Chapter 10

For those who feel badly about Arthur Weasley or any of Alya's family, please keep in mind that these are events as filtered through the eyes of a child who feels like she doesn't quite belong in her own family. She feels misunderstood and ignored. Arthur knows that Lucius is a Death Eater and he is a survivor of the first Blood War. He can't fully explain all of this to Alya without traumatizing her, or so he fears, as any parent would under the circumstances, so he reacts poorly to her Hero worship of Lucius Malfoy. Parents and children have misunderstandings and still come through it alright in the end. Did Arthur handle this in the best way? Absolutely not. But parents make mistakes. We sometimes let fear control our words and actions. Don't count their relationship out just yet!

I knew I should have stayed in Dumbledore's office with my family. They were devastated as well. Mum was inconsolable and Dad… he just stared at a wall like he didn't know anyone was even there. It was clear they had already given up.

To them Ginny was dead or as good as.

I couldn't stand to stay. I could not watch them treat Ginny as a… a past tense.

So I ran. I ran to the only place that felt like home right now, the dungeons. I didn't know what I was going to do when I got there besides panic. Maybe cry. I just wanted to get away, to be alone.

Normally this time of day the common room would be empty, everyone would be in class. I expected to slip in and head up to my room with no one the wiser.

This day was the exception. Because of the attacks and Ginny missing, classes had been cancelled, so when I opened the door to the dungeons I was met by a sea of faces. They all knew my twin was taken and I could tell by the sympathetic looks I was getting that everyone here considered Ginny dead and gone as well.

So I turned and fled. This time I made my way to one of the entrances to our secret passages. The one behind the big tapestry showing the history of some old goblin rebellion.

Sliding inside the panel that separated the main castle from our tunnels I collapsed against a wall and sobbed.

Curled up in the fetal position as I was, with my head on my knees and my arms wrapped around myself for comfort, I never noticed when the panel slid open again and someone sat beside me. I did not realize I was no longer alone until someone reached out and gently took my hand. I startled a bit until I looked up and in to the very concerned silver eyes of Draco Malfoy.

Embarrassed I put my head back down on my knees. "No one supposed to see me like this." I mumbled in to my robes "I came here to be alone."

Rubbing my hand he said quietly "We are alone, don't worry, I won't let anyone else in."

I wanted to laugh, he wasn't supposed to see me like this either, weak and miserable "You were part of "no one" Draco." I managed with a weak smile.

"As if I was going to let you run off somewhere alone and upset. You are my best girl friend, Alya." He suddenly seemed to realize what he had said "I mean not girlfriend girl friend, just…"

"Draco? Stop talking now." I whispered and held his hand a little tighter.

"Yeah… alright" he said, pulling me into his side and wrapping an arm around me.

With my head on his shoulder I wondered when we had gone from mere acquaintances to best friends. I mean, was he even my best friend? I thought about who else could be. I mean I liked my group and they were some of my closest friends, but were any of them best friend material?

No, I decided, he was right. Everything I had done this year from learning Quidditch to flying around memorizing plays had been because he is my friend. Best friend, I clarified to myself.

After I had cried myself out I finally looked up "You have to go now, Draco, I… have something to do."

"You are mad if you think I am going to let you wander off looking for Ginny on your own." He said firmly "We go together or not at all."

He stood up and pulled me to my feet. "Alright, which way?" he asked.

Thinking about it long and hard I finally said "Down further. We have only gone up from here and if the Chamber were there we would have seen it. We have not cleared out the passages below so they will still be filled with cobwebs and dust."

"And spiders…" Draco looked at me a little disturbed.

"No… we really haven't found any spiders in here." I reassured him.

We walked down the passages for about half an hour, not saying anything when Draco suddenly stopped me.

"Alya, I have been thinking about what we are likely to find down there. Did your parents ever let you read any of Beedle the Bard's other books?" he asked me finally.

"No… I knew he wrote some, but we didn't have any in the house." I told him, wondering where this was leading to.

"I am not surprised" he said "his other books are really not suitable for kids."

"But you have read them?" I asked, still confused.

"My father has very different ideas about what is suitable for kids." He told me.

Remembering Mr. Malfoy being impressed with my investing book I smiled "Yes, he is very tolerant that way."

The look Draco gave me was… odd, sort of sad and disgusted and ashamed all mixed in to one. I did not pay much attention to it then, but years later I would remember that look.

"In his book Age of Reason: of Gods and Monsters Volumes I and II* he has information on two creatures, cockatrice and basilisks. I don't remember exactly the wording but it is something like this:

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land,

there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk,

known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may

reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born

from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of

killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous

fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who

are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death.

Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy,

and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster,

which is fatal to it."

I finally understood what he was getting at. "You think we are going to face a basilisk down there?"

"Yeah… I don't know, but whatever it is will be very dangerous. Deadly even. We need to grab Ginny and run." He sounded so frightened, but he kept walking. I thought it one of the bravest things I had ever seen.

"I have no intentions of fighting a basilisk, or any other deadly creature down here, Draco. We find it and…" I stopped, I could hear what sound like someone digging and cursing. Putting my finger to my lips I said "shhh" and walked over to a crack in the wall.

I was amazed by what I saw. Ron was digging furiously through rocks, with his bare hands the numbskull, and… was that Professor Lockhart?

Leaning in to the crack I called out to my brother "Ron! Ron, over here."

Ron looked around startled but clearly could not see me "Alya? Merlin, were you caught too?!"

I sighed "No, Ron over here against the wall to your right. The large crack."

Ron ran over to me "Alya, you have to get out of here, there is a vicious monster down here."

"Yeah, a basilisk, we know, Draco figured it out." I was rather proud of Draco at that moment seeing the startled look Ron gave me.

"Malfoy is with you? Never mind, I don't care, get out of here. Oi, Malfoy, get her out of here, I already lost one sister I am not losing the other!" Awww, how sweet except…

"Ronald Billius Weasley" he flinched at his full name "How dare you give up on Ginny! I am not, and neither is Draco." I chose to ignore Draco muttering about how he didn't give two figs about my sister he was here for me.

Ron sighed "Alya we are doing everything we can to get her back. Please just go back upstairs and wait.

"Nothing doing, I don't trust you." I saw him wince, whatever, he deserved it.

"Alya, I am sorry, for everything, I don't care who your friends are or whose broom you sit your prissy arse on if you will only go back and stay safe!" I rolled my eyes at his "prissy arse" comment.

"Take care Ron, see you when you get back." I pulled Draco by the hand further in to the… they could no longer be called dungeons, where were we? Catacombs? Were there dead people down here?! No... wait, this looked more like…

"Are these sewers?" asked Draco mirroring my thoughts.

"Maybe… probably yeah, and where our water supply comes from." He turned green at that "Draco, I am sure they are not from the same source, come on."

Just a bit longer and we came up on a steel bar grate covering a tunnel of some sort. Down at the end, on the ground I could see Ginny laying so still on the ground I was sure she was…

"She is alive, Alya, look, she is breathing."

Just then a large, and by large I mean monstrously, by Merlin this thing cannot be real huge, body of a snake slithered by. I could hear running and panting, and someone taunting someone else. Harry? Was that Harry's voice? Who was the other one? And a bird screeching?

Draco worked on the bars getting them loose as I listened.

"NO!" I could hear someone screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"

I grabbed Draco's arm "Smell him Draco, something has blinded the monster!"

Draco nodded as the last bar we needed to come free was removed allowing us to squeeze in.

Between the two of us we managed to use our wands to maneuver Ginny close enough to pull her in to the tunnel we were in. No one tried to stop us, thankfully. We were using everything we had to levitate her to us.

She was so cold and so pale. But she was alive! Draco pulled his warm cloak off to cover her with. I squeezed his hand thankfully.

Suddenly the huge snake was back in the room, it crashed down right where Ginny would have been! I saw it was chasing someone. Harry, who now had a gleaming sword in his hand! But he was going to be no match for that snake. Standing I started throwing ever confusion spell I could think at it. Including a few stinging hexes to keep it off balance. Just as I was too exhausted to think the creature made one last lunge at Harry and impaled itself on the sword Harry was holding.

I collapsed against the tunnel and could only watch as Harry limped towards a small black book lying on the ground and pulled a fang from his leg to stab through it. Tons of ink came spilling out like blood. That was when I noticed the older boy standing there. It must have been his voice I heard. He started to scream and shake and then he just… disappeared.

As soon as the boy disappeared Ginny started coming to. She looked up at me groggy and confused "Alya?"

"This was NOT the sleepover I had in mind Ginevra Weasley!"

She laughed weakly and looked around seeing Harry. She shrugged off the cloak and ran to him. I just shook my head. She fell to the ground next to him. I could hear her confession. She was responsible for all of it! Except Harry assured her she was not really, she was possessed by… that boy was he Who Must Not Be Named?!

I could hear him tell her how to get to Ron and that she was to leave him here, he was poisoned and not going to make it.

"Nertz to that" I muttered "Bloody wanker just saved my sister, he is getting out of here."

Draco nudged me just as a huge red fiery looking bird landed on Harry's leg and started to… were those tears? Was it crying?

"That's a phoenix" whispered Draco, "their tears can heal anything from what I have heard."

I really needed to read more books on magical creatures.

As soon as Harry was healed, he grabbed Ginny by the hand and started down another tunnel with her. Like the love struck silly thing she was she never even looked back for her own sister. I chuckled.

"Come on" said Draco taking my hand "let's go back.

Still chuckling I followed Draco as he led me back up never letting go of my hand. I thought about how I would never forget a sibling to tag along after some boy.

It wasn't until we closed the tapestry behind us that I remembered Ron.

*The book I attribute here to Beedle the Bard is based on an actual book Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867). Age of Fable: Vols. I & II: Stories of Gods and Heroes.