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Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 68- Snake Sojourn.
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Past the door was just darkness; thankfully, Professor Lockhart lit up the end of his wand and paved the way forward, stepping through first, boldly yet not recklessly. He takes his time, testing for something that Harry doesn't understand before waving the boy over. Quickly moving to join him, Lockhart lights up a torch on the wall, revealing a passage going to the left and a locked gate to the right, and right in front of them was some weird snake statue thing in a gap in the wall, beneath it was some odd symbols.
While Lockhart moved to the right, studying the gate and testing it with spells, Harry moved forward, intrigued by the statue. He examines it first, a coiled snake, flat against the platform it lays on, going around in circles, its tail in the centre and its head on the outside edge. He noticed its eyes glowed an ominous green. The detail on it was remarkable; the scales looked so lifelike, and its fangs sharp, even though it was clearly made out of some shiny silver metal.
Paying attention to the platform the snake lay on, Harry spotted two images of mountains, one above and one below, separated by a line between them. Looking closer, he noticed more symbols to the left and right of them. To the left was a circle, again one above and one below, separated by a line. To the right was a rectangle with a jagged line cutting through it horizontally, and beneath that, a line and then another rectangle. Very curious, Harry reached out and felt it with his fingers, rubbing his fingers against the markings. And then, to his surprise, it moved.
Harry jerked back in surprise as suddenly the snake came to life, the snake springing up and pointing towards Harry, yet only staring. Then, a ticking noise began to sound as the snake began to spin right, sticking in the same position but looking like it was breathing, its body moving slightly as it spun. Those green eyes and the sudden ticking and spinning shocked Harry so much he didn't know what to do, and he just stood there, staring at it as it moved. Harry idly noticed that he had moved the upper segment to the right, revealing a new image on the left, but his brain wasn't able to make the connection.
"What are you doing!?" The sudden shout reminded Harry that he had indeed come here with his Professor, but he didn't have time to answer as the snake had done a full rotation, and once it pointed at him again, it suddenly lunged forward, its fanged mouth heading straight forward. Unfortunately for Harry, he was still a twelve-year-old boy, and being so short, the solid snake was poised directly at his face. Harry could only stare in mute horror as two metallic fangs were heading directly for his eyes, and he didn't know if magic could return sight.
"Out of the way!" A hand suddenly reached across Harry to grab onto his shoulder and move him back, saving him from mutilation. However, the snake still continued its attack and sunk its fangs into the arm of Professor Lockhart, who let out a sharp hiss and brandished his wand, but before he could use it, the snake retreated and returned to its original position. Eyeing it warily, Lockhart continued to stare at it before backing away, pulling Harry back with him.
"Goddamit, The Boy Who Lived losing his eyesight wouldn't be easy for me to explain and would royally screw me over." Lockhart cursed to himself as he did various spells on himself before nodding his head at something he found, and then with the word Episkey, he tapped the snake bit on his arm, and the wound healed. "Thank god that worked. I guess a snake bite counts as a minor wound. Reparo." Tapping his wand once again, the cloth on his arm repairs itself, and it is like he was never bitten in the first place. But he was, as he turned to Harry with an angry look on his face.
"Harry, do you see me doing spells all over the place?" Hearing the severe tone of his voice, the boy just nods his head in reply, not actually speaking. "You do? Well, that's because we are in unchartered territory, and we don't know what is down here. Let me remind you that a Parselmouth was needed to get in, so this place is definitely related to Salazar Slytherin, one of the greatest dark wizards in history. So don't go touching every little thing willy-nilly, okay." Hearing such a reprimand, Harry just nodded his head again, not saying anything.
"Alright, look, just... just don't touch anything or move without my say-so. I am testing everything, so wait for my okay, okay?" Lockhart sighs before looking around, first at the gate to the right and then back at the snake which had nearly blinded Harry. "Now, tell me what just happened. Every detail, don't leave anything out." Lockhart all but demanded, and Harry eagerly answered, telling him precisely what had just happened, wanting to get back on his Professor's good side. He is practically trapped down here with the man, so he wants to stay on his good side.
"Hmm. Alright, stay there and don't move. Let me test something out." With that, Lockhart moved to the gate, and only now, paying attention to it, did Harry notice there were two symbols on it in the middle of the gate. One on top of the other. On top was a circle with a semi-circle going around it, and on the bottom was a snake that was in a sideways eight position. Lockhart examined it and then moved over to the snake statue. "It seems that the statue is the key to the gate. Most likely, what happened earlier was a timer to match the symbols to the gate, and you were not quick enough and were, therefore, attacked. Quite simple, actually." Lockhart smirked as if one-upping Harry was some sort of accomplishment.
With that, the Professor reached forward to the upper segment below the snake and spun it to the right. Again, the snake rose to a poised position and began to spin to the right, but Lockhart didn't pay it any mind, focused on the segments. The upper symbol of the circle and semi-circle was done, and Lockhart turned his attention to the bottom one, pushing it past various different images until finally, the sideways snake was on the bottom. At this point, the snake had only turned one hundred and eighty degrees.
There was a sudden loud hissing from their right, and they both turned, startled to face the gate. The bars keeping the gate affixed to the wall suddenly turned into snakes and slinked away from the wall, curling into themselves, allowing the door to be pulled up into the wall above and revealing a new passageway. "Stay here. Don't move an inch unless I call for you or if I'm not back in ten minutes. If I'm not back, then I expect you to leave this place. Understood." Again, Harry nodded his head, and Lockhart disappeared into the darkness with only a Lumos to guide him, but he must have turned a corner as Harry couldn't see the light anymore.
It was only a minute or two before Lockhart came back, a pensive look on his face. "What did you find?" Harry couldn't help but inquire, curious as to what the blonde, perfectly coifed-haired Professor found. "Another snake statue, but there was no gate around, just a dead end... Alright, follow me, but stay behind me. Where going the other way." Lighting the end of his wand with Lumos again, Lockhart forged ahead, leading the way through a doorway and into a new hall.
In this new part of the secret part of the castle, there were two gates, a gate to the right, which was locked tight and had symbols on it just like the other one, and then to the right was a gat that had been lifted halfway up, leaving just enough space for a grown man to crouch and go through. "Stay there." Lighting another torch on the wall, Lockhart moved to the gate on the right and examined the symbols on the gate. So, maybe they had to go back to that snake statue and do the symbols there?
Lockhart then moved over to the gate on the left and peered through, shining his Lumos through to get a better view of the inside. "Maybe we have to go back and put the symbols on that gate on the snake statue to open it," Harry said, providing his opinion. It worked for one gate, so surely it should work for this one as well. Lockhart hummed in thought at that but didn't answer, continuing to examine the room on the left before turning around.
"In this room is another snake statue at the position it is situated in is on the other side of the wall from the gate. Similar to the gate we opened before, which the snake statue was right beside. My thought is that the snake statue next to the gate is the correct one. Which means back there, probably on the other side of that snake statue, is another gate. Now, wait here." Without wasting any time, Lockhart ducked down to a crouch and shuffled under the gate before disappearing from view. Harry waited where he was told, and it wasn't long before he heard the ticking again and the sounds of things moving.
And then, just like the other gate, the snake moved, and the gate on the right moved up into the wall, revealing a new path. Lockhart came back soon after and led the way into the next section of this mystery underground place. They walked into another hallway, and surprise, surprise, at the other end was another gate, and there was no other snake statue in sight. It seemed like Professor Lockhart was correct. Without a word, Lockhart went and examined the gate again and then shined his Lumos to see on the other side. Instead of going to straight away do the statue, Lockhart continued to stare through the gate, squinting his eyes.
"Hmm, I think I see something over there, but whatever enchantments are going on in this place are preventing me from properly seeing. Harry, there are no traps or anything back the way we came. You look at the symbols and go do the snake statue while I try to figure this out. Can you do that?" Lockhart didn't stop trying to peer through to the other side, but he did tilt his head slightly in Harry's direction, prompting the boy to answer. "Yes, sir, I can handle that." With a nod, Lockhart went back to what he was doing while Harry went and examined the gate.
The upper symbol was a circle with two lines coming off of it, making it look like a fish, and the bottom mark was three triangles, making it look like mountains. With a nod of his head, Harry ran back the way he did, noticing Lockhart watching him go. Running back the way he came, he made it to the entrance but took the path next to it and ran down it with a Lumos at the end of his wand. He turned a corner and found the snake statue on a lower platform. Harry jumped down and then quickly used the fire-lighting charm on a nearby torch and put his wand back in his pocket.
Knowing how the statue works and having seen Lockhart do it before and then knowing he went on and did another as well, Harry moved forward and began to spin the segments. Even with the ticking and the snake looming ominously in front of him, he didn't panic. He made the upper symbol the fish and the lower symbol a mountain, and then he smiled at a job well done. Surely, his Professor will now be looking at an empty doorway and thoroughly pleased.
Harry was about to turn away and go back when he heard the ticking and eyed the snake still spinning. Confused and panicking, Harry looked back at the segments, knowing that the top symbol was a fish, and the bottom symbol was mountains, three triangles... the symbol had two triangles. Quickly, Harry started to spin the bottom segment, not bothering to pay attention to the symbols and just spinning to try and get the symbol with three triangles, not wanting to die to a snake. It is a magical sculpture, so maybe it would leap off the platform and wouldn't stop till it bit him.
Thankfully, just before the snake completed its full rotation, Harry found his hands unable to spin the segment anymore and looked down to find the correct symbol there, the parts no longer budging. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he cautiously watched the snake go back to its original position. With that done, and not wanting to hang around anymore, Harry clambered back up and began to run back to Lockhart.
Alone in the corridors, the eerie whispering was worse than ever. It had never stopped since Harry first used his snake talking to open the first door. It had been easy to ignore when he was with the Professor and when he was focused on something else, but now on his way back, he couldn't stop his ears from hearing. Sly whispers and hisses just on the edge of his senses, their voices not having any meaning but slipping into Harry's eardrums nonetheless and sending shivers down his spine.
In the darkness of the hallways, only kept at bay by the lit torches and the light at the end of Harry's wand, Harry moved faster, feeling the voices getting louder. They were behind him, getting closer and closer, louder and louder until he could feel something breathing on his neck. Harry ran as fast as he could, wanting to escape away from whatever the hell was trying to get him. The same thing that was probably attacking everybody in the school.
"You're ba- Harry, No!" Lockhart shouted as Harry bolted past him, wanting to get some protection by getting behind his Professor and running through the now-open gateway. Lockhart grabbed onto him, trying to stop the boy, but only managed to snag his clothes, and with the momentum being too much, he ended up stumbling into the new section along with Harry, who fell and tumbled to his knees. Before they could do anything, the torches on the sides of the new hallway lit up by themselves, illuminating the corridor. Then, there was a loud thunking sound, and they turned back to see that the gate had shut behind them. They were now trapped here.
"Why the fuck were you running? We are fucking trapped now!" Lockhart roared, turning back to look at Harry with scathing eyes. The boy froze, never having had a teacher turn so angry and swear at him in a one-on-one situation. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had never even swore at him, though they did a lot of other stuff. Having an adult curse you in the non-magical sense and shout in your face was making Harry feel very bad.
He remembered back at school with Dudley, where he and his friends Pierce and Duncan would be so naughty that they would make the teacher swear in front of the whole school, and they would be so proud of it. All the students thought it was funny. But here, Harry definitely didn't find it amusing. This felt worse than any shouting he had been subjected to before, and he very much realised it was just him and Lockhart down here.
"I-I thought something was following me..." Harry said, stuttering it out to the point it was just a whisper. Lockhart scoffed in reply and then pulled the boy to his feet before pointing to the end of the corridor. "That's why I am so goddamn angry with you right now." Harry paled, staring forlornly at the pile of bones that sat just in front of the door at the end of the hallway. Old and stained bones that must have been here for years, the skull facing their direction and making Harry gulp nervously.
Scratched into the floor beside the skeleton and with a lot of old congealed blood surrounding it was the word Crucio. Harry had no clue what it meant, but it couldn't be good. Just sounding the words out in his head gave him a chill and some phantom pains. Understanding just how badly he had messed up, Harry stuttered out an apology to his Professor, but the man just sighed and ignored it.
"There is no going back now. We can only go forward, and you can bet it's going to be painful."
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