If you want to read by 20+ Chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Makimafic
••••••
11 April 1993, Hogwarts, Scotland
The day had started very badly for Neville Longbottom and the rest of Gryffindor House. What should have been a normal Sunday - well a Sunday where they weren't authorised to do anything outside of their Common Room and the library given the new regulations – had rapidly unfolded into disaster.
Ginny - Ron's little sister - had been missing at breakfast and when Neville, Leo and Ron had informed the Twins of this absence, the tension had commenced to rise. The youngest of the Weasley family was not in the Gryffindor tower, she wasn't in the library – not that they had expected to find her anywhere – and George had gone back to the dormitories to use the Marauder's Map, the name of his little sister had not shown anywhere.
The Gryffindors had been sufficiently alarmed to alert the Professors but on their way to the teacher's lounge they had noticed the horrid message painted in red on the walls.
HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER
Hearing the noise of footsteps, the new Marauders had hidden themselves in a broom closet and heard Professor McGonagall discover the message.
They had listened to the powerful Sonorus commanding all the students to go back to their Common Rooms. And they had obeyed, not because they had suddenly become fond of the rules but because they needed help.
Their adventure in the Forbidden Forest under Hagrid's advice had let them guess the monster of the Chamber was a Basilisk, the redoubtable and monstrous King of Serpents. Only this beast was capable to plunge a colony of Acromantulas in unbridled fear.
The big problem they hadn't been able to solve was the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets until yesterday, when Leo had remarked that since a girl had died fifty years ago, maybe she was still haunting the castle. Hogwarts was one of the most magical sites in Britain, and the possibility was high of an innocent leaving an imprint behind after her death. There was only one candidate meeting these criteria: Moaning Myrtle, a sad ghost haunting the outdated toilets of the second-floor...which by a curious coincidence were terribly close to the sites of several attacks.
This had to be the entrance of the Chamber, and with Neville himself being a Parselmouth, they had the means to enter the Chamber and stop the Heir. Parselmouth or not, this evil wizard was not going to gloat when he confronted the wrath of House Gryffindor! Rapidly they had constituted a rescue force. Leo, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Fred, George, Percy and he were going to fight the Heir of Slytherin.
There had been more volunteers of course, but the students of Gryffindor House had only a very limited supply of magical glasses to counter the death glare of the monster. Eight Gryffindors would have to do against the Heir of Slytherin and his monstrous Basilisk.
They had only reached the sixth floor when they had been attacked by Slytherins disguised as Death Eaters. Cassius Warrington and Graham Montague had thought it was a fun time to prove that the time of pure-blood supremacy was at hand. At eight against two however, defeating them had been child's play. Evidently these idiots had not thought a large group of students was going to stand against them. The two fourth-years Snakes had been Stunned and bound with conjured ropes, then left in an abandoned classroom. When they came back from the Chamber, Neville would have the great pleasure of presenting them to Professor Dumbledore and being a witness at their expulsion trial. Let them try the Imperius defence like their parents! Hogwarts was not under Ministry jurisdiction and Dumbledore was not one of the easily corruptible politicians the Dark had in their pocket.
Nonetheless it had been worrying. They had expected to fight the Heir and his Monster when they went to save Ginny, but now it seemed some Slytherins were involved in these evil plans. The Heir of House Longbottom had been about to call an improvised council to change their plans a bit when terrible sounds of battle and atrocious hisses had resonated in the corridors. Thanks to the Twins whose knowledge of the castle was second-to-none, finding the place where all this chaos was happening was child's play.
The Flowers and Fountain's courtyard on the third floor was a place where Lavender and Parvati enjoyed meeting their fellow gossipers. Neville and certainly all the other Gryffindors crossed it at least twice per week.
What they saw with their astounded eyes at their arrival was not a courtyard but a ruin. The statues, the fountain, the flower structures, the archway...everything had been ravaged and destroyed. It was like a war had been fought and lost here.
But the true horror was lying at the centre of this battlefield. It was long, maybe fifty feet of dark green scales. A monstrous head he had no doubt they were going to have nightmares of for the rest of the month. Spines going all over the back, a barbed tail and a maw full of awfully big fangs.
The Basilisks were the very stuff of horror stories in the world witches and wizards lived in. Now seeing one with his own eyes, the Heir of House Longbottom knew why and shivered. Equipped with anti-petrifaction glasses or not, he was not that sure they would have won against this Monster. Eight allies was a fine number, but the Basilisk was really massive; an army might not have been enough to kill it.
But the girl standing in front of them had apparently done it, alone and unsupported. And a lifeless Slytherin disguised in Death Eater robes was immobile next to her.
"Potter. What have you done?" Neville could not stop his voice from shaking a bit. Had the Ravenclaw become as treacherous and insane as her father?
Alexandra Potter turned her head to fix their rescue force with a stare and it was then Neville realised the lamentable state of the Potter Heiress. Her hair was completely dishevelled and full of debris and rubble. The visage of the Ravenclaw was extremely dirty too, dust, tears and other fluids having left their trace. The school robe she was wearing was torn apart, soiled beyond salvage and pierced in dozens of places. Under this, her strange accoutrement - which had to be Muggle by the looks of it - was ravaged and revealed many small wounds. And all of this was covered in a red-black liquid that was certainly blood.
---+---
A/N: If you want advanced chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/Makimafic