Tom made his way up the ladder leading into his and Lilith's hidden room, strengthening his resolve. Despite the fact that Lilith had clearly forgiven him for the feelings of distrust that he had fostered due to Morfin's death, the two of them have had barely a chance to spend any time together, despite the fact that she and the rest of the students had returned on the weekend. Tom had certainly tried his best to get her attention, even writing in the Diary, but she had ignored his attempts up to today.
As the classes started again, another stressful class under Dumbledore led to her clearly overextending herself with her magic again, her right arm shirt sleeve dyed red with blood, which prompted her to head for their hidden room, likely to rest and recover before dinner. Tom had followed behind her at a respectful distance, before climbing up the stairs as soon as she was in. As he lifted the trapdoor, Tom spotted her lighting up the candles in the room. "Is there a reason you are avoiding me?" Lilith seemed to flinch slightly, before she turned around, her cheeks a bit flushed. Tom buried that sight and memory, trying to control his emotions. The redhead looked quite beautiful with blushed cheeks. Doing his best to resist any physical responses to Lilith, Tom entered the room properly, closing the trap door as soon as he was up. For her part, Lilith did move closer to him, nervously rubbing her right arm, before she flinched as she rubbed her injury. "Would you believe me if I said that I was having trouble deciding how we should interact?"
Frowning at her statement, Tom stepped closer to her, drawing his wand and using a basic healing spell on Lilith's arm, watching as the shallow cuts receded into angry red lines. "What do you mean?" Lilith's blush faded a little as she pulled her hand out of his slowly. "Thank you… I… read your Diary. All of it. I just… we have been really respectful of each other, trying to keep a professional relationship between us, but now… I am not sure how to move forward exactly. We are closer now than just partners, but I have trouble placing us exactly in a way that you would understand. Are we… friends?" Tom blinked a few times, feeling out the word in his mind, trying to equate it to what their relationship had become. "As I have never had a friend before, I believe that it might be a suitable name for what we are, though I personally feel we are closer than that." Lilith's blush deepened again. "I see. Then, how would you like us to address each other, both in private and in public? I am certain a few members of Slytherin had the brains to piece out who sent you the owl but the rest…" Tom nodded. "Abraxas and Theodore are among them, and the Blacks I do not doubt that they know it was you. Still, I don't see why we should change our public behaviour. Not everyone knows that Pandora was from you and I would like to keep it that way, for both our sakes." Lilith nodded, before she blinked. "Pandora?" Tom smiled at her. "The owl you sent me. Seemed appropriate."
Lilith searched Tom's eyes. "And are you expecting either the owl or me to open a certain jar, bringing ruin to you and the world?" Tom smirked. "Oh, I think you already opened the jar yourself, my dear Artificer." Lilith blush went past her cheeks and even down her neck, with Tom surprised to see that much color on her face. He did briefly remember seeing it when he accidently saw her naked that one time, realising that it was the shade that she took when embarrassed. "I suppose it fits. Take good care of her and if anything happens, bring her to me. I will fix her right up." Tom nodded, before he started pulling out a roll of parchment. "So, I have a few things I want to talk about concerning the search for the Chamber." Lilith nodded back, before her attention wavered. "One moment." She sprinted quickly to the window, opening it briefly as a lightly colored shadow flew into the room, before she closed the window again, cutting off the bitter cold that had begun to spread into the room from outside. The shadow flew to a large bird stand that Tom realized was new to the room, before the creature shook itself, dropping off bits of ice and snow, revealing a mechanical owl that was a bit bigger than Pandora, with a lighter shade of bronze and deep green eyes. Lilith approached the owl. "Did the anti-freezing enchantments fail?" The bird shook its head, hooting excitedly, as Lilith rubbed her chin. "So internally you were fine, but externally, even though the spell melted the ice that built up on your body, it simply refroze, building up a light and fragile layer of snow on you as you flew?"
The owl bobbed its head as Lilith took out her notebook, writing her observations down. "If you send Pandora out, warn her about flying in snowy conditions. It seems my precautions only went so far. Galatea and I will test a few countermeasures before I add anything to Pandora." Tom looked at the owl, who turned to look at him, those green eyes looking him over. "Galatea?" Lilith reached out to caress her mechanical owl's head. "Yeah, she was my testbed for all the behavioural and movement aspects of the constructs. Because I had her made before I had a stable magical core for her, she was a bit like a statue, sitting at the corner of my desk. Eventually, after a successful core was developed, she was made whole. Weren't you, girl?" The owl purred under her owner's attention, before she started to preen herself as Lilith turned and walked back to Tom, who was curious if Lilith had forgotten what the first name of their Defence Profesor was or if she simply didn't care and picked the name without considering who else shared it within Hogwarts. "You shouldn't have any trouble using Pandora for delivering letters anywhere, as she won't run out of magic, though any long distance letters, such as to Africa, Asia or America will be rough. The magic that binds her to you isn't fond of being kept away from you for long periods of time." Tom nodded, his eyes still on Galatea even as Lilith's words brought his mind back into focus, before he turned to look at Lilith. "What is it exactly? The magic that binds them to us?"
Lilith shrugged as she sat down. "It's a Pseudo-Familiar Bond. Familiar bonds allow for the continuous flow of magic between the two entities, which also shares their feelings and experiences. Remind me to teach you the exercise required to see through their eyes. It's very disorientating at first, but it is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. Unlike a Familiar Bond, it won't be as painful to lose the connection, though I still don't recommend it. I will also be quite cross with you if you lose Pandora. She took a lot of work to refine." Tom sat down on the sofa opposite of Lilith. "You know that the bond isn't as bad when it fails… how? You didn't test it, did you?" Lilith fidgeted a little, playing with a lock of her hair. "I actually did. I wasn't fond of giving you a Pseudo-Familiar if losing it left you traumatized. Trust me… losing a Familiar is the same as if you lost a loved one. It is as if a part of you has passed away and all you want to do is to make the pain go away." Tom searched Lilith's face. "You went through that." Lilith nodded softly. "I once watched a dragon hatch from its egg. The female dragon hatchling hated everyone else, but she was fond of me. The owner and I had no idea that we formed a Familiar Bond. The hatchling spent days, even weeks trying to reach me, while I yearned for it to be at my side, but a poor understanding as to what was happening led to the keepers of the dragon refusing to let her go off on its own to find me. It died soon after, and I… I was very tempted to join it."
Tom shook his head. "I'm so sorry." Lilith smiled at him. "Danke. Now then, what did you want to discuss about the Chamber?" Tom unfurled his parchment, revealing his map of the dungeons, before he cleared his throat. "Based on the way that passageways are marked, I think I have narrowed down the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets to four locations. The issue is how to open the entrance. I checked the walls, all with Hogsby's help. There were no carvings for me to charge with my magic on the walls. I just wish I knew what to look for now." Lilith looked over the map, seeing the entrance marked as one of the targets. When Lillian had opened the Chamber, she had no need for the charging carvings. She had reactivated that particular ward after she had managed to talk to Salazar, who revealed to her that the protection was there for a reason and that it was likely that the security measures had been tampered by the previous Heir in some way. Still, she needed to be careful how to phrase it so as to not reveal that she was already aware of the actual location. "Ok, so the carvings on the hidden passageways made sense, as these needed to be at arms length for a quick activation. The Chamber, however, is different. It is supposed to be the location that the Heir of Slytherin locates as a way to earn his right to become the Head of House. If we were to see the Chamber from the point of view as that of a Lord's domain during the height of the Medieval period, what would a Lord demand of his Heir, before they became the Heir Apparent?"
Tom frowned, running through within his mind what information he had read on the Magical Houses. "I don't think I have read anything about Medieval customs. The Magical Families don't share much information about that time period to begin with." Lilith frowned. "My family has its own traditions, so I am not sure how that applies here. I do know that the era did favor the act of kneeling, both in the Christian cultures and in the Celtic remnants. Those seeking favor or recognition were required to kneel before the person with the authority to grant it." Tom thought about that. "If a carving needs to be charged and the Heir is required to kneel, then the place for the carving… would be on the floor." Tom searched his notes on the particular walls, looking at the snake markers in his mind. He noticed something odd about one of the markings on the walls. Tom pointed at the one he was envisioning in his mind. "This wall here. The snake carvings that usually mark a gap in the area at the lowest point of the wall are different here. The tail looks bent, as if the snake was moving up from the floor and against the wall. I didn't pay much mind to the tail as it was a minor difference in design. If the carving that opens the chamber is on the floor, it should be here, in front of this wall." Lilith sighed, feeling relieved as he had selected the right wall. "That photographic memory of yours is cheating." Tom chuckled to himself. "Would you rather we had wasted time searching all four locations?"
Lilith shook her head, as she looked at the proximity to the Slytherin Common Room. "Alright, the best possible time for us to access it would be on the night after Astronomy class. Less students would be wandering the halls then and Bones has us fifth years return to the Dorms early. We can wait out the return of the remaining Prefects, step out of our rooms under invisibility, and make for the entrance. I will deploy my ward discs prior to stepping out, which should conceal our movements as we step out of the Dorms. I can deploy them in the Slytherin Common Room too, as well as other locations, so if Dumbledore is watching through his connection to the Castle, he can't see our movements or guess at the correct location to the entrance." Tom nodded. "That will keep the entrance hidden from him, which is fine by me. My disillusionment spell is as good as it can be. What about you?" Lilith looked up from the parchment. "I have a Cloak that will do." Tom rolled up the Parchment, feeling quite light. "Then it's decided. On Wednesday night, we will try to open the Chamber." Lilith sat back against the couch as Galatea landed on her shoulder, before she started running her hands through Galatea's feathers, which could be sharp enough to cut flesh but only when Galatea intended them to do so. In a few nights, she would be within the Chamber of Secrets once more. Lilith buried the sudden anxiety that built up in her soul. Soon enough she would be face to face with Salazar Slytherin once more, but he wouldn't remember her at all. She hoped that she didn't break down in tears.