Something to Fight For

Eighteen

Year 2

The Chamber of Secrets

I'd been avoiding Draco for the past few days. I told Harry and Ron about the book and my life being linked to it. We all decided to pay Hermione a visit and bring some new flowers to replace the dying ones. Harry and I sat on one side of the bed and Ron sat on the other.

"Wish you were here, Hermione." Harry said. "We need you. Now more than ever." Harry held her hand that was lying on the bed. He looked down and removed his hand, pulling a paper out of hers. He opened the crumbled piece of paper.

"What's that?" Ron questions.

"Ron, Y/N, this is why Hermione asked to go to the library the day she was attacked. Come on!" He got up and we quickly followed him down the hall. He opened the paper again and started to read aloud. "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. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake." Harry finishes.

"Great, so we have a huge snake Medusa on our hands. What do we do? Show it's reflection to itself?" I snap. I don't know why I was being rude. Maybe because Draco and I got into an argument the last time we spoke. Was it even an argument? They both look at each other and consider my last comment.

"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" Ron asks.

"Because nobody ever truly looked it in the eye. People never looked Medusa in the eye. They always looked at the snakes on her head. Hence, they were turned to stone, not ash. They were still alive but in stone form. Or at least, that's what the fairy tales told me." I say. We start walking down the hall.

"She's right. 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." Harry said. We turned at a corner and kept walking.

"And Mrs. Norris? I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry." Ron told him. Harry thought about it and it clicked.

"The water. There was water on the floor that night. She only saw the basilisk's reflection." Harry replied. He looked back down at the paper and kept going down the hall. "Spider's flee before it." it all fits."

"How's a basilisk been getting around?" Ron asked pointing at the paper. "A dirty, great snake. Someone would have seen it."

"Hermione's answered that too." Harry sticks the paper out and points to the ink at the bottom right corner.

"Pipes? It's using the plumbing." I say. I look up at the ceiling and so do they.

"Remember what Aragog said about that girl 50 years ago? She died in a bathroom." Harry said.

"What if she never left?" I said in almost a whisper.

"Moaning Myrtle." Ron put the pieces together.

"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second-floor corridor immediately." McGonagall said over the loudspeaker. We all looked at each other and knew where we were going. We ran not too far behind the teachers and hid behind a corner. "As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message." McGonagall motions to the words written in blood on the wall. "Our worst fear has been realized. 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." Lockhart came strutting down the hallway and reached the group of staff with a smile.