Chapter 79: False Assumptions
"I bet you're right," said Tracey. "I bet if we had Harry Potter with us, we'd run into three bullies and a hidden room full of treasure in the first five minutes. I bet that all General Chaos has to do is go to the bathroom and he, like, finds Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets or something-"
Daphne couldn't quite let that one go past. "You think Lord Slytherin would've put the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in a bathroom-"
-HPMoR, Ch71
The day was Sunday, September the 6th, 1992.
It was Harry and Draco's first fully free day of the school year. The armies had not yet started, homework had not yet ramped up to high levels of difficulty or time consumption, and the first meeting of the Bayesian conspiracy (now including Hermione) hadn't even been scheduled yet. Harry intended to do that later tonight. Which makes right now a highly prudent time to get to work on repaying that favour Harry owes Draco.
"Can't we just get 'Professor Monroe' to tell us where it is?" Draco asked.
"Eh… not exactly." That had been Harry's first thought long ago, but… "Don't you remember what he said in Mary's Room? An excellent challenge for me to do by myself. Good luck." Harry tapped his cheek. "Though I'm pretty sure he would approve of you helping. Now just answer the question."
Draco groaned. "Do you know how many snake carvings I've seen around Hogwarts? And that's just the normal areas. There might be millions in the upper levels. Are you sure this is the best way to find the Chamber?"
"Hm… now that you mention it…" said Harry. "Alright, I've got a different idea. Cast your Patronus and have it send a random message to me so I can send a message back. I want to test something."
After a number of privacy charms were established, Draco did as instructed, and then Harry hissed.
The Patronus turned to Draco and said, "Salutations from Slytherin to Slytherin. I seek your secrets, so I speak to your snake."
Stillness and silence, in the classroom.
Draco looked bemused. "Was that supposed to do something?"
"I guess not. We can cross 'the corporeal snake Patronus of a Slytherin' off the list."
"I'd like to see what's on that list," said Draco, "because why in Salazar's name would my Patronus charm be on it?"
"Well, the original message I got was 'salutations from Slytherin to Slytherin, if you would seek my secrets, speak to my snake'."
And he's finally privately conspiring with Draco about that message, just like he was initially tempted to do, way back in the moments before he realized he should tell Professor McGonagall. Funny, how he ended up doing both in the end. First the responsible thing and then the fun thing.
"I thought maybe if I spoke to the snake Patronus of a Slytherin student, something interesting would happen. I didn't see how that could have possibly worked in any way, even by my standards of crazy magical weirdness, but I thought it was worth trying."
Draco took a moment to absorb the Ravenclaw's reasoning. "You know, Harry, this puzzle is meant for a Slytherin. I might be wrong, but I would guess that you're overcomplicating it."
There was a pause.
"An excellent point," Harry allowed. "So instead of finding all the snake carvings in Hogwarts, how about this: let's just check all the moving portraits of snakes. Starting with portraits of Salazar with a moving pet snake. Do you know of any?"
Draco slowly nodded. "There's a prominent one in the Slytherin Common Room. Salazar never moves, but the snake does. It's probably the one we're looking for."
"Probably," said Harry reluctantly. "But first we should confirm it's actually the only portrait of Salazar with a snake."
It would be much more convenient for keeping the Heir of Slytherin business under wraps if the Slytherin Common Room isn't the only place to speak to his snake. Or maybe Salazar intended for his heirs to become prefects who were above the laws of curfew and thus able to sneak about at night, encouraging his descendants to learn how to abuse authority to their own advantage. But ideally that wasn't the case. Ideally…
"Maybe there's an isolated portrait in a dead-end corridor or something."
Over the next two hours, and after a good deal of walking around and consulting portraits, they learned there are no moving portraits of Salazar Slytherin that they could easily access. What finally confirmed it was when they recruited portraits who could talk to older portraits who could talk to ancient portraits who could talk to historic portraits of the other three founders of Hogwarts.
Rowena, Godric, and Helga all confirmed that they could not find their erstwhile friend, neither now in the world of canvases, nor in the distant past, during the final years of their lives. After Salazar left them, it was as if he vanished from the face of the earth, and when he was with them, the man did not like having moving pictures made of himself. Thus, all known images of Salazar in the halls of Hogwarts are static. There is exactly one moving portrait of the fourth founder of Hogwarts – made soon after Hogwarts was raised – and it resides in the Head office, which cannot be accessed by outside portraits without the Headmistress's permission.
When Harry and Draco recruited their portrait army to locate all static Salazar portraits containing pet snakes, their portrait army came up empty. Except, of course, for those portraits of wizards and witches that had belonged to Slytherin house, who helpfully recalled such a portrait residing in the Slytherin Common Room.
"Why would Salazar put the key there?" Harry finally asked in frustration. "Didn't he want to keep the Chamber of Secrets a secret?"
"Maybe he thought it would be a good challenge for his heirs. I bet the ones who don't understand discretion don't get told where the Chamber is. Besides, being his heir wasn't always seen as an ill omen outside Slytherin house. And it's not like anybody else would hear the conversation. They'd just see Salazar's respectable heir talking with the portrait of Salazar's pet snake." Draco took on a formal cadence. "'My reason? Why, I was simply inquiring into history, my friends. I thought Salazar's snake might know more of him than history records, as some portraits do. But no such luck. Now if you'll excuse me, I am needed elsewhere.' And then he goes off to the Chamber. Or something like that. Anyway, if you don't want to out yourself and lose Professor Monroe's challenge…"
Harry nodded. "Come back at night while invisible. Got it. Will you let me in?"
"…if you don't want to out yourself and lose the challenge," Draco repeated, "we might be able to try something else."
There are two known restrictions to sending Patronus messages: the first is that you must know your target personally. The second is that you must wish them to know your happy thought. There's a third, mostly unknown restriction that you can't send Patronus messages to yourself, but that mostly only matters to wizards with Time Turners.
Draco's plan to overcome the 'public outing' problem was a clever one, and the initial Parseltongue testing had been promising, but when it came to actually implementing Draco's idea, it fell flat because of the 'you have to know your target personally' constraint.
That's when Harry suggested a modification to the idea, based on his knowledge of a moderately useless way to bypass that restriction: you can send Patronus messages to people you're currently looking at, even if you don't know them personally. That test worked, with the test leaving one very confused portrait in an empty hallway in its wake.
This led to the plan itself.
Step one of the modified plan had called for Draco to give his Patronus a series of carefully crafted instructions before they left the unused classroom.
Step two had Draco and Harry leaving the classroom and heading to the dungeons, the snake Patronus staying behind.
Step three had been for Draco to open the way to the den of snakes and pretend to give Harry a tour – a serviceable excuse, given that Harry had never actually seen the Slytherin Common Room, though the most clever of snakes might notice the coincidence.
The plan originally called for step four: after passing the couches beneath the curved glass wall and ceiling, Harry would pretend to gawk at the underground lake.
This was replaced with step four: Harry gawked at Autumn painting a remarkably good rendition of the underground lake. The painting also included the couches visible beneath the window, the chandelier above, and bookshelves off to each side. Although on closer inspection, it seemed more like a romanticized version of the scene, not a perfectly accurate recreation. On even closer inspection, there weren't any carefully-drawn details at all, but when you stepped back and looked at the picture as a whole, it somehow came together to portray the view.
Draco did a little gawking too, though he kept it from showing on his face.
Autumn was using her wand to levitate the brush instead of grasping the brush with her fingers, but the levitation was glowing, i.e. Equestrian. Not that there was only one brush, or that she only used brushes; sometimes she used other instruments.
And Harry and Draco weren't the only gawkers. A number of other Slytherins were spending their noons (it was 12:00 exactly) watching her. This number of watching Slytherins possibly included the Head of House, who within view of everyone was looking over a stack of Potions papers – not tests per se, but assessments he'd handed out at the start of the year, meant to get a picture of each student's current knowledge level.
The reason for the audience might have had something to do with Autumn's running commentary of what she was doing as she did it. Or it might have had to do with the quality of work. Or it might have had to do with the burly sixth-or-seventh year student standing a few paces away – wand in hand, arms crossed, and looking very intimidating, glaring at anyone who came too close.
"What's that about?" Harry whispered to one of the onlookers – Samuel Clemons, a Chaotic Legionnaire.
"She paid him three sickles to keep her safe," Samuel whispered back. "And she'll pay him five after her painting makes it safely to her trunk."
"Do questions count as interruptions?"
"Depends on the question," said Samuel.
So Harry asked Autumn where she learned how to do this – somehow mixing education and entertainment as she skillfully painted – and she shrugged and said she learned exactly the way everyone else in this room would be learning if they set up easels of their own and tried to follow along with her. She learned by mirroring an expert, internalizing the techniques, then practicing a bunch on her own, with occasional touch-ups from a master – the best learning method, she claimed.
Harry asked how long she's been painting, and she said as long as she can remember, same with a lot of her best hobbies. Harry asked how long she's been painting this painting and she said she started this morning. Most of her techniques focus on speed more than perfect accuracy, which she finds to be far more fun, since she can get paintings done in a few hours.
Harry whispered a question to Draco, and Draco confirmed that she had been setting up the blank easel before breakfast. Harry glanced at Draco briefly, then flicked his eyes in a certain direction…
Oh. Right.
Step Five: After they had been there long enough that the Boy-Who-Lived was no longer attracting significant attention (though he hadn't attracted too much in the first place; Autumn seemed to be drawing more attention than either of them, and others might assume Harry was here because he heard a rumor about it and decided to investigate), Draco casually glanced around the whole room to conceal where he actually needed his gaze to go.
He made eye contact with the snake coiled around Salazar's shoulder. His Patronus appeared directly opposite the snake. Draco continued his casual glancing and slowly turned away from the portrait, so that it wouldn't seem like he had been the first to notice.
"Hss ss shh shsh hssss ssss shs," said his Patronus to the snake in the portrait.
(They had confirmed earlier that he could instruct his Patronus to send messages in Parseltongue rather than English, just as they had discovered the reverse was true the very first time they tested sending Patronus messages.)
The hissing drew all eyes in the Common Room away from the painting and towards the glowing Patronus. One pair of eyes in particular, which had been roaming potions parchments not a second earlier, widened in fright at the sound, shooting up to meet the source, then widening further in surprise.
The snake in the portrait turned to face the Patronus. "Shshhh shsss," it hissed briefly. Then the portrait snake turned back to its original position, relaxed across Salazar's shoulder.
The Patronus did not slither across the common room to Draco and repeat what it heard.
As instructed earlier, it sat and waited for Draco to be alone. The hovering Patronus Charm drew a curious crowd of speculative Slytherins to surround the seemingly sleeping magical serpent.
Step six was to wait until the commotion died down and find a private place to receive the message-
"It basically said, 'nice try, clever snake'," Harry whispered to Draco without moving his lips, which Draco had taught him to do. "Dispel it. We'll have to go with plan B."
Never mind. Looks like they can skip step six.
Draco didn't give any outward sign of acknowledgement. His hand had been in his pocket this whole time to conceal the fact that he was currently wielding his wand, and he let go. The Patronus winked out, leaving many a confused Slytherin standing around an empty patch of air. Except one, who entered that patch.
A voice rose above the theorizing that had broken out, and that voice said: "Universal Translator Necklace."
Harry and Draco looked to the owner of the voice. They saw that Autumn (who had left a signed and completed painting behind) was now standing directly in front of Salazar's portrait. They watched as the first year withdrew a necklace (which they both recognized) from her pouch and held the amulet's jewel to her mouth. "Parseltongue, please." She then donned the necklace and, in front of the entire Slytherin Common Room, she began to hiss. "Hss ss shh shsh hssss ssss shs."
The snake on Salazar's shoulder looked at her. "Ssss shshsh shhhh hsssh hsss shhsss shssss."
The girl smiled, took off the necklace, and returned it to the pouch on her hip. She then skipped towards the portrait wall, spoke the password "Pureblood" to open it, and departed for the wider castle before anybody had the chance to catch their wits, Draco and Harry included.
Then there was a mad rush to follow her, though she was already gone before anyone knew the direction she took.
Draco and Harry slipped out of the crowd from there.
"Didn't think translation necklaces could do that," Harry said to Draco once they were alone. "I thought they were input-only, not output. Although you'd think Salazar would have guarded against false heirs in general, not just Patronus charms and probably animagi, and she failed to do it stealthily… but let's leave the solvable puzzles for later. Looks like this just became a race."
"She's got a head start," Draco pointed out after only the slightest of pauses to switch to 'Dragon General' mode, the mode that doesn't flinch at complications and curveballs.
"But she's only a first year," Harry countered with a grin. "Tell me Draco, what's the fastest way to the second floor girl's bathroom that you currently know about?"
A way that was not fast enough, as it turned out. According to Draco, who spoke as they walked at a fast pace towards the bathroom (no running in the halls), they are going to the bathroom in which a Hogwarts student had been found dead fifty years ago. It was inconvenient to get to in the first place, and now the stigma of it being a dangerous place meant it was no longer visited by any student outside of desperate emergency. Or a Gryffindor dare.
Just as they turned the corner, they watched the door close with a clack. Someone had just entered the remote, unused bathroom.
Harry didn't pause in his stride, taking out a device from his pouch. "Time to cheat."
One hour earlier…
"Open," Harry hissed to the sink, which crumpled in on itself to reveal a pipe leading down into what smelled like it might be the castle's sewage system.
"Ugh," said Draco. "I guess Salazar wanted his heirs to learn that they have to get dirty if they want to get anywhere in life."
"I'm more interested in why the toilets aren't just charmed to Scourgify the waste and refill with Aguamenti. What do they even need sewage pipes for? And where are the stairs?"
"Maybe Salazar liked slides," Draco suggested.
A thought occurred to Harry, and that thought was that there had to be a way back…
"Sstairss," he hissed. And there were stairs. Then, "You know what, I like slides too. It's been too long. No sstairss."
With bubble head charms on their heads and wands in their hands, one and a half Slytherin students slid down into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry went first, claiming it would be safer that way. (He has broomstick bones and can change his momentum if the slide has a bad landing or something, not to mention troll's regeneration if he gets injured, although Draco doesn't yet know about broomstick bones). After Draco used a Patronus message to verify Harry's safety at the bottom, he too took the plunge.
As they began their delving into the dungeon proper, Harry decided this would be a good time to play twenty questions with Draco, the same way Professor Quirrell once did with him. It took a slightly more specific set of questions, but Draco, like Harry, successfully deduced the purpose of the Chamber with proper guidance. It helped that the memory sequence Draco saw one week ago on the Hogwarts Express had contained some very overt hints to the answer.
When Draco was terrified out of his wits that Harry might possibly be leading them both to their deaths at the hands of Slytherin's Basilisk – it had to be that, no other species of snake could live to be that long – Harry reassured Draco on that count by helping the younger Slytherin continue to think.
It wasn't long before Draco looked both relieved and sad and disappointed all in one. "So we're just going to be visiting the corpse?"
Harry nodded as he once again commanded a door to "Open." He then once again consulted the Map at the fork on the other side.
This place isn't quite a maze. The pipework wasn't that complicated to navigate, it was actually quite straightforward. Even without the map, it probably wouldn't have taken much time to explore the whole thing. (Otherwise Slytherin's heirs might get lost, Harry suspected.) But that didn't mean Harry wanted to waste time backtracking, and if possible he wanted to leave before thirty minutes had passed.
The Hogwarts security system does show how to navigate the Chamber of Secrets, but only after the map itself is inside the Chamber. Otherwise, according to Professor Monroe, the map fails to show the Chamber at all, to anyone looking for it, nor can it or any tracking charm find you in the Chamber if you are inside and the seeker is outside.
They were about to reach what looked to be the final chamber-
"That iss a very clever Ravenclaw. Incredibly impresssive for a ssecond or third year. I ssee why you brought him. But sstun him now or you might both ssuffer and perhapss die."
Adrenaline immediately pumped through Harry's veins, and options pumped through his mind. Apparation is warded against. Phoenix travel is not prevented in this chamber, but they didn't have a phoenix. Equestrian teleportation might be possible, but he would have to draw his wand and start a spell that obviously wasn't a stunner, or turn into his animagus form to cast it. And either way, if he failed Draco would die, and Draco doesn't have a Horcrux yet. Using the spell to turn time might likewise be unwise, if this threat is an automated magical system keyed by Salazar into the chamber. Going back in time would just cause the system to reactivate, and Draco would be left defenseless in the here and now.
Harry glanced at Draco, who was looking for the source of the hiss, not overly alarmed and likely assuming it was some harmless part of the warding scheme, like some of the previous doors.
Draco fell over.
"It iss done," Harry hissed after the sleep spell had left his eyes. "He who iss not the heir of Sslytherin hass been put to ssleep."
There was a pause.
"Are you a true child, or wearing ssome form of falsse appearance?"
"I am true ssecond year," hissed Harry. "Thirteen yearss of age." And he might be wearing some form of false appearance, depending on how you look at it, but he kept that part to himself.
"Impresssive," hissed the chamber. "Wass not expecting he who wore Ravenclaw robess to be heir, nor wandlesss magic at your age."
Harry knew he should probably say something else, but… "Did you not ssee me sspeaking to doorss?"
"Heard only, did not ssee," said that voice.
Was it Professor Monroe? But that didn't make sense. Unless this was a test, which it might be.
If it's not Tom Riddle… Slytherin's monster? Or maybe…
"Who iss the Sslytherin child then," asked the voice, "if not the heir?"
"He iss a friend. Noble friend," he added, just in case that gave pause to any future death threats. "Family wieldss great political power. Will be great ssearch for him if he goess misssing. I am noble too, and famouss. Chamber may be expossed by tomorrow if we go misssing here. Wass in the processs of repaying a favor to him. Iss thiss the ghosst of Ssalazar I hear?"
"No," hissed the voice. "Now explain how a Ravenclaw learned to sseek thiss chamber if you wissh thiss converssation to continue."
Harry didn't want this conversation to continue. He wanted to leave and tell Professor Riddle that the Chamber of Secrets isn't as empty as Lord Voldemort thought he had made it to be. But the 'or die' threat was still in his mind, and he suspected a refusal to cooperate wouldn't go well, so he spoke.
"Ssomething happened that Ssalazar never foressaw. The Ssorting Hat did not like me becausse of a long converssation. It made a joke in retaliation, called out Sslytherin for me desspite ambitionss requiring a Ravenclaw ssorting. After a few ssecondss, Ssorting Hat retracted itss Sslytherin ssorting, ssaid it wass joking, put me in dessired Housse of Ravenclaw. Thiss wass not impulssive on Hat'ss part, wass done to teach me lessson. Firsst time in known hisstory that Hat ssorted falssely for joke, according to Potionss Masster. Fourteenth time in hisstory Hat hass demanded never to be placed an a sstudent'ss head again, according to Headmasster. Even the mosst clever professsor I know believed it wass outside interference that caussed my ressorting, not the Hat itsself. Not Ssalazar'ss fault he failed to account for thiss posssibility. But ssince Sslytherin wass called for my name, and ssince I am heir, I sstill heard Sslytherin'ss ssalutationss."
There was a long pause.
"Why did your ambition require ssorting into Ravenclaw?" came the eventual and unexpected reply.
"Many reassonss," Harry hissed. "Main reasson wass to reach full potential. I have learned much in Ravenclaw, thingss perhapss I would not have learned in Sslytherin. I already have power even at thiss age, ssome you have sseen, much you have not. Other main reasson is that Sslytherin Housse iss desspissed by other Houssess due to actionss of previouss heir, who became hated Dark Lord and recruited followerss from Sslytherin Housse. Future ambitionss require approval of Sslytherin and Gryffindor both. Ravenclaw iss neutral ground, allowss for ssupport from all ssidess."
There was another long pause. Then a hissing chuckle. "Clever. Very clever, young Sslytherin. But how did you fool the Hat into ssorting you falssely?"
"Did not fool Ssorting Hat. Played no clever trickss. I have sstrong Sslytherin tendenciess, but I am sscholar at heart, truly. Ambition iss to be like Merlin. Greater than Merlin, if posssible."
Harry heard a great deal of snakish laughter at that, much more than a mere chuckle. Then he heard a slithering sort of sound. A snake emerged from a pipe at his foot-
"Calm yoursself, child," hissed the snake. "I intend no ill to you, nor the one you have foolisshly brought."
That might not mean much, thought Harry, for intentions can change.
"If I had intended you harm, you would already be harmed by my gaze."
A few things happened in that moment, in the space between blinks. Mostly a wordless calculation that answered the question of 'should I close my eyes / look away / redouble my thoughts of escape'?
The primary things that kept Harry's gaze upon the basilisk's eyes were Draco, whose body rested within the snake's striking distance, and Harry himself, who also stood within striking distance. The gaze isn't the only deadly thing about a basilisk, Draco had mentioned not five minutes earlier in his frantic worry. The safest path, in the moment, seemed to be to continue cooperating, and looking away or closing his eyes wouldn't help to that end. Plus, it wouldn't make too much of a difference if worst came to worst.
"You have brought me much amussement," the snake spoke on. "In exchange I sshall overlook your transsgresssionss thuss far. Before we continue, ansswer me thiss. Would your friend betray the ssecret of thiss chamber?"
"No," Harry hissed. "He iss more Sslytherin than me, more Sslytherin than hiss housse matess. Would never betray Ssalazar'ss ssecretss."
"In that casse I sshall not require memory charm of him. Iss difficult at your age to recruit adultss for ssuch magic…"
Harry did not say that he could do it himself.
"…unlesss ssome of the power you claim to wield includess memory charmss?" asked the snake.
Damn it.
"Would prefer not to."
"I offer much," hissed the snake in a tone of danger and authority. "Power, magic, knowledge all, but sshall grant nothing if you do not resspect ssecrecy, do not follow orderss."
"I already know purposse of thiss chamber," Harry hissed, "ass you already know I do, having heard uss ssomehow. But your requesst iss pointlesss. Memory charmss can now be undone. To erasse memoriess from my friend would jusst make him upsset when he rememberss them later. Furthermore, ssecretss of chamber are lesss ssignificant than once they were. Immortality hass been disscovered. Am immortal mysself. Sshall not die of age or murder. I can even revive the dead in ssome cassess, and sso can otherss. The Dark Lord your previouss heir became hass been vanquisshed, but not in ssuch a fasshion that hiss lore wass losst. Messsage on Hat hass been ssilenced by sschool sstaff. Ssoon thiss place sshall be important hisstorical ssight. Old purposse losst, new one found. Planss were sset in motion by otherss for many reassonss, but main reasson iss that Sslytherin'ss beasst of lore wass thought killed, artifactss thought sstolen. I wisshed to explore empty chamber with friend before that happened. And ssolve any riddless or challengess required to find it, of coursse. It hass been a fun afternoon."
There was another long pause.
"It hass been long ssince I doubted Parsseltongue," said the snake at last. "Long ssince I ssusspected ssomeone disscovered a way to sspeak falssehoodss ass they sspoke to me. Thosse timess were not sso ridiculouss ass even one of the remarkss you have made sso far. For the firsst time in a long while, I musst remind mysself to not doubt the sspeaker'ss belief in factual asssertionss they have sspoken in ssnake'ss hisss. There sshall be much to disscusss in our future, but thiss I assk now. What requirementss are needed for revival which you claim you can do?"
"Why do you assk? Musst not ansswer without knowledge of your motivess."
"Wissh to revive certain people. Doess not go againsst interesstss of Hogwartss. Will not allow it to go againsst your interestss, if ssuch iss in my power. Will not usse your ansswer againsst you."
"Promisse alsso to not usse thiss knowledge againsst otherss either," hissed Harry. "Esspecially Hogwartss ressidentss. Promisse your intent iss not to kill otherss in ssuch a manner that revival becomess imposssible by current meanss. Promisse you will never do sso if you learn the revival requirementss, regardlesss of current intentionss. Promisse that your dessiress do not threaten the safety or freedom of the world in any way you can ssee. Only then sshall I tell you ssome of the revival requirementss."
The snake considered this for a long, long moment. Then it hissed the required promises, exactly as requested, without asking for any of them to be repeated.
Harry was a bit worried about how quickly the snake had agreed, maybe it had seen a loophole, but Harry had honestly said he would tell some of the requirements if he got those promises, so he spoke. "Revival requiress perfectly presserved corpsse, or corpsse that iss otherwisse lesss than an hour dead. Ressearch effortss are being made to do better than that, to revive thosse who are not intact, but presservation iss the current requirement for thosse not already protected from death by other meanss."
"You ssaid you can perform revival of otherss yoursself?" the snake asked instantly.
"Partially. My role iss to revive otherss into sstate of being muggless. Requiress help of another to resstore magic. But I did invent the technique ass a whole, yess."
"I shall promisse to tell you anything you wissh to know," said the snake at once. "Sspill all ssecretss I posssesss, if you promisse to do your besst to help me in thiss, for thosse I wissh to revive have been presserved. Hopefully well enough for revival processs."
"Ssomone elsse hass already promissed me accesss to Sslytherin'ss lore," Harry pointed out. "Sso promisse alsso to allow me to leave and conssult otherss. Allow me to wake Sslytherin friend sso he can be witnesss henceforth. Lasst, you sshall owe me one favour. If you do, I promisse to do my besst to revive thosse certain people you sseek to revive, sso long ass it doess not threaten the world or innocent livess."
"Done," hissed the snake, and repeated the promises. "The bargain iss sstruck. Now go with hasste. I have waited long for thiss. Do not wissh to wait more than I musst. You, too, may be pleassed to ssee who you sshall revive, young sstudent of Hogwartss."
Harry turned, then hesitated. "Ah," he warbled. "Before I go, I sshould ssay another sstudent sseekss thiss chamber. Sshe iss firsst year Sslytherin. Iss posssible sshe found way to beat Parsseltongue, sspeak wordss desspite not being heir. If sshe approachess, can you promisse to leave her unharmed, promisse not to approach, pretend thiss chamber iss empty?"
"No way to beat Parsseltongue," hissed the snake. "None."
"Witnesssed her sseemingly do sso perssonally. Sshe sspoke to Ssalazar'ss ssnake in Sslytherin Common Room, appearing to usse device of languagess. Overheard the portrait'ss ansswer and raced her here. Had to cheat and leave no tracess of cheating. Sshe will likely arrive in bathroom in half an hour hence, probably ssooner if I have losst track of time. If sshe doess not go further than ssinkss, you are correct and her ssupossed method doess not let her beat doorss guarded by passswordss. If sshe enterss, pleasse do not harm her. Sshe meanss no offensse or dissresspect in her clevernesss, I think."
The snake hesitated at Harry's insistence. "If sshe comess, I promisse to do ass you wissh. If young Sslytherin girl-child arrivess alone, sshall do nothing to her. Will obsserve only. Sshe will likely ssee great corpsse of old body. That sshould sscare her away, or elsse sshe sshould get bored and leave. There iss nothing elsse sshe would ssee but pipess and sstatuess. Former heirss have been quite greedy, ass you guesssed earlier."
"Thank you. Iss there way to leave Chamber that iss not bathroom?"
"Follow," hissed the snake.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said at Draco's body. He'll explain things once they're outside the chamber and not in the immediate presence of the snake that had threatened to murder him.
Then, just as they were about to reach what seemed to be an exit, Harry thought of something else he should mention. "Ah…" he warbled to the snake. "I sshould alsso mention thiss. Sslytherin girl might appear in her animaguss form."
The snake stopped. "A firsst year iss animaguss?" it demanded in incredulity.
"Yess. Sso am I, if you wish to ssee."
"Sshow me," the snake hissed at once.
Harry lowered Draco to the floor, then Prince Horizon appeared in the Chamber or Secrets.
The snake's eyes were as wide and unblinking as ever, but Horizon got the impression they had widened even further. "Iss that light coming from your back the ssame ass a Patronuss?"
"Yess," he confirmed, to the snake's further shock. "Thiss sspeciess iss ssmart," he hissed, "capable of sspeech. Lookss harmlesss, but horn can casst sspellss. Firsst year Sslytherin girl iss ssame animaguss sspeciess. Her form iss dark grey, black hair with blue tipss. No sspecial hair, lasst I ssaw. Not unlesss sshe wearss sspecial helmet."
"Hass Hogwartss truly advanced sso much that firsst yearss are animagi? Of magical creaturess no lesss?"
"Ssort of," Horizon hissed. "Like I ssaid, it iss complicated. Will you alsso hold your promisse if sshe appearss in form of a pony?"
"Yess."
When Autumn arrived in the deepest depths of the Chamber of Secrets, surrounded by scary statues, an oppressive ambiance, and standing before the skeleton of a mighty serpent, there was one thought at the forefront of her mind:
What an amazing opportunity!
She took out an easel and set up her painting station. She then switched to her natural form to more comfortably hold her instruments in her magic. Painting as a human is a fun challenge and good practice, but if she wants to really go fast and make the best possible artwork, this is the way to do it.
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The entrance of the chamber can play chutes and ladders. Divine.
Having the basilisk be a friend has been fun in the other hp crossovers I've seen, I wouldn't be put out to see it happen again in this one
Still don't understand why she has to go all the way down in the dark, not to mention smelly (no one has cleaned it for hundreds of years!), just to do some painting.
Slide, Stairs, Elevator, Party Cannon?
I don't understand how Harry can consider lying here. If Draco asks Harry to repeat the claim via his patronus, then the lie will be revealed, since in this universe (unlike HPMOR) patronuses can't lie. And this is the kind of thing where it would be quite reasonable for Draco to feel suspicious, to ask for the readily available proof.
11858698
You know, I had that exact same thought as I was editing this on my last pass before uploading, but for whatever reason (probably laziness), the thought didn't influence me enough to remove the line. I wrote this chapter a very long time ago, and it's gone through many revisions, and that's a holdover line from when I went into this chapter with a different mindset. You're right, it doesn't fit. I'll take care of that now.
11858149
She doesn't HAVE to, she just WANTS to. Also, (hold on while I pull this outa my *ss), there are lighting charms / magical green torches and air-freshening charms that make the Chamber of Secrets fashionably dark-and-scary instead of unpleasantly pitch-black-and-smelly. Salazar wanted to impress his heirs with awe and magesty, not annoy them with a stinky, unlit chamber. Maybe I ought to include that in Harry's internal thoughts.
11858762
It happens occasionally regularly when I read other books, that I think "that character is being out of character stupid", breaking immersion. It is extremely cool for once to be able to point it out to the author in real time, and have the author agree and fix it. :)
Perhaps a ssite, although a ssight would be different.
Now, the basilisk having rebirth powers ... suddenly a *lot* of "why didn't I ask that before" questions have answers.
Aw man. I was kinda hoping they'd all explore the Chamber together. This is a really fun twist though, I love that she just wants to paint it lol. Also helps paint her as less of a Mary Sue. (Not that her background could possibly give room for anything else. Being raised by Therapist Luna and Tom Riddle turns anyone into a Sue - it'd be weird if she *wasn't* one.)
My first thought upon realizing the Basilisk is alive was 'Oh fuck Salazar gave him a Horcrux!' It doesn't look like that's true though, it's some other, unrelated form of magic. Also, that wouldn't pass the Interdict now that I think about it, so.. yeah.
Are they gonna revive Salazar? That's so hype. This is the first fic I've seen that does that, despite how many fics enter the Chamber for Mcguffins. If there's any fic writer I can trust to construct a good and true Salazar, it's definitely the one who was able to replicate and enhance Voldemort and Harry's voice throughout an entire fic.
10/10 chapter. Might show this to some of my friends that dropped the fic, I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it.
Salazar unable to resurrect himself due to technological and knowledge based limitations creates a snake whose goal is to resurrect him? Hiding an entity that will stay up to date and make powerful allies as its sole purpose.