Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and make no profit from the writing of this story. The characters that are not OFC or OMC belong to J.K. Rowling. The movies are the property of Warner Bros. Pictures and Heyday Films.
Harriet Potter: What it is like to be a witch
Chapter Twenty-Four: Down in the Chamber with a Basilisk Corpse, Don't You Dare Puke Ronald Weasley!
The next morning saw Harry and those who would be going down into the Chamber of Secrets awake at a decidedly unappealing hour of the morning. Ron in particular wanted to grumble about the early hour, yet knew he did not dare, not wanting for once to seem ungrateful for the beyond amazing opportunity he was being given.
Everyone knew he desperately wanted to complain, however credit when due, he so far had kept his complaints to himself. Everyone, none more so than Harry and Hermione, especially appreciated his unusual display of restraint.
Protective coverings, such as coveralls, foot coverings, hairnets, face masks, dragon hide gloves and Muggle clear protective glasses were provided before they set foot in the unused girls bathroom on the third floor.
Harry and those who flew on a broom had their brooms shrunken down and concealed on them. They would need them to fly back out of the chamber as this time there would be no Fawkes to rely on to get them out.
Moaning Myrtle complained at how many males were in her bathroom. Harry snorted and said, "You did not seem overly bothered when you offered to share your toilet with me if I died the first time I went down into the chamber."
The twins, Cedric, and Ron snorted out a loud while Hermione wrinkled her nose appalled. Severus shared a look of pure incredulity with Remus and Robert.
Harry eyed Myrtle in a dry sort of amusement. Myrtle looked heartbroken as she eyed Harry and asked, "Harry?" Harry nodded and said, "Yes Myrtle." Myrtle wailed in a screeching fashion, "But how, and why, you are supposed to be a wizard?"
Harry grimaced incredulously and more than a bit uncomfortable behind her mask at the ghost's reaction and replied, "That Myrtle is a long story and definitely for another time."
Severus told Myrtle to mind her own business and go and do whatever it was she did all day. Myrtle shot Severus a look of pure reproach before she wailed indignantly and disappeared down the toilet with a loud splash.
Harry shook her head as she turned and located the correct sink and hissed at the engraved snake on the tap. There was a loud scraping sound followed by loud rumbling, as the sink moved before revealing a large opening.
For those who had never heard her speaking in Parseltongue were clearly taken back, namely Remus and Robert. To know she was capable of such language and to hear her performing the language in question was another matter entirely.
Hermione and everyone else who had never seen the entrance to the chamber before looked on in amazement. Ron shared a knowing glance with Harry. Severus on the other hand eyed Harry before asking Harry whether that had happened last time. Harry nodded and said that yes it had.
One by one they each climbed into the hole and slid down the sliding shoot. There were murmurs of disgust when everyone realised what they had landed in. Severus was in awe when he had seen the discarded snakeskin, suddenly realising just how enormous the creature Harry had faced had in fact been.
Cedric exchanged alarmed glances with Hermione and Remus, as they each realised the immense danger Harry had been in at the age of twelve. As for the twins they knew she was a major badass, but this gave a whole new meaning.
Robert eyed his cousin in a whole new light, realising with dread just how often she must have risked her life over the years. He was truly horrified to see just how long the discarded skin was.
Harry who noted how everyone was eyeing her and the snakeskin, snorted, and rolled her eyes. She drawled dryly, "If you all find the sight of old shedded skin alarming, then just you all wait until you get a load of the corpse itself, not even Ron has seen it."
Remus shook his head in disbelief and said, "The size of that discarded skin tells me that the task ahead is going to be immense and is going to take every single last one of us to harvest this snake."
Severus nods and said, "Without a doubt, meaning the breaks need to be kept to a minimum if we wish to finish today. The fact there are nine of us puts the odds in our favor. The fact the majority if not all of us are adept at cutting and prepping potion ingredients is also in our favor."
He added pointedly eyeing Ron as he commented, "Those of us who are not will be on storage duty. You will be shown how to place the blood, flesh, scales, organs, and teeth into separate containers."
Before an argument could start between Severus and Ron, both Remus and Robert said they would also take on that duty. Robert being a former Ravenclaw was very adept at Potions, however Ron did not need to know this. This meant it was Severus, Harry, Cedric, the twins, and Hermione on cutting duty.
They walked until they reached the point of the earlier cave in. However, with the aid of levitation charms from two witches and seven wizards the rubble was cleared in no time at all.
Once that was done, they continued in silence until they reached the main entrance to the chamber itself. They stood back and watched as Harry hissed again, and the snakes on the large door uncoiled and slithered around as a loud rumbling sound was heard followed by a loud clicking sound. The door opened to reveal the enormous, cavernous like room.
The room suddenly lit up and everyone except for Harry looked around in pure awe. After what she and Ginny endured down here there was nothing which she found awe worthy about her current surroundings.
Had she not the experience she did then she knew she would have been just as in awe as the others currently were. However, because she was not as such, meant she spotted the corpse before the others did.
A large part of her felt immense guilt for killing such a beautiful and rare snake. However, this snake had unfortunately been under the control of Riddle, which in turn meant it had tried to kill Harry. At the end of the day, it sadly had end up coming down to either kill or be killed.
Severus was the next to spot the corpse but was only due to seeing the look of sadness and guilt on Harry's face as she eyed the slain snake. He slowly made his way over to her and eyed the snake up close, which was in surprisingly good condition for how long it had been since it had been slain.
It was as Harry spoke up quietly, that the others spotted the snake. There were gasps of awe and disbelief at what they were seeing. Hermione visibly swallowed at the thought of how this was what was responsible for petrifying her and the others. That Harry could have been killed and eaten by this immense and intimidating creature, intimidating even in death.
"Looking back, I hate the fact that I was forced to kill this ancient and magnificent creature, who highly likely had been the last and the species now extinct, which is such a waste. Not every creature is born evil, no they are taught and influenced to be as such. This snake could have been taught better if the only examples of how to behave had not been provided by Slytherin and Riddle, Riddle in particular."
She concluded, "I wish now looking back that Riddled did not have such control over it. It never stood a chance, as soon as it tried to kill me on Riddles's orders, the combined forces of myself and Fawkes meant its fate was sealed. Unfortunately, in that situation it came down to either kill or be killed."
At hearing this made Hermione eye the snake corpse in a whole new light. Yes, it had petrified her and the others, however now she was thinking from a different respective, she realised it had been pure instinct on the snake's part, and it had likely been alone for several centuries, and taught no better.
Suddenly what they were about to do took on a very sobering and different concept compared to how they had saw the situation before they entered the chamber and heard what Harry felt.
Severus cleared his throat and said, "If it is any sort of consolation Harry, then it was not killed for nothing, and its corpse will not be left to rot. What we will harvest from its corpse will go towards life saving advancements in both the medical and potion communities. In the end this snake will be used for good, it will help those loved ones you have chosen who are financially at a disadvantage live better lives."
Ron surprised everyone when he added, "Just think Harry how much that murderous nutcase will loath the good that will come from this snakes's remains, ha if he ever finds out. I mean it sure as hell will not go towards this war that is trying to ruddy well kill the lot of us."
Harry could not help the smugly vindictive smile that curved the corners of her lips. Oh yes, anything to get one over that psychotic bastard. This in turn meant she would make certain to go out of her way to have this snakes's remains and the fortune it will result in went towards absolutely anything he would not approve of.
Severus was not looking forward to the Dark Lords reaction if he ever learned of what was going to happen. However, after he broke his promise about sparing Lily's life meant Severus was all for every single last misfortune the Dark Lord was overly due coming his way.
Soon Severus was giving out orders to everyone. He produced the phials, the other storage containers. He instructed Ron, Remus, and Robert on how to store and pack away everything that he and the others would be cutting up and removing from the corpse.
Severus's job was to deal with the venom, blood, the remaining teeth, tongue, and the rest of its internal organs and its bones. The venom, blood and organs were the trickiest parts to deal with so naturally in order to avoid too many unnecessary mistakes that job was definitely meant for the only one among them that had a Masters and almost two decades of experience.
The twins and Cedric cut through muscle gore and flesh which was harvested. As soon as Ron saw this he turned away and doubled over heaving. Several of the others yelled in some form or other, "DON'T YOU DARE PUKE RONALD WEASLEY!"
Harry and Hermione worked on the scaled covered hide, making sure each cut and slice was as precise as possible not wanting to cause any unnecessary damage. Severus told them that he was willing to bet that the hide had protective and shielding qualities. This for example meant battle armor.
The whole ordeal was as back breaking as Sirius had thought it would be. In total it took more than eight hours to complete and prep to remove it from the chamber. It did not take several days due to there being nine individuals rather than just one or two.
They exited the chamber after shrinking down the magic and air tightened seals on the phials, containers, and beakers. Due to the seals being air and magic proof meant using magic to shrink down the containers and phials did not contaminate the contents inside.
Once out of the main chamber everyone enlarged their brooms and mounted them, Hermione took a ride on the back of Harry's broom, hating as well as not being confident flying a broom on her own. They flew the route they had walked before and flew up through the main entrance into the bathroom one after the other.
Harry made sure the entrance was sealed again. Harry insisted on everyone casting an invisibility and silencing charms on themselves as she did not want to risk bumping into Dumbledore or anyone else onto the way to Severus's office to drop off the harvested snake and floo back to headquarters.
Severus was the only one who remained visible. He had removed his hairnet, glasses, foot protection and gloves before transfiguring the coveralls to look like his usual black robes.
It was just as well that they did do what Harry had said, as they did indeed bump into Dumbledore on the way to Severus's office. Severus remained behind to speak with and distract Dumbledore while Harry and the others quickly as they could made their way to Severus's office without accidentally bumping into anyone and giving themselves away.
Ten minutes later Severus entered his office after telling Dumbledore that he had been out getting ingredients he needed for some experiments he wanted to work on. He knew he would have to head out soon to do just that just in case the Headmaster decided to get nosey and check for himself.
As soon as all the harvested snake was stored away in his office Severus and Robert said they would get together along with Harry as soon as possible to arrange for the auctioning of the snake.
After that one by one except for Severus they flooed back to headquarters. Everyone went their separate ways in order to head to their rooms or to the nearest bathroom or in the twins and Robert's case flooed home to their own homes.
Harry practically staggered to her bathroom to strip out of all the protective coveralls and accessories before starting a bath. She was determined to have the ultimate soak in her bathtub as she ached and was exhausted like she could not remember being since only Merlin knows when.
It was a sure given that after eating and saying a brief hello and goodnight to Cedric, her parents and Sirius that Harry was deeply asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.