Those in the Chamber
A dangerous hiss jolts you awake, causing you to spring upward. Your chest heaved rapidly as the oncoming panic settled, but realizing you were still in your dorm, you took deep breaths to calm yourself. Luckily, you didn’t scream out of fear. That would have woken up Solaris and you would have had to coax her back to sleep, explain it was nothing, and hope she would ignore it. Except this was Solaris you’re talking about and she wouldn’t go back to sleep until she made sure you were okay.
Instead, you carefully creep out of bed and slide your feet into your slippers. It wasn’t too late at night, maybe you’d be able to sneak into the second-floor restroom without getting caught by anyone. Professors must be busy preparing for tomorrow since everything was so short notice.
And so you embark to the abandoned restroom in dire need of secluding yourself. The adrenaline was slowly easing, but you didn’t trust your mind from doing it again. You didn’t want to accidentally wake up Solaris if you were to wake up the same way again.
You couldn’t help but stare at the empty room. Everything belonging to either of you packed in your suitcases that were pressed against the foot of your beds. You shook your head and proceeded to walk out of the dorm.
The dark dungeon corridors were, thankfully, deserted as you slipped out of the Slytherin common room. An eerie sense of distress lingered atop the hallways. You weren’t sure what it was, but whatever it was you hoped it would dissipate the further you walked… but it only grew the more you did.
You took a turn, nearly at the restroom when you caught the scent of someone familiar. Carefully, you peered around the corner and saw —
“Ginny?”
From a couple of feet in front of you, you caught sight of long, fiery, red hair. The redhead walked into the empty restroom, seemingly not having heard you as she continued to venture inside. It was odd, her face seemed devoid of emotion, a blank stare present on her usually cheery freckled face. You decided to follow her inside, making sure to keep your distance so as to not get caught. You had first thought it to be nothing, but Ginny had been acting odd the past couple of days. It wouldn’t hurt to just check up on her-
“Fred and George will kill me if they realize I let something happen to their sister.” You groaned softly as you pushed the door to the girl’s bathroom open. It was dark inside, and Ginny was gone. Something shifted in your peripheral, a slab from beneath the sink shifted into place as the sinks began to slide back over a hole on the floor. Approaching the sinks, the movement stopped, and very oddly, they began to reopen almost as if inviting you to drop down and enter. You debated on whether to enter or not, it seemed as if Ginny had gone down the same spot. The bathroom was empty, she was definitely not in the bathroom and this was the only other supposed spot she could’ve gone.
You didn’t have much time to mull the idea over as voices began to approach the girl’s bathroom. You had just paid your detentions and you were not looking forward to acquiring any more. Fuck it, it’s adventure time. And that is how you found yourself sliding down a gigantic pipe to Merlin-knows-where.
Bones and other debris littered the floors, but you tried your best to follow Ginny’s scent. It was faint, tainted by something else, but just barely.
After a few minutes of wandering, you made it to a vast space. Pillars aligned the wide corridor, giving it a more threatening feel to the place. It was all cold and devoid of life, water trickled along every crevice as it flooded the stone floor. Your eyes trailed down to see something, or rather someone, laying on the cold floor several feet away. What lay before it, however, had truly caught your eye. Flaming red hair sprawled across the floor, and as your eyes travelled up the mystery person, you caught sight of their pale face. Ginny’s body laid there, still and clearly unmoving.
Without another thought, you began to run towards her but stopped yourself as footsteps approached. Quickly, you decided to hide behind a pillar. You weren’t sure who was down there with the two of you, but you decided that you could no longer act on instinct, you had to survey your surroundings first before you did anything else. The footsteps stopped and you decided to peer from behind the pillar. A young man, perhaps not much older than you stood peering at Ginny.
He snapped his head up, and out of fear of getting caught, you very quickly hid behind the pillar again.
“I know someone’s there. I can sense you,” he taunted. “Do not fear, for it is not you I want to hurt… at least not yet.” A sickening chuckle echoed through the chamber.
Your hand clutched your wand’s holster on the outer side of your thigh. You had no plan of attack, but your brain was quick to start planning some at that very moment.
The boy continued. “We’re not very different, you and I. We’re both disgustedly not pure, such a horror it is, truly.”
You remained silent. God how you wished he would shut up.
“Not much of a talker are you. Well no fear, my guest is arriving, I’d rather you not interfere,” he said, his footsteps fading away. You turned to give another glance, but he was gone.
Just then, you heard footsteps make their way towards the chamber once more. You turned to see Harry walk into the grand corridor and not much after you had seen him, he ran towards Ginny. He had yet to see you, seeing as you were still hiding behind one of the snake pillars.
What was going on?
- - - - -
Holy shit.
You were not expecting a full-on-fight. One against a giant snake you had come to learn was a basilisk nonetheless. But that explained a lot — especially the mystery of the disembodied voice you heard so often this school year. The basilisk was a marvelous sight to see (except that it was cruelly wrapped around Tom’s finger, with no way of thinking for itself). You were distraught at its violent appearance and actions. You had even felt anger as you watched it snap at Harry. All you could think of was how cruel it was to have attacked muggle-born students… how it attacked Adrian. Anger turned to guilt the more you thought about it. You shook your head, there was nothing you could do — nothing you could have done.
Now the basilisk laid slain and all you could do was think it over in amazement at how the fight had progressed. It was not a battle for you to fight, it was Harry’s, so you remained behind the pillar. You found yourself tempted to step out and aid Harry but you couldn’t formulate a plan to coincide with his and stayed on the sidelines. You weren’t foolish enough to step out without a plan of attack first.
That was until Tom raised the wand to point it at an oblivious Harry. You stepped out from behind the pillar and yelled out, “Expelliarmus!” Harry’s wand flew from Tom’s grasp and landed in yours. Something about watching the tether between Tom and the diary made you realize the connection.
“Quick — stab the book with the fang!”
While Tom looked at you, bewilderment in his eyes, Harry took the opportunity to grab the fang from the floor and stabbed it into the journal. It began to hiss and this hideous screech reverberated along the chamber’s walls. You closed your eyes, your hands held against your ears to stop the piercing scream from driving you deaf, after a few seconds you opened your eyes and the memory was gone.
Harry let go of the fang and slouched over the journal. He then remembered your presence and whipped his head around to see you. Your gaze was already on his.
“Y/N?” He blinked a few times. “How did you get in here? How did you know where the entrance to the chamber was? How did —?”
“You’re not the only parseltongue in Hogwarts,” you said, running a hand through your hair. You walked over towards him and handed him his wand. He took it shakily and pocketed it. His eyes were still on you as you stood before him.
“But how did you know where the entrance to the chamber was?” He looked weary, almost nonbelieving and suspecting of something. Even he himself wasn’t sure of it. You knew, however, that you had only entered the bathroom because of your lycanthropy symptoms acting up, luckily it was a false alarm. Telling a half-lie, you spoke.
“I wasn’t feeling well and made my way to the hospital wing. That’s when I found Ginny acting weird and decided to follow her here.”
Your gaze fell onto Ginny who was still unconscious on the floor, her face slowly began to regain color. You kneeled beside her and slid your arms beneath her to pick her up. Her head slunk back and bobbed as you pulled her closer towards your chest. Harry gave you a worried look.
“She’s going to be okay, right?” He asked you, he was picking at the hem of his dirtied sweater.
“Yeah,” you looked down at her. You breathed out a sigh of relief. A flurry of emotions ran through you. What would have happened if she had actually died? How would the Weasleys’ have reacted to the news? You could only imagine Molly’s anguish…
Ginny began to stir in your arms, you tightened your grip just enough so she wouldn’t fall off from your hold. Her eyes fluttered open and locked eyes with Harry’s.
“Harry?” He gave her a shy smile. You felt her stiffen as she realized that she was not laying on solid floor but in someone’s arms. She turned her head and locked eyes with you. You gave her a soft smile in return too.
“Y/N?”
“Ginny, you’re awake,” you said softly. “How’re you feeling?”
Her face flushed red and you were sure that meant she was doing fine. She looked away and began to stutter, but could not find the right words to string together.
“You’re not hurt are you?” You asked her. She shook her head still not looking you in the eye. “Can you stand?” She nodded nervously. You set her down on her feet and she seemed to be able to hold herself upright. You gave her a look over and she seemed fine to you. Looking behind you, the Basilisk remained still on the floor. Without looking away, you talked aloud. “Harry, you should take her back. You came with others right?”
Harry nodded quickly. “Yeah, I did. Ron and Professor Lockheart are back there.”
“I need you all to get out of here as soon as you can and talk to Professor Dumbledore.”
With the mention of Dumbledore, Ginny began to squirm anxiously. There were tears starting to spill from her eyes. “I — I didn’t mean to do any of it!” She breathed in sharply, her body beginning to shake. “Tom m-made me do it! Oh, what am I going to do? I’m going to get expelled and I was really looking forward to attending Hogwarts!”
“It’s alright, Ginny,” Harry whispered to her, but she was still crying. “We’ll explain it to Dumbledore and everyone else. You’re not going to be expelled.”
Harry picked up the sword, the tattered journal, and the Sorting Hat before going back to Ginny’s side. He gave you one more worried look, which you eased by giving him an assuring smile, silently telling him that you’d be okay. He then ushered Ginny to follow him back towards the entrance of the chamber. The frightened girl, still not completely relieved from Harry’s words, grabbed onto the sleeve of his cloak and hiccuped. Harry paid no mind and guided her towards the exit. They slipped into the darkened corridor leaving you alone with the basilisk. Their footsteps sunk into emptiness and you could no longer sense their heartbeats the further they walked away.