Ch 14 pt 2

They didn't travel nearly as fast as he had originally, but still probably too fast for Hermione's comfort considering her anxiety regarding broom-riding. Still, he was rather surprised that it seemed to take as long as it did. He had always assumed his half-panicked slide had distorted his sense of time. Apparently not. He rather thought that there were stairs built into the pipe as he couldn't see Tom taking the inelegant slide every time, but the slide, and riding broomsticks, was so much faster. And fun.

Trying to go down, and back up, over a thousand feet or more of stairs as they led under the lake to the Chamber was not something he would want to do! Not when there was such a fun way to do it instead.

The corridor was just as filthy and disgusting as he remembered. And the smell was enough to knock you over. Three quick Bubble-head charms fixed that problem, though. Hermione and Harry were quite relieved.

For a moment, he considered cleaning the messy floor, but decided it would be better to leave the skeletal debris for the atmosphere it gave their expedition. Yes, he could work with this, "the disturbing crunching of bones under my feet accompanied every step I took as I progressed down the dimly lit tunnel under the lake. Who knew where the dreaded monster was hiding, waiting, perhaps, to kill us without warning." It also would give Bozo a photo opportunity and added a realism to his book that the others lacked.

"Ew, ew, ew," Hermione said when she realized what was crunching with her every step. She looked at the broom in her hand, then the floor, and then hopped back on the broom. Some things were just too gross. Harry followed her lead. Gilderoy considered, then did the same. He'd leave that part out, though. He had the feel of it, but now he didn't want to dirty his robes and shoes with it any more than he had to.

They moved much faster this way and soon came into sight of the tremendous shed snakeskin.

"Blimey!" Harry said in a whisper, awed, after gulping. Hermione just stared, wide-eyed.

"Just think, children, the Basilisk is even bigger than that, now." He savoured the horrified looks they gave him. With them as witnesses, none would be able to gainsay what happened down here. "Never fear, though, for I, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, and Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, will keep you both as safe as if you were in your beds in your dormitories!" From their expressions, he could tell that they dearly wished they were in their dormitories and in their beds — preferably under the covers! They were too scared even to roll their eyes at his ridiculously long self-description. Ah, well, onward!

A minute later, they approached the wall blocking the tunnel. On it, as Harry remembered, were the two entwined snakes with green gems for eyes that seemed to turn to watch their every move.

"Behold," Gilderoy swept his arm dramatically, posing in front of them. "The Chamber of Secrets!" he intoned dramatically.

Harry audibly gulped. A faint whimper came from Hermione.

"There really is nothing to fear, my children," the Wizard said consolingly. "The Basilisk is sleeping and completely harmless at the moment, and I, Gilderoy Lockhart, et cetera, et cetera," he said, "am here to protect you." He turned to Harry. "Now, Harry, listen closely. When I give you this signal," he pointed his right-hand index finger at the boy, "I want you to say 'open' to the snakes embossed on this wall. It will split in the middle and open. I will look inside the Chamber to see if the Basilisk is in his sleeping den or on the floor. If the Basilisk isn't in the Chamber, you and I will walk inside a short ways. When I give this signal," he again pointed at the boy, but this time using his right-hand index and middle fingers spread in a "V", "loudly say, 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four.' Understand?" Hand signals would prevent them from noticing his voice wavering when it came to action time.

Harry licked his lips, and nodded nervously.

"Give it a practice try, Harry."

He did.

"Then turn and walk quickly back to here and close the wall. You and Hermione wait out here until I yell to open the doors, and then you can open them again by saying 'open,' okay?"

The boy reluctantly nodded again.

Gilderoy made him repeat the summoning phrase several times until he said it perfectly.

"Finally — listen carefully, both of you — if I don't signal you to open the doors in a reasonable amount of time, say ten minutes, go get the Headmaster!"

After exchanging a look, they both nodded fearfully.

"Excellent." Gilderoy pulled out the glasses he had made. He had taken four right-angle prisms, each long enough to stretch from the tip of his thumb to the tip of his little finger when he spread his fingers as wide as possible, and arranged the prisms into a double periscope, one reversing the other.

If seeing a single reflection reduced the death glare of the Basilisk to mere petrification, then using four reflections should make it completely harmless. The first prism reflected up to the second, the second reflected to the third, the third reflected back down to the fourth, which reflected into his eyes. He used magic to shape the four into a pair of wrap-around glasses only an eighth of an inch thick. The glasses looked somewhat odd with the top two prisms completely hiding his eyebrows, but they worked just fine. As an additional protection, the prisms only reflected red light and infrared (also known as heat). Everything else they ignored, meaning he never saw anything but reflected heat rays, and red light, converted up to normal eyesight range.

Muggle scientists had discovered, Gilderoy knew, that the higher frequency you went in light, the more damage it did to you, hence why people used sunscreen at the beach to protect themselves from ultraviolet (beyond blue) sunlight. Gilderoy assumed that the Basilisk's deadly vision was the same sort of situation. At a worst case, only the reflections would protect him. He hoped.

They had taken some getting used to, everything was shades of red, but they worked. That was all that mattered. Whether they worked the way he wanted them to, though, was another thing entirely.

He put them on and took a deep breath. It was show time, but a very different kind than normal. He pointed his finger at Harry.

Harry hissed at the wall.

He recorded the boy's command on another crystal. If the wall was soundproof he didn't want to be trapped inside!

The wall split and slowly slid open, accompanied by the sound of stone sliding across stone, the floor shuddering slightly. As it did, Gilderoy motioned the two frightened students to move against the sidewall as the one in front of them moved. They could not see into the Chamber. He, on the other hand, looked carefully inside as the wall opened.

He was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. There was no sign of the snake. The Chamber was just as it had appeared in his time.

He walked cautiously forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. He could hear water droplets splashing to the floor, eerily echoing. It was just as spooky as he remembered it being. "This . . . this is splendid! Even better then I remembered," Gilderoy whispered to himself.

At the last pair of pillars, a statue as high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Salazar, when Gilderoy tilted his head back, was just as ugly as he remembered: a face that was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. Rather full of himself, he had been, Gilderoy thought. And he could appreciate that! He considered how imposing such a statue would appear in the entry hall of his Mansion.

The Wizard turned and headed back to the kids. "Okay, Harry, Hermione, it's safe to come in," he called out.

The two peered around the protruding bump that marked the retracted wall.

He waved them inside, smiling broadly and exuding confidence. "Come, come, look!"

With no small amount of awe, the two students carefully crept into the Chamber.

"Note the pillars and how the snakes' creepy eyes seem to follow you as you walk," he said.

The two huddled together as they joined him.

"Come, come, see this," he said, acting like a tour guide in London, "Walk this way." He suppressed the urge to sway his hips and adopt a mincing walk — they were too scared to appreciate the comedic aspects of his request at this point.

"That," he said as the came to the end of the columns, "is Salazar Slytherin. Not exactly a stunningly handsome fellow, wouldn't you agree?" Gilderoy shook his head. "He definitely should have used a few beauty charms before posing for that monstrosity!" And he would mention those charms in his book, too!

They stared around in surprise, gradually separating and examining the columns closer.

"Okay, my dears," Gilderoy said joyfully. "This is what we're going to do. Hermione, please go back to the hall outside the doors." He handed her an opaque scarf. "Put this over your eyes when you get there and face the wall." He turned to other Gryffindor. "Harry, I want you to wait with me and when I give you the second signal, say 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four,' just as you practiced. Okay, off with you Hermione." He made little shooing motions with his hands. She took off at a fast walk. Gilderoy guided Harry as the two followed behind her about one-third of the way back and then stopped.

"Okay, Harry," Gilderoy crouched down to be at eye-level with the boy. "This is important, Harry. As soon as you say your lines, as loud as you can, I want you to walk — not run, I don't want you to trip in your excitement — and join Hermione. Then close the doors by saying 'close,' in Parseltongue. Remember to think about a snake when you say it. Got it?"

Harry, wide-eyed, nodded.

Gilderoy smiled at him, "Okay Harry. Take a deep breath, let it out, and . . . ."

Harry did as told, Gilderoy checked that Hermione wasn't in sight, and then gave him the signal.

Voice quavering slightly, Harry hissed quite loudly as Lockhart again recorded the boy.

"Excellent," Gilderoy exclaimed, "Here's a scarf, now walk!" and gave the boy a nudge.

Harry needed no farther incentive and took off rapidly. For once, he had an adult along who seemed in control of the situation. Unlike his adventures last year!

Meanwhile, Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving, stone on stone grinding loudly. Gilderoy could feel the floor beneath his feet vibrating slightly at the movement. His mouth was opening wider and wider to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

Gilderoy stared, fascinated at the grotesque imagery. It was, actually quite disturbing on a variety of levels. Thank Merlin he had been too scared last time to notice, or the phallic symbolism might have left him scarred for life!

Gilderoy licked his lips. This was the nasty part, this was the part that was risky. He watched through the glasses as the snake came out of that hole. Behind him, the Wizard could hear the stonewall slowly closing, adding its slight vibrations to the floor. Good, the kids were safe.

If everything went completely pear-shaped, he was prepared. The parchment on his office desk had detailed instructions on the locations of the remaining horcruxes as well as how to destroy them. The Basilisk venom enhanced Goblin knife weighted it down. Dobby had strict instructions to take both to Madam Bones should Lockhart die, and to keep Harry and Hermione safe no matter what.

There would be no wandering in the wilderness while thousands died as someone fruitlessly searched for the vile things.

Similarly, unless he contacted them, the letter with Fleecem, Cheatem, and Beatem would be mailed to Madam Bones in two days detailing the who, what, where, when, and why of Scabbers and Peter Pettigrew. And the solicitors would begin the proceeding for freeing Sirius.

The floor shook as the massive snake hit it.

The Basilisk's eyes glittered and Gilderoy felt a shock as they focused on him. He tried not to look directly at the creatures eyes, despite his glasses. The creature hissed like the Hogwarts Express getting ready to leave. He thought he had remembered the snake being big, but holy mother of pearl, that thing was stonking! Time to leg it.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a block of wood and dropped it on the ground. As soon as it left his hand, he shot his wand out of its holster and grabbed it. He shouted, "Finite Incantatem," while pointing at the block, now several steps behind him as he ran down the chamber towards the closed wall.

"Squawk!" cried the surprised rooster that appeared.

Okay, now crow damn you! Harry thought. The vendor had guaranteed that the roosters would crow. They had certainly been making enough noise in the stall!

Before the rooster could do that though, the bloody damn snake slid across it, not even noticing as it crushed the bird to paste.

"Bloody hell!"

Harry darted over to the columns as the snake quickly followed.

Thank Merlin Harry had decided to get more than just one rooster! The Wizard pulled out second block and dropped it. Again, he finited it, releasing another rooster. This one went "Errk?" Only Merlin knew why, but it turned and ran at the Basilisk just as the snake opened its mouth to hiss. The snake snapped its mouth shut in reflex on feeling something hit its tongue.

Harry stared, "Oh, come on!" He ran down the columns. The snake was close on his heels. He began weaving in and out of the columns. He wanted to confuse the beast. It didn't confuse easily, unfortunately. It did slow it down some as it wound its way around the columns.

He stopped between two columns. He was temporarily out of the snake's sight. He pulled out a third block. He dropped it as he nervously moved away. The snake should appear any second. He cast a finite. This had better work, he did not have an unlimited number of roosters!

The rooster appeared and peered around quietly, giving a soft, "murr?"

The Basilisk's head slid around the column.

"SQUAWK!" The rooster had fine instincts and lousy planning. It flapped its wings desperately, going for altitude.

The snake opened its mouth to strike at Harry. The bird flew straight in its mouth.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" The wizard dodged around the column and ran. He reached the front of the Chamber and ran out of columns. He crossed the chamber, firing a reducto at the snake to discourage it. It didn't even bother to dodge, although it flinched slightly.

He pulled out his fourth block. He dropped it as he hid behind a pillar. This rooster just stared at him, blinking.

Gilderoy fired another reducto at the snake's eye's. It pulled back, flinching as the spell bounced off the armour between the eyes. Gilderoy took off down the pillar row, in the opposite direction. He glanced back just in time to see a small rain of rocks land on his rooster. His reducto had bounced off the snake. It had hit the ceiling, knocking loose three or four stone of rocks.

He swore vociferously. Harry pulled out another block, and finite'd it. He dodged around the pillars and started weaving through them again. He came around one just as the snake came around the other. The rooster saw it for the first time. It swayed a moment, and then fell over stiffly.

"Arrgh!" screamed Harry in frustration. The bloody damn rooster had either fainted or had a heart attack, probably the latter. He took off running again.

He pulled out his last block, and cast another finite. Merlin, he had thought he was being ridiculously pessimistic when he had bought six roosters, but still! This time he held on to the block as it became a rooster. He stared at it as it stared at him. "Well, come on you bloody bird, crow."

"Errk?"

"Crow, damn you!"

"Squawk!"

"CROW, DAMN YOU OR YOU'RE DINNER!"