Cohen slipped into Myrtle's bathroom during the lunch break.
Weirdly enough, the ghost-repelling charm Voldemort left here last time was still active—or maybe he'd roped someone else into doing his dirty work again.
Either way, it seemed like Voldemort wasn't hiding out in the Chamber. He was blending in with the students instead.
Still, Cohen had to go meet this Basilisk relative of his. The Chamber was probably empty right now except for that one snake. The original old Basilisk only crawled out of Slytherin's statue when summoned by Parseltongue, right?
And this new one had been looking for him all this time—kinda pathetic, really. Sneaking all the way to Hogwarts just to track down a blood relative Dementor from the same lab…
Cohen made it to the tap that hid the Chamber's entrance without any trouble.
Back to the same old problem he couldn't get past before:
How was he supposed to speak snake to a faucet?
"Serpensortia."
Cohen smirked—he should've tried this ages ago but kept forgetting.
A sleek black snake shot out of his wand tip, looking so real it could fool anyone. It slithered and twisted across the slippery sink.
When Cohen locked eyes with it, something felt… off.
"Hiss hiss." (*Open*)
This time, Cohen spoke in Parseltongue—and after that first try, he could clearly feel the "snake language" buzzing in his blood.
With a flick of his wand, the conjured snake vanished.
The tap glowed with a blinding white light and started spinning fast. Then the whole circular sink rumbled, shifting and fading away until a massive pipe appeared.
"Hiss hiss hiss…" (*Not that hard, I guess…*)
Cohen muttered to himself.
Looked like he could speak Parseltongue now even without a snake around—like some fancy gadget finally unlocking a hidden feature.
[*Ding! Special Ability Unlocked: Parseltongue (9/10)*]
The pipe was pitch-black, long, and twisty. Slytherin couldn't even be bothered to make the entrance a little classier.
Or maybe since he could Apparate around Hogwarts, he didn't care about sprucing up the outside—just decked out the inside to match his vibe.
Cohen hopped into the pipe, but he didn't bother with the gross sewer-slide experience.
After turning into a Dementor, gliding down was way easier—no worrying about sludge or accidentally face-planting.
He zipped past a bunch of branching pipes, sticking to the main one until he hit the bottom.
It opened into a dark stone tunnel. Switching back to human form, he lit his wand.
The tunnel was littered with rat bones—Hogwarts must've had a serious rat problem once. The reason you never saw them running wild wasn't Mrs. Norris being some superstar mouser; it was the Basilisk down here putting in the work.
Cohen almost wanted to give it a medal. Without Voldemort, it'd probably just keep quietly doing pest control for Hogwarts instead of turning into a terrifying murder machine.
At the tunnel's end, he spotted some grayish-white sheds of snake skin. The Chamber's Basilisk hadn't molted in ages—next time might be soon, maybe around Christmas.
The walk was dead quiet—until he reached a wall carved with two giant snakes entwined together. Finally, some noise.
It sounded like two snakes whispering behind the wall. Too far to make out what they were saying.
He'd come this far—backing out now would be kinda rude.
"Hiss hiss…" (*Open*)
Cohen said to the wall.
The carved snakes sprang to life, slithering apart as the wall cracked down the middle and slid open, revealing a passage.
It led to a long, dimly lit room lined with stone pillars, each etched with coiled serpents. They stretched up to support a ceiling lost in shadowy darkness, casting eerie black shadows across the greenish, mysterious space—like one giant snake.
Slytherin *really* loved his snakes.
Cohen could see two souls at the far end of the room.
[*Soul Strength: 40*]
[*Soul Strength: 40*]
Both Basilisks were here, hissing away in conversation.
"Hungry… he told me to kill… but I can't eat them…"
One grumbled, sounding bummed out.
"They turn to stone… can't eat that… Salazar never mentioned this… just said we could look at people in the castle when his heir showed up…"
"Idiot, I told you you're a country bumpkin, and you didn't believe me…"
The other one snapped, exasperated.
"You've gotta stare right into their eyes. That guy turned to stone 'cause you looked at his reflection in the mirror…"
Both voices were male—hoarse and low. No wonder Harry thought there was just one monster; you'd have to listen hard to tell them apart.
Cohen could figure out which was the old Basilisk and which was the new one—his lab buddy—just from what they were saying.
"Wait… I smell something…"
The new Basilisk flicked its tongue, slithering toward Cohen.
*Snap!*
Torches on the pillars flared to life one by one, lighting up the massive room in seconds.
Two enormous green snakes reared up from the floor, staring straight at Cohen—one in front, one behind. Cohen stared right back.
He got a clear look at two pairs of yellow slit eyes this time—locked gazes—but nothing happened to him.
Some power in his blood canceled out their stare. Basilisks couldn't hurt their own kind, apparently.
[*Ding! Special Ability Unlocked: Death Stare (5/10) (Toggleable)*]
Damn it, did he really need to meet another Basilisk to unlock this? And why only half-unlocked?
Cohen's face soured.
At least he could turn it on and off—he wouldn't be screwed for normal life. The Basilisks, though, didn't seem able to control their death glares.
And since snakes don't have eyelids, their eyes were stuck open 24/7.
The old Basilisk was longer than the new one, hanging back and eyeing Cohen oddly.
This human-looking kid had a faint whiff of their kind—not strong, but its sharp tongue could pick it up.
It'd smelled this kid before, through a door, when that Slytherin heir ordered it to kill.
Maybe he was…
The old Basilisk stayed quiet, shifting its gaze to the new one.
The new Basilisk froze—or looked like it, anyway. Its mouth opened and closed a few times, like it couldn't decide what to say.
Right as it finally spoke, Cohen had a hunch about what was coming.
"Son!!!!"
The new Basilisk hissed, way too excited.
"Get lost," Cohen shot back, cool as ever.
(*End of Chapter*)