The chill was rising with the moon. Adrian didn't have that much time, not to mention his detour to the Slytherin rooms to retrieve Lutain.
"We heading to the forest?" Lutain hissed eagerly, peering around and scenting the air as an early warning, "Heading to Adalonda?"
"Adalonda first," Adrian mumbled to himself, walking purposefully through the dark passageways of the castle. Paying the Weasley twins for the secret pathways was well worth it.
"Yes! The forest for demon-tears." Lutain cheered, purposefully messing with the word.
Adrian smiled and slid out into the washroom, opening the Chamber to slide down.
The Chamber was just as he left it, although it had been tidied slightly. The huge snake skin had been pushed out of the way, trampled by something roughly the same size.
"Adalonda?" Adrian shouted, his hisses reverberating oddly in the large room.
Ginny's skeleton was moved as well. Only her hair remained.
(Lutain had mentioned it to Adalonda, who moved it one day without further questions. Adrian hadn't seen it since.)
"Lutain?" A larger much deeper grumble sounded, echoing off the many pipes and statues, "Cerestes?"
That had been an argument in itself. Adalonda had quickly fallen into a mothering relationship with the two, constantly wrapping them under her coils like she was nesting a clutch. She refused to call Adrian by his name, instead falling into her self proclaimed tradition of naming serpents.
Adrian had absentmindedly mentioned his title was to be Cerestes, a mythological serpent which survived by disguises and ambushing; Adalonda instantly took to it, only calling Adrian that.
"We're here." Adrian responded, walking into the main chamber just as Adalonda finished slithering out of one of the massive pipes, "Where were you?"
"Swimming," Adalonda blinked, moving aside one of her many eyelids, "Not long, helps with shed." she explained briefly tilting her massive head to one side, "You travel to the forest?"
"Yes!" Lutain writhed eagerly, "I will strike centaurs! I am faster now!"
"You have shed many times since I slept last," Adalonda commented, "You are nearly unseen, night-scales."
Lutain wriggled excitedly.
"Which pipe exits in the Forbidden Forest?" Adrian asked, peering through the many twelve foot tubes.
"The Lost Forest is old," Adalonda tisked, "Not forbidden, only Lost. This path, little Cerestes. Exits near clearing, but long have abandoned. Giant spiders flee, like worms." Adalonda explained, pausing before making the oddest grunting noise.
"I make the hiss of a spider," Adalonda explained, looking as if she had done something obvious, "It was accurate."
"That was one of the worst impressions I've ever heard." Adrian added goodnaturedly, patting her side affectionately.
"Such rude hatchling," Adalonda huffed, peering at Lutain tiredly "Does he always speak so rude."
"I did not understand your hiss." Lutain confessed, "Sounded like frog."
"It did not!" Adalonda huffed, a smile in her voice, "You all have leaves in ears."
"I don't!" Adrian argued.
"I don't have ears!" Lutain argued as well, "Your tongue is limp!"
"His tongue is a fish!" Adalonda pointed out, flicking her own forked tongue for emphasis.
Adrian smiled and wrapped one arm a third around her neck in a quasi hug before climbing carefully into the dark tunnel.
"Lumos," He murmured, alighting his wand before turning back to the clouded eyes of Adalonda "You be safe, okay?"
"'Be safe'" She mimicked, tossing her head, "You are one who awakens a sleeping queen without knowing what will happen! If anyone needs to 'be safe' it is you! My scales will fall out with stress!" She ranted, "Stay away from Centaurs! They are fast and will shoot you with arrows!"
"I'll bite if they do!" Lutain boasted, causing Adalonda to huff in amusement.
"We'll be safe," Adrian smiled, "We're only going to offer a treaty to Dementors by giving them the soul of Hippogriffs."
Adalonda blinked slowly, "You're worse than Salazar."
"We'll be back!" Lutain promised, darting into the tube ahead of Adrian, forcing the wizard to run after.
Ever so quickly the tube stretched off, leaving Adrian with the disorienting sound of his own feet echoing all around him.
"Master, what happens when we reach the forest?" Lutain asked, slithering quickly with the casted heating charm around his body, "I can't bite dead."
"Well you could, but they're already dead so it wouldn't do anything." Adrian pointed out, relishing in his parseltongue, "I brought my cloak. I don't know where father got it, but I think the dementor material sewn into the bottom will help. It should keep them away."
"Should?" Lutain picked up on the hesitancy, "You have no idea do you."
"I am entirely certain a portion of the time."
Lutain paused a second to comprehend what Adrian had said, "You're as smart as a rock."
Adrian blinked and scoffed, angling to the left and upwards slowly as the tube ramped up, "That was rude. Should I use large words to confuse you?"
"Master I think you are being very rude." Lutain spoke with a fluid eloquence that could only exist from practice, "Nagini taught me that phrase,"
"I wonder why she knows that so well." Adrian chuckled, recasting Lumos to carry on in the darkness of the pipe.
Adrian was starting to doubt if Adalonda had been right before the tube started to widen, creating a funneling opening in the ground near an uprooted tree. They stumbled out, crunching on stiff grass as before their eyes, the tube melted into the dirt.
"Open," Adrian tested, feeling relief as the depression slowly melted away into the opening of the funnel once again, "Alright, Lutain you're up. Can you find the Hippogriffs?"
"You could if you were serpent." Lutain slightly barbed, "I could take you hunting!"
Adrian snorted, "You know I can't change into that. I'll need Wormtail to help me."
"Then you can eat him!" Lutain cheered, "He smells bad. You should eat him."
....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my pa*treon now.
Link: pa*treon.com/Amelie796 (Remove the *)
Free members will get 2 chapters for free.