The following morning after breakfast, Atrium to The Chamber of Secrets
“I'm glad that Myrtle wasn't in, she always acts weirdly towards me.” Harry said with a massive sigh of relief.
“I'd like to know what all those pipes where about, all the amenities in that bathroom and all others that I've seen here at Hogwarts looked like modern muggle ones and plumbing was pretty much a lost art when the castle was built. Plus why would the access to Slytherin's, who history records as being male, private addition, I suppose, be in a girls bathroom?” Asked Padma.
“Security maybe?” Answered Harry. “And the castle has always seemed pretty alive to me, maybe its got some sort of upgrade thing going on, when the Muggles developed better sanitation the castle altered it's bathrooms to match. Can't say why nobody noticed when they changed but.”
“Who actually knows anything about the castle? Maybe part of it's magic stops people from remember details about its architecture when it changes, think about all the tricks to getting around that we all learnt first year that nobody told us about and that we never thought of telling any of the students of started after us, maybe part of the castles magic stops you from doing it, maybe that same magic stopped people from noticing that the bathrooms had changed.” Said Parvati.
“Sis, that sounds like something I would say.” Replied Padma.
“I'm not dumb Pad, just not interested in study for studies sake, what I am interested in is talking to people, and people aren't talking to one another about this.” Parvati returned fire.
“Girls,” said Harry “Please don't fight.”
Turning to the shed skin Padma observed, “Well this first skin looks pretty well preserved, this bodes well for the actual carcass being intact given how small it is. Located outside the chamber like this I'd say this skin dates from the days of the founders, it's not like the Basilisk's been out much since then.”
“Looks like it would make a nice leather.” Added Parvati.
“Where's the tunnel gone?” Harry asked, looking at the rockfall.
“I'm guessing when Fawkes flew you out it caused a further collapse, the rockfall looks intact, that suggests nobody else has been down here.” Said Padma.
“But sis, how are we going to get past?” Asked Parvati in response.
“Simple, we transfigure a tunnel through the rock fall, it should be pretty easy, we're just changing the way things are arranged, nothing major, theoretically it would easier then that matchstick in first year but for the size. We cast Transmogrify to create a tunnel not much bigger then we would need to crawl through, no need to risk magical exhaustion, by moving the rock out of the way, creating smooth walls that hopefully support the weight of the surrounding rock, it should be at about chest hight making it easier to cast and access. Why don't you cast the spell Harry and if you don't get all the way through there's something that Parv and I might be able to do that would enable us cast a spell together and make it more powerful but it's only a theory so I want you to go first Harry, to provide us with a starting point, OK?” Answered Padma.
“Sure” Replied Harry
“Just remember to focus on the tunnel as I described it, Harry, the rock moves out of the way to make a tunnel not much bigger then we need to crawl through with smooth walls that support the surrounding rock at chest hight.” Padma instructed him.
Transmogrify said Harry, using the general purpose transfiguration spell and concentrating hard, as he said this the rock at about chest height, right where his wand was pointing at the rockfall, the rock started flowing away from the point where Harry's wand pointed at the rock face until there was a tunnel just over 1 metre across with a sold rock wall half that thick going some ways into the rockfall. When Harry stepped forward the runnel went further into the rock fall, one step, two and then he stopped. Panting he lowered his wand and said, “Sorry, I can see that I didn't get all the way through and that's all I can do for now.”
“Don't worry Harry, you must have gotten at least halfway through the rocks, Parv and I will give it a shot now, by the time we're done you should have recovered enough to give it another shot.” Padma reassured the boy, no young man, who was clearly disappointed in his own work.
“But what are we going to do sis?” Asked Parvati. Harry had to admit that he was curious on this point as well.
“There's been some recent studies that suggest twins such as us share a split magical core so we should be able to cast a spell together for more power.” Answered Padma.
“And how are we going to do that?” Inquired Parvati, she was used to her sister having all the answers ready.
“Give me a moment, okay? This wasn't something I thought we would be doing any time soon and it's not just a matter of us casting the spell at the same time, we've got to want it, to focus on it, and there's the matter of symmetry, how we positioned relative to each other.” Retaliated Padma, apparently she didn't like her sister expecting to provide all the answers.
A moment later Padma started talking again. “OK, I think I've got it, if we lie down face to face in the tunnel and hold the others wand hand with our off hand it should work, so take off your robe.”
“Sis, I'm not taking off my clothes with Harry here.” Retaliated Parvati.
Harry had to admit, but not out loud, that the thought of seeing the twins naked was something he liked a lot.
“Parv, has anyone ever told you that you have a very dirty mind? I said take off your robe, I wasn't instructing you to dis-robe, they'll only get in the way crawling done the tunnel.” Padma chastised her sister. “Harry, after we've gone in wait a moment and then follow us in, it's probably better if you take off your robe as well, and leave the broom behind.”
Padma chastising her sister followed by her instructions caused Harry to snap out of the flunk Parvati's outburst had put him in. Quickly leaning the broom they had borrowed from the school's stock against the rock-face he started taking of his robe, noticing that the twins had already completed the task while he had been occupied with the broom and he realized that they weren't wearing their jumpers again, 'Do they ever wear them?' Harry wondered. He also thought that their skirts had gotten shorter some how because there was now a gap between the top of their socks above the knee and the bottom of their skirts, not that he was complaining, he liked the way the twins dressed, but he wasn't going to say anything either for fear it would cause the girls to change the way they dressed and he liked how they dressed just fine.
Just then he heard one of the twins, he was guessing Padma given that she was first in, cast Lumos, well, it wasn't like much light would be getting into the tunnel.
Having finished taking off his robe, folding it up and putting it on some of the rocks to keep it up off the wet ground Harry turned back to the twins. Padma had already climbed into the tunnel and Parvati was starting to follow her. After a few seconds Padma's voice called out, “Come on in Harry, it looks to be safe.”
Deciding that he had no reason to wait any more before following them and walked over to the tunnel. Once he was at the mouth he realized that it wasn't round like he first thought but rather a square with rounded corners and curved sides, this he thought wound make crawling though even easier while causing any water that got into the tunnel to pool along the middle of the tunnel. Climbing in Harry saw Parvati just ahead of him were crawling had forced her short skirt to hug her bottom and reveal even more of her legs, moving ahead Harry decided to keep his head down and not say anything so as to avoid upsetting the twins.
After crawling for about thirty seconds Harry felt his head bump into Parvati who called out “Harry, weren't you watching were you where going?”
“Ah, no sorry, with us crawling like this I was getting a pretty good look at your bottom and I didn't want to upset you.” He answered. “Why have we stopped any way?”
“Harry, you're my boyfriend now, you're allowed to look at my butt.” Responded Parvati.
“End of the tunnel.” Came Padma's answer to Harry's question. “Harry, I'm going extinguish my Lumos in a moment so can you cast it so we can all see what we're doing?”
“Yeah, sure Padma.” Was Harry's response. Lumos he said, casting the spell and lighting up the tunnel some more.
Nox then came from Padma, dropping the amount of light down to what was available before.
Next Harry heard the sound of movement ahead of him, past Parvati he could see that Padma had dropped down onto her stomach and was rolling over in place. When she had finished giving instructions, a bit like Hermione, Harry liked it.
“Parv, crawl on top of me.” Instructed Padma before pausing whilst Parvati moves forward. “Yes, that's it, now lie down. Good.” This gave Harry a view part way up Parvati's skirt, he couldn't see anything he really shouldn't but her legs were straight out behind her and her skirt was not falling straight down any-more, thankfully she was lower down then he was.
And both of them stopped doing anything.
“Ah, girls could we hurry this up?” Moaned Harry, he really didn't want to have to bring up the matter of him being able to see further up Parvati's skirt.
“Sorry, Harry.” Responded Padma. “It's just that the two of us, like this, it's rather nice. Now, in a moment we will reach out ahead with both arms sis, grasp with our off hands the other's wand-hand and wand, then on the count of three cast Transmogrify together, the trick here will be not just imagining the tunnel extending but imagining us both casting the spell at the same time, our magic coming together, out spells merging to become one stronger spell, OK?”
“Yes” Answered Parvati.
“OK, on three then.” Said Padma and then she started counting “One.” At this point Parvati joined her in counting. “Two.” They said together. “Three” They finished together, this was immediately followed by Transmogrify as they cast the spell together.
“Ok, this is” Came from Parvati
“Weird” Finished Padma
“What's the matter girls?” Asked Harry
“For a moment there we became one. I think when our magic merged, so did we.” Answered Padma
“With that experience I think I know how the Weasly twins manage their dreaded Twin-Speak and I really don't like the implications.” Added Parvati.
“What do you mean?” Asked Padma. “Oh, I see know, I think we might still be connected a bit. Now lets see how well we did. If you can climb off of me sis we can get started.”
And with that Parvati got back up, for which Harry was rather thankful as he could no longer see quite so far up her skirt. What he hadn't counted on was that Padma's skirt would be pushed up her body by all of this causing him to see a brief glimpse of Ravenclaw blue before he turned away. While he was turning away he heard Lumos from up ahead, given that Padma hadn't done it he knew it was Parvati.
“Harry” inquired Padma. “What's the matter? OH, nothing you're not allowed to see, but good boy for looking away.” This was followed by more rustling. When Harry turned around again she was back on her hands and knees. “Coming Harry?”
“Yeah, lets see how well you two did.” Was his reply.
A few seconds later Harry knew they reached the new end of the tunnel because he bumped into Padma this time.
“How well did the paired casting work?” He asked
“I'd say we did better then what we would have got if we had both made separate attempts but only about a quarter of what Harry did.” Answered Padma. “Harry, you put out your wand while me and Parv drop down, then you crawl over us and cast Transmogrify again.”
“Ok, Nox” said Harry while the twins dropped down. When he crawled over Padma he knew he had been right about water pooling at the bottom of the tunnel, for he could feel that the back of her shirt was wet. One he was over Padma he crawled on top of Parvati and cast Transmogrify again, before re-casting Lumos and heading down the tunnel. 20 seconds later he came to the end and realized that instead of coming to a wall he was through the rockfall. Climbing down he turned around to help the girls down and he saw just how right he was about the water pooling in the channel along the bottom of the tunnel. As a result he saw just how well developed the twins where, along with their choice in mature clothing and House pride.
“Ah, girls,” He said. “You two need to use some drying charms.”
“Actually Harry, we shouldn't. The personal drying charm doesn't work on clothes and using the clothes drying charm on clothes currently being worn is a bad idea. A warming would be much appreciated however.” Said Padma who then put her arms behind her back, stuck her chest out and stepped towards Harry, Parvati soon followed suit.
“Ah, girls, what are you doing?” Asked Harry.
“It's never a good idea to cast a spell on yourself Harry, and given what we just did casting one on each other probably comes to close yourself for comfort.” Answered Padma.
“Ok then, Therma” Said Harry, casting warming charms on the girls.
“Shall we proceed onwards ladies?” Asked Harry, bowing to the girls and moving towards to door to the chamber proper “Open”.
“Look at the size of that snake.” Called out Padma. “It's got to be at least five foot wide and one hundred and twenty feet long, and it looks perfectly preserved, I wonder just how many other skins it's shed over the years, oh, I wish I knew how much Basilisk hide sells for.”
“I've never heard anything about Basilisk leather being used in clothing so I doubt that there's much of a market for Basilisk leather, but it still very pretty so it should sell very well. You should probably keep some Harry, I'm sure any woman or women you end up spending your life with would like to have something made out of this skin.” Said Parvati.
“Wait, women? Are you saying I can have multiple wives?” Asked Harry.
“Possibly, Harry. Given what you told us about your upbringing you didn't know anything about the magical world until you received your Hogwarts Letter, right?” Inquired Padma.
“Yeah” Answered Harry.
“OK, you know of the Wizengamot?” Padma probed deeper into how much Harry did and didn't know of the Wizarding World.
“Yes” Harry replied, wondering where this was going.
“Well the Wizengamot is a bit like the Muggle House of Lords, the seats on it are hereditary and normally entitled, several belong to the heads of the Families Magical. Yes, I can see the look on your face showing that you don't know what that means so I'll explain. A Families Magical is sort of like a clan, tribe or the Muggle Royal Family, in that it is made up of a group of people who are all related to one another by blood plus anyone who has married into the family but there is something else, even beyond the Family Grimoire and Head of House/signet rings that most established magical families have but also something called the 'Family Magic' for lack of a better term. Not much is known about the 'Family Magic's', they tend to be rather rare, the only people that could study them would be members of the various Families Magical, and even then a member could only study their own 'Family Magic', so comparing different 'Family Magic's' is impossible, or almost so, plus studying them is not something done in case the 'Family Magic' is damaged, which could end very poorly given how powerful they are.
“Yes, Harry, I know I'm starting to sound like Hermione, but there's a lot of information here that you need to know. Now, what is known about 'Family Magic's' is that they provide a pool of energy for Family members to draw upon in times of dire need, they are also said to provide information to members of the Family beyond what is in the Grimoire, even extending to knowledge and advice from dead Family members, some even say that the Family Grimoire and Rings are merely physical manifestations of this magic. The most well know thing about 'Family Magic's' are the By-Laws because they are made by people, they are essentially the Families rules for members, they also often cover who is a member and succession of the title of Head of House. When somebody holds multiple titles they are legally two or more people, depending on how many titles you have, and thus might be able to take multiple wives if he so chooses. Someone who is head of more then one Families Magical more so due the Treaties between the Families and the Families By-Laws might be required to take one wife for each Family if he is head of. The three most well known Families Magical are the Potters; the Bones, Susan in our year is the only surviving member of the main branch, when she comes of age she will become Head of House, meanwhile her only surviving relative, her aunt, acts as regent; and the Blacks, yes the same Blacks as Sirius Black, the man who betrayed your parents. Now how this effects you is thus: Obviously you are the Head of House for the Potters, or will be when you come of age, the interesting part is your grandmother, one Dorea Potter nee Black, making you a Black as well.” At this point Padma had stopped to catch her breath, allowing Harry to say something.
“Wait, do you mean to say my name should be Potter-Black or something?” Harry asked.
“No, not unless special conditions are meet, which I was just getting to.” Answered Padma. “Now, the last Head of House Black was Arcturus Black, grand-father to Sirius, now he died in 1991, several months before we started Hogwarts, with no known Heir. Sirius was his only surviving male descendant but with Sirius having betrayed your parents and been sentenced to life in Azkaban, he can not inherit. Arcturus' will did not specify an Heir, nor could it as that is under the control of the Family Magic, neither does it give us any clues as to who the next Head of House is as the bulk of Arcturus' personal wealth was 'To be held in trust for the next Lord Black.' That last is the formal title for the Head of House Black. Now Arcturus' closest male relative at death, according to standard inheritance laws, is the great-grandson of his uncle Cygnus, Draco Malfoy. Now it is a known fact that Draco did not inherit the Head of House position, tests were run to determine if he was and they came back negative. The most popular explanation has to do with how the Malfoy's came to be, they were once part of a Families Magical back in France, but the first Malfoy was entrusted by his Head of House with something important but betrayed that trust, as punishment he was Magically Disowned, which is where someone is kicked out in such a way that the Family Magic's don't recognize them as belonging to that family, and cursed him with the name Malfoy, which means 'Bad Faith' in French, until he or his descendants did something to show that they were trustworthy again. People think that with that history Draco can't be a member of House Black until the curse is lifted. So people began wondering who the next Lord Black would be and thought immediately turned to the only other known male to have Black blood: you Harry, via your grand mother, Dorea Potter nee Black, weirdly you're Cygnus' grandson, but because Dorea was Cygnus' fourth child and Draco is descended from hit first he gets priority. Now if you are the next Lord Black that would make you both Lord Potter and Lord Black, or Lord Potter-Black in all but the strictest of legal circumstances where the legal fiction that you are two different people must be maintained, thus you could have two wives, one would be Lady Potter while the other would be Lady Black.”
“Well then, it's a good thing that I'm dating the two of you right now, who wants what title? And being related to Malfoy? Yuck” Said Harry.
“Not so fast Harry.” Responded Padma. “That's not quite what we want from you Harry, there's some complications on our side plus it's likely that the Black Family has a By-Law stating that the Lady Black can only be a Proper Pureblood English Witch. However I think I've given you enough to digest for now. There should be other shed skins around here somewhere, lets see if we can find them and then head back up. I can explain things later.”
Heading up into the statue, guessing that any more skins would be up there, seeing as how the Basilisk came from there when Riddle summoned it and guessing that that was where it lived, they found it connected to the pipe network all around them, including both the Chamber proper and it's atrium, causing Parvati to comment once more on Hogwarts weird architecture and Padma to speculate that the first skin they had found dated from just after the Founders'. All together they found another 9 skins, one for every ten feet the Basilisk had grown.
Getting out of the Chamber was an interesting experience. Padma said that wearing their robes while trying to fit three of them on the broom wouldn't work. Considering that she was the one who knew the most about clothes and Harry noting how different they were to his Quiditch robes, the later had cuffs more like a jumper to stop them getting in the way of using your hands and were designed to be closed compared to the normal school robes, agreed with her. Tying their robes to the end of the broom, Harry got it hovering and then climbed on, Padma then proceed to get on in front of him and grab his hands, which where far to close to certain parts of her body given that they where sitting upright, not hunched over for speed, for stability. Parvati got on behind Harry, reached her hands in front of both him and her sister and proceed the hug them both tightly. Meaning Harry was sandwiched in between the girls and feeling every curve of their bodies, including Parvati's breast poking into his back.
Once they got back up to the bathroom the twins went into the stalls to take off their shirts, dry them off and put them back on, Harrys' wasn't wet enough to require attention. Then all three of them put their school robes back on and went to their classroom to talk some more. Mytle was still out when they left, for which Harry was once again thankful for.
Thanks to Jonas for typo busting. alexcorvin1980 for details on the Black family and pointing me towards even more, scretch for some minor nitpiks and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of