Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures Chapter 54

Ivan and Harry tightly held on to Ron, it was like they were on a roller coaster.

Since the pipes were so narrow Ivan had to stay close to the basilisk.

Every time they turned he felt pain all over his body.

He never thought that Hogwarts had such complex plumbing.

They soon turned and went into a very old looking pipe, Ivan calculated they were around Ravenclaw tower, the tallest place in the school.

The basilisk took them to a strange oval room, there were light blue draperies, books on one side of the room, and thick dust accumulated everywhere it is certain no has been here for ages.

Tom Riddle who was still controlling Ron was visibly astonished had no idea where this place was.

"Damn!" said Tom in a hissing voice.

He wanted the basilisk to stop but it was clearly frightened by the rooster's crow so it didn't listen to Tom's commands, it then quickly fled with its fastest speed.

The blue draperies soon vanished, Ivan quickly grabbed an object with a long chain.

He held it tightly and before he could look down, the basilisk took them to another place. After a minute the basilisk rammed into the pipeline and lept into the third floor girls bathroom.

Suddenly the sink let out a dazzling light, it began to quickly rotate.

The sink soon disappeared from sight, Ivan soon saw a very thick pipe, the basilisk rushed in.

It seems to be a pipe specially prepared for it, and Ivan also saw there were numerous pipes going in all directions but they weren’t as thick as the pipe that the basilisk went down.

The pipe twisted and turned, for around seven or eight times, it was also had a very steep slope all the way down.

Ivan knew they had gone down to the deep depths of the school, even deeper than the dungeon. Just as he was getting used to the sharp turns, they landed on the wet ground.

They had come out of the pipe, Harry and Ivan then lost their grip and fell to the ground, they saw the basilisk and Tom disappear into the distance.

They were in a large dark stone tunnel.

"Where is this?" said Harry as he stood up while rubbing his butt.

"We were taken several miles underground."

Ivan's voice echoed in the dark tunnel, "If I'm not mistaken, we are probably under the great lake."

He then narrowed his eyes while looking at dark slimy walls.

"Lumos" his wand then produced a faint light.

Using the faint light, Ivan looked at the object he had grabbed, it looked like a pocket watch, but there was only a single hand without numbers.

"What is that?" asked Harry

"I don't know," answered Ivan, I grabbed it from a room that the basilisk went through," Ivan hesitated to touch the hand of the clock.

"We can figure out what it is latter, we need to hurry up and find Ron," said Harry eagerly.

"Yeah, yeah!" said Ivan as he put the strange object into his pocket, they had to hurry since Tom was absorbing Ron's vitality, and the longer they took the worse Ron would be.

The two people ran through the damp tunnel, they then heard a loud sound.

It was dark around so they could only see a few feet in front of them.

A faint light shined from the two wands.

"Harry, Tom's wand is broken so it will take time to cast powerful magic," said Ivan as they walked, " I'll catch the basilisk's attention and you'll find the diary."

"Diary?" Harry paused,

"The diary is the source of Tom's power, remember if you find it, try to destroy it, and Riddle doesn't know we know this so it's our only chance."

"Ok!" nodded Harry, he suddenly grabbed Ivan's shoulder, "Look isn't that….."

Ivan stretched out his wand, and with the faint glow he saw the outline of a coiled snake, it was lying on the ground motionless.

"This is the skin of the basilisk,"

In front of the two people lied a huge snakeskin, it was a light green, coiled around the tunnel, it was hollow, and around twenty feet long. It was obvious it was from when the basilisk had shed its skin.

They started walking again, they carefully turned another corner, what stood before them was a wall with two snakes coiled around each other and they each had emerald eyes.

"Harry, try speaking to them in Parseltongue," whispered Ivan.

As Harry approached, he felt his throat dry.

He tried to imagine the two stone snakes as real snakes but he didn't need to, their eyes looked like they were alive.

"Open!" said Harry in a low dull hiss.

The two snakes parted, the stone wall split from the middle, and they slowly slid apart and disappeared.

Ivan hurried in, in front of them was a dimly lit room. Many of the stone pillars were engraved with entangled snakes, towering to the ceiling, they dissolved into the darkness, and cast shadows over the whole room.

"It is the Chamber of Secrets!" whispered Ivan.

The chamber was dead silent, the two people held their wands and slowly moved forward.

Each step was more careful than the last.

As they went past the last pair of pillars, they saw a statue as tall as the room itself, it clang to the dark wall, Ivan looked up and saw the huge face, it was an old, monkey-like face.

At the foot of the statue was Ron lying there like a dead man.

Chapter end