Elizabeth Lily Potter-Petrified

Chapter 8~~31/10/1992

Seconds turn into minutes, which turn into hours, which into days, which turn into weeks and eventually it was the 31st of October, Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday. I have kept my friendship with Draco a secret, only telling Ginny. I almost certain he's told Blaise Zabini, too. I forgave him for calling Hermione what he called her. 

The day whizzes by, and dinner soon rolls around. It goes by quickly, and afterwards, I gently nudge Ginny.

"I heard that our brothers are going to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party with Hermione," I whisper. She nods and we leave the table with them, pretending to do some homework in the common room. We slowly pull out some parchment. It feels like an age of doing Herbology homework when we hear Harry, Ron and Hermione looking a bit smarter, still in their robes, coming down the stairs. They enter the common room and walk to the portrait hole, pushing the painting.

"Don't stay up too late!" Hermione calls to us. The portrait hole softly closes behind them and Ginny pulls out the tattered black diary.

What do we do?

Is Elizabeth there?

Yes.

I feel a slight tugging on my torso and gasp as an immense amount of pressure shifts and sits in my chest. I push down on it, willing it to go, and look at Ginny, who mirrors my expression. Suddenly, I'm unaware of my actions as we stand and leave the common room, the book loosely held in Ginny's left hand. We simultaneously go to the bathroom and Myrtle instantly started pounding us with questions, which we don't answer. Ginny whispers something in another language and the sinks widen and the one in front of us drops into the metal grate.

We step forward and she silently slips into the hole now formed in the ground and I follow. I ride down is long and boring, but I don't complain or scream, as much as I want to. I can feel someone else inside me, I don't know who, but they're there. I reach the bottom and pick my way through the wreckage of fish bones and skulls. Quietly, I catch up to Ginny and we find a long tunnel that turns off at the end. We shuffle slowly towards the end to come to a strange circular door with snakes emitting from it.

"Open," I hiss, my voice low, unlike my own. Someone else's.

The snakes slither as another, fatter one circles around them and the door creaks open once it slithers out of sight. Ginny and I slip through gracefully, unlike myself. Quickly, I look behind me to check if anyone is following me. The door shuts as soon as I'm through though, so if they were, they'd have to speak Parsletounge to the door for it to open. We glance at each other before ascending to the end of a passageway with water surrounding it and pooling at the bottom. On the way, Ginny drops the diary and it splashes in the water. I don't look to see it like I would usually do, I just carry on strolling to the puddle of water.

"Hello, basilisk." We whisper at the same time. The mouth of the statue in front of us drops and a huge snake slides out. We drop our heads to avoid its gaze as a young boy two years older than us calmly appears and instructs us to find and hurt someone.

"Put them out of their misery, you'll be something good. The world is going to go and they'll soon die a more painful death than this." He says in my head. We turn and lead the basilisk to the passageway and the way out. Clinging onto its scaly back, it raises its big head and rests it on the edge of the hole, pulling itself up afterwards.

"Kill. Kill. Kill." The snake repeatds as we exit. Myrtle isn't in her bathroom anymore, she's dived into a world full of ghosts at Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party.

"Kill."

I go in front of the snake and peer round a corner. Mrs Norris, Filch's cat, looks at me with piercing eyes.