Harry slid through the darkness for what felt like several minutes, his back sliding down the smooth surface of the pipe. Before Harry could react he was launched into open air and fell in the darkness for a few seconds. He flailed his arms wildly, but relaxed slightly as a spell caught hold and quickly slowed Harry down like a cushion of air. Harry felt himself being pushed upright and slowly lowered until he hit the floor.

There was a loud crunch as Harry touched the ground, and something sharp bit into Harry’s bare feet slightly. Harry was alone in the pure darkness and he realized suddenly that he didn’t have his wand on him. They had been in his robes, shredded and left on the floor of the bathroom above him. Harry squinted and noticed that there was a faint light bobbing in the distance. It was the orb from before. Was it a soul? Harry looked down and saw his own soul bobbing within his chest in his new vision.

So these orbs Harry was seeing were souls? So that means the person deeper inside might know how to get out of here. Harry carefully stepped forward and extended his long arms forward, each of his feet crunching the things on the floor beneath him. After a few seconds Harry felt the circular wall of a pipe and stepped upwards slightly to step inside. There was a little water dribbling on the bottom of the round pipe. Harry had to crouch slightly as he kept walking farther forward, but the pipe was still big enough to accommodate his height.

The place was like a maze, and Harry was thoroughly lost as he tried to navigate himself towards the soul he could see in the distance. Eventually, Harry felt at another dead end and frowned internally as he felt an intricate carving. He ran his hands over it and there were two snakes running around its perimeter and the carving of a man in its center. Huh, could it be?

“Open,” Harry said.

He drew his hands back as he felt the snakes around the perimeter begin to move and slither, adding some heavy clunks and thumps as they went. The door swung outwards, briefly blinding Harry at the sudden influx of light from inside. It seems his strange vision could be blinded even without Harry having physical eyes. He held his hand up to block the light for a moment and stepped forward into the room, letting out a groan of relief as he stretched himself back to his full height in the massive room inside. Blazing magical torches lit up the space, especially the far end of the space.

Massive statues of various snakes covered either side of the room with pipes of all different sizes having openings from floor ceiling on either side. Water dribbled out of some of the pipes into two long pools of water that stretched down on either side of the long room until it collected into a massive pool at the very end. Dominating the far side of it was a statue of a man’s head three times Harry’s current height. His hair curled and spread out into the walls behind him like roots, or as if floating as if the man was underwater.

Harry walked along the marble pathway running down the center towards the two souls he could now see. A girl with red hair lay splayed on the floor, a black journal clasped tightly in her right hand. Standing over her watching was one of the smallest souls Harry had even seen. Even the smallest soul he had seen in the void had been at least ten times the size of this puny thing. The soul was attached to a boy who flickered for a moment before returning to reality again.

No wonder Harry had missed it when seeing the two souls in the distance. He glanced between the boy and the girl.

“Are you going to help her? She doesn’t look very healthy, and she looks rather pale although that might just be the lighting in here…” Harry said, hoping the boy would understand him.

The boy flickered and when he returned he was staring directly at Harry with wide eyes. He let out a long hiss and there was a grinding sound from the large statue of the man’s head. The mouth slowly lowered and a massive snake head pushed its way through and slid into the pool. Harry watched in surprise as it took several seconds for the whole snake to push its full body out of the statue and into the pool below. The water rippled and the snake’s head rose far into the air and it glared at Harry.

The boy was still flickering as he furiously hissed at the snake. How strange, did he think that would work? Harry wondered.

Harry matched the large snake's angry gaze for a full minute, neither moving of them shifting as the snake swayed its head side to side. Harry thought its large yellow eyes and brilliant green scales were quite pretty.

“Your scales are very pretty,” Harry eventually said to the snake. Magical beasts were supposed to be intelligent, right? Maybe it could understand him. “And your bright yellow eyes,” Harry continued, “It’s a great contrast with the green.”

Harry saw a clear membrane flick over its eyes quickly and it twisted to seem to inspect itself, seeming surprised at Harry’s comment. Wow, it did understand him! Did it understand everyone or was this one of the perks of speaking Ascendant or soul language?

“No!” The boy shouted, his face contorted in rage, “YOU LISTEN TO ME, SNAKE! I am the Heir of Slytherin, not this creature. Kill it now, I have almost returned! I won’t be stopped after all my work this year.”

Harry turned and saw that the boy was flickering less now and the girl was looking much paler. Harry began walking over to get a closer look and the boy began alternating between shouting at Harry ineffectually and hissing furiously at the snake.

The snake ignored the boy and hovered there watching the situation from above. Harry noticed that its eyes were now covered by the transparent membrane as it looked down on them.

The boy ran at Harry as he drew closer, and Harry swiped his hand through his body in surprise. The boy cried out in pain and fell to the floor and began flickering again roughly. He stuttered and skipped as he slowly tried to make his way to his feet again. Harry noticed that the girl’s face was no longer so pale.

Oh, so it was like that. The boy was hurting the girl somehow to stop his flickering. Harry didn’t like that. Harry turned to the boy and began stomping and kicking his prone form as the boy tried to stand. The boy was like an illusion and Harry's legs passed through him like he wasn't even there. With every blow, the boy flickered more and more until the edges of his form began sparking and blurring. Harry kept hitting him until the image disappeared and there was only the little shriveled soul hovering there in mid air. The little soul flew over and attached itself to the little black journal in the prone girl's hand.

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A girl that was looking much healthier by now. She was still a little pale but was now breathing deeply and didn’t seem like she was on the brink of death like before. She opened her eyes, but Harry frowned internally as he saw hatred burning in her eyes as she quickly jumped to her feet.

“No! You will die, beast. I will make you pay for delaying my plans!” The girl shouted angrily and raised her wand to point it at Harry.

Harry was confused for a moment before he realized what had happened. This girl was being possessed by the little soul in the book! It must have been really desperate to bond if it had chosen to attach itself with an object like that. The girl drew back her wand to cast a spell, but Harry dashed forward so he was towering over her. She flinched but continued her spell,

“Avada-”

Harry hit her wand arm to the side roughly as she shouted her spell.

“Kedavra!” The girl finished with a grunt as she attempted to twist her wand to still point at Harry despite her arm being thrown wide. It wasn’t enough and her spell missed and struck the ceiling as it flew wide past Harry.

The snake hissed above them and appeared to peer closely at the little divot the spell had put in the ceiling before turning to keep spectating the two, well three, of them below.

With Harry’s free hand he grabbed the black journal still tightly gripped in the girl’s free hand and ripped it free before she could react. As soon as it left her grip she collapsed to the ground in a heap bonelessly like a puppet with its strings cut, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

Harry inspected the black book in his hand as the little soul in the book activated what seemed like an array of curses to attack Harry. They stung a little, but Harry could feel that they only sunk a little into his skin. Nothing for him to worry about too much. Harry felt a sudden urge come over him. It seems that he could get hungry in this form. He opened his mouth wide and tilted his head upwards, revealing his maw filled with sharp teeth.

The little soul desperately tried to curse Harry more but it didn’t manage to stop Harry as he daintily placed the book inside his open mouth. Harry bit down and the little soul screamed as he began working his jaw to shred the book. The book began bleeding ink as Harry chewed and swallowed. He wiped the corners of his mouth as little bits of ink dribbled out and onto the floor.

Harry felt the little soul struggling as it made its way down his throat and into his chest. The soul and the remnants of its container reached Harry’s stomach and Harry felt his much larger soul shift slightly to snatch up and swallow it in an instant.

Harry’s soul grew the tiniest amount in size as he felt his magic destroy the rest of the book that he had swallowed.

Harry looked up at the snake that had watched the whole thing without intervening. He realized that his place must be the Chamber of Secrets that Ron and Neville had been talking about before. And that meant…

“Are you the monster that has been petrifying the students during the year?” Harry asked the snake.

The snake lowered down from the ceiling until it was just poking out of the water and at Harry’s eye level. It stared at him and hissed.

“Sorry, I can’t understand you. Can you just nod or shake your head?”

The snake nodded.

“So, did you petrify those people? One of them was my friend.”

The snake slid forward and Harry tensed slightly as it approached the unconscious girl on the ground, but all the snake did was point its nose at her and send out its forked tongue for a moment to taste the air.

“She told you to do it? While she was possessed by the boy from before?” Harry concluded after a few seconds of thinking it over.

The snake nodded and Harry relaxed slightly. The snake seemed friendly enough so far.

“Why? Why follow his orders?”

The snake paused and pointed its head towards the passage it had emerged from, the open mouth in the massive statue of the head.

“Something in there?” Harry asked to confirm. The snake nodded and Harry made his way around the pool until he was at the entrance. He paused and turned back to the snake.

“Is it safe there? Are there any traps?” He asked.

The snake seemed confused and Harry realized he had asked two questions.

“Are there traps for me to worry about?” He clarified.

The snake shook its head. Harry walked inside until he reached what looked like a massive cavern carved by hand. At the far end was another one of the doors with snakes that Harry had opened when entering the last room. Harry walked in front of it and admired the carvings for a second. He was becoming calmer by the second as he realized that the snake didn’t have any ill will for him or Hermione. She was safe, and Harry had already dealt with the perpetrator even if it had been largely by accident. Harry began to feel a little warmth in his fingers and toes.

“Open,” Harry said and the snakes around the rim started slithering to unlock the door. It was much more impressive to see when there was visible light to see the display. The door swung open revealing a brightly lit room beyond. Harry realized that everything was growing around him as he stepped inside. He looked down at his hands and saw his gray skin and black veins were giving way to his normal pink flesh. After a few seconds Harry was back to himself in a human form and his warped vision returned to normal.

Harry looked down and realized that he was now completely naked. He looked around at what appeared to be a front room. To the left he saw a massive library with towering shelves. To his right was a cluttered room filled with various other items that appeared to be magic. But in front of him was another door that was far more elaborate.

Harry walked up to it and saw there was a blank slate on the door. He put his hand on it after a few moments of nothing happening. The metal rippled like water and sucked Harry’s inwards slightly. Harry felt something tingling up his arm for a moment before the door let go.

Words appeared on the blank surface. ‘Miniscule amounts of Slytherin blood present. Defeated the previous Heir in combat. Access granted. Welcome, Heir of Slytherin.’

The door opened and Harry saw a bedroom beyond. Harry rushed over to the dresser and opened it. Inside were overly large robes with green accents. Harry picked one up and held it to himself. It was at least twice his size. But to his amazement, as he watched the robes rapidly shrunk until they were perfectly Harry’s size. Harry quickly put them on and felt much more comfortable now that he was no longer naked.

Harry looked at the bed in the center of the room. He looked around but everything seemed fine. And hadn't that name plate said he was the new Heir of Slytherin? To think that Harry was descended from one of the school's great founders, even just the tiniest bit…

Harry stopped resisting his urges and ran forward and leapt into the massive four poster bed. He rolled over and the mattress molded itself to him. It was probably the most comfortable thing Harry had ever experienced. Harry let out a contented sigh as he lay there. He was going to love this place, he could already feel it…