AN: Firstly, major props to my beta Cat. Without whom this chapter would only be half as awesome.
Second, this chapter has a minor gore warning. Read at your own risk.
Chapter 22:
The Dark Lord
Alex
The first thing I heard when I regained consciousness was the sound of Hermione's muffled whimpers coming from right behind me. The second thing I heard was the oddly pleased sounding voice of Lord Voldemort.
"I know you're awake, Potter. I just Enervated you myself." Maybe I should change it to Dark Lady, because when I opened my eyes found myself looking into the face of Madam Hooch. "There, that's better." Her red eyes gleamed at me energetically as she pet the side of my face. "Wouldn't want you to miss the fun, now would we?"
I hung suspended in the air, unable to move. Voldemort smirked, "I want you awake, not able to interfere." I strained against my bonds to no avail, the spell holding me in place was too strong for me to break without my wand. "It's a spell of my own devising, you see. It's so annoying having to go to a specialized room to torture someone, especially when you have things to do."
She gave me a 'what can you do' look, before continuing.
"So I made this spell, completely restrains the victim and keeps them close at hand." She took a few steps away to demonstrate. I floated after her. "It works best when laid on shackles, but all of mine were destroyed and this is somewhat last minute." She looked behind me and frowned, before waving her wand. I heard a sickening squelching sound and Hermione's whimpers redoubled.
"Hermione?!" I couldn't move, but apparently Voldemort likes to hear her victims beg, because I could talk. Hermione didn't respond. My heart skipped a beat. "Hermione?"
"Don't worry, I haven't started with your little mudblood friend. Yet." She twitched her wand to the side and I floated around to face the rest of the room. It was huge, nearly three stories of empty space, and in the center sat the Mirror of Erised. Despite how horrifying being even this close to that thing was, it wasn't what held my attention.
Lying maybe thirty feet from the Mirror, just a bit away from the door, was Fluffy the Cerberus—or rather what was left of him. His left head was just gone. The middle head had a huge dent in it but otherwise seemed ok. His right head was crushed. I could see bits of brain scattered around him. There should have been blood but I couldn't see any.
"Putting the Stone in the Mirror of Erised was a good idea, I admit, but leaving a Cerberus to guard it? It's almost like Dumbledore wanted me to get it," Voldemort said. "A beast that tied to death and the Underworld? Finding a ritual to disable the Mirror was almost too easy." I rotated to face her again. "Of course, the Cerberus blood won't be enough on its own, which is where you two come in." Her smile was serene, almost inviting. The urge to scream was nearly overwhelming but, through a force of will that I didn't know I had, I forced myself to speak normally.
"That's not really necessary, is it? I mean surely the great Lord Voldemort can get through the protections without sacrificing us?" Stall, I just needed to stall until I could come up with something.
Anything.
She just raised an amused eyebrow, "Really?" I tried to shrug with my face. I wasn't very successful. There were many good reasons I wasn't put into Slytherin, but I was beginning to think the main reason was because I couldn't act to save my life—literally, it seems.
Time to try another tactic, "What do you mean last minute?"
"I had meant to wait until summer break. The annual IWC meeting keeps Dumbledore busy for weeks. Perfect opportunity, really." She sighed, "But this body is failing, so I was forced to act early."
"That must have been frustrating," I consoled. Come on Alex, think!
"It was, it really was," Voldemort nodded. "But then Dumbledore gets called to Rome early for some emergency or another, and then I catch the two of you out of bed. Ah, it's times like this that I realize that the universe wants me to succeed." She stabbed her wand out and another squelching sound echoed around the room.
I swallowed, fighting the urge to be sick. Behind me Hermione started throwing up. While Voldemort was busy, I tried to reassure Hermione.
"I know you're scared, but I promise you that I will get you out of this. I promise." Hermione's only response was to start crying. Please God, don't make me a liar.
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Voldemort twirled her wand and a red light filled the room before fading away. "Especially as it's time for the two of you to die." She cocked her brow, "Who wants to go first?"
"Me, I'll go first," I said. She raised her wand. "But maybe we can make a deal?"
She started laughing, a deep full body laugh before stopping abruptly. Whatever good cheer she had displayed earlier was gone and in its place was something barely human. Anger emanated from her in waves and her magic, something that I hadn't been able to sense until now, exploded out of her with crushing force, drowning me in its power. I gagged, unable to stop myself from losing my dinner when I tasted her magic. Corpses, death and schadenfreude, and something else that didn't quite feel at home with the rest of her.
"And just what do you think you could possibly offer me that would make me even consider sparing you?" Her voice, now cold and merciless, hissed out. "You who nearly killed me! You whose very life is an insult to my name!" She leaned in close, her voice falling to a whisper. "Tell me, what do you offer? Speak well child, I am in no mood for games."
I could barely breathe, and even if I were able to talk fear had driven rational though from my mind.
"Well?" She asked. When I failed to respond, she pointed her wand at my leg. "Ossis Effergo." I screamed as I felt the bone shatter. "I don't like to be kept waiting Potter."
"I-I," Before I could say anything she jumped backwards, barely dodging a dark brown spell that slammed into the wall and where it hit, the wall started hissing and melting.
"Quirinus, how nice of you to join us," Voldemort said, voice cold but not surprised. She waved her hand and I was facing the room once more. It had changed since I last saw it—now the Cerberus was dead and there was a pentagram of some sort surrounding the Mirror. It looked wrong, evil, and that wasn't just because it was made of blood either. "Come for Potter?"
Quirrell was standing a bit away from the now open door. "Silence, Desecrator. Sanguinem Febris!" A blood red curse flew across the room towards Voldemort, who simply batted it aside with a flick of her wand.
"Try again," She said, smirking. Her magic still saturated the room, but her demeanor had switched back.
Quirrell glared at her before slashing his wand at her, and the fight was on.
Quirrell was a good fighter. His spells had power and his movements were fast and sure, but for every spell he fired Voldemort fired two with three times the power, and none of his spells were hitting. Voldemort either dodged or blocked every one. It was only a matter of time until he lost. I needed to figure something out before then.
My jaw dropped when Pansy walked in, calmly as you pleased, and surveyed the room before skirting around the fight on her way over to Hermione and me. When no one else reacted to her I realized she was using my cloak, and I realized I had my opportunity.
As Pansy made her way over to me I caught her eye and deliberately looked at Voldemort before looking at the Mirror. I repeated this process a few times before I started speaking.
"Hermione, I've got a plan. When the time comes, be ready to throw down." I only lowered my voice a little. If Voldemort heard me I wanted her to think I was just that bad at this. "Just hang in there." Given that Hermione started sobbing, that may have been a poor choice of words.
"Really Quirinus, I expected better than this," Voldemort said as she twisted to avoid a spell. "You're molding our children's future, and this is all you're capable of? Tut tut, I have my work cut out for me when I take over, don't I?"
Quirrell's response was to launch another spell at her. This time she didn't dodge or block. No, Voldemort caught the spell barehanded and threw it back at him. Already drained from their fight, Quirrell was unable to dodge. The spell hit him dead center and his rib cage exploded. Bone and other things went flying, showering the surrounding area before being absorbed by the pentagram.
"Well, that's one sacrifice taken care of. I suppose only one of you has to die now…" Voldemort turned to face me and that's when I made my move.
I mustered every bit of my magic and will, then looked her straight in the eye and screamed, "Legilimens!" Despite all my Occlumency training I was still a complete amateur when it came to attacking the mind, but I did have a fair bit of power backing me up. More than that I was desperate, very desperate. I was fighting to save myself, more importantly I was fighting to save my friends.
But, as everyone knows, that didn't count for anything in the real world.
Voldemort stopped me cold. It wasn't even a fight. One moment I'm trying to attack her and the next she's grabbed a hold of my probe and started squeezing. I screamed. It hurt so much I couldn't move, couldn't think, I could only thrash in my bonds.
Thankfully, Pansy hadn't been idle. As soon as I caught Voldemort's eye she had started running at her, and just before Pansy reached her she stopped and firmly planted her left foot. Her right leg came up, and with all the strength and momentum she had built, she kicked Voldemort in the chest, no doubt breaking more than a few ribs.
The kick sent Voldemort flying back, straight at the Mirror of Erised. As fast as she was moving the Mirror should have been sent flying or broken into a million pieces. Instead she hit the Mirror without budging it at all.
I got the feeling that no amount of physical force would ever damage it.
The magic holding Hermione and I had failed, and we fell to the ground. I managed to land on my broken leg, sending white hot pain shooting through me. It was too much for my battered mind to endure, and my tenuous hold on consciousness failed.
888
Hermione
"Hermione, I've got a plan. When the time comes, be ready to throw down. Just hang in there." Alex said.
Hang in there? Hang in there?! We were all going to die. This was Voldemort—not some troll, not some rogue Quidditch balls—Voldemort! Unless Headmaster Dumbledore showed up soon, the chances of us leaving were next to zero.
Tears ran down my face, and I started sobbing in earnest.
I couldn't see anything but the wall, but I did hear Alex yell something at Voldemort. All of a sudden I fell to the ground, finally able to move. I may have simply lain there until help came if Voldemort hadn't started screaming.
It was a horrible sound, something no human could possibly make. It hurt to hear, cutting into my mind, giving me visions of, of things. Things with no shape, no form, no face and a hatred for all things mortal.
It was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I had to get away!
The screaming stopped, and I came back to myself to find I had been clawing at the wall in an attempt to get away. My fingers were bloody and most of my nails were gone, broken bits sticking to the bloody streaks on the wall.
A cracking-squelching sound caused me to turn around. I wished I hadn't.
Voldemort's body was slumped against the Mirror of Erised, broken and bloody. The body twitched and a viscous black sludge started oozing out of it, gathering on the ground in front of the body, before somehow launching itself at Quirrell's corpse. It entered through the gaping hole where his rib cage used to be.
Quirrell's body got to its feet in a movement that was in no way human, and then IT spoke.
"I am becoming annoyed." Its voice was wrong, it almost sounded like Alex's Parseltongue but worse, because I could understand it. Its head suddenly jerked to the side, as if something hit it. It jerked again, before IT used Quirrell's wand to launch a wide area banishing charm.
It must have hit, because something slammed into the wall right next to me. I flinched away, only to stop when something grabbed my arm and Pansy's voice said, in a pained whisper, "Circle."
"What?" Circle, what circle? But I got no response. Pansy must have lost consciousness.
"Granger, is it not?" The thing in Quirrell's body asked. IT jerked and started walking towards us, moving slowly, as if it wasn't quite sure how to use its body properly. I watched it for a moment before I realized that if I didn't do something it would kill us. "The other Professors speak of you, did you know? They have nothing but praise for you, 'Talent seen but once in a generation' they say."
And then I knew what I had to do. This thing wasn't human, it couldn't be. Maybe a circle would keep it away. Pansy you're a genius! The cloak still hid her from sight but, after a moment of grasping blindly, I grabbed Pansy and dragged her over to Alex, thanking God for the practice Pansy had made us do.
I needed something to draw the circle, but my wand was gone and I didn't have any chalk on me. But Alex did have the sundae the Twins had given us. I grabbed it and quickly used it to draw a circle around us. It was shaky, imperfect, and the cold caused my fingers to cramp, but I managed to finish it. I imbued it with my will and magic just as IT reached us.
"I will give you a one in a lifetime opportunity," IT said as it circled the barrier. "Lower the circle, let me in and I will embrace you. I will teach you Magicks you could only dream of. I will give you Power enough to crush even the Keeper of the Gates." IT knelt down to look me in the eye. I ducked my head and tried to ignore the shiver that ran down my spine at IT's words.
"I know the look on your face. You have suffered haven't you? Tormented by your peers, you endured their cruelties, and still you were ostracized." I nodded despite myself. "It's the hunger that gives you away, the need to prove your worth. That burning desire to show the world your power and wisdom, to make the fools that dared to challenge you understand the folly of their ways."
Visions of what the Mirror of Erised showed me, the bullies, the purebloods, kneeling down in abject worship. I shivered. God help me, I could almost taste it.
I shook my head and fed more power to the circle. If I let IT in my friends were dead.
IT sighed, "Come now, you do not really think this will keep me out, do you?"
"I-I think it will," I said, before screaming when IT slashed at the circle, but it failed to penetrate the boundary. I fed the circle more magic.
"I wish only for the Child of Prophecy. You may keep the other one," IT spoke again, voice almost charming despite its wrongness. "I saw you two arguing earlier; it seemed as though she had angered you quite a bit." IT smiled easily. "Is she truly someone worth sacrificing your very life?"
I shook my head. Yes, yes she was. "I'll keep the circle up until h-help gets here. T-then what will you do." I wasn't letting this thing in, it wasn't getting me or my friends.
IT screamed again, but this time the circle blocked the worst of it.
"You'd better r-run before Dumbledore gets here and kicks your arse."
IT glared at me out of Quirrell's face before speaking, its voice straightforward and concise, so there could be no misunderstanding. "I'm going to break you." IT wasn't a boast. It was an oath. It would break me.
I forced my voice to be steady when I responded, "Bring it."
IT screamed again, before slashing its wand at the empty air. A Way opened and the black ooze shot from Quirrell's body and through the Way. It closed and Quirrell's remains hit the ground.
I didn't trust that it was gone, it could just be waiting for me to let down my guard, to get at my friends, to get at me.
To break me.
I fought a shiver before I closed my eyes and focused on maintaining the circle until help came.
888
Alex
When I woke up, sandwiched once more between Pansy and Hermione, there was a moment of confusion. How had I gotten here? The last thing I remembered was Voldemort getting Spartan kicked into the Mirror.
When Madam Pomfrey came into sight, shaking her head at us, my confusion only increased. "Awake at last, Miss Potter?"
I nodded, "Could you help me get out of here?" I would have done it myself, but my wand wasn't where it was supposed to be, namely in a holster on my arm.
"Do you know how many times I separated the three of you last night?" Madam Pomfrey asked, sounding a little annoyed.
I shook my head meekly, "No ma'am."
She sighed before switching me with a pillow on a nearby bed. "Now be still and let me work." Before I could even respond she was already waving her wand over me in complicated patterns. "Much better. Your knee is healed and the dark magic seems to have dissipated."
"Dark magic?" I asked confused, and more than a little concerned.
Madam Pomfrey shook her head, "No need to worry, dear. It's normal to have some of it clinging to you after something like that happens. The important thing to remember is that you're safe and healthy."
"Oh, okay," I said.
"That's the spirit dear," She smiled comfortingly. "I'd best go get Professor Dumbledore, he wanted to talk to as soon as you were awake."
With that she went to her office, and there must have been a Floo in there because out walked Dumbledore not a minute later.
"How are you feeling, Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked, after sitting down in a conjured armchair.
"Pretty good considering… everything," I said honestly.
"Lemon drop?" he asked, getting out a small bag of the things. I nodded, and happily accepted a handful. "Now I know it's going to be difficult, but I need you to go over what happened last night."
I did, starting from when Voldemort took us to when I passed out. "That's all I remember." The only thing I left out was my attempt at Legilimency.
"That must have been trying," Dumbledore said. "That you and your friends managed to accomplish what you did is most impressive, almost Gryffindor-ish." His twinkling eyes told me he was attempting to lighten the mood.
"More Ravenclaw-ish, I'd say. After all 'twas my wit that saved the day, not simple bravery," I said haughtily, before sobering up. "Sir, what was she after? She kept saying something about a Stone, but what stone?" I wanted to see how honest Dumbledore would be with me. I admit I was surprised by his answer.
"Voldemort was under the impression that the Philosopher's Stone was here."
"Was it?" I asked.
"What do you know about the Philosopher's Stone Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked instead.
"You can use it for two things, either to make gold from lead or to make the Elixir of Life," I said.
Dumbledore nodded, "Do you know who made it?" I nodded, and he continued. "Master Flamel made it in the early sixteen hundreds as a way to try and save his wife who was dying. He knew the only way to save her was the Elixir of Life and the only way to make that was to make the Philosopher's Stone. He made it and saved her life. The problem came when others found out that he had managed to make it."
"What'd he do?" I asked.
"What was he to do? Master Flamel was a Master Alchemist but he was no fighter. So he did what any intelligent man would do, he let Mistress Perenelle handle it."
"Mistress Perenelle?" I asked. "Isn't that his wife?"
"Yes, and anyone who tries to rob a former Merlin of the White Council is just asking for trouble." A former Merlin? I blinked. Holy shit. "But after the first hundred assassination attempts passed and they showed no sign of slowing down they realized they had to try something different."
Dumbledore paused to take a drink of water before continuing.
"Using his stone Master Flamel was able to make a false or temporary Philosopher's Stone. The False Stone was only good for one dose of Elixir but they were willing to part with it, for a price. Since then Master Flamel has made several of these False Stones…"
"And you had one?" I asked, interrupting. "How did you get it?"
"Now that is a story for another time," Dumbledore chuckled, before standing and vanishing his chair. "Well, I best be off. Your friends will be up soon and I'm sure you have a lot to talk about."
"Don't you need to talk to them?" I asked.
"I spoke with them last night," He answered before leaving.
I closed my eyes and leaned back, suddenly realizing just how tired I was. Last night had taken more out of me than I thought. Without someone to distract me I found myself drifting off to sleep.
888
Three guesses where I woke up, and the first two don't count.
Anyway, after we were dismissed from the Hospital Wing, Pansy, Hermione, and I made our way to the Room of Requirement for a much needed talk.
"So how are you two doing?" I asked as I sat in one of the Room's couches. Last night couldn't have been easy for them, it sure as hell wasn't easy for me.
"I'm doing okay," Hermione said. When Pansy and I both looked at her she amended her answer, "I said I'm okay, not perfect." She hugged her knees to her chest. "Last night was horrible, but it's not like it's the first time someone tried to kill us." I grimaced at that, twelve year-olds should not say things like that.
"True, but with what he said to you..." Pansy said.
"What he said?" I asked.
"After you passed out, well IT got back up." Hermione said before telling me exactly what happened. I was horrified, she had the attention of Voldemort himself. On the other hand I was very impressed, telling Voldemort off with only a circle between him and you? There were fully trained Wizards that wouldn't be able to do that. "Enough about me. How are you doing, Pansy?"
"Me? I'm fine." At our looks she sighed. "Really, I'm fine. Annoyed that that bastard isn't dead, but fine."
"Right..." I said, drawing the word out disbelievingly.
Pansy rolled her eyes, "Anyway, I thought we were here to talk about you." She looked me straight in the eye.
"It was a trying night, but I'm fine now," I said, deliberately misinterpreting her.
"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," Pansy said, narrowing her eyes. She was about to say something else, no doubt something quite irritable, but Hermione beat her to it.
"Alex, you said the movies got a lot right, but how right did they get the people in them?" Hermione looked like she knew the answer but was hoping she was wrong. Well, that certainly explains why she was so upset yesterday, she thought I was only her friend because I saw her in a movie.
"Hermione, I'm your friend because I like you," I said.
"You're avoiding the question," Hermione said.
"Some of them were good, but most of them were very wrong." I sighed, "But that's not the question you want to ask, is it?"
She finally looked up at me, her eyes were filled with tears. "Are you my friend because of the movies?"
"I am your friend," I gestured to Pansy. "I am Pansy's friend because of who you are, who you both are. Not because of some movie, not because of anything else, but because I genuinely like the two of you." I pulled her into a hug.
"Promise?" Hermione asked softly.
"Promise," I said, before pulling back.
"Just out of curiosity, how were we portrayed in these movies?" Pansy asked.
"Well, movie Hermione was basically very rules obsessed, considered Professors to be the end all, be all of authority. Bastions of right and wrong, basically," I said.
Hermione blinked, "That doesn't really sound like me. I mean rules are important, but some things are more important and Professors are just people."
I nodded, "Exactly." I turned to Pansy and grinned. "You, well the best way to describe you would be 'Draco's wannabe wife.'" The look on Pansy's face was priceless, and the ensuing paint fight was well worth it.
888
Half an hour and few dozen color changes later we settled down to talk and I placed a box on the table. Pansy and Hermione looked at it for a moment before giving me an expectant look.
I, however, remained silent. Content to simply stare at them and wait.
Pansy broke first, "Okay, I give. What's in the box?"
I smirked before opening the box and, using a pair of tongs, showed them what was inside.
"Is that...?" Hermione asked.
I nodded, "Ravenclaw's Diadem." Hermione made to touch it but I jerked it away from her. "Don't touch."
"Trapped?" Hermione asked.
"In a manner of speaking," I put it back in the box and locked it. "This is one of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes."
"What's a Horcrux?" Pansy asked, her voice intent.
"A Horcrux is a nearly indestructible object that contains a sliver of a soul, in this case the Dark Lord's soul," I explained. "As long as even one of these things exist he can't die."
"Like a Soul Jar?" Hermione asked. I nodded. "But those are all or nothing, either you put your whole soul in or it doesn't work."
I shrugged, "That's why it's a Horcrux and not a Soul Jar."
"How do we destroy it?" Pansy asked. She hadn't looked up from the box since I put the Diadem away.
"The only way I know of is Basilisk venom," I said.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go find some," Pansy said, finally looking up. An eager look gleamed in her eyes.
Hermione and I traded looks.
"Are you feeling ok?" I asked.
"Of course I'm fine, why?" Pansy asked.
"You seem jumpy," I said.
"Just eager to kill the bastard," Pansy said, before giving me a weird look. "Aren't you?"
"This is only one of his Horcruxes, destroying it won't kill him," I said.
"How many does he have?!" Pansy demanded.
"Between five and seven," I said. "I think."
"Between five and seven?! You think?!" Pansy shouted.
"I watched the movies over ten years ago and, if anything, it's been longer than that since I read about them. But five or seven sounds right," I said. "Sorry if my memory isn't perfect!"
Pansy took a deep breath, "No, I'm sorry. I just really want him dead."
"I get that, a lot of people want him dead, but it seems personal for you." I blinked. "Pansy, is he your mother?" It would make sense, Pansy's mom had apparently tortured the heck out of her dad. From what Pansy had said about her dad, he was messed up thoroughly. More than enough to make her want vengeance.
And it's not like it would be the first time a same sex couple had had children that were biologically theirs. There were a dozen rituals and potions that could help with that, though I didn't think Voldemort would want to be the woman of the relationship. Then again I hadn't expected him to possess Madam Hooch, so what did I know?
"What!?" Hermione asked, looking nearly as startled as I felt.
"I am only going to say this once," Pansy said, looking me straight in the eye. "The Dark Lord is not my mother." She sighed, "But you could say that he introduced them."
"Oh," I nodded. "Makes sense."
"Now that that's out of the way, can we get back to destroying the damn thing?" Pansy asked.
"It's not that easy, I'm pretty sure the Basilisk is still alive and, while I think it will listen to me because I'm a speaker, I'm not positive," I said. I had planned on going down there sometime after Voldemort, or rather whoever he was possessing, was taken care of this year. But without my broom I was bereft of a fast exit if the Basilisk turned violent. I explained that to them. "…and even if I had my broom it would only seat two."
"Too bad the Room can't just make you a broom," Hermione said frowning.
I blinked, "Actually, that gives me an idea." I stood and started for the door, only to stop when I realized they weren't following me. "Come on!" I said, "Oh, and grab the box please."
I waited in the hall for them to catch up, and once they joined me I had the Room summon the storeroom where I first got the Diadem.
"We can't take anything out of the Room that it makes, but we can take out things that are put in it," I said. "And through the years the elves have stuffed it full of a lot of things. I'm willing to bet that there's at least one broom in there."
Once the door appeared I opened it and performed the summoning charm. "Accio brooms." The spell took more out of me than I expected, but I didn't think much of it. I'd had a hard day yesterday, some residual weakness wasn't out of the ordinary.
At least that's what I thought, but as I saw the swarm of brooms headed my way I realized I should probably have been more precise in my wording. I also realized that the swarm of brooms was traveling at a fair clip and if they hit me I would probably resemble a porcupine. So being the wise and well-traveled individual that I am, I released a squeak of dismay and dropped to the floor.
Before the brooms could even reach me Pansy closed the door. I got to my feet and, after the sound of brooms impacting the wall stopped, opened the door and grabbed three of them before closing it again. I kept one for myself and gave the others to Pansy and Hermione, who were for some reason giving me matching looks of exasperation.
I blinked innocently, "What? Did you change your minds, or are we still doing this?"
"Really? You're not even goi—you know what? Never mind, let's just go," Pansy said.
I mounted the broom and, once safely invisible, started smirking. "Well? Let's go." Tension safely dissipated.
Pansy and Hermione quickly followed suit, and together we flew to Myrtle's bathroom. Thankfully no one was around. Even so, before I opened the entrance I made sure to use my magic sense just to be safe.
"Before we do this," I said, speaking to an invisible audience, "If the Basilisk gets violent we fly out of there fastest, got it?" My audience voiced agreement and I hissed at the sink. "Open." Even though I couldn't see them I still heard their reaction—matching intakes of breath, a nearly palpable shudder, followed by a sudden silence.
"Right, follow me," I said, before starting down the tunnel.
The tunnel was slimy. Unidentifiable goop dripped from every surface of the place and the smell was horrible. It took nearly ten minutes of flying at a good clip before we left the tunnel and entered the Chamber proper. It was about what I expected; wet, slimy, smelly, and decorated with far too many snake motifs.
"Through the door," I whispered, and only continued when I heard Pansy and Hermione voice agreement. "Open." This time I ignored their reactions and flew through the door. Only to freeze when I saw the Basilisk waiting for us, or rather, what was left of it.
The head of the Basilisk was resting on the floor near the entrance. It only had one eye and its neck abruptly stopped a few feet down. A large puddle of what I think was congealed blood stained the floor around it. The rest of the snake hung, limply, from the statue of Salazar Slytherin.
"Does it need to be alive for the venom to work?" Pansy asked.
"You're supposed to be quiet," I said, still staring at the head.
"It's dead, I don't think talking is going to make it attack us, Ice Queen," Pansy said.
"As long as the venom's there, it should work," I said. "You want to do the honors?"
"I'll do it," Hermione said, sounding determined. I frowned, last night had really affected her if she wanted to do this.
"You sure?" I asked.
"Yes," Hermione said.
Pansy and I levitated the Basilisk's mouth open, and Hermione carefully placed the Diadem inside with the tongs.
"Back away, it shouldn't be dangerous but better safe than sorry," I said. I gave her a moment to fly backwards. "NOW!"
Both Pansy and I released the levitation spell, and the mouth swung closed. The fangs came down and hit the Diadem head on. Nothing happened.
I stared at it open mouthed, and still, nothing happened.
I started panicking.
