The following day the entire school knew about the message. Students scrambled to find out more about the Chamber of Secrets. The library was fuller than it had ever been.
Rumours began spreading that Harry Potter and his friends were found at the scene, and that he had a run in with Filch just before Mrs. Norris was attacked. Although it wasn't irrefutable it still brought some suspicion onto Harry.
"Don't listen to them. All they say is rubbish." Ron comforted Harry as they left the charms classroom. Although it wasn't blatant he did notice some students sneakily glance at Harry during the class.
"I'm fine, it's better than being chased everywhere." Harry sheepishly grinned as he watched some passing people glance at him warily.
"I don't get it, you're just a second year student. How could they believe that a student could do this. It's obviously the work of an adult." Hermione huffed, glaring at the nearby people.
"Are you saying that a teacher is the culprit?" A voice suddenly called out behind them. It was Basil.
"No!" Hermione turned around. "I'm just saying that only someone with experience could have done that."
Basil grinned. "So a dark wizard snuck into Hogwarts, one of the most secure places in the world. Only to petrify a cat?"
"What are you saying! Stop twisting my words. You know what I mean!" Hermione shouted, drawing even more attention from the students.
"I've never seen her like this before." Ron muttered to Harry, earning a glare from Hermione.
Basil laughed lightly. "By the way, could you tell me about yesterday?"
"Yesterday?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other. After a while Harry sighed and started talking.
"Well, yesterday we went to a deathday party instead of the Halloween feast. After that as we were going to the Great Hall, I heard a chilling voice. It was saying 'Kill', and 'Tear'. But Ron and Hermione didn't hear it. It was going up through the ceiling like a ghost. We followed it to the second floor where we saw the message and petrified Mrs. Norris."
"Hmm." Basil thought for a moment. "What did the voice sound like?"
"It was cold and had a slight echo. I also heard it while I was doing detention with Lockhart but he also didn't seem to hear it." Harry told him everything he remembered.
Basil took out a candy bar and tore off the wrapper. After eating the whole thing he made a decision. "Thanks for the information." He waved his hands and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Ron shouted.
"Aren't you going to eat?" He pointed to the open doors of the Great Hall.
"Shut up! Not everybody eats all the time." Hermione grabbed Ron and pushed him into the Great Hall.
"Sorry about that." Harry felt embarrassed by his friend's behaviour.
"It's okay." And with that, Basil left with a wave.
...
As he was walking he noticed a lot of people whispering about the events that happened the other day. Mostly about the heir, most thought that Harry was the heir and that he survived You Know Who's attack as a baby thanks to dark magic.
Others argued that Harry was in Gryffindor and that one of the Slytherins was the heir. Some even said that Lockhart was the heir but was quickly shut down by the others due to Lockhart's abysmal skills.
Some asked him who he thought the Heir was. Basil was well known around the castle, and although he wasn't as famous as Harry Potter, he was well liked because he frequently wandered the halls talking to people.
When asked if he thought Harry was the heir he shook his head. If they asked if he thought a Slytherin was the heir he also shook his head. He didn't have a suspect right now, but he was going to find out what the voice was.
After walking for a while he arrived at the door to Lockhart's office.
*Knock* *Knock*
The door opened. "Oh. Hello Basil, what brings you here?"
"Hello, Professor Lockhart, may I ask you a question?"
"Oh! Yes, come in." Lockhart moved aside letting Basil walk in closing the door behind him.
Inside the office, Lockhart sat down gesturing for Basil to sit down. "Now, what did you want to say?"
"Do you remember when you were with Harry during his detention?"
"Yes, of course he was helping me with my fan mail. Does that interest you? You can come after class if you want." Lockhart as usual thought Basil wanted to help with his fan mail.
"No. I want to talk about something that happened then. Did you hear any voices?"
"Voices?" Lockhart looked confused. "Oh! I remember Harry seemed to hear voices. He was probably tired, it was so late when we were done."
Basil paused. Then asked. "Could I look into your memories?"
"W-What? Why?" Lockhart lost his composure. He looked around nervously not meeting Basil's eyes.
"Just that moment, sir. I just need to see what happened then. Just that moment, nothing else."
"No no. Please leave Basil, let's talk later."
Lockhart hurried over to the door, but just as his hand touched the handle he suddenly slumped over and fell down. Before his head touched the ground his body suddenly floated over to his desk.
"Sigh." Basil sighed and took out his wand tapping it three times on Lockharts head, drawing out a faintly glowing silver thread. He then took out a mirror from his pocket. It had gold and silver linings and a silver gem on top.
He brought the silver thread to the mirror, as the thread touched the mirror the mirror suddenly rippled as if it was water. Then a scene appeared in the mirror. It was the same room as the one Basil was in, except if you looked out the window you could see that it was dark instead of light.
Basil touched the mirror with his finger and a ripple appeared again. This time he was sucked into the mirror, he appeared next to Harry, who was writing replies to letters visibly annoyed. Lockhart was none the wiser. He was talking about his fans, completely unaware of the suffering Harry beside him. Suddenly Harry jumped."What?"
"I know right. Six solid months at the top of the bestseller list! Broke all records!" Lockhart exclaimed.
Just as Harry opened his mouth to respond, everything slowed down. Slower and slower, time began to stop. Only Basil remained moving. Then suddenly time rewound. Everything turned back to before Harry jumped.
Harry jumped. "What?"
"I know ri-" Time stopped again. And rewound again.
This time Lockhart's chatter was missing.
Time rewound again, this time the ticking clock stopped producing sound.
Another time, now even the ambient hum and the scratching of the quill ceased to exist. This time, Basil heard it. It was a low hiss. A snake.
Basil took out a book, on the cover was a snake. Flipping through it, he stopped on a page.
The Basilisk. King of serpents. The death glare.
Basil thought back to yesterday. There was a puddle beside Mrs. Norris.
Was Harry a parselmouth? Potter, huh.
Putting it all together he closed the book and put it away with the mirror. One last glance at Lockhart and he left.
"Why a Basilisk, Salazar." He muttered under his breath.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-__-_-_-_-_-_-_-__________-
Warning. There won't be a chapter tomorrow.
My Sister accidentally deleted this chapter so I had to rewrite it.
I'm burnt out now so you guys don't get a chapter tomorrow.
Muahaha!
Evil writer strikes again!