Discovering the Chamber

Stella walked down the halls of Hogwarts, looking behind her every so often. She was currently following her pet snake down the pitch black halls of her school. It was two in the morning and every sound she made seemed to echo louder than during the day. She couldn't believe that it was the first night being at her new boarding school and she was already breaking one of their most enforced rule.

"Mortis!" Stella hissed in Parseltongue at her milk snake who continued to slither down the dark. Stella scowled at her snake as he refused to listen to her. So much for being the Heir of Slytherin if snakes wouldn't even listen to her.

Suddenly, she saw her snake slid into the girls' bathroom. Stella's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she waked into the bathroom. "Mortis, what are we doing here?" Stella wondered in Parseltongue. Stella was running a high risk of being caught. She couldn't use the excuse of, "My snake led me here." Due to the fact that it would sound far too suspicious.

Looking at her snake, Stella raised an eyebrow. "Mortis. I will only ask you once again. What are we doing here?" Stella questioned firmly.

Her snake glanced up at her after slithering onto on of the sinks. "Say open up." Mortis hissed to her, his tongue sticking out at her briefly.

Stella sighed. "Why do I need to say open up?" But, the bathroom answered for itself. Stella staggered back as an entrance opened up, revealing a hole in the middle of the floor. Stella's mouth slung open in shock as she peered down hole. She jumped a little when she felt Mortis winding himself around her arm. "What is this?" Stella hissed in Parseltongue to her snake.

Mortis glanced up at her, and looked at her almost like he was smirking. "The Chamber of Secrets."

Alex had heard that there was a broken down bathroom on the second floor, that happened t host this annoying ghost named Moaning Myrtle. Now that Alex knew about her, she was hardly likely to spend much time without going to see the ghost. She had it all planned, she had even packed sandwiches from the Kitchens, and also had a huge bag full of candy and three bottles. One filled with pumpkin juice, one with blackberry flavored soda and the last with an ice cols ice cream slushie. All of them in her diagonly slung book bag.

She was calling out Myrtle's name in a loud, loud voice, when she heard it. The unmistakable sound of parseltongue, she had heard it once before, in the library, and as far as she knew, only one person at Hogwarts could speak it.

"Stella, what are you doing with a whole in the middle of a bathroom? Is this.........."She trailed off, realization suddenly dawning on her.

Stella jumped when she heard another voice in the bathroom. Turning around, Stella looked at Alex with a greedy, almost frightening fashion. Stella felt drunk off the power of discovering something like this. It was amazing.

"Yes Alex, it's the Chamber of Secrets." Stella replied, taking out Voldemort/her wand and approach the entrance. "I am going to go down there. You have to stay up here. I need to make sure it's safe for you guys." Stella said firmly, flashing her friend a warning look.

"Yeah. thats gonna happen!" Alex answered sarcastically, dragging out the yeah. "I am coming with you." Alex shot back in a determined voice. "You can't keep me out! I got rations!' She added, waiving the blackberry soda in front of Stella's face. "And Mortis is siding with me!" Alex added confidently, continuing in an uncertain voice, "Isn't he?"

Stella scowled slightly. "Unless you want to get Nathan, Violet, and Andrew down here, then no. You are staying here until I see that everything is okay." Stella said firmly. Stella looked down at her pet snake to see him edging closer to the edge of the pipe/entrance.

"There's no harm in bring the girl. The basilisk will love a treat." Mortis hissed deviously at her. Stella gasped. "Mortis!" She hissed back in an angry tone. Then she looked toward Alex. "There's a basilisk down there apparently. Now I know you can't go. I need to see if I can control it first." Stella said.

"No way! I am coming with you! Think about it! If the basi...........bisa..whatever.......gets you, and you can't control it! Then how are you going to get back to help? Mortis wouldn't be able to do that!" Alex asnwered, for the first time in ehr life, sounding practical, and level headed. It was generally the other way round. She did crazy stuff, and people tired to stop her. Not this time though.

Stella sighed. She knew that Alex was being the smart one in this situation. Stella knew that she would let her go down, cause Stella wanted someone down there with her. "Fine." Stella relented. "But, if anything goes wrong, I want you to go get a teacher. No matter the consequences, deal?" Stella wondered. She needed Alex to promise her that. If Alex could do that, then Stella would feel safer with letting her go down.

'Whatev!" Alex answered, rolling her eyes as she took out a sandwich to eat. She was hurngy! Arguing and talking sense makes her hungry. Which was why she had to eat a lot after meeting Stonewell, leading him to compare her to starved baboons, loads of times.

"By the way, now Stonewell wouldn't be coming with me right?"

Stella sighed and looked at Alex with a half-smile. "No, I think this plan will work better. Andy, Vi and Nate will be coming with me later. While, you are coming with me now." Stella said. "Happy now?" She wondered with a laugh that seemed to echo around the bathroom.

Grabbing Alex's wrist, Stella pulled her closer to the pipe. "Ready?" She asked. Then, Stella jumped and waited to land.

Alex nodded, returning Stella's half smile with a bigger one of her own. "Awesome! Now I wouldn't have to go to jail o murder charges!" Alex replied happily, feeling bouyant as she realised that it had been a whole two days since she had seen Stonewell.

"That was creeeeeeeepy!" Alex tried to finish as she was suddenly pulled down the slide feeling like drain.

Stella let out a sound of pain as she landed on the hard ground. How she didn't break a bone, she had no clue. Standing up, Stella stretched her limbs and looked for any injuries. Noticing that there weren't, Stella ran a hand through her messy hair. Feeling Mortis wind himself around her arm, Stella sighed.

"I guess we should go straight." Stella said, peering down the corridor.

As they walked, Stella felt an odd sense of comfort being down in the dank tunnel. She knew that she should be frightened and distrubed by it being so dangerous, but she liked it. It was as if she was home. Stella knew the thought was completely mad, but it was her feelings.

As they approached what appeared to be a carving of snakes, Stella examined it for a few moments. "Open up." She whispered again in Parseltongue, her eyes narrowed as she watched it open.

Alex cursed out loud as she fell down on the hard ground. There was nothing to break her fall, but Alex knew she hadn't broken a bone, though she had been through a lot worse, she had never broken a bone. So she knew she wouldn't have broken it for this.

I will though, have a huge bruise! She thought, running a hand over her butt gingerly and wincing. Taking out a roast chicken sandwich, she followed Stella quietly, preoccupied by the awesomeness of her sandwich. Raising her eyebrow slightly, as Stella opened the door, she asked, "You want some?"

Looking over at Alex with a incredulous look, Stella shook her head. "No thanks." Stella replied, looking back toward the Chamber.

Stepping through the threshold, Stella looked around in wonderment. There was a walkway that was floating on water, which was where they were standing. The walls were lined with statues of snakes. At the end of the walkway, there seemed to be a pool type area in front of a giant statue of a man. Stella knew automatically that it was Salazar himself. In front of the statue seemed to be a skeleton of a giant snake. Stella felt her feet move on their own accord as she moved toward the end of the Chamber.

Alex shrugged at Stella's answer, ignoring the incredulous look sent her way. She could and would eat most of the time, she found comfort, and she just, loved it somehow. Not that you could ever tell by the way she looked that she ate so much, but she did.

Humming a song, she followed Stella in the Chamber, and even Alex got hushed by what she saw. All her comment though, was, "He is ugly."

Stella couldn't help the laugh that escaped her when Alexandria said Salazar Slytherin was ugly. "Probably not the best thing to say in his Chamber." Stella joked, looking down at Mortis with a questioning gaze.

"Where's the Basilisk?" Stella hissed in Parseltongue. "I only see a skeleton of one." Mortis climbed up her arm so he rested on her shoulder. "They reincarnate Mistress. He's small but dangerous. He will listen to you though. Just call him."

Stella glanced up at the statue of Slytherin, and sighed. "I'd stand back if I were you Alex." Stella warned. "Far back."

"Come out and greet your Mistress." Stella demanded in Parseltongue, surprised by the force in her voice. "Now." And it obeyed.

"Can't hide from the truth!" Alex replied, calculating the height of the statue. She was like that, though she hated maths, she had a habitof starting to calculate if she was doing nothing else. She wondered in what painful ways she would die if the statue came to life.

She wathced with interest as Stella talked in parseltongue, which looked like mindless hisses to her, really. And when Stella advised her to retreat, she did, if ot exactly as much as suggested.

From behind the pillar, she watched, as her mouth hung open when something slitherd on the floor, out of instinct, she closed her eyes, not sure why.

Stella watched in a mixed of pride, horror, and amazement as a large snake slithered in front of her. Looking behind her quickly, Stella watched as Alex closed her eyes. "Good, keep them closed until I say so." Stella said.

Looking back at the Basilisk, Stella lifted up both of her hands. "Don't not look into Alex's eyes." Stella was shocked that the Basilisk's gaze did nothing to her. She supposed it was because of who her grandfather was.

The Basilisk obeyed and looked the other way. "I think you can open them now, but keep them closed just to be safe."

Alex nodded, resisting her urge to strike up a pose and then pull her hair and then look up, all the while in slow motion, saying, "yes, well, you know how awesome and correct I am!"

She did say the words though, but not the rest, she could have gotten hurt and knowing her luck, it would have started to bleed and then............well she wasn't interested in tempting the basilisk.

On hearing Stella's words she opened her eyes a teensie bit and took in the site of the basilisk, all coiled up in its acid green disgusting-ness. "Guess it runs in the family." She muttered..just loud enough for Stella to hear, smirking in her unique way, somehow making it seem in fun too.