After his discovery of the basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets Harry found it hard to settle down. He managed to sleep although even his dreams were filled with Parseltongue and basilisks, and secret chambers far beneath the school.
But night passed into day and Harry got up for breakfast with everyone else. He was in two minds about whether to keep the Chamber a secret or to tell his friends. On the one hand, it was the discovery of the century, and Harry had discovered it. Everyone wanted to find the Chamber of Secrets; it was something spoken of in excited tones by many a Slytherin.
Even some of the older ones.
And Harry had actually found it. But there wasn't any opportunity for him to tell Blaise, since although they shared a bedroom and bathroom, it was filled with other boys. So Harry couldn't say anything there. And even when they made their way to breakfast Daphne had monopolised the conversation with tales of her mother's most recent letter, so that was out.
And part of Harry didn't want to share the secret anyway. Not quite so soon after uncovering it, at least. He wanted to get to know the basilisk a bit better first just in case it turned out to be … unstable. Or untrustworthy.
So breakfast passed by without Harry saying anything about the Chamber to anyone. And at the very end, Umbridge stood up with an announcement.
"Hem, hem. Following on from a spate of nasty and vicious activities here at school the Ministry has seen fit to institute another Educational Decree. Educational Decree Number Fifty-five has been posted in full outside of the Inquisition lounge and upon the student noticeboards in both Central Hall and the Entrance Hall, but I shall summarise it here for you all," Umbridge said.
"Students are now forbidden from loitering without purpose in the Music Alcove, Central Hall, and a handful of other locations around the school. This applies to prefects as well. It should be noted that this is a place of learning, and we must always strive to behave in accordance with the rules and regulations. Students have been found to be misusing these locations, and as such, the privileges have been revoked. This is of course…"
Harry tuned her out. He'd heard everything he needed to, anyway: Umbridge and the Ministry had banned students from hanging out anywhere that students actually wanted to go. That the rule applied to prefects was surprising, but Harry thought it shouldn't have been. It was exactly the sort of thing Umbridge would have wanted to do. And it would serve as a nice little incentive for people to join her little Inquisitorial Squad, if they were able to gain privileges not even prefects had.
No doubt Umbridge wanted it to have an affect on the graffiti.
As if anyone would be doing it outside of curfew anyway.
None of that mattered. Not to Harry, anyway. It was annoying not being allowed to enter certain parts of the castle without permission, but it's not like he needed it anyway – he could go wherever he wanted under the cover of his Invisibility Cloak. It made meeting up with the Hufflepuff half of his friends a shade more annoying, but they were still allowed to mingle in the library and at most times other than Umbridge's arbitrary list, so Harry reckoned they could manage.
If they kept at it sparingly, anyway.
But the implementation of the new Educational Decree had a dampening effect on the students, and everyone tramped out of the Great Hall morosely for their day of lessons. And Harry had trouble concentrating. His mind kept being drawn to the basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets, and the promise he'd made to meet it again.
So Harry waited for lessons to end and for the end of dinner so that he could sneak out and meet the basilisk once again.
He had promised the basilisk that he'd bring it food, so when Harry slipped out of the Slytherin Common Room under cover of his Cloak, he didn't head right for Myrtle's bathroom. Instead, he made a detour to the kitchens. Once outside he tickled the pear and stepped into the kitchen where he knew there would be some elves.
Students weren't, technically, supposed to visit the kitchens. Requests for snacks were meant to be handled by Heads of House and supplied by the elves in a more official manner, subject to direct oversight by the Heads of Houses. Harry knew the girls sometimes had sleepover parties – why, he couldn't imagine, since they slept in the same room anyway – with snacks provided by the kitchens. Even with that, though, the elves were always keen to please, and would provide any student who asked with food or drinks, even after curfew.
They didn't even report it to the staff. Unless something dangerous was happening, but Harry was just asking for snacks, so he didn't think they'd run off to tell Umbridge about it.
Harry pulled off his Cloak just before entering.
"Hello," Harry said, looking around. At such a late hour the kitchens were mostly empty save for a handful of elves poring over a great, big book. The four House tables – or the copies of them that sat in the kitchens – were laid out with goblets and plates and all of the accoutrements of mealtimes but were empty. Cleaned, ready for breakfast the next morning. Fires burned in several of the fireplaces in the huge kitchen but it was otherwise quiet. For such a large room the kitchens had a cosy feel, the soft flickering light of the fireplaces adding greatly to the ambience.
An oasis of calm in a rather tumultuous sea caused by the Inquisition and its nonsense.
Although Harry was quite sure that any calmness was only because most of the elves were elsewhere, gone for the night to wherever it was the elves lived when they weren't attending to duties. Had he come during a busier time the kitchens would have been manic.
"Oh! It is beings a student!" one of the elves said.
"Students is not supposed to be being in the kitchens!" admonished another, waggling her finger at Harry.
"I know, I know," Harry said, his tone conciliatory. The elves were always much happier to help when students were polite and contrite about breaking the rules. "Sorry. I was just wondering if you could, er, do me up some food? You know, snacks, some meat, stuff like that? For, er… me and a, um, really hungry friend? Please?" Harry paused. "Like, really, really hungry—they skipped breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That hungry. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
The lead elf nodded.
"Yes, yes—we is doing this! Tippy will do it right away!"
The elf left the others and the book alone and busied herself around the kitchen, clicking her fingers and pointing at various different things. In next to no time at all the elf had whipped up a veritable feast – a platter full of sandwiches with different meat fillings, with all of the leftover sliced meat arranged around the sides. Harry didn't know if it was suitable for a basilisk, but it was a lot of food. If Harry hadn't already eaten a large dinner he would have been in two minds whether to take it down to the Chamber at all.
But at least if the basilisk didn't eat it, Harry could.
"Thanks for all the food," Harry said to the elves. "Really. I'm just going to, er, get on, then. Thanks."
Harry stepped back out of the kitchens and covered himself in his Cloak once again. It was a bit of a tighter fit with the big platter of food, but Harry thought he was still totally covered. Once he was sure he had everything in hand he set off for Moaning Myrtle's toilet – and the Chamber of Secrets.
He passed no one on his way there. Not any of the teachers, no Inquisitors, no prefect patrols – and none of the Inquisitorial Squad, either. No doubt the Squad was lingering around the recently banned sections of the school, loitering just in case they caught any prefects who weren't supposed to be around.
Well, whatever the case, Harry was pleased for the freedom.
He slipped inside the haunted toilet.
Inside it was as dingy as ever. An inch or so of water covered most of the floor, the drip-drip-drip of a leaking pipe filled the air.
Not to mention the smell of foetid water.
Harry headed right for the sink.
"You came back," said Myrtle as Harry approached the sink that opened to reveal the entrance to the Chamber. "I didn't think you would."
"Er—yes," Harry said. He hadn't come back for her, but because the only entrance to the Chamber he knew about happened to be inside the toilet she haunted. But two letters, one owl… "I did." He pulled off his Cloak and stuffed it in his pocket.
"Why did you bring food?" asked Myrtle, floating out of her favoured cubicle to greet Harry.
"It's for the snake," Harry explained. "It's hungry." He paused. "But I don't have to go straight away. How have you been feeling today?"
It was a dangerous question to ask, since Myrtle often overreacted to things, but Harry wanted to keep her on side. She knew too much. And allies were always nice, even if they were long dead and emotionally fragile.
Fortunately, it didn't send Myrtle over the edge. She whirled around Harry.
"I had a nice, long cry in the U-bend," Myrtle said. "Then I swam in the lake. Did you know there are merpeople in there? I spoke with that awful ghost who haunts the North Battlement. Did you know he was killed by lightning? Struck him right on the nose!"
Harry hadn't known there was a ghost that haunted the North Battlement.
He shook his head.
"I hadn't heard that, no. Why's he so awful?"
"He's just so rude all of the time!" Myrtle said. "You'd think he would have mellowed in death but he's just awful. Some of us just have no self-awareness. Just like Olive Hornby—always ready to say something unkind. Oh, but not like you—you're lovely. So kind."
"Thank you, Myrtle," Harry said. "I always try to be, er—polite. My aunt always says… Well, that doesn't matter. Er. Do you mind if I go see the basilisk? We can chat a bit more later, if you want to."
Myrtle nodded.
"Alright. Go on, then. I'll be waiting here."
Harry opened the sink and asked the chute to form a staircase, then descended to the Chamber. The platter of food he'd brought wouldn't sate the basilisk's hunger for too long, given the snake's sheer size, but it was something. A bit more substantial than the odd rat, anyway, and Harry could always bring more.
Harry made his way through the tunnels to the great door that separated the castle from the Chamber proper and opened it with the Parseltongue password. The basilisk wasn't inside the main Chamber.
There was still water over the floor. Harry supposed the Chamber was permanently flooded these days, and no one had tried – or been able – to fix it. If it was as simple as using the Mending Charm, it would probably have already been done, but Harry still felt it worth a try.
Assuming he could find the source of the leak, anyway.
But that was a problem for another day. Maybe. Harry glanced around the Chamber once more and then walked further in, closer to the gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin.
"Er—hello?" Harry said in Parseltongue. "I've come back to see you again. I've brought some food this time. It's not much, but it was all I could manage this evening." Next time, Harry thought it might be a good idea to order some food sent down from the grocer's in Hogsmeade. Perhaps a whole pig, or… something like that. Maybe a rooster, just for the irony in feeding it to a basilisk.
Harry didn't have to wait long for the basilisk to appear. It came slithering out of Slytherin's mouth and into the Chamber.
Harry averted his eyes.
He trusted the basilisk not to kill him, but there was trust and there was trust. No sense in testing an ancient creature who hadn't spoken with another living being in fifty or so years. Perhaps it had forgotten its manners.
"I was worried you would not come," the basilisk said. "But you are back. What did you bring me?"
"It's not much," Harry said. "Just some meat and some sandwiches. I'll try to bring more next time." Harry set the platter down on the ground. "Go on, it's all for you."
"Thank you," said the basilisk. It approached the platter slowly, extending its long body just a little to pick the food from the platter. It didn't last long. Within moments the platter was empty and the basilisk had retreated once more. "Do you want to see more of the Chamber?" it asked Harry.
That was exactly what Harry wanted.
"Yes, please—whatever there is to show me!"
He was inside the Chamber of Secrets. Salazar Slytherin's very own secret room hidden beneath the castle. The place he'd left his fabled monster – the very basilisk in front of Harry – centuries ago. The secret chamber that was a secret even from the other Founders. Slytherins of all ages talked about the Chamber, and Harry was stood inside it. Had even been invited to take a tour of its even more secret sub-chambers by the very basilisk which resided there.
"Follow," said the basilisk. It turned away and slithered towards the statue. For a moment, Harry thought it intended for him to scale the statue and follow it into Salazar's mouth, but the statue's legs moved aside instead to reveal three doorways.
And two of them large enough for a full-grown basilisk to go through.
"Those doors are massive," Harry said to himself. "Do they open, or do I need a password?" Harry asked in Parseltongue.
"They will open for one who speaks," it said.
Well, that was simple enough. Harry supposed Slytherin had assumed that anyone who gained entry to the Chamber would be one of his own descendants, or failing that, a fellow Parselmouth – both vanishingly rare in his day and Harry's. Not a bad security mechanism… giant murder-eyed snake notwithstanding.
Harry stepped forward, took the basilisk-sized door to the middle.
"Open," he hissed. The door vanished.
Harry blinked.
He hadn't been expecting that. Not so strange, given that he was in a magical castle filled with magical things, in a secret room created by one of the castle's architects, but he'd expected a more mundane door.
He stepped inside. It led to a long tunnel, suitable for the basilisk, which terminated in a large natural-looking cave. There were remnants of shed skin, but the cave was otherwise empty.
"This is where I sleep," the basilisk said. "The Master said it is where I am to raise a brood, but…" The basilisk paused. "The Master never returned, and I have had no eggs."
It sounded sad. Strange, to think of snake missing the chance at motherhood, but then Harry supposed basilisks were a strange kind of snake. It was probably for the best that there was only a single unaccounted for basilisk in the British Isles, though. And as Harry knew it existed, it wasn't unaccounted any longer. Just… secret.
"Salazar was going to breed you a mate?" Harry asked.
"Yes. We were to raise our hatchlings to protect the school. A line of magnificent basilisks descending in parallel to that of the Master."
Slytherin must have left the castle before he could provide his basilisk with a companion, then. He'd returned to the castle not long before his death, according to the writings, but… that still didn't leave a lot of time. Given the rough historical timeline, Harry assumed breeding a basilisk was rather a lot more complicated than the rumours suggested. Good news for Harry and everyone else – if it were as simple as setting a toad upon a chicken's egg, Harry assumed there would be many more basilisks about – but bad news for the basilisk. And none of the Heirs of Slytherin through the ages had been able or willing to provide the basilisk with a mate, either.
A problem for another time. Assuming Harry even wanted to breed a basilisk.
"You spend most of your time in here?" Harry asked.
Hesitation. The basilisk said nothing for a few moments.
"Yes. I sleep, mostly. But… there are some times… when I go into the Forest and hunt. I kill the spiders which live there."
Interesting, Harry thought. So the basilisk had free run of the school and access to the grounds. Hunted acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, even. So why hadn't anyone ever seen it before?
"You go out onto the grounds?" Harry asked.
"Not often," said the basilisk, perhaps a bit defensively. Harry always found it a little hard to tell with snakes. "When it's appropriate. Necessary. I must eat, and the spiders... they are not the ones which used to live here. Did you know this? These ones are different. Stronger, more dangerous." It paused. "Protecting the school is what I am supposed to do. I cannot do this from inside the Chamber all of the time." It sounded proud of its reasoning.
Which was fair enough, Harry supposed.
"But mostly, I sleep," the basilisk finished.
Still, the idea that there was an external route into the Chamber of Secrets – and therefore the school – worried Harry. Voldemort would surely know of it. Blocking it off would prevent the basilisk from feeding. Would probably be a rather large job, too. Most likely beyond Harry's abilities at present. And… thinning the numbers of giant man-eating spiders in the Forbidden Forest was probably a good thing.
"How do you manage to not get caught?" Harry asked.
"Wizards never look at anything properly," the basilisk said immediately. Then it seemed to reconsider. "Oh, but not you—you found the Chamber, after all. And nobody told you where it was. So you aren't like other wizards. Yes, you are very observant. You would make a good basilisk."
Flattery from a snake. Wonders never ceased. It was a lie, of course, but the sentiment was nice. Even coming from a basilisk.
"Thanks," said Harry. "Can we go see the other rooms now?"
"Of course," it said. It turned – in a rather wide arc considering its bulk – and followed Harry into the main part of the Chamber.
"I want to go into the small room next, if that's alright," Harry said, pointing towards the smaller of the three doors.
"You are the Heir," said the basilisk. "This Chamber is yours to do with as you will." It paused. "In accordance with our Master's ideals."
"Naturally," Harry said. "Right. Well. I'll just go in then." He asked the door to open. It vanished to reveal a short tunnel like the one into the basilisk's chamber, only much shorter.
The basilisk pressed its face up against the doorway, watched Harry go.
The tunnel, short though it was, opened into a sort of lounge area. Decorated in a hodgepodge of different styles, with furniture from the full span of centuries since the Chamber had been built, the room had two more doors of its own. Unlike the main Chamber, the smaller room had detailed wood panelling and faded frescoes. Soft, gentle light flickered into existence from candles placed around the room as Harry moved further into it.
There was even a fireplace. It was smaller than the ones Harry recognised from elsewhere around the school, but then, it predated the Floo network and given the nature of the Chamber, Harry didn't think anyone would have ever connected it. So there wouldn't have been any reason to make one large enough to fit a person, not in Slytherin's day.
"This was the Master's nest," the basilisk explained to Harry from outside the door. "When I was small, I could come and go freely. But no longer."
Slytherin's personal rooms. It felt strange to be stood in them. Not even the personal rooms he'd surely had in the main castle – the rooms he'd created and placed in his secret Chamber. Rooms that, until Harry had found them, had been open only to Slytherin's direct descendants.
Harry opened the doors to the adjoining rooms. One room was a bedroom, complete with an enormous bed which was certainly not an original feature. It looked almost Victorian. The soft parts had long since rotted away, but it was nothing a Mending Charm wouldn't fix. The other room was much more interesting.
Wall to wall bookcases and shelving filled the room, and at its centre was a great, big wooden desk. Most of the shelves were empty, their treasures no doubt ransacked by Voldemort in his quest for power, but some still held books and scrolls and other things Harry didn't recognise.
"This is amazing," Harry said to himself as he surveyed the shelves. True, many of them were empty, and no doubt Voldemort would have only left the least useful things, but these were Salazar Slytherin's own writings. And the writings of his descendants, Harry supposed. A veritable treasure trove of historical information.
When Harry found the time he intended to go through the shelves and catalogue just what was there.
"You have found the Master's special room?" asked the basilisk from outside Slytherin's rooms.
"Yes," Harry said. "But there are books and things missing."
"The last Heir took things," said the basilisk. "Many things. Too many things. But not everything. And…" It stopped. "You are not disappointed?"
Harry was more than a little disappointed that many of the tomes and scrolls had been stolen by Voldemort. The gathered wisdom of Slytherin, of his descendants, all of the writings and history that represented… gone. Looted by a madman. Taken God only knew where.
But what was left… what was left would be an historical treasure trove. And it was Harry's.
"A little bit," Harry admitted. "The last Heir took a lot of the books and things out of here. It's sad to see. But I'm happy there's anything left at all."
Harry wanted to grab something to read it immediately, but aside from the fact that it was probably in some long-dead language – if Harry was lucky, Latin – most of the books looked quite fragile. Delicate. He'd have to approach reading any of them carefully. Especially because he didn't know how they'd react to the Mending Charm.
"But these are… amazing," Harry said, looking from book to book, scroll to scroll. The scrolls he left where they were since ancient scrolls were probably the more fragile of the things in the study. The instruments, ornaments, and other such things were interesting, but Harry wasn't sure he wanted to risk touching them. So those, Harry simply looked at and remembered for later, just in case he could find something in the library that would explain them.
But the books were something Harry could look at. Perhaps not touch, but some of them had titles running along the spine, and others were set into the shelf oddly, face up. Some of the books had inscriptions or titles written in Latin, while others had languages Harry didn't recognise at all.
But even the Latin was archaic, resembling not even the Latin from the medieval alchemical manuscripts Harry had perused of late. Latin from a time long before even Flamel's day, then, which would put it squarely in the time of Slytherin himself.
Which made sense, given the location.
Harry peered closer at one, a thick tome with a scuffed leather binding and faded text on the spine. The Latin was hard to understand, but he thought he could make a rough translation.
"Mind… The Mindish…? Er…" Harry said. "No. Mindfulness Diary. Diary of the Mind? That sounds about right," Harry said. Diary of the Mind. That could be anything from a treatise on the Mind Arts to a literal diary penned by Slytherin.
Either way, Harry wanted to read it.
"Is it to your liking?" the basilisk asked, ripping Harry from his thoughts. Of course, the basilisk couldn't see what Harry was doing. It literally couldn't fit through the door, although its voice carried well.
Reading them could wait, anyway. He didn't have all night, and he wanted to speak with the basilisk more.
So reluctantly, Harry left Salazar's study and went back into the main part of the Chamber to speak with the basilisk.
"Is that all that Salazar left behind?" Harry asked once back inside the gargantuan main part of the Chamber of Secrets.
"It is all that is left," the basilisk said after a few moments of silence. "That, and whatever is left in the room you have not seen."
The basilisk knew more than it wanted to let on. That much, Harry could tell, although it was hard to gauge snakes' emotions. But Harry felt quite sure that there was more to this situation. Although whether the basilisk had a carefully stashed away hoard of relics, or whether it simply knew more than it was letting on, Harry couldn't tell.
"What's in there?" Harry asked. "Can we look?"
"This Chamber is yours," the basilisk said. "Do with it as you will."
Harry made his way through the third door, down its long, wide tunnel – big enough for a basilisk – and into a luxurious chamber.
It was a swimming pool. Or perhaps a heated bath, but one large enough for a fully grown basilisk. There were bits and pieces of furniture scattered through the huge room. Cabinets, display cases… An odd sort of room. Stone benches. A mosaic depicting some sort of mythological – or perhaps historical – scene involving snakes occupied the far wall. A fresco with Salazar Slytherin and a handful of others on one of the long walls, faded and unmoving.
Harry turned to look at the basilisk.
"What's this room for?"
"It is where I bathe," said the basilisk. "Where the Master bathed. It is very warm."
That wasn't the most helpful of answers. Harry could have guessed that the room with a giant swimming pool – a giant heated swimming pool – under the castle was for bathing in. But it seemed hardly the sort of space that would just be for having a bath. Grandiose though he was, Harry didn't think even Salazar Slytherin would devote such a grand part of his secret chamber to an ordinary bath.
Perhaps Salazar Slytherin's writings would elucidate matters further… but knowing Harry's luck, the reason he'd constructed a swimming pool under the castle was contained within a text Voldemort had stolen from the Chamber. Healing waters, perhaps? Snakes and water both had a powerful association with healing magic, so that seemed a reasonable assumption.
Or maybe it really was just Slytherin's own personal bath. That would be disappointing, as Harry had full use of the prefects' bathrooms whenever he wanted. Slytherin's bath looked far less enticing.
There wasn't even any of the enchanted bubble bath.
But it was more private. And the cabinets and display cases and everything else would surely have something in them. Harry just had to come back another time and look through everything properly. He resolved to do just that when he had a little more time… whenever that actually happened.
"Right," Harry said. "Thanks. Is it… magical? I've read about healing waters before. Do you know if he ever used it like that?"
"I do not know," the basilisk said. "I understand little about wizards' magic."
Well, that was fair enough, Harry supposed. It wasn't as if Harry knew much about non-wizard magic. But it was disappointing.
"Have I seen everything now?" Harry decided to ask instead. The three obvious rooms off the Chamber were impressive enough, but Harry couldn't help but feel like there was more. Something else.
The basilisk hesitated.
"No," it said eventually. "There is more. The Master spread tunnels under the castle, some which were for me and the brood he intended I raise, and some which were for him. For his Heirs. For you." The basilisk dipped its head. "I do not know where they lead."
"Thank you," Harry said.
Harry glanced around the room. There was nowhere that Harry could see which looked as if it led anywhere else, but the room was deceptively large. Perhaps one of the frescoes opened up if spoken to. Or maybe there was another location, deeper into the network of tunnels beneath the school. Harry hadn't followed those all the way to their end, after all, and had stopped when he found the entrance to the Chamber proper.
But it was late.
"And the tunnels you have used?" Harry asked. "Where do they go?"
"Nowhere. Everywhere," said the basilisk. "Into the castle. Out of the castle. There are some which are closed to me, though they were not always."
All that sounded very interesting to Harry, and potentially useful too. Especially with the Inquisition lurking about. But if the basilisk didn't know where the tunnels led, and if some of the basilisk's own tunnels were closed off… well, that could be a problem. If Voldemort had blocked the tunnels – for whatever reason – then he would know of their existence and how to unblock them. And that wasn't good news for anyone.
But more than that, tunnels represented an opportunity for getting around without the Inquisition being able to interfere, and that could be priceless. Depending on where, exactly, the tunnels led.
As tempting as it was to go looking through the Chamber's many hiding places, Harry didn't. He could do that another time. What he wanted – needed – to do before any of that was establish a good relationship with the basilisk. It knew things, things it hadn't told Harry, and Harry needed to know them as well. More than that, if he could get the basilisk well and truly on side, it could prove a powerful ally against Voldemort.
Especially if it was angry with him for tricking it into killing Myrtle. It had seemed quite upset to even think that it had betrayed its purpose, and Harry thought that its duty was the main thing keeping it lucid after endless centuries. If Harry could convince it that he intended for it to fulfil its true purpose in defending the school… well, Harry thought that would go a long way. So Voldemort's betrayal, the basilisk's loneliness, and its dedication to duty.
All of that was something Harry could use. And more selfishly, Harry knew the basilisk would have a lot of interesting things to say about Salazar Slytherin and his descendants, and he wanted to know them.
He spent an hour or so talking with the giant snake, learning more about its history, purpose, and the many Heirs of Slytherin through the ages, until it was time to go.