A Tragic Second Year

When one individual panics in the spring of 1992, he triggers a cascade of changes to the events of Harry Potter's second year. The results are tragic for Magical Britain.

DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.

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Leaving the history classroom, the second year Gryffindor boys debated their next destination. After only a moment, Ron Weasley announced, "Well, I'm going to the Great Hall for lunch."

He walked away while explaining, "Hermione is a statue! She doesn't know that you're there."

"You don't know that Ron," Harry argued. "She might hear every word we say."

Seamus and Dean debated for a moment, but the Irish boy went with Ron to eat a large lunch, while the muggleborn wizard decided to go with Harry and Neville to visit Hermione.

"Magical people are the same as regular people," Dean said. When Longbottom asked what the other wizard meant, Thomas replied, "Some are berks and others are nice."

Neville grimaced and said, "Yeah…uh, yes. You are correct."

"Been hanging around the muddies too much there Nev; you're picking up our slang," Harry said as the trio reached the infirmary.

~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE

Great Hall at Lunch

Professor Snape discussed the growing Mandrakes with Professor Sprout. They would be mature after another full moon, and he could brew the restorative potion to restore the petrified students.

'Dumbledore's prejudice against the muggleborn is revealed in plain sight but no one will call him on it,' Severus observed. 'A few galleons from his purse to purchase mature mandrakes, and the students would be restored. But I suppose they might tell their secrets to everyone and ruin whatever his plan is for this school year.'

'Sprout can grow grass on bare rock,' Snape admitted as the witch hurried from the Great Hall to harvest herbs in the greenhouse for the potion to be brewed this afternoon.

Professor Sybill Trelawney sat quietly at her regular place at the table with tears streaming down her face. As usual, none of the other professors interacted with the seer; she had seen and accepted her fate. Her only thoughts were for the children.

Headmaster Dumbledore watched everyone and eavesdropped on multiple conversations at once. Minerva McGonagall surveyed the Gryffindor table – only Ron and Seamus from the second-year boys were present. Both Weasley twins and older brother Percy were missing – Fred and George were plotting mischief no doubt.

'Where is Percy?' she wondered briefly. Glancing toward the other staff, her gaze settled on Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw, and her mind made the connection between the absence of her prefect and visiting hours in the infirmary.

'No doubt, Young Percy is visiting petrified Ravenclaw Penelope Clearwater. Poppy reports that there are faithful visitors for each of the petrified students; Harry Potter visits Colin Creevey and Hermione Granger, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot visit Justin Finch-Fletchley, while Percy visits Penny.'

'They'll be here with time to eat,' she decided. 'Poppy won't let Potter go without a meal.'

McGonagall searched her house table again – the youngest Weasley was also missing. 'Miss Weasley hasn't settled in at all this year.'

She noticed Pomona departing for the greenhouses after speaking to Severus and then the Hufflepuff prefects. Silently, Minerva admitted, 'Hufflepuff runs smoothly.'

~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE

Tom Riddle Panics

The spirit of young Tom Riddle tightened his grip on the mind and magical core of the girl. A few days before, she'd managed to throw the diary away and he'd spent a day in the company of Harry Potter – a young wizard who terrified Tom – Potter was a powerful wizard who could resist his alure. When the young witch stole back the diary from the boy's trunk and Tom reasserted his control over the girl.

'I must move now,' Tom decided. 'She'll continue to resist me and tell someone.'

He glanced at the mirror in the girl's bathroom – the eyes of the young witch were haunted. Smirking, a piece of fourteen-year-old Tom Riddle's soul thought, 'Yes, haunted by the greatest wizard in a thousand years.'

Turning toward the sink with the snake motif, Ginny Weasley's mouth opened but Tom's voice hissed, [Open.]

The next moment, the 11-year-old girl's body levitated down the shaft to the Chamber of Secrets.

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Massacre and Battle

Lunch was boisterous and full of conversations about classes, clothes, the look of a young witch, a grumpy professor, or the things a certain boy whispered the previous evening.

'My castle is peaceful and…' Dumbledore thought just as a giant creature burst through the double doors. The monster didn't roar but the voices of the children rose in a horrible scream. The gaze of the giant serpent killed several students at end of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, but it didn't pause to feed. Once everyone was dead, it would gorge, sleep and then gorge on the dead again.

Dumbledore panicked. In the seconds before he vanished in a portkey, he wondered, 'Slytherin's monster loose today? Why is the beast here now?'

Terrified and lost in the screams of others around him, Ron Weasley was petrified and didn't know what to do. But then he saw his sister near the monster – too near to be safe. Without thinking about his own safety, Ron leapt to pull Ginny to safety when the gaze of the basilisk killed him in mid-step.

Tom Riddle's spirit possessed the young witch, and he didn't pay any attention to the brother of his host. Therefore, the momentum of Ron's body crashed into Ginevra and knocked her down. The girl's head struck the edge of the Hufflepuff table and cracked open. As the witch died, the spirit of teenage Tom found himself painfully expelled and thrown back into his diary prison.

And as Ron's body fell, the basilisk gazed upon the rat scrambling desperately to escape from a robe pocket. The deadly gaze killed the Animagus, and the wizard's magic was released back into the world causing the rat to transform out of the Animagus magical form, restoring Peter Pettigrew to his human body.

From the staff table, Severus Snape furiously threw overpowered spells at the basilisk; he aimed each bombard at the snake-like head to destroy the eyes. Minerva McGonagall was petrified for a few seconds but seeing the children crying and dying around the Great Hall, the witch morphed her fear into anger. An expert at transfiguration, the witch transfigured the dishes and cutlery along the table into steel spears that she banished at the monster with every jewel of power in her core.

Sybill Trelawney stood and threw up her arms, shouting to capture the attention of the basilisk. When it turned the deadly gaze upon the witch and killed her, Snape was able to target and hit one eye. Now, the basilisk was half-blind.

Missing its left eye, the basilisk's head swept around so the right eye swept across the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables. Among the children who died in those moments were Cho Chang and Draco Malfoy. Angry, the basilisk slid the rest of its body into the Great Hall. This left the door unblocked and allowed a few students to escape.

Now the basilisk turned its attention to Severus Snape and killed him with a glance. The beast loomed over the space between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables and hissed loudly.

Knowing she was about to die but determined to strike at the monster, Minerva McGonagall transfigured the staff table into a giant steel spear that was twenty feet long.

"Hagrid! Take the spear!" she ordered. "Flitwick, Silvestri, help me lift Hagrid so he can thrust the spear into the beast!"

Uniting her magic with Flitwick and Silvestri, McGonagall levitated the magic-resistant half-giant Rubeus Hagrid high toward the magical ceiling with the spear in his hands. The basilisk turned toward the professors and killed the two witches with a glance. However, the basilisk missed Hagrid hanging in the air.

"Hogwarts Forever!" cried the half-giant as he dropped from the ceiling on the beast. Hearing the voice, the eye looked up and the gaze killed Hagrid. But the half-giant had kept his eyes open to guide the spear and in death, his hands hung onto the spear and put his weight into the thrust of the spear into the basilisk's head to destroy the brain.

In its death throes, the large body thrashed and rolled around the Great Hall. All four house tables were destroyed, and bodies were smashed and thrown about the hall.

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The Infirmary

Standing beside the bed where Hermione's petrified body lay, Harry glanced around suddenly as he heard a distance voice. Dean and Neville were telling the petrified Colin about a class in charms where they'd made clay pots dance across the desks.

"It was great when Neville's mumbling-something-plant dance in its pot," Dean told the younger wizard.

Neville wasn't paying attention to Dean Thomas. He was watching Harry who had turned pale, gripped his wand, and turned toward the door of the infirmary.

"Madam Pomphrey!" Harry called out. "Madam Pomphrey!"

The matron came out of her office but rather than asking what was wrong, the witch staggered. Close by, Percy grabbed her arm and with Harry's help, aided the woman into a chair.

"The wards…the wards just fell on my shoulders," she muttered.

"There's…something just shouted about killing everyone in the Great Hall," Harry said. "I heard a voice shouting about battle and feasting on bodies."

"What are you talking about, Potter?" demanded Percy, raising his wand toward the younger wizard.

Poppy grabbed Percy's arm and said, "Mr Weasley, something has happened in the Great Hall. I fear a lot of people are hurt or worse. The castle has moved the wards to me and until we know more, I hold the wards."

The matron's instincts to care for the wounded and injured took control and she called for elves to help her. She turned to Percy and said, "Mr Weasley, get on the floo. I authorize you to call the DMLE and use the phrase 'catastrophic attack.' I want every Auror here. They are to apparate to the gate which will open for them."

"Then call Saint Mungo's casualty floo, use the same phrase and demand that every healer come through the floo. I have a mass casualties at Hogwarts."

"But my family…"

Poppy insisted, "Floo first! I need you…Hogwarts needs you! Get help for the injured first!

"Come on Percy," Harry said. "You can do this! Then we'll find Ron and Ginny."

~~~*** Change SCENE

Blaring Sirens

The DMLE offices resembled an ant hill that someone had carelessly kicked over. Aurors scrambled for their pouches of shrunken supplies before queuing in the department Apparition spot to head for Hogwarts. Others used the floo to travel to the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, unshrink their utility broom and fly the short distance to Hogwarts.

Then the first Patronus bearing a message returned to the ministry. The voice of Alastor Moody was heard shouting, "Level 5 Attack! All wands to Hogwarts! All wands to Hogwarts!"

Director Bones took a firm grip of her wand and heart. Her only living family member was a student at Hogwarts. She opened a drawer in her desk and ran the tip of her wand down the line of runes to activate emergency conditions.

The goblins were advised of a catastrophe that required them to close the bank to every transaction but small withdrawals or deposits. Elves were forbidden to enter the bank effective immediately (to remove wealth from vaults).

The minister was advised of the declaration of martial law for the next 48 hours before he was locked into his office or home until the Director of the DMLE released him. The reason for sealing the minister away was to protect him because his Auror guards were withdrawn to deal with the catastrophe.

After two days, the director would present information regarding the catastrophe to the minister and Wizengamot.

The warden at Azkaban was ordered to seal the Dementors within their underground den, seal the doors of every prison cell, and magically seal every other window in the prison before reporting to the ministry with his full staff of Aurors via Apparition for further orders.

The Department of Mysteries was conscripted to assist and every Unspeakable was at her command. Stepping from her office, Unspeakable #23 appeared and she said, "Hogwarts, now!"

They hurried to the apparition point and departed.

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Rumours and Panic

The witches passing through the Atrium noticed the Aurors running to the floos and vanishing in the green flames with their kits and battle armour. None of the wizards or witches in red robes said a word but the look on their faces created a great deal of worry.

Wizards in the Gringotts liaison offices heard that the bank had closed except for minor transactions. More Aurors had appeared outside the bank to handle any angry crowds.

Arthur Weasley heard the word 'Hogwarts' and understood that something terrible must have occurred to suck every Auror out London. When he recognized the face of the Warden from Azkaban with his Aurors in the ministry hallways, he felt his heart clinch – a catastrophe of some sort had occurred.

"My children!" was his only thought as he pushed his way to the front of the queue for a floo. "Must get to Hogwarts!"

~~~*** Change Scene