A True Riddle

Chapter 10 - Snakes

Open. Hadrian hisses, his tongue easily wrapping around the unusual syllables. Slowly the iron snakes guarding the entrance to the chamber open, revealing the cavernous Chamber or Secrets, still destroyed from Hadrian's battle with the basilisk, pain spears through him at the memory of him killing the great creature, as well as Tom's horcrux, anger follows at how easily Dumbledore had manipulated him. Shaking off the memories Hadrian steps into the chamber, aware of Draco following.

Jormun? Are you here? Hadrian calls into the echoing space.

Master? Is that you? The reply is nothing more than a whisper coming from the statue of Salazar Slytherin.

Yes, I have come to free you. Where are you? Hadrian replies, creeping towards the statue, wary of the towering pillars.

I am stuck in the statue's mouth. It closed when my guardian was killed, and I can't get out. Jormun calls. Hadrian and Draco reach the statue.

"Let's see, surely there is some mechanism to open this." Hadrian mutters aloud.

"Try your blood." Draco says, coming to stand next to him.

"What?" Hadrian looks at him.

"Well, the chamber needed proof that you could speak parseltongue to enter, right? Well, not all parseltongues are descended from Salazar, so perhaps it needs proof that you are descended from him?" Draco explains.

Hadrian shrugs, "Worth a shot." He points his wand at his palm, "Diffindo." A small clean cut appears on his palm, just deep enough to bleed. Hadrian reaches out and places his palm on Salazar's statue. A strange warmth seeps through his palm from the statue.

"Uhh, Hadrian?" Wariness fills Draco's voice.

"What is it?" Hadrian looks up at him.

"Look." Hadrian stands up and follows Draco's line of sight to see the snakes wrapped around the statues slowly moving.

"That's not good." Hadrian says, pulling out his wand. Draco does the same. The snakes slowly slither to the floor, where they join together, creating a singular mass formed from dozens of entities.

Slytherin. It hisses, staring at Hadrian. You have proven to be a parseltongue. You have proven to have Salazar's blood. But you have not proven to be strong, to be powerful, to be worthy. The head of the giant snake towers above Hadrian and Draco. And you must be worthy to have access to the basilisk. Suddenly it spears its head down, attempting to attack Hadrian and Draco. Draco spear tackles Hadrian, sending them both flying away from the snake.

"So, basically, we need to beat this thing." Draco says, helping Hadrian stand up.

"You understood that?" Hadrian asks.

Draco nods, "I think it's because we're mated. We share a link, so I can understand parseltongue."

"Makes sense." Hadrian shrugs and fires a stupefy spell at the giant snake as it speeds towards them. The spell only seems to slow it for a second, not stop it. Jormun, any tips on how to defeat this thing? Hadrian calls to where Jormun is hidden as he and Draco scatter in opposite directions.

It is made up of all of the little statue snakes, so if you break them apart, it'll probably stop. They would have been placed here by Salazar, to protect his weapon. He went to all the effort of placing her here, he'd hardly want her to be wasted under the control of someone dumb. He'd also want his heir to survive, there is no guarantee that they would have been able to control her, and if they hadn't she might have killed them, and Salazar's line.

"Seems kind of contradictory, trying to protect his line with a giant snake that'll kill them so they can't be killed by a different giant snake." Hadrian mutters as he runs from the snake, who has clearly decided that he is its target.

"That's all very useful. But how do we separate it?" Draco calls before attempting to petrify the snake as it chases Hadrian.

Perhaps, if my Master tried to control it with a spell such as the Confundus charm or the Imperius curse? That may prove to it that you are strong, and willing to do what is necessary, such as using an unforgivable curse. Jormun replies.

"Dray, can you get its attention for a second? I need to focus, and that's kinda hard with a giant snake trying to kill me." Hadrian calls.

"Technically it's heaps of small snakes." Draco calls, amusement in his voice. "But sure." He sends a barrage of spells towards it, causing it to change direction towards him.

With it no longer focused on him Hadrian is able to stand still, "Imperio." Command coats the curse he sends towards the snake. It stops. Shudders. As if it might come apart. A few of the outer snakes fall off, but still it remains whole. Draco quickly moves away from the snake as it slowly jerks back to life.

The snake swings round to stare at Hadrian, You are strong, Heir. But that is not enough. We need proof that you are a powerful parseltongue. So prove it. Resuming its attempts to kill Hadrian the snake begins to slither towards him again.

"Well, that didn't really work." Draco sighs

Try commanding it to separate with parseltongue. Jormun suggests.

"And that is so easy to do when it's trying to smash me to death!" Hadrian shouts, dodging the snake's head as it tries to hit him.

"Hey, that's my job!" Draco calls, showering spells onto the snake. The snake slows down under the sheer barrage of spells. It's head begins to sway back and forth, as if it might collapse.

"Now Hadrian." Draco calls.

Hadrian quickly moves away from the towering head. Separate. He hisses in parseltongue, power infuses the command. The already dazed snake begins to droop towards the floor, before collapsing. As soon as it hits the ground the small snakes slither away from the quickly shrinking body. The snakes scatter, curling back up the columns that they came from. At last one snake remains, it slithers up to where Hadrian and Draco stand, once again in front of Salazar's head.

Well done, Slytherin Heir. You have proven to be strong, powerful, and worthy. You may have access to Salazar's basilisk. The snake dips its head, as if bowing, before slithering onto the statue of Salazar, quickly getting lost in the curves of his beard. It must activate some mechanism because Salazar's mouth opens, revealing a 9 feet long reticulated python.

Master! The snake calls as it slithers towards Hadrian, It is good to finally see you again. You have grown so much. Jormun curls himself around Hadrian's legs before turning to Draco, And this is your mate. A Malfoy. A worthy line for you. Jormun climbs up Draco so he can hiss into Draco's ear, Do not harm him. If you do, even your parents will not stop my wrath.

Draco laughs lightly, understanding Jormun through his bond with Hadrian, "Don't worry. I never want to harm him. Not again." He whispers the last two words quietly under his breath.

Jormun, stop threatening my mate. Hadrian laughs, picking Jormun up off Draco's neck and placing him around his own.

Sorry Master. But I have many years of protection to catch up with. Jormun replies, with absolutely no apology in his voice. He ducks his head to curl into Hadrian's neck.

Draco laughs again as he wraps an arm around Hadrian's waist, pulling him close. "Okay, we need to go to bed. Come on." He guides Hadrian to the exit of the and then down to their rooms, quietly talking the entire way.

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A/N: Everything Will Be All Right by The Killers is the song, it's not quite perfect, but it's sort of about not leaving someone, which this chapter is about.