The next morning there was a commotion on Slytherin table - it did not take too long for other tables to hear it too - Draco Malfoy was the next victim, petrified on the way back to his dorm after the duelling club activities.

While the cat and some muggleborn girl were unlikely to cause any waves, a lot of students knew that things were about to change - Lucius did care a lot about his son, his only offspring, the future of Malfoy household, and in addition to that, being the head of the Hogwarts board of governors, with at least half of them in his pocket, he did have quite some power to make changes to the school.

Dumbledore looked worriedly at the owls flying out - if it was only a few, he could still do some plays to prevent news from leaking, yet preventing all those letters from reaching their targets would arouse parental concerns. He stroked his white beard deep in thought - he somehow knew that Lucius would hear about this soon and no later than dinner or perhaps even at noon he would storm into the school, perhaps even utilising this as a chance to push him out from headmaster position. His brows were furrowed, deep down he knew that Hogwarts he knows now is about to change soon.

Ginny noticed way more gazes than yesterday, mean gazes, malicious ones even, especially from pureblood students, subconsciously she quickened her step. Besides her Luna was looking at her friend with concern, she was being bullied herself so she knew how hard it was for her friend, but what she should do now is support her - changing public opinion is not an easy feat, but being by her side and supporting her was more important.

Along the way the pair of girls heard a lot of nasty remarks, no one knows who started the rumours, but somehow most the students simply believed that all those petrifications were caused by either her or Harry, not even considering other possibilities, yes most of wizarding community were gullible sheeps for trusting any rumour, if only it seemed possible it happened at all.

It did not take long for the girls to enter the library and find the golden trio doing research in some more secluded corner of the library. While exchanging greetings Ginny saw Harry having a tired look on his face as well - he seemed to be affected by all those rumours too, who knew being able to speak to snakes gave one such a horrible image.

Ginny was a bit sad that the twins could not join to help the research, they were one of the few ones who believed she had nothing to do with this, yet being the prankster kings of Hogwarts they were also banned from a lot of places… including the library. They were helping her in the way they knew best - pranking rumour spreaders and trying to find some more information from students, information that might help with research.

"I found it!" - an excited voice of Hermione Granger resounded from deep in the library. Looking at the source it seemed to come from the restricted section, it did not take long for the bushy haired girl to walk out from there to the group with quick and large steps.

"Look" - she put a very old book on the table - it was so old you could practically see small pieces of parchment crumbling and falling to the floor - even the self-preservation spells could not keep this ancient tome in good condition, fortunately it was kind of readable, although the language was so old, it was hard to understand.

Hermione waited for the group to read the page she indicated and soon their eyes shone in understanding. It was a story about some crazy dark lord doing experiments with basilisks - the dark lord was trying to see if there was any limit to the lives it can take and whether there were any means for defence - it did not manage to find the limit, but it did find that direct gaze was needed for the kill to work - just looking at basilisk eye did not kill you, it killed if you looked at it and the basilisk looked at you.

Next experiment was using mirrors - his idea was to make basilisk look into a mirror and use a lot of reflections so that the test subjects could see direct gaze reflection in the mirror - unfortunately he never finished the experiment as he was later found turned to stone - there were speculations that reflected gaze did not kill, but petrified, yet by the time the dark lord's lair was found the basilisk was already killed, and soon this story was forgotten.

"What are we waiting for? Let's rush to tell this to the teachers!" - Ron Weasley was the first to jump to action.

"I do not think they would believe us - remember that time we told them about the stone being in danger and just being told to go to bed?" - Harry seemingly noticed Ginny's and Luna's confused gazes as he briefly stopped his speech and glanced at them - "it's a long story, I will be sure to tell you after this mess is resolved" - he glanced at his other friends - "I say we go straight to headmaster"

"Why don't we split up and tell both the teachers and the headmaster?" - Ginny suggested

The group pondered for the moment before finally nodding - all were in agreement. They decided to visit headmaster first, then the teachers if that did not work or if he was unreachable - while Harry and Ron did knew the password for his office as they visited after arriving to the school in a flying car - no one knew how often the password was changed and whether the headmaster would even be in there in the first place - he did have a couple of other important jobs he worked on, so he could be at Wizengamot or ICW conference.

With Luna's remainder, they spent a bit more time in the library before quickly finding a mirror transfiguration spell, then transfiguring some parchments to mirrors and leaving the library, they did receive some suspicious glances from Madam Pince on their way out, but thankfully she did not hold them inside.

The usual silence of the hospital wing was nowhere found as a heated discussion was taking place.

"What do you mean my son is unharmed?" - Lucius almost shouted at this point, his usual crafty demeanour not seen, which was understandable as his only successor, his only spawn was now a piece of rock.

"Calm down, Lucius. While this petrification is somewhat magic resistant, I guarantee you that simply brewing a young mandrake solution would undo the magic, turning them back" - the headmaster tried to calm his former student down, yet he knew he messed up this time, he did not guarantee the safety of students in his school - arguably the most important responsibility for a magical school headmaster.

"I am calm!" - Lucius hissed, though it did seem calmer - hearing about the guaranteed solution from an archwizard was somewhat reassuring - "but where exactly can I get fresh mandrakes at the end of Autumn?" - he gave another judging glare to Dumbledore - "do you expect him to stay stoned for half a year and miss his education? Unlike other families, we Malfoys take education seriously, he even takes necessary summer classes every year! This is unacceptable!" - his voice was angry, yet the volume was down, just knowing that situation is unchangeable, suddenly had a smirk on his face as if he already formed a plan of actions for the most benefits - "I will call a meeting for the board of governors tomorrow, if you can't protect your students Albus, you're not fit to stay as a headmaster, I am sure we can find someone more… fitting to the position"

Dumbledor glared Lucius in the eyes, a glimpse of magic faintly flashing in his eyes, yet it failed - old families had quite a few nifty magic wards on their rings for family heirs and heads, unfortunately it seemed Malfoy's ring had something to ward against his wandless legilimency probe, he was confident to bypass it with a wand, yet the former death eater certainly knew of his mind abilities and might have left certain… contingencies back home - he could not do anything other than reassuring him and hoping the board would let him stay in school, if not as headmaster… at least as a teacher. He started organising his mind with occlumency - he certainly had a few favours to call in for to guarantee his stay in school - at least until Harry finishes his education, he figured getting rid of second dark lord would be his last mission before going to pension, ah how he awaited being able to just relax and play some bowling.

Near the door to the headmasters office, a group of students were trying to guess the password to get inside.

"Chocolate frogs!"

"Bubble gum!"

Various shouts of similar kind were going on for quite some time - their throats were getting dry and they took longer and longer to remember some names of sweets - it was an open secret that the password was some kind of sweet.

"Guys, let's go for teachers now, I do not think headmaster is inside" - Hermione eventually gave up, and urged others to move on to tell the info to someone else. If it was truly a wild basilisk in school, the sooner adult wizards took action the better, otherwise actual lives might be lost.

Luckily they managed to see the small friendly professor strolling leisurely towards the headmaster's door.

Luna, being the only ravenclaw in the group quickly approached him - "Professor Flitwick, I think we have a good theory on what is causing those stone statues"

Professor turned to his pupil with a smile - he already heard quite a few theories today and another one from his raven was always welcome - "Of course dear Luna, I sure hope it's not another one blaming the poor pair of lions, but seeing they're right besides you I suppose it might be something promising this time, or at least interesting!"

The professor approached the group and Hermione gave him the book she found, it did not take long for him to run his eyes across the page as his brows furrowed in worry.

His frown deepened as the students also added their stories of Harry and Ginny hearing some weird voices from afar, every time, before there was an attack.

"Oh dear, this could actually be true! I remember fifty years ago there were also rumours of Slytherin beast running loose and a student actually died then, poor Ruberius took the blame as he was raising acromantula in secret at the time, yet as investigation did not find anything else he was the one to take the blame"

Filius noticed Harry's and Ginny's eyes widening in surprise as they seemed to be listening attentively, but not to his story, he suddenly had a serious look on his face, an the pair did confirm his worries.

"Professor, I hear it again!"

"Same here!"

The students did not notice when he took it out, but professor already had a wand in his hand, his whole aura changed - no longer was he the calm and sociable charms professor, no this was the duelling master, one who had goblins blood, like a goblin ready for war.

One wand wave later Hogwarts itself changed - as not only Harry and Ginny, but suddenly everyone could hear a loud hissing sound and clanging of pipes, professor's focus never waned, even though you could briefly catch his surprised expression as he comprehended that the famous slytherin beast was hiding in pipes of all places.

Another wave of his wand and the book they were just reading transformed into some sort of device, Flitwick jumped on it and actually started flying, quite fast in fact, it looked like he would hit the ceiling at this point, but no, his hand blurred - and another spell was launched in quick succession, it somehow rearranged the ceiling into bricks it's made of, and after the professor passed through, put itself back in place, even the students walking in the corridor above were not harmed and levitated temporarily while this was happening.

The group of students just stood there, mouth agape. Then they rushed to the source of noise to see the epic battle, if they could make it in time as Filtwick seemed just so good right now, so fast, so efficient.

The one and only half-goblin professor, the famous duelist who once won world duelling championship, professor Filtwick was quickly flying to the source of the noise. A special charm amplified the noises of the school - especially the ones he focused more on, so he could hear the hissing with more and more clarity while still faintly hearing the noise of students just above him, the hissing was just the floor above, so he hoped he would get there in time.

He waved his arm so fast, only a blur could be seen by others as another floor dispersed to bricks, another blur later his glasses got bulkier and had a weird shine to them - he transfigured them to periscope, surely he would try to avoid using his eyes to look at the beast at all if possible, but in case he sees direct gaze by accident, this way he would just turn to stone. He was sure Albus would solve this issue in that case, he did send a patronus to Minerva recently, when she would inform Severus, who would inform Sproat and last in line was Albus - headmaster was commonly away from school so emergency protocol was as follows, after receiving a patronus follow it back to the caster while sending your own patronus to the next teacher in line - a common wartime strategy to group up at moving target.

As he emerged on the floor above he quickly waved his wand and all the students were levitated to an empty nearby classroom which was also quickly magically locked in a complicated charm which could be broken by good seventh years, but he doubted they could do it in an hour, perhaps in two or more.

He took a deep breath and blasted the wall with a complex pair of charms, soon a painful hiss was heard, so loud, he did not need to keep his sound amplification spell running any longer. Surely basilisk skin was very magic resistant, yet the pipe it was using to travel was not, squeezing it hard had to do some damage to the beast or even kill it.

As the painful hiss turned to an angry one, he knew the snake still had some fight in it, luckily he could already feel his comrades magic, just a floor above.

Minerva was once again bickering with Severus, their bickers usually consisted on his unreasonable point deductions and favouritism, yet this time it was a more severe case - a pair of students had broken into gryffindor and messed up a couple of rooms - breaking and stealing items, she was insisting on full damage compensation in galleons and perhaps even an expulsion while Snape wanted to brush it off with a detention, just a single detention with him.

Suddenly they heard loud clanging sounds and a loud hiss - just a floor below, they recognized Filius magic, he amplified the sounds of Hogwarts, yet that hiss and clanging - their eyes gleamed in understanding - Filius found the culprit!

Just moments later a bluish-white glowing patronus flew into the room relaying Filius' call for help. The pair of order of phoenix members furrowed their brows after hearing that basilisk of all things somehow was inside the school, then they burst into action - Snape shove his hand into his deepest pocket - there he had a small vial for emergencies - Felix Felicis! The nightmarishly hard to brew luck potion! He drank a half of it and passed it on to Minerva who just finished transfiguring her glasses to periscope ones and a nearby chair as well - another pair for Snape.

Just moments later after their preparations they heard a painful hiss, just below the, knowing every second counts, Minerva's eyes shone with magic and the castle's floor itself seemed to turn to various living entities made from stone - stone golems, stone bats, stone snakes, animated belts, shackles, nails, swords, various weapons and roosters - she did not know what effect they would have on an ancient basilisk as basilisks never lived that long.

Meanwhile Snape was murmuring some quite nasty and dark curses - Minerva frowned, she never liked dark magic, yet even she had to bow down in respect for greasy professors' knowledge in it - perhaps it was even good enough to bypass basilisk's skin?

Another moment later, as the hiss turned angered, the pair of professors fell down and gracefully landed to the floor above, various floating weapons behind minerva and just a pair, yet very menacing looking dark orbs behind Severus.

*cock-a-doodle-doo!*

The sound of magically transfigured rooster sounded, yet the basilisk just chomped down on the poor thing, swallowing it whole, before glaring at the ones who dared to cause him, the king of snakes such pain, unfortunately, as if planned, all professors were looking at his tail or somewhere else, then basilisks vision darkened - the last thing he saw was a pair of dark orbs, then he felt pain as if the dark magic was eating him from inside out.

Moments later he felt a lot of objects nearby being enchanted with magic - strong enough to break his hide on weaker spots, still healing from the pipe clutch! It was Filius! As he saw the stone weaponry of his comrade he had an idea to enhance it as well as he could, everyone knew goblin made magic swords were amazing, surely it was not caused by materials, but their excerpt craftsmanship and magical enchantments on top.

Soon various stabbing sounds could be heard going into the skin of the beast as various stone constructs attacked, they somehow only hit the already weakened spots on its skin as if their luck was enhanced.

The basilisk was already quite worn and considered escaping - he would actually die from this sustained damage if he does not run away now! Yet suddenly he felt that man's magic again - the same hated man who took his sight!.

This time Severus targeted the snake's whole body, his spell somehow landed exactly on the spot on its skin where there was the biggest wound.

The humongous snake twitched and thrashed about, clearly in its last breaths, somehow Minerva and Snape just tripped as the thick tail of the snake whooshed past their heads, they even brought down Filius and fell again when he tried to get them up with his arm - just barely dodging another whoosh of the snake, saving their lives.

The snake struggled for a whole minute, yet after another round of attacks it slowed to a crawl, until finally letting out its final breath.

Casting some diagnostic spells and confirming the demise of the beast the trio of professors let out a breath and sat on the floor to catch their breath.

A quite minute passed and Severus tired voice rang out - "I spend a whole bottle of Felix Felicius, I call dibs on larger share of materials"

"That's fine, just to offset the potion through! We all contributed! I am sure Albus would take a cut for the school expenses or something" - Minerva, then turned to Filius - "Let's fix the school while Severus dissects the beast - knowing him he would not let us help him as if we would 'ruin' the materials or something"

"Sure Minerva, ah a calm exercise after an intense workout!" - Filtwick just smiled as he got up and started waving his wand in beautiful patterns as various debris flew up back in place - his colleague smiled in turn and joined him, just as Dumbledore and Sprout came, following a pair of patronuses the school was already back to its former condition - well all except a humongous snake lying in the corridor, with professor Snape already storing various parts and pieces into vials, sometimes casting various spells on them - he surely knew best which parts expired fastest and needed to be harvested as soon as possible.

As Ginny and her group arrived at the floor there were already a lot of students gathering - surely attracted by noise, and most wizards were curious by nature.

They could see Severus Snape collecting insides of a large snake - basilisk! They exchanged a few glances, smiling as this petrification issue was finally resolved - well knowing that in spring the petrified statues could be made alive again. They could soon see professor McGonald walking towards them.

"Well done! Filius told me all you did, thanks to you the rest of the students and all future students will be safer now!" - not minding the shocking gazes from nearby students, professor bowed to them as if to thank them - "I award you 100 points each for your houses, and Filius insisted on you receiving a… modest share of profits from selling some of the materials from the beast, it's only thanks to you we reacted in time"

Ron and Ginny exchanged a glance with a happy smile on their face - being poor and awarded some money always felt nice, especially it was not a donation of sorts - which their father just loathed getting as it made him feel as a beggar who can't support his family.

"You should be glad to know that no one was severely harmed" - professors smile disappeared as she turned to Harry and Ginny - "Though I regret to inform you two, but some students were quite believing the rumours of you being the heirs to Slytherin and controlling this beast, they actually broke into Gryffindor room and messed up your rooms - a lot of things inside were broken, some just littered in corridors all over the school - clearly they had someone's help as those two are not the brightest students" - the pair's eyes widened with shock and concern - they both had precious items they wanted to keep safe and sound - "although we did found a lot of the items they just dropped in the corridor and fixed the broken furniture, we cannot be sure thats all of them - some passerby could have taken it, you should return to your rooms to double check if anything of importance is missing"

Both Harry and Ginny, still wide eyed, started sprinting back to their rooms, followed by Ron - he was Harry's room-mate, it was his room as well, hoping his Cannons stickers collection was in one piece.

Harry himself did not mind most of the items disappearing - he was quite rich in the wizarding world after all, yet a few items were very dear for him - his family album and his fathers invisibility cloak, you could not replace those with money.

Ginny was concerned about her dear diary - her close friend, Tom. When she finally opened her door - it was a mess, the side that belonged to Bella looked untouched, yet hers was a mess - her items littered all over the place, and a small pile of items near her bed - the ones professors managed to recover.

Ginny had a determined look on her face as she started looking for one black book - or atleast a part of it in this pile of mess and the mess on her floor, she decided to just tidy it up - if the diary was there, surely she would find it once the room is back in order.

That dinner most students were cheerful as the petrification mystery was resolved, in fact a lot of them even apologised to the duo for their distasteful comments behind their backs.

Ron ate happily - his sticker collection was untouched, same for Harry - of all the things the only ones missing were the hand-me-downs clothes from Dudley, he did not even bother reporting it as missing, whoever took it could have it, he hated those things.

Ginny meanwhile had a sad look on her face, after tidying up the mess everything was back to how it was - yet a small black book was missing, nowhere to be found. She could not even report it as missing - Tom himself warned her that the book is a kind of dark artefact, hence if teachers saw it - they might confiscate it, perhaps even destroy it, she shuddered. She hoped that at midnight Tom would just posses her like usual - perhaps he would know who took the book or where it is - it did seem to have some sort of distance limitation, so perhaps going far far away, until connection disappears would narrow down the search to a circle, a few attempts like that could identify the exact position of the diary with some maps and geometry calculations - she might need Hermione's help for that as she did not really know much mathematics, having not received muggle schooling.

Yet after dinner, at midnight, Ginny had tears in her eyes - the midnight came, yet her friend was nowhere to be found, her mind the same - silent, her body fully hers to control.

Eventually tiredness overcame her as she drifted to the realm of dreams.