Snapped

Chapter 7: Down The Rabbit Hole

A crunch of bones broke his fall. Thankfully, he didn't think they were his own. Harry moaned, not moving, his glasses gripped so tightly in his hand they'd broken in half.

"Ouch," he hissed as something landed on his face. He blinked, peering at the shining tip... of his wand!

"Reparo," he muttered, and slid his fixed glasses on.

If anything, the room he was in was even creepier than the tunnel. He couldn't see the floor for all the skeletons that lay on it. What had once been green tile on the walls was now covered in black mould. The only source of light was his wand tip, throwing eerie shadows about the room.

"Master...!" Baneofallrodents slid out the tunnel. Harry snatched her out the air with lightning quick reflexes honed by Quidditch. She curled so tightly around his neck he almost couldn't breathe.

"Too fast," she scolded.

"Where the hell am I?" Harry muttered, before catching sight of a pillar, on which a stone serpent was curled. He snapped his eyes shut, heart rate, which had only just recovered, rocketing sky high once again. A half-remembered dream flashed before his eyes... Baneofallrodents talking about a 'King Snake'.

"Baneofallrodents. Where, exactly, did you find the..." He choked over the word. Apparently, Basilisk didn't translate into Parseltongue well. "The...basil... lisp?"

"Master?"

"The bastille licks! The battle lists! Fuck. The basil licks!"

"Are you well, master?" Harry grimaced. He opened one eye, then the other, preparing to snap them shut at the first sign of movement.

"The King Snake?"

"Here, Master!"

Great. Harry was stuck in the Chamber of Secrets, with Salazar Slytherin's hungry basilisk on the loose. And, judging by the tunnel Harry had just tumbled down... it was enormous.

"It's very friendly, master," Baneofallrodents said. Somehow, that didn't reassure Harry one bit.

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Severus was minding his own business, patrolling the first floor, definitely not thinking about the 'horcrux' he'd destroyed a few weeks ago, when he caught sight of an irate Lockhart. He promptly turned on one foot and took off in the other direction. Unfortunately, it seemed lady luck was not on his side.

"Severus! Severus! Just the man I was after." Lockhart's usually pristine hair was mussed, and there was a wild look in his eye. Severus bit back a sigh.

"There was someone hiding in my office!" Lockhart proclaimed. Severus reluctantly followed the man in. Every single portrait was scanning the room, although one slipped him a wink. He raised his wand in warning and it hurriedly turned away from him.

"They escaped out a hole in the wall! Right there." Lockhart pointed halfway up the wall. Severus tapped it with his wand. It was stone, a foot deep, as to be expected for a castle. There was nothing magical about it.

"How big was the... hole in the wall?" Severus asked, narrowing his eyes at Lockhart. Lockhart waved his arms around wildly. Severus raised a brow. Lockhart eventually settled upon a holding his hands about a foot apart.

"There was a person hiding in your office, who escaped through a hole in the wall the size of a shoe box that was at least a meter off the ground, all while you were present..."

"Yes, that's it entirely! Of course, I had my back turned when they escaped, but they must have been hiding under my desk," Lockhart agreed with a beam. "Obviously they were too cowardly to face me."

"Where they, perhaps, invisible, as well?" Severus drawled. Lockhart failed to notice the danger, and continued to blather on.

"Yes, of course, you're completely right! How on earth will we find the culprit?"

"That is beyond me. Of course, you are the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher... are you not? Shouldn't finding people versed in the art of espionage be your speciality?" Severus smirked as Lockhart paled, and swept out the room before he could hear a single word more.

Draco fell into step beside him. Damn his luck.

"It was Potter," Draco hissed, glancing about in suspicion. "I saw him go in there, and he never came out!"

"Silence!" Severus growled, and Draco took a step back. "First dragons, then polyjuice, now this! Making up lies about Potter will get you nowhere! Get out of my sight." Draco scarpered.

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Severus muttered as he walked past the House point hourglasses, and was rewarded by a groan of despair from a student in a red and gold tie as they watched the rubies trickle down. Severus smirked, his mood lifted. Now if only to catch Potter actually breaking the rules... that would be the cherry on top.