88888888888888888888888888
They stayed perfectly still in front of the great beast. The smooth, flat, somewhat rounded face came closer to Snape. No one moved. For those who had seen Voldemort, the resemblance was clear and made the beast even more sickening. Each one was frozen; secretly scared they would give themselves away.
A distant sound came from one of the tunnels followed by an echo. It was hard to tell which tunnel and how close. The basilisk turned and then pivoted back as if it wasn't sure what to do or where to go. It made a decision and slowly began to head toward the tunnels.
Judging a fair distance between the Dark Lord and their group, Snape motioned to the trio to move quickly and quietly to the left. Ron and Hermione obeyed moving hastily towards the wall. Harry was right behind, but as he passed Snape, he faltered; a slight moan escaping his mouth. Snape spun around and caught him, swiftly lowering him to the ground. The basilisk immediately stopped his exploration and stilled, as if listening, and after what seemed like a lifetime, he turned away.
Ron and Hermione held each other tight, fearing their mutual impulse to run to Harry's side, knowing they were too far away to help, and that any rash behavior on their part would endanger everyone.
Snape looked down at the bane of his existence, evaluating the damage done by the creature's eye. Harry's left shirtsleeve had dissolved and the wizard could clearly see where the poison had gone. Snape surmised that it was systemic by now, judging from Potter's pallor and clammy skin.
Harry knew this was it, he was going to die, and he couldn't believe he had to share this moment with Snape. What had occurred with Fawkes the last time was not going to happen today; McGonagall had mentioned just that morning, which seemed like a lifetime ago, that it was the birds burning day.
'It's over,' Harry thought. Then suddenly excruciating pain hit his abdomen; he screamed, folding in on himself as a violent spasm surged through his body.
Snape, who had been watching the basilisk's progress while planning his next move, turned quickly at the cry.
Ron and Hermione watched the scene in fear. They could tell that Voldemort wasn't seriously looking for the other sound. Instead, he was listening and waiting patiently for a clue as where to strike next. Then Harry screamed.
The snake moved unimaginably fast, but Snape was faster. Before Ron and Hermione's very eyes, Snape spun around and turned into a giant spider, while simultaneously shooting silk webbing from his posterior to the ceiling and grabbing Harry effortlessly with his front two legs, just missing the snake's diving head.
Ron was gaping, he had never seen anything as gross, scary, or wickedly cool as that; the giant spider suspended himself from the ceiling, upside down with an unconscious Harry in his grasp.
Voldemort continued in a sweeping motion nipping and biting at the air. Just then, a voice came from the tunnel.
"My Lord where are you?" Bellatrix Lestrange emerged with her husband by her side.
"The Order and spiders are everywhere, we saw no Death Eaters standing, and fled to you straightaway using the passage you told us." Rodolphus spurted.
Having assisted in their Dark Lord's complex transformation, Bellatrix and Rodolphus instinctively kept their heads down. Suddenly, Bellatrix felt something huge, wet and flat, breathing on her face. She involuntarily shuddered. A hiss escaped its mouth. Voldemort lay there; head flat almost like a dog. She did not look up. Then in her mind she heard, "Look at my eyesss."
"My Lord I have been your most loyal servant, must I die this way?" She pleaded.
"No … Look … they are gone!" it commanded.
She obeyed, and looked into the beast's eyes only to find sockets. Bellatrix gasped, "Master"
Just then, out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, and jutted forward wand out.
"Who's there?" she called.
The answer came in her head; "Severusssss has betrayed usss, with Potter and hiss friendsss."
"My Lord it looks like a huge spider carrying something," she said while squinting, trying to adjust her eyes to the change in light.
Rodolphus who had finally opened his eyes cried with fear, "More spiders!"
The voice rang in their heads, clanging "THAT ISSS SERVERUSSS."
"What! Is that his animagus?" Bellatrix said in indignant surprise, believing that somehow she should have known.
Rodolphus cringed, and his voice cracked, "A SPIDER?"
"FOOLSSS FIND HIM!" The roar exploded in their minds, "I'm sure he isss with Potter and there are two more."
The Lestranges were off, peeling from the beast bilaterally as they went.
Snape was now moving fast along the ceiling. He had to find cover before Potter died. He saw a ledge and crevice up and behind Salazar's head. Bellatrix was getting closer as were her curses to Snape's body. Then there was a scream, it was hers; Bella had been hit.
Hermione and Ron had a chance to move to higher ground when the Lestranges arrived. Hermione hid behind a pillar and Ron behind one of the stone snakeheads.
Hermione's Jelly-Legs-Jinx hit Bellatrix just before she re-targeted Snape. Ron fired Expelliarmus, but had hit an opposite snake head instead of Rodolphus.
Voldemort was now on the prowl and Bellatrix was calling out directions as she cast a Finite Incantatem at her legs.
Severus had turned back into his human form. He had seen Hermione and Ron holding off the Lestranges as Voldemort stalked his prey. A feeling ran through him that he couldn't identify. He shrugged it off and quickly turned his attention to the dying Potter. He whipped a vial out of his robes and cast an Ennervate. Harry awakened enough to see Snape shoving the vial at him.
"What-" Harry pursed his lip weakly, looking suspiciously at the bottle.
"Phoenix Tears" Snape interrupted snidely.
Harry looked into the man's eyes and drank.
Snape was crouched looking over the ledge; Bellatrix was beginning to climb the rock to the left of Salazar's stone face. Hermione having the harpy in her sights fired an Impedimenta causing Bellatrix to lose her footing.
Snape watched this quick exchange and that feeling he had before shot through him again. This time he identified it as pride, which he readily squashed.
Bellatrix had undone Hermione's hex quickly, and whipped her leg over the edge. Then on her stomach, one leg half up on the ledge and the other half down, she aimed at Hermione, who had turned trying to determine Ron's situation. Crucio rang through the chamber. Hermione began her Protego as she turned, but she was too late and began writhing on the ground as the curse absorbed into her system.
"I'll save you as a bite for the Dark Lord," came a wicked voice.
Harry, now recovered, moved up and behind the ledge next to Snape. When he saw Hermione's plight, he started to rise, but Snape held him down.
"Wait Potter, think, use your head and your position."
"Why are you doing this?" Harry whispered.
"Because Potter, you die, I die, and I am not dying today!"
A silence lay between them, and then Harry concluded, "A wizard's oath."
Snape stared at 'The-Boy–Who-would-be-the-death-of-him", then transformed into a much smaller spider and ran out through a crack in the wall.
Harry, not surprised at Snape's retreat, was still stunned at the man's revelation and at his apparently compelled help. He switched from his musings to the present, and swiftly assessed the situation.
Bellatrix Lestrange was close to the top of the Sytherin's stone head, and consequently getting closer to him. Hermione's body was still, but breathing. Ron was running towards her with Voldemort snapping behind. Between the movement, Harry could see the other Lestrange's lifeless body, sprawled in the water.
Harry quickly cast a Mobilicorpus and Protego on Hermione and moved her behind the cave wall away from the main path. Just then he heard a sound, a rumbling, it was vaguely familiar and getting closer. The sound triggered fear deep within him, and on instinct, he cast a Protego.
Suddenly, spiders shot though the opening that Snape had gone through. From Harry's position, he could see eight-legged creatures of all shapes and sizes coming from every crack and crevice in the same wall.
Ron had reached Hermione who was now waking and cast a second Protego; she lifted herself up to see the unbelievable sight. Thousands of spiders descending on the basilisk from every angle; it was covered, twisting back and forth.
Then Hermione saw Snape in his spider form, climb up over its brothers to the top of Voldemort's head. She saw it lift up like a horse on its haunches with its fangs out; she couldn't watch. She quickly buried her head in Ron's panting chest.
Immobilizing Bellatrix had been one of the spiders' first actions; they had wrapped her quickly, apparently saving her for later. Harry watched amazed as the spiders then began to deposit their poisonous secretions all over the great beast that was Voldemort. Then, the biggest spider made its way to the top and lurched up as if to sink his fangs into Riddle's head, but instead it grabbed the empty eye sockets and injected its poison right into them.
The great snake froze, and then fell with a tremendous thud that shook the entire chamber.
Harry's scar vanished.
Through the tunnel, Remus, Mrs.Weasley, Bill and George arrived. Seeing the sight and knowing what they had seen on the battlefield they all cast quick Protegos.
The spiders milled around the reptilian body of what was once Tom Riddle, and then with a signal from their leader Snape, exited the chamber as quickly as they came. One of the larger creatures came from the ceiling and grabbed Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry winced in spite of everything the woman had done; she was still alive.
Snape came from the ceiling and looked at Harry, then exited quickly through the wall.. It was over.
88888888888888888888888888888888888
Please review !