Eduardo was lounging on the firehouse couch when he felt a book fall onto his face. He opened his eyes and picked up his copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

'Thanks for that,' said Kylie, leaning on the back of the couch and smiling down wryly at Eduardo. 'I'm gonna start The Chamber of Secrets tonight.'

'Great,' Eduardo grinned back at her, before pulling himself into a sitting position. 'So, what did you think?'

'I can see why everyone likes it so much,' Kylie shrugged. 'The first few chapters were particularly intriguing. I also liked the scene where Dumbledore talks to Harry in front of the mirror... and I get your socks reference now, when you got that demon to open his trench coat.'

'Did you feel like you just had to read the next chapter every time you wanted to take a break?'

'Well... yeah, kinda. J.K. Rowling sure knows how to make her readers want to keep reading. I thought it was kind of rushed after he got to Hogwarts, though. The story was a little reliant on the beginning and end – it could've done with more middle.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean,' said Eduardo. 'I always wanted to know what Professor Quirrell was like in his classes before we found out he was actually evil. But you gotta admit, it's an instant classic!'

'Yes, it is,' Kylie admitted with a small smile. 'I can't wait to get started on the next one.'

'You'll love it,' Eduardo promised. 'It's real exciting.'

At that moment Garrett entered the room. He cast a reproachful glance at Eduardo.

'What's the deal, Eddie – you got some kind of black market book dealer in your pocket?' he asked.

'Say what?' said Eduardo.

'I've searched every book store from here to the Bronx and I can't find one measly copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!' Garrett announced in aggrieved tones.

'Oh, yeah, it's not available in North America yet,' Eduardo replied. 'Sorry, I guess I should've mentioned that.'

'You think?' Garrett scowled. 'So where did you get yours?'

'Amazon-dot-co-dot-uk,' said Eduardo. 'They'll ship one out to you for a reasonable price, man.'

'Hmm, I see,' said Garrett, looking thoughtful. 'Hey, couldn't I just borrow your copy?'

'Um... yeah, I guess so,' said Eduardo. 'When Kylie's done with it.'

'Sweet,' said Garrett.

The alarm bell suddenly intervened, banishing all thoughts of Harry Potter from everyone's minds. Janine's head appeared around the doorframe.

'There's been a demon sighting at the docks,' she announced. 'I've just had a hysterical supervisor in my ear telling me that half his workforce has been turned to stone.'

'Sounds fun,' said Garrett.

'Sounds interesting,' said Kylie.

'Sounds complicated,' said Eduardo.

'Sounds like you need to get moving,' said Janine.

A little later, in the dock supervisor's office, Roland was listening to a full account of the incident.

'It was like something out of The Twilight Zone,' the supervisor was saying, sipping a hot drink at regular intervals. 'One minute everything was normal – the guys were unloading the cargo, I was ticking off the check-list – and then suddenly...'

'Suddenly?' Roland prompted him.

'Suddenly this massive creature came bursting out of the hold and started turning my guys into stone!'

'How, exactly? Did it use some kind of a ray, or...?'

'No – it just looked at them!' the supervisor screeched, threatening to become hysterical again. 'It just turned its huge red eyes on them, and they turned to stone! I ran in here and hid under the desk before it saw me, thank goodness. I called you guys straightaway, but the creature had gone when I went back outside to take a look.'

'Yes, I see,' said Roland. 'You don't have any idea where it went, then?'

'No,' said the supervisor.

'So it could still be hiding somewhere around the docks, for all you know,' Roland theorised.

The supervisor adopted a look of extreme distress and dived back under his desk, spilling his drink as he did so. Roland knelt down on the floor to continue the conversation.

'Just a couple more questions if you don't mind,' he said. 'What was this cargo ship's point of origin?'

'Um... the Arctic,' said the supervisor, his eyes still darting from side to side. 'It was harvesting minerals up in Nunavut. It also dropped off some supplies to several bases up there, and picked up their trash and mail.'

'And what did the creature look like?' Roland asked.

'Like a snake,' said the supervisor. 'Yeah, a huge, long snake... with a chicken's head.'

'A chicken's head?' Roland could not help but query in surprise.

'Yeah, a chicken's head... well, more like a chicken's head than anything else,' said the supervisor. 'It moved like a snake and it was real fast... and anyone it looked at turned to stone!'

'What colour was it?'

'Um... green, mostly.'

'Thanks,' said Roland. 'Don't worry about your workers – we'll soon have them back to their old selves.'

'You mean you can change them back?' asked the supervisor.

'Well, if we can get this snake creature into our containment unit, I'd say your men's prognosis would be a full and swift recovery,' Roland said reassuringly. 'Thanks for all your help.'

'No problem,' said the supervisor. 'I'm just glad you guys are around to deal with stuff like this. I don't know what I'm gonna put in the incident report!'

Roland went back out onto the pier to join the other Ghostbusters. Garrett and Kylie were running PKE meters up and down the stone statues that had recently been dock workers.

'Any interesting readings?' asked Roland.

'More like no readings,' said Garrett.

'No readings?' Roland asked, sounding a little worried.

'Not even residual traces,' Kylie sighed, turning off her useless meter.

'This thing sure knows how to cover its tracks,' said Garrett. 'Did you get anything out of the supervisor?'

'It was a giant snake with a chicken's head,' said Roland. 'It just looked at these guys and they turned to stone. The ship had come back from the Arctic.'

'Any ideas what this thing could be, Kylie?' asked Garrett.

'The only comparable creature I can think of is Medusa from Greek Mythology,' said Kylie. 'But she wasn't a snake – she just had snakes for hair.'

'Did she have a chicken's head?' asked Garrett.

'I don't think so,' said Kylie, 'but I guess you never know.'

At that moment, Eduardo appeared on the deck of the Arctic trawler and climbed down to join them.

'You find anything?' asked Roland.

'Nada,' said Eduardo. 'Not even residual traces. Did you find out what we're dealing with?'

'Giant snake with a chicken's head,' said Roland.

'A giant snake... and it turned these guys to stone...' Eduardo mused. 'It must be a basilisk!'

'A what?' said Garrett.

'A basilisk!' Eduardo repeated. 'It's a... oh, no, maybe I shouldn't tell you.'

'Why not?' asked Kylie.

''Cause I don't want to spoil The Chamber of Secrets for you!'

'This basilisk thing is in Harry Potter?' asked Roland.

'Sure it is,' said Eduardo.

'Is that the monster from the Chamber of Secrets it mentions in the blurb?' asked Kylie.

'Yes,' said Eduardo. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the ending for you.'

'It's okay,' said Kylie. 'Dealing with this case is more important.'

'Eduardo, I think you'd better fill us in on this creature on the way back to the firehouse,' said Roland. 'We should take these stone people with us and see what Egon makes of them.'

'Shouldn't we try to track down the creature first?' asked Eduardo.

'Yes, we should, but we can't!' Roland pointed out. 'It hasn't left a PKE trail to follow, and there's no physical evidence to show where it might've gone.'

'We're going to have to wait for it to turn more people to stone before we can track it down,' Kylie realised, not sounding very comfortable with the idea.

'Okay, so let's load up these stiffs and get out of here,' said Garrett.

'Don't call them stiffs!' said Kylie. 'They're not dead.'

'How do you know they're not?' Garrett shot back.

'Well... I guess I don't, but I'm sure being turned to stone doesn't have any more lasting effects than having all your bones removed or getting all the water sucked out of your body, so we'll be able to help them!'

'Fortunately the back of the Ecto-1 is specially designed to carry rigid, prostrate bodies,' Eduardo pointed out. 'You think we can take them all in one trip?'

'How many are there?' asked Roland.

'Seven,' said Kylie.

'We can squeeze them all in,' Roland predicted.

Back at the firehouse, Roland and Eduardo carried the final stone figure into the basement and leant it carefully against the wall. Egon was manipulating some scientific equipment that he had attached to one of the statues; he removed a stethoscope from his ears and turned to face Roland and Eduardo.

'Careful, he'll topple over if you leave him like that,' Roland was saying.

'Relax, man – I'm just straightening him,' said Eduardo. 'There, that's got it.'

'Is that the last one?' asked Egon.

'Yeah,' said Roland.

'I've run a full structural analysis on the first one you brought in,' Egon announced. 'These stone people have not been turned to stone, technically – they've been fossilised.'

'Doesn't that mean they are made of stone now?' asked Eduardo.

'Well, yes and no,' said Egon. 'They are still made of organic matter, but the carbon and calcium in their bodies has been replaced with more stone-like elements.'

'But the carbon and calcium will come back when we trap the basilisk, right?' said Eduardo.

'In theory, yes,' said Egon. 'The complete absence of psychokinetic energy at the scene worries me somewhat, though. We might be dealing with a demon the like of which we've never seen before.'

'No big,' said Eduardo. 'We can work with that.'

'I need to read up on documented basilisk sightings,' said Egon. 'J.K. Rowling's information is all well and good, but it may not tally exactly with real life.'

'The basilisk in the book doesn't have a chicken's head,' Eduardo admitted. 'In fact, the sound of the cockerel is supposed to be deadly to it.'

'That just goes to show how legends and myths get interpreted in different ways down through the years,' said Roland.

'Yes,' Egon agreed, 'but now we'll need to get to the truth of where all the world's differing basilisk interpretations originate from. I must say, I'm very interested in the fact that the cargo ship had just returned from the Arctic – if the demon had been lying there, dormant in the ice, then the trawler must have done something to awaken it.'

'You mean like they accidentally thawed it out or something?' asked Eduardo.

'Something along those lines seems entirely feasible at this stage,' said Egon.

'I've read a few stories about ancient creatures and even gods being thawed out of Arctic ice,' said Roland.

'You mean you've read Thor, the comic book,' said Eduardo.

'And other stuff!' Roland bristled. 'More reliably documented stuff!'

'I'll be sure to research the matter thoroughly,' said Egon. 'While I do that, I suggest the rest of you go back to the docks and start canvassing people for information – if you can't track this thing down with PKE meters, maybe you can do it the old-fashioned way.'

'There's no need to go to the docks, Egon,' said Janine, appearing at the top of the stairway gantry. 'I've got a hot lead for you – some guy on Staten Island has been turned to stone while sunbathing in his front yard, and his wife claims she's locked the monster that did it inside their garage!'

'We'll get right on it,' said Roland.

Roland and Eduardo manoeuvred the stone sunbather into the back of the Ecto-1 while Kylie and Garrett talked to his wife.

'You say it came out of the water, ma'am?' said Kylie.

'That's right,' said the wife. 'I saw it slithering all the way up from the beach while I was washing the dishes, and when I came outside to investigate it was going into the garage and my husband had been turned to stone!'

'It's almost a straight line to the docks,' Garrett observed, looking out over the nearby expanse of water. 'It must've swum right here.'

'But what is it?' the woman demanded.

'A basilisk,' said Kylie. 'Don't worry – we know what we're dealing with and we have procedures in place to deal with it.'

'We do?' said Garrett.

'Yes, of course we do!' Kylie insisted. 'But if we can catch it right now, that'd sure be a help. Are you sure there's no way out of that garage?'

'Just the door, and I slammed it and locked it before the thing even knew I was there!' the woman said proudly.

'Great job,' said Kylie. 'If you could unlock it for us now, we'll capture the creature.'

Roland and Eduardo came to join their companions; they all armed themselves with their proton guns and stood in front of the garage door, which the woman proceeded to open.

'Don't let it slip by us,' said Roland. 'We see it, we fire!'

'Um... sorry to say this, man,' said Eduardo, 'but I don't see anything.'

The others quickly saw that Eduardo was right. The garage was empty apart from a few paint tins on a shelf at the back and some old sacks in the far corner.

'No, that's impossible!' exclaimed the woman. 'It couldn't have gone anywhere, it just couldn't!'

'Any chance it could be hiding in one of those tins, or under the sacks?' asked Kylie.

'No – it's too big for that!' said the woman.

'Maybe it can change its size,' Eduardo suggested.

'Or go invisible,' Garrett added.

Roland cautiously approached the open garage, and swept his PKE meter across the entrance. Nothing happened.

'That didn't work before,' Garrett pointed out. 'It could still be in there.'

'I'll take a look,' Roland decided, his brow furrowing in determination. 'If it turns me to stone, you guys shoot in its general area and make sure you trap it.'

They all nodded, and Roland entered the garage. He took a few tentative steps towards the far end, but stumbled before he had gone very far. He looked down to see a loose manhole cover beneath his feet.

'There's a drain here!' he announced in surprise.

'Oh yes, I forgot about that,' said the woman. 'It used to lead straight out to the ocean, but my husband had it concreted in when the garage flooded during a storm.'

'Still, the cover's loose,' said Roland, kneeling down to investigate. 'Could we get some light in here?'

Everyone else entered the garage, and the woman turned on an electric ceiling light. Roland started to prise the manhole cover free.

'Be careful, man,' said Eduardo. 'If it's down there, and it sees you...'

'I know,' said Roland, 'but somebody's got to take a look.'

With a grinding screech and a metallic clang, the drain cover came free. Apprehensively, Roland peered into the hole.

'You see anything?' Kylie asked after a couple of seconds.

'Yes,' said Roland, 'and I think it's okay. Come and take a look.'

Everyone crowded round the hole. There was a shaft about five feet deep which evidently had a hole in one of the walls at the bottom, as about three feet of thick, green, scaly snake was sticking out into the shaft.

'The basilisk!' Eduardo exclaimed.

'I think it's stuck,' said Garrett.

'Yes,' said the woman, 'it must have tried to crawl along the old drainage pipe and come to the concrete barrier.'

'Clearly it doesn't have phasing powers, then,' Kylie remarked.

'We'll never have a better chance to trap it,' said Roland. 'Quick, Kylie – direct the trap beam into the hole.'

Kylie retrieved the ghost trap from her back and did as Roland instructed. The light from the containment beam filled the shaft, but the snake remained trapped in the hole.

'Um, guys,' Kylie said uncertainly, 'it's not being sucked in.'

'It has no PKE readings, it won't go into the trap...' Roland mused. 'The proton streams almost certainly won't do anything to it, in that case.'

'Except maybe blow it up!' Eduardo pointed out. 'And then we'll never get those people turned back to normal.'

'Oh, but you must!' the woman said in alarm.

'We will,' said Garrett. 'We'll just have to trap it the old-fashioned way, won't we? Tell me, ma'am, do you have an animal cage of any kind lying around your house?'

'Um... well, there's an old dog basket in the attic,' the woman said. 'We used to take our Alsatian to the vet in it.'

'An Alsatian – excellent,' Garrett approved. 'It must be a big one, then.'

'Well... yes, it is,' the woman agreed.

'You've seen the full length of the basilisk, ma'am,' said Kylie. 'Do you think it'd fit in your Alsatian carrier?'

'Um... yes, I think it would,' said the woman.

'I'll help you get it down from the attic,' said Eduardo. 'Lead the way, please.'

'Er, well... all right,' the woman agreed. 'I suppose if it'll help to get my husband back...'

'It will,' Kylie assured her. 'When this is all over, we'll return both your husband and your dog carrier to you in perfect working order.'

While the woman showed Eduardo into the house, Roland retrieved a fire extinguisher from the Ecto-1. He returned to the garage and handed the extinguisher to Garrett, before retrieving a sack from the far corner and giving it to Kylie.

'Okay, here's what we're gonna do,' Roland announced. 'I'm gonna grab that tail and yank the basilisk back up into the garage. Garrett, as soon as you see the first flash of green, you blast it with the fire extinguisher.'

'Why?' asked Garrett.

'To make it sluggish,' Roland explained. 'Snakes are cold-blooded, and a blast of freezing carbon dioxide should slow it down.'

'But chickens are warm-blooded,' Garrett pointed out, 'so how do we know which one the basilisk is?'

'Well, I guess we don't,' Roland admitted, 'but we're gonna try it anyway. Kylie, when you see the head come out of the hole, you ram that bag over it, okay?'

'Sure,' said Kylie. 'You do realise there's a high chance that at least one of us will be turned to stone during this little operation, don't you?'

'Yes,' said Roland, 'but at least we'll have captured the creature and we'll be able to turn everyone back.'

'Hopefully,' Garrett added.

'Okay, let's do it,' said Roland. 'Are you both ready?'

'Yes,' said Garrett and Kylie.

'Okay.'

With that, Roland plunged the top half of his body into the hole and started writhing around. There came the sound of muffled hissing, squawking and sliding before Roland started to emerge from the hole. Garrett saw a flash of green scales, and discharged the fire extinguisher. Kylie then dived into the pall of freezing gas and slipped the bag over the large red comb and yellow beak, which she was able to discern fairly easily.

'Keep hold of it, Roland!' Garrett encouraged his colleague, who was fighting to keep the writhing snake under control.

'We should've waited 'til Eduardo brought the basket!' Kylie realised.

'The cavalry is here, man!'

Eduardo ran into the garage and placed the large pet carrier onto the floor, flicking the door open as he did so. Roland propelled the struggling basilisk towards the opening, with Kylie gathering up the undulating tail as it flopped onto the floor. Eduardo held the basket steady as Roland bundled the creature into it. At the last moment, Roland lost his grip and the tail began to snake away from the opening, but Garrett ran it over with his wheelchair and the final few inches of the basilisk retreated into the dog carrier, which Eduardo quickly shut and locked.

'Phew, we got it!' Eduardo panted in relief.

'Now we can get it back to Egon and see what he makes of it,' said Kylie.

'No ecto signature, no phasing powers, not trappable...' said Garrett. 'Whatever Egon makes of it, it'll be a lot more than what I can!'