꧁☬༒ᵞᴼᵁᴿ ᴾᴼᵛ༒☬꧂

I saw Ginny came over to Harry and Ron and sat down next to her brother. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.

"What's up?" I heard Ron helping himself to more porridge.

Ginny didn't say anything but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of someone, though he couldn't think who.

"Spit it out," said Ron, watching her.

Harry suddenly realized what Ginny looked like. She was rocking backwards and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.

"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

Is she... no.

"What is it?" said Harry.

Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.

"What?" said Ron.

Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly so that only Ginny and Ron could hear him.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen anything? Someone acting oddly?"

Ginny drew a deep breath, and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, and I've only just come off patrol duty."

Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the centre of the table.

"Percy!" said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"

Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.

"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.

"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say

"Oh - that - that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy at once.

"How do you know?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was - well, never mind - the point is, she spotted me doing something, and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, and really, I'd just rather--"

Harry had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable.

"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."

Percy didn't smile back.

"Pass me those rolls, Harry. I'm starving."

"Something is going on about Percy, ever since that Ravenclaw got petrified," Blaise whispered towards me.

"Really?" I asked.

Blaise nodded. "Terence told me that he heard some of the Gryffindors who are so-called your 'friends' are suspecting you and even that Percy Weasley that you were the one who did it all along." He shrugs his shoulder and continues finishing his bread.

"They think, I'm suspicious, huh. tsk." I rolled my eyes.

Midmorning, when we were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart, who had so often assured us that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see us safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

"Mark my words," he said, ushering us around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be It was Hagrid .'Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."

"Stop spatting nonsense bastard."

"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise.

My eyes widen; I turned around him and immediately grabbed his collar.

"Did you just agreed with this pest?" I growled

"Thank you, Harry, said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."

"That's right," said Ron, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go--"

"You know, Weasley, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare for my next class--"

And he hurried off.

"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

I saw them let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme.

"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"

It was aunt Minnie, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.

"We were - we were -" Ron stammered. "We were going to - to go and see--"

"Hermione," said Harry. Ron and aunt Minnie both looked at him.

"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry--"

I saw aunt Minnie still staring at him, and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

"Of course," she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course, you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

She believed that?! That's so stupid! They are literally faking it "Hi," I faked slimed as I got out of my hiding spot and placed my hands behind my back.

"Y/N, what are you doing here?" Ron looked at me and smiled.

"I am here to visit Hermione too."

I lied.

I am only here because I know they are going for the heir of the Slytherin.

Harry and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As we turned the corner, we distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."

We had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that we had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.

Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.

"There's just no point talking to a Petrified. person," she said, and I had to admit she had a point when they'd taken our seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors and that we might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked upon them all, no one will ever know..."

"No, she probably didn't."

I was the one who attacked her... she pissed me off...

But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.

Making sure that aunt Poppy was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Ron.

"Go on and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Harry from aunt Poppy's view.

I rolled my eyes and snatched the paper out from Hermione's hand without caring, It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry and Ron leaned close to read it, too.

"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 a 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."

I looked at Hermione's body laying down, good thing she didn't saw me when I attacked her.

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand, Harry recognized as Hermione's. Pipes. It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.

"Y/N, Ron." he breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk - a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue..."

Harry looked up at the beds around him.

"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again.. and Hermione 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 warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror - and--"

Rods jaw had dropped.

"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

"The water..." he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection..."

He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.

"...The crowing of the rooster... is fatal to it"! he read aloud. "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!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."

Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes," he said. "Pipes... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."

Ron suddenly grabbed Harry'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," said Harry.

They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"I think you forgot something," I spoke.

"Yeah? What is it?" He looked at me grinning at the due fact that he finally found the clue what kind of monster we have here in the school.

"Kayden and can hear it too." I looked at them with a serious face.

Both of them went silent, but then Ron's eyes widen. "Are-are you going to at-attack us too?!" He started backing away.

Harry looked at Ron "What are you on about Ron? There is no way it's her." said Harry.

"Harry, there are only three people who can hear them. You, Y/N and Knight. And Knight is dead already and it's not you, so it means it's her." Said Ron as he whimper.

I started fake crying "So-so, you think it's m-me? Wh-why would I do that? I am friendly with everyone here Ron! I grew up here and wh-why would I do that to all muggle-borns?!" I sob.

Ron's eyes went from fear to regret.

"I-I thought we are friends? I am here to-to help and then this is wh-what I get? Uncle Severus is right, I should not be friends with Gryffindors..." I covered my face as I continued to fake cry.

But then I felt arms around me, I smirked. It works.

"Ron! Apologise now!" Harry yelled quietly.

"Y/N... I-I'm sorry, really. I was just scared. I'm sorry for doubting you." Ron wrap his arms around my body.

I removed my hands away from my face, I wipe my tears away. "It-its fine, I understand. Neither do I, I am scared. The voices keeps getting louder and it's hunting me. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night sweating due th-the nightm-mares..." I breath in and out.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Harry wrapped his arms around me again.

I checked the time, and seems like I'll be late a bit.

"I have to go now, the professors might see me here. I snuck out of my room, I must go now. Good night Harry and Ron." I gave them a peck on their cheeks.

I got out of the hospital wing, before I closed the door. I turned my head and took a peak.

"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."

꧁☬⋆ᴺᴼ ᴼᴺᴱ'ˢ ᴾᴼᵛ⋆☬꧂

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.

But 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."

Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron. "Not another attack? Not now?"

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?" "No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers'cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"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." Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley and also Y/N." said Professor McGonagall.