Chapter 202: Studying the Chamber

Disclaimer: 

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 202: Studying the Chamber

The trio stood before the door leading to the Myrtle bathroom.

"I can't believe Salazar Slytherin would put the entrance here…" Professor Silverbell said.

"I had this theory…" The Headmaster started. "I believe this was only meant as a side entrance while the real one was placed somewhere else, perhaps in the dungeons. It is not uncommon to have several secret paths leading to the same location in this castle. Alas… if there is another entrance, we never found it."

"Yeah… 'we'…" Harry muttered. 

'We only took five minutes to get here… let's hope Dobby was able to clean it a bit.'

"Let's just go inside. It would be better if no students saw us coming here," Dumbledore said, opening the door.

"This looks… messy," Professor Silverbell pointed out after seeing the state of the bathroom.

"What happened here?" Dumbledore was startled. This bathroom was not used often but they made sure to keep it in good condition.

Now, the wooden walls of half the stalls were lying on the ground.

"Oh…" Harry had already forgotten about doing this. He was in a hurry to leave with that blasted ghost screaming in his ear.

"YOU!" The enraged ghost of Myrtle appeared, floating in the air and pointing at Harry. "You came back to destroy the rest of my bathroom?! Leave it alone!"

"Hold on… I can just fix it," Harry said, pulling out his wand.

"Harry, did you do this?" Dumbledore asked, his grandfatherly voice carrying a hint of disappointment.

"Is this what you normally do? Get drunk with fire whiskey and vandalize girls' bathrooms?" the gnome asked. Harry had clearly not made a great first impression on the little old man.

"I wouldn't say normally…" Harry waved his wand around. 

'Although… I have destroyed this bathroom a few times already.'

"Reparo," as the words came out of his mouth, the wooden walls moved and returned to their places, along with every lock, screw, and nail. It now looked brand new.

Professor Silverbell, seeing this, had no choice but to look a bit impressed. "Not bad… at least you know how to use that thing," he said, pointing at the wand.

"Happy now, Myrtle?" Harry asked.

"No! I'll be happy when you leave my bathroom," she said, flying back to her toilet and disappearing.

"Well, that was interesting, to say the least, and now… where is this entrance?, I hope we don't have to delve into a toilet. " Silverbell questioned while glancing at the Headmaster.

"This way," Dumbledore said, passing by Harry's side and whispering, "We are going to talk about this later…"

The Headmaster approached the faucets at the end of the bathroom and revealed the entrance.

With the addition of the stairs, it was much more comfortable to descend into the Chamber, but the little professors still required some assistance when they arrived at the pool of bones situated at the entrance.

"Magnificent!" Silverbell stared in awe at the wall of the chamber.

"It is fascinating, I agree. We had to do some repairs last year as it was damaged by the beast who used to live here."

"The beast… right. Salazar's legendary beast… what was it? Some sort of snake for sure," the professor asked.

Dumbledore gave Harry a quick glance.

Harry nodded.

"It was a basilisk… a massive one," Dumbledore said.

"Merlin! A basilisk?! And it didn't kill anyone before it was stopped?"

"Fortunately, no…"

"What about the corpse? I am very curious to see it. The body of a one-thousand-year-old basilisk… it must be very impressive," the professor said.

"Well…" Dumbledore could not talk about the giant one since Harry completely destroyed it, but they still recovered the complete corpse of another one. 

"My Potions Master dismantled the corpse to obtain its materials, but we still have its skeleton stored somewhere in the castle. I can show it to you later, but now… we should move to the main chamber."

Dumbledore walked past the circular door and entered the large chamber, with Professor Silverbell and Harry following closely behind.

While the little gnome gasped loudly at the sight, Dumbledore and Harry stared at the set of robes lying on the stone floor.

'Damn it Dobby! You forgot my robes!' Harry lamented. But at least it seems like the elf managed to clean the rest. There was no sign of his blood or any other residue left behind by the failed ritual.

'I guess I cannot be mad… he did what he could.'

"What are those robes doing here?" Dumbledore's eyes went immediately to Harry. He knew that Harry was the only student who could possibly enter this place.

Harry hurried to pick them up. "I'll take care of them…"

"What have you been doing down here?" Dumbledore threw a suspicious glare at him.

"Oh!" Professor Silverbell exclaimed.

Dumbledore and Harry turned to him.

The little professor had a strange device in his hands and was pointing it at one of the walls.

"What is it, Professor Silverbell? Did you discover anything already?" Dumbledore asked.

"Shh! I need silence to do my job!" he demanded.

"Of course, come on Harry. Let's wait on the side and let the professor work," the Headmaster told him.

They then watched for over an hour as the tiny old man continued to pull different devices from his pockets and used them to analyze every nook and cranny of the chamber.

Once he appeared to be done, he stored his artifacts and walked to them with a somber expression.

"This is…"

"Professor?" Dumbledore became more worried seeing him like this.

"Is it that bad?" Harry asked.

"Bad? No…" The professor lifted his gaze to look at their faces. "This is the worst-case scenario I could have predicted."

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