I don't own Hellsing or Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money from this.
Mihnea didn't talk to her for weeks. It was the worst feeling Connie had ever endured. The two of them had arguments before, but nothing to this extent. He was so incredibly pissed at her for the comment she'd made that he wouldn't allow her to sit with him in Potions class. When she tried to approach their table, he told her to go away, then dragged over a Slytherin boy to take her place. He looked too terrified of Mihnea to protest about it. For the first time, she accepted George's request to be his lab partner. He and Fred separated, and his brother took up another table to work with Angelina Johnson. When they all were put to work on their potions, George leaned over to whisper.
"What's going on?" he asked. "I've never seem him look so pissed before."
He didn't usually bother to ask about what was going on with her cousin since he was a member of the 'enemy house'. He was probably wondering because he knew she was affected by it.
Connie's shoulders slumped. "I... said something to him that I shouldn't have. Now he's mad at me."
His brows furrowed. "Why don't you just apologize then?"
"Because he doesn't stick around long enough for me to get two words out of my mouth." she replied.
If she could get her cousin to stand still long enough, she would happily tell him how sorry she was. But every time he saw her outside of class, he immediately turned his back and walked in the opposite direction. And it wasn't like she could do it during Potions. Professor Snape would put and end to it just as quickly as Mihnea would himself. She would have to wait for him to calm down enough to allow her to get close to him again.
It was little more than a week after classes started up again that another student was found petrified. This time it was Justin Finch-Fletchley, the same boy who thought Harry was telling the snake to attack him during the dueling lesson. Both he, and Nearly Headless Nick were found in a hallway leading down to the Great Hall. Harry seemed to be suffering from an enormous amount of bad luck. For the second time, he was the first to discover them. People began whispering behind his back that it was a sign he was the heir of Slytherin. Justin had been the one to call him out after hearing him speak parseltongue, so Harry probably had him petrified to get revenge. It looked so bad that McGonagall took him straight up to Dumbledore's office to have a talk with the headmaster. Connie and the others found out later that it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was still nerve-wracking all the same.
Now there were four victims attacked by the monster in the Chamber. Filch's cat, two students, and a ghost. Things were becoming much more complicated.
"Someone has to do something." Hermione declared one night. "If this thing is capable of petrifying a ghost, then there's no telling what it could do to a person."
Constance and Ron both agreed with her, but Harry was strangely silent. He seemed to be too wrapped up in flipping through a small, leather bound book to pay attention to the conversation.
"Harry!" Hermione said, trying to get him to snap out of his daze.
The boy didn't show any reaction until Ron elbowed him in the ribs. "Huh?" he said, blinking. "What? Were you talking to me?"
They all studied him. Constance was starting to wonder if he was beginning to lose it. She already had Mihnea upset with her, so she didn't need one of her friends acting weird too.
"You've been really quiet lately." Hermione told him, then looked at the book in his hands. "Where did you get that anyway? I haven't seen it before."
"What, this?" he asked, holding up the book. "I found it in the girl's bathroom."
"What on earth were you doing in the girl's bathroom?" Connie questioned.
Ron leaned over to study the book. "Oh... so that's what she was throwing a fit about?" The two girls coughed and stared at them expectantly, hoping for some kind of explanation. The boy cleared his throat. "Moaning Myrtle had herself a crying fit a few days ago and flooded the girls bathroom." he explained. "Said someone threw a book at her head or something." He looked back at Harry. "Is that it, then?"
"I guess so." he replied with a shrug. "It's weird. I thought it was just a blank diary at first, but I accidentally dripped ink on one of the pages and it disappeared. Like it got... sucked right into the paper. Then I tried writing in it, and it writes back."
Constance blinked. First he was hearing voices in the walls, and now he had a diary talking to him? Maybe all the stress was finally getting to him. To her left, she noticed Hermione suddenly looked cautious.
"What sort of things does it tell you?" she asked.
"Well, at first it was just simple things." Harry told her. "I wrote in my name, and it told me it's name was Tom Riddle. Then I asked it if it knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets. Whoever used to own this diary was here at the school last time it was opened. It showed me what happened."
It showed him what happened? Connie wondered. There was a big difference between something being written out in a book, and actually being shown something.
"How did it show you?" she asked.
Harry looked thoughtful. "It's... hard to explain. It felt like... I got pulled inside of it. Then I was in this other place and could see everything, but no one could see me. It was like being in the middle of a memory."
Everyone sat back, nervous. Even Ron looked disturbed by the information.
"I think you should leave it alone, mate." he told Harry. "If you can't see where something's brain is, you probably shouldn't trust it."
That was the most sensible advice Constance had ever heard come out of the boy's mouth. Harry, though, looked like he didn't understand what the big deal was.
"Look, we haven't been able to find useful information anywhere else." he said. "If this book knows something, then I think we should use it."
Hermione leaned forward. "You don't know anything about that diary. Without knowing exactly who made it and why, you can't be sure that it's telling you the truth. An enchanted book can lie just as easily as a person can. And with it pulling you into it... Harry, what if it pulled you in to show you something else and didn't let you back out again?"
Constance bit down on her lower lip. "If that's the book thrown at Moaning Myrtle's head, someone was probably trying to get rid of it." she said, thinking out loud. "It sounds too dangerous to mess with to me."
Harry looked a bit upset with them. But still, the fact that all of them were basically saying the same thing seemed to get through to him. He let out a deep sigh.
"Fine." he muttered. "I'll put it up somewhere, and I won't write in it again."
It was a small consolation. With everything else going on around the castle, they didn't need to be worried about him messing around with an enchanted book that randomly appeared. But still, it was strange that an object that knew about the Chamber of Secrets just happened to show up right after it was opened for a second time. It was possible that it was a coincidence, but it still gave Constance a weird feeling.
When the weekend arrived, Constance and Hermione decided to resume their search for information on the monster that could be living in the chamber. Their previous expedition consisted of looking for any writings about the Chamber itself. This time, they changed their strategy and focused on looking through encyclopedias of magical creatures for anything with characteristics that fit with what they knew. Harry had Quiddich practice and Ron was going along with him to watch, so the girls headed down to the library on their own. Once they arrived, they headed directly to the 'Magical Flora and Fauna' section.
"Alright." Hermione stated, her hands on her hips. "I'll start on this side, and you go through the other. Maybe by the time we meet in the middle, we'll have found something."
There was a huge collection in that particular section. However, anything that dealt strictly with plants could be excluded, cutting out a lot of books. It wasn't feasible to stand in-between the shelves to flip through an entire tome, so they would pick out an armful of books, take them back to one of the many reading tables, then replace them when they were finished to pick out more.
They must have gone through twenty-odd books before Hermione nudged Connie's arm.
"Look at this." she said, flipping her book around for her to see the page she was reading.
Constance put her own book down to study it. Hermione had found a chapter in her book about the basilisk. Her eyes got wider as she got further down the list of characteristics.
"It can't bear the sound of the cock's crow, and spiders flee before it." Hermione said. "All of Hagrid's chickens have been killed and the spiders in the castle have been acting strange since before that message was written on the wall. And judging from the illustration, it's basically a giant..."
"Snake." Constance finished for her. "That's why Harry has been hearing a voice inside the walls..."
Everything made perfect sense. The description of the basilisk fit almost everything they knew about what had happened thus far. But there was one thing Connie didn't understand.
"This says it kills by looking someone in the eyes." she commented with a frown. "But no one's been killed yet. Just petrified."
Hermione made a face. "I'm not sure about that either." she paused thoughtfully, then sat up straighter. "Maybe none of them saw it's eyes directly. Mrs. Norris could have seen it's reflection in the water that was all over the floor. Colin had his camera, and Justin... I don't know what stopped Justin from being killed."
Connie tried to think over how Justin had been found. He was laying on the floor, and Nearly Headless Nick had been floating right above him...
"Ghosts are transparent!" she said, figuring it out. "He could have seen it through Sir Nicholas!"
"That makes sense." Hermione admitted. "And ghosts are already dead, so they can't be killed again... It has to be a basilisk."
It felt wonderful to have finally figured out part of the mystery. If they knew what was attacking everyone, then they could better understand how to deal with it. There was just one problem.
"Hermione, if this thing can kill by looking at someone, how on earth can we avoid it?" she asked. "I mean... you could just round a corner and see it for only a second and you'd be dead. There would be no time to react."
The girl sitting across from her furrowed her brow. "I guess the best thing to do would be to carry a mirror to check around corners. If you saw it in the mirror, you'd wind up being petrified, but when it comes right down to it, I'd rather be petrified than dead."
Excellent point. She thought. It wasn't as good as finding a way to avoid the creature altogether, but it looked like that was their best option. With their mission completed successfully, they went about the tedious task of returning all the books back to their proper places. Constance picked up a stack of books from her side of the table, intending to find the shelf she'd pulled them from. When she turned around, she nearly ran right into Ginny. She was so surprised, she nearly dropped the books.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the younger girl exclaimed, reaching out to help her get control of the stack of tomes. "I didn't mean to run into you."
"It's fine!" Connie reassured her as she readjusted the books more comfortably in her arms. "I was just going to put these up."
Hermione came back around one of the bookshelves to retrieve another stack. She paused when she saw the red headed girl standing there.
"Oh, hi, Ginny." she said. "What are you doing down here?"
"I was looking for you, actually." she replied. Her feet shuffled against the floor, making her look anxious. "Do you guys know where Harry is?"
Constance and Hermione exchanged a knowing look. Ginny had that 'thing' for Harry, and always had to know exactly where he was at all times. If Hermione hadn't have done the exact same thing with Lockhart at the beginning of school, Connie would have found it scary. Maybe it was one of those things that came along with having a crush.
"He had Quiddich practice this afternoon." Hermione told her.
Ginny looked thoughtful. "Are you sure?"
They both nodded. "Ron was supposed to go down to the pitch with him to watch." Connie added. "They're probably done by now, but they usually stay out there for a few hours to play around. You might be able to catch them."
"Oh." she said, in a surprisingly calm sounding tone. "Alright. Thank you."
She turned on her heel to leave, but stopped just before she got to the door. The was a slightly worried expression on her face as she turned back around.
"Um..." she began haltingly. "Be careful out there." Without another word, she turned back around and walked out.
What? Connie thought. Why would Ginny Weasley warn them to be careful? At her side, Hermione looked just as confused as she felt.
"Maybe she's just worried after what happened to Justin." she suggested.
Constance nodded in response. "Maybe."
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