Due to the error that Arjayess caught, I've swapped 'Creature' for 'Beast' in the new forbidden words as that should fit marginally better than 'Creature' in those circumstances. I dare say the traditionalist bigots would be more likely to go with 'Filthy Beast' than 'Creature' when they're ranting and raving anyway. It's just a quick and dirty patch, sorry, but I couldn't be arsed rewriting the whole thing to fix the mistake and hopefully it will work better that way.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any HP characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale, it's fiction but not a kid's story. There will probably be changes made over the first hour or so as I find things that didn't come out quite the way I wanted.

Aside from Sirius' grandfather passing so that Sirius became Lord Black and Harry became Heir Black, the rest of the school year was largely uneventful. Between school and their other training they were working their arses off though and Harry, Hermione and Luna kept growing and developing faster than the others because they put a lot more time and effort into their warrior training than anyone else. Another interesting development that came out of the warrior training was that trying so hard to generate the goblin magical bucklers had built up Jean and Roger's magical ability over time to the point where they were no longer a weak witch and wizard, their magic was actually comparable to moderately strong 'ordinary' witches and wizards now.

When they were tested at the start of their warrior training, the goblins had found that they both had quite enough latent magic to be able to control the magical goblin silver weapons and bucklers, so Balrog and Gamling set them to working on that, and also the magical bucklers because they didn't need to be able to use wizarding magic to generate the bucklers. Remus, Alastor and the professors had begun teaching them to use wizarding magic too and Gringott had enchanted goblin silver half sword/spears like the Founders' made to serve as both weapons and wands for them. Griselda also organised to test them was soon as they reached the requisite milestones in their wizarding education so that they'd get the necessary records to show that they were qualified when they 'came out'.

This created a situation where they could wind up the traditionalists because them gaining their magic and becoming qualified in the wizarding world meant that Richard could take up his titles as Baron Dagworth-Granger, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth and Ancient Druid House of Granger. Hermione jumped at the chance to hand the Dagworth and Granger titles over to her father at Christmas after her parents had passed their OWLs and NEWTS, so they officially became Lord and Lady Dagworth-Granger. When the traditionalists tried trotting out the old wives' tales about 'Muggles stealing witches and wizards' magic', the family had fun pointing out that both Roger and Jean had been recorded in the book of magical births, but when they turned eleven someone had crossed their names off the lists for Hogwarts (even though children from established magical families with no more magic than them had attended), and they'd been obliviated of knowledge of magic.

Roger was shocked in his first Wizengamot session, because he realised that Harry, Hermione and the others hadn't been joking when they said that the traditional so-called purebloods behaved just like the titled officers in the movie 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. That was when he understood why they were working so hard to change the Magical world, because it was doomed if those retarded tantrum throwing brats remained in charge.

Harry, Hermione and Luna were putting more effort into their warrior training than they were their school work at this point, because holding themselves back to a pace suitable for the others meant that it was no challenge for them. They were also learning goblin and elvan magic, studying other forms of magic that weren't covered at Hogwarts, starting the process for earning their masteries and completing their non-magical education as well though, so they were still stretching themselves. At the end of the school year, everyone in the Lords Class passed their Fourth year tests with outstanding results, and most of the family were quite a bit beyond that.

The study in Harry's Haven was almost as big as the living room, because it had been expanded to fit extra tables in for everyone to do their homework and such, and the floo mirrors, magical portraits and sword/spears, half sword/spears, axes, bucklers and armour for each house took up quite a bit of wall space. While 'proper' goblin warriors used magical bucklers, many goblins couldn't generate strong enough magical bucklers to use in battle, so metal bucklers were also used quite a bit (magical goblin silver for those who could get them, otherwise plain steel). The steel bucklers were fixed in size at about a foot across but the goblin silver ones could be shrunk down to six inches or expanded to eighteen inches across.

As the goblins knew that most humans couldn't generate the magical bucklers, when they created magical goblin silver weapons for the heads of the magical humans' houses before the Norman invasion, they also created the bucklers for them. They created the half-sword/spears, axes and bucklers for the heads of the Druid houses to help them protect their families, and added full sword/spears and at least chain mail armour for the heads of the Noble houses. Originally, only the House of Potter's bucklers, armour and weapons had received the same enchantments as the Founders', so that they were unbreakable and sharper and lighter to handle than than any normal armour or weapons, but since they started their warrior training the same enchantments had been cast over their other Most Ancient Houses' bucklers, armour and weapons.

Neville carried Helga Hufflepuff's enchanted half-sword/spear with him at all times in a disillusioned, magically expanded scabbard as they all did, but Helga's other weapons, buckler, armour and portrait were in Harry's Haven's study with the rest of the Founders'. As well as each Founders' weapons, buckler, suit of what had become known as 'almian-rivet' plate and chain mail armour made from enchanted goblin silver and portrait, Harry had added the weapons, bucklers and armour for the house of Potter, weapons, buckler and armour for the house of Peverell and axe and buckler for the house of Ifan (Remus, Dora and Alastor carried the Potter, Peverell and Ifan half-sword/spears) and his parents' and Potter Grandparents' and Great Grandparents' magical portraits.

Hermione added the magical portraits of her most significant ancestors from the houses of Dagworth and Granger and Luna added the weapons, buckler and armour that came to her when they eradicated the Noble and Most Ancient House of Macmillan and the title and everything else belonging to them was forfeited to her (she actually carried Salazar's half-sword/spear, while her father carried the Lovegood one and her mother carried the Cathbad one). The axes and bucklers (and sword/spears and armour for those houses that had become Noble before the Norman Conquest) of the Most Ancient Houses that the other girls had been made heir to were also kept in the study so that they could use the weapons in their training and to protect themselves.

It was thinking about this as he looked at the portraits inter-spaced with the weapons, bucklers and armour while the Hogwarts was emptying as the students headed home for the summer that reminded Harry that there was something else that they really needed to deal with as a matter of urgency. This was the fact that back before he went crazy, Salazar had created a basilisk to protect the students if Hogwarts was attacked. As far as they knew, that basilisk was still down in Salazar's Chamber of Secrets beneath Black Lake, but Hogwarts and Myrddin had told them that Tom Riddle had somehow found the Chamber of Secrets and corrupted the basilisk when he was at Hogwarts in the Forties (if Salazar didn't do it himself after he went crazy at the end of his life), making it attack students and ultimately killing a student, Myrtle Warren, in the incident that he framed Hagrid for. What this meant was that there was a most likely crazy and terribly lethal thousand year old basilisk that could probably get into Hogwarts if it ever left the Chamber of Secrets, so they needed to get rid of it before it harmed anyone else.

They needed Harry's parseltongue abilities to get into the chamber, but they were hoping that as Salazar's heir he would be able to control it so that they could relocate it somewhere that it could live out its life in peace. They knew that in the real world there wasn't much hope of controlling it though, so they'd be taking a big enough team of elite goblin warriors to deal with it if they had to (basilisks were almost impervious to magic, so they would need goblin skills and weapons to face it). Of course, even if they managed to convince the others to stay back because they were needed to keep their work to save the Magical world on track, there was no way of stopping Hermione and Luna as his betrothed or Remus, Alastor, Balrog and Gamling and Efa and Emyr as their champions from coming with them, so they had to spend more time arguing about what protections they'd agree to.

"Look, I know I can't stop you coming with me, but if you do you have to wear the armour!"

"We do, do we? What about you? If we have to so do you!"

Harry nodded, as he knew that this would be their stance, luckily the Founders' and Potters' enchanted armour was far lighter and easier to move in than the other suits of goblin silver armour. "Yes, I will be wearing the armour too, and so will Uncle Remus and Uncle Alastor."

When they went to disagree he just stared them down until they capitulated. The blood adoption that enabled the champions' link to the family magic meant that Remus was accepted by the Potter weapons and armour, and Alastor was a close enough relation to the Hufflepuff bloodline that Helga's weapons and armour accepted him like Salazar's did Luna, if not quite as well. Balrog and Gamling had their own enchanted weapons and armour as the heirs to the Gringott family and Efa and Emyr were using more of the Potter armour and weapons. The rest of the goblin warriors who would be going with them would be equipped with magical goblin silver weapons and armour, but they wouldn't be at the same level, luckily their greater strength and skill should be enough to offset this disadvantage.

Once that was agreed, they had another problem, because neither Hogwarts or Salazar knew exactly where the entrance to the tunnels leading to the Chamber of Secrets was now. Salazar knew where it had been back in his day, but there had been so many changes and so much interference with Hogwarts that she didn't know where that chamber would be now. They were miffed at first, but soon shared Hermione's amusement when she laughed at them. "Why does the wizarding world have such a problem with logic? Who was killed when Riddle set the basilisk on the students in the Forties?"

Harry knew she was going somewhere with this but couldn't see it yet. "Myrtle Warren."

"Correct, and how many students' ghosts are there in the castle from this century?"

Myrddin chuckled as he got her point. "One, the poor girl known as 'Moaning Myrtle' who inhabits the girls' bathroom down in the Dungeons."

She smirked at him as she nodded. "So who do you think Moaning Myrtle is then?"

Hermione let Harry get away without admonishing him for what he muttered under his breath as he finally got the point too, and he kicked himself for missing it until his nose was rubbed in it. "It would appear that Miss Warren has decided to remain here in the castle where she was killed."

She looked a little smug as she nodded at that, but he had to concede that she had the right to be a little smug for working it out before the rest of them, so Harry hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

They would have looked quite the sight as they headed down to Myrtle's bathroom if anyone was there to see them, nearly three dozen figures covered from head to foot in gleaming goblin silver armour, carrying swords, spears and axes, and they were wearing sleeveless silk tabards in Slytherin colours over their armour in hope of convincing the basilisk that they were Slytherins. Few humans would have any idea what the height of the armoured goblins meant, that the fact that they were all over five and a half foot tall said that they had reached the highest level of goblin warriors by training hard and using the goblin warrior growth potions for decades to develop to that size. Most would have no idea that this was the first time in centuries that most of the goblins' warrior elite had been together like this either but master duellers and experienced Aurors and Hit Wizards would have recognised the ones in armour as dangerous from the way they walked and their awareness of their surroundings. They had another group going with them as well, to form a last line of defence at the entrance to the tunnels just in case things went terribly wrong and the basilisk got past the ones going into the Chamber of Secrets.

When they entered Myrtle's bathroom, Harry called out for her. Her first demanding question was why they were all wearing that silly armour but she giggled when Harry replied. "We have a job to do and we expect it to be a little dangerous, but where are my manners? Miss Warren, my name is Harry Potter…."

When he stopped at her giggle she said. "Oh everyone knows who you are Harry, in fact most of the witches who come in here are trying to work out how to bag you and all your money…." She stopped to glare at Hermione and Luna, who had stepped up to stand on either side of him, and spat out. "Who are they?"

Harry sent a heartfelt 'Thank you!' to the girls over their link before he answered. "These lovely ladies are the reason that all those other witches are going to be disappointed Miss Warren, because they are my betrothed, may I have the honour of presenting Lady Hermione Granger, the future Lady Potter, and Lady Luna Lovegood, the future Lady Black."

As that had silenced her for the moment he continued. "We hate to bother you Miss Warren, but we have a problem that I believe only you can help us with. You see we need to get down to the Chamber of Secrets so that we can deal with the monster that killed you, but no-one knows where the entrance to the tunnels is any more. Lady Granger has pointed out that you would most likely be the best one to point us to where the entrance is, as it is quite likely you saw it as it was emerging from the tunnels…." He looked around and leant in to say, as if in confidence. "Hermione comes from the non-magical world like you and I did, but you know how simple logic like that escapes most people raised in the magical world..."

She giggled again as he moved back to continue in a more normal voice. "So we were hoping, is it isn't too upsetting for you of course, if you could tell us what actually happened when you died?"

"Ooh it was awful! I was hiding in here because that cow Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses, but I heard a boy's voice, he was talking to himself and making funny hissing sounds. I came out of the stall to tell him to get out because this was the girls' bathroom and he shouldn't be in here, but the last thing I remember was seeing two enormous yellow eyes, and then I died!"

She started wailing then and Harry awkwardly tried to comfort her. Hermione looked over at Luna and shook her head (because he would have heard what they said over their link). That was their Harry, he did the impossible for breakfast and was changing the world, but one crying girl, even a girl ghost, and he went to pieces!

Luna nodded and addressed Myrtle. "Myrtle, I'm sorry, I know that this is upsetting for you but we're trying to stop that monster killing anyone else, so it would really help us if you could tell us where you saw those big yellow eyes."

At first it didn't look as though Myrtle would go along, but then she nodded, pointing to some sinks at the other end of the bathroom. "It was somewhere over there."

They thanked her and headed over to the sinks, and after searching for a while, Harry found a snake scratched into the tap on the end sink. Nothing happened when he turned the tap, and Myrtle brightly added. "Oh that tap's never worked Harry." He nodded as he looked at the others and they all got ready in case something came out when he opened the entrance (if he could), then said "Open!" in Parseltongue.

Just as he was about to ask "Well what do we try now?" there was a scraping, grinding noise as the sink and the section of the wall it was attached to started moving, speeding up as it broke free of the hold of the accumulated dust and water that had cemented it in place and sunk into the floor. The smell of stale water and decay that wafted out of the hole as the entrance was uncovered made them all step back and the adult witches and wizards cast air freshening charms. Both the hole that was uncovered, and the pipe that headed down from it at a forty five degree angle were easily seven or eight feet high so there was little question that this was the primary entrance to the tunnels, but Hermione looked down the slimy pipe disappearing into the darkness and frowned at Harry.

"Well? Get to it!"

"Get to what?"

"Get to bringing up the stairs or whatever it was that Salazar used to go down there. Everything I've read about him said that he was very conscious of his image so I don't believe for a minute that he would have ever done anything so undignified as slide down a pipe like that, and I don't intend to either!"

Half of the people in the bathroom started snickering at that, and the goblins were laughing louder than the humans. Alastor snorted. "She's got you there laddie…." He stopped and looked down the pipe again, nodding thoughtfully. "I dare say she's right about the stairs too, so try that first."

Minerva broke in at that point. "No. I'd suggest that you scourgify that pipe first and then call for stairs Harry, otherwise they'll be so slippery you'll be on your arse before you've gone a hundred yards."

Harry nodded, conceding her point and raised the spear in his hand. What they knew from the Founders' portraits and Myrddin was that Salazar hadn't been overly enamoured with the martial aspects of being made Baron Slytherin, but as Hermione said he was very image conscious so he normally carried his half sword configured as a spear with a five foot long shaft and a dagger length blade, because it made a very impressive mage staff in that configuration. Knowing that he had spent a fair bit of time down in the Chamber of Secrets with the basilisk before he died, Harry was banking on the basilisk recognising Salazar's mage staff and accepting him as its master's heir because of that, anyway it meant that he had a powerful mage staff in his hand so he just used that to scour out the pipe.

Once the pipe had been blasted clean, he spoke in parseltongue again. "Stairs come!"

Harry was just as surprised as anyone else (if not more) when stairs appeared out of the bottom of the pipe, grinding like the piece of wall covering the entrance had as it moved down, but he just looked at Hermione to see whether she was satisfied and she nodded with a smile, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Then Luna joined them and they snuggled together while the others decided the order that they'd head down the pipe. The warriors knew what they were doing, so it wasn't long before the first of the goblins headed down, spears and axes resting on their shoulders so that they could be brought to bear quickly if anything attacked them. After a dozen of the goblin warriors had headed down the pipe, moving as quietly as usual, the daily fell run that made up part of their warrior training making them sure footed and confident that they'd be fit and ready to fight when they reached the bottom, Balrog, Alastor and Emyr stepped forward, signalling Harry, Hermione and Luna to follow them. Gamling, Remus and Efa fell in behind the three children and the rest of the goblin warriors brought up the rear.

Everyone kept quiet going down the pipe, communicating only with the goblins' hand signals (or over their mental links as Harry, Hermione and Luna, and to a lesser degree Balrog and Gamling and Efa and Emyr did), but nothing happened and they were all assembled in the tunnel at the bottom soon enough. Which direction to head in was easy enough to pick, because the tunnel floor obviously hadn't been disturbed in centuries on one side, but much of the dirt and debris had been pushed aside by some massive serpent on the other. Harry waved Salazar's spear again as he used a switching spell to replace the foul air of the tunnel with clean air from above ground before they headed out in the same order they'd come down the pipe. At least having all those bones pushed aside saved them having to watch their feet all the time to avoid stepping on them and making a noise.

They went a couple of kilometres before the goblins in front signalled everyone to stop, because they could see something up ahead. Hedwig was riding on Harry's shoulder, so she took wing to investigate what it was. Harry and the girls could feel her amusement when she sent back a message that it was only a cast off skin, and they understood why when the group reached the spot where she was perched on the skin. Only a cast off skin? The bloody thing was well over twenty feet long! Even Alastor and the grizzled goblin warriors shuddered at the sight of the skin, because if it was still alive the basilisk would have to be bigger than the skin it had grown out of now.

The skin had been shed in the mouth of a side tunnel, none of them could feel anything up the tunnel so Hedwig went to investigate again, quickly returning to let them know that the tunnel had caved in centuries ago and was completely blocked. They went on a little happier due to the knowledge that there would be no danger coming from behind them at least.

Soon after that the tunnel opened up into a small chamber, with a pair of massive metal doors taking up much of the wall in front of them. Balrog nodded to Harry and he said "Open!" in parseltongue again. The girls (and some of the goblins) shuddered at the all too lifelike motion of the silver snakes as they slid out of the way to unlock the door, then the two leaves of the door ground open. They were surprised to find that the air coming from the chamber was actually much cleaner than the air in the tunnel had been, but they ignored that for the moment as they used all of their senses to scry for any presence in the chamber in front of them, but none of them could detect anything.

The goblins examined the foot thick doors as they passed and confirmed that they were made from goblin silver, and that much goblin silver would be worth an absolute fortune! Not being able to detect any danger in the chamber made them no less cautious though so the goblins fanned out, investigating every nook and cranny while Hedwig took wing again to scout the chamber as well. From what they could determine, the chamber was as empty of life as their scans had indicated, so soon enough they were standing in front of the massive bust of Salazar on the wall at the far end of the chamber, which stretched all the way up to the ceiling thirty feet above. Harry and Hermione almost burst out laughing when Luna giggled and sent 'Do you think this is one of those over compensation things that the girls talk about Hermione?' over their link, but one advantage of speaking mind to mind was that you didn't have wait until you can control your physical reaction before you speak so Hermione shot back. 'I don't know Luna, it could be.'

From what Salazar's portrait had told them, the basilisk's lair was behind that bust and the entrance to it was revealed when the chin on Salazar's portrait moved down like the wall in Myrtle's bathroom. Everyone except for Harry, Luna and Alastor (because Luna and Alastor had the next closest links to the Slytherin bloodline) hid themselves behind the pillars and when they signalled that they were ready Harry said "Open!" in parseltongue. The fact that the chamber had been hermetically sealed meant that there was no build-up of dust and water to interfere with its opening so the chin moved down smoothly with no more than a slight scraping sound.

As the entrance to the basilisk's lair was revealed they all reached out to detect what was in there, but this time they could tell that there was something alive in there, something powerful. Hermione passed Balrog's signal to continue to Harry over their link, because they weren't taking their eyes off the hole where the basilisk would be coming from, and Harry called out in parseltongue. "As the the true heir of Salazar Slytherin I command you to come to me Serpens Rex, faithful servant of Salazar!"

After a short delay, they heard a slithering sound coming from the opening, but they weren't prepared for the massive head that emerged from the hole so they almost shat themselves, Harry, Luna and Alastor especially because they were standing in front of the hole. When the basilisk had fully emerged from the hole they could see that it was seventy or eighty feet long, so that cast off skin must have been from a long time ago.

Harry was glad to see that the beast did recognise Salazar's spear, and sensed that it accepted him as its true master, but it dashed any hopes of this going well when it spoke. "Who are you to call for me? Where is my new master?"

"Who is this new master you speak of Serpens Rex? You are bound to serve the line of Salazar, your true master, and you have not been released from that! You have no right to choose who you serve, you must serve me as Salazar's Heir!"

He could sense its confusion, which gave him a niggling worry, but it argued with him.

"No! It is true that you are the Master's heir, but you do not feel the same as he did, you are different! My new master felt as the Master did so I was right to serve him!…."

It suddenly stopped and sniffed the air, hissing. "Elf! And goblin! You dare bring these creatures into the Master's most private chamber after they killed the Mistress?"

That was when what had been worrying Harry clicked, because he realised that this monster hadn't just been a pet or servant to Salazar, it was his fukn familiar! Salazar had obviously dragged his familiar down with him into the depths of insanity and then left it with that madness festering in its mind for the nine hundred years since his death, no wonder it had bonded with an insane monster like Tom Riddle when he found his way into the chamber and claimed to be Salazar's heir! But that wasn't the issue at the moment, no, the real issue was the fact that they currently had the biggest example that anyone had ever been heard of, of one of the deadliest creatures ever created, right in front of them and it was both totally insane and in a killing rage!

They had tried to prepare for this though and Remus quickly unfroze the roosters they brought with them, hexing them to make them start crowing like mad. Harry knew that Hermione would be taking him to task for the language he was spewing out in his mind and over their links about retarded fukn wizards writing any stupid shite they thought of down to try and make their crap look more impressive, because the basilisk's only reaction to the roosters' so-called 'fatal crowing' was to whip its head around and start to move towards the sound. He tossed Salazar's spear to Luna as he changed into his Mngwa form and leapt for the back of the basilisk's head as it began to head away from them, changing back and calling Godric's axe to him just before he reached it.

Harry spun the axe in his hands and expanded it to full size, starting his swing as his feet touched the back of the basilisk's head. He swung with all his might to drive the eighteen inch long spike on the rear of the axe through its skull and into its brain, then sent an overpowered blasting hex through the spike (because the axes worked as mage staffs as well) to explode the basilisk's brain.

Like dragons, it was primarily the basilisk's skin that made it effectively impervious to magic and most weapons, so once the skin was breached there was little to stay magic's effects. This meant that channelling a blasting hex through an overcharged magical artefact that was embedded in the creature's brain worked quite well, and most of what was left of the basilisk's brain sprayed out of its open mouth as its head jerked back in the beginnings of its death throws. Harry changed back into his mngwa form and leapt off the basilisk, getting away from the thrashing leviathan as quickly as he could. As soon as he was clear, he checked to confirm that Luna and Alastor had gotten clear of the basilisk too and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them safe and sound in their mngwa and bear dog animagus forms. His next thought was of course for Hermione, and after her he confirmed that the rest of them were all safe while the goblins scanned the basilisk's lair to ensure that there wasn't anything else lurking in there.

Knowing who would be giving him the biggest serve over attacking the basilisk like that, Harry first went to Luna to make sure that she was OK, and to have her with him for moral support when Hermione got to him. Of course Hermione hadn't missed what he was doing, but they heard her amused tone as she said 'Oh that's really brave Harry, getting Luna to protect you.' over their link, so he was hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

Once the hugs and kisses were out of the way, he jumped in to try and head off her rant. "I had to act Mione! Remus didn't know it was coming for him and even if he did manage to grab the axe in time, there was no way for him to take on that thing when it was coming at him head on, but with my mngwa form, I could get onto the back of its head where it couldn't get at me and I could channel my magic through the spike on Godric's axe once it was embedded in its brain. So I managed to deal with it without putting myself at that much risk."

Remus came up as he was saying that and tried to support him. "He's right Hermione, I would have been a goner if that bloody thing came around the pillar I was behind and caught me, and I couldn't have exploded its brain that way either because it's only you guys who can use the Founders' weapons as wands…. Mind you, I'd love to get my hands on the idiot who wrote that a cock's crowing was fatal to basilisks, from what I hear it was more like ringing a bell for dinner!"

Harry snorted, saying. "Yeah, I had that thought myself!" But he froze as he heard over the link. 'And don't think that I missed that either! We'll be discussing the language you used when we're alone!' Luna just shook her head with a smile and hugged him.

Alastor could tell that there were two conversations going on here, the verbal one and the mind to mind discussion that the bond mates were having, so he tried to help Harry out as well. "He really was the only one who could have stopped the Basilisk like that lass. Young Luna here couldn't call an axe to her, and might not have had enough strength to drive the spike through yon monster's skull either. I couldn't call an axe to me either and I doubt that my bear dog form could have jumped onto the snake's head the way that Harry did. Even if I did get up there with an axe though, while I probably could have gotten the spike into its brain, like Remus said I couldn't have exploded its brain anyway so your laddie was the only one who could have defeated the thing like that, a lot of us would have been hurt or killed if he hadn't done what he did!"

Hermione was quiet as she took in what Alastor said, but she eventually nodded grudgingly, she wasn't happy to see Harry had put himself at risk like that but had to accept that it was the only way to save them all from injury.

Once they confirmed that there weren't any other basilisks or other dangerous monsters lurking anywhere in the chamber, Hedwig flashed away, returning with a large floo mirror that they expanded and stuck to one of the pillars before opening a connection to Gringotts. Gringott was the first one to come through and he stopped, stunned as he took in the size of the basilisk, turning to Harry when Balrog and Gamling told him how Harry had killed it. "I expect to get your memories of this before we leave today Harry, and everyone else's as well! The House of Potter will be much richer once this carcass has been rendered down and sold though, because basilisk parts are very much in demand and extremely expensive, and never has one of this size been told of before….."

He paused as Gamling whispered something to him and turned and looked at the entrance to the chamber, gasping in goblin. "Oilliphéist! They're pure goblin silver you say?" When Gamling nodded he shook his head. "If you let us take those doors away and melt them down to sell the goblin silver Harry, they would be worth even more than the beast's carcass, because the special ore that is needed to create goblin silver seems to be gone now, so goblin silver costs many times more than it did in the past…. There's enough in those doors to make even someone of your worth noticeably wealthier, quite aside from what you get from your basilisk."

Harry waved that aside for the moment as he and a number of the others popped back to Myrtle's bathroom to let Minerva and the others know that they were all OK, close the entrance to the tunnels and pop those regarded as family down to the chamber. Being made of stern stuff as they were wasn't enough to stop Minerva and Pomona screaming when they saw the basilisk, but to be fair even Sirius and Filius almost fainted when they saw that monster.

They had a hard time believing that the axe still embedded in the back of its skull was how it was killed, but understood when Hermione explained about how Harry had channelled a blasting curse through the spike to explode its brain in order to kill it. As she was doing this, Harry changed into his mngwa form and leapt onto the basilisk's back, changing back to stroll nonchalantly up to the head and take hold of the axe and release it. He stayed in human form on his return, using the fell running skills from his daily exercise as part of the warrior training to land lightly on his feet when he leapt off the basilisk.

Another floo mirror had been set up to bring the rest of the family down to see the basilisk and the chamber, and most reactions matched the first ones who were brought down. Harry didn't have any trouble admitting that he'd been pretty much shitting himself when he saw the size of the bloody thing, even more so when he realised that it had been Salazar's familiar and was as crazy and he'd been at the end, if not more so after being left alone with Salazar's last demented thoughts for nine hundred years.

The reaction to hearing what happened when Remus tried to use the supposedly 'fatal' rooster crowing to deal with the basilisk was a mixture of laughter and horror, and Jean, Emmeline, Andi, Minerva, Dora and most of the other women who had maternal feelings for Harry reacted much the same as Hermione had when they heard how he had jumped onto the basilisk's head to kill it, so Harry, Remus and Alastor had to repeat the arguments they'd used to deal with Hermione's ire.

While this was going on, the curse breakers called for Harry a few times to get him to open doors and the like with parseltongue once they'd confirmed that there weren't any curses on them (considering Salazar's paranoia, they were surprised that he'd apparently accepted the way the chamber was hidden, the fact that only a parseltongue could open the doors and the basilisk as being enough security to forego any additional curses, but by all indications he had). They'd also set up another floo mirror in the basilisk's lair to clear out the thousand and more cast off skins in there and move them to Gringotts. The older the skins were, the lower the value, but even the first couple of hundred skins that Salazar had stored in a chamber off the basilisk's lair which were down to less than ten feet long could still be used for luggage, boots and armour robes, and the fact that they came from Salazar Slytherin's basilisk that Harry Potter had fought and killed would drive their value up even further.

Everyone who went down to beard the basilisk in the Chamber was made to pose in front of the beast and Harry, the girls etc also had to pose with Arthur, Gringott, Minerva and the others for the obligatory publicity images before twenty odd lifting plates were pushed under the carcass. While the basilisk's magic resistant skin meant that magic couldn't be used to move the basilisk itself, it could be used to move the lifting plates that the goblins used to shift large objects, so they used them to lift the carcass a few feet off the floor and carefully float it through the floo mirror. The cast off skins were being moved the same way.

Once most of the skins had been cleared out of the lair, the curse breakers made another discovery. There had been little of value in Salazar's vault at Gringotts when Harry accepted the title of Head of the House of Slytherin, mainly the deeds and earnings of the properties and businesses that the Slytherin family owned, plus the House Ring and a few other heirlooms and belongings. What they discovered once the piles of cast off skins were cleared away was that this was because Salazar had vaults built in the rear of the basilisk's lair, and most of his gold and treasure was in those vaults. Considering that even back then those goblin silver chamber doors must have cost a fortune, it was little surprise that the House of Slytherin went from moderately wealthy to fabulously wealthy almost overnight when those vaults were found.

With the politicking and exploring out of the way, they sat down to discuss what to do with the chamber doors and the chamber itself. Hermione, Neville and Minerva (as the other Founders' Heirs and Hogwarts' Headmistress) insisted that everything in the Chamber of Secrets was Salazar's personal property, so any and all money from anything being sold should go into the Slytherin vaults. They'd confirmed that they could use goblin or elvan magical transport to pop or floo in or out of the chamber, even with the doors closed, so access wasn't a problem, and testing had confirmed that the air, water etc of the magical environment and the strong wards securing the chamber were all perfectly maintained due to the energy from the ley lines that intersected at Hogwarts. This made the chamber itself quite a valuable resource, so Harry made agreements for the doors to be removed and the opening sealed up, then the deteriorating tunnels leading to the chamber to be collapsed so that it could only be accessed magically.

While they were going over what to remove and sell off, and how to make the chamber more pleasant for whatever future use they planned for it, Harry agreed to having the snake friezes and carven snake columns stripped out and replaced with plainer items, because Gringott said that many cultures around the world revered snakes so people would pay good money for snake artwork like this. Truth be told, Harry wouldn't have been too upset to see the bust of Salazar go as well, but it housed the main living quarters, potions labs, library, vaults and other chambers and this was Salazar's chamber, so it was agreed to do no more than clean the bust inside and out and update the lighting etc.

By the time they returned to the Lords Tower, Harry was pretty much wiped out, but there was something that he wasn't going to put off. Hermione and Luna followed him into the study in the Haven and neither were surprised when he went straight up to Salazar's portrait and basically exploded. "Why in the seven hells didn't you tell us that the basilisk was your familiar?"

If they hadn't just been forced to face that thing in the Chamber, Salazar's expression would have been hilarious. "Familiar? What are you talking about boy, I never had a familiar!"

Hermione put her hand on Harry's arm to try and calm him, because while she could understand his being upset and frightened, destroying Salazar's portrait wouldn't help them. "My Lord Slytherin, can you tell us when you had your portrait painted, and how long before that you created your basilisk?"

He nodded at her musingly. "Ah. I believe I might see where you are going with this Lady Granger…. Let me see…. We all had our portraits done just after we were ennobled, I believe that that would have been sometime around a thousand and thirty, is that correct Helga?"

Helga's portrait nodded. "Yes Salazar, a thousand and twenty seven actually."

"Thank you Helga. As I recall it took me some time to successfully create a basilisk, and I believe that it was around a thousand and ten or so before I finally managed to hatch the one that survived and grew into Serpens Rex, so that would have been fifteen years or so before the portrait was created."

Hermione nodded. "Thank you Lord Slytherin. Now Harry and I bonded with our familiars when we were six and seven, would I be correct in assuming that this was rather younger than most?"

Rowena Ravenclaw gave a rather unladylike snort at that. "I'll say! Mind you it is also rather unusual for a wizard and two witches to bond the way that you three have, let alone at that age, but enough of this polite dancing around unpleasant subjects, you three obviously need to be abed so just say it plain, what happened down there Granddaughter? I take it that Salazar's pet was as deranged as you feared it would be?"

Hermione looked at Harry, but he waved at her to continue because she was handling this better than he could at the moment.

She nodded as she took up the story again. "Yes, but the reason it was so deranged was that it wasn't a pet Grandmother, it was his familiar! The things that it was saying it could only have known if it were linked to Lord Slytherin's mind at the end after he went mad with grief over Lady Slytherin's death. This fact put Harry, Luna and Baron Moody in a position of considerable risk when they faced the basilisk and this is why Harry is so upset. The basilisk accepted Harry as Lord Slytherin's true heir, but not as its master, because he did not share the mindset of its master after he went crazy at the end. Instead it said that its new master, Tom Riddle who we told you about, was its rightful master now. At that point it smelt the elves and goblins with us and became enraged that we would bring the creatures that Lord Slytherin believed to be responsible for Lady Slytherin's death into its master's secret chamber, so Baron Lupin attempted to kill it with the rooster's crowing as the texts said that this was fatal to it. As Baron Lupin said, the only effect the crowing had was that of ringing a dinner bell because the basilisk immediately turned and began to head for the noise. Harry changed into his mungwa form and leapt onto the back of its head, changing back and calling Lord Gryffindor's axe to him as he reached it so that he could drive the spike on the rear of the axe through its skull and then used that to pass a blasting curse right into its brain. Since then we've been making arrangements for the chamber to be cleaned out and we've only just gotten away. That was why Harry was so upset about going into the chamber without the knowledge that it was Lord Slytherin's familiar, because that ignorance almost killed all of us! This of course is why I was trying to ascertain whether Lord Slytherin could have made a familiar bond with his basilisk at some time after his portrait was painted."

The portraits were stunned into silence when she finished, but Salazar's portrait found his voice first. "I apologise Grandson, I did not understand why you were speaking to me in that manner and to my shame I reacted without asking why. Yes, Lady Granger is correct, Serpens Rex must have become my familiar at some time after my portrait was created as I had no knowledge of it. But one part of your lady's story confuses me…. How could you leap onto the back of the basilisk's head and why did you not just cut its head off with your axe, or your sword for that matter?"

Luna spoke up while Harry snorted. "Did we not mention that your basilisk was at least five and twenty yards long and two yards across?"

Harry had to spend a few minutes reassuring his parents and grandparents that he was alright after that, but the portraits' shock and disbelief at the size of the basilisk meant that it quicker and simpler to just extract the memories of the event and play them on the goblin pensieve. When the memories had finished playing the Potters, Godric and Salazar all proclaimed themselves quite proud to be known as Harry's ancestors, because he had showed himself to be a true noble, warrior and druid.

With that they bid the Founders and their ancestors good night and crawled off to bed.