Gaunt ~ Book 2

Thirty-eight~Gaunt

a/n: Same reminder as usual, I'm combining J.K. Rowling's work with my own. Hope you enjoy!

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye will suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. 

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Marvolo recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.

"Told you," was all Marvolo could say.

"The basilisk kills people by looking at them," said Harry. "But no one's died — because no one's looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin . . . Justin must have seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again. . . and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized that the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror — and —"

Ron's jaw had dropped.

"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

"The water . . ." Harry said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection. . . ."

Harry scanned the page in his hand eagerly.

"'The Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.'!" he read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! 'Spiders flee before the Basilisk'! It all fits!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake . . . Someone would've seen . . ."

"As I've said before," said Marvolo, pointing at Hermione's scribbled word. "Pipes."

Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in —"

"— Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Harry.

"Great," said Marvolo sarcastically. "The Fantastic Two has stuck again."

"This means," said Harry, ignoring Marvolo's comment, "Me and Marvolo can't be the only Parselmouths in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staffroom," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break. "

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, clearly too excited to sit down.

But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

Harry wheeled around to face Ron and Marvolo.

"Not another attack? Not now?"

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory."

"No," said Marvolo, pointing to an ugly sort of wardrobe to his right, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here, now."

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the tumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staffroom door banging open. From the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Directly into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'."

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

Marvolo felt Ron slide silently to the wardrobe floor beside him.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said . . ."

The staffroom door banged open. It was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry — dozed off — what have I missed?"

He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken to the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I — well, I —" sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.

"D-did I? I don't recall —"

"I certainly remember you saying you were sad you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should've been given free rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

"I — I really never — you may have misunderstood —"

"We'll leave it to you then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'' be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. Free reign at last."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usual toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble."

"V-very well," he said. "I'll — I'll be in my office — getting ready."

And he left the room.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."

The teachers rose and left, one by one.