944 Moonlight Adventure Ⅳ

Scrunching her forehead in thought, Rowan ponders for a second before recalling the words that Rowena Ravenclaw had rasped upon her death bed. "Liga est magicae, Brilliance, Wisdom, Intellect. The one that should possess this dagger shall dive into great mysteries and resolve them to destroy that which should not exist." And having done so Rowena Ravenclaw's heart ceased to beat.

Rowan brings her finger near to the knife edges, before hastily pulling her hand back. The knife had only just nicked her finger, but already blood was welling up from the small gash. A drop of her blood spills onto the blade before she drops the dagger into the chest. She misses the soft glow of the dagger that fades away just as quickly as it had appeared.

"Episkey," Rowan muttered healing the nick on her finger. She firmly shut the chest and said, "Close for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four." The black serpent once again moved around the lock curling around the hinges and biting its own tail. The chest could not safely be opened by anyone except by another parselmouth.

Reaching for the lantern, Rowan begins to rise, when a few loose hairs rustle uncomfortably against her face from an unseen waft of air. Frowning, she leans closer to the floor only to feel a frigid breeze. Kneeling on the floor she begins to carefully trace the ground with her fingers until she feels the edge of a crevice.

"Hmm," Rowan's ears begin to turn bright pink in embarrassment. "Of course, Salazar Slytherin wouldn't just have one exit. He's a snake, he's bound to have another bolt hole!"

Exasperated at herself, Rowan chided herself for not looking closer at the chamber. Following the edge of the crevices, she finds a wide enough corner to dig her fingers into and begins to pull. The stone floor does not budget until in exasperation she hisses, "Open for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four."

With a loud groan, the stone trap abruptly slides open. Rowan nearly falls face forward into the pitch-dark corridor. A bitter bark escapes from her lips before she takes her lantern from the floor and begins to descend the stone stairs. The breeze is icy causing her to shiver and to pull her robes that much closer around her. Normally, she would have cast a warming charm, but she wanted all her magic at her disposal. She didn't trust Salazar Slytherin as far as she could throw him. Not in the least after the insane Basilisk tried to kill her.

Abruptly the stairs begin to level revealing a large hallway. Hanging just over the entrance are two enormous carved stone serpents that are intertwined together. The craved stone serpents emerald jewel eyes glint eerily in the light.

"There better not be another giant snake down here," Rowan grumbled to herself. However, knowing Salazar Slytherin… He certainly would be twisted enough to have planned a second or even third contingency plan.

The carved emerald jewel eyes of the stone serpents appear strangely alive in the light as she passes beneath them. Their emerald inhuman gazes seem to seemingly follow her into the stone cavity. At first glance, the stone cavern greatly resembled the Chamber of Secrets. The cavern much like the Chamber of Secrets was filled with long, towering stone pillars. The stone pillars also had carved slithering serpents with empty, great hollow eyes. Yet unlike the Chamber of secrets there was no odd, greenish glint to this place. Rather in the middle of the chamber hanging directly overhead, there is a massive glowing crystal that produced blue, white light. A natural geographic feature by the look of it.

Without the brighter blue, white light, the cavern was much less damp and creepy than the Chamber of Secrets. The cavern in itself was much smaller than the Chamber of Secrets and lacked the detailed giant statue of Salazar Slytherin. In retrospect, there seemed to be nothing of interest in the cavern. There was no second pair of doors or any other feature that would suggest a hidden lair like that with the Chamber of Secrets.

"Strange," Rowan muttered to herself. Why would Salazar Slytherin build another hidden chamber with no hidden features? It just seemed completely random and totally out of character for the sly, cunning wizard.

Walking around the full length of the chamber, Rowan began to randomly hiss in parseltongue, "Open for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four." Yet no hidden passageway or stairs revealed themselves as she carefully traversed the full length of the cavern.

Stifling a yawn and feeling rather cold, Rowan reached into for her pocket watch and glanced down at the time. She winced at seeing that it was easily past midnight. It was officially Saturday, and she still had detentions with Caretaker Argus Filch later that afternoon. Snapping shut the pocket watch, she sighs and decides to head back when a faded marking on the ground catches her eye.

Hurrying forward Rowan kneels on the stone floor and shines the light of the lantern on the ground. There are small, unnoticeable, but intricate carved ancient runes on the floor. Shuffling across the floor on four limbs, she shivers at the cold of the stone floor. Still, she continues forward before finding a clear indication of where the ancient runes begin.

Rowan quietly begins to read out loud the ancient runes that translate into, "Saturn, the Gate of Beginnings, the Doorway, and Passageway. Twice, we call upon Janus, the Spirit of Duality and Transitions. Thrice, we call upon the Moirai, the past, present, and future. So, mote be."

"Huh, nothing happened," Rowan thought to herself with slight disappointment, before rising to her feet and hearing a loud crack in her back. The crack sounded louder than usual until she glanced down.

A carved serpent from the ground abruptly rears up and clamps its stone jaws around Rowan's hand. Letting out a hiss, she points her wand at the stone serpent, but before she can blast it to smithereens, the serpent dives into the stone-ground into a snake hole that had not been previously there. Before Rowan can begin to curse, a dark twisting red pulsating color begins to spread between the stone cracks and shine through the floor.

Rowan lets out a slew of curses and begins to run when the stone hollow serpents begin to peel off the floor. "I couldn't just well leave it alone, could I?" She grumbled to herself. "Hypocrite! I do often accuse Severus of acting like a Gryffindor all the time and yet here I am sticking my nose where I shouldn't be!"

The red glow runs up the walls and to the ceiling where the blue and white crystal begins to glow a crimson color. A crimson light is emitted from the crystal, but none of the serpents move to attack her, but rather move in a dizzying circle fashion around the chamber faster and faster. The ground begins to glow as the ancient runes light up like bloody crimson stairs.

Bathed in crimson light, Rowan tries to move forward but she feels as though the floor is moving underneath her feet. Unable to maintain her footing, she falls onto her knees, before the crystal hanging overhead begins to shake ominously. The crystals clang noisily around her when the first crystal falls to the ground shattering violently.

Unable to maintain her foot, Rowan begins to crawl forward, but the ground moves and sways underneath her. She would have normally teleported herself out, but to use her mindscape she requires to be able to close her eyes and focus. It is one of the severe weaknesses of her teleportation ability. With how much the floor was swaying she would not be able to concentrate long enough to teleport away.

Crawling forward Rowan hurries as fast as she can on four legs as crystals continue to rain down all around her. A loud crack is suddenly heard from overhead causing her to gaze up in horror. The massive crystal overhead breaks into three large pieces and hurtles straight at her. Unable to do anything else, she casts a shield charm over herself.

The giant crystal never hits her but rather turns into a red sparkling dust just above her. The swirling cloud of red dust engulfs Rowan and begins to swirl faster and faster. A glowing vortex of power swirls and swirls until it engulfs itself until nothing, but darkness remains within the chamber.