Facing the Basilisk in the Chamber!
Draco entered the Room and held his breath. It was a sight to behold.
Draco had asked for a room that was any inventor’s dream, and the Room had delivered.
A few greenish-blue lights flared from different points on the ceiling, casting shadows and giving the room an ominous mad scientist's lair vibe.
The room was filled with books, workbenches, a potion's lab on one side, and a walled space that looked like to be an experiment chamber. The room hummed with mechanical buzzing and anticipation.
The Twins were aggressively whispering to each other over a roughly drawn schematic. Their faces were bright with a mixture of mischief, ambition, and a positively unholy glee. Draco tried his best to cover his giddiness and faked a cough to announce his presence as he sat down on the rolling chair with Merlin on his lap.
“Gentlemen! Please,” Draco gestured towards the seats opposite him. “I believe you two to be the brilliant minds behind some of the best, most innovative, and extraordinary creations I have seen in my life.” He raised an eyebrow, petting Merlin’s feathered head, living his best villain life.
“Guilty as charged, Malfoy,” Fred smirked.
“Extraordinary is our middle name, though technically, it’s ‘Forge’. Fred Forge Weasley.” George gestured towards Fred.
“And this is George Gred Weasley. But we like to keep that on the down low,” Fred said.
“honestly, a huge fan. I realize your inventions are as impressive as your introductions. But I have something… a little more… specific,” Draco said skeptically, placing Merlin on his stand and leaning on the table towards the Twins.
“Spill the details, Malfoy,” George intoned.
“We are all ears,” Fred said, getting comfortable in his seat.
“I need something… somethings,” Draco explained. “Durable beyond measure, impossible in nature, and so secretive that even Pansy doesn’t know about them.”
“Ah, a man of secrets-” George stroked his chin contemplatively.
“We like that. What’s the catch?” Fred asked.
“More importantly, what’s in it for us?” George rubbed his hands together, giving his surroundings a covetous look.
“No catch. The things just need to be untraceable, durable, and most importantly, stylish. As you know, I won’t settle for anything less.” The Twins gave him an appraising look as Draco continued. “You will get to use this room at your leisure for whatever you want. You will get anything you could possibly need, and obviously you both will be provided generously for your work. But most importantly of all, this little room doesn’t show on that little parchment of yours; so it’s basically undetectable.”
The Twins looked surprised but impressed by his revelation.
“I will provide the source material, of course. You will get your share of the material… after you provide the finished product.”
“Of course-”
“Sounds like a challenge.”
“We like challenges,” Fred shared a look with George.
“Challenge accepted,” George said.
“Leave it to the Weasley Twins,” Fred said, excitement clear in his voice.
As Draco left the room with Merlin, the Twins looked ready and excited to brew up creations worthy of their trademark trickery.
.....
In hindsight, Draco realized he should have planned ahead or at least had the common sense to bring his backpack with him. It wasn’t like the rest of the plonkers had remembered to bring essentials with them. What was the purpose of acquiring pocket-sized roosters when you couldn’t use them to save your lives?
“Where the hell is Blaise when you need him?” Draco repeated for what felt like the hundredth time as Voldi went on the monologue about his name. (Objectively enough, Draco could see why his predecessors were so willing to follow Tom's orders)
“In the bloody hospital where he’s supposed to be,” Theo said, his voice raised, sounding crossed on behalf of Blaise.
“At least it’s not like we could die, right?” Pansy asked, her voice shaky.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Theo pointed where Harry was literally fighting for his life.
In hindsight, Draco should have bet that everything that could go wrong would go wrong (because of course). They had entered the chamber only to come face to face with Tom Riddle, Ginny bleeding and unconscious, lying on the floor surrounded by runes.
“Let her go, Riddle,” Harry had said indignantly, rebellious, and in a proper hero stance.
“This is beyond our usual mischief, Draco,” Pansy had whispered angrily, closing her eyes as Harry had moved to fight off the Basilisk.
“Keep him busy, I’ll handle the snake,” Harry had shouted.
“Trust me, Harry, I have no aspirations to face whatever that is,” Draco had assured him.
Finally, Voldemort announced a little (a lot) pridefully, “I am Voldemort,” as the words in the air rearranged to form the sentence. (Draco contemplated not for the first time, these monologues were the only downfall of these so called badass villains.)
“Salazar’s balls,” sarcasm was very clear in Pansy’s voice.
“God save me from these fools,” Draco shouted, so done with Tom's monologue. “Your name is not even a proper anagram, you fool. Why are you so proud of it?”
Tom seemed to be a little stunned by Draco’s outburst, honestly he looked speechless.
“Are you sure you want to antagonize quite possibly the most powerful Dark Lord in the last 50 years?” Theo admonished Draco.
“If he is this much of a nincompoop, sure,” Draco shrugged.
“You blithering fools,” Tom shouted as he cast a cutting curse on Theo, wounding his arm.
Draco cast Protego just in time (albeit a little late for Theo's sake) to protect his friends. “Harry dear,” He shouted as he heard the melodic voice, a preclude to Fawk's entrance (no doubt). “Don’t want to bother you, but you might want to hurry.”
“This is all your fault,” Theo grunted, holding his hurt arm, trying to stop the bleeding.
“You’re the responsible one, not me; you’re supposed to get the essentials,” Draco countered, irritated. (you fight of Voldi's spell and see if you don't get irritated).
“Shut up, both of you, and help me,” Pansy screamed at them, finally done with their bullshit. Theo moved to help Pansy stop Ginny’s bleeding injuries.
Another strong curse hit Draco’s shield, making a crack in it.
“You do realize this is useless. None of you will live to tell the tale,” Tom tackled maniacally.
“You do realize he’s going to kill you, right?” Draco pointed towards Harry, who was holding the sword of Gryffindor.
Draco relished the look of surprise and fear on Tom’s face as Harry stabbed the sword through the Basilisk’s skull. The Basilisk’s anguished scream was accompanied by Tom’s angry shout. Harry fell to his knees, and before Draco could have made a conscious move towards him, he heard Tom.
“This is not over. Avada-” a green light broke through his shield as his world went black.
.....
Draco knew where he was before he even opened his eyes. On the plus side, he wasn’t back to his nightmares, but the white surroundings weren’t exactly encouraging either.
“Don’t worry, you’re not dead or anything,” he heard Vii before he saw him.
It took Draco a second to comprehend what he was seeing. And the best he could come up with was… a grunge Vii.
“You like it? This is my rebellious phase,” Vii said. The previously white bot was covered in tattoos? Paint? Whatever it was, it gave Vii personality.
“Where the hell have you been?” Draco asked a little angry at the prolonged absence of his so-called guide.
“Why? Missed me?” Vii asked, sarcasm apparent.
“I mean, yeah, but what the hell, Vii?” Draco grumbled.
“It’s a long story,” Vii said, sounding resigned.
“Well, I would hope so because otherwise, you would have acted very irresponsibly,” Draco pointed out as he sat down on the single bench in this unending place.
“The last time we were here… well, you caused a reset of sorts,” Vii explained.
“Yeah, you told me that.”
“Right, so, for a little time, the Big Boss out there read it as a free slot,” Vii hedged, as if contemplating how to break the bad news. Finally, he looked at Draco and said, “Well, long story short, they inducted another subject in this slot. But when you went back, it caused kind of a system failure. Don’t worry, you’re fine. But the system is haywire right now because there are two subjects in the same slots, and we, as system guides, aren’t functioned to work like that. And the Big Boss decided to overwrite the system, hence the rebellious phase.”
“What do you mean overwrite?” Draco asked, eyebrows raised.
“Nothing good,” Vii replied. “But don’t worry, I somehow managed to get the administration of this world, so you’ll be fine as long as I’m here.”
“So, everything is back to normal now?” Draco asked, uncertain of his future.
“Give or take some small glitches,” Vii said, not really answering.
“Like what?” Draco asked (tough luck if Vii wasn’t in the mood to answer; Draco’s future depended on this). “Also, what about the other subject? And why aren’t you answering my thoughts?”
“That’s one. I can’t actually read you now-”
“What? How are you supposed to guide me if you can’t read me?” Draco shouted.
“Like I was saying…" Vii sounded like a pertinent child. "I can’t read you now, but it’s more like a texting or on-call relay now? You need to convey what you want me to hear and answer.”
“Okay…” Draco said, even though he wasn’t really understanding what was going on.
“And the other thing… there is an interloper in this world. I can’t actually check who it is because their guide went offline as soon as they realized they were an interloper. Which honestly is quite surprising. Also, I don’t know which side they actually are on,” Vii said guiltily. "For all you know they could be either helping you win or making arrangements for your funeral right now." Vii gave a helpless shrug.
It took Draco a couple of minutes (more like 20) to fully comprehend what Vii was telling him. “So, essentially what you are saying is that I’m fucked?”
Draco hated this world....