Chapter 84: The Chamber of Secrets

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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 84: The Chamber of Secrets

James prepared himself for a moment and then...he let out a loud hiss.

"Open..."

Then he waited...and nothing happened.

"What the... hold on, let me try again." James closed his eyes and prepared his mind. He searched deep in his memories for the exact sound he needed to produce for this to work.

He may not have the Parseltongue ability any longer, but he had used it for years when he was Harry Potter. So creating a mimic of the sound should be possible.

"Open..." He hissed again, this time making it longer and louder.

Then he waited.

Nothing...

"Oh come on! Even Ron could do this..." It wasn't working at all. The sink didn't produce a single sound that could indicate the inner mechanisms were moving.

He tried two more times and found nothing but two more failures.

In the end, he had to come face to face with the reality that... Ron was better than him at something.

"Damn it." He pointed his finger at the sink. "You leave me no choice."

James then pulled a crystal flask from his robes, one containing a sickly yellow-looking liquid sealed inside.

Without removing the cork, he placed the potion on top of the sink and moved back until he hit the wall. He then pointed his wand and used a mild blasting hex.

He just needed to shatter the flask. If he were to demolish the entire sink with a spell, that would create enough noise for someone to find him out.

Now James had to hope that Salazar Slytherin hadn't put any traps in place in case a non-chosen one tried to sneak into his chamber.

A sizzling sound could be heard as the potent acid James had trapped inside the flask began making contact with the stone of the bathroom sink.

"Hmm... this thing is more reinforced than the walls," James said as he observed his acid work on dissolving the structure.

Had this been a normal stone, it would only have taken the liquid about two seconds to dissolve the whole thing.

It was taking longer because there were protective runes engraved between the stones that formed the piece of furniture.

James had expected that much, and that's why he used his most potent acid solution.

"At least no traps so fa—never mind." He spotted movement near the base. "Please don't explode."

Grey smoke started to rise from the remnants of the sink and fill the room.

"A vaporized petrifying curse... how nasty." James opened his robes and took out another bottle. This one was made of clay and was the size of his thumb.

"But thank you for not exploding... I suppose." He tapped the bottle with his wand. "Engorgio!"

The clay bottle grew in size until it reached his waist. "Absorbo!"

A whirlwind centered on the giant bottle began to suck in all the smoke while James remained standing safely behind it, not allowing any of the cursed substance to touch him.

In a matter of seconds, all the smoke had disappeared from the room and was trapped inside the clay bottle.

James hurried to put the cork back on, reduced it in size, and stored it safely inside one of his many dimensional pockets.

"One crisis averted... and this may come in handy."

James then approached the sink again. His acid had been working nonstop, and there was little of it left at this point. He could even see the dark opening that led to the chamber.

Once the hole was big enough, James used another liquid to neutralize the acid so he wouldn't get burned while trying to enter.

He let out a loud sigh as he stared at the opening. "Here we go again..."

The last time, he hadn't thought twice before jumping in. He and Ron had been desperate to save Ginny and hadn't known any better.

They couldn't comprehend how dangerous the creature waiting for them in there was...

"Or how unworthy of saving that redhead actually was..." He kinda wished he could go back to that time and do things differently. Of course, that would have led to having a young version of Voldemort back among the living... so it would still be a difficult choice.

James pulled his new flying broom from his pocket and removed the Shrinking Charm he had placed on it. This time, he was flying down. No more crazy slides that ended up in a pool of bones.

He held his broom vertically and lowered himself into the hole with care.

"Still smells awful." James covered his nose when he got to the bottom.

It is said that smells can bring back memories more efficiently than any other sense.

These were not memories he wanted to relive, but here he was.

Although it did bring back something he shouldn't have forgotten about.

"Oh bloody hell... there was another door." He stood in front of a circular metallic gate with several snake symbols.

He was supposed to use Parseltongue again to bypass this one too.

"Bombarda Maxima!" He wasn't going to attempt hissing again.

The demolition jinx was absorbed into the gate without causing damage.

"Okay... this is getting boring. I'm going to have to... wait, there may be another way..." He was considering using something a bit more persuasive when his eyes moved to the sides of the gate.

The material holding the hinges in place was different.

"Could it be this easy?" He aimed the next jinx at that area. "Bombarda."

CRACK!

The stone holding the entire structure in place began to break apart and collapse.

"I guess Salazar Slytherin wasn't a genius when it came to... doors." The massive metallic gate fell back, shaking the entire chamber in the process.

"Take that," James said with satisfaction.

"Ssssss..."

"Oh..." In front of him was a familiar sight. A corridor made of stone, with snake heads on each side. And at the end... there was a carving resembling Salazar Slytherin himself.

The mouth of the statue began to open, and James heard another threatening hiss.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" Apparently, his method of taking down the door hadn't been too clever. He had made a bit too much noise.

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