the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 21 - Serpents

Harry had not returned to the Chamber of Secrets since the night he'd rescued Ginny Weasley from the memory of Tom Riddle. It took some doing maneuvering through the crumbling old passageways. And when at last he found himself in the center chamber all he could do was stare at the decaying carcass of the basilisk that had nearly claimed his life four years ago - would have if it hadn't been for Fawkes.

The chamber was utterly silent, save for the sound of water dripping far in the distance. And he could see by the dust on the ground that nothing had been disturbed. No one had entered these room since he had last been there - a thought that comforted him immensely. He knew of course that the Chamber, though deep under the foundations of Hogwarts, was still inside the protective wards of the castle. Still it was nice to know that the Dark Lord had not been here since he'd been resurrected - in fact had probably not been here since he himself was a student at Hogwarts nearly fifty years ago. And now that the basilisk was dead, these Chambers lay completely empty.

Still it was with some nervousness that he made his way toward the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin that loomed above the skeleton of the beast that once lived inside it. He remembered all to clearly the sight of the giant snake emerging from the opened mouth. It took a great deal of courage to mount his broom and fly straight into that mouth himself, not knowing what it was he would find on the other side.

Not another basilisk - he was ninety percent certain that there were no others in the chamber. As far as he knew even basilisks needed another of its kind to mate. And despite Salazar Slytherin's infamous pet, basilisks were not native to England.

It was dark inside and Harry pulled out his wand and muttered the lumos spell to light his way. Inside the rounded chamber beyond the tunnel through the mouth, he found a single doorway, intricately carved with snakes. He knew if he pushed on the door he would find it locked with unbreakable charms. There was only one-way through the door - and at the moment there were only two people on the face of the earth who possessed the ability to enter.

Harry stared at the snakes, concentrating on speaking to them. Then he simply said "open". The word came out in the soft hiss of Parseltongue. A moment later the snakes on the door came to life, twisting and turning as they shifted the locking mechanism. The door swung silently open.

Heart pounding, Harry stepped through the doorway into the room beyond. He knew he was the second person in a thousand years who had entered the private library of Salazar Slytherin - the true Chamber of Secrets.

It wasn't a large room - but it was impressive enough. A thousand years ago books were far more precious than they were today. The four walls in the room beyond were covered floor to ceiling with bookshelves. And Harry could feel the protection and preservation spells that kept the books intact over the ages.

The books that remained - he could see clearly that many were missing. Here and there were volumes gone, empty places where they must have once resided. Fifty years ago a young Tom Riddle had made his way into this room and had drunk his fill of the knowledge he found here. Fifty years ago Tom Riddle had found all the dark secrets he would need to become the greatest Dark Lord in the world. He had often wondered where that knowledge had come from - certainly he'd sneaked his own share of peaks at books in Hogwarts restricted section. But Tom Riddle promised his Death Eaters powers that they could not find anywhere else. There had to have been a source - a place that had first started him down that dark path. And here in this Chamber Harry knew he had found his answer.

Fifty years ago Tom Riddle had taken the darkest, most horrible secrets that Salazar Slytherin had possessed. He had taken those books and he had hidden them away somewhere he would have access to them after he had graduated from Hogwarts himself. That knowledge had allowed him to remake himself into the creature they now knew as Lord Voldemort. And he was learning still. Harry could see the books now in his mind - books from the dream that had so disturbed him. Black books with strange writing - numerous volumes of a specific type. Diaries he believed - Salazar Slytherin's Dark Arts notes, written in his own hand. There were ten of them, slim volumes, but filled with such terrible powers. And having lost the Eye of Odin he had so craved, Tom Riddle had turned his attention once again to the books he had hidden way during his last reign of terror and had begun learning again.