I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. Some noticeable sections are from 'Lord of the Rings' by J.R.R Tolkien, which again, I do not own.
Hope you are all staying safe and sensitive to others still. I happen to be still in 'lockdown' so I can still write for this story.
Harry was not used to the severe whiplash that the next few weeks brought him. People had gone from downright fearing his presence, to providing mild condolences for Hermione's petrification. Though she wasn't dead, one visiting the castle who was unaware of Harry's affections might have thought so. Not having her around was like a stake through the heart for him. He missed her small bouts of giggles when someone said something remotely suggestive, he missed her bright attitude and even her berating after a while. He still read to her petrified form, willing for her to break free of the enchantment, though she would never give any indication of whether she could hear him. "O! Wanderers in the shadowed land, despair not! For though dark they stand, all woods there be must end at last, and see the open sun go past: the setting sun, the rising sun, the day's end, or the day begun, for east or west all woods must fail…" Harry read out the song, as dull as it was printed. "Fail. Yeah, me too, Frodo. We are both failing at keeping our spirits high." Harry would continue to read until he fell to sleep in the chair next to Hermione's bed. The book still propped open, dropped to his knee and lay open, displaying Harry's effort to keep them both sane.
"So, if we altered the spell, we would get the properties of different metals?" Harry asked Zoe as they sat at the table in the corner of the common room, wearily going over the properties of Transfiguration in forms such as Vera Verto. She nodded and yawned, eager to get the night's revision over and done with. Neville had fallen to sleep with a book on potions ingredients resting on his forehead, dozing off under the watch of Harry and Zoe, who were going to do more revision in Hermione's absence. Harry dropped to the table, letting her know that they were done for the night. Hermione would have stayed up later, to the point where Harry would have had to pull her from her textbook. Zoe clapped and let the two boys know that she was going to bed and that they should too if they wanted to be awake to see Hermione in the morning. As soon as she said Hermione, Harry bolted up the stairs and could be found only 7 minutes later with his curtains drawn around his sleeping self. Before he drifted off, he exclaimed to no-one in particular "I'm coming for you Slytherin's Heir. You'll regret the day you messed with my Hermione."
Waking on Saturday morning, Harry was eager to get to see Hermione again, before he realised that he needed to see someone else first. He got dressed, hastily took a slice of buttered toast from the breakfast table, noting two absences from the hall and ran off in the direction of the greenhouses. As he entered greenhouse two and looked around, he smiled upon seeing Neville and Hannah Abbott, happily watering the mandrakes together, with their hands intertwined on the handle of the watering can. Not wanting to bother the happy pair, he tried to sneak out and ask later, after he had been to see Hermione. However, before his foot passed over the threshold of the greenhouse, Harry winced upon hearing Neville. "Thought you could sneak away, did you? I know why you're here. I'm sorry… but they aren't ready yet. They won't be until two days before exams start." Neville knew how hard it was for Harry to hear those words, as they meant that Harry would not see Hermione moving again for another month at best. It would also mean that Hermione would likely not be able to compete with the rest of them in the exams. "Thanks anyway, Neville. Oh, Hannah, feel free to let yourself into our group with Neville now. We trust you fully, besides you two are dating, are you not?" He ducked out before Neville could catch him and take a swing for his arm, unknowingly leaving the two blushing deep pink.
Harry shook his head at Hannah and Neville, reminding himself of how he and Hermione first were around each other when they had started dating at the end of their first year at Hogwarts. Nervous, little wrecks that got into trouble constantly. 'Now look at us,' he thought in anger 'I can't even protect her properly. Why should I deserve her?' He felt the bag at his hip, swinging with each step he took as The Fellowship of the Ring jostled about inside the leather satchel. He stopped moving when he came to the doors of the hospital wing and did the breathing exercises that he was told to do to keep his emotional outbursts of magic in check. Madam Pomfrey smiled warmly at him as he moved towards Hermione's bed; she knew not to bother him when he was reading to her. 'Sweet lad, reminds me of his parents.' She often thought when the two were together. Harry settled into his usual seat, one that was still as cold as Hermione's touch. "I miss you, Hermione. I miss you so much. I just wish you could be back with me, studying, shouting at me for not studying, reading in the common room, watching Zoe's quidditch matches with you huddled under my cloak." He smiled at the pleasant memories. "Well, I'll just start reading now. Uh- yes, page 106." He groaned with a small smile. "Another song too. You know I'm only doing this because there's a chance you can't hear me.
Farewell, we call to hearth and hall,
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.
To Rivendell, where elves yet dwell,
In glades beneath the misty fell
Through moor and waste, we ride in haste
And whither then we cannot tell.
With foes ahead, behind us dread,
Beneath the sky shall be our bed
Until at last our toil be passed,
Our journey done, our errand sped.
We Must Away! We Must Away!
We Ride Before the Break of Day!"
" 'Very good!' said Frodo." Harry continued as if he hadn't just been singing to his comatose girlfriend. What Harry didn't know, was that they weren't alone. Madam Pomfrey smiled and went back into her office to have a gossip with Professor McGonagall over the floo network.
As Harry went to grasp Hermione's hand before leaving at Madam Pomfrey's order, he noticed a strange lump in Hermione's pocket. Staring quizzically at it, he tugged at the end of the strange object. It was a balled-up piece of parchment, though not a normal one from school. Unfolding it and smoothing out the wrinkles, careful not to tear or damage it, Harry didn't recognise the handwriting, it certainly wasn't Hermione's beautifully neat penmanship, nor was it from anyone he recognised. That was until he scanned to the bottom of the brown paper, where he found a note, if one could call it that. It read simply: Pipes in a way that indicated urgency through the messy scrawl, more like Harry's own handwriting than Hermione's swift lettering and the long scratch of a line underneath the word. Narrowing his eyes and cocking his head in confusion, he looked at Hermione's stiff body and asked to possibly unhearing ears "Why did you write this?" He looked into her eyes, a semi-difficult task to do, as meeting her gaze would mean sticking to the roof and asked the question in his mind. Thinking of her reaction if she was awake, he decided the best course of action was to read the page the message was written on.
'Anyone who looks upon the Basilisk's glare will be immediately eradicated by the beast, but indirectly meet its gaze and one will be petrified, turned as rigid and as cold as a stone, whilst keeping the soul intact and the body preserved. The king of the serpents would make more than humans quiver, as the arachnids, namely spiders and acromantula flee before it. The Basilisk is rumoured to be an extinct species, though many wizards and witches have tried to replicate one, only to be destroyed by their own creation. A full-grown serpent of this calibre can reach up to a record 50 feet, though if they have enough prey, it could be more, should one still exist. A scarlet plume would be found on the male's head and none would be seen on a female. The breeding of such a beast is outlawed in most countries and will be,' The page ended as Harry's eyes widened like dinner plates. "Thank you, Hermione. I will see you soon. I promise." He placed a kiss on her forehead and picked up the book from the dresser, sliding it into his bag and slinging that over his shoulder. Leaving the hospital wing, he waved goodbye to Madam Pomfrey and Cho, the latter waving back from her bed and the former nodding in acknowledgement. As he ran to find Neville amongst the stares of gawking students and the occasional reprimanding teacher, Harry hummed the tune he had developed for the song he had read to Hermione only an hour or so prior.
'At last' Harry thought as he found Neville and Hannah huddled in a corner of the library, surreptitiously holding hands and reading through a book on plants native to humid areas. "Hey, you two." He waved to them and made sure to keep his voice low, as even though Madam Pince liked Hermione and was fairly decent to him, he didn't want to push his luck with the almost copy of Madam Pomfrey. As they walked over, they let go of each other's hands and a glow seemed to leave them, making Harry shake his head again at their embarrassment. "What is it, Harry? You seem quite sad. Oh, you just went to see Hermione didn't you?" Hannah said, giving Harry an apologetic look. He waved it off, saying that it wasn't the reason for his glumness. "When I was about to leave her, I saw a note in her pocket. I know it isn't proper to look through a lady's things, especially when they are unaware, but I thought it might have been something important. Anyway, it looks like that mirror was not the only thing with Hermione when she was… found." He passed them the note and they looked over it, eyes skimming the lines in unison like a practised act. Hannah gasped at the end, Harry assumed she had read the 'pipes' line, but Neville's look was a carbon copy of his own as he saw those five letters. "What does that last bit, mean, and why did Hermione write it in a part of a library book?" Madam Pince was nearly upon them and they didn't want to be banned from Hermione's sacred area, so they packed up their books, quills and ink, making their way to the exit. "Let's go to the meeting place, we can assemble the rest of the society there." Harry proposed, letting the two catch up with his quick pace.
With one quick charm change on the fake black coins that Hermione had given out before she was attacked, the Rogue society had been called upon, and most had arrived together, apparently leaving Tracey and Daphne to be the last ones through the door. As they entered, looking slightly dishevelled, Harry beckoned them to the table, eager to inform and ready to hunt. "Right, now that we are all here, you must know that tomorrow, we go after the perpetrator of the petrifications." Some gasps arose from the crowd but were immediately silenced by the screech of wooden chair legs on stone as Neville got up and stood beside Harry. He spoke with a tone that indicated some fear, yet also some devotion. "We have received a note, one coming from Hermione, one we assume was written on the day she was… frozen. It states that the monster is… a Basilisk." Again quelling the murmurs of fear and adrenaline, so put up a hand and let Harry continue. "Hermione gave us answers to a lot of questions. It had been moving about using the plumbing, the pipes and has been very fortunate to not see anyone's eyes directly. If they had been unlucky, we would have… they wouldn't be able to be restored. Now we have a fighting chance at taking down the person responsible. A Basilisk responds to a parselmouth, so it seems that it has been petrifying or attempting to kill on the commands of another with parseltongue. I can use my own abilities to subdue it, once we get to it. I have talked to the phantom of the last victim of the beast, and we are certain that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in the second-floor girl's bathroom. Neville, Hannah and I have come up with a plan, that we need all of your support in. We are going to take down the Heir of Slytherin."
My introduction of the black coins are like the protean charmed ones that Hermione makes in OOtP, and are purely for convenience.
So, we enter the Endgame, for this year. The next three chapters will be the finale for Second-Year and I am so excited to share them with you all.
My inclusion of the Lord of the Rings books is purely for my nostalgic preference. However, I think that little song that Harry sung could have a place meaning something in the later stories.
Stay Safe
-E