It was only after classes that they managed to steal away from the crowd and sneak themselves down to the Chamber of Secrets. Luckily, they had a free period so they managed to go while most of the other students were still in a class. As they approached the door to the chamber itself, Harry turned to her and said, "Okay, Hermione... please don't get mad at me for what I'm about to show you. I... uh... wasn't thinking too clearly at the time."
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by 'not thinking clearly?' When was this?"
"You were in the hospital wing and you weren't responding to the usual treatment. I kind of panicked."
"So what are you showing me, Harry? Don't tell me you..." Hermione's eyes widened as she figured it out.
~Open,~ Harry hissed to the door. "You'll see," he said as he stepped inside. They walked into the familiarly dark and empty chamber.
"What am I supposed to be seeing again? I thought you were implying that you kidnapped Draco or something of that ridiculous nature," Hermione said. The tension had yet to leave her voice, because she wasn't quite sure if she should be feeling relieved yet.
"Um... I did kidnap him," Harry admitted.
"WHAT?" Hermione's yell echoed through the chamber.
Harry threw up his hands in surrender. "Like I said, I wasn't thinking very clearly! And I did manage to find out something useful! If it hadn't been for me, who knows whether or not all of you would have recovered or not?"
Hermione fumed silently for a few minutes, contemplating what he just told her. Okay. He did it for me. He did it for everyone else who got stuck in the hospital wing. He could have at least slowed down and thought about it for a while. Ugh! Now he's dragged me into this whole mess. But then again, I might not be here if it weren't for him... Finally, she spoke. "...Fine. But the ends don't justify the means, you know that!"
"Alright, just help me look for that little bugger." Harry lit up his wand with a slightly brighter lighting charm as he began to search the chamber.
"You make it sound like he's a little lost puppy or something." Hermione smirked. She moved over and began her search along the walls.
"I'd prefer a little snake, but yeah, thinking of him as an animal kind of helps."
"Or a ferret," Hermione suggested.
"Ferret? I've been wanting to call him that too, but I don't know why," Harry answered. They realized that the chamber itself had many nooks and crannies that they never bothered finding before. Several of these were actually quite large, enough for them to stand up inside and had a fairly steep passageway leading up. They ruled them out as possible escape routes that Draco had taken, being far too slippery to climb. That narrowed it down to two of the lower passages, on opposite sides of the chamber. They saved the tunnel exploration for last, since neither thought it was a good idea to wander into a dark tunnel alone.
"Now that I think about it, it should have been obvious there would be plenty of tunnels leading out of the chamber," Hermione said as they began their walk down one of the two tunnels.
"Why do you say that?" Harry asked.
"Well, you said you heard the voices in the walls, right?"
"Yeah, it was the basilisk hissing along as it moved through the pipes..." Harry smacked his head. "Of course! There has to be more ways out of the chamber than just Myrtle's bathroom!"
"Obviously, a giant basilisk like that would be pretty hard to miss going through the halls," Hermione pointed out. "But the attacks happened all over the school... Justin was petrified on the fifth floor, I was down near the library, and Colin was definitely not near the girls' bathroom. There have to be other exits."
"Like the one we found underwater during our preparations for the Trial of Water..." Harry recalled.
"I think we might actually be walking towards that one."
The tunnel they were walking down had a very slight downward grade to it, and it was getting slimier as they progressed. Both of them were constantly casting Scourgify in front of them so they wouldn't slip. Eventually it ended in a deep pool of dirty water, and the light from their wands couldn't penetrate very deep. Not willing to soak themselves for the sake of curiosity, they just hoped that Draco hadn't walked down this path and drowned.
They returned to the chamber and started exploring the second tunnel. The one had a slight uphill grade to it. It was definitely longer than the other. Although it was far less slimy than the first one and they could walk much faster, they could tell they weren't getting to the end of the tunnel any time soon.
"I've been thinking about the Chamber itself for a bit," Harry said, trying to pass the time with more conversation.
"Oh? What about it?"
"Why would a sneaky and devious wizard like Salazar Slytherin make a secret, hidden chamber underneath the school and make it so... uninviting?"
"It was supposed to be a secret," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"But he did make it for his heir to find. You'd think he wouldn't make them slide down a mucky old tube to get their inheritance. There aren't even stairs to get down here, for crying out loud. You'd think he would at least put a desk, or a book, or something more useful for his own heir."
"Maybe Voldemort took them all when he came down here the first time?" Hermione thought aloud, but she did see his point.
"The books, yeah, but I don't think he'd steal the bookshelves too."
"So you're saying the Chamber of Secrets wasn't made for his heir to find?" Hermione doubted his theory slightly, but mostly because it was the opposite of everything the books had suggested. Many had said the chamber existed and would be opened for the heir of Slytherin, while others suggested that it didn't exist at all. None suggested that it DID exist but not for the heir.
"Maybe for him to find, but not for him to use," Harry said. "I think it was made just for the basilisk. Do you know what the password is for the secret entrances are?"
"You just told me you had to open it in parseltongue... you never explained how you figured out the actual password. Was it hard?" Hermione was surprised. Whenever Harry spoke in parseltongue, it still sounded amazingly complex and she was sure he was speaking full sentences.
"No, I just say 'open' and it opens. That's really all there is to it." Harry shrugged and gave her a dumb grin. Hermione's mouth was left hanging at the simplicity of it.
"That's IT? I expected better of a founder of Hogwarts... especially the one who was known for cunning!"
"Like I said, it was made for the basilisk. It makes sense this way... I wouldn't expect a snake to have a very good memory, so he just kept the passwords simple so it could come and go when it needed to. By the way, the password for the underwater exit is just 'open,' too."
Their conversation finally ended when they found what they were looking for. There was another large door decorated with snakes, and lying at the base of it was one very weak Draco Malfoy. Hermione began searching him immediately, starting with his sleeves.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked. "Shouldn't we revive him?"
"I'm looking for his wand. I don't want him to wake up and hit us with something. Constant vigilance and all that," she explained.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I took his wand away from him when I left him down here," Harry said, while pulling out Draco's wand from his pocket.
"Why didn't you mention it earlier? Okay, you watch him, I'll revive him," Hermione said. Before casting enervate, she petrified and bound his body, holding him in a sitting position. "Ready? Three, two, one... Enervate!"
Draco's eyes fluttered weakly. He squinted under the light of Harry and Hermione's wands, and quickly realized he couldn't even lift his arm to shield his eyes. Hermione conjured up a cup of water and held it up to Draco's lips. "Here, Malfoy. Drink."
Draco took a sip of water only to spit it back out in Hermione's face. "I don't need your help, you filthy mudbl-"
He was interrupted by a jet of water from Harry's wand blasting straight into his face. Some of it splashed on to Hermione's robes. "Sorry about that, Hermione," Harry apologized as he cast a drying charm on her. "Alright, Malfoy, that's the only drink of water you'll be getting."
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