hey everyone, im sorry to have been gone for so long, but honestly I've been lacking concentration to right and I've been branching out with kpop and all kinds of asian dramas so they have had me in a choke hold and haven't let me go... that being said no matter how long it takes I have no plans to abandoned this fic and someday it will be finished, assuming I don't die first. but I don't plan on that either
00000000000
Spring was coming on slowly, the snow kept falling well into March and didn't show any signs of stopping if the freezing temperature was anything to go by. With very little desire to go outside most of the castle's inhabitants kept inside and Nathair and the Slytherin's were no exception.
Nathair himself spent most of his free time either with the twins, Draco and the other Slytherin's, or in the chamber with Tanis, who was a very smart snake. She was witty and had even been taught how to read English and parselscript centuries ago by Slytherin and his descendants. She had been very welcoming and enjoyed company after over fifty years of being alone. She had shown him everything his father had told him about, all the other rooms of the chamber, the potions room, study and even a hidden room that Tanis only showed to a few lucky people over the past thousand years, an egg room. She had over a dozen of her own eggs just waiting to be hatched. The room itself had heavy preservation charms and wards built into its very foundations to preserve the eggs and kept the unhatched snakes alive until they hatched.
Tanis also liked that he brought her visitors besides himself. Draco and the twins were the only other people he brought down into the chamber. Draco had taken longer to get used to Tanis than either of the twins, but they loved anything dangerous so it had been no surprise that they loved Tanis from the second he introduced her. Not that Daco didn't like her, but he had been afraid of her and a little wary.
With not much else to do Nathair decided to bring both the twins and Draco down to the chamber at the same time. He wanted the three to get along with each other since they were all but brothers to him and the twins would be coming over for most of the summer along with Charlie. The twins and Draco had spoken once or twice in passing, but nothing more than a casual tense greeting. Nathair had taken Draco down first knowing that if he had taken the twins down first that they would have wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting chamber and didn't want it to be accidentally destroyed.
Fred and George were already waiting outside of the second floor bathroom in an alcove that was nearby. They were talking amongst themselves and didn't notice Nathair until he got closer to their hiding place.
"Now you two remember your promise to behave? Draco won't appreciate you trying to prank him all the time, let him get used to you both first please."
"Don't worry-"
"We have something-"
"Else more important -"
"To focus on."
"Like what?" Asked Nathair as he looked around the empty hallway before leading the twins into the girls bathroom.
"Well, as you know our-"
"Birthday is in a week-"
"And being soul twins -"
"Not to mention-"
"Potentially powerful enough-"
"We are wondering if-"
"We're going to have a Mate."
"We also know we have-"
"Draken blood-"
"In our family."
"You know Charlie-"
"Came into his Draken-"
"Inheritance when he turned seventeen-"
"And is still looking-"
"For his Mate and we believe-"
"We will also be Drakens as well."
"Charlie mentioned that-"
"We smell a little 'smoky'-"
"Like other Drakens do-"
"And considering how powerful we are together-"
"Charlie figures we have a really good-"
"Chance of getting a Draken inheritance."
"Ah, well I hope you are and are able to find your Mate. Do you believe you will both have Mates, or one for both of you?"
"We're not sure," they said as one. "We will be happy either way. But being Soul twins we doubt that we're gonna have more than one Mate."
"Now that you say it that way it definitely makes more sense that you would only have one Mate," said Nathair as he turned away from the twins and towards the sinks before whispering in parseltongue. Backing away he watched as the sinks moved on their own and revealed the stairs his father told him he could ask for instead of sliding down the dirty, dark slide that had been there when Tom had first discovered the chamber.
Starting their long descent below the castle Nathair cast a wandless lomos before the entrance closed above them and sent them into complete darkness.
HP/FG - TW
Draco was sitting next to the fireplace in the personal rooms that were hidden further in the chamber, a large ancient tomb on potions in his lap. The book, despite being well preserved by spells, was difficult to read due to the old version of English it was written in. As he struggled to make much progress in reading the book, Draco vowed to look up and master more translation charms as he had to reread each page many times before he was sure that he was understanding what was written in the book. Despite the difficulty that he was having Draco was enjoying the book very much as he loved potions and was happy that he had access to the books that had been hidden in the chamber. So much had been lost and hidden from the magical world as restrictions on dark magic had only ever destroyed more knowledge over the centuries than preserve it.
Glancing over at Tanis, who had shrunk herself to fit in the room and had curled up in front of the fire, so close that the first time she had done it Drao had worried that she would burn herself, but even in a smaller state her scales and innate magic protected her easily. Another thing that had worried both Draco and Nathair was the first time she had shrunk, as self shrinking wasn't a known power of basilisk's. But she had to shrink to fit inside the many hidden rooms that she wouldn't have been able to fit in otherwise due to her enormous size. Tanis was able to shrink herself due to a series of harmless spells Salizair had developed and placed in the doorways that allowed her to change her size.
Draco wouldn't admit it to anyone but he had actually been much more afraid of Tanis then he let on and forced himself to act like he was fine with being around an extremely powerful, huge and dangerous snake. Sure he was used to Nagini, but he had also been very afraid of her for the first few months as well. Now though Draco cared for the basilisk very much and had become friends with the snake.
Shaking his head as he placed the huge book down on the side table before he looked into the fireplace, his head aching lightly from reading. Rubbing the sides of his temple Draco replaced the ribbon that was sewn into the book to mark the page when he heard footsteps and faint voices.
"So what are you planning on doing for your birthday? You shouldn't be in the dorm, your inheritance is no doubt going to be powerful and impossible to hide the physical changes let alone the magic surges that will be coming from your persons," Nathair said as he looked at the twins as they made their way further into the chamber.
"Oh, we know-"
"We already have plans."
"Lee is going to cover for us-"
"While we hide in the hidden chamber below the clock."
"Good idea, have you thought about warding the area? And has Charlie given you any advice about how to hide your inheritance," Nathair wondered, worried for their safety.
"Yeah, we found a ward that-"
"Should block the power-"
"That comes from our inheritance."
"And Charlie uses -"
"A powerful glamor -"
"That we shouldn't-"
"Have any trouble -"
"Casting on eachother -"
"Especially once we get the -"
"Extra power that should come -"
"With our inheritance."
"Oh good, it wouldn't be good if Dumbledore or anyone on his side found out about you, I'd hate to think of what they'd try and do to you if they found out," says Nathair as he led the twins into Salazar's personal rooms where he had left Draco and Tanis.
"Found out what?" Asked Draco as he heard the last words of their conversation.
"Our creature inheritance," said the twins simultaneously.
"You think you're powerful enough?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow in his usual haughty manner.
"Yes, we are," said the twins as they smiled down on Draco, but it was far from a friendly smile and more like the smiles they got when they played a particularly cruel prank.
"George, Fred, Draco, you all promised you'd behave and try and get along. Draco, yes they are powerful enough and you know it. Gred, Forge… you are both like brothers to me but so is Draco and, I doubt Severus, Lucius, and Narssica will be too happy if you harm their son," warned Nathair as he tried to get the three of them to calm down before anything escalated. Sure they had been around each other a few times but this was the first time they would really be interacting for several hours. The three guys looked apologetic after being yelled at but Nathair wasn't going to let up. He loved all three of them and with the plan to have the twins and Charlie visit for the summer and stay at the mansion Nathair wanted to get them at least civil before the summer. Even if the lies Dumbledore had spread about his father weren't true and he wasn't a homicidal maniac he wouldn't handle three teenagers fighting in his mansion very well.
"Well what kind of inheritance are you expecting," Draco asked stiffly, still unsure of how to act with ex-light Gryffindor.
"Draken," Fred and George said as they smiled to themselves at the fact that the Slytherin before them was named for the creature inheritance they would be receiving.
Draco's eyes bugged out of his face and he looked embarrassed, "drakens?"
"Yep," Fred said, still smiling at the Slytherins' shock.
"Our brother Charlie is one-"
"An he thinks we-"
"Will be, as well."
"Anyways… Any luck with the potions book?"
"Slow, the preservation charms have worked wonderfully but the writing, it's very difficult to understand. I'm going to study up on some translation spells so I can read it faster, right now I have to reread each page several times before I am sure I'm reading it correctly," Draco admits as he looks over at the book and shakes his head at the others that cover the walls.
"We know a lot of those spells," George suddenly speaks up. "We could translate the books for you."
"Thanks," Nathair says before Draco can say anything, not wanting the blonde to say something rude and refusing their help. "I know Draco has been trying to read several of these potions books, and I've been trying to read many of the others, but unfortunately a lot of them are written in Galic or an older form of English."
With a few well cast spells and some searching the four teens were settled around the private rooms with their own now readable books enjoying the quiet crackle of the fire and flipping of pages. The twins had found some books on magical inheritances and other potions books and were sitting together, each looking at their own book but sharing what they had found with the other in a series of hushed whispers. Draco had decided to start reading the now translated potions book from the beginning now that he could properly read it, while Nathair was reading one of the many diaries that had been left by Slytherin and his ancestors. Unlike the others he didn't need a translation spell to read the diaries as the descendants had mostly written their diaries in parslescript. They had done so knowing that no one but a parselmouth would be able to read them as the magical language was naturally magically protected against translation spells, except for parseltongue spells.
Within a few hours the four began to get restless, and hungry.
"I'll call one of my house elves to bring us some food, JIFFY?" Nathair called out, knowing that while he was gone Jiffy was helping the others with their own chores as she had nothing to do for Nathair with Nathair being at Hogwarts.
"Master Nathair called for Jiffy?" Jiffy asked as she popped into the chamber, looking up at Nathair.
"Yes Jiffy, would you please bring us some food, anything will do. But please bring tea and pumpkin juice," Nathair asked Jiffy to bring, making sure to be nice to the kind house elf. He had always made sure to be nice to them and help them when he could, knowing just what it was like to do the same work and be treated like he was less than dirt.
"I bes bringing that right away Master Nathair, you needing anything else?"
"Not right now Jiffy, thank you," Nathair said as the house elf popped away and returned quickly with enough food to feed a small army. Two pots of tea, a large iced pitcher of cold pumpkin juice, as well as sandwiches, meat pies, pasties, and other goodies.
"Jiffy, this is too much," Nathair said as he looked at the tray's filled with more food then he knew the four of them could eat.
"Nonsense Master Nathair. Master Riddle always be sayin' you no' eatin' 'nuf," Jiffy said, her high voice squeaking as she placed all the food down, making sure not to drop a single thing. And making sure she placed most of the food close to Nathair, a habit from when she had first become Nathair's personal house elf. Back then he had still been recovering from the Dursley's treatment and needed to put on some healthy weight.
"Thank you Jiffy," Nathair said before the little elf bowed and popped back to whatever she had been doing before Nathair had called for her.
After they snacked on the food Jiffy had brought, the twins finished eating and turned towards Nathair.
"Have you explored more of the-"
"Chamber yet?" They asked.
"Some," Nathair answered as he washed down the last bit of his sandwich with some cooling tea. "Tanis showed me a few secrets and most of the rooms, but I haven't gone around and looked inside most of them yet."
"Well what other rooms are there?" Draco asked as he whipped his mouth with a handkerchief.
"While besides this set of personal rooms, there's the main Chamber, the library, a potions room which hasn't really been updated since the last heir before my father which was over two hundred years ago," Nathair said leaving out the few hidden rooms he knew about as they were not meant to be shared with anyone, especially Tanis's egg room.
"Well why don't we check out the potions room? There might not be much that's salvageable, but there are probably good preservation charms in the room, and there might be some rare ingredients or tools in there. Who knows what some Slytherin heirs from the past might have left behind that no one knows about," Draco said as he stood and straightened out his casual robes, that were casual for him, but wouldn't have been out of place on the officials who worked at the Ministry.
Nathair then led the three out of the room, leaving Tanis where she was sleeping.
Slytherin's were notorious for being paranoid and the founder was no exception. Besides the main chamber leading from it were tons of empty tunnels that went nowhere and many walls had false doors on them, and no secret chamber wouldn't be complete without some boobie traps. Thankfully between Tanis and his father, Nathair had been warned of the worst traps that were meant to kill the invader, however that didn't mean he had been told about all of them. Like the one that is in front of the statue in the main part of the chamber that switches your hands and feet for three hours, or some of the ones in the side tunnels that make you think you're upside down as well as disorients you and makes you dizzy.
Which is why Nathair and the others had to walk down three winding halls and past countless fake doors until they got to the potions room.
"Now watchout, the door is protected by a parseltongue password, if you don't speak parseltongue or have Tanis with you, you won't be able to get in," said Nathair as he walked to an empty part of the wall.
"It's a hidden door too?"
"Yeah, you think us Slytherin's now are bad, Salazar was worse," said Nathair as he ran his hand over the bricks that made up the wall. "The brick that opens the door moves each time, so you have to feel for one that sticks out and feels smooth, if it isn't both a trap door opens in the floor and you'll end up at the bottom of the black lake. And you can't tell by just looking cause the wall has a glamor on it."
"Bloody hell, you weren't kidding." said Draco as he watched Nathair search for the right brick.
"Yeah, who else-"
"Would go through-"
"This much trouble-"
"In a hidden-"
"Secret chamber-"
"That only a-"
"Parseltongue can get into," asked Fred and George rhetorically.
"Try telling generations of Slytherin's both descendants and members of the Hogwarts house that, I think you can guess what they'd tell you," said Nathair as he found the brick and pushed the brick in.
"No thanks, we like living," said the twins together, who looked at each other grimly before switching to curiosity as the wall opened up to reveal a room larger than if the Gryffindor common room was double its size.
The room had more tables than the potions classroom in the dungeons and had even more cauldrons too. And all different sizes and types, some were small enough to fit an apple or big enough to fit a man, most were made of plain pewter, but others were made of glass, silver, gold, and a dozen other types. There was obviously an anti-dust spell on the room as it looked like it had just been cleaned, as each cauldron and instrument in the room gleamed in the candle light as they flickered to life when the door opened.
As Nathair had already seen the room he took the opportunity to watch Draco and the twins' faces, he knew the room would get a huge reaction from them. And he wasn't disappointed, they all looked just like he had when he had first seen the room himself if Tanis's opinion was anything to go by. Fred looked like his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets, George had started to drool, and Draco looked like he was going to pass out.
After a few minutes of silence Nathair couldn't keep himself quiet and said,"it's too bad there isn't much here, I was considering showing Uncle Severus, but I doubt he'd like it, it's so basic."
"Are you kidding?!" The three other boys shouted at once before taking off into the room, each headed for a different thing.
"Look at all these different cauldrons," shoated Fred as he stared at each style and sized cauldron.
"That's nothing, did you see all the ingredients?" Yelled George as he and Draco fought to be the first one through the door to the supply room.
"Yeah, but are they salvageable?" Asked Nathair as he walked into the potions room.
"Are they, look at this," screamed Draco as he finally pushed George back and shot into the room with George hot on his heels.
The storage room was half the size of the potions room and was covered in shelves full of everything and anything you could think of and also didn't have a speck of dust or spot of mold.
"I guess I will have to bring Uncle Severus down here now, but what will I do after? Uncle Lucius will have my head if I let his husband down here and can't get him to leave." Nathair wondered to himself as he wondered how long it would take to get the current occupants to leave. "Maybe Tanis could help me?"