It was the cold stone floor that Rowan awoke to. With a groan, she lifted her half-frozen cheek from the icy stone floor. Her body ached all over and she could feel an impending migraine forming behind her eyes. Dazed and confused, she tried to gather her thoughts, before everything all at once begins to return vividly back to her.
Gasping in panic, Rowan reaches for her wand and finds it at her side. Against all impossible odds, the lantern she had brought remained upright and undamaged just outside of the rune circle. Glancing wildly around, she notices that the entire chamber is intact except for the giant hanging crystal overhead. The ceiling of the cavern is dark and taller with the crystal seemingly have been gouged from the very earth. Nothing but tiny fragments of the crystal vein remain still behind the once beautiful, enormous natural rock formation. It was a letdown and a great source of relief all at the same time.
"It was real," Rowan muttered out loud with a mix of feelings. It had not been just a crazy dream or magical illusion or a mental hallucination.
Feeling that she needed to sit down and just gather her thoughts, Rowan walked out of the rune-carved circle and reached for her lantern. Closing her eyes, she pulls up her mindscape and is thrilled to find that the chamber has been added to her mindscape. With ease, she teleported into the warm reading room within the lair inside the Chamber of Secrets.
Not bothering to head back out to the restored area, Rowan only paused to slam shut the entrance to the final hidden lair of Salazar Slytherin. "Close for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four," she hissed and simply sat down in the ancient chair in the reading room. The chair moans ominously for a moment but is thankfully able to bear the brunt of Rowan's weight.
The hidden door on the floor slides shut loudly, while Rowan sets the lantern on the stand next to her. She tiredly leans back into the chair and tries to absorb everything that had transpired. She must have sat there for some time because she began to grow a bit sleepy.
Sighing Rowan began to organize everything in her mind. First question, why did the third hidden chamber of Salazar Slytherin not appear on her mindscape? Either the lair did not exist originally, or a lair constructed for in essence in or connecting to time via a ritual cannot be sensed. In a sense, the cavern did not exist on the same temporal plane. Therefore, the chamber did not exist according to her mindscape. But with the enormous crystal, the empowering battery of the time ritual gone, the chamber now existed in the same temporal place, and therefore did appear on her mindscape.
Rowan pensively taps her chin at the thought, before stifling a yawn. She knew it must be VERY late, but she would be unable to sleep if she didn't first resolve her inner thoughts. "Right," she murmured to herself resolutely before rising from her chair.
Rowan closed her eyes and opened her mindscape. Typically, her mindscape would be a blueprint of a building that she had been into including people. However, clearly what she currently is looking for would not have been there as they would not have even been in existence. The effects of time travel are a painful concept to contemplate and frankly was more trouble than it was worth.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Salazar Slytherin, scratch that, she didn't trust him even the tiniest smidgeon. Having finally met her ancestor, she knew that he was the type to hold a grudge. She would not be surprised to find out that he would have booby-trapped the items that which she had requested of him. It was just in his character to wait a thousand years before having his revenge. After all, that was exactly what the Chamber of Secrets is in essence.
Within her mapscape, Rowan can see that hidden on either side of the mantelpiece are two compartments. One of the compartments clearly has the requested volume from Salazar Slytherin, while the other is a small chest that does not show its inner contents. Unfortunately, one of the limitations of her mindscape is that it cannot look inside another object say a trunk nor warn her if there are enchantments, curses, or other spells in place. If possible, she would have lifted the enchantment upon her left eye, but she could not risk any further damage to her left eye that was had already been in the process of healing and had only been further damaged in the attempt to save Severus.
Opening her eyes with a resolute expression, Rowan decides to start with the left side of the fireplace. Holding her wand steady in hand, she takes a step back to the side and mutters, "Open for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four." A hidden compartment on the left side of the mantelpiece slid open with a soft groan.
Rowan waits for a few seconds, but nothing leaps out. Still not trusting Salazar Slytherin further than she can throw, she points her wand at the compartment. "Accio book," she said concentrating on summoning the ancient tome in question. The ancient volume bolts out of its cubbyhole. The ancient tome's dark leather cover has no trace of dust and the parchment within is not yellow with the passage of time. Whatever spells had been cast originally to preserve the tome had not faded away despite the passage of time.
Rather than catching it, Rowan allowed the tome to flop loudly onto the stone ground. She cautiously approaches the tome at seeing nothing happen and slowly pokes it with her hand. She mutters a few counter curses, but nothing is revealed by what she cast. Straightening the tome with her foot, she is about to use her wand to turn the first page but pauses. Being cautious one last time, she says, "Open for the heir of Slytherin, heir to the greatest of Hogwarts Four."
A red glow suddenly appears around the tome causing Rowan to hastily retreat. A glowing crimson serpent appears and hisses once, before seemingly vanishing into thin air. "Of course, he would booby-trap the tome," she sighed to herself, "what else can be expected from Salazar Slytherin!" Still, Salazar Slytherin still had a sense of pride and dignity, and he would uphold his end of the bargain.
Certain that whatever charm or curse had been released, Rowan reaches down and picks up the tome. The cover is made of thick black leather likely made of some magical creature's skin. Upon closer inspection, there is a simple golden engraving on the cover that merely says, "House of Slytherin."
Pulling the cover open, Rowan lets out a loud oof as the ancient tome magically expands and causes her to drop the over ten inches thick tome. The tome loudly thuds across the stone ground causing a rather chagrined expression on her face. Her body already ached as it was and kneeling on the cold stone floor wasn't about to help that.
Unhappily Rowan kneels onto the ground to read the tome. Normally, she would not mind studying the entire thing, but she did not have the time or patience at present. However, having access to the Prince family genealogy tome, she knew that a magical book would react according to instructions given.
In parseltongue, Rowan says, "Reveal unto me all the living descendants of Salazar Slytherin."
The enormous genealogy tome parchment pages crinkle and turn at whirling speeds before coming to a halt in the middle of the tome. The requested pages glow slightly signaling that they are the pages with said contained information. It certainly made searching simpler.