Chapter 52: Secrets of the Secret Chamber

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

December 1st, 1992, 08:31 PM - Thursday

Erik, Selena, Joan and Leona were again inside the main chamber of Salazar's Secret Chamber. They had teleported directly inside it this time, as was way easier this way than flying down a bathroom's pipe.

First thing that Erik did was to summon and launch, again, dozens of little balls of white light. With that, the chamber was well illuminated again.

"Okay girls. Let's divide and conquer. Selena and Joan will tackle the magic doors. Leona and I will see to the mechanical ones."

Erik said to his wives and Selena walked to the first magical door, the one in the stone bust's mout, with Joan going after her. Erik then turned to Leona.

"Okay, Leona, lead the way."

Erik said to Leona, who nodded her head and turned to where the first mechanical door was located. He followed Leona to one of the towering pillars and she went for the wall near it. Leona stopped by the wall and put her right hand over the stone in it. She caressed the wall slowly, as if feeling for something. Leona started to walk slowly to one side as she kept her hand on the stone wall. Then, she stopped. Leona caressed the wall carefully in circular motions, and when her hand had drawn the third circle in the same place, it stopped. She then moved her hand to where the center of the circle would be and turned her face to Erik, and giving him a smile, she pressed her hand on the wall. A hidden button. She had found a hidden button on the wall, and as she pressed it, both of them heard a series of 'click' sounds followed by the sound of an old pulley working. Then came the familiar sound of stones sliding against each other, and an indentation the size of double doors by the side of the 'button' appeared on the wall. It slowly got deeper and then it slided downwards, revealing a new room to Leona and Erik. He looked inside the dark room a little and said.

"Good job, Leona."

Erik said while patting Leona on her head. The blonde had a big smile on her face.

"Come, let's explore."

Erik said to Leona, who took the invitation and hugged one of his arms. The couple entered the room side by side and Erik looked around. It was a dark and big room for what he could see of it. Don't take it the wrong way. When he evolved, as everyone before and after him, he did get a better vision for places of little light, like most animals had. But just like then, that kind of vision doesn't give all the details that a normal human would have seen in an ambient with good illumination. And so, Erik did what he had done in the main chamber: He waved his free hand and dozens of small balls of white light appeared around him and launched everywhere, stucking in walls, floor and ceiling alike. And just like that, the duo now could see the entire room in detail.

And the room was big. Well, not as big as the main chamber. The ceiling was about four or five meters high from a stone tiled floor. The walls, laterally, were separated by a good thirty, maybe thirty five meters. The other side of the room, the wall opposing the entrance door, was about two hundred meters long. It was a really impressive room for something underground. But the strange thing was not the size of it. The strange thing was the old furniture in it. Beds, tables, chairs, benches, cabinets, wardrobes, shelves, and more. The room was, too, arranged as if it was waiting for a large contingent of people to live in it. Erik put two and two together, and got part of the answer for the charade.

"I think that this was Salazar's contingency plan for an attack or siege on the castle."

Erik said to Leona while the two continued walking deeper into the room.

"Yeah. It really looks like a part of those bunkers that some people after the second world war were so obsessed with building for a possible world end scenery."

Leona replied to Erik, taking notice of how the furniture were separated in little groups of equal parts, and there was enough in a group to furnish a room for a single person, and at times, for a couple. The duo walked deeper and soon arrived at the end of the room. Not finding anything more, the duo walked back to the entrance door.

As they exit, Erik looked around the main chamber while walking after Leona and saw that Selena and Joan were already out of the stone bust's mouth and were now checking another magically hidden door. When Erik stopped walking, Leona was already doing her thing again, touching the stone wall as if searching for or feeling something. Soon, she found the mechanism to open the second mechanical hidden door and pressed it.

Like what happened with the previous door, 'clicks' were heard, followed by pulleys, and then came the sound of stones sliding against each other. An indentation of the size of double doors slowly appeared in the wall and then, after a piece of the wall sliding down, an entrance was revealed. Erik and Leona walked inside the room and he immediately sent dozens of small balls of white light everywhere inside the room. Just like the previous one, this room was equally big and with the same grouping of bedroom furniture. The difference was that this room was… complete. It had thin stone walls separating each room. It was truly like a huge dormitory. Not wanting to let anything pass, Erik and Leona still walked until the end of the room, and having reached it, and finding nothing different, they turned back and walked out of the second 'dormitory' room.

Earlier, with Selena and Joan, both women walked to the stone bust, where the first door that they would investigate in the night was located. Selena extended her arm forward and did the grabbing motion with her hand, summoning Slytherin's sword to it. She then pointed the sword to the stone bust and, while pumping some magic on the sword, ordered it to open.

"OPEN."

And the door did, with the sound of stones sliding against each other. Selena and Joan waited for it to open completely and both of them entered the stone bust's mouth, with Selena summoning a ball of white light to serve as illumination. The women walked down the tunnel while paying attention to the walls and where they were stepping. A moment later, Selena and Joan reached a large round room. The women walked to the center of the room while looking around. The room was bare if not for the lone old chair by the room's entrance and near the wall. Joan then noticed that the room temperature was superior to the temperature in the main chamber. She then kneeled on one knee on the ground and put her hand on it.

"The ground is warm."

Joan said to Selena, who nodded her head.

"This was the room where Hilda slept. Basilisks are cold blooded animals, like most reptiles. Uncle Salazar must have enchanted the room to produce some heat to keep her 'nest' always at a comfortable temperature."

Selena said and walked to the wall of HIlda's nest. She looked at the floor, where the floor met the wall, and sure she found what she was looking for. Small symbols, dozens of them, carved in the stone in a repetitive sequence to generate an effect: runes.

"He runed the entire room."

Selena said while looking at the small runes carved on the floor. She then closed her eyes and extended her senses to search for anything unusual inside the room. Selena found nothing. This was just Hilda's nest. The only thing unusual on it was the old chair that was by the room's entrance, near the wall. She could imagine her uncle Salazar sitting in that chair and talking his mind off with Hilda. Selena took a moment to put her emotions in control again and started to walk to the exit of the room.

"There's nothing here aside from old memories. Let's go to the next room."

Selena said to Joan, who nodded her head, got up from her kneeling position and walked after Selena out of the room.

Back at the main chamber, Selena and Joan walked to one of the walls. Reaching near it, they stopped and Selena, while pointing the sword of Slytherin to the wall and pumping some of her magic on it, ordered in a clear voice.

"OPEN."

And, like the doors before this one, the door did open, with the sound of stones sliding against each other. After waiting for it to open completely, both women walked into the new room. They looked around a little but couldn't see much of the room because of the darkness. Selena then imitated Erik, and conjured and launched a dozen small balls of white light everywhere in the room. The small balls of white light stuck on the walls and ceiling and were enough to provide a good illumination to the entire room. What they found was a replica of the school's library. But it had one big difference: it was empty. The replica of the library was bare of any books. It was a sad vision to her, as a Ravenclaw, a library bare of books. Both girls walked through the rows of empty bookshelves trying to notice anything different, but it was all normal. It even had desks with chairs around it for people to study.

"I don't get it. Why would a place like this exist down here?"

Joan said out loud. Selena looked around them once again and replied to Joan's comment.

"I don't know, yet. But I think we will know the whys as soon as we get the information about all the rooms in Uncle's secret chamber."

Joan nodded her head in agreement with Selena's words. Both women then turned and walked out of the empty library. Back at the main chamber again, Selena and Joan walked to the last unchecked magically hidden door.

Arriving at the wall where the door was located, Selena did the same thing that she had done with past doors inside the secret chamber: she pointed the sword of Slytherin at it and ordered it to open while pumping her magic in the sword.

"OPEN."

And again, the door opened. Both women entered the room and found a big round table in its center with something that they couldn't identify clearly, because of the room's darkness, over it. Selena then conjured and launched a dozen small balls of white light into the room, managing to well illuminate the place. With the 'lights on', both girls could now see clearly what the room was. It was a meeting room. The big roundtable had about thirty chairs around it, and on top of the table, the thing that they couldn't identify before, was now easily identifiable: it was a map. A three dimensional map of the Hogwarts castle and its grounds, together with the village of Hogsmeade and the area around it.

"I know what this is."

Joan said.

"Yeah, I know too. It is a map."

Selena replied to the maiden of Orléans, who shook her head at her.

"No. I mean, yes, it is a map. But it's not just a map. It's a military map."

Joan said to her sister-wife. She then pointed to the castle on it.

"See how the castle is in the center of the map? Now take notice of everything around it."

Joan said to Selena, while continuing to point other things on the map.

"All the terrain around the castle is very accurately done. Mountains, hills, valleys, lakes, rivers, walls. Everything necessary to plan a defense or a siege is very well represented in this map."

Joan explained to Selena. She had some experience with military battles and the way that things were planned for the battlefield.

"If I were to say, this room is not just a meeting room. It is more likely a command center."

Joan said, still looking at the very detailed map.

"Yes, I think that you are right, Joan. At least now the empty library makes more sense."

Selena said and turned to the exit.

"Let's go back and meet with Erik and Leona."

Selena said and walked out of the room with Joan walking behind her.

Back in the main chamber, the two women found Erik a Leona walking out of their last room too. The four walked to the middle of the main chamber and stopped.

"So, what did you, girl, find?"

Erik asked Selena and Joan.

"The first door that we looked at was the one in the mouth of the stone bust, but it had nothing unusual on it besides a big round room with the ground being runned to keep it warm. It was Hilda's nest, and nothing more. The second one that we looked into was an empty library. It was as big as the school's one, but it was empty of any books. The third room was the most interesting one. It had a big round table, enough for thirty people sitting around it, with a three dimensional map over it. Joan identified it as being for military use. The kind used for defense or siege of a fortified place."

Selena said to Erik and Leona, reporting their finds. Erik nodded his head at the information given.

"Hmm. Yes, now I have a good idea of what Salazar wanted to do by building this secret chamber deep under the castle."

Erik said, having pieced the puzzle together.

"Both rooms that we looked into were dormitories. Big and long room full of furniture for a lot of bedrooms. One of the rooms was complete, having walls separating the individual bedrooms. The other room had only the furniture on it and no walls erected."

Erik said, reporting to Selena and Joan what he and Leona had found.

"So, this secret chamber is really a shelter?"

Leona concluded and asked at the same time.

"It seems so. Salazar seemed to be building a contingency plan if Hogwarts was ever attacked. The dormitories would be for sheltering the students and staff, while the empty library would be for safe keeping of the school's books. The meeting room with the map would be used, as Joan had guessed, for defending the castle. Pointing troops positions, rallying attacks, planning defense points, etc."

Erik finished explaining.

"Since he never said anything about it to any of us at the time, Uncle Salazar still had to finish it when he fell ill and died. We can notice it with the unfinished dormitory that you, Erik and Leona, found."

Selena said to them all, and in particular Erik.

"So, what do we do with everything here?"

Joan questioned Erik and Selena, who assumed thinking positions. After a short time, Selena gave an idea.

"We can finish it. Have the house-elves keep it clean. Alter the enchantment on the secret chamber entrances to open at their command or with the command of the Headmaster and the Deputy. This way, if necessary, they can guide the students to a safe place."

Selena said to the group.

"Not that it would give them much time to move with all the new forms of 'war' that the non-magical have these days, but it would be an option."

Leona added her own nippet, and the group nodded at it. Non-magical could bomb a place without moving their butts from their chairs.

"Not anymore. With the wards at full power again, anything short of a small nuke would not harm the castle."

Erik added after Leona.

"And about the map, I have a good idea of what to do with it."

Erik said while smiling at the girls.

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