Link of Hogwarts

Twenty-Five

So Ron found himself playing hide and seek with a bloody basilisk the size of Hogwarts' Express with Link after finding Ginny's dying body. The fact that he's still processing the idea that bloody You-Know-Who's school age memory have been manipulating and possessing his sister to commit crime (sure it's just Hagrid's chickens that died but still) still boggled his mind.

Link have been extremely helpful in keeping out of sight and keeping Ron safe by making sure that he never see the basilisk, not even indirectly. Ron's heart hurt for Ginny but he promised to get her out of this, and Link too, alive and apiece. But he could not deny the terror pounding through him as he hear the scraping scales going by into another pipe. He found that he could only follow Link as the boy pulled and pushed him for his own good.

He wants to do more.

He needs to do more.

But what can he do?

Ron grit his jaw, mind reeling with despair and fear as his hands shook too much that he knew he could never cast a spell. He peered at Link who had his eyes close, long ears listening. How does his friend stay so calm?

How could he even begin to be as calm?

What use is his promise if he's nothing more than a burden to Link?

While Ron wallowed in his desperation and helplessness, Link remained focused to the task at hand. The revelation that Tom, or rather Voldemort, had shown him speaks of something much sinister. Even at an age where others worry about teenage romance and school, he had already begun his journey to become the famed Dark Lord. Link knew that the journal was hiding something but he'd never expect this.

His eyes snapped open and he put one hand over Ron's eyes as he pulled his friend away from where they were standing, the basilisk appearing from the dark and snapping into empty air. He could feel Ron's body shaking under his iron hold and his skin clammy with fear and sweat. He didn't expect for Ron to follow him but had accepted the company nonetheless. After all, Ron has the right to rescue Ginny.

He should have known better.

Ron's not a soldier, not a hardened warrior. He's normal. Unlike Link who knew how to survive in the wild with nothing but the clothes on his back. Ron's afraid of spiders; he never has to face a Gohma at the tender age of ten. He never had to jump into a deep hole like Link did to save a father.

Ron's a child.

He could have stayed a child....until he became involved with Link.

Link cut down that depressing thought. He knew that he could not stop Ron because Ron's not a soldier to follow order mindlessly. Ron's his friend and friends always help even when it does not benefit them in any way. Link doesn't have many of that. It makes it even more important to cherish them.

He promised to keep the Weasley siblings alive through this ordeal and if neither wants to have anything to do with him after, he will accept their decision.

As the two boys rolled across the wet floor, Link keep Ron's eyes closed while the basilisk loomed over them. Thinking quickly, he casted "Lumos!" blindly over his head in the direction of the snake. The giant snake hissed in annoyance by the sudden blinding light. Glad that a spell that he had once witnessed the older Years used late in the evening before curfew worked, Link quickly pulled Ron to his feet and the two continued to run when an ethereal sound echoed in the chamber.

Ron gasped, "That sounds like a phoenix!"

Link didn't react, simply helping his friend hide behind a pillar whim Tom screamed at the sound of something attacking the basilisk. The familiar sound of Gaepora shrieking overhead reached the boys followed by something falling on his lap. Gaepora hovered before him for a while before hooting at what can only be the Sorting Hat meaningfully. Once Link took up the ancient hat, the owl hooted before flying off.

Meanwhile Ron gaped at the shadow cast on the wall before him, "The phoenix just blinded the basilisk!" Before he could turn his head, Link grabbed his collar and pulled out Hermione's hand mirror. He opened the mirror and saw that Ron had witnessed true. He looked at his friend, "Go get Ginny,"

Ron opened his mouth to protest but Link's famous glare silenced him. Huffing, the red head rushed off toward his little sister, wand out. Link took off his floppy green hat and put on the Sorting Hat. Tom sneered at him, "Is this all the help that the great Dumbledore could offer; a stupid bird and a useless hat?"

Link noticed how Ron had pulled Ginny away from Tom who suspiciously hovered over the dreaded journal. Link thought to the Sorting Hat about it being useful and something hard hit him, something that felt like the familiar pommel of a sword. Wincing from pain as he watched the basilisk, eye sockets bleeding profusely, loomed over him.

It started to move its head toward the Weasleys and Link won't have that. So he expertly put his fingers on his lips and whistled, the sound sharply echoed across the chamber. The snake hissed furiously at the sensory assault and headed for Link.

Good.

He pulled off the Sorting Hat and reached in to pull a sword of gold and rubies, something that could only be a name etched on the surface of the shining blade. Without his special glasses, he couldn't read. But Link didn't care as he stuffed the wet Sorting Hat into the hood of his robe at the same time rolling away from the impact of the snake lunging for him.

With a sword in his hand, he felt all the better as he faced an impossible adversary. But for Link, that is just how his life goes...

When Snape and Neville finally arrived, they witnessed Link being swallowed by a ginormous serpent with bleeding eyes. Snape gawked while Neville screamed out Potter's ridiculous nickname, "LINK!!"

He could hear Weasley's voice screaming the same from the other end of the chamber but his body couldn't move. All he could think was that he had failed Lily once again...when the snake started trashing violently, blood flowing from the gaps of its mouth.

As it writhed in pain, its mouth opened and they could see Link shoving what could only be a sword deeper into the roof of its mouth. But they also witnessed that two of the snake's venomous fangs had sunk into the boy's back. At its final hiss and Link's ferocious roar of defiance as he pushed the sword into the snake's brain up to its hilt, the snake fell dead.

Snape vaguely heard someone's roaring angrily as adrenaline rushed through his head. The boy's poisoned; that was the only thing that runs through his mind. The boy's poisoned by basilisk venom, a deadly concoction without cure. His ears were ringing as he watched Link pull himself away from the jaw of death, the fangs sticking out of his back like broken wings, blood pooling at his feet.

Neville was crying and so does Ron. But Link ignored them in favor of leveling his deadly glare on the ghost of Tom Riddle.

Link hated curses. He absolutely abhors them. It also meant that it make him pretty good at knowing how to get rid of one. Tom turned Ginny's wand on him but before a spell could be cast, Link was already onto him. He sneered, thinking that Link's a fool if he thinks he could harm a pseudo-ghost.

But the fool was him as the ink spurt out of the journal like his life blood.

Link, even with his dying breath, always see his mission through...