Chapter 17: The Beast Below
Kiba slowly opened his eyes. He was still in the Gryffindor common room, but nearly all colour had disappeared, everything seemed gray and desaturated. Kiba stood up from the chair he sat in and spotted a newspaper by the fireplace and rushed over. He picked it up and checked the date 'I'm in the past? What is happening?'
He quickly left the common room and headed for the great hall but on his way there a girl ran past him crying, a girl he hadn't seen before. Infect it seems like the girl could neither see nor hear him. He followed her to the second floor bathroom and she ran inside shutting the door. Kiba didn't know what to do, so he waited and suddenly out came a boy. A handsome boy that strongly resembled Kiba, only with a stronger jawline. He poked his head out and then quietly slipped out of the bathroom.
Kiba felt his body being pulled back hard and he was once again in the chair in the common room with his head rested on the table. Hermione was the one shaking him awake from his dream, only it didn't feel like a dream. Kiba looked at the diary and saw no writing whatsoever, not his and not Tom's. "are you all right Kiba?" Hermione asked the boy
"think so, just tired" Kiba replied with a yawn "i might just go to bed now"
"okay. I'll be down here with Harry and Ron, Goodnight"
"Goodnight, 'mione" Kiba ascended the staircase and entered the dormitory, he dropped the diary on his nightstand and fell face first onto his bed and was fast asleep immediately.
However, his sleep wasn't peaceful, it was far from it. Images flashed through his mind like thunder during a storm. He saw the face of a girl in tears, her robes adorned the Ravenclaw colours. But as suddenly as she had appeared in his mind, she disappeared. Kiba once again saw the door to the girls bathroom in the second floor, but this time he entered the room. It was somewhat circular with an isle of cubicles leading to the side, in the middle of the round room were a set of sinks along with mirrors. A loud audible sobbing could be heard from one of the cubicles but Kiba ignored it and headed for the sinks. He looked into the mirror and saw, not himself, but that boy again, the one that resembled him. He looked at him through the mirror and began smiling and then laughing, louder and louder he laughed and sounding crazier by the second. Kiba stared in horror as the face of his reflection began to change, the smooth black hair on his head fell out of sight and his skin turned scaly. The colour of the eyes changed to a dark red, His lips dried out and grew smaller until they were nearly non-existent and his nose pulled back into his skull leaving only small slits behind.
Kiba remembered the face, His face. His reflection raised its hand and reached through the mirror and afterwards moved through it himself. Kiba heard a loud hiss from one of the cubicles but when he turned to look he saw nothing but a body on the floor, and the deformed, snakelike face of Voldemort was gone. The body was that of the crying girl, Kiba knealed down to inspect her and then heard a deadly hiss beside his ear and hot breath on his neck. He turned to look but all he saw was a great yellow eye.
Kiba shot upright breathing heavily. He looked around and saw, not the common room, but the second floor bathroom. The floor was wet and had drenched his clothes, he stood up and felt his wand in his pocket and something else, in his hand. "why do i have the diary?" The book was slightly wet but not damaged Kiba sighed and looked towards the sinks. He walked over and turned them off to stop the flooding and spotted an odd one out. One of the sinks had a snake engraved on the tap which wound in an S shape. He traced it with his finger and suddenly felt a strange sensation from the book.
'Is this another dream? can't be' Kiba thought, he could feel the cold tiles beneath his wet feet, and the sound of the dropping water was as normal as it could be. He looked into the mirror and saw himself, his red hair, his pyjamas and the small scar on his chin. 'since when do i have this?' he asked himself touching the scar he had never seen before.
But the book was still giving him a strange feeling, no matter how real it all felt. 'open it!' he heard a familiar voice his. Without another word or thought he touched the engraved snake on the tap and spoke in parsel.
"The heir has returned" The room vibrated and the sinks rumbled as they began moving, the top lifted up and rose towards the ceiling and the sinks circled around a giant hole before dropping into the ground. A metal grill covered each one to create a walkable surface and allow access to the giant hole. "is this it? The Chamber of Secrets?" Kiba asked aloud but received no response "well, only one way to find out. Geronimo." All he heard was his last word as it echoed through the pipe while he jumped down.
The pipe twisted and turned at violent corners, it's slime reducing the friction between the boy and the pipe itself, sending him faster and faster downwards. As he raced deeper down the school, he could see diverging tunnels that looked smaller than the main one, probably going off to the other parts of the castle. Ultimately it ended sending Kiba rolling along a cold floor of bones and stone. At that moment Kiba wished her had worn his shoes to bed that night.
"Lumos" Kiba said retrieving his wand and lighting the room. He was still with his back on the floor so he would accidentally step on something and impale his feet in the dark. The Parselmouth slowly and carefully made his way through the bones scattered on the floor and walked along a long path until he reached a metal door. The metal door was decorated with seven serpents which were aligned in such a way that their bodies touched on the left hand center of the door but spread out towards the right, every head reaching a different edge then the others.
Kiba figured that the door was locked and felt the diary again, he didn't even realise that he had held on to it all this time. "Open" he spoke in Parsel instinctively. An eighth serpent appeared at the bottom of the door and began making its way around the edge of the door causing the other serpent heads to retract a bit to let it pass, and once it had reached the top it stopped. The door rumbled and then, with loud cracking and noise, it swung open.
Kiba was presented with a hallway which had giant statues of snake heads on both sides sticking out of the water beside the path, at the very end the Room formed into an half oval shape with a gigantic head of stone sticking out of the water in it's center. Kiba could hear dripping all through the hallway and the oval room, and concluded that he was underneath a lake. But where was the monster, where was the great mystery that the founder of Hogwarts had left for him.
'Ahh, blood' Kiba suddenly heard a low hiss 'Fresh blood, Pure blood' the incredibly deep hiss grew louder as Kiba approached the stone head.
"who's there?" Kiba asked trying to figure out what wether a spell made the statue talk or something else, Though Kiba figured that there was a creature hidden inside, just like the book had said.
'Slytherin blood… My blood!' The unidentified voice hissed once more ignoring the boys question. Suddenly the mouth of the statue opened and out shot something as fast as a golden snitch, so fast that Kiba couldn't even see it's face, all he saw was the green and scaly tail of a gigantic snake. 'do not turn, do not look' it hissed into Kiba's ear. He froze in place, unable to move a muscle.
"what are you?" Kiba asked with a quiver in his voice
'you reek off muggle' the snake hissed 'yet so pure. Slytherin should be proud to have you among them'
"I'm not in Slytherin," Kiba replied "I'm a Gryffindor" the snake let out a strongly dissatisfied hiss
'then how do you carry his blood?'
"my father, surely you've met him" Kiba said "He said he was the last to open the Chamber"
'i remember all my masters, however none were as pure as he was. He awoke me after i had slept for a long, long time'
"yes, and i carry his blood and i have come to command you once again"
'then what is it you ask of me, Master?'
"What are you?"
'I am the great Basilisk of the hidden Chamber, my purpose is to cleanse this school' Kiba felt a devilish smile creep onto his face
"well, i hope you thir- arghh!" He stopped mid sentence and yelled out in pain. Brought to his knees, the boys screams filled the hidden chamber as the basilisk loomed over him, unsure as to why its master began to cry in pain. He felt that feeling return, that pain which he had been experiencing since he murdered Quirrell. That unbearable feeling of being torn in half. He tried to get onto his feet but crashed to ther floor again pushing the oxygen that remained in his lungs out and causing him to start losing his consciousness. The giant snake lowered its head and stuck out is tongue to smell the boy again, he was undoubtedly a descendant of Slytherin but there was more, something deep and strong…
'i was chosen for my power, for i am. Power' The Snake hissed as it slithered back to the statue 'soon, the purge will begin…' as his eyes began to close he could make out the snake looking at him again before slithering back into the statue through its mouth.
Kiba's eyes shot open and he quickly sat upright. He was in his four poster bed and drenched in his own sweat, and as always his curtains were shut, he felt something on his lap and saw the diary. It almost scared him that he'd fallen asleep with it so close to him. 'was i dreaming? it felt so real…' Kiba could still feel the cold and wet stone floor underneath his feet and the image of the giant snake was burned into his memory. But how could he be sure that he wasn't dreaming? Maybe the diary had shown him where the chamber is through his dream? No matter what it was he had to get up and check but the pain in his chest stopped him. As he rubbed his chest caressingly, Kiba cycled the same question inside his head vigorously, desperate for an answer. 'was that real?'
He fed his brain the same question over and over again but received negative results. He had no idea if all of that was real. He opened the Chamber of Secrets on that night, he really did. But all of it felt too real, too fast. Kiba tried to recollect everything, piece by piece, and resisted the strain across his upper body. "There was the bathroom... and the sinks in the middle. That was where I went through... right. A big pipe... bones? A-and... a door, that's it! A door! With snakes! And behind it was... the Chamber and... the monster which was a... a..." Kiba rubbed his chest as the pain grew too strong for him to focus. He couldn't recall everything, only the sinks, the snake door and the diary that was on his bed. But when he picked it up it was nothing like it had been in his dream, the indescribable feeling wasn't there. It simply felt like an old book, as it should.
Kiba suddenly realized that he had been talking aloud and quickly poked his had out from his bed but the room was empty, as were all the beds. He tossed the diary under his bed and scrambled through his nightstand drawer in search for his watch. He found it and was shocked to see he had missed breakfast, but he could still make it to potions in time. He hurried and put on his robes, grabbed his bag and ran from the common room.
He hurried down the corridors and into the dungeon and into the potions classroom just before snape arrived. Hermione shot him a look of confusion from her seat in the first row but Kiba dismissed it, he would simply tell her that he slept in and that's that. Snape strode into the classroom with quick steps just as Kiba sat down and stopped once he reached the front. He flicked his wand towards the blackboard and names began appearing, the first names Kiba spotted were Harry and Hermione and afterwards Crabbe and Neville. Ron's name appeared with Goyle's and at the very end his own together with Draco's. "from now on, until the end of this year you will be partnered to create your potions" Snape said "open your books to page fourty-six and begin"
Kiba was annoyed and frankly didn't want to partner with Draco at all, especially after what he had said to Hermione. Reluctantly he got up and headed over to Draco who was already sitting at the table with his cauldron. He could see in Hermiones expression that she pitied him with every glance but Kiba was more worried about Ron and Neville who had been partnered with Draco's idiots. "It's only natural," Draco suddenly said "he put the two best together"
"what Harry and Hermione?" Kiba replied knowing full well that Draco ment the two of them. "yeah, i guess it was kind of obvious"
"No, i meant you and me" Draco replied opening his book
"me? I'm not that great at potions" Kiba added
"nonsense, who here, in this room is better in potions then the two of us?" Draco asked sarcastically
"well for starters definitely Snape," Kiba said with a smug smile, "then there's Harry and Fay, and definitely Hermione"
"Hermione?!" Draco spat "How dare you say that a Mu-"
"Mister Malfoy," Snape said suddenly towering over Draco "i haven't seen you add ingredients to your potion, are you letting Mister Scamander do it on his own? Open your book to page fourty-six!" with a menacing flick of his wand he opened Draco's book to the right page and walked off.
"you listen to me carefully now, Malfoy." Kiba suddenly began, he dropped a dry nettle into the cauldron and stared at Draco as he stirred the potion "if you ever, and i mean EVER, even think about calling Hermione by that name again, i won't hesitate to curse you" Draco swallowed hard and nodded silently "now, if you want to get some points in this class i suggest that you prepare the bat spleens"
Draco quickly got up and headed over to the ingredients shelf.
"now that all of your are brewing your own swelling solution," Snape began "you can surely tell me which ingredient drastically changes the potion" Kiba was to busy stareing at Draco as he drowned himself in deep thoughts to listen to the question and Snape was forced to pick Hermione.
"by adding too many dry nettles sir," Hermione said "it changes the swelling solution into a dangerous skin poison"
"correct. Five points to Gryffindor" Snape said reluctantly "it is named a skin poison because it's vapour alone can melt your skin off of your bone, let alone if you spill it over yourself or drink it. The outcome would be death within minutes"
The lesson carried on with the strong tension between the Parselmouth and Draco lingering. When the bell rung through the halls and Snape had assigned homework Kiba was about ready to leave but he was stopped by the potions Professor. "Mister Scamander," he said "i couldn't help but notice that you missed breakfast today, you're not skipping any classes are you?" Kiba didn't respond and only lightly shook his head. Snape most definitely knew he snuck around at night "well, maybe you should try to head to bed earlier" Snape said. With a simple wave of his hand he ordered Kiba to leave but he spoke one more time before Kiba was out of the room entirely "perhaps you should also stay in bed at night" He added. For Kiba this ment allot, not only did Snape know he snuck around at night but he had most definitely seen him do it.
"yes, Professor" Kiba said silently and closed the door. He walked along the corridors and towards the staircases to reach the Transfigureration classroom, but as he passed a certain bathroom he heard something. Something that sounded like hissing. It stopped him dead in his tracks and caused him to turn his head to stare at the old door. But he managed to look away quickly and proceeded down the hall, all the while the hissing grew quiet in his mind as he walked.
Halloween was nearing, and because of the added stress by mountains of homework Kiba had forgotten to search for the Chamber of Secrets almost entirely. Almost.. He'd dream of finding it every night but he didn't know which bathroom it was that the Chamber supposedly lay underneath. Maybe the stress was causing the dreams, why would the chamber be underneath a bathroom? Since autumn had come around the days grew darker quickly and Filch had been on his feet constantly. Halloween was the time around which the Weasley twins pulled the most pranks, and the caretaker surely wanted to stop as many as he could before they happened, which unfortunately ment he caught the wandering Kiba much more often.
And one such day was the day before Halloween. It had been raining heavily and Kiba was strolling through the corridors with muddy shoes and unfortunately right into the caretaker.
"i knew it, i knew it was you" he said ahe pulled him by his shirt "dragging your muddy paws through the castle. Almost every night i catch you after curfew and yet you remain in this school" Filch said, he continued his monologue all the way until the two reached the caretakers office. Kiba was pushed inside with force and the door was slammed shut behind him. Filch pushed the boy down into one of the chairs and grabbed an empty parchment from his desk and began scribbling on it while he mumbled happily. He was most likely writing a massive detention slip for the boy he so detested. But he suddenly seemed frantic searching all overt his desk "where did i put – NO! Those darn, fucking Twins!" The old man slammed on his desk and sent a letter flying to Kiba's feet, but the boy didn't notice, he was to busy laughing at the anger of the caretaker as he ran out of his office. Kiba wanted to run as fast as he could from the office but the letter at his feet stopped him.
"what is this?" he inspected the strange letter which talked about a form of magic. "take your own Kwikspell course, pathetic" Kiba said dropping the letter down on the chair previously sat on "and here i thought he was a Muggle," he couldn't help but chuckle as his voice grew louder through his enjoyment of the situation "he's a Squib! HAHAHA! I can't wait to tell Harry!" the door suddenly slammed open again and Filch's angry gaze was fixed on him
"what did you just say you little brat?" he asked, his eyes moved from Kiba to the chair and then the letter on it "you touched my stuff?" he asked "YOU TOUCHED MY STUFF?!" he shouted. Kiba didn't reply he slowly backed away from the caretaker.
"I-I… I didn't, I-" Kiba stammered
"LIAR, YOU READ MY LETTER, I COULD HAVE YOU EXPELLED RIGHT NOW. I COULD HANG YOU BY YOUR ANKLES, I SHOULD!" the old man shouted but it seemed that something else came to him when he suddenly calmed down, Filch slammed the door behind him and grinned horribly to reveal his darkened yellow teeth. Mrs Norris meowed as the two began to corner the boy. The Parselmouth moved backwards slowly until he hit the desk behind him. He stared into Filch's mad eyes as his own quivered a little. "A shame that I can't physically hurt you. Little shits such as yourself need a good beating every now and then. But it will be a pleasure knowing that I can report you for intruding into my office and attempting to steal my things."
"But that's a lie! I haven't stolen anything!"
Filch leaned closer to the boy, the smell of rotting fish leaking from his mouth. Kiba wanted to gag and push his head away from his own but kept still. "Nobody will believe you. And if your friends try to back you up, I'll just say that they were in on it as well," whispered Filch. "l might even throw in that you threatened my cat. That's right, I'll do it. Not feeling so tough now aren't you, Kiba?" Filch broke out into a wheezing fit of laughter while Mrs Norris hissed from behind. Kiba felt his skin burning as anger seeped out from his pores. He hardened his fist as he felt compelled to hit the despicable man, despite his age. Filch noticed this and came closer to him one more, face to face. "Is little Kiba angry? Did I touch a nerve? Well don't just stand there, hit me."
"HIT ME!" Kiba gritted his teeth as tightened his fist so hard he could've bled right there. He knew what would've been the consequences had he succumbed to his anger but by god, did he want to hurt him so bad. Whether it be by magic or by hand, Kiba wanted to see this man suffer in so much pain, that he'd never come back to Hogwarts. He'd be doing everyone a favour by doing so. Filch poked the Parselmouth in the chest and pushed him back a little, trying to draw out a reaction from the boy.
"Don't touch me." Kiba said quietly. Filch pushed him again. "I said, don't..."
"Or what, Kiba? What could you possibly do?" Filch taunted as he pushed Kiba one final time. The Parselmouth almost exploded as his hatred for the man was on the very edge, waiting for the final push to release everything. He looked down to the ground and tried to distract himself to slowly ease his anger.
"Hmph. Just as I thought. Thinks he's better than everyone else. You should be happy, kid. I just gave you a reality check. Don't matter if you're a wizard, you kids don't mean a thing to me. Bunch of little puppies with undeserved power. Look at you. Silent, just how I like it. You see that, Mrs Norris? That's how you deal with these dogs. Gotta twist their feeble, naïve minds to understand the truth." Filch opened the door and told Kiba to leave. "If you ever try anything like that again well... better not find out, huh?" Filch slammed his office door as Kiba stood in the dimmed corridors. Rain had begun to fall again as Kiba felt like lashing out to the next person that came around the corner. He wanted to go back inside Filch's office to traumatise the hell out of him. He seriously wanted to see some blood from the caretaker.
'filthy, fucking Squib' Kiba thought 'How dare he threaten me? Doesn't matter, tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow he'll feel the wrath of the heir of Slytherin! I'm finding that chamber… no matter what'
The boy quickly headed towards the Gryffindor common room. It wasn't exactly late yet but Kiba stormed past every Gryffindor anyways and headed straight for his dorm. He saw Hermione looking at him worryingly as he headed for the spiral staircase. And how couldn't she worry about the red haired boy that saved her life in the forbidden forest? How could she ignore that there was more to him? Much more.
Kiba laid down on his bed and sighed heavily. 'you look sad' hotaru said jumping through the closed curtains. 'something wrong?'
"it's nothing i don't want to.." Hotaru snuggled into his palm affectionately and looked back at the boy "it's Filch.. he's just… i don't know"
'Maybe you should write it down in you're diary,' the dragon suggested 'that might ease your mind'
"Maybe.." Kiba sighed again, he reached into his nightstand and grabbed the old diary as he sat upright. "thanks Hotaru" the boy quickly got up and sat down at the table inside the dormitory and began to write. He wrote down what had happened in Filch's office and what Filch had done.. and what he himself wanted to do.
'Then do it!'
...
AN: i actually had this chapter finished for so long but i couldn't find the time to proof read and upload it. But yeah, now i did. chapter 18 is almost finished too!remember to suggest your own characters and review!
PEACE!
