Trinity

Katling

Story Summary:
Harry now knows what he has to do - find and destroy the Horcruxes and Voldemort. Ron and Hermione refuse to leave his side and they choose to become something that the Dark Lord will fear...the Trinity.

Chapter 34 - 34

Chapter Summary:
The trio head down into the Chamber of Secrets where they discover some new things about the place. Harry then receives the news he's been both waiting for and dreading - his final confrontation with Voldemort is closing in.
Posted:
12/30/2005
Hits:
1,325


Chapter 34

The next morning Harry told Ron and Hermione what had happened. They were both pleased to hear that Pettigrew had been caught but horrified that he'd been able to sneak in and amused at how he'd been caught. When Harry informed them that the Headmistress wanted them to go down into the Chamber to find out exactly how Pettigrew got in.

"Really?" Ron said with mild excitement. "Cool! I missed it last time."

"I think that's a good thing," Harry replied flatly and Ron blushed.

"How do we get out?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Casimir," Harry said with a wry smile. "Apparently he's done it before."

Ron snickered and Hermione smiled. The news that Casimir and Fawkes were one and the same had surprised all of them and when Harry had told the phoenix his secret was blown, Casimir had merely looked smugly amused.

"So when do we go?" Ron asked.

"After classes are over this afternoon?" Harry suggested.

Both Ron and Hermione nodded and the trio turned their attention back to their breakfasts.

Once classes had finished for the day, they returned their bags to their dorms and headed down to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Harry heaved a sigh of relief when they walked in and the ghost was not there. He walked over to the basins and found the tap with the snake engraved on it. He hissed "Open up" in Parseltongue then stepped back to watch as the sink sank out of sight to revel the pipe that led down to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Wow," Hermione said as she watched this happen. "And you two figured this out on your own?"

"Gee, thanks, Hermione," Harry said dryly. "Yes, we did."

Hermione bit her lip to smother a smile. "I'm sorry. That...didn't sound very good, did it?"

"No, not really," Ron said with a grin.

Hermione gave him a look then went back to peering down the pipe. "So what now?"

"We go down," Harry said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

He then lowered himself into the pipe and let go. He slid down the dark pipe wincing as he remembered his last trip down here. He flew out the end of the pipe and hit the ground with a grunt. He pushed himself to his feet and moved aside as first Ron and then Hermione came zooming out of the pipe. He helped them to their feet and they looked around the dank stone tunnel. They lit their wands using Lumos and starting walking down the tunnel, picking their way through the bones and skulls on the floor.

The snakeskin was still there and Harry and Ron edged past it carefully. Hermione paused for a moment to examine the skin then shook her head.

"Was the Basilisk really that big?" she asked. "I sort of caught a glimpse of it in the mirror but I couldn't determine the size."

"Yeah, it was that big," Harry replied, his voice echoing in the tunnel.

Shortly after that they came to the rock fall and they crawled through the opening Ron had made. They continued to follow the tunnel in silence until they got to the stone doors that marked the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

"They're closed," Ron said quietly.

"Yeah," Harry replied, looking around carefully. "Change into Rufus and have a sniff around. I'll do the same. Maybe Wormtail didn't come through here after all."

Ron nodded and both he and Harry changed into their animagus forms. At first the smells in the tunnel were a bit overwhelming; the scent of the stagnant water, mould, slime, moss and even the tiny amount of rotting flesh that had escaped through the doors invading their noses. After a while they began to sort out the scents and ignore the irrelevant ones. Finally they found what they were looking for, the scent of Wormtail lingering on the floor of the tunnel. Both Harry and Ron changed back and looked at each other.

"Okay, he was here," Harry said with some confusion. "But how did he get into the Chamber? You need to be able to speak Parseltongue."

"Wait," Hermione said. "You need to use Parseltongue to get into the Chamber but what about out of the Chamber? You don't need it for that, do you?"

"No," Harry said slowly. "At least I don't think so. But how would that help Wormtail? He'd need to be able to get out of the castle."

"He could just walk out the front doors," Hermione said. "The wards keep Death Eaters from entering the Hogwarts grounds. If I remember correctly, they don't stop a Death Eater from leaving the grounds. I'm not sure if they'd give an alert if that happened though."

"So he comes in through the Chamber and leaves from the front doors?" Ron asked.

Hermione nodded. "All in his rat form so no one notices him."

"Clever," Harry said sourly. He then turned to the snakes on the doors and hissed, "Open."

The doors slid apart and a horrible rotting smell washed over them for a moment making them choke and gag. It soon dissipated and they leaned against the walls of the tunnel and gave each other wide-eyed stares.

"I wouldn't have thought the smell would linger like that," Harry said. "The thing must have rotted away a couple of years ago."

"It's probably just residual smell," Hermione said grimacing and taking deep breaths. "It seems to have faded pretty quickly."

"Thank Merlin," Ron said with a shake of his head.

Harry pushed himself off the wall and headed for the doors. Ron and Hermione followed suit and the three of them walked into the Chamber. Harry stared straight ahead while Ron and Hermione stared at the snake entwined columns. At the other end of the Chamber lay the skeletal corpse of the Basilisk.

Hermione gasped when she saw it. "It's huge! How on earth did you defeat it, Harry?"

"Fawkes and a lot of luck," Harry replied shortly, not really wanting to remember the fight.

"One of the fangs is still intact," Hermione noted absently. "You'll have to bring Prof...his greasiness down here when this is all over. He'd love to have it. Basilisk venom is very useful for some potions and it's very hard to get hold of. And expensive."

"Well, with any luck, I'll be able to do that," Harry said grimly. "Look let's have a sniff around and see if my hunch is right."

Ron nodded and he and Harry transformed. They nosed around until they picked up Wormtail's scent, both sneezing at the residual smell of the rotting corse that still lingered in the room for those who could smell it. They tracked it to the base of the statue then Hermione transformed and flew around the large room once before perching carefully in the mouth of the statue. She hooted once in frustrating then Harry stared at the statue intently.

He eyed the slightly pitted surface, worn by the actions of the Basilisk and time, then he leapt up onto it, clinging to the stone grimly with his claws. He couldn't get an ideal grip but it was certainly good enough for his purposes. He carefully clawed his way up the statue with one perilous moment where his claws slipped. Hermione quickly vacated the mouth of the statue and flew down to join Ron. Both of them transformed back into their human forms and watched with concern as Harry continued to climb. After several heart-stopping moments Harry reached the mouth and he balanced there for a moment, looking down into the depths to see another pipe leading downwards.

"Be careful, Barak," Hermione called out.

Harry carefully transformed back, teetering on the lip of the pipe for a moment before balancing himself again.

"I'm fine," he yelled back. "There's a pipe of some kind that leads down. I'm going to follow it."

"Are you sure you should?" Hermione called back. "You don't know where it goes."

"Well, if my idea is right I think it leads way out into the Forest or even further," Harry shouted. "The Basilisk had to eat somehow and it couldn't get into the school until Riddle opened the statue."

"What about us then?" Ron yelled.

"I'll call Casimir and ask him to take you back up the pipe," Harry replied. "Then you can go down to the Entrance Hall and wait for me there."

"Okay," Hermione replied dubiously.

Harry called for the phoenix that he and the Headmaster now apparently shared and Casimir appeared in a shower of flame. Harry asked him to help Ron and Hermione to get out and Casimir warbled an affirmative note before flying down and circling the heads of Ron and Hermione. Harry gave them a quick wave then let himself slide down into the pipe. The ride was initially fast and a touch frightening but soon the pipe levelled out a bit and he slowed down enough that when the pipe ended he was able to control his fall to the floor of the room he'd emerged into.

He pushed himself to his feet and pulled his wand out, lighting it and looking around. The floor was littered with bones both large and small and Harry was fairly sure he'd found the Basilisk's lair. As he slowly walked across the room the light from his wand showed another tunnel in the wall opposite. He walked over and peered in. Even with the light from his wand the tunnel was dark and dank. He grimaced and climbed in.

At first the tunnel ran horizontally then it slowly began to slope upwards at a shallow angle. After nearly half an hour of climbing, the light in the tunnel began to improve and the air started to become fresher. Finally he came to the end of the tunnel which was covered with vines and brambles. He used his wand to clear the way and climbed out to find himself standing in a small clearing in the woods. There was a large hill to his left and he quickly climbed up it to try and see where he was. The slowly growing dusk made things difficult to see but he was fairly sure the large slightly ominous stretch of forest lying below him was the Forbidden Forest and the dark blot in the distance was the school. He tucked his wand into his robes then transformed into his panther form and took off down the hill and into the Forest.

Shortly after he got into the Forest, he climbed up one of the large trees and continued on his journey through the branches. It made the trip slightly slower but he was fairly sure it would be safer. When he finally emerged from the other side of the Forest, he found himself on the opposite side of the Lake from the school and also that night had fallen while he'd been travelling. He heaved a sigh of relief and ran around the lake and up to the school. When he got closer he saw that Ron and Hermione were standing on the steps looking worried and nervous. He transformed back not far from the steps and they whipped around when they saw the movement.

"Harry!" Hermione said with obvious relief. "Are you okay?"

Harry nodded. "I'm fine. The tunnel opened out into what was probably the Basilisk's lair and another tunnel led from there to a clearing on the opposite side of the Forest."

Hermione and Ron peered into the darkness then the three of them headed inside and towards the Great Hall.

"No wonder nobody knew of it," Hermione said thoughtfully. "There's nothing over there except wilderness and forest. There'd be lots of animals for the Basilisk to eat without coming into contact with either the wizarding or muggle worlds. And if it got a large enough animal, like a deer or something, it wouldn't need to eat that often."

They sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table and served themselves dinner, ignoring the other conversations going on in the room.

"So I guess we've proved that someone could get in to the school," Ron said quietly. "What do we do now?"

"Close it somehow," Harry replied. "I'm just not sure how. I don't really want to collapse any of the tunnels. They might do something bad to the foundations of Hogwarts."

Ron grimaced and Hermione frowned thoughtfully.

"How did Riddle open the statue?" Hermione asked curiously. "I think I remember you saying something about that but I can't remember what."

"Uh, he used Parseltongue," Harry said. "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."

"Modest, wasn't he?" Ron said with a snort.

"That's it then," Hermione said with satisfaction. "Close the statue. Obviously it can't be opened from the other side. There are probably spells that ensure that."

"Okay, we go back down there after dinner," Harry said quietly. "The sooner we shut that entrance to the school the better."

Ron and Hermione nodded and the trio quickly ate their dinner. Once they were finished Harry hurried up to the Head Table and spoke to the Headmistress. He told her what they'd found and what they were planning on doing and in return she told him that Tonks and three other Aurors had turned up this morning to take Pettigrew into custody. They had apparently promised that Pettigrew would be interrogated using veritaserum. Harry returned to his friends and they headed back to the Chamber.

They once again slid down the pipe and made their way past the snakeskin and the rock fall. Harry opened the doors again and they walked into the Chamber, coming to a halt in front of the statue. They stared up at it for a moment then Harry looked over at his friends.

"The only problem with this idea is I don't know what to say to close it," he said with a wry grin.

"What did Riddle say to open it again?" Hermione asked.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four," Harry replied.

"Maybe it's something like 'Be silent, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four'," Hermione said hesitantly.

"I don't know," Harry replied with a grimace. "Besides do you have any idea how stupid I'd feel saying that?"

"You just say open or open up to get through the doors, don't you?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, so?" Harry replied.

"So maybe just 'close' would work on the statue," Ron suggested.

Harry grinned. "Always start with the simple solution first." He turned and faced the statue then hissed, "Close, Slytherin."

There was a moment of nothing then the statue's mouth slowly began to close. Once it was done, Harry thumped Ron on the shoulder.

"Well done, Ron," he said with a grin.

Ron smiled back. "I just couldn't imagine Riddle spouting that idiocy when he was on his own. Same with Slytherin. There's probably more than one phrase that opens it. One to make you sound impressive in front of your followers and one that's simple and quick when you're on your own. Riddle used the long one because he knew Harry could speak Parseltongue and he wanted to impress him. Or intimidate him."

"But they wouldn't know," Hermione objected as they headed for the door. "Not many people can speak Parseltongue, even back in Slytherin's time."

"But the longer sentence sounds more impressive," Ron said. "It's sounds better than just a single hissed 'open'."

Hermione nodded slowly. "I suppose you have a point. It certainly worked so you must be right." She bit her lip. "You don't think Voldemort would open it again?"

"I doubt it," Harry replied as they climbed through the hole in the rock fall. "He can't get into the school easily and I would guess you can't open the mouth from the inside of the statue. You said it yourself."

"I could be wrong," Hermione said.

"I don't think you are," Harry replied. "Otherwise the Basilisk would have opened it. It was reasonably intelligent."

"Oh, of course," Hermione said as they squeezed past the discarded skin.

Once they got back to the pipe, Harry called Casimir and the phoenix flew them back up into the bathroom. They thanked Casimir and walked out into the corridor.

"I'm going to go and speak to them," Harry said quietly. "I think we'd better let his greasiness know where Pettigrew is."

"Do you want us to come?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nah, you two can stay here."

Ron and Hermione smiled at each other then headed off for the Head Students' common room. Harry ducked back up to the dorm and grabbed his Invisibility Cloak before heading down to the village. When he got to the Headmaster's room, he draped the cloak over the back of the couch and greeted Dumbledore and Snape.

"We caught Pettigrew last night," he said after sitting down and accepting the cup of tea Dumbledore offered.

Dumbledore looked interested but Snape snorted derisively.

"That is no great surprise," he sneered.

"May I ask who 'we' were?" Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Um, Minerva, Mrs Norris, Crookshanks and myself," harry replied.

"Ah, you have succeeded in your animagus transformation then," Dumbledore said with approval.

Harry nodded. "I'm a panther. Ron's a dog and Hermione's an owl."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said. "They were not with you?"

"Erm, I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping lately," Harry admitted reluctantly. "I usually go prowling the corridors when that happens. The other cats sometimes join me. Mostly Mrs Norris or Crookshanks though."

"You should see Madam Pomfrey about that," the Headmaster said kindly.

"That's what Remus said," Harry mumbled.

"Did Pettigrew find what he was looking for?" Snape asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he did but Remus said that it had never really worked properly. It either only worked for a few seconds or didn't work at all."

"This is the mirror you were speaking of," Dumbledore said to Snape.

The Potions Master nodded. "Pettigrew mentioned it would be an ideal way of eavesdropping on the Headmistress. The Dark Lord believes that Potter discusses everything with her."

"Do you?" Dumbledore asked Harry with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really," Harry replied with a small smile. "We usually tell her what we're going to do unless we think she doesn't need to know, like our trips down here. We do discuss a lot with Moody and Remus but even then we make the final decision for ourselves."

"Where?" Snape asked.

"In the common room that Hermione and I share," Harry replied. "Under the shelter of every warding and silencing charm we know, including Muffliato."

"So he would not have been able to listen in on your decision making process anyway," Snape said with satisfaction. "Good. I can use this for my own purposes."

"How did he get in?" Dumbledore asked. "Severus wasn't entirely sure."

"Through the Chamber," Harry replied. He quickly explained about the tunnel from the mouth of the statue to the Basilisk's lair and the second tunnel that led from there to the clearing beyond the Forbidden Forest.

"So we went back and closed it," Harry finished. "It turned out to be pretty easy and unless Voldemort finds some way into the school he won't be able to send anyone through that way anymore."

"Very well done," Dumbledore replied. "Now I believe Severus had some news for you. He was going to leave it with me but since you are here he may as well tell you."

Harry looked over at the Potions Master curiously.

Snape scowled. "I will not be able to keep Nagini alive for much longer," he said. "She is fading fast and it is taking all of my skill just to keep her alive and conscious."

"I'll take Asmodeus back to the Gaunts' house," Harry replied. "How long do you think we have?"

Snape hesitated then grimaced. "Three weeks. No more than that."

Harry swallowed hard. "That's all?" he said nervously.

Snape looked like he was about to snap back but then he saw the nervous and fearful look on Harry's face.

"It was inevitable. You know that," he said neutrally instead.

Harry sighed and slumped in his chair. "I know," he said softly. "It's just I'm...still not entirely convinced I'm going to survive this."

"You must not think like that, Harry," Dumbledore said gently. "You have great power, you are very well trained and always remember that you posses a power that Voldemort does not have. That will be the most important thing in the end. That power will make the difference."

"But I don't understand, Professor," Harry said, sounding a little lost. "How can...love make such a big difference?"

"Love gives a person great power," Dumbledore replied. "You will know what to do when the time comes, Harry."

Harry looked dubious then he shook his head and turned to Snape. "So once Nagini leaves with Asmodeus, what then?"

"I shall wait until the Dark Lord leaves to search for her," Snape said calmly. "And he will. He will need to know what has happened to her. Once he leaves I shall take Hufflepuff's cup and come here. I will then contact you using a Patronus. I do not know how much time we will have once I take the cup before the Dark Lord makes his move."

Harry nodded. "So that's if everything goes well. What if it all falls in a hole?"

"Then what happens, happens," Snape replied grimly. "But whatever happens I shall get the cup to you. The rest will then be in your hands." He paused. "It is highly unlikely that I will be able to get a message to you before I send the Patronus once I am here. You and your friends will have to be ready to move at any moment."

Harry nodded. "Okay. I'll make sure we're ready and I'll let Moody and Remus know so that they can get the Order ready to move as well." He ran a hand through his hair then got to his feet. "I'd better get back."

"It shall all be over soon," Dumbledore said soothingly. "And once Severus has returned with Hufflepuff's cup there will be no need for me to hide any longer. That shall be a shock for Voldemort. Perhaps even a big enough shock to throw him off balance sufficiently."

Harry gave the Headmaster a smile. "I hope so. Thank you, Professor Snape. We'll be ready when the time comes."

Snape gave him a nod and Harry grabbed his cloak and slipped out of the room.