Severus continued down the tunnel while Alastor took the Weasley boy and went back the way they’d come. There was no way of knowing for certain that Harry had gone this way, of course—he might have been going in the opposite direction when Weasley had fallen—but he and Alastor had already covered a lot of those tunnels. You hope. Who knows how many times the rest of those offshoots split. “Harry? Harry, are you down here?”

Still nothing. He had no way of knowing how long ago Harry had left the Weasley boy either…it might have been five minutes, or it might have been five hours. This tunnel still hadn’t split, and Severus wondered just how far he’d walked. The only thing he had to judge by was the length of his own stride, and nothing to use for orientation. He could be under the Forbidden Forest by now, or in a tunnel just over the Chamber. Or under it. That Severus didn’t want to consider, not with the amount of water that had been in those pools. Besides, I think we’ve been going up for too long. I hope. “Harry?”

The tunnel made a sharp bend to the right, and he followed it around. Finally a split—not that he was particularly thrilled to see it since it meant more searching to do, but it was the one thing that had been common throughout this tunnel system. One tunnel went up and the other down. He’d been going up, so…. “Down it is. Micans Vestigium.” Unfortunately down dead-ended, and he had to backtrack and take the upslope. The upslope actually turned downwards fairly quickly; and it dropped away steeply enough that he found himself skidding a good portion of the way, flailing his arms to keep himself upright. He stumbled to a halt at the bottom and glared back at the slope. Climbing back up that was not going to be fun. The tunnel split again almost immediately, but he could see reflection from the left hand tunnel and had no desire to blunder into another pool of water so he went right.

“Harry?” Something echoed back in return, and he shifted to put his back against the wall. The sound had been distorted, hollow…nothing a human throat would produce. Small and furry. Small and furry and easilykilled. There was no point in trying to sneak around whatever had made the noise; for one he had no idea what it was or how good its senses were, for another he had no idea where it might be and the way his luck seemed to be going trying to avoid it would probably end up leading him directly to it.

There was another muted mutter that he was almost positive had come from in front of him, and he began to make his way slowly forward again. He was half-tempted to extinguish the light—it highlighted his position entirely too well for his comfort—but without it he’d be absolutely blind. Running headfirst into a wall and knocking himself unconscious wouldn’t do anyone any good. Besides, no doubt anything that lives down here doesn’t require light to explore its surroundings.

He came to another split in the tunnels—a three-way, so one straight, one left, and one right. “Harry?”

“—or?”

Severus started. The sound still had the hollow overtones that he’d noted before, but that had almost sounded like a word. “Harry?”

“—essor?”

Clearer, and unless there were small, furry, and easily killed things down here that spoke English…. Damn it, which way was that coming from? Left or straight…everything echoed so bloody badly. He rapped his wand sharply against the stone and headed left at a much quicker pace. “Harry?”

“—es—or—ape?”

Damn these bloody tunn—Severus’ thoughts were cut off as his right foot slipped out from under him suddenly and he found himself sitting on the ground with water lapping against his legs and a bruise forming on his backside. “I am going to murder that brat.” He was pushing himself to his feet when his wand dipped downwards and with the circle of light temporarily aimed elsewhere he was able to make out another ball of light in the distance. “Harry?”

“—fessor? —m here.”

“Yes, thank you, I noticed that.” Severus stepped forward cautiously, probing the water with the broom handle. So far it didn’t seem to be getting much deeper. In theory the pathway had to be fairly even the whole way across or he wouldn’t be looking nearly directly at Harry’s lighted wand, but…. He raised his voice. “Stay where you are! Stay!” If there was a pool in the stone separating them, he didn’t want Harry to be the one to fall into it. Although it would more than serve him right at this point. “Did you cross this tunnel already?” The response when it came was unintelligible, but he assumed it was a negative since an affirmative wouldn’t have required any additional explanation. Unless of course he didn’t hear or couldn’t understand and was asking me to repeat myself…. He was tempted to amplify his voice, but considering what the echoing was already doing he didn’t think that that would improve matters. His broom handle dipped downwards suddenly, and he cursed. One did not swim in thick robes, nor, if they were wise, did they go splashing about in complete unknown waters. He probed with the broom handle again, and it hit rock approximately a meter down. For a moment he turned his light aside to check Harry’s position, and he was not particularly pleased to see it bobbing slightly. Moving. “Stay where you are!”

“—on—es—ape—urt—”

What? Never mind, it doesn’t really matter. “I. Said. Stay!” He took off his heavy outer robe and left it on the dry tunnel floor. He was tempted to remove his boots as well—they would be worse than useless if it came to swimming—but the idea of cutting his feet to pieces on the stone floor didn’t thrill him either. And he couldn’t leave the broom behind if he wanted to have some warning before he had to start swimming. Casting a bubble-head charm, he continued forward. At least this way if he went under he was going to have at least some defense against immediate drowning. And against swallowing water.

A minute later he was chest deep and perfectly well aware that his student hadn’t come down this passage to get to where he was, but it was too late to turn back. Besides which, he didn’t trust Harry to stay where he was while Severus went searching for the correct tunnel. Wherever that might be. So help me, if this gets any deeper…. Well, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to do. He was already planning to kill Harry—perhaps a bit of torture first?

“Professor? What’s wrong? Why is your wand so low?”

At least he was close enough that the echoing wasn’t doing more than creating some background noise. “Because I’m bloody swimming, Mr. Potter.” Or nearly swimming, anyway. At least the tunnel floor seemed to be sloping upwards again.

“Swimming?” Harry’s wand—still luminated—started bobbing again.

“If you would like to live for more than two minutes after I reach you, you will cease all movement now.”

“But—”

Severus cursed as his foot slipped, although fortunately he managed to catch himself before he went all the way under. And it did shut Harry up. He ran into solid rock, then, and was relieved to find that it was the mouth of the pool he was stuck in. Why these tunnels had been built like this…. He climbed awkwardly back onto a dry tunnel floor and crossed the rest of the distance quickly to where Harry was standing against the wall shifting from foot to foot.

“Professor?”

Severus transferred his wand into his clamp, and then a hand on the back of the brat’s collar brought him up on his toes remarkably fast and a shake kept his mouth shut. “What in Merlin’s name were you thinking? Do you have any idea how dangerous coming down here could have been? Wandering off into tunnels you know nothing about!” Another shake. “You could have been—”

“Could you yell at me later?!” Harry interrupted, catching his arm in both hands. “Ron is hurt!”

“Alastor has already taken him back to the infirmary. Where you would be now as well if you’d behaved in an even vaguely reasonable manner, although why I would expect anything of the sort after the rest of your actions today I have absolutely no id—”

“What was I supposed to do? Just sit there and wait for someone to find us?”

“Yes!” He made himself release Harry and take a step back before he did worse than shake him a bit for emphasis. “Though since you had no business being here in the first place there should have been no need to make that decision.”

“But Professor, you said—”

“As I recall, I asked you to inform a professor when you were planned to enter the Chamber of Secrets, which you most certainly did not do. Nor were kilometers of unmarked, unlighted tunnels, the hazards of which are completely unknown, in any way a part of that conversation.”

“But Ginny and the twins kn—”

“To my knowledge, neither Miss Weasley nor any of her brothers have joined the Hogwarts staff, therefore what any of them might have known is completely irrelevant.”

“But Professor, I thought we’d be right back, honest. I didn’t think it would matter.”

“‘Didn’t think’ seems to be the appropriate phrasing, at least.”

“Professor—”

“I don’t want to hear it! I have just been drenched for the second time in less than three hours, there is a crick in my neck from wandering about in these bloody tunnels and the work I’ve been doing on Nagini’s poison has had to be postponed—” and probably half of it restarted—“all because of this ridiculous little stunt of yours.”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Harry snapped in return. “I just thought that Salazar Slytherin might have left something down here to help with the basilisk poison. Since he was keeping one here. And you said the poison was like Nagini’s.”

“They are related, yes, but in case you’ve forgotten he was keeping that snake for the purposes of petrifying and killing students. Do you really think he would have left any type of antidote just lying about? Stupid child going wandering about all over creation on a bloody whim with absolutely no thought as to the consequences.”

“I am not stupid,” Harry objected fiercely. “And yeah, maybe he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world, but he wouldn’t have wanted it to accidentally kill him so I thought he might have something. What could it hurt to try?”

“What could it hurt? Take a look around, Mr. Potter.” Does this look like my comfortable quarters? My lab? Anywhere any reasonable wizard would like to spend his time?

Harry shifted uncomfortably. “Well, it’s not like it was a total waste of time…we did find a bunch of notes and stuff in one of the front rooms, even if it looked like they were all about Hogwarts and not the Chamber. And getting lost was an accident…we decided to go a little further down the tunnels just to see what else was here, and we only made a few turns, but when we tried to go back we must have gotten turned around because we ended up in the water, and then there was a rockslide, and—”

“While you were in here?” Severus interrupted sharply. Not that he was interested in hearing any more of the boy’s pathetic excuses, but that point was actually relevant. Just what we need, the entire tunnel system coming down on their heads.

“What? No, nothing like that. The tunnel floor had collapsed into the tunnel under it so we had to climb down to keep going.”

“Ah. And why, if you were trying to backtrack to the entrance, would you climb down something if you hadn’t previously climbed up it?”

“I guess we were pretty lost by then,” Harry admitted, head ducking down slightly. “Anyway, we were climbing down it when some of the loose rock gave way and we both fell. I was closer to the bottom so I just got a few bruises, but Ron hit his head. He seemed all right at first, but then he started having a hard time walking and kept asking where we were, and then he just sort of collapsed.”

Consistent with a severe concussion. “And you left him there?”

“I gave him my cloak so he wouldn’t catch a chill, but I thought he’d get help faster if I could find the exit instead of just waiting for someone to come looking, so….” He shrugged. “Except there are a lot of tunnels back here. Is he going to be all right?”

“Professor Moody seems to think so, and he has a bit more experience with that sort of thing than I do. Although just how did you expect to find him again after getting help without a marked trail? Wander about at random?”It makes as much sense as anything else that you’ve said.

“We did mark our trail, at least after we realized we’d gotten lost just so we knew where we’d been, but it’s hard to see the marks scratched on the walls unless you’re looking in exactly the right place. And it didn’t really do any good then since we weren’t sure where we were supposed to be going.”

Severus made a disgusted noise and then glanced back at where the water stood. He wasn’t looking forward to a second trip through it—especially since Harry wouldn’t be able to both touch the bottom and keep his head above the water which meant that Severus would have to drag him—but short of wandering about hoping they found another way to the exit there weren’t a lot of other options. Unless we want to chance these marks he supposedly made…. Hm. I think not. “Where are your things? Your broom and pack?” Harry’s cloak was still with the Weasley boy, unfortunately…now that he thought about it Severus realized that he should probably have brought it with him. The tunnels weren’t precisely cold, but they weren’t warm either.

“We left them in one of the rooms by the entrance.”

Severus decided not to comment. “Come along then. We have a rather deep pool to cross and then something of a hike to get out of this place—you will remain with me the entire way or Merlin help me I will conjure a bloody leash, is that understood? I have had enough of your disobedience for one day.”

Green eyes flashed. “Yes, sir.”

Severus ignored the sharp tone and gave his broom to Harry as he slipped back into the pool, reaching back to help the brat in before taking it back. “Hold on to my shoulder, and if you’d like to live to see your next birthday don’t kick me.”

“The water’s deep.”

“Yes, I did notice that.” After a moment of thought he left his wand in the clamp and held his broom in his good hand. If he needed to drop something to grab the brat, better the broom than the wand. It took longer than he liked to cross the pool, but eventually the two of them were back on the opposite side of the tunnel. And dry, courtesy of a quick spell. With a glare he shrunk his outer robe—fortunately is wasn’t one of his best—and handed it to the brat. With my luck he'll catch a chill, and I’ll be the one who takes the blame.

“Thank you, Professor. Um, I didn’t come this way…are we close to the entrance?”

“‘Close’ is not the word I would use, however since I did have the sense to mark my path we should be out in a reasonable amount of time.”

Harry made a disgruntled noise but refrained from commenting. Which, since Severus was in a mood to tear a few more strips out of him, was probably wise. They made their way back past the first split.

“Did you put that there?”

“What?”

“The arrow.”

“Micans Vestigium.” Severus demonstrated with a flick of his wand.

“Brilliant.”

“Indeed. Now if you’ve finished being entertained by parlor tricks?”

Unfortunately rather than the brisk clip that he’d have preferred to maintain, the one that might get them out of here by midnight, Severus was forced to keep his pace fairly slow as the two of them began to make their way through the tunnel. Harry might have only claimed bruises, but he was favoring his right leg. Trying to hide it, but favoring the leg all the same. If Severus had had anything that could be used as a splint—well, besides the broom that he’d prefer not to damage since they still had to get out of the Chamber somehow—he’d have paused and tried to do something about it, but at this point their best bet was to get out of this place as soon as possible.

“Ron thinks these rough tunnels back here might be some kind of drainage system,” Harry said suddenly.

Can he not go more than ten minutes without making some sort of noise?

“He says his brother took him on a behind-the-scenes tour of Gringotts and they use something similar except smaller around the backs of the vaults to keep humidity down. I guess some of the vaults are heated or something to keep the contents safe.”

That explanation that hadn’t occurred to Severus, but it would explain why the majority of the actual Hogwarts dungeons were fairly dry. Not all of them by any stretch of the imagination, but around the Slytherin dorms, and in fact his own rooms as well, there were almost never any moisture issues. “Perhaps.” It wasn’t really his primary concern at the moment.

“Do you really think that Ron is all right?”

“I believe he will be.” He wasn’t a mediwizard, but students with concussions weren’t precisely uncommon after all.

“How much trouble are we in?” was Harry’s next question, and Severus paused to glare at him.

“I would suggest asking yourself whether you really want to know at this point.” He still wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to the boy when they were back in Hogwarts proper. Murder is still a perfectly viable option. They reached the steep upslope, and Severus gestured for Harry to precede him.

“Are you sure, Professor?”

“You sliding back into me will do slightly less damage than me sliding into you.”

“I kind of twisted my knee a while bit ago….”

Now you admit it. “I’d wondered. Still, myself landing on you would hardly improve the situation. Go on.”

Three attempts later and Severus had scuffs on his boots and a deep—and fairly nasty—scratch on his palm to add to the list of things that irritated him about this little excursion Harry had led him on. He braced himself at the bottom and waited for Harry to slide back into him.

“This isn’t working, Professor,” the boy said in disgust as he stepped away and brushed ineffectually at his robes.

“I’d noticed that.”

“I tried transfiguring my shoes into ice boots, but it didn’t do much of anything. Do you know any sticking charms?”

“I’ve tried two…there’s just too much dust and sand on the slope.” While Harry’s ice boots might not have been able to get any purchase on the stone, his charms were getting too much—they picked up all the loose particles and attached them to his boots which then proceeded to slide right back down the actual slope. If he kept trying for another hour or two he might be able to clear a path, but….

“Can’t you transfigure it into a staircase or something?”

“I’d prefer not to tamper with the structural integrity of the tunnel.” Particularly since there had obviously been cave-ins here in the past. “Here.” He held out the broom. “Fly up to the top, and then slide it back down to me. And do not even think about going anywhere until I am beside you again, is that understood?”

“Understood.” Harry stepped over the broom and kicked off. The slope of the tunnel made for a somewhat awkward flight, but it wasn’t long before the blob of light that was Harry’s lit wand stopped moving and there was the sound of something sliding towards him. In the background were distorted echoes, and it was with a deep sense of relief that he finally began the ascent. At least the rest of the trip shouldn’t require such efforts. “Amazing, you managed to behave yourself for an entire two minutes.” He took a moment himself to bind the gash on his palm…with all the dust and dirt down here it would be better not to seal it until he’d had a chance to make certain that it was clean.

“I said I was sorry. Getting lost down here was just an accident.”

“It is positively amazing the ‘accidents’ you stumble into.”

Harry grumbled something in return, but Severus had already started walking again and decided not to put in an effort to decipher his words. He heard the voices—or at least echoes of them—before he actually saw a light flickering around the corner. He pushed Harry back behind him. “Who’s there?”

“Severus? Is Harry with you? Did you find him?”

“As he is with me, it stands to reason that he was found. Hello, Minerva.”

She and Alastor were in front of them moments later. “Are you all right? Both of you?”

“Yes, Professor,” Harry answered before Severus could speak.

“He’s got something wrong with his knee,” Severus corrected. “But we are more or less unharmed otherwise.”

“Is Ron okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” Alastor assured him. “In the infirmary with Poppy and his mother now. She’s in a right snit.”

Molly Weasley? Yes, I would imagine so. Though Poppy wasn’t likely in a particularly good mood either. Severus winced slightly.

“I suggest we all make our way out of here,” Minerva said with a glance around that narrowed to a glare. “What in Merlin’s name were you thinking?”

For one bizarre moment Severus thought that she was speaking to him, but fortunately common sense reasserted itself before he opened his mouth.

She didn’t even notice his hesitation, continuing to glare at Harry. “Coming down here at a time like this! And alone! It’s a good thing that Miss Weasley has a good head on her shoulders, otherwise those twins would probably have come as well and all four of you would have been wandering around for who knows how long!” Apparently Harry opened his mouth to say something, because she gestured sharply. “I don’t want to hear it. Now come along.”

Severus brought up the rear as Minerva marched them down back down the tunnels. At least she was keeping the pace reasonable with regards to Harry’s ankle, although from the glares she was shooting over her shoulder the brat was going to be in detention for the rest of his time at Hogwarts for this little stunt. Good. Unlike Albus, she isn’t one to ignore a student’s misbehavior, even or possibly especially one of her own though. I think I’ll see about getting him assigned to me for a few of those. He still had his own retribution to take, after all.

“You found them!” a voice exclaimed as they reached the mouth of the tunnel.

Why is it that every other professor at this school besides myself seems to find it their mission in life to state the completely obvious? Pomona waited at the statue’s feet as the four of them started to make their way down.

“Oh!” Harry halted suddenly and then started climbing again.

“Mr. Potter, what in Merlin’s name do you think you’re doing?” Minerva demanded as Severus was opening his mouth to order the bloody brat to reverse direction immediately.

“We left our brooms and my pack in one of the rooms. And there are the papers too.”

If it hadn’t been for the papers Severus would have snapped at him to forget about it, but he had to admit some curiosity about what Slytherin might have left behind. Not that he expected any kind of cure for the basilisk poison—he still found that idea more than slightly ridiculous—but it would be an experience to see anything that had been written by one of the founders. “Apparently we will be back momentarily.”

He wasn’t surprised that both Minerva and Alastor began to climb back up as well, although since he could actually feel two glares on his shoulder blades he had no doubts that they were against this little expedition.

“This had best be immediately off the entrance,” Severus muttered with a glare of his own as he and Harry reached the top. There was a chance that he wouldn’t survive the arrival of the other two professors if it wasn’t.

“It is.”

“What are you thinking, Severus?” Minerva snapped as she reached the top. “We’ve only just gotten out and you want to go back?”

Alastor was muttering under his breath as well…Severus was even less interested in knowing what he was saying than what Harry had been. “While I agree that Mr. Potter’s actions were foolish and irresponsible, he and the Weasley boy apparently found some notes left by Salazar Slytherin. And since I have no desire to return to this place at any point in the near future….”

“Hmph.”

Harry had already started moving down the right tunnel, but he stopped almost immediately and hissed something at the wall. Severus greatly disliked those sounds…they reminded him entirely too much of the Dark Lord giving orders to Nagini.

There was the grinding sound of stone on stone and then a square block recessed and Harry lit his wand and stepped in. Severus followed closely on his heels. At least I can stand up straight in this cavern. “Get your things and let us go.”

“Not much to look at,” Alastor said as he joined them.

True enough; there wasn’t much there. A few tables along the wall, a chair in front of one of them, and the remains of what might have been parchment at some point in piles on the tabletops. He leaned over the nearest, but the ink had run and faded—and seemed to be fading more and more by the minute as the rays from Severus’ wand reached it—and what little he could make out was incredibly archaic. Sill, this was what he was interested in, and he tried to gather them together without causing them to crumble any more. Fortunately they seemed to be made out of some sort of thin cloth rather than simple parchment which would have decayed years ago, and no doubt the unchanging climate down here had helped with the preservation as well. Although what was going to happen when they were removed from this stable environment…. “I don’t suppose you know any preservation spells?” They’d never crossed any of his areas of interest.

Alastor gave the chair a swat with his crutch, snorting when the leg fell off. “Not my department.”

“Reservo pro posterus.”

A blue glow surrounded the notes, and Minerva gave a sharp nod. “That will do until Madam Pince can have a look at them. Now can we please leave?”

“Yes, Professor.” Harry had his bag looped over one shoulder and the two brooms he and the Weasley boy had brought under his arm. Severus frowned and then turned the boy around and put the notes in his pack. Better than trying to carry them out itself.

“All right, then.”

The light from the chamber was still visible in the hall, and the four of them made their way back to the floor with a minimum of fuss. Pomona had apparently gone back to tell Poppy and Molly Weasley that they’d been found, and it was with some relief that they finally returned to the girls’ bathroom. The younger Weasleys were absent, although that bloody ghost girl was still muttering off in the corner.

“There you are!” Poppy exclaimed as they opened the door to enter the corridor. “And you! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You and Mr. Weasley could both have been killed!”

“Is Ron all right?”

“He will be in a few days. Come along, I expect you’re in no shape to be cavorting about in the tower either. Probably caught a chill at the very least, and what in Merlin's name did….”

Severus tensed as a heavy grip from behind forced his hand to open slightly and the bandage to slide down, but there was only the sharp rap of a wand against his palm before he was released. Ah. He should have healed that gash himself as soon as he’d taken a good look at it…if Poppy caught sight of any blood she’d be hauling him off as well. Bad enough to be stuck in the infirmary with the Gryffindor boys, being stuck there with the two of them and a worried parent as well would be absolutely intolerable. Particularly that worried parent.

A moment later Poppy ceased her lecturing of Harry and moved to look over himself and the other professors, and he hastily balled the bandage up in his palm. Bad enough that he now owed Alastor thanks, there was absolutely no sense in it being for naught.

“Well, you seem to be all right,” the mediwitch concluded after a few diagnostic spells. “A bit chilled, the same as Mr. Potter here, but I suppose that’s to be expected.”

“We’re fine, Poppy,” Minerva assured her. “Is Molly still in the infirmary?”

“Yes, but Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley need rest just now. You may visit in the morning.”

That was clear enough, and Severus shook his head and stepped towards the door. “If you will excuse me, I still have actual work to do.” A fractional nod in Alastor’s direction discharged that obligation, and he made his way back down through the halls. Half past midnight. If he was lucky some of the antidotes that he’d been working on would still be viable. As if. For some reason all my luck tends to be unreasonably bad. At least there’s still Harry’s torture to plan.