When they arrived, Seungmin was sure that they had come too late.

For a start, it had taken the group much longer than it should have to find the entrance to the Chamber: they had been able to understand that their path had been the right one well before arriving, due to the loud screams and blows that were coming from that direction, – they were so huffled Seungmin had not been able to recognize exactly whose voice they belonged to, but he could've sworn deep down that he'd heard Minho talk – and those had actually had them fasten their pace, but once they'd come to a halt, face to face with the Chamber's main entrance, they'd had to stop, completely clueless about which move it would've been best to take on now.

Chan had tried many spells and charms to get the circular door to open, but no one had proved succesful.

"It's probably some dumb trick Salazar Slytherin applied to the damn locks" had scoffed Changbin. "Bet it's got something to do with Parseltongue".

"Well, but there must be a way to get in" Y/n's voice had been trembling, and her body shaking uncontrollably: it had been clear that she had been starting to get really worried for her friend – the loud but blended yells, besides, were not helping. Seungmin had quickly walked over to her position and had squeezed her hand tenderly. "How would've Jisung and Minho been able to get past?"

"Well, probably the snake has its own ways to get in..." had commented Chan, who was still very focused on what seemed to be the door: it stood right below a giant representation of the old Founder, surrounded by other smaller and fluid low-relieves that intertwined to form the silhouettes of serpents. Seungmin, although apart of the House, couldn't have helped the feeling of uncomfortableness that had filled him at the sight of the entrance.

Yeah, if Parseltongue has anything to do with all this, I can totally see this, had thought Seungmin. But also: the only thing is – why would they want the snake be set free? Wouldn't they want it to stay hidden, so that it wouldn't risk them getting caught? The Slytherin knew enough about snakes to be sure they wouldn't be able to discover the way to get through the door unless told how to. Could it be that...?

But before he'd been able to voice out his opinions, a sudden dash of silvery light had formed before his eyes, solidifying and flashing the opposite way to where they were supposed to be going all at once.

Chan had blinked. "A... a hare?"

"A rabbit" Changbin had replied lazily, his wand drawn out. Then, once he'd noticed the confused stares of the other three people: "Well, how about it? It's my Patronus. I sent it to Jinnie so that they can follow it and come here asap?"

A what? Seungmin had been about to say, but then had immediately shaken his head: that was not a piece of knowledge that wass needed at the moment. Instead, trusting his own suspicions, he walked a little bit ahead, and noticed that as he walking the voices coming from inside were becoming more and more clear.

There had been that of a man, that sounded very angry: it had seemed as if he had just been about to so something, when another voice layered on his: "STOP!"

Seungmin suddenly felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his body: he knew that voice. Gesturing wildly, he got his companions' notice and sped off towards the direction from which the voice seemed to be coming from. There was a great hole, that he could've easily surpassed, and that would definitely get him inside the Chamber...

but when he was finally close enough to see what was happening – well, that was when he seriosly started to believe that things were going to go really bad.

For a start, he couldn't even see Minho, Jisung or the other people he assumed the voices he'd heard belonged to: all his eyes could grasp was the giant and scarily creepy statue of Salazar Slytherin built into the stoney wall, the many columns that separated the Chamber in three aisles, and the giant body of the snake Moaning Myrtle had told them about, and that Minho and Jisung had supposedly followed.

The Slytherin dug deep into his mind: he'd read loads of books on snakes, they were his favorite animal, he knew of at least twenty different types of serpents currently existing in the world...

"A Horned Serpent!" he screamed at last, forgetting for a second about the silent rule to not talk the group had agreed on. He immediately brought his hand to his mouth, and was ready to get severely scoffed by the other three – and was therefore surprised when nothing happened.

Confused, he turned right and left to see where his friends had gone, and it was only when his gaze focused on the Chamber again that his many questions finally got the answer they were waiting for: running around, a mixture of terror and hesitation, were Chan, Changbin and Y/n.

The first one seemed to be the only one who knew what he was doing: the jinxes that set off from his wand were all perfectly centered around the creature's face, and also seemed to be the most effecting. The other two, instead, looked more indecisive than else, and were sending what Seungmin assumed were the first charms that came to their minds.

The Slytherin sped off and climed over the hole from which he had been watching: he was the only one who could possibly be helpful, and he was going to tell Chan everything he knew that could be damaging, when another voice suddenly made itself heard:

"No – no – NO!" to the Slytherin, it was unmistakable. "Let it alone! Let it alone, I say! It's our only chance, they got Jisung..."

Chan immediately stood motionless, and so did Changbin and Y/n when they saw the figure of the Slytherin pop out of nowhere.

"Minho!!" screamed Seungmin, and he was so happy and relived that he felt like he was going to explode, but his best friend only gave his words a cold, distand reaction.

"We need to get to that high-placed platform" he explained as if he hadn't even been interrumpted, "there's some old man... he was the one who set the snake free... and well, basically, he captured Jisung!"

His hand shaking, Minho pointed at the wall the statue of the Founder had been built in – more specifically, right at its feet: there was a very narrow and fenceless base, where there Seungmin was able to make out the figures of three people.

"How did that happen?" asked Y/n, petrified.

The older Slytherin shook his head helplessly. He looked absolutely disraught. "It was when I got distracted. This thing" and he pointed at the snake, now moving his tail aimlessly, "is our only hope. I was trying to get him to attack the man, but it was refusing and not collaborating, until I walked nearer and then was when they got Jisung... and somehow managed to get over there" and he looked up at the platform.

Chan shook his head: Seungmin couldn't really blame him, as that was a lot of information to unpack. Changbin looked lost, and asked (almost saddened) if that meant that they were not to hurt the creature. Y/n, instead, looked worriedly at Minho: "What do you mean – trying to get it to attack the man? How are you supposed to have it attack the man-"

But Minho was not listening anymore: instead, he had ran quickly to face the giant serpent, and was now looking at him intensely in the eyes. Seungmin was pretty sure he'd never seen him that serious. Then, slowly, the boy opened his mouth, and words started to flow out of it – only, they were not words that Seungmin could understand. They were huffled and of a lower register than his usual one, and seemed to blend in with one another to form a constant, pauseless ballad.

The Horned Serpent, as the Slytherin talked, started to grow less and less tense, and curved a little over the boy – who, suddenly, let out one last hiss, this time stronger and better projected.

And then, without a moment's hesitation, the Serpent twirled around on himself, and, waving his tail of a single, powerful wave, hit cleanly the narrow platoform, causing all the three people who were standing on it to fall, suddenly, towards the hard stoney flooring.

~🤍~
okay, let me just say that EASY & PHOBIA are the absolute best songs in the world rn & minho's lines there... ahhh this is what we call *chef's kiss👩🏼‍🍳💋*.

but anyways we've been fed SO much content this past few days, my heart is so happy and i feel like i'm gonna combust in endless uwus, i love stray kids so much and they deserve the absolute world!❤️

and on that note, i hope you guys are still streaming!! i really hope we can get them a win with this fantastic comeback, but with iz*one and blackpink having theirs so soon (and twice having had one recently), we need to work hard to achieve this!

(i'm mostly scared for blinks – they're gonna be so fierce now that they have new content😅)

q: what would you say is skz's best album so far?
i think i've already mentioned it a few times and for me it's Levanter, it exceeded all my expectations and more and every song is an absolute banger, but in general i loved all their clé series~

anyways, hoped you enjoyed today's chapter, the next one's gonna be very interesting 👀