Chapter 39: Small Talk With Flitwick and Harry's thoughts
Three people were sitting in a comfortable office full of books, scrolls and interesting trinkets. There were cups full of tea in front of Flitwick and Luna, and Danil preferred to drink from a flask full of mead provided by Xeno. Of course, he preferred not to tell Flitwick what was inside the flask, and Flitwick didn't ask.
There was a reason why Flitwick, not McGonagall, was Danil's favorite teacher. The old half-goblin was smart, optimistic, cunning, and could break a meter-long cube of steel with one spell. But even so, he still took joy in teaching the little wix, sincerely content with every little bit of their progress.
That's why he took up teaching Dan with such zeal, giving him every little bit of magical knowledge he knew, and Dan wasn't opposed to learn more about magic.
The fact that sometimes Flitwick spoke to him as an equal, and not as one talks to a teenage student, was only a plus. Although considering that Dan didn't look, think, or sound like a teenager, it was understandable why Flitwick sometimes forgot himself.
Who in their right mind would think of a three-meter monster with a low voice and a Russian accent as an innocent teenager?
In any case, Flitwick never tried to sweeten the facts, no matter how terrible they were. So when Danil and Luna came to the Head of Ravenclaw to hear the whole story, he told them the truth.
"... And no one knows who controlled the beast? I thought that the master of the resurrected target should be nearby to give it commands?" Danil asked in shock.
Flitwick only looked at his student with disapproval.
"Although your choice of additional literature leaves much to be desired, you are right." Dan did not even try to justify himself. The book about necromancers wasn't even in the forbidden section! His hands were clean!
"Most necromancers, flesh workers and dark healers," the half-goblin shuddered in disgust, it was clear that he didn't like any of these wixen much, "they should be nearby to control the undead, but this case is quite different.
"In order to revive the body of a magical beast of this size, you need not only a huge magical power, but also experience working with the undead. No random wix without previous years of practice would be able to revive a basilisk in question, especially one so old. But strong and experienced dark wizards have their own secrets and ways to control the undead from afar."
Luna, who was sitting on Danil's lap for some ungodly reason, nodded wisely in agreement with her professor.
"This is not to mention the fact that no one in our school is being followed by Meticulous Deetains, they usually follow necromancers," the girl said quite seriously.
Dan combed through his knowledge of animals he heard about from Luna and found nothing, so he decided to ask her later.
"What exactly did Potter think of when he was getting the Serpent's attention?" Dan asked, frowning slightly. "If I were in his place, I would be in a stupor for a good bit."
And it was true. The dead serpent was blind as a mole, its eyes were destroyed by Dumbledore's phoenix while still alive. The lack of eyes meant one thing – Dan couldn't drive himself into a blind rage. He couldn't block his fear and nervousness with an all-consuming hatred for all living things, which meant that he would subconsciously hold back, even against the undead.
That was a part of the reason he decided to get rid of the skeletons in the catacombs faster in the future, those bastards didn't have eyes to look at him.
When he tried to put himself in Potter's place, he couldn't even imagine how he would have fought the huge snake. His only thought was to teleport to the head of the beast and stick his arm into the brain of the bustard up to the elbow. And he didn't know if it would kill an undead of the same size as that basilisk.
"Then it's good you weren't." Flitwick sighed heavily, losing his usual smile.
"My boy, maybe it's not very professional of me to say this, but you shouldn't try to solve every problem yourself. You already did one good thing just by saying a few words once," he glanced at Luna, who seemed to have lost interest in their conversation and looked at the enchanted the figure of some kind of lizard that was crawling up and down the wall of one of the cabinets. "I believe you can do even more if you can trust others."
Dan just nodded, poking Luna in the side to let her know they were done here.
He didn't know if he could follow Flitwick's advice. And although he had already seen once how the Hogwarts professors were stopped by the mockery of Luna, he still believed that this was not enough for his confidence. Years of living in Russia instilled in him a rather powerful distrust of figures of power.
Did you see your classmates fighting to death in the toilet? Shut your mouth and leave so you don't get punished along with them.
Found a fresh corpse in a dark alley? Not your problem, better not even call the police or they'll put a crime on your ass.
Distrust of people was instilled in him from birth.
So yeah, he didn't know if he could get over himself and tell the problem to someone with more power than himself often.
Dan didn't know a single person who woke up one day and decided to ask for help.
As the students left his office – Luna sitting on Dan's shoulders – Flitwick sighed again and leaned back in his chair. Maybe he was only telling the truth, but that didn't mean he was telling the whole truth.
And the truth was that there was not a trace of magic on the body of the basilisk. Judging by the scans, it was just an old corpse.
Nobody knew how this could be possible. If the corpse was not controlled by magic, then how?
He didn't have the slightest idea.
-=-=-=-=-=-
When Harry woke up, he was still in the medical wing, on a familiar bed with a sign with his name on it. For a couple of minutes, he just sat in confusion, trying to figure out exactly how he got here. His fatigue is still not completely gone.
"Ah, right, the basilisk. Again." He muttered to himself as he scratched the scar from the giant snake's fang.
Who could have guessed that his former enemy would come back from the dead to try to kill him again? Definitely not Harry – and no, he didn't count Voldemort, technically the nooseless one never died.
'Voldemort… The first two years at school, he was behind both incidents. He wanted to steal the stone in the first year and awakened the basilisk in the second. He wouldn't try a third time, would he?' Harry chuckled. 'Of course, he would.'
It could very well be true. Harry wouldn't be surprised if the Dark Lord was a master of non-magic, it would be awesome for such a sick bastard to be a necromancer to all the other horror that he committed.
Suddenly, Harry felt a shudder passing through his body, as if someone had danced a macarena on his grave. He was very familiar with this feeling, having experienced it before.
It could only mean one thing.
'Aunt Bella has received the latest news. And not from me. Again.' The boy trembled, already knowing that he was in trouble. 'Damn you, Albus!'
Knowing that even after hearing about his condition, she wouldn't be able to show up soon, Harry wrapped himself in a blanket and just stared at the ceiling. He wasn't ready to talk to the disappointed Bella again, the last time wasn't even half a year ago!
Trying not to think about the very near future, Harry began to think about something else to distract himself.
'Hermione! She lost consciousness, is she alright?' He hurriedly got up from his bed, almost falling face first into the ground, tangled in the blanket and jumped to his feet.
Unfortunately, Madam Pomfrey chose that moment to walk past his bunk. The woman jumped in surprise, dropping some potion from her hands. Harry was acting more on instinct when his hand whipped forward and caught the glass vile before it could break.
"Mr. Potter!" Harry winced. "Don't scare me like that, young man! But thank you for catching the potion."
He muttered something apologetic as he handed the flask back.
"I guess you're worried about Miss Grager, right?" Harry nodded. "Well, she hasn't woken up yet, so you'll have to wait. The girl was exhausted both physically and magically." Madam Pomfrey complained disapprovingly. "You and Mr. Weasley should talk to her, maybe at least you can convince her to rest."
Madam Pomfrey walked over to the bed where Hermione was lying and put the potion on the bedside table. "Now sit on the chair, I'll look at you again." He abliged.
Sitting down on a chair and letting Madame work her magic, he glanced at Hermione. Seeing his best friend unconscious again, Harry couldn't help but frown. Now he understood how she felt after each of his Quidditch games.
Sighing heavily, the boy sat down next to her bed and nodded in gratitude towards the healer. Hermione looked pale; her tan had almost disappeared after her trip to France. The thin blanket of the medical wing rose and fell with her breathing, again making Harry remember that his friend is, in fact, a girl.
Covering his face with his hands, he let out a tired sigh. He definitely didn't like how this Halloween went.
Actually, he didn't like any how any Halloween in his life went, every time something bad happened either to him or to his loved ones. But this one might take the second place of the worst Halloween ever.
First, he finally decides to talk to his friend about her obvious stress, which is why he then finds out about the existence of some huge monster that can use wixen magic without a wand and teleport on Hogwarts' grounds. If that wasn't enough problems, then the higher powers sicced a resurrected basilisk on the school!
A thought suddenly struck Harry: what if this strange monster was the master of the basilisk? Then Luna was in danger!
Forcibly trampling the impulsive thought into the dark corners of his mind, Harry took a deep breath. This theory didn't make sense. If this monster wanted to kill one of the students, he would have done it a long time ago. It was enough for the bastard to teleport into the any room of any House under the cover of night and silently do the job.
Moreover, he was friends with Luna, and Luna wouldn't be friends with an evil person.
Removing him from the list of suspects, the boy sighed again. It still left Harry with a problem. Who was the master of the Basilisk? He won't be able to sleep until that sick bastard is caught.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Meanwhile, one little slime was sitting in the middle of the room on the softest carpet in the world and meditating with his eyes closed. The longer he stayed in this room, the better he felt. He was already harder, better, faster, stronger! Even his mind got better!
At this rate, his latest failure will be forgotten in a couple of days! He will become the best diplomat slime in the world!
-=-=-=-=-=-
Surely it was some feral Dark wix.
The only thing that could make this day worse for Harry is if Sirius No-Name would show up at Hogwarts and piss in his morning tea. Although considering that the criminal had already been seen in Romania, he didn't think that he would have time to come and spoil his tea.
As soon as this thought flashed through his mind, the doors to the medical wing opened and the Regent of House Black went inside, her face set in a stern frown.
Bellatrix Black was a fairly short but very menacing woman with jet black hair and purple eyes. The beauty of this woman could only be matched by her madness, and many were sure that the witch was one crazy bitch. Not that anyone had the balls to say that to her face. As the Regent of the Black family, she could easily crush everyone both politically and magically.
And this woman was unhappy with Harry's behavior.
Bella's gaze fell on her adopted son and she quickly walked over to him, without a word taking the boy into a short hug. Taking Harry by the shoulders, she quickly looked him up and down and nodded in satisfaction.
"Still the same basilisk?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, only this time a little dead." Harry confessed.
Bella just hummed thoughtfully in response.
"... You will show me the memory of the battle later, and we will go over your mistakes carefully." Harry groaned, but didn't protest. "Now tell me why your friend looks like death walked over."
She jerked her head at Hermione, causing Harry to wrinkle his nose in displeasure. He knew very well that Aunt Bella didn't approve of his friendship with Hermione, and indeed with any Muggle-borns. He sometimes thought that if Hermione hadn't been first on their academic list, Bella would have told him long ago to cut off all ties to the ballast.
But now was not the time to deal with his family problems.
Now Harry had the perfect chance to tell Bella everything from the Acromantula attack to the existence of that strange monster. He had a chance to ask for help from someone stronger than him in every way…
"... Nothing special, it's just that Hermione spent too much time studying and not enough sleeping. The stress has gotten to her. I'll try to get her to rest more."
Was it any wonder he didn't take it?
"Oh, and how are you going to do it? Are you going to check if she went to bed?" Bella smirked. "Maybe you should share a bed with her so she doesn't get up in the middle of the night."
"Bella!" Harry groaned again.
Maybe he should have told her about that monster. Then he wouldn't have to listen to her teasing.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Simple_Russian_Boi
Simple_Russian_Boi Comrades, I apologize for not posting the chapter on Wednesday. Life got in the way and now my back, legs and arms hurt. That's not even counting the sunburn on my shoulders.
I was lucky that I did not die like Danil did. I doubt some space god would save my skinny ass.
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