Wow, the chapters are just churning out lately! Here comes another update — and we're nearing the end of the story! Unless I end up miscalculating, there will be only one more chapter and then an epilogue… and then in 2017, the third novel of the trilogy will start.
So, as I predicted, turns out quite a few of you were angry over that cliffhanger, and a lot of you went off the scale — none more so than a reviewer called Faby0411, who listed their anger as "possibly 500" from a scale from one to ten. That's pretty angry, all right!
(On the other end of the scale was DanteNathan, whose anger level was at minus one.)
Hopefully your anger is soothed a little by this update…
WEASLEY GIRL: SECRETS OF THE PAST
Based on the Harry Potter stories by J. K. Rowling
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Come On, Then, If You Think You're Hard Enough
"Finally!" Riddle's ecstatic cry broke through the echoes of his laughter, his eyes shining with a mad glee. "Finally — my own body!" His hands were trembling a little as he raised them to the ceiling, bursting out in triumphant laughter once again.
"Harry!" Ronnie meowed, trying her best to ignore the pain in her hand as she nudged the unconscious boy who was slumped against her. "Harry, time to wake up!"
Harry groaned softly, twitching and then went limp again.
"I said, wake up!" Desperately, Ronnie dropped the lion-headed knife and put her good hand down the front of her robe to pull out her still-burning-hot Warning Fang (it had left a rather angry red mark on her chest, she vaguely noted). Then she pressed it as hard as she could against Harry's forehead.
He pulled away from the pain, hands feebly trying to swat away the offending Warning Fang, when suddenly, the Fang was yanked out of Ronnie's hand by an invisible force, and went flying.
Ronnie turned to see Riddle holding it at the end of its chain. He had stopped laughing now, but was smiling down at them with a decidedly unpleasant smile. "Oh, yes," he said. "You two."
Letting go of Harry, Ronnie turned around, pulling her wand out of her pocket to point at him. "Stay back!" she warned, even realising herself how pathetic this must look.
"Oh, please." Riddle dropped the Warning Fang, which fell to the stone floor with a tiny clunk. "You know as well as I do that you can't speak any incantations while under the Animaloqui. That sorry-looking excuse for a wand is no use to you."
"Incendio!" Ronnie tried to say, flicking her wand at Riddle — but the word only came out as a feline yowl and his robes completely failed to catch on fire.
Riddle chuckled again, taking a step back. "But I suppose you should be dealt with, before Potter comes to. Giving the matter a little more thought… I suppose I can live without knowing how he could defeat my older self. It's not like he'll have the opportunity to repeat the feat. Since I'm no longer bound to the diary… I do owe Slytherin's pet a snack."
With that, he let out another series of sinister hisses.
The shadows moved, and something huge and poison-green shifted. The basilisk, which had been lurking at a distance, was approaching again. Ronnie shut her eyes, but she could sense the enormous serpent approach.
"It can swallow you in one gulp," came Riddle's self-satisfied voice. "It'll be over quick… Goodbye, little girl."
Harry was groaning underneath her. Ronnie blindly clamped her bleeding hand over his eyes, hoping that this would keep him from looking into the basilisk's deadly gaze, as she kept flicking her wand in the direction of the hiss, calling out the only spell she could think of. "Incendio, Incendio, INCENDIO!"
Suddenly, her wand felt like it would explode in heat in her hand, and there was a powerful gust of wind that nearly flattened her as the basilisk jerked up, a loud hiss of surprised pain emerging from it.
Once more, Ronnie's eyes opened on their own accord, to see the basilisk pull back. It was even bigger than she'd thought it would be; towering over her and seeming to take up half the Chamber of Secrets — and for the moment, a pillar of flame was burning in its open mouth.
Riddle cried out in surprise and hissed an order at the basilisk.
Realising that she'd only bought them a few moments with that surprisingly-effective fire spell, Ronnie got to her feet as she hauled up a dazed Harry. "Run!" she hissed. "Run, run, run!"
Harry stumbled, but managed to stay upright. Grasping Ronnie's hand tight, he began running.
"You can't escape!" Riddle roared after them as they sped down the long Chamber and up towards the entrance. "No-one can outrun a basilisk!"
And true enough; behind them the enraged hiss of the basilisk, clearly over its temporary case of throat-burn, came closer at an alarming speed.
"Incendio! Immobulus! RITCUSEMPRA!" Harry was flinging his wand out behind him, trying to fire off whatever spells he could to slow it down — but since he couldn't turn around to look, he was apparently not having much luck with his aim. Either that, or the spells just didn't have any effect on the basilisk.
Ronnie could feel more than the saw how it was rearing back to strike. She pulled Harry down, and they hit the floor just as the basilisk struck. She cried out with the searing pain as its enormous fang pierced her leg.
Harry cried out at about the same time, and in her peripheral vision, through the immense pain, Ronnie could see his face contort as he screamed.
There was a brief flash of the serpent's bright green underbelly as it pulled back, and then it was gone from sight, leaving them both lying on the floor.
Tom Riddle stepped into view, looking down at them, his eyes gleaming with malice.
"It's over," he said. "That little escape attempt cost you your quick and easy deaths. Now you're in for a much more agonising one… you'll start feeling the venom spread through your veins."
"Oh, fuck…" Ronnie moaned. She risked a glance back, and saw that her too-short robes had slid up enough to expose her legs, and her bare right ankle was bleeding from a deep puncture wound. Next to her, Harry was twitching; his robes were punctured and soaked with blood.
The basilisk had got them both.
"It shouldn't take more than a minute or so," said Riddle gleefully, "but it should be incredibly painful while it lasts… I'll just stand here and watch you die, if you don't mind… you'll make just as good a meal for the basilisk dead as alive, and I think I've earned the right to enjoy your deaths."
It was as if all strength had left Ronnie's body. This was it, then. She had put up her best fight, and it hadn't been enough. You-Know-Who was back, Petunia was dead, and in moments so would she and Harry.
"But if it's any consolation," said Riddle, "I never actually planned on letting either of you live."
She was an idiot, she thought. She'd gone in without a real plan, without any backup. She was a silly second-year girl who couldn't even talk. What had she thought would happen? That she'd save Harry by meowing at Wormtail? If she'd only gone to look for the rest of the Gang herself instead of sending Myrtle… maybe they could have done something if they were all there.
Hermione and Ginny would have known what to do. Neville and Colin would have found a way.
At least the pain would soon stop… and at least Crookshanks seemed to have escaped…
Ronnie lay back against Harry and waited for the poison to overcome her. Here dies Veronica Weasley, she thought. An idiot who tried her best and found that her best wasn't good enough…
"I have to say," said Riddle, "you're holding on surprisingly long… I would have thought you'd be dead by now."
Ronnie blinked. Something was off. By now she should be feeling the red-hot pain spread through her body and everything beginning to spin as the venom began taking effect… but this didn't happen. She was bleeding, but not too badly… and she was still hurting, but the pain wasn't getting any worse… and her head was as clear as ever…
She wasn't dying!
She opened her eyes and stared at Harry, who was staring back at her. He was dirty and dishevelled, but he wasn't dying from the poison any more than she was.
And then she got it. She really was an idiot. The immunity! Both Harry and Ronnie were completely immune to any and every potion, elixir and magical substance — and she already knew it included incredibly powerful ones like unicorn blood and phoenix tears. Which meant it also included basilisk venom. The current-day You-Know-Who knew about their immunity because he shared it himself… but sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle didn't!
And true enough, he was staring at them in disbelief. "How?!" he demanded. "You should be dead! You should have enough basilisk venom in your bodies to kill two elephants, and yet…! How are you still alive?" Then, suddenly, his eyes narrowed, as if he had understood something. "It's not possible! How could children like you possibly have made Horcruxes?"
"What?" Ronnie blinked. This wasn't a word she recognised. Harry looked just as blank, so it seemed to be a new word for him as well.
Riddle was getting his breath back under control. "No," he murmured, looking perplexed. "You haven't, I can tell… but the venom isn't working on you, on either of you… why isn't it?"
Harry seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Ronnie. He took a deep breath. "Maybe it's the same reason why you couldn't kill me when I was a baby," he said.
That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because now Riddle well and truly lost his temper. "KILL THEM!" he screamed. "SWALLOW THEM WHOLE! SQUISH THEM FLAT!" He switched over to Parseltongue, hissing louder than ever before, as the basilisk once more stirred and Ronnie could see its bright green underbelly as it rose up behind him, ready for another strike.
Just then, an explosion shook the Chamber. Everything was lit up in scarlet and gold as, quite out of nowhere. Riddle cried out in surprise and even the basilisk fell back in astonishment as more explosions followed, showering them all in sparks.
And then, amidst the explosions, another sound rang through: The sound of a rooster crowing.
There was a loud hiss from the basilisk again; and it immediately cowered back. Harry was shouting something incomprehensible, and the invisible rooster kept crowing. Riddle was trying to keep the basilisk in line with hissed commands, but the huge serpent was in no shape to follow orders. If a snake could look panicked, the basilisk did; it was thrashing wildly about so the Chamber shook, and for each new crow it jerked and writhed in what looked to be agony.
"Looks like we're just in time, Princess!" came a familiar voice from just up front.
As Ronnie raised her head to look, Crookshanks was coming running up towards her. And behind him, wearing curious scarlet blindfolds and holding their wands, the rest of Potter's Gang came storming in through the entrance.
Here came Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Colin — and just behind them, Fred, George and Percy. Despite being blindfolded, none of them seemed to be in any doubt of where to put their feet or where they were going.
There were no roosters, but both Neville and Colin were crowing loudly, sounding exactly like a pair of roosters. For each loud crow, the basilisk was lurching back, as the Chamber around them was filling up with explosions of red and gold. Fred and George were hauling fireworks out of their pockets, prodding them with their wands and hurling them in nice arches out into the room, where they exploded in bright stars.
One of Fred's rockets exploded right in the basilisk's face, which combined with Neville and Colin's non-stop crowing was enough to make it writhe in pain, lashing out with its enormous tail and entirely failing to knock Colin over because its aim was completely off, before it turned and fled.
Ginny was kneeling by Ronnie and Harry, wrapping her arms around them both in an enormous hug. "You're alive!" she said. "Oh, thank God!"
"Wha — Ginny!" Ronnie managed to say, sitting up as her sister hugged her tightly. "What's — what's going on?"
"C'mon, Princess! I keep telling you, you're smarter 'an this!" said Crookshanks. "It's 'at Animal Talk Charm, of course! Two boys, speaking fluent chicken — wassat make?"
"The crow of a rooster!" Ronnie exclaimed. "The one sound that's deadly to basilisks! But how did they know — of course! Hermione!"
Hermione, blindfolded as the others, had placed herself in front of them, standing protectively between Harry, Ronnie and Riddle, while Neville and Colin were crowing as loudly as they could
"Keep crowing!" Percy was ordering. "Fred, George — keep up the fireworks!"
It didn't seem like Animaloqui-replicated crowing was quite as effective as a real rooster's — the basilisk had not dropped dead yet, even if the sound was clearly causing it great agony. It was fleeing back towards the statue, clearly desperate to get back into the hole It had slithered out of, as Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks exploded all around it.
"No!" Riddle was hissing, in the heat of the moment in English rather than in Parseltongue. "You idiot! They're not real roosters! Come back here!"
But the basilisk wasn't obeying. Jerking in obvious pain for each of Colin's crows, it shot up the all form of the statue and vanished into the black hole that was its still-open mouth. Just as Riddle tried to scream at it in Parseltongue, he was attacked by a streak of red and gold — Fawkes had appeared, and was on him, forcing him back as he scratched at him with powerful talons.
Riddle screamed in rage and thrust out his hands. A powerful blast of force sent Fawkes hurling back towards the entrance. Unfazed, the phoenix spread his wings and swooped around, sailing in an elegant arch towards the Gang.
The Filibuster explosions had stopped; now Fred and George were standing with their wands ready, together with Percy, Hermione — and Neville and Colin, who were still crowing loudly. Ginny was still hugging both Harry and Ronnie, Crookshanks had climbed up in Ronnie's lap, and now Fawkes settled down on her shoulder.
The sense of calm and optimism that always came with Fawkes's touch surged through Ronnie. Even her leg seemed to be hurting less.
Her family and friends were here. There was nothing they couldn't face together.
Riddle was breathing heavily and bleeding from the scratches Fawkes had given him, but he was on his feet and glaring at them all — especially at Harry and Ronnie. "This doesn't make sense," he said. "You should be dead. Basilisk venom can kill anything. Why aren't you dead?! And you!" he snapped at the rest of them. "Why didn't that incompetent Wormtail take care of you?!"
"Haven't you heard, whoever-you-are?" said Fred. "Gryffindors are invincible!"
"Come on, then!" said George. "If you think you're hard enough!"
"Hiding behind your little gang, Harry?" Riddle snarled. "Too much of a coward to face me one-on-one?"
"He doesn't have to!" said Hermione. She was speaking in a calm voice, facing Riddle as if she could see him through her blindfold. "Harry will always — always! — have us by his side."
Harry was sitting up. "I have friends, Riddle," he said, having regained his voice. "Friends who stand by me even when times are tough."
"Friends," Riddle spat. "Please. Stupid children who meow like cats and crow like roosters and toss toy fireworks around! Silly songbirds and mangy cats!"
"And yet we kicked your arse!" said Fred triumphantly.
"Who do you have, Riddle?" said Harry. "Do you have any friends who wouldn't leave you behind to save themselves? The basilisk's fled, and I don't see Wormtail anywhere around either. You're alone!"
Riddle was getting his breath back now. "I admit your cheap tricks caught me off-guard for a moment," he said. "But you haven't defeated me." He slowly stood up, his voice getting louder. "I may not have my basilisk, my servant or even my wand — but I have something much more valuable than that! Because unlike you, Harry Potter, I know that true power comes only to the wizard who stands alone!"
Just then, Percy — who seemed to have had enough of this — yelled "Stupefy!" and thrust his wand out at Riddle, sending a jet of red light towards Riddle. But Riddle just raised his hand and the spell seemed to bounce off an invisible shield.
"I have waited for fifty years — I can be patient!" he said. "You can't avoid your fate forever, Harry! In every shadow, in every dark corner, I'll be waiting! And the moment you drop your guard, the moment you don't have your precious friends with you… That's when I will strike! And I won't waste my time with silly tricks… I will destroy you! And the world will once more tremble at the name of LORD VOLDEMORT!"
There was a loud CRACK, like a clap of thunder, and Riddle was gone.
There was a brief, horrible silence.
The first one to react was Colin. "B'kawk?!" he said.
"He vanished!" said Harry.
"That ponce was You-Know-Who?" said Fred. "Where'd he go?"
"Did he turn invisible?" said Ronnie, forgetting that the others wouldn't understand it.
"Nah," said Crookshanks in her lap. "I'd know if 'e was still 'ere. Wager the firebird would too."
As if he understood that Crookshanks was talking about him, Fawkes suddenly took off from Ronnie's shoulder and flapped his wings, flying out into the room. Ronnie was half-expecting him to attack an invisible opponent or something, but he didn't — instead, he just circled around for a moment, then he swooped down to the floor and landed by the pile of clothes and dust that…
…that had once been Harry's Aunt Petunia.
"How was that You-Know-Who?" said Percy. He was tentatively removing his blindfold. He wasn't wearing his glasses underneath it, and was squinting rather hard in order to focus on the Chamber around him. "More importantly, where is he now? It's all right, you can take your blindfolds off… but Colin, keep crowing every once in a while, to make certain the basilisk stays away."
"B'kawk!" said Colin cheerfully, and then let out a loud rooster-crow.
Everyone was removing their blindfolds now, blinking as their eyes properly took in the eerie sight of the Chamber of Secrets for the first time.
"What a nice place," said George. "Tasteful décor. Just the kind of place I've always imagined You-Know-Who would host his parties in. Is he gone, or just hiding, d'you think?"
"Maybe he Disapparated?" said Ginny.
"You can't Disapparate on Hogwarts grounds," said Hermione. "It's right there in Hogwarts: A History —"
"We're not on Hogwarts grounds, are we?" said George. "We're more under them. Miles under them."
"Yeah," said Fred. "Really, how deep do those Anti-Apparition jinxes go?"
Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it again. "I — don't know," she admitted, before changing the subject. "Harry, Ronnie — are you okay?"
"I'm fine," said Harry. "Ronnie's meowing." He turned to Ronnie, suddenly concerned. "You're all right, aren't you? I'm afraid I blacked out for a bit when Riddle…" He trailed off, and then said in a small voice: "Aunt Petunia's dead, isn't she?"
Ronnie nodded.
Harry lowered his head with a pained expression.
"So your Aunt…" said Fred.
"Damn, Harry," said George. "Sorry to hear that. I mean, she was… she wasn't…"
"You don't have to pretend she was a nice person," said Harry. "You met her. You saw what she was like. But she didn't deserve to die. Not like that."
"We're going to have to talk about what happened later," said Percy, who was trying to focus on Harry and Ronnie. "For now, we must — Merlin's beard, those are some ugly wounds."
Harry and Ronnie looked down, and Ronnie gasped when she saw just how blood-soaked their robes were. She'd almost managed to forget the wound on her leg and block out the pain, but now It welled up again.
"Let me have a look at those." Percy had fished his glasses out of his pocket and given them a quick polishing with the wave of his wand. Now he moved around and kneeled by Ronnie's legs, leaning in to get a better look. "Healing spells aren't my strongest suit, but… I think I can at least patch you up temporarily until we can get you to the hospital wing…"
Crookshanks cocked his head and looked up at Ronnie. "Want me to lick that wound?" he offered. "Might 'elp."
"Thanks, but I think Percy's got it," Ronnie managed to say, scratching behind his ear. "By the way, thank you. You were the one who led the others here, weren't you?"
"Barely 'ad to lead 'em at all," said the cat nonchalantly. "When you told me to run, I ran to find 'elp. Just as I was trying to figure out 'ow to get back up to the castle, down comes this lot down the slide, neat as you please! From there it was only a matter of getting 'em down the tunnels and up to the Chamber. Heads up, by the way, firebird's back."
Ronnie looked up to see Fawkes come flying towards her again. In his talons he held Riddle's Diary, and in his beak he held Ronnie's Warning Fang.
As he came in for a landing on her shoulder again, he let go of the diary, which fell into Harry's lap, and then he carefully dropped he Warning Fang into Ronnie's open hand. It was quite cool again, so Riddle really was gone.
Then again, if he wasn't here anymore, that meant he was somewhere out there…
"Bloody —ahhh!" The rest of her swear drowned in a gasp as her leg turned very hot, then very cold, as Percy tapped it with his wand and the wound began to close.
Harry had picked up the diary. It looked as old and worn as before, its cover stained with blood and dust. "It feels different somehow," he said in a soft voice. "I didn't really get a good look at it before, but… something's definitely different. Maybe it's because Riddle's left it? Ginny, you've seen it before, what do you say?"
"Me?" Ginny blinked. She let go of Harry to accept the small diary. "I can't really tell… and I'm not writing in it to find out!"
"We should take it to Dumbledore as soon as possible," said Hermione, looking at the diary. "So this is the book that's caused all the problems…"
"Doesn't look like much, does it?" said George. "You-Know-Who was literally in it?"
"More like… a part of him, I think," said Harry. "A memory of the student he was when he still attended Hogwarts — ahh!" He winced as his wound began closing, just like Ronnie's had.
"I think that's the best I can do," said Percy.
"Thanks, Percy," Harry panted. "One thing I don't get, though — the blindfolds, and the rooster-crowing. Did you know there was a basilisk down here?"
"We figured it out," said Hermione. "It wasn't all that hard, with the clue Ronnie left us."
"Clue?" Ronnie meowed.
"Hermione's generous about sharing the credit," said George. "But really, she's the one who figured it all out."
"But what happened?" said Harry, echoing Ronnie's thoughts.
"Well," said George. "We were in the common room, waiting for you lot to return from Dumbledore's office, and then Neville shows up alone with Fawkes, babbling about Harry being gone and needing to find Dumbledore. Took a bit of time before we understood what he was on about, but in the end we managed to get some sense out of him."
Neville looked sheepish, clucking something in chicken language as both he and Colin began taking off their blindfolds.
"Shoulda known," said Crookshanks. "Nice bloke, but talking ain't 'is strong suit, is it?"
Ronnie stifled a giggle. Her leg was slowly returning to normal; the cold was fading and the pain had been replaced with a dull ache.
"But," George continued, "when we realised that Harry was in trouble and our darling little sister was all alone in a dark and scary hospital wing… don't glare like that, Ron, it doesn't suit you. Anyway, Percy, Fred and I insisted on coming along."
"Only we couldn't find Dumbledore," Fred shot in. "He wasn't in his office. And all those portraits of former Headmasters? Most unhelpful collection of paintings I've ever met. Just because George and I were there, they thought it was all some prank — can you imagine?!"
"Good to have a reputation," said George, "but sometimes it comes back to bite you. Anyway, we met up with the rest of Potter's Gang in the Owlery —"
"—and then spent an embarrassingly long time running around the corridors like idiots because we couldn't figure out where Ronnie had gone off to," Fred shot in. "And let me just expand the category of 'most unhelpful collection of paintings' to include all the ones in the Hogwarts corridors. Not one of them would say if they'd seen anything."
"We even tried McGonagall's office," said George. "But she was in the middle of a huge row with Lucius Malfoy. We didn't stick around to figure out what they were fighting about."
"Then," said Fred, "we chanced to meet Moaning Myrtle, who was floating around and looking for Potter's Gang. After she'd spent almost five minutes telling us that she was having a party and that Ginny wasn't invited —"
Ronnie hid her face in her hands.
"— she got around to mentioning the Room of Requirement, and how our apparently-suicidal baby sister had gone meowing down to the Chamber of Secrets to fight Slytherin's monster."
"Forgot to mention the cat," said Crookshanks dryly. "Why'm I not surprised? That ghost ain't got 'alf the brains she was killed wif."
George, of course, hadn't heard this, so he just went on: "That Room of Requirement's really something, by the way. Fred and I actually found it last year, hiding from Filch, but then it was just a broom cupboard. We had no idea it could get so… so…" he searched for the right word.
"Grand?" Fred suggested.
"That works. Thank you." George nodded. "So, we entered the Room of Requirement and found the slide that went down here, and right beside it was this huge painting of a rooster — and when Hermione saw that, she told us she'd figured it out and that the Monster of Slytherin was a basilisk!"
Ronnie was completely overwhelmed. She hadn't understood the significance of the rooster, but Hermione had figured it out with a single glance.
Hermione blushed a little. "It was obvious, really," she said. "I'm actually surprised I didn't figure it out before."
"How did you figure it out at all?" said Harry.
Hermione took a deep breath. "Harry," she said. "I just want to say that I don't think any less of you for it, but… I know you're a Parselmouth."
Ronnie's jaw dropped. Everyone — including Harry — turned to look at Hermione with stunned expressions. The only ones who didn't seem disturbed were Crookshanks and Fawkes.
Even Ginny turned her head towards Hermione, her tight hug going a little slacker, her jaw dropping just like Ronnie's had. "Don't be silly!" she squeaked. "Harry can't —"
"How did you know?" said Harry. Ginny's arms fell to her sides as she stared at him in shock.
"You were hearing voices that nobody else could hear," said Hermione, in an almost apologetic tone. "Everyone else just heard hissing and thought it was the normal hissing of the plumbing, but you heard the words. I didn't connect the voice you said you heard with the hissing, until I remembered the time we were talking to Luna."
"Luna?"
"Yes, when she was trying to imitate that hissing she'd heard. She must have chanced to speak a few words in Parseltongue, because you heard her say…"
"…honourless scum," said Harry. "Same words that I later heard the voice say. The basilisk must have been complaining about Wormtail or something, and Luna heard it."
"From there, once I actually gave it a bit of thought, "said Hermione, "it wasn't too hard to deduce that that you had to be a Parselmouth. And that you were hearing a snake."
Harry nodded slowly. "I didn't know it was unusual to be able to talk to snakes until I read that passage in the book Ronnie found," he admitted. "I'd only done it once before, and that was before I even knew I was a wizard. But since the book went on about what a Dark ability Parseltongue was considered, I decided not to tell anyone… I'm sorry. I know I should have told you. I just didn't want you to think that…"
There was a bit of a silence. Then, Ronnie shifted and wrapped her arms around Harry, hugging him as tightly as Ginny had. "It's all right," she said. "Talking to snakes is an awesome ability, and if people think it's Dark just because that wanker Slytherin could do it, they're idiots. I know you don't understand a bloody word I'm saying right now, but…"
Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry as well, hugging him from the other side. "We don't care that you're a Parselmouth, you idiot!" she said. "What did that stupid book know, anyway? You're not Dark!"
(Through it all, Ronnie couldn't help but feel a little proud of her little sister… only a few months ago, she would have fainted if Harry so much as touched her, and now she was hugging him without even blushing, and even calling him an idiot.)
"Yes," said Percy, clearing his throat. "Parseltongue doesn't make a Dark wizard. I'm, er, sure there have been many fine and upstanding Parselmouths. All the same," he added hurriedly, "if you want to keep your ability a secret, that's perfectly understandable, and I, for one, promise not to tell anyone."
Neville and Colin both nodded — and Ronnie was certain that if Colin hadn't currently been under the Animal Talk Charm, he would have started asking some if his normal inane questions. He didn't seem put-off by the Parseltongue, and neither did Neville.
"Yeah!" said Fred. "Besides, there are untold pranking possibilities here! You could ask a nice, harmless garden snake to hide in Ginny's schoolbag, and then —"
"Shut up, Fred!" Ginny hissed.
"Just kidding," said Fred. "And people wonder why genuine Weasley pranks are a dying art," he added under his breath.
Harry smiled gratefully at them all, before he took a deep breath and turned back to Hermione. "All right," he said. "I'm a Parselmouth. But how did you get from there to 'basilisk'? It could have been any kind of dangerous snake, couldn't it?"
"Yes, but that's where Ronnie's clue came in," said Hermione, clearly relieved that nobody was going nuts over the revelation. "When I saw the painting of the rooster, I remembered the conversation she had with Colin some weeks ago, about basilisks — how the crowing of the rooster was lethal to them!"
Ronnie blinked. She had briefly discussed the topic with Colin, she remembered, back at Harry's first Quidditch match. Hermione had been there as well, but Ronnie hadn't been aware she'd followed the conversation.
"And," Hermione went on, sounding triumphant, "the more I thought about it, the more it made sense! It had to be a basilisk that was behind the Petrifications!"
"That part I still don't get," said Ginny. "You said a basilisk's gaze killed immediately. That was why you had us wear those blindfolds, so none of us would accidentally look it in the eye. But Lavender and Lockhart… they didn't die!"
"That's right," said Hermione. "Because a basilisk's gaze is only lethal if you look it directly in the eye! And by pure luck, neither Lavender nor Lockhart did! Lavender… she'd borrowed Colin's camera, remember? She must have seen the basilisk, but through the lens of the camera — which destroyed the camera and Petrified Lavender, but no worse than that! And as for Professor Lockhart… you remember all the mirrors he had in his office?"
"It would have been hard for him not to see the basilisk's reflection," Harry murmured. "And the ghosts…"
"The ghosts did all get the direct gaze," said Hermione. "But they couldn't die again, so they were just Petrified! As with most puzzles, the answer's obvious in hindsight! But I'm curious — how did you work it out, Ronnie?"
"Er — wh…" Ronnie sputtered.
"That painting was an ingenious clue!" said Hermione. "It was obvious enough for me to pick up on, but not so obvious that anyone else would guess that you'd figured it out!"
"I —"
"Not to mention, it made it easy enough to put the Animaloqui on Neville and Colin. I wasn't sure it would be possible to cast the spell properly with just a picture of the animal in question instead of the actual animal — but it worked perfectly fine! You really did your research on that one!"
"Er —"
"Of course, it had to be the boys who were placed under the charm, because Ginny and I would just have sounded like hens and not like roosters — that wouldn't have harmed the basilisk at all — and Fred and George and Percy know a lot more spells so they were more useful if they could still speak the incantations —"
"Hermione!" Ronnie hissed. "I didn't work it out! I just charged in without thinking, as usual, and it was just pure dumb luck that I didn't get myself killed! You're the Shirley Holes in this Gang, not me!"
Hermione stared at her for a brief moment, and then shook her head, pulling out her wand. "Oh, of course. You're still under the Animaloqui. Here, let me do the counter-spell, and then you can tell me."
"Oh." Ronnie felt herself turn pink. Then she looked down at Crookshanks.
"Go ahead, Princess," he said, flicking his tail. "You need to talk to your own kind. 'Sides — now we know you can do that spell. You can talk to me any time you like, can't you?"
Ronnie nodded. "Count on it. Talk to you later, Meow."
"Keep calling me 'Crookshanks,' Princess," said the cat. "Even when talking cat language, you still can't pronounce me real name worth —"
"Finite Intcantatem!"
Crookshanks went silent, and Hermione pulled back her wand. It felt to Ronnie as if something in her head switched off, like a flame going out or possibly a running faucet being closed. Blinking, she looked down at her cat, who looked back up at her.
"Meow," he said, flicking his tail a bit. Just moments before, this would have spoken volumes to her, translated the movement to exact words. But now, it was just a flicking tail tip.
"There," said Hermione. "Now you should be able to talk in proper English again."
Ronnie looked up at her. Then she turned to look at the others. Harry, pale and dishevelled. Percy, looking at her through newly-polished glasses. Fred and George, unusually solemn. Neville and Colin, looking down at her. Ginny, still refusing to end the hug. And Fawkes on her shoulder, his warming weight a great comfort.
She took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," she said.
They all blinked in surprise. "Er — sorry?" Harry repeated. "What for?"
"I didn't figure out anything! I just barged down here without thinking. The rooster painting was a coincidence, it was the Room of Requirement trying to warn me, and I didn't get it! I came down here, I got Imperiused, I almost died three times over, and in the end I couldn't even stop what was happening! Harry's Aunt still died, and Riddle — and Wormtail!" she suddenly exclaimed, turning back to Hermione. "What happened to Wormtail? He was sent out to stand guard — did you see him out there?!"
Hermione shook her head. "We didn't meet anyone out there. Apart from Crookshanks, of course."
"He must've buggered off, just like Harry said!" Ronnie groaned. "Great. Perfect. That means we have both Wormtail and Riddle out there. And a basilisk still in hiding."
"Well, that last one should be possible to deal with," said Percy. "I'll alert the teachers and have them bring half a dozen real roosters down here. That should take care of it. Hmm," he added, straightening his glasses. "It seems like we've discovered why the school roosters were killed, don't we? This Wormtail must have killed them, on Riddle's orders no doubt, so that they would pose no threat to the basilisk."
"Oh yeah…" Ronnie remembered the day of Harry's first Quidditch match, when Hagrid had been late to the game because another rooster had been killed, and he hadn't been able to find out what sort of creature had done it. He'd thought he'd had it so secure that not even a rat could get in… but what if the rat had human intelligence, could take on human form, and had a wand to cast all sorts of nasty spells with?
She looked at Percy and Ginny. Scabbers had been their pet. Percy had of course had him the longest, but Ginny had clearly bonded with him during the year she was alone at the Burrow… Once more, an icky shiver shot up Ronnie's spine when she thought about Ginny unwittingly sharing a room with an Animagus.
Repressing the shiver, she swallowed and drew a deep breath. "Percy... Ginny..." she said. "There's something I need to tell you about Wormtail. And you're not gonna like it."
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Notes: I was going to get them out of the Chamber for this chapter, but this just seemed like such a convenient place to end the chapter — less of a cliffhanger than last time, even if things definitely haven't reached any sort of happy ending.
Petunia's dead, Riddle's on the loose, the basilisk is still alive, and Wormtail seems to have given everyone the slip. So what happens next? Time will show…
I've been looking forward to Hermione's "here's-how-I-figured-it-all-out" speech; even in canon she'd occasionally display some very impressive deduction skills, but she very seldom got to go all "Hercule Poirot" and explain to the involved people just how she figured out what was going on… so I let her have her moment here.
Occasionally I worry that I don't really showcase her intelligence enough and just turn her into a sort of "Grumpy Bear" and naysayer who too easily dismisses the obvious solutions as impossible or ridiculous. But while Hermione is very narrow-minded and too eager to say "that can't be done," she's also a damn clever young witch… and I hope that with this little display of logical deduction I did manage to honour this.
I don't know if you've noticed, but for all that Hermione in this story lectures and is exasperated with Ronnie, she seems to have a lot more faith in her than canon Hermione has in Ron. In canon, Hermione would never have just assumed that Ron had worked out the answer to a mystery like she does with Ronnie here.
Now, of course, it might be justified since Ronnie has spent much of the story playing "Shirley Holes" and making weird deductions — and even been right about a few of them — but is it possible that Hermione is on some level giving more credit to Ronnie, just because Ronnie is a girl?
What do you guys think?
Oh… and to answer MuggleCreator's question: Yes, I've seen the Fantastic Beasts movie. It was pretty good; I'll give it a solid 7 out of 10. (It would have been an 8 out of 10, but I detract a point because I didn't like the ending.) Great visuals, good actors and a fairly solid script all around.