I do not own anything that could get me sued.

Oh my gosh. It has been FAR too long since I've updated this. And for that, I am sincerely sorry. I really really really am! And I'm even more sorry to have to say that I probably won't update again until after the second week of May because exams are coming up...

Thank you to all my reviewers! Your comments help me so much and they make me feel fuzzy inside :)

Chapter 25: Lost

"He has no idea where he's going…does he?" Raine muttered in Draco's ear. "I'm pretty sure we've been past that pipe at least three times."

As much as Draco hated to admit it, the pixie had a point. The entire chamber felt like a maze and almost every corner looked the same but even he had noticed how this one pipe had a large scratch on it – the very same one they had passed before.

Draco sighed in exasperation and barked, "Stop."

Snape paused in his step and turned back, a filthy look on his face. "What is it that you want? Am I not doing what you requested?"

"Actually, no. We are no closer to the exit than we were before."

"Well, I'd already informed you that I do not know a way out."

Draco grit his teeth. "You have to know. Why can't we just go back the way you came in?"

"I'm fairly sure you came in the same way I did," Snape spat. "And if you had any semblance of intelligence in your thick skull, you would have realized that it's a pipe sealed in Parseltongue. Evans opened the entrance for me."

Draco still had no positive idea who this Evans person the man had been cursing the entire time was but it was easy enough to guess that was the name Harry had taken during his stay here. It made sense. The Dark Lord's ward could not go about using his real name.

"Then you don't know any way out? At all?" Raine asked, a touch of desperation in his tone. He, out of all them, had found it hardest to be wandering around a cave with a Basilisk loose. Draco had been reluctant to believe that at first but after seeing the pixie pale, relatively quiet, and shaking, it became obvious that pixies really did have issues with gigantic, killer snakes. "They way we've been wandering around…I can feel the Basilisk's restlessness."

Draco stared at the pixie. "You can feel the Basilisk?"

"I can sense when it's near or when its mood shifts, yes," Raine replied warily. "It's just a side effect, really. I can't help but feel it."

Draco's eyes lit up at the information and a slight grin touched his lips. It was a grin of victory and Raine's heart leaped a little in hope. One didn't just gain that expression without some reason for it. "Tell me, Snape. What do you know about Basilisks?"

The Potions Master grit his teeth and glared burning eyes at his godson. "Do you expect me to answer to your every question like a dog –"

A single wave of Draco's wand and Snape was suddenly on his knees and clearly fighting to keep himself from shouting aloud in pain. Raine's eyes widened slightly at Draco's ferocity. He had always known the blonde was a Dark wizard and no stranger to the harsher manner of dealing with things, but actually seeing the difference between the boy who had been trapped within pixie dungeons less than a week ago and the boy who now stood strong and freely cursing a wizard many years his elder was a little startling.

"I asked you a question," Draco snapped. "Answer it."

The Malfoy heir lessened his spell to allow Snape breath to speak. "I know little," the Potions Master spat. "Only that almost any part of it would work well in many potions and that its eyes are capable of killing with a single glance."

Draco sneered disdainfully. "And you are supposedly my godfather. Pathetic. Basilisks have always been one of our Lord's greatest interests. I'm surprised you don't know more."

"Then please," Snape jeered. "Enlighten us lesser mortals about the remarkable beast you think is so interesting."

Draco actually seemed to consider it for a moment, about to spout into a lecture about the dangerous reptile. But then his eyes narrowed and he turned his back to the Potions Master. "I don't think I will. You are useless and this is wasting our time. There is no point in bringing you with us anymore."

The older wizard didn't miss the underlying message and he began to exclaim, "You aren't going to just leave me here!"

"Petrificus Totalus." Snape was suddenly silent and unmoving in his position. "It's a pity but you are a traitor and I hardly think taking the extra effort to bring along extra baggage would be worth my while." Draco smiled, a vicious sweetness poisoning his expression. "Goodbye, godfather."

~0~

Harry slipped into the Room of Requirement just behind a particularly large group of Squibs who had heard the message. He scowled at their idiocy – groups attracted attention! – but he smoothed out his features as he strode further into the room to search for Timothy. He had to make sure he played this perfectly. It was unfortunate that he had lost some of his composure earlier when he had spoken to Timothy alone. Harry could only hope that the Squib only believed his "friend's" abrupt change in personality was due to the shocking events just a few hours previous.

And even if Timothy did believe Harry's behavior strange, what was he going to do? Throw away the only person in the entire school who he had come to rely upon?

Hardly.

Harry found Timothy at the very front of the room where a slightly raised platform placed him separate from the growing crowd. The Slytherin wasted no time in climbing up and approaching.

"Timothy –"

"You were right."

Harry froze for the briefest of moments. Since when did his little Gryffindor pet find no problem in interrupting him? Perhaps Timothy had done it when they had first met, when he was still confident and independent of Harry's presence, but in the last few weeks the Squib had hung on to every word Harry had said. But Harry did not dwell on it for too long. Instead, he raised an eyebrow and neutrally replied, "Really?"

"I have to take a stand," Timothy said, his hands tightening into fists. "I know I've said it before but I think the both of us know that I hadn't really meant it. I thought that this would be quick, something that wouldn't blow into something so big. But you were right. If we let this get any more serious, the wizards – the ones that aren't still students – are going to be over us like hawks." The Squib's face was taut and his mouth set in a thin line. "We have to stop Leila…even if it means larger retaliation."

Aw…his little lion had finally made his first life-changing decision. It made Harry want to smile victoriously.

"If that's what you believe," Harry replied. "I will help you no matter what, Timothy. You know that right?"

A slight look of relief overcame Timothy's features and he let out a long sigh before nodding. "I know. Thank you, Harry."

~0~

Cole wanted to run away. He didn't care where as long as it was as far away as possible. Bile coated his tongue as he watched the scene before him.

"What did that Ravenclaw just tell you?" Leila snarled at a Second Year Hufflepuff who was cowering against the wall of the empty corridor they were in. The little girl's robes were disheveled from Leila's previous grip and her small frame trembled in the face of interrogation.

"N-nothing –"

"Don't lie to me!" Leila hissed. "I know that Ravenclaw said something to you!"

"Please –"

The girl shrieked as Leila slammed one of her hands upon her shoulders. "Don't lie."

"I – I'm sorry!" the Second Year yelled in terror.

It was amazing how quickly things could escalate. Leila had just finished her conversation with Cole about Harry being their next target and they were leaving the dorms together when she had seen a Third Year Ravenclaw whisper something into the girl's ear. It could have been anything – a little flirting, a small reminder spoken into the ear, a tiny and meaningless exchange – but Leila had spontaneously lunged at the girl the moment she was alone and now Cole was watching as she viciously demanded the information she believed to exist.

This was insanity, Cole realized in a moment of sickening clarity. Leila was…unhinged. She hadn't been like this before. But something had happened and now she was seeing ghosts and plots in everything and everybody.

How else could he explain what was happening? Since when had she sunk so low as to threaten a Second Year? The girl was just a Squib like themselves and she had only been here for little more than a year.

"Leila, wait. I don't think she knows anything," Cole began but he flinched when Leila whirled around to glare at him.

"Stay out of this, Cole!"

He wanted nothing more than to do just that but the pleading look in the Hufflepuff's eyes and her scared expression kept him in place.

Leila grasped the girl's brown locks in one hand and tugged her small head back harshly against the wall. "You are going to tell me what that Ravenclaw said to you right now."

The girl sobbed a little. "I – I don't…" She dissolved into full-blown tears as Leila viciously yanked her head to smash against the stone behind her.

For Merlin's sake, the girl was just twelve.

"The p-painting!" the Hufflepuff finally cried. "There's a painting! Of Barnabas the Barnaby! Timothy is having a meeting there!"

A twisted grin replaced Leila's previous snarl. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?" She released the Hufflepuff and watched with that same smile marring her face as the girl ran away sobbing.

It made Cole sick to his stomach.

But he couldn't speak because all of a sudden, Leila's eyes were upon him and he understood why the girl earlier had been so terrified. He was almost sure that the Hufflepuff Squib had been bullied in her time. Actions like Leila's should have been normal to a point. But something about Leila's eyes made Cole's blood run cold and he was horrified by how unbalanced she looked. There was a crazed haze to her expression and Cole was struck by the enormity of his situation.

Cole had gotten himself tangled up with a madwoman.

But she had saved him, she had helped him out of his little hell here. How could he forget that? How could he forget the times she helped him up and brushed him clean?

Then again, how could he forget the broken body down at the Quidditch pitch?

There were two sides to this girl who had helped him and Cole was suddenly unsure he could overlook the half of her that had killed the Seeker.

He barely heard her next words, her next commands. She wanted him to gather Eihwaz and to inform them of the painting where the meeting was taking place. No doubt, she thought Harry would be there beside Timothy. Cole could only nod numbly and watch her walk away to plot the downfall of yet another student.

He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to help her? Help another student disappear?

Cole was lost and once upon a time, he would have gone to Leila for advice. But now…now he only had one other person to ask.

He was running for the painting of Barnabas the Barnaby a moment later.

~0~

Raine was actually visibly trembling now. Before, Draco could ignore the pixie's fear but now it almost seemed as if Raine was literally dragging his feet.

"It can't be that bad," Draco sighed.

"How would you know?" Raine snapped back, clearly at his breaking point. "You can't sense how completely unnatural this – this creature is. It's not supposed to exist. It wasn't made by Nature."

Draco eyed the pixie. "Basilisks hatch. They breed. What isn't natural about that?"

"The very first Basilisk was not natural. It was made by mortal hands." He shivered. "Unnatural."

That was news to Draco. He had never known that but in his eyes, that fact just made the Basilisk that much more fascinating. So they were created, not born.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Raine asked, a touch of desperation in his voice. "How do we even know for sure this is going to work?"

"We don't," Draco said bluntly. "But would you rather be stuck down here until who knows when? For all we know, Harry might not come back. Normally this wouldn't work because as large as Basilisks are, they are known for being silent. But since you can sense it, this is our best shot."

"But how do we know that it will show us a way out?"

Draco sighed. "We're going to have to wait. It will have to leave the Chamber eventually. I know for a fact that Basilisks venture over a large range to hunt. Once it leaves, we can follow it and find a way out."

Raine choked at those words and glared at the young wizard. "So you're betting all of this on the small possibility that we might find some way out by following a gigantic, deadly Basilisk?"

"It's that or we stay stuck down here with it."

~0~

The sound of giggling permeated the air as the slight tendrils of the first morning sunlight breathed life to the room. The curtains swayed in the easy breeze and a crisp edge lent a clean bite to the atmosphere. It was peaceful in all definitions of the word and for the first time in the last few months, Voldemort was not inclined to destroy it.

The giggling, though, had to stop.

"Silence, girl," he said sharply as he laid down his quill.

Luna only airily smiled as she threaded fingers through her bob-cut. "It's nice here."

Voldemort only turned back to his work and decided to ignore her inane commentary. She had been here for a week now and she had not done much besides wandering the small wing he had permitted her to venture around and mumbling to herself about Nargles and other nonsense. He had yet to discover completely who she was; he had tried Legilimency of course but her mind had been clouded with a mess of flashes – the sign of a Seer. Even though he knew that much, there were still far too many variables for Voldemort to allow her much freedom here. The only thing that was keeping him from disposing of her completely was her information about Harry. For all he knew, there could be more in that convoluted mind concerning his Horcrux.

He eyed the bangle for the hundredth time and again set to work. Now that he knew Harry was behind the Light barrier, he could manipulate the magical structure of the object into piercing it. Obliterating meager Light had been low on his list before but now that his ward was there, he had far greater a motivation to devote more of his time to destroy the barrier. The divide had been quite helpful, really, over the years. It kept insurgents from leaking out, kept the Dark and Light polarized and therefore his rule was solidified. Voldemort would have been content to keep the barrier there until he had managed to control more of Europe but this was now of the utmost priority.

He valued himself more than anything else after all.

"Do you think he wants to come back?"

Voldemort decided to humor his newest prisoner. "Harry?"

Luna idly played with the necklace of bottle caps hanging around her neck. "I think he's lost."

"Hardy, girl. He knows where he belongs." Beside me.

She tilted her head to the side before sincerely asking, "Then why is he not here?"

Voldemort's pleasant mood was quickly evaporating. "He has foolishly disillusioned himself. But not for long."

The girl's eerie blue eyes stared into space as a burble of a sigh left her lips. "I think he's lost."

Again, I'm sorry for taking this long to update. I checked the last time I updated and nearly had a heart attack. It's been practically TWO MONTHS. And that is unforgivable. I actually tried writing this several times before but I felt a little like a writer's block had attacked me. I still sort of feel that way but I'm getting back in the groove :)

And I think this is a pathetically short chapter for so long away but I couldn't get much more out of it. So I decided to just post this and hope for the best the next time I attacked this again.

This chapter is also very chopped I think. The scenes are far shorter than I'm used to writing. It makes me feel prickly inside and not in a good way.

Next time will be much better, I promise! There will be much more happening anyways. This was more a transitional feel, yea?

Again, I dislike my characterization of Voldemort in this one. Maybe I'll stop writing from his perspective. Not writing form his perspective is easier to paint his cold nature better. Then again...that would be giving into the challenge and I can't do that now can I?

And poor Snape. He really is a better wizard than he is portrayed here (both skill wise and personality wise) but he doesn't exactly have his wand to show Draco's who's the real boss here and hey, I'd be irritated too if I was stuck in a musty chamber underneath a school too.

Till next time!