Growing up Pureblooded

The Chamber

     Aries dropped down into the Chamber of Secrets, and grimaced at the grime in which he found himself. Riddle's memories had revealed nothing about how filthy the Chamber of Secrets was. Apparently, he had not noticed, which fact Aries could only ascribe to his lack of proper breeding. It was disappointing, to say the least. One would hope that the secret hiding place of the great Salazar Slytherin might contain more than just slime and old snakeskin. Aries made his way forward, noticing appreciatively that at least there seemed to be no cobwebs.

     Aside from its appalling lack of cleanliness, Aries had to admit that the Chamber was very impressive. It seemed to be carved entirely out of living rock, and – given its close proximity to Hogwarts – Aries suspected that this enhanced the chamber's magical properties. The walls were decorated with arcane symbols, runes and hieroglyphs, of which Aries could only make out a few. Even Riddle's memories didn't help much in this regard. If Lord Voldemort had ever mastered the ancient languages in which the walls were inscribed, he had never been able to apply that knowledge to the Chamber itself. Strikingly, it seemed that the teenage Dark Lord's focus had been so narrowly directed at the terrible monster housed within the Chamber that he had given no thought to exploring the other secrets that gave the room its name. Aries snorted in derision. He might be a teenager himself, but he was not so careless. Aunt Cassie would have had his hide had he entered Slytherin's hidden chamber and failed thoroughly to explore and document every one of its mysteries.

     In the center of the Chamber, an enormous shrine rose up to the ceiling, culminating in a gargantuan statue of Slytherin himself. Aries knew from Riddle's memories that the basilisk lay hibernating within the shrine, ready to be summoned by Slytherin's true Heir. Aries had every intention of summoning the basilisk – how else could he prove to Sirius that he was powerful enough to stand up to Voldemort? – but he also understood that taming the basilisk might well take all of his attention for some time after it was released, and he wanted to make at least a general inventory of the Chamber's contents first.

     Around in back of Slytherin's shrine, there was a small door, hardly big enough for a single man to pass through. There was no handle, but it responded readily to Aries's hissed commands, and slid open to reveal a winding staircase carved into the rock. Aries lit his wand and made his way up the stairs. The door slammed shut as soon as Aries was inside, but that did not deter the son and heir of Sirius Orion Black.

     The staircase seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning and plunging deep into the shrine. Aries began to hope devoutly that the staircase did not lead into the basilisk's lair. Whilst he thought himself perfectly capable of mastering the great serpent, he had no desire to face it from within the confines of a tiny stone stairwell.

     Aries's legs began to throb, and still the stairs climbed steeply upwards. He began to take brief rest stops along the way, sitting down on the stairs to catch his breath before resuming his hike. He was beginning to suspect that the stairs were magically enchanted in some way, as he felt certain that the shrine could not be this tall. As it was, he climbed for another hour before he reached the summit.

     There, Aries found a small, dank, cave-like room. It was completely barren, devoid of carvings or artefacts, but Aries could feel the steady pulse of power radiating from it. In the very centre of the room lay a perfectly circular pool of silvery water. It glowed faintly in the dark, and a loud hum emanated from beneath the water. Aries crawled over to the edge – the ceiling was too low even for him to stand, and looked into the pool. It was completely still, and he could see his own reflection: aristocratic Black features, bright-blue Malfoy eyes, longish dark hair. Then the pool shimmered, and his reflection changed. He grew somewhat smaller, and his hair grew shorter. His eyes turned green, and specs appeared on the bridge of his nose. And on his forehead, as plain as day, was the lightning-bolt scar.

     Aries frowned, and his reflection frowned back. He reached forward to touch the pool, and felt a sudden tugging sensation behind his navel that reminded him strongly of a Portkey.
Oh, shit, he thought, then disappeared.