Chapter Seven: Chamber of Secrets
Ginny's heart felt as if it were dropping into a bottomless pit. She held her hand to her chest as she gazed down at the boy who had literally been turned into stone. She swallowed and backed away just a little. More students were gathering, running toward the scream with their wands held aloft. The Doctor and Amy hurried up with McGonagall between them.
None of the students seemed to break the small perimeter of space around the body. The Doctor pushed his way through the crowd in an uncharacteristically polite way. "'Scuse me, need to get through. Thank you," he said as he reached the center of the group where the body lay. He knelt at the boy's side, just out of the water and pulled his hair back out of his face. Digging into his coat, he produced the sonic screwdriver and aimed it down over the victim. The green light at the end shone dimly.
"What is that?" came a voice from the students; they were all staggering for a better position to see what the Doctor was working.
"Sonic…wand," he said finally. "I made it myself," he said.
"What's going on? Is he…?" a girl from Ravenclaw leaned out.
The Doctor studied the screwdriver intently. "He's not dead, just petrified," said the Doctor. "I've seen something like this before," he mused. He moved to stand up. "We're going to need to get him out of this hall," he said.
"Professor Pond! Will he be okay?" asked McGonagall now standing at his side with the corners of her mouth pulling down into a frown.
"I'm sure that Professor Slughorn will have something for him," he said.
Ginny watched as the Doctor carefully lifted the boy from the water and placed him into the middle of the hall. The image was too much, she had seen it all before. What was worse she had caused it all before. Somewhere in the group of Slytherins gathered in front of her taunting tone. "Looks like the Mud Bloods have something to worry about now!" came the voice. The statement was followed by a few giggles and an overwhelming gasp of shock.
The Doctor rose to his full height and moved the boy out into the middle of the hall. "Calm, all of you. Calm down—perhaps it would be best if the students returned to their dormitories," said the Doctor with an authoritative tone. He looked to McGonagall. "Could you have the prefects that are here round up their houses…"
She nodded, clasping his arm gently with a reassuring gaze into his eyes. Then she turned and raised her slender pale arm into the air and hollered. "Prefects! We're to return the students to their dormitories. All Gryffindor, back to the common room!" her voice took on a change in tone, she suddenly seemed more like the older witch that Ginny knew her as. Normally she would have trembled at hearing that tone, but the situation facing her was far more prevalent.
The Houses were breaking down into groups around them as the Doctor continued to examine the victim. Tom Riddle was still in his Quidditch gear as he parted the crowd and stepped toward Ginny with an extended hand. "We're going to need our glorious new chaser to keep herself out of trouble, let's get back to the dorm before he starts giving out demerits," he said in a kind tone.
Holding up a hand without glancing back to address Tom, the Doctor regarded him in a light tone. "Ginny is to stay…" he said.
Riddle looked between Ginny and the Doctor with a hint of something else in his face and then nodded. "Very well, sir," he nodded. "I shall see you back in the common room, Ginny…" Riddle's hand brushed against the side of her arm and Ginny went to yank away, but he didn't seem to notice.
As Amy helped the shuffle the final clusters of rambling students off, the Doctor glanced over at Ginny. "Have you ever seen something like this before. It's quite incredible—frankly the boy should be dead but he's not," he said.
Ginny shot a look toward the departing students and stepped closer to the Doctor. "I've—I've seen it before," she said.
The Doctor looked up at her. "Where? What is it?"
She swallowed. "It's what supposed to be happening—this was caused by a creature that lives beneath the school," Ginny whispered in a low tone, her eyes flicking nervously side to side.
"And you've seen it?" the Doctor grasped her shoulder and pushed her back to the wall. "What did it look like? Was it alien?"
"What? No…" Ginny said. "Can we just—discuss this elsewhere?"
The Doctor nodded. "My office—Amy, mind the hall until we come back…"
"No! She needs to come with us too," Ginny said.
Though the Doctor wore a confused expression, he nodded. The three of them made their way up the hall toward the office that Amy and the Doctor shared. On the way they ran into Professor Slughorn. "What's all this now? I heard a commotion in the hall," he said.
"There's an injured boy in the hall, he's been turned into stone—I cleared most of the students out, but Ginny here had a fainting spell and I was taking her to have some of the ice cream in my office, always calms me down. I was about to tell Dippet, but could you do it for me?" asked the Doctor in one crisp, clean lie.
Slughhorn nodded. "I should examine the petrifaction, I am the Potions Master for these facilities—maybe there's some simple solution I can whip up…"
"You get on that, I'll check back in later," said the Doctor as he pulled Amy and Ginny away.
They pushed their way into the small room, gathering around the desk. Ginny pushed the door shut and began to cast spells to lock off the room and silence any attempts to listen in on the conversation. She clasped her wand between her hands and looked to Amy and the Doctor. "I know the creature that did this very well…"
"So you've seen it?" asked Amy.
"No one really sees it totally," Ginny said.
"What do you mean?" asked the Doctor.
With a sigh Ginny continued. "A look into the creature's eyes kills, instantly. Seeing a reflection of the creature in water or a mirror turns one to stone. From what I could tell, the creature was like a giant snake—it's called a Basilisk and it looks like…a giant snake." She couldn't help it, her heard pounded against her chest and by the look on the Doctor's and Amy's faces, she could tell she'd given herself away.
The Doctor nodded. "So it's not something that doesn't naturally occur?" he asked.
"I don't know, many magical creatures have to be bred—though I don't know the process for that. It definitely did this in the past of my world and it came back again," there was a long pause. "I kind of had a hand in that," said Ginny.
"What do you mean?" asked Amy.
"When I was a first year student," Ginny began, "another parents slipped me a journal that belonged to…well Tom Riddle. At the time I didn't know it and when I began to write in it, the spirit of Riddle was inside and he poured himself into me and overwrite my soul. It took a long time for all of that, but he took control over me sometimes and made me go down into the Chamber of Secrets where the Basilisk is kept and let it out," Ginny said lowering her head. "I ordered it to attack some students because I couldn't control myself."
"You were possessed?" the Doctor said.
Ginny sighed and gave a slight nod. "Yeah. Harry saved me, he climbed down into the hiding place where the monster lived and fought it with a sword, almost dying to save me in the process," the thought of Harry's heroic actions made something well up inside of her chest. She forced the feelings down.
"We're going to need to figure out if this thing is causing the trouble, Doctor, read up on it," said Amy.
"If we only had Hermione here," Ginny started.
"It's not the Basilisk. This is the time of the Basilisk's reign of terror over the school," said the Doctor.
"Doctor, you're always saying how time can be re-written, what if we just stopped it?" asked Amy.
"No!" the Doctor yelled and for a split second he looked completely frantic. "Part of the problem when I looked at that boy back there, I could just tell that this was meant to happen—I can't see why we came here. There must be something I've missed," the Doctor froze on the spot and stared off into the distance at the door.
Ginny grimaced. "What's he doing?"
"Sorting it out," Amy said.
"The TARDIS. That's the clue, the TARDIS," the Doctor said finally.
"What about it?"
"It locked itself off from us, that's a defense mechanism," the Doctor said.
Glancing toward the door Ginny's expression darkened. "It's not safe then. We've left it where anyone can get to it," she said.
The Doctor smiled. "Even with the magical powers exerted by Luna Lovegood, she couldn't open the TARDIS without the key. The safest place in the world right now is the TARDIS, though there are some things it would want to make sure to keep out. But which one is here…"
"Daleks!" Amy cried out.
The Doctor shook his head. "They would have revealed themselves by now, plus they could easily destroy the TARDIS, that silly wall wouldn't stop them," the Doctor said. "The TARDIS wouldn't even try that," he said. "No—there's something I saw earlier that I couldn't put my hand on but it seemed familiar," the Doctor said.
"I need to get back to the Common room," said Ginny. "Someone might get suspicious," she said.
"Would you like one of us to come with you?" asked Amy.
Ginny shook her head as she slipped her wand back into her robes. "I'll be fine," she said leaving the room. Memories of the incident from her first year and the current one were too similar to be ignored. She staggered back through the halls and down toward the dungeon in a half stupor.
As she uttered the password and the section of the wall moved back there was a bustle of talking and the smell of Butterbeer. Students were buzzing with the news that the heir of Slytherin had returned. Apparently, the story of the Chamber of Secrets was more commonly known in this time than it was in Ginny's own. She walked over to where there was an empty spot on the plush, green leather couch and dropped back into it.
No one seemed to notice at first. She sat there soaking up stray parts of different conversations. Most of them didn't seem joyous, but there was more inquisitiveness than fear or sorrow. Ginny pressed the issue, acting as if she didn't get what had happened. "Aren't any of you afraid that we could all get turned into stone?" she asked forcing a nervous tone.
"Looks like our Ice Queen is showing a little emotion," said Avery. "Relax, the monster is only meant to attack Muggleborns."
"Oh," Ginny said.
"Here, have a Butterbeer," he said handing her a bottle with a playful chuckle. Ginny accepted it, checked the cap and popped the bottle open. She mulled over the thoughts and how she wouldn't be ready to slip for some time, it was afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. Still something told her she should just retire to her bed.