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Chapter 28 - Spiders Flee Before It

Harry, Belle and Marietta redirected their wand lights toward the ceiling of the chamber.

The ceiling was alive with multilegged creatures with multiple multifaceted eyes.

The acromantulae had found a new home.

The three humans were welcome guests.

Welcome for dinner.

"Harry would ye be knowin' any good spells t'use against really big spiders?" Marietta asked, her Irish accent coming to the fore an indicator of how nervous she was.

"Steady now, yes I do but it only works against one at a time."

"How about an inflamare?" Belle offered.

"We'll keep that one in mind" Harry said, remembering that a ring of fire had protected him and Dumbledore from the inferi just a few months before. The only problem with that plan was that the spiders would drop on them from the ceiling, they would have to keep a wall of fire on three sides and that would use up most of the oxygen in the chamber before it could renew itself.

"All right now, back into the mouth of the statue, nice and slow, keep an eye out for sudden movement, diffindo!"

A large acromantula had dropped from the ceiling, Harry's cutting spell sliced it from tip to tip, the two halves quivered on the ground in front of them.

The three mages backed through the knee deep water then sidled into the open mouth just as three more acromantulae dropped from the ceiling three diffindos followed by an inflamare left the arachnid pieces smoldering at the mouth of the statue. The humans slipped inside, the spiders waited outside, they were in no hurry; they had food enough for a while thanks to their more fool hardy brothers and sisters.

"I'm going to close the mouth" Harry told his ladies, then in parseltongue whispered close.

As the mouth closed a candelabra flared to life giving soft but substantial light to the room.

"Belle, Marie, can I get you to stay here while I make sure these rooms are clear?"

He saw the determined looks in their eyes as they both brought their wands to a ready position.

"Never mind, okay, Marie, you watch left and above, I'll take right and above and Belle,"

"I'll cover your rear, oh yes" she vamped.

He chuckled "you're incorrigible, please don't ever change."

There were several rooms set up for various functions, a potions lab, a library, one comfortable bedroom with a large bed one smaller room with a one person sized bunk. A larder, a loo and a washroom with a large footed tub, all fed off a long passageway that seemed to go into a hole in the floor.

"Belle, can you please transfigure a grate to go across that hole, I'd like to avoid any surprises."

"Done, m'lord" and it was with a cross hatch movement of her wand the hole was screened against anything larger than a blue bottle fly.

"If you would do the same for the air vents in the rooms please?"

"Of course."

And none too soon it seemed for a large hairy acromantula was even then trying to fit through the vent in the master bedroom. Marie's reductor curse was so violent that the giant arthropod was literally smeared back through the vent. All three scourgified the duct so that the remains inside wouldn't begin to putrefy.

They blocked and warded all of the possible entries, even the plumbing before settling in to plan their escape. The three of them were resting in the study when Belle let out a small shriek.

Both young aurors were on their feet, wands at the ready when they say that Harry's bondmate was shrieking at or because of a book. Harry groaned, Belle it seemed, was channeling Hermione.

"What have you found?" he asked.

"This is Salazar Slytherin's personal diary - look"

Salazar's writing was small and precise, it almost looked typeset it was so neat. He was it seems, quite the calligrapher.

"It is the nine hundredthe and ninety seventhe year by the common reckoning, the end of a millennia." Salazar wrote "the dvarfes hath done fine fashioning the chamber; it shall be our secret, the dvarfes and mine. Vorke continues apace on the castle above our students shall have a place of safety to become learned and groe in their crafte."

"He wrote this" Belle said with reverence "just before the school was completed a thousand years ago."

A later entry from the diary "the egg hath hatched, the egg of a chicken incubated by a toade hath rendered a serpent, a basiliske that only I or one of mine heirs can master. The eight legged beasties of the forest shall not enter this sacred place of learning."

"Don't you see m'lord? Lord Slytherin never meant the basilisk to harm anyone at Hogwarts regardless of blood status; its commission was to keep the acromantulae away from the castle. The basilisk was subverted by that half-blood bastard who calls himself 'winged death.' So a guardian of the castle became a monster instead."

"And if I had understood my gift earlier, I could have reasoned with it, maybe I could have kept it alive to continue its work here." That revelation made Harry think long and hard about rushing into any circumstance when he didn't have enough information.

"Yeah" Marietta said "and there would have been no army of spiders between us and the exit either. . ." She stopped talking as Harry and Belle both snapped their heads in her direction as if struck by the same thought at the same time. Of course they did, they were bonded; they literally did have the same thoughts at the same time.

"Why not?" they both said.

"Certainly worth a try!" Harry agreed.
He held out his sleeve and spoke in parseltongue with the little boa.

"Marie, Belle, come with me to the end of the corridor."

The three of them moved to the grated hole in the floor, where Belle removed the grid.

Harry sat against the wall and began his relaxation exercise so that Belle could access his thoughts freely.

"All right, m'lord."

"Harry, just Harry please."

"All right, my Lord Harry, I can see the basilisk in your mind now let me see if I can speak to Iris."

Irisss, can you help usss?

What would you have me do?

There are many ssspidersss outside that want to harm usss, make usss food

That isss the way of thingsss, we eat or we are food

Would you not rather eat than be eaten?

I am sssmall

I can make you great and terrible to the ssspidersss, and they can be food for you

You will do thisss for me?

If you will allow it, yesss

I will allow

Belle pulled the details of the images from Harry's mind, the size, texture, smell, sounds, and even the pain of the venom in the basilisk fangs and began the biggest transfiguration project of her life.

Late that afternoon the remaining staff members reported seeing hundreds of acromantulae of all sizes literally boil up from the ground and run into the forbidden forest as if the spider's vision of the devil had been visited upon them. Many of the smaller (merely dog sized) spiders were trampled by the larger (hippo sized) arachnids as they all ran in a blind panic away from the castle.

Dekaliters of fresh acromantula venom were collected that day, much to Horace Slughorn's delight.

A new guardian of the castle patrolled the hidden chambers and sub-subbasements of the school ensuring that there would be no spider infestation in the castle itself for the next few hundred years.

The sun had long set before Harry and his ladies emerged from the chamber looking drawn and exhausted.

"Was it my imagination or were there more steps coming up than there were going down?" Belle groused.

"No, ooph" Harry said as Marietta elbowed him in the side, they were fresh out of training and Belle wasn't yet used to the exercise, "oh yeah, well, coming back up was all uphill and going down was all, y'know, down."

Marietta rolled her eyes.

"It's all right Marie, I know what he's thinking and he's right, I do need to be in better shape, I will begin training with you as soon as we get back to base, but now I believe there's a Prefect's bathroom near here somewhere?"

"It's um, on the sixth floor. . ." Harry almost quailed at Marietta's withering glance.

Belle just groaned, "let's go then shall we, but I want a thorough massage when we get there, and I mean thorough."

Her voice lowered a whole octave when she said "thorough" such that Harry was tempted to just pick her up and carry her up the four flights of steps, but she did need to get into shape and steps were great for that.

"Harry, please wait, just a moment" the ethereal voice of Moaning Myrtle called out. The ghost drifted down from the high window where she had been sitting and touched down on in front of the trio. She couldn't bring herself to look directly at any of them so she picked at her ethereal skirt as she asked "can you ever forgive me? I've been so alone for so long that I go a little, you know, crazy here and I took it out on you, and you were right of course and I'm so, so sorry." Her remorse was palpable, and as deep as her regret was, it was eclipsed by her loneliness. She started to drift toward the ceiling "You won't have to see me anymore, I won't bother you again, when I see you I'll just fade away."

Harry's inane sense of empathy kicked in. He thought about the young girl's spirit having to exist in plumbing for five decades, ridiculed in death as she had been in life, and felt for the girl ghost. "Please wait, Myrtle, I think I understand now, and it's all right. I'd hate it if any of my friends started to avoid me over an honest misunderstanding."

"Friends" she whispered, as though the sound of it was foreign to her, "are we friends Harry?"

"I'd like to consider you my friend Myrtle, if that's all right with you."

Myrtle began to weep silver tears again but this time they were tears of gratitude. Marie and Belle were moved as well. Belle had an epiphany that she shared with Harry over their bond. He smiled and nodded his agreement. Belle stepped up to the sad little ghost hovering just above the stone floor and said, "Myrtle, we're just going up to the prefect's bath, if you'd like to . . . join us?"

Myrtle's ghostly eyes grew wide behind her spectacles and she said "oh, that's so naughty, I mean, I just . . . couldn't . . . could I?"

Belle took off out the door like a shot and called back over her shoulder "last one there is a rotten basilisk's egg!"

Harry and Marietta looked at each other and smiled; gave Myrtle a 'come along' gesture and took off yelling "hey, no fair getting a head start!"

Myrtle squealed and dove into the nearest sink to follow the pipes up.

When the two teens arrived at the prefect's bath the door was shut and Belle was nowhere to be seen, Marietta looked up and down the sixth floor corridor and called out "Belle?"
She was getting concerned until she saw Harry smirk, "she's in with Myrtle, our little ghost girl gave her the password and Belle's waiting for us to come in."

"Well, what is the password?" she asked, slightly exasperated.

Harry's smirk grew to become an evil grin as he sent over the bond, "whatever you do milady, don't think of saying the password, don't even think about the password, and don't tell me the password is . . ."

"Sandalwood; damn it Harry, I couldn't not think of 'sandalwood' with you putting to me like that!"

"Sandalwood" he said aloud and the door unlocked for them. Belle was still dressed in her emerald green dress and white chemise, but the lacings were undone so that she could slip it off easily. She was puttering about with the towels laying them out on the floor to form soft cushions on the cold stone floor and had set warming charms to heat them; she had already set the many taps to fill the swimming pool sized bath. A pleasant, fragrant haze drifted up from the water that the three corporeal people in the room found very relaxing. Myrtle seemed very calm herself as she drifted alongside Belle while they whispered together.

"You could easily have been in Slytherin, m'lord" she said, good humor crinkling her eyes.

"He is smart enough to be in Ravenclaw as well, milady" Marietta rejoined "just too bloody noble to be anywhere but Griffindor."

"More like stubborn, actually" he added, "seeing as 'floppy' wanted to put me in Slytherin."

"Floppy?" Marietta asked.

"The Sorting Hat" Belle answered for him, "that's what Harry calls the Sorting Hat."

"Tell me love, when will I be able to read your mind as well?"

"You're already a pretty good occlumens; legilimens should be fairly easy for you."

"Or you could do the same thing I did" Belle said with her Mona Lisa smile.

"We'll have graduated from auror training by the end of this month, and I'm not going to renew the contraceptive charm" she looked at Harry with real longing in her eyes "unless you'd rather not . . . ?"

"How could I say no to those beautiful brown eyes? But could we wait until Riddle has been escorted to 'the next great adventure' first? I want our children to grow up in a Voldemort-free world."

Marietta went weak in the knees to hear Harry talk about having children with her, she knew he wanted a family, a Weasley sized brood to cherish; and the fact that he wanted her to be the mother of his children made her eyes fill with happy tears.

"Riddle?" Myrtle mused "I knew a Riddle when I was still attending classes" apparently, like most ghosts Myrtle didn't refer to being alive, but rather referred to doing things the living did "I think he was a Slytherin prefect."

"Myrtle, please join us over here for a moment" Harry said, and he gestured for her and his ladies to sit on the soft, warm towels.

"Myrtle, you do know what, um, got you, right?"

"Oh yes, I found out when you killed it, it was a basilisk."

"Do you know who set the basilisk on you in the first place?"

"No, I never found out."

"It was Tom Riddle."

"Oh" the ghost said in a very small ethereal voice, "do you know why?"

"I can't say for sure, but I think it was because you were muggle born; and, unfortunately because you happened to be the 'mudblood' in the bathroom just as the basilisk was emerging from the opening of the Chamber of Secrets" Harry's pained expression was apologetic "as far as Riddle was concerned it was perfect."

"Did he hate me so much?"

"He hated, and still hates all who are muggle-born, anyone who isn't 'pure blood'" Belle offered.

"Still hates? He's still walking about?"

"Yes, Myrtle, he is, he's Lord Voldemort."

"Will you please excuse me," the little ghost asked "I think I have someone to haunt . . ."

Belle cried out "No Myrtle, don't go!"

"Why not?" she spat back, rising about half a meter into the air "I can go wherever water flows; that makes precious few places I can't go so I can and I will find him. What can he do to me he hasn't already done? It's not like he can kill me again - can he?"

"Oh Myrtle, he's had nearly sixty years of experience dealing with vengeful spirits, he's killed hundreds of people, perhaps thousands, so he deals with ghosts everyday; he can make you suffer, he can rob you of your afterlife! I've seen him set a dementor on a ghost and it shred that poor spirit until nothing was left. I remember him laughing at its misery and despair! It would break my heart to know that he hurt you; please don't go. Stay with us, help us to destroy him!"

The little ghost was overcome by Belle's genuine concern and her voice was filled with emotion as she said "No one has ever, and I mean ever cared about me, not in the children's home where I was raised, not in school, certainly not since."

"We care Myrtle, and after tomorrow, when we've killed off a few stray dark soul pieces we'll be that much closer to putting paid to Riddle's accounts."

"Oh I hope I'm somewhere nearby when that happens, I'll be happy to escort him to his afterlife!"

"I don't think he's bound for the same place you are Myrtle" Harry stated as if it were an immutable fact.

"Actually, he is. I can't tell you how I know this but the next great adventure is the same destination for everyone, but not the same destiny. I don't know why, but it's so much clearer for me now, it's like heaven for one person is like the fiery pit to someone else. We're going to the same place, but for the truly evil it is punishment indeed."

They all pondered what Myrtle was saying when Belle stood and announced "I'm going in for a dip, who's joining me?"

Harry and Marietta scrambled to their feet and Myrtle drifted to hers. The three corporal beings began to remove each other's clothing with practiced efficiency as the ghost girl began to blush a brilliant blue around her cheeks.

"No need to be embarrassed, Myrtle, you don't have to undress and you can always turn your back if you don't want to see this" Belle soothed.

"I know, but I really want to, um, join in; but I've never, y'know . . ."

Myrtle seemed to solidify just a bit as she stood on the floor, her expression one of pure determination, and began to undress, first her Hogwart's jacket, followed by the starched white blouse revealing a lacey looking bra that seemed to have points on the cones, she unbuttoned then unzipped her ghostly grey skirt and let it fall to the ground revealing high-waist pants of the type worn by girls in the mid to late 1940s. She stood in her white bra and knickers, knee-socks and loafers waiting as the living stripped down to their skins.

"Oh my, you have no hair 'down there.'"

"No we charmed it off, except for Belle, who keeps just a small thatch above her -"

"I see Harry, I see" then she giggled "and I see Harry and Harry isn't hairy!"

"Cute Myrtle" he grinned, appreciating the ghost's outdated sense of humor. He stepped into the bath and helped Marietta in as well. Just as he was about to offer a hand to Belle he heard her yell "Woooo Hoooooo!" and a blur as she cannonballed into the middle of the bath. She stood laughing a sputtering, much as Marietta had the day before, this time it was Harry's turn to roll his eyes.

Myrtle was bent over double laughing, she hadn't had this much fun since, well, ever!

The trio in the bath frolicked and splashed for quite a while before settling in for a nice soak where they gravitated together in a nice three-way hug. They began to exchange tender kisses that became more passionate by the minute, Myrtle caught Harry's eye as she removed her bra, which was apparently two sizes too large for her tiny "A" cups and peeled out of her knickers and socks and shoes. She neatly folded her ghostly garments and placed them on a shelf. She stood straight and Harry could see what no man had ever seen before, a nude Myrtle. He liked the darkening puffy blue areole and her waspish waist which flared to form full hips. Some would call her bottom-heavy but Harry though her shape suited her. Harry removed his arm from around Belle and invited Myrtle to join them.

She did a very convincing job of stepping into the water, although the water was not displaced by her has she had no mass to speak of and she glided over to the inviting trio.

"I'd better not" she said sadly "I know ectoplasm is very cold to the living and I don't want to spoil the moment."

Harry and the ladies would have none of it and moved to where Myrtle stood in the chest-deep water. They gathered her into their embrace and although it was cold they drew warmth from each other as they gave some to the ghost.

Harry felt himself begin to react to the chill - things really do get smaller in the cold - and kissed the closest living face, which happened to be Marietta's. She placed the glans of his flagging member near her warm opening, deepened the kiss and rubbed him against her sex to let him know she was already ready for him, and to emphasize the fact she hooked her left leg, and then her right around his waist so that all she had to do was press down to feel him enter her.
Ghosts are incorporeal beings, but very strong stimuli, strong smells, sweaty bodies and teen hormones are very powerful indeed because as Harry entered Marietta, Myrtle gasped as she felt a sympathetic touch along her ghostly entrance, it was almost as if she were being penetrated along with Marietta, and for the first time since her death, Myrtle moaned not in sorrow, but in pleasure.

Belle moved in behind Marietta to help support her in the water as Harry began to pump with more vigor "move closer" she whispered to the ghost girl and Myrtle was only too happy to comply. As Marietta began to climax Myrtle felt an irresistible pull and suddenly Harry was holding her, kissing her, and she was screaming her climax into his wide open mouth. As she began to settle down to a post orgasmic bliss she slid out of Marietta and literally floated on air coming to a rest on the surface of the water.

Marietta, for her part looked like she was equally boneless.

"Goddess I love this man" she thought.

"Amen sister" Myrtle sighed.

Marietta's eyes snapped open, "Myrtle?" she thought to herself.

"Um hum, um, yes?" the ghost said aloud.

"You can 'hear' me?" Marietta thought in her direction.

"Yes, why?" the ghost asked.

"Because I'm not speaking, I'm only thinking" the girl replied.

"Myrtle's ghostly eyes snapped open and she stared back at the couple who were still, well, coupled.

The ghost drifted back to them, and looked at Marietta curiously, but didn't speak as Harry was beginning to pump again and it was her turn to ride the climax.

His breathing became more pronounced as though he were looking for that second wind and he began to feel that familiar sensation that meant he was about to release when Myrtle felt that same pull, but this time she was pulled into him as he began to empty himself. This time Marietta was in front of Myrtle and she could feel herself inside the girl as all three of them began to scream their completion, echoing around the Prefect's bathroom for what seemed like an eternity.

As before, as the body she was 'visiting' began to come down from its climax Myrtle simply drifted out, in a post orgasmic fog.

Harry and Marietta began to chuckle as they shared the moment, "visiting?"

"Well" Myrtle smirked "I think 'visiting' sounds so much nicer than 'possessing,' don't you?" she sighed a sigh of utter and complete contentment "I'm the first person since Teiresias to know how it feels to love as a man and a woman, and to think, until today I was a virgin!"

"Glad to have that out of the way?" Belle smirked.

"You have no idea" Myrtle sighed, "I'm not complaining mind you, but I don't understand why I was drawn into you just now, I mean here in the prefect's bathroom alone there have been hundreds of Hogwart's students having sex - really, you wouldn't believe who I've seen in here bumpin' uglies!"

"That's just it, dear, all those others were having sex, but we were making love, I promise you there's a difference, oh yes, vive le difference!" Belle sang as she moved in front of Harry and began stroking him.

Marietta added "and you were invited, I'm sure that's important too."

"Milord, please lie down on the edge here, there's something I've been dying to try."

"Hey" Myrtle quipped, "no dying metaphors around the ghost!"

"Myrtle, did you just make a funny?"

"Well, yeah, I am a little out of practice."

"No, really, that was good" Harry said encouragingly as he lay on the edge of the pool, "now what were you - erp!"

The 'erp' was his reaction to being completely fellated in his bondmate's mouth all the way to the back of her throat. She began to bob back and forth taking his entire length. As she moved faster and faster he could feel the need for release and he wanted to warn her when she suddenly stopped, pulled away and walked to the shallow end where the water was only knee-deep. She spread her feet just more than shoulder length apart and bent over at the waist placing her elbows on the edge of the pool.

She looked over her shoulder at Harry, lying there in a 'heightened state of readiness' and gave him a come hither jerk of the head.

You would have thought he had apparated there he was so fast. He could see that she needed no foreplay, but he was too much the gentle man to not make sure she was ready for him, so he knelt down and put his parselmouth to good use.

"Oh Harry my Lord," she gasped "I'm never going to let you go you jewel!"

When he was satisfied that Belle was more than ready he stood behind her and said "Myrtle?"

The ghost girl squealed and practically dove into the couple, sharing time with each body, enjoying the sensations of both.

Fifteen minutes later they were all soaked in sweat and out of breath and completely in love.

"Goddess, you've killed me again" Myrtle moaned as she drifted out of Belle.

"But what a way to go" Belle murmured.

"Can we just sleep here tonight?" Harry asked.

Marietta transfigured a tall stack of towels into a king sized futon and some sheets. Then cast an inflamare so that the fireplace filled with dancing flames adding warmth and a comfortable glow to the bath room.

"Come t'bed my beloveds" she said "we've a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"One more dip in the bath, then I seem to remember promising someone a massage."

"Have I told you lately that I love you m'lord?" Belle said dreamily.

Myrtle sighed basking in the afterglow and thanked all three for the most perfect day of her afterlife.

ooo000ooo

In Salazar Slytherin's journal I tried to give the impression of a language related to, but far removed from our own. Anyone who has read (or has tried to read) Beowulf in the original Old English will appreciate just how much the language has changed.

How do you like adding Myrtle to the mix? I love the character and I think she's underused. I see her as an important character in this story. Wait for it.