They continued watching Victor from a distance as he left the courtyard with Luna and walked back into the castle.
Ron and Harry followed carefully, keeping far enough behind that he wouldn't notice them. Victor moved through the corridors calmly and eventually entered the library.
Inside, the quiet of the room forced them to be even more careful.
Victor walked between the tall shelves, pulled out several books, and began flipping through them at one of the tables. He read for a few minutes, scanning the pages with quiet concentration, then closed the books and returned them neatly to the shelves before leaving the library.
Ron waited until Victor disappeared through the doors.
Then he grabbed Harry's sleeve.
"Come on."
They stepped out from behind a row of shelves and hurried to the section where Victor had been standing. Ron scanned the titles on the spines until he found the books Victor had just returned.
He pulled one out and looked at the cover.
"Look at this."
Harry leaned closer.
The book was about Parseltongue — the language of snakes.
Harry looked at the title, then glanced at Ron.
"Umm… so Victor's curious about snakes," Harry said quietly. "So what? People read strange things all the time. Who are we to judge?"
Ron shook his head stubbornly.
"This is proof he's behaving strangely," he insisted.
"Strange in what way?"
The voice came from directly behind them.
Both Harry and Ron turned around at once.
Victor stood a few steps away between the tall library shelves, his arms folded as he looked at them calmly. His expression wasn't angry, but it was very clear he already knew what they were doing.
The silence stretched for a moment.
Victor's eyes moved from the book in Ron's hands to the two of them.
"If you're going to follow someone," he said evenly, "you should at least try to be less obvious about it."
Ron froze.
Harry suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
Victor tilted his head slightly, his gaze still fixed on them.
"So," he continued calmly, "would either of you like to explain why you're searching through the books I was reading?"
Victor looked at Ron for a moment, then added dryly, "And Ron… you're terrible at following people. You were visible the entire time you were trying to sneak around."
Ron stiffened.
"We are not following you!" he said quickly. "We came to the library to read."
Victor raised an eyebrow.
Ron held up the book awkwardly as if it proved something. "Do you think only you and Hermione know how to read? We can read too."
The words sounded confident enough, but Ron's expression gave him away. His eyes kept flicking between Victor and Harry, clearly aware that their excuse was not very convincing.
Victor watched Ron for a moment, clearly unconvinced.
"Suit yourself," he said calmly. "But next time you decide to follow someone, at least try to do a better job. Watching the two of you attempt it was honestly painful."
With that, he turned and walked out of the aisle, returning the book to the shelf as he passed before leaving the library.
Harry and Ron stood there for a second.
Then both of them let out a long breath.
"Ron," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm done."
Ron looked at him. "What?"
"I'm serious," Harry continued. "Don't ask me to join one of your plans like that again."
Ron opened his mouth to argue, but nothing came out. The truth was obvious—they had followed Victor half the day, gotten caught immediately, and discovered absolutely nothing.
Even Ron had to admit the plan had failed.
Harry shook his head and walked toward the library door.
Ron stayed behind for a moment, staring at the shelf of books before putting the Parseltongue book back.
They had no proof.
***
That night, the Slytherin dormitory was quiet.
Victor lay asleep in his bed when a faint sound reached his ears.
A soft scraping noise.
It came from somewhere inside the stone walls.
Victor's eyes opened immediately.
The sound continued—something large sliding slowly through the plumbing pipes behind the bathroom wall.
Victor sat up slightly in bed.
"That is not normal," Victor thought.
The sound in the pipes was unmistakable. Something large was moving through them again.
Victor slipped quietly out of the Slytherin dormitory, careful not to wake the other students. The common room was dark, lit only by the dim green light filtering through the windows from the lake outside. He moved through the stone doorway and stepped into the corridor.
Hogwarts at night felt completely different from the busy castle during the day. The long hallways were silent, and the torches burned low along the walls, casting shifting shadows across the floor.
Victor followed the faint echo of movement through the plumbing above him.
"Ginny…" he muttered under his breath while walking. "Why can't you let me sleep for one night?"
He reached the second-floor corridor and slowed his steps.
The sound suddenly stopped.
The silence that followed felt heavy.
Victor frowned slightly.
"That doesn't sound good."
Then he heard it.
A heavy scraping noise behind him, followed by the unmistakable sound of something enormous sliding across stone.
Victor froze.
A slow, wet slithering sound filled the corridor.
His thoughts raced immediately.
Holy— that's behind me.
He turned his head slightly but did not look directly back. Every instinct in his mind warned him about the danger of facing the creature head-on.
The basilisk.
Shouldn't it be students with Muggle-born parents?
That was the pattern. The only thing that made any sense.
Which raised a very uncomfortable question.
Why is it behind me?
*****
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