Chapter 99: The Bathroom Entrance

Edward remained in the hospital wing for three more days after waking. Madam Pomfrey wanted his magic stable before she allowed him back to lessons, and Snape wanted enough time to make the restrictions impossible to misunderstand.

Draco and the others visited again on the second afternoon. Hermione had already returned to Gryffindor, which spared everyone another argument.

Pansy read the incident summary over Edward's shoulder.

"Restricted Section suspended. Fire practice supervised. Elementalization suspended," she said. "That is quite a collection."

"I was thorough."

"Do not sound proud."

Daphne asked whether his magic had recovered. Edward lifted his hand and produced only a weak spark before stopping.

"Not fully. And before Draco asks, the accident did not improve anything."

Draco closed his mouth.

"It made my control worse for now," Edward continued. "I lost several days, damaged library property, and nearly injured Madam Pince. There is no hidden benefit to copy."

Theodore nodded. "That goes in the alliance record."

"Already written."

Draco looked genuinely troubled. "Then why did you do it?"

Edward could have blamed the Chamber. Instead he gave the same answer he had given Snape.

"I wanted to prove I could overcome a limit after being told not to try."

Pansy sat back. "That is much stupider than the dramatic version."

"Yes."

The honesty ended the temptation to romanticize it.

When Madam Pomfrey discharged him, Snape met him at the ward door. He returned Edward's walnut wand and made him repeat the current restrictions aloud. No independent fire practice. No Restricted Section. No Elementalization. No entry into closed corridors or the third-floor bathroom. The Flame Mask strip remained an emergency aid, not permission to approach danger.

Edward repeated every rule correctly.

For several days, he followed them.

The castle remained tense but quiet. No new victim appeared. Staff inspected the closed bathroom and old pipe routes. Edward attended class, walked with escorts, and helped Madam Pince catalogue the damaged library section as part of his restitution. She did not speak to him for the first hour.

On the second day, she handed him a smoke-stained volume.

"This one can be repaired," she said.

Edward wrote down the damage and replacement cost.

"The two catalogues cannot."

"I know."

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"Do you?"

He met her gaze. "I knew the book was restricted. Professor Snape refused my request. I entered anyway."

Madam Pince's anger eased only enough to become colder. "Then remember the loss when curiosity begins explaining why a rule is inconvenient."

Edward did.

That evening, Harry heard the voice again.

The news reached Edward through Hermione, who caught him outside Charms. Harry had reported it properly this time. According to him, the hissing moved toward the central stairs and vanished before a professor arrived.

"McGonagall thinks it could be inside the walls," Hermione said.

"Then the pipe theory is stronger."

"Yes. And the bathroom stays closed."

Edward heard the warning in her tone.

"I know."

"You knew before the library too."

He had no answer that improved on silence.

That night, Edward woke shortly before midnight to the sound of water moving through the pipes behind the dormitory wall.

It was ordinary plumbing. He knew that.

Then he thought of Myrtle's bathroom, the snake-marked tap, Harry hearing speech through stone, and a creature that had already attacked four times.

The staff had inspected the room without opening the hidden entrance. Harry could perhaps open it, but no adult wanted to use a student as a key until they understood what waited below. That was sensible.

Edward still dressed.

He told himself he would not enter the bathroom. He would stand at the sealed corridor, listen for movement, and return.

The argument was almost identical to the one that had taken him to the Restricted Section.

He recognized that and kept walking.

The third-floor passage had been closed by a rope and a staff notice. Edward stopped before crossing it.

He could go back.

A sound came through the wall.

Not water.

A long scrape, followed by a hiss too low and deliberate to be a leaking pipe.

Edward froze.

The sound moved toward Myrtle's bathroom.

He should have sent for a professor immediately. Instead, fear that the creature would disappear before anyone arrived pushed him across the rope.

That choice belonged to him. No instinct compelled it. Ash did not seize his body. His mother's imprint did not warn him. Edward saw a rule, understood why it existed, and broke it because he wanted certainty.

He reached the bathroom door and heard Myrtle complaining to herself inside.

The scrape stopped.

Edward sent a small silver message toward Snape's office before entering. It named his location and said only that he had heard movement in the wall. The act reduced the danger without making the decision sensible.

Inside, the taps dripped steadily. Myrtle floated above the far stall.

"You again," she said. "Everyone comes here now. Nobody cared when I was alone for years."

Edward kept his voice low. "Did you hear anything in the wall?"

"I hear pipes all the time. Very rude pipes."

"Anything speaking?"

Myrtle tilted her head.

A hiss came from beneath the sinks.

Edward's skin went cold.

He did not understand the words. The sound came from below, then another answered from farther away. One speaker might be inside the passage. Another might be commanding it from elsewhere.

"Myrtle, move into the ceiling and stay there. Do not look toward the sinks."

She began to object, saw his face, and vanished upward through the stone.

Edward pulled the Flame Mask strip from his outer pocket. The warning was written across it in Snape's hand: NOT A SHIELD. USE ONLY TO MOVE AWAY.

He should have moved away.

Stone grated beneath the basin.

The snake-marked tap rotated without Edward touching it. A seam appeared where Flitwick's ordinary charms had found solid stone. The floor began opening beneath the sinks.

Edward activated the Flame Mask and stepped backward until his shoulder found the nearest stall. The dark red veil reduced the room to floor, outlines, and movement.

He did not attempt Elementalization. He did not summon stronger fire. His magic was still recovering, and none of those techniques had been approved for this threat.

The opening widened.

Cold air rose from below carrying damp stone and an animal smell.

Edward crouched behind the stall door with his face lowered. His message to Snape was already gone. Leaving now meant crossing the open floor beside the moving entrance.

He chose cover and listened.

The mask did not make the room comfortable. It made it worse in a useful way. Edward could no longer satisfy the urge to look directly at the opening. He saw only the lowest strip of tile and the shadow spreading across it.

His right hand tightened around the walnut wand. He forced the grip loose. A panicked Incendio in the bathroom could illuminate exactly what he was trying not to see. The best spell available might be no spell at all.

Myrtle remained silent above him. Water tapped into a cracked basin.

Then scales dragged across stone with a weight no ordinary snake could produce.

Something enormous began climbing out of the darkness.

He stayed hidden.