Sorry it's been a while! Essays are murder...

bit of sonic awesomeness in this one. Enjoy!

The ride to the Chamber was long and just as blood-curdlingly thrilling as Hermione had remembered it to be. She hit the ground at the bottom hard, but wasted no time in getting up – the floor was covered in bones. The Doctor followed quickly after, having stayed behind to lock the doors using the regrettably useful Sonic Screwdriver.

Hermione hated to be wrong, and this was no exception. The Doctor opened his mouth to continue his barrage of sarcasm and mockery ("What did we use to open the chamber of secrets? How did we get into the castle? What locked the doors?") but she silenced him with a glare that, had there been any milk around, probably would have curdled it in seconds.

The two companions trudged along the massive pipe, wading through bones of small animals and dead snake skin. Every few seconds one of them would trip on something hard - they were never quite sure what.

It took around an hour of walking to find their first clue that this was where the creature was living – a pile of fresh bones, still with scraps of meat hanging off of them, that looked like they had belonged to a Thestral. "We must be getting close," the Doctor said.

It was at this exact second that a loud roar emanated from the tunnel ahead.

The creature was massive, even more so than Hermione remembered it. It loomed over her and the Doctor.

"All we need is a photograph," the Doctor reminded her. "Ready? Three, two one… run!" He lifted a small polaroid camera, snapped a photo and turned to escape. Hermione was already running, having got a head start while he got the photo. The Doctor turned and followed.

Not fast enough.

Hermione heard a scream and looked back to see the Doctor fall to the ground. A large gash stretched across his back, and blood was already beginning to stain his shirt crimson.

"Doctor!" she yelled.

The creature heard her yell, but for some reason seemed to be startled. Hermione took the opportunity its momentary confusion had created to dart forward, grab the Doctor and begin to drag him away from it. She was able to move several metres before the monster came to its senses and came after her. Terrified, she stumbled backwards, nearly falling into something large behind her. She looked behind her to see a huge, papery wall. The Basilisk! It must have shed its skin down here. The translucent skin covered the entire tunnel and rustled at her touch.

Hermione looked back at the monster. It didn't look very comfortable around the skin. Suddenly she realized something. The Doctor had mentioned before that the creature had probably been living in the castle for years and years, because it would only have been able to get into the grounds as something tiny and unnoticeable. It would have grown up in the castle – and it would have seen the Basilisk.

Hermione pulled back a part of the skin and backed slowly through it. She pulled the papery surface back into place and held her breath in anticipation. She could see the blurry outline of the creature as it growled softly. With baited breath she waited, but the monster didn't come any closer. Then, finally, it turned and lumbered away.

Hermione let out a relieved sob. She turned to look at the Doctor. His face was deathly pale, his lips beginning to turn blue. The wound on his back had stopped bleeding, but still looked very serious. In his left hand he still gripped the camera.

Hermione wished she had her wand, but there was no time to go and get it. Besides, if she stole her own wand two months into the past, her past self would be frantic. It was too risky.

She grabbed the Doctor gently by the shoulders and began to drag him through the tunnels and back to the entrance before she realized she would have no way of getting back up the steep pipe down which they had come. The Doctor must have had some sort of a plan, she thought to herself. Then she stopped. These pipes channeled water from the lake up to the castle to be used for cleaning. The must go out somewhere into the grounds. She listened carefully. There! Hermione could faintly hear a breeze flowing past the entrance to a pipe somewhere off to her left. She turned and, with great effort, pulled the Doctor towards it.

She reached the end of the pipe and almost collapsed with relief. This pipe led directly out into the grounds, not ten metres from where they had left the TARDIS. Eagerly she dragged to Doctor to the doors of the blue box and opened them. The TARDIS hummed. Hermione pulled the Doctor inside and closed the doors behind them before checking on the Doctor again. His lips were still pale, his face as white as ice. She could clearly see the veins running beneath his skin.

"Come on, come on, what do I do?" she muttered to herself.