Chapter 54: Pit of Snakes

Qafshtama National Park, Albania

December 2nd, 1992, 03:02 PM (English time)

"Ok, Leona, I have to agree that it was a very appropriate moment for that phrase."

Selena said to Leona after letting out a chuckle.

"Now, how do we go down the cave? I really don't want to eat something to shrink."

Joan added to the conversation. She had read the book too, so she thought it wouldn't be an inappropriate remark.

"We are just going to transfigure the earth around and compact it to avoid the cave collapsing on us."

Erik said and waved his hand, enlarging the hole in the middle of the roots of the old tree and compacting the dirt. He then conjured an orb of white light and set it to float above his head. With two of the main problems solved, Erik turned to the hole in the ground and started to go down it. Selena, Joan and Leona shrugged and followed Erik down the cave. Croaker looked at the other Unspeakables and took out his wand with a flick of his wrist, and without any word, followed Erik and his wives down the cave. The other two Unspeakables took out their wands and followed after Croaker.

As Erik and his group walked down the cave, the temperature started to stabilize from the chilling winter to a more warm and constant one. During the walking, the group stumbled upon dozens of skeletons of small animals. Rodents at most, but there were some rabbits in the middle of it too.

"Hmm. Regurgitated bones."

Erik said after examining some of the skeletons. The bones showed signals of wear by some kind of acid. This last piece of information together with the constant temperature of the underground and the size that the cave was before his transfigurations, brought him to think of an idea of what they could find down in this cave.

"Be watchful of snakes. All the signals that we got until here points to this being a snakes' den."

Erik warned his companions.

It didn't take much time for them to find what they were looking for. Croaker had to verify the tracking artifact some times when they had forks in the path, and the rest had to put down some aggressive snakes that attacked them, but they found what they were looking for.

They first heard it as a series of small noises. Hisses mixed with small stones moving about. And after searching the origin of the noises, the group found it. It was a bigger room inside the cave. It had stalactites all over the ceiling dripping droplets of water to the ground, which was a giant snake pit. Literally.

Erik stopped at the border of it looking at it. His companions stopped too by his sides. He noticed that the snakes were agitating themselves due to the new light in the cave. Erik then flicked his finger and the orb of white light that was floating above him changed its color to a soft green and started to multiply in numbers. With another flick of his finger, the orbs of soft green light were launched and stuck through the cave room's walls and ceiling, giving the room a soft green lighting that calmed down the snakes.

"I think that we found what we were looking for."

Joan said to her companions.

"There."

She added while pointing at a section of the cave room. The group looked at it and what they saw was an odd scene. In the middle of the pit was a big stalagmite that seemed to have been destroyed. It had its upper portion tore down, creating a kind of pedestal of sorts. One could even say that anything that was put on top of it would be in emphasis inside the room. And it was in this place of emphasis that the group saw a big black snake looking at them with red eyes. One could feel the malice coming from it. Croaker brought the tracking device up and aligned it with his eyes, confirming Joan's words.

"Lady Joan is right. The tracker is pointing directly to the snake on top of the broken stalagmite."

Croaker said to everyone. The snake's eyes squinted at that and it started to move. When Selena saw that it wanted to flee, she jumped into action.

"Oh no, you won't escape from us."

She said and started to launch spells at the snake, one after the other. The first ones missed its mark, causing the snakes that it touched to be launched in the air.

"Joan, secure the room. Leona, start casting a soul trap.."

Erik said and the said women started to do what was asked. Joan unsheathed her sword, a short one because of where they were, and put herself on guard in front of the group, cutting down any snake that approached them with the intention to attack. Leona extended her hand and started to cast a long magecraft spell with a blue magic circle appearing in front of her hand. Erik then started to cast and launch bolts of white light to the cave room's walls, ceiling and ground. With each bolt of white light that impacted their target, that section of it would start to glow with an ethereal white light. The unspeakables got into action too without a prompt from Erik. Two of them turned to where they came from and started to blast any snakes approaching them from behind, while the remaining one went to Joan's side and started to help the armored woman.

And then, one of Selena's spells hit its mark. The black snake with red eyes was launched in the air with it, and before it could drop back into the ground, another spell cast by Selena hit it in the middle of the air. The snake then stopped its fall and stood in the air trying to slither on it.

"Gotcha!"

Selena said loudly with a smirk appearing on her face. She then cast another spell, and a blue bolt of magic hit the snake and made it glow in a blue light.

"We can't have you escaping us now, can we, Tom?"

Selena said again, this time with a sickly sweet voice that made the snake stuck in the air stop trying to move. It then turned its head to where Selena was and glared at her.

"Oh, yes. We know who you are."

Selena spoke to the snake.

"Or better, we know what you are."

Selena corrected herself, emphasizing that Tom Riddle couldn't be considered human anymore.

"And we know what you have done."

Selena added mysteriously to the snake, while floating it slowly to where she was. And when it was about two meters away from her, she looked it in its red eyes and hammered the final nail on it.

"And guess what, we found them all."

Selena said with a big cheshire cat smile on her face.

"Every little one of your trinkets was found. The important artifacts that you used for them were all cleansed of your disgusting piece of soul, and the ones that were not important, were already destroyed."

Selena said to the snake. She was having some fun saying these things to it. She could not torture a piece of mangled soul physically, but she was sure that she could do it using the right words. And if the snake's reactions were to be taken into consideration, she was being very successful in her endeavor.

"You must have felt it, didn't you?"

She asked the snake.

"During last week, bouts of sudden weakness."

Selena added. From what she had read about the Horcruxes, when you destroyed one of them, it would cause sudden weakness to its owner.

"But it was not like you could feel much within your current host, right?"

Selena added. The disembodied mangled soul was inside a snake right now after all, and the senses that a snake had were very different from the senses that a human had.

"Let's make it easier for you. Let me name the trinkets that were found for you."

Selena said to the snake.

"First, we have a black leather bound diary with the name T. M. Riddle on it. It was used to create a tracking artifact to search for the main piece of you or any other piece that was hidden away."

Selena said.

"Second, we found the diadem inside the Room of Lost Things. And let me tell you, you should have never touched it with your filthy hands. And for what you did to it, you marked yourself with a big target for me and my husband to come after you."

Selena said again. The snake squinted its eyes at her and then it came to it. She had the same face as the ghost of Ravenclaw.

'A descendant, maybe?'

The thought passed by the snake's head.

"Third, we destroyed an accidental one that you had made the night that your body was destroyed."

Selena said to the snake, who looked at her with confusion, maybe.

"Harry Potter had a piece of you inside him. But fortunately, the protection casted by his mother, the same one that killed you, protected him from the piece of your filthy soul. The boy is perfectly healthy now and that piece was bathed in fiendfyre."

Selena added to answer the snake's doubts.

"Fourth, we have a golden ring with a black stone on top of it, found inside the abandoned Gaunt's home. That one was destroyed too. Fifth, we have Hufflepuff's Cup. It was found inside the vault of one Bellatrix Lestrange, in Gringotts. And the sixth and final one, we have Slytherin's Locket."

Selena said, she then assumed a thinking pose for a little and continued talking.

"This one was an intriguing one, you know? It was found, with the help of the new Lord Black, inside his family home, in London. When they took it, an old house-elf appeared and tried to stop the people retrieving it from taking 'Master Regulus' locket'. Lord Black then ordered it to explain, it told them, while crying, how his good Master Regulus Black had found the Dark Lord's secret after he had almost killed his loyal house-elf and stole it from its hidden place with the intention to destroy it. Unfortunately, Regulus Black was dragged into a lake full of inferius and was killed, but not before ordering his loyal house-elf to get out and complete the mission."

Selena spoke to the snake, who was thinking, right now, of the house-elf that he had asked for one of his Death Eaters for. It had taken the house-elf as dead after having it drink the living nightmare potion, but it seems that it had managed to survive.

"It's amazing how wizards and witches tend to completely ignore how powerful the magic that house-elves have is."

Selena added to the snake. The snakes from the snakes' pit had stopped trying to reach them by now. Selena's companions were guarding her surroundings, and they were just watching Selena's one sided conversation with the snake.

"Now, this is what we are going to do. I will destroy each one of your remaining trinkets right in front of your eyes. After all only you is left, we are going to force complete a little prophecy. Ok?"

Selena said again while using a sickly sweet voice. At the last word, she had another cheshire cat smile on her face. Selena then put a hand inside a pocket of her robes and retrieved from it a red leather glove. She easily wore it in her left hand, and then extended her right arm to the side and made a grabbing motion with her right hand. On it, an intricate silver dagger appeared. It was her dagger, Ravenclaw's Lady's Dagger.

"Erik, dear, could you, please, give me the two that you got from Azazel?"

Selena asked Erik, who smiled back at her.

"Sure, honey."

Erik then retrieved a mokeskin pouch from the inside pocket of his blazer and from inside it, took a ball of crystal glass that had some dark gray smoke floating inside it. He then offered the ball to Selena, who grabbed it with her gloved hand. Selena then showed the dagger to the snake.

"Goblin Silver. It was fed basilisk's venom. Watch carefully as it destroys a piece of your soul."

Selena said to the snake, who started to try to move again, hissing angrily. She then slowly plunged the dagger into the ball of crystal in her gloved hand. The ball immediately blackened in its interior, and then, it shattered in thousands of small pieces. From it came a wail together with a small cloud of black smoke. It stood there wailing for a few seconds and then it disappeared into oblivion. The snake let out an angry hiss and then slowed its movements, looking balefully to Selena, who just smirked back at it.

"And that would be number three."

Selena said and extended her gloved hand to her husband again. Erik retrieved from his mokeskin pouch another orb and put it in her hands. Selena then repeated the process of slowly plunging her dagger in the ball of crystal. The same happened again. The ball immediately blackened in its interior, and then, it shattered in thousands of small pieces. From it came a wail together with a small cloud of black smoke. It stood there wailing for a few seconds and then it disappeared into oblivion. The snake let out another angry hiss at her, who just smiled back at it.

"And that would be number four."

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