Accusations, Associations and Applications (Part Three)

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Harry said holding his friend's hand. He and Neville had stopped in to talk with her after classes had let out. "We can't get the mandrakes for you just yet. Apparently," Harry spit the word like a curse, "Lucius Malfoy has managed to get a new law passed that regulates the import of dangerous magical substances and requires a holding period to ensure they are properly stored and inspected. By the time we could get them here, the ones growing would already be mature. I'm going to get that man. I don't know how, but I'm going to get back at him somehow!"

Neville smirked from her other side. "We did find the book you were looking at though. I know Harry thinks you tore out that page but I still say he's mental. I mean really, Hermione Granger defacing a book? That's more insane that teaching Trevor to do the tango!" He chuckled. "We did order a new copy though just in case you really did do it. That way we can check the page and try to figure out what you already knew."

"Yeah, maybe next time tell us what you're running off to check so that we don't have to guess, eh?" Harry said squeezing her hand. He frowned. She was holding something in the hand clutched to her chest. "What the…Neville look at this!"

"What?" Neville leaned over Hermione and peered at the hand. "Is that paper?"

"Hang on." Harry grabbed one of the tweezer-like instruments on a side table near him and carefully worked the paper out of her hand. He unfolded it and held it up in triumph to Neville. "Told you she tore the page!"

"Yeah, yeah, bully for you. What's it say?"

Harry squinted at the little piece of paper. " 'No snakes are more feared than the King of Serpents. The basilisk. A basilisk is born by hatching a chicken egg warmed from under a toad. They continue to grow as long as they live and specimens have been known to survive millennia. A basilisk's gaze will immediately kill nearly anything that looks into its eyes and in addition, the snake's venom is the most potent poison known to our world only able to be healed through the tears of a phoenix. Basilisk hide is nearly immune to spell fire – even more so than a dragon. The only known weakness of a basilisk is the crow of a rooster which is nearly instantly fatal to the creature.' Neville," Harry stared down at the paper with wide eyes, "weren't all the roosters killed on Halloween?"

"Yeah…" Neville swallowed nervously. "But that can't be the monster can it? The book says its gaze kills not petrifies."

Harry slowly shook his head staring at the mirror still stuck in Hermione's fingers and the camera Colin was clutching. "But what if someone didn't see it directly, Nev? What if someone saw it say through a mirror? Or a camera? Or a puddle of water? Or a reflection in a suit of armor? Or through a ghost? And Salazar Slytherin was supposedly a parseltongue like me right? It would make sense for his monster to be something only he could control."

"And it would explain why you could hear it and we couldn't…We need to find Babbling and the other professors and let them know immediately!"

"Wait! Nev, give me a minute!" Harry tore into his bag, pulled out his etching tool and whipped off his glasses.

"Harry, this isn't the time for a new invention! We have to tell them there's a monster snake on the loose that can kill you by looking at you! Bloody hell, it's a miracle no one's died yet!"

"I know! This should just take a minute!"

"What are you doing, Harry?" Neville was practically jumping from one foot to another.

"It's a Reflection rune twined with a Magic rune. Maybe it'll bounce the gaze back at the thing if we stumble across it?" Harry finished his work and the glass of his lenses flashed briefly before the lines faded back to barely visible patterns. Harry put them back on his face and grabbed a shiny tray from the table handing it off to Neville.

"What I don't get a reflection thing?"

"Can you transfigure glasses?" Harry asked raising an eyebrow. Neville wilted and shook his head. "That's what I thought. Besides there's probably a 50/50 shot that this does nothing anyway and the basilisk just kills me. This way at least one of us will probably survive if we get unlucky…"

Harry and Neville practically flew down the corridors slowing only at intersections where Neville would carefully hold his shiny tray to peer around the corner and Harry would pray his Reflector Lenses held up. They had just tore around the corner to Shiva's office and raised their fists to slam on the door when it was pulled open from the inside. A white faced Shiva stared back out at them, jerking back slightly in surprise before regaining her composure.

"Harry, Neville. This really isn't a good time. I have to get to the Teacher's conference room immediately and – "

"Shiva, we know what's been attacking everyone! It's a – " Harry explained hurriedly. Before he could get the nature of the beast out though Daphne Greengrass barreled into the corridor at a flat run. She saw Harry, Neville and Shiva and angled for them. Before anyone could say anything, Daphne had grabbed Harry's robes in both hands and was pleading with him.

"Potter, please tell me you've seen her! She ran and I can't find her! I should've realized something was wrong but I didn't see it until it was too late! Please, I need to find her!" Harry had never seen Daphne with so much as a hair out of place before but now…now she looked like Dudley had been chasing her for miles. Her face was splotchy, her hair wild, there were tear tracks down her face and her voice was just short of complete panic.

"Daphne, what are you talking about?" Harry asked trying to ignore the hands still clenched in his robes and focus on the girl in front of him.

"Tracey! I touched that stupid diary and she completely freaked out! She ran out of the room and I lost her and she's gone! She's gone! Potter, I need to find her! I don't know what's going on but something is horribly wrong!"

"Tracey Davis?" Shiva said in a whisper behind the three students. Her face had lost what little color it had left.

"Yes. Have you seen her, Professor? Please, I need to find her! She's my – she's my friend," Daphne said with a hitch.

"Miss Greengrass I – "

All students return to your dormitories. All students return to your dormitories. Remain in your Common Rooms. Instructions will follow. Dumbledore's voice reverberated through the castle sounding almost as if it was coming from the very walls themselves.

Harry's blood ran cold as he turned between the frantic Daphne and the despondent Shiva. "Shiva? Where is Tracey?"

"The three of you inside. Now," Shiva said as she wiped a hand down her face and pushed her door open further. The students dutifully filed into the office. "I am sorry to have to tell you this but…another message was discovered on the walls a few minutes ago. It appears that Miss Davis was taken."

"Taken?" Neville asked as his eyes narrowed. "Taken where? How?" Harry's mind started turning. How did this fit? Why take Tracey?

"Into the Chamber. We don't know how. I'm sorry Miss Greengrass."

"But – that's – no!" Daphne yelled not letting go of Harry's arm. Her eyes widened and she took a shuddering breath before sitting up straight and her features visibly freezing into a mask of calm and disinterest. "What did the message say, Professor?"

"It said," Shiva said, "that 'Davis' skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever. Her death will feed the rebirth.' " She gave a dark chuckle. "We have so utterly failed this school…"

"What the hell would a basilisk need Tracey for?" Neville asked collapsing back against the wall.

"A basilisk?" Shiva and Daphne both stared at the boy in utter confusion.

"It's the Heir, Nev. The basilisk is just the weapon but someone needs to be controlling it. Someone who's done it before. Or at least someone who's figured it out and is using this as the perfect opportunity. What if it's Lockhart? Maybe it's him and he needed Tracey to complete some ritual or something…"

"Flophart? There's no way that that idiot is the Heir!" Neville shot back.

"It would be a good cover…" Harry muttered.

"What the hell are you two talking about with a basilisk?" Shiva asked turning a hard stare on Harry. "Harry, I need to get to this staff meeting but if you know what is going on I need to know. Now."

"Hermione figured it out before she was attacked, Shiva," Harry explained. "The monster is a basilisk. It's vulnerable to roosters. All the roosters were killed on Halloween before the first attack. It's gaze kills but nobody has seen the direct gaze. Everybody's been really, really lucky and only caught a reflection or a distorted view and so they've just been petrified. It's supposed to be Salazar Slytherin's monster and he was a parseltongue. It all fits. The monster is a basilisk."

Shiva cursed and Daphne's eyes widened turning between the two boys present. "But if Lockhart has a basilisk under his control why go after Tracey?"

"Search me." Harry shrugged.

"Let's go ask him," Shiva growled before sweeping to her feet.

"Wait, Shiva! Can you transfigure glasses? Or at least something reflective?" Harry asked grabbing her arm before they could leave the room.

"What? Why?"

Harry pointed to his glasses. "The eyes, Shiva! A basilisk kills if you meet its eyes. I etched these into Reflector Lenses which might bounce its gaze back at it, but neither Nev nor I can transfigure glasses so he had to make do with that tray." Neville helpfully held up his medical tray.

Shiva peered at his lenses noticing the faint rune lines stenciled into the glass. She stood back up shaking her head. "I suck with transfiguration. Good catch though." Flicking her wand two small mirrors flew out of the inner room and into her hand. She handed one to Daphne and took the other herself. "These will have to do for now. Come on everyone."