Chapter 16: "Like a sinner before the gates of Heaven"

Had the tunnels been this dark before?

Had they been so cramped and cold?

Had Circe really been unbothered by their narrowness or the labyrinthian twists and turns?

Circe's hands were shaking in her pockets. She breathed levelly and deeply, trying to settle her nerves. She counted the seconds breathing in, and then the same out. Anything to keep her mind occupied and off the panic-inducing thing she had run into the last time she had traversed these halls. No walkie-talkie; it couldn't be risked, given the noise it made. Circe too kept her footfall as light as she could, flinching every time the puddles beneath her feet splashed a little too loudly. She came to the girl's bathroom turnoff once again, and saw the hole she had blasted through the rubble last time. She thought too of the wish that had passed through her head when she'd crawled through the space: wishing Severus's voice had been with her in the dark.

Severus had forbade her to return to the tunnels after Malfoy's revelations. It had resulted in a rip roaring argument sparking off between the two of them. Circe had protested that no one "forbade" her to do anything, especially when it could help bring Hogwarts back to peace and safety. Severus almost had her making an unbreakable vow with him, had it not been for Circe's utter refusal to oblige. Luckily for her, the mandrake draft kept him busy when he was not teaching, and he could not keep a watch over her all seconds of the day and continue brewing. Circe had tried to oblige Severus, but that morning she had been almost moved to tears during the staff meeting when Dumbledore was strangely absent. That afternoon, when it had been her shift to tend to the Draft, she'd gone rifling through Severus's desk until she found the enchanted map of the tunnels he had created. She saw her name hovering near the "stop" they'd nicknamed "Paddington", the small drain on the floor of the potions storeroom showing her where the "stop" was. Knowing Severus would know exactly where she was if she even chose to step near a pipe, she regarded the map with bitterness. And then she'd promptly set fire to it.

A quick lie to Severus when they'd passed one another on their change of shift had sealed her fate for the evening; He believed her to be gone from Hogwarts for the weekend, away with Myron for a gig.

"Here, more music homework for you."

Circe had smiled at him, trying to diffuse the tension that lay between them, handing him a CD of the first 'Bat Out of Hell' album. A last attempt to keep Severus's attention on something else.

By the time he even thinks to check his draws it'll be too late. She thought. But if I run into any trouble, I'm fucked…

Yet she was sure the answers she wanted lay in the girl's bathroom somewhere. They had to. The pipes had taken her there last time, so the only route down to The Chamber must continue on from there. She'd exhausted all other possible routes. It had to be there.

She crawled on hands and knees again, feeling tentatively for the fall that took her to the septic tank underneath the girl's bathroom last time. Her tips found the crest and she stopped. Reaching around in the darkness for a small stone, she threw it off the ledge and listened for the plop. It came much sooner than she'd expected it to. Perhaps the suddenness of the fall last time had made it seem longer than it was, or perhaps it was flooded again.

Myrtle likes to flood the bathrooms...

No matter what the reason was, it was close, so close that she thought she could jump down. But like hell was she going to willingly throw herself into human waste again.

She took out her wand and cast a spell into where she hoped the water was. "Glacius!"

She felt the spell's magic travel down her arm and whizz off into the darkness. Circe swung her legs over the drop in front of her and sucked in a long breath.

Well, I'll either dive straight back into human waste again… or I've completely misjudged how big the fall is and I'll break my legs.

She didn't wait to consider these two options too closely, just in case she lost her nerve and bottled out. She jumped.

Circe let out a small yelp as her feet touched a hard cold surface. She had to bend her knees heavily to take the fall, but survive the fall unscathed she did. She touched a hand to the surface she had landed on: solid and chilly to the touch, like an ice rink.

My freezing spell worked. She thought triumphantly, allowing herself a small smile.

She drew her wand from her pocket and illuminated the space around her. Thankful to finally have light again, she set about exploring the small chamber she found herself in. It was quite large, almost as large as Circe's classroom, but from out of the now frozen water she could see a series of thick columns rising to the ceiling. It almost looked like the inside of a cathedral. She tiptoed forward into the gloom until she came across the holes in the ceiling leading to the toilet stalls she remembered from her last smelly excursion. She could hear Myrtle whingeing and whimpering in the space above her and decided to carry on exploring.

She walked the perimeter of the room carefully, finding little else of consequence. Eventually she gravitated back to the thick columns interspersed throughout the septic tank. They looked old. Rusted and flaking with age. Some of the "lines" she had explored with Severus were big, these were massive. At least ten foot wide, and they rose vertically: impossible for her to have walked along as she had done with the others, and Circe would not have been a fan of abseiling down them… She knew that they must extend down, way down to the subterranean floors of the castle. She touched an ear to some of them, listening carefully and hearing the babbling of running water.

Still in use then. Circe thought.

She came to one last vertical pipe and again listened for the rush of water within, but this time she heard nothing . She scrunched up her face in puzzlement, wondering why this pipe out of all the others that came from the bathroom above was empty. She tried mentally plotting out the layout of the bathroom above her, trying to figure out where on the floor plan this pipe sat.

Just under the sinks, maybe. You definitely need a working pipe to drain the sinks. Now that is odd…

Her eyes widened as realisation dawned on her.

This is it. The pipe that leads to the Chamber of Secrets...

Her thoughts were cut short when a great shiver from within the thick pipe made Circe jump back in trepidation. Something was moving inside it. Circe covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from screaming as she watched the thick metal tube rattle and warp from whatever shifted inside it. It creaked and groaned, the sounds like tiny screams in the cavernous chamber around her.

The monster!

She stood as still as she could. Her eyes following the wet slithering noise the creature made in the bathroom above her. She thanked the stroke of good luck that had put a floor between her and the creature, hiding her from its sight. The monster growled deeply, sending another shockwave of terror through Circe, pulling at her vocal cords again, telling her to scream. She scrunched her eyes tight and fought the primal instinct telling her to cry out, waiting for the monster to slip away… when silence did fall over the chamber again, and Circe was sure the monster was nowhere near, she let out a choked sob and ran back to the crawling tunnel that had led her to the septic tank.

I've got to get out... I've gotta get out of here now.

After hoisting herself out of the septic tank chamber, Circe ran like a demon breaking out of hell down the "Jubilee line". She was not in the best of places for "stops" again in the network of tunnels. There were plenty of small grates, showing her tantalizing sections of the surface, but none big enough for her to fit through. She slowed to a jog, the mind fog of panic taking control of her head again, just as it had done when she'd confronted Fluffy with Severus.

Oh god, Severus… he will never forgive himself if I'm gone by the time morning comes. Fuck, I could really have used him on the other end of the walkie-talkie about now.

She came to a standstill just outside of "Maida Vale": A small, barred opening near the hospital wing just wide enough for Circe to stand on her tiptoes and look out at the school's corridor at shoe height. She clasps her hands around the bar and shook it violently. Even if she did manage to tear the iron bars off it, it was only a foot wide. There was no way she could make her way out this way.

Come on, Circe. Remember what Severus said last time: try to stop panicking. Control the fight or flight.

Circe spotted two sets of approaching black school shoes just outside of the opening, making her halt her desperate shaking and step back. She could not see their faces from the angle where she stood but as they approached unknowingly closer to her she recognized their voices well enough… Harry and Ron.

".... this is it. This is the answer. From the paper that was in Hermione's hand."

Circe listened closely, catching the tail end of their conversation. She heard one of them close the doors to the hospital wing and run to the other's side. The two boys stopped just outside of the opening where Circe was concealed. One pair of scraggy scuffed school shoes, and one pair of slightly nicer, newer shoes.

"What answer? What does it say?" The scraggy shoes said, presumably Weasley.

"Basilisk. King of the Serpents. This snake can reach gigantic sizes and live for many hundreds of years. It's methods of killing involve it's deadly and venomous fangs and its murderous stare. All who are fixed with the beam of it shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before it for it is their mortal enemy." Potter read, and Circe heard the crunch of paper from above.

"Harry, that's it that's the answer. The monster from the Chamber is a Basilisk."

"That's why I heard the voices that night in Lockhart's detention. It's because I understand parseltongue."

Parsel-what? Circe thought to herself as she listened from her hiding spot.

"It's a snake, and I can talk to snakes."

Ah…

"But Harry, If the basilisk kills by looking you in the eye then why hasn't anybody died?"

Oh come on, Ron. Get there quicker. It's because nobody has-

"Because nobody has looked it in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera lens, Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick, Nick got the full blast but he can't die again , and Hermione had the mirror."

Circe silently applauded Potter from her hiding spot.

"So how's it been getting around the place? Great big rollocking snake like that …?" The two sets of shoes began to walk away, the voices getting quieter with each step.

"Can you see what Hermione's written here…"

"Huh! Yeah, that makes sense. She must be on the same discovery path too…"

Circe peered out at the boys as they walked away, wishing she could have seen what note Granger had made on the paper.

How are these three running rings around me again? Circe thought with a snort.

She saw Ron suddenly grab Harry by the arm. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets! What if it's near that bathroom? What if it's in…"

Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom. Yeah I got to that one first, you meddling kids. Circe's stuck her tongue out at them childishly.

Whatever Harry and Ron said next was lost in the long, droning alarm that reverberated off Hogwarts walls. The alarm for an attack. Circe started and saw the boys scurry away out of her sight. The sound also made her take stock of the situation she was still in. She was still in the pipes, and the monster was still about. Basilisk. She knew its name now. And she knew it was deadly…

Minerva's voice came over the tannoy, "All students return to the house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately please."

Oh no, whatever can this mean? I'll have to fess up to Severus that I lied about being off site, but at least I can tell him now of what I found.

Circe turned on her heels to continue her search for an opening big enough for her to get to the surface. Her heart jumped into her mouth when she saw Ginny Weasley, standing motionlessly before her.

"Ginny…" Circe asked gently. But the rest of her words died within her as she looked at the girl. Ginny looked up at Circe with white, pupil-less eyes, her small mouth hanging open gormlessly.

Possessed.

"Ginny…" she said again.

Circe tried reaching out to her, but stopped dead when an evil smile bloomed across the girl's face. Circe began to back away from her slowly, fright gripping her whole being once more. Ginny muttered some low, guttural hissing sounds and Circe whimpered when she heard a familiar wet slithering noise in the tunnels nearby. The monster had been summoned for her, ready to catch the one it had reluctantly let escape before. Circe began to hyperventilate, terror turning her legs to wood. But then a voice of clarity broke through her panic like sunshine through the clouds, speaking softly to her from within her own mind. The directions of what she had to do suddenly came to her as clear as day... in Severus's voice:

Take the Jubilee line down to Charing Cross. Turn right. Follow Bakerloo to Holborn. Second left. Run fast. Don't look back.

Circe nodded to herself, turned and did as Snape told her to.

-----

Severus had been slightly shocked by Circe's parting gift that evening. He thought he had made it clear that he didn't really like Meatloaf that much. Yet still, he turned the CD over in his hands as he stirred the mandrake potion with the other. An emotional symphony… he thought, remembering the phrasing Circe had used the last time they had listened together. A small smile pulled at his lips and he suddenly realised how empty and lacking the storage room felt without her. Perhaps he liked it more than he cared to admit to her.

He cast a wary eye back to the door of the storage room, double checking to make sure he was not going to be caught enjoying it again, and placed the CD in the player. But just as he closed the lid, he was interrupted by the shrill, long notes of the alarm system. He heard Minerva's instructions and rushed from the room to be wherever he had been summoned to be, turning down the cauldron fire to a simmer but leaving the CD player still going…

------

Circe was still frantically running the length of the "Bakerloo line" when she heard the distant sound of music floating through the tunnels. At first she wasn't sure that it was music, sounding eerie and ethereal as it bounced off the stones. All she had heard until then, while she fled the basilisk, was the crunching slither and vicious growls of the beast gaining on her. Her heart still pumped in her chest, the beat relentlessly driving her on, punctuating the mantra she had been repeating to herself as she'd run from Ginny.

I am not dying at the bottom of this godforsaken pipe.

She realized why, when her panic had cleared, her mind had led her to this part of the network. She was close to "Paddington", Severus's dungeons, and perhaps if she managed to reach him then she could shout through the grate in his storage room and let him know she needed help. Perhaps she had managed to lose the monster. She could not hear it as clearly or closely as it once had been. The noise she could hear now was the distant, far off music… screeching guitars and what sounded like the revving of a motorbike engine.

Bat out of hell! Severus is there!

"Severus! SEVERUS!" She shouted, hoping that he would be able to hear her over the music.

But it was now quiet. Too quiet. The pipe to "Paddington" lay dark and lengthy before her. Still and heavy with its noiselessness. Her instinct told her to stop.

Then, emerging from an opening to the left, Circe saw the many teethed snout of the monster. Terror soared in her veins and she doubled back on herself quickly, turning away from it before it had a chance to fix her in its stare. The path to Severus now blocked, despair sank into the pit of her stomach like a heavy stone.

Shit, what do I do now? It snuck up on me. It trapped me.

A great guttural growl vibrated off the stones behind her. The basilisk was now so close she could feel the hot lick of its breath on her hair. She instinctively began turning around to peer back at the monster, to see how close to her it was.

No! Don't look! Don't look at it! She checked herself. Just run…

She felt the beast lurching at her, and she did her best to dodge and weave out of its way. But it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out. Her best option now was to look for something, anything that might shield her from the beast. An alcove or a pipe that was too small for the creature to follow her into. Evade it like she had last time. Circe eventually came back to the "stop" in Gilderoy's classroom, her throat raw and ragged from her furious panting. It was exactly what she had been looking for. A small, narrow tunnel that she had to stoop to fit through, but maybe only 5 foot long maximum. As she ran to it doubt flashed through her mind; it was much wider than the tunnel to the girls bathroom that she had hid in before, more a dugout than a tunnel, and if she didn't pull her legs in behind her quick enough the monster might still catch her feet. Still, it was all she had. It was this or nothing.

She threw herself bodily into the alcove and drew her legs in behind her. She pressed herself as close to the barred grate at the far end of the tunnel that she could, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom completely empty on the other side. She bunched herself up as small as she could, looking back to the entrance, praying that it was small enough to stop the creature from following her. The basilisk roared and snapped its great jaws at Circe, but came to a shuddering, painful stop as it butted its head on the bricks above her. It chomped furiously at her, able to fit part of its head or a fraction of its jaw through the opening, but not all. Circe sobbed loudly, burying her head in her folded legs, only able to listen to the vicious, but futile attack of the monster mere inches from her feet. Realising Circe had escaped again, it peered at her through the narrow space, its yellow eyes murderous and rageful. The basilisk went quiet, stopping its feral snarls and bites, hoping to draw Circe's gaze away from her shielding arms towards it. But Circe did not move, her head still buried in her knees as she sobbed loudly.

Don't look! Don't look! Don't look! She repeated resolutely in her head.

The monster roared in incandescent rage, fanning Circe again with its hot breath. She screamed louder, but still kept her arms clamped tightly around her head and knees. She felt it back away and for a moment she prayed that the thing had decided to leave her alone…

…. Until she heard it slam the whole of its massive hulking body against the tunnel's stones.

If it could not kill her with venom, or with its stare, then it was content to have her crushed to death.

Oh God, a cave in. Just like Severus said.

Circe felt the very stones she sat on shift and dust from the ceiling above drop onto her head.

The Basilisk slammed bodily into the stones again and this time achieved the tunnel collapse that it wanted. Circe just had time to cry for help and reach an arm through the bars of the opening, before a series of sizeable rocks fell on top of her, knocking her out cold and burying her alive. The only thing visible from the classroom was her small, outstretched hand still reaching for aid. Torn, twisted and motionless.

-----

Severus rolled his eyes at Gilderoy. There he went again, bleating away about his own brilliance. All the while the other staff members stared in horror at the most recent message the attacker had left.

"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."

A girl had been snatched by the monster, and he was Lockhart taking the opportunity to show off yet again. The man made him feel sick. He couldn't believe the nerve of him, spouting off about how he knew exactly where the Chamber was, and how he could have rescued the girl from abduction. It was almost as if he spat in the face of all Circe and he had done that year… especially Circe. He looked around for Circe to pass a sardonic look with, but realized with disappointment that she wasn't present. His chest tightened as he recalled what she had told him.

Out of office until Sunday night. I wonder if I should contact her? She'd want to be back here if she knew this had happened.

He watched Lockhart pacing up and down the length of the wall like some detective sleuth. He remembered well the discomfort and pain this man had caused Circe. He had overheard much more of their conversation in her classroom than he had originally let on, and he wanted to do something for her to help get her own back. And with her not being here, he could lend his assistance without exposing the tender spot he held for her to her face. He decided to have a little bit of fun with Gilderoy.

"Well Gilderoy, you are just the very man we need."

"What was that, Professor Snape?" He asked nervously.

"If the Weasley girl has indeed been snatched by the monster, then this is your moment. Have you not been saying all along that you know exactly where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

Minerva saddled up next to Severus and gripped his arm tightly. She cast him a side long look and muttered "Stop it…" to him. Acting Headmaster as she was, she was trying her best to keep the peace between her staff. Not willing to watch them tear each other apart in this moment of crisis.

Severus wriggled from her grasp and continued. "Yes, I believe you said in our staff meeting this morning that you believe the whole affair has been bungled and that you should have been given a free reign from the first."

Minerva managed to plant her heel firmly into Severus's foot. He yelped and hobbled away, finally silenced by her.

"We shall leave you to it then, Gilderoy." Said Mcgonagall. "Tonight you finally have an opportunity to prove yourself. Perhaps even garner some material to write your next book."

She purses her lips and raised a thin brow at Lockhart. He himself looking pale and weedy.

After Lockart had made his weak excuses, telling everyone he was off to "prepare" himself for his adventure down to the Chamber, she rounded on Severus with a steely glare.

"Severus, really…" she chastised him.

"Oh come now, you know he deserved it. He practically undermined everything Professor Smith has worked towards all year." Severus replied, rubbing his foot.

"Perhaps. You are quite keen to come to the defence of her honour…" she added curtly, watching his reaction acutely. When he shifted uncomfortably on his feet and avoided her gaze, she continued. "At least he's out from under our feet. I'm afraid we'll have to start the evacuation as soon as possible…."

"Evacuation?"

"Why yes. We have to get the students home as quickly as possible. We can no longer guarantee their safety here so it is quite impossible that we can keep Hogwarts open. I shall have to use the student records in Dumbledore's office to start contacting home… ."

The short lived happiness that Severus had gained from embarrassing Lockhart died within him, replaced by the realisation that the very thing that he and Circe had been working so hard to avoid was finally coming to be.

"Professor Smith will be disappointed. All her work this year will have surmounted to nought. And she's not even here to see the bitter end."

"What do you mean, not here?"

"She… Left this afternoon to return home for the weekend. She told me."

"No… She's here. Her possessions are still in her room."

Snape furrowed his brow, deeply puzzled. "If she is still on site, then why isn't she here?"

"Well, given how bad she's been this year with adhering to the role call, I assumed she was still in the library. Or perhaps with you, tending to the Restoration Draft."

Oh, God… she hasn't…

Comprehension hit Severus all at once. He turned from Minerva quickly to run back to his storeroom. Mcgonagall called after him, but he did not stop to heed her. The same icy nausea that he had felt the first time she had been absent from the rollcall sent his guts into a tangle. But this time, there was the underlying feeling of hurt and betrayal.

She lied to me. He realised. If she's gone to explore the tunnels by herself, the stupid girl, I will bloody well eviscerate her.

He flung open the storeroom door with a crash, sending a few bottles of ingredients on the shelves rattling precariously . Bat Out of Hell still played on the CD player, yet he paid it no heed. He delved into his desk drawer, searching for the map he had painstakingly drawn to help her. After a few minutes of frantic searching, throwing useless bits of paper around the room out of his way and upending the drawers, sending their contents spilling out onto the desk, he still could not find it.

His breath grew ragged with fear and he broke out into a cold sweat. After a moment of thought he reluctantly turned to the waste paper bin placed in the corner, and there, no more than flakes of ash and a few black scorched remnants, was his map. He frantically delved through the bin, desperately picking up the few remaining pieces that weren't cinders, his hands shaking.

No, Circe… No! Why did you do that? Why did you do that!? He felt close to tears, his world collapsing in around him.