𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 (Hermione Granger)

Chapter Sixteen

THE NEXT DAY, Lehla replaced Heemione's flowers that were dead. She gave her new ones as the boys sat near her bed. "Wish you were here, Mione," Lehla said. "We need you. Now more than ever." She held onto her hand but moved it when she felt something in her palm. She grabbed a brown piece of paper and read it as Ron asked what it was. "This is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked," she said, looking over at the boys. "Come on!" She instructed the boys.

They wandered the halls as Lehla explained what was on the paper. "'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...' Guys, this is it. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk. Harry, that's why you can hear it speak. It's a snake."

Ron was a little confused. "But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" Now that had Lehla and Harry thinking.

"Because no one did look it in the eye," Harry realized. "Not directly, at least. Colin saw it through his camera, Justin... Justin must have 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 around corners in case it came along."

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

"The water..." Lehla spoke. "There was water on the floor that night. She only saw the basilisk's reflection." She walked over to a small pillar that had fire in it. "'Spiders flee before it.' It all fits."

Ron still had a question. "But how's the basilisk been getting around? A dirty, great snake, someone would have seen it."

Lehla showed Ron the paper. "Hermione's answered that too."

"Pipes? It's using the plumbing?" Ron questioned.

"Remember what Aragog said about that girl fifty years ago?" Harry tried to jog their memories. "She died in a bathroom? What if she never left?"

Then it hit Lehla. "Moaning Myrtle."

"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once," McGonagall broadcasted across the entire school. "All teachers to the second-floor corridor immediately." Instead of going to their dormitory, the three went to the second-floor corridor. They saw another message that the Heir of Slytherin had left. "Our worst fear has been realized," McGonagall said to the teachers. "A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself. The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts."

"So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed?" Lockhart briefly explained.

"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart," Snape briefly explained. "Your moment has come at last."

He looked shocked. "My... moment?"

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Lockhart's face fell instantly and McGonagall immediately knew.

"That's settled," she said. "We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend."

He put his smile, along with his entire persona, back on. "Very well," he said. "Uh, I'll just be in my office getting... Getting ready." He walked away, knowing that he wouldn't be dealing with the bloody monster any time soon.

"Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "Ginny Weasley." All three of the kids' mouths dropped open slightly as Lehla looked at Ron. Finally, as the teachers walked away from the writing, they got a good look at it.