Chapter 27 – The Basilisk's Fang
After a passable night's sleep Harry was somewhat recovered from occlumency with Snape. Recovered enough to get up and about without feeling too unfocused, at any rate, which was perhaps all he could expect. He didn't see how repeatedly having his occlusions smashed to pieces – each time faster than the last – would help him master occlumency, but Harry assumed Snape knew what he was doing.
Dumbledore thought so, anyway. Although Dumbledore had thought he was safe from Umbridge and the Ministry's nonsense, and now there was a warrant for his arrest and he was being branded a traitor to the realm, so… well… Harry felt that perhaps his judgment had been lacking somewhat of late.
But that was Dumbledore's problem. Harry was still at the castle, and Harry needed to deal with Harry's problems. Chief among them Dolores Umbridge and the High Inquisition, followed very closely by occlumency with Snape, even though what Harry really wanted to get on with was his alchemy projects.
"Harry," said Tracey after breakfast when Blaise had nipped to the toilets, "you said you'd show me the… You-Know-What in the You-Know-Where today." She said it quietly, and casually, but Harry knew her well enough to know she was excited.
Harry supposed that was fair. Slytherin's Chamber was a big deal. Something that wizarding children grew up hearing tales about. It was a topic of conversation, on and off, in the Slytherin dungeons too. People claiming they'd be the ones to find it. People claiming they already had found it. All the usual things.
But none of them had, of course. None of them except for Harry. And Voldemort. And a series of other 'Heirs of Slytherin', all descended from the man himself, but Harry didn't think they counted. Not if they'd been told how to open the Chamber and where it was as part of some great big family secret.
"I promise I didn't forget," Harry said. "We can go now, if you want." He paused, glanced around. No one was listening. "We'll take my Cloak, though—just in case. Don't want to be seen sneaking off into Myrtle's bathroom at this time of the day. Bit of an inconvenient spot for the entrance, that one, to be honest. But it's the only one I've found so far… Anyway, we'll stop by the kitchens to pick up some food for it and then we'll get going. Er, if you want to."
Harry somewhat hoped she didn't, as it would be better to go later at night, but with the sheer number of patrols going on – Inquisition, Inquisitorial, prefect, and teachers' – going at night might be more dangerous. At least Myrtle's toilet was one of the few places people actively avoided, day or night.
"Ooh, yes! That's perfect!" Tracey said. "Should I bring anything special with me? Is it cold down in the Chamber? Will I need my overcloak? What about a present for the—you know?"
Harry blinked. A present for the basilisk? They were already bringing food.
He shook his head.
"No. I mean, it's not warm, but it isn't cold enough for a… and no presents. Although I suppose the food is kind of a present. So you can give it the food this time, if you want." That was probably a good idea anyway, even if Tracey hadn't wanted to bring it a present, because giving it something – especially something as important as food – would likely put Tracey in its good book.
Tracey nodded.
"That makes sense. Let's go!" She started to walk out of the Common Room but stopped halfway to the door and turned back. "You need to get your Cloak, don't you? I'll just wait here. Quick, before Blaise gets back!"
Harry grinned.
"Back in a sec." Harry jogged off towards his dorm, grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, and returned to Tracey, all before Blaise had got back from the toilets. He did intend to tell Blaise – and the others – about the Chamber, but it felt right to show Tracey first.
They stopped by the kitchens on the way, grabbed a platter of assorted meats for the basilisk, and went the rest of the way to Myrtle's haunted bathroom under cover of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. It was always risky using it during the day, as there were people around who might notice any oddities, but it was better than being seen carrying a platter of meat around the castle. And sneaking off together into haunted toilets.
As they got closer to Myrtle's toilet the number of other students around dropped off sharply. Nobody liked being around the depressed ghost – or her dingy flooded toilet – so people would generally avoid the corridors leading to it.
It was such an under-visited location in the castle that Umbridge hadn't even seen fit to ban anyone from it, although Harry didn't doubt that would change if people cottoned on. Once there, Harry and Tracey slipped inside and checked around to see if they were alone.
They were. Harry took off the Cloak.
"Oh, you came back?" said Myrtle, whizzing out of her toilet. "And you—oh. You brought a friend. A girl friend."
Harry felt his face redden at the implication of Myrtle's words. Best not to spend any time on that, Harry thought.
"I—er—yeah," Harry said. He'd been hoping to avoid Myrtle. He knew she sometimes spent time drifting around the lake, but they'd had no such luck. Harry fought the urge to sigh. "Er, this is Tracey—she's my—well, we're—we're friends. I wanted to show her the, um, the Chamber and the basilisk, you know. She already knew I can speak to snakes, see."
"Hello, Myrtle," Tracey said, full of her usual cheer and enthusiasm. No doubt trying to make a good impression, but Harry thought it wasted on Myrtle. And probably actively unhelpful given the ghost's general vibe. "It's nice to meet you—I don't think we've met before, have we? I'm Tracey Davis!"
Myrtle made a rude noise and disappeared into her U-bend.
"Er. Right," Harry said. "That's… well…" He shrugged. If Myrtle didn't want to speak with Tracey – through jealousy, probably – then Harry wouldn't force her. It worked out better for them anyway that they didn't have to spend any time speaking with Myrtle. "I'll just open the door, then." Harry walked over to the sink and asked it to open, then to form a stair.
Tracey gasped as the sinks rearranged themselves to reveal the long pipe that led to the Chamber of Secrets. Once they were done, a staircase popped out from the pipe walls.
"I can't believe this was just here!" Tracey said. "And no one ever noticed!"
"After you," Harry said. "And I'll close the door after us."
Tracey rushed forward, still holding the platter full of meat, and started the descent. Harry followed, then ordered the door to close behind them.
"I wonder who built this tunnel," Tracey said. "It can't have been Slytherin himself because the original castle didn't have plumbing. So it must have been added later."
"I did wonder," Harry said. Of course, he knew that the plumbing had been added later on because Ernie went on and on about that ancestor of his who'd done some work on the castle. But Harry had had other things than the tunnel to think about. "I reckon it must have been one of the Heirs—er, one of his descendants. The basilisk calls them 'Heirs'. Makes me wonder if there's another way in, too. I mean, I can't imagine Slytherin trekking up from the dungeons to whatever Myrtle's toilet used to be every time he wanted to use the Chamber. Can you?"
"That sounds inconvenient," Tracey agreed. "And now I'm wondering what the toilet used to be. If there was always an entrance to the Chamber in it it can't have been used that often. Definitely not an important room, anyway. Otherwise someone might have found the doorway. Maybe you could ask the basilisk!"
"Yeah," Harry said. "I will. Although I think it lies sometimes—or not exactly lies, but… I don't know. Doesn't say everything it could say. I guess it's still needs to get to know me, but…" Harry shrugged. "I suppose it has its own agenda."
Of course, whether its own agenda was simply what it understood of Salazar Slytherin's, or if it had its own motivations and desires… well, that was something Harry didn't know. Couldn't know until he got to know the basilisk a bit better. But it was the cleverest snake Harry had ever spoken with, so it certainly seemed possible that it would have its own plans.
As alien as those plans may be.
"Hmm," Tracey said. "I suppose that does make sense. It's really old, isn't it? So it's had a lot of time to think about all sorts of things. And if it is lying I wonder what its thinking is…"
"Exactly," agreed Harry. "Oh, watch this step—it's always a bit slippery," Harry warned Tracey. They passed by the strangely slippery step without incident and carried on. "I don't think it's anything sinister though."
"Is there anything I should do or say when we get in?" Tracey asked. "I don't want to offend it."
"Nah, it seems pretty… easy-going," Harry said. "Er—for a snake. But I don't think it can understand English anyway. And I think because I've brought you in it'll be fine. Honestly, I don't know if non-Parselmouths have ever been to the Chamber before. You know, since I'm not sure if Slytherin or his kids or their kids would have ever brought anyone. So it might not like that, but… I think it'll be fine."
"I hope so," said Tracey, "because I don't fancy being glared at to death this morning. It's a bit early for it."
Harry stopped walking mid-step.
"We can stop if you want," he said. "I didn't even think about something like that—I can go on ahead and ask it if it's okay to bring you, if you want?"
Tracey rolled her eyes.
"It's fine, Harry. You said it thinks you're the Heir of Slytherin, didn't you? So it has to listen to you. Just announce you've brought someone when we get in so it doesn't get startled!"
"Well… alright," Harry said. He certainly didn't want Tracey's death on his hands, but she did want to go to the Chamber… and the basilisk probably wouldn't do anything Harry didn't order it to do. And maybe even not if Harry ordered it – not if its purpose really was to defend the school and its students. Tracey was obviously a Hogwarts student.
Still… Harry thought he'd better enter first. Call the basilisk and then warn it he'd brought a guest. Tracey may have been blasé about the potential dangers but that didn't mean Harry had to be, too.
Torches burst into flames as they walked past, one after the other, putting out a meagre light. More than enough for Harry to see where he was going, but he thought Tracey might have a little trouble, so he lit the end of his wand as well.
"Is that the basilisk?" Tracey asked once they'd reached the bottom of the staircase and progressed along the tunnel.
"Shed skin," Harry said. "Massive though, isn't it? But the basilisk is further in, behind the door."
"I wonder how often it sheds," Tracey said quietly, almost too quiet for Harry to hear.
They kept walking until they reached the giant metal door separating the cave-like exterior entryway from the Chamber of Secrets itself.
"Ooh, that's a cool door!" Tracey said. "Really sets the scene, doesn't it? Slytherin had a real flair for the dramatic, didn't he?"
"Wait until you see the Chamber," Harry said. Of course, Slytherin's flair for the dramatic had been paired with his vanity and egocentricity, so the Chamber's interior was a monument to Slytherin's own perceived greatness.
But it was pretty dramatic. The imposing statues, the austere pillars, the soft green light that came from nowhere and everywhere all at once… Tracey was right: Slytherin had quite the flair for ornamentation. Strange that of all the secrets Slytherin had had, the best kept of them was his knack for interior decorating.
"Open," Harry hissed to the door in Parseltongue. The mechanism worked its way through its movements and the door opened to reveal the Chamber beyond. The vast, flooded Chamber filled with pillars and statues – and the particularly large statue of Salazar Slytherin at the far end.
"Anhygoel!" said Tracey once the door was out of the way. "This is amazing! I mean, it's a bit wetter than I imagined it would be, but… that statue! It's huge! And to think this was all just—just—it's just under the castle! But what's this room even for?"
"I'm not sure," admitted Harry. "It's a bit like an entrance hall, I suppose. It's big enough for the basilisk to move around, and it's got all the statues and stuff… I think there used to be other things here, maybe. I'll ask the basilisk. Er, speaking of… let me just call it in."
Harry cleared his throat. Shouting in Parseltongue was weird, but he wanted to be sure the giant snake heard him.
"Hello? It's me, Harry—I've come back to see you again," Harry said. "I've brought a friend to see you as well—she's a Slytherin, a witch in my year—and she's brought you some food as well."
The basilisk didn't answer. Instead, the gigantic statue of Slytherin started to move and the basilisk came slithering out of his mouth.
"Oh my God!" said Tracey. "Look!"
Harry grinned.
"Weird choice, right? But that's where it comes out of every time. There's even a proper basilisk-sized door at floor-level as well, so he must have specifically told it to do it like that."
The basilisk moved through the Chamber towards Harry and Tracey, then came to a stop at a respectful distance, its eyes closed.
"It has been a long time since I have met with anyone who is not an Heir," the basilisk said. "Thank you for doing this."
Well, that's a much better reaction than I'd worried about, Harry thought. So it seemed like the basilisk was a social sort of snake.
"What's it saying?" asked Tracey.
"Er—it's happy to see someone new, basically," Harry said.
"Oh," said Tracey. "Well, tell it I'm happy to meet it—this is amazing."
Harry nodded and relayed Tracey's comment to the basilisk.
"Yes, I am very interesting. It is not surprising that your friend is pleased to meet me," the basilisk said. "I would be very pleased to accept the gift of food that I smell from her."
Harry glanced over at Tracey.
"It said, um—well, it says it's very interesting so obviously you're happy to meet it. It's happy for you to give it the food."
"Do I just—just put the food on the floor?" Tracey asked. Harry nodded, and she did just that, then stepped back.
The basilisk started eating immediately.
"I think it usually eats rats and sometimes it hunts in the Forest," Harry said. "So getting a meal like this is a treat for it. Every time I've come here since the first time—which is only two times to be fair—I've brought it some different food," Harry explained. It felt like the best way to develop a rapport with the gigantic snake and was easy enough to do.
"That's really nice," Tracey said. "Maybe before Christmas we could get it a pig or something like that. I heard snakes don't have to eat that much anyway, if they've had a nice big meal. So… maybe that would be nice for it."
"I did think about doing something like that," Harry said. He could grab something from the butcher in Hogsmeade… Shrink it to transport it, then put it back to normal in the Chamber. He'd have to think on it some more before the Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas.
If Umbridge let there be one.
"Can I see the rest of the Chamber? You said there were other rooms?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "I'll show you. Which do you want to see first—Slytherin's private rooms or this like swimming pool room?"
"Hmm," said Tracey. "Let's go to the swimming pool first!"
Harry nodded. By then, the basilisk had finished eating, so it followed them. Harry opened the door to the pool room and showed Tracey inside.
"Oooh, look at that painting!" said Tracey once she'd seen the paintings across the walls. "And what's in these cabinets? I'm going to go and look!"
Tracey shot off towards one of the cabinets surrounding the pool, leaving Harry alone with the basilisk.
"She's really excited to be here," Harry explained to the silent snake. "Like, really excited—the Chamber is quite a big deal. Some people don't even believe it exists, but everyone's heard stories about it."
The dipped its head up and down. A nod, Harry thought.
"It is good that there is mystery," said the basilisk. "A secret defence is not very good if it is not a secret."
Well, Harry supposed that was true enough, although sometimes a very public deterrent worked better. Although perhaps such nuance was lost on a centuries-old hermit snake. Harry said nothing. Instead, while Tracey examined the frescoes and the artefacts which remained in the Chamber, Harry asked the basilisk a question he'd wanted an answer to.
"Is there another entrance to the Chamber?" Harry asked. "Not the one that goes out to the Forest—one from inside the castle, I mean. It's just that with the entrance on the second floor it's a bit inconvenient for me to get here from the dungeons." Especially with Umbridge, her Inquisitors, and the Inquisitorial Squad about.
"There was," said the basilisk. "I am unsure if it still exists—the previous Heir did not use it. I can show it to you. It was how the Master used to come and visit me when I was very young."
That sounded promising to Harry. With some luck the entrance would be at the dungeon level, as Slytherin would have presumably lived in the dungeons with his students and would have needed a quick and easy way to get to the Chamber. A quick and easy way that was secret from the other Founders.
"Brilliant, thank you," Harry said. "We'll let Tracey have some fun down here, then you can show us on the way out, if you don't mind."
"Of course," the basilisk said.
Harry joined Tracey looking through the pool room, and they spent a good couple of hours looking through the Chamber of Secrets and its various rooms until they decided to leave. There was only so much to look at, after all, and of the documents still left in Slytherin's study, most were unintelligible. Tracey was more-or-less trilingual, but the Latin was archaic and many of the documents were in something Harry thought might have been Old Saxon.
"The basilisk said there's another exit," Harry said to Tracey as they walked through the Chamber's main room. "I asked it to show us on the way out."
And true to its word, the basilisk did. It slithered along the gargantuan Chamber of Secrets and out of the main door after Harry and Tracey, keeping up a respectful distance.
"It is here," the basilisk said once they'd crossed the threshold. "This section of wall will open if you ask it to." The basilisk nudged a section of the rock wall with its head.
"Any particular way to ask?" Harry said. "Or do I just—"
"Open the way," said the basilisk.
The rock moved. It rearranged itself into an intricate archway of polished stone, revealing a tunnel of neat, precisely placed stonework beyond.
"That is the way to ask," the basilisk said. "I have not seen where this tunnel leads—it is too small for me, and the Master forbade me from leaving the Chamber in my earliest years—but the Master used it often. I hope it is useful for you, too."
That certainly sounded promising. A passageway used regularly by Salazar Slytherin seemed quite likely to lead to the dungeons, if not the Slytherin Common Room itself.
"Thank you," Harry said to the basilisk. "Shall we go?" he added to Tracey. "We should put the Cloak on just in case, though—never know where this will go. With our luck it might end up in Snape's office."
Tracey made a face.
"What an awful place for a secret passage to go," she said. "Well, let's go, then."
Harry held open the Cloak and they got under it, then stepped inside the tunnel. It angled slowly upwards, a gentle slope at first, until eventually the smooth stones turned into a staircase which wound higher and higher up into the castle. Each and every step sent dust swirling into the air, but the experience was marginally more pleasant than the damp pipe they'd used to access the Chamber, so Harry didn't complain out loud.
And Tracey was just so happy, so buoyant at the experience, that Harry couldn't feel grumpy about that anyway.
"That was so cool," Tracey said as they ascended the stairs from the Chamber. "Thank you for taking me! I never thought I'd get to see anything like that—I mean it's Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets!—but you made it happen. I didn't think there'd be anything nice this year with the Inquisition but that was amazing! I just wish I could speak Parseltongue so I could ask the basilisk questions!"
"I can ask it for you, if you want," Harry said. He didn't mind doing that – not really. Harry supposed being a translator for a gigantic snake with a literal death stare would get old eventually, but the novelty would be nice to start with. And Tracey would probably grow bored of it soon too, since although the basilisk was a particularly conversational snake, it was still a snake and Harry reckoned it would run out of conversation topics eventually.
"Ooh, I know!" said Tracey. "And that's so nice of you—but it's just not the same. If Millie finds out I've met a real basilisk—the monster of the Chamber of Secrets—she'll be so jealous! And I just can't wait to have a go at reading those things You-Know-Who couldn't take. I bet there's so much stuff in there nobody knows about anymore!"
Harry grinned listening to Tracey go on. It was typical Tracey: full speed ahead with maximum enthusiasm. It was almost infectious.
"I'm going to tell the others," Harry said, "but not just yet. I want to find the best way of saying… but you're right, Millie's going to go nuts when she learns about the basilisk. Blaise doesn't even believe the Chamber is real—remember that big argument he had with Theodore last year? Bet he'll regret that after he learns…"
Of course, Theodore himself would have been thrilled to find the Chamber and the documents held inside it. The various artefacts and bits and pieces in the pool room, too. And whatever else was lurking in the Chamber, hidden away over the centuries. But Harry wasn't about to invite Theodore down into the Chamber. Not with their strained relations, and certainly not without him being able to occlude. Sinistrus Nott seemed like the type to be blasé about the Mind Arts and their use on his son… especially if his master were to command it.
So Harry intended to share the secret with only those friends of his he could guarantee wouldn't go blabbing about it, or who wouldn't come into contact with Voldemort and his lackeys. Which was, hopefully, all of them other than Theodore.
"I won't say anything," Tracey said. "This is your secret—it's your thing. I'm just happy you told me! It's just such a shame You-Know-Who took things from the Chamber. I suppose we'll never know what he took."
"Mm," said Harry. "But I thin the basilisk is hiding something—literally. I think the basilisk has some stuff it kept away, kept hidden. I just have to figure out how to ask it without, you know, making it angry or… upset, I suppose."
They kept climbing. The staircase wound upwards through the castle in a lazy, meandering path. Far from the tight spiral created by the pipe entrance, Slytherin's old tunnel seemed almost haphazardly placed. Almost unplanned. Again Harry wondered just how Slytherin managed to keep the Chamber – its construction, its use – secret from the other Founders … and just what they'd all kept secret from everyone else.
"I think we're coming to the end," Harry said. "That looks like a dead end up just up there."
"Ooh, I think you're right!" said Tracey. "Just in time, too—my legs are starting to ache! We've been walking for ages."
"At least the torches are self-lighting, so we didn't have to bother with all that," Harry said. Although an escalator would have been nicer than that, as darkness was nothing a quick Lumos couldn't fix. Unfortunately, Slytherin hadn't been quite so forward thinking as to add anything like that. Perhaps no suitable spell had been invented when he'd built the Chamber.
Harry stopped when they reached the end of the tunnel. Tracey was right – it terminated in a dead end, a flat wall which looked just like the stonework in the dungeons.
"This probably does just lead into the dungeons," Harry said. "I just wish we knew where."
"I know you were only joking when you said about Snape's office, but it could actually be where the passage opens up," Tracey said, looking at the wall in front of them. "If that's where Slytherin had his office, maybe. Oh! But maybe it ends up in Slytherin's personal chambers—I don't think anyone's ever found them! We could be the first." She paused. "Go on, ask it to open! Let's see!"
"Open," Harry said. The wall faded out of existence to reveal a bland, boring section of dungeon wall beyond. Far from the horrors of Snape's office or the unexplored mystery of Salazar Slytherin's ancient bedroom, it was a part of the dungeon Harry recognised from his explorations of the castle. It wasn't even very far from the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room – merely a corridor away.
Which was convenient if unexciting.
"Oh," said Tracey. She sounded disappointed. "Well, I suppose this is better than anything more exciting, since you can just nip to the Chamber from the Common Room… but…"
Harry grinned.
"I know what you mean," he said. "I was sort of hoping for Slytherin's official bedroom too. Or… something like that, anyway." But then, the Chamber contained one of those… and likely one with items more personal to Slytherin. Assuming the man's official residence in the castle hadn't been cleaned out over the centuries by house-elves or anyone else seemed naïve. "But you're right—this is better. Much more convenient."
After checking the coast was clear, Harry and Tracey stepped out from the passage and Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak. He stuffed it in his bag and they set off for the Common Room.
"And we've still got the rest of the day," Tracey said on the way. "So in all, a productive morning! I was going to get a head-start on that essay for Professor Flamel, but I might just go grab my magazine instead… I've not read it yet but this week there's an article in it from Eloise Garlick! I sort of don't want to wait to read it, you know?"
Harry, who didn't know who Eloise Garlick was and expected that he wouldn't have cared either, merely nodded along and made an appropriate-sounding noise.
"Bloodlines," Harry said to the Common Room entrance. It revealed the door to the Slytherin Common Room and they stepped inside.
"You know, I think I am going to go get my magazine—that article's not going to read itself! And, well, Eloise Garlick…"
They'd not been in the Common Room thirty seconds when Daphne walked right up to them.
"There you are!" she said. "I've been looking for you for ages!" She sighed. "Well, not ages—maybe that was a bit dramatic—but at least fifteen minutes. I spoke with Susan earlier at our morning Charms Club meeting and she said—well, here's not the best place to discuss that. But she asked me to tell you she wanted all of us to 'hang out' in the library. I told her we'd be right along—Blaise and Millie have already gone, but I stayed back to wait for you two to get back." She paused. "Where were you, anyway? Off snogging—finally?"
Harry went red.
Tracey seemed far less embarrassed at the suggestion, though.
"Of course not," she said. "We just friends and anyway, if we wanted to do that we could just do it in the Common Room—Harry's a prefect and he wouldn't tell himself off, would he? Just like when you and Millie are at it no one says anything." Tracey shrugged. "We went to do a bit of duelling practise, actually," Tracey said. "For Flitwick's demonstrational that's coming up after Christmas. Wanted to practise a more complex manoeuvre chained Levitation Spells."
Harry found himself nodding in appreciation of the lie. It was a good lie, since it was something they'd actually been talking about doing – they just hadn't got around to it. And that combo was a tricky one that Harry really did want to show off during the demonstrational.
"But we're here now, anyway," Harry said. "So we can just meet everyone now, right?"
"Yes! Let's go," Daphne said. "We wouldn't want to keep everyone waiting, anyway."
Daphne led Harry and Tracey out of the Common Room. They went right to the library along the most direct route there, which was admittedly still quite indirect, although Harry thought they made decent enough time.
There were relatively few people in the library that afternoon, although given Hogwarts's vastly expanded student base that still meant a good few dozen. As well as a handful of Inquisitorial Squad, scattered about, looming and glowering.
"I think they've gone to sit upstairs," Daphne said, glancing around. "I can't see them down here, anyway…"
"It's usually more private upstairs, so probably," Tracey said.
The three Slytherins went upstairs and found the rest of their friends sat next to a window at the far end of the library. Harry, Daphne, and Tracey slipped into place alongside them.
"That took a while," Blaise said as they sat down. "Got lost, did you?"
Harry rolled his eyes.
"We were practising for Flitwick's demonstrational in the dungeons," he explained. Well, lied. That was a good lie from Tracey and he didn't want it to go to waste. "So obviously Daph couldn't find us."
"I had to wait until they came back to the Common Room!" said Daphne. "So we were ages. Sorry. I did hurry them up on the way, though."
"Well, we're here now," Tracey said. "What's the matter?"
Ernie and Susan shared a look.
"We've—well—we were called in by…" Ernie started to say, but then stopped.
"Umbridge brought us in for one of her 'interviews'," Susan finished. "Not together—separately, but both on the same day. We've both had them before—I mean, all of us here have had one, haven't we?—but this time…" Susan looked over at Harry. "I think they're after you, now that Dumbledore's gone."
Harry blinked. That was… not wholly unsurprising. In fact, it made perfect sense given that the Inquisition had been precipitated by Voldemort for some reason. Perhaps that reason was neutralising both Dumbledore and Harry? As Harry thought more on it, that seemed reasonable. Certainly, it was a compelling possibility. But according to Dumbledore, Umbridge was unlikely to be a direct follower of Voldemort. So whatever she was doing, it had to also fit into her – the Ministry proper's – plans.
And that was the difficult part, the thing Harry was having trouble figuring out. The Minister obviously felt like Dumbledore was a threat to his position – and for good reason, since Dumbledore had been offered the post previously.
But Harry? He was a few years out from any sort of posting at the Ministry, let alone the top job itself. And that was if he even wanted it, which he categorically didn't. As well as being a poisoned chalice, it seemed really boring.
"What did she say?" Harry asked.
"At first it was just like the other interviews," Ernie said. "You know, stuff about whether we enjoy our lessons, if we think the extracurricular clubs and activities are sufficient, all that sort of stuff. But then it was… well. Questions about the stuff you get up to. Er—she was basically asking me about if you always had meetings with Dumbledore. Asked about the fight you had with Malfoy—Draco—at the end of last year. All questions like that. Some wasn't outright about you, but stuff like if I got frustrated that some students had more personal attention from the headmaster. You know the way she asks things. I'm not sure where she was going with it, but…"
"I am," Susan said. "She was making out like you're some sort of Dark wizard. I'm sure of it. She implied that you'd get me in trouble, that my aunt wouldn't approve of us being friends. But she's wrong—Aunt Amelia would be proud we're doing something. Maybe not proud of what we're doing, exactly, in the specific way we're doing it, but… well, that doesn't matter," Susan said. "She even asked about the messages and the paintings. I said I didn't know anything obviously and I think she believed me." Susan paused. "I'm quite good at lying to teachers, you see, especially if it's for something important like this. So she didn't keep asking about any of that. But she kept going back to questions related to you."
Harry nodded along as he thought about Ernie and Susan's words.
"She didn't call you in, Justin?" Harry asked while he mulled it over.
Justin shook his head.
"Not this time, no. To be honest, I think because I'm muggleborn, I'm flying under the radar so to speak. She got me in once and then decided I wasn't important."
"What's a radar?" Blaise asked.
"Not important," Tracey said. "It's like a muggle scrying spell. I think."
"I think they're trying to discredit me," Harry said, keen to avoid a digression into muggle technology that none of the others would actually understand. "Umbridge wanted me on side. The last time I was in for questions she was being really friendly, kept on suggesting she could help me with my career and all that. I wasn't interested, so she hasn't pushed too hard." Harry shrugged. "So maybe she's just given up on that now."
"What, and instead of buttering you up she's gone in for the attack?" asked Millie. "Like she's not even going to see if she's got something you want first?"
"Going for the kill's the sort of thing she'd do, though," mused Blaise.
"After Dumbledore, I reckon they think—and I know this sounds big-headed but I don't mean it like that—I'm the next biggest threat," Harry said. "Voldemort will think that, and Lucius Malfoy's got Voldemort in his head. That's why the Ministry is on board with this, I reckon. Obviously Voldemort isn't my biggest fan. And after last year with Draco I don't imagine Lucius Malfoy—whatever's left of him anyway—wants to be mates with me either. But the Ministry… I think they've got to Fudge. His position's weak, isn't it? I remember you saying something about that, Blaise." Harry glanced over at him.
"Yeah, yeah I did," Blaise said. "His coalition is weak—there's speculation that some of his biggest backers are moving to Lucius Malfoy's faction. If Fudge loses their support… well, he'll still be Minister, but maybe not for long if they force a re-election. Who they'll get to replace him is the question—d'you think the Dark Lord would want to be Minister? Er—the one in Draco's dad, I mean? What's the deal with that, anyway? Did Dumbledore ever say?"
That was a difficult question to answer. Dumbledore didn't know, said it was unprecedented. He'd never read anything about it, at least. Harry had told his friends about Malfoy's possession, of course; they needed to know. But what that actually meant… Harry didn't think anyone knew except for Lucius Malfoy himself.
Harry shrugged.
"No. Said he's got no idea what's going on. Could be some sort of alchemical amalgam, where the soul fragment inside has—"
"Sounds complicated," Millicent said, interrupting. "Give us the summary."
"That was the summary," Harry muttered. "It doesn't matter, anyway. But Dumbledore said we're dealing with something that's not quite Malfoy, not quite Voldemort—it's something new. So I don't think we can know what he wants to do, whether he wants to be Minister…"
"How does the Ministry even work, anyway?" Justin asked. "Is it a Parliamentary system, like the muggle government? Or… what, exactly? We vote directly for the Minister, don't we? So what about the others on the Wizengamot?"
Harry had no idea. Well, that wasn't quite true – he had the vaguest sense that the Ministry was comprised of multiple different kinds of official, some voted in, some appointed. But how the government worked exactly was something he'd never looked into.
It hadn't seemed that important.
Harry looked over at Blaise and Ernie. They would know.
"It's complicated," Ernie said. "The Minister is directly elected by the people in a straight vote—whichever candidate gets the most votes wins. Then there are seats on the Wizengamot that are elected—Lucius Malfoy has one of those."
"Some of the seats are appointed, though," Blaise added. "Chosen by… well, it's complicated. Some seats automatically go to certain Department Heads. And then some are… well technically it's a vote, but the people who get to vote are the other Wizengamot members. But technically, Fudge doesn't need anyone else to be Minister because he has a direct mandate, right? Except it doesn't really work that way because he needs to be able to win votes and he's only got one vote. So…"
"So he needs the backing of enough MWs," Harry said, nodding. "Right. Makes sense. So, if Fudge loses his support they can oust him. Or… or…"
"Or they want him weak, and want him to know that he's weak, so that they can control him," Daphne said. "But the thing is, Fudge isn't actually weak. Daddy always says that Fudge knows what he's doing—he knows how to court the right people. He didn't get the job because he was competent—he got it because he was popular. So what I think is that You-Know-Who wants Fudge to think he's weaker than he is. It makes the most sense at the moment. It's like when Pansy tells Vicky she's fat. She's not, but if she's worrying about that, she isn't thinking about what Pansy is doing."
Harry nodded slowly. That made sense. It was well-reasoned by Daphne, and the example of Pansy and Victoria Runcorn was a good one.
"Yeah, I can see that," Harry said. "So, they want Fudge to think he's weak so they can control him easier. And that means making him worried about Dumbledore planning a coup…"
"And making him think you're up to something as well," Tracey added. "I reckon all the stuff about you in the papers is coming from Malfoy and—and him."
"Yeah. Yeah, exactly," Harry said. "We've just got to figure out why."
"Well, it's obviously got to do with Hogwarts, hasn't it?" Ernie said. "That's why the Inquisition is here. He wants something that's here."
"Last year he wanted that horcrux," Justin said. "That's what you said, isn't it, Harry? But that's gone now. Malfoy's dad took it. So… so there must be another reason they've got people in the castle. Something else they're trying to do. Unless they're just trying to take over the school. Maybe they want to train up a new generation of Death Eaters? Recruit straight from the source?"
"That doesn't sound right," said Millicent. "They're definitely up to something in the castle, but I don't think it's that."
"Maybe we're overthinking it and it really was just about discrediting Dumbledore and making me out to be a Dark wizard," Harry said. "I mean, getting rid of Dumbledore is a really big deal, and they've done it."
That certainly felt like a possibility. Especially with the stuff about Dumbledore and Grindelwald being all over the papers… it seemed like the Ministry and Voldemort both had got exactly what they wanted: Dumbledore out of the picture and control over Hogwarts.
A Hogwarts that now included every school-age witch or wizard in the British Isles. Quite the feat.
Harry sighed.
"Right. So what are we going to do about this? Shall we simmer down? Or…"
"We can't stop now," Susan said. "We're just getting somewhere! And we aren't the only ones. We don't want to lose the momentum."
"I agree with Susan," Blaise said. "We've got to keep this going. People are paying attention, and it feels like we can really get something done…"
"Me and the other Welsh speakers have been talking," Tracey said, "and they want to start protesting. So far we've been talking about speaking Welsh in lessons and in front of the Inquisitorial Squad. I think some of the others were speaking with the Irish lot as well, and they're on board too." She paused. "We're prepared for all the consequences as well. We've talked about it and even the spell punishments… well, people think it's important."
Harry didn't quite understand what Tracey was on about, but it sounded useful to their cause. Anything that caused the Inquisition upset was a good thing in his mind. If Umbridge had to put out so many fires she couldn't accomplish anything she wanted, that was a victory in itself.
"Right," Harry said. "So. We're all good to keep at it? What we're doing, I mean? The interviews haven't scared you off?" Harry said to Ernie and Susan.
Ernie scoffed.
"As if! It'd take rather a lot more than that to get a Macmillan to change his mind!" He shrugged. "Anyway, I reckon my mum would approve—she hates the Inquisition and I'm pretty sure she knows I drew one of the pictures of Umbridge. I mean, she did teach me how to draw so she knows my style. So I'm not worried about getting in trouble."
"I finish what I start," Susan said, then went silent.
That was … fair enough, Harry supposed. Very Susan.
He nodded.
"Alright then. We'll keep at it," Harry said. "Trace, if you can keep up with what you're doing with the Welsh speakers, that's great. And Blaise, whatever you can get from the Squad, do it. The rest of us can keep at the messages and the drawings and the stuff in lessons. Then… well, it's Christmas soon, so we'll see what's up after the New Year. Sound good?"
Everyone agreed. They stayed in the library a little while after that just hanging out, but as the day dragged on they all had other places to be, so they filtered out of the library in smaller groups.
On Wednesday morning Umbridge made an announcement at breakfast. Those were becoming a regular thing, as she and the rest of the Inquisition kept amending existing school rules or devising completely new ones. Unusually, this one was made at the start of breakfast rather than at the end.
"Hem, hem," coughed Umbridge. "The High Inquisition would like all students to become familiar with Educational Decree Fifty-Seven. The full text of the Decree may be found in the Entrance Hall; in the Central Hall on the noticeboard; and on the display outside of the Inquisition Lounge. In summary, students are to be aware that all gatherings of four or more students are to be considered an extracurricular group or society and must now seek registration from the Inquisition to be allowed to meet."
Whispering from all around the Hall. Whispering that grew louder, but nobody seemed too concerned about that. Instead, Umbridge's announcement seemed to have sent sense flying out the windows.
And Harry couldn't blame anyone for it, as the recent Educational Decree went further than any of the others in frustrating the students' abilities to … well… exist. As Umbridge started speaking again the buzz died down.
"Educational Decree Fifty-Seven does not apply to groups and societies which have already obtained the correct permission to meet such as the House Quidditch Teams or the Duelling Club led by Professor Flitwick. As ever, the purpose of the Educational Decrees—and the presence of the Inquisition at Hogwarts School—is to ensure that all students of our great country receive the very best educational experience possible. Failure to comply with these regulations will result in punishments as determined by the reinstated schedule of punishments at the discretion of the Inquisition itself. Students wishing to register their groups should see Inquisitor Arlecchino at their earliest convenience. And lastly… I wish all of you a good day!"
She sat back down.
Silence. More silence.
And then… chaos.
"She can't do that!" Harry heard one student say.
"She can fuck off…" said another directly opposite Harry, although Harry looked away so he didn't have to punish her.
"I'll bet you five Galleons this is because we had that meeting in the library the other day," Blaise said to Harry in an undertone. "There were Inquisitorial Squad in the library; they must have said something. She's daring us to register as a group."
"I'm not taking that bet," Harry said. "You're definitely right, though. If we register as a group, club or… whatever, she'll use it against us. So we're not going to do that." And even if it wasn't directly or solely due to Harry and his friends, Harry didn't doubt they'd been a factor in the decision.
"I don't much fancy being strung up on a rack and stretched, though," Blaise said. "So… you know… if we can avoid that, let's."
Being subjected to medieval torture devices wasn't very high on Harry's list of wants either, so he didn't think there would be a problem there. But they would need to figure out a way of meeting up outside of Umbridge's control. They could meet in groups of three, Harry supposed, but some of their best ideas had come from all eight of them brainstorming together. It seemed a waste to lose that.
But if the alternative was a day on the rack or an hour inside an iron maiden… well… perhaps they'd have to just meet in threes. Harry would prefer to find an alternative, though.
"We'll think of something," Harry muttered.
"That fucking bitch!" Harry heard one of the first years say. "That stupid fucking bitch! Who does she think she is, anyway? Doesn't she know that…"
Harry sighed. He couldn't let that go. Not with the boy shouting so loud – it'd make him look ineffective as a prefect.
"Oi! Clopton! Cool it with the swearing, yeah? You'll get yourself in trouble," Harry said.
"But she really is a—"
"Clopton!"
The first year groaned but didn't push it further.
"I'm glad you stepped in," Blaise said, "because otherwise I'd have had to, and I hate looking uncool like that." He paused. "Would have been good for my cover, though, I suppose. Well, anyway, we'll figure something out like you said. It's just a bad bit of news over breakfast, that's all…"
Harry rolled his eyes.
"You're going to have to actually do something with that Squad badge of yours at some point, you know," Harry said. "Otherwise Umbridge will know you're not really on board."
"Ugh, I know," said Blaise. "I'm trying to think of the best way to do it. I'll get there."
They finished up with their breakfast and went their separate ways after that – along with everyone else in the Great Hall. Harry noticed as they all left that nobody was clumped together in more than a trio, Umbridge's new rules already having an effect on the student population. There would be more of that in the coming days, Harry supposed, as people tried to get around the rules.
Quite how the various ad-hoc study groups people formed for different subjects would cope with the change, Harry couldn't say. He assumed most people with any sense would try to avoid officially registering any group. He knew he certainly didn't intend to.
Well, with the possible exception of the Alchemy study group, since the Alchemy coursework was too important to allow Umbridge and her stupid rules to ruin. He supposed Brocklehurst or Boot would get that arranged, so he didn't need to worry about it. And if they didn't one of the others probably would…
But he couldn't dwell on it as he had to get off to Ancient Runes and avoid being seen as part of a group.
Over the next few days Harry tried meeting up with his friends in smaller groups – Harry, Tracey, and Blaise; or Harry, Ernie, and Justin; and every other permutation of the group – but there was always someone watching. Always someone from the Inquisitorial Squad – even when Blaise was around. It seemed as if Umbridge didn't quite trust Blaise to report on Harry's movements accurately. Harry had plans for Blaise to 'leak' information about him to the Inquisition, but that would have to come later. Before that Harry wanted to figure out how to deal with Umbridge's latest bit of nonsense.
It had got to the point where Harry simply didn't want to speak with anyone because there was always someone lurking. Umbridge had made her intentions clear, and more than anything else, Harry was annoyed.
"I just want to hang out with my mates," Harry complained to Tracey in the Slytherin Common Room where, as usual since Umbridge's announcement, one of the Slytherins in the Inquisitorial Squad sat at a distance watching him. Even inside the Common Rooms people were being careful – groups which once had six, seven, eight or more members now sat scattered in threes at most. Blaise had even had to do more Inquisitorial Squad work, so he was now one of the annoying watchers waiting to report to Umbridge and the other Inquisitors.
That wouldn't have been such a problem if there was a bit more room, but with everyone in the House trying to space out to avoid being in groups larger than three, it was all a bit crowded.
At least he and Tracey had one of the little tables all to themselves. It was just large enough to hold their drinks and play host to their card game.
"I know," Tracey said. "It's really stupid. But you've got to admit she's handled it well—we're having trouble electing a Gorsedd since she's done this. I mean we can hardly ask to register a group, can we? Not when we all speak Welsh together and we're trying to organise a protest…"
Harry glanced around. No one was close enough to overhear – the one positive of everyone trying to avoid grouping – but he thought the situation warranted a bit of caution nonetheless.
"We're going to have to find a place to meet up," Harry said. "This is getting ridiculous. And not even just to talk about, you know, sedition and stuff—we need somewhere to relax."
Tracey nodded.
"Oh, definitely. But where? She's banned us from most of the castle these days, and there's always someone watching. We'd have to go somewhere really out of the way…" She sighed. "What about the Room? You know, the one from last year where—"
"The Room of Hidden Things?" Harry said. "That'd be great if it wasn't on the top floor. We'd have to schlepp all the way up through the castle to get there and we'd just be seen. I think it's safer to stick to the dungeons really—not as many Inquisitorial Squad down here. But there's nowhere for us to go… Nowhere secret, anyway."
Although… thinking of secrets, perhaps that wasn't quite true. Harry had access to perhaps the most secret and most secure room in the entire castle – Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets itself. So what if it was a bit damp and had a gigantic lying snake in it. At least it was Inquisition-free. And with an entrance right there in the dungeons, accessible only by Harry himself, it was certainly a convenient option.
"Well, I suppose there is somewhere," Harry said to Tracey quietly. "What do you think? About the—the—well, you know? Where our slithering friend is? It's private, we can get there from the dungeons, and even if someone found it they'd never be able to get in because… well… only I've got the key." He paused, then played his card. "Your go."
It would mean telling his friends about the Chamber. About Harry's own talent with Parseltongue. But those were minor things, really, and things Harry had been intending to share. In his own time.
Tracey nodded along as she considered what he said, then played her next card.
"Yes… yes, I think that would work," she said. "The only problem would be getting all eight of us down there at once, but I think it's doable… No one ever uses that corridor—it doesn't go anywhere—so… if we could manage it, it would work. As long as you're happy to tell everyone about… well, you know."
"I think I am," Harry said. Umbridge had forced his hand, but it wasn't the worst thing he could think of. It had just moved the timetable up from 'sometime, whenever it felt right' to 'right now'. "And we could really do with a proper base, couldn't we, so… yeah, I think it's the right time. Bit annoying only I can open the door, but that's part of why it's such a good option for us…" Harry shrugged. "So you think it's a good idea?"
"Definitely," Tracey said. "Hag's knickers," she said. "I've won. Another round?"
"You can't have hag's knickers," Harry protested. "I've still got—oh. You do. Well, fair enough. Alright, let's go again. I'll deal this time."
Harry gathered up the cards and shuffled the deck.
"So, we're agreed? We'll just have to tell everyone where and when to meet, and then pick a time to show them…"
"That's easy," Tracey said. "We can meet in our old games alcove from first year—it's out of the way and there shouldn't be anyone there. When is a bit harder but leave it to me. I'll get it sorted."
"Nice one," Harry said as he dealt the cards.
Tracey had arranged their meeting for that weekend, on the Sunday, and after all their clubs and societies and other duties were done and dusted. Harry didn't have to worry about the logistics, since everyone else had sorted that, so he simply went along with Tracey and Blaise to meet everyone at the alcove.
Millie and Daphne had gone on ahead, just so it looked as if the five of them weren't going out together just in case the Inquisitorial Squad were watching, but Harry didn't think it would matter. Most people in the Squad preferred lurking in the more populated areas of the castle so they could get more opportunities to see rule-breakers.
The dungeons were a graveyard of ambition next to the Central Hall or the library. So Harry wasn't worried about that. And with Blaise going out with them, Harry thought maybe other Squad members would think twice about tailing them.
Maybe. If they were lucky.
By the time Harry, Tracey, and Blaise arrived at the dungeon alcove, everyone else was already there. It was a much smaller alcove than Harry remembered – it felt crowded even – although he supposed they were a couple of years old and there were more of them there besides.
"Bit risky, meeting up like this," Ernie said once they'd arrived. "Good choice of a place, mind you—no one ever comes here."
"That's why we chose it, yeah," Harry said. He glanced around at everyone. There was no sense dragging it all out. "So… I was talking to Tracey, right, and we thought that we needed somewhere secret to meet up. We thought about the Room of Requirement, but it's all the way up on the seventh floor. No chance we could all get up there without being seen. But… well… I found this other place not too long ago, and it's sort of… perfect." Harry paused.
"Well?" Blaise said. "Go on then—where is it? It's not this alcove, is it? Because if it is, you're an idiot."
"I love how you've always got complete and utter faith in me, Blaise," Harry said. "It really inspires confidence in me. It's not this little alcove. It's…" Harry sighed. "Right. Bit of background first—I can speak Parseltongue. I'm a Parselmouth."
Susan gasped.
"No fucking way!" Millicent said. "That's brilliant! I wish I was."
Silence from Blaise. An appraising look from Ernie.
Complete bewilderment from Justin.
"What's a Parselmouth?" Justin asked. "Since I seem to be the only one out of the loop on this."
"It's, er, I can talk to snakes," Harry said.
"Like You-Know-Who? That's what the talent is called?" Justin said. "Not to imply—well—I'd just never heard the name before now."
"Yeah, like him. And—which is a bit more relevant—like Salazar Slytherin. So, yeah, anyway… I can speak to snakes. Tracey already knew. But I found—and this is the big bit of news—the Chamber of Secrets. And since only I can open it, we thought it would be a great place for us to—"
But Harry didn't get to finish his sentence. A chorus of interruptions from near enough everyone – except Tracey – and the statement was dead in the air.
"You mean you found the actual Chamber of Secrets?" said Ernie.
"No fucking way!" said Millicent again. "What was the monster like? Was there a monster?"
"There's no way that's real," Blaise said. "It can't be real. Someone would have found it by now."
"That's so interesting," Daphne said. "How did you find it? I didn't even know you'd been looking!"
"And it's all… it's safe?" Susan asked.
"Right, er—one at a time," Harry said. "It's the actual Chamber. Properly real, the one Slytherin built in secret. I promise. And, er, yeah, there's a monster in it—a basilisk. But the basilisk is actually really nice and it listens to me, so it's safe. Shall we just… er… we can go have a look in it now if you want?" Harry left the question hang in the air. He didn't want to force them, since it was quite a big ask. Basilisks were bad enough, but the Chamber of Secrets was something else entirely, and for Justin especially the myths and legends might prove an obstacle.
Silence.
"You don't even have to ask," Millicent said. "Actually, now you've told me, you're not leaving here without showing me. There's a real live basilisk under the school, and you can have conversations with it? I've got—there's just so many…" She paused mid-sentence. "D'you reckon it would let me milk its venom? Is it male or female? What do you think?"
At least one of his friends was enthusiastic. Well, two including Tracey, who'd gushed over the Chamber and its resident snake already. Although quite whether the basilisk would be prepared to let Millicent milk its venom was a question Harry didn't need an answer to. With some luck he'd be able to ignore the request for a while.
Daphne seemed altogether less enthused at the prospect, along with Ernie and Blaise. Susan was harder to read. Justin seemed miserable at the thought.
"It's not going to eat me, is it?" Justin said. "You know, because I'm…"
Harry shook his head.
"No. It's here to protect the school and the students. It won't hurt you. It doesn't… I don't really think it's got any ideology, to be honest with you—it just listens to whoever it thinks is the 'Heir of Slytherin'. And, er, it thinks I'm the newest Heir. So it listens to me and I'm not going to tell it to eat you." Harry paused. "Which it, er, wouldn't do anyway."
Harry felt it prudent to leave out that the basilisk had, in fact, killed a student before. It had been on Voldemort's orders and the basilisk seemed quite upset by the whole thing… insofar as a snake could be upset at having committed a murder.
"So shall we get going?" Harry said.
"Yes, obviously," said Millicent. She didn't wait around. Cut right past Harry and out into the corridor beyond. At least, until she remembered she didn't know where she was going and that even if she did, she couldn't open the door. "Er—come on, then. We can't stand around all day! Daph?"
"Right," Harry said. "Er, this way. There's two ways in that I know about, but this one is most convenient from us—it's not far from the Slytherin Common Room and it's easy to get to for you lot as well," Harry said, nodding towards the three Hufflepuffs. "So no trekking through the castle. And the Squad doesn't really lurk down here, so it's private enough."
Harry led the group through the dungeons towards Slytherin's concealed passageway, then stopped once he reached the general area.
"So, this is it," Harry said. "I know it looks like a normal wall—it's meant to. I just need to…" Harry turned to face the wall. Pictured a snake in his mind, and then spoke. "Open," he hissed, and the wall slid aside.
"See?" Harry said. "Come on—let's all get in." Harry ushered his friends inside and then followed them, closing the passage behind them.
All eight of them descended through the castle along the winding, circuitous stone stair which led from the dungeons to the Chamber of Secrets.
"It's mad that this is just here," Millicent said as they all traipsed down the stairs. "And, like, no one's ever found it before. It's just … here, hidden behind a wall. Not even a very thick wall. Just one of the normal walls. Feels like they can't have been looking very hard for it, right?"
"But loads of headmasters have gone looking for the Chamber," Susan said. "And none of them ever found it. What if it takes a Parselmouth to find it?"
"That makes sense," said Blaise. "Especially since this passageway is near the Slytherin Common Room—you'd have thought that's where the headmasters would have looked."
"Just how close is it to your Common Room, then?" Ernie asked. "Out curiosity."
"Oh, I'm not telling you that," Blaise said. "Nice try, though."
"This isn't even the only entrance, though," Harry said. "I know there's at least one other one—in Moaning Myrtle's toilet, if you can believe it. That's the one I found first."
"No way!" said Ernie. "That's insane."
"Who'd put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets inside a toilet?" Daphne said. "I suppose it is a good place to hide it, but…"
"I doubt it was built inside the toilet," Ernie said. "The castle was remodelled a few times—I bet the toilet was built over the entrance then. Did you know my ancestor, Consternation—"
"I keep telling you nobody cares, Ernie," Millicent said, interrupting. "Bloody Consternation this, Consternation that."
"Well, I thought this time it was relevant," Ernie muttered.
They continued their journey downwards. When they reached the end of the winding stone staircase they emerged into the tunnel just outside of the Chamber itself. Harry stopped just before the great metal wall that separated the Chamber proper from its approach.
"Right," Harry said. "I'll go in first—let the basilisk know I've brought some friends in. Then we can have a look around."
"Let me guess," Blaise said, looking up at the metal wall with its snakes and patterns, "you have to ask the snakes on the wall for it to open? God, I like snakes as much as the next bloke but Slytherin really went with the theme, didn't he?"
"Wait until you see inside," Tracey said.
Harry glanced up at the wall.
"Open," he said, and waited for the wall to reconfigure itself into an archway. Then he stepped inside the Chamber and waited for his friends to join him.
Ernie whistled as he stepped over the threshold.
"Now this is more like I'd expected," he said. "Impressive work for one wizard."
"Hello, basilisk?" Harry shouted to the basilisk. "It's me, Harry. I'm back and this time I've brought a few more friends to come and meet you." Then he turned back towards his friends. "I've just called the basilisk. Watch."
He pointed towards the gargantuan statue of Salazar Slytherin at the far end of the Chamber. After a few moments its mouth opened and the basilisk came slithering out.
"Holy shit," Justin said. "It's massive!"
"She's beautiful," said Millicent. "Amazing, just amazing—she must be the biggest basilisk ever recorded. How big d'you think she is, Daph? Easily fifty feet, right?"
"And you're absolutely sure it's not going to eat us?" Blaise said, backing away slightly. He hadn't quite crossed the threshold to begin with.
Susan stood, staring, silent.
"You have brought many friends to see me this time," the basilisk said as it came to a stop at the feet of Slytherin's statue. "Is something wrong?"
Harry paused. Considered how to answer.
"Do you remember when I said the school is in a bit of trouble?" Harry asked it. "Well, the people who are causing it… they've made it so that it's hard for us to meet. We're trying to fight against them. I thought we could use the Chamber as a sort of… base… to do that. Does that make sense?"
"Yes," the basilisk said after a few moments. "Do you need my help? Is it time to protect the school?"
"Er—no, that's okay," Harry said quickly. No need to set the basilisk on Umbridge – not yet at least. As tempting as it was. "We've got it managed for now, I think. If it gets to that point I'll let you know."
"What's she saying?" asked Millicent. "I can't believe you speak Parseltongue—you don't even like creatures! It's wasted on you."
"I quite like snakes," Harry said, maybe a bit more defensively than he'd wanted. "Anyway, the basilisk thinks of itself as an 'it'." Harry shrugged. "But it can't speak English so I suppose it doesn't matter what you call it… I was just letting it know why we're here, that's all. It asked if we need its… 'help'. I said no. Not yet anyway."
"Oh," Millicent said. "Are you sure? Because, I mean, if Umbridge and the rest of the Inquisitors got eaten by a basilisk that would solve, like, a load of our problems. Just saying."
"Millie!" said Daphne, clearly scandalised. "You can't say things like that, even if it is just a joke!"
"It was only sort of a joke," Millicent said. "And it really would solve all our problems. The Inquisition-related ones, anyway."
"She's not wrong," Blaise said. "A bit bloodthirsty, but which of us hasn't wished death and ruin upon our enemies?" He'd edged a bit further into the Chamber by then, clearly happy enough that the basilisk wasn't about to eat him that he didn't want to linger outside.
"So, yeah," Harry said, changing the subject. "This is the Chamber of Secrets. What do you think? It's private, so we can sneak off here whenever we want to meet. Whenever we want to get away from the Inquisition. I thought we could use it as a sort of base, I suppose. Bit annoying that I have to be here to open it every time, but it should work well enough, shouldn't it?"
Blaise glanced around.
"It's a bit wet, isn't it? And there's nowhere to sit…"
"I think it's the perfect secret meeting place," Susan said. "Most people don't even think it's real! And they'd never suspect this is where we're sneaking off to, would they?"
"I've got to admit," Justin said, "it is nice to have a bit of breathing room. No Inquisitors or Inquisitorial Squad watching. Well, except Blaise—but he doesn't count."
"I'm trying my best to do as little as possible," Blaise said. "Glad you've noticed."
Harry ignored Blaise.
"Yeah. Exactly—that's why I thought we needed somewhere like this," Harry said. "It's a bit out of the way, but it's properly secret. We can come here and we don't have to worry about Umbridge or the Inquisition or anyone else. We're literally the only people who can get in here. And this isn't it, anyway—there's other parts. Bits that aren't wet," Harry added, for Blaise's benefit. "Do you want a look?"
"Well, we're here, so I suppose we might as well," Blaise said.
Harry showed his friends into the room with the basilisk-sized swimming pool, showed them the various artefacts and bits and pieces Slytherin – and Voldemort – had left behind, and even showed them inside the basilisk's own chamber. Then led them all into Slytherin's personal quarters within the Chamber.
"So, yeah," Harry said, gesturing to the suite of rooms, "I reckon this bit's the most comfortable part of the Chamber. I suppose it's Salazar Slytherin's private rooms down here—though I'm not sure when he got time to use them. But there's furniture and there's even a desk in the study, so…" Harry shrugged. "We can hang out in this part. Practise spells and stuff like that in the main Chamber, maybe. Do whatever."
"That bed looks surprisingly comfy for something over a thousand years old," Susan said. "I wonder if it's the one Slytherin put in, or if it's newer."
"Could be newer," Harry said. "Looks Victorian. I'm not the only one who's ever found the Chamber—the last one was Voldemort. Unfortunately. He took loads of stuff out of here, too—basically ransacked the study. Only left a few bits and pieces."
"That's a shame," Ernie said. "Imagine what was here before!"
"Mm," Harry said. "I know. I've not really had the chance to look at what's left. What I did see is all in Latin or like, Old English or whatever. So it's going to be a real slog to get through. Probably worth it, though." Harry shrugged. "I get the feeling the basilisk is hiding something, but I haven't had the chance to ask it yet. But it didn't seem happy Voldemort took stuff from here, so… I'm hoping it's got stuff hidden away somewhere. Somehow." That it didn't have hands seemed an obstacle to it hiding anything away, but perhaps there were other rooms it was protecting.
"I'm going to try out the bed," Susan declared. She crossed the room and sat down on the bed. "It's pretty nice," she said. "I don't think this is a thousand years old at all. Must be newer."
"It doesn't look old," Tracey said. She joined Susan on the bed. "Ooh, it is nice and comfy! A bit dusty but we can vanish the dust…"
"Oh, go on then," Ernie said, and joined them on the bed. Soon enough all eight of them were sat on the bed talking. Harry had repaired some of the furniture when he was last in the Chamber, so at least it was all a little more inviting than on his very first visit.
"Now that we've got our own secret headquarters," Justin said, "it feels like we should come up with a name for ourselves. What do you think?"
"Ooh, I like it!" Tracey said. "But what can we call ourselves? It has to be something cool."
"I really don't think—" Harry started to say, but Millicent interrupted him.
"Slytherin's Serpents?" she suggested.
"Too on the nose," Ernie said. "And we're not all Slytherins. How about 'the Defenders of Hogwarts'?"
"Too boring," declared Daphne. "Not nearly enough flair. It should be something snappy."
"Isn't having a name just a little bit too much like—" Harry said.
"What about something like 'The Anti-Inquisition League'?" Tracey said. Then she shook her head. "No, that's awful, that is. Um…"
"I think we should call ourselves 'Harry's hotties'," Blaise said with a grin. "For obvious reasons."
"Ugh, don't," Harry said. He sighed.
They went on like that for ages, suggesting and rejecting increasingly awful names, until Harry eventually gave up and joined in with them. His protestations were all ignored, anyway, and he supposed it wasn't really like the Death Eaters. It was just… just a harmless bit of fun. It's not like they'd be getting tattoos and designing masks.
"Okay, how about this," Harry said. "We should be 'the Basilisk's Fang'. Because we've got, you know, a basilisk, and there's the Chamber, and we're being all secretive and that, so…"
"That's actually not bad," Blaise said. "I like it. It's better than any of the other suggestions."
"I like it," Daphne said.
"It's definitely cool," Tracey added. "I'm all for it."
"It's a good name," Millicent said. "I feel like we should include the basilisk—we are using its house as a base. I like it, too."
"It is a good name," Susan said. "Maybe a bit snakier than I'd have liked, but I suppose that's fair enough… I mean, our leader is a Parselmouth."
Harry felt himself go red at being called a 'leader'. He usually did take charge, but that was just because a lot of the issues were because of him and it felt … presumptuous … to want anyone else to fix them. But a leader? Far too grandiose a term for what he did.
"Agreed," Ernie said. "All in favour say 'aye.'."
A chorus of 'ayes' – after which Harry added his own – and that was that. They'd named their little rebellion. It was all a good bit of fun, Harry thought. They spent a few more hours in the Chamber, chatting and looking around. Generally just enjoying the time spent away from the rigours of academic life at the castle, as well as the oppressive presence of the Inquisition. They stayed until not long before dinner was set to begin.
Harry led them out of the Chamber through Slytherin's special passageway and sealed it behind them all once they were all safely out. Although he hadn't actually done much of anything, he felt quite happy with what they'd achieved that afternoon. Relaxed, almost, and that was a rare thing in a castle under siege by the High Inquisition.