you raise me up || harry potter

chapter 19

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in the distance

★ by tony anderson ★

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Snape arrived at the Slytherin common room, feeling a bit like he had been flipped over and inside out. When he was a student, he considered Hogwarts to be his home, and he knew he had students in Slytherin who felt the same way. He steeled himself before stepping into the common room, preparing to be the bearer of bad news.

"House meeting," he said, casting Sonorus. In less then half a minute, the entire house assembled before him, looking wary. Snape looked around at them. At the fearful Muggleborns who wished to go home before they went the same way as the Granger girl or worse. The half-bloods who wondered if they were in danger. Some of the purebloods who would rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to their parents. 

"The situation at Hogwarts has been declared a state of emergency," Snape said. "It has been decided that the school must be shut down. You all are to pack your trunks and await further instructions. Do not leave this common room under any circumstances. Only I, Professor McGonagall, or the headmaster have the authority to relocate you."

He swept his eyes across them, mentally taking a headcount, before doing a double take. Someone was missing. 

"Where's Potter?"

Everyone looked at each other uneasily with questioning looks. 

"Malfoy," Snape snapped, "When did you see Potter last?"

"H-here after dinner, I think," Draco stuttered.

Snape's expression gave nothing away. He nodded, and said, "Prepare to leave at the earliest," before turning to leave. To find that idiotic, foolish boy. Only a brainless fool would be walking around ten minutes before curfew with an unknown murderer on the loose. 

When he passed the door to his office, he paused. There was a scrap of parchment stuck to the door with a Sticking Charm. It was written in an all-too-familiar scrawl:

Second floor girl's bathroom. Basilisk -HP

Snape stared at the note, clenching his jaw. The first emotion he registered was anger. Sweeping, profound anger. Potter hadn't learned a single damned thing, had he? 

 "Tell Albus that Harry Potter is missing, and that he went looking for a basilisk," he told his Patronus. It wasn't the most comprehensive message, but it would have to do. Albus would understand. He watched his doe bound away.

Your son, Snape thought, is a blithering idiot.

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Harry knew it was stupid, coming down here alone with just a wand and only a scrap of resolve. Such a Gryffindor thing to do. What made him think he could face whatever it was that was down here when none of the teachers could do anything about it?

I'm a Parseltongue, he reminded himself. I'm the only Parseltongue here that could stop this basilisk. Before that girl dies. Before anyone else dies. If she does, her blood is on my hands.

He crept forward through the dim light. A few times he thought he heard the slithering of a snake, but it turned out to be his robes, moist from the dampness as they slid across the stone floor. The loudest thing here was his heart, which pumped so hard Harry thought he might faint.

And then he saw a small figure, collapsed on the floor in her rumpled robes, a tiny hand peeking from the sleeve of her robe splayed out on the cold stone floor. Out of her robes spilled out a very familiar shade of fiery red. Harry stopped in his tracks. Ginny Weasley. Ron's little sister.