Chapter 46
CASSIUS BLACK
Cassius had been surprised at Daphne's outburst. For as long as he had known her, Daphne had been his rock, a person he could trust and rely on, and to see her crumble like that in front of him had been a revelation.
The trouble at the World Cup had pushed her body to the limit, and now it was showing its effects. Thankfully, he had a solution to her problem, and he would stop at nothing to get it.
So, for the past few weeks, he had been pestering the Vice Headmistress for a chance to meet the Headmaster, who was conspicuously absent from the School ever since their little conversation.
In the end, the man arrived a day before the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were set to arrive, and so he found himself in that office again as he made his demand.
"I need the locket," he stated without wasting a second, as the old wizard raised a brow.
"And may I ask why?"
"I am going to kill Slytherin's monster," and the man's eyes widened.
"And you know what that monster is?" he had already told him about the entrance, so he nodded.
"It's a Basilisk," and his words seemed to age the man, who shook his head.
"I see," he whispered, his lips turned up in a slight smile as he added.
"It seems like my guess was right," and then he looked straight at him, and was silent for some time before he added.
"And may I ask why?"
"I need a few of its organs to brew a cure for my friend's sister, Astoria," and his smile widened.
"Yes, I have heard of Miss Greengrass's curse. A Maledictus Curse of the worst kind, but as far as I was aware, there was no cure for the curse," and he was wrong.
"A cure is possible, as long as you can find out the name of the caster and the essence used," and at that he reached into his pocket and gave him all that they had pieced together.
"The Black family is obsessed with history, so we were able to track down the caster of the Curse," and Dumbledore eyed the papers with great interest as cassius continued.
"The person who cast the curse was a..."
"Gaunt!" he finished, and Cassius was fairly surprised by his quick reading skills.
"Yes, and since the Gaunts are all descendants of Salazar Slytherin," and the wizard in front of him was able to piece together the rest easily.
"You believe that ingredients from Salazar's Basilisk would be most effective against it," and Cassius nodded.
"And it is the only hundred-year-old Basilisk I know of, and Astoria does not have much time. The Healers believe that the curse has begun acting up, and if they cannot give her the cure within a year, it will be too late," and he would not let that happen.
Never.
"The locket may have belonged to the Gaunts, but after Voldemort turned it into a Horcrux, my uncle Regulus Black gave his life to recover it, hoping that one day someone would finish the work he had started and bring an end to Voldemort's reign," and he had not told him this.
"Regulus," he began, and he nodded.
"Yes, Regulus Black," and Dumbledore was silent, as he continued to gaze at him.
"You told me there were other Horcruxes apart from the ones you gave me," and he nodded.
"Yes, and I will tell you all about them as long as you give me back the Slytherin locket," and the Headmaster raised a brow. And that was his gamble, which seemed to catch the Headmaster by surprise.
"You would go so far for your friends, and put the entire world at risk?" he asked, and Cassius nodded, looking him in the eye.
"I don't want to, but I would. Daphne has been by my side since we were toddlers, and I will do anything to help her," he asserted and the room was silent before the Headmaster smiled.
"Such fierce loyalty, I wonder why you aren't a Gryffindor?" he asked, as they both turned towards the Sorting Hat, watching them from atop a cabinet.
"I wanted to send him there," it began.
"He was meant for Godric's House, that or Salazar's given his ambition, but he was rather adamant about being sorted into Ravenclaw," and with that it clicked its tongue.
"Stubborn fool threatened to burn me if I didn't listen to him, so I did as I was told," and much like Potter, he had been a hatstall, and his sorting had taken a few minutes rather than the average, which was in seconds.
"Really?" asked the headmaster, and Cassius nodded.
"I see," he whispered, still gazing at him with a complicated expression.
"Well, then let us be off," he said, and with that, the man stood up, making him frown.
"What do you mean?" Cassius asked, standing up himself.
"You are a powerful wizard but I am not about to let a fourth year student take on a basilisk, and given that our School shall be a host to students from Beuxbatons and Drumstrange from tomorrow, I think tonight is the best opportunity we will have to take care of this," and with that, he slightly twisted his hand, as an object whipped towards him from the cabinet, and Cassius caught it on reflex and saw that it was Slytherin's locket.
"Now, let me lead you to the entrance. I have always wanted to know if my own guess was right or wrong," and so Cassius followed after the man as he led him through the school Halls, before they were standing outside the broken second-floor girls' lavatories.
"Was I right?" asked the Headmaster, like a beaming child, as Cassius nodded.
"Yes," and the Headmaster.
"But I have always wondered how?" and Cassius now moved ahead, as he entered the stalls, and he had been here a few times before, years ago, to glimpse a bushy, blonde-haired girl brewing up a pot of Polyjuice Potion.
The spots of it were still visible in one of the stalls, as he touched the tap with the snake markings, before he reached into his pocket and put on the locket, and immediately he felt it glow, and as he opened his mouth to speak, the voice that came out surprised him.
"Open," and everything around them began to move. As the stalls moved, they revealed an entrance to a cave, and Cassius hit upon an idea.
"Stairs," and the ground moved again, as a rough but usable enough staircase appeared, leading them to the chamber.
"Five points to Ravenclaw for inspired thinking," came the voice from behind, as the Headmaster stepped forward, the tip of his wand was lit now with a Lumos as he turned towards him.
"Now, tell me Mr. Black, what is the weakness of a Basilisk?" he asked.
"The cry of a rooster," he answered, and the man nodded.
"Five more points to Ravenclaw," and with that, they began to descend, as he gave him instructions.
"Now, I must make one thing very clear, that you must do exactly as I say. I have brought you here because I believe you to be responsible enough, do not make me regret my decision, Mr. Black," and he nodded, as they descended the stairs and came upon the Chamber.
The place was damp, and dark, and as Dumbledore raised his wand, orbs of light spread all over the room and illuminated it all, even though his own eyes remained focused on the massive structure in the front.
He had always wondered what the Chamber of Secrets might look like and what exactly it might hold. The place was as majestic as he had thought it would be.
"So, it really is true," the Headmaster gasped, as he looked towards the wall ahead.
"What is?" he asked, and the man pointed towards the face on the wall.
"Do you know whose face this is?" he asked, and Cassius shrugged, given that it was a female face, it could not be Salazar.
"Salazar's daughter," he guessed, and the man shook his head.
"No, this is the face of his wife," and that was a surprise.
"While people believe that Salazar was biased against Muggle-born wizards and witches, the truth is quite the opposite. Salazar Slytherin fell in love with a Muggle woman," and this was the first time he was hearing about this.
"What?" and the Headmaster nodded.
"Yes, the other founders were against this because they thought that it put the entire school at risk. And so, he created this little chamber for themselves, so that they could stay together forever," and that was a surprise.
"It was why he created that locket in the first place," and that made some sense, given that the parseltongue was passed through blood, why would he need to create a necklace that would grant someone this ability?
"So that this Muggle-born girl could come and go from this place as per her need. I had always thought this to be a rumor, but now seeing this, I believe it all," and with that he turned towards him.
"Now, I want you to stand beside me and close your eyes. Leave the rest to me," and Cassius nodded as the man began to wave his wand and cast what seemed to be a few magical spells.
"Now," he said, and Cassius gulped as he began.
"Open," and the statue in the wall began to move, as Cassius heard a voice.
"Master! Master, have you come back!" and he could understand the Snake.
"Yes, I have!" he answered.
"Has the danger passed! Is it time to hunt again?" it asked, as Cassius answered, as he heard a rooster cry, as the Snake began to slither and scream.
"No. It is time for you to rest!"
"NOOO! NOOO! YOU ARE NOT MY MASTER! YOU...." and he heard several loud thuds as screeches and screams filled his ears, and it took a few seconds as the roosters continued to cry, before the cave turned silent once more as another voice came in.
"You can open your eyes now," and this time it was the Headmaster's voice, and as Cassius opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the massive body of the basilisk, lying there lifelessly.
Its body was so thick that it was larger than his own height in its sheer breadth, as the Headmaster conjured a cloth over its eyes.
"Such a majestic creature," he whispered as he touched its scales, and the man seemed genuinely sad at this.
"Oddment! Take this to the forest, and tell Severus to meet me in my office," and a few seconds later, the entire body of the basilisk vanished, as the Headmaster turned towards him.
"To harvest the body of a creature so valuable and ancient requires an expertise that only a few wizards have. The Potions Master and I shall harvest what we can. I will give you the eyes and whatever else you may need. And by the law, since the two of us were involved in the slaying, the money from it will be divided equally among us," and that was fine enough, he did not really care for the money.
"I will have some of the venom as well, and the hide he added. This was all too valuable to simply give away, and basilisk venom was useful in its own ways," and the man nodded.
"Come, you must see this," and with the entrance to the statue open, the man led them through it, his wand still lit, and as they walked forward, they came upon a cave, one much more livable than the chamber behind them, and even now, a warm light was spread all over the room. The ground had marks from the basilisk's scales.
And the marks were coiled around two graves, placed in the centre of the room.
The stone had long lost its luster, yet the engravings upon it were still legible, as Cassius read the two names on them.
"Salzar Slytherin-890--1009AD" and the headmaster moved his wand to the second grave, and the engravings on it had been cracked and destroyed, halfway, making it impossible for one to read the second part.
"Tom's work, probably," the man gasped, as he continued.
"It is written that Salazar vanished in 993 AD, leaving the school in the hands of his friends, but the truth is that he came here to this place and retired with the love of his life," whose name he read out
"Mereope Gaunt," he whispered, as the Headmaster nodded.
"Magic works in mysterious ways," and with that, the man waved his wand, and the damage done by Voldemort was repaired, as the stone repaired itself and the full name of Salazar's love was put on display.
"Let us go now," and Cassius followed him out of the cave and gave him the note.
"This is the list of the rest of the Horcruxes and their location. Though you can only reach one of them," and the man took the paper, and skimmed over it, and Cassius did saw how he stopped as soon as he read the paper.
"The Ring is cursed, Professor," he whispered as the Headmaster's eyes whipped towards him.
"If you touch it, you will die. Do not touch it," and the man had paled, as the realization dawned on him that Cassius knew more than he had let on at first, that it was not just Voldemort's secrets that he knew.
"So, you know about that as well," he began, weakly, and Cassius nodded as they stood in the outside chamber.
"Yes," he answered, and the man's lips thinned as Cassius eyed his wand, the Elder wand, one of the deadliest and most powerful wands ever made.
"Now it makes sense..." he added with a resigned expression.
"Why couldn't you trust me..."
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And as the two of them came out of the chamber and went their separate ways, another pair of footsteps entered the broken lavatory and snarled in rage as they eyed the retreating backs of the two men who had just walked out.
"You will suffer for this....!"
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