"But what about a trial, Sir?" Tonks tried again. Dumbledore just sighed and shook his head. The old man – the Chief Warlock – didn't seem to be willing to do anything and Harry felt the wind picking up around him again.
"Rook," one of the other Aurors said to Tonks, "let it go. If you want to graduate just shut up and do what you're told."
"That doesn't seem – "
"It's al'righ'," Hagrid said with a final wheeze into his hanky. "I'll go, Tonksie. Jus' promise me you'll find who's doin' this and help those kids."
"We'll figure it out, Hagrid," Tonks said wilting even further. How dare they do that Tonks! To Hagrid! Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and turned back to the dim outline of Neville. His eyes widened as he noticed that he himself was visible again. With a start, Harry saw the small tornado that was whipping up by him and the sparks flying from the Ninja clutched in his hands. Harry hurriedly damped down on whatever wild magic he was sending off and the Ninja stopped sparking, the illusions and silencing wards snapping back into place around him. Breathing a sigh of relief and nodding thanks at Neville's outline, Harry turned back to the window.
"Enough of this. Arrest him. I have other meetings to get to," Fudge said with a twist of his hat. The small group stepped out with Hagrid in some sort of cuffs between them and Tonks trailing dejectedly behind. If being an Auror did that to her, he hoped she didn't end up graduating. Tonks should be fun and cheery not looking like Dudley had been jumping on her back. Within a minute everyone had left Hagrid's hut and Neville and Harry dropped the Ninja stones back into their belt holsters.
"What the hell is going on, Harry?" Neville stared where the group had disappeared to in the distance.
"I don't know. But now we really have to figure it out. The government obviously doesn't seem to want to solve anything." Harry's glare increased. Yet another strike against people with authority.
"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!"
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