NOVEL NEXT 24. Entering the Catacombs
"Albus, did you know that there is a whole labyrinth of catacombs under your school?" Dan asked, lying on one of the cabinets in the old Headmaster's office. It was surprisingly comfortable there.
"I am aware," he replied without looking up from his book on Transfiguration. "And how did you come to know about its existence?"
Dan rolled onto his side and looked down at Albus. The old wizard said nothing about his antics in the Dark Forest, knowing that his non-existent ears were already ringing from the security lectures.
"Heard about it from a friend of a friend. I want to visit this attraction of unprecedented happiness, maybe spend a couple of days there."
Albus looked up from the old book and turned to Dan. His blue sparkling eyes rested on the boy's face and looked for something - maybe doubt or fear. But Dan even before his transformation had an impressive poker face, now it was even better.
"Do you think that's reasonable? Putting aside the fact that you were injured and was recovering until recently. Why would you go to a place like this with minimal knowledge of magic? I know for a fact that your herbology leaves much to be desired."
Unfortunately, Albus was right. Now, Dan's knowledge was full of holes, even those subjects in which he was the best, didn't reach the level of a graduate. And as strange as the comment about herbology sounded, everyone knew that there were enough plants in the wizarding world that could kill a wizard if he wasn't careful.
Actually, almost every plant in Hogwarts could kill if you weren't careful… Even the giant pumpkins.
So letting a young wizard go to the catacombs, where there was a lot of danger even for an experienced person, was irresponsible.
"Maybe not very reasonable, but only for ordinary wix. With my powers, I should be fine." Seeing the old man's unblinking gaze on him, Dan folded. "And I can teleport to the Medical Wing at the first sign of danger to my life."
Albus looked at Dan for a long time, weighing his options. Could he let one of his students go, knowing that they would be in danger?
…
He sighed heavily and rubbed his face with his hands – when did he get so many wrinkles? The man got up from his chair and went to one of the high cabinets where important scrolls lay, and with a steady hand took out one of them.
"This is a map of the first levels of the Catacombs, they are isolated from the lower levels and relatively safe. The only way to get below is by opening the door, the key to which you will find inside the scroll." Albus said as he placed the map on the table. "But Danil, I have to say this: even if your zeal to explore and create feels unquenchable, you need to know when to take a break."
Dan was already on the ground, straight as a soldier. He was pleased to know that there were people in this world who were worried about him, but ordinary worry would not stop him from new things in life.
"Thank you. Truly." He muttered and reached for the scroll.
"Oh, and another thing," Dan's hand froze as his eyes lifted to look at Albus. "You will have to notify the professors of your absence and the reasons. We can't leave them in the dark, can we?"
The monster boy almost swore right on the spot. He didn't want to tell either Minerva or Snape that he was going to miss class! This was suicide!
Hanging his head and muttering obscene words under his breath, Dan took the scroll and put it in the huge pockets of his robe. The boy turned and began to leave the office, casting the familiar invisibility spell on himself.
"I wish you good luck on your expedition." Dumbledore muttered with a smile.
Dan and Luna were standing in front of a collection of washbowls. The toilet on the second floor of Hogwarts was known to many and not for good reasons. The main source of infamy was the ghost of the Moaning Myrtle – Myrtle Warren, as she was known in the world of living – who died in the one of the cubicles about fifty years ago.
Fortunately, she was in another part of the castle right now, doing other things. Girls from older years shared gossip with her in exchange for services that only ghosts could provide. Myrtle would spy on their allegedly cheating boyfriends and report back about what she found. It was a surprisingly efficient system.
It was an ordinary toilet room, – well, a magical one – with all the things that could be expected from such a place. The only thing that seemed strange to Dan was the almost imperceptible snake clippings on the sinks in the middle of the room. Although no one used the place, it was still in fairly good condition. How Filch could keep the whole castle clean, without magic, no one had the slightest idea. And only a dozen people knew that House Elves were actually cleaning everywhere.
"And this is a way into the Catacombs?" Dan asked with disbelief. He was certainly new to this wonderful world of magic, but he was sure that no one reasonable would hide a secret passage in the toilet.
"Of course not," Luna shook her head, "this is a secret passage to the Chamber of Secrets, where lays a path that leads to the Catacombs. However, I can't open the first pass, it's not within my capabilities," she reached into her bag and a second later pulled out a small blue crystal ball with golden runes on it, "But Harry Potter can, it's within his capabilities."
The runes on the ball lit up one by one, like a tree on Christmas, emitting a soft white light. A strange hissing filled the room and the sink began to move, shifting to the side like an ancient turtle. A tunnel opened up in front of the two students, leading down into the darkness. Luna twisted the ball in her hands and it emitted a hiss of a different tone, forcing the steps to appear in the tunnel.
"Was that Parseltongue?" Dan asked and the girl nodded. It was well-known that the boy had the gift, but no one was sure where he got it from. "Cool."
"The path leads straight down, but then aligns parallel to the ground. All the doors straight ahead are open, so everything should be fine." Luna put the ball in her pocket and quickly hugged Dan. "I have classes waiting for me, Danil Khromov, but I wish you good luck!"
And with these words, the girl turned around and skipped out of the lavatory. Mantis peeked out of her hair and waved goodbye to his partner – the Bowtruckle didn't like being underground one bit, so he chose to stay with Luna.
Dan sighed heavily and started down the stairs. The decision to explore the Catacombs on weekdays, when all the students were in class, was quite simple. This way he had less chance of bumping into someone in the corridors while he was walking towards his goal. But it cost him his guide.
According to her, the Catacombs were a huge labyrinth, even worse than Hogwarts itself. Of course, Dan had a rough map of the place with him and he could always teleport to the surface instantly, but he didn't want to waste time in vain. Especially considering Dumbledore asked him to find out what was going on in there.
Dan didn't mind, if the Catacombs were safe enough for Luna, then they were definitely safe for him.
Moreover, he spent enough time behind the ancient texts and the encoded message form Arwen. His mind just couldn't take in more information, even if Dan tried to force himself.
So he decided to conduct a small expedition and maybe draw a couple of sketches while he was underground. Night vision was definitely useful in dark corridors, and even in ancient Catacombs, the lower levels of which have not been stepped by a human foot for hundreds – maybe even thousands of years? Here, night vision was indispensable.
Why the Catacombs were built under the school, no one knew, but Luna suspected that it was part of a Goblin plot to conquer all of Britain. Considering that Luna also believed that the Minister personally made pies out of Goblins, Dan wasn't sure about the accuracy of the hypothesis. With the blonde, it was never clear whether her words were a metaphor.
With these thoughts, Dan reached the end of the stairs and went out into the more open part of the Chamber of Secrets. Although the floor was strewn with animal bones – he hoped they were animal bones – he couldn't deny that the room was grand for a simple connecting corridor.
Complex engravings of snakes on the walls gradually turned into full marble statues. Beneath the layer of bones and dirt, there was a floor of strangely familiar deep dark stone, and the ceiling was high enough to fit Hagrid's house inside three times.
"If this is just the entrance, then how huge is the room itself?"
As it turned out, the Chamber of Secrets itself was even bigger than the Grand Hall.
In the middle of the room was a lonely stone road over stagnant water, half of which had gone through a hole in the wall. Lord knows that Dan couldn't have done much if the floor was still wet. Even now, his skin tingled unpleasantly, as if a hundred needles were poking him from all sides.
The grandiose statues of snakes and the face of an old man were repeated in the designs of the room. Oddly enough, the central part was the largest statue of Salazar Slytherin's face with an open mouth.
And although the hall looked grandiose, age and abandonment got to it. The once impressive passage now looked like a creepy murder hole.
A small wooden bridge led to the hole in the wall, which looked like it was made of rotten plank of wood. Dan didn't use it; he adjusted the bottomless backpack on his back – courtesy of Filius Flitwick and Minerva McGonagall – and immediately teleported to the entrance so as not to even come close to the water.
Unfortunately, Dan didn't have a chance to notice one small detail when his silhouette disappeared into the shadows of the Catacombs. In his absence, the statues' eyes lit up for a moment, activating the castle's ancient defenses against intruders.
His way down had just begun, but the way up was already cut off.