Kyugan: Bit early but I figured I'd make up for two cliffhangers in a row.
Spy: How generous of you.
Kyugan: I'm all heart, really I am.
Chapter 16: Into the chamber.
The effect of McGonagall's words on the rest of the Hogwarts Faculty was catastrophic, to say the least. Some, such as Professor Flitwick cried out in alarm or felt the need to sit down very suddenly. Others, such as Professor Sprout, simply clapped a hand, or both, over their mouths in a bid to keep themselves from crying out, though their eyes showed nothing short of remorse.
"How can you be sure?" Snape demanded, the hook-nosed Potion's Master seemingly the only one who managed to retain his composure, though Herwald, cloaked as he was by the Potter Ring, noted that the man's grip on the back of his chair was so hard that the knuckles of his long, intricate fingers were beginning to turn white.
"The Heir of Slytherin…" Professor McGonagall continued, her face as white as a death mask as she stopped to clear her throat "The CULPRIT, has left another message underneath the first one…" she took a shaking breath and continued "He said 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'…"
Herwald couldn't help but curse aloud at the revelation, only Professor Flitwick bursting into tears preserving the Einzbern's cover, though he shifted slightly to avoid Snape's sharp eyes.
It looked like the Heir HAD been the one to dispose of Riddle's diary the first time, and was most likely the one responsible for its theft. It was simply too much of a coincidence that the attacks had stopped for the duration of the time Herwald had possessed the Diary, only to start up again the moment it had been stolen.
'Which means they were either someone in the library that day…' he muttered darkly 'Or someone has been following me.'
Paranoia aside, the latter was actually more than a little likely, as even after his little slip of the Parseltongue, Herwald still found himself looking up to see people eyeing im from across hallways, behind books and the like. Not only that, while loitering was generally prohibited in the Library, there was no law stating you had to check books out every time you went in, if anything, Madam Pince probably preferred the Students left the books where they were.
'Who was in the Library that day?' he wondered, struggling to recall the other patrons, cursing Madam Pince and her lack of a proper recording system. Any MUNDANE librarian would've had students check themselves in and out, in order to account for their location, Pince was simply glad to see them go.
"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked shakily, the Flying Coach snapping Herwald out of his thoughts even as she sank heavily into a chair, her knees too weak to support her "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall managed to get out, Herwald's eyes widening in alarm at the revelation, recalling the look on Ginny's face that morning as she fled from the Gryffindor table "We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," McGonagall continued, seemingly as much to herself as it was for her fellow Staff "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"
The staffroom door banged open again, the Staff whipping round, some of them with looks of expectation on their faces, as if hoping against hope that the man's name had acted as a summons, and their headmaster had been returned to them, only to be brutally disappointed at the sight of Gilderoy Lockhart standing in the doorway, in a set of well-cut robes that he hadn't been wearing earlier, his blonde hair freshly curled and his trademark dazzling smile in place.
"So sorry," he offered, putting on the illusion that he'd been running, though Herwald could tell the man wasn't even winded from his lack of a flush "Must have dozed off, what have I missed?"
Herwald wanted to roll his eyes at the fop's statement, a sentiment that was apparently shared by many of the Hogwarts Staff, many of whom were eyeing the man with a level of distaste that one would normally associated with a leper. WORSE even, for lepers, at least, invoked some modicum of pity even in the coldest of hearts, right now the only pity Herwald suspected the staff held for the fop was that HE hadn't been the one the Basilisk decided to take with it.
"Just the man." Snape declared, the Potions Master stepping forwards with a cold smile, the kind of smile a torturer makes when he's cornered his prey, clapping the understandably confused Lockhart on the shoulder "Your moment has come at last, Lockhart, a girl has been snatched by the monster, taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself."
Lockhart blanched, his eyes widening in shock as he gaped at the older man, trying to back away, only to find that the Potions Master's grip on his shoulder prevented retreat, the man instead glancing wide-eyed towards the rest of the staff, as if to seek their assistance, only to
"That's right, Gilderoy." chipped in Professor Sprout, the normally cheerful Hufflepuff Head looking decidedly vindictive even as she smiled at the man "Weren't you just saying the night before that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"Indeed." Professor Flitwick piped up, the Ravenclaw Head cutting off Lockhart's stammering, Herwald's brow quirking at the decidedly Goblin-like smile on the Charms Masters' face "Why I DO believe you told me you were CERTAIN you knew what was inside it?"
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested." Snape recalled, and here Herwald had to suppress as shiver, as the animosity in the room grew to the extent it actually caused the temperature to drop several degrees "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
"I…I really never…" Lockhart stammered, the cornered DADA Professor looking remarkably like the late Matou Shinji as he stared at his stony-faced colleagues, as if hoping they were having him on "you may have misunderstood-!"
"We shall leave it to you, then, Gilderoy." McGonagall cut in, the Deputy Headmistress having apparently recovered her composure, her back straighter than a cast-iron poker as she somehow managed to tower over Lockhart despite him behind half a head taller than the Transfiguration Mistress if she removed her hat "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself."
'Beware the cat bearing a grudge indeed…' Herwald muttered, unable to help the smirk of approval at the woman's words even as a shiver of apprehension washed over him from her tone, so eerily like Rin's whenever she was sufficiently vexed 'Doubly so for Female Cat Animagi.'
If Herwald was feeling apprehensive, however, it was NOTHING compared to how Lockhart must have felt under McGonagall's frosty, catlike stare. Unable to flee with Snape's hand on his shoulder, the fop continued to gaze desperately around him, hoping for some modicum of pity from his peers, only to realize that he was well and truly up shit creek without a boat when nobody came to the rescue.
'Not so handsome any more either…' Herwald noted, sneering in disgust at the sight of the weak-chinned, feeble looking man as he watched Lockhart's lip begin to tremble as if he was about to burst into tears 'And me without a camera…wonder how his fans would react to this?'
"V-very well…" the fop stammered, averting his eyes from the merciless, imposing stares of his less than amiable peers "I'll…I'll just be in my office, getting…getting ready."
He fled the room, Snape releasing the man's shoulder, wiping himself off as he did so, allowing Gilderoy to finally flee like he'd been wishing, the door slamming shut behind the fop with an ominous crack.
As Lockhart Buggers off...
"Right." McGonagall intoned, her nostril's flaring and her eyes once again brimming with her traditional Scottish fire as she rounded on the staff "That's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow." She turned to the rest of the faculty "In the meantime, will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories?"
The teachers nodded and rose, silently leaving the hall, united by their contempt for Lockhart and a desire to prevent another tragedy from occurring. Things may have been too late for Ginny Weasley, but by Merlin's beard they weren't letting Slytherin's Monster sink it's fangs into anyone else.
'Which doesn't do Frau Weasley any good." Herwald muttered, scowling as he watched them leave, slipping out of the staffroom just before McGonagall, the last one out, could lock him in, the Transfiguration Mistress promptly turning on her heel and stalking up the corridor towards Gryffindor tower 'Schiesse, if you want something done right…'
It was abundantly clear that the staff didn't have a clue as to where the chamber was. Oh they knew it EXISTED if Dumbledore's comment during Collin's petrification was any sign, but if they had the slightest knowledge of where to look, they'd have cordoned off the corridor outside Myrtle's bathroom…or at the very least ordered Filch to steer clear of it, lest HE become a victim.
'I could certainly see the Heir targeting a Squib.' Herwald noted coldly 'Especially a bitter old bastard like Filch, there isn't a student in the castle that doesn't wish that sadist harm.'
It stood to reason that the Heir was a student, the only new member of Staff was Lockhart, and the idea of the man being behind the attacks was so ludicrous Herwald didn't even bother to scoff at it. As such, the only possible explanations he could come up with was that the Heir was a Student, either from this year's Graduating Class, or from amongst this year's crop of First Years.
'The former would be the more logical…' he muttered, emerald eyes like flints as he recalled Montague's comment from the first attack 'They could have laid low, biding their time, only to launch the attacks during their final year before slipping away.'
The opposite, that it was a first year, was less likely, though at the same time highly plausible. After all, who would suspect a First Year student to be able to command a monster that one of the Founders had sequestered within the hallowed walls of the school? It was the perfect alibi, something that appealed to Herwald's Slytherin senses.
'It would also explain why they chose to kidnap Ginny.' He noted, features grim as the pieces began putting themselves together 'The first years are a tightly knit lot, it would've been easier to convince her to follow them than it would an older student.'
Of course, this bore the question of not only how the heir had uncovered the Chamber, not to mention how they'd managed to open it. Herwald suspected Parseltongue was a factor, but seeing as he'd had little chance to practice, he didn't feel confident in attempting to use it on the tap.
That just left Riddle's diary. While a long shot, the former Slytherin probably uncovered the Chamber's True location either before or after Hagrid's expulsion, and had thus jotted it down. Herwald wasn't about to trust the damn thing, but it was the only reason he could think of that the heir would go to any lengths to retrieve it after finding it in his possession after their failed attempt to destroy it.
'No time for regrets now…' he muttered, scowling as he came to a stop outside the Girl's bathroom, dropping the Potter Ring's invisibility charm as he stepped inside, ignoring the sobs of Myrtle as he walked straight past the cubicles to stand before the sink, pointing the Ring of Kay at the offending tap with a scowl "Offen."
For a moment, the only sound in the bathroom was Myrtle's sobs, the sink sitting before him, defiantly normal in appearance. Just as Herwald was beginning to feel very silly however, the sound of moving tiles cut through the air, the Einzbern, not wanting to be hit by a fountain of waste water like before, stepping sharply to the side, his emerald eyes widening in amazement as the sink began to move, ironically sinking down into the ground and out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
'Or for a Basilisk to slither out of…' the teen muttered, a slight shiver racing down his spine at the image, wondering if the serpent was waiting for him at the bottom of the tunnel.
"What's going on out there?" Myrtle called out, the ghost sounding annoyed as she peered out of her cubicle, blinking at the sight of Herwald "Oh, it's you…" she began, only to blink at the sight of the tunnel where the sink used to be "What's that?"
"That, Frau Myrtle, is how the monster killed you Fifty Years ago." Herwald revealed, ignoring the look of surprise on the ghost's face as he walked over to one of the mirrors on the wall "Tell me, has anyone come in or out of this bathroom recently?"
"I don't know." Myrtle countered, still staring mystified at the massive hole which had been part of her haunting grounds without her knowledge "No…wait," she murmured, frowning in thought "There was a girl I think, I wasn't really paying attention but she seemed to be talking to herself."
"What did she say?" Herwald demanded, only half listening as he grabbed the mirror with his left hand, a flash of alchemical lighting preceding the mirror's transmutation into smaller, easier to carry version.
"I don't really know." Myrtle countered, looking surprised at the display was hiding in the U-bend, I think a girl came in here earlier "She was speaking in some foreign language, I couldn't understand a word of it." She tilted her head to the side "Though it sounded like she was hissing and spitting a lot."
'Parseltongue?' Herwald wondered, ticking off a note on his mental checklist, though he'd wait to pass judgement until he'd actually seen the language in action "Was there anyone else with her?"
"I don't think so." Myrtle countered, frowning as she pursed her lips in thought "At least I didn't hear anyone else. So few people use this bathroom that I really don't pay attention to what they're doing unless they try to use my stall."
"I see." Herwald muttered, cursing softly under his breath at the ghost's inattentiveness, though he supposed he really couldn't blame her. Fixated ghosts, like Myrtle, tended to only be concerned with their own affairs, usually the ones which lead to their deaths, the affairs of the living, on the other hand, weren't a primary concern for them "Could you do me a favour, Frau Myrtle?" he asked, picking up the mirror and stepping closer to the rim of the tube "I need you to contact Potion's Master Snape…any of the Hogwarts Faculty really, tell them I've found the chamber and am going in to retrieve Frau Weasley."
Myrtle opened her mouth to reply, but Herwald had already leapt into the tunnel, the Einzbern grimacing as he felt the dank, slimy air of the tunnel wrap around him, like a damp, greasy cloth.
Salazar's-Super-Fun-Happy-Slide!
'It's connected to the plumbing system…' he told himself, clutching the mirror tightly as he continued to descend deep into the bowels of the castle 'Stands to reason it'd stink like a sewer.'
Reinforcing his eyes, though keeping care not to open them fully, the Einzbern noticed several other pipes connected to the one he was sliding down, branching off in all directions, no doubt leading to other areas of the castle. None of them were as large as the main one, true, but they were all still large enough for a human being, at the very least a human pre-teen, to fit through unmolested.
'These tunnels must run throughout the entire castle…' he muttered, mentally tracking their descent, noting with wonder that, judging by the speed of their descent and the time it had taken, he had to be well beneath the dungeons by now 'And all of this was created centuries ago?'
He'd known from the beginning that the Hogwarts Founders had been amongst the greatest of their generation, the wards they'd set up to protect the location of the school were considered the finest in the British Isles, even amongst the Magus Association, as it not only made the place inaccessible to Mundanes, it made the DESIRE to approach it vanish.
However, for a castle that had been erected during the time of Knights and Wizardry, Hogwarts was proving to be a marvel of engineering that by all rights should have been impossible considering the resources of the time. These tunnels alone must have been in existence since before Salazar Slytherin's exile, and yet they bore a complexity and ingenuity that rivalled any modern network. For him to have implemented such a project right under the other Founder's noses was quite a feat, adding credit to the claim that Slytherin was the house for the cunning and ambitious.
'Though one would think we would have grown out of the racist and purist stage by now.' Herwald muttered, scowling as he recalled some of the comments the elder Serpents would make in passing whenever in the presence of half-bloods and Muggleborns. It didn't help that the main troublemakers were all 'Noble Purebloods' that could trace their ancestry back as far as ten generations, meaning they enough political and financial clout to make life difficult for anyone that disagreed with them.
'In short, whoever the hell the heir is, they're either an indoctrinated aristocrat or a purist extremist with delusions of grandeur.' Herwald muttered, emerald eyes narrowing as he fell ever deeper, bracing himself as the pipe levelled out, curling into a ball to protect the mirror as he shot out of the end with a wet thud, rolling clear of the opening, his left hand slapping out at the damp floor, ready to transmute a shield to protect himself, even as he used the mirror to check his surroundings.
He was kneeling in a dark stone tunnel, about the size of a classroom, the walls lined with slime, the same slime that was coating his robes and hair from the tunnel. "Wunderbarr…" he muttered, his voice echoing through the black tunnel, getting to his feet with a grimace as he tried to get the worst of the gunk off him "Must be under the lake…the castle itself is built on bedrock to prevent an underground assault, so all this damp has to be the result of moisture seeping through…"
Reinforcing his eyes, he peered, carefully, into the gloom, making sure to keep his gaze limited to the floor, as the last thing he needed was to accidentally look Slytherin's Monster in the eye. He'd had quite enough near-death experiences to last him a lifetime as it was, and this sounded like the type you couldn't come back from.
However, even to his reinforced eyes, the tunnel before him was so dark he could only see a few feet ahead of him, which suited him perfectly, as the less he could see, the less likely he'd be to accidentally look the King of Serpents in the eye, though not for the first time the adopted Einzbern wished Assassin were still around, being a Servant. She might have lacked the magical resistance that was inherent to the three Knight Classes, but at the very least it would've been nice to have some experienced backup for a change.
'All I've got is the ghost of a depressed schoolgirl who may just as easily have gone off to alert the faculty as she is to have gone back to crying in a toilet' he muttered, unable to help the self-mocking quirk of his lips as he inched slowly into the darkened tunnel 'Scheiße, when did life get so complicated?'
A sudden crunch from beneath his feet bid him pause, the Einzbern glancing down sharply, only to exhale in relief as he realized he'd simply stepped on the skull of a rat, a long dead one judging by how easily the bone had been crushed underfoot and the sheer multitude of bones littering the ground.
'Rin DID say they'd eat anything they could get their teeth into…' he muttered, eyeing the sheer multitude of vermin skeletons warily 'I suppose with the absence of spiders, it turned its attention to the next best thing…'
He trailed off as he spotted something out the corner of his eye, something large curving around the corner of the tunnel, not moving but all the more intimidating despite that.
'Judging by the lack of light, I'm guessing it's the tail…' he muttered, stepping closer subtly, his eyes narrowing as he took in the vivid, poisonous green scales, noting with interest that they were lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. 'Judging by the size, the creature that had shed this must have been twenty feet long at least.' He noted, reaching out and touching the skin, his inner scholar unable to help marvelling at the texture 'Still fairly soft, it must have shed this recently…a day or two at most.'
"You can come out now." He called out, his voice soft, only to sigh as nothing happened, his breath rising into the darkened tunnel like mist "Look, I don't mind if you don't wish to talk, but could you at least stop hovering over my shoulder? It's getting rather uncomfortable."
For a moment nothing happened, save that the cold, ominous presence of the tunnel seemed to become even more so. Then a figure slowly faded into view, dressed in battle-worn armour, the silvery light emanating from her spectral body providing a faint light in the otherwise endless darkness of the tunnels "How did you know?"
"I know you've been following me since I left the staffroom." Herwald replied, not pausing in his examination of the shed skin "The castle isn't THAT cold during the summer months, yet I was able to see my breath in the hallways."
"Why didn't you ask me to show myself then?" the spectral knight asked, her silvery eyes unreadable, though Herwald thought he detected a hint of petulance, like a child caught doing something they shouldn't, in her tone.
"Would you have appeared if I had?" Herwald asked, his tone coy as he ran his hands over the skin of the beast, marvelling at its texture "I know you've been following me around, I suspected as much when I caught you spying on me with Hagrid the day Cedric and Sir Nicholas were attacked."
"I was NOT spying!" the knight proclaimed, looking incensed at the very idea, only to pointedly avert her eyes as Herwald turned to look at her "I was merely…curious…"
"I dare say you would be after my little incident at Sir Nicholas' party." Herwald conceded, turning to face the ghost properly, his features calm "Still, why did you not come before me earlier? Why resort to following me from a distance?"
"I…could not." The Knight revealed, looking uncomfortable as she avoided looking at the Einzbern's eyes "I wished nothing more than to speak with you, to learn how you came upon…that name…"
"Arturia's?" Herwald noted, the knight flinching at the mention of Sabre's true name "My apologies, I understand it must be a tender subject for you."
"It is not that…" the knight countered, recovering her composure somewhat "I loved my King…love her still…but I do not deserve to speak her name…nay, I cannot bear to let it cross my lips…for t'was MY hand that struck her down, my hand that led to her ruin."
"You're Mordred." Herwald noted, his emerald eyes narrowing in confirmation as he continued to take in the Knight's features "Arturia's...child, with Morgan la Fey."
"DO NOT SPEAK THAT WITCH'S NAME!" the Knight, Mordred, snarled, her features becoming terrible and monstrous as the light emanating from her increased, a wind picking up from around her body, blowing Herwald's robes back as the Einzbern braced himself "SHE IS NO MOTHER OF MINE!"
Herwald said nothing, simply weathered the storm of spectral rage, his emerald eyes staring impassively into the silvery pair of the Knight, who broke contact first, her features lined with shame as the wind died down. "My...Apologies…" she offered, her tone subdued "Even after all these years, I cannot bear to speak of that…woman…"
"I don't blame you." Herwald assured her, dusting down his robes "You never asked to be born, you never asked to be her puppet." He looked the ghost of Mordred in the eye "All you wanted was your sire's acknowledgement, but Arturia could not give it to you."
Mordred flinched, her eyes widening, staring at the Einzbern youth in wonderment "How…" he spoke, his voice a mere whisper "How is it you know these things…how is it you bear Sir Kay's ring? How is it you know my father's greatest secret?"
"I have met with Arturia Pendragon." Herwald replied, holding his hand to silence the ghost when his eyes widened in surprise "It is a long, complicated story, and one I am more than willing to recount later, but right now I have no time, the master of the monster that lurks within these halls has taken a young girl into its den."
"Then let us make haste." Mordred intoned, the ghost's features firming in resolve as her hand rested upon the pommel of her sword "I would hear more of your tale, so I shall accompany you…though I fear I will not be much help should we encounter the monster."
"Take out the master and there shouldn't be much problem." Herwald opined, earning a look from the fallen knight "The beast is under the command of a Parseltongue, if we can kill the Schwein-Hund before he can summon his pet, then we shouldn't have a problem."
Mordred eyed the youth in silence for the moment, and Herwald swore the fallen Knight was evaluating him from behind those silvery eyes. "You are very perceptive." She noted at last, her voice laced with soft approval "Such a tactic would be befitting of Sir Kay."
"I guess it runs in the family." Herwald noted, smiling cryptically at the flash of understanding in Mordred's eyes even as they moved onwards, the light coming off the knight's body making it easier to traverse the winding tunnels, the two never speaking, only the sounds of dripping water and Herwald's footsteps surrounding them as they made their way deeper into the monster's den.
And so the two meet at last.
Also, yes, Mordred is a Girl, check the wiki, look up Saber of Red. She's basically what would happen if Arturia cosplayed as Revy from Black Lagoon apparently.
Sir: Hoh-Hoh-HOH!
Kyugan: She's also got an 'issue' with being seen as a woman, so I wouldn't try anything.