1993 - Second Year
"Harry, slow down. Start from the beginning," Hermione told Harry as she sat beside him and Ron on one of the sofas in the Gryffindor common room. It was early in the morning and Hermione was still groggy from being abruptly woken due to Harry having some pressing news he had to share with them. She was struggling to understand why it couldn't wait until a more decent hour.
"I told you yesterday about the diary me and Ron found on the floor of the girl's toilets, the day after you were hospitalized," Harry started.
"Yes, that bit I'm caught up with. So this diary, that we still don't know who it belonged to or how it got there, you wrote in it and it wrote back?" Hermione asked, trying to keep up with his story.
"Sort of. The diary belonged to Tom Riddle. I wrote in it and he wrote back," Harry continued, "I tried my luck and asked him if he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets, he said he did but he couldn't tell me, he could only show me," he paused to take a breath.
"Okay, now this is where you lost me last time. I remember his name, we've discussed him before, but explain to me how he showed you," she asked.
"It's difficult to explain, all I know is one minute I was at that desk writing in the diary and the next I was out in the hall with Dumbledore and Tom. It felt real at first, but nobody could see me and people could walk through me, almost like I was a ghost. It must've been a memory or something," Harry explained. Finally, something clicked in Hermione's brain and she understood.
"Like a Pensieve? I've read about them before, it allows the owner to review memories and can store them away. Some witches and wizards believe that by storing them in the Pensieve, it makes room in the mind for more important things. Anyway, my point is, when you view a memory in the Pensive it's almost like you're there, reliving it, but you can't do anything other than observe," Hermione explained.
"Yes, exactly like that! So I watched as Tom questioned Dumbledore about the Chamber, more specifically, about the girl who died. Afterward, he went to find Hagrid who he accused of being the person responsible for everything. He claimed it was Hagrid's monster who killed the girl, he threatened to have him expelled."
"You don't actually believe Hagrid had anything to do with it though, do you?" Ron spoke for the first time since he was woken.
"I didn't, but then a comment that Tom made has been playing on my mind." Harry answered, scratching his face, "He said the Ministry would take away his wand for what he has done. We all know Hagrid doesn't have a wand anymore," Harry finished. Both of his friends stared at him as they tried to process everything he was saying to them.
"Before we go believing what Tom Riddle has shown you in this diary and lose faith in Hagrid, I think we ought to speak to him first. See what he knows." Hermione told her friends who were looking lost.
"Besides, just because he doesn't have a wand doesn't mean he did it. They could've taken away his wand as a precaution. If they genuinely believed he was the one responsible for the death of a student, they would've done more than take away his wand. I think we all need to go back to bed. You have Quidditch in the morning, Harry, you need some rest. I'll go to the library in the morning and see if I can find any books that were checked out by Tom Riddle around the time the Chamber was opened before. I should've done it sooner really but I didn't realize how significant he actually was."
"I agree with Hermione, we need more sleep. We'll go speak to Hagrid tomorrow after your Quidditch match," Ron said as he stood up and yawned. He headed up the stairs to the boy's dormitory without a second glance back at his friends.
Harry turned to Hermione with a concerned look on his face, "Hermione, what if Hagrid is responsible?"
Hermione sighed and shook her head, "Even if he was harboring the monster that was responsible for the last killing, that doesn't mean he is responsible. At worst he put his trust in a creature he wasn't aware or didn't want to believe was attacking muggleborns. We can hardly turn up at his hut, wands blazing accusing him when we don't have all the facts. Hagrid isn't a bad man, he's just too caring for his own good and sometimes that can get people hurt."
"We both remember Norbert," she told him, "Stop thinking about this for now. I know that's easier said than done but you need to be focused on tomorrow. Like Ron said, after your match, we'll go to see Hagrid and we can ask him all the questions we want. You know how he answers without even realizing, we will get to the bottom of this. Now go to bed," Hermione told him with a more stern voice.
Harry nodded at her and stood up to leave. "Goodnight, Hermione," he said and wandered through the archway towards the boy's dormitory.
Hermione sat there for a moment, mulling over everything that they had just discussed. Her mind was buzzing and even though she said she would wait until the morning, she knew there wasn't a chance she would be able to go back to sleep. She had to go to the library and find out some more information.
~X~
Hermione crept through the castle towards the library, slowly and with caution. It was well past three in the morning and who knew just how much trouble she would be in if she was caught. As she walked down the hall towards the stairs the air turned cold and she heard a whisper. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and her pace started to quicken.
It was only then that the situation dawned on Hermione and she remembered that there hadn't been an attack on a Muggleborn in a while. She climbed off the stairs and quickly walked towards the library.
Its only down two more corridors and I'll be there.
Hermione was walking so fast now that it was almost a run as the whispers started to grow louder. Her eyes darted in all directions as she tried to figure out where they were coming from. Scared and frantic, she turned the corner without looking first and walked directly into someone, causing her to fall backward onto the floor.
"What the -" Spoke a voice she recognized all too well.
Hermione pushed herself forward and sat up for a better look at the boy she bumped into, she could see clearly now that it had been Draco.
"Granger?! What are you doing up?" he snapped at her as he stood, rubbing his backside from falling. He reached out his hand to help her up but she simply sat there, looking at it. It had felt so natural for him to offer to help her off the ground. He hadn't realized what he was doing until he noticed the look of confusion on Hermione's face as she ignored the hand and helped herself up off the ground.
"I could say the same to you," she snapped back at him.
"I couldn't sleep," he told her and she remembered the night in the hospital, the last time she saw him. He had been in there for some Dreamless Sleep Draught but had left before Madame Pomfrey had given it to him.
"Me neither," she said with a smirk on her lips.
He scowled at her, he knew she was hiding something, "Off to the library by any chance? To do some more research on the mysterious attacks I bet." Draco sniggered before he realized he had hit the nail on the head and his stomach turned. She was still investigating it, despite their previous conversation. He should've known better than to think the mention of Voldemort's name would've been enough to deter her. "You can't be serious!?"
"I said it last time and I'll say it again, someone has to," she told him. Her patience was withering away as he stood before her, looking down at her with an annoyed expression.
"What part of 'it's too dangerous' do you not understand? Or did you take the book I sent you to seriously?"
"Why do you care!? Oh wait, you don't, because we aren't friends anymore!" she yelled at him, no longer caring for the time or that it was past curfew.
"Just because we aren't friends anymore doesn't mean I want to see you get hurt!"
"Oh really? Because I'm pretty sure you said that you hoped the person this monster kills is me!" Hermione could feel the tears building in her eyes. She knew that she shouldn't have mentioned what he had said to Harry and Ron when they were under the influence of the Polyjuice potion but, from the moment Ron had told her, she couldn't get it out of her mind.
Draco froze at her words. His stomach dropped and he immediately felt sick, "How..?" he choked, struggling to get any other words to fall out of his mouth. He watched as Hermione blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek, he hated that he was doing this to her.
"It doesn't matter how I know, just that you said it. So don't stand there acting like you give a damn whether or not this is dangerous and I might get hurt because deep down, you don't care. I could be the next one to be petrified tonight. I could even be the one who gets killed and you would sit in your Slytherin common room with all of your friends, sniggering at the fact. Laughing at the pathetic Mudblood that wouldn't listen to your pitiful warnings," Hermione finished and started her journey back to the library without giving him a chance to retaliate.
Draco remained frozen, her familiar scent hit him like a ton of bricks as she walked past him and brought him out of his trance. He looked down and noticed she had left without her bag. Moving towards it, he picked it up of the ground and his legs wobbled in the process.
He was still horrified that she had found out what he said, even if he hadn't meant it. Draco reached inside his pocket and found the crumpled up piece of paper he had been holding onto for months. Pulling it out along with a small handheld mirror, he wrapped the paper around the handle of the mirror and shoved it into Hermione's bag.
"Granger!" he shouted as he turned around.
She had almost turned the corner at the bottom of the corridor when she looked back and saw him holding her back. Stomping back towards him she ripped the bag from his hands and walked off in a huff, not saying another word to him and he watched as she left.
He knew he was a coward for not saying anything, but he also knew Hermione well enough to know that she needed to calm down first before they had another conversation. So instead, he decided to wait until the morning, he would seek her out and they would talk. So, he headed back to his common room and mulled over what he was going to say to her the next day.
~X~
Once Hermione was in the library, she let out a sigh and let the tears roll down her face. The library was deadly silent, she was completely alone. After a brief moment, she snapped herself out of it and returned to the original task she had set out to complete. Heading toward Madam Pince's desk, she decided to start by looking for records that dated back to 1943.
After a few minutes of searching, Hermione heard the whispers that she had heard on her journey to the library. It still sounded far away, but it sent a shiver down her spine before it stopped again, she had to move quickly. She turned back to continue looking before she finally discovered what books Tom Riddle had checked out around the dates of the last attack. Hermione headed over to the restricted section and began searching for them.
She searched high and low but couldn't find a single book that he had checked out, it was almost like any book that he had looked into had been removed from the library. She huffed in defeat and threw her bag down on the table next to her, making herself jump at the bang it made upon contact with the table. She reached inside the bag to figure out what had been the cause when she heard another whisper, this time much closer. Hermione stood completely still as the whispers she heard filled her body with pure terror. She could feel herself shaking and the sound of her own heart thumping against her chest was loud enough that it nearly drowned out the whispers until she had realized they had stopped.
She let out the breath she wasn't aware she had been holding in, realizing now that she should head back to the common room before it was too late. Just as she was about to close her bag, a shimmer from inside caught her attention. She reached for it and pulled out the item, discovering that it was a mirror - one that she had never seen before. Her eyes wandered to the parchment that was wrapped around the handle. Removing it as she placed down the mirror in front of her, she unraveled the parchment.
The first thing she noticed was that it was no regular piece of parchment, it was a page that had been torn from a book, smooth sides around three of the edges but jagged along one. Turning her eyes to the writing on the page, she began to read,
'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.'
Hermione froze as she heard another whisper fill her ears. Her stomach flipped as she realized the page she held in her hand was about the creature she could hear, the one roaming the castle. It wasn't whispers she was hearing, it was hissing.
'This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chickens 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 eyes shall suffer instant death.'
Hermione moved the page away once more and looked at the mirror, she could feel everything falling into place in her head. Mrs. Norris had seen the Basilisk through the water on the ground that day. Collin had seen it through the lens in his camera. Justin had seen the monster through Sir Nick and Penelope had seen it through the mirror. They had all only seen the monster through things, never having looked directly at it - only the reflection.
Her eyes focused again on the mirror in front of her as she picked it up in her other hand. Reaching out her shaking arm that held the mirror, she used it to glance around the corner, where she saw nothing but books and turned back to her page.
'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.'
Hermione remembered the first attack, the spiders fleeing. The water of the floor must have reflected the image of the Basilisk to Mrs. Norris, the message on the wall to tell everyone that the Chamber has been opened.
Hermione noticed Harry was staring out of a window that looked out onto the Forbidden Forest. Ron, however, noticed the spiders, hundreds of them crawled up the wall and out through the gap in the window. He shivered as he stepped back slightly, adding some space between himself and the spiders.
"Strange, I've never seen spiders act like that," Harry said slowly, causing Hermione to finally notice the spiders that were all nearly through the window.
"I don't like spiders," Ron said as the others turned to notice he had distanced himself. As Harry turned, his eyes were drawn to what looked like writing on the floor. He squinted his eyes to try to read it.
"What's that?" Ron asked. He was the first to notice the writing wasn't actually on the floor, it was just a reflection of what had been painted on the wall.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the Heir beware." Hermione read aloud, "It's written in blood," she whispered warily.
She even remembered Hagrid telling her about how the chickens on the school grounds were being attacked. It all made sense, after months of searching everywhere for more information, she finally had it. The only thing left unanswered was how the Basilisk had been moving around the school. Hermione quickly reached for her quill in her bag and wrote the word pipes down on the torn-out page. It was the only plausible explanation for how a giant snake was managing to move around the school undetected.
She packed away her quill and folded the page back up, excited to race back to the common room to tell Harry and Ron about the news she had discovered, they finally had solid information to go off. Placing her bag back on her shoulder, she reached once more for the mirror. She froze as she realized the hissing was back, only this time it sounded as though it was coming from inside the library. Hermione remained frozen on the spot, her whole body quivering with fear as the hissing moved closer and closer.
She never considered herself as being very brave, however, she knew at this moment she had to be. After having read the information that page had just provided her with, she knew if she waited for the Basilisk to catch up with her it could kill her instantly. The only way she was coming out of this alive was by seeing it through the mirror. Hermione looked down at her hand that was shaking uncontrollably as she turned the mirror towards herself.
She inhaled deeply, scrunching her hand tightly that held the page. She knew deep down that when someone found her, that page needed to be inside her hand. Whoever found her needed that information, she could only hope it would reach Harry and Ron. Exhaling slowly, Hermione reached out her hand and turned the mirror facing outwards towards the library. Although the hissing had stopped, she knew the Basilisk was still somewhere in there with her. She stayed rooted to the spot as she moved the mirror around in different directions, trying to catch a glimpse of the monster.
For a moment, Hermione put down her hand and rested it. She considered making a run for it and escaping through the castle, even if it was just so that she could ensure someone got the information she needed to pass on. She inhaled deeply once more, mentally preparing herself for the sprint she was about to do. Her heart rate relaxed ever so slightly and her breathing had slowed considerably when she felt warm air blowing down on the back on her neck.
For the first time that evening, Hermione felt warm and it confused her, only then did she realize how cold she had been. Each time she heard the hissing, her body had turned colder to the point where her shaking was a mixture of her temperature and her fear. She focused on the warmth on the back of her neck, it felt rhythmic, it almost matched the pace of Hermione's breathing. Then it dawned on her, the warmth belonged to the monster, it had found her. With her back pressed against the bookshelves and warm air from the Basilisk getting closer, Hermione closed her eyes and lifted her hand that held the mirror.
She took one more deep breath before she opened her eyes and looked into the mirror. The words that she had read moments ago on the page she had found in her bag, had not done the horror that was the Basilisk justice. Unable to see the full length of the snake in her mirror, Hermione's eyes moved over what little she did of the long green body. Despite only seeing a small fraction of it, she could see enough to know that the serpent was enormous. She tried to steady her hand as she moved her mirror until she finally saw the face of the monster. Its mouth open as its tongue slithered in the air, grasping to her scent. She watched as the Basilisks tongue moved back into its mouth and over its teeth. Hermione noticed that the teeth were bigger than her own head and she swallowed before moving her eyes further up the monster.
She looked the Basilisk directly in its eyes before her body froze completely. She felt the ice moving from her feet, making her unable to move from her spot. The chilling sensation moved through her body, painless and yet terrifying until it finally reached her head. The last thing Hermione remembered before she fell to the ground was the piercing yellow eyes of the Basilisk.
~X~
"My money is on Hufflepuff, Gryfindor are going down this game," Blaise spoke.
"I hate to admit it, but I think Hufflepuff are going to lose. Potter is actually quite good," Theo responded, earning him scowls from his classmates.
The group of Slytherins sat on the stands waiting for the Quidditch match of Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff to start. Draco was growing impatient as he noticed it was already running late to start. He had decided after last night that he was going to seek out Hermione and explain everything to her. For the first time, he wasn't interested in watching the actual game of Quidditch. He only wanted the end to come quickly, something that wasn't looking likely.
Draco used the binoculars he had snatched from Goyle a few moments ago and searched to find Hermione in the sea of people. He stopped the moment he felt someone sit beside him, uncomfortably close. He sighed as he removed the binoculars away from his eyes, knowing exactly who would've sat themselves so unnecessarily close to him. He turned to his side and spotted Pansy, 'of course it is' he thought. She grinned at him as he forced a smile back at her.
"I have some news for you all!" Pansy spoke.
"You're moving schools?" Theo joked and Pansy scoffed and hit him on the shoulder.
"There's been another attack," she said through her grin. Draco felt uneasy as he realized she was far too happy with this news, which could only mean one thing.
"Who?" he asked her and she turned to answer him directly.
"Granger," she chimed. For a moment Draco thought he was going to faint as her name rang through his ears, his body went numb.
"Finally!" Blaise cheered," Its about time she got it, I've been waiting for this for ages."
"Serves the little know-it-all right, apparently they found her body in the library. She had sneaked out to do some late-night studying last night," Pansy said.
"How sad. Maybe if she had just taken a step back from being the ultimate swot it wouldn't have happened," Blaise laughed.
The only comfort Draco had taken from the conversation was that Hermione's body had been found, which could only mean she had been petrified and not killed. She must've found the mirror and the page he had torn out of the book in Flourish and Blotts. He was filled with regret that he hadn't given it to her sooner.
"How many is that now?" Theo asked,
"Including the Ghost and Filtch's cat, that makes six," Pansy said.
"Interesting," Blaise turned to Draco, "You're awfully quiet there, Malfoy."
"Draco?" Pansy's voice snapped him back to their conversation. He cleared his throat and looked at Blaise who was smirking up at him.
"I was just trying to calculate how close we are to some being killed." he quickly answered, "I'm assuming if the Gryffindor Princess has been petrified, Potter won't be playing and McGonagall will no doubt have canceled the match, so are we going to find something better to do?" he asked, trying not to sound to affected by the news.
"Shall we head to the court? If Granger's been petrified I can't imagine there's going to be a great deal of people there, it should be quiet," Theo suggested. The group of Slytherins all stood up in agreement and moved down the tower, Draco trailing at the back.
He struggled to move his feet forward as he thought about Hermione lying in the hospital, petrified. Thoughts of his conversation with her from the night before flashed through his head.
"It doesn't matter how I know, just that you said it. So don't stand there acting like you give a damn whether or not this is dangerous and I might get hurt because deep down, you don't care. I could be the next one to be petrified tonight, hell, I could be the one who gets killed tonight and you would sit in your Slytherin common room with all of you friends, sniggering at the fact - laughing at the pathetic Mudblood that wouldn't listen to your warnings."
His stomach was doing somersaults whilst his heart ached as the guilt of her words waved over him. 'I shouldn't have let her go, I should have told her everything there and then. I should've stopped her' he thought to himself.
He followed his group of friends, hoping they could distract him long enough before he could visit Hermione without raising suspicion. As they all sat around a bench in the courtyard, he watched as they conversed. He would occasionally nod and force a laugh when necessary, but all he could focus on was the girl lying in the hospital wing, the former friend he hadn't realized he had missed so much.
Author Note:
Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful time with their families and loved ones. Thanks again for reading and for all of your reviews!
Disclaimer - I do not own the world of Harry Potter, I wish I did, but I don't.
MASSIVE shout out to KoraKunkel for being the best beta!