Change the Future

*CoS 8*

Harry studies Hermione's face.

"Wish you were here, Hermione. We need you. Now more than ever" Just then, the mirror in Ron's hand catches the late afternoon sunlight and casts a jagged flame across Hermione's hand. Harry watches the light dance over her fingers then looks closer. Sees the paper clutched there.

"Even petrified you were helping us Hermione" Harry says smiling at her.

Harry and Ron duck into an alcove, take out the crinkled paper, which is torn from a library book. Harry starts to read it out loud.

" 'Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it and only the crowing of the rooster can kill it.' Ron! This is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake."

"But it kills by looking people in the eye. Why is it no one's dead?" Harry frowns, contemplating this, then catches he and Ron's reflection in the window opposite.

"Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly at least. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin, Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost he couldn't die again. And Hermione had the mirror! I bet you anything she was using it to look round corners, in case it came along."

"And Mrs. Norris? I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry."

"The water, there was water on the floor that night. She only saw the Basilisk's reflection. The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it! That's why Hagrid's roosters were killed! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

"But how's the Basilisk been getting around? A dirty great snake. Someone would have seen"

"Hermione answered that too." Harry points. Scribbled, in Hermione's hand, is the word 'pipes'.

"Pipes? It's using the plumbing."

"Remember what Aragog said? About that girl fifty years ago? She died in a bathroom. What if she never left."

"Moaning Myrtle!" Harry nods.

"Poor Myrtle, that explains a lot about her. Who wouldn't be angry after being killed in a toilet" Marlene says.

Just then, McGonagall's voice echoes throughout the castle, magically magnified.

"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor. Immediately." McGonagall stands before the desecrated wall, surrounded by the rest of the staff. Harry and Ron creep up the stairwell. "As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fear has been realized. A student has been taken by the monster. Into the Chamber itself. I'm afraid we shall have to send the students home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts." Lockhart appears cheerily.

"So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed?"

"Just the man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last." Snape says to Lockhart.

"My m-moment?"

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"D-did I? I don't recall"

"That settles it. We'll leave it to you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend." McGonagall says looking at him.