A/N: Finally, some action in the story! Sorry about the extra paragraph at the end of the last chapter (bet you didn't even notice!) I put it there when i was writing to remind myself of what had happened. I've deleted it now, but sorry if it caused any confusion. Harry didn't faint at the end of the last chapter, i left it where the doors of the Great Hall opened and an 'unwelcome figure' stood there. I've planned out the rest of this story, if you're interested, and it's going to have exactly 50 chapters. I hope you guys keep reading to the end, and that we hit 1000 reviews. I've got a suprise planned for the 1000 reviewer... Thanks for all the reviews so far. Keep reading! Always, Angel.

Chapter 35- A time to celebrate

Draco Malfoy stood in the only passage of light, a young maiden clutched in his shaking arms. He shuddered distraughtly, and fell to his knees under her weight. The girl had long silver hair and noble features, yet her dainty corpse looked as stiff as a board.

Although the whole assembly was staring panicked at the scene, nobody made an attempt to move -except Harry. He ran forward without hesitation and crashed by the child's side.

'She's-she's dead.' Draco stuttered, his world braking.

'Who is this?' Harry asked. 'Where did you find her?'

'She's my sister.' Draco sobbed. 'She screamed, I didn't know what to do. She was outside the girls bathroom, crying.'

Harry studied her body hoping to come to a different conclusion. Her limbs were stiff and cold to touch. Her midnight blue eyes were glued open. Her expression fixed.

'She's not dead.' Harry knelled. 'She's just been petrified.'

Harry followed the victims gaze down to her shiny purple-gray dress, and fingered the crisp reflecting fabric. He loomed over her skirt, and was repaid with his own reflection.

'She saw its reflection in her gown.' Ginny bleated calmly from Harry's right. 'That dress saved her life.'

'Could all students please report back to their common rooms immediately.' Dumbledore's grave voice ordered. 'You are to stay there until further notice. Prefects, take your houses now.'

Students hurried past the small cluster and out of the doors. Fragile girls hung onto strong boys arms, younger students cradled each other in groups. The tension was like none Harry had ever felt in this world. It reminded him of home.

Harry stood strongly and ran from the comfort of enclosure. He raged across the entrance hall, and charged in the opposite direction of all the other students, yet no-one questioned his intentions. He wouldn't have heard them if they had, alarm bells were sounding in his head.

Once out of sight he transformed into a stag, hoping for his animal senses to guide him. He ran blindly round the upper floors, blood surging through his body, pulsing at every point. His instinct was to slay. His mind could not see how.

Harry transformed back, breathless and hasty. He needed to get inside the head of the Basilisk. He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, and brushed his scar unintentionally. A spark ran through him, testing his will power. He cursed out load, yet the words he raged didn't enlighten his senses. He spoke the words of the snake.

'Come out.' Harry hissed menacingly. 'Come out to play. I know you're here somewhere. Come out you great ugly beast.'

'Do you want to live past tonight?' Said a severe worried hiss, which Harry knew didn't belong to the Basilisk.

Harry turned round and was faced with a shady angel.

'Ginny?' He spoke in his own tongue, the stress draining out of his features. 'You can speak to snakes?'

'You surely don't think I spent a year giving my soul to Voldemort, and didn't take anything back in return?' Ginny almost snarled.

'I thought you lost your whole connection with him in the chamber.' Harry stated blankly.

'I did.' Ginny said calmly. 'But neither of us will ever forget what we learnt…come out my precious, we have work to do.'

Harry watched Ginny's lips pronounce death so fluently. Harry had always considered his talent a curse, yet Ginny turned it into an art form.

'Come out my friend, you know me.' Ginny whispered with her eyes lightly closed. 'I'm an old friend. You may have forgotten my tone, but I'm here. You will remember.'

A great unsettling hiss cascaded down the corridor in reply. For Harry a fight for his live, with no plan or initiative, was nothing out of the ordinary, yet the prospect of a great snake appearing with Ginny around was unbearable.

'Go.' Harry shouted. 'I can do this alone. I did it once, I can do it again.'

'Don't be stupid, Harry.' Ginny stated. 'I'm not leaving you.'

'Go find a teacher.'

'What help will that do?'

'I'm not risking your life.' Harry said, extracting his wand from his pocket. 'If you see it you'll die. I have glasses, I'll only get petrified.'

'Then it'll eat you.' Ginny stressed. 'What a great plan.'

'Look. Please, just go.' Harry begged, taking one of her hands. 'If anything happened to you…'

Another great atonal hiss sounded, and Ginny lifted her chin.

'I'm over here my precious.' She hissed, then turned to Harry. 'If you die here, you know our world will never be fixed. If I die, it doesn't make any difference.'

'No.' Harry challenged her. 'If you die here, our world will never be fixed. How can I fix our world if mines already broken?'

'Harry.' Ginny persisted, her glare unbelieving.

'Anyway, who said anything about dieing?' Harry sighed, his eyes bright. 'I don't intend to. Just please go and get Dumbledore.'

Ginny rushed around the corner unhappily, running an errand to safety. Harry poised himself, ready for the battle. His knuckles were white from holding his wand so tight, and his eyes were cast open just a fraction. The Basilisk didn't come.

'Merlin, where is it?' Harry tempered, before resulting back to snake. 'Basilisk, come out.'

'Harry!' Ginny screamed, possibly only a corridor away. Harry's blood ran cold.

'I'm coming!' Harry called, his legs running faster then his mind, until he reached a shadow of a monster and dame in its pathway. 'Ginny, keep your eyes closed!'

No reply. It was so silent, Harry could hear his heart beating in his chest. What was she doing? He couldn't see round the corner.

'Harry.' She gasped again, ever so quietly. Sliding was evident. Harry assumed the beast was moving, perhaps nearer to the little redhead. The swish of a tail sounded, and the ripping of cloth tore at Harry's heat strings, then a thud.

He flung his head round the corner of the passage to find the Basilisks tail slithering into a dark empty classroom. Ginny was gone.

Harry flew into the room behind the monster to find Ginny standing flat against the wall. Her hand was in her pocket and her eyes tight closed, as she muttered something secret under her breath. Harry wished he had her whole attention, it might have been helpful.

Nevertheless, he swiped his wand high into the air and stunned the beast with all his might. It flinched and began to turn, but Harry was too fast. He charmed its eyelids shut.

The Basilisk let out a strangled cry, and Ginny's eyes flew open. She, like Harry, had known what it had called: 'Blind.'

The great snake thumped its tail in Harry's direction, causing him to fly off his feet. Ginny ran to Harry's aid.

'Are you ok?' She asked, lending him a hand.

'Fine.' He replied, jumping back up again. In truth he wasn't, but he'd have time to reflect on that later.

Before the monster could issue a second swipe, a gift levitated its way to Ginny, and she handed it to Harry.

'The sorting hat.' Ginny stated, shoving it roughly into Harry's hands. 'I summoned it. You used it before.'

'Right.' Harry chimed, and the Basilisks head looked straight at the pair.

Harry slid the golden sword of Godric Gryffindor out of the hat, as the snake drew nearer. Each breath Harry or Ginny took only gave the beast a better estimation of their whereabouts. They held the air in their throats and closed their mouths.

For a moment no sudden movements came from either party, before Harry leapt forward, his weapon at arms length, and stabbed the snake right through the neck.

The brute swayed before collapsing with a grand thud. Harry drew his knife out of the animal, and allowed it to hang bleeding from his limp arm. Ginny tiptoed to Harry's side, dragging her torn dress as best she could. Both stared at the carcass before them, as their wounds bruised and bled, and a fraction of time dripped by.

'My Potter! Miss Weasley!' The firm voice of McGonagal roared.

Harry and Ginny turned around slowly and tamely, until they faced a party of McGonagal, Snape, Lupin, Sirius and of course, Dumbledore.

'Whatever happened?' She questioned, her face in anger and disbelief. 'What was that great bang? You ought to be in your common rooms!'

'The monster that petrified Draco's sister was a Basilisk.' Harry explained, his voice toneless. 'We found it when we went to find Ron and Hermione. They'd been gone a while, and Professor Dumbledore told prefects to watch their houses.'

'So that gave you permission to wander through the castle unattended?' Sirius shouted, seeming to miss the point about the snake. 'You have no idea how worried we were!'

'It was a most foolish thing to do.' Lupin added fatherly.

'We may have to consider expulsion for both of you!' McGonagal ranted.

'I should assume Mr Potter wanted a chance to get in the limelight.' Snape drawled. 'And it seems he may have got it. If you hadn't noticed, theres a giant dead snake behind them, and Potter seems to have slayed it.'

All attention was suddenly turned to the Basilisk, and the room was filled with shock.

'Mr Potter?' McGonagal asked, her eyes threading from the monster to the sword. 'How on earth…?'

'It is time you two headed back to your common room.' Dumbledore said unassumingly. 'You can tell me the story on the way.'

Harry and Ginny turned unsurely to each other, before following the old man outside.

Once they had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Dumbledore had heard an almost true version of the nights events. They'd cut out the part where they spoke to the Basilisk, added in the part where they read about the snake and sword in a book, and Ginny told the part where the Basilisk had picked her up by her robes and thrown her into the classroom. Harry wasn't ready to tell the real story of how he knew. He was too tired to deal with the consequences, as was Ginny.

Inside the common room students huddled and grouped, each clammy face paler then the next. The party seemed to have been forgotten: the butterbeer hadn't even been touched. The only thing that brought comfort to the relations was Dumbledore entering the common room with the smallest of smiles, Harry and Ginny trailing behind him.

'I have an announcement.' Dumbledore cheered. 'In light of Mr Potter and Miss Weasley's great triumph, they will both get special awards from the school and 100 points each to your house.'

The feedback from the company was murmured gossip. Nobody had any idea what was being commended. Harry looked around the room wearily to Ron, who was hugging Hermione tightly. He gave Harry a puzzled look and Harry shook his head.

'But of course, allow me to explain.' Dumbledore smiled. 'Mr Potter and Miss Weasley came across the reason for Isabel Malfoy's predicament. Isabel was petrified by a Basilisk.'

'Aren't they extinct?' Misty, a younger student, asked.

'That's what we thought, but it turns out that there was just one left.' Dumbledore said. 'And Mr Potter slayed it. He is quite the hero. We all need to be thankful for what these two students achieved tonight, and I suggest you get this party going. You have a true reason to celebrate now.'

'Alright!' Seamus hoorayed, punching a fist in the air.

'What about Isabel?' Brooke asked from her secluded spot by the entrance. 'Is she going to be ok?'

'Of course.' Dumbledore smiled warmly. 'It just so happens that we can get just enough potion sent over from France to heal Isabel. She might even be well by Christmas. Now start the celebrations, I daresay you've been searching for a reason for a party for months. Come Miss Capulet, I will take you to Mr and Miss Malfoy in the hospital Wing.'

Brooke followed Dumbledore solemnly out of the common room, and as soon as they were out of earshot, a bright commotion filled the room.

'How did you do it, Harry?'

'What happened?'

'How big was the Basilisk?'

'Did it bite you?'

'Were you scared?'

'How did you kill it?'

'I kicked it to its death.' Harry half heartedly joked. 'All those karate lessons paid off. Now if you'll excuse me…'

Harry stalked away from the group, and found Ginny surrounded by a similar ensemble.

'Can I have a word, Ginny?' Harry asked over the unrelenting girls. Lavender gave him a scowl as Ginny flounced away, the torn net of her dress trailing behind her.

'Thought you might want some space.' Harry stated, resting his hands in his pockets with his eyes watching the ground.

'Well you thought right.' Ginny sighed, taking leave at the nearest seat. 'We're telling Dumbledore straight after Christmas, right?'

Harry nodded.

'Something has to be done about this.' Ginny stressed, before adding an after thought. 'The funny thing is that the Basilisk didn't even worry me. For over a year now I've been waiting for a gang of armed Death Eaters to jump out at me. The Basilisk almost seemed petty by comparison.'

'I know.' Harry groaned. 'We need to go home.'

The pair watched the common room, filled with glitter and lights, music and laughter, and somehow felt dispensed from the group. Seamus had Lavender grinning under one arm and a bottle in his other hand, Dean and Erin were downing butterbeers by the second, Daisy laughing at their antics. Ron and Hermione had found a not so secluded corner and were enjoying each others company, Colin and Dennis madly took pictures, and Sky, Mitzi and the rest of the gang, along with the 6th year boys, were singing Christmas carols quite merrily out of tune.

Harry snaked his hand to Ginny's and entwined their fingers, his gaze never faltering from the fireplace. Her fingers were cold, and reflected the bitter dread he felt at the pit of his stomach. Harry sighed. He wasn't too sure where they stood right now, but he knew they had an impossible amount in common: They both recognized they had something more then friendship, they could both talk to snakes, and neither of them felt tonight was a time to celebrate.