Witch Me?(Witch or Shadowhunter?Book 2)

Monster of the School

  I gasp, slamming my book down, and my wild eyes find Ms. Know-it-all's. "Naila, what's wrong?" She exclaims, glancing at the others in the common room. Without a word I place my History of Magic book in the bag at my feet and slip out of the common room. The Fat Lady looks at me funny, but I ignore her and wait impatiently for the mundane. When she joins me I walk away, leading her to the library. "Naila, will you please tell me what's going on? I have to watch Harry's Quidditch match," she complains. I don't stop, or turn around, when I reply, "I know why we can't find anything on the monster in the Chamber of Secrets." I don't offer any explanation, despite her pestering. We reach the library and I head straight for the restricted section. Ms. Know-it-all grabs at my arm, glancing around fearfully. "We're not allowed back there," she whispers, attempting to hold me back. I shake her off and stop at one of the tables, pulling out a dagger and my stele. "You stay here. If you hear anything call for me, and don't let go of that," I instruct, passing the dagger to Ms. Know-it-all. "But you said-" she begins, and I cut her off. "I know I said I'd protect you while we're at school, but who knows what might come after you while I'm searching for a book. Now stay here don't do anything stupid," I tell her, glamouring myself and moving on the the restricted section carefully. 

  I scan the titles of the books, moving quickly, hoping they have what I need. Pausing in front of one shelf, I pull out several books, opening to the front page. Most of them get put back immediately, but a thin, frail one gets tucked neatly under my arm. Moving on, I select books of different languages, styles, and ages seemingly at random. After about half an hour I return to the table to find Ms. Know-it-all examining the runes on my dagger. Setting the stack of books down, I disable the glamour and take a seat. Then I slide three of the books, all in English, across the table. "You know what you're looking for. And don't lose sight of that dagger, it might save your life." Not waiting for a reply, I start in on a book in Japanese, doing my best with what little language classes I've had. A moment later I toss the book aside,  grabbing the one in Latin. This one's harder for me to translate and by the time I'm done Ms. Know-it-all is on her final one. I reach for my third when my eyes trail to the first one I selected, and I open it instead. Its in a mixture of languages, most of them demonic, but I find what I'm looking for. "Hermione. Come look at this," I say quietly. She moves to the seat next to me and scans the page, brow furrowed in confusion. I read aloud the passage, translating the bits of demonic mixed in that I can. "One of the oldest demons this world has ever known is more deadly than you can imagine. With its own language known only amongst Greater Demons, this ancient creature can kill mundanes on sight. From all over, we strive for a chance to kill this monstrous beast. More deadly than even the Dragon Demon, this otherworldly being takes down our numbers by tens and twenties, hardly ever leaving survivors."

  Ms. Know-it-all slaps me and I pause, glancing at her. "What?" I snap nervously. "Why aren't you saying the name of these people? I can't exactly read it and it might help us if I knew who they were," she complains. I look her dead in the eye and lie plainly, "I do not know how to translate it." Then I turn back to the book and read silently, ignoring her. I reach a later entry written by some mundane, and read aloud again. "Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land," demons, I think, "there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents." Figures mundanes would call it that. "This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad." Oh, how stupid they are! "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 shall suffer instant death." So that's how it kills so many Shadowhunters. "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." I set down the book and tear out the mundane's entry, passing it to Ms. Know-it-all. "But, if this is the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, how is it getting around the school?" she asks me. I sigh and mutter, "mundanes are so STUPID!" Then look at her and say, "think about it. What's all over the school, in every wall, unable to be seen?" She looks at me in surprise and whispers, very quietly, "pipes." I only nod and she scrawls the word onto the back of the paper, then we rush out of the library.

  Before long we bump into an older student, female and in Ravenclaw. Ms. Know-it-all quickly explains to her about using a mirror to look around corners, while I slowly step forward. The Ravenclaw, whom I now notice is a prefect, snatches at my arm. "Are you stupid? The Basilisk could be there, and kill you!" She cries out. I shake her off, "My people are not like you weak mundanes. We do not get killed easily, and I bet you anything its the venomous fangs that kill us every time." And so I take another step forward, pausing only to tell them, "I'll go first, and then tell you two if its safe. Trust me, I'll be fine." Then I'm gone, their muffled protests making no change. The first thing I see is a giant tail, attached to an even larger body. As my eyes travel up I already know this is the Basilisk, and know it can't kill me if I look at its eyes. So I purposely meet its yellow gaze, my dark blue eyes flashing a brilliant gold before going completely black. I just barely see a mirror in the corner of my eye, and my last thought before everything is irrelevant is that I failed, not the mundanes of this school, but Valentine.