Chapter 197 - Dissection

For the rest of the week, the older years actually took pity upon their 3rd-year house members. In Slytherin, the older years took to leaving candy out for the third year students. It was simply their way of saying, "WE UNDERSTAND THE HORROR and CONTRAULATIONS ON YOUR SURVIVIAL!"

Thankfully the next week was nowhere near as bad. The last weekend of the month found Rowan carefully transfiguring a pillow to look like herself, while making sure to leave the curtains closed around her bed, before slipping out to the bathroom.

Making sure she was alone, she instantly apparated into the hidden chamber found within the Chamber of Secrets. "Lumos," Rowan said as she held her wand up high to see that the door had long since closed. Nodding in satisfaction, she reached into her pocket to tie a bandana over her nose and half of her face.

Reaching into the pouch, Rowan pulls out a prepared high beam flashlight and clicks it on instantly brightening up the room. The tip of the light at the edge of her wand goes out as she heads over to the bookcase to cast a disintegration spell. A cloud of dust later there is nothing left as she does the same thing with the once viable laboratory. Nodding her head at the sight, she murmurs a cleaning spell as the dust vanished leaving only a dusty, murky smell behind.

Finished, Rowan reaches back into her pocket and pulls out shrunken furniture that she had Dawn shrink for her back at the manor from the furniture kept in the cellar. Carefully placing everything, where she wants it to be, she says, "Engorgio," as everything rapidly swells up back to its full size. Rather pleased at this point, she walks over to the laboratory tables and begins to take out the non-shrunken instruments. She hadn't wanted to risk breaking or losing any of them and as such they remained their regular size.

Having made sure everything was in order, Rowan reached inside for an emerald muffler, before carefully reaching for gloves and the rest of the needed supplies. Having put on a full protection suit and goggles she looked a bit like a character from a horror movie. Her next step was to make sure that all the flashlights were in place, before transfiguring the muffler back to its original shape and releasing the shrinking charm.

The emerald Basilisk all but filled most of the hidden chamber as Rowan let out a sigh at seeing its huge size. "Well at least, it's dead now," Rowan said with some relief. Reaching for a large enchanted scalpel on one of the laboratory tables, she makes sure her gloves are in place, before walking over to the head.

Raising the head with a levitation charm, Rowan manages to get the giant maws open, before peeking at the pink flesh inside. Spotting the large, liquid filled venom sacks, she quickly returns the scalpel away. "I won't be able to remove the venom sacks without them bursting," Rowan mumbled to herself as she reached into her pouch for several large containers designed to hold vats of poisonous potions or in this case basilisk venom.

Carefully placing the shrunken containers next to the gaping maws, Rowan releases the shrinking charms as they swell up into giant sized vats almost as tall and wide as her. Holding her wand, she takes a deep breath and says, "Incisus!" As a dark pulsing sparkling crimson light can be seen at the tip of her wand. Ironically, she'd learned the spell from the wizard physiology textbook she was presently reading.

With care Rowan moved her wand as the crimson spark began to cut in and around the pink flesh of the Basilisk's gums. The venom sack trembles as it begins to come loose. Quickly switching over to a levitation spell, she catches the venom sack mid-air and gently levitates it over into one of the vats. Letting out of a sigh of relief she does the same thing to the rest of the venom sacks and the basilisk fangs.

Taking a break, Rowan carefully removes her gloves before removing her goggles and mask. Walking over to the laboratory table, she reaches for clean handkerchief and proceeds to wipe the damp sweat off her brows. Pausing to take a swig of cold water from a water bottle, she lets out a sigh, before returning to her arduous work.

The rest of the night was spent with her methodically peeling back the entire basilisk skin to be used for future use. After that, exhausted Rowan cast a preservation spell to return the following night. And so, the following night, she had to carefully split the entire giant snake open to in order to remove all of the vital organs. Interestingly enough Newt Scamander was wrong, Basilisk's do have horns. It's next to their testicles apparently.

Rowan felt more than a bit uncomfortable at the idea that Salazar Slytherin must have spent an extraordinary amount of time near a Basilisk's lower regions to have noticed that. And the reason she said that is that horns much like any other physical change only appear after puberty. And basilisk males take a rather long time to fully mature denough to develop said horns.

Nevertheless, firmly putting such a thought out of mind and view, Rowan continued her arduous job until almost dawn on Sunday morning. Exhausted but pleased, she made sure to make sure everything was neatly preserved and closed. Finally, she cleaned up the entire area before appariating away.

Barely able to see, Rowan somehow manages to slip into bed almost forgetting to remove the transfigure pillow. Only remembering when she found herself face to face with a sleeping dead copy of herself. Yawning, she whispers the incantation, before too tired to put her wand back on the bed stand instead slips it onto her pillow and promptly falls asleep.

It must have only been an hour or two later, when Tiffany rips the bed curtains open and says, "Rise and shine, sleepy head! Let's go and have some fun."

Rowan lets out a groan and sticks her head back under the pillow. "Go away, I'm sleeping in today," Rowan rather muffled said.

"Suit yourself," Tiffany cheerfully shrugged before scrambling over to her wardrobe to pick her outfit for the day.

"Are you okay, Rowan?" Bethanie's concerned voice could be heard as she headed over for a closer look. Silvia peeked over at Rowan but shrugged as she thought Rowan must be having nightmares again.

"I just didn't sleep much last night," Rowan truthfully grumbled as she snuggled into her pillow.

"Oh well, in that case, have a late lie-in," Bethanie softly whispered, before rather kindly closing the curtains around Rowan's bed.

"Thank you," Rowan whispered as her eyes began to close back on their own. The girls softly whispered as to not awaken Rowan, before quietly slipping from their dorm. Rowan was almost half-asleep when she felt something heavy on her lower back.

Almost having a panic attic, Rowan bolts up and reaches for her wand to see the purring form of Alchemy leap off her back to curl next to her. "You utter tease," Rowan said. "You gave me an utter fright!"

Alchemy merely cutely stretched in reply as Rowan shook her head to plop back onto the pillow. Needless to say, they were both sound asleep within the next few minutes. In fact, they didn't even wake up until noon for lunch.