Harry slipped into the Murtle's bathroom under his invisibility cloak. The school was under a complete lockdown and an extra squad of Aurors were patrolling the halls. Since most of them were former Hogwarts students, it meant they knew the school rather well. Fortunately, Harry knew it better and was adept at ghosting through the school. The cloak and a silencing spell sealed the deal.
Stepping up to the sink Harry hissed, ' Open '.
The sink slid back with a grinding that seemed loud in the quiet of the school. Harry pulled out his broom, dropped down the hole quickly, and hissed the command to close. He didn't want the DMLE stumbling on the unexpected opening and he was also afraid his friends would follow him down.
When Harry told them about Sasha's summons, they had all insisted he either not go or take them with him as backup. Harry argued he didn't think Sasha would react well to the uninvited guests and none of them had a parselmouth's protection from her gaze. They argued with him up until curfew with Padma promising all kinds of dire girlfriend punishments if he went without support. When they returned to the Gryffindor dorms, Ron and Hermione stationed themselves near the entrance to prevent Harry sneaking out. Harry realized it would be harder to escape his friends than his enemies - his enemies he could curse.
In the end, Harry used an illusion on his bed to make him appear to be safely asleep and snoring away. A Sleeping Charm on his roommates would prevent them from hearing him leave or return. As the school wards would immediately detect anyone flying around the school, he exited a window as the Beast and climbed down the tower. Re-entering the school via the window of an unused classroom on the second floor, Harry found it easy to make the last hundred metres undetected.
From under his cloak, Harry pulled out his shrunken broom stick and mounted it. A hissed word opened the sink portal and he carefully directed the broom to lower slowly into the revealed tube. Then with another hiss, he closed the portal.
Harry felt a sense of relief when the portal closed without Padma or one of the others appearing. He didn't expect the illusion to fool Hermione for long and figured there was a good chance Padma or Ernie would be making their way to the bathroom to intercept Harry. He knew this was possibly stupidly dangerous if Sasha was baiting a trap. However, he also didn't want to take the chance of angering the very large 1,000 year-old king (or queen) of all snakes, especially if she had information on what happened to Melissa Turnings.
The tunnels leading to the Chamber were unchanged for the most part. Harry could see signs of Sasha's recent passage and that had shifted some things around. The huge golden double door stood wide open and the animated snake motifs on each hissed their welcome. Harry walked though into the Chamber itself.
This room had changed. Gone were all signs of the fight that had occurred here at the end of his Second year. The damage to the pillars was all repaired and the place had actually been cleaned up. Harry wouldn't call it a great place to live, but the dust and musty smells were gone. The floor of the cavern was now a white sand that was warm enough that Harry could feel it through the soles of his trainers. A glowing orb at the peak of the cavern simulated the sun and based on the heat Harry felt, he bet its light included all of the sun's normal spectrums including infrared. With the large pool of water near the statue (which was also now cleaned but still hideously ugly), the cavern would make a great place for an indoor beach party.
" Speaker, you have come ."
Harry turned to see the basilisk emerge from a dark pipe and slither onto the sands. A sigh that sounded very much like relief emerged from the giant snake.
" You made it sound urgent that I came," Harry answered.
" I have watched you since I have awoken. I have seen you act to protect Hogwarts and her students… even when they mistrust you due to magic's cause. True Master would have been proud of your strength and protection of his dream. Claimed you as his own he would. " Harry felt an odd sense of pride at the ancient snake's words.
" True Master's Heir has lost the path. Power and ambition he has but has lost his way into madness. The ritual he used to return to a new body was a forbidden thing. Opened a pathway to creatures best left in the darkness of time. But now they are here. They seek power - power of blood, power of magic. Hogwart's wards prevent their full fury on her but they can pick at the edges. Already one of Hogwart's children has been lost to the host. The Alpha needs to defend Hogwarts and return the unwanted visitors from the past to their slumber ."
Harry felt a chill at Sasha's words. What did she mean?
" Tom's ritual woke something up ?"
" The Unseelie - creatures of the Fae. One of the Leanan Sidhe walks the halls of Hogwarts in search of victims. She wears a mortal seeming but I can smell her after she feeds. And she brings the Bendith as servants in her pursuit of mates. If they are not stopped more will pass over. The Alpha must act to protect Hogwarts. "
"The Unseelie?" Harry repeated in English. He was shocked. Like most school children he'd read stories of the old myths of the Faries. The two courts Seelie and Unseelie. Some claimed they were Light and Dark. Others Summer and Winter (And sometimes added Spring and Autumn courts too) From Harry's understanding the Seelie weren't so much Light as being less cruel in their humour and less likely to eat their human victims. The Unseelie court was malicious and cruel to any human they fell into their power - and that would be on a good day.
After entering the Wizarding world, Harry had learned of some creatures traditionally seen as members of these courts by mundanes really did exist including banshees and red caps. And magicals used fairies to light their Yule trees. But no one mentioned that the courts really existed.
"The Unseelie truly exist?" Harry asked in near disbelief. Wouldn't this have come up in Defence at some point? Remus would have mentioned it, right? Or History of… no, it didn't include any goblins.
" Banished long ago. They were legend even by the True Master's time. The Druids banished them to walk sideways from the sun ."
Druids? Druids hadn't existed in Europe or Britain since the Romans invaded. Some survived in Ireland for a while before the Catholic Church finished the purge.
" Are there any Druids left that can help us? " Harry asked.
" Rome saw the power they wielded in their defeat of the courts. But they sacrificed much for their victory. Caesar struck when they were weakened from their victory. His heirs finished what Caesar started. This fight belongs to the wizards ."
The conversation continued for a while longer without giving Harry any additional information. Sasha could feel the unseelie presence within the school's wards but not enough to locate them. Harry was getting ready to leave when Sasha made one last comment.
" The Unseelie will not truly serve the True Master's Dark Heir. But they may give the seeming of it for their amusement and to add to the chaos. This joining would be a disaster for both of your worlds, Alpha. Take care ."
Harry knew a dismissal when he heard one. (Who wanted to argue with a 1,000 year-old basilisk?) He quickly made his way back out of the Chamber and to the tube. Picking up his broom from where he'd left it, Harry rode back up the tube. Reaching the top, he hissed for the portal to open. What he found there almost made him go back to Sasha.
Padma, Hermione, Ron, Daphne and Ernie all stood glaring at him in the girls bathroom. To make matters worse, they had been joined by Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sirius and Remus. Maybe Slytherin had a bedroom hidden down there?
Before they could start shouting, Harry landed his broom and said, "We have a huge problem."
...
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