~A week after the Petrified incident…
"Alright, let's go show these Ravenclaws who the bosses are," Oliver grinned, giving us a short talk before we began our practice after weeks of absence.
"Oh, we'll show you how much we've improved while you guys were on break," Emerus grinned before getting onto his broom and taking off.
I hovered above the practice pitch, taking in the beautiful night time view of the entire school. Oh how I miss the tranquillity- well, somewhat tranquil- environment of night time practices. "What's up?" Emerus asked, flying near me.
"Nothing, I'm just taking in all of this. I missed night-time practices," I smiled, circling around him and feeling the night wind blow my face. "I know, it's nice." He smiled as he looked up at the night sky.
"Yo lovebirds, hurry up and seek the Golden Snitch!" Some guy from Hufflepuff yelled with a big grin, making my face burn red. All Emerus did was smile in response.
I glanced over at Devin, who stopped for a short while and had a big frown before continuing what he was doing.
I shook my head before looking around the field again, this time, with a different objective. To find the snitch.
After a few seconds of flying about randomly, a golden twinkle caught the corner of my eyes. 'There you are,' I thought with a small grin before flying towards it, missing a wild bludger just inches past my hair.
As my blood pumped full of adrenaline, I went after the golden twinkle. To my delight, the snitch became more and more visible as I got near it, though strange enough, the snitch didn't fly away like it usually would.
I easily reach forward and snatch the snitch, but before I could announce my win, I was curious with what I saw in-front of me.
A really long…
Actually, I've no idea what it is! It's hollow, somewhat thin but huge and long. "Jamieson, you c-" before Emerus could finish his sentence, he stopped. He hopped off of his broom and got closer.
"Snake skin…" He whispered, running his hand down the long trail of snake skin, apparently.
I didn't think snakes could grow this humongous!
"What's up?" Demetrius asked, flying to where the both of us stood.
Soon, everyone was surrounding the snake skin, trailing into the dark forest. Not the dark forest though, just a forest near the training field.
Oliver and Ceilan looked at me and Devin with a big worried frown. I couldn't help but frown as well, nobody else is supposed to know about the existence of the basilisk!
"This… This isn't regular snake skin," The Ravenclaw goalie said, poking the skin.
"This is basilisk skin!" He exclaimed with a gasp, there it is. Everyone else gasped as well, "Calm down everyone," Oliver said, trying to calm down all the panicking students.
As Oliver and Ceilan tried to calm everyone down, my curious butt made me follow the trial even deeper into the forest, and to my pure horror…
Standing right where the snake's skin trail ended were statues of peoples standing there with pure horror sketched on their faces.
Some of them still looked alive, kind of like when Oliver was petrified, but about 30 out of what looked like 45 of them were pure stone.
"D-Devin!" I yelled, stepping back. "W-We've to get out of here!" I exclaimed, running back to where Devin and the others were.
Just like that, Ceilan and Oliver's efforts to calm everyone just flew out the window. Demetrius immediately began to run towards the statues, instead of away from the statues. Everyone literally followed him, to Oliver and Ceilan's annoyance.
"Dad!" Oliver yelled, immediately running towards one of the statues.
Oliver's dad? But what's he doing in the forest? "W-We have to get them out of here, c'mon," Oliver panicked.
"Wingardium Leviosa," He chanted, picking up the statue of his father and running towards his broom. We helped move all of the petrified victims out of the forest and back into the school, immediately reporting to Professor McGonagall.
"What? No… This can't be good," She frowned, taking Professor Sprout, Nurse Pompeii and Professor Snape with her to the statues. "Some of them are curable, the rest are dead," Professor Snape said with his usual serious tone, causing Nurse Pompeii to burst into tears.
"That's it, Quidditch practice is cancelled until further notice," Professor McGonagall announced with a sad frown. "But the first game is in three weeks!" One of our members cried, earning a death glare from all four adults.
"I will not let any more students be petrified, end of discussion." She replied with a strict voice, startling said student. "This is not good, Slytherin, and most importantly Salazar will find out about the basilisk. Soon, it'll appear on the newspapers too," I heard Professor McGonagall say with a sad tone.
"It cannot be helped, Minerva. Unless we use the memory charm on all of these students at once, which I doubt you would agree on, the news will spread. All we can do is pray that nothing bad happens after this," Professor Snape said before curing the statues who were still half-alive.
"Dad," Oliver cried, helping his dad stand before the man collapsed in his son's arm. "Don't worry dear, he's just collapsed from the shock," Nurse Pompeii said before proceeding to check Mr. Woods for any more injuries.
"We're gonna need a lot of mandrakes," Devin frowned, looking at the collapsed bodies on the floor.
"Professor McGonagall, why don't you want anyone to find out about the basilisks?" I asked, nearing the wrinkly professor.
"If everyone finds out, especially the Slytherins, they'll surely hunt it down for its mythical 'magic boosting eye', which in truth is basically useless if the basilisk is dead. If they do hunt it down, they'll lure it into the school and cause mass petrify, and eventually mass death," She explained, frowning widely afterwards.
"You could just place protective enchantments around the school, can't you?" Devin asked as the others helped transport the survivors into the clock tower's hospital room. "We could, but Salazar doesn't want us to. He also never told us why he doesn't want to protect this school with enchantments," She explained before following the rest of them, while Oliver led a mourning Ceilan back to the dorm, with us following behind them.
"This is strange though… Obviously the basilisk is in the forest… But how did it get out of its original place? And I thought it died decades ago!" Devin cried, his voice filled with confuse.
"Uhm… Original place? What'd you mean by that and what do you mean by 'dead'?" I asked, tilting my head as we walked.
"The basilisk is originally a monster trapped inside a room in this school, named the Chamber of Secrets. But Harry Potter killed it during his year in this school… So how is it alive now? And how did it escape the chamber?" Devin replied before asking more questions, only to be replied with silence.
"Before anything happens, I'm warning you both. Do not go looking for the chamber. Neither of you know Parseltongue, and nobody in this school knows how to even get to the entrance of the chamber. Who knows what could be guarding the entrance," Ceilan warned before entering his private room with Oliver, who was still down-looking.
"Uh… Jamieson," Devin asked, his cheeks slightly red. "Do you uh… Do you like Emerus?" He continued, his face reddening slowly.
"He's hot and all but I only like him as a friend, why?" I asked, tucking myself into my bed. I watched him let out a sigh of relief before shaking his head with a big smile, "Nothing, I was just curious. G'night Jamie," He grinned before laying down on his bed.
"G'night to you too, Dev." I replied, laying down on my bed then falling asleep shortly after.