Chapter 2
There was a party on in the common room after Gryffindor won the match against Slytherin, I could see my 'twin brother' over with Neville Longbottom , hanging on to his every word as he described in detail how he had performed a partially dangerous stunt to score a goal in the match today. It reminded me of how in first year Neville and two of his friends including my 'brother' had gone after the Philosopher's stone, they were trying to stop who they thought was Professor Snape from stealing it, when in reality it was Quirrell, who was trying to steal it. From what I heard Dumbledore saved them and then duelled Quirrell, before Quirrell collapsed when Voldemort left is body and fled.
I didn't know that I had a 'brother' until I came to Hogwarts; the Dursley's had told me that my family had died in a car crash; that they had been drunk and I was the only survivor. The truth, I learnt in my third year was that the Potter's had given me to the Dursley's because they found out that I was a parselmouth and of course they couldn't have a family member that was Dark living with them. I suppose I should have given more thought into my ability to speak parseltongue as the Potter's have no relation to the Slytherin line, and parseltongue only appears in those of Slytherin blood.
I had discovered my ability to speak parseltongue quite early on; I just assumed it was another of those unexplainable things that happened to me and until my second year when I mentioned it to Hermione, didn't give it much thought. At the time I only knew Hermione though our little study sessions that we had together in the library but we became close after she explained what I was doing was an ability called Parseltongue and it was believed to be a Dark gift. There are right of course but it still hurt me to know that people would turn on me because of this gift and it hurt me even more when I found out that it was because of this that my family had given me away. The same thing happened to me as Salazar, I was shunned by many within the magical community because of it and even more so because of the Dark Arts that I practised.
Later that night after the party had died down and everyone had gone to bed; I snuck out and headed towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. I entered the bathroom after making sure that Myrtle was not inside and whispered "Open up" and the tap started to spin before the sink sank into the ground leaving the pipe exposed. Another whisper of "Stairs" and stairs appeared winding down the pipe. When I reached the bottom I raised my wand and with a muttered 'Lumos,' the tip lit up and I started walking though the damp, dark tunnel. I could see the small animal bones that littered the floor that I remembered from coming down here in my second year.
After walking for what seemed like hours I came across the solid wall that had the two entwined serpents with emeralds for eyes, carved onto the wall. Again I hissed 'Open' to the snakes and they parted as the wall opened and I stepped inside. I walked down the chamber past the serpentine pillars, and towards the statue at the end of the chamber where the basilisk, Syalia my mind provided, had come out of the statue's mouth. Looking at the statue now I wondered how I had ever thought that was a statue of me, it looked nothing like me and was a statue of my grandfather.
Syalia's body was wrapped around the statue and looking at her caused me sadness. I had raised her as a hatchling and she was meant to be another protection for the school, the history books had got it wrong, the other founders knew of this chamber and of Syalia. I had brought them down here on more than one occasion. Instead Syalia was used to attack students of this school, ordered by my heir who believed he was continuing my 'noble' work. He almost killed Ginny in her first year and would of succussed if Ron and I hadn't come to rescue her; I had had to kill Syalia with my own sword that I pulled out of the sorting hat. Pulling my sword out of the hat was another clue to who I was and only now am I understanding this.
My heir is another issue; during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament the cup was a portkey and when Neville took hold of it he was taken to a graveyard where his blood was used in a ritual that returned Voldemort to his full power, if Neville's account is accurate. The Ministry believes that it is just a plot of Dumbledore's to become Minister and is painting Neville as a liar and has placed Umbridge at Hogwarts this year to interfere with the running of Hogwarts.
Walking past Syalia's body to the end of the chamber, I take a deep breath before letting out a faint, low hiss of 'Open' and standing back when the wall melts away to allow me entrance into my personal library. I could feel the wards hum and come back to life as I stepped into the room, they must have faded over time after I had died. The room was filled with books, stacked neatly on bookshelves in order of topics; it would be almost as big as the Hogwarts library and held many books that were the only copy in the world.
Thankfully the preservation charms that I had placed on the room had held unlike the wards, as many of these books were priceless. After reinforcing the wards to my library so that only I could enter, unless I brought someone else in, I exited my library and the wall reappeared behind me. I would have to check the rest of my possessions and that meant a trip up to the headmaster's office to collect my sword.