Chapter 32: Chamber of Secrets Part 2

Two meters was the diameter of the long snake-like beast that slithered its way out of the dark tunnel. Covered in brown grey scales no spells could penetrate, the basilisk was one of the most dangerous creatures known to wizardkind.

Its eyelids were closed, and two wide nostrils at its very front were twitching. It was smelling Kaiser and trying to remember his scent. It halted when it was a meter away from him, trying to memorize every detail about him. Then took several meters back.

"What happened to the previous owner?" It asked with closed eyes. The Basilisks probably didn't need its eyes to sense its surroundings.

"You're talking about the crazy one?" Kaiser asked uncertainly.

"They were all mad." The basilisk chuckled with a hiss. It was the most bizarre conversation Kaiser had ever had. Speaking to a snake feels just surreal.

"He's alive somehow, even though he got hit by a killing curse." Kaiser shrugged, but he got to experience how a frowning basilisk looks like.

"What an idiot." The basilisk shook its head. It was somehow funny to see it behaving like a human would. "Master always warned about the dangers of messing with your own soul."

"You know how he survived?" Kaiser asked with surprised. Did the basilisk have extensive knowledge about magic? Could it use magical abilities apart from its own innate ones?

"He used an ancient ritual to make a 'horcrux'. An object in which a part of your soul is stored, to anchor your spirit to the mortal world. You can't be killed this way, unless there are no more anchors, or your spirit is attacked. But master told me there are no known spells to attack the spirit." The basilisk explained. It did so mainly because he could access the information on his own once he got past itself.

"We are lucky not everyone is aware of such a relatively easy way to achieve pseudo-immortality." Kaiser sighed, but the Basilisk shook its head.

"Only the truly desperate, or the brainless would use such a solution. You will understand once you read about it." The basilisk said.

"I'm Kaiser Lunar. What should I call you?"

"My name is Amaru." The basilisk said, before turning towards the tunnel. "Light." The basilisk hissed, and torch fire lit up the darkness. Kaiser could now see how long it was.

There appeared to be a large chamber at the end. Kaiser spotted some shedded basilisk skin, along with skeletons of dead preys.

A peculiar closed door on the side of the tunnel made it to Kaiser's vision, and he could feel a 'summoning', as if something was drawing him there through a string.

Kaiser slowly made his way towards the door, the weird design was unsettling, many entwined snakes could be seen, and at the center some etches were made. The door seemed to sense his presence, as the inanimate snakes started retreating slowly, before opening.

What greeted him was an empty circular hall, with several arched doors, filled with engravings and snake designs. The roof, surprisingly, worked the same way as the Great Hall's; it was enchanted to look like the sky outside.

"Living Quarters", "Potion Lab", "Library" … Each door had a caption written in Ancient Latin, and led toward a different area.

"Salazar seemed like a neat person" Kaiser thought to himself, you could peek inside each room just by getting closer, the snakes were squirming and moving aside giving enough space to see and judge if the room was dangerous or not.

Kaiser decided to start with the living quarters. He wanted to explore first, because once he got to the library, he wouldn't be able to control his curiosity. The room was poorly lit and as he came in the door abruptly closed, looking around Kaiser did feel subjected to nervousness and uneasiness, the countless portraits of unknown wizards were resting near a fireplace, staring at him with cold eyes, behind layers of dust, a burnt stench rushed and invaded Kaiser's throat, his whimpers echoed near the fireplace and became howls.

The place seemed to react to his presence (or perhaps his desire to see more clearly?), as the fire, along with the candles suddenly lit up, and everything became crystal clear to him. He still didn't know how everything worked in here yet, where the wards control center was.

Walking through the quarters, He noticed a large comfortable sofa, next to a table where small antique accessories were neatly organized, nothing he would touch for now.

Kaiser decided to inspect the fireplace, where the fire was steadily dancing, to check if it had a Floo connection. Noticing his silly thought, he chuckled. There was no Floo network at that time.

At the corner of his eye Kaiser noticed a small stack of books resting on top of a rustic table in the room's corner they were poorly kept and the years of dust destroyed their cover, some parchments along with what used to be fresh looking bottle of ink, this seemed to be a study of some sort, looking closely there was a weird black gem siting carefully behind all the parchments.

Kaiser inspected further each element of the room using only his eyes, and then decided to quit the room, he planned on getting a quick look at all the chambers hoping to find something he might use or at least plan on using.

In the library, the atmosphere was completely different from the last room, the room was split in two parts each holding shelves of different widths, holding numerous books, at the center of the room a table was laid out holding few books, in opposite sides.

Kaiser also was shocked by the amount of flowers in this room, this contrasted greatly with all he've seen so far. Kaiser decided to take a step into the room and noticed the reason why the room was split, from each side of the table rested a gigantic portrait of both Salazar and Rowena, it was safe to say that this was a common place to the couple or at least has books from both figures.

Salazar was a genius of his time putting all efforts in dark arts and understanding the mind, not that Rowena was lesser than him in term of merit or research of course. Kaiser decided to take a seat and inspect some of the elements laid in front of him, when a voice interrupted him.

"It took you long enough. We have been waiting for more than a thousand years, you know?" Kaiser froze. The last thing he expected was to hear a voice here of all the places. He abruptly turned around his wand grasped tightly only to see the portrait of a man and a woman in their forties, staring at him from both sides with blinking eyes. He didn't notice them blinking the first time he came in, and therefore couldn't know they were living portraits. And a portrait of Salazar and Rowena, no less!

One has to know that they did not leave behind anything at all. Nothing that belonged to them was ever found, no portrait, wealth, artifacts or anything of the sort. Either they didn't leave any, or those they left were quickly taken and hidden. Portraits? That was unheard of.

"Greetings, Lord Slytherin and Lady Ravenclaw." he quickly gathered his wits and offered a bow. For him, this would be the same as meeting Einstein of his previous world. Their achievements, from what he read about them, were unprecedented.

"There is no need for you to bow. We are merely portraits of our old selves. We are happy to finally meet you, even under these circumstances." Rowena said, smiling at their new companion.

They spent the next hours speaking, mostly asking Kaiser questions how the world has evolved so far, both magical and non magical. They were a lot more impressed with what the non magical world was able to accomplish. Their surprise when they were told the non magical world reached the moon was priceless.

How is it, that those who couldn't even wield magic, and therefore lacked in their perception of the world, were able to achieve something they deemed impossible, even in their era? The magical world was not able to accomplish much in comparison. But Kaiser eased their minds by telling them he knew how to accomplish the same thing, but it would require years of research before he could devise a magical alternative to "rockets". They ended up asking him more questions about its inner workings, and he tried simplifying it, yet that somehow ended with more questions of their part.

When it was lunch time, a house elf surprisingly popped in to inform him that food was served in the dining room. He was guided there by the elf, followed by Salazar and Rowena who moved to another portrait. The place seemed to have been cleaned in the time he was speaking with the founders. He was also reassured by them that no one can have access to this place, and that the house elves are not a security risk by any means, for their lack of ability to communicate that location through any means, even Legilimency. Only the Hogwarts could give them temporary permission to come here, since this was still part of the castle.

There is a difference between the portraits and a real living person. Making a portrait was a complicated piece of magic, similar to making a Horcrux, though this was not dangerous by any means. But it had a lot of limitation. Making a portrait was similar to making a "snapshot" of yourself. Your other self would never change, evolve or anything like that. It has the ability to react like you would at that time, acquire new information, but lack the ability to process it correctly.

A portrait cannot give advice. Rather, it would be a terrible idea to take advice from a portrait, and they themselves are aware of it. They do not feel "less" for being a portrait, because they are incapable of such feelings. They know what their goal are, and simply follow it, even though they seem alive. The truth is, they were still not alive, but can be seen as a very advanced form of an 'Artificial Intelligence', albeit one that isn't very intelligent.

However, they are capable of remembering everything the person knew that the time it was made, so they were useful in that way. It also means they have the same knowledge, which is most likely the reason no one can find a portrait of any of the founders. If they existed at all, they'd be taken to be disassembled in the hopes of stealing their memories, which was very possible, unless additional security measures were taken.

Rowena and Salazar were good company, and while they weren't that familiar yet, they invited him to be more at ease with them, since they would be spending a lot of time together. Not to mention they were portraits.

The living quarters were very accommodating. He found three bedrooms, each connected to its own bathroom, a well-equipped kitchen, albeit with outdated items. The house smelled surprisingly good, even though it seemed closed off. He had no idea how the ventilation system worked down here, but maybe he'd find out if he checked Salazar's notes.