Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1

Harry Potter and the Alien Hive

Chapter 19: The Snake Pit

Harry took a deep breath as Draco walked up to the portrait that acted as the door to the Slytherin Dormitory. The place that was now quite literally the "snake pit."

"If anyone wants to turn back, this is your last chance. The threshold of that portrait is the point of no return." Harry said trying to keep his voice calm and firm for the others.

No one moved.

Harry nodded at them, then turned and nodded at Draco, who held up a hand and spoke the password.

"Parilis!"

Harry readied his wand waiting for any charge or attack from the black beasts residing inside the room. But none came.

Prongs stepped past Harry and entered the Slytherin common room, now barely recognizable, having been completely covered in the black beasts' hive resin.

"Where are they?" Ginny whispered.

"I don't know." Harry furrowed his brow, glancing over at Prongs who was carefully scanning the empty room.

"They're afraid."

Everyone turned to Draco, who stood a little ways in front of them, looking down at the ground with his eyes closed.

"Of us?" Ron didn't try to hide the tiny squeak of hope in his voice.

"No. Something evil has entered the hive. Something they do not understand. They are surrounding their Queen, to protect her."

"Protect her?" Harry repeated glancing over at Prongs who seemed to have taken an interest in something at the other side of the room and was cautiously advancing toward it.

"What's got Prongs so spooked ?" Ginny looked over at the hunter.

"Perhaps the same thing that spooked the black beasts." Hermione wondered.

"Ah!" Harry gasped and clutched his forehead. He felt as if some one had just struckh im across the face, but what was even more terrible than the pain was the realization of what was causing it. Harry's head had only exploded like this when Voldemort had been close by in person.

Beyond the pain Harry heard a loud roar like a lion, he turned his head and saw eight red jets of light stream out from the walls and hit Prongs square in the chest. The hunter staggered back a couple steps then fell.

Before Harry or anyone else could make a move. A voice spoke from the darkness that made Harry's blood run cold, both from fear and utter hatred. Though strangely enough his head stopped hurting.

"Well now that that problem has been taken care of let us deal with the next." Voldemort and his followers stepped out of the shadows, their black robes blending perfectly into the dark walls of the black beasts' hive.

"Voldemort!" Harry seemed to be the only one to find his voice, the rest of his friends seemed to be completely paralyzed with fear. Within the next instant there were shouts of "Expelleramus" and everyone's wands including his own flew from their hands.

The Death Eaters encircled the band of young wizards their wands directed at them.

"Father!" Draco gasped, a look of relief washed over his face.

"Well, well" Voldemort sneered, casually stepping towards Harry. "Harry Potter and his little troublemakers comprehended at last."

"Father I need to tell you---"

"Draco hush---"

Voldemort glance over at the Malfoy's, slightly annoyed, then continued.

"Oh many a day I have waited for this I can finally collect the instruments for the completion of my conquest and kill you all in the same day I----"

"---but you don't understand they caught me and infected me with---"

"---Draco---"

"What's going on!" Voldemort demanded storming up to the two. "You are disrupting my victory!"

"Forgive me. It's just..." Draco spoke quickly bowing his head. "The creatures...they...they breed by infecting a living host with one of they're eggs. And the creature kills it's host when it's born. I was infected..."

"Uh-huh." Voldemort didn't seem the least bit concerned, if anything he seemed interested.

While Draco was explaining all about the black beasts, Harry was going over ideas in his head about how to get out of this. It was then he noticed out of the corner of his eye a black shape, almost indistinguishable from the coating on the walls, was crawling down the wall towards Draco and Voldemort.

That's it. Harry thought. Just do what you do best.

"So you are claiming that these things infected you with their next queen and as a result they won't harm you?" Voldemort raised a suspicious eyebrow and pointed his wand unassumingly at Draco's chest. "You best not be lying to me or else I'll--"

Voldemort was interrupted by a loud screech, as the black beast from the wall pounced. However Voldemort's reflexes were quick.

"Crucio!"

The black beast fell writhing on the floor, shrieking and screaming in the most horrible way.

"STOP!" Draco screamed, falling to his knees and gripping his head. "It hurts! STOP IT!"

Voldemort raised and eyebrow and stopped.

The black beast stopped its struggling and rose from the floor and roared with a fury unmatched by any black beast before it.

In response Voldemort pointed out his wand again, not at the black beast, but at Draco. The black beast roared again, but made no further advances.

"Interesting…" A twisted smile spread across Voldemort's face. He grabbed Draco by the arm and pulled the boy closer to him, causing the black beast to snarl, and curl its tail.

Taking Draco with him Voldemort moved back over to Harry, with the black beast following them. Voldemort slowly pointed his wand away from Draco and toward Harry, keeping his eyes on the black beast seeing just how far he could go. The beast stayed put, apparently having Draco in Voldemort's grasp was enough for the beast not to attack.

"And now to finally deal with you!" Voldemort sneered. "Avada---!"

Before Voldemort could complete the incantation for the "Killing Curse" a ball of light, shot from across the room and hit the wall next to them causing it to explode and send debris everywhere.

After shielding his face, Voldemort's eyes made a quick sweep of the room, but there was no one with that kind of power to be seen. Then he remembered, the body of the of the dreadlocked creature was no longer there. Of course, it all made sense now, the deadlocked creature here was the same one that had tried to kill him before at the last Death Eater meeting, even the attack was the same. He cursed himself for letting such an important detail be forgotten.

Draco looked from Voldemort to Nyuki, who seemed to be looking for an opening to attack Voldemort after dodging flying debris herself.

"Run! They'll kill you if you stay!" Draco said in a loud whisper. Nyuki hesitated, transmitting thoughts of worry and doubt.

"I said go!" Draco rasped again.

Nyuki's thought pattern added acknowledgement to her worry and she quickly climbed up the wall and out of sight.

Harry felt someone grab him from behind and pull him out of the grasp of the now distracted Death Eaters.

"Come on Harry! Run!" It took him a second to realize it was Ginny pulling on him then pushing him toward the doorway out of Slytherin. "We'll distract them you've got to escape! Go! They'll kill you if you stay!"

Harry hesitated for a moment looking at Ginny, worry and doubt crossing his face.

"GO!" she shouted, again pushing him toward the door.

Still worried, Harry acknowledged the order and he took off at a sprint.

"Bloody hell!" Voldemort whirled around and snarled, seeing Harry Potter had escaped from him again. He took in a deep breath, he had to stay calm, one tended to make mistakes when they were not and he had made enough mistakes already.

" No matter. We still have his friends that should be enough to lure him back to us. We have more important things to do." Voldemort said absently tightening his grip on Draco's arm, causing the boy to let out a small gasp. "To the chamber!"

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Harry stopped running when his lungs and legs begged him to stop and breathe. Doing so gave him time to think, though it did him little good, for he had no idea what to do next. He his friends were now in the hands of Voldemort, his wand and his broomstick were still lying on the floor of the Slytherin common room, and he was trapped in a castle crawling with creatures that would tear your head off as soon as look at you.

And each one of those beasts is as dangerous as the Basilisk, Harry thought miserably. Then it hit him. The sword of Gryffindor! It was still in Dumbledore's office, at least it would be a start.

If he could get there…

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Ginny glanced around, recognizing the various pathways of the pipes from when Voldemort had possessed her and made her go down to the chamber of secrets and release the Basilisk on innocent muggleborns during her first year.

Though it was now covered in the same resin that adorned the Slytherin common room, it was still dark, dank and wet. Though instead of the wetness chilling you to the bone, the beasts had some how made pipes sweltering hot.

Every once and awhile a black beast would come along, and hiss at the group, but upon noticing the danger imposed on the bearer of the young queen, let them pass.

Suddenly Hermione gasped next to her. Ginny followed her gaze and felt her breath catch in her throat. There, strung up on the wall amongst the resin was Cho Chang. Ginny's eyes drifted down to Cho's chest that now looked like a bomb had exploded from inside. Poor Cho had been a victim of the fate that now awaited Draco. Though it was strange that Draco had been infected before Cho, yet she was the first to die. Perhaps queen black beasts took longer to grow?

"Get moving!" the Death Eater behind Ginny and Hermione snapped. They pressed onward, quickly walking away from the grisly sight.

Draco winced as he felt another pang of pain rack his chest. The queen thankfully was not coming out yet, but she was big enough that every time she moved Draco felt it. But that pain was as nothing compared to the one going on mentally, Lord Voldemort and his father were doing nothing to help him rid himself of the queen, quite the contrary they were using him and his condition to help them!

Voldemort felt his blood rush when he once again set foot into the beloved chamber of secrets.

The mother of the black beast sat in the center of the chamber, the ground littered with eggs, and the walls swarming with her children, their claws and jaws set to attack at any moment. She was truly queen of the Basilisk's domain.

"Begone evil one!" She hissed at Voldemort.

"Not yet, not until I have what I want, and there is nothing you can do to make me." Voldemort sneered in parsel tongue, wrapping his arm around Draco's neck, and pointing his wand at the boy's head.

"What do you want?" the queen snarled.

"You." Voldemort smirked, turning his wand on the queen.

"Imperio!"

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Happy Thanksgiving! Here's the reason as to why it took so long to get this chapter done, my former laptop that had a lot of my story stuff on it broke down on me one day and I lost a lot of story stuff, including what this chapter I had been working on. So I basically had to go back and rewrite the chapter. And with college getting in my way. That proved difficult. Sorry for the long wait, hopefully it won't be much longer for the next one.