Ch 26 Snake Bait Part 2

"So she threw you into a cave...huh," Celine remarked while getting up from her position on Sirius's chest. They had calmed down from their tension-reliving exercise and then they had just laid on the rough floor in each other's embrace while sharing stories with each other.

"Yes," Sirius said with a smile while thinking about his brief stint as Indiana Jones, "She probably wanted to teach me what it meant to be a real curse breaker with a practical example,"

"She did that to me too... when I was 12,"

Celine said with a grimace as she collected their scattered clothes, muttering under her breath, "Crazy Bitch."

"Hey! Don't call her that!" Sirius protested while putting on his pants.

"Why do you care?" Celine raised an eyebrow, taking a seat against the cave wall after dressing. "She's my grandmother... I can call her anything I want."

"Fine," Sirius acquiesced, rolling his eyes. He took a deep breath and continued, "Now we need to focus on the situation and find a solution for the 'problem' lurking outside our temporary home."

"Hmm... I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, and I can't think of any ideas," Celine replied despondently, shaking her head. Then she scoffed, "Unless you want to summon a rooster and have it defeat the Basilisk with its cry."

"That's it!" Sirius exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with hope as he stood up from the ground. "I forgot about that tidbit... It might actually work."

"No, you idiot! I was obviously joking," Celine sighed dramatically. "That was just an absurd rumour spread by Dark wizards who kept Basilisks as pets. They wanted their enemies to attempt such foolishness and become easy prey. A powerful magical creature like a Basilisk can't be killed by a normal creature like a rooster."

"Are you sure about that?" Sirius frowned, wrinkling his face. "Because I know for a fact that Voldemort, our recent resident Dark wizard, believed it to be true." He recalled the image of eleven-year-old Ginny with the Dark Lord's soul inside her, strangling roosters during Harry's second year.

"I don't know how you know that," She said while looking at him suspiciously, "But if it's true then it's probably because he must read it in books written by those same Dark Wizards and he must not have wanted to take any risk with the "Basilisk" he had since they are the rarest magical creature alive," Seeing Sirius's persistent glint, she shrugged and added, "If you don't believe me, why don't you try it out?"

Sirius did just that, he looked around for a small rock and waved his wand at it and transfigured it into a rooster and after casting a sonorous charm on it sent it running outside.

Holding his breath, he listened as the rooster's cry reached the cave's exit. The pounding and hissing in the cave momentarily ceased, and Sirius anxiously waited to see if it had worked. But then, a piercing hiss followed by a loud gulping sound reached their ears from outside the cave.

"Looks like you just served the Basilisk a nice dinner," Celine said sweetly, smiling. "I'm sure it'll be very grateful when it reaches us."

Sirius simply raised his middle finger in response to her cheekiness and sat back down on the cave floor with a sigh. Celine felt sorry for him and tried to lighten the mood by joking, "Why don't you ask for Harry Potter's help? You're close to him, right? I heard a rumour that he 'defeated' a Basilisk in his second year, so maybe he can give you some clues."

Her tone was clearly joking but Sirius still answered her seriously, "Well that was because he's the chosen one," he said as if it was obvious, "Plus he had the help of a Pheonix as well as the sorting hat that gave him the Sword of Gryffindor,"

"What?" she said, laughing, but her laughter died in her throat when she saw how serious he was. "Wait... you're not joking?"

"I am not," he shook his head and continued, "The Phoenix, which was Dumbledore's, by the way, took out the Basilisk's eyes, and after that, Harry just avoided it until he shoved the sword into the snake's brain through its mouth, killing it."

"So, what you're saying is that a twelve-year-old not only escaped a Basilisk alive, but he also killed it," she said slowly as if looking at an idiot. "What's next? Are you going to say all those books about him riding a dragon as a six-year-old are true?"

"No, those are not, but the Basilisk one is," Sirius replied.

"Right!" Celine said with an exasperated sigh, indulging him. "So the only thing we need is the Sword of Gryffindor and a twelve-year-old boy to defeat the Basilisk. I'm sure we can find those in the nearby market."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be the sword of Gryffindor... a normal sword...should do...it..." Sirius's eyes suddenly lost focus as a lightning strike went through his head, and his brain started working at the speed of light. He suddenly stood up with an excited jump and said, "I think I know how to defeat it."

....

"This is definitely not going to work," she said, her voice oozing with pessimism as she watched Sirius hovering over a bunch of laser-sharp swords that had been glued together like a porcupine and revolving around it while waving his wand.

"Why not?" he retorted, muttering Transfiguration spells under his breath. Slowly but surely, the swords began to transform into a four-legged creature before him.

"Well, for one thing, a Basilisk is not like a regular snake," she pointed out, observing as he transfigured the creature into a hideous, oversized rat. "They are not even the same species, so I don't think it'll have the same appetite for rats."

"Do you remember what happened to the rooster?" Sirius said with a smirk.

"And besides," she continued, speaking over him, "There is no way a twelve-year-old defeated a Basilisk, even if he's the Boy-Who-Lived. I'm sure it was just an exaggerated event created by a kid's overactive imagination. So, if you're basing your whole plan on a fictional story..."

But to her frustration, Sirius wasn't listening at all. He was completely focused on his task, which he completed after a few minutes. He stood up with satisfaction and proudly asked her while showing off his work, "So, how does it look?"

"Revolting!"

The rat stood waist-high and resembled a mutant rat from muggle horror stories rather than a normal creature. The transfiguration was poorly executed, with unnaturally large eyes without eyelids, mismatched legs causing it to stand askew, and a pudgy appearance in its middle, making it look like a grotesque monster.

"Hey, cut me some slack here. It was a rushed job," Sirius defended himself. "And it really doesn't matter how it looks as long as it does its job."

"And you genuinely believe that it'll work?" she asked sceptically.

"Yes, I do," he replied confidently. "As soon as the Basilisk swallows it, the temporary transfiguration will unravel, and the Basilisk's own bite will work in our favour, hopefully sending one of the swords straight into its brain, killing it."

Sirius suddenly turned to the rat and saluted it like a general in front of its soldier and said, "Well then go on my warrior,"

before raising his wand to send it on its way. However, Celine abruptly raised her hand, halting his actions.

"Wait," she said.

Sirius paused his wand mid-air, looking at her in confusion as Celine went to the rat's side without explaining anything. She looked at it seriously for a moment before she started to run her wand over its skin drawing some kind of temporary runes.

"What are you doing," Sirius asked after a few moments but the girl just raised her hand and continued on with her work. He tried to make sense of the runes but could only recognize a few of them, so he could only wait.

About five minutes passed before she stood up, satisfied. "All done," she declared. She turned to Sirius and waved her hand, beckoning him. "Now come here and charge it."

Sirius looked at her sceptically for a few seconds before shrugging and doing as she asked. He found a small circle on the rat's skin and pointed his wand at it to charge it. Only a minute later, the runes glowed brightly, signifying their completion.

"You can send it out now," Celine said, her eyes closed and leaning against the wall, visibly exhausted. Even though she had barely used any magic while drawing the temporary runes, it had drained her already strained reserves.

"What did you do?" Sirius finally asked after sending the rat on its way to fulfil its noble purpose.

"Well... I thought that even if your plan works, the swords may not line up perfectly," Celine explained. She opened her eyes and looked at him, a small smile forming. "And the snake could stop its bite before the sword reaches its brain."

"I guess," Sirius conceded.

"So, what I did was add a bit of a kick to the equation," Celine said, her smile widening. "The moment a significant amount of pressure is applied to the rat after it gets swallowed, all the swords will instantly fly outward with tremendous force, ensuring its demise."

"So, what you're saying is that you've basically created a time bomb," Sirius said, impressed.

"Yes... basically."

"That is brilliant—" Sirius's praise stopped midway as they both suddenly stilled when the sounds constantly coming from the outside abruptly ceased, just as before, and as expected they heard the familiar gulping sound after a few seconds.

Sirius looked triumphantly at Celine, his eyes gleaming with anticipation for the next part. However, nothing happened after a few seconds. His stomach sank as he feared that something had gone wrong. Just as he was about to lose all hope, there was a loud thump from the outside followed by defeating wail that pierced straight through the surrounding cave into their ears.

"Ahhh—" Both of them grunted in pain as they covered their ears and fell down on the cave floor, and Celine immediately collapsed into a fetal position. The sound was like a cat being butchered but magnified by a thousand times.

Thankfully for their ears and their sanity, the noise didn't last for long as it turned softer and softer before a mountain-shaking thump was heard and the scream abruptly died down.

Sirius groaned as he lifted himself from the floor, and almost immediately he strained his ears to listen but even after a while, there was no familiar hiss from the outside. He looked at Celine, who wore a similar shocked expression. "It worked," she said in disbelief.

"It did," he replied happily. "It bloody worked... Ha ha!" They suddenly burst into hysterical laughter, embracing each other without caring about their bleeding ears.

Unfortunately, their joyous celebration was short-lived. A loud bellow of rage followed by an intense heat hotter than anything they had felt before reminded them that the Basilisk had an ally waiting outside.

"Just one left," Celine gasped, looking into Sirius's eyes.

"It won't be left for long," Sirius declared, flashing a dashing smile. He stood up and headed toward the exit. Closing his eyes, he reached for his nearly replenished reserves, a confident smile playing on his face as he envisioned his plan to defeat the Dragon.