"Why do you keep looking at me?" Y/N finally asked, her eyes still focused on the book in her hands.
Hermione's voice was gentle as she replied, "I like looking at you."
"Yeah?" Y/N asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
Hermione nodded, he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hermione continued to flip the pages of the book as the group walked down the corridors, reading aloud for the others to hear. Y/N, however, remained somewhat confused by the information.
"Out of the many beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk," Hermione read, her voice clear as they passed by trophies lining the walls. Y/N tried to peer over her friends' shoulders to catch a glimpse of the text as well.
"Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye."
"Spiders flee before it...— wait, are you saying...?" Y/N started to say, her voice trailing off as she looked at Harry, Hermione, and Ron, who all nodded in unison.
"This is it. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk!" Harry declared with a sense of determination.
"That's why you can hear it speak," Hermione added. "You two can speak to snakes. And the Basilisk is a snake!" she concluded.
Ron's brow furrowed in thought. "But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why isn't anybody dead?"
Hermione paused, biting her lip, and glanced to the side as she pondered the question. "Because no one did look it in the eye," she concluded, turning to face the puzzled trio. "Not directly, at least," she added, motioning for them to continue walking.
"Colin saw it through his camera," Harry chimed in, his mind racing as he recounted the petrified students. "Justin— Justin..." he groaned, trying to recall the details. "Justin saw it through Nearly-Headless Nick!"
"You're right," Hermione confirmed. "Nick got the full blast of it, but you can't kill a ghost."
"What about Agil, then?" Y/N murmured, causing the group to halt in their tracks as they contemplated the situation. Agil didn't seem to have been near a reflective surface or anything that would indirectly expose her to the Basilisk's gaze.
After a brief moment of silence, Ron scratched his head, a pensive expression etching across his face. "Didn't Professor McGonagall mention that she was near the trophy room?" he inquired, prompting Y/N to reluctantly nod in agreement.
Harry chimed in with a hint of excitement, his hands coming together in emphasis. "Perhaps she caught a glimpse of it through a trophy's reflection."
Ron, his brow furrowing, interjected, "But what about Mrs. Norris? She certainly didn't have a camera, nor a ghost to see through, or the height to reach those trophies."
Harry paused, his lip between his teeth. "The water," he muttered. "There was water on the floor that night. Mrs. Norris might have only seen the Basilisk's reflection, much like Agil did."
Hermione, reopening the book, revisited the passage. "Spiders flee before it," she reiterated. "It all aligns with what Aragog told us – that spiders fear it the most."
