January 5th, 2012, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:00 PM BST

The rest of Christmas break was relaxing and amusing in equal measure. I'd spent most nights with Suzie and Daphne, though Seras had gotten plenty of face time as well. I got a few fun gifts for Christmas, and Stori was glowing at how thrilled Harry was with all his presents. Val spent the holiday sulking until the last night before we headed back when she mysteriously had a change of heart and was suddenly giddy and affectionate especially around Sirius.

Now though, now that was over, and we were back at school, sitting in the great hall enjoying the welcoming feast as we plotted our raid on the Chamber. It was Thursday, so we were putting it off for two more days, but we wanted to make sure we were prepared.

"Bam said the lady!" Crowed Tracey smugly as she slammed down a pair of thick dark goggles on the table. "Ask and ye shall receive." She glanced at Shaggy. "Did I say that right, babe?" She winked at us. "He's been showing me his favorite muggle TV shows."

I picked up the goggles, examining them slowly. "Not bad." I admitted. "Thank your dad for us next time you talk to him."

"Will do. But I'm still not sure what the point of this was." She sighed. "I hate to admit it but I doubt a few pairs of charmed mirrored goggles are going to be enough to take care of a…" She trailed off. "Basilisk."

"It won't." I agreed. "But it doesn't have to be. It's insurance. If one of us gets an eyefull this means paralysis instead of death." I remembered Colin's camera. "Although, there's a decent chance the lenses will blow up in your eyes when it happens, so I would do your vest to steer clear of needing them." I glanced at D.B. "How about your side of things?"

Chuckling, she pulled out a series of elaborate devices. "Freddy was curious about why I needed these periscopes, but he didn't dig in his heels about it."

"I learned that Proprioception Charm you mentioned." Said Daphne with a grin. "I can teach it to everyone else before saturday."

Blaise grimaced. "Antivenom is a no go." He admitted. "There is no counter to Basilisk Venom. It's basically the liquid form of Fiendfyre. No one bitten by a Basilisk has ever been successfully treated. Or if they have they kept quiet about it."

"He tried really hard though." Stori said emphatically. "He stayed up late for most of the break working. I even tried to help but I'm not as good at Potions as he is. Sorry Ryan."

I waved them off. "It's fine. It was a long shot. I'll be making sure the thing doesn't bite any of them in the first place. I just wanted to cover every angle." I glanced at Suzie. "How about armor. Was your aunt able to recommend anything sturdy enough? Or maybe Ghastly had an idea?" That last one was aimed at Val.

"Sorry honey." Said Suzie with a shrug. "Unless you want to pay to have custom full plate suits of goblin silver made for all of us, there's nothing that stops Basilisk fangs. Not that there's a chance of that. I doubt the whole ministry could pay for one suit of the stuff. Even charms and small weapons cost a king's ransom."

Val grimaced. "Ghastly didn't actually answer when I asked him. He just started laughing. He didn't stop until I left. It was really annoying."

"Then I guess that's our whole strategy." I shrugged. "Seras and Val are enough of a counter for the raw size, we've covered the eyes, the venom, the fangs. We're as prepared for a Basilisk as we can possibly get. Which just leaves whoever the fuck has been sicking it on people. Anyone made any headway on the Heir?"

Daphne snorted. "Oh sure." She said with a bitter smile. "I can tell you who it is. In fact, I can tell you ten different people who are definitely the Heir, and about fifty others who everyone is at least pretty sure of."

"Yeah, she's not wrong." Said Hannah with a grimace. "Even in Hufflepuff there are about a dozen accusations floating around. Everyone is freaking out, and freaking out makes people stupid. Our only real option here is to wait and see who it is when we get there. Which I know, makes preparing for them a bit tough."

We were sitting at the end of the table, everyone here except Harry and Co. (because that would have been way too attention grabbing) and didn't have to be too quiet because everyone was giving us a wide berth. Rumors of ME being the Heir were still circulating, though no one was getting in my face about it on account of how I terrified them all.

I took a large bite of pot roast. "Man, this is really good. Wish Seras was down here. I'll have to go feed her later."

Seras had opted to stay up in the Hufflepuff dorm with Scooby. The vampire and the dog had bonded over the break, and she felt bad he couldn't attend feasts. I'd given her the ability to summon Kreacher so she could feed him, but I'd been unable to bleed for her too recently.

Shaggy grinned. "Like, yeah. She and Scoob are probably having a blast up there, but I miss my buddy. I got so used to eating with him again."

"Aww, I'm sorry Shag." Said Tracey, laying her head on his shoulder. "I know how much the big lug means to you. I have to admit, he's about the cutest possible pillow in the world. He's so big and soft and warm."

Suzie giggled. "He was so cute on Christmas morning too. I think he was surprised we got him presents, but he loved all of them so much. That new tube of tennis balls especially."

"He's very picky about his brand." Shaggy said wisely. "It was nice of you guys to ask."

Christmas this year had been hectic, confusing, and honestly one of my best holidays in years. Having the whole extended family there had been fulfilling in a way I hadn't ever really experienced, and I was in a shockingly good mood for someone who was about to go fight a giant snake monster.

Taking another bite of my dinner, I let out a quiet groan of contentment. Suzie, who was sitting next to me, beamed and bumped my with her shoulder as the others began talking amongst themselves. "You've seemed happier lately. I like it."

"Good." I said with a laugh. "Because you caused it. Without your help dealing with my devilish nature I'd be nowhere near this balanced. I can see why devils need to stay near their kings to keep from going stray. King pieces aren't usually used to reincarnate a devil, according to the booklet, so my case is a bit unique." I winked at her. "Luckily so are you, so I'm still ok."

She blushed furiously. "That's not…I don't do anything any girlfriend wouldn't do. Plus I'm shy and kind of a pushover. I'm not that great."

I caught her face in my hands, softly kissing her. As I pulled away, her eyelids fluttered, but I kept her face in my hands. "You, Susan Bones, are the kindest, strongest, bravest person I have ever met. Everything about you is special, and your heart has only grown bigger as we've been together. And that's a comment on your bravery and not your ever expanding cup size."

She giggled at that and I winked as I let her go. She knew I got uncomfortable with displays of emotion and crude jokes made me feel better about being emotionally open. Our conversation had drawn attention from at least one of our tablemates though.

"Do I get one of these speeches?" Asked Daphne archly. "Or is it my turn? Because I could wax poetic about the joys of Susan Bones as well as the next person."

I grinned wickedly. "Oh trust me. I'm well aware of how poetic you find Susan's joys. Though I don't know if waxing is the word I'd use to describe you experiencing them. Both of you girls tend to prefer trimming."

Her eyes widened as they flicked around. "Ryan." She hissed. "You can't talk about that in public. People aren't supposed to know Susan and I do…that." Her porcelain cheeks flared red in the cutest way. "Proper witches don't partake of the fairer sex. If word gets out that I-"

"If word gets out that you're bisexual." I stated firmly. "Which it won't because I've got a silencing charm wrapped around us. "People will do absolutely nothing about it, and anyone who tries will get my foot so far up their ass I'll leave boot prints on the top of their skull. Of course I won't tell your secrets if you don't want them to come out, but you never have to worry about how people will take them. Most of the school has spent at least some portion of this year thinking I'm a psychotic dark wizard and said nothing about it. No one will bother you either way."

Suzie beamed at her. "And everyone who loves you won't care either way. I love the things we do together. You're my best friend, Daph, the sister I never had. Our relationship is beautiful and I would never want you to apologize for it."

"She doesn't even get how amazing it is that she can say things like that with a straight face and not sound cheesy." Complained Daphne, eyes shining as she tried not to grin like an idiot (and mostly failed). "How are we supposed to compete with that?" She reached across the table and took one of each of our hands, squeezing them briefly before pulling back.

I shrugged. "Can't be done. Though I could use some advice. We've all been doing great, but things with Seras have been kind of stilted. I don't know, we're just not clicking like we did before she turned. I thought maybe my redheaded friendship guru would have some ideas on how to fix things."

Some of our hang outs seemed like they might have set things right, but since Daphne and Suzie and I had our night together, we'd gotten much closer than before, and Seras had drifted.

She was there when I called, always happy to drink from me or fuck, but we weren't really bonding like we used to. She'd been one of my first friends in london and I missed talking to her, but with our new dynamic it was hard to talk about it, especially given what happened to her. 'Sorry your parents died horribly but we don't make small talk anymore' wasn't exactly a sensitive way to start a conversation.

My mom and she were still super close, so I considered asking her, but Suzie was our resident cinnamon roll, and if anyone would have an idea it would be her.

Her face lit up as she started chattering about possible ways to fix things, and I smiled and enjoyed the sight of her so excited. I was lucky to have her, to have all three of them. I wanted to do my best to treat my girls well.

Of course, at the same time I was about to put them at horrible risk just to clear my reputation. I wished, not for the first time, that I could go into the chamber alone, but I knew they'd have no part of it. Hell, it probably wasn't even a good idea, just my Pride talking, easily my sneakiest sin. I shook off that sensation and focused on how warm and happy I was with my friends. We were strong, we were being careful. We could do this. I didn't know who the heir of Slytherin was, but we were going to kick their ass.

January 6th, 2012, Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 PM BST

"So I appreciate you coming out here with me for this." I said to Seras, doing my best to keep a straight face. "I had to pay extra to rent the pitch, but it seemed like it would be worth it. I feel like Scooby and I haven't gotten a ton of time to hang out."

She raised an eyebrow at me skeptically. "Ryan, I might be a bit distractible at times, but I'm not stupid. It's pretty obvious that you did this for me."

"Partly." I admitted. "But not exclusively I mean, he really has been dying to learn to play. Admittedly, I was hoping you would have some fun too, and I know how close you two have been getting, but come on, are you really telling me you don't want to watch me teach a dog quidditch?"

The huge great dane's head jerked up as he scanned the pitch, waving the broom currently held in his jaws all around as he looked. "Rog?" He mumbled around the broom. "Rare?" I chuckled, having expected Scooby's signature line.

Seras smiled grudgingly. "Ok, it's going to be adorable. But shouldn't we be prepping for the giant snake fight?"

"Prepping how?" I laughed. "We already got everything we can reasonably prepare set up. Unless you have a giant mongoose handy I think we're pretty much out of possible preparations we can make."

She snorted. "Fine, I'll take part in this obvious charade. But only because the idea of a dog playing quidditch is adorable."

I grinned and leaned forward to give her a light peck on the lips. "Better get your beaters bat ready, because Scoob and I are going to kick your ass. Isn't that right bud?" I winked at the dog, who nodded excitedly, proclaiming his agreement.

She just smirked, getting into the spirit of things as we all headed to the center of the field to mount our brooms. Seras had been through a lot, but I'd noticed that part of her coping mechanism was to hyper focus on work. Her police work was gone, but bodyguarding me was the next best thing.

Based on lyrics from a bad 80s pop song, I was pretty sure girls wanted to have fun. Maybe not exclusively like the song claimed, but it was definitely on the list.

Hence, dog quidditch. I called my broom up to my hand and climbed on, and she did the same. We floated up about ten feet, and I turned to check on Scooby…only to choke back a laugh. The poor pup was hanging upside down from the broom, paws locked together behind it to stop himself from falling.

"Scoob." I laughed. "You have wings. Just use them to reorient yourself."

He blinked at me. "Rings?" He asked. There was a slight delay and then a pair of black bat wings sprouted from his back, letting him shift himself around and float upright on the broom. He still had his paws hooked around it, but it was around the bottom this time.

"Alright." I said with a chuckle. "Seras is on beater, I'll be playing opposition. Scooby is seeker. Look for a gold ball the size of a tangerine buddy." He licked his lips exaggeratedly and I laughed. "It's real gold buddy. Try not to swallow it." He drooped a bit, but nodded. THen we all took off.

Scooby started combing the field first thing, and I stuck to Seras. She stared in calm preparation when Daphne and Suzie brought out the trunk of quidditch balls and then released the ones we were using.

The giant iron sphere that was the bludger headed right at us, or more appropriately, right at Seras. My vampire wasn't worried, night was falling so her senses were extra sharp. She whirled her beater's bat around, easily backhanding the ball away. It was still closer to her, so it went at her again, and that's when the fun started.

Taking a page from Scooby, she fell sideways, spinning vertically as she dipped under her broom in time to see the bludger streak through the spot her head had been.

I hauled back at the ball to intercept as she continued her roll, smashing a bat into the tail end of the thing as it went by, sending it careening into me. I reversed the course, rebounding it to her, and she smashed it straight up like a volleyball serve so she could hit it toward me again with some more english on it.

We traded shots like that for a while, spinning and standing and dropping, and just generally ignoring possible consequences to make sure that the ball didn't get past us. Neither of us wanted to see Scooby hit.

"So..." I panted with a laugh. "You having fun yet?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I am, nitwit. I'm always having fun, but I still have a job to do. I was the first of your guards. I need to prove myself."

"Bullshit." I snorted. "I watched you kill a pack of giant spiders. Clearly you're more than qualified. I don't want you to let me die or anything. I'm me, and I like being alive, but you don't need to be the perfect soldier all the time. We were friends before you turned. I miss that. I'm just trying to get you to loosen up."

Her next hit was harder, and I barely managed to block it. "Loosen up?" She snapped. "Loosen up? Do you know how hard I have to work not to rip the throat out of anyone who looks at me wrong? I don't know what being a devil is like, but being a vampire is HARD. I'm still getting used to it."

"So what?" I shrugged. "I don't mind letting you tap a vein now and then. And I can keep you off me if you lose control. If you're that hungry, just tell me so I can help."

Her gaze bored into me, clearly conflicted. I suspected she was both angry about how casual I was being and grateful about me giving her carte blanche to bite me when she needed it. I heard the broomstick creak under her hands as she bared her teeth, and when the bludger came back this time she lashed out harder than any of her previous blows.

There was a painful sounding groan as the bat smashed a large dent into the side of the iron ball, though it also cracked in the process. The bludger dropped like a stone, falling fifty feet and smashing into the ground with a bone rattling thump.

Seras blinked at her bat, holding it up and poking it as half of the thing fell off, sprialing down to thunk into the ground like a dropped machete. "Oops." She said with wince.

"Ryan!" Came a happy but muffled voice. "I caught the ritch!" I turned to find Scooby floating next to me, paws only lightly touching his broomstick. I laughed and reached out for it, taking the winged ball from him.

"That's awesome Scoob." I said enthusiastically. "Can you go get it again?" I was actually pretty impressed with his speed tracking it down. Weighing it in my hand for a second, I hauled back and hurled it straight up into the air.

Scooby bolted after it, howling in excitement, and I grinned at him. Seras floated up next to me.

"I always wanted a puppy when I was a little girl." She admitted. "And Scooby… He's such a sweetheart. It's hard to be sad with him around. He's just so full of joy. I guess maybe I should work on feeling like that more than just when I'm playing with the dog."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Dog?" I said in a puzzled tone. "Where?"

She burst out giggling. "There a plan for helping me come out of my shell? Or is this just a 'fix what's wrong with you bitch' kind of talk?"

"I don't think I've ever had one of those." I laughed. "And please don't imply to Suzie that I said anything even remotely like that to you, or I'll be sleeping on the couch for a year. I was thinking after the whole snake chamber thing we could go out. Just the two of us. You can maybe show me around some of your favorite places in muggle london. A small glamour would keep anyone from recognizing you. Unless that sounds painful, in which-"
She leaned over, putting a finger to my lips. "Ryan, honey?" She giggled. "You're babbling. Sure, I'd like that. I haven't been back to any of my old spots in…a long while. It'll be nice to see some of that through new eyes. And I admit I sort of miss some of my old friends. I'd like to check in on them."

I winced at that. Seras had needed to abandon her old life after she turned. Her parents had been brutally murdered, and I'd needed to cremate her house and their bodies. It would have raised too many questions for her to survive.

But losing so much of her life so quickly had been rough. She'd bonded with my mom, but still, I should have considered taking her for a visit before now.

After another few rounds of flying fetch with Scooby (who it turned out didn't really care about quidditch and had mostly just been interested in catching the snitch) we landed on the pitch, heading over to the stands where Suzie, Val, and Daphne were sitting around relaxing.

"Great work, Knockers." Said Val with a snicker. "Now Ryan is going to have to replace the ball AND the bat you broke."

Seras smiled sweetly at my Queen. "I find it strange you still call me that. After all, my tits are so much smaller than that milf your boyfriend used to bang. I mean, dear lord, it's like she's smuggling watermelons under her shirt."

The smile dropped off Val's face at the reminder of Sirius's busty ex. "That's just mean."

"Boyfriend huh?" I smirked. "Do I need to start calling you Auntie? Also, you realize that if I marry Suzie technically you and Amelia will BOTH be her aunts? How awkward is that going to be?"

"Ryan!" Snapped Suzie as her face turned bright red. "You can't just say things like that. Marriage is an important subject." She put a hand on Daphne's. "Sorry Daph, he doesn't get it."

My blonde shrugged. "It's fine. I've been around Tracey my whole life. I'm well aware of the cultural differences. Besides, it makes more sense for him to marry you. The House of Bones needs to be renewed, Greengrass will carry on through Stori when she and Blaise eventually have kids."

"Don't say that in front of Blaise." I snickered. "I think he's reflexively terrified of the idea of being a father. Though I suppose it makes sense given his experience with paternal figures." Poor Blaise associated the idea of being a dad with all the people his mother had killed. Not that I blamed him for not wanting kids right away, Wizards were pretty cavalier about early parenthood.

She nodded, conceding the point. Finished with our training, we waited for Scooby to catch up and then went to go find the rest of our friends. We still needed to have dinner, and I was thinking of transporting everyone somewhere for a meal. One of the best thing about intercontinental teleportation was that something was always open somewhere.

As we left the pitch, I looked around, trying to identify any possible threats. With the heir around there was so many ways we could be screwed over if we didn't pay attention, but I still couldn't tell who it was. Tomorrow we would find out for sure though, and we could finally put them out of everyone's misery. Hopefully after that we could have a school year without some weird terrible shit happening.

January 6th, 2012, Girls bathroom, Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 PM BST

"Well". I said blandly as I looked around the bathroom. "This is certainly…homey. Small issue though, how the hell are we supposed to find the entrance. This isn't exactly a small room."

Suzie giggled, adjusting her goggles. "We ask the person who lives here, of course. Hey Myrtle, are you around?"

There was a brief silence before a nasally voice split the air. "Lives here eh? I suppose you think that's soooo funny, don't you? Poor Myrtle is just a ghost, let's rub it in." The whiny ghost glared around at us, clearly looking for a reason to bitch.

Suzie sighed. "Myrtle, we've had this talk. You need to stop taking everything everyone says in the worst possible light. We're friends. I just misspoke."

Apparently even death couldn't save you from Suzie's implacable kindness, because the ghost just sighed. "Oh, alright. Now who are all these strangers. Are we having a birthday party?" Her eyes looked huge and buggy behind her coke bottle glasses and her hair was pulled so tight into pigtails I almost worried her scalp would split.

"Oh Myrtle, is it your birthday?" My cinnamon roll said with a crestfallen expression. "I had no idea."

Myrtle just shrugged. "It might be. It's hard to keep track after a few decades."

"We can plan a party after." I cut in. "A combination birthday slash we killed That giant creepy snake that lives under the school party." I was already done with this place, and I just wanted to get the hell out of here. "So, Myrtle, do you know where there might be a secret passage in here? We're trying to enter the Chamber of Secrets."

She shook her head. "No secret passages that I've seen. I like to slide through the pipes and sneak a peek into the other bathrooms. Especially the prefects baths. So many handsome boys bathing in there." Her cheeks turned…more opaque silver? I was pretty sure she was blushing,

I grimaced. I knew it was in here, so we just had to find it. I considered using magic, but I wasn't sure I could find the absence of a thing with a point me spell. Rolling my eyes, I just gave up. "Tear out all the fixtures." I ordered with exasperation. "We don't have time to do this nicely. Toilets, sinks anything connected to a pipe."

"What?" Squawked Myrtle. "That's destruction of school property, you can't do- hey stop that!" She shrieked as I walked over to a toilet and smashed my foot through it, clearing it away with my now wet shoes.

I grimaced. "I recommend using magic." I called regretfully. "There's a bunch of water in and around these pipes, and physically crushing them gets you wet."

"Wet?" Gasped Daphne teasingly. "What madness is this? Pipes in a bathroom carrying…water?" She snickered loudly when she finished and everyone else cackled as they drew their wands and started blasting.

I just harrumphed. "I am a terrible influence on you."

"Nah." Said Tracey glibly. "She was always kind of a bitch. At least she's funny now." Daphne shot her best friend a glare, but only got a wink in return. I chuckled to myself, then drew my own wand, using a relatively low powered blasting curse.

Myrtle shrieked again. "Stop! Please! I'll help! I don't know where any secret passages are in here but I can find one. I know every inch of this place. I've been here for decades, Ever since I died in here." She paused. "Actually…did you mention a big snake earlier?" She sounded a bit sheepish when she brought it up.

Sighing, I turned to look at her blankly. "Myrtle…were you killed by a giant snake?" I tried to keep my voice level.

Of course, it was tough, because if she had been, chances were good the location of her death was the entrance to the chamber. Or at least a good place to start. She chuckled nervously. "Hehe. Maybe? I'm honestly not sure. I just remembered looking in the mirror, and then I saw a pair of huge eyes and I was dead."

That was less annoying. I mean, she obviously meant the basilisk, but she didn't seem to be sure what it was. Those bastards killed quick apparently.

"That's got to be it!" Squealed Suzie excitedly. "Which sink was it?"

Myrtle pointed to one off in a corner. Suzie made to bolt over to it, but Seras blocked her off with in arm. "I'm going first." My vampire said bluntly. "I'm the sturdiest and will be the least vulnerable." She adjusted her own goggles and walked over to the indicated fixture.

When she got close enough she stopped, drawing her wand, she stared casting a bunch of harmless random spells, from bubble jets to levitating something over to the mirror. There was no movement or response, so she inched closer. Looking around the sink, she checked each mirror on the weird column shaped fixture, until finally she reached a central sink and froze.

"Um…guys?" She said cautiously. "I think I found the damned entrance. Apparently someone engraves a snake on this faucet." Once we were sure it was safe we all crowded around to stare at the snake faucet.

We poked, prodded, scratched, twisted, and tried any number of methods to open the entrance. We smashed the mirror, and that revealed a big pipe, but it grew larger as it descended, and the top portion wouldn't fit most of us. I snarled in annoyance, then finally got sick of trying to figure out the trick and had everyone stand back.

Once they moved, I levelled my wand and let loose a pair of cutting curses, one at the top of the sink fixture and one at the bottom. Then I braced my foot against the stone below the sink and SHOVED. There was a grinding sound as I forced the whole sink basin off its base and knocked it clear to expose a large empty pipe.

"See." I said cheerfully. "I found it. Or we found it. Team effort. But now we can head down into the Chamber."

Tracey grimaced at the exposed pipe. "But…it's so gross. You expect us to what, jump into that and slide down? It's all moldy and wet and it smells awful. I'm not putting my arse on that dirty rough stone."

"Like, I'm with you babe." Shaggy said nervously. "Nothin' good ever came from jumping down a dark hole." He put an arm around her, pulling her close, and she smiled smugly as she snuggled into him.

I rolled my eyes. "Hey, idiots? We have wings. We aren't sliding down anything, we're just going to fly. If you don't want to touch the sides just float down the hole."

Blaise opened his mouth, but Daphne pointed her wand at him. "Make a gaping vagina joke, Zabini. I dare you."

"I wasn't going to!" He said in an offended voice. Then he paused. "Probably. Mostly. Ok, I was, but it's just lying there, begging to be spoken." At her glare he slumped, muttering under his breath about tyrannical bitches, which got him a light stinging hex from Daphne.

Because he was dating Stori, Daphne had started trying to curb the worst of Blaise's crude commentary, just to make sure he was good enough for her sister.

Snickering at my friends, I walked over and snagged a piece of porcelain from the ground where one of the busted toilets was sitting in a pile of rubble, and quickly primed and enchanted it with a very weak light spell.

Walking back over, I tossed it down the shaft, tracking it with my eyes until it left my line of sight so I knew what kind of arc I was looking at.

Once I confirmed I extended my wings, not that I needed them to flap or anything, but I needed them out to fly, then I pulled them close and floated up over the pipe. Once I was centered, I began my descent. Just to be a dick about it, I held up my wrist in classic elevator mime fashion and winked as my head vanished into the tube.

I kind of wished I'd sent Seras again, but she wasn't as good with her wings as I was. Nobody was yet, because they were all only recently devilized. Or at least way more recent than I was. When I reached the bottom, my enchanted shard of toilet illuminated the whole tunnel, and I sighed in annoyance.

"Guys!" I yelled up. "We're clear." They all called down an affirmative and followed me one at a time, careful to avoid touching the pipe or the water filling the base of the tunnel. Based on the broken stones a bit down the way from the entrance, plus the water, I suspected this was connected to the lake tunnel.

When they reached the bottom, everyone looked a little unhappy, but I ignored them, floating ahead to try to find something important. Maybe something snakey, maybe a library…or maybe a giant stone head with a huge creepy beard. We all came to a stop, staring the head on the opposite side of a lightly flooded chamber, and in the middle…

"Oh come on!" I yelled in annoyance. We hadn't had the advantage anyway, because the dark haired figure standing in the middle of the chamber was looking right at us.

Blaise clicked his tongue. "Yeah…that's not a great look. That's basically the only person we were sure it wasn't. We can't let this get out, we'll all look like idiots." He grimaced down at the limp form of my second cousin at the foot of…whoever this person was. He was clearly somehow involved.

The smug bastard sneered at us. "Oh look, the traitors. Simpering cowards who turn their backs on their own great house to consort with half-breed filth and empty headed badgers."

"Hey, words hurt." I said in outrage. "Well, not from you. I don't know or care who you are, so your opinion is meaningless, but some people might take that kind of thing seriously. Honestly, do you even go here?"

He smirked. "I did. I am Tom Marvolo Riddle. I was head boy the last time the chamber opened. I used it for its true purpose, to cleanse the school of muggle filth. This dullard found my diary and poured his heart out to me. How sad he was to lose his parents, how inferior he felt, how much he resented you. He never even noticed himself losing time, blacking out. Taking his body and using it for my own ends was almost too easy."

I turned to Blaise. "See, that doesn't count." I gestured at Draco. "He was possessed. There's no way he could have…" I trailed off, turning to Val. "Umm, quick question. I don't suppose the kind of artifact that could possess someone like that could be-"

"A horcux?" She said bluntly. "Probably. We'd have to test it. I imagine it's that wet book your cousin is clinging onto."

The dark haired guy, who I suspected was Lord Voldemort from before he picked his stupid name, had frozen, and his eyes burned furiously as he glared at us. "You know of my Horcruxes?" He hissed. "I had planned to toy with you for my own amusement, but you know too much." There was a slight shift and his words changed, becoming sibiliant. He was speaking parseltongue like Harry had. "Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"

Behind him, the big creepy beard statue opened its mouth, and from inside it I heard a loud hiss. I sighed. "Alright everyone, avert your eyes. You all deal with baby Voldemort, Val and I will take care of the snake." We all turned our heads as a torrential explosion of water and scales erupted from the tunnel. This wasn't going to be much fun, I could already tell. Still, it would be a great story to tell later.

January 6th, 2012, Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts, Scotland, 7:00 PM BST

The basilisk was…really fucking big. Like, bigger than I'd expected. I'd figured it would be like thirty feet long and as big around as a trashcan or something. Sadly the monstrosity that erupted from the statue's mouth was more like a hundred feet and as wide around as a fucking train car.

It was also annoying to keep track of, because we were avoiding its gaze, so we had to avoid looking at the head. Probably the only useful part of it being so fuck off humongous was that it wasn't hard to keep track of, even steering clear of the eyes.

I was doing my best to track it as I conjured Asclepius, my wand waving as I wove shadows from my necromancy into the heavy water. I'd been working on this little trick, and the seamless combination of the magic types was pretty much entirely beneficial to my spell. Necromancy was much easier to maneuver and the water snake was exponentially heavier, so when I sent it flashing out at the face of the monster, I was pretty confident.

My confidence wavered somewhat as my eyes flicked over a puddle and locked onto a pair of blazing citrine orbs. There was a thunderous crash in my mind as I met the eye of the serpent king, and I roared in pain as my goggles exploded, prepared glass digging into my eyeballs.

I stumbled back, but I didn't go down. I felt my king piece inside me, and it felt CRACKED by whatever the fuck that had been. I knew the basilisk's gaze could kill, but it appeared to be much more than that. Lucky for me, I'd had my goggles treated with a mirror coating and when it met my gaze, a portion of that power reflected.

The massive beast roared and reared back, and the sound let me keep my spell on target, Asclepius racing forward to wrap around the head of the great beast.

"Ryan!" Screamed Val from above me. Her voice sounded frantic, but I just waved her off.

"I'm fine!" I roared. "Attack it now!" She didn't respond, but I trusted her and Asclepius to keep it busy. I started clawing at my eyes, scraping out the glass shards without much delicacy. My vision went black as I tore my retinas apart, but I didn't care, speed was more important than delicacy. Once I had them all out, I reached into a pocket and quaffed a vial of elixir of life.

My eyes knitted back together instantly, vision returning, and I fished in my pouch for another pair of goggles, since we'd brought backups. I slipped them back on with a sigh of relief as I felt the damage to my king piece mend under the influence of the mysterious elixir. That was one problem solved.

As my newly mended eyes focused on the basilisk, I was pleased to see Val laying into it with…wow, giant chainsaw whips of shadow. That was new. Its roars were muffled by the dark serpent of acidic water clamped around its head, which seemed to be helping a bit, but more as a distraction than anything else. The snake's scales weren't melting like they should be as far as I could see.

Before joining Val, I glanced over to where the others were fighting the…ghost? Soul remnant? Whatever it was, it was substantially weaker than the one in the sea cave. This one was a scary duellist, but only at the level of someone like Crouch. Trying to contend with multiple devils at the same time was putting him way off his game, even with that annoying haste spell they all seemed to know, he couldn't tag any of my people with the others hurling spells.

It was a testament to how fucking scary he was, even at this age, that he was keeping up at all. If not for Suzie's transfiguration reshaping stones from all over the battlefield into animals that were intercepting some of the nastier curses it might be going the other way.

As I watched, I identified an unusual fact. Despite his rapid movement, Voldemort wasn't actually taking a step in any direction. He was staying planted over Draco. My eyes narrowed as I glanced at the book. "Destroy the book!" I shouted at the others. "He's protecting it, he must be anchored by the horcrux still!"

Voldemort turned to glare at me, but all that got him was about a quarter inch shy of a blasting curse to the skull. Reorienting his attention he roared in parseltongue. "What are you doing? Leave the little bitch alone! Kill the male."

The basilisk didn't seem to hear. While my acid wasn't working on the scales, I could see through the gaps left by Asclepius's movement it WAS melting those fucking dangerous eyeballs, which I was betting HURT. At Voldemort's scream, Val had gone still for a second, then her eyes narrowed in rage.

Darting down past the writhing head, she landed near the tail. Calling her shadows from her ring and stacking them over her arms and back like a necromantic Johnny Cage, she reached out with oversized gauntleted hands and grabbed hold of the snake's tail.

With a colossal heave, she started to turn, dragging it with her as she rose off the ground. Turn, turn, turn, she built up speed as the snake left the ground, the air whipping as she spun the thing like a fucking shot put and let it go, letting it sail across the cavernous chambed and smash into the wall.

I blinked at her in shock. "Why the fuck didn't you do that to begin with?" I called up to her.

She shrugged. "I didn't think of it. Little Lord Fountleroy over there was annoying me so much I wanted to kick him across the room, and then I realized I could do that to the snake if I had bigger hands and-"

"No time." I said with a wave. "It's not down. Those scales are sturdy as fuck."

She grimaced, and we both turned to see the beast dragging itself up from the small crater it had been in. Asclepius was gone, but the snake hacked and spat in a way that told me some of my spell had gone down the right hole. I didn't know what basilisk innards were like durability wise, but I was guessing that wasn't exactly a vitamin boost even to a monster like that.

Sadly it didn't appear to have actually killed the bastard, just messed him up. But as the snake writhed back to its upright position, I could have sworn it seemed to wobble a bit. Its eyes were also burned out, the once bright yellow irises milky white and pitted from the exposure to my strongest spell.

Or rather, to my most widespread damage dealer. These scales were tough, but I had an answer to tough defenses. The best possible answer.

Grinning, I blurred forward, shouting to Val. "Go help the others! We need that book destroyed, and I'm not sure any of them has the juice. I'll take care of the danger noodle." She shouted her agreement and blitzed towards the large scale battle as I got close enough to the snake to seriously start my assault.

I hadn't sent her away because of pride. I was planning to switch over to the same tactics Dumbledore had taught me, and I wasn't great at controlling my cuts when I was using them en masse. It was safer for her not to be around.

My wand flicked out, non verbally sending out a slice of magic. Of course, it hit the snakes scales and bounced off, but that was fine, I already had another on the way, and then five more. Each cut was a bit more effective, first a scratch, then a gouge, and eventually, about two minutes and a hundred plus cuts in, I heard a crack.

Whooping with joy, I doubled down, my arm blurring as I sent cut after cut at the monster. I was in the zone, magic singing through my veins, and it barely took any effort to dart to and fro and avoid the monster's jaws as it tried to have me for a snack. Cracks covered the beast as scales split, thin trickles of blood running in rivulets down the emerald plates.

My cuts weren't getting deep, not even perfectly attuned to the exact right intent to wound this thing. They were REALLY strong scales, and it was impossible to get through them easily with a basic cutting curse no matter how optimized my spell was.

That was a limitation I'd never run into before, but then, this was the first XXXXX magical creature I'd ever tried to cut up, so live and learn.

Rather than bisect it though, I'd chosen to take another approach. Death by a thousand cuts. The blood was flowing slow and thin, but it was flowing from a whole lot of places. The thing was slowing down and I was absolutely killing it albeit slowly.

Which was why I felt my blood run cold when the spirit of Voldemort roared out in snake language for it to come and protect the book. Val was too much for the ghost, and she'd taken multiple shots at the thing, though it seemed weirdly resilient for a book.

It whirled at the command, seeking its master, apparently more obedient when its eyes weren't being melted like ice cubes on a hot summer sidewalk.

As it turned, it opened its mouth to roar, and I struck. Rather than a cut, I conjured Asclepius, condensed down to the size of a can of pringles, and sent it streaking into the mouth of the beast. The acidic water construct blasted right down its throat, and with a shove of will, I expanded it to ust full fifteen feet.

The snake let out a gurgling whine and shook a few times…before slumping to the floor, dead. Voldemort let out a howl of rage as Val, crowing with triumph, used the distraction to throw an elemental fireball charged with as much demonic magic as she could throw into it, and I was impressed as I watched the flames turn crimson before they consumed the diary, which had been thrown away from Draco by the battle.

Voldemort's spirit howled with rage and despair as I watched him consumed by what I was pretty sure was hellfire (the booklet said on Phenex clan members were supposed to be able to do that, so I'd have to look into it later) and then vanished.

Laughing, I looked around, checking on my friends. "Everyone alright?" I called breathlessly.

"We're fine." Said Suzie. "Theo got caught with a nasty curse, but he had a vial of elixir and it fixed him up. "

Shaggy nodded from where he sat in a puddle next to a panting scooby. "Scoob, got hit too. Same deal. That elixir is like, pretty awesome stuff, man. I'm glad we had it with us. So that's it? It's done?"

Daphne snorted as she stepped toward the basilisk. "Done? Of course we aren't DONE. That's a basilisk corpse. A huge one. Do you know how much that's WORTH? A fortune. And not a small fortune. A large fortune. Probably almost half the Black vault. Basilisks don't GET that big, and their venom concentrates with age."

I laughed at my Slytherin Princess, but I was glad she'd mentioned that. It would be nice to flesh out my bank account a bit. Before that though, I had something else to do. I glanced over at the crumpled white haired form and growled to myself.

"I guess we can't just leave him. Someone dose my idiot cousin with some elixir. He can be the one to explain his part in this mess to Dumbledore and the rest." Because I sure as hell wasn't going to. When we finished stripping the snake my ass was going to bed.

January 6th, 2012, Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:00 PM BST

"Man, this place is wild." I said as we stepped through the mouth of the statue. We'd been planning to go straight to Dumbledore…but the stripping of the Basilisk for parts was taking a while. Specifically, none of us were even able to do it, we had to go get my mom and hand it over to her. She was currently teaching Daphne the ins and outs of snake harvesting, so the rest of us decided to look around. Safely in groups.

Val and I were checking the mouth in case of baby basilisks, though Theo insisted on following, and the others had headed out into the tunnels paired up for safety.

The inside of the mouth was a huge descending staircase lit with ever burning torches. The lights flickered over what appeared to be walls lined entirely with rainbow snake scales, and stairs themselves were literal bone, though what kind I couldn't say.

"I think it's creepy." Val said bluntly. "Oh, also why the hell did my fire turn dark red when I was trying to destroy the book? That's never happened before."

I'd been expecting that question, and it gave me something to think about besides the REALLY long staircase, so I latched onto it with gusto. "Ah, that was Hellfire. It's a special kind of demonic flame that's created by merging demonic energy with fire. The combination is something only the Phenex clan can usually so according to my booklet."

She blinked in confusion. "Wait…isn't all fire magic we cast a mix of fire and demonic energy?"

"Nope." I said enthusiastically. "You might assume so, but magic cast by devils is converted from demonic energy. Because of that conversion it can't be imbued with demonic energy to change its nature, because any additional energy you put into the spell just converts over. That's why the Phenex clan can use Hellfire when others can't. One of their clan traits is Pyromancy, which is a natural ability to conjure and work with flame without needing to do the conversion the rest of us do."

It was a fascinating topic, but one that was kind of confusing if you looked at it too closely. She seemed to realize this after a moment, because she shook her head like it was in pain. "That doesn't really make sense. Where does the Pyromancy come from then?"

"Who fucking knows." I said with a shrug. "It's not exactly unique though. Holy Fire is apparently the unique ability of one of the archangels back where the evil pieces came from. He's mentioned in the Phenex fire explanation. Honestly that booklet is weirdly comprehensive. I sometimes feel like it gets longer when I'm not looking."

I'd tried talking to Vincent about it, but he just waved it off. It was connected to the Evil Pieces so weird shit was bound to happen. Still, information was information, and while it might not be that huge book Garment (or I guessed Gaunter) had offered me, it was better than nothing.
And speaking of books… we came to a stop, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, and found…more weirdness.

A temple, from the looks of it, the kind you might find in ancient egypt. Walls made of giant sandstone blocks, lots of gold scattered around in the form of torch stands and furniture, and along the walls, towering shelves packed with what appeared to be cubbies full of scrolls.

"This seems…out of place." I said lamely. "Like Slytherin was old, but not THIS old. This is way more than a thousand years old."

Theo, who had been quietly but excitedly watching the unfolding mystery of the chamber, finally spoke up. "It's a temple of Apophis. Or Apep in the original Egyptian. Slytherin was a worshipper of the snake god. Apophis represented disorder and darkness, and was the main force behind the dark god Set, and an opponent of Ra and of Ma'at, the primordial Egyptian deity of light.

"In fact, one of the major theories of the Chamber's construction was the translocation of an existing magical site. A temple of Apophis was one of the possible sites Chamber seekers posited, along with a Lemurian Palace, and an ancient Chinese shrine." His eyes practically glowed with excitement as he rapidly spat out facts.

I had to admit, it was a damned impressive sight. "Why bother moving a temple here?" I asked him after a moment's thought.

"Enchantments." He said excitedly. "Some of the enchantments on ancient sites have never been reproduced. Making your own defenses is fine, but if you can hijack an ancient magical vault to house your treasures in…Hogwarts is on top of one of the largest leyline conjunctions on the planet, it's basically unlimited free magical power."

That made me pause, pulling Val to a halt as she tried to move past me. "Then maybe we shouldn't be down here. What if the defenses go off?"

"I'm guessing if they were going to trigger they would have done it already." I said dismissively. The giant face is probably the only safe entrance. Lucky that soul fragment opened it, or we would have probably never gotten in here. Once it closes, I imagine nothing will be able to enter or exit this place."

I grinned. "Except for us." I said triumphantly. "Devil teleportation bypasses magical defenses. Don't ask me HOW, I have no idea, but it does. Hell, the face doesn't even look like it opens until you activate it. And if this place is made up of super wards, once it shuts down we can enter and exit at will without anyone being able to get in to disturb us."

"It's a magical bomb shelter." Val said excitedly. "That'll come in handy. Probably not the smartest plan to mess with the scrolls if we skip the safe entrance though. We might want to check those out now."

Nodding solemnly, I headed over to the shelf, and very carefully, I poked a scroll with my wand. I was ready for the damned thing to catch fire or something, but it didn't. So I started opening circles, dropping the scrolls onto my bed back home. Daisy wouldn't mess with them, and mom could look into preserving them once she got back. I didn't know how that shit worked and would leave it to the experts.

It took about fifteen minutes to clean out the scrolls, and once it was done, I studied the room at length before deciding to come back later. Once I progressed further in enchanting I could study this place to try to reverse engineer some of the spells. I was betting I could discover some powerful magic in here to add to my future fortress.

Once we ensured everything was cleared out we retraced our steps, and when we emerged from the mouth of the statue, there was a loud grinding noise as it closed behind us firmly.

My mom and Daphne looked up, raised an eyebrow each, and then got back to harvesting. "How's it going?" I asked them as I strolled up. "We need to get you home mom, Dumbledore can't know you were here. Too many questions about how we got you in past the castle wards and the staff."

"It'll be fine." She said dismissively. "Narcissa's boy is still stunned. You can wake him now or in ten hours and he won't know the difference. THIS, however, is time sensitive and very delicate. That venom sac is pressurized, if we puncture it a spurt of basilisk venom will be released as a fine mist into the air."

"Which would kill us all." I acknowledged. "Yeah, I got that part. I figured you'd have done the sac first though. Why are you just now getting to it?"

She pointed at the snake corpse, which had been neatly stripped of scales and hide and now looked like a disgusting meat twizzler. "We have to harvest the sac in a specific sequence. The Basilisk's body is a finely tuned machine. The muscles have to be stripped away in layers, if we just go rummaging around in the the thing could contract and smash us all to paste."

She gestured to Daphne, who was slowly carving away fine layers of muscle in a torturously slow and intricate procedure my mom must have shown her. "So…why aren't you helping?"

"I only have one goblin silver preparation dagger." She snorted. "And I don't have supernatural levels of strength, stamina, and precision. I demonstrated the first section, and your lovely young lady has taken up the charge now."

Daphne grunted, peeling off a three inch thick, foot long slab of meat she passed to my mother, who gently wrapped it and dropped it into an open trunk she'd specially prepared.

"How much will this thing net us exactly?" I asked as I stared at the chest in fascination. "And can you even sell it? It's bound to be difficult to unload this kind of merchandise in any large quantities. We might need to contact Roran or Vincent or someone."

My mother sniffed disdainfully. "I am a potions mistress. I can sell the reagents fine thank you. As for amount…this is a treasure trove. The fangs are invaluable for crafting athames, the venom is a priceless reagent for potions, as is the blood. The eyes are damaged, but can still be used in enchanting if prepared properly.

"The hide is cut up pretty badly, but will still be salvageable with proper techniques, and the scales, while damaged, can be ground up to be used as ingredients in potions." She sighed as she glanced at the giant corpse. "Just about the only thing we can't use is the skeleton. It's not feasible to remove it for an amount of money less than what we might gain from disassembly."

Daphne grunted, stripping off another section. "What about the meat?" I asked bluntly. "Why have her remove it."

"Because it's a delicacy." My mother said excitedly. "Basilisk meat is a rare and sought after culinary ingredient. It has a natural smoky flavor that connoisseurs of fine cuisine will pay through the nose for. Honestly, the only issue is finding a place to sell it to. They'll almost definitely knut and sickle us because it'll be in bulk."

I shrugged. "So why don't we just hire a chef and rent a restaurant." I said casually. "We can sell it ourselves. I'm sure we'd make more that way, and if this stuff is that rare I'm sure everyone and their mother would come for a taste."

"Not just rare." She said, starting to get a sneaky look in her eye. "Powerful. If prepared properly the meat contains an absurd amount of magic. It'd be deadly to muggles, but a witch or wizard could find themselves growing slightly in power and vitality from ingesting it. And we have such a large amount-"

I held up a hand. "Wait..what? This stuff can make you stronger? Would it work on me?" Contracts were fine, but they were a slow and somewhat irritating way to gain power. If I could eat delicious meats to gain strength, you could bet your ass I'd be doing that."

"Maybe." She said slowly. "In a normal wizard it's a temporary boost to their maximum potential. Like an energy drink. But devils gain power permanently in such a way that I think, if we alter the preparation method, we might be able to increase your power. I'd need a second opinion, preferably someone with a more regimented magic system."

I glanced at Val, who nodded. "China can do it." She said after a moment. "I'm sure she'll be excited to work on such a revolutionary project. We'll certainly have more than enough of the meat to go around. Speaking of which, I should probably help with that if we want her to be done sometime tonight."

Val opened a circle, returning with Tanith's sword, the woven razor making a decent second option combined with devilish strength. Especially her Queenly power. In the end, she was right. It went a lot faster. Once they were done and mom collected the rarer parts, we left the skeleton and I hoisted Draco over my shoulder. Time to go and fill the old man in. This was going to be annoying.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoys.