Part 21 - Down the Rabbit's Hole

By the time Harry joined Neville and Professor Binns in Myrtle's bathroom, Neville had already worked up a sweat. Distracting the younger ghost, while confusing and moving the wards that had placed on the sinks was far more work than he had expected. Neville was kneeling on the bathroom floor checking for more spells around the base of the sinks, when Harry entered, and nearly tripped over him.

"Mr. Longbottom has found quite a few spells and wards based on detecting motion and parseltongue." Neville kept up a steady whispered chant, and Harry made sure to stay out of the way.

With a bit of a flourish, Neville gestured with Harry's wand to the first toilet stall. Harry could see a purple glow splash over to the stall, and was reminded of the 'non-staining' slime Dudley had gotten as a gift, and the repainting job Harry was given after Dudley had stained the living room ceiling.

"I've moved most of it to the first toilet," Neville said, "And I've silenceoed the stall. Those were motion detections, like most of them, but there was a language detection ward – maybe for parseltongue."

"Good thing you checked. With everything else he's done, I really expected the Chamber to be left unguarded."

"Might as well be if this is where his spells are. There must be a place on the first floor or dungeons that could be reached by breaching the tunnel."

"I believe the best strategy would be to destroy the Castle at its foundation," Professor Binns said. "However, since Mr. Riddle has seemed obsessed with taking over we have been lucky. The Headmaster should have brought you back down to the Chamber, Harry, and made sure that it was sealed."

Harry quipped, "At least both of them being deranged has helped the students somehow."

Neville shot a glare at Harry, "Not funny."

"It is proof that neither Mr. Riddle nor the Headmaster has learned from history," the ghost smiled, "Or Greek literature, else they would have known of the danger of hubris."

Neville shuddered, "Just so we don't have Oedipus."

"That's the guy that married his mom, and went nuts, right? Since I'm under the prophecy, make sure you check out my future wife for me."

Neville shuddered again, and handed Harry back his wand. "Your turn."

Harry cast a sequence of magic detecting spells, at lower strengths so that the ambient magic of Hogwarts wouldn't blind him like the first time he'd tried the spell in the Room of Requirement. The bathroom stall was nearly white with magic, the snake tap was an orange color, his wand and their bags were in tones of blue as were the ghosts, but there were no other bright spots of higher magic concentration. To be safe, after double checking the base of the sinks, Harry put a silencing charm into each corner of the room, and a trip ward on the bathroom door that would cause his wand to vibrate. He then pulled out the Marauder's Map again.

"They aren't even here."

"What, Harry?"

Harry shook the map for emphasis, "McGonagall and Dumbledore aren't in Hogwarts, that the map can see." Harry looked up, "You know, I don't know if I should be happy they aren't about to swoop into here, or worried as to what they are doing."

Neville choked out a laugh. "Ugh. I need that image obliviated."

"Ick, Neville. I was thinking more like raiding orphan money to buy socks."

Neville groaned.

Harry raised a hand, "Not asking."

"Gentlemen."

"Yeah, Harry, we're on real time now, worry about McGonagall and Dumbledore's sins later."

Harry glared at Neville, with laughter in his eyes, "Yesterday out here, you'd have never had said that."

Neville snorted, "No, I'd say nothing, because Hermione would be about to launch into you and Ron for the conversation."

Harry laughed, then added a notice me not and silenceo to the bathroom door as well. He then gazed at the snake faucet 'Open up, please.'

Harry moved forward to just jump down the chute, when Neville restrained him with a hand in front of Harry's chest. "Wait. Give me your wand."

Harry complied and Neville tested the slide for additional spells, no signs were found. He then sent a series of cleaning spells down the chute, followed by a stream of water and a drying spell, before handing Harry back his wand. "Now you may go."

Harry stuck his wand in his sleeve pocket and jumped, nearly hitting his head when his butt landed on the slide. When the tunnel light began to change from black to gray, Harry tried to slow himself with his feet, and was thus able to hop off rather than land on the animal bones that still covered the base of the landing.

"Lumos." When Harry located the torches he lit them with a wandless spell. Extinguishing the light from his wand, Harry then proceeded to banish all the animal bones to the left side of the circular room, and placed cushioning charms on the floor beneath the chute. Soon enough Harry's book bag came down the chute, a rope they'd transfigured the day before in the room attached to the top strap. Harry quickly untied the rope, pulled it taut, and stuck it to the top left side of the chute with a weak sticking charm, that was supposed to work along the length of an object, though Harry still wondered if it would be too long.

Harry yelled into the chute, "Ready!"

Binns quickly emerged, nearly colliding with Harry. "Making sure the rope wouldn't strangle Mr. Longbottom. It does appear the charm worked well for the first 100 feet, however is a bit loose near the top, yet is adequate."

Harry had leapt to the side and was trying to shake off the cold from such proximity to the ghost. "Good idea."

The ghost chuckled and shot back up the pipe. Harry shook his head, Binn's desire to stay might have been his book, but he sure was proving he enjoyed the pranking perks of being a ghost. Harry picked up his bag after replacing the featherlight charm on it, and moved to the opposite side of the room. While waiting for Neville, Harry began casting revealo around the circumference of the room, and hunting for hidden doors.

Unable to find any signs of hidden doors, Harry turned his gaze to the mostly deboned floor. Most places in the castle an observant student could get around by following the groves in the floors caused by a millennia of students; tiled floors had lost their gloss, and in some areas were completely worn through, except by the walls. Even in the most highly trafficked areas of the castle, near the walls hints of elaborate mosaics could be found. Harry hadn't thought to wonder why a magic school hadn't fixed its floors until his Room tour of the French castles of the Loire Valley, where an information placard and ropes proudly proclaimed the bits of centuries-old tile left. But here, where there had been no hordes of students rushing, there appeared to still be an elaborate mosaic.

Harry began cleaning the floor, and had it mopped and waxed with still no sign of Neville. The mosaics were fully intact, though at points the grout was quite stained, but with the wax the ceramic and marble gleamed. The wood grain effect and length of the tiles around the circumference of the floor looked like wood planks, and Harry had to touch them to be sure it wasn't wood, though wood probably would have rotted away over the vast amount of time. In the center of the room was an elaborate Hogwarts Crest which appeared to be in relief, though it was as flat and smooth as the rest of the floor. Harry knelt near the crest, and was studying it as he finally heard a whooshing sound coming from the chute.

Harry quickly added another cushioning charm, as Neville shot out of the chute, landing like a stone skipping over water. Finally coming to rest in the middle of the room. "Professor!"

The ghost in question was leisurely leaving the chute, with a far too innocent look on his face. "Yes?"

"You are lucky you are noncorporal."

"What did he do?"

"Told me to tuck in low and add a weight spell to my shoes to avoid hitting my head," Neville grumbled.

"I thought you were going faster, I thought he'd gotten you to wax the chute or something."

"This is marvelous, Mr. Potter! Wonderful.. wonderful. No alteration to the crest, no change in color or size of the snake.. Such workmanship!"

Harry offered Neville a hand up, and led his friend to the crest. "Glad I thought to do some more cleaning charms down here. I don't think this was Slytherin's private territory."

"It is quite unlike anything described at Slytherin's manor." Binns said, "The color scheme in the surrounding floor, quite resembles the background of one of Lady Ravenclaw's most famous tapestries. While the white marble dominates, the clusters of the house colors, are still present without being overwhelming. Notice how in each cluster, each house is represented either with its primary or secondary color, and she rotates their arrangements, but always keeps them located as their dorms are located in the Castle."

"It's amazingly dry down here," said Neville.

"Might be a side effect of all my cleaning spells."

"No, I mean the air itself. If Slytherin specialized in Potions he would need a cool, dry place as devoid of active magic as possible. Not to mention he'd want to keep his research private and protected."

"But, Neville, wouldn't it be pretty hard to get down here frequently without someone noticing?"

"Mr. Potter, I believe you have failed to recognize that plumbing for indoor bathrooms is relatively recent."

"Professor, are there any old blueprints of Hogwarts?" asked Harry.

"Not in the public domain."

"So we'll ask the Room tomorrow."

Surprised that Neville hadn't commented on his dependence on the Room or Hermione for research, Harry looked and saw that Neville was kneeling next to the seal, leaning forward to touch it. All Harry had as warning was a vague sense of unease, when Neville began to tickle the dragon, and the floor began to spin.

Added and subtracted quite a bit from this part as I was typing this part from my notebook. I've written in 3different ones, as usually the muse visits when I am waiting to fall asleep, glad to have be down to 2 notebooks now.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. :-)