Chapter 57. Failed Negotiations

Tom sighed and shook his head with disappointment. “Pity…” He then turned to Pansy, and I watched in horror as she suddenly fell to the ground, as if strings holding her body up were cut. “Pansy!” I yelled while rushing to her side, I checked to see her chest moving, and felt her breath tickle my hair as I knelt beside her. “I would have wanted the mudblood as a sacrifice, but this one will do all the same…” Tom said, his eyes looked downwards to me, filth in presence. “Flipendo!!” I yelled while sending out a knockback jinx to him, but it only phased right through, crumbling the cave behind him.

Tom chuckled at me. “Still a memory… The only way to stop me from killing your friend, is to give me that mudblood.” I ripped the diary from Pansy’s hands and threw it on the ground. “Incendio!!” I yelled, fire blazing from the tip of my wand bathed the floor in a red hot flame. After I was done, steam blocked my sight for a moment, until I noticed the black leather-bound diary looked untouched. “Did you really think that I would store my memory in such a fragile container? You can’t stop me… You can either be with me, and have your friend… Or against me and lose both, along with your own life…” I grit my teeth, hatred boiling within me, true hatred for the being that stood just behind me, whispering inside my ear.

“Your True Heir commands the seal of my forefather’s loyal subject to show himself!” Tom commanded, and I looked behind me to see him yelling at the stone work of Salazar himself, his mouth slowly opening as the sound of grinding stone echoed throughout the Chamber. “Yes…” The Basilisk answered soullessly, proving to me that the poor thing was being controlled similarly to Pansy was, if not worse somehow. I stowed my wand, opened my robes, and quickly took out the largest and strongest bottle I was preparing for with this.

I also took a swig of my Vitamix, the world growing brighter under my gaze. “Trying to call upon your cursed blood again for temporary strength I see… But it won't help you, nothing can pierce those scales…” He smirked at me, my anger boiling at his foregone conclusion to things going his way. I glanced at my other bottle, and bashed the cork, shook the bottle, before throwing the entirety of it into the stonework’s mouth.

The concoction was the most caustic I had ever seen with my tests, willing to eat through anything organic in seconds. Made with Acromantula venom, an already caustic agent, and adding snake venom, fangs, as well as armadillo bile… The mixture threatened to eat the glass vials I contained them in. The only way of keeping the mixture ‘safe’ for handling was to store the strongest ingredient on its own, the Acromantula venom. I stored it a smaller glass vial in between two corks at the top, I would shove in the cork, crushing the glass vial, and letting it eat through the bottom one before the top would dissolve, and create the mixture in the bottle.

It was my first attempt at such a thing, and prayed that it would work. The bottle broke just above the mouth, and I could see poisonous gas of the mixture, as it slowly dripped down. I turned away to look at Pansy, feeling safe that the Basilisk would smell it, and realize it was too dangerous to leave its nest. However, cries of pain, screeching of agony soon pierced my ears. I turned back to see the Basilisk thrashing around in the pool of water below the face of Salazar. “What have you done!?” Tom yelled as the Basilisk thrashed in pain, her eyes bubbling as the solution dissolved her eyes.

“What have you done!?” I screamed. “Any creature would smell that, and know to stay away! Only something that had no care for its own survival would tempt fate like that! This is beyond ordering it, this is complete and utter control!” Screaming at him in disbelief over what he had taken part of, as well as my own forefather. “Trying to act self-righteous… Removing her sight will do nothing to hinder death itself! Kill him! Kill him now! He's right in front of you!” The Basilisk soon froze, her eyes bloodied, but the water removed most of the solution. The pain would be unmeasurable, yet the Basilisk ignored it for her master's orders as she stared her head down close to me. “Don’t do this!” I yelled stupidly, but the Basilisk only took that as an indicator for where I was.

It lunged at me, I took out my wand and used a small knockback charm on Pansy to push her away while I jumped aside. She skidded across the wetted ground, close to the lake’s edge. “Parseltongue won’t save you now, Peterson! I have binded her mind to only my orders! She only obeys me!” I grunted in rage as I darted back away from the truly mindless beast. It followed my footsteps, slithering around to chase me as I ran over to a nearby cave/pipe system away from both Hermione and Pansy.

Rushing through the dark and cramped halls, I continued to hear it hissing right on my heels. “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Glancing over to my right, I could see a pipe that led in between two snake statues and the walkway. I pointed my wand above me, knowing I had no other vials the useless solution of that caustic mixture as a deterrent. “Flipendo!” I screamed, the cave above me started to shake and crumble as I ducked into the nearby pipe. “KILL!!” The basilisk screamed as it was soon buried by the rocks from the ceiling. I coughed from the dust getting into my lungs, before rushing back over to the stone walkway.

Tom stood casually in the same place he was when I left. He looked at me with a frown, unhappy to see me still alive. “I gave you a chance to be part of something great. A commander in the most powerful dark wizard’s army to hunt the scourge of lower beings!” He waved his hands to showcase Salazar’s Chamber. “Yet you side with that little mudblood there? You are really betraying your heritage, your friends, and your future?” He scoffed at me in disbelief. “Are you even a real Slytherin?”

I slowly walked over to him, the pitter patter of water splashing under each of my steps announced each and every one of my deliberate anger fueled steps. “You may be right… It’s strange… In fact, I think the only reason why I began to care for non-pure blooded wizards and witches was because my parents equated them to the same beasts I held in high regard. Beasts they reviled for no other purpose than hatred and non-understanding… I perhaps might have been able to shut off that feeling of care if I tried, and ignore what you had done to Pansy, to become much like you. Why indeed did I throw away such a simple path of blind faith?” I paused, glancing at Pansy, passed out in the far distance, then at Hermione behind me, her gaze barely able to match mine, but still managing to showcase her watery eyes on the edge of tears, fear encompassing her. Both sights fueling the roaring fire in my very soul, helping bring to the forefront of my mind what his future self had done right before me.

I scoffed, glaring back at Tom with a crooked grin at the laughable reason I had gone against him and my own bloodline. “It wasn’t because of my moral compass being pointed correctly, or a belief of equality between all bloodlines like I should, like Merlin would want of me… No, above all that, I just simply could never allow for someone I held so much animosity towards to get their way. You are just a fragment of the past, a piece of history best left in said era. For what you've done, I revile you.” My lack of care for being overheard at the moment pushed all of the hidden and repressed burning rage that I held for years to finally come forth. Spewing violently in my words.

However with that rage, came head splitting pain. I grunted as a migraine started to form at alarming speed. “Vitamix, while giving you the ability to harness your cursed blood, does have side-effects, like perhaps with a trigger… an early transformation?” Tom asked, his dastardly grin widening, as if wanting to pay me back for the words I had just spoken against him. “Shall we test it?” He asked, his eyes glancing behind me. I felt my spine chill as I snapped my head back to see the Basilisk at the edges of the water near Hermione, still laying frozen under the spell keeping her bound.

“Over here!” I screamed to get its attention, but Tom chuckled as he commanded it. “Kill the one just in front of you.” Just as he spoke those words, I rushed over to Hermione, screaming out her name, watching her straining to move her body out of the way as the Basilisk slowly rose from the murky depths. The Basilisk hissed, slowly reaching over Hermione, as I ran over Tom yelled at me with mirth in his tone. “I know you have more, use them all, your first is about to expire anyway! Let’s test if you’ll die before you even reach the finish line!”

I had no time to talk back, and knew he was right. As much as I knew I was saving Hermione for the wrong reasons, mostly wanting to keep her alive for the sake of not seeing someone else die before me, I also couldn’t stand the idea of Voldemort winning. I took both of my extra vials and shattered them between my teeth, drinking their bloodied contents while spitting out the strained shards of glass. “Rrrraaahooo!!” My whole body strained in pain, and my screaming soon sounded like howling. My brown hair turned dark black, my hands turned rougher, and my nails grew slightly sharper. In that one moment, my speed amplified as well, and I managed to dart in front of Hermione as the Basilisk was just over her body.