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 162: Into the Chamber
"I can't go in there…" Sirius was staring at the bathroom sign on top of the door. "This is for girls."
"You are very observant, cousin," Andromeda commented.
"Hurry up before someone spots us." Bella kicked his butt to push him in.
"Hey! Okay… I'm going." Sirius opened the door and walked inside with trepidation, hoping that no one was already inside.
Andromeda noticed him taking peeks at the stalls on the sides and let out a chuckle. "No one uses this bathroom, so you're not going to see anything spicy...if that's what you were looking for."
Sirius glared at her with indignation. "I wasn't trying t—"
"You can't be here!" Myrtle's ghost flew up from one of the stalls and yelled at Sirius. "Boys are not allowed!"
"Yeah, I already said that..." Sirius huffed.
"Relax, Myrtle," Bella said as she walked to the other end of the room. "We'll be gone in a minute."
"Did James really build his lab in a girl's bathroom?" Andromeda asked.
"No, the lab is underground. This is merely the entrance I use. He has a different one, but I don't know where it is," Bella responded.
"The entrance is here?" Andromeda saw her sister approach one of the faucets at the end before turning to her.
"I need you to hold him for a moment." Bella handed Primum to Andromeda before turning back to the faucet and placing her hand on one of them. "Open."
There was a loud click noise, and the entire wall began to move aside, revealing a set of stairs that descended into darkness.
"Whoa… Did James create that, or was it already there?" Sirius asked. "Also... couldn't he have chosen a more complex password?."
"The password is irrelevant. The mechanism is tied to my magic. It won't open for anyone else, no matter what they say." Bella explained. Also, from what I know, this was all here from the beginning. He just made some modifications." Bella took Primum back into her arms. "You go first. I need to close the entrance behind us."
"Lumos." Andromeda cast a light spell before she began descending the stairs. "This was already here? What kind of secret room is this?"
Sirius followed behind her and was wondering the same thing. After exploring the entire castle with his friends, he had a good idea of the kinds of hidden places found in the castle, but this was something different.
"Be careful where you step, and try not to touch anything," Bella warned them.
The group reached the bottom of the stairs and found themselves in a small room made of slick grey stone.
"There's a weird smell here…" Andromeda covered her nose.
"This small chamber used to be filled with bones," Bella explained. "James just covered the floor with new stone, leaving all that stuff beneath… so yeah, it still smells."
She had to go through that every time she came here and was already getting used to it, but she could understand her sister's comment.
"Bones?! What kind of place is this?" Sirius asked.
Andromeda was staring at the engravings on the corridor that led further inside the cave. "This is giving me the same creepy feeling as that tomb we visited…"
"What tomb?" Sirius had no idea what his cousin was talking about.
Bella crossed into the next part. "Let's not waste time. I want to make sure James is okay."
"Fine…" Andromeda went after her sister, but as soon as she and Sirius crossed the archway that led into a long corridor, they heard some strange noises.
"What is that?" Sirius asked. "It sounds like some gears moving around us…"
"Bella?. Is that normal?. " Andromeda was watching the expression on her sister's face, and she was clearly concerned.
"No, this is bad…" Bella spotted the markings on the ground starting to shine brightly. When bringing Andromeda and Sirius here, she had forgotten about an important warning James had given her.
"I shouldn't have brought you in here."
"What do you mean?" Andromeda asked.
"He told me never to bring anyone… There are powerful protections in this place. If anyone other than me steps inside, the defenses will become active." Bella looked at the archway they had used to get inside. "Hurry up, you need t—"
The door shut closed in an instant.
"Are we trapped now?" Andromeda looked around.
"Did James make the protections or was it something that was already here?" Sirius was asking because, if it was something created by James, it couldn't be too dangerous, as they must have been aimed at stopping other students from getting inside, like how Snape did on his previous lab.
"I don't know… He is very secretive with this kind of stuff," Bella said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if this chamber already had many traps of its own to stop intruders."
"Bella, what exactly is this place?" Andromeda spotted several carvings on the walls. Most of them seemed to show depictions of different kinds of snakes.
She had seen drawings like these inside the dungeons and in the Slytherin common room.
"About that… this is the Chamber of S—" Bella was startled by a loud noise.
"Now what?" Sirius threw a light spell in the direction of the noise. It had sounded like something was breaking apart.
"Is there no other way to leave? You said we had only used one of the entrances, so there must be more, right?" Andromeda wanted nothing more than to get out of here right now. This was giving her some very unpleasant flashbacks from their last trip with James.
"Merlin!" Sirius's eyes were opened wide as plates, and he was pointing at something in the distance.
"Lumos!" Andromeda sent another light spell in that direction when she spotted something moving. "What is th— Oh, Merlin…"
Moving toward them was the colossal skeleton of an ancient creature.
"Is that a snake?! It's huge!" Sirius shouted.
"Actually, that is a basilisk." Bella had seen this many times before. It was usually hanging from the ceiling of the main chamber, although she had no idea James had incorporated it into the chamber's defenses.
"A basilisk?! There are basilisks down here?!" Andromeda exclaimed.
"There was just one, and that's all that remains of it. A thousand-year-old basilisk that belonged to Salazar Slytherin," said Bella while taking a few steps back. "This is his Chamber of Secrets, after all."
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