Bound

The Chamber

“Harry, can you show me the Chamber of Secrets?”

Harry was surprised by Hermione’s question. He was currently busy with his Ancient Runes homework, as Hermione had already done it the previous evening, although she didn’t officially take the course.

“Why would you want to see it?”

“Well...” Hermione faked deep thinking. “I’d like to see what the Basilisk really looked like, without fearing petrification or worse. Then, there’s the small matter of seeing where somebody I really care for risked his life to save an innocent girl. I also thought that the Chamber of Secrets may hold more than one secret, and some may be of interest.”

It was like persuading a child to take some sweets. Despite his initial hesitation, Harry was quite enthusiastic for the chance to show her exactly what he had done and where he had fought.

“Would tomorrow after breakfast be all right?” It was the weekend, so they didn’t have classes.

“It would be perfect!” she told him, hugging him tightly, his head resting against her breasts.

They reached the right floor soon after breakfast and went into Myrtle’s bathroom. The ghost was sitting on a sink, seemingly deep in thought.

“Good morning, Myrtle,” they both said.

“Oh, it’s you!” Myrtle seemed startled out of her musings.

“Yes, it’s me and my good friend Hermione. You remember her, don’t you?”

“Welcome, Lord and Lady Potter.” She smirked seeing Harry’s surprise. “News travels fast, don’t you think?”

“Well... probably,” Harry admitted.

“What brought you here? You’re not here to use the toilets, I presume.”

Hermione answered this time. “I asked him to show me the Chamber of Secrets and the corpse of the Basilisk. Do you know the way?”

Myrtle seemed startled. “I’ve never been there, but I know that the redhead girl didn’t use the tube behind the sink, as Harry did. She just went into that stall over there, yet I’ve been too frightened to follow her.”

They went to the mentioned stall and found a serpent engraving on the wall, behind the toilet seat.

“How would you open it?” Hermione asked.

“I’ll just command it to open,” Harry shrugged.

“Just like this? $Open!$” The last word was hissed in parseltongue.

“Hermione! You never told me you could speak that way!” Harry expressed his surprise.

“I never could. This seems to come from our bond, I believe.”

While they were talking, the toilet seat and the wall behind it slid into the floor, revealing a wide staircase leading down. It was covered with thick dust, accentuating a set of small footprints leading down.

“We should be careful. There must be some traps here,” Hermione said.

“I think Tom directed Ginny around them. See how those footprints go aside at several places?” Harry noted.

“We shall also need some light,” Hermione noted. “I believe the entrance will close as soon as we go in.”

They did just that, Hermione lighting the tip of her wand with the Lumos spell. Following the previous footsteps, they encountered no perils and eventually emerged into the corridor where the tube had deposited Ron and Harry a few months earlier, on the other side of the cave-in.

Hermione looked at it wide-eyed. “This could have killed you!” she said, holding Harry’s hand tighter.

“Shouldn’t we try and repair it?” he suggested.

She took a few calming breathes first. “Yes, I believe we can do it.”

Using some of the spells that they had learned during the summer, they attacked the collapsed area and it soon turned back into walls and ceilings of the underground corridor. Hermione also added a few strengthening spells to be on the safe side.

They continued walking towards the chamber. Hermione gasped when she saw the empty skin in the corridor. It looked immense when lighted only by her wand, yet she knew the Basilisk must have been even larger. After walking silently for another short while they arrived at the door of the chamber.

“$Open!$” Harry hissed, making the serpent locks click open and the round door swing aside.

The corpse of the Basilisk was still there, not even starting to decay. Hermione looked at it with mouth agape. She had seen all of Harry’s memories of the event, yet seeing it with her own eyes gave her a new sense of size. Without the fear and the urgency of the fight, which had changed the perceived sizes of everything, she could now see things as they were. The Basilisk, while extremely long, wasn’t as thick as it originally seemed. A few broken fangs were scattered near its head, yet she knew better than to touch them. The eye sockets were empty and covered with congealed blood, but the giant serpent still looked menacing, as if it could wake any moment.

Once they inspected the Basilisk corpse, Hermione looked around, trying to find anything of interest. There were no visible doors or openings in any of the walls, except for the entrance door and the hole through which the Basilisk had come, in Slytherin’s statue mouth. The chamber looked gloomy despite the many torches that had lighted as soon as they came in.

“There must be something more to this place,” she murmured, “I can just feel it!”

They started checking the walls and the pillars for any sign that might lead them to further discoveries, aided by light from their wands. They found nothing, which made Hermione very frustrated. Leaning on the pedestal of the statue they considered the idea of climbing up and checking behind the statue’s mouth. Harry pushed against the pedestal to move away, when he felt a slight dip.

“I may have found something,” he said, turning to check that point. There were several depressions near the top of the pedestal, creating a few flower-like decorations, yet the central depression of the rightmost flower seemed different. Harry tried to press it. There was a minute movement, like a push-button, but nothing happened.

“Maybe it uses some kind of password?” suggested Hermione.

“I don’t think so, but it may expect some kind of command.”

Harry pushed the button once more, saying “$Open!$” at the same time. Still nothing. “$Reveal!$” he tried a different command.

This time it worked. Shimmering lines appeared along the walls, soon turning into a multitude of book-shelves. A fireplace appeared in each corner with a cozy sitting area in front of each, including a sofa, a few couches and a desk with a chair.

Hermione’s eyes lighted at the sight of these books. The shelves seemed to contain almost as many books as the whole Hogwarts library. Walking along the shelves she could see that they were arranged according to subjects and then alphabetically, by authors. A full wall was dedicated to Dark Arts, yet many of the books on this wall were actually dealing with ways to use the so-called dark magic in healing and other beneficial activities.

Harry noticed a parchment laid open on one desk. Still fearing some traps, he approached it cautiously and only read it without touching. “If you are reading this, it means that the magic I’ve left in the chamber has found you worthy and revealed it to you. As such, you are now my spiritual heir, having access to all the knowledge I’ve stored here for most of my life. You are to use this knowledge for the benefit of the wizading folks, paying special attention to muggle-born and half-blood, as they are usually the most powerful and the least knowledgeable of our kind.”

Harry lifted his eyes, noticing Hermione was walking towards him, fully aware of his find. He held her hand as she approached and continued reading.

“I know I may have gained some very bad reputation after my death. I’ve been experimenting with some dark rituals, trying to find a beneficial use for them, and one of them backfired on me. I’ve removed the books dealing with it from this room and burned them, but I couldn’t reverse the effect. It will drive me crazy in a short while and then I’ll probably become a menace, yet I can’t kill myself to prevent this, as the magic of that ritual wouldn’t allow it.”

They exchanged glances, being aware of each-other’s thoughts and feelings even without words.

“Whoever you are, use this knowledge wisely and try to help as many people, whether magical or muggle, as you can. Avoid the Dark Arts as much as possible, but don’t shy away when one of these can help at an otherwise unsolvable situation. Do try to add to the knowledge stored here to be discovered by the next worthy person a few years after you’re gone or many generations later.”

There was no way to mistake the ornate signature of Salazar Slytherin at the bottom.

“Shouldn’t we tell somebody about this discovery?” Hermione asked.

“I’m not sure. It seems like only those deemed worthy are allowed in. Having the curiosity to look for this chamber is one of the qualities required. Another might be Parseltongue, although I’m not sure of it. There may be some other ways to reach the chamber and to activate its secrets.” Harry thought a bit more. “I believe we should let the headmaster know about the Basilisk carcass, though. Some parts of it may be useful for potions, at the least.”

“Yes, that should be beneficial, but how do we hide the other stuff?”

“Probably the same way we found it.” Harry walked to the pedestal, pressed the button and hissed “$Hide!$”

The whole library and associated furniture faded away, leaving the blank walls visible again.

“Do you think that the house-elves can reach this room?” Harry asked.

“I’m quite sure they can, although they might need specific permission from the Heir-of-Slytherin.” She said the last words with a smirk, reminding him of the accusations at the beginning of the previous year. Well, now he was officially Slytherin’s spiritual heir.

“Let’s try it,” he said, and then called “Popsy!”

The house elf appeared immediately. “What can Popsy do for Master and Mistress?”

“Popsy, have you or any other house elf visited this room before?”

Popsy looked around and was frightened by the large serpent carcass. “No, Sir. Nobody knew of this room before you so bravely killed the snake and saved the girl, and nobody could come here until now, although we tried.”

“Could you reach the corridor leading here?”

Popsy wasn’t really sure. She popped to the door and looked around before answering. “Yes, once we knew it existed we cleaned it thoroughly. Leaving only the empty skin there. It’s too big, and the Headmaster said to leave it.”

“We used some stairs to come here. They are quite dusty, but there might be some traps there...”

“We House Elves can detect Wizard traps and remove them. Popsy can clean there, if master wants me to.”

“I’d rather have them checked by the headmaster first, if you don’t mind. I don’t want you, or any other house elf for that matter, be harmed by these traps.”

Popsy seemed unhappy at the lack of trust in her abilities, yet touched by the concern for her well-being.

“So, you want to salvage the carcass and use it for whatever it may be fit?” Dumbledore asked in a bemused tone, a bit later.

“Yes, sir. We know its venom is used in some healing potions and in some Goblin weapons, its skin can be used for gloves, much more resistant than dragon-hide gloves, as well as for other purposes; its blood and meat may be used for other potions and its scales and bones can be used for wands or powdered and used in yet other potions. We don’t think it should be just left to rot.”

The old man smiled. “It may take several centuries before it rots; several decades before it even starts decaying. Do you know how precious these items are?”

Harry shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. We don’t need the extra money. Some of it should go to the school, I’m sure, and most can go to charity, like supporting a few orphanages.”

“That will keep them going for a long time, you should know. How do you suggest to do the harvesting of the carcass?”

“I really don’t know. I assume some specialists with adequate protection equipment should go there and do the work. We shall have to open the way for them, though.”

“We?”

Harry blushed. “Well, it seems like the bond made us share this ability as well.”

“I see. Is there another way in, one that doesn’t involve going through that girls’ bathroom?”

“The corridor seems to go somewhere, but we haven’t checked it yet. We also think that the stairs may have some traps or other nasty surprises for intruders. These should be deactivated before work begins.”

“Care to show me?”

They were soon back on the stairs starting at Myrtle’s bathroom. Dumbledore went first, holding his wand alertly, as the young couple illuminated the area with wands. As expected. Each place where Ginny’s footsteps went close to a wall, the rest was trapped. The headmaster disabled the most dangerous traps, leaving a few of the others active, “Just to scare off would-be intruders.”

Once in the chamber, he was dumbstruck by the size of the Basilisk. It took him a few minutes to re-asses the situation. “This carcass, if properly harvested, could earn you more than a million Galleons, you must know,” he finally said.

That was only a very small percentage of his holdings in the magical world. Harry was still firm in his idea of giving the money to charity, although such a big sum might need some supervising to assure it wasn’t misused, he thought.

The headmaster looked around, noticing the bare walls and the large statue. “I wonder what he had in mind, building such a place and leaving it empty. He may have not finished it, I think...”

They then headed back to the corridor, after having spent enough time near the frightening serpent. Even Albus seemed to breathe more freely once that monster was out of sight.

“We can now check the rest of the corridor,” he suggested, noticing the repair work done on the cave-in. The workmanship was excellent, and only some dirt on the floor helped him identify the place, yet he said noting to the youngsters. They seemed to become more powerful each day and more confident as well. He didn’t think he needed to boost their ego any further by compliments.

The corridor seemed to curve and twist with no further entries. They walked on, finally reaching a dead-end, not getting any smarter.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Hermione noted. “I’m sure there’s another exit. I even feel the air moving, yet I see nothing.”

Harry started checking the walls by hand, as did Hermione. It took them a few frustrating minutes before Harry felt his hand sinking into the wall, as if it wasn’t there.

“Here,” he said, attracting the attention of the others.

“Let me check it first,” Dumbledore said. “There may still be some traps here as well.”

He stepped into the wall, similarly to the entrance to platform 9¾. A moment later they saw his hand sticking out of the wall as he called them to follow. This was a nice up-sloping corridor, ending behind a tapestry hung near the library.

“Well, this will certainly prove beneficial for hauling the harvested parts out,” commented Dumbledore.

“Do you know whom to contact for the work?” Hermione asked.

“I believe the Goblins would be eager to help us, for a fee – of course.”

Hermione smiled. “Of course.”

They would not be able to use the chamber while the work on the carcass was taking place, yet the entry which was so conveniently set near the library was a blessing. Hermione couldn’t justify staying in Myrtle’s bathroom for hours, but nobody would question her going to the library, nor Harry going with her.

Please Review!

A.N.

Somebody told me that Myrtle’s Bathroom is on the SECOND FLOOR. I checked the books and found it on FIRST FLOOR. In orfer not to offend anyone, I changed the wording to “the right floor”.