Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter' and I'm not making any profit out of this story.
-Gravity-
Summary: When you fall you can't blame gravity. You can't fight it either. The first time we fell, we were 11 and didn't realize it. Carefree and proud. We never imagined that a catastrophe would happen in our time. But it did. In reality you can't get angry when you keep on falling, because some things are meant to be that way, you just have to do the best of the worst. Gravity don't mean too much to me, I 'm who I've got to be. Follow the story of the other side of Harry Potter and Wizard War II and you'll se that we all hurt, laugh, live, died and love.
Rating: T for language, may become M for gore, use of alcohol and/or sexual content.
Gender: Drama – Romance – Hurt/Comfort – Adventure – Family – Friendship
Pairings: includes DMHG, HPGW, RLNT and more.
Warning: Warning: OC's and non-canon. Use of French, Spanish, English, Italian, German and Welsh. May contain homosexual couples or insinuations.
Note: it's been a while. mostly due to collage, projects and that I somehow got stuck in some stories. I won't stop writing this, but it may take a while, so stay calm and keep on reading.
I have to thank everyone that has favorite, followed and leaved a review, you are all lovely and helpful.
Second year: Chapter XIII. The end of the beginning
"Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead"
Muse – Butterflies and Hurricanes
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted in noise.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully. Draco made a face.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood, the Gryffindor captain, excitedly. Victoria snorted. Boys and their priorities.
When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."
There was an explosion of cheering. Draco sighed and ducked down his face.
"¡Gracias a dios! (Thank god!)" Victoria said over the noise. "But mind you, Hermione will turn basilistic when she founds that the exams are in three days."
"It seems that leave her like that could be kinder." Blaise said wistfully. Draco glared daggers at him and Theo shook his head, amused at them. The mood in the castle seemed to improve radically. All day long laughter and smiles sprout out of nowhere. The sun even seamed warmer.
After lunch they were escorted to Charms by a high-spirited Professor Flitwick. Victoria looked at the window and sighed. Draco had retreated to his state of cold and annoying displeasure. Quickly the Spanish girl handed her bag to Theo and hurried to the professor. She crouched a little and whispered some hurried words to him. The professor's eyes watered a little and nodded. The girls ran back and pulled Draco out of the line, beckoning Theo and Blaise to come along.
"Picola!" Blaise called and she smiled, still pulling a confused Draco.
"I avoided Charms and manage us a permission to see Hermione." She said almost laughing. Draco raised his eyebrow. "Vous regardez si triste Draco. (You look so sad Draco). She whispered to him, not really looking at him. They reached the hospital wing and said to the nurse that Professor Flitwick had given them permission to be here. Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.
"You too?" She said with annoyance. "There's just no point talking to a petrified person." Victoria huffed and said, almost bitterly.
"We came for our own sake, thank you." And she dragged Draco in. Theo and Blaise following behind. They discovered Potter and Weasley sitting next to Turpin. The black haired girl ignored and pulled Draco to Hermione.
"Hola (Hello) Hermione, I brought someone along." She said, pushing Draco on a chair. "The boy has been acting as a tonto (fool). I daresay he miss you." Draco glared at her but didn't move from the chair. He sighed and traced Hermione's cold hand with his one. Victoria smiled a bit and turned around, walking towards Blaise and Theo. As she passed alongside Turpin's bead, Potter hand grabbed her arm.
"Wait!" He whispered. Victoria hissed, and pulled her arm free. Theo and Blaise caught up with her and Draco stood up. Potter held his hands up on surrender. "I…" he said before taking a deep breath.
"Potter, we don't have all day." Draco said coldly. Potter glared at him.
"I wasn't talking to you Malfoy." He said before turning to Victoria. "I got you note."
"So?" She said, crossing her arms. Theo and Blaise sent dagger at Weasley, who looked at her with displeasure. Potter held his hands up again.
"I just wanted to know what it is." He said. Victoria sighed and sat on one the border of an empty bed. Theo handed Victoria her bag and sat next to her. Blaise sat behind them, letting Victoria rest her back on his shoulder. Draco leaned on the bed frame and smirked at the Gryffindors. Victoria ignored the stares of the boys while rummaging in her bag, finally she pulled out a page torn from a very old library book. Smoothing it with a delicate hand she read out.
"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."
Potter's mouth hung open. It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain. "Ron," he breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk… a giant serpent! That why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue."
"Hermione and Turpin must have figured out that it was a Basilisk." Victoria said dryly.
"How?" Asked the redhead looking at the Slytherins. Draco snorted.
"Hermione is the bloody smartest witch of our year." He said. Victoria glanced at the redhead with a mocking smile.
"You are not the only Parselmouth in the school Potter." Victoria's purple eyes bored into Potter's. If he understood the underlying messaged evaded her. "Hermione figured that out, using the coincidence of a voice that only a parselmouth could understand appearing just before an attack."
"But if the basilisk kills looked at his victims, why none of them are… dead?" Said Weasley, hesitating a bit.
Theo pointed at the beds around them, a good bunch of them used by petrified people. "The basilisk kills people by looking at them yes. But no one's dead, because no one looked it straight in the eye. The first year Gryffindor saw it through his camera. The basilisk probably burned up all the film, but he just got petrified. Finch-Fletchley must've seen the basilisk through that ghost of yours" He ignored the offended looks. "The ghost got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again… and Hermione, Turpin and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she, and possible Turpin, warned the first person they met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror…"
The Gryffindors' jaw had dropped.
"And Mrs. Norris?" Weasley whispered eagerly. Potter paled, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water." Blase said smoothly. "The floor was flooded from the unused girls bathroom. The cat just saw the reflection on the water." The more they looked and talked at it, the more it made sense to the Gryffindors.
"The crowing of the rooster . . . is fatal to it!" Potter recalled. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!" The Slytherins looked at them, missing half of the meaning.
"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Weasley. "A giant snake… Someone would've seen…" Victoria handed Potter the page. Near the bottom the Gryffindor saw, in what he assumed was Hermione's handwriting, a lonely word. pipes.
"The voice is inside the walls, no Potter?" Victoria said and the stunned boy just nodded.
"Pipes," he half whispered. "Pipes… Ron, it's been using the plumbing." He said, and sunk back in his chair. Then the redhead spring to life and grabbed Potter's arm.
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in…"
"… Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Finished Harry. They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it. Draco finally snorted.
"Moaning Myrtle?" He said dryly. Wearly shoot him a nasty look. Potter turned at the Slytherins, who were looking at him expectantly.
"Moaning Myrtle is the ghost that haunts the second floor girls' bathroom." Draco sneered at that. Pathetic in many ways.
"Why would the entrance of the chamber could be in a haunted bathroom?" Asked Blaise with a mocking voice. Potter shuffled.
"We found that the last time the chamber was open, someone died." The Slytherins nodded, exasperated. "We were told that the girl was killed in a bathroom. And, if she never left?" A heavy silence hung around them.
"Makes sense" Theo finally said. Draco snorted again.
"Still pathetic." The blond added.
"Why didn't you told a teacher of the basilisk before?" Potter asked at them, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Victoria rolled her eyes at the Gryffindors.
"We didn't have enough evidence." She said almost bored. "And nobody would take the word of a Slytherin." The Gryffindor evaded their eyes at that.
"What do we do now?" asked Potter. The other looked at each other, not really knowing.
"Let's go straight to McGonagall." Weasley suggested. Draco snorted at him. The two of the glared at each other.
"Let's go to the staff room," said Theo finally. "The house heads will be there. It's nearly break." All nodded and stood up. The bell to signal break never came, instead echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Victoria palled and grabbed Theo's arm to steady herself. Blaise eyes narrowed and Draco scowl became deeper.
"¡No!" The girl hissed.
"Not another attack? Not now?" Pottr said. The Gryffindor's looked at each other with panic. The six of them grabbed their bags and sprinted outside of the hospital wing. They ran down the hallway when Theo stopped in his tracks and placed a finger in his lips. The rest huddle behind a corner, listening carefully.
"It has happened Severus," Professor McGonagall said in a hurried whisper. The sound of hurried steps echoing on the corridor. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
"How can you be sure Minerva?" He said. Curiously they poked their heads around the corner, the two professor too occupied with their talk to notice. Professor Snape looked deeply troubled.
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. -her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.- "'
"Who is it?" The head of Slytherin said. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall. A dull thump resonated behind them. Weasley had dropped his bag and sunk to his knees. He had gone pale in seconds, his eyes absent.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"
"Ah! Minerva! Severus!" Lockhart said behind them, he waved cheerfully at them. The other two looked ready to strangle him. "I dose off, what all this racket?"
"Just the man," Professor Snape said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."
Lockhart blanched.
"That's right, Gilderoy," continued Professor McGonagall. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"I… well, I… "sputtered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" She added.
"D-did I? I don't recall…"
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said with finality Professor Snape, with something remarkably close to hatred in his eyes. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
Lockhart stared around the empty corridor "I… I really never… you may have misunderstood…"
"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."
Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.
"V-very well," he said. "I'll… I'll be in my office, getting… getting ready." And he left the corridor, the spring in his steps gone.
"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared. "That got him out from under our feet. We have to inform the rest of the staff and let students know that the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow." She sighed and the continued to the staff room.
The group turned around to look at the redhead. Potter knelt next to him and pulled him in a hug. Even if his face was also void of motion. The Slytherins looked at each other and quietly retreated to the dungeons.