Non Omnis Moriar

24: The Chamber of Secrets

Only one more chapter to go! I can't believe this is coming to an end! I tried my level best to make things as in-character as I could for my characterization of Tom and the progression on his behaviour. If things look a little awry, please let me know by comment or DM!

A/N: Also, anyone want to try speaking to Tom Riddle as a character AI? I have been OBSESSED with working over these models and I think I can make something up! Lemme know!

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The hole in the ground led into a huge, slimy, hellish pipe slide. My back and hair pressed into the muck as I tilted backwards, skating downwards into the abyss. I tried hard not to scream, not to attract attention in case the Death Eaters were watchful for any other attendees. I couldn't help it at the end. One second there was only pitch black and then the pipe was straightening out, a greenish light at the exit.

I cried out when I was thrown out, landing roughly onto crunching brambles. The sharp edges slashed away at me, making me quickly get to my feet to avoid the prickles.

Only when I stood that I realized they weren't brambles at all. Small bones crunched under my feet as I tried to back away, right into the wall. Mice, fish, other rodents, some bigger animals...all bones...

"Oh Merlin," I whispered looking up. The ceiling barely brushed my head, low in the atrium before it turned cavernous through the tunnel leading inwards.

Lighting the tip of my wand I ventured forwards. Further in the tunnel was indeed part of a cave, cold, wet and dark. Things squelched under my foot that I had no interest in knowing and just when I was going to give up, something loomed up front.

Enormous, slithering and slinky, I froze when I saw what could only be a gigantic snake. I stood absolutely still, wondering if I should extinguish the wandlight. Only, it didn't budge. The snake lay there, unmoving and for a split second, the courage I got from the thought that it could be asleep had me moving forward. The gleam of the Lumos lit up the reason why the snake wasn't moving. It wasn't a snake at all.

It was the snake's skin!

I pointed the wand downwards, shining light on the fact that what I'd been stepping on had been indeed shed skin. I clamped a hand on my mouth to suppress the nausea instead thinking of how big the snake must be - at least fifty feet?

Backing away, I chose the first branching tunnel I found and entered it, walking onwards.

The tunnel led me straight down a long hallway, fringed with scaled walls. And at the very end, a set of stone double doors loomed. The doors were locked with entwining snakes and they were shut with no inch between them. I couldn't possibly blast it open. Even if there was a chance that the Death Eaters or Tom himself didn't catch that, I didn't know what repercussions such a blast would have on the geography of the place. The whole thing could collapse, trapping us in.

And Dumbledore didn't know where I was...

I backtracked, went back to the snake skins...and chose another tunnel.

The tunnel winded, circling what seemed huge portions of the cave system and after a long while the mouth opened up into an exit. The tunnel let me out behind a tall statue, going right up to the ceiling of the room. The stone snake reared, mouth opened and I recognized the sigil of the coiling snake holding up the roof of the Chamber.

Greenish light exuded from the walls, low braziers burning green flames. At the very end, the statue of a man presided, somber and frowning.

It was heavily Slytherin, was my first thought and I immediately recoiled from the ridiculousness of it.