A/N Guys I'm really sorry this is late :( I have had a crazy week but hopefully things will get back on track now :) I might take a week off at the end of 2nd year to plan out 3rd year (I'm really bad at the whole forward planning thing) But other than that I am trying to keep to my weekly posting.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm still not entirely sure how this is going so any plot ideas, anything you want to see, seriously I would love to know :)
Hermione was arguing with herself again. She just didn't know what to do. On the one hand, if she was right, there was a giant snake at large in the castle. However if she told anyone and then turned out to be wrong it would be humiliating. And really, what were the chances of her being the only one to figure it out, assuming it was true? If there was a basilisk, surely professor Dumbledore knew, and was managing the situation? And it was highly unlikely that there was a basilisk anyway.
Even so, she couldn't resist slipping a small pocket mirror into her pocket until she could further investigate. No matter how safe Hogwarts was, she wasn't taking any chances.
Draco smiled inwardly as he watched her fiddle with a little mirror. Finally she had figured it out- with a little help of course. The mirror wouldn't do much, but it did give her some small measure of protection. The sooner this 'meeting' that his father had been planning was over, the sooner they could lock the monster back up and make Hogwarts safe again.
Blaise was worried for his friend. He had known Draco for years and now he was more withdrawn than Blaise had ever seen him. He knew Draco's dad made his life hard but recently it had been worse. Whenever he could he dragged Draco out of the dorms- usually to practice quidditch, anything to stop him from moping about the Granger girl- it was dangerous for him to be so fixated on her, for both their sakes. Pansy was also concerned- she too had known Draco since they were young children, and wasn't yet so infatuated with Harry that she hadn't noticed the change in Draco, and so tried to include him wherever possible. Harry however, who had known Draco for the the least amount of time and was rubbish at talking about his feelings, barely noticed any difference in Draco and so was completely oblivious to the plans being laid around him.
Plans which were apparently being set into place. Draco stared at the parchment that had just arrived and wondered how he could ever have wanted to get this done. Taking a deep breath he calmly excused himself and left the Great Hall. As soon as he was out of sight of everyone he ran. Tears stung his eyes as he ran, wishing he could run away from it all but that was impossible. He had to pull himself together, keep up appearances of being the perfect little Slytherin, even if his head and his heart were rebelling against everything he'd ever known.
He'd never expected this. Killing roosters was one thing, petrified people could be cured but this was different. He reread the letter again, searching desperately for a way out. He was a child for Merlin's sake- his father couldn't be serious. But of course his father was serious. Torture and murder meant nothing to Lucius Malfoy. His blood ran cold as he thought about what he had to do. He had until dinner to figure a way out.
He was agitated all day, and it was understandable really. What did his schoolwork matter for anyway? It was all a farce, he knew what he was destined to be, his future had been laid out from the moment his father had known he had a son.
After dinner he lead Ginny, still under the confines of the imperius curse (his father's work thank Merlin, he had not yet been required to use an unforgivable curse) to the bathroom, making sure she had the diary. Slipping into parseltongue he opened the entrance and guided her inside. She had to obey him, but he could tell that with his father unable to make contact with the girl the curse had been slipping and she looked around confusedly. When he took out the ropes and began binding her she began to struggle. Inwardly he was thankful, as that meant she would at least be alert enough to attempt an escape, but it also meant that now it would be much harder for him to escape without his involvement being known, unless he took her memories of course.
She lay there petrified and he could do nothing but whisper reassurances to her, which probably didn't help much as he had just tied her up. Tapping her gently with his wand he watched her fall into a deep sleep. Now came the part he was dreading. He knew if he did it now she would be far to weak by the time he came back with Harry so he left her, looking like she was sleeping peacefully and returned to the common rooms.
An hour later he snuck back in, ignoring the depressed ghost who stared at him curiously. He laid the spell on her quickly, grimacing as he did so, watching the life flow from her into the book. Before he could change his mind he did the same thing to himself. He felt the energy drain out of him and quickly stopped the spell. He collapsed onto his knees, but didn't regret it- t wasn't much but it would help the Weasley girl, and that was the least he could do for her.
Staggering back to the Slytherin common room he waited for them to notice. Waited until he could take Harry to meet his master... again.