What to do when a Giant Snake is on the Loose
As April drew to a close and was replaced by May the weather, which until then had remained grey and rainy, began to improve allowing the students to begin making the most of their time outside. On one particularly sunny day Alice and Hermione had decamped to the edge of the lake and were sitting on a log surrounded by books and paper in an attempt to get some studying done. Alice was busy looking down at her notes when suddenly a pair of yellow shoes entered her field of vision and she looked up.
"Hello." The dreamy statement came from the slightly peculiar looking blonde girl that Alice remembered seeing at the Sorting ceremony the previous summer. Her wide eyes seemed almost completely white they were so pale and they were gazing vaguely at a spot somewhere beyond the two girls, almost as though she was looking at something they couldn't see.
"Err… Hi." Hermione responded looking bemused.
"I wouldn't sit under there," the girl warned in a singsong voice, "those trees are full of Gnarlibees."
Alice could feel one of her eyebrows beginning to rise sceptically and struggled to keep a straight face.
"What's a Gnarlibee?" Clearly Hermione had never heard of them either.
"Tiny amorphous sprites that have inhabited a piece of tree bark. They fall out of trees and the sprite possesses you." She didn't look at all sorry about this prospect. "Most people go mad."
"Well I've never heard of them," Alice's friend asserted as though that was an end to the subject. Turning back to her books Hermione concentrated on her notes, but when it was obvious the first year had no intention of leaving she looked up again in irritation. "Can we help you with something?" Alice could feel the corners of her mouth starting to twitch into a smile.
"Oh… no not really." The girl watched them for a few moments, during which time Alice felt her familiar discomfort at being the object of someone else's scrutiny. Just as she was about to rephrase Hermione's question slightly more politely the girl spoke again. "You're Harry Potter's friends aren't you? I've seen you at dinner," she continued without waiting for an answer. "You don't look happy sometimes."
"Yes… well…" Hermione seemed at a loss for words in the face of the girl's bluntness. "If you'd had the year we have then you wouldn't look happy all the time either."
"Hmm… Well, watch out for the Gnarlibees anyway. If you start hearing little voices inside your head then you know it's too late." With this dire prediction she smiled sweetly at them and left.
"She is really weird," Hermione whispered once she was out of earshot.
"Oh I don't know… a bit odd perhaps," Alice watched her skip slowly across the grounds, her long blonde hair swinging back and forth across her back "but I sort of like her. Besides," she chuckled, "around here weird is a bit of a subjective term isn't it?"
Hermione snorted. "I suppose, but honestly, gnarlibees? There's no such thing! "Little voices inside your head"? She'll be speaking to the trees next…" Her expression, which had been humorous suddenly went completely blank, then her eyes widened and the blood seemed to drain from her face as she stared at Alice. "That's it!" Her voice was hoarse.
"What's what?" Alice reached out a hand in consternation. "Hermione are you alright?"
"Talking to things no one else can and hearing things others can't."
"Hermione," Alice was really starting to get worried now. "Are you going to start making sense anytime soon?" She was beginning to wonder if the Gnarlibees hadn't gotten her friend after all.
"Harry," she breathed. "Harry can talk to snakes."
With this one piece of information Alice's agile mind caught up with her friend's thought process. If Harry could talk to snakes then maybe the voice he had been hearing was a snake too, if so then that would mean…
They both looked at each other for a split second longer before speaking in unison. "Library!"
Quickly they grabbed their belongings and scurried across the grounds their robes flapping around their ankles. As they dashed across the Great Hall they nearly ran straight into Harry, Ron and Neville who were clearly on their way outside to join them.
"Where are you going?" Ron yelled as Hermione sprinted past them.
"Library," Alice paused to inform them. "Hermione just thought of -"
"Alice, come on!" Her friend yelled from the top of the staircase.
"What -?" Harry raised his eyebrow at her clearly asking for an explanation.
"We -"
"ALICE!"
"I'll tell you later," she grinned at him before taking off again after her impatient friend.
As she ran off she heard Ron mutter. "Girls are mental."
At the speed they were running it took them a matter of minutes to reach the Library where Hermione headed straight for the Magical Creatures section. Running a finger along a shelf she began muttering to herself. "Scamander… Seychelles… Smith… Snidget… Ah here it is!" She pulled a thick tome covered in peeling leather from the shelves. "Sorkin's Syllabus of Serpentine Species. Here," she pulled a second, and if possible more battered copy from the shelf and handed it to Alice.
For over half an hour the two of them poured over the books searching for any creature which fit the criteria of the attacks at Hogwarts. As it turned out there were many snake-like species in the magical world and finding one that fit the pattern was proving to be difficult.
"What about this?" Alice pointed out an entry.
Peering over her shoulder Hermione scanned the page of text. "A Basilisk? But it kills everyone who looks at it, and judging by that picture," she nodded towards the illustration on the opposite page, "if that didn't get you those fangs would. They're huge! And it doesn't say anything about being petrified."
"Well…" Alice pondered the problem for a moment. "Maybe the people who were didn't look at it, at least not directly. I mean, I don't know exactly how petrification works exactly, but I suppose it could be possible."
Hermione sat down with a thump, her eyes as round as saucers. "Do you think…?"
"Well how was everyone attacked," she began to count them off on her fingers. "First there was Mrs Norris and Professor Binns…"
"Maybe the cat saw the Basilisk through Professor Binns!" Hermione warmed to the theme. "I mean he couldn't die twice so it didn't matter for him."
"Colin had his camera," Alice added with mounting excitement. "Harry said they had to prise it away from his face when they took him to the Hospital Wing. "What about Justin?" The two of them gazed at each other for a moment as their theory hit a roadblock.
"Where did they say he was found?"
"Near the Transfiguration classroom."
"Maybe…" Hermione seemed uncertain. "That corridor is full of windows; maybe he saw the reflection of the Basilisk?"
"Okay…" Alice accepted that explanation, "but how would it have gotten around the castle unseen. I mean Basilisks are huge!"
"Well I've already got a theory on that," her friend instantly became more animated again. "I thought about it on our way up here. What if the snake has been using the castle plumbing to get about? Harry said he heard the voice inside the walls the first time didn't he? If the snake was using the pipes to get about then that's what it would sound like. Travel to where you need to get to inside a pipe and then emerge to attack. All the corridors where people were found were fairly deserted so if the creature was fast it wouldn't be seen."
Alice gazed at her for a second analysing the idea from every angle. Finally she looked up as a chill of fear settled in her stomach. "I think you might be right. Merlin… we need to go to McGonagall. Tell her what we know," she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up looking at Hermione expectantly.
"Shouldn't we find Harry first?"
Alice shook her head. "We can find Harry afterwards. First we need to warn people."
"Alright," her friend got up, "but hang on a second." Without another word she scurried over to a group of seventh year girls seated several tables away from them. Moments later she was back again clutching a tiny compact mirror. "To look round corners. Just in case. I mean how lucky can we be?"
Nodding in agreement Alice bent back over the book and did something that elicited a cry of protest from Hermione. "Shush," she whispered glancing nervously in the direction of Madame Pince from whom they were concealed behind a bookshelf. Cautiously she took out a quill and circled the word Basilisk on the page before scribbling a few other words at the bottom and ripping the page out with as much care as she could manage.
"Here," Hermione held out her hand for the sheet. Reading what Alice had written she nodded. "Pipes and Reflections. Good idea. Okay let's go."
Quickly they made their way across the almost deserted library. On an afternoon as nice as this most people had done what they had been doing earlier and taken their things outside to study. When they reached the door Hermione stuck her hand holding the mirror out and angled it so that she could see along the corridor. "Okay, clear."
Alice snorted. "Hermione we're not in an action movie."
"Well," her friend grinned as they hustled along the corridor, "if we ever are then at least I'll be saying the right lines won't I?"
At every turn she paused to check that the next corridor was empty, or at least devoid of things with scales, before they continued on their way. Getting to McGonagall's office seemed to be taking much longer than usual; although Alice had always found that when you had a surge of adrenaline it seemed to do funny things to time, either it sped up ridiculously or slowed to a crawl. McGonagall's office was several floors up, but due to the maze like nature of Hogwarts and the area of the castle they were in there wasn't a direct staircase to take them there. As it was they were just approaching a turn in a corridor on the third floor when Alice suddenly paused and grabbed her friend's arm.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"What?"
"That. That scraping noise." The two of them strained to hear the sound again, but all they could hear was the distant noise of students down by the lake floating up through an open window.
"I can't -" Abruptly she let the sentence hang, because all of a sudden she could hear the noise. "Oh Merlin…"
"I'll check," Alice whispered more bravely than she felt. "Here," she took the mirror from Hermione's numb fingers and swapped it for the page she had torn. With a deep breath she began to move towards the corner, but she had gone no more than three steps when a tug on the back of her robes stopped her in her tracks and she turned.
"No," Hermione hissed looking almost green. "If it is the Basilisk, and you get petrified then what will I do?"
Alice was about to open her mouth to argue with her when she heard something that made her heart stop. The noise, which before had been faint and intermittent suddenly started again, though this time it was much louder and unrelenting. It sounded as though something heavy was being dragged along the rough stone flagging of the corridor. Something heavy, with scales and fangs and an unhealthy appetite for second year Gryffindors. And it was getting closer.
"Hermione?" The calm voice that emitted from her mouth seemed totally at odds with both the situation and the roiling going on in her stomach. "Run!"
Without a second thought she whirled on her heel and pelted for all that she was worth down the corridor with Hermione in hot pursuit. Behind her she could hear the serpent quicken its own pace and the hiss it emitted seemed horribly close, but she didn't dare look back. If she did it might be the last move she ever made. Doors and turnings flew past on either side of them as the girls pelted for all they were worth towards safety. Although what safety was she wasn't entirely sure. Would they be safe if they found other people? - although the corridors were deserted, everyone seemed to be enjoying the fine weather outside - would it follow them to another floor if they made it to the stairs? There was no way they could stand and fight, magical creatures were notoriously difficult to overpower.
"This way!" Hermione shrieked as she suddenly charged off down a side passage. Dashing after her Alice hoped the sudden change of direction may have slowed their pursuer down slightly. Judging by the sibilant spitting which erupted as they did so it only served to make the creature angry, it was certainly no further behind them.
Fixing her eyes on the far end of the corridor Alice began pushing her body for all that it was worth, legs pumping till her calves ached, throat raw from gasping breaths, she tried to ignore the stitch that was growing in her side. The fear bubbling inside her was threatening to swamp her, but she stubbornly pushed it down; if she let it rule her then there would be no chance they could think their way out of this situation - and they were going to have to because the thing behind them seemed to be gaining. Hermione stumbled and she shot out a hand to keep her moving, they couldn't afford to pause for a second.
As the two of them thundered past a portrait of four elderly looking wizards, the echoing slap of their footsteps almost drowned out by the rasping slither of the ever present, bloodthirsty Basilisk, Alice suddenly realised which corridor they were in. She felt a dart of hope, but she had to stay focused or they were both dead.
Spotting the turning that she was looking for she dragged Hermione towards it.
"Over here, quick!" Panic and adrenalin had made her voice seem unnaturally high pitched and loud. Not that the monster seemed to have trouble locating them anyway.
Whirling quickly into another long corridor she pulled Hermione to one side, instead of continuing to run, and threw them both into a recess behind a tapestry with just seconds to spare. Kneeling in the gloom she tried to control her shuddering breaths and willed her heart, which was thudding painfully from a mixture of terror and exertion against her ribs, to be silent. In the half light that managed to penetrate the thick weave of the hanging she could just make out Hermione's wide, startled eyes staring at her in that unfocused way that indicated she wasn't really paying attention to what she was seeing. Following her friend's example Alice listened for the monster.
Softly at first, and then more audibly, she heard it: that ominous, grating noise which could only be generated by something enormous slithering across the corridor. The serpent had slowed, but whether they had confused it by suddenly vanishing or whether it knew they were close and was hunting for them she wasn't sure and didn't dare to take a peek to find out. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut she prayed that it would go away.
Not being able to see what was going on was horrible, in fact she was willing to bet it made the whole situation worse. What was that rasping sound? Was that a serpentine tongue being slid across razor sharp teeth tasting the air for their telltale scent? How close was the Basilisk to their hiding place? Was hiding in this recess once pointed out to her by the Weasley twins a good idea or had she led Hermione into a trap? Was there any chance they could still make a run for it? The sudden feeling of heat through the thick fabric concealing them answered that question very forcefully in the negative. Without thinking Alice and Hermione shrunk backwards as far as they could go, holding their breath and trying to be as silent as possible. Alice could almost imagine the creature on the other side coiled and waiting to spring upon them. Would it hurt if she was killed? Would the slow seeping of Basilisk venom be painful? Her eyes darted frantically along the walls surrounding them searching vainly for another escape route. Could the monster hear them? How good was its sense of smell? Had it realised they were there or did it just know that they were close and was trying to determine where they had gone to? Her concerns were immediate, the threat very real. Any thoughts of the mysteries they had been trying to solve all term had flown from her mind and she was solely occupied with the here and now, the danger the Basilisk just inches from them presented.
Careful not to make a sound she slid her hand into a terrified looking Hermione's and squeezed it tightly to give her a reassurance she didn't feel. The fleeting, barely there response she received only served to make her feel even more guilty than she already did. What if she had made the wrong decision hiding them here? If anything happened to Hermione because of it she would never forgive herself.
Just as she came to the realisation that she was going to have to take a breath again or she was going to asphyxiate, the snake shifted, moving on from the space in front of the tapestry. The noise of its progress seemed to be moving off down the corridor, although the hanging muffled the sound in such a way that she couldn't be entirely sure. Several seconds later she could no longer hear it but she refused to move in case it was still somewhere in the corridor.
The slight ease in immediate danger allowed her to take stock more calmly of their current state. Jammed into the tight space she was aware how similar their current situation was to the one she and Ron had found themselves in waiting for Hermione and Harry to come out of the Slytherin common room. Although there the risk had been a detention not their lives. Crouching in the semi-darkness she could feel a ribbon of cold sweat trickling between her shoulder blades and she was dimly aware that her hands were trembling slightly. Her heart was still thudding forcefully in her chest, but at a less health worrying speed than it had been, and she had nearly bitten all the way through her lip with anxious waiting.
After what seemed like an age she heard Hermione's voice, barely discernible and so close that she could feel her breath tickling her ear: "Do you think it's gone?"
Careful not to raise her own voice above a whisper - for who knew how good the thing's hearing was? - she responded. "I don't know. I can't hear it any more."
They listened for at least a full minute, both straining to hear the slightest sound that would give away the presence of something besides them in the corridor. Nothing.
Knowing that they couldn't stay tucked away in the recess forever she gently eased her arms out in front of her holding the mirror in one hand and poised the other ready to pull back the tapestry. Her breathing began to become involuntarily erratic again and she forced herself to be calm. She found that counting her breaths slowly in and out helped. One - she looked back at Hermione. Two - her friend nodded in confirmation of her actions. Three - she tugged the corner of the tapestry back and stuck out the hand with the mirror in it.
Heart hammering again, at first all she could see was the stone roof of the corridor. Biting back a noise of frustration she slowly rotated her hand so that the corridor gradually came into view. Behind her she could feel Hermione shift to get a look too, the two of them were pressed together so tightly that she could feel her friend's heart racing ten to the dozen as well.
When the end of the corridor - devoid of snakes - came into sight within the tiny wooden frame a sigh of relief escaped between her lips. They were safe! Obviously the Basilisk had gotten bored or had continued on down the hall to find them. An elated grin swept across her face and she relaxed her arm slightly so that the mirror was now facing towards the wall they were hiding in.
As though someone had flipped a switch three things happened simultaneously. Hermione, still peering anxiously at the mirror, stiffened with a gasp behind her. Alice felt dread clutch at her stomach like a clawing hand as realisation hit. An enormous yellow eye, attached to an equally huge snake that had lined itself up against the wall in wait for them, came into view as she felt her entire body freeze over. Her last thought was that they would never get to tell Harry and Ron what they found out.
The bodies of the two second years plunged forwards through the thick fabric of the tapestry. They were unconscious before they even hit the floor.
A/N: Well there you go. Those pesky Basilisk's are cleverer than they look! I did contemplate not petrifying the girls but it's much more fun this way. I also wanted to include Luna in the discovery process just because I love her so much. As always hope you enjoyed reading and please R&R!
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