Author's note: The characters and story belong to JK Rowling (story starts at the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Magic can't fix everything. Magical prosthetic eyes such as Mad-Eye Moody's will be explored as a concept much further along in the story (about 60+ chapters in). This story will stick to canon as much as possible (including the neglect of the Dursleys) while exploring this what-if scenario, except for the use of the Accio charm . . . it will be performed by a first-year student.
This is a very slow-building story that will take a lot of time following Harry as he learns how to adapt to his new reality. I'm planning on taking him through the summer and connecting the story up to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and possibly beyond, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Lots of original characters (OCs) will be introduced. I'm not planning on shipping anyone at this point (he's 12!). Also, like many fanfiction writers, I'm writing about things I haven't personally experienced. If you have and think I could do a better job of it, I welcome your feedback and suggestions. Thanks for reading it and for your reviews!
UPDATE: The talented Nebulababe generously offered to beta this story, but was not able to continue beyond chapter 8. Thank you, Nebulababe, for your keen eyes! Chapters 1-8 have been beta'd.
Crossposted in AO3: Basilisk Eyes by Hegemone and on Wattpad as Basilisk Eyes by HegemoneMilo. Basilisk Eyes art at DeviantArt account, Hegemonemilo. I'm also on reddit, u/hegemonemilo.
UPDATE: 12-21-2020 XYDO4art has started translating Basilisk Eyes into Russian! Find it on ficbook dot net 10192934.
UPDATE: 10-20-2021 Podfic available on spotify: [podfic] Chapter 1: Venom: Basilisk Eyes by Hegemone
https colon slash slash open dot spotify dot com slash episode slash 0F1WFCHXmZs68LObsQORbh
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As Harry thrust the sword into the roof of the serpent's mouth, blood spurt from the wound, drenching him. He felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang sank deep into his arm. It splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, on the floor.
Trying to blink the stinging basilisk's blood from his eyes, Harry stumbled and slid down the wall to the floor. He grasped the fang and wrenched it from his arm, screaming as a white-hot pain tore through his body. Dropping the fang, he tried to clear the blood from his eyes with his good hand so that he could see the wound, but it didn't help. My eyes! Tears poured down his face. He heard a soft clatter of claws on the stone beneath him.
"Fawkes," said Harry, his tongue heavy in his mouth. "You were fantastic."
He felt the bird lay its feathered head on the hole in his arm where the fang had pierced him.
Echoing footsteps approached him and a dark shadow moved in front of him. Harry blinked trying to clear his eyes so he could see Tom Riddle, but he remained a dark shadow towering over him.
"You're dead, Harry Potter," Tom taunted. "Even Dumbledore's bird knows it! He's crying."
Harry tried to see, but Fawkes was just a pinkish blur.
"I'm just going to sit here and watch you die, Potter! Take your time. I'm in no hurry!" The dark form sank to the floor in front of him.
"So ends the famous Harry Potter!" Riddle crowed.
Harry found it hard to focus on his words as Tom blithely described Harry's predicament, dying alongside Ginny in the bowels of the school on the cold, wet floor of the chamber. Harry's thoughts stumbled to Ron trapped in a pile of rocks and Hermione petrified in the hospital wing and then to the warm fire in the Weasley's kitchen. He sank into the warmth, imagining what it would be like to be embraced by Mrs. Weasley again. He was ready to surrender to it.
But then the cold of the chamber started seeping back into his numb limbs and he felt as if he were waking up. Tom's voice came back into focus. He was talking about Harry's mother, calling her a mudblood. The vile word shook him and he opened his eyes, blinking trying to bring the world back in focus and take the stinging away, but everything was even more shadowy.
If this is dying, Harry thought, it's not so bad.
The pain was receding from his arm and he felt stronger. He straightened his back and wriggled the fingers in his injured arm. It didn't hurt anymore. He ran his fingers over the spot where the fang had gorged him, but his skin felt smooth and whole. There was no wound.
"Get away, bird," Riddle shouted.
Harry felt the air shifting and heard Tom scrambling to stand up as he lunged for the phoenix. Harry flinched against the wall as he heard the wings flapping and an explosive bang.
"Phoenix tears!" Tom shouted in exasperation. "Fucking healing properties."
Tom loomed over Harry. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter. You… and… me… "
Harry heard Fawkes' wings overhead again and felt something land on his lap. He grabbed it. The diary. He leaned forward and felt the fang roll under his knee. He seized it and kneeling, plunged the fang into the diary over and over again. He felt sticky liquid pouring out of it as he turned it over to drive the fang into it from the other side. Tom let out a piercing wail as if he was the one being stabbed, not the book. Then only the echo of his scream reverberated off the walls of the chamber, until it, too, faded away.
Harry dropped the oozing book and started crawling forward on his hands and knees, feeling the ground in front of him for Ginny. He blinked hard, trying to stop the stinging and see through the tears that kept filling his eyes.
His hands found the cold body of the serpent instead. It rose like a wall next to him and he pulled himself up, running his hands over the scaly skin. He heard Ginny gasp for air as if she had just surfaced from underwater. He hurried toward the sound along the basilisk's body. Her moan drew him closer and he dropped to the floor again moving away from the serpent, reaching out with his hands until he felt her robes.
"Ginny, Ginny! Are you okay?" His fingers brushed over her face and hair until he found her shoulders and grasped them.
"Harry! What happened? Are you hurt? You're covered with blood!"
"I'm okay, Ginny. It's the basilisk's blood. I'm okay. Are you okay?"
"I'm so sorry, Harry. It was me. I tried to tell you. I swear I didn't mean to do it. Riddle made me do it. The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary," she sobbed.
"He's gone, Ginny. You're okay now."
"Harry, how did you do it? How'd you get rid of him and… kill the snake?" She had twisted toward him and then shuddered when she saw the serpent's body.
"I had help. Fawkes brought me the sorting hat and the sorting hat gave me a sword. And I stabbed the diary with the Basilisk fang. That made Volde-, I mean, Riddle vanish."
He sat up and pulled her off the floor, hugging her to him, feeling her warmth against his chest. Her hair tickled his face. He felt unsteady with relief.
Ginny is okay!
She held onto him, shuddering with sobs until she was done, her breath more even. She pulled away to wipe her face; Harry wiped at his eyes, too. They burned.
"What's wrong with your eyes, Harry?" Ginny asked.
"I got something in them. Basilisk blood and maybe venom. Can you help me wash it out? Is the pool close by?"
Ginny stood up and pulled Harry up, too.
"Come on. It's over here." She pulled him a few steps over to the pool and knelt down by it. He dropped next to her and reached for the dank water, splashing it up onto his face. He realized that his glasses were missing. He hadn't even noticed when he lost them.
Not that they'd help now.
His vision was worse than when he first woke in the morning, before putting them on. In fact, it was worse than when he first got the blood in his eyes. Blinking through the steady stream of tears, he could really only make out vague shadows. He wasn't even sure if he was seeing actual shapes anymore, but it was hard to keep his eyes open to even see that.
Phoenix tears! Harry thought suddenly.
"Fawkes, can your tears help my eyes?" he asked the bird whose claws scrambled on the stone floor near him by the pool of water.
He lay down on the cold, wet floor again and turned his head toward the bird. Fawkes laid his head on Harry's face and he felt the tears fall into his left eye, then turned his head so that they'd slide into his right eye. He blinked to spread the tears and felt immediate relief. The terrible stinging stopped.
"Thank you, Fawkes. You are amazing."
Harry sat up and looked around. He could open his eyes now, but the chamber was still shrouded in dark shadows, with flickering blurs of light. He rubbed at his eyes again and looked again, but it was the same.
"Is it any better, Harry?" Ginny asked softly.
"It stopped stinging, but I still can't see anything really—just shadows," Harry said. He shook himself and tried to focus.
"Ginny, do you see my wand anywhere? Riddle took it. Maybe he dropped it when he vanished?"
"I'll look for it," she said as she jumped up. Her steps clattered away from him, echoing off the chamber walls. He heard the hardwood sound of the wand on stone and knew she'd found it and sighed with relief. Her footsteps started coming back to him as she approached him, then stopped.
"What is it?" he asked.
"The diary. Let's take it back." She sounded sad and a bit fierce.
"Careful of the venom, Ginny," Harry called to her as she approached him.
"Yeah, right," she said. "I'll wrap it in my cloak."
He could hear the rustling of her cloak and then there was a pregnant pause.
"Er, here's your wand, Harry."
He realized she must have been holding it out to him, expecting him to see it and take it. He stood up slowly, reaching forward and she placed it across his palm. He tucked the wand in his cloak pocket.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Harry wondered, squinting as he tried to see through the shadows and orient himself. Could he even find the tunnel he'd followed here? And then there was the caved-in portion of the tunnel. He heard Fawkes' claws scrape on the stone and his wings flapping as he launched into the air.
"Fawkes is flying this way. Let's follow him." Ginny grabbed his arm and pulled him with her. He stumbled alongside her, then pulled up short.
"Wait, what about the sword and the sorting hat? Where are they?" Harry felt Ginny turn as she looked around the room, tugging his hand with her as she moved.
"I see the sorting hat. Wait here. I'll go get it."
She ran across the chamber. Harry moved forward toward the wall of the Basilisk's body and started following it toward the head, keeping his hand on the cold scaly body.
He tripped and stumbled over stones that had been knocked loose in the struggle with the serpent, but managed to stay upright. The serpent's body tapered as he neared the head and he heard Ginny join him.
"Oi," she gasped.
"What is it?"
"The sword is really stuck up far in the roof of the mouth. Here. Let me get it." She moved past him.
"Careful of the fangs. The venom!" Harry called out as he listened to the sickening sound of the sword moving out of the flesh of the Basilisk's mouth. The sword clattered to the ground.
"I'm okay," Ginny reassured Harry as he found her back and gripped her shoulder.
She bent down and heaved at the sword.
"Here, let me get it," Harry said.
He reached around her, following her arm to her hand, then took the sword from her. It was heavier than he remembered during the struggle with the great snake. He fumbled with the edge of his robes and then wiped the blade against them, cleaning it off, and stuck it through his belt so that it hung by his side. He tightened his belt so that the sword wouldn't pull his trousers down.
Fawkes had settled on the serpent's body as they sorted out the sword—he could hear his little chirps. He took off again, leading them to the tunnel.
"Here, let me hold onto your shoulder," Harry told Ginny as she grabbed onto his arm again to lead him. "That'll be easier."
She was about a head shorter than him. He didn't like being pulled along.
"Any chance you see my glasses around here?"
"No," Ginny said. Then he heard her reaching into her robes. "Accio glasses!" she called and Harry heard a whooshing noise.
"Here they are, Harry, but they are all busted." She pressed them into his hand and he felt their contorted form and cracked glass.
"Hey, isn't that a really advanced spell? How do you know it?" Harry asked.
"Don't tell anyone. I'm not supposed to use it, but Fred and George use it all the time at home when they think no one is watching and I figured it out, too," Ginny confessed.
"You mean before you had a wand?"
"Well, I would sneak my brothers' wands when they weren't using them," Ginny said. It was as if being in the Chamber of Secrets had made her want to confess all of her secrets.
"Trolls bollocks," Harry sighed. He tried to open them up to place over his eyes, but one of the earpieces broke off. Holding them up to his eyes, they didn't make a difference. Nothing. He stuffed his glasses into his pocket and grasped Ginny's shoulder.
"Let's get back to Ron," he said.
"Where's Ron?" Ginny exclaimed. "Why isn't he here with you?"
"Lockhart tried to blast us with a spell and made a part of the tunnel cave-in. Ron's okay, just trapped behind the rubble. Let's try to find him. He was trying to move the rocks so that we'd be able to get back through once I found you."
"Lumos," Ginny said and a blinding light erupted in front of Harry. He shut his eyes tight.
"Oh, ow!" he yelped.
"You can see that?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, it's just so bright! It hurts."
"Sorry! Just keep your eyes closed, okay?"
Harry sighed in response. It's not like he could see anything anyway when they were open. He stumbled along behind Ginny, tripping over pieces of rubble and uneven stones as Ginny followed Fawkes.
After a bit, they could hear the sound of rocks being moved and picked up their speed. The sword slapped against Harry's hip as he moved.
"Ron! Ron!" Harry shouted, "Ginny's all right!"
Ron's muffled cheer echoed softly off the cavern walls.
Ginny stopped close to the wall of rock and Harry slipped and slid over the loose bits of rubble strewn over the floor.
"You did it, Harry! You saved Ginny!" Ron's gave a strangled cry mingling both jubilation and relief. His voice sounded like it was coming through a pipe.
"Come through the tunnel. Here, Ginny, you first."
Harry felt Ginny being pulled forward and heard her scrabbling through the rocky tunnel that Ron had made. He heard Ron helping Ginny through.
"Why are you wearing the sorting hat, Ginny?" Ron asked.
Harry felt around the rock pile until he found the entrance and then started climbing through after her. He had to climb back out and take the sword out of his belt because he couldn't climb through the tunnel with it on. He tried again, holding the sword in one hand in front of him. It was tricky crawling through the hole with it. Cool air blew across his face as he neared the other side of the small tunnel.
"Can someone take the sword?" he called out, afraid that he'd accidentally stab Ron or Ginny with it.
"Whoa! Where'd you get this sword? It's so cool," Ron exclaimed as he took it from Harry.
"The Sorting Hat gave it to me," Harry explained, but he was distracted. He could hear Ginny sniffling. He pulled himself through the hole, stumbling as he tried to find his footing on the rocky ground.
"You okay, Harry?" Ron asked, grabbing him by the arm to steady him.
"Not really. I can't see. I got venom in my eyes. I can't see anything—just shadows and light," his voice cracking. "I bet Madam Pomfrey can sort it out."
"Venom from the basilisk?" Ron exclaimed. "Wicked! What happened? How did you escape?"
"Harry killed it with a sword! And he got rid of Riddle, too!" Ginny burst out, grabbing Harry by the other arm and helping him navigate through the rubble. Her voice was full of tears and her hands shook.
"Riddle? How was he down here?"
Ginny gasped in response and before he could answer, Harry heard Fawkes's claws scrabbling through Ron's tunnel. His wings flapped as he rose into the air.
"Hey! Where did that bird come from?"
"Fawkes helped us. Dumbledore's Phoenix. We wouldn't have made it, except for Fawkes."
Ginny started crying more audibly and Harry slipped an arm around her, trying to comfort her.
"Ron, I'll tell you everything later. Let's get out of here. Where's Lockhart?"
"That old git," Ron muttered. "He's over there."
Harry guessed that Ron was pointing. He squinted, but couldn't distinguish any human-like shapes in the shadows in the tunnel. In fact, he couldn't see any shapes.
"No, this way. Man, you really can't see, can you?" Ron uttered, horrified.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean we've got magic, right?" Harry tried to reassure Ron. Ginny cried harder.
"Ginny, what's wrong? Why are you crying? " Ron turned toward his sister.
"It's all my fault. I did it. I'm going to be expelled. Mm-mmum and Da-ad are going to be so mad. And now Harry's blind because of me." Ginny wailed.
"What do you mean—'you did it?'" Ron asked.
Harry spoke over Ron. "Ginny. It is not your fault. And I'm going to be fine. I'm not blind. I just can't see right now."
He pulled her close and smoothed back her hair from her face. It was wet—from the chamber, from her tears—he wasn't sure which.
"Okay, let's get Lockart and get out of here." Harry tried to sound more confident than he felt.
"Mmm 'kay, he's over here. He's in a bad way. Come and see… uh, well,… you know what I mean."
"Funny, Ron." Harry jostled his arm as held onto Ron moving through the rock-strewn tunnel. He could hear Fawkes's song leading them through the tunnel. He closed his eyes again because Ginny's Lumos was too bright. He was so tired… and hungry… and thirsty.
Harry could feel the cool air blowing through the tunnel—they must have reached the pipe that they traveled down from the girl's bathroom. They stopped and Harry heard Gilderoy humming to himself.
"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. He hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are."
"Hello," Gilderoy's voice seemed cheerful. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," Ron said and Harry snorted as he imagined the face Ron was pulling.
Harry pulled out his wand and charmed a stream of water to come out of it and aimed for his mouth. He missed at first and shot water up his nose.
"Geez."
Finally, he got it in his mouth. At last satisfied, he tucked his wand away, wiped his face, and crouched down holding his hands out in front of him. He could feel the breeze from the pipe stronger now and leaned forward until he found the exit they had fallen through.
"Ron, have you thought about how we're going to get back up the pipe? I think it is too slippery to climb," he said as he felt the surface, his voice amplified as it moved up the pipe.
He could hear Fawkes hovering near and feel the wind his wings made.
"What is Fawkes doing?" Harry asked.
"It looks like he wants you to grab a hold of his tail feathers… " Ron said. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there… "
"Fawkes, isn't an ordinary bird."
Harry reached back trying to find Ginny until her small hand grasped his.
"We've got to hold on to each other. Someone hold Lockhart's hand."
"Who's Lockhart?" Lockhart said.
"He means you," Ron said.
"Is everyone holding on? Ron, you still have the sword?" Harry asked, turning in Ron's direction.
Ron confirmed that they were all linked and that he had the sword. Harry moved his hand through the air in front of him until he found Fawkes's feathers. They were strangely hot and an extraordinary lightness spread through his whole body as he grasped them. Suddenly they were floating up the pipe.
Lockhart's voice came up from below as he shouted, "Amazing, amazing! This is just like magic!"
Harry was jarred as he felt the wet floor beneath his feet and he stumbled trying to get his footing. The others gathered around him and he heard the sink behind them sliding back into place. Moaning Myrtle gurgled somewhere in the air above him.
"You're alive," she said blankly.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, squeezing Ginny's hand. She sniffed in response.
"You would have been welcome to share my toilet," the ghost chortled as the group left the bathroom. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he put his hand on Ginny's shoulder again.
"Where now?" Ron asked, then stopped. "Oh, Fawkes is leading the way. Let's go."
They followed Fawkes through the deserted corridors.
Ron stopped suddenly and Harry ran into him.
"Where are we?" asked Harry.
"We're outside Professor McGonagall's office," Ron said as he rapped on the door, and then pushed it open.