I'll be the one to say that this place was not the most hospitable. What is this place? I thought. I felt the familiar pain on my hand as the mystery writer answered my question: The Chamber of Secrets
My eyes widened when I read the message. If the mystery writer wanted to show me this... am I the heir of Slytherin?
Bones cracking under my feet, I proceeded deeper into the chamber. I stepped into a room that had a large, translucent coil of skin. Snake skin, I thought.
This proved my theory. When I read about the Chamber of Secrets and heard about the monster, I took it upon myself to learn what the monster was. My research led me to the conclusion that it had to be some serpentine creature. With the proportions of this skin, I immediately came to the conclusion that it was a basilisk.
After traversing the snake skin room, I was met with another door. "Open," I said in Parseltongue. The door unlocked.
I walked into a large chamber that had snake heads lining the head of the walkway. When I looked farther down the chamber, I saw the face of a man sprawled across the wall in stone. Salazar Slytherin, I thought.
The damp floor was covered with puddles as I proceeded slowly. I approached the large statue of Slytherin. "Open," I said once more in Parseltongue. The mouth of the statue dropped dramatically and I heard a very distinctive hiss.
I large, scaly, green basilisk came slithering out of the statue towards me. The basilisk paused right before me. "Who are you, child?" the basilisk asked in Parseltongue.
"Y/N Riddle," I replied cautiously. Then the basilisk did something I didn't expect. It bowed. I looked deep into the large yellow eyes of the serpent, wondering why it wasn't killing me.
"Heir of Slytherin like your father before you," the basilisk said. "Welcome home."
I was taken aback at the sudden mention of my father. "Look, Bas—"
"That is not my name!" Bas hissed.
"Did I ask for your opinion?" I hissed back. I calmed myself down. "Who was my father?"
"Tom Marvolo Riddle," Bas replied. "Or, more commonly known as, Voldemort."
I felt like my very essence was just stabbed at hearing my parentage. Bas didn't stop, though. "Young Tom was very ambitious and brilliant. Much like yourself."
"I'm nothing like that monster!" I hissed. Bas almost had a playful look in her eyes as she looked down at me.
"We'll see about that," Bas replied.
I wasn't an idiot. I was aware that my father is still out there, too weak to form a solid being. I realized how vulnerable this made me. If anyone found out that I was Voldemort's son... let's just say it wouldn't be a friendly visit.
"Hello?" I heard another voice say in English. I whipped my head towards an opening in the chamber as a teenage boy walked out.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked, getting up and dusting my robes off. The boy had a pale complexion and black hair. In a way, he looked similar to me.
"I am Voldemort," he said.
"Tom Riddle," I breathed. Tom scrunched his nose in disgust.
"Don't call me but that filthy Muggle name!" Tom yelled. Then his eyes narrowed. "Who are you and what are you doing in my chamber?"
"I'm Y/N Riddle," I said. Tom's angry gaze immediately softened as he looked at me. He looked at Bas.
"The basilisk told me my son was attending the school," he said. "H-how are you?"
I scoffed at his attempt at bonding. "I'm fine. I just figured out I'm the Heir of Slytherin and that I'm insanely vulnerable."
"I can help with that," Tom replied. Bas made a noise that almost sounded like she was clearing her throat. Tom rolled his eyes. "We can help you."
"How will you contact me?" I said. Tom's face twisted into a grin. My eyes narrowed as I understood what he meant.
"You're the mystery writer?" I asked holding up my wrist. Tom nodded his head as he took out a book from his robes.
"What's this?" I asked as he handed it to me.
"A book I enchanted long ago. It will show you anything want to read. Just say 'open' in Parseltongue so it recognizes you."
The book had a large chain wrapped around the middle that looked oddly like a snake. In the center it had a giant emerald. "Open," I said in Parseltongue. The chain immediately unlocked and I flipped through the pages.
"Every language known to mankind, Most potent potions and how to brew them, Legilimency and Occlumency," I read the chapter titles aloud. I found the chapter. "Here we are."
"You should probably get going now," Tom said. "Although, it is late. You might want to use a Chronokinetic spell."
I flipped to a page in the book labeled, Chronokinetic Charms, and flipped through the spells I finally found one that would change the time backwards. I took out my wand and pointed it high in the air.
"Praeteritum!" I yelled. A flash of green light encased me as I looked at my watch. The hands of time were moving backwards quickly until the finally rested at the time I got left to go to the restroom: 8:34
Tom placed two fingers on my forehead. "I'll see you later," he said before the world went dark and I fell unconscious.
***
When I woke up, I was in my bed in my dorm. I looked over to find everyone else still asleep. It was always dark and cold in the dungeons but today it felt colder. I stepped out of bed only to find that all of my homework had already been done for me.
There was a single note on my DADA parchment that read the initials, 'T.M.R'. The ends of my mouth twitched as I instantly realized who had placed the note.
After recalling my memories of the night before, I proceeded to shower and put on my uniform. I combed my black hair out of my eyes to find that my eyes had lost their greenish glow. They were now a dull shade of gray. I looked curiously into the mirror to find that my skin had also paled. Faint, dark circles had appeared around my eyes.
I shook the thought off and got my things ready for the day. I paused when I saw a familiar chained book with an emerald in the middle of it. I flipped through the pages and began to get quite interested in the 'All of the Languages Known to Wizard-kind' chapter. I suppose learning every language could be useful.
The only problem was, How was I supposed to attain that much information. Suddenly, the pages faded in and out and the words changed. The chapter now read, 'How to Learn 854 Languages in Five Minutes'.
I looked wide eyed at the book. I started to read the chapter to find out that you had to cast a speed charm and memory charm.
"Celeritas," I muttered. Everything in my body suddenly became energized and eager. This must be the speed charm, I thought.
"Adipisci," I said. As soon as I said that, it felt like my brain expanded another eight million slots of memory.
"Here we go," I said. The pages faded back to the language page. I took a deep breath in, and started to read.
It was surreal. I was flipping pages at the speed of sound while attaining all the information. After five minutes, I had ended the chapter.
Unfortunately, knowledge came with a price. A splitting migraine erupted in my head as I grasped it.
"Seems like a painful way to study," I heard a voice say. I whipped my head around to see the entire dorm staring at me. The person who said it was Draco Malfoy. I immediately stopped clutching my head as I blinked through the pain.
"Whatever," I replied as I gathered my books.
"Where are you going?" Draco asked. I turned around to him.
"I'm going to clear my head in the library," I replied before walking out of the room. My hand subconsciously went to my forehead as I fought through the pain.
When I got to the library, the pain was nearly unbearable. I opened the book to find the language chapter replaced with 'Relieving Pain'.
I quickly looked through the pages to find a spell that spread the pain across all the body so that it relieved pain. "Levare!" I casted on myself. The pain in my head eased as I felt a dull ache erupt throughout my body.
I slumped against a bookshelf as I took out the book with the emerald. I used the same memory method to learn every magical creature in existence. I fought through the migraine as I read about herbology and charms. Eventually, I got to the transfiguration section. I became very interesting in the Animagus chapter.
"Animagi and Werewolves?" I heard a voice behind me say. I turned around to see a familiar brown haired girl staring back at me.
"Yes," I said. Hermione nodded as if she understood.
"I've only had a short summary of them from the books in the library," she explained. "Say, what book is that?"
"It's a book I got from the restricted section. I got a note from Professor Snape," I lied. The words flowed out of my mouth like lying was a language I was fluent at. Hermione nodded.
"I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot," Hermione said. "I'm here to say that you're not a fact machine. You're a real person."
"You don't say," I muttered under my breath sarcastically as I shook her hand.
"I was wondering if we could be friends?" Hermione asked. I felt the ends of my mouth twitch. She was so inexperienced at making friends it was almost adorable. Almost.
"I know Ron can be a little suspicious at times but I'd like if you'd hang out with us?" she said. I knew she meant it as a firm statement but it came out as more as a request.
My eyes narrowed as I glanced around the library. "Who put you up to this?" I asked. Hermione's composure slightly faltered as I glanced around the room predatorily.
"Ostendio!" I commanded. A faint aura glowed around a corner of the library and I made out three people. I flicked my wand and what seemed to be an invisibility cloak flew off of three familiar faces.
Harry, Ron, and Aurora stood awestruck at my performance. I simply snorted and turned my attention back to Hermione. "I see how it is," I said sneering. I turned around and was about to exit when I felt someone grab my hand.
I whipped my head around to see Hermione holding my hand. I flinched violently at human contact that wasn't Aurora. "Please," Hermione said, "just listen to us."
"Fine," I said. "I'll decide if this is worth my time."
Harry started first. "As you know, there was a 'break in' at Gringotts a few months ago. It turned out that it was Hagrid who took the stone from the vault. During my first Quidditch match, Snape jinxed my broom. I saw Snape with a bite mark on his leg. We've come to the conclusion that Snape is trying to get the Sorcerer's Stone for his master, Voldemort. The one person who did know things about wasn't sure so we decided to go to you—"
"What he's trying to say is that we need someone smarter than Hermione," Ron cut in. My eyes darted from Aurora, to Harry, to Ron, to Hermione.
"I don't think it's Snape," I said. I saw Ron and Harry roll their eyes.
"What proof do you have that he's trying to steal it?" I asked.
"First of all, he tried to kill me!" Harry said. "And, we saw the bite mark on his leg."
"He could have been uttering a counter-curse to try to stop whoever really was jinxing the broom. Snape's one of the teacher's protecting the stone, he could have been trying to ensure that the stone was safe," I argued. This really got the four of them thinking.
"Well, Snape or not, we're going to confront whoever is trying to steal the stone tonight," Aurora said. "We'd like you to join us."
I thought about it for a moment. "Fine, but if don't expect this to change anything between us," I said. "Good-day to all of you."
With that, I walked out of the library knowing damn well that I was completely screwed if Draco and Blaise found out. Well, I thought. What's life without a little risk?