Chapter 54: Chapter 54: The Chamber of Secrets
Ivan and Harry clung to Ron, it was as if they were on a roller coaster.
As the pipes were very narrow, Ivan had to stay close to the basilisk.
Every time they took a ride, they felt pain all over their bodies.
He never thought Hogwarts had such complex pipes.
Soon they moved and got into a very old pipe, through which they went up the straight line, and Ivan calculated that they were around the Ravenclaw tower, the highest place in the school.
The basilisk led them into a strange oval room, there were light blue curtains, with one side of the room filled with books, and it was clear from the thick dust that had collected on them that no one had been here for a long time.
Tom Riddle, who was still in control of Ron, was visibly astonished at having no idea where this place was.
"Damn it!" said Tom in a hissing voice.
He wanted the basilisk to stop, but it was clearly frightened by the crowing rooster, so it didn't listen to Tom's orders, and then quickly fled as fast as it could.
They soon disappeared behind some blue curtains and, as they passed the center table, Ivan reached out and picked up an object with a long chain.
He held it tightly and, before he could look down, the basilisk led them to another place.
After a minute, the basilisk crashed through the pipeline and into the girls' bathroom on the third floor.
The basilisk led them toward the faucet with the small snake carved into it right in the center, and a sharp hissing sound came from inside Ron's mouth.
Instantly, the faucet emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly.
The sink soon disappeared from view, and Ivan only had time to see a very thick pipe before the basilisk stepped into it.
It looked like an entrance prepared especially for it, and Ivan also saw that there were numerous entrances going in all directions, but they were not as thick as the entrance the basilisk went down.
The pipe twisted and turned, for about seven or eight times, it also had a very steep slope all the way down.
Ivan knew they had gone down into the depths of the school, even deeper than the dungeon. Just as he was getting used to the sharp turns, they landed on the wet ground.
Having climbed out of the pipe, Harry and Ivan lost their grip and fell to the ground, they saw the basilisk and Tom disappear into the distance.
They were in a large dark stone tunnel, big enough for a man to stand in.
"Where is this place?" said Harry as he stood up and rubbed his bottom.
Ivan's voice echoed down the dark tunnel, "They took us several miles underground, if I'm not mistaken, we're probably under the big lake."
Then he squinted his eyes as he stared at the dark, slimy walls.
Immediately after, he remembered what he had just picked up at the top of the castle, inside the room filled with blue curtains.
"Lumos," his wand produced a dim light.
Using the dim light, Ivan looked at the object he had grabbed, it looked like a pocket watch, but it only had a handle with no numbers on it.
"What is that?" asked Harry.
"I don't know, I took it from a room the basilisk went through," said Ivan as he touched the watch hand.
"We can find out what it is next, we need to hurry and find Ron," said Harry impatiently.
"Yes, yes!" said Ivan as he shoved the strange object into his pocket, they had to hurry as Tom was sucking Ron's vitality, and the longer they delayed, the worse it would be for Ron.
The two of them ran down the damp tunnel, and then they heard a loud sound.
It was dark, so they could only see a few feet ahead of them.
A faint light shone from the two wands.
"Harry, Tom's wand is broken, so it will take time for him to cast powerful magic, I'll catch the basilisk's attention and you'll find the diary," Ivan said as they walked.
"Diary?" Harry stopped,
"The diary is the source of Tom's power, remember if you find it you have to try to destroy it, and Riddle doesn't know we know this, so it's our only chance."
Harry nodded, suddenly grabbing Ivan's shoulder, "Look, it's not that...."
Ivan extended his wand, and in the dim glow saw the silhouette of a coiled snake, lying motionless on the ground.
"This is the skin of the basilisk, perhaps someone would like to collect this"
In front of the two of them was a huge light green snake skin, coiled around the tunnel, hollow and about six meters long. It was obviously from when the basilisk had shed its skin.
They started walking again, turned carefully around another corner, after that they had before them a wall with two snakes coiled around each other and each of them had glowing emerald eyes.
"Harry, try to speak to them in Parseltongue," Ivan whispered.
As Harry got closer, he felt his throat go dry.
He tried to imagine the two stone serpents as real snakes, but he didn't need to, their eyes seemed to be alive.
"Open up!" said Harry in a low, muffled hiss.
The two snakes parted and the stone wall split in half, slithering slowly to either side and disappearing.
Ivan hurried inside, ahead of them was a dimly lit room. Many of the stone pillars were engraved with entangled snakes, which rose to the ceiling, dissolved into the darkness, and cast shadows over the entire room.
"It's the Chamber of Secrets!" whispered Ivan.
The room was completely silent, the two held their wands and slowly advanced.
Each step was more careful than the last.
As they passed the last pair of columns, they saw a statue as tall as the room itself, standing out against the dark wall, Ivan looked up and saw the huge face, it was an old, monkey-like face.
At the foot of the statue was Ron, lying like a corpse.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone