The Grey-eyed Serpent

Chapter 20: Chamber of The Serpent

Alix stares down at the darkness below her. Was she supposed to jump in? Did the noble Salazar Slytherin jump into the hole when he needed to enter his chamber? She cannot imagine it.

"Alix, you found it!" as the door were right in front of the circular sink, Mina was able to witness what Alix did.

"Come, Mina," Alix said, gesturing with her arm for her familiar to join her.

"Are you going immediately?" Mina asked. She dips a toe on the floor as if making sure it was not as wet anymore. When she felt that it was dry enough for her, she slowly walks towards Alix, stopping just beside her.

Alix ignores her question, staring down at the dark hole with wide eyes. Even with her blessed eyes, she cannot see much. "Ladder?" she whispered in parseltongue. When it did not work, she clicks her tongue.

She was not looking forward to jumping. This reminded her of when she retrieved the sorcerer's stone during her first year. She had enough of jumping down to suspicious secret entrances.

"Stairs?" she tried once again. And this time, it worked. Spiral stairs of stone appeared, and Alix wondered if it was the same moving stairs as the one on the headmaster's office.

"Are we really gonna go? I'm not very keen on battling with another magical beast right now" Mina asked once more beside her.

Alix finally looks at her Zouwu. "We won't be battling any beast. At least not when we can talk to it" she said and finally started to walk down the stairs.

Slowly, they went down. And after 10 minutes went by, Alix did not know how just how much down they were gonna go. Still, she kept going, and another few minutes went by, she finally reached the bottom.

"I'm surprised I was able to fit in here" Mina commented.

Alix jumps down on the last few steps, a thrilling sensation rushing through her body. She continues walking down the path and was more than grateful for the shared ability of seeing through the dark she had with Mina.

"Do you see that, Alix?" Mina whimpers behind her, both her and Alix stopping abruptly at what they were seeing.

It was large. Alix thinks it was at least 50 ft by length. It had a yellowish colour and was shaped in a circular way as if they were worn by something long and large. When Alix neared it despite Mina's growls behind her, she sees the scale-like markings across them.

Snakeskin.

Alix knew of only one creature capable of shedding something as large as this.

Salazar Slytherin's pet was a basilisk!

"Merlin" Alix breathes, flinching when she feels the cold air slipping through her uniform. She rubs her arms in an attempt to keep warm.

Alix was not too sure that she would like to meet a basilisk. And she was not even confident enough how the basilisk would be like. Would it be willing to engage in conversation before trying to eat her and her familiar? Or would it attack immediately by order of its first master, Slytherin?

She thinks about her parents' warnings. Maybe they had been right that it was a mistake for Alix to search for the chamber when she was not of Slytherin blood, to begin with. If they ever find out that she opened the chamber, they would pull her out of the school and transfer her to Beauxbatons before she could say quidditch!

"Now that we're here, might as well meet that beast," Mina said and Alix looks at her.

"Are you sure? Were you not trembling with fear moments ago?" she asked, raising a teasing eyebrow at her familiar.