Never tickle a sleeping Basilisk

[grimbiker]

Sirius hadn't had much time to adjust. He'd hardly returned from the Multiverse's Next Top Model when GLaDoS grabbed him. And then when she finally let him go it was in a place of the ship he'd never seen before. Perhaps that was a blessing. Better to explore than to brood, as he had been inclined to do while he ran mazes.

Sirius didn't walk for very long before he came to something strange, or rather something out of place. He paused and stared at a set of sinks for about a minute before realizing why it looked so familiar. It was similar to the ones at Hogwarts- at least on certain levels. Not any in the men's rooms, probably one of the girl's. He had been in them several times to be sure there weren't any hidden passages and he hadn't found any. But this- this was different. The one sink had fallen away completely, revealing only a pipe. But then it couldn't be a Hogwarts sink, could it? Even if Sirius had missed the entrance then James or Remus or Peter would have found it. How could they miss something like this?

Sirius approached the sink and gazed down into the pipe. It was large enough to fit through. A secret entrance if ever he'd seen one though not very hygienic. As if that was going to stop him.

"Lumos." The light from Sirius's wand illuminated only several feet of grime coating the pipe but the pipe itself continued further.

Clearly there was only one logical thing to do. Jump in. Sirius's honor was at stake, after all, and all of the Marauders'. They had searched every inch of Hogwarts castle and grounds. They thought they had discovered everything. If this really was from Hogwarts then one of the Marauders, in this case Sirius, had correct this oversight.

Sirius stepped up to the pipe, took a deep breath, and practically jumped inside. Even if the pipe was old and covered in slime, the rush of air over his body was exhilirating. He had no idea what was about to happen next, where he would land (hopefully not on a set of spikes), or if anything was waiting for him (he would not be disappointed).

Sirius let out a laugh like a bark and the noise traveled up through the pipes, echoing above while he fell further below until finally he hit the damp stone floor at the bottom. He stood, brushing himself off, and looked up into the dark pipes. There was no clear way of how he would get back but he was not too concerned about it.

Comments

[first_of_steel]

Between one thing and another, Roger was rapidly losing his ability to be surprised by anything this part of the ship threw at him. At least, he thought he was. The sinks, though... those, he didn't expect. Or the huge pipe where one of them had been, either. Or the sound from down below...

"Hey!" he called, sticking his head partway down the pipe. "Is someone down there? Are you all right?"

[grimbiker]

Sirius stared ito the pipe although he couldn't possibly see anything given the distance between them and the turns in the pipe.

"Never better!" He yelled back up. "I had to see where the pipe lead." And now he took the time to look at his surroundings. It was a dark tunnel and he held out his wand so he could get a clearer look at it. That's when he saw the skeletons of rats several feet in front of him. Sirius had no complaints with dead rats but he might have one or two when it came to whatever had been eating them.

"That's not good." Sirius whispered but the sound of his voice echoed in the small confines of the tunnel and projected back up the pipe.

[livestoannoy]

"Oh man. Those are never words that I want to hear," said Marco, who had had the unfortunate luck to stumble across the sinks at just that that moment. (And what the hell? Sinks? Seriously?!)

He looked from Roger to the pipe, and half wondered if he should just turn around and run off. Sure, he had no idea what the dude in the pipe was talking about, but it was not good. Marco did not like Not Good. Not Good tended to mean something that would probably try to kill him.

[first_of_steel]

Roger looked back, then shrugged and turned to the pipe. "There's two of us up here," he called. "Do you need a hand down there, whoever you are?"

[grimbiker]

"Sirius Black." He said and nudged a rat skull with his foot. Then pictured a specific rat in its place before crushing it.

"Nothing terrible here, only rat skeletons. I'm more concerned with what ate them but for all I know there's a very hungry cat down here."

There was one way to find out without going further. Sirius put his wand to his mouth and bit down on it. Then the wizard transformed into a giant dog. The canine's senses were more informative. The tunnel smelled as old as it looked. It was hard to smell anything other than death and rotting corpses but there was something else, not quite a snake. Sirius couldn't place the smell but he knew how it made him feel, like he'd made a mistake coming down here.

Sirius changed back into a man and pushed himself up and removed his wand from his mouth. "You know, if you feel up to exploring, I think I could use another set of eyes down here. I don't like the smell of the place."

Despite how unsettling it was Sirius grinned. It had been too long, much too long, since he'd had a proper adventure. Now was the time to fix that.

[livestoannoy]

"Dude, are you insane? You've found dead rats that were probably eaten by something that will just as happily eat us, and you want to go exploring?" Marco said. And then because the pun was just too good to pass up, he added; "You can't be serious."

[first_of_steel]

"It makes more sense than you'd think," Roger said after a moment's thought, the pun whizzing right over his armored head. "Got to find the exit somehow. We should get down there and lend a hand."

[grimbiker]

"I'm always Sirius." He replied. "I'm certain we can handle whatever is down here. For all we know what you're so deathly afraid of is a cat who got stuck down here and if that's the case I'll be sure to let everyone- know."

Sirius paused briefly and looked back in the direction the tunnel lead. He thought he'd heard something moving. He didn't turn to face the tunnel again.

"Make up your mind." Though he tried to sound casual he couldn't completely mask his growing anxiety.

[livestoannoy]

"Have you met any cats?" Marco said. "They are evil, evil things. And since we are on Stacy, it's probably like some sort of mutant zombie cat with superpowers."

[first_of_steel]

"Then we'd better get down there and help him," said Roger. "Go on. I'll follow you."

And in the manner of all drill sergeants and jump instructors the world over, he casually reaches out to give the younger man a good shove, just in case he's feeling reluctant.

[grimbiker]

"Depends on the cat." Sirius said. He was about to protest that he had never asked for help when it occurred to him that he had better step back so they didn't land on top of him.

He stepped further into the tunnel and his mind focused on what might lie ahead.

[livestoannoy]

Sirius was just in time, because after being pushed in by Roger Marco was coming down the pipe with a yell, landing in an inelegant heap at the bottom.

"I hate you," he said in a small, muffled voice.

[first_of_steel]

"I'd move out of the way if I were you," Roger called. "I'm about to come down myself."

And he was wearing a full suit of armor, too. That might hurt.

[grimbiker]

Sirius laughed at Marco's arrival. They had all made enough noise that he wasn't going to bother worrying about attracting the attention of whatever was down there with them They'd run into it soon enough.

"Here." Sirius offered his hand to Marco.

[livestoannoy]

Marco had seen that armour, so it didn't take long for him to get into gear, grabbing Sirius's hand and scrambling too his feet.

"If we die horribly, I am going to blame you, you know," he said to Sirius.

[first_of_steel]

"Nobody's going to die," Roger said firmly. "Horribly or otherwise. If either of you wants to borrow a weapon, I'm carrying three; you can take the sledge or the laser pistol, if it makes you feel better."

He'd worry about laser handling safety protocols if either of them chose it.

[grimbiker]

Oh, muggles. They always came up with the most interesting contraptions.

"No, thanks. I have my wand." Sirius looked at Marco and smiled. "Perhaps if the damsel took one she'd feel safer."

[livestoannoy]

"Wand?" Marco raised an eyebrow. "What, are you from Harry's world or something?"

Then Marco scowled. "Ha ha, very funny. But for your information, I don't need to borrow a weapon."

And then he morphed into a gorilla, just to show them.

[first_of_steel]

".... thaaaaaaat's new."

Roger stared silently at the gorilla for a moment. Eventually he cleared his throat and said, "You know... I bet those arms'd get a hell of a lot of mileage out of a really big hammer."

[grimbiker]

"Another Animagus!" Sirius exclaimed before realizing that no, that didn't quite match given Marco's comments. "But if you were surprised at a wand so I must be mistaken. Yes, I'm from Harry's world. I'm his godfather." And then he laughed.

For some reason it was heartening to see someone else who could turn into an animal. He hadn't seen it since the last time he and James had kept Moony company. At that recollection his smile faded. James would have loved to be here right now. But there wasn't anything he could do about that. What was done was done. Instead Sirius would have to enjoy it for both of them.

[livestoannoy]

<Hell yeah they could,> Marco agreed, taking a certain amount of glee in their stunned expressions. Hey, morphing was really cool, after all.

Then, he was eying Sirus. <Dude, you are way too young to be Harry's godfather. And what the hell is an Animagus?> Sounded a lot like 'Animorph', but just how much alike? Man, if wizards were using z-space to morph too...

[first_of_steel]

Roger glanced briefly over his shoulder at the handle of the supersledge he carried, mentally weighing it against the sort of force a gorilla's arms could put into the swing. At the sudden mental speech he looked back to Marco again. He'd only ever encountered that once before- earlier. "Say, question," he said. "Do you know a hawk named Tobias?"

[grimbiker]

And now he was hearing Marco's voice in his head. Definitely not an Animagus.

"Harry is my godson. Before I came on this ship, the last time I saw him he was a baby. As for Animagus, you're not the only one here with a talent for turning into animals." Then he looked at Roger. "There's someone else who can do this? How many of them are there?"

[livestoannoy]

<Yeah,> Marco said casually, although internally he was sizing up Roger and trying to figure out how much he knew. By now their morphing abilities were public knowledge - but as far as the crew knew, Tobias was trapped and couldn't morph at all. Marco had to watch out for the guy. <Just make sure you don't ever get between him and a mouse, man.>

Then he was turning to Sirius with narrowed eyes. <Looking to take a census of my friends, are you?> he said cooly.

[first_of_steel]

"My grandfather taught me never go near the family dog when he was eating, back when I was a boy," says Roger with a shrug. "Same thing with a hawk, I'd imagine."

As Marco's attention turned to Sirius, he turned to examine the area around them. This sounded like an incipient argument, and arguments in unfamiliar places usually meant terrible things were going to happen very shortly while people were distracted.