"What's taking them so long?" whispered Callie, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, craning her neck discreetly to see any signs of James and Sirius in the hallway. But that was a stupid idea as both of them were hiding beneath James' invisibility cloak. So Callie recomposed her body and stared at the wall opposite where she was leaning on.
"Do you think they're caught?" asked Peter.
"Hopefully not," Remus answered and craned his head where Callie looked at, in his hand, the Sorting Hat that James let him take care of. But again, no sign of either of the two.
Callie asked James and Sirius to grab brooms. She knew they would need it to escape. While they were at that, she, Peter, and Remus waited in front of the girls' lavatory at the second-floor bathroom. It doesn't matter if Callie wasn't hidden under the cloak. No one goes in this part of the castle anyway.
Not too long, the two finally appeared. Four brooms on both their hands as they took off the cloak around them. They gave one each to Peter and Remus.
"Brilliant!" she chimed in a whisper. Once again, she looked up to them. "Are you really sure you want to go? What we're about to do is extremely dangerous. It may result to death if Lady Luck frowned upon us." Callie had to make sure they were on board in this mission. She needed them to know the possible consequences of helping her.
"Of course," answered Sirius nonchalantly. "This will stop You-Know-Who, right?"
Callie nodded. With a final sigh, she said, "Follow me."
And so, the boys did. Peter was reluctant at first. But he's already here anyway, why back out?
"What exactly do we need in the prefect's bathroom and with these brooms?" asked James, waving the broom he was holding.
"Reopen the Chamber of Secrets, kill a snake, and then we have a weapon," Callie answered casually as Remus closed the door behind them.
"Chamber of Secrets?" Remus asked, catching up to them.
Callie hummed a yes. "A secret room built by Salazar Slytherin and where he kept a monster to purge the Hogwarts grounds from muggle-born wizards." This only left more questions unanswered and a couple of shivers.
At the circular sink, they stopped. The brunette searched around, the boys still following her.
"And how exactly are we going to do that?" asked Sirius.
"Found it." With a smile, Callie answered, "You'll see." Using her great memory of all the Harry Potter films, she reenacted Harry speaking in parseltongue the moment he tried to open the chamber.
It was a perfect reenactment. Of course, how many times had she watched the movies? Callie didn't have an idea herself.
Moments later, the sink moved. Everyone stepped back in surprise and the unaware boys raised their wands, ready to fight anyone or anything that will come out of the sink.
"Is this the part where the monster comes out?" asked James, watching one of the sinks literally sink to reveal a hole that they can't see what's in the end.
The brunette only laughed. "Relax," she said. "We are going to jump in, all right? Then, we kill the monster and we have a weapon."
"Sounds easy but doesn't seem like it is," Remus commented, looking down at the seemingly endless pit.
"Indeed." Callie walked forward the hole. It's not too wide but it's dark and she had no idea how deep the fall would be. The girl swallows and breathed out before turning her head to the boys. "Let's go?" Then she jumped.
Her yell was so loud that the Marauders worried that something wrong happened to her. Without thinking a lot anymore, Remus jumped in followed by James and Sirius, then Peter.
All of them were screaming and it echoed. For a moment, they were falling, then the next thing they knew, they were sliding. It was dark. It was hard to see anyone or even make out a figure. Until they heard a not so loud thud followed by noises as if someone landed on a pile of things.
And they were not wrong. Callie had landed on the pile of bones of unknown creatures that greeted her at the end of the tunnel.
Soon, the boys appeared and landed in different ways. Remus landed behind first, James his head, Sirius even made a cartwheel that they didn't know how he did, and Peter had his face first on the pile.
The group dusted themselves as they stood up, the disgusting smell almost made the group throw up — Sirius made noises, covering his mouth and nose on the corner.
"Can we please go on?" Peter pleaded, feeling nauseous next to Sirius.
"Yeah, that's a great idea," said Callie, holding her stomach as she lead the way.
But they haven't taken a few steps away when they heard someone actually throwing up. They looked behind where the noise came from and found Sirius throwing his guts out on the same corner where he was.
Their faces crunched as they watched him, mixed of worry and disgust.
"You all right there, mate?" asked James.
Sirius waved his hand, meaning yes, he's fine. He wiped his lips using the back of his hand and headed to them.
"Let's get to business and get out of here."
Callie nodded.
Soon, they arrived in a cave-like part of the entrance to the chamber. Rocks were everywhere, even above. Remus even stumbled on one of the rocks as they entered. A long skin of a big snake was all over the place. Sirius swore he could have another round of vomiting.
They kept their wands raised, even Callie's, just in case of any attacks that would surprise them.
After a few trips and tumbles, they were welcomed by a circular door with sculptures of snakes as if guarding the chamber against anyone. Callie found it awfully similar to the movie.
"You can leave the brooms here. We'll use it to get back up," she said and the boys did as they were told.
Callie slowly walked towards the door. Her steps were little and her body slightly bent as if she would feed a lion. Once more, she imitated parseltongue and the boys behind watched.
The snakes curled down as another glided past around the door until the end.
Everyone watched but the Marauders had few questions in their heads.
"You're parselmouth?" asked Sirius.
Callie turned around. "No. I just imitated how Harry did it. I watched the movies too much that I memorised it." She added a nervous laugh.
"Harry? You mean my son?" asked James, pointing his forefinger at himself. "He's a parselmouth? How?"
"It's a long story."
Finally, the door opened. Wands still pointed around, they entered the chamber one by one.
"When Voldemort tried to kill Harry, Lily sacrificed herself creating a spell that protected Harry. Because of that protection, the curse bounced onto him, almost killing Voldy."
"Voldy?" asked Remus in confusion, the five of them clamouring just below the stairs.
"Yeah, I like to call Voldemort that."
Sirius chuckled, amused with the nickname. Callie had a feeling he would start calling him that too. "What happened next?"
As they walk to the statue of the face of a man, Callie continued her explanation. "A part of Voldy's soul attached itself to Harry, making him a Horcrux accidentally and letting him speak and understand parseltongue. Because Voldy is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself."
A collective oh's could be heard. The Marauders kept looking around, pointing their wands in case the monster all of a sudden came out of nowhere. The chamber indeed screamed Slytherin. The gigantic snake statues that seemed to be guarding the place gave them chills.
But Callie was fascinated. She would really have to take a picture of the place once everything is over. It's a must.
They had crossed the hallway and is now face to face with the gigantic statue. Callie could see Harry, Ginny, and Tom Riddle right where they were.
Releasing a deep breath, she looked around the boys. "Ready?" she asked with a thumping heart. Her hands and feet started to run cold, a lump forming in her throat.
She didn't really prepare herself to face a humongous snake — not that she expected to do so in the first place. But Callie kept reminding herself that she must do what she has to do. In order to save these people that she holds dear in her heart.
"This should be easy right?" asked James, trying to keep the group motivated despite most of them not knowing what exactly would they face.
"Yeah," Callie answered breathily before swallowing. "We just stab it with the sword — that hopefully appears in the hat—"
"Hopefully?" Peter whispered. He almost run outside in fear but he reminded himself that he was surrounded by these brave and strong people. They won't leave their friend be, would they?
"—then get a fang or two and off we go." The plan sounded very easy. But they knew executing it was not.
"Okay. But remember to never look in its eyes. Or you're as good as dead." Callie breathed once more as the boys did the same and nodded. "Here goes nothing." For the third time, she imitated parseltounge that Tom Riddle used to call the monster.
For a moment, nothing happened. It was as if Callie used the wrong words to call the basilisk. But they jumped on their feet when the mouth of the statue moved. As a fight or flight response, the five raised their wands but Peter stepped back a little.
It slowly opened like it was ready to be fed. Contrary to that, something came out instead. A long, sly dark green creature with glowing yellow eyes. The basilisk stood tall, eyeing the five people standing in front of it in a straight line. None of them was looking directly to its eyes, just to its skin.
For a moment, there was silence in the room. Only their deep breaths were heard and few swallowings. One could be mistaken that they were statues; no one was moving.
But Callie ended everything with a single whisper. "Run."