'Do you think she'll be O.K?'
'Of course, she'll be fine, think of all the things
she's been through.'
'I suppose so, but I mean, what was she doing?'
' In the common room you mean? I'm not too sure about
that. I've been thinking but it makes no sense.'
' Sshh, look, she's stirring.'
Hermione opened her eyes and looked around. The room was bright;
she squinted to make things out. The pillow felt hard under her head, her body
ached.
' How are you?'
She turned,
'Harry, Ron, hi, I'm fine thanks. I think.'
An embarrassed Ron handed her a brightly wrapped present.
'You missed a visit to Hogsmeade,' he mumbled, ' we
brought you a get well gift.'
'Thanks,' she
said, 'it's nice to see you two, how long have I been here?'
'Three days,' replied Harry as Hermione opened the gifts.
Inside were five
chocolate frogs, some Fizzing Whizzbees and a book,
'Newly Found Uses of The Chaos Curse, volume
2'
' How did you
know?' she asked a huge grin spreading across her face.'
'It was in you're
Dormitory, we saw it because we were looking for why you left,'
'Well thanks Harry, thanks Ron,'
'We have to go so we'll see you soon, bye Hermione!'
Madam Pomfrey escorted out Harry and Ron. Hermione
snuggled down in her bed. Madam Pomfrey came round with a potion to help
Hermione sleep better. The warm liquid was soothing and she suddenly felt
sleepy. The sheets against her naked body suddenly became comfortable and she
drifted to sleep.
Harry and Ron
rushed to their lesson through the crowded corridors of Hogwarts. They kept
their conversation quite.
'Is it me or did Hermione seem to ignore me mentioning
about what happened?' Ron asked.
'I know, maybe she just didn't hear you or something,
whatever happened she doesn't seem to want to talk about it.'
'I guess, anyway we can talk to her later we'd better
hurry up or we'll be late.'
'For what?'
'Oh no, I don't even know what lesson we should have!'
Ron pulled a ripped timetable from his bag, and groaned.
'Quick, who?'
'As if you didn't know, we're late for the first time
this year, we're almost ten minutes late, and we've got Snape.'
It lurked beneath the castle, in the shadows. It's home was in a deserted Basilisk's nest.
What exactly the creature was was a mystery. An entity maybe, from between the
worlds, a spirit, something never before found. Whatever it was it had proved
to be dangerous. Very dangerous. Now it had everything under control. It was
going to attack again. The creature
'smiled' and with a beat, a rhythm, a note like no other it disappeared up,
into the school.
The lesson had gone as badly as expected. Both Ron and Harry ended
up in detention, cleaning out all the toilets. Which happened to be more than
expected because ones kept appearing out of nowhere and Snape had made them do
the girls as well. This meant waiting until a girl came so they could ask to
check if anyone was in there before entering and this could take hours. There
were also some quite vicious toilets and sinks that got very mad about anyone
coming near them. It was hard work.
It wasn't until the thirty-first toilet that Ron and Harry
released just how dangerous cleaning toilets really was. The toilet was rarely
used; in fact cobwebs were forming on the ceiling. The cubicles were dark and
the lights wouldn't turn on as the lads searched for the sinks. The sinks were
full of some sort of liquid and around the plughole were... scorch marks?
'Ron,' Harry called to him,
'Scorch marks?'
' I know, weird.'
Ron explored the rest of
the toilets while Harry searched around the sink. He felt around the back,
'Ouch!'
Ron ran over.
'Harry what's wrong?'
'I dunno, there was a hot
pipe behind the sink,' mumbled Harry, sucking his fingers.
Ron got down on his knees and peered up at the piping.
'Harry,' he murmured
pulling them both away, ' you know which toilets we're in don't you?'
Harry shook his head.
'It's Moaning Myrtle's
toilet! This is the entrance to the Basilisk's lair! The pipe you touched was
the entrance. Remember when you spoke Parselmouth to it!'
Harry stared.
'Ron, lets get out of
here!'
'Too late!
'What the hell is that
noise?'
'What noi-what the hell is
that?'
' Lets just get out!'
'Lets not!'
Their screams weren't heard.