Well, Hello To You Too

Anna looked around.
"Maybe Youssuf has seen the girl?" Anna thought, hopefully.
She turned to face Youssuf. To her surprise, he was already staring at the girl. After a while, he came forward and introduced himself. While introducing, he also cleared that she was Della, the Parsel he was talking about.
"Very well, she is a Parsel. Thank god!" Anna thought, as she signed a relief.
But next, what Youssuf said, really amazed her, more than anything else.
"Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets? Wow! That's great!" Anna said, excitedly. After so many days she was atlast going to face the real adventure.
She heard her enemies say that they will through Anna in the Chamber of Secrets. But no need! She was herself going there, bravely.
Anna removed those thoughts out of her mind and said to Della,
"By the way, myself Anna. Nice meeting you!" Anna hesitated, "Actually, you scared me. I thought you were a perfect!"
Anna laughed, softly.
It was quite often nowadays that Anna has started taking everything seriously. She never believes magic can be true and so keeps a check.
She once tripped off while suddenly the stairs started to move. Good grace, she was somehow or the other saved. But ended up in the Hospital Wing, quite funny right? But don't tell it "funny" infront of Anna. She may get angry.

@Autumn Agapov @Cody Stevenson @Yousuff Baid @Della Barfield @Anna Washinton

The commotion of a new face split into the original chatter as the last person turned around and looked at them in what Edme could only describe as utter shock.

The first though that came to Edme was, Prefect?, though after careful speculation it seemed this girl was just as surprised to see them as they were her. That was what confused Edme the most. Who was this random girl in the abandoned toilets and why did she walk in like it was mindless routine? And why- oh why- was there a snake on the faucet her hand laid on.

No matter the questions, the immediate joyous response to the wonder that came from Yousuff Baid was too light for a real problem. The entrance to The Chamber of Secrets? So they were doing this. And from the others words, it seemed this girl was a parsel. New things just kept happening.

As a few others began introducing themselves, Edme took it upon herself to do the same. "Edme." they nodded lightly, trying to find a warm smile for the dumbstruck girl, "You know, this kind of reminds me of a book I read. It was about six different people breaking into this court thing. And..." Edme did a subtle head count, still a little surprised by her intrepid speaking, "We have about six people here. Funny, isn't it?"

They didn't know what made this group so easy to warm up to. Maybe it was how simply easy they were to talk to, or the strange serotonin that the kind reactions of these people provided. It was comforting, in a sense, and Edme had to admit that, ever so slightly, it was kind of fun.

Even so, she comically wiped a brow as this new person didn't seem to have any sign of being a prefect.

WC:313

@Autumn Agapov | @Cody Stevenson | @Youssuf Baid | @Anna Washington | @Edme Achillian

For a second everyone became hushed upon Della's entrance and her noticing them. But then chaotic chatter broke out once again. It was difficult for Della to keep up.

First, she noticed Youssuf, a boisterous fellow first-year Gryffindor. She had seen him around, at the Great Hall table and the common room. He had a lot of energy. First, he said something about Della visiting the toilets a lot. Her face grew hot. How had he noticed that? Was he spying on her? Before she could protest or interrogate this fact, he quickly moved to the topic of the Chamber of Secrets, also noticing the snake Della had found on the faucet. Being from the muggle world, Della felt out of the loop a lot, but at this point in her Hogwarts career, she learned just to ask the questions, and it was never as embarrassing as she thought it would be to not understand how the magical world worked.

"Um, hi, Youssuf. Nice to see you again. May I ask what the Chamber of Secrets is?" The phrase "Chamber of Secrets" sounded vaguely familiar to her, she might have come across a mention of it in her history book, but the first-year curriculum was concentrating mostly on goblins, gargoyles, and the witch trials. Not too much on the history of the school.

Then another girl, who introduced herself as Anna, chimed in, explaining with ease that Della was a "parsel." Was that an insult? A parcel maybe? Like a package?

"Um, yeah, hi, Anna. Nice to meet you. No, no, I'm not a prefect. But did you just say parsel? What is that?" Now her neck was growing hot in addition to her face. Had she walked in on an elaborate prank? Then Della noticed that Cody was in the room.

Cody. He was that Hufflepuff that lit that girl on fire at the quidditch pit. She braced herself against the sink. Her hand hovering over her wand. Maybe it was a revenge plot and these were all Cody's accomplices.

Another student spoke up. They said something about this reminding them of a book. Six students breaking into something. Della wasn't sure what that meant just yet. However, the Ravenclaw's easy demeanor was either pointing to the fact that this was an elaborate planned prank or it was a normal run-of-the-mill bathroom hangout. Della desperately hoped it was the latter.

"Um, yeah, hi, Anna. Nice to meet you. No, no, I'm not a prefect. But did you just say parsel? What is that?" The girl asked.
"Um- you don't know what's a Parsel? Oh- Youssuf, I hope, this is the girl you where talking about?" Anna said, totally dumfounded. How is that possible, the girl didn't knew she was a Parsel!
Anna looked at the girl again and started explaining, "It is Parselmouth. You have a special ability, which enables you to speak Parsel language. Now, this language helps to talk with the snakes. Legends say that, only a Parselmouth can open the Chamber of Secrets. And, as you said, what is it actually? It is the place where the Basilik lived and died." Anna hesitated, "It was said, that "Heir of Slytherin" can only open it. But, it's not always possible."
Anna looked around, she was getting jitters all around. She was really gonna go to Chamber of Secrets.
"Now, it's a long story. But see, shall we go to the Chamber now? Hope, you all don't want to be caught by a Prefect." Anna said, quite seriously.
"Now, try speaking Parsel language! Look at the snake and say something!" Anna suggested to the girl.

Youssuf held his hands up. He could see his fellow Gryffindor becoming swiftly overwhelmed. "The Chamber of Secrets was a famous....well, chamber, created by Salazar Slytherin when he left Hogwarts. He felt that Blood Purity was the most important characteristic of wizardkind. So he left behind a Basilisk, it is said, to purge the school of 'impure' and 'unworthy' students, at least according to him. But I've heard from reliable sources that the Basilisk has been dead these past 20 or so years."
"Yeah, I suspect," he said with a sharp look at Anna, "that people who come here often may be Parselmouths. Witches or wizards who can speak to snakes. You were the most frequent visitor, so we waited for you."
He scoffed at the lot of them, except perhaps Cody. "Look, y'all, it's already past curfew. So if anyone catches you, you already run the risk of detention. So it's no use trying to avoid punishment-"
Youssuf paused. Della's hand was sneaking towards her wand, and she was looking at Cody with suspicion. Of course. Cody. The bloody troublemaker just HAD to do something to annoy pretty much everyone. "Originally, I was the only one searching for the Chamber, and I came here to find a lead - well, you, to be honest. You're one of the only ones who can open the Chamber of Secrets. These guys just tagged along. The Six of Crows, hey? But more like the Six of Secrets."
He chuckled. That was a rather good one - the Six of Secrets. Perhaps that was their new nickname!

[font=century gothic]The boy scoffed. He was clearly clenching his stomach in pain, and it was pretty much clear the others didn't care all too much. Maybe they cared more about the Chamber of Secrets than they did about Cody.

"Whatever." He said, as rudely as possible. He would walk over to Youssuf, whisper to him, but what he was whispering was unintelligable, or undeciperable, and Cody would refuse to repeat himself. He walked over to Anna, doing the same exact thing, then waving at Edme.

At last, he saw Della. "WHAT THE HELL? WHY? I JUST WANTED TO ROAST YOU ALIVE WHY ARE YOU HERE!" Cody said, remembering that fateful day when he ran away like a coward, after incitng a fight over who would win the Quidditch game between Hufflepuff and Quidditch.

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY HERE FOR THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS? AND IT'S PAST OUR CURFEW? WHAT THE HELL! C'MON GUYS! WHY PUT ME IN THIS SITUATION!"

Then again, Cody put himself in this situation by running into the abandoned toilets after tripping someone with glee, then finding out the others were going to the Chamber of Secrets. He would be screwed if a Prefect would find him at that moment. [/font]

@Yousuff Baid @Anna Washington @Autumn Agapov @Della Barfield @Cody Stevenson

Quite the talk had stirred up, and the new girl began to ask about what a Parsel way be. Edme was quite new to a lot of these concepts, even if she was raised in many wizarding households. It felt more as though those houses were just for show, and spells were just being cast, never taught. Even so, she herself was a strange breed, so learning about them was kind of hard to avoid.

Anna and Yousuff took the job of explaining upon themselves, doing fairly homework worthy explanations of the Chamber of Secrets and Parsels.

Edme laughed over "Six of Secrets." It had quite a nice ring to it, sounding good on the tongue. It was great having someone else to share interests with, specifically one of her greatest interests. Oh the rants they could go on about that book and its characters.

The calm excitement bubbling up was slowly deflated as Cody began screaming about curfew and roasting someone alive. Whatever it was, the only thing that the little Ravenclaw heard was "curfew". They had passed that? Already?

"Will we get in trouble?" they blurted out, brows furrowing in worry and confusion. The yelling was already a lot, and Edme was beginning to feel a tad overwhelmed by the utter chaos that ensued from the previously fairly quiet room. The best thing she could do was try to calm the storm. "Are we sure we want to go? I mean, what if... what if we get caught?"

WC:264

Once again, the room burst into chatter in response to Della. She focused on Cody first—he was the loudest and angriest. She pulled out her wand, ready in hand in case he decided to light anyone else on fire. It was unclear to her if these were his friends or foes. The rest of them had responded nicely, if not also overwhelmingly and excitedly. "I'm here because you didn't roast me alive! If it's past curfew and you're so worried about it, then you should go back to your dorm!" She tensed, awaiting his response, and made sure her stance was ready if a duel broke out.

Della turned her attention to Anna and Youssuf, trying to parse what they had said.

First, she turned to Youssuf, "You've been watching me?" All those nights, alone in the bathrooms, staring at herself in the mirror—and there had been someone else there. She wasn't sure if she should feel enraged or run away in shame.

But then what Anna had said had fully soaked into her brain. She had a special ability. It was weird to think she was capable of speaking a language she hadn't taken the time to learn. "I'm a . . . Parseltongue. Okay. Weird. Well, I did talk to a snake in my back garden. His name was Gus. I thought that maybe he was a magical snake? Are you saying that not all witches and wizards can talk to snakes? I'm a muggleborn, why would I be able to do that?" These and so many other questions began zipping through her mind. She didn't want to be weird or strange or stick out at Hogwarts. Was she related to Slytherin? Why was she a Gryffindor? There was just so much she didn't understand.

OOC: I'll have to make a new thread in the chamber itself. Everyone can post their responses to what I said above in this thread, e.g., if Cody wants to fight Della or anyone wants to answer her questions. But I will keep moving forward to the chamber opening part below, and what happens next after that will go in the new chamber thread. I hope that makes sense! There are a lot of things happening at once lol!

Della turned to the bathroom sink, once again touching the snake on the faucet. Could she talk to it? Because she hadn't realized she was speaking another language to Gus, she didn't know exactly how to summon the words. Probably like many fledgling Parseltongues before her, she tried to imagine the snake carving as an actual snake.

"Is this the chamber of secrets? Can we come in?"

At first, nothing happened. Della thought she had just said the words out loud. She probably looked very silly to everyone. Just as she was about to give up and face the others, there was a low rumble coming from within the sink. The sink began to shift, slowly moving across the floor, revealing a large hole in the ground.

As she looked into the darkness, she felt frightened, but she was too curious to turn around.

Well, her homework sure wouldn't get finished tonight.

OOC: I'll make a chamber thread sometime this week. If you don't see it or you can't access it, please owl me!

@Della Barfield @Cody Stevenson @Anna Washington @Yousuff Baid @Autumn Agapov

Edme would admit she was also a little surprised by the idea of Yousuff simply watching someone whilst they didn't know. She brushed it off, deciding there were larger problems to discuss.

Della seemed surprised by the revelation of her being a Parseltongue, and Edme had to hit herself with a quick reality check that, no, not everyone discovered their species by being chomped on the arm. It made sense.

She spoke of a snake named Gus from her back garden, and Edme quite liked the idea of having a little friend in the garden to speak to. A snake was a little more off putting.

A moment passed where Della simply looked at the snake on the faucet, a frightening minute of mindless quiet. It felt like the air had shifted, gone cold and bare, if the run down bathroom couldn't get any more chilly.

The moment seemed to hold steady, pause in time as Edme waited for something to happen, some crazy hoard of snakes to come rushing through the faucet and attack them all maybe.

Just as the tension had lifted, the sink seemed to move on its own, unveiling a mysterious hole that was as cold as the air outside. The darkness seemed endless, black and mysterious.

"Please tell me that's not as deep as it looks." Edme squeaked out as they stared at the gaping hole.

Any hope of returning before morning was thrown out the window.

WC:228