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Another early December day during a Quidditch match found Harry briefly alone in a long Hogwarts hallway. He was contemplating the Chamber of Secrets when two pulses of eldritch darkness and pain flashed through his brain like a pair of phantom bullets.
"Harry, run!" Said his doll, launching herself off his head and glowing like a holy hummingbird.
The protest died before Harry could even voice it, because he'd felt it too. Major disgusting magic, reptilian and hungry. The walls around him exuded killing instinct, and while Harry wanted nothing more than to cower in a safe corner, he couldn't figure out in which direction to flee. Instead he froze, disorientated.
"Close your eyes, Harry! No matter what, don't look until the badness fades." Tenshi popped away, and Harry sighed. His small guardian angel left for battle before he could forbid such a reckless thing. This threat was far more dangerous than a house elf or pixie. Feeling stalked by a great, unknown predator, Harry obeyed her order. The blackness behind his eyelids gave no comfort.
Harry heard a tinny, muffled cry that might have been Tenshi, followed by a loud hiss-roar of pain. Then an incredibly loud clap came from right above him, like two huge stones had hit each other at impossible speeds. The smells of dust and old mortar filled his nose, and Harry sneezed twice, his eyes clenched shut.
Something light and feathery landed on his face. It felt like Tenshi's wings when he picked the object off his nose. Tears leaked from the corners of his closed eyes, and Harry decided he had to know. He opened his eyes, and his blurred vision was enough.
In an eternal snapshot he saw the tattered remained of his angel's wings resting inside his hand. Tenshi herself had been turned to stone. Her final resting place was a crater in the far side of the hallway. She'd shattered almost completely, though a triumphant body posture was evident in the upraised fist connected to her torso. Her head, and the rest of her had become dust and stone fragments. Some savage instinct told Harry to run like hell, or at least close his eyes again. He ignored it in his grief.
Then he saw the huge serpent-thing's head sticking out of the shattered opening of the castle wall closest to him. A bloody ruin disfigured the huge snake's head. Pus and blood oozed out of an empty, burned eyesocket. The king of serpents turned its head, and the last thing Harry saw was a malevolent yellow orb with a mote of stone inside it.
As he was petrified, Harry saw the remnants of Tenshi's other arm -- a small sliver of stone in the remaining eye. His guardian had tried, but had finally lost. An evil beyond both their expectations had destroyed her.
Ten seconds later, another warning about the Chamber of Secrets being re-opened appeared on the damaged Hogwarts corridor, above the crater that was Tenshi's resting place. They found Harry clutching the wings of his angel with a deathgrip, wearing an expression of terrible sorrow.
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Peace, serenity, and great sadness. Two weeks later, the atmosphere of the room in the hospital wing housing the petrified form of Harry Potter resembled a holy sanctuary. Like an ancient saint, the ingrained expression of suffering on Harry face transcended the mundane and reached into holy, forgotten spaces.
"I'm sorry Harry." Jenny hadn't cried, except for her first visit, when she couldn't stop crying. "My grandfather located a supply of fresh mandrake to brew an unpetrification potion with, but Dumbledore is right. If the Heir of Slytherin is defied in such a public way, his only recourse will to attack again with greater, lethal force. We can't risk it. We'll cure you after this is over."
Akuma popped onto the pillow next to Harry's head, and gently brushed a small accumulation of dust from his forehead. The doll had changed. Now nine inches tall, she had a second, gray pair of wings attached to her back. Located lower than her decorative black bat wings, the tarnished angel feathers were fully functional.
"We'll get them Harry." The doll's high alto voice sounded like a person's, and not a nine-inch construct of magic. "Tenshi wanted you to know that. Aside from wings and a few precious memories, I couldn't absorb much of her. It took everything she had to blind the basilisk in one eye."
Harry lay on his hospital bed, his expression of frozen grief unabated.
"Yeah, we know it's a basilisk for sure now. Those dead roosters confirmed it. What we don't know is how many basilisks there are, or how they move around the castle. We suspect it's a mated pair with a clutch of eggs. Akuma is resistant to stunners now, but we're not sure if her ability extends to the stare of serpent kings. I'm not willing to have her blindly teleport into danger, not when she might get destroyed too." Said Jenny.
Akuma perched on Harry's chin, and tenderly brushed the last dust off his face. "You'd be so proud of Jenny and me. We've browbeaten a bunch of second year students into doing all the investigative work. Hermoine Granger is giving us weekly reports. Not that Jenny's doing much with the four easiest classes in the school."
Divination, Herbology, Muggle Studies, and DADA weren't much of a course load. Whatever uses Jenny planned for her free time no longer mattered. Not anymore.
"Don't listen to the little devil, Harry. I've been studying in the library, lots of defense. Lockheart is such a useless sack. I've never seen him cast a spell right. Akuma told me about Snape spanking him at his dueling demonstration. I know you like the man, but it was still so funny!" Jenny's voice wasn't quite steady.
"We still have lunch with Luna, though I don't eat anything." Said Akuma. "After I left a stupid Ravenclaw bint hanging from a second story flagpole by her enchanted bra strap, no one else has stolen Luna's scrolls or textbooks."
"Another attack happened yesterday, two third year students in Slytherin, both with muggle parents, were petrified along with Peeves. Got the school and tabloids in an uproar. I brought another Daily Prophet full of speculations about Dumbledore's competence and what the opened Chamber means. Grandpa isn't too fond of our headmaster right now -- they quoted him. I'll put it with the rest, on the end table." Originally, flowers had been permitted, but after cleaning off a spiderweb from Harry's left ear (that had two caught flies in it), the Nurse banned anything containing potential insects from the room.
"That's it for us kid, sleep well sweet prince." Akuma flew over and sat on Jenny's head, fading away with notice-me-not charms. The two friends of Harry Potter left the room. Tomorrow they'd visit again, and tell Harry the news.
The eternal suffering upon the face of the Boy-Who-Lived remained. Harry's blank eyes gazed into an impossible distance, holy and disturbing.
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Jenny didn't know how Dumbledore explained Harry's absence to his family during Winter Holidays, but no uproar spilled over into the magical community. Already February's cold impartial weather blew snowdrifts high against the castle walls.
Harry's hospital room was perhaps the most heavily warded part of Hogwarts now. The Violet Badgers used it for their weekly basilisk hunting meetings. The expression on Harry's frozen face helped the group to rally and focus on their task.
"Pop in with a rooster. Activate the feels-like-dawn enchantment. Pop out. Takes less than a second." Said Akuma, itching for action.
"Even I know that's bloody stupid." Said Ron Weasley. "Remember the dome? Explain it again, Hermoine. That doll is a bit thick."
"The Dome of Selective Silence, a fifth year charm created in 1975, is now taught as part of the standard Hogwart's curriculum. Going on the assumption the Heir of Slytherin is an older student, rooster saturation crowing is not feasible, and neither is the Pop-Goes-The-Chicken plan. I still say there's been no attacks because basilisks hibernate in colder weather, like all reptiles."
Jenny pulled out the Marauder's Map and handed it back to Ron Weasley. "Sorry, didn't work. When I'm inside Helga's secret chambers, I don't show up on the map. As Salaazar Slytherin's secret area, the Chamber of Secrets has a similar protection, I'd bet my life on it."
Predictably, Neville Longbottom made his weekly objection. "I don't see why we have to be called the 'Violet Badgers.' Demeaning, it is."
"I don't like it either mate, but it keeps the Slytherins from wanting in. Malfoy refuses to join us because the name is beneath his dignity." Ron countered with the usual argument.
"Hey!" Interrupted Jenny, who picked the name. "Violet is my favorite color, and I'm doing this because Harry is my friend. Stop doing this every week you twerps."
"Listen to the Heir of Hufflepuff. The Grims agree she will defeat the Heir of Slytherin." Luna Lovegood invited herself, and Jenny let her stay. The girl still didn't have other friends.
A choking sound came from the infirmary hallway outside. The pitter-patter of a first year's feet receded into the distance.
"Colin Creevy." Snarled Akuma. "My atomic wedgie didn't take last week, the bugger is back like a bad rash. Can I Jenny?" Their leader nodded, and the nine-inch doll popped out. A faint scream made it's way into the room.
"Mission accomplished." Said Akuma, as she appeared with a slight displacement of air. Fluttering back to her normal seat on Harry's head, the meeting continued.
"I think I've figured out the 'Why kill roosters?' question. It doesn't make sense to knock off the closest flock if our enemy knows the Dome of Selective Silence." Said Jenny.
Hermoine looked excited and interested. The two boys looked bored. Luna looked spacey. Harry remained petrified with agonizing sorrow etched onto his face.
"Basilisks are thought to have at least human intelligence, and it we've speculated the heir entered a blood bargain with a mated pair. King snakes would want such potential threats away from their nestlings, and would also want to remove temptations of a double-cross. So to keep the basilisks appeased, our enemy killed roosters within a few miles of the castle." Said Jenny.
"That makes perfect sense." Hermoine.nodded.
"Last order of business. Any progress on the triangulation?" Said Jenny.
"It's no good. We need one last attack to be able to pinpoint where the Chamber is inside Hogwarts. Then I can lead us to it." Akuma was frustrated. Hermoine had suggested narrowing the location based on the radius of the attacks. It didn't work well with only two data points.
"Fine then, meeting adjourned until next week. Let's hope the press leaves the school alone for a bit."
"This time is a slow news month." Said Luna, knowingly. "Both the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler are scrambling for a good story."
The next edition of the Daily Prophet came with a bold headline. The article specifically thanked junior apprentice reporter Colin and was written by Rita Skeeter.
"Heir of Hufflepuff to face Heir of Slytherin" was the title. It began by mentioning Jenova Hecate's discovery of Helga's secret chambers and her valiant efforts to spearhead the campaign against the darkness inside the Chamber of Secrets. Then it got worse. Nicknaming her 'Dollmaker' the article described how the powerful artificer Jenova created miniature angel and devil dolls that protected and patrolled the hallways of Hogwarts. . . .
"They called me a pokemon." Fumed Akuma. "Those talentless hacks! Skeeter better hope I never catch her alone near an alley."
Jenny soon found herself in an uncomfortable position. Other Hufflepuffs began worshipping the ground she walked on instead of treating her like trash, which was jarring enough. Headmaster Dumbledore thanked her during breakfast in the Great Hall. By the end of the week, re-appraising stares by Professors, who wanted a moment's discussion regarding her course schedule next year, were driving her batty. Responsibility and fame sucked.
'Harry better appreciate this.' Thought Jenny darkly, as she let Luna talk her into an exclusive interview for the Quibbler.
The media circus continued into the springtime, when the Heir to Slytherin struck again.
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Teleporting AN: Don't forget -- point out grammar errors too. Oh, and if I wasn't specific enough before – PLEASE REVIEW. I'm writing this essentially for feedback, thanks.