Chapter 10 Jessie's Gone
It was properly only a few hours later that Harry was walking though the hallway. Up ahead, in the light of a flickering torch, something dark was lying. A windowpane rattled in the wind and the torch went out. Harry stepped closer to the something dark and found Jess.
Lying rigid on the floor, a look of shock was on her frozen face. She was wearing thick, nerd glasses which where heavily scratched and fogged. Harry remembered her mentioning once that she needed glasses, but used a spell instead. He knelt by his older sister, and noticed a trail of spiders scuttling away from her body and out the loose windowpane. Suddenly harry had the feeling of someone watching him, and he wheeled around to find McGonagall.
"Professor, I swear I didn't –"he was still on the floor next to Jess. He pleaded with McGonagall, but she just shook her head.
"This is out of my hands, Potter." She looked sadly at the boy who just looked lost. "Mr. Filch, will you take care of this, please?" Harry's eyes shifted to the shadows beyond McGonagall. Filch stepped forward.
"Caught in the act. You'll get what's comin' to you, just like she did. I'll have you out this time, Potter. Mark my words..." As McGonagall lead Harry away, he looked back. Filch was staring at Jess with a smile. Filch looked back at Harry with a twisted grin.
"Dark magic. That's what you've got, Potter. Even the air you breathe comes out poison. You're evil. Evil as they come..."
...
McGonagall marched Harry down to the ugly stone gargoyles.
"Sherbet lemon." The Gargoyles sprung to life, their wings opening.
"Professor Dumbledore will be waiting for you. I'll need to find the Twins and Wood, they'll need to be informed." McGonagall ushered Harry inside. The Gargoyles' wings close. Harry rose to an upper floor. Harry stepped out of the Gargoyles' embraces and entered a large, circular room. He looked around the room. Strange silver instruments whirred quietly, and on a nearby shelf, the sorting hat sat.
Harry cast a wary eye at the past headmasters snoozing in the portraits around him. In the last portrait, the
Headmaster was awake, reading a book. It was Professor Dippet, according to the title under him. Harry approached the Sorting Hat, glanced around him, and then spoke to it.
"Excuse me?"
"Bee in your bonnet, Potter?" it replied looking down at the boy.
"Well, you see, I was wondering..." he trailed off.
"If I put you in the right house? Yes... you were particularly difficult to place. But I stand by what I said last year... you would have done well in Slytherin." Harry glared at the hat, not happing with the answer.
"You're wrong." The hat sat motionless. Silent. Hearing a gagging sound, harry wheeled around to find an old, decrepit bird sitting of a golden perch. The bird wobbled and then burst into flames. As Dumbledore entered, harry looked horror stricken.
"Professor, your bird... I couldn't do anything... He just caught fire." Harry was terrified that it was somehow his fault. Dumbledore nodded silently.
"About time too. He's been looking dreadful for days. Pity you had to see him on a Burning Day. He's really very handsome most of the time." Harry looked so confused, Dumbledore smiled slightly. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes." Harry looked at the small self under the perch. The ashes swirled. A baby bird poked its wrinkled head, blinking through the dust.
"Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets." Just then, Hagrid burst through the door holding a dead rooster.
"It wasn't Harry, Professor Dumbledore!" He cried passionately.
"Hagrid –"
I was talkin' ter 'im jus' before Jess was found. It can't've bin 'im! 'E love 'at girl!" Dumbledore sighed.
"Hagrid –"
"I'll swear ter it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic –"
"HAGRID!" Hagrid stopped shaking the dead bird at the Headmaster, and looked regretful. "I do not think that Harry has attacked anyone."
"Oh. Right. I'll wait outside then." As Hagrid exited, Harry looked hopefully at Dumbledore.
"You don't think it was me, Professor?"
"No, Harry. But I must ask you... is there anything you'd like to tell me. Anything at all?" Dumbledore waited as harry debated with himself. There was a lot he could say. He could talk to snakes, Jess had been wearing glasses, and she was on the way back from research. Finally Harry looked again at Dumbledore.
"No, Professor. Nothing."
...
Over a week later Harry and his teammates marched toward the Quidditch tower, one man down. Wood took a deep breath, his eyes red from lack of sleep. His sandy blonde hair was a mess, something clearly ceather by running his hands through it. His clothes were a mess and he was looking pale. He and the twins had been spending every moment next to Jess' bed.
"Listen up now. Just because we are missing Jessie," he took a breath, and no one dared correct his mistake in her pet name. "Just means we're gonna have to play twice as hard for her. We play our game, Hufflepuff doesn't stand a chance. We're stronger, quicker, and smarter."
"Not to mention they're dead terrified Harry'll Petrify them if they fly anywhere near him." There wasn't as much cheer to his voice like there used to be. He and Fred had taken Jess' petrifillia hard as well, and spend all their other time at the hospital with her and Wood.
"That, too." Wood's voice caught ever so slightly, a small hitch in his Scottish tone. Just then, Professor McGonagall appeared, barring their way.
"Professor McGonagall –"Wood started. McGonagall shook her head.
"This match has been cancelled."
"Cancelled! They can't cancel Quidditch –"
"Silence, Wood! You will return to Gryffindor Tower now. Potter, you and I will find Mr. Weasley. There's something the both of you need to see." Once they had found Ron, they walked toward the med bay. Harry spent the whole time thinking: Please don't let there be something wrong with jess, please be ok. McGonagall paused outside the door and turned to Harry and Ron.
"I warn you. This will be a bit of a shock." She opened the door. Madam Pomfrey is leaning over a bed next to Jess', where Wood, Fred and George were sitting next to her. The twins must have taught wood the shortcuts to get there quicker. A girl lied in the bed. As Madam Pomfrey straightened up, Harry saw the girl was...
"Hermione!" Ron cries, running to the bed.
"She was found near the library. Along with this. Does it mean anything to either of you?" She held up a small circular mirror. Harry shook his head. McGonagall nodded gravely and lead them out.
...
Madam Pomfrey bars the door, frowns at Harry and Ron. They had come to talk to Hermione, like Oliver, Fred and George did everyday to jess. They, of cause, had ignored the no visitor policy of petrified patients, and Madam Pomfrey had to let them in to stop them pranking her. Harry and Ron were trying to sneak in when she had caught them.
"There's no point in talking to a petrified person. She won't hear a word you're saying." Ron shifted uncomfortably.
"We know that, Madam Pomfrey. It's just, well, you see, we thought, maybe, we could... be with her for a bit. She's our... friend, you see, and... Even if she can't hear us... I mean, it can't hurt, can it?" He pulled the biggest puppy dog face he could, and harry followed suit. A glint of sympathy flickered in Pomfrey's eyes.
"Very well then. But be quick about it." As she exited, the boys step to Hermione's bed. Absently, Ron picks up the circular mirror that lies on the nightstand. He eyed Lockhart's Get Well card.
"You don't think Lockhart could be the heir of Slytherin, do you?" harry gave him a look. "Right. Forget I said it." Harry studied Hermione's face.
"Wish you were here, Hermione." Harry started, and swallowed the lump in his throat. "We need you. Now more than ever..." The mirror in Ron's hand caught the late afternoon sunlight. It casted a jagged light beam across Hermione's hand. Harry watched the light dance on her finger tips, before noticing a ball of paper in her hand.
...
Harry and Ron ducked into an alcove and took out the crinkled paper, which was a page from a library book.
"'Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it and only the crowing of the rooster can kill it.'" Harry looked up from the page. "Ron! This is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake."
"But it kills by looking people in the eye. Why is it no one's dead?" Ron asked. Harry frowned, contemplating this. He caught sight of Ron's reflection in the opposite window. He muttered softly.
"Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly at least..." He said the next bit in a rush. "Mrs. Norris saw it in the flooded floor. Colin saw it through his camera. Jess - Jess knew! That's why she was on the way to Dumbledore's! And she was wearing her glasses to stop the curse!" he took a deep breath. "And Hermione... had the mirror! I bet you anything she was using it to look round corners, in case it came along!" Harry thought some more. "The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it! That's why Hagrid's roosters were killed! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"
"But how's the Basilisk been getting around?" Ron asked, thinking it all through. "A dirty great snake. Someone would have seen..."
"Hermione answered that too." Harry pointed to the scribbled writing.
'Jess knows. Pipes.'
"Pipes...? It's using the plumbing." Ron said aghast.
"Remember what Aragog said? About that girl fifty years ago? She died in a bathroom." Ron's jaw dropped as realised what Harry was saying. "What if she never left?"
"Moaning Myrtle!"
A/N Ok, so this used to be 2 chapters, but they were far too short, so everything in this is happing a little too fast. The rest of the story will likely happen fast, so the last chappies I'll make slower, and more calmming.