(Word Count: 2,447)
It didn't take them very long to reach the second floor bathrooms. They entered the girls bathroom and found everyone sitting in a loose circle on the floor. Moaning Myrtle herself was sitting cross-legged in the circle. Though she was floating an inch or two off the floor. She seemed to be in the middle of telling a story.
"—and then he slipped and went flying face first into a suit of armor!" Myrtle laughed.
When the bathroom door opened, they all jumped in terror, expecting to see a teacher having found them. Instead, they didn't see anything.
Harry took the cloak off, and they appeared. Ginny was holding one of Harry's arms with one of her own and had the rooster tucked under the other. Though she quickly let go of his arm when they were revealed.
"Don't worry, it's us," Harry said.
Ginny raised the rooster to show it off. "Mission success!"
They all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Merlin, I thought you were a teacher!" Susan gasped, clutching her heart.
"Harry!" Hermione said, relieved, though she paused when she noticed Ginny on his arm. She frowned, confused at something.
"Glad to see everyone could make it," Harry said. Then he looked at Myrtle. "Hello, Myrtle. I assume they've already told you about what we're doing tonight?"
Myrtle giggled at him. "Oh, yes. You're going to avenge me. How sweet of you, Harry!"
"You're welcome to come down with us. You deserve to see this beast dead more than anyone," Harry offered.
"No, thank you. I don't want to see it again," Myrtle said.
"Are you sure? It might give you the closure you need to… well, go on," Harry said slowly.
Myrtle sniffed back some tears. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"No, of course not," Harry said quickly. "It's just that, well, your family is probably waiting for you, yeah? Don't you want to see them again?"
Myrtle burst into tears and flew back to her toilet, disappearing while crying out, "Mommy!"
Harry sighed, looking around at his friends. "I heard ghosts remain stuck here because of lingering regrets or unresolved goals. I just thought that maybe this was hers."
Ever since he had gotten the Death Quest for the Hogwarts Ghosts, to help them pass on where he can, he had been thinking about how to help them, starting from the more famous ghosts like Myrtle. Harry had several theories about possible regrets she had. Though she didn't pass on after the canonical second year, he kept this theory as a possibility because Myrtle didn't actually see the basilisk dead.
It wasn't his strongest theory. It was far more likely that she had regrets about having no friends, or being bullied in school, or not finishing her years at Hogwarts, or even not experiencing love.
Luna placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "It was worth a try."
Hermione nodded sympathetically. "While we were waiting, Harry, we talked to Myrtle about how she died, and she said she saw a pair of yellow eyes right around here." Hermione gestured to the sinks. "We think these sinks must be the entrance somehow. We looked around and Susan noticed a small engraving of Slytherin's serpent on one of the faucets here."
"Yeah, but we can't figure out how to open it. I think it needs some sort of password," Susan added.
"I vaguely remember that Riddle said something strange to open it, though I couldn't understand it," Hannah said, hugging herself nervously.
"You're right. It needs someone that can speak parseltongue to open. Luckily, I can speak it," Harry said.
"You can?" Neville, Hannah, and Susan all said in shock.
Hermione, Ginny, and Luna just nodded.
"I haven't really tried to keep it a secret. I think I even used some parseltongue magic in the tournament. I'm surprised no one really caught that," Harry said.
"But Harry, I thought only Slytherin's family line could speak it? How can you?" Hannah asked nervously.
"Dumbledore said it had something to do the night Voldemort—" Hannah shivered at the name "—killed my parents. When he attacked me and his magic reflected at him and destroyed him, some of his power transferred to me. Voldemort could speak parseltongue, so now I can," Harry explained, using Dumbledore's explanation to OG Harry.
He may have told the adults in his life about him being a horcrux, but he didn't want his friends to know yet.
Harry didn't want to give them time to dwell on it, so he stepped towards the sink and spoke in parseltongue, "$Open!$"
The top of the sinks lifted up into the air, and each individual sink came away from each other. One of them sank into the floor for an opening, revealing a hole in the floor that disappeared into darkness.
Everyone stepped back nervously from the ominous dark pit.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Chamber of Secrets!" Harry said.
Susan approached the pit and peered over the edge, making sure to stay well away. "Merlin, it looks like it goes down forever! How will we get down?"
Harry hummed thoughtfully. "Here, let me try something." He approached the entrance and said, "$Stairs!$"
The stone bricks of the shaft shuddered and began to shift at his command. Blocks slid out in a slow spiral, stacking themselves into a narrow staircase that hugged the wall as it descended into the depths. A moment later, the last step clicked into place and the grinding subsided, leaving only the echo of it fading away into the darkness below.
Harry sighed in relief. He had been hoping that would work. It would have been a hassle to have to ferry everyone back out of the chamber with his broom. Now, they had a way back out.
Ginny peered down the new stairwell and gulped. "Somehow, this looks exactly like I imagined the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets would look like. It's really ominous."
"It looks like the entrance to some ancient tomb," Susan added.
"You don't think there's going to be curses or traps down there, do you?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry with worry.
That made Harry pause. This was Slytherin's chamber. He could have 100% cursed it to protect it. Riddle would have explored the place when he found it 50 years ago, so he could have removed them. That didn't mean he didn't place his own. There weren't any curses or traps in the canon, but Riddle had been going in and out of the place for the whole second year. Maybe he had removed them again during his time possessing Ginny?
In this reality, Riddle had likely only been down here once, so maybe he would have removed them all, if there were any to begin with, or maybe not and only removed the main ones? He couldn't rule out the possibility entirely.
"It's not likely. However, just in case, I'll keep a look out. Just be careful what you touch," Harry said.
"We wouldn't want to end up with our skin turned inside out," Luna agreed.
Neville looked at her in horror. "Please don't say things like that!"
Luna looked confused. "Why not? I wouldn't want my skin inside out, would you? I'd imagine it would hurt a lot."
Neville and Hannah both looked like they were going to be sick.
Harry stepped forward to the top of the stairwell and drew his wand. He cast a silent Lumos and sent several balls of light down to light up the way.
"Right, then! Same rules apply as before. If I say to close your eyes, you close them immediately. The rooster should sense it coming and crow before we have a chance to see it, but I don't want to take any chances, alright?" Harry said, slipping into a commanding tone.
A chorus of agreements came from everyone.
"I'll go first. Ginny, you follow behind me with the rooster. Then Hermione, Luna, Hannah, and Susan. Neville, you bring up the rear and keep an eye out behind us," Harry said, issuing out orders.
"What am I watching out for?" Neville asked.
"Anything that looks like it's going to eat us!" Ginny said quickly.
"Are there other monsters down there?" Neville looked to Harry, face paling even more.
Harry promptly shook his head. "No, there shouldn't be anything else down there. I just want you on the look out just in case."
"Right," Neville didn't look too convinced, but he still nodded with determination.
"Let's go," Harry said, and he began descending the stairwell into the chamber. The staircase was narrow, so he hugged the wall to keep from falling over the side. As he descended, he quickly cast the foresight spell to see a bit into the future. This way, in the case the basilisk wasn't back inside the giant head of Slytherin and was roaming around, he would see it coming before it rounded the corner.
The air grew cooler as they went deeper, and the walls gradually became damp as the humidity increased until the walls, and even the steps underneath their feet, became covered in a slimy substance. The smell of wet stone mixed with ancient stagnant air and something faintly reptilian. Every so often, a small shower of grit pattered down from above when someone's foot scuffed too hard. Their footsteps echoed hollowly, the sound bouncing up and down the shaft. No one was in the mood to talk. As they descended deeper and deeper, the air seemed to grow heavier and heavier, even with Harry keeping their path brightly lit.
At least, until Hermione slipped from the slime and slid down several steps before crashing into Ginny from behind. Luckily Hermione had been hugging the wall like he had, and she didn't go over the side. Ginny had braced herself and managed to stop both of them from sliding further.
"Ow! My tailbone!" Hermione groaned, rubbing her backside as she stood back up.. "Thanks, Ginny. Sorry about that, I slipped."
"It's alright, Hermione," Ginny said, clutching her heart. "But, Merlin, that scared me."
"Are you two alright?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, I think I bruised my tailbone, but I'll live. But I'm covered in slime now," Hermione said in disgust.
Harry hit her with a quick scourgify to clean her up.
"Thanks!"
The brief incident broke the tension in the air, and allowed for them to make comments again.
"Merlin, how far down do you think this goes?" Susan asked.
"We must have gone down a hundred feet already!" Ginny replied.
"Probably a bit more than that. I know it's supposed to be underneath the lake," Harry said.
In the end, they must have descended about 100 meters, placing them well beneath the Slytherin dungeons and the lake, when they finally reached the bottom.
They entered a circular chamber. The floor was littered with bones. Most of it seemed to be from animals, especially smaller ones like rats, but Harry could see a handful of human-like skulls. Whether those came from humans, or perhaps from centaurs or goblins from the basilisk's hunts in the forbidden forest, he didn't know. Along the walls of the chamber, there were several other pipes leading away into the distance. The faint drips of water echoed from deeper within.
"What now?" Hermione whispered. "Which one of these tunnels do we take?"
Harry gestured to the largest tunnel. "Down that way, I think."
Harry led the way again, making sure to keep everything lit up with several balls of lights. Soon they came around a bend in the tunnel and a large shape came into the light. It was the shed skin of the basilisk.
Everyone gasped and closed their eyes tightly, thinking it was the snake itself. Neville whimpered in fright.
"Don't worry, it's not the actual snake. It's just its shed skin," Harry said. "It's safe to open your eyes."
They drew closer to get a better look. The skin was a vivid, poisonous green color, laying curled and hollow across the tunnel floor. It was about 60 to 70 feet long, meaning this was more in line with the movie's scale instead of the shorter book's size. The book's basilisk was only around 20 feet in length.
Harry couldn't help but smile. The basilisk being bigger only meant more material for him to harvest.
"Merlin!" Ginny gasped.
Neville and Hannah looked like they were about to faint.
"That's how big the basilisk is!?" Susan gaped. "Are you sure a rooster can kill it?"
Hermione studied it, biting her bottom lip. "This is far larger than the books said basilisks can get. The biggest one recorded was only 20 feet long. This is easily three times that."
"This is also the oldest basilisk in history. This basilisk was personally bred and raised by Slytherin himself, so it's at least a thousand years old," Harry said. "It must have shed this skin recently, probably when it was released by Riddle."
Harry opened his trunk and levitated the shed skin into it. The magic seemed to slide off the skin, making it far harder to lift than it should have been. The basilisk's resistance to magic was retained in the skin, even with it being shed.
They continued further down the tunnel, where it wound back and forth until, finally, they came across a flat wall with two bright green snakes carved into it, with emerald eyes that seemed to be alive.
"$Open!$" Harry hissed once more.
The snakes on the wall parted and the wall cracked open and the two halves slid out of sight, revealing a large, dimly lit chamber beyond.
Harry turned to everyone. "Alright, I want all of you to stay here. I'll go in and place the rooster down, and come right back out. Do not look inside. I'm going to call out to the basilisk in parseltongue to draw it in close for the rooster to kill it, so if you look you may see its eyes and die."
Harry took the rooster from Ginny and closed his eyes, relying on the future sight to guide him. He walked down the chamber. It was just like in the movies. There were rows of columns with snakes carved into them, and ended in a large carved face of Salazar Slytherin himself on the far wall. Beneath the face was a large pool of water.
Harry placed the rooster down before the pond, and stuck its feet to the floor with a sticking charm so it didn't run off somewhere.
Eyes still closed, he shouted in parseltongue, "$Speak to me, Slytherin! Greatest of the Hogwarts four!$"