In another moment down went Alice after it,

never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

-Lewis Carroll

The Queen of Serpents

Chapter Sixteen

Down the Serpent's Hole

"speech"

thoughts

"parseltongue"

/mind speech/

=visions=

Writing

"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Dudley insisted. "It's Tom who's hurt."

Poppy Pomfrey tsked irritably as she finished his physical. "I suppose," she admitted grudgingly,"you seem to be fine. All three of you do. But," she added warningly, giving the brothers a hard look, "if this happens again I expect to hear about it immediately."

"Of course, Ma'am." Harry agreed, hands spread in a placating gesture. "I doubt our friends would have it any other way."

The nurse frowned, clearly giving the statement all the credit it deserved. Noticing this, harry decided a quick exit would be prudent. Besides, they had to find Tom.

"Right," he started talking as soon as he exited the hospital wing. "Who knows where the Hufflepuff common room is?" Now, if Sa'zar and Dudley had enough sense to keep their mouths shut...

Draco scowled. "Really Potter," he drawled. "Why would you want to go there?"

"Tom's hurt," Sa'zar said quietly. Harry stifled a groan. "Maybe his friends know what happened to him?"

"Oh."

"I know." Vince smiled proudly. "It's near the kitchens."

"Which explains how you know," Ron muttered.

Greg shot the Weasley boy an angry look. Daphne rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't we be going," she reminded them pointedly.

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As it turned out, they need not have worried about finding the Hufflepuff common room. Cedric and Susan were wandering around the Entrance Hall looking for them.

"Thank goodness!" Susan shoulders sagged with relief. "We've been looking all over."

"Norberta started banging on the common room windows," Cedric explained. "She seems to be trying to tell us something, but.." He spread his hands helplessly.

"She probably felt Tom being hurt too! She's probably as upset as we are!"" Dudley bit his lip nervously. Harry reminded himself that throttling his brother would not help anything.

"Pity we can't just ask her," Draco drawled, shooting Harry a look that warned of a very long discussion later. "Now if we waited a millenia or so..."

"Um..Parselmouth, remember." Sa'zar smirked, for a moment looking incredibly Slytherin. "I can just ask her."

Pansy patted Draco's arm sympathetically. Blaise quickly turned a laugh into a cough. Daphne rolled her eyes, but did not actually say anything. Slytherin's had to stick together after all.

"Better stay away from Charlie then," Ron warned. "He'll go crazy when he hears."

"Don't tell him then," Harry snapped. "The obvious answer Weasley, which explains why you missed it. Now, if you would prefer to waste your time on bad jokes instead of possibly helping my brother, I believe your common room is that way?"

Ron flushed red, but Nev grabbed his arm. "Let it be Ron. He's just worried."

Ron muttered something incomprehensible, but nodded grudgingly. Draco tilted his head slightly and Theo gave Harry an approving nod.

Harry shook his head, and shoved open the castle doors, pausing only to smirk at his housemates. It had been a rather nice insult. Possibly a seven or eight. he would have to ask Pansy.

"Norberta!" Harry called as he walked down the stairs. The dragoness was attempting to strafe the lake with her fire, irritating several of the lakes inhabitants. "Norberta," Harry shouted again, attempting to get her attention.

"Excuse me?" A sharp, irritated voice cut through the evening air, startling the group. "Just what do you think you are doing?"

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"I cannot believe I am doing this," Percy groaned for the thousandth time, mentally downgrading his chances of making Head Boy to zero. "Remind me again why we are standing in a girl's bathroom?"

"Norberta says Tom say he's in the Chamber." Sa'zar tugged worridly at his long locks. "And Nev thinks Myrtle might know something."

"Myrtle knows what?" The teenage ghost appeared, her eyes bright with tears and fury. "What does Myrtle know? How stupid she is? How ugly? How -"

"Actually," Harry smiled brightly as he cut her off. Well, if it worked for the headmaster... "We wanted to know how you died."

Myrtle was abruptly all smiles. "Ooooh, it was dreadful," she began, sounding positively gleeful. "It happened right here. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses-"

"You shouldn't listen," Luna said quietly. "People say all sorts of things. It's the wrackspurts you know; they get into people's heads and make them say all sorts of nasty things. I think your glasses are very nice."

Myrtle burst into tears. "Oh! You're so nice. Do you really like them?"

Luna nodded. "Yes. They're very pretty, and I love the charmelis design on the rims."

Myrtle looked blankly at her, but smiled. "Well, thank you. But anyway," she returned to her story, "I was crying and I heard someone come in. They said something funny-"

"Like this?" Sa'zar interrupted. "I mean, like those words I just said?"

Myrtle nodded. "Exactly like that."

"Parseltongue." Percy nodded at Neville. "Good job Neville."

"So what happened next," Milli asked eagerly.

"Well," Myrtle actually grinned. All this attention, and no one was making fun of her! "Well, what got me was that it was a boy speaking."

"Oh!" All the girls immediately looked indignant.

"I certainly hope you told him off," Pansy sniffed. Daphne, Milli and Tracy nodded, as did Val, Ginny, Susan and even Luna.

"You do realize the Chamber entrance is probably here?" Ron demanded.

The girls rolled their eyes in sync, though Luna was slightly off.

"Well," Myrtle explained, "I didn't really get the chance. I opened the door, saw these great big yellow eyes, and," she paused dramatically, continuing on in a hushed whisper. "I died."

There was a moment of silence.

"Well," Sa'zar said at last, "at least the basilisk is female."

Everyone turned to stare at him. "How in the world do you know that," Pansy, acting as spokeswoman, demanded.

"Err...I don't know... I just think it's a girl... I suppose I could be wrong..." Sa'zar doubted it though. the basilisk was female. How he knew that though... "Maybe it's a seer thing?"

"I suppose that makes sense," Susan sounded a trifle doubtful however.

"More like an Assessor thing," Tracy noted.

Harry sighed. "All of which can wait until later. Myrtle," he addressed the ghost girl, "where did you see those eyes?"

"Over there." Now that they were no longer discussing her death, Myrtle was growing bored. "By that sink."

Harry nodded his thanks, bending down to study the indicated basin. "There." He pointed to a small snake carved into the faucet. "That's our entrance. Nice work Daphne."

The blond girl smugly folded her arms.

"What do you mean Daphne," Ron said, outraged. "It was Nev who said we should come here!"

"Actually," Theo explained coolly, "Longbottom told us about Myrtle who, I have to say, was most helpful. However, Daphne had identified this bathroom as a potential entrance three days ago."

"Four actually," Tracy corrected, practically oozing sweetness. "It was one of the firt possibilities. She's so smart, don't you agree?" She smiled innocently at Ron.

"Yes," Dudley agreed, then turned bright red. What had possessed him to say that? I must be whatever had changed about Daphne. There had been something different about her for the past few weeks. Dudley just was not sure what.

Sa'zar glowered at the group. "Tom. Is. In. The. Chamber. Do you intend to spend the day engaging in the mindless drivel that you have the gall to call conversation, while my brother languishes below?" The tiny boy jabbed a finger at the sink, eyes flashing with a deadly light.

"Of course not," Percy said, his pompous tones slipping slightly. "We're just waiting for you to open it."

"Oh." Sa'zar flushed, deflating as he turned towards the sink.

"Seems our head of House has rubbed off on him," Blaise muttered to Draco, as they watched him.

The blond nodded. "He did do a remarkably good impression, yes."

Harry waved them to silence, as Sa'zar began to hiss. "Open."

The faucet began to turn, slowly then rapidly as the sink sank smoothly into the floor, revealing a large pipe descending down into darkness.

"Down the rabbit hole," Cedric said quietly

"Time to get messy!" Val's sword earrings flashed in the light.

"So," Ron said weakly, "who wants to go first?"

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AUthor's note: Soooo... Chapter 16. We're almost through folks. Actually, part of the next chapter was originally this one, but this was the perfect point to end, so I did. Besides, this is the second thing I've written today. Five more reviews before I update, got it?

Harry showed some snark here. It was about time too, I think. Yes, the Slytherins have a rating system on insults. Pansy keeps track, and it is heavily biased in favor of Draco, but still. Sa'zar channels both Snape and his previous self too, which was fun. Actually, having the Snakes insult people was fun...

Questions:

Chapter16:

1-Where does the chapter title come from?

2-Why does Draco mean "if you wait a millenia"?

3-What is a 'charmelis'?

4-Why is Norberta attacking the lake?

5-What is different about Daphne?

6-What is an Assessor? (Read 'A Necessary Gift' by cosette-aimee it's really good.)

Points:

Gryffindor:171

Hufflepuff:176

Ravenclaw:254

Slytherin:217