The Mysterious Department

Arc Two- The Mystery Continues

Chapter Eleven: Snake Eyes

Hermione let Ron lead the way. Luna stayed behind, saying she wanted to examine the bathroom more. Hermione took that as Luna wanting to do research on the artifact which Hermione still had no clue on what it was because Luna was staying mum on the issue. Which honestly, Hermione shouldn't be surprised about. Despite being in a top secret ministry department, even she wasn't privy to all the mysteries and truths.

She watched patiently as Ron found a secure and out of the way fireplace and threw some green powder into it. "Harry Potter," he said into it and a couple seconds later a head appeared in the fireplace.

"How does that work?" Hermione asked, peering in closer. Did it function sort of like a telephone call? But with fire? Truly, just when she thought she had the function of one magical object figured out, here it was, turning everything she knew right on the head. Hadn't fireplaces been only for traveling?

She shook her head.

Honestly, using a phone was easier. Why did wizards struggle so much to just use easier methods? She was certain these methods might have been amazing centuries ago, but now the wizarding culture was behind compared to the human culture.

"Ron, what's going on?" the bobbing head spoke. It was a man with short cropped hair and round glasses on his face. And most curiously he had a lighting scar on his forehead.

"Harry, it's my sister. She's in some sort of trouble and we need your help speaking parseltongue."

"Is this about the chamber of secrets? I still don't know why the ministry hasn't bothered with it. But I suppose what do those bigots care for muggle borns." He shook his head and sighed, a man tired and weary of this world already for his young age. "I'll be there as soon as my broom can take me. But we keep this off the record." And then his head flickered and was gone.

Ron got up from where he was kneeling in front of the small fireplace. "He should be here soon. In the meantime we should patrol the halls and make sure nothing happens."

"Does Harry work for the ministry?" Hermione asked as they left the room. She wondered why Harry didn't want to use the fireplace but she supposed he must have his reason. Maybe so he couldn't be tracked?

"Yes. He's an Auror. He hunts down criminals and such. And you said you worked for the ministry as well. Which branch?"

"I can't tell you. It's a secret."

"Oh, one of those branches. Are you an Unspeakable?"

Hermione frowned. "What are those?"

"No, I suppose you are not. Or you could be," he scrunched up his face in thinking. "They aren't allowed to speak on certain things. Magic restricts them. It's how secrets keep secrets."

"Interesting." Now Hermione wanted to meet one of those. It did make her ponder why she was able to speak on Department issues if she wanted to. No one had magically restrained her on it, she simply decided it was best not to speak on it of her own volition.

But she was certain they wouldn't hesitate to muzzle her if she couldn't keep her mouth shut.

Ron and Hermione checked the halls as best as they could- given how big the school was. They chatted about this and that, looking for anything suspicious. But all the students were chattering and walking in groups for safety. Hermione narrowed her eyes at them. Which one of them had done it? Who had the artifact?

"Those nasty Slytherins probably did this," Ron groused as they stopped by a window, waiting on Harry to arrive.

"Why do you say that?"

"They're a house full of blood elitists. Nasty and rich and haughty good for nothings. Always trying to put the other houses down or in trouble. One of them could have been a heir of Salazar and opened the chamber to get rid of muggle borns."

"That does give them probable cause but we can't know for sure until we take down the basilisk. Once it'd down we can lay a trap for the student and stop them. But we need to hurry. Or else the beast could strike before dark arrives."

"You think it might attack?" Ron looked at her with increasing worry.

"It attacks once per week, though I know not why. Luckily it only does so sparingly and which leads me to believe since this is a new week and the days to the weekend are dwindling closer that it will arrive with an attack soon," she stated. The basilisk fed off of large rodents and other animals, not off of humans. So these humans must have gotten in its way as it went to feed. Hogwarts did have a Forbidden forest behind it, manner to all creatures. Hermione had read Hogwarts, a History, and was appalled to see that such a dangerous place was so close to an educational one. Seriously, did these wizards not give a damn for safety?

A projectile zoomed past their window, startling them both.

"That must be Harry," Ron said and hurried up to the owlery, Hermione going after him. They found the black haired boy there, propping up his broom and taking off his riding gloves. "Ron, how nice to see you mate," he smiled at his friend and they exchanged a hug.

"I wished it had been under better circumstances," Ron said grimly.

Harry nodded his head in solemn acknowledgment before turning his startling green gaze to Hermione. "Who is your friend?"

"Hermione Granger." Hermione stuck out her hand for him to shake and Harry did so.

"She's muggle born. Grew up in the muggle world," Ron supplied.

"It must have been a shock, then, to come here?" Harry surmised. "I too grew up in the muggle world but at least I was introduced to this one when I was fairly young so it wasn't too jarring of a transition."

"Yes, well," Hermione gave a shrug. "Thank you for coming. But I really need your help. I have a lead on where the basilisk could be but Ron tells me we can't get there without parseltongue, whatever that is."

Harry switched over to business mode. "It's disgusting that the ministry hasn't been able to solve this until now. I'm glad someone has finally found sense enough to help with a lead. I would be on this if the ministry didn't seem so ardent in pushing me away from this case."

"An inside job?" Hermione suggested as the trio made way down the halls quickly. Harry had a familiarity to this place which lead her to believe that he had gone to school here.

Harry shook his head no in response to her question. "I don't think so. The minister of magic is just incompetent. Couldn't care about anything past his own nose. And oh, parseltongue is the ability to speak to snakes."

Hermione's eyes widened. "How is that even possible?"

"Some wizards can learn magical languages. Those of animals or of magical creatures. Mind you, they're not easy," he chuckled right as they arrived in front of the girl's bathroom. They found Luna sitting on the sink basin.

"Ah about time," she jumped off, smiling at them.

"This is my colleague, Luna," Hermione introduced. "She's here, helping me with this issue."

"Nice to meet you, Harry Potter," she smiled before he could even say his name.

"You know each other?" Hermione pondered.

"Why no, but he's quite famous. Being a hero and all," Luna supplied.

"I'm not really a hero," he said modestly. "Just doing my job." He rubbed his hands together because Luna was still looking at him in that oddly astute way of hers. "And now I am here to open this basin, to which you claim the beast is hiding in?"

They moved aside, letting him do his work. Hissing noises came from his lips, making him seem almost inhuman for a second and then there was a grinding of gears as the sink moved open, revealing a chute that was deep, dark, and smelled of sewer.

They all pinched their noses except for Luna who inhaled with an appreciative 'hm' sound. "This is the beast's lair. I am certain."

"Now what?" Hermione asked in a nasal voice, leaning forwards as if it would enable her to see better. It didn't. "How deep does it even go?" It could go on for miles.

"Only one way to find out." And Luna pushed Hermione in.

The brunette was so shocked she almost forgot to scream. And then when she was sliding down, she did, because she had no idea how deep this went and if there was a drop or if there was water or- oh. Her feet hit solid ground a couple of seconds later and she stood up, dusting off her robes. Luna slid in behind her.

"See, that wasn't all bad," Luna said when Hermione shot her a glare.

"You pushed me in."

"You would have been fine," Luna assured breezily. A thumping sound alerted the two of them that the boys were joining.

Luna frowned. "This isn't good. I didn't want them joining us."

"Why not?" Hermione posited, casting a quick Lumos so she could see around them. She regretted it when she saw the skulls and bones of animals, picked clean. The smell down here was even worse.

"Because this is artifact business. We'll have to oblivate them if they see too much."

But any protestations Hermione could make about oblivating people was cut short by the arrival of those people. Ron came down first, and then Harry a split second later.

Their wands also lit up.

"Now, what do we do?" Ron asked in a whisper.

"We find the beast," Luna said and led the way.

They followed in a single file.

"Say, who do you work for?" Harry asked Hermione. "Why help the school out?"

"We're just a part of the ministry that handles odd cases," Hermione said in a roundabout manner. "And technically, we're not even supposed to be here but I took the case in my own private time," she admitted.

"Be quiet," Luna hushed from up front. "Or else, we'll get heard."

They eventually entered into a chamber which was expansive and which had torches lit on the wall. The visage of a stone man with no eyes and an open mouth eerily greeted them. "A student was most definitely here," Luna assured in a whisper. "Or else these torches wouldn't be lit."

"But who?" Ron wondered not for the last time.

"Let us handle our work," Luna told them. "You two guard the entrance in case our mystery student comes."

"Surely you'll need the extra wand power-" Ron started.

"No, we won't. We've handled worse things. And the two of you will be getting in our way," she said brusquely.

"Don't you need me to call the basilisk forward?" Harry stated.

Luna shook her head no, shooing them away. They shuffled off a bit awkwardly. Once they were gone far enough, Luna hunkered down behind a rubble. She began to pull a mirror out of her bag, careful so that the cover on it wouldn't fall off. A very long mirror that shouldn't at all be able to fit there. It was about Hermione's height.

"Is this how we're going to deal with the basilisk?" Hermione inquired, not sure this would work.

"Yes."

"It's just a mirror."

"Not just a mirror. It's been imbued with Medusa's blood. Meaning whatever is reflected in it turns into stone."

"Wouldn't the snake looking into the mirror have his own powers reflected back at him and be turned to stone? Why couldn't we just use one of those?" Because Hermione was suddenly very afraid to use this mirror.

"Because we're trying to slay the beast. The basilisk would need to directly look into its own gaze to be killed. Going through another medium would only turn him into stone. But, should he look into the mirror, his own gaze and that of Medusa amplify it into a killing gaze, which will slay the beast. And also us, if we happen to look in."

Great. Hermione even less wanted to use this artifact. Guess it was a good thing the boys were gone or else there would be questions. "Stay here. I'll set it up and wait for the beast to come," Luna said and Hermione did, sitting behind the rubble while they waited for the snake to come.

Surprisingly they didn't have to wait long. It must be it's feeding time, and it was hungry. A dry slithering sound came from where the monster must be sleeping inside the visage of the man. Hermione almost turned to look at before she remembered to do so would be to die. So she sat still, ears pricked, wondering if everything was okay. If Luna would be fine.

Her heart thudded in her chest when she heard a horrific squeal and then a heavy thud. She rushed to her feet, worry for Luna overriding her worry for being killed by the basilisk's gaze. She shouldn't have worried. Luna was already wrapping the mirror up from where she had been positioned right at the basilisk's nest. The monster was slain, mouth open, forked tongue out, and eyes clouded over.

She had expected things to be harder due to all the trouble this beast had given but...things had been smooth.

"Wow. We did it. We actually destroyed the beast," Hermione said in wonder over gazing at such a monster actually existing. Four months ago she had never thought of such a thing to be more than a story. But it was all true. All fantastically and horrifically true. "What do we do with the body?"

Luna shoved the mirror into her bag. "We leave it here. It will decompose naturally." She dusted her hands off, proud with her own work. "Our biggest challenge will be getting the artifact because we don't know what it is."

They returned back to Ron and Harry who were standing by the tunnel. "You two are fine," Harry said in shock. "Is the basilisk dead-"

"All the nargles were in place for a smooth victory," Luna said easily and both Ron and Harry looked at Hermione for clarification who could only shrug. She didn't understand Luna any better.

"But yea, the beast's dead."

"Really? Blimey," Ron's brows went up so high his hair hid them. "How did you do it?" It looked like the two of them very much wanted to go back and check but there was no time for that now.

"Secret. Sorry," Hermione said and the four of them began the long climb up.

"Now what do we do?"

"We lay our trap. Though, I suspect we shan't have to wait long," Luna explained. The sink slid back into place once they left the tunnel. "We will wait in the stall and once we see the culprit, we will stun them."

They got into the positions that Luna instructed them into. One in each stall that had a view of the sinks and then they waited. Waited so long that Hermione's foot began to go numb from how she crouched on the toilet seat so her legs wouldn't be visible. Maybe the student wouldn't come today?

But then they heard it. The creaking of the door opening. Of soft feet on the floor. Hermione could make out a glimpse of red hair through the crack in her door. She peered in closer. Was that-?

"Ginny!" spurted out of Ron's mouth as he left the stall.

Idiot! He was supposed to wait, Hermione hissed. We don't even know if she's the responsible one.

The red haired girl turned around, shocked to see her brother there. "What are you doing in the girl bathroom? Becoming a pervert? Gross!" she spat at her brother. And took out her wand.

Hermione jumped out a second later or else he was going to become toast, unable to raise his wand against his own sister. "Expeliamous!" and the wand went zipping over to Hermione who was behind Ginny. The red head was unprepared.

"You!" she span with vitriol and nearly hissed at Hermione. "Teamed up against me?"

Oh yea, something was wrong with Ginny. Her eyes were black. That certainly did not bond well.

"We have to do this. Ginny, you're in trouble." And then Hermione sent a stunner at Ginny who dove out of the way. It hit Ron instead who didn't even move because it had all happened so quickly. "Shite," Hermione cursed out as Ron hit the floor hard. Ginny tried to run but the stall door opened and smacked her right in the face. She ended up on the floor, blood streaming from her nose. Luna peered down at her from how she crouched over the toilet. "Oops," she said not at all repentant. "That was meant to be softer." And then she added a stun on top of that, making Ginny's head loll back before she could get up from the cold marble.

"Well, that went well," Luna said but without any sarcasm. She waved her wand over Ginny and sat her upright on the toilet, tying her to it. Harry had come out of his stall, propping Ron up by the sink so he could be comfortable in his sojourn with unconsciousness.

"Now what?" he asked.

"She's the one who opened the chamber," Luna said sagely and confidently.

"No way," Harry blurted out. "Ginny isn't a pureblood. She doesn't hate muggle borns. She could never do this!"

"It wasn't her, doing this. Something else." Luna went through all of Ginny's pockets, yelping when she found something. It dropped to the floor and she nursed the cut it had given her finger.

"A diary?" Hermione and Harry both looked it over skeptically while Luna sucked on her finger.

Harry jumped back as the diary suddenly opened wide, smoke curling forth from it's pages.

An image of a tall man, in his early teens, with brown curly hair popped out. Hermione's eyes went wide. She recognized him. "Tom Riddle?" What the hell was he doing projecting from a book?

"Assholes!" the Tom screamed out. His eyes were bleeding black ink. "You destroyed my basilisk. I was going to make this world pure! And you ruined it all!" He gnashed his teeth in anger and an angry wind began to whirl towards him, as if trying to suck them in.

"This thing was possessing Ginny to do evil. I do not know how, but we're stopping it. Quickly," Luna said.

"But how? If the neutralizing spell doesn't work-" Hermione began.

"-then something else will," Luna assured, calm in the face of this. She dug into her small purse and took out an old wizard hat. "Put your hand into this and think of summoning something that will help us."

"Like what?" Hermione asked, not sure what the hell she would be able to pull out of it.

Luna only thrust the hat closer to her in wordless hurry. Hermione stuck her hand in and felt around but when she pulled her hand out, nothing was there.

Luna merely moved onto Harry who did it without question. The wind around them howled hungrily, trying to suck them in. Hermione's hair wiped into her eyes, making them water.

"The Sword of Gryffindor," Luna said in awe as Harry pulled it out of the old raggedy hat Luna had procured for him. How had he pulled something out when Hermione couldn't?

Harry stared at it in awe.

"Only the brave and true of heart can wield it, for it only comes to them. Now use it, Harry. Destroy the diary!" Luna urged, her words almost ripped away by the swell of the wind.

With clenched teeth he swung down, rendering the book in half. Everything quieted down as the diary let out one last plume of smoke. And just in time, for Ron and Ginny began to stir to.

"Ugh, what happened? Why does my head hurt?" Ron groused and Harry dropped the sword to help him up. Luna put it back in the hat and the hat back in her bag. "I'll stay here and handle things with the students and with Dumbledore. You go back, before Bellatrix gets suspicious," Luna said in a tone meaning she meant every word to be followed.

"Right," Hermione nodded her head. She wanted to stay behind and make sure everyone was okay, but she was still in a bit shook by her mission and the object she had just witnessed. Why was Tom there? She only had more questions than answers. She bid them a hasty goodbye and left, finding an angry Bellatrix waiting for her by her desk. The office was closed but the detective had waited for her.

"And where have you been?"

"Uh-" Hermione's words stuck to her throat, not expecting this right off the bat. "No where-"

"You stink of the sewers," Bellatrix said, getting up in the brunette's space. This close Hermione could see the swirl of silver in her black irises. "Clearly, you've been up to no good."

Hermione gave up the pretense, irritated. "Look, a case popped up and I decided to handle it."

"You should have notified me of it!" Bellatrix's crossed arms tightened and her brow jumped up like a live wire.

"As if! So you could, what, bench me? No thank you. I did the case, it's closed, and I managed to actually learn and be of use, which you won't let me be every time I go on a case with you!" she shot back.

Bellatrix's jaw tightened. "You want to be benched so badly, than I'll damn well suspend you."

Hermione let out a gasp. "You can't do that."

"I can if I want to," was the heated response and then Bellatrix turned on her heel, grabbed her coat from off her chair so harshly it was left spinning, and then went home. Hermione stared after her, fuming. Why was she so infuriating? Would it kill her to give Hermione a case at her job?

Shaking her head, Hermione decided to hit the books. She had some questions to ask Luna about the artifact they just collected and she would wait for her here.

She had curled up and was deeply entrenched in a book about magical beasts when Luna flooed back into the office, darkened and empty except for Hermione at this hour. Hermione shot up to her feet at the sight of her friend. "So...?"

"Everything's been handled. The students are now safe and Dumbledore is grateful of our help."

"But what of the artifact? You said it would hurt Bellatrix to see it, which was why you left her out of this case. But how did you know...?"

Luna shrugged. "This isn't the first time I have run into it, and it's properties. It's maligned. Something corrupted it. It wasn't always like this." Luna took the broken halves out, now powerless. She seemed to be mulling something over; perhaps how much to say. "This was Tom's. One of his many items."

"How did it fall into the wrong hands and why was it corrupted?"

Luna shook her head. "I'm not certain. There's so much I don't know about it. But he and I ran into it a couple years ago. We stopped it before it could be used but lost it in the process."

"Could it have been used to open the chamber before?"

"No. Because Tom wasn't around back then. And so his diary couldn't be used." She tapped the two pieces together. "I'll have to keep this hidden away. Bellatrix would be hurt to see something of his desecrated like this. She wouldn't stop until blood was shed." And on that sour note, Luna walked over to the warehouse to put it away.