And here's the thirty fourth chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
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Clavyus, BMS, mizzrazz72, DarkRavie, Yaw6113, mwinter1, The Shadows Mistress, lonewolf 83, jamnaz79, RandoFox, Tornhold, Majerus, Guest, Ep (guest), Yoto (guest), thank you for your reviews, folks!
magitech, indeed, Dumbledore is too well-respected and too occupied - well, here is only the headmaster here; he had retired from his positions of Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwurp the previous year - to remember what it is like to start from the bottom.
Spectrer, he'll probably realize it on the day it no longer matters.
Jostanos, yes, and extra money he'd get out of this wouldn't be missed either.
TheGreatBubbaJ, well, maybe not truly competent teaching, but at least the class not a complete waste of time.
Sebastian Perseus Jason, Harry plans to emancipate himself through Gringotts during the comming summer.
era-romance, you will see how the basilisk situation is resolved during this chapter.
* AN: As always, great thanks to my friend Skelekitty for his help in polishing this chapter.
Happy New Year!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
"parseltongue"
'thinking'
written text
spells
A Year Too Soon
Chapter XXXIV: The Chamber of Secrets
Harry was busy doing his Ancient Runes project when the Slytherin common room received an unusual guest: the Headmaster himself. And was carrying a curtained mirror in a simple frame that he had in his hands. Apparently, the old warlock had finished enchanting the two-way mirrors they planned to use to let Salazar Slytherin's portrait talk to the basilisk and wanted to test them now.
"Good Afternoon, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said. "Can I steal some of your time?" Upon Harry's nod, the man continued: "I've finished the communication mirrors and while I already know that they work both for people and normal portraits, Lord Slytherin's is quite unique and it would be wise to see if the mirrors work for him as well before we venture to the Chamber of Secrets." He said, confirming Harry's guess.
"What is required of me?" The Founder asked, observing the curtained mirror that was now levitated in front of his frame.
"Lord Slytherin is asking what you need him to do." Harry relayed the portrait's question.
"When I remove the curtain, he should be able to see a terrarium with a conjured snake. I'd like him to try to communicate with it." The Headmaster said. "Ready?" Salazar's portrait nodded and Dumbledore removed the curtain. From where he was standing, Harry couldn't see what the enchanted mirror was showing, but he could still Lord Slytherin talking to the snake:
"Hello, little one." The Founder said.
"A Speaker? Are you hiding in that weird flat box? [1]" The snake's hissing was barely audible for Harry, but he could still hear it. And, apparently, the snake could both hear and see Salazar's portrait through the enchanted mirror.
"Uh… Yes." Lord Slytherin replied after a couple of moments, apparently caught by surprise with the way the snake described the enchanted mirror. Then again, to a snake that never encountered a mirror before, this enchanted one might indeed look like a strange box.
"Do all speakers hide in boxes? I've never met one before you…" The snake asked then.
"No." Salazar replied. "This is something other people made for me so that I can speak to others without leaving the place I'm staying at." He tried to explain the purpose of the two-way mirror.
"This one is honored that the Speaker chose to speak with it." The snake replied. It was apparently ready to continue, but Dumbledore chose this moment to put the curtain back over the mirror.
"By the looks of it, the experiment was a success." The old warlock said.
"Indeed." Harry confirmed. "Lord Slytherin was able to hold a conversation with the snake… At least until you closed the mirror. I take it, there is a silencing Charm on this curtain?"
"Indeed there is." The Headmaster confirmed. "Very perceptive of you, Mr. Potter." There was a small pause, before he continued. "Now that we know that the mirrors are working, I believe we are all ready for a visit to the Chamber of Secrets. I shall contact the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and ask when they will be able to send their team then."
"Alright." Harry replied, not really knowing what else to say there.
"Well then, I shan't take any more of your time, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said, levitating the mirror back into his hands. "Have a good afternoon." And without saying another word, the man turned around and made his way out of the Slytherin common room.
~/ *** \~
It wasn't until Friday afternoon that week that Harry received a note from Dumbledore telling him when the Ministry's team would arrive. Tomorrow was going to be the day they confront the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. And now that he knew when the trip would take place, the green-eyed youth couldn't help but suddenly feel apprehensive about this.
His nervousness seemed to only get worse the next morning, but since getting down into the Chamber might take hours, Harry forced himself to eat a proper breakfast. And while he was munching a strip of bacon, another note from the Headmaster appeared in front of him. It was a short message telling him to be in the antechamber by the Great Hall in half an hour to meet the Ministry's team.
Since it didn't look like he had that much time before the meeting, the young Potter decided against dropping by the common room. Instead he'd just wait for the appointed time here, in the Great Hall. He just hoped that Dumbledore wouldn't forget to set up the two-way mirrors for Lord Slytherin's portrait…
As Harry entered the antechamber half an hour later, he saw that the Ministry's team was already there. It was lead by Mr. Grimblehawk himself and included three other men from his department as well as six Aurors and two Hit Wizards on loan from the DMLE.
They were soon joined by Professor Dumbledore, who also carried one of those two-way mirrors he had enchanted for Lord Slytherin, and - to Harry's surprise - Professor Flitwick. No offense to the Charms Master, but wouldn't someone with more extensive knowledge of Magical beasts like Professor Kettleburn be a better choice for dealing with the basilisk? Then the young Potter remembered the rumor that their Care for Magical Creatures Professor was in the Hospital Wing after whatever incident happened in the NEWT-level class yesterday.
"I believe that everyone is here." The Headmaster said once the greetings were exchanged. "Shall we depart?" He received a few nods from the assembled wizards.
"Before we do, there is something I need to give you." Mr. Grimblehawk said. He then fished several pairs of strange glasses from the deep pockets of his robe and handed them over to Harry and the Hogwarts' Professors. "Please wear these at all times while within the Chamber of Secrets. In case we end up facing the basilisk, these mirrored glasses should protect you from the worst of the beast's gaze. You'd still end up petrified, but that beats death, doesn't it?"
"Good idea." Dumbledore agreed as he swapped his half-moon glasses for the ones Mr. Grimblehawk gave him. "I'll have Fawkes on standby, ready to fire-flash anyone who gets petrified to the Hospital wind." The phoenix chose this appear in a burst of fire, before landing on its master's shoulder.
"Anything else?" The head of the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures asked.
"Ask what are their plans for dealing with the basilisk, should it be needed?" The Founder's portrait asked through the two-way mirror.
"Lord Slytherin is asking how you plan to fight the basilisk if it comes to that." Harry forwarded the question.
"Basilisks are vulnerable to roosters' crow, it's fatal to them. We will conjure a few - it should be enough. And if it isn't, we have skilled and powerful wand users here, even the basilisk's hide will not be enough to protect the creature from our Curses." Mr. Grimblehawk replied.
"They probably should bring a live rooster with them just in case." The portrait said. "Whoever had tinkered with the Chambers and my enchantments might have done something about the well known weakness of the basilisks. It is probably not possible to make the king of serpents completely immune to rooster's crow, but it might be possible to render one coming from a conjuration non-lethal."
"Lord Slytherin suggests we bring a live rooster with us." Harry said. "In case the basilisk was somehow enchanted to be protected from conjurations' crow."
"A good suggestion." Dumbledore agreed. "I'll ask Hagrid to bring us one."
Some fifteen minutes later the group finally had everything they needed and were able to move to the toilet where the only known entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was located. Well, Harry and Dumbledore knew it was there. The others didn't.
"Why are we in the girls' toilet?" One of the Aurors asked. "I thought we were going to explore the fabled Chamber of Secrets."
"The entrance - the one we know of, at least - is located there." The Hogwarts' Headmaster explained. "I was sure I forwarded this information to the Ministry when this mission was organized, but apparently I was mistaken... Or someone decided not to include that into your briefing." Once the Auror nodded, Dumbledore turned his attention to Harry. "Mr. Potter?"
Approaching the ring of sinks, the green-eyed Slytherin stopped in front of the one with a faulty tap that had a tiny snake etched onto the metal. Once it had been decided that he will be opening the Chamber, he had done a little exploration. He hadn't actually opened the Chamber of course, but he did inspect the toilet and found this marked tap… Sadly, he wasn't quite sure what the command to open the passage was. Though, given that closing it required only a single word, he suspected that opening it would be no more difficult.
"Open." He hissed. Much to his surprise, it actually worked and the sinks slid apart and sunk into the floor, revealing a huge pipe leading to the unknown.
"I shall go in first and see if the other end is safe." One of the Hit Wizards volunteered. "If you don't receive my Patronus in… Five minutes should be enough to reach the end of this pipe, right? In five minutes, then something must have happened to me and you must get ready to defend yourself." And with that the man put on his mirror-glasses and disappeared down the pipe.
"Patronus?" Harry asked his Charms Professor.
"An advanced Charms used to defend against Dementors and Lethifolds. At its basic it will appear as shapeless silvery mist but, if mastered sufficiently, it will gain a corporeal form, which is almost always some kind of an animal. A corporeal Patronus may also be used to send short voice messages." The short wizard explained.
Almost at the five minutes mark, a ghostly cat floated out of the pipe.
"As far as I can see, it appears to be safe down there. Landing might be a bit uncomfortable, though: the floor is covered in rat skeletons." The Patronus spoke in the Hit Wizard's voice before dissipating.
"Let's get moving, then." Dumbledore said, before jumping into the pipe's maw. Professor Flitwick, now too wearing the mirror-glasses, followed him after a few seconds. Seeing no one else moving, Harry let out a small sigh and too jumped into the pipe.
What followed was three minutes of sliding down a dirty and slimy pipe in almost complete darkness. The fact that couldn't see well in the mirror-glasses Mr. Grimblehawk had given him only the whole experience even worse. Eventually, though, the pipe leveled and Harry found himself sput into a rather large room lit by a bunch of torches burning with ghostly-green Magical flames. The floor of this chamber, just like the Hit Wizard had warned, was covered in rat skeletons. Landing on them was ...not a nice experience. Shaking his head, Harry quickly stood up and moved to the side - he had no desire to become a cushion for the next person to slide down the pipe.
It took several minutes for the rest of the team to arrive. And a few more to spell all that slime and dirt off their robes. Then Mr. Grimblehawk made sure that everyone had their mirror-glasses on correctly. Only after he had ensured that nobody would be dying from directly looking at the basilisk's eyes, the team was permitted to continue towards the Chamber of Secrets.
They managed to advance maybe a hundred feet down the tunnel before the Hit Wizards leading them suddenly stopped.
"There is something ahead." One of them said in a low whisper. After a few extremely tense seconds, the wizard relaxed a little. "It's just a shed skin." He said, electing a couple of sighs of relief from the rest of the team. "It's still gigantic. The basilisk is about six feet across and at least a hundred feet long." Now that was one gigantic snake.
"I know that basilisk can grow to enormous sizes, but this is beyond what even I thought is possible." Salazar Slytherin's portrait commented. "It had to have been active for hundreds of years to grow this big. And this is definitely not good." He continued: "I might not be an expert on the workings of snakes' minds, but being mostly alone for this long can't be healthy even for the king of serpents."
"Lord Slytherin says that the basilisk must have been active for a few centuries ...and that it might have gone insane because of that." Harry 'translated' the Founder's words.
"Those are some worrying news." Dumbledore said. "Let's hope that the rooster we brought with us will be enough to neutralize the basilisk if we have to fight it." One didn't have to look around to know that everyone shared this sentiment.
Some more walking later, the team passed a sharp bend of the tunnel and soon reached a cavernous opening, sealed off by a solid wall with two entwined serpents carved on it. These serpents had large glinting emeralds for their eyes.
"Now this is something I'm familiar with. This is the entrance into the Chamber." Salazar's portrait said. There was a short pause, during which he studied the carved snakes with a critical eye. "It looks like someone has laid several new enchantments over the door's guardians." He added. "I can't say what those might be, but it doesn't appear to be anything that might hinder us."
"This is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets." Harry relayed to the rest of the team.
"Good." Mr. Grimblehawk said. "Now, before we continue, there are a few things that need to be done." He then turned to look at Dumbledore. "Professor?" The Hogwarts' Headmaster nodded and began casting a series of complicated Charms on the Hit Wizards and a couple of Aurors that were going to enter the Chamber along with Harry, as well as the rooster, which also was stunned. Seeing the questioning look the teen was giving him, Dumbledore explained:
"Just like other snakes, basilisks have a keen sense of smell. It is also possible that it can sense body heat. And since you and Lord Slytherin are the only ones the basilisk must know about being within the Chamber, we need to hide everyone else going inside from the snake's senses."
"I see…" Harry said. Meanwhile, the Headmaster finished laying the Charms on the Hit Wizards and Aurors and began working on the entrance to the Chamber.
"Alright. All done." The old warlock said, finally lowering his wand. "Please open the Chamber, Mr. Potter." Harry nodded and approached the wall, stopping right between the carved snakes' heads.
"Open." He commanded in Parseltongue. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, revealing the passage into the fabled Chamber of Secrets. Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, the young Potter walked inside.
He found himself at the end of a very long chamber, dimly lit by Magical torches burning with that same ghostly-green fire. Towering stone pillars entwined with carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness. The opposite wall bore a large giant face. It was ancient and monkey-like, with a long, thin beard that reached the floor, creating some sort of a ramp.
"This is not how I created the Chamber." Salazar commented. His eyes then focused on the statue. "And is that supposed to be me? I don't look like that." Harry had to agree, the statue didn't bear much resemblance to the Lord Slytherin. Whoever had created it certainly didn't have much artistic talent.
"Let's focus on the basilisk first." The young Potter hissed back. "I think it is safe to assume that it somehow hides behind that statue."
"Indeed. It looks like that thing was built over the original door leading into the lair I had created for the basilisk." The portrait agreed. "But something tells me that a simple 'open' will not be enough here." That certainly wasn't good news.
"Then what do we do? I certainly have no idea what the passphrase might be." Harry said.
"Neither do I, but the ...person who had rebuilt my Chamber seems to idolize some twisted version of myself. It could be that he used a passphrase relating to that." Salazar's portrait replied. The green-eyed teen let out a nervous hum. "Since it looks like the basilisk is supposed to come through that statue's mouth, it is reasonable to assume that the passphrase could be something along the lines of 'Speak, Salazar Slytherin'." The portrait continued. There was a long pause before he continued: "No, that doesn't sound grandiose enough… 'Speak, Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of all'. Try it." The Founder asked.
"Speak, Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of all." Harry tried, immediately feeling quite stupid as there was no reaction from the statue or anything else within the chamber. "Doesn't look like it's working." The young Potter observed.
"Indeed." Lord Slytherin agreed. "Perhaps that was a bit too much. I'm certainly not the greatest wizards of all time and whoever rebuilt the Chambers probably could see that as well… So, maybe, they saw me only as the greatest among the Hogwarts' founders?" He supposed.
"Alright, let's try that." The teenage wizard relied. "Speak… Speak to me, Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of Hogwarts' Founders." Still no reaction from the statue. "Maybe trying to guess the passphrase is a waste of time and we should just ask Professors to bring the wards down?" He suggested.
"Perhaps." Salazar's portrait hummed. "Still, let's do a few more tries before we resort to that." There was a short pause, before he continued: "Hm… If my memory serves me right, Rowena, Godric, Helga and I weren't collectively called 'the Hogwarts' Four' instead of 'the Founders' until four or five centuries ago. Perhaps, that is what the passphrase is using?"
"Speak to me, Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts' Four." Harry spoke, not really expecting anything to happen. Much to his surprise, it looked like that actually was the passphrase they were looking for: with a low rumble the statue's mouth opened wide, making a huge black hole. Immediately, the Hit Wizards and Aurors moved to hide behind the pillars. They then disillusioned themselves, becoming virtually undetectable to any senses the basilisk might possess…
And speaking of the basilisk, there was something huge slowly Slytherin from within the darkness of the statue's mouth. Not wanting to be petrified, Harry closed his eyes while also shifting the two-way mirror to ensure that the serpent's gaze wouldn't do any harm to Salazar's portrait either.
"You are not the young Master." The king of serpents hissed as it slithered into the Chamber.
"Amynta [2], you're still alive." Lord Slytherin spoke.
"Old Master?" The basilisk asked, clearly surprised to hear the human that had hatched it close to a millennium ago. "How are you here? I was told you've perished a long time ago."
"And yet I'm still around to watch after Hogwarts." The portrait replied. "Once I've heard that you have been attacking students, I asked this young speaker to bring me here."
"So he speaks?" The serpent asked.
"I do." Harry replied.
"Then he will be spared while I purge Muggle invaders and the traitors that let them in from the castle." The basilisk proclaimed.
"You will do no such thing." Lord Slytherin spoke with authority. "There is no invasion and your attacks against the students must stop." The giant snake wasn't happy to hear that.
"You dare deny me my purpose?" It hissed angrily. "I refuse to have you as my Master. I will do as the young Master commands instead, and he tells me to purge those unworthy from the castle!" Harry was the first one to react to this.
"Negotiations failed!" He shouted to the hidden Hit Wizards and Aurors. "Kill the basilisk!" He probably was overstepping his authority there, but, thankfully, Salazar's portrait was in an agreement with him.
"I'm sorry." He told the basilisk. "But I can't allow that." He tried to say something else, but his voice was drowned by the Magically-amplified rooster's crow. Letting out a silent shriek of pain, the basilisk began thrashing around, crashing into the nearby pillars with enough force to crack the stone. After maybe twenty seconds, the beast finally succumbed to the inevitable, its corpse collapsing onto the floor with a thunderous crash, nearly squashing Harry in the process. Someone then drove a large stone spike through the snake's skull to ensure it stayed dead.
"Alright, what next?" One of the Aurors within the Chamber asked then.
[1] Snakes' eyesight varies from "able to detect motion" to "can see stuff pretty well, including images and through glass". A Common European Adder - a snake that is likely to be summoned by the Serpensortia spell - has a relatively good eyesight and should be able to see Salazar in the (two-way) mirror.
[2] Feminine form of Greek Amyntas, meaning "defender".
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