November 1st, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:00 PM BST

Everyone headed out of the duelling hall pretty quickly after the incident, Harry bolting kind of acted like a release for the tension of the night. Even Lockhart couldn't be bothered to try to put the pieces back together, and as I headed out, I waved the others off so I could talk to Harry alone.

Harry was…well he was kind of family now, and I wanted to look out for him. He seemed like a decent enough guy, and I knew Sirius would be bummed if anything happened to him. Of course, my whole waving people off thing only applied to people who listened to me, which meant Daphne and Astoria fell into step with me as I rounded the corner trying to follow him.

A quick point me charm had me heading for him, but it pointed me straight at him and the halls were anything but straight shots. "Any reason you two decided to tag along?" I asked without looking up.

Daphne nodded (I could hear that from so close, it was kind of a cool thing to realize). "You need an explanation on why that was such a big deal, I assume?"

"That would be helpful." I said as I led us around a corner to a dead end, then cursed and backtracked because he'd gone up some stairs and the fucking point me spell was only in two dimensions. "I heard some whispering about Parseltongue, and based on the context I assume talking to snakes is bad?"

Stori shrugged from my other side. "It's not really. More that a couple bad people did it and it gets painted with the same brush. Specifically though, both Slytherin and Voldemort were Parseltongues, so you could see why it would be concerning in this case."

"I wish it had been someone else though." I grumped. "I could have used the distraction from me as a suspect. I can't leave Harry hanging out to dry though. It would break Sirius's heart." I felt…weird about my uncle. I owed him, in some ways, and I liked him. There was a lot of perceived debt from both sides, and it made the relationship complicated.

But Harry was important to Sirius, which made him important to me. Plus eventually people would figure out the flinchy orphan raised by muggles wasn't the heir to the dark sorcerer and it would be back to a rousing game of 'blame the powerful good looking guy with the harem'.

Finally, after multiple twists and turns, I found the room where he was waiting. I gestured for the girls to back off, but Stori ignored me and strolled past, walking in to the room where he was leaning against the wall, head in his hands. Harry had some issues with being blamed for stuff it seemed.

"Heya." Said Stori cheerfully, crouching down in front of him. "What's got you do down?"

He looked up bleakly. "You're the other Greengrass." He said woodenly. "Leave me alone. I just need some time to myself."

"Nope." She said, popping the P, and slumped down against the wall next to him with a graceful turn. "You're brooding, and brooding should never be done alone. We can both brood. See, I'm super good at it." She pouted cutely at him, fluttering her eyelashes.

He snorted, trying to hide a smile. "Clearly you're the picture of misery." he said with a snort. "Why do you care anyway? You're a Slytherin, aren't you supposed to hate me on principal? I know Ryan is dating your sister, but that doesn't mean you need to be nice to me." He didn't seem opposed to the treatment, or even to her, just…suspicious.

"House rivalry is stupid." She said with a snort. Daphne and I were waiting in the hall, able to see into the room at an angle, but we stepped back. She had this, and was doing a better job than I would have. "I've been in your shoes before."

He snorted. "You? You're…cute, and cheerful and just generally likable. No way people looked at you like they were just looking at me."

"Nope." She said again. "My family has…well, I guess had now, a bad blood curse. It killed my mom, and I was diagnosed with it when I was pretty young. But when you're a little kid, you don't understand much about things like curses. The other kids my age at parties and things heard that I was cursed and thought it could happen to them to. So they avoided me."

Harry snorted again. "And let me guess. You turned the other cheek and they eventually realized how stupid they were and let you back into their group."

"What?" She said in surprise. "No. My sister cursed the living daylights out of them. Told them she'd show them a curse if they wanted to see one. None of them ever came near me again. They still flinch when I walk by, several of them are in my dorm."

He burst out laughing. "What was the moral of that story?"

"There wasn't one." She said with what sounded like a shrug. "I'm just saying I know how you feel. People can be cruel. But you don't need to be alone because they're stupid. I'll still be your friend."

It felt a little heavy handed to me, and I might have been suspicious, but Harry…he was stunned into silence for a moment. "You…you mean that?" He said in a quiet voice. "You'd really want to be friends with me? Because I don't have a lot of those, in case you didn't notice, and being one of them isn't going to be easy from the looks of it."

"Nothing fun ever is." She said cheerfully. "That settles it. We're friends now. You can come talk to me whenever you want, and if anyone talks bad about you in front of me I'll hex them. My sister has taught me some nasty ones."

I heard him laugh wetly, and put my fingers to my lips, gesturing for Daphne to follow. When we were about twenty feet away I called out. "Harry? You up here man?" Daphne shot me a look but I just shook my head. We'd overheard some personal shit he probably didn't want getting out. Better to play dumb and let him have his privacy.

"We're in here!" Stori called cheerfully. Harry grumbled at her but didn't do anything as we approached.

Poking my head in, I grinned at them. "Hey there you are. I thought you ran off to sulk but I find you putting the moves on Daphne's sister?" I looked back over my shoulder at my girlfriend and said loudly. "Quick, put your clothes back on, Daphne's about to walk in!"

Stori sniffed loudly. "I would never betray Blaise like that. Your jokes aren't as funny as you think they are."

"Made you smile didn't it?" I said to the two of them. I offered Harry my hand. "You good? Rushed out of there quick. Should have seen the look on Lockhart's face. Between me curb stomping him and you upstaging him I think this was the worst night of his life."

Harry paused, looking at me suspiciously. "Really?"

"He's not lying." Said Daphne as she entered, surreptitiously scanning their clothes to make sure I HAD been joking. "I thought it was hilarious. Arrogant prat deserved it. I find him leering at the female students far too often."

I grimaced. "Yeah…I need to talk to Dumbledore about that. He defaulted to mind magic quick in that duel, and his packs a whallop. Not enough to do anything to me or you, but I don't think someone with his personality and a knack for erasing memories can be trusted around impressionable co-eds."

Harry looked appalled. "You think he forced himself on some of the students?"

"Probably not." I admitted. "He's squirrely. But he's also vain and somewhat charismatic. I'd be shocked if he didn't convince a few interested girls they'd won his heart and then made them conveniently forget after he had a good time with them."

That was…weirdly insightful for me. But somehow I felt like it fit. The sin of Lust was one I knew well, and Lockhart seemed like the type to indulge.

"Anyway, I'll let Dumbledore know and he can look into it." I said firmly. "In the meantime Stori you aren't to be alone around him. Stay with friends in his class and leave afterward. If he tries to ask you stay behind don't do it. Come find me and I'll deal with it."

She nodded, looking a bit sick, and got where she was coming from. I was pissed just thinking about it. I turned to Harry. "So, about this heir of Slytherin bullshit." I held up a hand as his eyes narrowed. "I know it's not you, dipshit. I was going to ask if you had any ideas. We need to figure it out because one of the two of us is going to get blamed."

Not to mention if Theo's dad was right it meant there might be a hidden magical library under the school, which could be very useful. Harry sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing. We were planning to do some research, but we have no idea where to start. There are a few books on the chamber according to Hermione, but they're mostly contradictory."

"I'll ask my mom." I decided. "She's a history buff, so there's a good chance she's heard about the place. In the meantime keep looking, and I'll keep the Slytherins off your back if they get uppity."

His head snapped up. "Malfoy!" He all but yelled. "It has to be Malfoy. It fits. He's an arsehole, and remember what he said when we found the cat?"

"Can't be him." I said firmly. "Draco is the least subtle person I've ever met, and all his self worth comes from public opinion. Given his mom's death and his dad's disappearance, he would take any chance to gain reputation. He'd have been shouting it from the rooftops if he was the heir of Slytherin, at least in the common room."

He deflated. "Oh. Well, what about Lockhart? The chamber didn't open until he arrived."

"That…" I trailed off. "That's actually a really good idea. I'll keep an eye on him. If it's him he'll tip his hand somehow." In fact, much like last year I knew just the duo to keep an eye on that puffed up dandy. I was betting I'd get a better price from the Weasleys for this, both for past work together and because they hated Lockhart too.

On the upside, I knew Lockhart wasn't Voldemort. I'd kicked his ass way too easily, and I'd have noticed him if he was that close. After testing him myself I was less worried even if he was the heir.

"You should head back to your common room." I said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Ron and Hermione will be sending out a search and rescue team soon."

He grimaced. "Bollocks. I forgot I ran out on them." He shot Stori a shy smile. "Thanks for talking to me Astoria. It helped." He blushed a bit and took off, and I smirked at her.

"Aww it looks like the boy who lived has a crush." I waited until he was gone because I was teasing her and not him. Sure enough, she just rolled her eyes and ignored me, turning to talk to her sister.

The two of them headed out of the room, Daphne berating her sister for running off on us, but in a tone that told both of us she was proud of the younger girl. My Slytherin princess needed to work on her communication skills, but I knew she was trying. I smiled at the two of them as they walked ahead, but eventually the smile slid away. I needed an idea about this heir of slytherin business, because I had the sneaking suspicion that this would get better before it got worse.

November 2nd, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 4:00 PM BST

Theo was the man to talk to about the chamber when it came to research. He hadn't read all the books his dad had, but he'd heard most of their names. He was able to point us in a good direction, though not all the books he had on his list were available. After all, we weren't the only ones looking.

"Why are these idiots trying to find the chamber?" Said Blaise in a not very quiet voice. "I mean, I know why we're looking, but most of these people have no reason to bother. What's the point?"

I chuckled, glancing around at all the people. "It's the cool new thing. Chamber of secrets hunting. So did we find anything yet?" I forced a smile onto my face. "Hermione, how about you? Any of Theo's books pay off?"

Harry and his friends had decided to join in on our study session, and since they had a good reason I put my foot down and said they could. Suzie was happy to welcome them, and Seras was withholding judgement, but Daphne was NOT pleased. She and Stori were sitting on the other side of the table and she was refusing to look at me.

I knew she wasn't really mad at me. Just frustrated and didn't want to talk. I decided to let it be and focus on the books.

"I might've found something." Said Ron hesitantly. "This says the author was able to confirm what's down there. Apparently it's…oh, no that's probably not true." At our glances he flushed a bit. "Apparently this person claims Slytherin kept his harem down there. Says they were all vampires and are waiting to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting castle."

Seras snorted. "If they're vampires and they've been down there for a few millennia without food, they're not waiting to be unleashed on anything. Vampires starve after a few decades without blood unless they're in torpor, and those usually only last a century or three. Maybe if they were all masters some might still be a threat, but that's…unlikely."

"She's right." Said Hermione authoritatively. "Not to mention Slytherin was a well known bigot. I doubt he would have sullied himself with vampires." When she caught us all looking she flushed. "Not that I think of it that way, but he would have."

MY vampire didn't seem amused, though my Queen did. I turned to Theo. "So your old man studied this place for years. I sent an owl to my mother this morning but haven't heard back. Do you remember anything he might have said about it while you were growing up?" Anything he knew could probably help narrow things down.

"One thing." He admitted. "Nothing too important. He suspected the entrance had been moved or altered somehow. It's been opened before, but the castle has undergone multiple renovations, and there's no way it wouldn't have been found if it remained in the same place unless something blocked it off. My father suspected one of the heirs interfered in some of the renovations to cover up the access point."


I hadn't really considered that, but it made a lot of sense. Hogwarts was a big ass castle, and there was no way it hadn't been expanded. At the very least the wards were probably added to over the years. That process would have definitely revealed the chamber unless someone had stepped in.

"Ok…" I said as I started snatching up books. "We need to find instances of prior openings. If we can figure out who any of the heirs were, we can compare their tenure at the school with any of the major renovations. It might help us narrow things down."

Daphne, interested enough to get over her snit, jerked her head up. "Wait, I saw something about that. Hold on." She went digging around in the books for a few minutes before literally shouting "Aha!" And holding one of them up triumphantly. "Nineteen forty two. The last time it was opened. No specifics on who did it though."

Hermione, who had stood up and walked away while Daphne had her moment, settled back in with a huge leatherbound book and slammed it on the table. "Hogwarts: A history." She said proudly. "The fully annotated edition complete with expunged passages. Any renovations to be found will be in here."

"Cool story." I said matter of factly. "But why are you laying it there? Feel free to check it, but it's not like we can all go through it at once. Unless you can make copies?"

She scowled. "The duplication charm doesn't work on Hogwarts library books. They're all spelled to prevent copying so students don't create duplicates of dangerous books they shouldn't have access to."

Considering one of the books in the library taught you how to become an actual lich, I didn't think that was a terrible idea. It also helped me in this situation, because I did NOT want to dig around in some giant history tome for construction details.

Flushing, Hermione snatched it back up, grumbling about ungrateful berks. Since she was about to do a shit load of research I generously ignored her insults. She started flipping through the book, and I gestured back to the pile. "We should keep looking for openings. It might not have been the most recent. Hell, it probably wasn't."

Everyone dove back into research. I could see why they'd thought it was a myth. The reports of the chamber were all over the place. It existed, it didn't exist, it was actually one of a dozen chambers, there was one chamber but it moved around. And so on and so on.

There were a few commonalities that pretty much everyone agreed on though, and those were a good place to start. First, the chamber was low. It was most likely underground, because Slytherin preferred subterranean spaces, hence the location of the common room. Second, there was SOMETHING inside the chamber, protecting it.

Exactly what that thing was happened to be a matter of some debate, but its existence was all but a certainty. Ron's vampire story wasn't the dumbest, everything from living plants to some kind of giant animal was suggested, and then debunked, and then 'proven' only to be debunked again.

"Why do so many people CARE about this place?" I groaned. "This search would be way easier if we had less bad intel to sift through. It's like every other person who ever went here not only started looking for this place, but came up with some bullshit theory."

Daphne shrugged. "Power. The founders were some of the most powerful wizards and witches of their time. Merlin and Morgana both went here, as did many of the greatest wizards of legend. Founder artifacts can go for hundreds of thousands of gold when they appear, depending on their usefulness."

That got a snicker from Stori. "Someone tried to sell Rowena Ravenclaw's hairbrush at Durstwhiler's auction a few years ago. It got debunked at the last minute, but the bid was up to fifty thousand, and it wasn't even a magical item. Just a normal brush."

"Hey, I think I found something." Said Suzie excitedly. We all turned to look at her. "The Buried Vault." She read, finger running over the page. "An ancient secret chamber buried beneath Hogwarts…it is one of five legendary cursed vaults supposedly hidden on school grounds. Nevermind. Apparently that's the wrong secret chamber."

I face palmed. "Damn it, how many secret chambers does this school have? If there's that many then we might never find it."

Harry perked up. "Hey, what about the twins?" He asked excitedly. "They comb the castle all the time, I bet they know where all the secret passages and chambers are. They might not know exactly where the entrance might be, but we could use their information to narrow it down further."

"That's not a bad idea." I admitted. "Can you guys approach them after we finish researching? I still have to talk to them about following Lockhart, and I can't afford to pay them for both jobs."

Ron nodded. "It's for Harry. They'll do it for free." He smiled at his friend, clapping him on the shoulder. "He's family." Harry smiled back, looking a bit sheepish but deliriously happy, and I felt kind of bad for the guy. How much had his home life sucked that even basic friendship and comments like that made him light up like that.

"Think I got something." Said Val, holding up a hand. "I have lots of research practice from time at China's library. There was an opening of the chamber in…eighteen forty six? Interesting, how old is this place?"

Hermione stirred from where she was flipping through her book. "Over a thousand years old." She said proudly. "The founders created the original castle fortifications in nine hundred ninety three A.D. But eighteen forty six…that sounds familiar." She started flipping again, leafing backward until she found something.

"Hah!" She said triumphantly. "The castle expansion in eighteen forty six was a huge overhaul. Specifically they reworked multiple floors so they would be able to install indoor plumbing."

I grimaced. "This place existed for almost a millennia without indoor plumbing? What did they do with their shit." I didn't really want to think about it, but it was such a weird factoid I couldn't help but wonder.

"That's easy." Chriped Stori. "They-" She was cut off as Daphne covered her mouth.

My girlfriend glared at her sister before turning to me. "You don't want to know. Just trust me. I don't want to know, and I'm saving you. It's not going to make your life any better."

Hermione looked confused, flipping back through the book to find a glossary, then flipping to a different page and making a disgusted face, slamming the book shut. "She's right. I wish I hadn't learned that."

"That's a first." Ron muttered with a snicker. "Anyway, indoor plumbing means what exactly?"

I shrugged. "Well, combined with the whole underground thing, I would imagine the chamber is probably accessible through the pipes. Except I have no clue how that helps us because we're all human sized and the pipes…aren't."

"There's got to be an access point." Argued Hermione. "The heir would have ensured that he'd be able to enter. Maybe one of the bathrooms? Could be any of them though. There are about six on the lower floors of the castle, and if pipes are the access it might not be on the actual first floor."

Shaking my head, I waved her off. "Doesn't matter. We have a bunch of leads now. Bathrooms, the twins, and if water is involved the lake might have an entrance. Not to mention the chamber was opened in forty two, and several of the teachers were here at that time, so we can try and figure out who the last heir was and try to check their family tree. Chances are they'll be related to the current heir."

It wasn't an obvious answer in any way shape or form, but it would give us a place to start. I glanced at Daphne. "Can you fill Tracey and Shaggy in?" The two of them had sat this research party out, not wanting to leave Scooby on his own for hours, lest he eat everything in the Hufflepuff dorm. I wasn't sure Shaggy would be a great buffer for the food, but he was better than nothing.

She nodded, smiling at me, and I was glad to see she'd gotten over her irritation. "I'll talk to the twins." Harry said with a relieved smile. "At this rate we can figure out where the chamber is before the next attack. The sooner we get this done the safer everyone will be."

With that, we all got up and scattered, heading for various leads that might allow us to find the elusive chamber of secrets. I grabbed Daphne as she tried to leave pulling her off as the others headed for the various possible locations. I wanted her with me so we could talk. "So." I said, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Fancy a swim?"

November 2nd, 2011, The Black Lake, Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 PM BST

"Why do all of our dates end with us standing in front of a creepy lake." Said Daphne warily. She looked a bit worried, staring down into the dark water, and I couldn't blame her. "I hope there isn't a troll at the bottom of this one. And why does it have to be so bloody dark down there?" She asked. "I can't see a thing."

I shrugged. "Well it IS called the black lake." I said with a laugh. "Were you expecting it to be well lit? Maybe a nice two level effect with a little path running through it?"

"It's not the black lake." She said with exasperation. "It's the Black Lake. As in the Black family you dolt. It's named after your house." I paused, not having worked that out. Ignoring me floundering, Daphne gestured out to the water. "So…do you know how we're supposed to actually go about searching?"

I grinned at her, flicking my fingers and muttering a quick word. There was a sharp pop, and a pair of large bubbles appeared around both of our heads. "Bubble-head charm." I said unnecessarily. She looked at me uncomprehendingly and I rolled my eyes.

Considering the predicament, I cursed. I didn't know any short range two way vocal communication charms. There was apparently some long range charm that used a spirit animal or something but it was stupid high level and we wouldn't be learning it in class, Apparently it was considered niche.

Instead of getting down about it, I closed my eyes and focused hard on the idea of sending a message, creating a packet of sound like a voice recording and then displacing it across space the same way I teleported.

"Try this." I said slowly, explaining what I'd done to Daphne." I winced at the cost, because it was REAL fucking expensive power wise, but it worked. I saw a small demonic circle pop up next to her ear. "Actually hold on." Focusing again, I opened another demonic circle next to her ear, the other end right next to my mouth. "Say something."

She looked confused. "Something like what?" I grinned at her and she looked excited. "How are you doing this?"

"Easy." I said with a grin. "I opened a teleportation circle between the bubbles. It's transporting the sound I'm making from one to the other and back. I almost tried to invent a spell for it, but this is easier. The circles don't take much power at this size." I moved mine up to my ear. "Can you hear me still?"

She nodded excitedly. "I can. This is amazing Ryan! Think of how easily we can communicate over long distances now."

"It's definitely convenient. Anyway, we're going into the lake, I'd lose the robes. They'll drag you down." I stripped down to my boxers, then opened another small circle and dropped my clothes through it onto my bed in my dorm. That was going to be a really handy trick in the future."

She pouted at me, then did the same , and I couldn't help stare at her body hungrily as she stood in front of me in nothing but a pair of green silk panties and a silk and lace bra. "If these get ruined you're paying for them." She said sulkily. "And if anyone sees me."

I winked. "Weren't so worried after our poker game. Now come on, lets get in the water or someone WILL see you." She looked around hurriedly, then we both waded into the shallows of the lake.

It was deeply disturbing being waist deep in the dark water, but once we got under our darkvision took care of the gloom. The whole place was in crystal clear relief, and I was stopped for a moment by how beautiful it was. I was ALSO stopped by how fucking COLD the water was, and I hissed in discomfort, Daphne doing the same as we went in over our heads in a literal sense.

"Fuck." I spat. "That is brisk." She snorted at that, and I was glad to see that skimpy panties or not the cold water had helped me calm down, I wasn't even staring at the pale smooth cheeks of Daphne's flexing ass…oh wait there it was.

Shaking it off I started swimming. "So this bubble head charm." She said as we descended. "How long before we run out of air?"

"Normally like twenty minutes if we were careful." I said, eyes trained on the surrounding lake. "But given this new trick with the communication circle we can refill anytime." I froze, head whipping around. "Did you see that?" I snapped, wand coming up and darkness unfurling into a long whip.

She spun, searching the lake. "No. The dark isn't a problem, but this place isn't exactly open water." I nodded. Rock formations, seaweed, caves, hills, we were slowly approaching the bottom of the lake, and it wasn't a small thing. Off in the distance I could see a wriggling shape. The giant squid.

"Eyes on the side nearest the castle." I said as we searched. "Though obviously steer clear of the window that looks into the common room."

My necromancy was ready, luckily the darkness would work better underwater than spells, which could be notoriously finicky when submerged. A lot of spells cast on contact, and there was always a coin toss on whether you'd get a jet of bubbles or it would hit the water at the end of your wand and backlash.

"Ah!" Daphne shrieked, and I wheeled, wand coming up, snapping my necromantic whip in front of us where it cleaved the water.

"What?" I asked sharply. "What is it? Something attack you?"

She shook her head, and it was weird seeing her hair totally dry while we were underwater. "No. I saw…something. There was a small shape. It's over there." She pointed at a rocky outcropping and we drifted closer.

I swam towards it, wand ready. "Hey!" I called. Before remembering nothing could hear me. And I couldn't open another circle or I'd drown myself. Rolling my eyes, I flicked my hand, casting a flagrate charm. I had to overpower it a bit to prevent the fire from dosing, but I made a big flaming word in front of me. 'Hey'.

A small form wiggled out from behind the rock, green and gilled and kind of scaly. It glared at us, shouting. To my shock, not only did its voice somehow carry through the water and actually impact my charm so I could hear it, I could easily understand. Devils had a translation feature, but I'd never had a chance to use it.

"What do man thing?" It demanded. "Why enter lake? Don't belong!"

I shrugged, using the spell again. 'I'm down here looking for something. I take it you can read?'. It seemed to have understood my hey so I figured I'd take a chance.

It chittered. "Yes, Balgok read pathetic man language. Many words. Written on ruins, on items, on walls." It (he?) froze. "You speak the mer-tongue? Whisper the words of the sea tribe? Wicked man thing!"

Rolling my eyes. I cast again. 'We're down here trying to find a secret chamber.'

That seemed to confuse him. "Which?" He said. "Many secret places."

I wanted to pinch the bridge of my nose, but the bubble got in the way so I just sighed. 'We've gathered.' I cast in exasperation. 'We're looking for a really old one. It might have some kind of monster in it?"

"You look for monster?" He asked in confusion. I nodded. "You stupid?" Daphne burst out laughing and I glared at her.

'I'm not stupid.' I scribed furiously. 'We need to find a special place and it might have a monster.'

He snorted. "Sound stupid to me." He muttered (and how the hell did that even work underwater). "Fine. Balgok guide. You pay?"

'In what?" I demanded. 'Sardines?' I was getting extorted by a barely sapient fish person. Daphne was never going to live this down. 'What do you even use for currency down here? Shells or something?'

He rolled his eyes. "Shiny rock." He said bluntly. "Balgok string on gills. Attract females. Many rock is great provider." He gestured at his head. "No rocks."

Great, so I was going to be paying shiny stones to a mer-man so he could LITERALLY get his rocks off. Ryan Black, pimp of the sea. My ancestors would be so proud. 'Fine.' I scrawled. 'We'll get you shiny rocks but we don't have them now. Guide us first.'

"Decietful man thing!" He hissed. "Balgok not stupid. Balgok knows man things lie. Won't just believe anything you say."

'I can't lie.' I cast with a straight face. 'I'm cursed to only tell the truth.'

He blinked. "Is true?"

'If it wasn't.' I wrote. 'Would I have admitted that? Not being able to lie is a great weakness. Only someone cursed with honesty would admit to that.'

He nodded slowly. "Is true. Great weakness." He grinned at me, exposing way too many sharp teeth for such a tiny mouth. "You say to Balgok you bring many stone? Can't lie, Balgok will hang most rock."

'Yup.' I scrawled solemnly. 'I have to bring them. My curse will force me to.'

"Balgok knows of a place." he said eventually. "Rocks fall, close cave. Behind is thing. You wish to see?"

I glanced at Daphne and we both nodded, following the little mer-man as he took off through the water. We were devils, and very strong, and we were both decent swimmers, but Balgok was fucking FAST. I had to windmill my arms like a damned propellor to keep up. Finally, we came to a hole in the dirt.

Inside the hole I could see stone piled, tons of stone, a wall of stone. I couldn't see very far in, but I cursed when I got there.

Magic rock. All of it. Probably something from the castle. Which meant punching through it would take a TON of power, assuming the lake didn't just blow up when I tried or something. "Fuck." I snapped. "A literal dead end. What a waste."

"Maybe not." Said Daphne slowly. "I mean, we can't get in this way, but it's something. If we can figure out where this cave would lead in relation to the school it can narrow down the general area of the entrance. Especially if we cross reference with the plumbing clue. This could be the closest anyone has ever gotten to finding the chamber!"

She sounded giddy, and I smiled at her enthusiasm. Daphne was getting into this whole chamber hunt, and it was cute to see.

"Well, it can't hurt." I said with a laugh. "We can cross reference with what everyone else finds out. Until then, we're down in this nice lake, it's awfully pretty and there's no hurry. I believe I promised you a swim?"

Chuckling, she swam over to me, grabbing my hand. I flicked my fingers, letting the mer-man know he was dismissed and we'd come back with his rocks (we probably would, a few gems wouldn't be hard to find). Then we set off to explore.

The lake was a whole other world, and cold aside, once we got used to it the place was gorgeous. I actually did end up collecting some shells for Daphne, which I promise to make into something pretty for her, and we just swam around, talking and enjoying ourselves. I was one of the most pleasant evenings I'd had since the year started.

Finally though, it was time to go, and we emerged from the lake, pruney and having spent hours down there, but happy despite the cold. I wrapped my arms around her and teleported us to my room so we could dry off and we fell into bed, warm and dry as we cuddled together. The Chamber of Secrets could wait a night.

November 3rd, 2011, Slytherin Dorm, Hogwarts, Scotland, 4:00 PM BST

Waking up the next day, I decided to flex my circles of teleportation once again. Closing my eyes, I envisioned the rooms of all my friends, writing out a message and dropping them through. I hadn't been to all the Hufflepuff dorms, so I dropped one to Seras and asked her to deliver them, and I just gave D.B's to Daphne for when she saw her in class.

The notes weren't anything expansive, just an update of what we found and where and a request to meet after class. Daphne promised to pass the request to Harry in class as well, my…cousin (or whatever he was) being a member of the DADA class just like she was.

My own day in Charms was pretty relaxing, studying material composition for anchors, and when it ended we all headed to the library for the meeting.

When we entered, Harry and Ron waved us over, the first seeming excited and the latter a little sick. "We talked to the twins." Harry blurted out. "And they've been keeping an eye out for weird stuff while they watched Lockhart. They said they found something, but didn't mention it because while it seemed weird it didn't have any real bearing on anything."

"Ok, well what is it?" I asked. "And what's the deal with Ron? He looks ready to throw up and cry."

Harry glanced at his best friend. "Oh, he's got a spider phobia. Which is what they found. Spiders. Tons of them. They've been fleeing the castle in droves, all headed in straight lines for the forest."

"Oh shit." I said in fascination. "What does that mean?" I glanced at Hermione, who was flipping through the same history book as yesterday.

She was distracted, but eventually looked up to see us all staring at her. The Gryffindors had gotten here first, but aside from them it was just me and Tracey at the moment. "What?": She demanded when she noticed us staring. "How am I supposed to know? I'm not a magic eight ball you know."

Ron looked confused and opened his mouth to respond, but I waved him off. "It's fine." I said. "We can just go investigate. The timing can't be a coincidence. Maybe there's something out there calling to them. Maybe the chamber guardian is a giant spider itself, and it's like…summoning its brethren to create an unstoppable spider army."

Ron whimpered, putting his head in has hands, and the Gryffindors glared at me. "I'm sure that isn't it." Hermione said forcefully. "But looking into it might help. It's possible there's another entrance tunnel there like the one you found in the forest. If so, having another line to trace, combined with having the basic idea where to find the Chamber, could let us triangulate the exact location."
I sighed, nodding. "Yeah, that's a good point. I'll check it out. I can bring Seras, she has something of a knack for tracking things."

More than that, I just hadn't been spending enough time with my vampire. Suzie was a constant presence and Daphne made sure I always made time, but Seras was probably the most subservient of my servants, something about our dynamic and her need to feed made her more reticent to engage as an equal.

That was obviously bad for a relationship, and I wanted some alone time with her to try to help her relax a bit about us as a couple. We'd been friends before everything happened, and I liked her. She had no reason to consider me her master or anything, and I wanted to make that clear. While I WAS King of my peerage, I tried not to interact like that, wanting to be more of a team leader.

Before we could go much further the others arrived. Daphne dropped down into the seat next to me, giving me a peck on the cheek before raising an eyebrow at Ron. "What's with him?"

"Spider phobia." I said succinctly. "Apparently there's some kind of mass spider exodus." I Glanced at Seras. "You feel like a field trip to the great outdoors? I could use someone with tracking skills." Also superhuman strength. While not on the same level as my Queen, Seras was still absurdly powerful.

Honestly I wasn't convinced she wasn't actually stronger pound for pound, but with the addition of a Knight's speed to her Rook's strength Val had the edge in every confrontation, not to mention she had been trained in martial arts by some of the most dangerous people in the sorcerous world while Seras only knew a few basic grappling moves from the police academy.

She shrugged. "I'm game. It's been a while since we've spent time together." She raised an eyebrow. "You do know this doesn't count as a game?"

I grinned. Despite her keeping some distance, Seras wasn't an overly formal person. It should be easy to get her comfortable again when we had some time to talk. I really wanted to check in on how she was doing in the new school year. It had been a while since she lost her parents, and while devil shit and wizard nonsense were good distractions, I wasn't sure how she was recovering.

Despite wanting to leave right away, apparently the twins had specifically mentioned the spider parade as being a night time event. Plus two students wandering into the forest in broad daylight would draw too much attention, so we decided to wait a few hours until it got dark.

This was going to be my first major foray into the forest, and honestly I was both scared and excited. My instincts had always warned me off entering, feeling things inside I hadn't been sure I could handle. With my combat training and my Rook at my side,though, I was sure I could deal with anything we found. I wanted to test out my Aqua Eructo progress anyway.
"Well, we have a decent head start on this." Announced Hermione. She pulled out a parchment with a hastily scrawled map of the castle. On it was a big circle, and the lake had a line drawn through it leading toward the castle. "We have a line right through the area we need to be looking in, but without another line finding it is going to be tricky. There are about ten bathrooms in this area, and three are along this axis."

I winced. The encircled area was the full section of the castle where indoor plumbing had first been added. It covered a few floors, but we'd realized that first floor bathrooms weren't exactly a sure thing because of the pipes themselves.

"Can we use that to narrow down where we need to go?" I asked in sudden inspiration. "There are three points for us to choose from. The forest is huge, but if you can give us even a general radius for where those points would intersect, it would help us find the tunnel without having to trip over it."

She made an uncertain sound. "Maybe. I thought you were following the spiders." She turned and glared as Ron made a noise. "Oh stop whimpering, there aren't even any spiders here."

"We will." I said with a shrug. "But we're only assuming that the spiders are a clue. Coincidences are unusual but DO happen, and if we end up finding a dead end I'd rather have another place to start."

Nodding, she grabbed the map and traced a few lines. We didn't have exact angles, but since we were pretty sure the forest was a starting point and we had one axis she was able to make a series of guesses based on the factors we had. I thanked her, then took it from her. "Alright, Seras and I will go out and check these places. Until we get back, keep researching. Even if we get in we need to know what we're dealing with."

We weren't heading down to the forest immediately but I wanted to prepare before we left. Specifically I wanted to prepare Seras. I let everyone know we needed to go get ready and then took her with me back to the dorm from an empty alcove nearby.

When we arrived, I sat down on the bed. "You sure you want to do this? I won't force you. Big creepy forest full of spiders, the tracking thing was obviously an excuse, I just want my number one badass bitch on the case." I grinned so she'd know I meant it as a compliment, but she just rolled her eyes.

"I think you'll find that title is taken by a certain mouthy irish goth." She said, almost sulklily. "I'm a middling badass bitch at most."

I snorted, rolling my eyes. "You're a badass and you know it. Val is tough, but you're a vampire. You'll keep getting stronger at a much faster rate. Alucard is probably way stronger than whoever his master's Queen was. Speaking of which, I don't want you going on there on an empty stomach."
She raised an eyebrow, looking around. "Well you dropped me in the wrong place. My supply is in my down, in the stasis container your mum packed."

"That's old blood." I said with a shake of my head. "It's still good, but I was weaker when I drained it, and you know as well as I do that even in stasis the demonic energy fades over time." I reached up, unbuttoning my shirt, and pulled my collar away. "I want you in top form, which means you're eating fresh. Just call me Subway."

Her eyes went wide, and her breathing just…stopped. I knew she didn't need to breathe. She did it as an affectation and to remember to seem human. Now though, she looked anything but. Her eyes, blue in her contacts, were fixed on me and the rest of her body was statue still. I knew her pupils would be dilated.

"Come." I commanded, and she slowly stalked across the room. Her movements changed, from her normal energetic bounce to a kind of sensuous creep. She climbed into my lap and growled a bit as I pulled her against me. Her body felt amazing, and I briefly considered just tossing her on the bed and wasting the few hours we had to kill the old fashioned way. In the end though, I wanted this to be about feeding, not sex, so I contented myself with a little light groping.

Seras wriggled in my lap, her face pressed hard into my chest. "S'not fair." She whimpered. "You smell so good. How am I supposed to resist?"

"You're not." I said sharply, smacking one of the cheeks I'd been kneading, enjoying her yelp. "You're supposed to drink like I told you. Now eat up. You need your strength for what's coming next."

She whined a bit, I knew she didn't like the idea of feeding directly, but I wouldn't take the chance of her being hurt in a place we didn't know anything about. She shifted her head, and I heard a whisper as she sunk her teeth in. I didn't feel it for a few seconds because her teeth were so sharp, but after she pierced my flesh I felt her start to draw.

I expected to need to stop her again, but after she drank about a pint she pulled back, gently lapping at the holes in my neck to help them close, vampire saliva being an excellent coagulant. "Good girl." I said, stroking her hair. "Now go and change into something more suited to forestry than a schoolgirl outfit. You look hot, but I don't think the giant spiders will care. I'm going to nap, wake me up about an hour after sundown."

She giggled almost drunkenly, standing up almost too fast for me to track. I was glad we weren't going to be around people for a while, because Seras was in full vampire mode. I didn't mind though. I thought it was kind of sexy. In any case I needed to sleep and recover some blood. Grabbing a bottle of butterbeer from a trunk under my bed, I drained it and then slumped down to sleep a bit. I'd be awake soon, and then my night would really begin.

November 3rd, 2011, Slytherin Dorm, Hogwarts, Scotland, 11:00 PM BST

"You should have woken me up earlier!" I growled at Seras as we stalked toward the edge of the forest. "I told you an hour after sunset." It was almost midnight now, and while that didn't really change anything, I was annoyed at having missed so much evening.

My vampire shrugged unapologetically. "You needed the sleep. I took too much. Get mad at me if you want but I did the right thing." She batted her eyelashes at me. "You could always spank me for being bad if you're that upset about it." We were trudging through the Hogwarts grounds, following the trail of spiders the twins had mentioned.

"Tempting." I drawled. "But maybe next time. Spiders don't exactly put me in the mood."

She grimaced. "I was trying not to think about that. Remind me why I volunteered for this again? I should have just said no and had you take Queenie."

"You know that isn't an insult to her right?" I said with a chuckle. "Also didn't you lose that sparring match? I thought your deal was that only the winner got to pick a nickname?" Poor Seras had gotten her ass kicked after duelling club.

She just grinned. "The winner gets to pick a nickname and the loser can't COMPLAIN. I've accepted her name for me, and I made one up for her. She's free to complain about it if she likes." Her smug expression melted as we came to a stop. "Are we sure this is wise?" She asked, gesturing to the small line of spiders we were following.

"Almost definitely not." I answered bluntly. "But we need that last axis. There are three possible options, and it'll probably take us ages of searching each bathroom. We don't have a lot of time before another attack I'm guessing."

Without further ado, I crossed into the forest. From one step to the next, things…changed. Not obviously, or dramatically, but they shifted. The dark got deeper, though we could still see through it easily. The effect was odd, like the whole world was in greyscale, but nothing else changed visibly.

The biggest thing that changed though was the sensation of being watched. THINGS were out in the trees, things behind cover or up in branches. I could see them skittering out of the corner of my eye, hear them moving through the leaves just faintly enough to possibly be the wind.

As a human this would have terrified me, I'd have been ready to bolt back to the grounds. As a devil, it just really pissed me off.

I spun angrily, fist snapping out to smash into the bark of a tree, leaving a fist shaped dent. A creature in the branches hissed scampered away, and I glared after it, never having caught sight of the damned thing.
"You alright?" Asked Seras warily. Her eyes were glowing a lambent red, and the shadows themselves seemed to almost warp around her. Whatever made this place so 'forbidden' wasn't forbidding to her. She moved nearly soundlessly, to the point where I might have missed the slight rustling of her steps if I hadn't been watching.

I nodded slowly. "How are you doing that?" I asked, gesturing to her feet. On closer inspection I could see her shoes pressing down on the grass, but the blades were only bending slightly, like she was a fraction of her actual weight.

She glanced down, surprised, before cocking her head. "I think I'm flying? Not consciously, but it feels kind of like that. Like I'm shunting gravity to the side , but just not enough to actually take off." I frowned at her, considering her description. I kind of understood, though it wasn't intuitive for me like it was for her.

It took me a few tries, but I finally managed to lighten myself without popping my wings. It was HARD. Any more and I'd be actively floating. This was more…moonwalking. It was cool though. I followed behind her, and the two of us walked deeper into the forest. "Is this the right direction to hit one of the possible access points."

The deeper we got, the more the trees condensed, forming an impenetrable cover over our heads, the canopy sealing absolutely every trace of light. Which did…nothing. We could still see fine, and without any light or even much noise, we would be tough to hear coming.

When we reached a large clearing though, Seras grabbed me. Leaning up, she said with a breath so quiet even my devil hearing could barely pick it up. "Something is watching us. Lots of somethings." She gestured around us, and I squinted at the trees. I could make out some think strands woven through the canopy, and I realized exactly what I was seeing.

"Spider web." I breathed. I glanced around, looking for something that might be a tunnel mouth. Sure enough, at the base of the largest most web infested tree, I saw a dark hole. Holding up a finger, I drifted off the ground, wings spreading as I floated forward. I didn't know if spiders could see in the dark, but I know they had ways of tracking prey, especially with their webs.

The strands were about wrist thick in some places, strung across fifty foot gaps, and I could see suspiciously large lumps of web wrapped and hanging from them, presumably the bodies of other prey. I wouldn't have been shocked at all if some of them had been human. I knew a single touch of those strands would send a signal they could pick up from anywhere on the web, touch was also a powerful sense spiders relied on.

Sadly, sight seemed to be as well, because as I came closer, the incoming streams of spiders converged and a fucking SWARM of the eight legged bastards blocked my path forward. From above, a sibilant male voice purred. "Who are you, human things? Who come to our home with fangs and wings?"

I sighed, looking up in the direction of the voice. The canopy parted, and a beast emerged. I called it a beast because it was the size of a fucking car, hateful faceted eyes focused on my face, reflecting a hundred images of my disgust. Its huge mandibles dripped either saliva or venom, and its stare was intense.

"I'm Ryan Black." I said, because lying to a spider seemed like a stupid idea. "Who are you?" It was unlikely for the spider to know my family name, but unlikely wasn't impossible. If it bought me an extra second to think that would be fine.

It cocked its bulbous head. "I? I am simply a resident of this great forest. It is my home. It is not yours human. But you seek my name. It is good. All humans seek to name their fears, to control them lest they be consumed. Hear my name human thing, for it will not save you. I am Aragog."

"I'd have guessed Frank." I turned to Seras. "Doesn't he look like a Frank to you?" I eased my wand out, letting the darkness unspool. No matter how good their eyesight, they weren't devils. They had no dark vision, which meant they had no chance of seeing my necromancy against the complete black of our surroundings. Even looking for it I barely saw it.

She snickered. "More of a Bobby." She said calmly. Seras was a vampire AND a devil. She knew how to keep her cool, especially with her instincts firing on all cylinders right now. As for me…I wasn't scared. I knew I could handle this. Dumbledore's training, my mom's, all of it had given me the confidence to bring to bear against my enemies.

"I'm looking for a tunnel." I said casually, ignoring the hungry stares of thousands of varying sizes of spider. "A tunnel leading to the school. This one will be old, and probably guarded by something terrifying." We still didn't know what it actually WAS especially with spider out of the running, but those two adjectives seemed like a safe bet.

He'd begun to slowly creep forward, but when he heard that he stopped. "You seek…to slay the beast?" He asked cautiously. "Truly?"

"I do." I said, feeling like this was taking a positive turn. "It's your enemy right?" Seras looked interested, but not relaxed. She'd been tensed for an attack since we stopped, and I wasn't going to complain about her preparedness. Having a Rook who took her job seriously was fine with me. Still I don't think she wanted to fight it any more than I did. We both waited hopefully for a possible easy end to this mess.

It nodded slowly. "It is our ancient foe. If you were to slay it, you would be doing us an inestimable service." I sighed in relief, I was pretty pleased I wasn't going to be fighting a giant thousand year old spider beast.

"Perfect." I said with a laugh. "So, can you confirm that this tunnel is the one we seek?" I pointed at it. "And is it open for passage?"

I almost cursed when he shook his massive head. "It has long since been sealed. We piled it high with stones, forbidding passage to our ancient enemy. You seek to beard the creature in its lair?" I was paying attention to his words, but in the background I heard lots of shifting and creaking.

My stomach dropped. I was pretty sure they were getting into position for an ambush. Hoping I was wrong, I let my necromancy coil around us, weaving it tightly to create a shield surrounding our bodies.

"We do." I said, pretending like neither of us was getting ready to slaughter the other. "Can you move those rocks so we can get in? It'll be much easier to kill it if we take it by surprise."

He shook his head again, clicking his mandibles in a rapid chitter that it took me a second to identify as a laugh. "But human thing, to remove those stones would be to open ourselves to death. If you can indeed slay our ancient foe, that is best, but should you fail, you will simply bring about our doom. In order to assist you, we will first need to ascertain your chances against the beast. We will put you to a test."

I had a sinking feeling I knew what that test was, and I adjusted my footing, getting ready for a fight. Beside me, Seras crouched slightly and I was amazed to see darkness seep from her robes and down her hands, elongating them into wickedly sharp talons. Val must have been giving her lessons.

"What is this test, Aragog?" I said, keeping my tone light and friendly as I watched for any sign of attack. "We aren't spiders, we might not be equipped for whatever task you have in mind."

He chittered again. "Oh, worry not human thing. This is a task for which all beings are suited. You see, if you can be of help to us by slaying the beast that would be wonderful, but if not, well…my ranks have grown. With so many new children to feed, I am in desperate need of sustenance. It would be rude to waste such considerate food that delivers itself to our door."

"Ok, but what does that have to do with a test?" I was stalling, I knew the answer. But since I could cast silently and wandlessly I was able to erect my shield around us carefully, slowly altering the intent of the spell to be all but invisible. The slight shimmer would have been a giveaway in the light, but here there was nothing for it to glint off of.

This time the laugh was picked up by every single one of the spiders, a creepy avalanche of chittering clicks from all around us. "That is simple human thing. Your task is one all prey must accomplish, lest they be culled. You must simply…survive!" And then a rain of spiders, from giant to normal sized poured down onto us. I hated being right.

As usual pat-reon has the advanced chapters at that site /malcolmtent