Malfoy's Daughter

Chapter eighteen; Mysteries?

A week later, and Asteria was still hiding in the Gryffindor common room, with Granger and Ginny sneaking her food and information. Aurors were out looking for her, assuming she had left Hogwarts since they hadn't found her on the grounds. Umbridge was furious, losing a student was one thing, losing a student who threatened her was even worse. But Asteria didn't know what else to do, but once curfew hit, she'd slip out and return to the library, resuming her search for information and the spell-development. It wasn't easy creating a charm to access different languages, especially one as old and selective as Parseltongue. She couldn't just hide out and do nothing, so instead she snuck around a dark, empty school library, trying not to alert Mrs. Norris or anyone to her presence. But she thought she'd finally done when it came to the spell. She gathered her notes and using the shadows to slip to fourth floors bathroom. Upon entering she searched the sinks, finding the right one, with a snake carved into the metal. Pausing she flicked her wand and prayed to Merlin it worked. A hissing sound came from her wand, and the sinks began to move, moving outward, until the one in front of her sank into the ground, revealing a hole.

Hesitation wasn't part of Asteria's usual behavior, but something about jumping into a hole, caused just that, but before she could reason with herself, she jumped, going down a slide into a pile of bones, if the light from her wand alerted her to anything that was it. And she almost shrieked at the sight of a large snake skin. She knew it was the Basilisk's skin, she wondered how long it took a snake that large to shed its skin. The larger the snake, the longer the process. Inching her way around the skin, she found fallen rocks, and with a flick of her wand began moving them out of her way, before moving forward into the dark hall. Coming upon another door, she flicked her wand, and hissing sounds appeared again, opening the new door.

Stepping her way up to the opening door, she saw the ledge clearly, and climbed down the latter, hoping that there was an actual ground once she hit it. Finding sturdy concrete, she sighed, her heart skipping as the ground moved and statues appeared and a dim light lit up the room. Turning slowly she was faced with the near skeleton of a large snake. She inched her way closer and picked up on the fact that the parts of the body that was still in the water, wasn't as skeletal, the fangs in the mouth were nearly as large as her forearm, and it sent shivers up her spine, but she also felt a surge of pride in the fact that a 12-year-old Potter defeated this creature with a sword. She inched around the creature and looked at the statue, noting the resemblance of whom she believe to be Salazar Slytherin.

Having asked Potter and Ron about the chamber, she knew they hadn't really explored the location, so turning to the right, she walked towards the statue and letting her fingers brush the stone, slipping past it down a tunnel. Lifting her wand and casting a quick Lumos, she inched her way down the dark, curiosity eating at her insides. Trying to be cautious where she planted her booted feet, she came to a dead end, which seemed odd, it made more sense if the tunnels connected with each other. Stepping closer to the stone, she eased her wand around the wall and was surprised to see a seam that wrapped around the stone. She lifted her wand, letting the lighting charm fall, and angled the wand, and cast her language charm, and the stone shimmers and vanished.

Asteria stares at the space in amazement, the wall had been pure solid stone, and it was gone. She reached her hand out and met with no resistance. She walked through the entryway, lighting her wand again and found herself in a room, with a skeleton, clothed in baggy emerald robes, a snake ring still sitting atop the skeleton. She had a sinking suspicion that she was staring at the lost body of Salazar Slytherin, and she was standing in his tomb, surround by old tomes, and ancient artifacts. She glanced around and noted how nothing was undisturbed, the dust was layered on everything. She reached out and gently touched the ancient robe which had held nicely in all the centuries it had been down in the chamber.