The boy stayed silent and followed Harry to the ground floor of the castle. It took a good part of a day for the Potter scion to find this place. He already had an approximation from his research but finding the exact place Tom Riddle had hidden the entrance to the chamber, took a lot of time practically.
"Where are we going?" Longbottom asked.
"The Chamber of Secrets, of course."
"And how did you find it?" he said.
"I didn't. The Chamber isn't a physical place. It's not even technically in Hogwarts. It's in a pocket dimension and the heir controls the entrance. I found the old entrance back in November, but when the heir found out that I was tracking him, he changed it. We fought, of course, and I won. But it's hard to permanently defeat something like him. It took some time, but he came back a month ago."
"What do you mean? Was he a ghost or something?"
"Something, I guess," Harry answered, "The magic would go over your head. It probably would go over mine as well since I never focused on things like that. Ah, we've arrived."
They stopped in front of what seemed to be a sophisticated enchanted clock of sorts. It was a somewhat artistic piece, that was mostly useful for finding out different astrological phases. Dead useful in potion making and rituals, but not so much for the average wizard. It was archaic, almost a millennia old relic, and there were a lot of cheaper alternatives that were developed afterwards. Who would have thought that this ornament was a secret pass that practically no one knew about?
Harry used his Arcane Hearing to see the resonance of the artefact. Wizards had never needed the concept of encryption before. Because what would be the purpose of such an endeavour?
Of course, the Potter scion didn't complain. After all, it made breaking into secret passages a lot easier since reverse engineering using his Arcane Hearing was very easy if there was nothing preventing him from hearing the entire magical circuitry. It took around ten seconds for Harry to find the correct frequency and with a wave of his wand, he activated the opening function of the passage.
The gears started to turn, and the artefact opened up like a doorway, revealing a hidden room inside and allowing Harry and his unwilling guest to get in.
Longbottom was gaping at the entrance, "I didn't know this place even existed…"
He entered the room, admiring it. He was right to do so, it was as large as a common room and filled with portraits, tapestries, and books. It was a repository of forgotten lore and powerful enchantments, that Harry would have loved to devour in his own time. Unfortunately, it wasn't the time to discover the secrets of this place. Riddle's downfall took precedence.
"Neither did I before tracking the Heir down. It's called the Undercroft, I believe. I read about it in an old journal of some Gaunt who came to Hogwarts around a century ago. Nice guy, his family on the other hand, not so much. Even then, it didn't ever say where the entrance was, only that it was a secret room or something."
"And how did you track down the heir?"
Harry groaned, "When I looked at the attacks, I found something irregular. The victims were not that important, at least not as important as the locations. The attacks occurred in a certain pattern. If you take the castle and ignore the spacial anomalies, it looks exactly like a Pentagram. And pentagrams are very commonly used when it comes to rituals, because of the stability they create. And from my research, a ritual is activated in the middle of the circle, and the middle of the star is this room."
The Potter scion didn't know much when it came to rituals. It was a pretty sensitive piece of magic and well, it was too wild and unpredictable for Harry to appreciate. All of Harry's knowledge about rituals came from an all-nighter he spent in the forbidden section of the library trying to make heads or tails of whatever Riddle had planned. He didn't learn much, but he now knew enough to track down where the ritual was going to take place, and that the sacrifices were probably not going to survive it. The prospect of Daphne dying was unacceptable to the last Potter.
"Wait a minute. This is a ritual?" Longbottom asked.
"Yes, it is. A very large ritual, powered by five sacrifices and Merlin knows what else. I'm a bit out of my depth when it comes to rituals," Harry admitted, "I thought that I had enough time to stop it, but with Dumbledore out of the castle, this is the prime time for the heir to do it."
Longbottom looked frozen by the revelation and just nodded to himself, "How can I help?"
Taken aback by the boy's resolute tone, Harry said, "Since when do you agree with anything I say?"
"This is different. The school is in danger, and I think I could move past our feud for a little while…"
"What feud, Longbottom? I've mostly just ignored you. Trust me, I have better things to do with my life than this feud of yours," Harry retorted.
"Stop being a smartass Potter and tell me what to do…"
Harry groaned, "Try to find anything with a snake on it. Like a carving or something."
It took them around ten minutes for them to find the entrance. It was near an empty painting in the corner of the room. There was a tiny snake scratched on the left side of the portrait. The Potter scion grinned and spoke up, "Longbottom, say something in Parseltongue."
The boy who lived rolled his eyes and said, "Open up!"
"That was in English, Dumbass," Harry responded, "Look at the snake. Imagine it was alive, that his head was moving left and right, and tell it to open up."
This time, a strange hissing came of the boy's mouth. Harry could feel a pulse of magic projected by Neville's soul that had an intent of opening. The frame of the painting glowed with a brilliant white light and moved out. Instead of the wall, there was a small room, with a hole in the middle. It long tunnel going downwards that was wide enough for a man to slide into.
This was it, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry could go on with there. The pulse of magic Longbottom used could technically be recreated if he tried for a bit. He had done his best to memorize the feeling and sound of the Parselmouth when Longbottom asked the Chamber to 'open up'. He didn't need Longbottom anymore.
Harry threw Longbottom's wand back at its owner, "I guess this is it. Thanks, Longbottom."
"I'm coming with you," the boy answered with a final tone.
"This is not your fight, Longbottom."
"Of course, it's my fight. Whoever has been doing this is obviously trying to frame me. This is my school too, which honestly feels more like home than my actual house. My parents wouldn't have run from this, and neither will I."
Seeing that there was probably nothing he could do to stop the reckless boy, Harry shrugged, "It's your funeral. But let's be absolutely clear, if I tell you to do something, you do it without even questioning anything. And the first thing is to wear these goggles…"
Harry took off his hat, took out the basilisk glare resistant goggles and gave them to Longbottom.
The boy who lived gave him an incredulous look and Harry realized that the boy likely had no idea what they were facing, "The monster we're facing is a Basilisk. Entire teams of specialists try and often fail to kill one of them. It's a giant snake that kills you if you meet their eye. The heir has been holding it back to just petrify, but you can still technically be defeated with just a look. I made these goggles to stop that. This pair was supposed to be Daphne's, but I never got the chance to give it to her. Remember that the Basilisk's venom is also very dangerous; it can literally destroy any magic so don't get bitten. Are you still sure that you want to continue, Longbottom?"
The Longbottom scion just gulped and nodded.
Harry took out his own pair, which looked more like glasses than goggles. Technically, Longbottom's pair was safer since it covered the entire field of view, but Harry couldn't incorporate his actual glasses with the goggles. Because Harry was still practically blind without them, so he had to compromise and create large glasses and go over his own.
With that done, Harry looked down at the tunnel and grinned slightly.
He jumped into it and yelled, "Geronimo!"
.....
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