Not mine.
Chapter 18- Chasing Basilisks
When the holidays were over, Remus went with Harry back to Hogwarts. This time Dobby wasn't able to block any barriers, and as son as they were at the castle they went strait to Dumbledore's office.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I'm afraid it's not anything pleasurable, sir. Harry and I think we know what's behind the attacks. Go ahead, Harry. Tell him about the voice."
Now that he knew he wasn't crazy, Harry repeated what he'd heard in Lockhart's office and on Halloween. Then Remus explained how he'd guessed the voice could belong to a basilisk. When everything they knew had been told, Dumbledore nodded.
"An excellent and intriguing theory. But you must admit it's improbable that a basilisk could get around the school without being noticed. Besides, the basilisk stare is always fatal, and fortunately no students have yet been killed.
"I've thought of that," said Remus. "But all the other pieces of the puzzle fall into place so perfectly. Have any dead roosters been found, or have any spiders been seen running from the castle?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Hagrid has mentioned several of his roosters have been killed, although I haven't seen any spiders fleeing."
"My friends and I have. It was like they wanted to be anywhere else but here," Harry said, and if possible Remus and Dumbledore looked even more worried. "Why? What does that have to do with a basilisk?"
"The crow of a rooster is deadly to a basilisk," Remus explained. "And spiders are terrified of basilisks. It's looking more and more like that's what we're dealing with."
"I will have the faculty search for any place a basilisk could hide. I'm afraid the school has already been searched many times since the last attacks fifty years ago. However, knowing specifically what we're searching for will definitely be a help."
"I'll help in the search," Remus said.
"Thank you Remus. Come in the evenings and meet the teachers and myself here."
With that they left the headmaster's office, and something Dumbledore had said suddenly stuck out in Harry's mind.
"So there were attacks fifty years ago? What happened back then? Was it the same as now?"
"I don't know exactly what happened, Cub. I heard talk about it when I was a student, but it was only from my classmates so it was mostly guesses about what the monster was."
"But who opened it?"
Remus looked around to see if anyone else was listening. Nobody was.
"I don't know who really did it Harry, I only know who was accused of it."
Something in his dad's tone told Harry he wasn't going to like the rest of the answer, and sure enough he didn't. Checking once more to be sure nobody was listening Remus said "Hagrid."
"I don't believe it." Harry said firmly. "Sure Hagrid has dangerous pets, but he's never hurt anyone. And we know the monster is a basilisk, but Hagrid isn't a parselmouth. He could never have sent it to attack even if he'd wanted too."
"I don't believe he was behind the attacks either, and neither does Dumbledore. Poor Hagrid was just an easy scapegoat. But listen, I don't want you getting involved in this. The basilisk is one of the deadliest creatures that exists, and last time a muggleborn girl was killed."
Harry felt a queasy feeling, not because he was afraid of the basilisk, although he certainly didn't want to ever see it if he didn't have to, but because he knew what he had planned with Ron and Hermione definitely didn't count as not getting involved. He hated disobeying his dad, but he couldn't just let the attacks continue if there were anything he could do about it.
"So now that we know what's been attacking the others, should we still go ahead with the Polyjuice potion plan? Malfoy's not a parselmouth after all."
"But he might still know a Slytherin who is, Ronald," Hermione said. "Being a parselmouth isn't something a person would advertise is it? So that means if anyone knows who is controlling the basilisk, this is the only way to find out."
There was no denying the logic in that. There was only a slim chance that Malfoy would even know who was behind the attacks, but with a monster as dangerous as a basilisk it was a chance they had to take. It would only be a matter of time before someone was killed like fifty years ago. And Harry had a dreadful feeling he knew who the next victim might be.
At least she hadn't been killed or petrified, Harry thought. But Hermione wasn't finding it easy to look on the bright side of things, especially not now that the eyes she looked with were yellow and the face they were looking out of was covered with black fur and whiskers.
"And the whole experience was for nothing," Hermione said sadly.
"Not quite," Harry said. "At least we can tell Uncle Arthur to look for Dark Arts stuff under the Malfoy's drawing room floor."
"So, where do we go from here?" Ron asked. Hermione looked deep in thought.
"For now all we can do is try to find out as much about basilisks as we can. If only we could figure out how it's getting around the school we could stop it."
They all agreed to get as many books that might mention basilisks as possible, and Harry and Ron left the hospital wing. They hadn't gone far before Harry heard something.
"It's not the basilisk is it?" Ron asked in a terrified whisper.
"No. Sounds like water running."
They took a turn and saw what looked like a small lake seeping from the girl's bathroom. From inside they could hear Moaning Myrtle having a temper tantrum.
"What-er- happened in here?" Harry asked cautiously. Myrtle floated angrily over to him.
"I suppose you've come to throw books at me too!"
"No we haven't. Wait-someone threw a book at you?"
"Yes!" Myrtle screamed. "Let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it. Ten points if you get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! What a lovely game, I don't think!"
"But who threw it at you?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. It got washed out over there."
Harry went over and picked up a plain looking soaked book with the name Tom Marvolo Riddle on it. He paged through it, but the pages were blank. Other than that the only writing on it was a date that told him the diary was fifty years old.
"Wait. Tom Riddle. I know that name from someplace. Yeah, I remember now. He got an award for services to the school. I had to polish it during detention."
They decided to take it to the Hospital wing to show Hermione, and she voiced the thought that had been at the back of Harry's mind.
"If Riddle got that award fifty years ago, and the Chamber was opened fifty years ago, I'll bet he was the one who caught the Heir of Slytherin."
"The one who got Hagrid in trouble," Harry thought, already disliking Tom Riddle. Harry had only told his friends that the attacks were stopped. He thought it was probably best not to mention Hagrid, at least for now. Maybe once they found where the basilisk was hiding they could prove Hagrid was innocent. But for some reason Harry decided to pocket the diary. It might just turn out to be important. Over the next several weeks he came to think keeping the diary might have brought him luck.
By February Hermione was back to normal. There were no more attacks, and everyone seemed to be bored with shooting Harry dirty looks or making snide comments. Even Peeves seemed bored with singing "Oh Potter you rotter." Although the poltergeist had, as Remus had jokingly suggested to Harry, thrown in a "loony loopy Lupin" for good measure before getting tired of that too. Best of all, by March the mandrakes were almost fully mature and ready to be cut up and stewed.
Easter holidays came, and with them the list of classes third years could sign up for. Harry had a good idea of what classes he'd like since he'd talked about it with his dad before. It turned out he ended up taking all the same classes as Ron, making sure to take the classes he'd need to know well to be an Auror. When he'd told his dad what he wanted to be when he grew up Remus had groaned and said "You would pick one of the most dangerous jobs there is." Yet Remus never failed to be supportive of Harry's dream.
As much as Harry looked forward to being an Auror someday, he knew if he could have two jobs the second would definitely be a professional Quidditch player. So with the next game coming up soon, his spirits were higher than they'd ever been that year until after he saw Neville standing outside the entrance to the Gryffindor dorm.
"Harry, I don't know who did it."
Harry went into the room and saw that everything was trashed. Papers and books from Harry's trunk were scattered in every direction. The blankets had been ripped off his bed, and some of his robes were on the floor, torn with the pockets turned out.
"Someone was looking for something," Ron said as he, Hermione, and Neville helped put everything neatly back in the trunk. "Is anything missing?"
"Don't quite know yet, "Harry answered, but when the last things were safely in the trunk and there hadn't been any sign of it, Harry knew.
"Riddle's diary is gone."
"But- but nobody but a Gryffindor could get in here," Hermione said. "Nobody else would have the password."
"I know," Harry said. "That's what worries me."
AN: A special thanks to all of you who have reviewed. I will do my best to respond to all of them as soon as I can. I would have had this up sooner, but my Grandmother fell ill over Christmas. For awhile we thought we'd loose her. If nothing else goes wrong I'll be updating more quickly from now on. Thanks again.