THE LIGHTNING LORD

Chapter 52 : Monsters in the chmaber P3

Fawkes flew off his shoulder and he heard Aquila say "Harry, we'll take care of the snake; you deal with that evil wizard"; saying that, the thunderbird too took off into the air. Harry heard something massive hit the stone floor of the chamber. He then heard Riddle hissing "Kill him"

Harry closed his eyes and extended his senses. He then twirled his wand and started attacking Riddle with several curses. He could feel the Basilisk moving towards him. He took the Sorting Hat and placed it on his head for all the help it could do. Why did Salazar keep a Basilisk in a school? It made no sense! He founded Hogwarts to protect magical children from the muggles. So there was no way he would use it to kill the students of the castle, muggleborn or not. It was his job to protect the students –

Protect. That was it! Salazar did not raise this Basilisk to kill the students, but rather to protect the students in case the muggles ever invaded the castle. It was probably the final backup plan, in case all was lost. The snake had been here for more than a thousand years; it must be confused as to who really was the enemy.

Harry heard Aquila and Fawkes shriek so he knew they were battling the Basilisk. Wanting to help them, while at the same time dodging curses from Riddle, he conjured a rooster and hit it with a sonorous charm. The rooster crowed loudly. The Basilisk shrieked, so Harry finally couldn't take it anymore and opened his eyes a bit.

The sight before him was astounding. Fawkes and Aquila were surrounding the Basilisk, a snake so massive that it was probably more than seventy feet long, with Fawkes distracting it and Aquila hitting it with bolts of lightning, which was clearly weakening it, but not by much.

"Harry, we have destroyed its eyes. It can't kill with its eyes anymore. You can see!" said Aquila.

Harry looked and saw Aquila send bolts of lightning at the basilisk's eyes, making it shriek with agony. But the moment in which Harry had turned was his undoing; a blasting curse impacted the floor in front of him and he was thrown back and painfully collided with one of the snake statues. He crumpled to the ground, just as a trail of blood smeared on the statue behind, clearly from his head.

"NO! LEAVE THOSE BIRDS! LEAVE THE BIRDS!" screamed Riddle. "THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"

Harry looked to see Aquila waging a losing battle. Clearly, using so many bolts of lightning when there wasn't a storm around to rejuvenate him had its toll on the massive thunderbird.

What was shocking to the bone was that the Basilisk didn't seem to have been killed by the rooster. It screeched and probably injured the mighty seventy-foot long snake, but it didn't kill it as it was supposed to.

"Oh Salazar, your effort into protecting the school turned out to be your undoing. What was supposed to protect the castle is now the cause of its destruction" thought Harry. He slowly got up, his body shaking. Several bones all over his body were clearly broken, so he quickly used a numbing charm on them so that it couldn't distract him.

"Thank you for believing in the true legacy of Salazar Slytherin, Lord Potter and not believing in the twisted version of history. You are truly worthy of being the Heir of Gryffindor. Godric would be proud of you" said the Sorting Hat in Harry's mind. The next second, Harry felt something very hard and heavy hitting him on the head, which almost knocked him out. He pulled the hat away from his head, only to grab a handle. He pulled on it to grab a gleaming silver sword probably four feet long, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

The Basilisk approached him. Harry quickly raised the sword, but what was the use? He had learnt martial arts, but not fencing! The Basilisk lunged blindly. It missed Harry, but it struck the giant snake statue, sending stone everywhere. Harry tried to strike it back, but the great tail of the snake struck him instead, throwing him across the chamber.