An Enemy

Chapter Eleven- The Chilling Truth

The Chamber of Secrets had lost all of its magic, all of its familiarity and all of the connection I had felt was gone.

It was dark, and it was wet and it was alien to me, my body was still aching and burning in memory of the moon's touch and all that I had hoped to find was absent.

"It's not much further." I murmured trying to control my erratic heart as we passed through the tunnel I had long-ago dug through the rubble into the main cavern.

Before us (Lupin, Dumbledore and I) was the skeleton of the Basilisk, but I paid so little attention to the once wondrous fossil that it may as well have been dust, I tucked my hands into my armpits I prayed for a little warmth.

"You've been here before." It was no question. Dumbledore had phrased it that way intentionally so I figured he wouldn't mind if I didn't answer as I began wading through the water before the giant bust of my super-great-grandfather.

"Imogene?!" Lupin's voice wavered with concern but I ignored it, dogged persistence pushed my presence into that of my serpentine self and through into the innermost chamber.

If it had been cold out in the main chamber it was even colder inside Salazar's head. Shivering uncontrollably, I crawled to my feet where feet now were, and peered through the murkiness to find the chamber empty. I was careful as to where my feet were placed as every stone and rock was slick with a thick weed, each treacherous step riskier than the last, as the slope increased to the centre. The pillar in the centre of the dome was untouched unlike the rest of the interior. In fact it was entirely unchanged to the way it had been last time.

"Sthyss?" I whispered. My voice echoed back and the sound hit me full in the face, a bitter and nonsensical noise, it seemed alien to me -barely my voice at all.  

"Please Sthyss, I need you to be here."

No reply and I could feel tears welling unbidden against my burning lids, I wouldn't cry though, I had already told myself that above all else I would shed no tears here. Unfortunately, even though I held tears I didn't hold my balance- my foot slipped on a small rock with a particularly wet mossy covering and I flew straight for the pillar, my hands stretched out to try and stop myself from falling. Only, I wasn't stopped, as with last time my hands passed into the solid as if it was no more than a few inches of extra air, before coming to a limb-wrenching halt. The skull glared balefully upwards at me, glowing sickly in the murk.

I couldn't take my eyes from it, even if I'd wanted to, my eyes were impossibly locked with the  grotesque sockets and some insurmountable force began to gather- the feeling building just beyond my awareness, higher and higher, to the point of explosion.

An eruption so violent that it was without sound struck me fully in the chest and I was lifted and thrown bodily away from the pillar and into the rocky wall behind me. Miraculously I retained my consciousness though I wished that I hadn't. My head was throbbing with the pulsing in my veins and I could feel a trickle of what was probably blood down my neck. Something thick and metallic clotted in my throat and I coughed uncontrollably to dislodge the blood there and took a moment once it had stopped to find the source was my tongue, which I must have bit on impact. I muttered a few curses, there was more light now, no rubble or debris had been scattered or had fallen and while it took a few moment to get to my feet, it seemed that my injuries were not very serious.

"Imogene? Is that you?" I froze and closed my eyes in something halfway between disbelief and complete relief.

"Sth..." I swallowed the name before it could travel past my lips. The voice had come from just beyond my line of vision but it hadn't been in Parseltongue.