Two days later he loaned Sheba to the twins, and slipped of to the second floor girls bathroom. After using the map to make sure no one was there he moved directly to the sink that house the entrance, and hissed, "~open~", followed by a second hiss of "~stairs~". Once in the tunnel Harry pulled both his wands. He used his non-dominant hand and holly wand to cast lumos . Feeling really grossed out Harry used his juniper wand to clean the slime from the walls and the steps. He hissed, "~close~" behind himself since he had no desire to be followed. It took awhile but he finally reached the bottom of the stairs. He vanished the skeletal remains of rats and what not, cleaning things as he went to the Chamber. Halfway there he found an enormous shed Basilisk skin. He grinned. The value of this shed skin alone would help his plans to improve Hogwarts greatly.
When he got to the chamber door he hissed "~open~". He watched calmly as the the door opened and revealed a chamber that looked rather self-aggrandizing and smirked. Salazar Slytherin definitely had the ego he saw in many of the snakes here at Hogwarts. He had already reviewed the memories of how Tom had opened the statue and bound the basilisk. He intended to free the snake to resume its intended duties. But first he had to see the condition it was in. He put down the box he carried. And removed its lid. He reached in pulled out a bespelled sheep and placed it on the floor where it promptly resumed its normal size and started to wake from its daze. He pulled out several of the shrunken hay bales and as they hit the floor they too resumed their original size and weight. Harry realized the dozen or so hay bales would feed the sheep for quite awhile since they were the large bales like livestock farms used. Once all of them were out he got out the rest of the sheep which calmed the first quite a bit.
And they all started feeding on the hay. Sheep now dealt with Harry turned his attention to the statue of Salazar Slytherin. "~Speak to me Salazar, greatest of the Hogwarts four.~" As he spoke the ridiculous, grandiose password that Tom had created he winced. He really needed to change that one back to the original password of "~Speak to me Slytherin~", but first he needed to deal with the basilisk.
"~Who is there? ~"
Harry saw the tongue of what he knew would be a massive snake flicker from the mouth of the statue."~Great one, I am a speaker and I wish to converse with you. I have brought you a gift of ten sheep. All I ask in return is that you cover your deadly gaze.~"
The large tongue flicked again tasting the air. "~I shall grant your request.~"
Harry nearly cheered. As the great snake exited the statue, Harry couldn't help but wince. It was in incredibly poor shape. The scales were dull and it was very thin. He moved to the side and said, "~Great one, I will stand to the side with my eyes closed. Looking at you I can tell you need a good meal more than we need to talk. Eat first, then we will talk.~" He closed his eyes.
Three startled bleats later, Harry heard the giant snake slither over to where he suspected if he reached out he would be touching the massive snake.
"~You may open your eyes, speaker. I have once again covered my stare. I thank you for the meal it has been centuries since I have eaten so well.~"
"~The pleasure is mine, Great one.~"
"~You are not of my master's blood, yet you are a speaker?~"
"~Yes when I was a baby I was hit by a spell. It went wrong for the caster and it gave me the ability.~"
"~What spell?~"
"~A killing curse. My mother had used ancient magic to protect me and it would have killed the caster but for the fact he had made Horcruxes to stave of his own death.~"
"~A killing curse on a mere babe, he sounds like the misbegotten blight that my master's family devolved to.~"
"~Do you mean the last person to open this chamber?~"
"~Yes.~"
Harry got the impression the giant snake was both angry and ashamed. "~What happened?~"
"~He first came to the chamber when he was on the cusp of adulthood. He discovered my presence and he spoke gently to me, he brought me food. Not the way you have, but it was still more food than I'd had for a long while. He promised that he would repair the doorway that lets me hunt in the Forbidden Forest so I would not longer have to subsist on the vermin I can catch in the pipes and tunnels. He asked that I let him study in Salazar's library and I did.
"~It wasn't until later I realized he lied and that he wanted to use me to further his own agenda. He came and told me the castle was being attacked. Salazar forgive me, but I went up and I accidentally killed a student whom I was supposed to protect.
"~I banished him from these chambers. I have lived here alone and in shame ever since.~"
"~Do you have a name, Great one?~"
"~My first Master called me Shreedevi. It means goddess.~"
"~So Salazar brought you here to protect the school?~"
"~Yes, I once was free to patrol the forest and to protect the school. But the spells that tie my chambers to the school's wards have been damaged by the current headmaster, and the door that allows me out into the forest has been damaged by a rockslide two and a half centuries ago. Without the spells and without the door I have resigned myself to a slow lingering death. Not that I don't deserve such for failing to do my duty, and killing a student.~"
""~I suspect that was more Tom's doing than yours. I am Harry Potter, Earl of Gryffindor, and Great lady, I need your help.~"
"~One of the Lion's children?~"
"~As a matter of fact, yes. I am a fairly powerful wizard and I'll do what I can to make you comfortable before I leave today. As I do I'll explain what you can do to help me. You see the problems with the school are many and you can provide potion ingredients that are very valuable that will allow the currently limited budget to expand…"