"How does this work?" Ron asked quietly. "Do you know how to summon his ghost?" The trio stood in front of the northern plot. Carved snakes curled around a bronze placard - Salazar Slytherin.
"Yeah, this should be easy. I can sense his bones, his spirit. I just need to call him from the beyond." Harry sighed, taking in a long look at the scenery. For once, he loathed to unleash his Dark magic on such a perfect place. But it squeezed out of his pores and into the earth, the shadows growing harsh as the wind stilled. A rose bush wilted. Harry squatted down to place his hands over Slytherin's grave, turning the lush garden gray beneath his hands. He focused on the marble casket beneath the surface, on the ancient bones inside. He began the incantation, his blood pouring from gaping wounds that marked up his hands, to his arms, to his chest. Slytherin was old, had been dead for a long time, and was unwilling to come forth. "Slytherin," he hissed, words snakelike and rumbling with power. "I summon you."
A minute passed before enough of the Founder crept back into the mortal plane, his form shattered and shifted like static on a dead television channel. Salazar Slytherin huffed at the sight of the three children.
"Necromancer," he said. "You have summoned me."
"I have questions," Harry said, standing up as darkness licked the blood from his flesh. His eyes were the only light remaining, casting an unpleasant neon glow over the twisted features of the dead garden. "Answer them, and I will release you back into death."
"Then ask away, necromancer."
"Where is the Chamber located, how can one enter it, and what is your Monster which guards it?"
Salazar began to speak in a monotone voice of the pipes inside the walls, of hidden dungeons beneath the Black Lake, of basilisks as large as trains. Of roosters and spiders and venom and petrifying eyes. When he finished, Harry did not speak again, just released his hold on the spirit and let death seep back into the earth. He gathered himself for a moment, pushing his darkness down, and when he turned around, he found the great cherry tree had morphed into brittled bark and crumbling leaves, devoid of color and life.
Unable to look at what he'd done to the garden, they shadowed back to Hogsmeade, then into the Transfiguration courtyard. The whole evening's worth of magic left Harry rather winded. He was more than ready to head into bed and deal with the basilisk tomorrow when the party crashed right into a frantic Ginny Weasley, a chicken under one arm.
"Ginny?" Ron questioned. "What are you doing up? It's the middle of the night - It's not safe!"
Her face flushed white in fear, her eyes darted around the quiet hall as the shadows released the group from hiding.
"I - I could ask the same of you," she whispered. "I went looking for you in your dorm around midnight and you weren't there!"
"What were you looking for me for?"
"Well it was for Harry," she flushed red this time. "Look - I don't - I don't." The chicken began to cluck with impatience. Harry noticed Ginny wasn't in her pajamas, and was trailing mud around the floor from her boots. She'd been up for a while.
"What's happening, Ginny?" He asked as he'd been under the assumption that Ginny thought he was weird and would not be interested in seeking him out in the middle of the night.
"Ok, please don't be mad, I promise, I swear I didn't mean to! Tom made me! But there's a snake under the school and he told me if I stopped he would kill Ron and Fred and George and Percy and I didn't know what to do and - and -" Ginny heaved, beginning to hyperventilate. Luna pulled the girl into a hug, while Ron stood frozen in horror.
"You're the Heir of Slytherin," Harry surmised. "And you went looking for me for help, I assume. And when you couldn't find me, you went looking for a rooster to kill the basilisk."
Ginny nodded pitifully.
"Well alright, don't worry, I was already planning on killing the thing tomorrow -" A loud rumbling hiss echoed off the corridor. Hungry. Hungry! Find and eat red-haired humans. Harry and Ginny flinched in terror.
"Ok! Well, that was the basilisk. Everyone, eyes on the ground! I'm going to the Chamber!" Harry bolted toward the nearest grate in the wall and cast a sonorous charm, hissing quickly into the grate.
Oh great monster, it is I, Tom Riddle, the Heir and most evil guy. I have heard your complaint and I am going to bring you a snack, just meet me at the Chamber, please!
Master bring snack? It hissed after a long moment.
....
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