Hermione and Harry: Riddle in Time (Tomione/Harmione) UNEDITED

Chapter 11

Harry sat in Dumbledore's office, this time, with Hermione. The Professor asked them to come to his office, wanting to know, what exactly happened.

"Professor, we're sorry." Hermione said.

"I know you are, Miss Granger. But I want to know what happened. Why were you three outside the castle?" Albus asked.

"We saw Riddle. We saw him go out." She answered. Harry kept his silence.

"And you see fit to follow him?" Dumbledore questioned. Harry was the one who answered this time.

"Yes. We see fit to follow him. He was looking for Aragog, Hagrid's pet. He wants to blame Hagrid of opening the chamber, like he did last time." He retorted.

Dumbledore sighed. "I still have a question." He looked at both of the students, "Do you know anything about the chamber?" he finally asked.

Harry chuckled. "In our second year, he opened it again, by means of possessing a f-friend of ours, of course we know about it. Hermione was also petrified that time." He replied.

"Do you know where it is, and what monster lies there?" the professor inquired.

"A basilisk." Hermione responded.

"Just as I've thought." He whispered.

"And the entrance to the is in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. One have to speak parseltongue to enter." Harry replied.

"It seems that we have no means of killing it until next week, I still need to acquire a book about parseltongue. There might be a few phrases that is in a book." The professor mumbled.

"Or, we can go there now." Harry said. Albus looked at him, and he said, "And how are we supposed to enter the chamber if none of us is a parsermouth?" Dumbledore challenged.

"Actually, you're in luck. I am a parselmouth." Harry claimed.

"You are? Then I guess we have a task to accomplish."

They arrived at the bathroom, there they saw Moaning Myrtle. She was, well, she was moaning. She stopped when she saw them.

"Harry! Hermione!" she cheered up a bit. Hermione almost cried at the sight of her ghost friend.

"Myrtle, I'm, I am so sorry. If I just held you tighter, then," but Hermione couldn't finish her sentence.

"Don't worry about me, Hermione. I'm still here." She said.

"Myrtle, we're gonna kill that basilisk, okay?" Harry said.

"Becareful, its eyes are scary." She said.

Harry just smiled at her. He looked at the professor and he pointed the sink. The professor nodded so he walked closer to it. He saw the engraving of a snake. He tried to imagine it to be real. Slowly, he imagined it to be moving. When it was real enough for him, he whispered, "Open," but it wasn't what they heard but hissing, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

The professor looked at Harry, then to Hermione, "Are you coming with me or do you want to go back?" he asked them worriedly.

"I'm coming." They said together.

"Very well, I'll go first, then you go after me okay?" he suggested.

Dumbledore lowered himself, then slide. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Harry, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as Albus had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Albus was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Hermione came whizzing out of the pipe, too.

"We must be miles under the school," said Hermione, her voice echoing in the black tunnel.

All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to Albus and Hermione, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Remember," Albus said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement close your eyes right away."

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones.

Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Don't worry, it's just the skin." Harry said.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Albus edged forward, his wand held high.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"This way," Harry lead them.

The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Harry approached his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive.

He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"Open," said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.

They was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

His heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence.

"Summon the basilisk Harry. And both of you stay behind the pillars." Albus said.

Harry closed his eyes, he sighed then opened them again. He looked at one of the pillars. It looked so real. He whispered, "Come out here." But only hissing were heard.

Hermione pulled him behind a pillar. The last he saw before Hermione covered his eyes were Dumbledore closing his while holding his wand.

They heard the Basilisk coming. It's getting closer. They heard footsteps, Albus must be moving. Then, suddenly, there was a blast. Then, again. And, again. The Basilisk was weeping, or hissing. But Harry understood it. It knew that it's defeated. Then there was another blast. Harry couldn't hear it anymore.

"You can open your eyes now." They heard Dumbledore said. Slowly, they opened their eyes only to see the wreckage. The only pillar standing was the one they hid behind from. The Basilisk was down. Harry slowly, and carefully, went closer to it. He pointed his wand between the Basilisk fang and its gums.

"Diffindo." He said as the fang was ripped from the basilisk. He removed his robe and used it as a glove to get the fang. He covered it then he looked at Hermione and Dumbledore.

"For future purposes." He said.

"Very well, let's get back and tell Professor Dippet the good news."