Detention on Sunday was served with Snape out in the Permissible Forrest. All the other students serving weekend detention were handed off to the caretaker, Filch, who was giddy at having a team of cleaning slaves for the first time in a while. It was a bit sad how the man's one joy in life seemed to be punishing children, but his mere presence at Hogwarts did act as a deterrent to breaking the rules.
The previous summer, Snape had avoided the Usurper at every opportunity. Hearing Parseltongue and being around such a huge snake was much too frightening for him after the amount of time he spent around the Dark Lord and his menagerie of serpents. However, after spending so much time with Harry and the help he had been given with the snakes in his classroom, he was more inclined to see what this great monster was like.
Lyra ran straight ahead and into the clearing where the trees were piled up to provide the Usurper with a nest and pounded on them with her staff. Slowly, the creature slithered out and gave her a push with its head, knocking her over before turning to face Harry and Snape. Letting its long tongue, it tasted the air around the two of them before hissing.
§Is this where the dark man lives?§
§He tastes less of loneliness than he did when we first met.§
Harry translated, "The Usurper says you seem to be doing better than when you were on the island."
"Better?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "Better how?"
Harry looked a bit embarrassed and didn't clarify the message, and told the Usurper,
§We hope to find out where the Chamber of Secrets is tonight.§
Lyra was trying to play with the kingsbane, swinging her staff at its head as it dodged. Every now and then it would just give her a soft tap with its golden mouth and knock her over.
The kingsbane looked back to Harry,
§I can feel my enemy in the castle.§
§Why are you here if can go to find out where I need to go to kill it?§
Harry frowned and replied,
§We got in trouble and now it needs to look like we are being punished.§
The snake looked confused, and its momentary lapse of focus enabled Lyra to swat it in the face with her staff. It turned and hissed angrily at her, but she just stuck her tongue out in defiance.
"I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing children play with a wizard killer," Snape sighed.
Harry continued trying to talk to the creature until a house-elf popped in with a freshly shaved sheep. The elf screamed at the sight of the snake and popped away. The sheep didn't get the chance to make a noise as the Usurper struck with lightning speed and the venom had killed it before it was halfway down the snake's throat.
"Harry," Snape started as he tried to get a hold of himself after watching the killing strike. "Do you think you could ask the snake if I could get a sample of its venom? I'm very curious to see what kind of properties it has, especially in comparison to a basilisk."
The Usurper seemed to hear the name of its mortal enemy and let out an angry hiss towards Snape, who took several steps back.
It spoke to Harry,
§Why does the dark man speak the name of my enemy?§
He replied,
§He wants some of your venom.§
§He combines essences like The Giver.§
§He wants to see what your venom can do.§
The Usurper slithered closer to Snape and rose up slightly from the ground, so he was looking the man in the eyes. Its head dwarfed the Potions Master and tasted the air around him for several moments before opening his mouth wide, its two front fangs growing almost magically until they were as long as an arm and started to drip venom onto the ground.
Snape hurriedly pulled two large jars from his coat and placed one under each fang, shaking slightly with fear as the caustic venom filled them up. Once they were full, he sealed them and stored them away, then sat down to watch as Harry and Lyra both played with the deadly creature. Though as he watched, he wasn't sure what made it so deadly. He wasn't about to make the mistake of treating it like it couldn't kill him in an instant, but he had seen no evidence to support the idea that it could.
He had seen many dragons in his life, and never did he think that one of them might be friendly. As he watched the children play with it, he realized why he felt more relaxed here. It was because this creature was intelligent. Dragons were mostly big, dumb, firebreathing tanks. They were raised like cattle to be harvested for parts. You couldn't talk to them, you couldn't reason with them, and the moment you started to think that one would be nice to raise from an egg was when it killed you just because it could. This serpent had somewhat rational thought though he wasn't sure if that came from those it spent time with or if it was because of its own brainpower.
Eventually, he called the children back to return to the castle so he could also test out the venom samples he had received. He had gotten Dumbledore to provide him with one of the venom capsules they had found in Miss Granger's books and was having an enlightening time playing with its magic decaying properties. He hoped the Usurper's venom would be just as interesting.
As he headed down into the dungeons, he noticed that Harry and Lyra were still following him. When they noticed him looking back, they ran off in another direction. What were they up to?
After ditching Snape, Lyra led the way as navigated the maze of corridors on the second sublevel, then squeezed under Harry's invisibility cloak to move past the gargoyle still stationed by Malcolm's portrait. When they arrived, Harry stashed the cloak and pulled out his wand, and tapped the frame to wake the man up.
He gave a snort and looked around before facing them, "Good… day?" He looked around as if he were trying to figure out the time, but there were no windows this far down. "Harry, Lyra, What brings the two of you to my portrait? Is the door not opening?"
"No, Mr. Constantine," Lyra gave a small bow. "We were hoping you could tell us where the Chamber of Secrets is."
"Well, I can't just tell you that. It is supposed to be secret," he replied.
"But you do know?" Harry pushed.
"Why do you need to know?" he replied warily.
"The basilisk is awake," Lyra told him to his great shock. "It is petrifying students and even got Blaise, Daphne, and Tracey."
"The Serpent King is attacking students?" he near-yelled. "Impossible!"
"It's true," Harry told him. "There is someone claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin directing the basilisk to attack people."
"I do not believe you," Malcolm replied sternly. "No Heir of my master would attack Hogwarts or the students inside it. The great basilisk was placed here as a final resort to protect against a muggle invasion."
Harry remained firm, "It's true, I swear. It has attacked students, petrified the Centaurs in the forest, and killed some giant spiders that live there as well."
"Spiders? They should flee from the Master's friend. No matter, the basilisk cannot harm the students of the school. Salazar and the others made sure of it."
"You need to tell us where the Chamber is," Lyra repeated.
"And you will do what?" Malcolm challenged her. "You have no hope against a basilisk. Only a Parselmouth or a Champion of Asclepius stands a chance against the King of the Serpents."
Harry remembered the story of Herpo the Foul that Dumbledore told him along with the man Asclepius that fought him.
"This champion…" Harry began, "It is a large serpent with a golden mouth and a red crest on its head?" Malcolm's eyes widened dramatically. "We have one of those," Harry told the portrait, "and I am a Parselmouth."
It was getting easier to tell people his secret. He didn't even hesitate to tell the portrait before him. He hoped that one day he might be able to tell others or everyone without the looks on their faces changing to fear like he remembered seeing on Snape and Moody's faces when he first spoke in front of them.
"You are one of my Master's progeny?" Malcolm asked hopefully.
"I have no idea," Harry shrugged.
"Can you tell us about the Chamber now?" Lyra asked eagerly.
"If the basilisk is indeed attacking Hogwarts, then it needs to be dealt with. Please send the Slytherins you know to see me if you are able to cure them. I wish to know that they are safe. The entrance to my Master's Chamber of Secrets is in the advanced potions classroom where he instructed his apprentices."
"And where is that?" Lyra asked, a bit frustrated.
"Umm, it's the classroom where he taught his apprentices," Malcolm repeated. "Your Professor Snape teaches potions. Does he not have a room for his advanced students?"
Harry looked confused, "We can ask him, but I think he just has his classroom in the dungeons. Near the Slytherin dorms."
Now Malcolm looked confused, "His classroom is in the dungeons? How does he deal with potion fumes? Slytherin's classrooms were all above ground. The advanced classroom had many windows and was decked in white marble. There was a lecture area where he would keep a large cauldron with access to fresh water and several brewing stations in a small alcove that could accommodate around five students."
"What floor was it on?" Harry asked, digging for more information.
"We're in Hogwarts," Malcolm shrugged. "The location changed from year to year."
Lyra was getting annoyed and a few sparks came off of her hair to show it, "So we know about as much as before. It's above ground, white marble, anything else you can tell us?"
The man in the portrait appeared to think for a moment before replying, "Tall windows in the center of the room, a large circular window near the brewing stations."
"Severus should know where it is," Lyra turned around and started to walk away.
"Thank you for your help, Malcolm," Harry told the man, who gave him a small bow back.
The venom of the Usurper was miraculous. Snape had been playing with the liquid since getting back to his office with the joy of a child experimenting with fire. It didn't kill living things outright, it just paralyzed every part of them, even brain activity, which resulted in death eventually depending on the amount injected into the bloodstream.
He couldn't find if it had any magical properties yet, but it acted as antivenom for the basilisk. It would be an amazing discovery except that basilisks were too rare for it to matter and no one would be able to get their hands on the Usurper's venom after being bitten by a basilisk in time for it to save them anyways. He tried injecting a few rats with basilisk venom and then with the Usurper's but unless he did it simultaneously, the rats kept dying. The Usurper would most likely be immune to the basilisk venom itself.
As he was experimenting with other uses, there was a knock on his door, despite the sign telling students he was not to be disturbed. So it would be a professor or Harry and Lyra.
It was Harry and Lyra.
They actually did flinch a little at the displeased look on his face, but he just sighed and asked, "You want to tell me now why you were following me earlier?"
"We weren't following you," Lyra told him. "We were going to visit Malcolm's portrait. He told us where the Chamber of Secrets is."
Severus stared at the children for what felt like forever. His brain was screaming at him in disbelief. Finally, he just lifted his right hand and smacked himself in the forehead. Why the hell didn't he think of asking the Bloody Baron? He had just brought his ghost to speak with the Slytherin students, the ghost was finally speaking to others so he could have at least asked the spectral guardian of his house.
Getting control over his emotions, he looked at the two children in front of him, and asked, "Well, where is it?"
Lyra explained, "Malcolm told us that it is in Slytherin's advanced potions classroom. He said it's somewhere above ground with tall windows and white marble. He also didn't understand why your classroom is not where potion fumes can't escape."
"I don't know where that is," Snape replied unhappily. "Slytherin taught here a thousand years ago. My classroom is in the dungeons because I like to be a scary teacher and I have enchantments on the walls and ceiling to vent the fumes. I don't need windows."
"Can we find out where his classrooms were?" Harry asked.
"It might be in some old book, if you're willing to go dig through the library or ancient editions of Hogwarts, A History. You might be able to find the answer there."
"That's Hermione's favorite book!" Harry replied happily. "She could help us with the research."
"I will take you to her holding cell," Snape informed them. "Then I will go to the Headmaster to see if he knows where we can find this room."
Snape took them to a room near the Hufflepuff dorms that they had been unable to open every time they tried. However, with a tap of the professor's wand, the door opened to reveal a long corridor. Inside the entrance was Auror Yaxley along with his shadows Morrow and Lamb, sitting at a table eating.
Yaxley looked up from his food and stared at the new arrivals, "What's Potter doing here?"
"Visiting the prisoner, Corban. Let us pass."
Morrow started to raise her wand, but Yaxley stopped her, "Why are you visiting the prisoner?"
"Have you gotten any information out of her? Maybe we're just here to succeed where you've failed. You were never very good at completing your missions."
Yaxley growled at Snape but wilted under his gaze. Begrudgingly, he raised his wand and there was a shimmering effect on the hall in front of them before Snape started to walk down, with Harry and Lyra following after.
At the end of the hall, behind an open wall of thick iron bars, there was a luxurious room with a king-size bed and an extra-large desk. The desk had papers all over it as a bushy-haired girl whistled a tune as she scribbled away with her flesh and blood hand while she squeezed her prosthetic hand which made the shield in her arm grow and retract over and over. On the table next to her, the small figurine of Martin the Warrior was practicing his fencing with an invisible opponent. They watched her without her looking up for nearly a minute before Snape cleared his throat.
Hermione's head perked up and she squeaked, "Professor Snape! Harry! Lyra! What are you doing here?"
"Looks like you are enjoying yourself, Miss Granger," Snape drawled. "Maybe next year we can lock up all the Ravenclaws before exams so we don't need to deal with their manic episodes and nervous breakdowns over lack of studying."
She didn't seem to get the joke at first, and replied, "Really? Could you? That would be… oh… you're not serious."
"I am certainly not serious," Snape said angrily. "I have brought Potter and Miss Black here to speak with you. Please make it quick, I have other things to be doing than this."
Hermione looked fearfully at the Potions Professor before turning to Harry and Lyra. Lyra stepped forward and put her head between the bars of the cell, "We think we found out where the Chamber of Secrets is!" she whispered loudly.
"Really?" Hermione squeaked but had a calculating look on her face.
"Sort of," Harry amended. "We hoped you could help us. It would involve researching old editions of Hogwarts, A History."
That caught her attention in a bear trap, "What do you need? Where is it?"
"The entrance is in Salazar Slytherin's advanced potions classroom," Snape stated. "It is somewhere above ground in a classroom of white marble with tall windows and it apparently moves around from year to year. At least it did back when the school was built."
Hermione gave them a shrewd look, and whispered, "Dewey?"
An elf popped into the room, he was covered in a black toga and wore spectacles on his face, the first elf Harry had seen to have eyeglasses. He looked around and asked, "Yes Missy Granger? Do you need more books?"
She jumped up and took a glass of water from her bedside, "Please drink, you're working too hard." She kept pushing it until the elf took a small sip and placed it on the ground. "I need as many early editions of Hogwarts, A History as the library has. If there was a different book from the days of the Founders with the same information, cataloging the history of the castle, I'll need those too."
The scholarly elf nodded and disappeared with a pop.
"I'll have the answer for you as quickly as I can!" she gave a small salute to Harry before going back to whatever essay she had been working on before they arrived. Seeing that she was now enthralled with her work, Harry, Lyra, and Snape left her to her research.
They attended another class for Professor Kettleburn's NEWT students to learn about Whispers and his tribe of demiguises. A lot of their questions were behavioral about hunting, fishing, and mating. Many of their answers weren't in any book on the creatures, and the students mined Harry and Lyra for information that would help their future studies. At the end of the class, they gave out small amounts of demiguise hair to all of the students to experiment with in potions.
Harry and Lyra tried to visit the Usurper every day and brought Whispers along a few times as well. The kingsbane commented on how much their little brother had grown, even since the break. If he continued at the rate he was going, he might even get close to Lyra's height by the next school year. The two creatures laid out in the shade of the trees and Whispers tried to get the Usurper to eat some popcorn who seemed to tolerate it for Whispers, but then spat it out when he wasn't looking.
Wednesday, Professor Snape brought them back to visit Hermione to check on her progress. There were a lot of large books in stacks around the room. Some were made with thick leather covers or more modern thick binder-board. Many were falling apart with split spines and missing pages. There were papers everywhere, and the bed did not look slept in; though an elf could have made it up.
It took two loud coughs from Severus to gain the attention of Hermione who looked a bit more frazzled than usual. She gave herself a couple of small slaps on the cheek before digging through a pile of notes and pulling out a handwritten page.
"These old books are amazing! I wish I had read them years ago!" she said with a grin.
"Have you found anything useful?" Snape asked her.
"The castle is amazing! Did you know that the Astronomy tower can be used to control the weather? The Twenty-ninth edition of Hogwarts, A History talks about how the headmaster used to use the tower as a focus to cause torrential downpours on an attacking army. In the Thirty-fifth edition, there's a story about a ship that fell from the sky into the lake, sinking to the bottom. I can't find any stories about it being brought back up."
"Miss Granger," Snape said testily as he snapped his fingers to break off her rambling. "Have you found anything about the locations of Slytherin's advanced potions laboratory?"
Hermione passed the page she had taken from the desk earlier and handed it through the bars to Harry, "These are all the possible places I've found so far. You said it moved around, but the windows mean it could only be in a few places."
Harry looked over the list with Lyra and Snape examining it as he held it. There were nearly thirty locations to check.
"We better get started on this," Lyra stated the obvious.
"You should ask Professor Lockhart for help," Hermione replied. "He came by to see me earlier and I gave him a copy of the list as well."
"You did what?" Snape demanded.
Hermione took a few steps back from the bars, looking a bit afraid, "He said he heard I was researching the chamber and asked if he could help. He's the defense professor! He gave me points for Ravenclaw…"
"He could help us," Harry suggested. "It's a long list."
Just as they were getting ready to leave, Dewey the elf popped into Hermione's cell.
"Madam Pince would likes some books backs. Other students be needings them too."
Hermione jumped in front of the stacks, "No, I need them. Professor Snape! Tell Dewey I need the books."
Snape rolled his eyes, "Tell the librarian that this is for a special project. Miss Granger needs unrestricted access to books pertaining to the History of Hogwarts."
The elf looked unhappy and stated, "She's not liking her books out to only one student," then he popped away.
The others said goodbye to Hermione as well.
The next morning, Madam Pince and five students who were in the library at closing were found petrified.
There had been no roosters in the library due to the noise interfering with students studying. This was the explanation that Dumbledore gave to the student body as to why the basilisk was able to attack the library. The storage closet in the hospital wing was getting full with the number of statues occupying it now.
Harry and Lyra were using all their free time to investigate the locations Hermione found for them. At one point they accidentally entered Professor Vector's personal chambers using an old password that was part of Hermione's research. Only one of the locations so far had the windows and marble that had been described to them, a bathroom on the fifth floor near the Ravenclaw common room. Nothing in there seemed to point to any kind of entrance. Lyra even made sure that all the plumbing worked. They tapped on all the walls with their wands while using the Revalio charm over and over.
At one point they ran into a very frustrated Gilderoy Lockhart who was tearing apart a room made of white marble. The children just stood back as he used the axe they had seen him with in his office to cleave through marble pillars like they were tissue paper. He didn't seem very proficient in his movements, but that mattered little when there was no resistance to his swings. When he noticed them standing there, he just looked embarrassed, awarded them ten points for their discretion, and ran off.
Saturday rolled around and students flocked to the Great Hall after lunch for the dueling tournament. Harry and Lyra had a bit of an argument in the morning deciding what they would do with their day off from detention they had gotten from Kettleburn for bringing Whispers to his class again. In the end, Lyra was going to the tournament, while Harry and Whispers would go visit the Usurper, who was getting increasingly agitated with not being able to hunt the basilisk on its own.
He was joined by Newt, Tina, and Dougal as they crossed the grounds to the Permissible Forest. When they got to the clearing, the Usurper was slithering around the edge of the clearing hissing impatiently.
§Is it time? I can feel my enemy all the time.§
§I need to hunt, I need to kill.§
§No one will get in my way.§
Harry tried to calm down the kingsbane,
§You can't go, the men by the lake will hurt you.§
The Usurper's crest rose up high,
§Then I will go while they sleep and kill them.§
§When they are gone, I will be free to kill the king.§
Whispers and Dougal were just watching the back and forth while eating some of Whispers's endless popcorn stash he got from wherever he was getting it. Newt looked worried at their exchange.
"The snake looks like he's about to attack something," he commented.
"The Usurper doesn't want to wait, it wants to kill MacNair and his people and go after the basilisk tonight."
Tina seemed to be weighing the death of MacNair and his hunters against telling the serpent to keep waiting. As Harry was still trying to calm down the creature, it suddenly reared up, nearly twenty feet off the ground, with its crest fully erect, and let out a terrifying scream.
Harry whipped around to the Scamanders, "It's somewhere close!"
The Usurper dropped to the ground with a mighty crash and shot through the woods towards the lake. Harry retrieved his broom and jumped on, swinging Whispers on his back as he shot after the charging snake.
As they broke the treeline, he could see a massive amount of blood around MacNair's camp, staining most of the grass in the area, and the Usurper was almost at the castle's courtyard. As Harry passed MacNair's camp, he saw bits and pieces of the trolls that were at the campsite while Morris, MacNair, Boovie, and many other wizards stood ready to attack, but petrified. Harry continued to fly until he reached the door to the castle inside the courtyard, but it was closed tight with the Usurper ramming its head into it over and over. Just as he dismounted the Scamanders and Dougal landed next to them on a flying carpet.
"It's in the castle!" Harry yelled.
Newt ran over to the door next to the Usurper, trying to batter it open with its immense body, and tapped a few spots with his wand. Nothing happened.
"The school is in lockdown, I can't open the door," he reported.
Harry yelled at the Usurper,
§Stop doing that! I need quiet!§
As soon as the creature stopped, Harry sat down and tried to figure out how to get into the school. Every entrance he could think of had doors or windows… all except… except…
"The owlery!" Harry yelled. "We can get in through there! I need to get to Lyra!"
Newt and Tina shared a look before she shot a spell at Harry which wrenched the broom from his grip and it flew to her hands.
"You need to stay out here, where it's safe, Harry." The two of them with Dougal stepped onto their carpet as it floated up into the air. "This needs to be handled by adults. When we can get the doors open, the Usurper can come in and fight the basilisk, should we still need to."
Harry yelled and screamed at them as they flew higher and higher towards the owlery tower. As they flew, Newt hugged his wife and reassured her that they had done the right thing. When they arrived at the owlery, there were two students up there who were watching what had been going on below. Newt instructed Dougal to make sure they didn't leave the tower and he and his wife descended into the unknown below.
When they reached the second floor, they saw movement at the end of the hallway, as the tail of a great snake had just passed by. Newt unrolled his carpet again and the two of them stepped on it to eliminate the sound of their footfalls. The two of them floated along silently, one of them looking ahead, and one behind at all times. It was eerie how silent a massive basilisk could be.
Tina saw it first, just the tip of its nose moving into the hallway they were in, and fired a large ball of light at it. Before it had even cleared the corner, the ball of light detonated in front of its face and created a huge blinding light. Newt steered the carpet around to face the blinded creature and the two of them conjured and stuck an enormous sheet of metal across its face. Without its eyes, the creature whipped back and forth, flailing into the walls and smashing through portraits and tapestries.
With the opportunity to go on the attack, Newt controlled the carpet to float backward as Tina unleashed a torrent of powerful magic at the creature. Most of the spells just bounced off or were absorbed on its scales, but a few were breaking through as evidenced by a bit of blood leaking out. She didn't take a moment's break as the destructive magic rained down on it as they continued to keep their distance.
The basilisk seemed to know the direction it was being attacked from and lunged in their direction snapping at nothing in the air and crashing into walls and corners as it went. None of it was slowing it down at all. After one crash, Newt brandished his wand to animate a number of suits of armor which began to attack the creature from all sides. Its progression halted, Newt reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver sphere with a ring on it, looking like some kind of wound-up yoyo.
Tapping Tina on the shoulder, the two switched places seamlessly and he flung the silver sphere towards the basilisk with the ring staying on his finger, right before it hit, the ball ruptured and a green and yellow liquid sprayed out in all directions covering the front of the creature and the floor. The suits of armor that it hit began to melt and the snake screamed in pain as its softer underside started to be burned off by the corrosive acid it was exposed to.
Switching his wand to the other hand, Newt pulled out another sphere and flung it at the monster. This one exploded with a large number of bone-like spears coming out of it and penetrating the skin that had been burned away by the acid. The shrieking of the monster continued as it moved back and forth, even faster to try to rid itself of the cover on its eyes and the spines in its belly.
As the spines broke off, the basilisk decided to charge. Not even bothering to aim, it shot forward like lightning, with Tina just barely managing to make the carpet dodge out of the way. Once they were clear of the attack, they switched positions again so Tina could take over the attacks again. However, in the onslaught of attacks, one of them clipped the metal bar on its face, cutting into its eye, but causing the bar to fall to the ground.
While Tina started preparing another blinding light, The basilisk's tail whipped up from the ground and hit Tina across the chest, knocking them both from the carpet and down onto the ground and knocking Tina out. Newt tried to start pulling his wife back and away from the fight but the pool of acid behind them was blocking their retreat.
Not looking directly at them, but sensing their injured state, the basilisk slowly approached them, savoring its victory. Newt pulled Tina behind him as he fell down, trying to shield her with his body. Just as the snake's mouth started to dip towards them, someone came out of a classroom and moved between them and the serpent king. It was Professor Binns.
The snake reared back slightly at the presence of the ghost, and the professor reprimanded the basilisk, "What is all this racket you are making out here? This is a school! We are weeks away from exams and you are disturbing the students studying. Fifty points from Slytherin!"
Newt couldn't help himself and started to chuckle. Tina managed to open her eyes barely and looked confused as her husband was laughing. The basilisk lowered its head and they saw Tina's magic had sliced up one of its eyes leaving very little left in the socket. The other eye was black, then two different eyelids opened on that eye.
The last thing that Newt managed to say before he and Tina were petrified was, "Incredible, a nictitating membrane."
Harry could hear all sorts of chaos and destruction from inside the castle after he saw Newt and Tina enter the owlery. It sounded worse than when the centaurs were fighting the basilisk. After the noise had stopped, he waited patiently, but the doors didn't open. The Usurper had taken up banging on the doors again.
Ignoring the furious creature next to him, he dropped down into his memories again. He knew he could climb the tower to get into the owlery, but he couldn't unlock the school to let, as Malcolm Constantine called him, the Champion of Asclepius, enter the castle. It didn't take him very long, but the only thing he could think of was for the Usurper to find whatever entrance the basilisk used in the lake to enter the castle. He told the kingsbane of his plan.
The Usurper didn't like it,
§This is not a good plan.§
§But it is the only one.§
§Find the creature.§
§Stall it, prepare for my arrival.§
The serpent took off towards the lake as Harry and Whispers leaped onto the wall of the castle and started to scale it towards the owlery. There were a few patches where he had to dig his nails into the cracks between the stones, but most of the castle had very good hand and footholds to climb. If there was a safe way of doing this in the future, he might like to do it for fun.
When they reached the owlery the two students looked at him with fear in their eyes, one of them pulled a wand on him, and said, "Stand back! You're the Heir of Slytherin. We saw you talking to that snake!"
He didn't have time for this. Luckily, Hermes, the owl swooped in out of nowhere and snatched the boy's wand out of his hands, and dropped it out the window. Harry smiled and told his owl to fetch Brandt and Arcturus as he tried to leave the room. Now he was stopped by Dougal who appeared in front of them. Whispers jumped in front of him and screamed at the older demiguise. He didn't sound angry, he sounded like he was pleading and begging. After a moment, Dougal just stepped aside to allow them to pass.
When they got down to the Great Hall, the sight was unbelievable. As far as Harry could tell, every student and teacher had been attending the dueling tournament. All of them were petrified. The entire great hall was filled with statues. On the main stage, all of the teachers stood there, most of them in the act of drawing their wands, but frozen in stone. Flitwick and then Snape seemed the closest to having their wands fully drawn to point at the threat in front of them. Dumbledore, however, stood in the middle of the faculty, his arms crossed against his chest with a faint smile on his face, frozen like the rest of them.
"Is anyone still here?" Harry called out. "Lyra!" His words were met only with silence.
Not knowing what to do, he turned around and walked back to the Scamander common room. There he saw something that made him fall to his knees. Leaning against the wall was Lyra's staff, and above it was written:
Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.
Author's Note: You called it, G Fawkes, a basilisk buffet. I've got things pretty much wrapped up in the writing, and yeah, this is a shitty cliffhanger, so I'll update on Wednesdays for the next three weeks until the end of the book. That's for everyone who asked how much longer this would go for.