Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.


Chapter 21 – The Basilisk


"Run, Harry!" He heard Cornelius yell. A snout began to appear and Harry didn't wait any longer, he dropped the hat, turned and ran.

"Kill him." He heard Tom command. "Parseltongue won't save you now, Potter. It only obeys me!" Harry could feel the basilisk moving across the floor, it was that big. The only small consolation he had was that it was a continuous movement meaning that those trapped by the statues were safe. For now, at least, it seemed that Tom wanted Harry dead more than anyone else. A shadow on the wall to his left let him know that the snake was rearing up to strike and Harry dived to the left, narrowly avoiding its fangs. As he lay on the cold wet floor the crowing of a rooster could be heard – the others finally remembering their first plan of attack – and the basilisk screeched in pain. It didn't drop dead, however, and Harry heard a minor explosion and the crowing stopped. Even if a transfigured rooster wouldn't kill his beast, Tom wouldn't let it continue to writhe in pain; it couldn't kill anyone, if pain debilitated it. The basilisk's screeching continued for a moment and Harry took that time to jump up and begin running again, heading towards a passage off the left of the Chamber. As he ran one screeching stopped, but another began and Harry heard the cry of the phoenix and Fawkes swooped down once more. He flew towards the basilisk but Harry didn't know what else, not daring to look back at the beast.

"Leave the bird! The boy is to your left!" Tom's cry told Harry that Fawkes was fighting and he feared for the bird. However, he needn't have bothered. The basilisk began to cry again in pain and Tom's own cry of outrage allowed Harry to turn around to actually see what was happening. "No! Your bird may have blinded the basilisk, but it can still smell you!" The King of Serpents was even more terrifying to look at and Harry continued on his path. The tunnel he found himself in eventually came to a fork, one way leading back to the main Chamber. Hearing the basilisk approaching behind him Harry quickly took off his robe and threw it down the other fork, hoping that if the basilisk smelt him going in both directions it would become confused and take the fork away from the main Chamber. It was a small hope, knowing that the stronger scent would be him and not his robe, but it appeared to pay off as Harry made it back to Ginny's side without the beast catching up to him.

"Ginny!" He gasped, feeling that her hand was still ice cold.

"Yes, Potter, the process is nearly complete." Tom said. "In a few minutes Ginny Weasley will be dead, and I will cease to be a memory. Lord Voldemort will return, very much alive!" Harry glared up at him but could do no more for a screech was heard, signaling the basilisk's return. Harry jumped to his feet and looked to the adults who were still trying to break free. Whatever magic Tom had used it showed just how powerful Voldemort was, even as a teenager, for anything less was unlikely to have held Albus Dumbledore back this long. Seeing no help coming from them, Harry looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. A shimmer caught his eye and Harry looked to the Sorting Hat that still lay where he'd dropped it. Inside the hat appeared a silver hilt that Harry grabbed, pulling out a sword. Turning to the basilisk he began waving the sword around, not knowing how to use it properly, but quickly seeing that it was sharp enough to keep the basilisk back. The basilisk drew back coiled, preparing to strike from a distance so as to avoid the sword. Again Harry barely missed being killed as he dodged. Knowing that if the snake could use its entire body as a weapon he wouldn't last long, Harry made a beeline for the statue of Slytherin and began to climb, thinking that if the basilisk had to stretch out to reach him at the top of the statue he might stand a chance. With two more near misses as he climbed, Harry finally reached the top and held the sword aloft as the beast rose to meet him.

"Ah!" Harry cried as the basilisk wasted no time in attacking. He tried to attack back, but with a pointy object he didn't know how to use it wasn't very effective. Finally, though, Harry saw an opening. When the basilisk reared back to strike, Harry dashed forward and placed himself directly in the path of the beast's large mouth. When it got close he raised up and thrust the sword upwards through the roof of its mouth and into its head. The basilisk screeched and Harry pulled the sword out as he felt it begin to fall. It was then he became aware that something else had been pulled from the basilisk's mouth: a fang that had lodged itself in his arm. Pain burst throughout Harry's arm and he felt light-headed, but forced himself forwards in time to see the basilisk fall dead on the chamber floor. The light-headedness continued as Harry slowly climbed back down the statue and by the time he reached Ginny he knew he was going to collapse and so did just that.

"Remarkable isn't it?" Tom asked, looking almost gleeful even though Slytherin's thousand-year-old basilisk was dead. "How quickly the venom of the basilisk penetrates the body? I guess you have little more than a minute to live." Harry tried to glare at him but only managed a grimace as he reached out for Ginny once more, his hand touching the diary as he went. "Funny, the damage a silly little book can do. Especially in the hands of a silly, little girl." A thought struck him as if by lightning. Tom had said that he'd return only when Ginny was dead, and though she was cold to the touch, Harry could just make out a pulse on her neck. Now he was saying the diary was responsible for all. What if the diary was no longer there? Pulling the diary towards him Harry grasped the fang – the instrument of the most potent venom in the world – he'd pulled from his arm and raised it above his head, staring Tom in the eyes as he did.

"What are you doing?" Tom's smug smirk left him and his eyes became panicked and Harry knew he was right. "Stop, no!" He lurched forward but was too late. Harry brought the fang down, piercing the diary. Ink welled out of the hole as if were blood seeping from a wound and a bright light burst from Tom's chest, looking as if it were tearing him apart. Harry brought the fang down again and the tearing continued, moving through the rest of his body. Tom cried out and reached for Harry but a third strike of the fang finished him, the teenage Voldemort disappearing in a shower of sparks. Two things happened the moment Tom was gone. The statues trapping the adults fell apart, no longer animated by Tom's magic, and Ginny woke up. Groaning, she sat up and turned to Harry.

"Harry, it was me." She said, tears falling down her cheeks. "But I swear I didn't mean to, Riddle made me, and…" Her eyes widened as she saw the gaping wound in his arm. "Harry you're hurt!" Her words were enough to snap the adults out of the reverie what they had just witnessed put them in. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley rushed forward and engulfed their daughter in their arms while Dumbledore and Cornelius ran to Harry, the others standing around looking on, though many stared at the basilisk with disbelieving eyes.

"Harry…" Cornelius gasped, seeing the wound firsthand. He looked near tears, Harry thought, though that might have just been the watering of his own eyes as he struggled to keep them open, his vision starting to go blurry. Fawkes' cry was heard once more and for a moment Harry felt hope, though it didn't last even as the bird flew down and landed next to him.

"You were brilliant, Fawkes." He rasped. "I just wasn't quick enough." Harry knew it must be the watering of his own eyes his time, for Fawkes couldn't be crying. Though he was proved wrong not a moment later. The bird laid its head above the wound from the basilisk's fang and allowed its tears to fall onto it. The first tear seeped into the wound and almost instantly Harry felt his blurred vision return. A second tear had the light-headedness retreating, while a third made him feel strong again. With a blink of his eye, Fawkes dropped a fourth tear on the wound and it closed, Harry's skin looking as if it had never been torn open. Harry looked at Fawkes in gratitude, though also confusion.

"The tears of a phoenix have remarkable healing powers, the strength of which we do not fully understand." Dumbledore murmured, a look of such relief in his eyes. "Though I had not thought it could cure such a destructive force as basilisk venom." Dumbledore's weren't the only relieved eyes Harry saw, everyone looked relieved that he was alright, though none more so than Ginny and Cornelius. His guardian wrapped a shaking arm around his shoulders and looked to be blinking back tears, though it was Ginny's hand Harry reached for.

"It's alright, Ginny, it's over. It's just a memory." Ginny let out a sob and launched herself at Harry, who caught her deftly. They waited as she sobbed her heart out on Harry's shoulder, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley clearly wanting to be the ones to comfort their daughter, but allowing her to seek comfort where needed for now. It took several minutes but eventually Ginny calmed enough for them to begin to make their way out of the Chamber, though she continued to cling to Harry. No one said a word as they went back through the tunnel, with Fawkes leading the way, the phoenix flying up the shaft back into the girl's bathroom.

"Stairs." Harry hissed and the sound of stones grinding against each other was heard and stone steps began to slide out from the walls, spiraling up to the top of the shaft. "Tom had to get out somehow, and I can't picture him on a broom." Harry replied with a shrug when the others looked at them curiously. Accepting that answer the group began to ascend back into the school. As Harry and Ginny climbed the last steps Ginny was ripped from Harry's side as five voices shouted her name and rushed forward.

"Bill?" She murmured, realizing that the arms she was now in belonged to her eldest brother, who was supposed to be in Egypt.

"Thank Merlin you're safe!" He murmured back before releasing her to her other brothers.

"Bill, what are you doing here?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "How did you…?" Bill held up his left arm where a watch graced his wrist.

"Ginny's hand turned to mortal peril." He said, and his parents immediately understood. Back home at the Burrow there was a clock that instead of telling time, told the status of each family member, such as home, school or mortal peril. As is tradition in the wizarding world both Bill and the second eldest Weasley brother, Charlie, received watches upon coming of age; however, instead of standard watches, they had received ones that were connected to the clock at home. "Charlie's on his way too. I only got here so fast because working for Gringotts comes with some perks, including the ability to get an international portkey at a moment's notice."

"He got here ages ago." Said Ron. "Just after you guys went down into the Chamber. He wanted to follow, but Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let him." Bill sent a glare at the matron as she returned his wand to him, but she was completely unaffected.

"You may no longer be a student here, Mr. Weasley, but you had another thing coming if you think I'd allow you down there on your own." She said briskly, before turning to those that had just returned. "Potter and Miss Weasley are to come with me immediately, no arguments!" She sent them her own glare, which was much more effective than Bill's had been. "Does anyone else need any care, Albus?"

"No, Madam Pomfrey, no other injuries. I'm afraid that the rest of us were rendered useless down there." The Headmaster replied. The matron looked surprised, clearly there was a story to be heard, but right now her priority was her students. Ushering the two out she led them to the hospital wing. Ginny was immediately given a calming draught and put in a bed with her family and Hermione surrounding her, as Madam Pomfrey ran several diagnostic spells. Determining there was nothing physically wrong with her, Ginny was ordered to rest and the matron turned her sights on Harry. He too was completely uninjured, which baffled her given the Headmaster's implication that Harry had done all the fighting down there.

"The basilisk bit me." He admitted and the colour drained from the healer's face. "Fawkes saved me though, his tears." Understanding dawned.

"Well, if it can cure basilisk venom then I daresay that phoenix tears would heal any other injuries you might have sustained." She said, and with no other reason to keep him, he was dismissed. McGonagall was waiting for him outside the hospital wing and Harry was shocked at just how old and tired she looked. He knew McGonagall wasn't a young teacher, but she'd always seemed kind of ageless, in a way. However, right now she looked every one of the however many years she was.

"The Headmaster would like a word, Potter." She said. "The Minister is up there with him." Harry nodded and followed his head of house to the Headmaster's office for the third time that day. When they reached the gargoyle, instead of saying the password McGonagall stopped and turned to him. "Seeing that beast today, Potter, with you going up against it all alone, and He Who Must Not Be Named there to boot…I don't know if I've ever been so scared before." She reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder, offering him a sad, yet proud smile. "You did good today, Potter. You saved not only Miss Weasley, but Hogwarts herself, and for what it's worth, I have never, in all my years of teaching, been more proud of one of my cubs as I am of you this day." Harry couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks, Professor. That means a lot coming from you." McGonagall's smile tightened a bit and she removed her hand from his shoulder, clearing her throat.

"Yes, well, off you go then." She motioned to the gargoyle before saying the password and watching him disappear up the stairs.


A/N - So apparently I didn't post this two weeks ago when I thought I had, it's been sitting in my doc manager this whole time. Sorry about that! On the up side it means I'm posting two chapter today!

Review please!