Whispers saw the staff leaning against the wall, and reached for it, then saw the message above it. He read it a few times but didn't understand the meaning. He turned to Harry, who was on his knees with his forehead on the floor breathing heavily, and asked in a pained voice, "Lyyraa?"
Harry lifted his head and looked at the last remaining member of his family at Hogwarts, pulling him into a fierce hug. Slowly through simple words and signs, he explained that the Heir and the King had taken Lyra, and were going to kill her if they hadn't already. When Whispers understood what was going on, a frightening change swept over him. Taking off his gloves, he threw them to the side by Lyra's staff and flexed his fingers as his eyes glowed a very deep blue. Harry stared at the strange sight, as when his little brother was sensing the future, his eyes were normally the color of the sky.
Whispers let out a long growl and said, "Kiiiill the kiiing."
Harry thought that was the best idea now. The Usurper was searching for a way to enter the castle from the lake and he needed to find the entrance to the Chamber to join its hunt. Forcing himself to his feet, he ran into the maze and got to the Scamander common room. Just as he got into the room, he saw Greg and Neville exiting the greenhouse carrying two large jars.
"Harry?" Greg saw the distressed look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"The Heir! They took Lyra! The Basilisk petrified everyone! Everyone!"
Neville was a bit confused, "What do you mean everyone?"
"Everyone!" Harry repeated. "They were all at the dueling tournament, the entire hall is filled with statues. I saw two students alive in the owlery, but that's it!"
"What about the roosters?" Greg asked fearfully.
"The roosters are fake… no… the story is fake. Roosters can't do anything!" Harry tried to explain. "You need another snake, I brought it to the school. It's trying to find its way in through the lake… I don't have time to explain all of this. Why are you not at the dueling tournament?"
Neville looked a bit ashamed, as Greg replied, "Nev here didn't want to go, said he'd be embarrassed. So I stayed with him and tended to the garden. Then the spiders in the terrarium started going crazy, so we were about to let them out." He gestured with the jars they were carrying. Harry could see now that they were filled with spiders, clustered all to one side of each.
That gave Harry an idea, "Don't leave!" he instructed the two of them, then ran with Whispers to his room.
Once there, he set his pouch on the bed and proceeded to empty everything that wasn't a book from his trunk into the pouch. He had accumulated so much junk over the year, but he had no idea which thing would end up saving his life, or Lyra's, so he just took it all. Just to be on the safe side, he also put on the fancy vest that Brandt had made for him, using the shed of the Usurper, and headed back out into the common room to the two boys waiting.
Whispers was there waiting for him, his eyes still glowing a dark blue, pacing back and forth. Harry reached Greg and Neville and said, "I'm going to find the chamber of secrets, and I need one of those jars."
"We're coming with you," Neville said in a small but strong voice.
"There's going to be a basilisk there," Harry replied.
"Then you'll need help," Greg echoed.
"Fine, get the jars and follow me," Harry told them, and the three boys and one demiguise left the room.
Once they were in the hallway, Harry looked at the spiders crawling around frantically in the jars, all wanting to go towards the exit of the castle. Harry chose the other direction. As they ran by the Great Hall, Neville and Greg stopped to stare at the statues of everyone they knew, student and teacher alike. After urging from Harry, they continued, deeper into the castle, running with their wands out.
The spiders got more agitated as they reached the second floor and ran into Hermione arguing with an Unspeakable next to two petrified students peeking out of a broom closet. They both stopped their argument and turned to the boys, Hermione running over to them, "You're all alright!" she yelled happily.
Harry had his wand trained on the tall person in the face-concealing robe, the one just like the Heir had been wearing, except in white, "What are you doing here? Why are you with Hermione?"
The distorted voice of the unspeakable replied, "I was helping to evacuate Miss Granger. We met before, I am Aspect."
"No," Harry said firmly. "Why are you even in the castle right now?"
"She's ok!" Hermione protested. "She rescued me!" Then threw her hands over her mouth.
The Unspeakable sighed and reached up to lower her hood, with Harry, Greg, and a nervous Neville all pointing their wands. As the hood went down, the robes changed into a red jacket, and there stood Auror Heather Morrow.
"Look, this is an emergency, so you get the cliff notes. I'm an Unspeakable. I was assigned to Yaxley and his trainee to watch the school. When the school went into lockdown, I stunned the two of them to help Miss Granger escape. You will all need to swear oaths if we survive not to reveal my identity. Now, we need to evacuate."
"And I told you, no!" Hermione yelled at her. "The Chamber entrance is on this floor! The book said it's here, I just don't know where!"
"The spiders are showing us where!" Neville announced, holding up the jar. "The Heir took Lyra and we're going to get her back."
"Brilliant!" Auror Morrow/Unspeakable Aspect exclaimed. "Like a reverse compass! Though I still need to get all of you out of here. We can summon more Aurors to fight once we are outside."
"I don't have time for this," Harry took the jar from Neville and started to run off down the hall, with Whispers scampering after him. He rounded a corner and came to a dead stop.
Ahead of him, the floor was corroded through to the lower level, there was blood everywhere, and there was a black mass of fog floating in the air on the other side. As he stared at the damage, Greg, Neville, and Hermione all caught up to him.
"Auror Morrow left to call the Aurors," Hermione informed him, then drew in a sharp breath at the destruction in front of them. She squinted at the black fog floating through the air and squeaked, "I think that's Professor Binns."
"You can petrify a ghost?" Greg looked confused.
Neville pointed across the expanse, "There's Mr. and Mrs. Scamander!"
Across the gap, they could see their two heads of house laying petrified, with Newt halfway on top of Tina's prone form, trying to shield her from what had been the basilisk.
"We need to get across there," Harry pointed down the hallway past the gap in the floor.
Whispers scampered along the wall with ease and jumped down next to the two petrified adults, and stroked their heads as Harry moved to quickly follow. Neville managed it as well, with Greg working slowly across as Neville directed him to specific places to put his hands and feet. Hermione was hesitating and said multiple times to herself that she shouldn't be doing this, then seemed to psych herself up by saying strongly in a deeper voice, "Do it, do it!"
She ended up following the same path as Greg, with her prosthetic hand digging deep into the stone wall as she moved to make sure she had a good grip before moving on, finally settling down on the other side. Examining the jar of spiders they ran down the corridor and turned to find themselves next to Harry and Lyra's training room.
"This is where we found Filch's cat!" Harry told them.
"That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione told them, pointing towards the end of the hall.
"Myrtle Warren?" Harry asked. "Hagrid says she's the one the basilisk killed last time." He slapped himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I think of that?"
The group ran down to the perpetually empty bathroom and stopped. Nothing about it seemed to indicate that this bathroom was the entrance to the legendary Chamber of Secrets. Though Harry was staring at the windows, they matched perfectly to the description that Malcolm's portrait had given them.
The room was certainly not designed to be a bathroom. The sinks were set up in a ring at the entrance at the center of a large circular room, leaving plenty of space along the walls. There was one alcove off to the side with toilet stalls, but the walls between them looked more like spell bunkers than toilet walls.
Hermione just stood at the entrance while the boys and Whispers started looking around cautiously, tapping their wands on things and trying to reveal some kind of secret entrance. When Harry started playing with the taps, he heard a nasal voice from behind him.
"Those have never worked," he spun around to see a spectral girl in Ravenclaw robes float through the wall behind him. "You are a boy. And you, and you." She pointed to Greg and Neville. She turned to Hermione at the entrance, "You are a girl." Then looking at Whispers, "I don't know what you are. This is a girl's bathroom. Only she should be here."
"Myrtle!" Harry exclaimed. "We haven't met before, but I'm Harry Potter."
The girl appeared to blush and replied, "Oh, I've heard of you."
"Hagrid told me that you were killed by the basilisk. Did you see it come through here?"
"Hagrid? Oh, you mean Big Red? He didn't like when I called him that. I liked to call him that."
The others joined Harry in front of the ghost girl. Neville asked, "Why did you call him that?"
"Because he's big, and his name is Ruby," she said as a matter of factly. "So, Big Red."
"Myrtle!" Harry yelled at her. "Is the Chamber of Secrets here?"
She looked a bit put out, "How should I know? I'm just 'Moaning Myrtle,' no one cares what I think. I was just crying in the bathroom and I heard a boy in here hissing at the sink and when I opened the door to the stall, I saw those big yellow eyes… and died."
Hissing…
Harry turned to face the others," I need to tell you something and I need you to not be afraid. I'm a Parselmouth."
There was a range of reactions from the others.
"A what?" Neville asked.
"Like you-know-who?" Greg asked fearfully.
Hermione seemed to look thoughtful, "That makes sense. It's how you did that thing for me, right?"
Harry nodded and clarified for Neville, "I can talk to snakes."
Whispers had continued to play with the taps and let out a small screech, getting Harry's attention. The Hidden pointed him to a small engraving of a snake on one of the faucets.
Some doors at Hogwarts required a password, maybe this one did too. Harry decided to try a few.
§Chamber of Secrets§
§Reveal the entrance§
§Basilisk§
§Long live the king§
He tried around ten more phrases before getting frustrated. He pulled out his wand and began blasting chunks out of the marble, shattering the mirrors and destroying the taps. The once magnificent marble sinks lay in ruins as he yelled and cursed at it.
§Give me back my sister you stupid snake! The Usurper will feast on your heart after I pull it out of your chest! Open the damn entrance!§
There was a grinding noise as the sink expanded outwards. Chunks of the destroyed marble fell down the center, echoing off the sides as a large pipe was revealed going down into the darkness.
The children stared in silence at the entrance, then spun around to a new voice.
"Astounding! Harry Potter, a parselmouth? That would be an incredible addition to my next book!"
Gilderoy Lockhart stood there, in his golden dragonscale jacket, iron leg plates, and a black helmet, obscuring his face. In one hand he had his axe and in the other, his wand.
"You're not petrified!" Neville said in a surprised voice.
"A perfect observation, my helmet protected me, ten points to Scamander. What was the last thing you said to open the door, Mr. Potter?"
"I said, 'Open the damn entrance,' though I think it started to move when I said, 'Open.'"
"That's a dumb password," Greg commented.
"Unless no one speaks the language that it's in," Hermione added. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get Lyra." With that, she fearlessly jumped into the pipe, screaming as she slid down.
"There's still a bit of Gryffindor in that girl, I bet," Lockhart mused. "Twenty points to Ravenclaw. I'd say that you should all go back to your dorms, but I don't think you'd listen. Now let's go!"
Harry jumped in, followed by Whispers, Greg, Neville, and Lockhart jumped in last.
The pipe twisted and turned, branched in places, and came together in others. Whispers flew by him at one point and he grabbed the screaming monkey and held him tight as they plummeted for nearly three minutes. The cart ride in Gringotts seemed like an afternoon stroll in comparison.
At the bottom of the slide, Harry and Whispers plunged into a black murky pool of water. It wasn't very deep, but they went in over their heads for a moment before standing up. Just as he stood up, the others splashed in behind him.
When they got out of the disgusting water they looked around and Harry asked, "Where's Hermione?"
They called out to her but got no response.
Lockhart drew his wand, "This is disgusting, let me fix us up."
With a wave of his wand, each of them was clean, dry, and smelled like fresh mint. Whispers was fluffy and continued to sniff at himself. However, when Lockhart pulled out his axe again, it slipped from his hand and the impossibly sharp blade lopped off the end of his wand.
"Oops," he stared at the halved piece of wood, small sparks coming out of it as he held the remainder in his hand.
"Do you have a spare?" Greg asked.
"No, I will need to borrow one of yours. I am the oldest and most powerful wizard here."
Greg and Harry took a large step back, not wanting to give up their wands. Neville, on the other hand, held his out to the Professor.
"This wand belonged to my father, he was a great Auror. It's never worked well for me. Maybe it will do better for you."
The professor took it with reverence and thanked Neville as they continued forward through the dark corridors. After a long walk, they arrived in front of a large circular door with metal snakes spiraled around it, a sculpted head in the center.
This must be the door that The Giver had told him about. Just as he was about to speak the password, Lockhart stopped him.
"Just a moment Harry, we need a plan. I'm the only one with a helmet to protect me from the Basilisk. You all should hide or distract it while I fight it. I just need one clean swing to the head in order to kill it."
"We all need to distract it and stall," Harry insisted. "We need to wait for the Usurper to come. It will kill the basilisk."
"What's a Usurper?" Gilderoy asked.
Harry gave him a quick explanation that it needed to crow to kill the basilisk and it was trying to find a way in from the lake.
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter. Even if I were to believe that story, I am the one who will kill the monster. I have too much riding on this to let anyone else get in my way."
"Because of what Blaise's mom told you?" Harry asked.
For the first time, they all saw a dark side to Lockhart's face. He took several steps back and raised Neville's wand towards them.
"How do you know about that?" he demanded fiercely. "No one is going to get in my way for me to accomplish this. Not some bloody Soup Snake, not Harry Potter. I will need to find another way in or just wait for it to come back out. This is the end of the line for the three of you."
They were shocked at his sudden change as he leveled the wand toward Harry just as Neville stepped between them.
Lockhart swished the wand and called out, "Obliviate!"
Nothing came out of the wand as it began to vibrate for a brief moment before it exploded, knocking Lockhart back into the wall behind him and causing Neville to collapse in front of Harry and Greg.
When the light died down, Harry tried waking Neville up, but he wouldn't rise. Lockhart, on the other hand, stood right back up and walked over to them with a smile on his face. Harry and Greg drew their wands and pointed them at the grinning man.
He just extended his hand and said, "Hello there, I do not believe we have met. My name is Gilderoy Lockhart. You might recognize me from my assorted works."
He seemed to space out for a second then turned to Greg and repeated the same introduction. Harry did the sensible thing and cast a knockback jinx at the man, causing him to hit his head and fall unconscious.
"What do we do now?" Greg asked.
Harry looked to Whispers who was staring up at the large door. He turned to Greg, "Stay here with Neville. Whispers and I will keep going."
"What about him?" Greg gestured towards the unconscious defense professor.
"I don't care. He tried to hurt us," Harry replied with indifference. He turned to the door and hissed,
§Open the damn entrance!§
The last part was added just in case one word wouldn't do it. The head of the metal snake coiled on the door opened its eyes and hissed. Just a hiss, no words, then started the retreat, uncoiling itself little by little as the pathway in front of them opened.
Torches sprang to life, lighting a long hallway beyond, along the walls were enormous statues of all different kinds of serpents, some obviously magical, some lesser snakes.
"This guy really liked snakes," Harry said with a whistle.
Just as he took a step into the hallways, Greg called out, "Harry! Wait!"
He turned back around to see Greg returning from Lockhart's body holding the small axe in his hands.
Harry took it, the weapon looking larger in his hands and heavier than a knife, but it was much more deadly with whatever magic it had to allow it to cleave through stone like pudding. Keeping it in his right hand where he would normally hold his staff, he started walking down the long hallway with Whispers plodding along after him.
At the end of the long hallway, there was another snake door. This time, he just hissed out §Open§ and the door complied… stupid password. Before entering, he signed to Whispers, [Vanish].
The inside of the room was massive. A large circular room that could fit at least six or seven Great Halls inside, capped with a dome a hundred feet above his head. On the walls to the left and right, there were circular doors like the one he had just come through. Opposite where he came in was a giant statue of a man with a bald head and wizard robes. Down at the base of the statue was Lyra, her blonde hair splayed out around her like a platinum sunburst.
"Lyra!" he yelled and started towards her.
"Stay where you are!" a voice called out and from the shadows near the foot of the statue, the Heir of Slytherin walked out, clothed in the same black and green, face-concealing robe as the last time they met.
Harry didn't waste time with words and let loose a barrage of magical punches with his wand, not even bothering with the fake incantation. The Heir nimbly dodged and swatted away all of Harry's spells, but the onslaught gave them no time to do anything else as the distance was slowly closed between them.
Just as one punch managed to hit them in the shoulder, Harry paused for a moment to allow Whispers to jump out from where he had been stalking them and bite into their wand arm. They screamed and tried to grab at the demiguise but couldn't lay a finger on him. After a few moments Whispers grabbed the hood of the robe and yanked it down while jumping away and back towards Harry.
Harry recognized him even before he turned to face them. It was Draco Malfoy.
"You?" Harry asked, very confused. "How is it you?"
His eyes shined for a moment in crimson, before smiling and asking, "Who did you think it would be?"
Harry just stared, remembering that he needed to stall for the Usurper to arrive.
Slowly, he replied, "I kinda thought it would be Anthony Goldstein."
"What? Why?" now Draco was confused. He seemed to think before snapping his fingers, "Because he's always running after that mudblood, right?" A small red mark appeared on his cheek as a result of the stinging hex from saying 'mudblood,' though he didn't flinch or even react to it.
"So you were her secret admirer?" he looked a bit sick.
"A means to an end, how could I have feelings for someone as worthless as her?"
"None of this makes sense," Harry frowned.
"It doesn't need to, because now, you will die."
Draco turned to the statue, where The Giver had told Harry the basilisk lives. He was about to speak, but Harry reached into his pouch and threw Draco's pain amulet across the room and fell near his feet. Before he could even say a single word, he had fallen to the ground screaming, relieving the pain of being stabbed with Harry's staff without end. Harry took the opportunity to rush to Lyra's side.
He rolled her over to see that her eyes were open, looking back and forth and latched onto Harry's, though other than that she was as lifeless as a rag doll. He lifted her and started to carry her out towards the exit, but an urgent look in her eyes made him stop and turn back around. While Draco was still screaming and twisting on the ground, a violet mist was coming out of his body. It swirled and coalesced until there was an older boy in Slytherin robes, slightly transparent, and standing next to Draco's twitching form with thin threads of light connecting the two of them.
"Another one of those blasted amulets?" he exclaimed. "Just shut up and deal with the pain." He picked up Draco's wand and pointed it at him, "Silencio!"
Draco was still flailing on the ground, but no sound was coming from him anymore. Harry had laid Lyra back on the ground so he could face this new enemy. He was pretty sure he knew who this was, the color of the boy's spectral form had given it away.
The boy smiled for a moment at Draco's misery before turning to face Harry, "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tom -"
Harry interrupted him, "Voldemort."
The boy froze, not knowing what to say, his mouth hanging open. He started to say something else but then stopped. Taking the opportunity, Harry laid Lyra down on the floor and drew his wand.
Not allowing him to start talking again, and still needing to stall, Harry spoke again, "So Tom Riddle is Voldemort?"
"How in Salazar's name did you figure that out?" the boy asked, looking genuinely curious.
Harry saw Whisper's form moving invisibly around the outside of the room towards Tom, so he told the boy. "Well, I figured out that Tom Riddle must have released the basilisk last time. Hagrid and Dippet's portrait both told me that a boy named Tom turned him in, but Hagrid didn't have a basilisk, he had an acromantula. The acromantula can fight against a basilisk, even if other spiders are too afraid of it. It represented a threat, even if it was a small one. So it was obvious that Prefect Tom must have been the one who released the basilisk. I got your last name from the Special Services plaque in the trophy room."
"Impressive deductive skills, though how did you connect me to being Voldemort?" he smiled and seemed genuinely impressed.
"I have some questions first," Harry stated. "What did you do to Lyra?"
"It's a cursed paralysis. A healer could certainly reverse it, but there aren't any here. So she's stuck listening and watching us without being able to do anything herself. It's my turn now. Why does she not petrify or die under the gaze of the basilisk?"
"I never said you get a turn," that seemed to get him a bit angry. Though before he could respond, Whispers lunged at him from behind, trying to bite into his arm, but sailed right through him and rolled on the ground. Tom's form flickered as he fired a few spells at the demiguise but Whispers predicted their path and dodged them before he vanished again, heading towards the edge of the room to wait for some other opportunity. Harry signed, [Stay], so he wouldn't try again right away.
"Well that was interesting, might have even worked if I had a body. Such interesting creatures, demiguises. I had planned to tour the world when I finished Hogwarts and I definitely wanted to skin one of those creatures and get my own cloak. I've been told they'll last longer if they're still alive when you cut the hide off them."
Harry's face grew furious, and let loose a flurry of spells, both verbal and non-verbal at Tom. They all just sailed right through him as he made faux noises of pain before laughing. "I'm in a sporting mood since you're going to die soon, so I'll give you three more questions, and then my pet will come and kill you. Pick them wisely."
Harry thought for a moment, before asking, "You called the King of Serpents your pet and he called you Master. Magical snakes don't submit themselves to wizards. What's going on with that?"
"How many magical snakes have you known? Sorry, I'm answering the questions. When I met this big dumb monster years ago, the basilisk was overjoyed at finally meeting an Heir to Slytherin after being alone for so long. He granted me the title of 'Emissary,' which allowed me to look him in the eyes. At my first opportunity, I looked him in the eyes and erased as much of his memories as I possibly could, replacing them with ones where I was the king and he was my emissary."
This boy was a monster. It didn't matter that the basilisk was his enemy. He took a proud and regal king of serpents and turned it into a footstool. He needed a way to kill this boy, and fast. However, a realization came to him from Tom's explanation.
"Is that why you didn't know about the roosters? You thought that they would kill the basilisk from Newt Scamander's books but the basilisk couldn't tell you that he was wrong?"
"What do you know about it?" Tom asked him. "This stupid snake," he pointed up to the statue, "kept going on and on about the presence of the kingsbane. He wanted me to find and kill everything that crows. No matter how many roosters I had Draco kill, he kept telling me that the presence of the kingsbane was still in the castle. A week ago, he told me the kingsbane had arrived. I was curious, so ordered my pet out to find this thing it was afraid of and we ended up hearing a rooster crow… and my pet still lived. So when he was fully recovered from the centaurs, acromantulas, and that oaf Hagrid; we petrified everyone."
"Why are you petrifying everyone?" Harry asked his third question. "The Ravenclaws thought it was a Gorgon because everyone knows the gaze of the basilisk kills."
Tom sighed, "I guess you're going to take all these secrets to your grave anyways, but you can blame the Founders. The basilisk is a protector of the school and even though I wiped its memory, it would never be able to kill a resident of the school. It did not know the acromantulas from the early days of Hogwarts, nor did it know about the trolls. They were fair game. I can't command the basilisk to kill anyone in the school and I can't get it to leave while there are students in the school that need protecting."
"Then how did Myrtle die?" Harry kept pushing for time and answers.
"That was a fun one," Tom smirked. "She surprised me as I was entering the Chamber, so she was petrified on the spot. I couldn't have her waking up and telling someone about me, so I brought her down here and killed her myself. You can not imagine the kinds of rituals you can do with a petrified virgin girl. Then I left her body in the bathroom and tried to blame the whole thing on Hagrid."
Harry really needed to figure out how he was going to kill Tom. Draco had passed out from the pain, but his body still twitched from the amulet's magic. He needed to stall for more time. He remembered Tonks telling him about how some people just love to talk. All he had to do was just keep him going. Though now Tom turned to the amulet on the ground, canceled the silencing charm, and blew it up with his wand, causing Draco to sit up and scream before looking around as the pain had finally gone away.
"Get up Draco, I'm almost done draining your soul and I need you awake for the last part."
"What?" Draco exclaimed. "You told me you were going to kill Potter!"
Tom laughed, "And you believed me! Your father gave me permission. Over the spring break, he told me to do whatever was necessary to return to full strength. He knew that I was already possessing you, so he knew that if the plan to kill Potter failed, your life would be on the line. I'll steal Potter and your sister's magic too, of course. I'll probably have to kill Potter first and drain the remnants from his corpse, but I'll take my time with the girl as she isn't going anywhere. However, you're already doomed, nothing can stop it now."
Draco padded his pockets and pulled out a ratty leather book, throwing it toward Harry, "Destroy it and he'll die!"
"NOOO!" Tom exclaimed as the book landed in front of Harry.
Without wasting a breath, Harry swung the axe from Lockhart down on top of it. Though this time, it didn't cut through its target, There was just a thud as it hit.
"Now it's time for everyone to die," Tom sneered, and turned towards the statue of Salazar Slytherin,
§Speak to me Slytherin, The greatest Lord of Hogwarts!§
Harry suspected that, like when he had said, §Open the damn entrance,§ that the second half of what was just said was redundant. As soon as Riddle had finished saying §Speak to me Slytherin§, the mouth of the statue began to open, like a giant nutcracker.
And then came the basilisk.
The sheer girth of it was terrifying, close to three times as thick as the Usurper, and could probably swallow it up like a long noodle. While the Usurper had a few small teeth behind the two giant fangs, this serpent had a mouth full of giant teeth. There were two large ones at the front, but the rest of its mouth was filled with rows upon rows of almost equally large and deadly teeth.
One of its eyes had been thoroughly destroyed and Harry could see places all over its body where something had damaged it. He assumed that it was Newt and Tina, but mostly Tina by her husband's previous admissions of her magical strength. The one open eye stared directly at him and it felt like he had a bit of dust in his eye, but nothing more.
"You too cannot fall under the gaze of my pet?" Tom bellowed. "Why? Tell me!" he ordered.
Harry didn't respond as he watched the basilisk continue to exit the mouth of the statue and lower itself to the ground. What could he possibly do against such a monster?
It stared at him, and spoke,
§You are the one that my master needs to kill.§
§Why do you not turn to stone?§
Harry told the monster in front of him,
§I am an Emissary of the kingsbane.§
The serpent responded ignorantly,
§My master has killed hundreds of your master.§
§I can even hear the crow of the kingsbane myself without perishing!§
§I will kill you now too!§
Harry felt bad for the creature, to have been deceived in such a way, but not bad enough not to try to defend himself and kill this creature if he could. It let out a monstrous roar and raised a crest of its own on the back of its head. The crest of the basilisk was made of golden spikes and looked just like a crown. Fitting for the King of Serpents. When the crest was fully raised, it charged Harry, mouth open.
He didn't have time to dodge, but that didn't matter, because when it got closer, it appeared to be hit from the side and screamed in pain before looking toward the invisible attacker. Harry knew otherwise, as there was no invisible attacker, it was the amulet that had been made from the blood on Aegestra's spear in the forest. He was astounded with the amount of power that had been in her thrust, enough to knock the basilisk down even as an echo imbued in the amulet.
Tom also seemed to know what was going on, and he yelled, "You have another one of those bloody amulets! Just like the girl. Give it to me! Accio Amulet!"
Harry felt an unseen force pull on the amulet from inside his shirt, and before he could do anything it was ripped from around his neck and flew across the chamber where Tom shot it out of the air with a perfectly aimed spell, turning it to dust. His form flickered for a moment when he cast the spell. He remembered the third one was buried just inside the entrance to the Scamander common room.
The snake rolled back up and made another charge at Harry, this time he was prepared and he threw Lockhart's axe towards the beast's open mouth. This time, the blade cleaved through multiple teeth easily, which clattered to the floor as the blade vanished into the deadly maw that was the serpent's mouth. Harry had just a moment more to lunge out of the way of being run over by the creature's forward momentum.
Responding to his thoughts, his staff launched from his pouch and he grabbed it from the air. Looking behind him, he saw that Lyra was lying there, so he fueled himself with the Lamasu's strength and tried to circle around to the side of the basilisk. It noticed him trying to get behind it and lashed out with its giant tail which Harry just barely managed to create a shield to block.
Regardless of the shield, he was still swatted like a ping pong ball across the chamber, with his shield being the only reason he didn't die instantly from the impact with the ground. The basilisk continued its relentless attack as Harry tried to throw some of his knives, both blunt and sharp and the creature's face. Having not learned proper knife throwing yet and they weren't enchanted like the axe, they all just bounced off harmlessly and clattered to the ground. Harry was getting knocked around with only the shield protecting him and couldn't even get in an attack of his own. Worse than that, he felt like he was slowly running out of magic.
Maybe the snake realized the same thing and rose as high as it could, making it nearly fifty feet above him. If it fell on him from that height, he would surely be crushed. He could hear Tom laughing and applauding him, but he had no idea what he was going to do next. As he backed away from the towering basilisk, he saw a glimmer of light crawling along the wall near its head. Just before the snake was going to fall on him, Whispers lept from the wall and sunk Lyra's knife straight into the serpent's one remaining eye.
There was an inhuman scream as the basilisk shook itself and threw Whispers across the room. There was nothing the Hidden could do except fall from such a great height and when he hit the floor, he didn't get back up. The basilisk continued to shake and scream, as it fell to the ground itself, nearly crushing Lyra, but landing on her hair.
While she was conscious, she hadn't been able to speak or move and seized this opportunity. Her hair and her entire body lit up in flames. The basilisk continued to scream as part of its body caught on fire. It rolled away from Lyra's prone body to try to douse the flames, but there were probably many strands caught in its scales that continued to burn, even when they were far away from her head. Eventually, the serpent rolled enough to put the fire out, but there were burn scars all over a section of the creature's body, made worse as they were in the same spot that had been injured by the acid from Newt Scamander. The fire around Lyra was still raging strong in case the basilisk returned.
Tom yelled out, "The basilisk might not be able to see you, but it can still smell you. It can still hear you!"
A long thick tongue, bigger than Harry's legs tasted the air around it as it cautiously made its way forward towards Harry, the knife that Whispers had used was still sticking out of its eye, with blood and juices running down its face. Just as the snake looked like it was about to charge, Harry heard footsteps. The basilisk heard them too and whipped its head around towards the entrance Harry had come through as Gilderoy Lockhart strolled into the Chamber of Secrets.
He was no longer wearing his golden dragon coat or his helmet, but he confidently smiled at what was going on, and waved to the basilisk, "Hi there, I'm Gilderoy Lockhart, I don't believe we've met. You might recognize me from Witch Weekly magazine. I won the Most Charming Smile Award five times!" He held up five fingers like he was a child showing his age.
"I bet you would be an excellent challenger to try to take the award from me. Maybe we could start by brushing those big pearly white teeth?"
The teeth were most certainly not pearly white. They were stained with blood, flesh, and viscera. There was also a large gap in the front where the axe had severed some teeth. The basilisk lunged at the new arrival and bit the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor down to his thighs. Now there were bits of luxurious silk clothing, stained with blood, in the monster's teeth.
"What the bloody hell was that ponce doing here?" Tom yelled, very confused. "Why did he introduce himself to the basilisk? What is going on?"
Harry ignored the spectral teenage Voldemort and drove the antler of his staff directly into the side of the distracted basilisk, slipping through scales that had been damaged by whatever the Scamanders had done to it and his sister's fire. Focusing as much magic as he had left, he channeled a large magical pulse through his staff, which caused an explosion inside its body, and knocked him back, landing on his side, and very possibly breaking a rib or two. When he looked up, the basilisk was still moving, but there was a gaping hole in its side, with all sorts of things flowing out of it.
Tom was furious and screaming at the basilisk in parseltongue. Harry was in pain and dazed, but the one thing he caught for sure was,
§Kill the girl while Harry is down!§
Harry tried to move but it hurt too much like there was an elephant on his chest pushing the air out of his lungs. He twisted his head to see the basilisk, probably in as much pain as he was moving in jerking motions towards where Lyra was laying in the middle of her small circle of raging fire. Just as the snake was about to strike, Harry could hear a bird call as Dumbledore's phoenix burst into the room above Lyra burst into the room in a ball of fire, crying out a beautiful and terrible call while igniting the entire side of the chamber in scarlet and orange flames. Harry was pretty sure that the bird wouldn't kill his sister and watched as the basilisk retreated from the bedlam of phoenix fire in front of it.
Tom was panicking, yelling,
§Kill the bird!§
§Kill the girl§
§Kill everyone!§
The phoenix swooped over Harry and landed next to him calling out towards the basilisk as it continued to keep its distance from the bird. The phoenix leaned its head down near Harry and let a few drops fall from its eyes into Harry's palm. Remembering the tears of the Usurper, Harry quickly licked at his hand to see what this would do for him. He felt a rush of magic as the pain in his ribs went away and he was able to stand up. The bird then flew over to Draco, who Harry just noticed was huddled in the corner of the room, at the feet of the statue, his eyes wide with fear and terror at the battle he was witnessing.
Tom began to shoot curses toward the phoenix. Harry could feel the wrongness of the spells, they looked rotten in color, like something that was decaying or dying. Every spell cast caused Tom to flicker and nearly dropped the wand he was holding in his spectral grip. After dodging the spells, the phoenix let out a cry and vanished in a flash of fire.
"Even Dumbledore's pet knows when to flee. Why don't you die!" Tom yelled. "What are you going to do next? What trick do you plan on using now?"
Tom obviously didn't believe in fate, or he wouldn't have poked it so hard. Right after he was finished yelling, Harry could hear a scream coming from the walls and one of the circular doors to the side of the room shattered as the Usurper broke through. A terrified Hermione was sitting on its back right behind the crest, screaming bloody murder. She took one look at the carnage around the room and screamed more.
The Usurper saw its enemy and its red crest grew to its full height as it let out a fearsome crow that trilled and echoed through the room. The basilisk started to convulse and after shaking for nearly a minute, it stopped and rolled to the side… dead.
There was silence throughout the room as Tom stared at the new serpent that had just killed his pet. Harry strolled across the room and stood in front of the spectral boy, "If you hadn't wiped the mind of your King, you would know, THIS is the Kingsbane."
Tom was stunned and just stood there with his mouth open, which gave Harry the perfect opportunity to just pluck the wand he was holding away from him.
Hermione was just as flummoxed as Tom and started screaming, "Is that the basilisk? Is it dead? Is this the Usurper? It didn't kill me but it gave me a ride. Who is that? Why is Draco here? Is Lyra in that fire? Is she ok? WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
Harry had no idea what he was going to do with the spectral entity in front of him, so introductions were in order, "Hermione, this is Tom Riddle."
"Tom Riddle? I read in an old Hogwarts, A History, about a Tom Riddle who won a special services award, but it didn't say why."
"He won that award for pinning the release of the basilisk last time on Hagrid when it was him all along. He's also your secret admirer," Harry informed her.
Hermione drew her wand and her face and lips twisted back and forth while thinking of what spell to use, finally yelling "Spongify!" and shot a long yellow spell at Tom, passing right through his head. If Tom had a body, the spell would have caused even a small knock afterward to break his skull. He was still standing, dumbstruck at the Usurper and his dead basilisk.
"He's also a teenage Voldemort," Harry added.
Hermione groaned, "Fine, I don't care. What do we do with him?"
They didn't get a chance to answer as Tom started to scream, small holes began to appear in his form as he began to fade, the screaming dying down until the form had vanished completely. Once the screaming had gone, they heard a thudding noise and turned to see Draco Malfoy, holding a severed basilisk fang in his hand, stabbing the remnants of the book he had thrown at Harry over and over. There were holes all over it and it was slowly dissolving from the steaming basilisk venom.
"Help me, Potter," Draco groaned. Harry leaned close and could see the venom from the tooth he had been holding had leaked into cuts in his hand and the veins in his arm were turning black.
"Is the venom going to kill you?" he asked the boy. Draco nodded. "Good," Harry started to stand back up.
"I just saved you!" Draco cried out angrily.
"And you tried to kill me, my sister, and everyone in the school. I don't care too much about Lockhart, but you got him killed too. Besides, what do you want me to do about it? I'm going to just sit here and watch you go."
Just as Harry sat down, Dumbledore's phoenix burst back into the room right between Harry and Draco. Harry backpedaled quickly along with Hermione until they felt it was a safe distance. The bird leaned down and wiped tears into Draco's mouth and the cuts on his hand. They watched as the black veins in his arm returned to normal.
"Stupid bird," Harry cursed.
Harry turned around to see the Usurper checking the basilisk for any signs of life, then yelled out,
§What the hell took you so long?§
The Usurper's neck swiveled to face him,
§Watch your mouth.§
§I couldn't find the entrance.§
§When I finally did, I met this female who wouldn't listen to me when I told her I wasn't going to kill her because she had your scent.§
Harry yelled, exasperatedly,
§She can't understand you!§
§Of course she thought a giant monster was going to kill her.§
Harry heard the phoenix call out as it flew above the blazing corner that Lyra was in. One flap from its wings and all the fire around her went out. A few tears in her mouth and she sat up and ran over to Harry, knocking him over in a hug.
When she was done squeezing the life out of him, she looked over to Draco who started backing away at the intensity in her eyes. She started to search herself for her wand, but Hermione beat her to it, casting, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Draco's arms and legs snapped together and he teetered for a moment before falling to the side on his head, groaning through his locked jaw.
Harry was just about to ask what to do now when Whispers bowled into Lyra, with a hug even more intense than the one that Harry had received from his sister.
Hermione decided to ask the question instead, "What do we do now?"