Chapter 54 Chapter 54
Evan and Harry held onto Ron tightly; it felt like they were on a rollercoaster ride.
Due to the narrow pipes, Evan had to stay close to the basilisk.
Every time they turned, he felt pain throughout his body.
He never envisioned Hogwarts having such intricate plumbing.
Soon they turned and entered a very ancient-looking pipe; Evan estimated they were near the Ravenclaw Tower, the highest point of the school.
The basilisk led them to a strange oval room, with light blue curtains, books on one side of the room, and thick dust coating everything; surely, no one has been here for centuries.
Tom Riddle, still controlling Ron, was visibly astonished and had no idea where they were.
"Damnation!" Tom hissed.
He wanted the basilisk to stop, but clearly, it was frightened by the rooster's crow, so it did not heed Tom's commands and swiftly fled at top speed.
The blue curtains soon vanished; Evan quickly grabbed an object with a long chain.
He held it firmly, and before he could look down, the basilisk took them elsewhere. After a minute, the basilisk collided with the pipe and plunged into the third-floor girls' bathroom.
Suddenly, the sink emitted a dazzling light and began spinning rapidly.
The sink soon vanished from sight, and Evan saw a very thick pipe into which the basilisk lunged.
It seemed to be a pipe specially prepared for it, and Evan also noticed numerous pipes branching off in all directions, but none were as thick as the pipe the basilisk descended.
The pipe twisted and turned, around seven or eight times, and it had a very steep incline all the way down.
Evan knew they had descended into the school's darkest depths, even deeper than the dungeons. Just as he was getting accustomed to the sharp turns, they landed on damp ground.
They emerged from the pipe; Harry and Evan lost their grip and fell to the ground, watching the basilisk and Tom disappear into the distance.
They were in a large, dark stone tunnel.
"Where are we?" Harry said as he got up and rubbed his backside.
"We have been taken several kilometers underground," Evan's voice echoed in the dark tunnel. "If I'm not mistaken, we're probably beneath the great lake."
He squinted as he looked at the dark, slimy walls.
"Lumos," then his wand emitted a faint light.
Using the dim light, Evan examined the object he had grabbed; it looked like a pocket watch but only had a single hand without numbers.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Evan replied, "I picked it up from a room the basilisk passed through." Evan hesitated to touch the hand of the watch.
"We can figure that out later; we need to hurry and find Ron," said Harry eagerly.
"Yes, yes," Evan responded while tucking the strange object into his pocket; they had to hurry as Tom was draining Ron's vitality, and the longer they took, the worse off Ron would be.
The two ran through the damp tunnel and then heard a loud noise.
Everything was dark, so they could only see a few meters ahead of them.
A faint light shone from their two wands.
"Harry, Tom's wand is broken, so it will take him time to cast powerful magic," Evan said as they walked. "I will distract the basilisk, and you'll search for the diary."
"Diary?" Harry stopped.
"The diary is Tom's power source; remember, if you find it, try to destroy it. Riddle is unaware that we know this, so this is our only chance."
"Agreed!" nodded Harry, suddenly grasping Evan's shoulder, "Look, isn't that...?"
Evan extended his wand, and with a faint glow, he saw the outline of a coiled snake lying motionless on the ground.
"This is the basilisk's skin,"
Before them lay a huge snake skin, light green in color, coiled around the tunnel, hollow and about six meters long. It was evident that it belonged to the moment when the basilisk shed its skin.
They kept walking, carefully turned another corner, and what stood before them was a wall with two intertwined snakes, each with emerald eyes.
"Harry, try speaking to them in Parseltongue," whispered Evan.
As Harry approached, he felt his throat dry.
He tried to imagine the two stone serpents as real, but it was unnecessary; their eyes seemed to be alive.
"Open," said Harry in a soft, muted hiss.
The two snakes parted, the stone wall split in the middle, slid slowly to the side, and disappeared.
Evan hurried inside, in front of them was a dimly lit room. Many of the stone pillars were engraved with intertwined snakes, rising up to the ceiling, fading into darkness, casting shadows across the room.
"It's the Chamber of Secrets!" Evan whispered.
The chamber was completely silent, the two holding their wands as they advanced slowly.
Each step was more cautious than the last.
Passing the last pair of pillars, they saw a statue as tall as the room itself, clinging to the dark wall. Evan looked up and saw the immense face, an old face resembling that of a monkey.
At the feet of the statue lay Ron as if lifeless.