CHAPTER :: The victim

Hannah's pov

The whole castle is in a mess. No one knew what to do; no one knew whom to blame, and no one knew where to escape. I don't understand why Dumbledore hasn't closed the school yet. People are being petrified left and right. Tensions are running so high that no one is able to concentrate on studies anyway. What is the point of keeping the school open? Amongst us, it's even bigger mess. Cedric and Padma told us that Harry was petrified willingly; that he knew that he would not come out safe once he goes in to nullify the gaze of the basilisk. We were a sobbing group of witches and wizards for three days before we tasked ourselves to finish the task set by Harry.

But no luck has favored us in that aspect. The villain here is a cunning fellow, who knows when to hide and when to strike. Charlie Weasley's arrival baffled me. When did he become so close to Harry that he could not bear to see him in such a state. He did not even contact his family all the times he arrived; just sat beside Harry, talked a bit with us and then left.

Today was another such visit. I could not see his sad face anymore and dragged him to our tree. We had decided to meet there anyway. The whole group was there as we sat down in the huddle.

"So any more hints?" Neville asked in general. We shook our heads.

"New year arrives in two days. I have a feeling that there will be more strikes or something more serious will happen then. How are we to find out who is doing it?" Daphne said.

"I don't know." This was Padma, "I wish I had the ability to talk to snakes too. That way we could find out what is happening."

Cedric jumped in surprise as a thought stuck him. He kissed Padma on her cheek, "Harry was right, you are the brightest Ravenclaw. Why didn't we think of that before?" He turned to the rest of us in excitement, "We can talk to snakes; or at least one snake in particular."

"Paladin!" I jumped in realization, "Of course, if he can be here then we can find out the culprit. I'll go mail Duddley… err, I mean Mrs. Robin right away."

Before I could leave the chuckling group, Hedwig flew to me as if sensing my intentions. I wrote a quick note and gave it to her, "Fly safe and fly fast Hedwig. We need Paladin here to track the one that made Harry sacrifice himself."

Hedwig nodded as if she understood me and flew away. The mood of the group seemed to have lifted for Susan started teasing me, "Mail Duddley, Hannah? How much close contact are you in with him? Any romance blossoming there?"

"Oh shut up. At least it is better than a whole group of bachelors vying for one single boy."

The whole group blushed red at the statement, save Luna who started laughing with her hands on her stomach, "Good one Hannah. But let us keep that discussion for after the basilisk has been defeated. We don't need quarrels among ourselves before then. Just keep your feelings in check for a few more days."

The whole group dispersed immediately, no one looking the other in the eye.

The next day, Hedwig placed a box parcel at my table. The whole group noticed it and met at the tree immediately after breakfast. We opened the box in excitement as we heard a hiss from inside.

:: What happened that you needed my help in this world? ::

We relayed the whole story to Paladin. He bobbed his hood.

:: I can understand and I will help you. Do you know the entrance to the chamber of Salandra? ::

We nodded. After agreeing that he would subtly contact one of us when he has some news, we deposited him in that girl's washroom. It was fascinating watching him open the entrance by the sink and disappearing into it.

Paladin's pov

I was just about to leave for forest when Hedwig flew into the house and deposited a letter to Mrs. Petunia. After she read it, she turned to me. I could see the worry in her eyes.

"Paladin, the friends of Harry are asking for you to come to him. They say that Harry has been petrified and that he went into it willingly to save the students from a snake. They need you as their spy. The rest they said they will write in another letter, but you have to go immediately. Will you?"

I nodded, sensing her urgency. Hedwig immediately flew to me and held me gently in her talons to take off. But Petunia stopped her, saying that it is not safe that way and that I had to go in a box. I agreed, albeit reluctantly.

After hearing the tale from the group of humans, I crawled down the amazing entrance. As I was going to the chamber, I noticed many shed scales of a large snake and bones lying here and there. When I entered the chamber, it was beautiful. A fitting place to stay for a majestic snake, even if it was lonely. But the looking around can come later. I closed my eyes and called out to the snake.

:: Salandra, the great basilisk, I request you to come out and speak to me without harming me. I come here on behalf of Harry Potter and his friends. Please give me this chance. ::

The mouth of the big statue opened and a majestic snake glided out of it. She had her eyes closed.

:: Who are you? ::

:: Greetings Salandra. I am named Paladin and I am family to Harry Potter, the one who prevented your gaze from killing anyone. ::

:: Family? ::

I told her about my coming to live with his family. The basilisk was impressed.

:: What help did they ask you to do? ::

:: To spy. I know you cannot disobey and look at your master here, but I can and I will. I will then relay the news to the friends of Harry Potter. He is to be revived from the effects of your gaze in another week. Hopefully, he will restore your freedom then. ::

:: Thank you for doing this, Paladin. I am also looking forward to that day. He did promise me that he will give me the control of the effects of my eyes if and when I become his serpent. ::

:: Let us hope for the best then. ::

It was after a few hours that she warned me, :: You better hide; I can sense someone coming down. ::

I hid on top of the statue where I could not be seen from below. A girl arrived, but her eyes were glazed and she was walking like she was very weak and not under control. But the voice that spoke was definitely not hers.

:: Salandra, my darling snake, are you ready for another foray into the unsuspecting students? I have left them alone for long and it seems to have made them lenient. ::

:: As you wish master. ::

:: Very well. Can you still not undo whatever that brat Potter has done to your gaze? Or find out how did he do that? ::

:: No master. ::

:: Very well, I guess I cannot expect so much from a snake. You are better made to follow the orders. Okay, you will emerge through the entrance this time and target whoever you see. You better do it when you sense only one or two people there. I don't want anyone to know about you. ::

:: Okay master. ::

:: Then I shall leave. This girl is losing control of herself already. Soon her magic will be mine and I will be resurrected. ::

The girl left after that. I bid farewell to Salandra and hurried to the exit. Now what? Where should I go? Suddenly, Hedwig again came in through the window, scooped me up and flew away again. Maybe she misses harry so much that she always stays on alert to help. Good of her. It was night now. She flew high up in the sky to a tower, entered a window and dropped me on someone. It was Neville.

He woke up with a start, and became alert when he saw me. He sent a note to the twins to come down to a hall and then went down himself too along with me.

"So what did you find out Paladin?"

I told them what all I have seen there.

"Who was that student? Can you describe her to us?"

:: She was short, shorter than Harry when he first came to your world, had same clothes as Harry, though I cannot see colors like you, but the shade seemed the same. It did not match with the shades of other houses. She had a short nose, with freckles on her face and had a waist length hair. ::

I described her some more. After that they sat contemplating, "She has to be from our house, is a girl and a first year. That leaves a few possibilities. Then she has long hair and short nose and freckles …"

Both the twins gasped at the same time, "Ginny!"

"Of course…"

"Did we not notice her odd behavior at the start of school?…"

"And she hardly talks to us now days…"

"She is an active person in general…"

"But she seems to have retreated into herself…"

"And we felt like she was keeping a secret."

Neville shook his head, "I am sorry guys that your sister was the victim here. What do we do now?"

"Do what Harry told us to do." Fred said

"Follow her…"

"Restrict her without her knowledge…"

"And find out how she is being controlled."

The next few days, the twins reunited with their sister, keeping an eye on her. The attack did happen on the New Year's Day and another two students were petrified. But we could not do anything about them. The mandrake potion was almost ready anyway.

Draco's pov

After a few days the potion was ready and we all waited eagerly by the door to see Harry awake; there were other students waiting for others too. The potion was being fed inside and one by one, the petrified students started coming, fully healthy and alive. But not Harry. We waited for some more time, but other than him, everyone has come out. We all leaned on the door to hear what was happening inside. Suddenly the door opened and we all stumbled into an irritated Professor Snape.

"I tried to stop you, but I could not. You are such impatient kids." He told us. Catching his meaning, I nodded my head in thanks and led the group inside. There was Harry, sitting on his bed, completely alright. And frowning?

"And I told you, I do not know who the attacker is, headmaster. You have been here longer; you are the headmaster for god's sake. If you don't know the happenings in the castle, how do you expect me to know them?"

"Ah, the castle is older than both of us my boy. It has secrets that we cannot unfold in one lifetime."

"And yet you are harassing me. If you could let the other victims go after just a few questions, why am I being an exception?"

I had enough; this was what Severus hinting at. The Headmaster was unnecessarily probing Harry again. I rushed to engulf Harry in a hug.

"HARRY!"

Taking my cue, the others all came to him too. We all started talking at once, and waiting for one's turn as we welcomed and hugged Harry. In all the commotion, we completely ignored Dumbledore's voice from behind us. Disappointed, he left after some tries to get our attention. As soon as he left, Harry broke out into a big laugh.

"Wow that was priceless. What a welcome for me! Thank you guys. Are all of you alright? I did not miss anything, did I?"

"Of course you missed a lot, duffer. You missed me staying in the castle for Christmas, you missed Neville slipping on a banana peel, you missed Charlie coming to visit you every week, and you missed us missing you. You could have given us some warning."

Harry laughed again and it was welcome sight to watch. After he was allowed to leave, we all directly went to our tree. We had just sat down when Charlie came running from inside the castle. As soon as he came to us, he engulfed Harry into a hug and slapped him on the back of his head.

"Of all the stupid heroic self-sacrificing things you could have done, you chose to sleep for three bloody months?"

Harry was laughing hard in his embrace, and so Charlie could not stay mad at him for long, "Just, give me a warning next time okay?"

The whole group laughed as that was the same thing I had told him at the hospital. Anyway, we took time telling him every detail that he missed when he was petrified. It was easy to notice that we interacted in synchrony, no one over-talked the other or talked in-between, and yet everyone had their say about any situation. I don't know if anyone noticed that we were in accordance with each other just so that Harry could have a chance to interact with every friend. It all came back to Harry, and we were happy with it. What a mess!

George's pov

"Harry you need to know that we have found the victim of Voldemort." I had to give him the news. "It is our sister Ginny. We don't exactly know how he is controlling her, but she does go towards that chamber from time to time. We've kept a constant watch on her."

Harry did not miss it, "towards the chamber? Are you not sure she went into it? How do you know anyway?"

I nodded to Fred and he took out the parchment. We had decided to reveal the Marauder's map to our friends. But the moment I took it out and Fred spelled the password, Harry leapt from his place and enveloped us in a tight hug. We blushed of course.

"You found it! You found it! Thank you thank you. I had raided Filch's office for this but did not find it. I was so disappointed that he had destroyed it. Thank you thank you." When he released us, he was smiling the biggest, widest and brightest smile we've ever seen.

"What is it?" Neville asked and Harry nodded at us. I smiled at him.

"Let me present you…"

"The best creation of all…"

"The base of all our mischief…"

"And the secret we are never caught..."

"The Marauders Map." We finished together.

"This map will show the location of any person in Hogwarts and their movement at any point of time. This was created by our sources of inspiration, the Marauders- Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail. If only we know who they are, we would worship them."

"Prongs was my dad, James Potter. They were the best pranksters." Harry said with a smile on his face. We knew he received letters from his parents every birthday. They must have told him in those. I felt for him, really felt for him, the joy you would get when you see a memorandum of someone you love.

"Who are the rest?" Fred asked.

"Padfoot is Sirius Black, my godfather."

"Do you mean the head of house Black? The one who is in Azkaban right now?" Draco asked in surprise. Harry nodded happily.

"Yes. Moony is Remus Lupin, and Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew. They were best friends back then."

"What do you mean by 'back then'?"

Harry sighed, "They were friends in Hogwarts. Sirius Black has been framed for Potter's death, but I know the charges are not true. Peter Pettigrew's death has been framed too, I don't know why. And Remus Lupin is invisible since Potter's death." Harry replied in a flat voice. "I am doing all I can to get Sirius a trial. After that, we'll know the truth." Then he shook his head and turned to me, "Let it be. Now tell us about this map. "

"Well you can see who is there at a particular location. Here, see? The headmaster is in the office, and ah! Minister Fudge has just entered his office. Well, and here we have Ginny, who is going to the library, so I guess she is herself now. Here is Ron Weasley; he is walking to Filch's office. Guess he is not alone, at least he has the company… of…" I leaned into the map, just to make myself sure.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Peter Pettigrew?" I was confused, how can he be in the school.

"What!?" Harry snatched the map from me and looked at it. It was for a moment before he gasped, "The rat! Ron has a pet rat. Let's see if he has a missing finger. If so, then he is Peter Pettigrew, alive and kicking."

"Do you mean that a rat is Peter?" Susan asked in confusion.

"Their Marauder names? They named it after their animagus forms. My dad was a stag, Sirius a dog, and Peter is a rat." He looked eagerly and pleadingly at me, "George, please do me a favor." He blinked at me putting on those puppy dog eyes. I pointed to Fred who was laughing silently, "I am not George, he is." Harry rolled his eyes, "if you want to be. Please will you check that rat discreetly?"

I don't know how he is able to differentiate between us so easily, and he never tells. I nodded, I can never say no to those eyes.

"Thank you. Then just keep an eye on him. We'll deal with him after Salandra."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Fred.

"What are we…"

"detective agency?"

Everyone laughed. Then Harry turned serious, though he kept smiling, "Okay, our time is running out. Here is what we will do…"

After giving us a plan on how to avoid being petrified by the snake as well as what to do after we had found the means for Voldemort, we dispersed.

Luna's pov

I kept a close watch on Ginny, to see what Voldemort was using to control her. It must be something that she uses most of the time, so maybe an ornament? I don't know and I was determined to find out. My luck struck in middle of February on the Valentine's Day.

Lockhart had made the day into a flourish of pink, hearts, love gifts and poems. It was giving me a headache just looking around. But I guess it was worse for my pseudo brother. Just like last year Harry had too many people admiring him. But Lockhart's settings had dared them to send him all kinds of frivolities. So from the morning onwards, he had been loaded with chocolates, letters and gifts. Harry accepted all with a thanks, but we knew that he would not keep all of it. As much as he was a die-hard addict of chocolates, no pun intended, he would distribute many of them and definitely give the non-magical ones in an orphanage, after getting them checked for spells anyway. But what made him doubling over with laughter were the dwarfs. Those were hired by Lockhart to pass along the messages and gifts anyone would like to give others. I don't know how he forced them to wear those frilly pink dresses, but the scowl on their faces negated everything jolly. Harry was given many messages, which were funny. But funnier were the self-composed poems on him, and he could not keep from laughing at them and then thanking the dwarfs. If I have to guess, some of the were sent by my own two Weasley twins.

Fred and George Weasley. Sigh! As soon as I saw them, I got the feeling that they would be very close to me. It hurt a bit when they started pining over Harry, but I like my brother too, so I could not complain. When I realized that there were many matches pining for Harry, a hope was born. Harry would have a harem and twins might be part of it. But they would also love me and be my future. I just had to wait for the right time for things to happen. I am still a first year, after all.

Anyway, I kept a close eye on Ginny's reactions. I knew she was somewhat fixated on Harry, so this day might force her feelings to act. She was sitting at the table writing into a book. But when ever Harry got a message or poem, she would listen intently and then go back to her book. After a particular poem, which made Harry laugh and the twins to tease him about it, she scowled and started writing intently…. As if… she was complaining to the book. Her expressions said so. My eyes widened. Maybe that book was the means. I immediately went to Harry and kissed him on his cheek.

"Happy Valentine's Day, dear brother of mine." I joked.

"Thank you, dearest sister of mine." He joked back. I scowled playfully, "I am your only sister."

He laughed again, "and you are my dearest one."

I shook my head and leaned towards him, speaking quietly, "Ginny keeps writing in a book. Can you go by it and tell whether it is the source or not." He nodded and turned to her twin brothers.

"Fred, George, these are too many chocolates. I won't be eating that many of them. I am taking some from each offering. Do you want to distribute the rest to someone else?" He subtly pointed at Ginny, and my twins understood. But just for fun, both of them clutched their chests in mock horror.

"Oh My!" both said together.

"Harry says..."

"Too..."

"Many..."

"Chocolates!" And both pretended to faint. Harry scowled and pushed them both off their seats, and they fell on the floor in a laughing mess. Harry folded his arms and lifted his nose in the air, "I won't give you chocolates anymore."

"Nooo Harry! Don't do that to us..."

"We will not survive."

Harry stuck out his tongue at them, which the twins replied in kind. I sighed once more; the twins are so lively and handsome together. Harry asked them once more, "So are you going to help me or not. I know the limit of eating them, and these many will be spoiled before I can complete them all."

"Sure Harry! Come with us."

They took the chocolates and stood on each side of him, taking a hand each. Then they led him to Ginny, who immediately closed her book and hid it down the others,

"Ginny! Our dearest sister…"

"Harry here has kindly decided to share his happiness…"

"And given us the duty to decide with whom,…"

"You are the first that come to our mind…"

"Please accept the offering."

They placed a big bar of chocolate on her desk and moved on to other students. Harry smiled at her and followed them. Her eyes widened and she immediately took out her book and started writing in it. Our doubts were confirmed when Harry came back at last to the group.

"The book is the means by which he is controlling her. It emits an aura, like it is possessed with something. Let's all try to retrieve it, but if it does come into anyone's hand, don't write anything in it. Okay?"

I got a feeling of myself getting harmed but safe at the end, and a feel of Harry's anguish. So I squeezed Harry's hand, "Whatever happens it is not your fault. Don't waste time wallowing or you'll lose someone you hold dear. Think, act and everything will be fine. Just remember that, okay?"

He got confused, but smiled and nodded anyway. It's okay, they don't have premonitions like I do, they will understand in time.

We all concentrated on our new mission; get the book from Ginerva. It turned out to be pretty difficult. She never left it alone. It was a month more before our luck favored us.

Ginny looked always weak and tired by now. Harry said that we have to hurry before she gets completely possessed. That evening, during dinner, she suddenly got up and went out of the doors. The twins immediately took out the map and nodded at Harry. Since I was the only first year in our group, Harry requested me with his eyes to go check on her. I smiled at him and followed her.

I caught up with her just before she entered the Washroom.

"Ginny, wait!" I said to her. She stopped in her tracks. One look at her said that she was possessed right now. Her eyes were glazy and her movements not like her. She did not even turn towards me.

"What's wrong Ginny? I saw you leaving the hall in between dinner. Any health issues you are having?"

She shook her head and I noticed the book she clung to her chest. It looked like a diary.

"Hey what's that? When did you start writing a diary? Can I see it?"

I reached for it and she hastily took a few steps back, shaking her head. I ignored that and snatched the book away from her and looked over it. It belonged to Tom Riddle.

"Tom Riddle? I read that name in the library, he was awarded an honor award during his school. Says he removed a monster creature from the school. Though it also said that a girl died that year."

Ginny's eyes focused on me and narrowed. I understood what the feeling was of that day. I knew what had to happen now.

"Ginny, you should really get rid of this diary. Harry said that Tom Riddle was a half-blood who later turned to Voldemort. I can't even imagine what effect this thing would have on you."

"You really should learn to mind your own business." Ginny said in a harsh growl which sent shivers through my spine. I took a step back.

"Has the book really possessed you, Ginny? I'll have to tell.."

She snapped venomously at me, "You'll tell no one!"

She clutched my hair and painfully hit my head into the wall. The last think I saw was her fingering the blood trickling down my head and turning to the wall. Hurry up Harry!