Chapter 5

"My word... my word indeed." Armando Dippet breathed as he sat back from the Pensieve. He was pale and shaking, and didn't look good at all. None of them did to tell the truth.

I didn't want to face that day again, which was why I hadn't entered the Pensieve with them. There were things that I knew I had forgotten about that fight that would have been revealed to me in enchanted device, deaths that I had not even realized I had seen that would be there waiting for me.

It had been hard enough facing the mere thought of remembering the day well enough for the extraction technique to work. A day that I had lost a brother if not of blood then of soul.

I had cut the memory short at his death, just because I didn't want to subject them to what happened afterward. Neville and I had fought a retreat back to the rest of the fighting, unwilling to leave behind our other comrades even though the battle was lost. I debated that action every time I had thought of it since. We had managed to warn them to leave, but our movement had drawn Voldemort himself directly into the thick of the fighting. Ron hadn't been the only one on the side of the light to die that day.

"I dare say Filius would enjoy a friend bout against you one day Mister Evans." Albus said softly, taking his spectacles off his face and slowly cleaning them. I watched in silence, playing with my robes anxiously. "I would like to someday know the name you were born with, but that is a question for another day."

"Indeed, Albus, it is. I think I shall announce that we have a new Professor this eve, but I'll leave the introduction off until tomorrow." Armando said, turning what had to be a kind eye to me. "The castle has already opened a new set of quarters in Gryffindor's tower, and the elves have no doubt moved your things Miss McGonagall. If you'd be so kind to show Mister Evans the way, I'll see that they serve a meal in your room. I daresay you both could use the time away from prying eyes."

I chanced another look at Minerva, who had her hands bunched up in her robes, and was most pointedly looking at the floor. Slowly her hands unknit from the cloth, and she looked up at me, tears bright in her eyes.

"I... I have to know, Harry. Is that, is it possible that what happened there, will happen here?" Minerva spoke, giving word to the fear that I knew that both of the older men had, and that I had myself.

I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it and thought carefully. "Possible, yes. I do not think it likely though, from what I've seen so far of this world, well it is unlikely that the pressures that caused Tom, or as he proclaimed himself, Voldemort, would give rise to him again. Grindelwald has seen to that, but could it happen? Yes, which is one of the reasons why I want to teach here."

"Tom is a student here then?" Armando asked, his brows rising, and then furrowing in thought.

"Possibly, but I have no idea if his life molded him the same here as it did in my past." I chewed over a bit of information I had received earlier in the day, and decided to let it loose here. "I already know that the wand which he used in the future did not choose him here. That may indicate that he is a different person."

"That it may, that it may." Armando murmured softly before waving his hand. His eyes grew hard again when he turned them on me. "I think that you're too young for this position boy, but you've got the experience for it. You'll be probational for at least two years, and I'll expect that if Miss McGonagall takes your class that there will be no cause for claims of playing the favorite."

I gave a small nod at that, but Minerva put the concern from all of our minds. "I'd not let him, Headmaster, and you know that when I put my mind to it..."

"That wild dragons can't drag you away, yes, quite we know that quite well." Albus said with a soft chuckle. He stood and moved over to a wall mounted candlestick, and rotated it a quarter turn clockwise. A section of the wall retreated and then slowly swung away, revealing a narrow set of stairs. "This will take you directly to the Gryffindor common room, and you're only learning of it a few months early Miss McGonagall."

"I see," Minerva said primly, with a bit of satisfaction in her voice. Her hand reached out for mine, and squeezed softly before indicating with a tug that I should stand. I did so and she rose with me. "We shall retire then. Good eve, Headmaster, Professor."

"Good eve, Headmaster, Professor." I mimicked, with an incline of my head. I had heard Mr. Weasley say often enough what the key to a good marriage was, and this was not a fight I needed to fight.

"Good eve." Echoed back at us as Minerva pulled me towards the staircase, and then started up it at a pace that I was hard pressed to match.

Even though she was years younger I could still tell that this was a sure sign that Minerva was working herself into a right huff. I rather thought I had figured out what it was too. Hermione had always got more upset if I tried to head her off in her rants, so I figured the same would probably be true with Minerva, given the way she used to silence us with a look before telling us how out of bounds we had been as students.

The exited into the common room from niche in the wall between the boys and girls stairs that Harry remembered seeing but hadn't ever looked closely at before. The common room wasn't what he remembered it to be either. To put it bluntly, it was huge, at least five or six times the size of the one he grew up sitting in. There were four massive fireplaces, one to each cardinal direction, along with chairs, tables, and sofas galore. The only thing that remained the same were the staircases, the entrance to the common room from the castle, the entrance to the head quarters, the color scheme, and the view from the windows.

"How..." Harry murmured, and then shook his head when Minerva looked at him. "I sometimes forget the wonders that magic can do."

"I suppose it was smaller when you attended?" Minnie asked, her eyes softening slightly. She smiled at my nod and gestured to the room. "Hogwarts is built on a node that has seven ley lines running into it. They can't power the wards, but they do power the castle itself, allowing it to change itself as needed. Everything from the size of the rooms, to where the classrooms are, and the creation of walls and towers to keep pace with military technology. Though the latter has all but stopped with the integration of the wards."

There was a nice neutral topic, maybe I could put off things for a bit. "The wards weren't put up when the castle was built?"

"No...just who did you have for History of Magic?" Minerva asked, and I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly before answering.

"Professor Cuthbert Binns, he was a ghost at the time, and well didn't lecture on much but the goblin rebellions." I gave her a sheepish smile. "Most everyone used it as a chance to catch up on other homework, or to sleep."

"Oh, he used to work here, but Armando replaced him several years back when the OWLS in History started to slip. And, no, the wards weren't part of the original defenses as the Founders believed in more active defenses. Wards didn't become popular defense for anything but crypts until fourteen hundreds, when the non-magical threat started to become serious." Minerva replied, opening the door to the Head's chamber which unlike when Percy was Head Boy didn't open into a room, but into a hallway with doors to either side. Obviously the 'Heads' labeling in this time not only meant Head Boy/Girl, but possibly Head of Household as well. "We will be near the back."

Minerva once again led the way and eventually opened a door that currently read 'Evans & McGonagall', I had seen several on the way labeled in a similar manner, handfasted couples of course, and at least three nearer to our door that only had a single name over the door, probably married couples. The door opened into a tasteful, if sparsely decorated sitting room with two open doors that led off to a bedroom, with two beds, and a private bath.

Minerva shut the door behind me, and turned. "I was going to have a very stern word with you about taking such risks, but I have no doubt that you have already heard it. Instead I will simply ask, will you be doing the same in the future?"

"Only if it is necessary for our safety." I replied, guiding Minerva over to the loveseat. This was a better discussion than others we could be having right now. "I can't promise never to get in a battle again, Minnie, but I can promise that I'll attempt to avoid any that would not serve to keep us as a family safe."

"I would be lying if I said that is what I wanted to hear, Harry. I do suppose that I will be able to live with it though." Minerva said after a short time of thought, and when she looked up she changed the subject of conversation. "I would like to know just who that man in your memory was though."

Telling her was something I had been debating during the whole time that they were in the memory. If I told her, and he was at Hogwarts, it was likely she would know who he was. That could color her treatment of him, and if he was tending to the dark might just push him over the edge.

Of course if he was here and going dark another set of eyes could always be useful. I couldn't chance having him unleash the Basilisk on the school, not with as crowded as the halls in this time would undoubtedly be. People would die, and in droves. I couldn't have that on my conscious.

"His name in my past was Tom Marvolo Riddle, the son of a non-magical, Tom Riddle, and a witch by the name of Merope Gaunt." I paused wondering how much explain, and decided to go with most of it. "The Guants were purebloods of the highest sort, marrying brothers and sisters when they couldn't contract marriage any other way. Descendents of the Slytherin line. Tom never forgave his mother or his father for abandoning him to live in a muggle, that is non-magical, orphanage and wished to eliminate all non-magicals."

Up until then I hadn't even been conscious of putting Tom, Voldemort, on the back burner. It slapped me in the face right then though. Still I can understand why I had unconsciously done it, back in my time he had been the most power Dark Lord alive, but here and now he was a fifth year student.

"I am not aware of anyone who is currently attending Hogwarts that is of the Slytherin line. If he is here he is not in Slytherin, and is hiding his lineage." Minerva says, her lips pursed in thought. Her brow furrows further as she sorts through the other information that she has been given. "What class would he be in?"

"A fifth year now, a sixth next year." I say, and she nods a bit. I decide to go for broke and describe him.

"Yes, yes I have have him now. Thomas is a Hufflepuff, not sure how he'll go wrong in there." Minerva stated and she looked up at me. Her eyes went wide when she saw the relief in my eyes. "What is wrong, Harry?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. In fact something is very right, Minnie." I pulled her into a tight hug, the relief feeling as if someone had pulled Hogwarts itself off my shoulders.

I had not thought that action all the way through to the conclusion though, as Minerva's body slowly relaxed against my body. Her face was so close, her eyes deep pools of uncertainty. Still she had not been sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. Her lips brushed mine in a hesitant kiss, and then again in a more confident one.

"Minnie..." I started only to be silenced again by the press of her lips.

"Hush. There has been enough of the morose for this evening, and I for one had different plans for what to discuss with you this night." Minerva pulled away from my arms with those words and motioned to the table set off to one side, which now bore several chaffing dishes. "I will expect something more lighthearted for our meal, perhaps the estate management you hinted at earlier?"

It was a disparate and strange group that I led to the second floor girl's bathroom just after noon the next day. Minerva, of course, was part of it as was Albus, Filius, Alphard Black who was the head of the DADA department, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn of the CoMC department, and after much wrangling on Albus and Filius' parts Crunchsmash, the goblin who taught estate management to the sixth and seventh years.

I had brought up the Chamber with Albus and Dippet during my discussion with them over the possible curriculum for the class I was to teach, and the probable class sizes. Having such a place within Hogwarts that might or might not be included in her defenses was bad enough, but having the basilisk living under the school was unacceptable. Thus the immediate expedition to determine both the status of the Chamber and that of the king of serpents. I had argued for waiting until after the Express had carried off the children for the year, but Armando would not hear of it.

"Here we are then." I said after casting a few quick charms to ensure the loo was empty. It was, strangely, still in the same place that it had been in my time possibly because it anchored the exit to the Chamber even though it was no longer the only girl's loo on the second floor.

"And how do you know its here then, again?" Silvanus asked gruffly, looking at me strangely and rubbing the rather abrupt end of his left arm with his right hand.

"I can hear the rustle of Parseltongue spells still lingering." I murmured, ushering everyone into the bathroom.

Most of the questions I had faced when I had revealed that I spoke Parseltongue had been related to what magic it could do. There were rumors and myths about the strength of spells that Salazar Slytherin could use, but to the best of my knowledge it was simply a language like any other. Spells and wards were not any more powerful in Parseltongue than in English or Latin, just a bit more difficult to identify since they were in a language that so few spoke.

A murmured incantation from Albus set a thin gold line at the door. "An Age Line, it will keep all but the staff out."

"Open." I hissed at the correct faucet, glad that I had put my language ability to the test prior to coming here. Hermione had always wanted to know if it was a soul-link with Tom that had given me the language ability, or something I had inherited from my parents. I still wasn't sure, but given the unlikely chance that a soul-link would endure through fifty years of time and a dimensional boundary I thought it was the latter. "The text I learned of this from indicated that there was a long, dirty tunnel that led down to the Chambers."

"Perhaps there is a command to make stairs?" Crunchsmash growled.

I gave a sheepish shrug and tried just that. "Stairs."

The Parseltongue command did nothing, and Albus stepped forwards. "It will be easy enough to transfigure some of the muck into stairs. It will not hold indefinitely, but a few hours should suffice."

An effortless wave of his wand produced a set of steps leading down the yawning mouth of the tunnel. Another placed softly glowing orbs of crystal, and I gave a wordless shake of my head to see his ability with transfiguration again. Minerva had been good, but she had never quite reached his level.

"He is quite good." Minerva mumbled from beside me, her wand in her left hand and mimicking the motions she had just seen. "I do wonder how he does it without the correct motions."

"Intent Miss McGonagall, it is all in the intent." Albus smiled over his shoulder, his eyes twinkling madly. He turned back to the tunnel and mused. "I am not nearly as good with charms though... Scourgify."

I took the lead again as the only one who knew what was coming, though I had passed that information off as reading in it in a diary of someone who had found the Chamber while they were in school. The tunnel was every bit as long as I remembered it, and with the steps the trip took a lot longer. Still it was easily large enough that even Hagrid at his full height would have had no trouble descending it, and the descent through twists and turns were gradual enough that a snake could climb it easily.

"This is Goblin work." Filius said softly part of the way through the descent, his fingers tracing over the walls as I looked back.

"Enslaved Goblin work at that." Crunchsmash growled again, sounding even more upset than he had earlier. Luckily Albus was on hand to deal with that.

"And if the Chambers are deemed to be suitable to add to the school we will be paying Goblins to finish it." Albus tapped his wand on his open palm for a fee seconds and gave a nod. "Even if Armando does not open the school coffers, the House of Dumbledore will pay for this."

"And if you do not choose to add it to the school?" Crunchsmash growled only slightly satisfied by the statement.

"It will be filled in." Albus stated turning a bright eyed glare on the Goblin. "I'll see to it myself."

"Your word then." Crunchsmash's words left no other reply available, and I let out a breath that I hadn't known I was holding.

The current balance between the Goblins and the British Ministry was a delicate one, I had learned from Minerva the evening before. They were the major bankers in the world and their main magical competitors, the gnomes of Switzerland, were currently hidden behind vast wards and were sitting out the unpleasantness in Europe as a whole. The sealing away of a vast amount of currency on top of the introduction of non-magical banking concerns had turned the markets volatile, and the Goblins had reaped the benefits of that. Now they were looking to assert that power, and there were faint rumors of yet another Goblin rebellion.

I didn't want this adventure to become the strike that would spark that blaze. Luckily it looked like Crunchsmash was more than willing to take Albus at his word, and the payment to finish off the Chamber would double as a bribe to keep relations good as well. There would be need to discuss this with Albus before that payment was made, however, as there were several ways to turn this whole mess even more in our favor.

The rest of the journey into the first Chamber was done in silence, and when the giant cavern opened up before us I couldn't help but to squeeze Minerva's hand. She anchored me then in that room as the memories rolled over me. I hadn't ever returned, but I swore I could see the faint, ghostly images of Lockhart, Ron, and I in the room.

"What's wrong?" Minerva whispered in my ear, drawing me slightly to the side as the others fanned out to examine the large initial chamber.

"Bad memories." I mumbled back. The desperation I had felt that day had flooded back in full force, and it was only by the strongest of efforts that I was able to push that feeling back under my Occlumency shields. I didn't want to talk about it, no more than necessary anyways. "We'll need to see if a Pensieve is among the Evans' artifacts, and if not see about purchasing one. I don't want to be bothering Albus every time something comes up."

"They are quite useful." Minerva muttered while I led her over to the circular door that guarded the entrance to the next part of the Chambers.

I could see now that there was a lot more to the complex under Hogwarts than the two chambers I had seen. There were other doors leading off the first chamber, but none were sealed with the snake entrance. Why I had not seen them my first time here, I could not say, but it was possible that Tom had either sealed them, or hidden them from view for some purpose of his own.

"We will most definitely be adding the Chambers to Hogwarts." Albus stated as he glided in beside me. "There is a ritual room in one of the side rooms and a very well set up one at that."

Well that explained why I had never seen those doors before. Tom would have sealed off something as important as a ritual room, even if he thought he was the only one who could access it. Ritual chambers were difficult to set up, as they had to be steeped in ambient magic, normally done with runes and crystals, but they couldn't be made with magic, and they had to sit dormant to allow the flow of magic though them to become calm and steady; a decade was about the lower limit and the older a chamber was the better.

"The other rooms are more of the same, all keyed to different rituals. Most will need to be sealed, unless the Ministry is willing to relax the restrictions on blood rituals." Alphard Black stated, and not for the first time that day I wondered if this was the uncle that had left Sirius the house he lived in after Hogwarts. The DADA Head seemed likeable enough, and he shared much with what I remembered of Sirius, same rakish grin, and the same gleam in his eyes. "Personal chambers behind this door?"

"No." I replied, tracing my fingers over the engraved snakes in front of me. "Perhaps the antechamber to his personal chambers, but the diary that I read indicates that there is only a large open room beyond this with a large bust of Salazar. Open."

That revealed a short tunnel, and at the end of it a room with which I was much more familiar. The chamber that I had battled the basilisk in. A basilisk which was curled up in the middle of the room, surrounded by the pillars carved with snakes, and very much under a stasis spell.

That was the best thing I had seen all day to tell you the truth. "I wonder how my source managed not to mention this."

It appeared that my soft gasp expertly covered up the surprise at seeing this right here. I had been waiting for the snake, but I had honestly expected the thing to be waiting to kill us all.

"Well, that's a bit of a let down." Silvanus puts his words right where my feeling aren't. I've already battled a thirty-foot basilisk, and I'd much rather not try that again. "Perhaps for the best though, that's a bloody large bugger."

"What do you think Professor Kettleburn? A large helmet or mask to cover the eyes?" Albus is already warily casting a series of detection spells. The CoMC professor just gave a nod as a reply.

I join him after a second thought, and we are both joined by Alphard a second later. "Nothing beyond the stasis charm that I can find. It is rune powered though."

"A rune powered stasis field actually." Alphard says after a long moment. He looks rather thoughtful. "I hadn't realized ward precursors that sophisticated were in use that long ago."

"It is possible that there were others who laid them down." Minerva stated after a moment of silence. The look she gave me promised that I'd have to have a very good explanation for my earlier statement. "After all, Harry knew of the chamber from a diary, could there not have been other members of the Slytherin line that gained access to these chambers?"

"The Gaunts of course, but the last of that line who attended Hogwarts was long before my time." Albus nodded thoughtfully and looked at me. I was busy filling away that little tidbit of knowledge. "You know the translation enchantment charm do you not, Harry? Slytherin's beast will likely be much more willing to do what we ask if it can understand us all, and can communicate with us."

The translation charm is something I am very familiar with, given the need to move often in the past couple years. I had not realized that it could be used on a magical language.

"It works on magical languages?" Silvanus thankfully asked the same question I had been thinking of.

"Indeed. The possessor of the magical language must simply charm an object to translate while in the presence of something of the native speaker." Filius stated, reminding me that he was actually present. "Consider that Albus is able to speak and understand Mermish, an ability of all Dumbledores that I know of. Should he charm say, a rock, to translate from Mermish to English and vice versa while wet..."

"Though that would allow us to communicate with the beastie, it does not get us by the problem of how we are to mask it while it is in a stasis field." Silvanus said, drawing our attention back to him. He glowered under the weight of so many eyes. "What? I use them from time to time myself. Useful ways to store ashwinder eggs since you can't charm them directly like. Still anything inside the field immediately freezes where it is. You can't shove anything in there, it just stops at the edge."

"Indeed. We will have to research this thoroughly." Albus was walking around the edge of the stasis field, as outlined by the ridge of dust on the floor. "The first milking of venom alone from this beast would likely equal the full salary of a senior professor. This could go a long ways towards making sure that Hogwarts remains fully independent of the Ministry."

Given the number of students at Hogwarts during this time, combined with the bylaws that limited the increase of tuition I knew that Hogwarts' general fund must be currently hurting for money. The rapid expansion of students and staff had to have severely strained the coffers that the founders had set up for the school, and it was unlikely that those coffers had benefited from Goblin management like the Evans family had.

"Yes, further study is needed. Filius if you would be so kind as to set up charms and wards around this Basilisk so we are to know if it awakens." Albus turns and motions to the door. "I will have you leave the entrances open for us for now, Harry. We will of course set additional defenses around the upper entrance, but for now I think it would be best if we did not call upon you further."

Given the way that Minerva nodded sharply at that, I knew better than to try and argue. Besides I had enough of these Chambers for today, perhaps after they had been fully completed my ghosts would no longer reside here.