I Predict a Riot…
Summary: When Hermione runs off to the library before the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match in their second year, Harry decides that he won't let her go alone. This single decision has drastic consequences, ones that threaten to tear Hogwarts itself apart from within.
Warnings: Not for Snape fans. Not for Draco fans. Not for Dumbledore fans. (So pretty much like all my work, really!)
[Bold section is from The Chamber of Secrets Book]
Hermione, however, clapped her hand to her forehead.
"Harry, I think I've just understood something. I've got to go to the library." And she sprinted away up the stairs.
"Hold on," Harry called after her. "I'll go with you."
Hermione paused and turned to look at him in puzzlement.
"Why?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"Because I just heard that voice again," said Harry. "And you're a muggle-born. I'm not letting you go off on your own."
"But mate," exclaimed Ron "What about the match?"
"Some things are more important than Quidditch," replied Harry. "Do me a favour and let Wood know that I'm going to be a little late getting down to the pitch. I should be back in time for the start of the match, but I might have to miss his usual pep-talk."
And with that Harry turned and followed Hermione to the library.
Behind them, Ron shrugged his shoulders and continued towards the Quidditch pitch.
"I know it's here somewhere…" said Hermione as she ran a finger along a line of books, her eyes darting over the titles written on the spines.
"What are you looking for?" asked Harry.
"Here," said Hermione, pulling a book off of the shelf and placing it down onto the nearest table.
Harry read the title with a questioning tone. "Most Macabre Monstrosities?"
Hermione nodded as she began leafing frantically through the book, explaining "This book is about the most dangerous magical creatures that exist or have ever existed. If I'm right then Slytherin's monster should be listed… right…"
She trailed off, as she stopped on a page in the book.
"Hermione?"
"This is it…" she whispered before reading aloud ""Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it
"So this thing that has been attacking everyone… it's a Basilisk?" asked Harry.
"Yes. Think about it logically Harry. The symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent, and Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth. Therefore it follows that the monster that he and his heir could control would be a snake of some kind. Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, meaning that the monster would have to be long lived. That makes it a Basilisk. Add in that spiders flee from it, explains the mass exodus of spiders we witnessed when Mrs Norris was attacked, and that a rooster's cry is deadly to a Basilisk, and all of Hagrid's roosters have been killed… Harry, it can't be anything else."
"But there's nothing in the book about petrification," Harry pointed out.
Hermione thought for a moment before muttering "Of course. Harry, it's the eyes."
"The book says that the eyes kill." Harry pointed out.
"No," said Hermione "It says that any who look into its eyes shall suffer instant death. But what do you suppose would happen if they saw the eyes indirectly?"
Instantly Harry's mind raced back to the moment when he had discovered Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley petrified in a corridor.
"You mean like if you saw the eyes through a ghost?" he voiced.
"Exactly. Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick, and as Nick is already a ghost, he could not die again. Colin must have seen it through his camera and Mrs Norris…" Hermione trailed off, faltering.
"The water on the floor," said Harry, picking up the thought. "She must have been looking down at the flood caused by Myrtle and then became petrified when the Basilisk came along and she saw its reflection."
Hermione nodded enthusiastically.
Harry glanced down at the book, and his eyes fell onto one line. "Hermione, it says here that the Basilisk can grow to gigantic sizes. How can it move around without someone seeing something?"
"You've been hearing the voice of the Basilisk all year but have never seen it," Hermione pointed out. "Where does the voice come from?"
Harry thought for a few moments before replying "It always seems to come from the other side of the wall to where I'm standing."
"Doesn't it strike you as a bit strange that you were always on the wrong side of the wall when you heard it?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know if "wrong side" is the right term for it, but I get your point."
"So, what if it was actually inside the walls? Say, inside the school's plumping?"
Harry frowned and said "I guess that makes sense, but the pipes would have to be huge for it to slide through."
"I suspect that the plumbing is enchanted to widen as much as needed to let anything pass through, including the Basilisk," said Hermione.
"Yeah," agreed Harry. "Either that or the Heir goes along in front of it and uses their own magic to widen the route."
Hermione nodded again and continued "From then on it was simply a matter of finding an opening and letting the Basilisk out. A tap, a plug hole, a toilet, maybe even a simple split in a pipe could be used as exit. The whole animal doesn't need to leave the safety of the pipes, just its head, with its deadly gaze."
Harry looked down at the book again and said "We need to warn everyone about this. The Heir of Slytherin is still at large and I heard the voice just moments before we came up here. Until they're caught no one is safe."
Hermione nodded and turned towards the door. Her eyes widened at the sight of a sixth year Ravenclaw girl approaching the door alone.
"Wait!" she called out, much too loudly to be allowed inside the library.
The older girl turned in surprise at the shout and Hermione bounded over to her with Most Macabre Monstrosities clutched in her hands and Harry following in her wake.
Hermione quickly explained the situation to the Ravenclaw, who was a prefect, if the badge on her chest was any indication. Hermione took this to mean that she was Penelope Clearwater.
"Everyone needs to know this," said Penelope.
"But nearly everyone is currently down on the Quidditch Pitch," said Harry. "How do we get down to them safely?"
"I have a mirror," said Penelope, taking the item in question out of her pocket. "We can use it to look around corners to check that the coast is clear."
"Perfect," said Hermione, taking the mirror.
"I don't think so," said Harry, snatching it from her.
"Hey!" she protested as she reached out for it, but Harry held it out of her reach.
"You understand exactly what's going on and could explain it better than I can," said Harry. "So if anybody is going to risk being petrified, it's me."
"Actually, I'm the prefect here," said Penelope. "It's my job to make sure that you are safe, so I'll hold the mirror and run the risk."
"No," said Harry, pushing Hermione backwards out of the way. "The teachers will need all the prefects to help them with evacuating the school. I'm using the mirror."
"Harry, no!" protested Hermione, but she was too late.
Harry opened the library door slightly, thrust the mirror out through the gap and a moment later fell backwards, stiff as a statue.
Hermione screamed as she caught her petrified friend. Penelope screamed as something on the other side of the door snarled.
The noise drew the attention of the handful of others who had elected to visit the library rather than attend the Quidditch match. As they came over, Penelope hurled herself at the high wooden door and it slammed shut.
"H-H-Harry?" Hermione asked in a trembling voice. "Harry?"
"What on earth is all this noise about?" demanded Madam Pince, the librarian, as she arrived at the scene.
Her body shaking with sobs, Hermione turned her eyes towards the librarian and replied "H-Harry's been p-p-petrified."
"The monster's just on the other side of the door," said Penelope, who still had her back pressed against said door.
"Come away, all of you," said the librarian as she pulled her wand out.
Penelope helped Hermione carry lift Harry's prone form and, along with the others, they moved away from the door as Madam Pince placed several powerful locking charms on the door.
Just to be safe she also levitated two large bookcase into position in front of the door, barricading them all inside.
"I must inform Professor Dumbledore."
Hermione looked up at the librarian's words and said "Tell him that the monster is a Basilisk."
Madam Pince looked quite surprised to learn that titbit of information, but gave a quick nod of understanding. She flicked her wand and a large, silvery form of a tawny owl soared out of the tip. It flew across the library and out through the closed window without rattling a pane of glass.
To say that tensions were high within the castle the next morning was an understatement. The entire castle had been searched the previous evening, but no sign of either the Basilisk or the Heir of Slytherin had been found.
The Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff Quidditch match had been cancelled and eventually all the students had been escorted back to their dormitories where dinner had been served whilst the staff had conducted their fruitless sweep of the castle.
This morning the students had been collected from their common rooms by their respective Heads of House and escorted down to breakfast.
To say that the tension in the hall was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife would be an understatement. The students ate in silence, but it was obvious that it wouldn't take much for things to kick off. One wrong move, one wrong thing said and the student population would break out into anarchy.
In the end, that one wrong thing was said by Draco Malfoy.
When breakfast finished, Dumbledore dismissed them all to their first lessons. As the entire student body made their way towards the Entrance Hall, Malfoy pushed his way over to Hermione and said in his usual sneering voice "Nice going getting Scarhead petrified, Mudblood!"
Behind him, Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott all began laughing at their leader's comment, but they had misjudged the situation entirely.
It had been so silent throughout breakfast that the moment someone spoke, everyone turned their attention to that person and nearly everyone heard Draco's little comment.
His words caused every student to pause, most in shock though one or two Slytherins could feel their stomachs clenching in anxiety.
The sound that Hermione's hand made at it slapped Draco across the face echoed throughout the Great Hall and snapped everyone out of their stupor. Then the brawl began.
In a rage, Crabbe and Goyle went to attack Hermione, only to find themselves confronted by the Weasley twins. That Fred was older and taller than Crabbe did not stop the Slytherin boy from charging in, with Goyle following suit as Ron and Neville of all people took on Malfoy and Nott whilst Pansy let out a screech and flung herself at Hermione, pulling on the Gryffindor girl's hair. More Gryffindors piled in as two dozen Slytherins did the same.
The Gryffindors were soon being aided by Hufflepuffs, who had lost one of their own through the recent terror and Ravenclaws were quick to follow, having almost lost one of theirs had it not been for Harry and Hermione's warning.
Then, almost as suddenly as it had broken out, the fight ended, the brawling students being forced away from each other by magic. Eyes turned to see Dumbledore standing there, his wand raised.
"You will all kindly stop this foolish behaviour at once," he said in a commanding voice, which was met by a sea of mutinous faces.
As the Headmaster began wondering how best to diffuse the situation, the resident potions master waded in.
"Granger, Weasley, Weasley, Weasley and Longbottom, fifty points each from Gryffindor and two months' detention for antagonising Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Parkinson! Every Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw who disgraced themselves by brawling like common Muggles will lose twenty points each and serve a week's detention."
Silence reigned as every other member of staff turned to stare in incredulity at Snape. Even Dumbledore was left speechless at the man's asinine behaviour. That he had not issued a single punishment to anyone in his own house was not lost on anyone, the students in particular.
There was a kind of explosion of anger as Dumbledore's spell lost its power. Those Slytherins nearest the door and who had any amount of actual cunning about them ran from the Great Hall as fast as their legs would allow them as shouts and screams filled the air, fists were flung, kicks were administered and wands were whipped out.
In years to call, no one would be able to recall just who had begun the chant, but within seconds every Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had taken it up:
"SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT! SLTYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT...!"
At the gates to the school, two men arrived, oblivious to the turmoil occurring within the castle.
"Ah, Minister," said Lucius Malfoy, silkily. "Come to investigate the situation within the castle personally I see?"
"Yes Lucius," replied Cornelius Fudge. "The Ministry was prepared to allow Dumbledore to handle the situation internally up until now, but with The Boy-Who-Lived being attacked, well, we have to do something!"
"I understand, Minister," said Lucius. "I myself am here on behalf of the school's Board of Governors. We held an emergency meeting as soon as Mr Potter's predicament was made known to us and we have unanimously decided that Dumbledore is no longer fit to run this establishment."
The Minister looked shocked. "But Lucius, surely you don't mean…? I mean Hogwarts without Dumbledore?"
"I do not relish it Minister," replied Lucius. "Nor was it an easy decision to make. Unfortunately Dumbledore has made it abundantly clear that he cannot manage the situation within the castle. He simply has to go."
They had been walking towards the castle as they were talking. All talk ended between the two men when one of the large windows set in the wall of the Great Hall brew out in a shower of glass.
Shocked, the two men stood stock still as their eyes followed the glass as it fell to the ground.
Then the sounds within the Great Hall reached their ears – shouting, screaming, spell-fire and a clearly audible chant consisting of many voices.
"SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT…!"
"I believe that we may need some backup, Minister," observed Lucius.
The speechless Minister could only nod his agreement.
Dumbledore's wand was a flurry of activity as he cast one spell after another. His casting a body-bind curse at Oliver Wood to prevent him hexing Marcus Flint might have been a mistake, he decided, as the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had apparently collectively decided that this meant he was on the side of Slytherin House. As such he and the rest of the staff were as much a target of the students' ire as the Slytherins themselves.
So between defending himself and others, healing others and taking others out of the fight, Dumbledore was quickly exhausting himself.
"Has it really been this long since I last had to use so much magic?" he thought to himself as he blocked a jinx that Lee Jordan had been aiming at Graham Montague.
Unfortunately knocking students out of the fight for good was proving to be harder than it should have been. Hogwarts may have had a less-than-perfect track record in the quality of its Defence Against the Dark Arts instruction, and it may have offered nothing in terms of knowledge of healing charms, but that did not mean that the students had been left completely clueless.
After all, they had parents and older siblings who passed on knowledge and more than a few of the students had read spell books that were not on the Hogwarts curriculum.
Snape had been hit by the first barrage of spells and ended up on the floor with his tongue enlarged and wrapped around his own neck, strangling him like a python constricting its prey whilst a long tail had sprouted from his rear-end, grown a hand on the end and was now spanking the man of the afore-mentioned rear-end
Neither of those spells was taught at Hogwarts!
Lockhart, too, was down and out. A group of third year Hufflepuffs had flinched in fear as he had brandished his wand in their direction. But when his spell (the incantation for which was "flibberty gibbet!") produced absolutely no result at all, they had screamed "Fraud!" and attacked him.
"SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT…!"
The chanting grew louder and louder, causing the staff to send nervous looks to each other.
Groups were forming amongst the students. Although the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were all on the same side, they were breaking into smaller factions to be more effective.
The nearest group to Dumbledore consisted of twelve students. Eight were attackers and consisted of Hermione Granger, Fred Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Ernie MacMillan, Terry Boot, and Katie Bell, Eddie Carmichael. The other four, Mandy Brocklehurst, Cho Chang, Hannah Abbott and Anthony Goldstein, were tasked with healing wounds and reversing spells as much as they could.
Throughout the Great Hall and the adjoining Entrance Hall, various other groups were arrayed in a similar fashion and were making short work of the Slytherins.
"SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT…!"
Dumbledore quickly realised that if order within the castle was to ever be resumed, he would have to summon backup.
Raising his wand he called out "Piertotum Locomotor!"
Throughout the castle the various statues and suits of armour sprang to life end stepped down from their plinths, ready to do battle.
Dumbledore cast a sonorous spell on himself and called out "Hogwarts risks descending into anarchy. Statues, help restore order!"
The loud 'Thud, thud, thud…' of many heavy feet marching throughout the castle joined the cacophony of noise already filling the air.
"WEEEEEEEEE!" yelled Peeves the poltergeist, a reveller of chaos, as he soared through the air, flinging full ink pots from the full bag on his back at anyone and everyone he could.
Dumbledore raised his wand to shield himself against one of these flying ink pots as a voice shouted from his left.
"Expelliarmus!"
The Elder Wand shot out of Dumbledore's hand and vanished through the smashed window. Dumbledore stared in shock at Hermione Granger, the new master of The Elder Wand as she turned to duel Terrence Higgs.
Dumbledore cursed his luck. He had been robbed of The Elder Wand and he couldn't do anything about it. His other, original wand was locked securely in his desk drawer, so well protected that not even a House Elf could get in and takes it!
Higgs succeeding in disarming Hermione, becoming the new owner of The Elder Wand. Hermione's own wand did not go far, bouncing off Hannah's shoulder and dropping to the floor. Hermione picked it up as Fred knocked Higgs on his arse, becoming the next owner.
"SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT! SLYTHERINS OUT…!"
It was in that moment that the Ministry arrived: Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones, Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour, Senior Aurors Kingsley Shacklebolt, Gawain Rhobards, John Dawlish and Alastor Moody, and a further twenty Aurors and thirty MLE Officers. They were accompanied by Hogwarts Governor Lucius Malfoy.
The fighting slowly came to a stop as every eye turned towards the newcomers.
The two sides (or should that be three sides? Maybe four?) stared at each other with neither ready to make the first move.
Then a bird flew down and landed on the ground. The bird was a duck, or at least it was meant to be. Ducks don't have the forked tongue of a snake. Nor do they have horns. They certainly aren't orange bodied with blue faces and they sure as hell don't bark.
Flapping its wings madly, stamping its webbed feet and barking like a guard dog at a burglar, the Not-Quite-A-Duck drew every eye as it made a scene of itself, its actions seemly being directed entirely at Lucius Malfoy.
Finally Professor McGonagall, the teacher nearest to the scene, cast "Finite Incantatum" and the Not-Quite-A-Duck changed into Draco Malfoy, though he had a black eye, a broken nose, a swollen lip and was missing all but three of his teeth (one in the top, two in the bottom, all at the front, for those of you wanting to know!)
Unfortunately for Draco, when he was in his Not-Quite-A-Duck form, these injuries had not bothered him as those who caused the change had not thought to keep the same injuries on the Not-Quite-A-Duck.
As soon as he was back in his human form, the injuries returned and the pain from them caused him to pass out.
"Who did this to my son?" demanded Lucius.
Not sure whether he was referencing Draco's injuries, the transfiguration or both, no fewer than fifteen students unabashedly raised their hands.
Quite forgetting where he was as rage overtook his mind, Lucius reached for his wand. He never got any further than that as at least thirty different spells slammed into him, knocking him into the Aurors standing behind him.
Several of those Aurors returned fire, despite Madam Bones shouting at them to stand down Dumbledore ordered the students to do the same, but they were past listening to him. This Battle of Hogwarts was one that the students were never going to win, but they went down fighting.
To say that the Daily Prophet had a field day following this event would be an understatement. They got to attack everybody in their pages, and there was nothing that any of them could do about it.
Dumbledore was crucified for failing to deal with the situation, the staff were vilified for allowing things to escalate as much as they had, the students on both sides were disparaged for brining shame onto their houses and families, the Ministry was criticised both for being too heavy-handed with the students and at the same time for not stepping in to deal with the Heir situation sooner.
At the end of it all every staff member, except Madam Pomfrey who was needed in the Hospital Wing, was booted out of Hogwarts and more than half of the Aurors and MLE Officers who had been involved were suspended pending investigation. The Hospital Wing was filled to overflowing with injured people (mostly students) and experts from St Mungo's had to be called in.
Parents attempted to storm the castle and take their children home, but the Ministry had decided that no one student was to leave the castle until the Heir was found.
The students not in the Hospital Wing were confined to their respective Common Rooms and Dormitories, with the House Elves serving their meals there. The rooms and corridors of the castle were now being patrolled regularly by Aurors, MLE Officers and even a few Hit-Wizards as Unspeakables combed the castle looking for the entrance to the legendary Chamber of Secrets whilst Madam Bones, Scrimgeour and Rhobards conducted interviews of each student.
They found nothing, but three days later, a mysterious message written in blood appeared on the wall beneath the message posted the previous Halloween.
It read "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
A quick headcount discovered that the missing student was Ginny Weasley, leaving the Ministry puzzled. She was a pure blood, so why would she be attacked.
That afternoon, efforts to find the Chamber were increased tenfold, but with no luck.
Hermione Granger had had enough! Keeping the school in lock-down was one thing, imprisoning them in their common rooms was quite another. She hadn't been allowed near the library in a long time and even worse, all attempts to go and see Harry had been disallowed.
In the end she raided Harry's trunk, slipped his invisibility cloak into her pocket and waited for everyone else in Gryffindor Tower to go to bed.
Tom Riddle tested Ginny Weasley's wand and was happy to find that he could use magic. The process of draining her entire life force was not yet done, but he had a task to complete. He knew that the castle was crawling with Aurors and Unspeakables, a situation that he was not happy about. He needed to get out as quickly as he could. Not yet being fully formed would only serve him in the long run. If he were spotted, there was little that anyone could do to him apart from destroy the diary, which he fully intended to leave in the Chamber with the bint's body.
He made his way out of the Chamber and stepped out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Although he was eager to leave the castle, he had one last job to do.
He cast a disillusionment charm on himself and then began heading for the Hospital Wing. Harry Potter would die tonight!
Alastor Moody's magical eye to the left, locking through a wall at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open. When a second-year girl climbed out, he moved to intercept.
Rounding a corner, he got a clearer view of her, but only with his magical eye. The real eye saw nothing and he quickly deduced that she was actually under and invisibility cloak. She saw him and clamped a hand over to mouth to hide her breathing while she walked more slowly.
Intrigued, Moody pretended to have not noticed her and walked past her. A few moments later he heard her footsteps speed up slightly. Turning, he pulled his own invisibility cloak out of his pocket, cast a silencing charm on himself and followed in her wake.
Aided by his disillusionment charm, Tom Riddle easily knocked out the two MLE Officers guarding the Hospital Wing and then slipped in through the doors.
He searched through one bed after another until he found the one containing the petrified form of Harry Potter.
A superior smirk appeared on his face, one that put those of Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape to shame.
"Well, well, if it isn't the great Harry Potter," he spoke, keeping his voice low. "There are a great many things that I wonder about you. Many things that I would dearly like to know. Unfortunately I do not have the time and you are in no position to reveal your secrets. All that really matters is that I, Lord Voldemort, have now returned to life, and I will make certain that everyone in the world will fear that name once again."
He gave a flick of the wand in his hand and above Harry's bed there appeared a glowing green skull with a long serpent stretching out from between the jaws like a grotesque tongue.
"Now that they will know exactly who it was that finally finished off the great Harry Potter, I will kill you!"
He raised his wand and pointed it directly at the lightning-bolt shaped scar on Harry's forehead.
Hermione paused at the sight of the two MLE Officers lying spread-eagle on the floor outside the Hospital Wing. Immediately recognising that something was wrong, the Gryffindor side of her had her opening the door before she could think the situation through.
In the gloom she could make out a figure standing further along the row of beds. The person had not noticed the door opening and certainly had not seen her. The person was talking, but she could not quite hear it so she crept closer.
With a sudden jolt she came to a stop, certain that she had just heard the person mention Lord Voldemort. A moment later there was a flash from the tip of a wand and a green glowing skull with a snake for a tongue appeared in the air above a bed near the figure.
In the glow Hermione realised that the person on the bed was Harry. As the figure turned to point their wand at Harry's face, Hermione realised that there was a green trim on the person's black robes.
That was all she needed to reach for the water jug sitting on a table at the foot of the nearest bed.
Tom Riddle heard a whispered "Depulso" and turned towards the noise, just in time for a full water jug to smash into his face.
He fell to the ground, his stolen wand rolling away from his limp fingers. He had not been as impervious to damage as he had thought, nor had his magic been strong enough to maintain his disillusionment charm. He had been so wrapped up in addressing the vulnerable Harry Potter that he had completely missed the disillusionment spell wearing off.
Hermione's scream of "Bastard!" woke up everyone in the Hospital Wing who was not petrified or heavily sedated. Several of them, including Neville Longbottom, sat bolt upright just in time see something silky and shimmering fall delicately to the floor as Hermione Granger appeared out of thin air, leaping with the aid of a burst of accidental magic to land on top of another student who looked to be in his sixth or seventh year. That the boy was already unconscious was apparently of no concern to the girl as she screamed, kicked, slapped and scratched.
"Hermione, what's going on?" demanded Neville.
"HE WAS GOING TO KILL HARRY!" was her screamed answer as she fisted the boy's hair in her hands and began bashing the back of his skull against the stone floor.
That was all the encouragement Neville needed to get out of his bed and lend Hermione a hand… or should that be foot?
Any other student who could do so quickly copied his actions.
This was the scene that greeted Madam Pomfrey and she came storming out of her private quarters, trying to brandish her wand and pull on a pink dressing gown at the same time.
A second later Moody arrived and pulled off his invisibility cloak, cursing his artificial leg for holding him up.
Immediately his eyes locked onto the Dark Mark hovering over one of the beds and he sent out an alert to every other Auror in the castle before stomping forwards.
"Alright, break it up!" he shouted.
Most scattered, but Hermione had to be physically pulled off of her target.
Madam Pomfrey was quickly able to confirm that Harry was fine. Riddle, however, was not. His not quite formed body had taken a lot of damage and, in his unconscious state. Worse for him was the fact that he had moved too far away from both the Diary and the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley. Neither was powering him anymore and what little magic he had cast so far had drained him considerably.
Moody got Hermione's side of things and quickly came to the conclusion that they had found the Heir of Slytherin at last.
Needing him alive for questioning, Madam Pomfrey set about trying to heal him but even as Madam Bones and half a dozen Aurors charged into the Hospital Wing, Riddle expired. The newcomers managed to get one single look at the body before it exploded in a shower of sparks that hurt only to look at.
Down in the Chamber of Secrets, all magic left the Diary as the soul contained within expired. Next to it Ginny Weasley continued to lie still. She was not dead, but comatose as her body strained to conserve and build upon what little magic and life-force remained to her.
The task of identifying the mystery student proved to be a difficult one. An Unspeakable managed to take a photograph of him from Moody's memory and this was shown to every student in the hopes of identifying him but no one recognised him.
Within a few hours the Ministry came to the conclusion that the boy might have originated from elsewhere and so the photograph was put on the front page of an emergency edition of The Daily Prophet.
The Ministry was inundated with owls delivering letters from people who were convinced that they mystery student was in fact one who had gone to the school fifty years previously, known as Tom Riddle, someone who had gone on to become Lord Voldemort
The enquiry into how this could have been possible would be a long and drawn out affair that eventually resulted in many arrests, which in turn revealed the truth about a man called Sirius Black followed by the discovery and destruction of numerous Horcruxes and lots of other consequences too long to be mentioned in what is meant to be a one-shot story.
When Harry was finally revived a day and a half later, the first person he saw was Hermione Granger, who had tears in her eyes and wasted no time in hugging him and then telling him everything that he had missed.
Meanwhile a pair of Unspeakables investigated a flooding issue in the corridor where the messages had appeared on the wall. Entering the nearby girls' bathroom they realised that the flooding had been done by Moaning Myrtle.
"Remind me to change her status from ghost to minor poltergeist when we get back to HQ, will you?" asked one of the men as they set about turning off the taps.
He was just about to turn off the last one when his hand froze.
"Hey, would you look at this?"
Hermione was just obliging Harry by describing for the fifth time what if felt like to slap Draco Malfoy when Madam Bones entered the Hospital Wing.
"Mr Potter? I'm Madam Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with the Ministry of Magic. As I'm sure you are aware we caught the Heir of Slytherin, but are currently looking for a missing student by the name of Ginevra Weasley. We believe that we have found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, but may require your ability to speak parseltongue in order to gain access.
Harry obliged and he and Hermione followed Madam Bones to Myrtle's bathroom.
Within half an hour Ginny Weasley was located and she and the diary were carried from the Chamber. With no Heir of Slytherin lurking within the castle, the Basilisk did not attack. The secret to its longevity was some arcane magic cast by Salazar Slytherin himself.
Until there was an Heir at Hogwarts, the snake remained in an enchanted torpor, not eating, not drinking and scarcely needing to breathe. Once an Heir turned up the great serpent would wake up and use its voice to guide them to the entrance.
Of course, with Voldemort never fathering an heir, the Basilisk would never waken again.
Ginny Weasley was taken to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. She remained there under close observation for two months while she recovered, though, sadly, her magic never returned. The Weasley parents were devastated but relieved that their daughter was alive and enrolled her in Muggle School.
With the whole Heir of Slytherin situation dealt with, life at Hogwarts settled down. The Ministry sent an assortment of people, mostly from the Wizarding Examinations Authority, to act as teachers for the remainder of the school year. Most proved to be much better at the task than the clowns that Dumbledore usually employed and quite a few would return for the start of the next school year.
At the end of year feast, Minister Fudge, Madam Bones and a number of other important people from the Ministry arrived at the castle, accompanied by reporters from The Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, The Quibbler and the Wizarding Wireless Network.
In the ensuring ceremony that followed, Hermione, Neville and everyone else who had attacked Tom Riddle in the Hospital Wing were awarded The Order of Merlin, First Class for preventing the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort and for protecting both The Boy-Who-Lived and Hogwarts castle.
Harry was awarded five thousand galleons for participating in the rescue of Ginny Weasley and then he, Colin, Justin and Filch were each awarded ten thousand galleons in compensation for being attacked. An additional ten thousand was donated to St Mungo's Hospital in the name of Nearly Headless Nick, an action that the ghost approved of.
Then Harry was presented with an Order of Merlin, First Class for defeating Voldemort in the first place when he was a year old, and, at his request, both of his parents were awarded the same for helping him because, as Harry pointed out, it was unlikely that he did everything himself.
Arthur and Molly Weasley were also awarded twenty thousand galleons for their daughter losing her magic.
When the school year ended, Harry was introduced to a man named Sirius Black, a man who had known his parents, was Harry's Godfather and who had been falsely locked up for the past eleven years. Given a choice between going to live with a man he barely knew and returning to the Dursleys, there was only one choice for Harry.
It was just as well, as Uncle Vernon's sister Marge would visit her brother later that summer and, had Harry been there, things would not have gone well at all.
A/N: And there's another one done. To be honest, going into it the only real thought I had was "What would have happened had Harry gone with Hermione to the library?" Everything else kind of snowballed from there.
Regarding the Elder Wand, Luna ended up with it and kept it for three years until it was stolen by a legion of Nargles.