*Gobbledygook*
$Parseltongue$
-March 25th, 1992-
{Alex's POV}
"You said you've invented spells. Can we see some?" Blaise asked.
"Sure. What do you want to see? I've made a shield, blasting, languages, flame and growing spells," Alex said.
"What can the shield do?" Mandy asked.
"It can hold up against any spell, including the unforgivable, I'm pretty sure. Haven't actually tested it against spell fire though."
"Oh, that sounds cool. Can we see that one," Hermione asked eagerly. Alex nodded, moving back a bit to give the shield space to expand around them. They drew their wand, holding it out in front of them. With a slash across their body as though cutting a curse in half, they said,
"Praemunio praesidio." The bright gold and silver shield sprung into existence.
"Woah, that's cool," Neville gasped. Draco fingered his wand, watching the shield.
"May I?" he asked. At Alex's nod, he started firing off some spells. They were higher than first year level, as he had had training before Hogwarts, but weren't dangerous. Terry, Michael and Anthony stood, wands out as well. Alex nodded and soon they had four boys firing spells at them. And the shield still held. Finally, the boys all stopped and sat down again. Alex allowed the shield to disappear, retracting back into their body.
"What about the languages spell?" Padma asked. Alex smiled. They pointed their wand at Draco, straight at his throat, and drew a small figure eight in the air.
$Translate,$ they hissed. The others looked confused when nothing happened, and Draco shook his head, seemingly disorientated.
$How do you feel Draco?$ they asked.
"I'm fine. What was the spell meant to do?" Draco replied, not having realised that Alex asked the question in Parseltongue.
"How did you understand what Alex said Draco?" Blaise asked. Draco turned to Blaise.
"They asked in English, didn't they?"
*Nah, I asked in Parseltongue,* Alex replied.
"Then how did I understand what you said. I don't speak Parseltongue." Draco seemed to be getting more and more confused.
"Oh, I see what the spell did. It translates everything Draco hears into English," Lisa said. Alex nodded.
"It lasts for about 2 hours." The others watched Alex talk to Draco in many different languages, amused by the one side of the conversation they could understand. Eventually, Terry interrupted.
"So, what now? Are you doing anything at the moment?"
"No. For now I just go to classes, research, experiment and train. But I think that we should meet here every weekend to have a meeting, in case anything comes up," Alex replied.
"Well, lets head to dinner, I'm starving," Anthony said. They all agreed, slipping out of the room in small groups and heading down to the Great Hall.
-May 1st, 1992-
Alex met their friends in their rooms, having decided to take their friends who were interested down to the chamber. Their rooms had been decided to be their new meeting place, rather than the library. All their friends were already seated, homework in front of them. They had decided that before lunch they would still have a study session and after lunch would be dedicated to independent study, training or Griseo Gardiens business, not that there was any of that yet.
They had already recruited one of the house elves to deliver them lunch so that they could work and hang out together all through the day. They worked together to get through any homework that they had trouble with. The group also agreed to be there if each other needed to talk about anything. And they had agreed that they would stand together, especially because Neville was often the subject of bullying.
They had just finished lunch when Alex stood up and all eyes turned to them.
"So, I mentioned the Chamber of Secrets. I was wondering if any of you wanted to come down with me. I normally go and have a conversation with Celestine once a month, if any of you want to come," they offered.
"That sounds interesting," Blaise said.
"I would like to join you. It's not every day that you get to visit a legendary place," Draco agreed. None of the others wanted to come, so Alex led their Slytherin friends to the entrance to the chamber. Alex stopped outside the second-floor girls bathroom, looking around to make sure no one was around.
"Why are we outside a bathroom?" Blaise asked.
"Because the entrance is in here. It didn't use to be in a bathroom, but that's just how it happened when the extra bathrooms were added," Alex explained. "Come on, it's safe." They led them in, going straight to the sink with a snake engraved on it. Before they opened the sink, they turned to the two boys behind them.
"This may be helpful." They pointed their wand at Draco and then Blaise, hissing $translate,$ while pointing at each of them. They then turned to the sink. $Open,$ they hissed. The sink slid away, revealing an open hole leading down. $Stairs.$ The hole twisted slightly, revealing a staircase in place of a slide. Alex moved forward, leading their friends down. They led the way through the tunnel and into the open chamber.
"This place is huge," Draco said, looking around the chamber.
"It has to be, otherwise Celestine wouldn't be very happy down here. The whole reason Sal built this chamber was to house Celestine," Alex explained. They moved towards the large statue that Celestine lived in.
$Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four,$ Alex said. The statue opened its mouth, allowing Celestine to slide out. "Have I mentioned that Sal was really egotistical at times?"
$Hey Alex,$ Celestine said when she saw Alex.
$Hey Celest. I brought two of my friends to meet you. They always wanted to see this chamber too,$ Alex explained.
"I'm Draco Malfoy," Draco said, not looking Celestine in the eyes.
"Blaise Zabini," Blaise said, similarly not looking at Celestine.
$It's a pleasure to meet you both.$
"It is an honour to meet someone as grand as you," Blaise replied.
$You can look me in the eye, hatchlings. I will not do any harm,$ Celestine said. At her words, Draco and Blaise raised their eyes to look straight at Celestine. $I can see that your clothes have a different colour to Alex's. What house are you in?$
"We are both in Slytherin," Draco replied.
$They are just two of my friends. This chamber is legend in the Slytherin house, while dismissed as a myth in the other houses. Due to this, they both jumped on the chance to come down here. I have 8 other friends, two in Gryffindor and six in Ravenclaw, but they weren't inclined to meet you today,$ Alex said.
$Akira told me about some of them. She mentioned two other greys,$
"That would be me and Neville. We found out last week that in our group of 11, we have 3 greys, 4 lights and 4 darks," Draco said.
$That is rare to have almost the same amount of greys as light and dark. That will be an extremely powerful group,$ Celestine said. They spent another hour and a half talking with Celestine, until the translate spell wore off.
"I think our friends will be missing us and we have missed a few hours of training. Plus, dinner starts soon," Alex said.
"I agree," Blaise said. Draco nodded.
"Goodbye Celestine. We will visit you again when we get the time, Draco said.
$I will be back again next month. If there is anything you need, Akira is always able to get a message to me,$ Alex said.
$Thank you for visiting. I will see you next month,$ Celestine replied. All three of them bowed to Celestine, who lowered her head in reply. They all then turned away and walked out of the chamber. They reached the set of stairs that had remained there when they had arrived. Alex led the way up the stairs, stopping a few steps from the top.
$Open.$ A hole appeared above Alex and they were able to exit the tunnel. They all stepped out and Alex closed the sink with a hiss, $close$.
"Come on, I bet the others are still in your rooms Alex," Blaise said. Alex walked out of the bathroom before telling the others that they could come out safely. No one could tell them off for using the girl's bathroom, due to the fact the there weren't any gender-neutral bathrooms.
The small group walked back to Alex's rooms, discussing the few ideas that Celestine had had regarding the Griseo Gardiens. Celestine had mentioned nicknames, or codenames, so that they could safely communicate with each other without anyone knowing who they were talking with. She had also had an idea of having a way to communicate if there was an emergency, but none of them had any ideas of how that could work.
They reached Alex's rooms with a lot to discuss with the rest of the group. They knew that they would probably be later to dinner than they normally were, what with everything they wanted to talk about.