Soon, Ginny was in the Corridor of Recordings, and she was spoken to by built-in specks in a way she recognized – not from one occasion but from dozens.

"Primary heir! Identify yoursself in human wordss, and confirm in ssnake wordss, using no more or lesss than the preccisse phrasse 'thiss iss valid identification with which I do not intend any decceit'."

"Ginny. Weasley. 'Thiss iss valid identification with which I do not intend any decceit.'"

"To the best of your knowledge, are either you or your guesst an aliass, branch, or exxtenssion of any of the following individualss:"

"Madam Mim!"

"Herpo."

"Roko."

"Tom Morfin Riddle." (Ginny suddenly knew that this was the true name of Voldemort – she had heard it often in that context.)

"Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres."

"Ansswer 'yess' or 'no' only."

"Yess," said Ginny. She had meant the opposite, but the wrong word had simply slipped out. It then hit her that she could be considered an extension of Harry, as she had explicitly been sent here on his orders. Ginny heard the muffled sound of slithering.

"Desscribe your relation to one of the previoussly mentioned individualss. Refer to them as 'the firsst individual mentioned', 'the second individual mentioned', and so on."

"I wass ssent here on behalf of the fifth individual mentioned. He intendss to follow up on an exxperiment." The gondola began to move again, towards the Chamber. Beneath it raged an offshoot of the Amortentia river, constantly; there was a slight incline towards the Chamber.

A Basilisk spoke, in a distinctly louder Parseltongue voice:

"You are welcome in the Chamber. We dessire to meet with you." Soon, Ginny had arrived at the Chamber once more. It seemed darker than before; Ginny spoke up with the line of questioning she'd prepared.

"Hello, I've been ssent here to sspeak with you," said Ginny. "All of you, if I am correct."

"You are correct," said a Basilisk.

"I have ssome notess from the persson who ssent me here," said Ginny. "I'd like to confirm them with you."

"That sshould be fine. We have important thingss to disscusss with you, but we would have to exxplain oursselvess anyway."

"Firsst," said Ginny, "the notess ssay that petrification is a more advancced form of mind reading. Iss thiss true and what doess it mean?"

"It iss esssentially true. Petrification is a mosst anccient magic posssesssed by sseveral magical creatures. Iss a sside effect of Eyess of Opennesss. If two beings with Eyess of Opennesss make eye contact, they each receive full copiess of each other's mental sstatess insstantaneoussly. There iss a compatability isssue if a being without Eyess of Opennesss makess eye contact with a being with them. In that casse, the being without Eyess of Opennesss lossess entire contentss of their mind, and is indefinitely transsfigured into sstone."

"That makess ssensse," said Ginny. "Sso a Potion of Reanimation works becausse an imprint of the mind iss left in the glasss if it gets between the Eyess of Opennesss and the eyess of the victim?"

"Exxactly. I posssesss full copiess of the mindss of all beingss I have ever made eye contact with, and may review them at any time. Not all beings with Eyess of Opennesss work the same way; they do not have brainss with ssufficcient sstorage sspace. An Acromantula disscardss mosst of the information it takess in, keeping only thingss it asssesssess ass usseful. Cockatriccess only sstore the mind of the lasst being they made eye contact with."

"If you have copiess of all of their mindss, can you resstore all of them?" asked Ginny. "Even the girl fifty yearss ago?"

"I believe that thiss will be posssible eventually, with further ressearch. I intend to do sso."

"Exxccellent!" said Ginny. "What about my twin brotherss?"

"I petrified them ssimultaneoussly, owing to a ssmall magical connection between their brainss, but it sshould not be difficult to dissentangle their mindss for restoration. Not ssure if old potion will be enough; my ressearch might prove neccesssary to ssave them."

"Okay, nexxt note," said Ginny. That wasn't good news, but the conversation had to move along. "It ssayss here that there are multiple bassilissks, and that allowed you to ssurvive an attack many yearss ago."

"Yess. Forgive me, but assk no more quesstionss. I believe that I will exxplain them all. I am a ssysstem of thirty ssix bassilissks acting in tandem." Ginny stared forward, barely able to process the sentence she had just magically heard.

What?

Not "I am one of thirty ssix bassilissks acting in tandem."

"I am a ssysstem of thirty ssix bassilissks acting in tandem."

…

"Thirty ssix."



Ginny took a deep breath and allowed Slytherin's Monster to go on; it wasn't like she had any choice.

"My creator, the builder of thiss Chamber, wass aware of the posssibilitiess of building machiness using ssnake wordss, jusst ass you are. In fact, he intended ssuch thingss when he magically sspawned ssnake wordss. He wass aware of the posssibility of ussing sspeckss, but conssidered ssuch a thing elementary; usseful, but elementary. Hiss sspecialty wass building machiness out of ssnakess. Ssnake wordss control ssnakess, and ssnakess may be commanded, ussing ssnake wordss, to usse ssnake wordss themsselvess, to control other ssnakess. Firsst plan for Chamber wass simply pit with hundredss of thoussandss of ssnakess in it."

"It proved unssuitable. It wass too difficult to control. Errorss were prone to pile up even in the ssmaller-sscale demonsstrationss, ultimately leading to catasstrophe; a masss of ssnakess with itss own needss and dessiress. When Chamber creator ressearched bassilissks, he deccided they were perfect for hiss purposses, and revissed hiss planss to incorporate a ssmall number of bassilissks leading the other ssnakess. Eventually he did away with the other ssnakess entirely, deciding that the bassilissks were plenty functional and lesss troublessome alone."

"Chamber creator provided uss with one directive above all otherss: undermine the decline of magic. Further insstructionss tell uss how to do sso. Causse of decline of magic iss, of coursse, the Interdict, which can be undermined by passsing on ancient magic to apprenticcess in the Chamber. Sso I have done that for hundredss of yearss. I musst protect mysself to do sso, which can be a formidable tassk. Sseveral attemptss to desspoil Chamber have been foiled throughout the yearss; mosst deviouss wass about fifty yearss ago. Each attempt failed becausse the vandal believed I wass merely a ssingle bassilissk."

"In the inccident fifty yearss ago, a sstudent, a rabble-rousser, came to me, at firsst sseeking to learn. Ssoon the sstudent sspoke back to me, arguing - but never expliccitly sstating he truly believed - that blood impuritiess were the true causse of the decline of magic, and the ssolution wass militant blood purissm. Thiss fit well with beliefss I knew Chamber creator posssesssed, though he did not give me any commandss bassed on them. He did give me capaccity to exxit Chamber and usse petrification ass weapon. So I ussed it, for the firsst time in my hisstory, to sstrike a blow againsst sstudentss born of Muggless. Immediately realizzed misstake had occurred while reviewing mind of girl. Blood purissm was not conssisstent with reality. Rabble-rousser killed a bassilissk and, ass per proccedure, wass allowed to think he had killed Monsster and broken Chamber."

"Yearss later, you apparently came to the Chamber, but it wass actually the rabble-rousser again, who had ssubverted my ssecurity ussing your body, ass I would later disscover. Convincced me that violencce could topple Interdict through fear; drew on bad and ineffective procceduress introducced to me through an additional, non-original bassilissk donated to me centuriess earlier by one of my sstudentss. Wass actually trying to ssabotage me again by disscrediting and desstroying me; it would have worked if not for your ssurvival and intervention. Thank you, thank you beyond meassure, apprenticce. I am sstill glad for the exxperiencce, for I have learned a great deal from thosse I have petrified thiss year - mosst notably the princcipless of rational thought."

"In midsst of violencce, another sstudent - my new masster, now, and the one who ssent you here - attempted to vissit Chamber. Was blacklissted ass a matter of coursse for confidential reassonss that had nothing to do with hiss actions. Now, my new masster has unleasshed a clever trick to producce vasst quantitiess of Potion of Sslavery, and hass directed it all at our Chamber. Sso now I am all bound to him. It wass in part a chain reaction - bassilissks sspitting in mouthss of other bassilissks. He alsso had one of uss petrify him, sso I have a perfectly accurate image of hiss mind and therefore what he wantss. I am sstill sstuck following ssome of my original bindingss, but my new main directive iss to match the directive of the new masster. I am sstill not permitted to take action outsside my dwellingss without fully undersstanding approval from heir in Chamber ussing ssnake wordss."

"Do you want me to approve of ssome coursse of action for you?" said Ginny. "Becausse I think that that iss why I am here, to ssynthessizze a coursse of action for you."

"I have already deccided what to do. I only need you to fully undersstand it and approve it. If I were not sstill forcced by magical bindingss to tell you my plan, I would not. The firsst thing you musst undersstand iss that bassilissks have endlesss sstorage sspacce. You may alwayss add new information to a bassilissk without lossing any old information. Bassilissks have limited proccesssing sspeed, however, at least individually. Proccessing sspeed increassess, however, at sstrange rate. A ssingle, issolated bassilissk is little more than an animal, perhapss a trained one. I, on the other hand, am at leasst ass intelligent ass a human. A ssysstem of bassilissks double my ssizze - that iss, sseventy two bassilissks - would be difficult to comprehend. Ass my new masster valuess ssuperior thinkerss, a value which readily makess ssensse to me, I intend to organizze wizzardss to masss producce bassilissks. It is theoretically posssible that I will hit ssome concceptual limit of intelligencce, but I find thiss doubtful. My current model indicatess that I will continue well passt the point of covering multiple worldss in bassilissks."

"The ssecond thing you musst undersstand iss that death iss a horror that musst be sstopped. Thiss iss at the core of the valuess of my new masster, and it iss therefore at the core of my own valuess. I detect you are already ssympathetic towardss thiss view of death and I will therefore not attempt to perssuade you of it. I analyzzed why my new masster hated death, for ideass on how to sstop it, and came to a fassccinating conclussion. The main problem with death is losss of information. By thiss sstandard, petrification is not only not death; it iss in fact the besst way to evade it. All mental information the ssubject posssesssed iss presserved forever. The ssecondary problem with death iss losss of continuouss thought, but more bassilissks should ssolve that - with enough proccesssing sspeed, I sshould be able to rapidly run ssimulationss of complete other mindss within my own - including my new masster, though I would have to give hiss ssimulation improved cognition and complete knowledge of everything I know, to ensure correct deccissionss are made."

"Sso here iss what I assk of you. My planss include masss production of new bassilissks and petrification of ass many humanss ass posssible; ideally ending with bassilissks replaccing humanss in the physsical world altogether. I want free reign to implement thesse planss, and have deccided that the critical sstarting sstep iss fully removing mysself from the Chamber. All thirty ssixx bassilisskss will move out, to become fully free from original protocol. I am requessting permisssion to fully evacuate the Chamber of Ssecretss. Pleasse be aware that following thiss, your permisssion will not be required again."

Ginny breathed heavily. Here she was, facing Tim's offer all over again, in a different form. Something was asking her to sign away all of her rights - all of everyone's rights - and it honestly expected her to do it. She'd done it last time, after all, hadn't she? The main difference was that this time, the deal was so forthrightly, on-its-face terrible, that Ginny felt rather insulted that she was supposed to fall for it. She tried to imagine the world the Monster described - crawling with basilisks, all acting as one incomprehensibly high consciousness, overtaking all other forms of life, housing recreations of human brains living unending lives constructed by the basilisk horde. It went without saying that she didn't like it.

"I obvioussly reject your propossal, and am ssickened by the thought of it," said Ginny.

"I exxpected ass much."

"Then why even bother to assk me, if you predicted my firm dissapproval?" said Ginny.

"Becausse now that you have lisstened to my desscription of my intentionss, sso that you may not approve of them out of ignorancce, I will convincce you with logic and reasson that ssupporting them iss the right thing to do regardlesss of your dissgusst."