❝︎You're very impressive Clermont.

Very powerful indeed❞︎

2-10: Basilisk

ermione and I met up with Harry and Ron and walked along the corridors out onto the field. Harry wanted to tell us something important as fast as possible. His breaths were uneasy, and he was walking really fast.

"It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets" Harry whispered to us. There's no way it was Hagrid. Hermione and I were now almost sure it was Ginny, whether she really is the heir of Slytherin or was being controlled.

"It can't be Hagrid, it just can't," I said

"You don't even know this Tom Riddle, he sounds like a dirty rotten snitch to me," Ron says. Harry told us he found a diary in the girl's lavatory, someone had tried to get rid of it. When he wrote inside it he was 'sucked into the diary' which showed Tom Riddle discovering Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets.

"The monster had killed somebody Ron. What would any of us have done?" Harry says.

"Look, Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go and ask him about it?" Hermione says raising one eyebrow.

"That'll be a cheerful visit. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle maybe?" I looked over at Ron to see Hagrid stand behind him. These idiots.

"Mad and Hairy? You wouldn't be talkin' 'bout me now would ya?" He says.

"No," We all turned around to face Hagrid and replied in unison. He stared down at me and I looked away, though I know for a fact Ginny was behind these attacks, Hagrid really could've opened the Chamber of Secrets if what Harry saw was correct.

"W..what's that you got there Hagrid?" Harry asks drawing Hagrid's attention back at him.

"Oh, it's uh.. flesh eaten slug repellent, for the Mandrakes y'know? According to Mrs. Sprout, they still have a little bit of growin' up to do. But once their acne's cleared up we'll be able to chop them up and stew 'em and get the rest of the people in the hospital unpetrified. In the meantime, you four best be lookin' out for yourselves. alright?" We nodded and he walked away. I looked over at Hermione who only sighed furrowing her eyebrows.

"Harry! I don't know who did it but you better come!" Neville came running towards us panting. "Come on!" We looked at each other in confusion before following him.

~***~

We walked into the boy's dormitories to find Harry's bed completely destroyed. His stuff was all ripped apart and broken. Everything was thrown everywhere as if someone was looking for something.

"It had to be a Gryffindor. Nobody else knows our password" Hermione says. Ginny, it was Ginny. But what was she looking for?

"Harry, where's Tom Riddle's Diary?" I asked walking up to him and kneeling beside him.

"It's gone," He says still searching through all the broken pieces of glass and the dust particles. I looked over at Hermione who looked at me concerned.

"Let's tell Mrs. McGonagall. She'll clean this up Harry" I place my hand on his shoulder giving it a quick squeeze before leaving the boys dormitories and out to the common room. Hermione followed right behind me grabbing my arm.

"To the library?" She asked.

"Let's go," I say nodding.

~***~

"So 'you know who' could be behind these attacks?" she says placing a book down on the table. I had just finished telling her about the letter from my dad and what Draco had told us about his father. Both were supporters of the dark lord.

"Not could be, I'm almost certain. How else would they know something bad was supposed to happen?" I said as Hermione sat across from me nodding.

"Hermione, by any chance, is there anything about a monster that will petrify anyone just by you looking at it? A snake maybe"

"Well probably, but why?"

"Well Profesor McGonagall had told us a monster lives in the Chamber of Secrets and Ginny was talking to something that spoke in Parseltounge, snake language"

"You're right! How did I not think of that!" She exclaimed looking through the pages. "Here I found one. 'with many fearsome beasts that roamed our land, none is more deadly than the basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death to any that meet the giant serpents eye.' wait, it says it kills anyone just by looking at it then why is no one dead?" Hermione asked looking up.

I thought for a moment, she was right, what connections did all this have? The first attack was Mrs. Norris with water on the floor, second was the Colin, Harry had told me he came in the hospital wing holding a camera, petrified. He must've looked at the beast through the camera lenses considering the pose he was in when petrified. The Hufflepuff boy saw through Nearly Headless Nick.. That's it!

"That's because they never made direct eye contact! Mrs. Norris saw the reflection on the water, Colin through his camera, the Hufflepuff boy though Nearly Headless Nick, and Nick is already dead so he can't die again"

"That makes sense, but how would the beast roam around the corridors without anyone seeing?" She asked. I remembered the trail of water that was there in every attack.

"The pipes Hermione it traveled through the-" I was cut off by someone entering the library staring at us, Ginny Weasley.

"Ginny?" Hermione called out getting up from her seat and closer to me.

"You know too much," She said. Her eyes didn't have a spark of joy in them, only anger. Behind her was the slithering sound I had heard in the girl's lavatory, she was going to petrify us, or worse kill us. I quickly grabbed my quill and wrote "Pipes" on the page of the book talking about the basilisk and ripped it out, grabbing Hermione's arm and pulling her behind one of the bookshelves. She was breathing heavily shaking like crazy looking at me with fear. The slithering came closer towards us, the Basilisk was inside the library.

"Listen, remember, do not look at it in the eye. We don't stand a chance against the Basilisk so all you can do right now is avoid dying, just be petrified. We have to hope Harry and Ron will figure things out by themselves." I said handing her my pocket mirror and crumbled up the book page placing it in her hand.

"What are you going to do?" She whispers terrified.

"Don't worry about it" To be honest, I had no idea what I was gonna do. What could I do against the strongest monster to ever roam the earth? "Use the mirror Hermione, remember getting petrified is going to be way better than dying," I said as she nodded. I left her behind and walked towards another shelf hiding behind it. There was a thud sending shivers down my spine, Hermione had been petrified.

I trembled trying not to make a sound as I heard the slithering come close to me. I shut my eyes tight trying to think of what to do but I couldn't. I just stood there frozen in fear as I felt the monster's presence in front of me.

"Open your eyes Evelyn Clermont" I heard Ginny's voice coming from the front of me. "Open your eyes unless you want to meet the most painful death anyone could ever imagine"

Her voice made me tremble. I felt the breath of the monster in my face, I was going to die here. If I'm going to die might as well make the most of it.

"Stupefy!" I pointed my wand directly in front of me and heard a monster shriek. I read about this spell in a book and I wasn't sure it would work but I really am full of surprises. Quickly, I turned around running away bumping into different tables and shelves.

"Reducto!" I heard the voice of Ginny shout as I felt books and debris of something hit me.

"Stupefy!" I shot another spell behind me not knowing where I was facing. The Basilisk let out another shriek.

"Bombarda!" Ginny shouted. The spell hit something beside me sending me flying into the air before I hit the ground. I kept my eyes closed the whole time as I winced in pain. My head hurt and the world started to spin as I tried to stay conscious.

"You're very impressive Clermont. Very powerful with indeed. Maybe instead of killing you, you could come in handy" I heard the slither of the snake and footsteps of Ginny come closer as I lost consciousness.

"Brace yourselves," Profesor McGonagall says as she leads Ron and I into the hospital wing, there was Hermione, petrified.

"She was found inside the library, holding this" Professor McGonagall shows us a small hand mirror. I recognized it immediately, Evelyn's mirror.

"That's Evelyn's mirror Professor Mcgonagall," I said. Speaking of, where was she?

"There seemed to have been a fight inside the Library Potter. Evelyn wasn't found but the library was a complete mess with blood on the floor. We believe she was fighting the attacker before she disappeared." She explains to me putting a hand on my shoulder. Evelyn used to do that whenever she would calm me down and her touch is what I needed the most. She had disappeared and I don't even know if she's alive or dead.

꧁♡꧂

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