Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 15 - Taken

"Cress, did you hear, there's been another attack!" Harry alarmed me as he and Ron  slipped back into the castle.

"Where were you guys? I was worried sick?" I pulled them aside so we weren't standing in the direct candlelight. "Anyways, it doesn't matter anymore. We have to go to the hospital wing!"

They ran after me as we dashed towards the tower. "Why?"

"Because Hermione's the one that got petrified," I cried, stopping in my tracks to face them. "We went to the library to do more research and then the basilisk got her,"

"The what?" Harry managed to ask through the shock. 

"The b-," 

"Ms. Whitewing, there you are. I see you've found Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, but I'm afraid Dumbledore is waiting for you in his office," Professor McGonagall interrupted as we almost ran into her. "I will escort them the rest of the way,"

I nodded and followed Snape down the opposite direction as Professor McGonagall led them away. Dumbledore wanted to see me? Did Draco tell him about what happened? A million possibilities went through my mind. The whole way there, Snape left me to my thoughts without a word, only the occasional glance to make sure I was still following.

"So, you and Ms. Granger have uncovered that the creature is a basilisk?" Dumbledore questioned when I arrived at his office.

"Yes, I even saved-I mean I couldn't save her in time," I corrected, almost letting it slip that it had tried to attack Draco and I too. 

"Not to worry, the cure is nearly ready and in the mean time, we will keep a close watch on the pipes. It seems to be the basilisk's main way of getting around," he stroked his beard, his eyes focused on something else. "You are dismissed," he waved me off.

The hallways seemed to stretch on for ages, the looming darkness threatened to swallow me as I navigated my way back towards the hospital wing. Out of the corner of my eye. I saw someone pressed against the wall waiting for Filch to pass before slipping past him.

It was Ginny. Had she come to see Hermione too? But that's not the direction of the hospital wing I realized. I thought about it for a moment and then decided to follow her. When I neared her, I saw that she had picked up her pace and running towards the 2nd floor bathroom. How odd.

"Ginny," I shouted in a hushed voice.

She jumped and whipped around, the color draining from her face. She looked frightened and bolted. I hurried after her, wondering what was going on. Did she see the basilisk behind me and start running? But that's not right, she would've been petrified or even worse, killed.

I was confused when she took the turn opposite of the one leading to the bathroom. The candles down the hall were dimmer than the ones downstairs, and I panicked upon discovering that I had lost her. Instead, the halls were hissing at me, no, something in the walls was hissing. The slithering got closer and closer, I backed out of the hallway, bracing myself for it to come barging out the wall at me, but it never came. The slithering reached, and then passed me. 

"Ginny, Ginny where are you?" I yelled, my own voice bouncing back at me as I ran back towards the main corridor. That's when I saw it, the tail of a huge snake disappearing into a gaping hole in the ground where the sinks used to sit. I heard a light scratching on the wall as I entered the bathroom warily. 

"I guess there's no hiding the truth from you," Ginny said as she turned from her writing to face me. 

"You opened the Chamber of Secrets?" The hole that now took up most of the sink space in the bathroom was the entrance. I shook my head. "But Ginny, why would you do this?"