SUPRA VIRES

CHAPTER FIVE: VISIT IN THE LIBRARY

Fifth year

Harry Potter had the same dream again. It seemed to him that he wasn't himself. He stood in the middle of the Chamber of Secrets and saw a man with a familiar physiognomy enter the chamber and then start talking to a snake. The reptile was small in size. It even looked innocent, trying clumsily to communicate with his ruler. Its scales rustled dangerously on the floor.

"You're still too small," the wizard began. "But this will change soon, I've been waiting for you for so many years, I won't let them take you away from me now..." the snake hissed and wrapped itself around its master's legs. Harry stepped closer, trying to remember as many details as possible.

"I wonder if I can control him like he did?" he asked himself, kneeling next to the wizard and his reptile. He tilted his head down, looking at the snake. He was about to give him an order when suddenly the reptile's breath, extremely intoxicating, made Harry feel dizzy. He sat down on the dusty floor. He looked at the animal, at its large yellow eyes. He already knew that the snake wanted to attack him. He dodged...

BANG!

Harry was lying on the floor in his bedroom. His tangled bedding fell with him, fortunately limiting the pain of the fall.

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron asked in a sleepy voice from the next bed. He was awakened by the rumble caused by his friend, so he yawned and rubbed his eyes with his hand.

"Yes," the boy replied immediately, trying to calm down. Even though his arm and head hurt, he didn't like complaining about the pain.

"Did you have a nightmare again?" Weasley muttered, yawning once again.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking at the hand that the animal had just attacked. There was no wound, but the boy felt tiny snake sprouts on his wrist. He couldn't understand why, but it still felt like the dream wasn't over yet.

"Dude, go to sleep or tomorrow you'll look worse than Nearly Headless Nick," advised Ron, turning to the other side. After a while he was soundly asleep, snoring from time to time.

Harry inhaled loudly. He would give a lot to not have worries and to finally be able to close his eyes calmly, not being afraid of what he might see next.

He went to the window and opened it. He finally figured out who the wizard in his dream was. He was Salazar Slytherin, and the tiny, seemingly innocent snake was the first basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. The only unknown was the figure through whose eyes he looked at the world.

***

The next morning Hermione woke up very early. She decided to go to the library because she didn't have time to do her Transfiguration homework yesterday. She often preferred to scribble something in her notebook before classes rather than doing it when she was tired in the evening.

Maybe I'll make it before breakfast? she thought, taking the books in her hand.

After just two minutes, she left the common room. As she walked through the corridor, she had the feeling that someone was watching her. Of course, she wasn't sure, but her intuition told her that someone was following her at that moment. She discreetly looked behind her so as not to scare the intruder unnecessarily, but there was no one behind her. So she concluded that it was probably her imagination playing tricks on her.

My intuition has never been very good... she thought. It's always wrong.

The library was empty, not even Madam Pince was there. Still, she wasn't surprised to see that the woman wasn't inside, after all, five in the morning was pretty early even for a school librarian. Hermione sat down at one of the tables. She took out her notes from the lesson with one hand and with the other she brought the nearest lamp closer to her and lit the wick with the appropriate spell. The oil lamp was made of brass and its base was a glass tank in the form of a sapphire-colored heart. Maybe she would have spent more time admiring it, but something distracted her. A few meters away from her, the shelves creaked, piled high with dusty books. Even the light she turned on flickered several times and then went out completely.