembling, they withdrew their wands, listening to a loud hiss.
"Close your eyes!" Harry yelled to the others, and ran. The only thing they heard until they reached the other side of the salon was their own footsteps.
"What we're gonna do?" Peter moaned, gazing away.
Coming towards them, the big snake exploded the nearest pipe. The boys, except Peter, followed the monster.
"It can't run to the school!" Harry yelled again, and James ran in front of him.
"Is this thing immortal?"
As he ran, Harry tried to remember the text Hermione took from that book, but nothing came up. Remus ran with them.
"The crowing of the rooster is fatal! It was on Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find-"
"We don't care where you read it!" Sirius growled angrily.
"I need a stone, then!" James called out. Harry, confused, grabbed a near rock from a broken pipe and threw to him. They stopped dead, looking at James.
"Sirius, Remus, block the pipe." He asked seriously. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks and ran to the pipe. James, still holding the rock, gazed at Harry.
"We kill the basilisk, and then you tell me why the hell you need this thing."
Desperate, Harry nodded. James put the stone on the ground, pulled his wand and said to himself:
"Rooster. Ok, Jim, you can do this. Animae Transmutae."
The grey stone started to get hot, so hot Harry thought it might explode. Then, thin clouds of smoke started getting out of it. Slowly the rock started to melt, taking rooster forms. Harry and James smiled at each other, surprised with the magic. At the end of the pipe they heard a blast, followed by the vision of Remus and Sirius running of an angry basilisk, who clearly didn't like to be kept.
Harry grabbed the stone, now a rooster (he couldn't help admiring James' transformation skills) and turned to the basilisk's body.
"How do we make this rooster crow?" James shrugged his shoulders. Remus looked at his clock.
"It's three in the morning yet!"
"Slap this freaking chicken!" Sirius shouted, throwing another spell at the snake, delaying it.
Harry, feeling extremely guilty, slapped the rooster, which crowed loudly. The basilisk, affected by the sound, stopped, and started to slip back.
"Hit him again!" James yelled, excited with the tactic. Harry gazed at the rooster sorry, but Sirius grabbed it out of his hands.
"This." He slapped the rooster that crowed again. "Is a fuckin'" he slapped again. "Rooster."
Hesitating, Harry looked at the basilisk. After some crows, it was lying on the floor. James and Harry looked at each other; and he noticed even Prongs was starting to feel sorry for the animal.
"There's anything to make it faster?"
"Unless you have a sword…"
Unfortunately they had none, so their only option was to sit and wait as Sirius snapped, strangled and even tickled the rooster to make it crow. When the basilisk was completely immobile, Sirius used his own wand to turn the rooster back to stone. After all that mess, silence came. Harry gazed at Sirius, his dark hair almost white because of the dust. Remus had his pants wet for running over water, and James had scratches all over his arms. Peter, who was all the time hiding in the main chamber, shouted:
"So?"
Suddenly, they all burst in laughter. Sirius, who had put all his anger in the rooster, laughed most loudly. The boys took the tooth of the snake's mouth, putting it on a bag Remus conjured.
"You made it?" Peter asked. When he saw the bag full of teeth, he screamed.
"I knew you would do it!"
Harry gazed at Peter, and was surprised. Fear was fixed in his eyes, but other thing was also shinning. His loyalty, when offering to carry the teeth. Although it was heavy, he was carrying it almost alone, Remus helping with only one hand. For a moment, Harry remembered of one of Dumbledore's quotes: "Maybe you can save more than one life tonight." And suddenly he decided that, this time, Wormtail would have a chance.