A Turn for the Better

Chapter 20 ~ Entering the Chamber

Neville stared down at Luna, looking absolutely ridiculous in his wok-like, mirrored Basilisk Gazer One Thousand. Hermione frowned at the Ravenclaw.

"Luna, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

"Coming along," she replied, starting to undo Neville's chin-strap.

"I don't know how you found out about the chamber, but you can't come. You don't have any of the protections we do. We can't spend our time protecting you!" Hermione declared, "and leave Neville's hat alone. He needs that!"

"Oh, it's a good design, but I've got something less clunky we can use," she told Hermione as she removed Neville's hat and set it down on one of the chipped sinks. She took off one of the bright pink masks she wore. She had at least seven of them on.

"Here, put this on, Neville," she said to the wizard, who obeyed her as if under the Imperious curse. Luna was here, and wanted to go with them.

Neville pulled the mask on as Hermione scowled at him. He was going to be distracted if Luna came along and Hermione needed him focused.

He looked just as ridiculous in the frilly, pink mask as he did in the Basilisk Gazer. But his mouth dropped open as he looked at Hermione, then all around the bathroom.

"This is fantastic!" he breathed. "How did you do this, Luna?"

"Oh, well I use it for sketching landscapes, but thought it could come in handy for facing basilisks," she replied non-chalantly.

"What?" Hermione demanded, a bit put off at Neville's reaction to the mask. It looked like something a witch would wear in a cheesy sex Pensieve.

Luna offered Hermione a mask.

Hermione glowered at it, then resolutely removed her hat, determined to find fault with whatever Luna had done, but once she put the mask on and looked through the mesh, she was truly amazed.

She could see the bathroom just fine, but both Luna and Neville had no visual definition. They looked like black silhouettes. The masks only let in the surrounding landscape, apparently blacking out living things. Actually, Luna's original masks could also black out landscapes and only show the object she was focused on, but she made these so no mistakes would be made in viewing by the uninitiated.

Hermione raised the mask and Luna and Neville appeared normally, Luna blinking at her with those big, blue eyes. Hermione's stomach tightened with a bit of jealousy. She had to admit these masks would be easier to work with than the hats. They wouldn't be obtrusive at all.

"It seems you thought a lot about this," Hermione said tightly. "But you don't have a mirror shield to reflect the basilisk's reflection back at it."

"Oh, I'll just improvise," Luna said.

"But . . . but it was just supposed to be Neville and I . . ." Hermione started in.

Neville put his hand on her arm.

"Just let her come, Hermione. She's already shown us she knows what she's doing," he said to his friend.

Hermione bit back the retort that Neville wanted Luna to come because he fancied her. It was true, of course, but what was also true is that Luna was brilliant and her additions to this venture were better than what Hermione had come up with. And Hermione knew it.

It was rather humbling.

"Plus, I'm Head Girl. If I don't go, no one goes," Luna said softly. "I'll just have to put my foot down, although I really don't like to do that. We should just go. You have the bottled Parseltongue, don't you?"

Hermione had just been about to take Luna to task for pulling rank on her, when she stopped short.

"How do you know about the bottled Parseltongue?" she asked her, her eyes narrowing. "Have you been spying on us?"

"Only a little. But I left the book on the table for you in the library when I stopped to talk to you," Luna explained. "I knew once you saw the title, you'd figure out how utilize it. You're smart that way."

Hermione was slightly mollified by Luna's pronunciation of her smartness. The witch's acknowledgement made everything a little easier to bear.

"You're pretty bright too, Luna," Hermione admitted.

Luna shrugged.

"I do all right, I guess . . . but we really should get going," the Ravenclaw said, her eyes shifting toward the faucet.

"Yeah, we should," Neville agreed, staring at Luna's silhouette, before lifting the mask and letting it rest on his forehead.

"All right. We'll just leave the hats here and use the masks," Hermione said, walking up to the sink and holding the corked plastic bottle near the faucet. The label read, "Open."

"Here goes," Hermione breathed, pulling out the cork.

Quirrel's soft hiss sounded. At first nothing happened.

"Damn," Hermione said glumly.

"Wait," Luna said quietly.

Suddenly the tap glowed with a brilliant white light, illuminating the entire bathroom. It was a good thing the door was closed or Snape and Hagrid, who were still on the landing, would have seen the glow in the corridor.

Then it began to spin, and the sink . . . to move. It sank out of sight, leaving a very large pipe exposed, one large enough for even Hagrid to slide through.

"The entrance," Neville breathed, staring at the pipe's opening. "I'll go first, just to make sure it's safe . . . "

But Neville was cut short as Luna stepped into the opening and disappeared, sliding away.

"Luna!" Neville hissed, launching himself after the witch.

"Neville!" Hermione cried, jumping in after him.

It felt like she left her stomach in the bathroom as she shrieked in fright as she slid down the pipe as if it were a dark, slimy slide. It was like a rollercoaster, with humps, curves, spirals and even a loop, Hermione flying along it, unable to stop screaming.

Luna rode the pipe rather calmly, not screaming at all as her long blonde hair whipped about. There were other pipes around them, but none as big as this one. She rounded a curve, then zipped over a hump and plummeted straight down, checking her nails.

Neville couldn't scream or anything he was so terrified. He clutched his mirror shield to him tightly and could see Luna in front of him, sliding calmly, her hair streaming. How couldn't she be scared? What was going to happen when they reached the end of this thing? They could be flung into a wall or something. They had to be deeper than the dungeons now, maybe even miles below the school.

Hermione was screaming her lungs out, her body thudding slightly on the curves behind him, and she was clutching herself as if she were going to break apart. She nearly pissed herself when they went through the loop. Dear gods, was this ride ever going to end?

The pipe leveled out and Luna shot out the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. She quickly rolled out of the way as Neville made a wet landing. Unfortunately, he was so disoriented, he didn't move and Hermione landed on top of him with a final shriek.

Luna stood up, calmly pulled out her wand, and Scourgified the muck off her robes. Neville and Hermione stood up, both shaking as they looked about.

"We must be miles under the school," Hermione said, her quavering voice echoing off the slimy walls. Neville managed to get his wand out and Scourgify both himself and Hermione.

"Lumos," Luna said, lighting her wand so she could see in the dark tunnel ahead of them. Without a word, she started walking.

"Hey, wait! We need to stay together, Luna!" Neville cried, then he looked back at Hermione.

"Come on," he said, lighting his wand and grabbing her hand, pulling the witch behind him as he followed the Ravenclaw.

The tunnel was so dark, they could only see a little distance ahead, and their shadows were large and spooky in the wandlight.

"Watch for signs of movement," Hermione warned, her wand drawn.

But everything was silent as death as they walked forward, Luna's protuberant eyes shifting about slowly. There was a loud crunch, and Luna held her wand down to see what she stepped on.

It was a rat's skull.

Hermione's face contorted as she saw the floor was littered with small animal bones. But they all looked very, very old and brittle. There hadn't been any new kills here in a while.

They continued forward, crunching through the small skeletons, until Luna suddenly stopped, Neville and Hermione stopping beside her. All three sets of eyes went wide.

Hermione could see the outline of something huge and curved, lying across the tunnel. Thankfully, it wasn't moving. Luna moved closer, shining her wand on it.

"It's just a snake skin," she said softly as Neville paled.

"Just a snake skin? It's at least twenty feet long!" he breathed as he looked at the poisonous green colored skin. It lay curled and empty across the tunnel floor. It too, looked old and brittle.

"It's probably bigger now," Hermione intoned.

Neville swallowed.

"You think it's lurking somewhere?" he asked, "ready to leap out on us?"

"No," Luna answered with quiet assurance, "it's dormant. It has to be or people would still be getting petrified."

Hermione had to agree.

"But," Luna added, "we're probably going to wake it up when we arrive in the chamber. I think it's attuned to react to the presence of Muggle-borns, since Salazar Slytherin wanted to run them out of Hogwarts."

Her blue eyes turned toward Hermione.

"I think you're going to have to be the bait, Hermione," she said softly as Hermione paled. "Let's keep going."

Both Neville and Hermione followed Luna. It was actually good she came along. Her easy approach and calmness in the situation was like a balm. If Luna was nervous, it didn't show. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Hermione's body was tingling. Around another bend was a solid wall. Two entwined serpents were carved into it, great glinting emeralds serving as eyes. Those eyes seemed to flicker as the trio approached.

This time Neville pulled out a bottle marked, "Open," and held it close to the door, uncorking it. Again, Quirrel's soft hiss filled the tunnel and the serpents parted as the wall slid open, the halves sliding out of sight.

The three students walked forward as if they shared one body, and found themselves at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Stone pillars decorated with more carved snakes towered over them, holding up a ceiling shrouded in darkness. They cast long, black shadows through a strange, greenish gloom that filled the place.

As they walked, Neville had the impression the hollow eyes of the carved snakes were following them. Once or twice he thought he saw one move. Hermione was silent too, her eyes casting about the chamber, her wand at the ready and mirror shield held up protectively.

They reached the last set of pillars and Luna pulled up one of the masks around her neck, covering her eyes with it. Neville and Hermione emulated her.

"The chamber," Luna said softly, her blue eyes studying a huge stone statue of a wizard as it as it loomed against the back wall. It was as high as the chamber itself.

They had to crane their necks to look up into the giant face. It was rather monkeyish looking, with a long thin beard that almost reached the bottom the statue's robes.

"Ew, that's Salazar Slytherin?" Hermione said. "Not very attractive is he? Looks as if a bunch of bananas could distract him easily."

Neither Neville nor Luna laughed as they drew closer to the statue. They looked around for an opening, or door, or something that a basilisk could hide in, but didn't see anything.

"Maybe the basilisk died," Neville said.

Luna shook her head.

"It's here. We just have to summon it. Open one of the bottles," Luna said softly, "and back away from the statue. I think it could be inside."

Neville and Hermione backed up as Hermione pulled out another bottle. It read "Come," on the label. Shuddering slightly, she pulled the cork, Quirrel's voice filling the chamber.

There followed a loud rumbling of stone above them.

"Oh my gods," Hermione breathed as the mouth of the statue began to open. "All right, Neville, this is it. Let's not wait. Fire the curse into the statue's mouth!"

Luna stepped back a bit and watched as the pair pointed their wands at the dark entrance above them.

"AVADA KEDARVA!" they both screamed with powerful intent, the dread green blast entering the cave mouth, illuminating the stone within and covering whatever was inside with sudden death.

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"What?" Snape roared at Myrtle.

"They slid down the pipe about half an hour ago," the pearly ghost said to him and Hagrid as they hurried toward her bathroom.

"Why did you let so much blasted time pass before you told us?" Snape hissed at her, his heart pounding.

"I tried to follow them to see where they were going, but got confused and all turned around by the pipes," the ghost replied. "I was just trying to gather good information!"

Myrtle burst into tears.

"Thar, thar, Myrtle. Yah did good," Hagrid said as they entered the bathroom. She sniffed dramatically as Snape snorted.

He eyed the pipe opening and the strange-looking mirrored hats left on the chipped sinks. He picked one up and examined it. What was it?

He put it back down. He didn't have time to try and figure it out. His black eyes shifted back to the pipe opening. Hermione had gone down there, the crazy little witch. No doubt Longbottom was with her. So this was her project?

Dear Merlin. He had to find them before they got themselves killed by whatever lurked down there.

Besides, right now, he felt as if he wanted that honor for himself. He turned to Myrtle, his black eyes hard.

"Make yourself useful. Go alert Dumbledore to what's happening," Snape snapped at her before wrapping his robes around himself and sliding into the pipe, disappearing immediately.

"Dumbledore? He wants me to go get Dumbledore?" Myrtle said to Hagrid in disbelief.

"Yah. You kin git thar tha fastest, Myrtle. Tell 'im tha chamber's been opened," Hagrid said, then he lowered Hercules' cage into the pipes and let it go, then his own bulk, disappearing with a yell.

Myrtle stared after him for a moment, then rose through the ceiling.

She had to alert the Headmaster.

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A/N: Many of the chamber and tunnel descriptions are paraphrased or taken directly from the second book, as well as bits of Harry's original dialogue. Thanks for reading.