Harry Potter :Diamond Heart

Harry ignored the paintings rambling. He had reached the conclusion some time ago that if the basilisk had been able to hear Slytherin then Tom Riddle was probably only partially responsible for its madness.

The egg swivelled on the desk once, revolving on its axis before Harry attempted to open it.] 'Mermish,' Salazar exploded from behind him. The founder was growing senile. 'Don't open it until it's underwater.'

'I can't hear it if it's underwater,' Harry patiently told the portrait who promptly broke into apoplectic rage.

'You'll be underwater too,' Salazar hissed in parseltongue, 'stop acting sceptical and listen to the wizard who was heralded as one of the greatest of all time.'

'Will it sound any different underwater?' Harry asked.

'It's Mermish,' Slytherin explained, sufficiently calm to speak in English again now Harry was listening. 'It sounds horrible above the ground, but below it is supposed to be quite beautiful.'

'How deep is the pool?'

'Only about five metres,' Salazar answered. 'I didn't want my basilisk to drown if she fell in. It will be cold.' Harry detected more than a note of vengeful humour in the tone of his ancestor.

It seems my anti-Salazar device has come back to bite me.

The egg screeched horrifically all the way to the bridge, drowning out Slytherin's indignant protests at his early opening of it.

Harry stripped off his robes and dropped, naked, into the pool before the vast likeness of Salazar Slytherin's face. The moment the water covered his head he could hear the singing. It was choral, and such a drastically different tune to the egg's last that he would have never guessed it could have come from the infernal thing.

He had to wait until the song had finished before he could listen to it from the beginning. Come seek us where our voices sound, We cannot sing above the ground, And while you're searching ponder this; We've taken what you'll sorely miss, An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took, But past an hour, the prospect's black, Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

He dragged himself out of the icy water, shivering violently in the cold of the Chamber of Secrets while the serpent effigies looked down indifferently upon his discomfort. It took several strongly cast warming charms before he was dry enough to put his robes back on. His teeth did not stop chattering until he was back in the study.

'Was it warm,' Salazar snickered, looking pointedly towards his blue fingernails and pale skin.

'I will leave the egg open when I depart,' Harry threatened, half-serious.

'What did it say?' the founder asked, more subdued.

'Something of mine will or has been taken,' Harry informed him, 'something important.'

'Oh,' the portrait raised an eyebrow in a fashion eerily reminiscent of Harry, 'I thought everything you possessed was down here cluttering up my study?' 'So did I,' Harry mused. 'Maybe it's just a turn of phrase,' he suggested weakly.

'Maybe they intend to take something you can't hide or protect,' the painting countered, 'a person, perhaps.' It made sense, but there were few people that Harry would sorely miss.

They can't choose another champion, Harry decided. That would play havoc with the tournament.

'The only person they could take is my godfather,' Harry announced confidently. 'If they find him then being party to the tournament is the least of his worries, or mine.'

'What else did you learn?' 'Whatever they intend for me to retrieve will be kept by the Merpeople, underwater, for at least an hour.'

'There are Merpeople in the Black Lake,' Salazar responded straight away. 'Godric used to talk to them.'

'There's a giant squid and who else knows what in there too.' Harry did not relish the idea of going into the lake. It was likely every bit as cold as the pool and much less hospitable.

'Where did the squid come from?' Salazar asked.

'How would I know?'

'You might have been curious,' he ventured.

'I wasn't, but I do know it eats toast. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan feed it.' Slytherin peered at him in disbelief. 'It's true,' he insisted.

'Squid do not eat toast,' the founder denied flatly. 'Still, I advise avoiding it for the duration of the task. How do you intend to breathe. There's the bubble head charm, but it isn't really meant for long term use, self-transfiguration, enchanting and even a selection of magical plants.'

'Transfiguration is my forté,' Harry decided. 'I don't want to have to choke down anything from Snape's stores. He's probably pre-emptively poisoned half of it.'

'You'l have to pick something to transfigure yourself into,' the founder pointed out. 'You've chosen the hardest route. You won't be able to master a full self-transfiguration in time, but a partial one could be managed.' 'Obviously it needs to be something that breathes under water,' Harry mused.

'Don't get too complex,' Salazar warned. 'You only need to breathe for an hour, gills would be enough.'

Harry gazed rather wistfully at the books on the anatomy of water creatures on the far side of library.

'Another time,' Slytherin chuckled. 'Having an animagus form is very useful, but it takes a great deal of study and has more effects than you realise.'

'Just gills then,' he agreed. 'They can't be too complicated.'

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