I undid my supersonsory charm and crawled, slowly, carefully, away from the wall I had pressed himself against for the better part of what felt like forever, but was likely less than fifteen minutes. My startling discovery about the nature of the monster notwithstanding, I knew I would only survive for so long. While I couldn't see the beast's reflection in my mirror, I could see if the ground and debris directly behind me would move unnaturally due to some invisible force. If I saw that happening, I knew the basilisk would be coming.
I also knew that Dumbledore and the Aurors were likely trying to find me, and I was certain they eventually would. I knew I should stay put, but that plan ended as soon as I realised that the basilisk was wriggling and writhing and thrashing in different parts of the chamber, never staying in one spot for more than a few minutes. There was also tremendous movement and debris and dirt were being hauled and redistributed all over the Chamber's floor while the basilisk all but begged to no one for something to eat. It wouldn't be long before it found me, unless I found a better place to hide in or better yet, escape.
Up ahead, I spotted a collapsed archway, it looked like it could have been an exit in a different time but it was completely covered up by fallen rocks of different sizes. I quietly but quickly tried to push aside some of the them. With a deep breath, I tried to move one, but it wouldn't even budge. I stepped back and shuddered as I heard the basilisk hiss desperately in a different part of the Chamber.
"Wingardium Leviosa."I whispered.
The rock directly in front of me shuddered under the weight of the spell and with some effort, I managed to roll it aside. There's a reason they taught us to use the levitation charm on feathers, the heavier the object, the more effort it took to make the spell work.
With the rock safely placed against a wall, I reached up on my toes and looked through the tiny hole made through the wall of rocks blocking my way. I stuck my wand through the hole and incanted. "Lumos." A small circle of light appeared on the tip of my wand. I shook my wand lightly and the light detached itself from the tip and floated further on to light the way.
It seemed like there was a clear enough pathway on the other side of the barrier, if I could only move enough rocks to squeeze myself through before the basilisk noticed, I might actually be able to survive this. For the first time in my life, I thanked whatever higher power that existed for the Dursleys' infrequent meals throughout my childhood ensuring I was small.
I rolled my sleeves up and got to work. A few more whispered charms and another medium-sized boulder had been carefully rolled away and pressed to the side. The basilisk was still in the distance. After the third boulder moved, I could feel my breaths coming in unevenly. The magic itself wasn't hard, but maintaining the charm was strenuous.
When I refocused on the wall, I picked my next rock. I incanted and pulled a stone piece out from more of the upper-middle section of the wall. That's when I made my mistake. As the stone lodged free courtesy of my spell, I realised it was not a medium-sized stone as the other three I had pulled out had been. Rather, it was a long stone, with majority of its length pressed into the wall and pointing to the other side, hidden from my view. More pressingly, it was a stabilising stone for the wall and the second it was pulled out, numerous other small- and medium-sized stones came crashing down on the Chamber floor.
As I heard the stones fall, I panicked and my concentration on my levitation charm snapped. The large stone I had unwittingly pulled out also came crashing down and there was a loud boom from its crash.
I was breathing heavily, but that's when I knew I was in trouble. As I had been working on the stones, I had been able to hear the basilisk move behind me, hissing away at nothing in particular, its volume was deafening. But now, I could hear myself breathe, loud and clear, in pin drop silence.
Then a flurry of noise erupted and I hiccuped. I hastily pulled out my mirror and saw debris being thrown helter-skelter as an invisible force was tearing the Chamber asunder as it made its way towards me. A beat later, I no longer needed the mirror, the sound of the basilisk's approach was getting louder.
"Food…"
I knew it was to my right. I turned to the left and ran.
#
My ears were peeled thanks to my hastily reapplied supersensory charm on my ears. I could hear the basilisk smoothly glide across the Chamber floor as it tried to find me. I could hear it rumble and hiss lowly in the back of its throat as it continued to search for its 'food'.
My breaths were laboured and not coming in easily. I felt my sides burning and sweat dribbling down my forehead as I ran. But I couldn't stop. A traitorous voice at the back of my head asked, how long could I keep this up for? I chose to ignore it with every fibre of my being.
I saw a large statue of a man's head in my direct line of sight. An austere face with a judgemental pair of eyes. Probably Salazar Slytherin. Hatred like nothing I'd ever felt before boiled within me at the mere thought of him. I felt my fingers itch as my fist around my wand grew tighter. A quick fire spell to his smug little face would feel cathartic.
Crash!
But I could find a way to tear up Slytherin's statue some other time, I hoped. I ran behind the statue and pressed myself to the back of the Founder's head. Think Harry. I knew a handful of spells. Levitation. Light. Small flames. Bluebell flames. Supersensory. Body Bind. Hair Loss. Leg Locking. Hot air and water production. Nothing in my repertoire would be quite enough to best a vampire basilisk.
I curled up on the floor. I knew the basilisk had its senses looking for me now. It was only a matter of time. I pressed myself further into the statue head's nape. The basilisk's hissing was getting louder.
"Food…come…so hungry…"
I felt a press of air come out of the nape of Slytherin's head. There was a small hollow space in there. Despite a millennia in this Chamber, for some reason, the basilisk had never destroyed this statute. Perhaps it held some affinity for its creator? Either way, I was out of options. I pushed myself into the hollow space. It was a tight fit, but I curled up into the tiniest ball that I could pressed myself in and pushed up until I was snugly pushed into the head of Salazar Slytherin.
The space opened up a bit more once I was through the opening and I could uncurl enough to be crouched low and lay on my elbows and knees. My whole body was warm, sweat was dripping off of me, I was trembling with fear, adrenaline and exhaustion. The basilisk was just beyond me, I could feel it.
There was a pause in all the rustling, a small pregnant calm before the storm.
Then I heard the most chilling hiss imaginable. "I ssseeee you."
I yelped out and the statue rumbled but stayed still. Another rumble and I knew it was being pulled off of its foundations. So much for hoping for the basilisk's sentimentality for its creator.
There was a loud crunching sound and I saw a bit of light stream in from cracks in the head of the statue. The basilisk was eating off the head until it got to me.
Panic took me and I forced myself to take deeper breaths. My hands pressed on the statue headspace's floor were shaking and twitching. What could I do? The answer then struck me. Petrification. If I got petrified, the basilisk wouldn't eat me. It left petrified victims alone like it did to Fred and Alicia. A reflection wouldn't work, but maybe I could use Aguamenti to create a pool of water on the Chamber floor? Maybe I could catch a reflection and eventually, when Dumbledore got here, he could sort me out afterwards? I hated my plan. But I couldn't think of anything else.
I scrambled back to the opening I came in from. I curled and twisted some and pushed myself in - choosing to go headfirst to avoid any chance of meeting the basilisk's gaze. My face pushed through first and I saw the Chamber floor once more, my glasses barely staying on my face as I stood nearly upside down.
Then the floor started to move away. Oh no. I felt my body loosening in the statute hollow space as gravity pushed it down and out. I struggled and some more. The statue was thrown down on the floor and I heard a crash, but I was too disorientated to focus on whatever had broken.
I felt faint and dizzy. The Chamber floor was closer and I pushed myself down and out as I heard the basilisk hiss triumphantly from above. I felt rather than saw it lunge down, likely to get at my leg. I crawled out of the space just in the nick of time as I felt the tiniest pinprick on my pant leg. I rolled away and heard the basilisk roar in defiance.
"Ssssstay ssssstillll."
I began to run. I didn't know where to go, but I knew this could not be my end. Not without a fight at least. Thus, I was incredibly surprised when the floor disappeared from under me, again, and I felt my body be picked up and pulled backwards. I shut my eyes, gripped my wand and prayed to every god in existence.
#
"Got you."
I felt arms snake around me and pull me into a large, strong, definitely human embrace. I opened my eyes and breathed a disbelieving sigh of relief. I turned around and caught my breath at the smiling face of Sirius Black.
"Mind if we join in on the fun?" He asked.
No. No, this was not fun. I shouldn't be in this situation. I nearly died. Over and over again. The past half an hour felt like an eternity. I contemplated my death. I don't think I will ever be alright. But all I said was, "Yeah, glad to see you though."
Sirius smiled and gently placed me on the ground behind him.
Shacklebolt was to Sirius' side and he bent low and handed me a blindfold. "Be a good lad and put that on, will you?"
I nearly yelled in disbelief. A blindfold. Unlikely. But priorities. "Listen to me, the basilisk isn't normal. I…I think it's a vampire."
The two wizards looked at me oddly and then looked at each other. They didn't say anything, but I had a feeling they didn't believe me.
I was ready to get in to the point and repeat myself until they paid attention to me, but both of them jumped into action moments after my little declaration. Shacklebolt and Sirius were both on broomsticks and on either side of the basilisk. At the face of the basilisk was Headmaster Dumbledore.
While the basilisk couldn't kill me with its glare unless it was concentratedly looking directly at me, I still shuddered at the thought of catching its eye, even accidentally. I focused on Dumbledore. He was shockingly spry for a man who was so old. He moved and weaved and as the basilisk lunged at him. He never stopped casting, his gaze always trained to something to the side of the basilisk, never quite looking at it and keeping his eyes closed whenever possible. It was inspiring and humbling to watch him perform magic.
He was not even speaking his spells out loud and various pieces of stone and debris came flying at the basilisk and covered its face in a kind of transfigured metal cage, with the front of the cage completely sealed up and blocking the basilisk's gaze. Sirius, from atop his broomstick, spelled a few manically cawing roosters into the cage's head. The roosters fell in and presumably cawed into the basilisk's ear holes. The basilisk thrashed wildly, but eventually succumbed to the sound and fell down with a loud thud.
I saw Dumbledore, Shacklebolt and Sirius breathe a sigh of relief. I should feel relieved too, but I didn't. I was so sure that the basilisk was a vampire. 'Undead' as the textbook called them. A rooster's call is fatal. But how can something be fatal to that which is already dead? The Bloody Baron looked directly into the basilisk's eyes and it was only petrified as it couldn't die again.
Something was definitely off.
"Professor!" I yelled as I clambered to my feet. I felt a shooting pain in my left leg and nearly doubled over in surprise.
Dumbledore came rushing towards me. Sirius was hot on his heels.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
I nodded dumbly. "Professor, something…the basilisk isn't a basilisk. It's not-"
Dumbledore placed a soothing hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, it's over now."
I hissed as my leg burnt.
Dumbledore pulled back my pant leg and examined the wound. He tutted. "Is that a cut from a scrape or did the basilisk get to you? Basilisks are poisonous, Harry, think carefully. Even a little bit of their venom can eventually cause you to succumb to the poison."
A brief flash of pain when I was squeezing through Slytherin's statue popped into my head, but I pushed it aside. I had a bigger problem they needed to understand first. As I tried to reason with the Headmaster and Sirius, I saw from the corner of my eye as Shacklebolt slowly made his way to the basilisk. He was maybe a few metres away from its metal covered head. I called out to warn him of, I wasn't sure about what, but I was too slow.
The seemingly dead basilisk reared up and smashed its head down on the Chamber floor. It was only a matter of a few moments. My warning to Shacklebolt was still not out of my throat completely. Dumbledore and Sirius were back on their feet, wands pointed.
Dumbledore's metal face prison came undone. Shacklebolt was stood right in front of the basilisk and he stared in surprise straight into its red eyes. I watched as Dumbledore and Sirius incanted something to pull him back to where we were huddled. I saw Shacklebolt's navel hitch as the spell caught him. But his upper torso was already limp. Before he could get pulled though, the basilisk lashed out and bit into his upper body, tearing it messily off.
Shacklebolt's disembodied and misshapen lower half came sailing through the air and was deposited on the floor in front of us. Blood and the remains of organs came oozing out.
"Hmm, interesting," Sirius said.
#
I was in shock. That's all I could say about what happened next. Dumbledore erected some kind of protective cone in the wall and shoved me in it. I was safe from the basilisk's gaze, but I could still hear as the battle raged on. It was a bit of a blur to be honest.
Dumbledore and Sirius were talking, talking, as they fought the beast. Apparently, they couldn't send me out because port keys didn't work down here, whatever those were. They had sent for help but without the Headmaster to guide the Aurors in, they would never find this place.
I, for the most part, felt completely numb. I knew I should have been more worried, but it's like my brain could not quite compute what I had just witnessed.
Shacklebolt was dead.
"Conjunctivitis curse?" Sirius yelled.
A few minutes of thrashing and the basilisk roared in pain, then renewed thrashing.
"It regenerates fast." Dumbledore called out.
Well, of course it regenerates. It's a vampire basilisk. No matter what we do to it, it will regenerate. The only way to kill an undead beast was fire or by driving a wooden stick into its heart. Wood was a naturally occurring vampire killer. It's why vampiric clans were always in cities and far away from forests and woods. Fire was pointless too, the basilisk's hide was too strong for that.
"Fiendfyre?" Sirius yelled again. I wondered what that was.
"Uncontrollable with a beast this big." Dumbledore answered.
More thrashing in the background.
I sighed. I fingered my wand unconsciously and looked down at it. Holly and phoenix feather. A curious wand. Made of wood. I gripped the wand tight as a mad idea struck me.
I pulled myself up and moaned in pain and fell back down into my cocoon. My leg was definitely burning and I winced at the feeling of it. So long as I stayed unmoving, it didn't hurt, but now that I knew it was there, I knew it was spreading. I think Dumbledore had been right, I had a feeling the basilisk had nicked me.
More sounds of things crashing and burning came from outside the cocoon. I gulped.
According to my reading, the tracest amounts of basilisk venom would kill a person over the span of half an hour at most. I had been in this space for not more than five minutes and the others hadn't been in the Chamber for longer than ten minutes in total. So I maybe had another twenty minutes, probably less, before it was all over.
I glared at my wand with renewed vigour. It didn't seem like the others were going to prevail anytime soon. A momentary image of Shacklebolt's disembodied remains came to my mind and I choked as tears pricked my eyes. He was dead. I saw him die. Right in front of my eyes. His son would never see him again.
He was dead.
…
No. NO. Snap out of it. I have to do this. I have to. Otherwise…otherwise his death would be meaningless…
…and so would mine.
I pulled myself out of the cocoon and daringly chanced a look at the battlefield. The basilisk seemed to have changed tactics sensing that its opponents were craftier and stronger. It seemed to be strategically retreating and then attacking its pursuers. Dumbledore was trying to chain it into another metal cage, but the basilisk was having none of it. Without the roosters, nothing could keep it subdued and I figured the basilisk had made short work of those after the first bout.
With slow breaths, I stepped out of the cocoon, my leg burning momentarily and then settling into a dull ache after a few moments of movement. I had one hand on the wall outcropping to stabilise myself and another around my wand. The basilisk was heading back my way and it was now or never.
I summoned all my strength and courage and ran towards the beast and for the first time, I hissed at it. "Come and get me you giant sssstupid ssssnake."
The basilisk abruptly changed directions and I snapped my eyes shut to avert its gaze. I turned around and opened my eyes.
"Harry, what are you-" I heard Sirius yell but his voice was drowned out. I saw him flying towards me on his broomstick, but he was on the other side of the Chamber. His wand was pointed at me and he was going to try to pull me towards him again. I jumped behind a stone to hide myself from his spell range. I could hear him curse.
The basilisk was upon me, I felt it. I climbed up on the stone as I heard its hissing close in on me.
"Mine!"
I opened my eyes and looked up just a split second before. I was thankfully greeted with the sight, not of its eyes, but its luxury car-sized open maw. In the second its fangs were to close around me, I jumped with my wand pointed downwards and blasting hot air like a small rocket to give me an extra push. I jumped right into its mouth.
#
I tumbled in the dark, rolled a bit and I quickly called out. "Epoximise." A sticky substance got on my hand and I slammed my hand to the roof of the basilisk's mouth and halted my tumble.
"Lumos." My wand tip lit up with a small ball of light and I nearly cried when I saw the venom and saliva all around me. On me. I shut my mouth, not wanting to ingest any of the venom and hasten my demise. I had stuck myself at a point that left me mere centimetres from the basilisk's sharp fangs. Silver lining.
Abruptly, my centre of gravity tilted on its axis as I imagine the basilisk moved its head upwards to swallow me whole. I took the opportunity to go with gravity and tumble down the basilisk's gullet.
As I fell, I shook my wand and various little lumos light bubbles flew from my wand tip and illuminated my way. I had seen an image of the insides of a basilisk in one of my textbooks and this mad plan had been born from that insane idea. Faster than I thought possible, I saw the basilisk's breathing pipe come up.
"Epoximise." I stuck my free hand on the side of the pipe. It was coated in snake body goo, which I tried not to think about too much. But the goo would not let my adhesive stick. It slowed my momentum, but I continued to slide downwards, albeit at a slower pace.
Abruptly, my centre of gravity changed again, I imagined as the snake was pushed down or it moved again. I managed to keep my eyes focused as I slipped - pure adrenaline drove me now.
I knew it had to come up soon. It had to.
There!
Surrounded by a protective ribcage, the heart of the undead beast. The only organ that continued to have a function - to pump the blood sucked out of its victims.
I unstuck my arm from the breathing pipe. I winced as I glances at my palm to see that much of the skin had been sloughed off by the adhesive and the bodily goo of the basilisk. But I was distracted from any horror as my speed of descent intensified.
"Epoximise." With enough adhesive on my free hand, I grabbed on to the basilisk's ribcage. Miraculously, the adhesive stuck and I held on.
My world rattled and shook, like an earthquake was occurring around me. My head spun as I felt the venom in my body shoot stronger lances of pain up my left leg. My free hand burnt as bits of bone stuck out. But I didn't scream. I was dead anyway.
With my wand in my mouth, I somehow managed to pull myself up and onto the rib. Everything shook, but I held on. My ruined palm kept me on the giant rib as my legs crossed around it and maintained my position.
I gazed beyond at the source of my journey and got my first proper look at the heart. It was weird-shaped, not like the picture I had seen which had depicted it as some kind of perfect three-dimensional oval. This was messily round with a few rounded edges, it had veins and arteries sticking out of it, it was red and glowing and ugly and it pulsed, which I guessed meant it was beating.
I grabbed my wand in my free hand from my mouth and looked at it. Holly. Good enough to be a stake. The basilisk continued to shake violently at this point. I had one shot at this.
"For Shack." I whispered.
I braced my feet for a split second by crouching on the rib bone. I then pulled my ruined palm off of the basilisk's rib and I didn't even feel the pain despite seeing all the leftover skin from my palm slough off. It was all muscle, bone, blood and sinew now.
I jumped. Wand aloft in my hand, lumos bubbles merrily bounced around me and lit my way. I pointed myself right at the basilisk's heart and led with my wand like a murderer's dagger.
"Die!" I yelled.
I was upon it. The holly stick pierced the heart of the basilisk and I pushed it right in. I thought of Kingsley and his son. I thought of Alicia and Fred and Mr. Filch. I thought of all the students of this school. I thought of Hogwarts. My first real home.
"Incendio," I said for good measure and set the heart ablaze from inside.
For a second, nothing happened. Then the heart stopped pulsing. The world turned sideways. My wand and I were pulled out of the basilisk's heart and I went tumbling towards the ribcage.
"Epoximise." I pointed my wand to my chest, covering my ruined robes in the adhesive.
I smashed onto a rib and my chest stuck on. There was a crash and I shook violently as I hung suspended.
I tried to stay awake. I had done it. I had done it.
The venom was now burning in my chest. It was burning all over my body. I felt hot. The pain in my ruined palm was palpable now. I looked at it absent-mindedly, admiring the view of the muscle and bone, usually hidden underneath my skin that I had never seen before, but I always knew was there. I giggled. I don't know why.
The last thought I had was about something clever Dumbledore had said about regrets. Then everything went black.
