The free-fall and crash into the dark was admittedly not very flattering as far as dramatic entrances go-
"Whoa." James Potter giddly remarked as his gaze swept around the large dirt infested pipe-like corridors before lowering onto the ground beneath him as he raised a single foot a few inches of the ground to take a look underneath his shoe before promptly lowering it again, rather forcefully to the sound of cracking. "Are these bones?" He questioned eagerly.
Remus made what looked like a gagging motion at the thought as he promptly covered his mouth and nose, while Snape-
"What do the numbers mean? What did they do?" The Slytherin immediately walked unto my face, a very wary look on his face. I couldn't help but hide my disappointment at the almost perfectquote.
He was so close!
I idly wondered if I could convince him to call me Mason.
Regardless, I shrugged in response. "It'd take too long to explain-"
"Try me!" He replied harridly, his pupils darting in every direction as he appraised my face. "There were snake symbols on those taps- The Chamber of Secrets was made by-" He hitched a breath, as he took a step back "...Are you a Parseltongue?" He questioned, verywarily, immediately turning Remus and Sirius's attention towards me. One bemused to the term and the other, surprisingly enough, amused.
To that I, of course, couldn't help but snort at the thought, rolling my eyes at the clearly shaken Slytherin, before taking a step up onto the large pipe-line corridor before us.
"Wouldn't have needed the parchment, if that was the case." I grinned, earning another set of narrowed eyes.
"...Are you trying to say you recreated that language? With numbers!?"
What can I say? Numbers are universal, even if languages aren't.
"...How?" Snape's voice suddenly lost a vast amount of tension as he whispered the word, almost hauntingly.
"Hmmm, you want the long or short answer?"
"Both."
I twitched at the immediate response, my feet for a moment almost tripping in the process.
...How do I explain the art of bootstrapping a Binary language converter?
In the sense that, by inputting certain words in, once again in code, I could convert them using whatever hints of left over magic that had been used on the sink themselves. With a second feature that took in any language, besides English, it heard and converted it to it's binary format before converting that into English. Because trying to decipher Binary on the go was relatively stupid.
"...Right, short answer? Binary."
Three looks of confusion met me in response.
"Long answer? 01000010 0110100101101110 01100001 0111001001111001," I deadpanned, turned around and started walking further inside.
Thankfully the large shedded skin of a Basilisk immediately took over their priorities.
Remus, in true fashion, stayed the hellaway from it, going as far as to stand beside me in the process.
Snape tried to collect a sample, only to grumble the moment it broke down into ash in his hands when he forcibly removed it.
While James crumbled the largest piece of shedded skin by trying to mount it.
Yup.
Freakin geniuses.
After the third Potter'd piece of ash joined its family, a frustrated Snape had finally had enough and called out James for his brutish behavior.
When James retaliated with a ball made of shedded basilisk ash, I rolled my eyes and went ahead in further. Remus choosing to stick by my side.
It said a lot that the werewolf actually preferred my company.
"...Hey Sirius?"
"Ye?"
"You know what that is don't you?" Lupin questioned bemused, his mind likely trying to connect the skin to the kind of creature it might belong to.
"Yup."
"...Is it still alive?"
"Uh huh."
"Are you going after it?"
"Probably."
"...Great." Lupin remarked, resigned as he kept on following me anyway.
It wasn't long before we reached the infamous large circular snake tablet, what was effectively the true gate to Salazar's hidden chamber. On reaching it, I promptly took out the parchment again and asked to borrow Remus's wand.
When he refused, I made a deal with him that involved handing it over and not going in with me- instead, he'd wait for his two fellow idiots to actually find us.
Presuming they were actually looking for us that is.
It hadn't been easy finding the snake rock either.
Place was a freakin' maze.
Still, with that thought in mind, I promptly activated the parchment and watched as the outer-circle snake started moving around the circular rock, unlocking it as if it were a modern lock of sorts.
When the other side showed up, I immediately went through and activated the parchment again before Remus' could say anything. The large tablet immediately locking up again as a pale Remus locked gazes with me.
His eyes, quite clearly, screaming out the fact I was insane.
Still, I wasn't stupid enough to actually endanger their lives, now was I?
With that thought in mind, I turned around, and walked further down the main pathway, my eyes gazing at the large snake-heads that covered the sides, before going down to the very end of the pathway to take in the Davy Jones looking giant stone face. My surprise at the surprisingly dry surface put to the back of my mind.
Taking in a deep breath, I promptly screamed out for the Basilisk to show itself, while setting up the parchment in the floor before me, Remus' wand pointed towards it.
I was going to need a translator after all-
When the ground suddenly started to rumble, I preemptively covered my ears as a very loud screech suddenly echoed out. The beginning of the Basilisk's head poking out of one of the nostrils in the giant stone face.
Looking down towards the parchment, I was unsurprised to note that it wasn't in fact a greeting.
The words 'kill, prey, and...'
I blinked at the last word that popped up.
'...Strawberries?' That... couldn't be right, with my gaze firmly locked to the parchment, I wasn't surprised to see the sudden shadow that quickly covered me up completely.
Raising my gaze, I blinked at the sight of the two large golden eyes that stared back at me, the Basilisk's mouth' wide open, it's poison-filled teeth practically sharpened to a spear point as it looked down and hissed at me.
"Hi." I deadpanned at the creature, tilting my head. "My name is Sirius Black, how do you do?"
When the Basilisk screeched again, I immediately turned my gaze back towards the parchment- Expecting some sort of shock or surprise-
I blinked at the greeting the parchment showed before I glanced back up towards the giant reptile. The glow in its golden eyes seemingly dimmed as it tilted its head, moved its very sharp teeth towards me, and paused, a near-silent screech coming out, though it was enough for the parchment to pick up on it.
'My gaze doesss not harm you... You do not fear me... You do not ssspeak my tongue, yet underssstanding reachesss your eyesss-'
...I am starting to think the Basilisk's actually an intellectual... I idly wondered how many potions Salazar had forced down its throat to give it more Iq points than half my circle of acquaintances and family.
Also, the fact Salazar was a dick because I am almost one hundred percent convinced he forced it to drawl out every 'S' it said. Imagine purposefully giving your pet a borderline Tourettes syndrome. Only a dick would do that.
Due to my lack of movement, the Basilisk had either deemed me a prey after all, or actually caught in it's trance, as it suddenly shifted it's head closer, it's mouth opening up wider than before as it, for a moment looked like it intended to devour me whole.
I naturally made absolutely no reaction, instead watching it carefully. Watched it take a sniff of me in the process?
If taunting me was all it intended to do, then I am pretty sure we can come to an agreement.
If it bit me on the other hand, I was definitely lighting it up on fire.
Something about my expression seemed to send that message as the Basilisk chose to move it's mouth back the slightest, evidently not willing to attack-
-Splurg- Something, suddenly, shot out of the beasts mouth, landing right in front of me.
Taking a closer look at it, I was promptly greeted with the sight of a half-digestedcarcass of some sort of creature.
The parchment before me promptly changed again as the Basilisk let off another screech.
'Eat, you are too sssmall, it is a disssgrace.'
...What?
Did... Did the Basilisk think-
"...Do you think I am one of you? What part of me looks like a Basilisk exactly!?" I questioned incredulously.
The Basilisk tilted it's head at me and screeched it's response.
'I have never ssseen another of my kind.'
"Huh."
The Basilisk screeched again, causing me to momentarily turn my gaze downwards to the translator, as it slowly moved it's head towards me again, the sheer size of it completely towering over me.
'You sssmell like him. But you do not have hisss blood... How curiousss'
"...Like who? Salazar or his crazy great, great, inbred, grandson?"
The Basilisk screeched.
I did not twitch at the letters that popped up.
'Yesss.'
I was now suddenly, for whatever reason, reconsidering the path of peace with the beasty.
Snarky little shit. That's my job.