Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to PenguinLord0029 and Gazaran, who beta this story.

Chapter Forty-Four

Petrified

Harry went to bed that night feeling horrible. Could Hagrid really have opened the Chamber of Secrets, which in turn led to someone's death? His instincts were telling him no; Hagrid would never have gotten over that. However, at the same time he could imagine a younger Hagrid doing whatever it took to find some foul creature that lived in the depths of Hogwarts and then setting that thing free. Even with that thought, he still felt like he was missing something. Hagrid had let that monster go … it had run away, hadn't it? He saw that the monster was not killed. Did that monster actually go back to the Chamber to wait to be released again? That did not seem likely. And the over whelming truth that hit him just as he was about to fall asleep, Hagrid would have told Dumbledore immediately if he knew where the Chamber was. Harry knew that memories cannot just be forged out of nothing, he was sure that scene had happened as he had seen it. However, he was also sure that something else was going on here.

When he woke up that Friday, he felt like he was dragging his feet. He didn't get much sleep because of his worry and when he actually did fall asleep he dreamed of dark rooms and Hagrid's wild pleads for Harry to believe him. He dress quickly, but he knew that his mind wasn't going to be in his work today.

"You look awful, Harry," Hermione said as they sat down at lunch.

Harry looked at her, his head in one of his hands as the other lazily had a fork in it. "I feel pretty awful as well."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to Hagrid now?" Hermione asked, looking at him warily. "I don't think you'll be able to concentrate on the game the way you've been acting."

"We'll talk after all of our classes," Harry said noticing that Dean and Seamus were looking in their directions. Hermione nodded her head but he could feel her worry gaze on him the rest of the day.

O

"Come on, we can talk in our dorm room," Harry said as they walked into the common room after their last class. "Ron and I have to drop our things off anyway."

"Fine," Hermione said, "though won't your roommate come up and bother us."

"Probably not," Harry shrugged, walking up the stairs and once he reached his room, he opened the door. "I still don't think I want to talk to Hagrid about this … what the …"

"Ow," Hermione said as she walked into Harry's back and a second later Ron stumbled over her. "Harry? Why did you stop?"

"Someone …" Harry said unable to finish his sentence as he looked at the room before him. The whole place was a mess, but his area in general was particularly bad.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed looking over Hermione's shoulder. "What happened here?"

"Someone must have ransacked your room," Hermione said looking shocked.

"Why would anyone do that?" Harry said looking at her questioningly, before he went to his bed to get his things in order again. "Who would do that?"

"I don't know … is anything missing?" Hermione asked.

Harry didn't answer right away, but he knew as soon as she asked that something would be missing. He had left T.M. Riddle's diary here. After what he had learned the other night he didn't feel much like carrying it around. "The diary."

"What?" the other two said in the same shock voice.

"Who would take that thing?" Ron asked. "As far as they knew it was a useless diary …"

"Maybe they thought it was Harry's and wanted to see what he wrote," Hermione suggested. "I'm sure with all the suspicion going around about you; someone would have thought it was good to look at something like that."

"I would never be stupid enough to write in a diary if I was doing something like that," Harry rolled his eyes. "No. I bet whoever took the book knew what it was … what it could do."

"Who would know that?" Ron asked.

"It's either the Tom Riddle guy that was here before," Harry said frowning.

"I haven't seen him on the map once since yesterday," Ron said shaking his head. "I've been looking at mine whenever we had some spare time to see if he would show up and he wasn't there."

"Then it's whoever had the book before," Hermione said reasonably. "They would know how the diary works …"

"But they tried to get rid of it," Ron said, "Why would they want it back now?"

"Maybe they just realized that Harry had it," Hermione shrugged. "They were obviously trying to destroy the book … they wouldn't have been too happy that Harry had it."

"Wait! Do you think that whoever had the book before was the one that was opening the Chamber?" Harry asked.

Hermione frowned. "I don't know, but it seems likely. Why else would they want to destroy that book?"

"You're right," Harry said. "I can't see how all this works … but I know that this is all connected someway. The diary is the key …"

"The question still is who took the book?" Ron insisted and then added with a dark look, "It had to be a Gryffindor … no one else would be able to get in here."

"That's not entirely true," Hermione said. "The Professors could get in here, as well as the Head boy and girl … not to mention that we've let Neville in our common room …"

"He didn't do this!" Harry said looking at her incredulously, a look that she now returned to him.

"I know that! I was just saying others could have done the same for their friends in other houses."

"Oh … sorry," Harry smiled at her sheepishly.

"Harry, we really should talk to Hagrid about this," Hermione said after a long silence. "He's still the only lead we have left at this point."

"It's getting late … why don't we just wait until after the game like we've planned," Harry said and Hermione bowed her head before she left the room.

"I can't believe she wants to talk to Hagrid so much about this," Ron said shaking his head.

"She's still nervous," Harry frowned. "Just like with the potion, she wants to feel like she doing something …"

"I know how she's feeling," Ron grimaced. "I have a feeling that something big is going to happen soon … something that I'm not going to like."

"Well, here's hoping you're wrong," Harry said with a frowned, as he tried to make himself relax. He needed to get a good night's sleep for the game, but he felt like he was in for another restless night.

O

The next morning Harry woke up, pleased that he did get more sleep than the night before. After getting dressed, he pushed his worries out his head. He knew that he would need all his concentration on the match today, and for the most part; it worked for him, at least all through breakfast. However, when he was walking towards the pitch, he heard the voice that sent a chill down his spine.

"Kill this time… let me rip… tear…"

"The voice," Harry said stopping in the halls looking at the ceiling where the noise was coming from.

"Oh!" Hermione said clapping her hand to her mouth, her eyes were round. "I just thought of something, I've got to go to the library."

"Hermione what …" Harry tried to ask but Hermione was already on the other side of the hall, heading towards the library.

"What's that about?" Ron questioned, worried.

"I have no idea," Harry frowned. "But I'm sure she'll have a lot to tell us the next time we see her."

"Do you still hear the voice?" Ron asked worried, still looking where Hermione had just disappeared.

"No … It seems to have gone somewhere else," Harry said.

"Come on Harry, mate, it's time to get to the pitch or Wood is going to kill us," Fred said coming from the Great Hall.

"Is there something wrong?" George suddenly asked, noticing the look on Harry's face.

"Nah … let's go," Harry said and followed the twins out to the pitch, Ron coming with him too.

O

It was so obvious! She didn't know why she didn't think of this before. Harry had just heard a voice that no one else could hear, one that he had been hearing since this whole Chamber mess had started. It simply obvious what it had to be. Okay, so, she only learned the key element a few months ago, but she really should have put it together then.

The thing that made Harry different than all the other students was he was a Parselmouth. If he was hearing a voice that no one else could, that meant it had to be some kind of snake. Of course, she should have realized from the beginning that Slytherin's monster would be a snake.

As soon as she got into the library she went to the section about magical creatures, and them looked for one that would either focus on snakes or would have a list of all the animals. She didn't find exactly what she wanted at first, but pulled out a book that might work. To her delight, it did have an excellent glossary that made it easy to check out what she needed. She looked over all the monstrous snakes that were in that book, which had more than she thought there would be, and she was starting to get worried.

There were so many of these snakes and she could not tell if they were the monsters she was looking for or not. And then she read about the Basilisk and some things started popping out to her.

King of snakes … Live hundreds of years … Murderous stare … Spiders flee from it … It flees from the crowing of roosters ….

Yes, Slytherin probably would like to have the king of snakes to be his monster, it would only be fitting. Then there was the fact that it could live hundreds of year and seeing as it was still alive after around a thousand years that would fit as well. A murderous stare … she did not know how that worked for no one was dead yet, but she knew that this was more likely than venomous fang (which of course the Basilisk had as well). Then there was the spiders fleeing thing, she remember the spiders that were running from the bathroom that was the site of the first attack. And lastly, the crowing of rooster, the last time she had talked to Hagrid he had mention that his roosters and other chickens were getting killed. At that point, she thought about Hagrid, wondering again, about what he was supposed to have done in the past.

"I didn't expect anyone else to be in the library on a game day," someone said from behind her and made her jump.

"Huh?" Hermione said looking up to see the girl that she had seen while she was Crabbe; the other girl was smiling at her, her shinny Prefect badge on her chest.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scary you," she said, "I'm Penelope Clearwater, by the way."

"Hermione Granger." she tried to smile but she was looking at the book.

"It looks like you even have the book I wanted," Penelope said with a frown.

"Pipes …" Hermione muttered, not playing attention to the other girl, as she wrote on the page about the Basilisk before she ripped it out.

"What are you doing?" Penelope asked incredulously. She could not believe that this girl would rip a book right in front of her, especially one that she needed to use.

Hermione flinched again because she had forgotten someone was there. "What?"

"You ripped that book?"

"This is the monster that's attacking everyone," Hermione said holding up the page before she folded it into a smaller piece. "I've got to get this to Harry?"

"Are you sure?" Penelope asked, this time looking pale.

"Yes," Hermione said, but now she was looking thoughtfully. "Harry heard the monster … that means that it could still be loose … I shouldn't have come here alone …"

"Hermione!" Penelope said pulling focus on her. "What's going on?"

"Slytherin's monster is a Basilisk," Hermione said. "And I think that it's loose in the corridors … well not really corridors but … sorry, I've nervous."

"Yeah, so am I," Penelope said frowning now. "A Basilisk can kill you just by looking at you."

"That's what I still don't understand," Hermione frowned. "Why is everyone petrified and not killed. I'm sure that the Basilisk had to look at them …" she started to mumble to herself again. She thought of all the scenes of where the people had been petrified. "Water … camera … ghost … They never looked at the monster directly."

"I've never heard of that," Penelope said. "But then again, there hasn't been a Basilisk sighting on record for over three hundred years."

"Do you have a mirror?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Penelope said pulling out one and handing it to Hermione. "What are you going to do?"

"I need to tell someone about this as quickly as possible," Hermione said. "I guess I'm heading to the Quidditch pitch, but I need to make sure the Basilisk isn't in the corridor … you should probably stay here."

"No!" Penelope shook her head. "I can't let you take that risk …"

"Don't worry, I've done crazier things before," Hermione said with a grimace.

"I know," Penelope said, of course, she heard about the adventure of Harry Potter and his friends. "But as a Prefect, I can't let you do that."

"I have to go," Hermione said stubbornly, though she was afraid to get into trouble, she was not about to back down when she final figured out how to help.

"Then I will have to go with you," Penelope said.

Hermione sighed, but nodded her head. "But be careful."

As they left the library, Hermione stopped before she got to the corridor. "If I get petrified looking through this mirror you have to make sure you look at the mirror too."

"What?" Penelope said.

"It would mean that the Basilisk is there … it's better to be petrified than killed," Hermione said and Penelope gulped, but nodded her head.

It was three more corridors down that she looked through the mirror and saw red eyes blazing at her. She had no time to think, no time to react, no time to even feel afraid. She was just frozen.

O

As soon as he was outside, he smiled. It was such a beautiful day, and perfect for playing Quidditch. He was starting to get interest in this game. Of course, the pep talk from Wood was sort of intense, but he still felt energized as he walked onto the pitch.

He was just about to mount his broom when McGonagall came on the field and his heart lowered into his chest.

"This match has been canceled," she said in a firm yet grave tone. "All students are to make their way back to their House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

"Professor … you can't!" Wood said looking like she had just told him his family had been killed.

McGonagall just shook her head at him, "go to the common room, Wood."

He went, but he obviously was heartbroken that they would not be playing, that the season had been canceled.

"Potter, I need you to come with me," McGonagall said before Harry could follow his captain.

"Professor," he said his heart dropping even farther. It was clear that he couldn't be blame for this one, so why was she asking him to come with her.

"What's going on?" Ron added, running over to Harry.

"Yes, I think you should come too, Weasley."

Harry and Ron shared a glance at one another, both now dreading what was coming. As they got closer to the Hospital wing the feeling of dread grew and they wished that McGonagall would tell them what they knew was coming. She never did, they had to walk into to the hospital and see what they feared most (not even noticing that someone else had been petrified as well).

"Hermione!" Ron groaned first, but Harry's voice was right after his.

He felt horrible, how could he let this happen. He was supposed to protect her … or at least be there for her when she needed him to be. But no … he let her get petrified.

"I'm sorry," McGonagall said and Harry could tell that she truly was. "She was holding this mirror … do either of you know why?"

"No," Harry answer in a hollow voice.

Ron couldn't even open his mouth; he was just looking at Hermione, terrified about what had happened to her.

"I see," McGonagall said gravely and they all walked to the common room where she told everyone what happened and about how things were going to change in the castle. Harry didn't really listen … his best friend had just been petrified … he had to do something about this now. Several people wanted to talk to him, all seeming to want to tell them how sorry they were and how they never believed that he could have been the heir … none of that mattered. The only person he wanted to talk to was Ron.

"Harry?" Ron said after the crowd died down a little and he could talk to his friend in peace.

"We have to do something," Harry said with grim determination.

"That was what I was thinking, too," Ron said.

"We're going to see Hagrid tonight," Harry said and Ron nodded his head.