Chapter 12

Draco had all of the Slytherin's travelling in packs (more so than they usually did), carrying mirrors within a week. Even the ones that insisted the Basilisk would never harm a pureblood seemed a bit more wary and were caught studying blinding charms. Unfortunately for the rest of the houses, after Harry had left, Oliver had decided that he was going to tell McGonagall and see her response to the information about the basilisk in order to confirm Harry's suspicions before worrying the other students with something that they may not have to worry about at all.

McGonagall had apparently reassured Oliver that she would bring the issue up with the headmaster, but trusted that he had made the best decisions regarding whatever was attacking the students. And Oliver had apparently talked the rest of the students Harry had decided to grace with the information of the threat to Hogwarts and had talked them out of telling any of the other students. Wood was sure that he had made the right choice for the next month when life seemed to return almost completely back to normal and tensions dropped as another attack did not occur.

However, the peace that was found only managed to last about a week before it was abruptly taken away.

As finals season was rapidly approaching, Hermione had been coming back late from the library when she was attacked. She was found the next morning petrified, holding a hand mirror just as Harry had advised her to. Harry's warning was quite possibly the only thing that had saved her life.

But Harry did not care that he had saved her life when someone else who hadn't been given Harry's warning could have been just as easily been killed.

To say that Harry was furious was a bit of an understatement.

Harry was done with working with other people; he was done with trying to do this quietly and politely. It was only a miracle that someone hadn't been killed yet.

The night following Hermione's attack at dinner Dumbledore stood to make an announcement.

"Here at Hogwarts, we prize our student's safety." Dumbledore began and Harry, and most of the Slytherin table who were aware of the Basilisk, scoffed. While Harry was glad that the Slytherins were safe, most of them had no desire to interfere with Voldemort's plans, and had made sure the information of the Basilisk not gotten out to any of the other houses, much to Harry's dismay.

Dumbledore continued, not noticing, or pretending not to, the knowingly smirking Slytherin table. "I would like to assure all of the students and staff," Harry looked to Professor McGonagall, who was anxiously playing with a napkin as Dumbledore spoke with a worried expression on her face as she looked across the room to Oliver. "That you are all very safe. However, in light of recent events we are going to move the curfew up an hour and have students escorted between their classes by teachers or prefects." Dumbledore concluded.

Finally, Harry thought. But at this point it is not enough.

At this point, Harry didn't doubt that the Basilisk would become less discrete. The end of the year was approaching and a student had yet to be killed. This was not a secret that Dumbledore could keep anymore. And with that Harry muttered the incantation for the spell that he had been working on recently.

Suddenly and with a loud bang, something that resembled fireworks shot into the sky, spelling out a message that hung in the air above the entrance of the great hall for all to see.

A Basilisk has been released from the chamber and roams the school under order of Voldemort. No one is safe.

For a moment everyone was silent as they all read the message. But then, the great hall erupted into panic. First years were crying, upper years, particularly the prefects, along with some of the teachers ,were in an uproar as to why no one had been made privy to such important information. McGonagall just looked shocked. And everyone whom Harry had told was suddenly looking at him in surprise, clearly not expecting him to make such a move.

The panic around him made Harry uncomfortable. He had made his move, and now it needed to play out. But no one was any safer than they were moments ago and Harry still had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Harry looked up at Dumbledore and saw the man looking right at Harry with a look of faint disappointment. He couldn't deal with this.

Harry quickly got up from the table and made his way out of the great hall, fleeing as fast as he could.

"Harry!" He heard someone call out amidst the panic from behind him as he made his way out of the great hall, but Harry ignored whoever they were.

"Harry!" The voice called again, this time loud and clear as Harry had gotten far enough away from the noise for Harry to recognize who it belonged to. But even with recognizing the voice, Harry didn't care to answer it right now.

"Harry!" He heard a final time he suddenly felt his legs snap together as he fell to the ground. Harry quickly muttered the counter curse, but lay on the ground in defeat. "I've gotten pretty good at nonverbal spells, haven't I?" Draco Malfoy said harshly as he stood over Harry.

"What do you want?" Harry asked tiredly as he pulled himself up from the ground. Draco looked at Harry dumbly, clearly not expecting the dark haired boy's resignation.

"Why'd you do that?" Draco asked after a moment.

"I didn't know what else to do. It's gone too far." Harry said before turning away from Draco and walking away, only to discover Draco walking behind him.

"Must kill. Master will be disappointed. Must kill." Harry heard the Basilisk hiss from somewhere within the school and he covered his ears in a fit of frustration. His suspicions had been confirmed, the Basilisk was getting desperate.

"Harry, are you alright?" He heard Draco ask through his hands, which had proven to be rather ineffective at blocking out any noise, including the hisses of the Basilisk. He felt Draco's hand on his arm.

"What's going on?"

Harry pulled himself away from the other boy, and hurried down the hall, hunched over with his hands still covering his ears. He made his way into the Slytherin dormitories and flung open the curtains of his bed, crashing himself into the mattress and flinging his pillow over his head. Two surprised and slightly angry snakes made their way under the pillow.

"What's wrong, little prince? You nearly crushed me." Ondula hissed.

"That blond one is staring at you." Forshue reported.

"Tell him to go away." Harry hissed back.

"I'd love to but I can't, princeling." Forshue said as he began to curl himself up above Harry's shoulders.

"Do I have to do everything myself?" Harry muttered, still speaking Parseltongue as he closed quickly snapped the curtains shut around his bed.

Harry heard Draco sigh loudly, but didn't care that the other boy wanted to talk to him. He didn't want to talk. He didn't owe Draco an explanation. They were allies, not friends, and Draco did not get to be privy to Harry's psychological troubles.

He didn't want to deal with everything right now. There was nothing more he could do right now, and that was making him sick. With the decision of telling everyone, he had lost control of the situation. There was nothing more that he could do.

He didn't not know where the chamber was, he did not know how to get to the Basilisk, none the less how to kill it. He didn't know who had the journal, he didn't know if he could get them to call off the Basilisk, or if he had to convince Tom to do that. The only thing Harry could do anymore was hope that things would work out in the end.

Only in his mind, his failure to act effectively only seemed to mean that someone was going to die, at least if past experience was anything to go by.


By the next day nearly half of the muggle-borns and a quarter of the half bloods were being pulled out of school. Harry sat outside in the courtyard in front of the school as hoards of his classmates were escorted down to Hogsmead to take a portkeys back to London where their parents could pick them up.

"How are you doing, Harry?" Lily said as she came to sit beside her son. Hogwarts was now flooded with aurors and order members as they worked with Dumbledore to try to figure out what to do about the Basilisk, and Harry's parents now seemed to be working at Hogwarts around the clock.

"I'm fine." Harry said tersely.

"I'm sorry about what happened to Hermione." His mother said.

"She'll be fine. I was worried about everyone else. She up in the infirmary, someone's closed her eyes; she's probably the safest of us all right now. The mandrakes will be ready soon and if the Basilisk hasn't been found by then she can go straight home." Harry sighed.

"What have you been doing this year, Harry?" Lily asked as she shook her head sadly. Harry knew she wasn't referring to his grades in Transfiguration or his attendance at the most recent Quidditch match and he matched her sad sigh.

"I just didn't want anyone to get hurt." Was the only excuse that Harry could manage to give at this point.

They both sat in silence for a few moments.

"Do you want to help us?" Lily asked as she tilted her head to look at her son.

"You want me to listen for it?" Harry asked, knowing that that was the only way he could probably help at this point.

"Without your ability I don't know how else we could possibly find it. Dumbledore recommended it. I hate having to ask such things of you." She said remorsefully.

Harry sighed again.

"Yeah, sure I'll do it." Harry said as he stood up from the bench.

Harry was glad that his parents didn't seem to hold any sort of grudge against his Parseltongue abilities. When he had come home at Christmas, they of course already knew. But when Harry introduced them to Ondula and Forshue they only seemed slightly frightened, and they didn't seem any more frightened when he sat in the living room on Christmas morning with a snake curled over each shoulder hissing at them, trying to explain to them exactly what a chocolate frog was.

Lily put her arm around her son and led him inside to begin what would ultimately turn out to be a week of listening for a Basilisk.

Classes had continued for the students that remained, but a strict schedule had been worked out where students were escorted from their common rooms in the morning to the great hall, to each of their classes, to the library, and back to their common room at the end of it all. Students even had to get an adult to escort them to use the bathroom.

The only one who was allowed to deviate from the schedule was Harry, who had his own schedule that had him wandering the halls with a team of aurors and, much to Harry's displeasure, Gilderoy Lockhart following behind him.

Lockhart had decided that he was very qualified to fight a Basilisk, perhaps more than any of the trained aurors and the ministry magical creatures specialist that had also been brought in combined. Because apparently some experience with trolls, vampires, werewolves, and banshees all added up to being able to defeat an ancient, giant snake that only needed to look at you to kill you, and could still easily swallow you whole if by sheer luck you managed to blind it. But if someone had to die in this whole ordeal, Harry was kind of hoping that it would be Lockhart.

The Wizarding world was in an uproar once the Prophet had published the news about the Basilisk and the students that had been paralyzed. Harry had found out that this was what Dumbledore had been keeping such secrecy. Apparently, the man was keeping the Basilisk and the attacks a secret, because he didn't want Voldemort to have the satisfaction of knowing that he had succeed. He didn't want to give Voldemort the confidence that knowing he had succeeded at getting inside Hogwarts to given the dark lord the initiative begin to try more stunts like this.

It was very political and very for the greater good perspective and it was very Dumbledore. And rather unfortunately, Harry understood what Dumbledore had been trying to do and felt like an idiot for ruining the great wizard's scheme. He was already beginning to feel the guilt that he knew would only be increased if Voldemort managed to kill anyone within at least the next five years, as it would surely be Harry's fault for boosting the maniac's confidence.

And so, Harry was trying to reduce the guilt that he was already feeling by making sure that he caught the basilisk before it managed to kill anyone. It was just about all that he could do, and at least it was doing something.


Another week had gone by and still there seemed to be no sign of the Basilisk. Harry was beginning to wonder if whoever had Tom's diary and was commanding the Basilisk was a muggle-born and had been taken home. The school year was nearly over and Harry was beginning to worry what would become of Hogwarts if the Basilisk wasn't found soon.

While on their usual route of the castle, which followed the pipe system, Harry, Lockhart, and the aurors neared the spot where the first attack on Mrs. Norris had occurred. Harry always hated passing this spot. While out of all the attacks that had occurred, Harry cared the least about the cat, that part of the corridor always sent shivers down his spine.

The group walked in silence so Harry could listen for the Basilisk, when suddenly Sirius, who was leading the group stopped dead. Harry bumped into his godfather and bounced off onto the floor. Harry quickly stood up, trying to pretend as if he had not just been so klutzy when he heard several gasps.

"Wha?" Harry asked as he turned to see what everyone was staring at, but was silenced before he even got his full question.

On the wall under where the first message from the first attack was written, another message had been scrawled.

Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.

"Someone, go find all the heads of houses and have them make sure everyone that's left has been accounted for." James said quickly, jumping into action as he had been trained to do, and Tonks quickly hurried off to do as told.

"The school will have to be closed. Students are no longer safe here." Kingsley Shaklebolt said solemnly.

"We have to find the chamber; we have to go rescue her, whoever she is!" Sirius said in a desperately passionate manner, typical of the Gryffindor he was.

"We don't know where the chamber is, Padfoot, by the time we find it the girl will probably already be dead, if she is even still alive at this point." James pointed out gravely, resting his hand on his friends shoulder.

"I believe that I may know where the chamber is." Dumbledore said as he appeared with Tonks trailing behind him.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Moody barked.

"I did not want to go into the chambers unless it was absolutely necessary. The chambers are the Basilisk's domain. I'd hate to give it, as muggles sometimes say, 'home field advantage.' I had hoped to be able to corner it somewhere above ground, where it did not have so much room to run." Dumbledore explained.

"Well then, where is it?" Sirius said eagerly.

Suddenly, Harry gasped and everyone turned to look at him.

"I do believe that Harry knows." Dumbledore said with a sparkle of something that resembled pride returning to his eyes.

Harry had been thinking while the adults had been talking, desperately trying to put together the pieces, when suddenly he had remembered something that Arthur Weasley had said in Diagon alley all of those months ago, about Lucius Malfoy bothering Ginny in Flourish and Blotts.

"Where is Ginny?" Harry asked in panic.

Suddenly it all made sense to him.

"Ginny, Ginny Weasley?" James asked, looking between his son and a slightly less twinkly Dumbledore, who apparently was not expecting Harry to know as much as he did.

"Yes! Ginny! She's in the chamber. I think we still have time though, she might still be alive. I have to get to the chambers now though." Harry cried as he took off, rushing down to the first floor girls bathroom.

"Harry!" He heard someone call after him, but Harry didn't care. He heard heavy footsteps behind him as aurors began to follow after him. Harry made his way into the bathroom.

"Harry Potter!" Myrtle cried as she saw Harry enter her bathroom. "Have you come to visit me?"

Harry ignored the ghost.

"And you've brought friends!" Myrtle cried giddily as the aurors and Gilderoy Lockhart appeared behind Harry in the bathroom.

"Harry," James got out in between pants.

Harry ignored his father and turned to the sink that was decorated with snakes.

It really couldn't have been more obvious couldn't it? Harry mentally kicked himself as he realized how this great mystery was really hardly a mystery at all, just a lack of proper observance of the facts presented.

"Open!" Harry hissed as the sinks began to move slowly as the various snakes the decorated the sink coiled away, revealing a whole in the bathrooms floor. The adults stepped back in awe of Harry's Parseltongue and the chamber.

Without giving it another thought Harry jumped down the whole.

"Well who's going then?" Harry heard Sirius say as he slid down the pipes that led into the chamber.

"I shall go." He heard an arrogant voice echo above.

Oh, no you're not. Harry thought.

"Close!" Harry called out as he tumbled out of the pipe and onto the skeleton covered ground. Harry stood up, rat bones crunching underneath him, as Sirius followed by Gilderoy Lockhart tumbled into the chamber behind him.

Great. Harry thought as he saw the inadequate professor had made it into the chambers before he had closed it.

Harry hadn't particularly wanted anyone coming into the chamber with him. He didn't want anyone to die and he couldn't see the advantage to having help this time. Harry had as good a chance as defeating the basilisk as any other aurors, perhaps even better because he could speak Parseltongue.

Harry looked at the two men as they both stood up, picking rodent bones from their clothing. Lockhart looked as if he had forgotten what he had just committed to and Sirius looked angrily at Harry.

"Open the chamber back up, Harry." Sirius ordered his godson.

"No. I don't want anyone else to get hurt." Harry huffed stubbornly, sounding rather childish.

"Oh, you silly boy, no one is going to get hurt. Well, at least I'm not." Harry and Sirius both turned to look at Lockhart, who had a mad look in his eye as he raised his wand.

"Lockhart, what the hell are you doing?" Sirius cried.

"I'm making my mark on the world once and for all. You see, someone's found out my secret. They've found out that I've never actually met a vampire or a troll, that I've only been stealing the work and obliviating that memories of people who have. For months now they've been blackmailing me, threatening to tell the Prophet. But after tonight, none of that will matter. No one will care that I've never previously met a monster after I defeat a Basilisk." Lockhart explained.

"And how exactly are you planning on defeating the Basilisk?" Sirius growled as he pointed his wand at the professor.

"I don't. Stupefy!" Lockhart called. Caught slightly off guard by the attack, not actually expecting Lockhart to act, Sirius was hit by the charm and flew backwards into a wall before slumping against the wall unconscious.

"And now for you, Mr. Potter. Imperio!" Lockhart called as he threw the unforgivable at Harry. Harry, still a little stunned by his godfathers attack, didn't have time to try to step out of the way.

Harry felt the curse wash over him and struggled against it. He knew that it was possible to beat the imperius curse, but he had never had the opportunity to practice trying to do so before.

"Now, Mr. Potter, you are going to go into the chamber and you're going to do your very best to kill the basilisk. You will either return here having killed the creature or you will not return at all." Lockhart said as Harry felt himself being tugged into the chamber with the orders, his feet stepping out from under him as he began to walk further into the chambers.

"No." Harry said firmly.

"You do not have choice, Mr. Potter. Now go on. The faster the Basilisk is defeated, the more impressive it makes me look."

"I said no." Harry growled as his magic began to swirl around him.

Holding out his hands, Harry pushed all his magic at the professor, and a stream of yellow light flew at him, blasting the man into a wall. As Lockhart slammed into the wall, the entire castle seemed to shake and rocks poured down from the ceiling, separating Harry and Lockhart from Sirius.

Harry walked over to Lockhart and picked up the man's wand, turning the professors own wand on him.

"You're head has always been a little too big, Lockhart." Harry murmured and Lockhart's head began to shrink. "There, that's better." Harry said Lockhart's head was now about the size of an orange. Harry then snapped the man's wand in half.

"Good luck finding someone who is willing to perform the counter curse. I doubt anyone will bother to get it back to normal before you're sent to Azkaban for attacking an auror and performing an unforgivable on a child." Harry said with a dark smirk as he stared down at his professor, who looked back at him groggily through pea sized eyes.

"Harry!" He heard a voice call faintly.

Harry walked over to the rock barricade that separated himself from his godfather.

"Sirius?" Harry asked, looking through a small hole in the rocks.

"Harry, where are you? Are you okay?" Sirius called and Harry saw him come into view, rubbing his back as he stiffly walked over to the hole that Harry was speaking through.

"I'm fine, Sirius. I'm going to go save Ginny. If you could start trying to dig out some of the rocks that would be great." Harry said casually as he turned away from his godfather, whose face had appeared in the hole, and started walking towards the pipes that Harry assumed would lead to the main chamber.

"Harry! No, you can't leave here. Wait for me to," Sirius began to plead, but Harry cut him off.

"No. There is an eleven year old girl dying somewhere down here and she might not have much time left, if she has any. I'm not going to let her die because you have some idea about childhood innocence or weakness or something floating around in your head. I can handle this just as well as anyone else and I'm not going to let a Ginny die because in your mind the outcome of this will not be that two children come out of the chamber alive, but that two will die instead of only one. I'll be fine." Harry snapped before turning and walking down the pipe.

"Harry!" Sirius called after him and heard the stones be blasted out of they way. Harry looked back for a moment to see that more stones had merely fallen from above to take their place. Harry looked back ahead and walked on.

He could now only hope that the last thing he ever said to his godfather wasn't going to be a lie.


Up Next: TOM RIDDLE in the sort of flesh in the final chapter of Harry's second year!