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Chapter Eleven New Discoveries

Harry woke at 5:30 AM the next morning, his new regular time. He had an appointment with McGonagall at seven to take a test to see if he can get transferred to runes, so he used the time remaining to check out the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in Moaning Myrtles bathroom on the third floor. When he got there, thankfully Myrtle was nowhere to be found so he went to the sink that was the entrance and activated the special features on his glasses. He found that someone, probably Dumbledore, had added an intruder alert ward to the entrance. It was a simple ward and it took only 10 minutes for Harry to bypass it. It was 6 o'clock by then and Harry had to be in the McGonagall office in an hour, so he slid down the tunnel and made his way to the chamber.

The entrance chamber before the main Chamber of Secrets was just as he remembered. There were small animal bones scattered everywhere and up ahead was the cave-in that Lockhart caused in Harrys second year. Having prepared for this, Harry cast a set of spells that he learned in the magical construction book and created a reinforced archway

Satisfied with his work, Harry continued on to the main chamber and opened it up with parseltongue. Inside he did indeed find the Bassilisk, and was surprised to find that there was no decomposition. 'Even after a full year it's still intact. Must be very magical. Cool.' he thought, glad that he didn't have to deal with the smell of rotting corpse. Harry brought out his trunk and entered it to find the snakes anxiously waiting for him.

"Finally!" said Sssloker.

"Yeah yeah. I know. You were bored and you misssssed me." Harry said mockingly

This caused the snakes to grumble. Harry didn't know that snakes grumbled this much. "Are we at the cassstle Yet?" asked Sssslisssser.

"Yup, you're here. We're in the Chamber of Sssecretssss. I don't have a lot of time right now becaussse I have to meet a professssor in about 45 minutesss ssso I will let you out to explore. I will have to leave you in the chamber for now, and if you can sssearch it for me and sssee if you can find anything magical, there will be a big juicy moussse in it for each of you."

All three of the snakes followed Harry out of the trunk and into the chamber. They were shocked to see the dead Basilisk and Harry to reassure them.

"Don't worry about that. I will have it removed in a day or two. It will caussse you no problemsss."

All three snakes followed Harry to the chamber door, which had closed after he entered and then they asked, "How do you open the door?"

To the surprise of Harry and the three snakes, the door swung open. After getting over the shock Harry thought to himself. 'It must open whenever anyone says open in parseltongue. That must be how the Basilisk was able to feed itself. It would explain this snake skin and all the animal bones outside. There must be an entrance to the outside world somewhere, I will have to search for it later.'

Harry said to the snakes. "I guessss you can come and go asss you pleassse. There mussst be an entrance sssomewhere in here to the outssside world. Why don't you look for it while you explore the ressst of the chamber and let me know what you find?"

The snake seemed to like the freedom that this allowed them, glad they weren't stuck in the chamber and we're happy to explore, so Harry left them to it. When Harry reached the mouth of the pipe that he slid down to access the chamber, he had a thought. 'I bet there's no way that Slytherin would slide down the pipe every time he wanted to access his chamber, and how did he get back up? Let me try something.' He said out loud, "Ssstairsss!" and to his surprise stairs appeared running up the pipe. Harry thought, "Why didn't I think of this before? Of course the slide down was fun." Climbing the stairs Harry reached the top with 15 minutes to spare before his appointment. Scourgafying his robes from the grime that had accumulated sliding down the pipe, and cleaning his hands in one of the working stinks, Harry he left for his test.

Finding his way to McGonagall office was no problem and test was easy for him. It turned out that most of the first year of runes was devoted to memorizing the different rune alphabets and their meaning. Swiftdeaths training and his self-study had Harry passing the test easily. They wouldn't start carving runes until the end of this year's class and not seriously get into it until next year during the O.W.L.'s. Harry was just glad that he got into the class and could avoid Trelawneys predictions of his death every time.

Harry went to the Great Hall for breakfast after that and joined Ron and Hermione at the table. As per usual, Ron had a huge pile of food on his plate and was shoveling into his mouth at an alarming rate.

When he sat down Hermione asked him. "Where were you this morning Harry? Ron said you were already gone when he came down to the common room."

"I had an appointment with McGonagall this morning to take a test on runes to see if I could be transferred to the class." Harry answered.

"Really?" said Hermione excitedly. "How did it go?"

"Great. I passed and will be able to join you in runes this year. This also means that I can drop divination!"

"What!" Ron exclaimed with food flying out of his mouth. He swallowed and then continued. "But mate, you can't drop divination! What am I going to do without you there? Why didn't you tell me were going to do this?"

"Sorry Ron. I forgot to mention it, and besides I'm tired of Trelawney always predicting my death. Can you honestly say that you learned anything last year in divination?"

Ron replied, "No, not really. But it's an easy grade and the class will be boring without you."

"Sorry Ron, but I need to start taking my studies a little more seriously. You know with," Harry lowered his voice. "Voldemort still out there." Even with the lower voice Ron and Hermione flinched at the name. Harry could understand Ron because he grew up in the magical world, but he was always surprised when Hermione shuddered at the name. Continuing on he said, "You still have Neville in the class so I'm sure you will be fine."

"Fine, whatever." Ron said and he seemed to pout. Harry just shrugged it off and started eating again.

Hermione said, "I'm glad you're taking your studies more seriously this year Harry, and it will be fun having you in runes with me. I learned so much last year." Harry just nodded to her and continued to eat breakfast until McGonagall came around and handed out the class schedules. He was happy to see that he no longer had Divination and now had Ancient Runes.

The first class of the term was Herbology followed by Care of Magical Creatures, Ron was excited. "Looks like we'll spend the entire morning outside." He then moaned, "Double Divination this afternoon."

Harry thought, 'Lucky I avoided that.' Out loud he said, "I have runes this afternoon with Hermione. Good luck with Trelawney."

Ron was looking despondent, "Let's go." They made their way to the greenhouses. After Herbology they went to Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid.

When they got there, Hagrid was waiting outside with several wooden crates. Harry liked Hagrid as a person but he wasn't sure about his ability as a teacher. Hagrid knew his creatures alright, but what was dangerous to any normal person, Hagrid thought it was cute and misunderstood. Fluffy was a prime example of this. The other problem with the class was that it was with the Slytherins.

When the class started Hagrid introduced the 'Blast Ended Skrewts'. They were slimy, grey, lobster looking creatures that shot out sparks. They were disgusting.

Class ended and they bid farewell to Ron who sulked his way to divination. Malfoy as usual was a prat in class. Harry was bored during Ancient Runes. The class was slow paced and they were covering things that he had already learned. 'Oh well. It is always good to review.' He thought.

There were a few hours left until dinner and Ron was still in divination. Hermione headed to the library so Harry decided to do some more exploring of the chamber. As usual the bathroom was empty of students but this time Myrtle was in. "Hello Mrytle." Said Harry.

"Who's there? Oh it's you Harry. What are you doing here?" said Myrtle.

"I needed to check something in the chamber… and I wanted to say hi to you too." Harry added when Myrtle started to cry.

Like a switch was thrown, Myrtles whole demeanor changed. Smiling she said, "Really? I'm so glad. I missed you last year. Why didn't you visit?"

"Sorry. Last year was crazy, with the Dementors and all." Replied Harry. He wanted to end this conversation and get down to the chamber but knew that he would have to keep Myrtle happy or it would become difficult to get past her. "Tell you what, I promise to visit you more often this year." Myrtles smile brightened. "But I need to check on something in the chamber and I don't have much time."

Myrtles smile faltered and she said, "Oh, OK. You promise to visit again?"

"Yes Myrtle, I promise." At this Harry went to the entrance sink and was able to bypass Dumbledore's wards in under two minutes this time. Sliding down to the bottom, he called out. "Sssloker, Sssslisssser, Ssssliter! Where are you?" Over a minute passed before they all arrived. Harry asked, "Did you find anything interesssting yet?"

"Oh yesss, there are lot'sss of interesssting thingsss here." Replied Sssloker.

"What have you found?" said Harry.

"Where'sss our moussse?" countered Sssloker,

Harry huffed. "Fine." Going into his trunk, he returned and gave all three snakes a mouse that he had in stasis. "What did you find?"

Harry waited until the pythons swallowed their mice before Sssslisssser answered. "There isss an entrance to a foressst that hasss sssuffered a cave in. There isss ssstill room for usss to leave but it might be too sssmall for you to passss. At the end of the passssage there issss a door that openssss when we asssked it to."

Harry thought, 'Must be another parseltongue password protected door.'

Sssslisssser continued on, " We have alssso found three hidden roomsss in the main chamber. We have more to explore ssstill. We did find a way into the cassstle."

"Isss it thisss pipe?" Harry said pointing to the pipe behind him that he slid down.

"No. Another way." Said Sssslisssser.

This got Harry excited, "Ssshow me!" Harry followed the snakes to a different pipe that was closer to the main entrance. This was a smaller pipe than the other entrance. He called out, "Ssstairsss!"

Harry was about to climb up them when Ssssliter called him. "Wait!"

Turning around, Harry asked. "What?"

Can you get rid of all the bonesss pleassse? And leave another warming ssstone?"

Harry spent 20 minutes vanishing most of the animal bones that were scattered around the ground. Another 15 minutes to carve a new warming rune stone and then left to explore the new entrance. He would explore the cave-in to the forest later, having to say stairs again, Harry climbed up and ended in an empty, dust covered office. 'This must have been Slytherins office.' He thought looking around. There was a dust covered wooden desk and chair. Crumbling empty bookshelves lined the walls, and an empty portrait behind the desk. Harry saw that where he emerged from was behind a portrait of the Black Lake that had swung open.

Immediately Harry took out and checked the Marauders Map. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Harry looked but couldn't find his dot on the map. 'I guess the Marauders never found this room.' Putting away the map and deciding to be careful, he pulled out his invisibility cloak, went to the only door in the room and opened it.

He emerged from behind another Portrait, this one of an ancient, empty potion lab. He was in the dungeons, enemy territory, and he was glad he put on the invisibility cloak. He made his way up to the entrance hall before he removed the cloak, luckily he ran into no one. It was only a few minutes until dinner started, so Harry waited for Ron and Hermione to come down.

About five minutes later, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs and Joined Harry. Unfortunately, Draco and his shadows also emerged from the dungeons at the same time. "Hey Weasley!. Looks like your dads in the paper!" Draco called out, drawing a crowd. "Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office has…"

Harry drew his wand and cast, "Incendio!" setting the paper in Dracos hand on fire. "What was that Draco?" He mockingly asked. Draco had stumbled back into Crabbe, he was speechless and looked terrified. What? Nothing else to say?" taunted Harry.

Hermione quietly yelled at Harry. "What do you think you're doing? You're going to be in so much trouble!" Ron just had a smirk on his face.

Harry turned to her and said. "I told you Hermione. I won't put up with his shit anymore."

"Language Harry!" Hermione immediately responded.

Draco regained his composure and said. "When my father hears about this!"

"Yeah, Yeah." Harry just waved him off and turned to go into the Great Hall for dinner and froze when he say Mad Eye Moody standing there. Draco smirked thinking that Harry would be in trouble.

Moody just nodded to Harry and walked off. Harry was stunned. So was everyone in the entrance hall. Regaining his composure, Harry entered the Great Hall, soon followed by Ron and Hermione

Draco was glaring and Ron had a smile on his face all through dinner. Hermione kept sending him angry looks when she wasn't sending confused looks toward the teachers table, she just couldn't understand why nothing happened. She was thinking, ' I don't want Harry to be in trouble, but why didn't the teachers do anything?'

Harry was just thinking, 'Moody's not too bad.'

After dinner and for the rest of the night Hermione didn't speak to Harry. Ron on the other hand wouldn't shut up about it. After the second game of chess with Ron, Harry excused himself, saying that he had to send a letter.

Ron asked, "You don't have anyone to send a letter too. Who are you writing?"

Harry couldn't believe how inappropriate Ron question just was. Under his breath he answered Ron. "I promised I would send a note to Snuffles for your information Ron." He turned around and left for the owlry.

The note he had to send wasn't for Snuffles, he had the mirrors for that, He needed to send a note to Barkaxe concerning the Basilisk. All the note said was, 'It is here. Will send on the third at 8:30 am.' The Portkey that he was provided had a 30 minute delay on it when activated. Harry decided to check out Slytherins office so he made his way to the dungeons under his invisibility cloak.

Harry ran into a problem. There were too many Slytherins hanging around the dungeons for Harry to pass unnoticed. He figured that he should explore around the area a little more, maybe he could find another way to the office. Harry found something else interesting though, the kitchens.

It took Harry about ten minutes to figure out how to open the passage that was behind a picture of a bowl of fruit. To open it all he had to do was tickle the pear. Another surprise awaited him when he entered.

"Harry Potter!" Shouted an excited elf. There was a small missile that wrapped around Harry's legs.

"Dobby! What are you doing here?" replied a shocked Harry.

"I is working at Hogwarts now Harry Potter." Said Dobby, letting go of Harry's legs. "Dobby is happy that the great Harry Potter visits him! What can I's be getting youse? Pumpkin Juice? A sandwich, does Harry Potter want a sandwich?"

"No, no, I don't need anything Dobby" said a bemused Harry. "How long have you been here? I was worried about you." before he could finish what he was saying, a tray of sandwiches and a glass of pumpkin juice was floated in front of him. The elves, epically Dobby had an anticipatory look on their faces so Harry took a sandwich to avoid offending them.

With a smile, Dobby answered. "The Great Harry Potter was worried about Dobby! Harry Potter is the bestest, most kind wizard ever! I is coming to Hogwarts over a week ago. I is having trouble finding work, and when I's find Winky also needing a job, I's think of the only place needing two more house elves. Hogwarts."

"Winky is here too?" Harry asked, looking around.

The smile left Dobby's face, and the other elves turned away looking ashamed. "Yes Harry Potter. Winky's is here. She's not doin' too good."

"What's wrong with her?" Inquired Harry.

"She is missing her family she is." Replied Dobby. "She's not getting over being givin' clothes, She be drinkin' butterbeer." All the elves shuddered at the mention of butterbeer.

"Sorry she's not feeling well." Said Harry. "Let me know if there is anything I can do?" Inside Harry thought, 'Butterbeer? How bad could it be?' "OK Dobby, I have to go. It's getting late. I will come and visit you later."

"Thank you, thank you Harry Potter! Dobby is lookin' forward to seein' youse again."

On his way back to Gryffindor tower Harry thought. 'I'm glad that Dobby is OK. Too bad about Winky. At least she found a new bond so she won't die. It's good to know where the kitchen is. I wonder what I can do with this information?' Harry made it back with no problems and went straight to bed