Chapter 208
"It has happened," Harry heard her tell the silent staff room. "Students have been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself."
Gasps started around the room, before Snape's voice interrupted them, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, "has left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch's voice, "Which student?"
"Lisa Turpin," Professor McGonagall's tone sounded broken as she answered, "We will have to send all the students home tomorrow…This is the end of Hogwarts."
There was no more talking. One by one, the teachers walked out of the room. Meanwhile, Harry was busy asking himself why the heir would take the quiet Ravenclaw girl of all people.
Had she known something?
Had she come across something that had set the heir on edge?
Why her?
All these questions and more filled his mind as he headed into an abandoned classroom nearby, where he pulled off his cloak and had Hedwig flame him up to Myrtle's bathroom.
The ghostly girl wasn't present there, probably off with the other ghosts trying to get straggler students to go back to their dorms as per Professor McGonagall's orders. Harry let Hedwig out of his pocket.
"Look for something out of the ordinary. It's probably related to snakes and well hidden," he told her, and the phoenix flew up, looking for anything like Harry had described.
Meanwhile, Harry himself was considering using something that he had promised himself he wouldn't use anymore at Hogwarts. Mage Sight. The Hogwarts castle was overflowing with magic, which of course made Mage sight completely useless if you did not want to get blinded by the sheer intensity of the light. But this was one of those situations that felt like it was worth the pain.
"Mage sight activate," he muttered.
Nope.
Bad idea.
Almost blinded by the sheer intensity of light, Harry quickly shut his eyes and deactivated the ability, trying to stop a headache from forming. The bathroom was pretty much near the center of the castle, and the only thing he was able to see was pure burning white. It was rather stupid of him to even bother trying.
Just as he had pulled up his healing ability and healed away his headache, a trill sounded from across the room. Trying to blink out the spots in his eyes, he looked over at where Hedwig was calling him from.
She was perched on a sink, pecking one of the copper taps.
Harry hurried over to it and looked at the sink closely before he finally saw it. Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"Observe," he immediately cast at the tap.
Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets
The tap requires a Password from anyone who wishes to gain entry. This password is given to this tap, which can give access to the pipe which leads to the Chamber.
Password - Any Parseltongue phrase
Suddenly a window popped up in the corner of his vision.
Parseltongue Skill Active!
"Open up," he said, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move, sinking right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
Ping!
Quest Alert!
Save Lisa and defeat the beast of the Chamber!
Rewards,
80,000 exp
10 stat points
Skill book!
Failure,
Death
YES/NO?
Taking a deep breath, he pressed yes, before casting a Bombarda on the sink, exploding it to pieces. If he somehow didn't make it, then at least people who couldn't speak Parseltongue; people like Aurors and investigators; would be able to enter the chamber.
He grabbed onto Hedwig's legs as she lifted him up, and together, they descended down into the Chamber of Secrets.
I've been worrying about posting this chapter. There are always a bunch of people who hate seeing character death and get angry at the authors for writing them, but hey, I have to tell the story I set out to tell, so I'll just have to weather the flames and angry reviews. There were always going to be casualties in this plotline and Dean was one of them. His death will unleash multiple new plotlines and will have a long-lasting impact on the story. This was the longest chapter yet, with a whole lot of setups paying off. Let me know what you thought of it.
Dark times ahead...
.....
It was like slowly going down a slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards. He knew that they were flying slowly deeper below the school than even the dungeons. It eerily quiet, with no other sound around except the occasional tip tap of water and the rhythmic flapping of Hedwig's wings above him.
After a minute or so of careful maneuvering, the pipe leveled out, and he dropped down onto the slimy, damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Hedwig fluttered down onto his shoulder as he looked around the tunnel.
"We must be miles under the school. Under the lake," said Harry as he looked at the wet, slimy ceiling of the tunnel, his voice echoing in the black tunnel. Hedwig chirped in uneasy agreement, looking around with peeled eyes for any movement in the darkness.
Harry lifted his hand, intending to light up a fire before he stopped himself.
If the Basilisk was nearby, attracting its attention with a fireball was going to be the last thing he wanted to do.
No.
Stealth was the way to go.
Dipping a hand into the inventory and pulling out the Invisibility Cloak, Harry wrapped it around himself and Hedwig. Deciding to trust his senses, for now, he walked off into the tunnel, trying to avoid making any splashes in the puddles of water on the floor.
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