SOLSTICE

046

 

The next day, Harry and Ron visited Hermione in the Hospital Wing once again. Harry approached Hermione's bed. He carefully removed the old, dried-up flowers from the vase beside her bed and replaced them with fresh white ones.

At the bed beside her, there’s another girl lay motionless under the crisp white sheets—a new victim. Unlike the others, this was a Slytherin, the first from that house to be attacked. 

Isabella squinted her eyes, trying to get a clearer look at the girl. A deep frown creased her forehead as recognition dawned.

"Wait... is that Eva?" she asked, her voice laced with disbelief.

"Yeah, it's me," came the quiet confirmation.

Isabella's confusion only deepened. "But why? You're a Slytherin."

Eva merely shrugged, her expression unreadable. "Slytherins may be the exception," she said, her voice eerily calm. "But I guess being a mudblood wasn’t."

With a sigh, he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Wish you were here, Hermione. We need you. Now more than ever," he murmured.

Hermione, of course, didn’t respond. She lay still, eyes unseeing, and Ron, standing beside them, sighed sadly. Harry reached out and gently took Hermione's left hand, rubbing it absentmindedly. His fingers brushed against something crumpled, and he paused, eyes narrowing in confusion.

Frowning, he carefully pulled his hand back and discovered a crumpled piece of paper clutched in Hermione's stiff fingers. As he smoothed it out, his heart skipped a beat. It was a page torn from a library book.

Ron leaned over, eyebrows drawing together. "What's that?" he asked.

Harry’s eyes scanned the page, realization dawning on him with every word. "Ron, this is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked." He stood abruptly. "Come on!"

"Okay, now it's starting to get interesting," Barty said, a smirk playing on his lips as he casually kicked his feet up onto the table.

Regulus, without missing a beat, slapped them back down onto the floor with a sharp look. 

They hurried through the corridors, Harry’s eyes never leaving the page. "Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it..." Harry’s gaze flickered to Ron. "Ron, this is it. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake."

Ron’s eyes widened, his mind whirring to process the information. "But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" he blurted out.

Harry’s steps faltered as he glanced at the window, pieces clicking into place. "Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly, at least." His voice was hurried, as he explained. "Colin saw it through his camera. Justin... Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost. He couldn't die again. And Hermione..." His voice softened at her name. "She had the mirror. I bet you anything she was using it to look around corners in case it came along."