❝You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?❞
❝You should know the answer to that by now, Harry.❞
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Life has always been a bit disorganized for Novana Lupin. With her father's monthly transformations, the girl often found herself in the comp...
❝We'll explain everything when we get out of here, Ronald. It's good to see you.❞ ❝Good to see me? It's good to see you! Gave us quite the scare, you did. Running off like that. . . Bloody Hell, I'm just glad you're both alive!❞
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HARRY STOOD AT THE END OF A VERY LONG, DIMLY LIT CHAMBER. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
His heart beat faster by the second as he listened to the chill silence. Could the Basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner behind a pillar? Where was Nova? And Ginny?
He pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the walls.
He narrowed his eyes, ready to clamp them shut at the slightest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.
Then, he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Harry had to crane his neck to look at the giant face above.
It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor.
Two figures lay facedown between the statue's stone feet, both black-robed with flaming-red hair.
"Nova!" Harry felt a wave of relief rush over him as he sprinted toward the girl, dropping to his knees next to her, "Ana, don't be dead. . . Please, don't be dead. . ."
He tossed his wand aside before gently grabbing Nova's shoulders and turning her over to lie in his lap. Her face was white as marble and icy cold as Harry tapped lightly on her cheek with his free hand. Her eyes were closed, so she wasn't petrified. But that must mean. . .
"Ana, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her gently. Nova didn't respond as her head lolled hopelessly from side to side before resting against Harry's arm.
Harry glanced at the other girl beside him to see if she was alright. Ginny's eyes were also closed, and the side of her face was trickled with blood from her forehead.
"She won't wake," Spoke a soft voice.
Harry jumped, quickly glancing over his shoulder as he hugged Nova to his chest.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar as he watched. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry was looking at him through a misted window. But Harry knew who he was.
