Again, you all are truly, seriously, mind-blowingly wonderful. How am I ACTUALLY approaching 900 reviews? Spobyistruelove (and her alter ego, Spobyistruelove2 ;)) is such a sweetheart. If I could get to 1000 by the end of this story, oh man... that'd be incredible. There are only 3 chapters left of this story, and this is the climax. This is when something HUGE happens, and you all are going to be occupied picking your jaws up off of the floor for about 20 minutes after you finish reading this chapter.

Are you ready? Are you sure? Okay, well, if you say so...


"LUCAS!" Mona screamed, but her scream was silenced almost immediately when Melissa pulled her wand out again.

"Stupefy!" she shouted, and as a flash of red light protruded out of her wand, Mona was sent to the ground in unconsciousness.

Melissa, breathing heavily, turned to the others. "Who's next?" she snarled, unmistakable murder in her eyes. "Who wants to have a go at me?"

No one spoke. No one even breathed. Several seconds had passed, and Melissa simply delivered her notorious smirk as she held up her wand toward her own head. "Ascendio!"

With that, she shot up into the air at the speed of light, and once Noel, Spencer, and Toby got out of their stunned trance and looked up, Melissa was out of sight.

Noel walked forward, confused. "Where did she go?"

"I knew that bitch was good," Spencer said, shaking her head, "but I never knew she was that good."

Suddenly, there was a hiss from above. To Noel and Toby, it sounded like a completely different language, but Spencer understood the words with complete accuracy.

"Come."

There was a rumbling, and at first neither person knew what it was or where it was coming from, but Spencer was immediately able to determine it.

"Everybody, close your eyes and get out of here!" she screamed, but Melissa had a set of lungs to scream with, too.

"You're too late!" she shouted. "You're too late, Spencer!"

"One of you, get Mona," Spencer said nervously, trying her hardest to ignore Melissa's taunting calls.

"I've got her," Toby said, leaning over as he pulled Mona's tiny body up easily, throwing her over his shoulder. He and Noel started making their way over to the exit with haste, until they realized Spencer wasn't following.

"Spencer, c'mon!" Noel said apprehensively, but Spencer wasn't moving. She kept staring up at the rafters, staring up at wherever Melissa was. If she left, it would all be over; Melissa would win.

"Spencer – "

"NO!" she snapped, turning over to Noel and Toby. "She… she will not ruin our lives like this. She will not rise to the top and take away every piece of prosperity that everyone before us worked so hard to rebuild. She's not going to just bring back everything that has been destroyed for our safety."

"Spencer, think about your own safety!" Toby said desperately. "Please, just give up and come with us."

"You go," she growled. "I'm staying, and I'm gonna fight this thing."

With that, Spencer ran off, further into the Chamber. Toby and Noel turned to each other in panic, but without another moment's hesitation Toby handed off Mona to Noel.

"Take her," he commanded. "I'm not gonna let her die in here."

"Toby, you don't know what you're dealing with – "

"Neither does she!" he cried. "How can you fight a beast that you can't even see?"

Noel opened his mouth to respond, but after a moment he realized that he couldn't. As he hoisted Mona further onto his shoulder, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the old hat that McGonagall had given him earlier.

Toby stared at it, confused. "What – "

"I have no clue," Noel said honestly. "But it's supposed to be important, and it's supposed to be here in the Chamber with someone. So take it."

"But – "

"Just take it!" Noel ordered. Finally, just to get him to shut up, Toby took the hat off of his hands, and Noel raced out of there, Mona bouncing up and down in his arms as he did so.


Meanwhile, Spencer had run off behind a pillar, further down in the Chamber, as she heard the rumbling increase. The Basilisk was coming; he was coming toward her, she could feel it. Feeling useless just standing there, Spencer put a hand over her eyes as she blindly showed herself from behind the pillar and yelled out a spell. "Arania Exumai!"

A blinding white light burst forth out of Spencer's wand, and through her fingers she could see a never-ending pattern of yellowish scales. The white light hit the Basilisk, all right, but the effect was minimal, if not nonexistent. Spencer immediately concealed herself behind the pillar again, but it was too late; the Basilisk had already seen her. Letting out a roaring hiss, she could hear it charging toward her, so she charged in the other direction.

"Imperimenta!" she screamed, flinging her right arm behind her as she extended her wand toward the Basilisk. "Stupify!"

She screamed out every spell she knew as she kept running, but no matter what the Basilisk did not stir. It kept slithering toward her, hissing and roaring and making every inhuman sound imaginable.

Spencer was soon getting tired, and she didn't know if she could continue running. But she knew that if she stopped, the Basilisk would kill her; chew her up and spit out her bones. She didn't have the stamina to keep going, but she did have the wit. Deciding that this beast couldn't have been all that smart, she decided to trick it.

She slowed down the slightest bit, making it think that she was giving in. She heard a satisfied roar escape it's long, brisk body as it sped up, but as soon as she heard it getting close enough, she sprinted to the right as fast as she could, her empowering adrenaline allowing her to keep going. If she listened closely enough, she would've been able to detect a confused hiss, but she wasn't listening; she was running as far away as possible.

Suddenly, she ran into something with an oomph, and stumbled backward. It was Toby.

"Toby!" she whispered. "What are you – "

But he didn't give her a chance to finish, for the minute she started speaking he pulled her behind the nearest pillar.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Saving your ass is what I'm doing!" he snapped. "Did you really think I was gonna leave you alone in here with that monster?"

"Toby, I can handle it!"

"No you can't," he insisted. "You just think you can."

Spencer just threw her hands up, knowing there wasn't a lot of time to be arguing since there was a giant snake waiting for her to emerge so that it could kill her.

"What are you doing?" she heard Melissa shout from above, and she immediately knew that she wasn't talking to her, but the Basilisk. "She's over there! That way! Don't just sit there, go after her!"

Panicking, Spencer looked to Toby, brown eyes wide with fear, but something caught those brown eyes.

"What's that?" she asked, confused, as she pointed down to the brown blob in Toby's hands.

Toby held up the dull brown hat. "I don't know," he said curiously. "Noel gave it to me, saying we'd need it, but it seems pretty useless. Maybe we should – "

No sooner had those words left his mouth than the hat started glowing. Confused, Toby stared down at it, but the light was so blinding that he dropped it. As the hat hit the ground, the light faded, and in its place was something long and silver, with pointed, sharp edges.

Spencer kneeled to the ground to examine it, and then picked it up. "It's… a sword?"

Suddenly, there was a roar from behind, and she heard it steadily getting closer. Frightened, Spencer turned to Toby. "Get out of here."

"What? Spencer – "

"I'll be fine," she insisted. "I have an idea, okay? Just go!"

Reluctantly, Toby gave her a quick kiss on the top of the head as he sprinted off. Spencer didn't even watch him go; as soon as they had parted, she turned back around, and in one swift movement, closed her eyes as she stepped from behind the pillar and shouted, "ASCENDIO!"

Sword in hand, Spencer shot up into the air, flying through the rafters. She guessed that the view from up here would be excellent, but she didn't take her chances; one look into the Basilisk's eyes, and it was over.

After soaring for several seconds, Spencer could feel the momentum cease as she drifted downward. She started slowly, until the pace quickened. She closed her eyes, hoping against hope that she had calculated right when she had done the spell, that the Basilisk hadn't moved too far, that this wasn't the end.

With surprising accuracy, she landed on a platform of scales with a thump, almost directly on her feet. She stumbled slightly, but caught her balance as she leaned forward, pressing her hand to the Basilisk's skin. The feel of it sent tingles up her spine, but she tried her hardest to ignore that as she realized where she was.

She was on the neck of the Basilisk. Perfect.

But she wasn't the only one to realize this; the Basilisk knew, too, and thrashed endlessly as it tried to throw Spencer off. But Spencer wasn't going anywhere; she gripped the beast tight with one hand while she tried to get a firm hold on her sword with the other. While she tried her hardest not to drop the sword, she was also trying her hardest not to get sick; with the way the snake kept swinging it's head back and forth, she thought she would throw up.

Finally gaining the courage to get it over with once and for all, Spencer gripped the sword tightly. She waited patiently for the one moment that the Basilisk stopped thrashing. It took several seconds, but mid swing the Basilisk stopped, and Spencer was ready.

She plunged the sword deep into the Basilisk's head, trying her hardest not to wince at the animalistic wail that escaped it, coming deep from its belly. She saw the dark blood ooze out of the sword, and knew it was time.

Without mercy, she yanked the sword out of the Basilisk, and it screeched in agony as it sank to the ground. It kept screeching, putting up an impenetrable fight as it did so, but eventually the wails stopped, and the beast fell silent, this time for good.

Forgetting where she was, Spencer lost her balance, and as the Basilisk went down, collapsing to the ground in a heap, she went down, too.

Plummeting to the ground hard and fast, Spencer held her hand with the sword out to the side so that she didn't fall on it. She fell flat on her leg, searing pain soaring up it. For all she knew, it could've been broken. She let out a cry of agony as the pain increased, but she had to recognize that it was over. The Basilisk was dead, and everything was over.

Or so she thought.

Just as Spencer was starting to calm down the slightest bit, a slow, gradual clap echoed throughout the Chamber, bouncing off of the walls as the sound got stronger through each vibration. Spencer looked up, and walking toward her was someone she never thought she'd see as a true enemy.

"Well, Spence," Melissa said with a hint of admiration in her tone, "I'm impressed."

Spencer could feel her bones turn to ice as she stood up from the ground, wincing as she removed the weight from her bad leg. "No, you're not."

"I am," Melissa said simply. "You just defeated the Basilisk, Spencer. Do you know that?"

"I could guess," Spencer spat sarcastically. What was Melissa getting at?

Melissa gave a proud smile as she continued to step forward toward Spencer, who didn't just feel like her leg was going to split open at any second, but also her head. Her head was pounding inexorably because of everything happening around her. The Basilisk was dead, the plan was foiled, yet something still felt so off. The tension in the air was still so thick, and the murderous glint in Melissa's eyes had all but diminished.

"You're one powerful wizard, Spence," she whispered, sending a shiver up Spencer's spine that she hoped wasn't noticeable.

"I don't care," Spencer breathed. "I'm not joining you."

"You saw what you just did, Spencer!" Melissa spat, her voice rising in volume awfully quickly. "You know what you're capable of! Why can't you use it to change the wizarding world for the better? Use it for me?"

"Because if I use it for you, it won't be for the better, Melissa!" Spencer cried. "Do what you want, try everything you possibly can, but I will never help you. In fact, I'll see to it that you are stopped if you do so much as hurt a single person in this school, in this world. Especially my friends."

Melissa froze, shock eminent on her face, but it disappeared as she pursed her lips into a thin, thin line. Spencer couldn't determine the emotion that was newly displayed across her face, but she knew it couldn't have been good.

It took a solid seven seconds for Spencer to finish these thoughts in her head before her life flashed before her eyes.

It all happened so fast. Too fast. There was a scream, there was a charge, and Spencer found herself diving to the ground instinctively. In one movement, it was all over.

She firmly grasped the sword beside her and shoved it upward, plunging it deep into her sister's stomach.

Melissa didn't make a sound; her eyes widened, her face paled, but she was silent. She looked downward at her impaled abdomen, blood seeping out of it quickly, and with a shaking hand reached downward to pull out the weapon. Wincing, she slowly slid the sword out of her body.

Spencer held her breath as she stood up from the ground, slowly backing away. Melissa had fully pulled the bloody sword out by this point, and collapsed to her knees as the pain consumed her.

Finally, she slowly raised her head to glance up at Spencer, eyes filled with fear and, worst of all, betrayal.

That was the last emotion she would ever convey, for with that, Melissa collapsed to the ground.