章 35: The Halloween Event of 1993 II
A/N: I think I've finally worked out a schedule for myself. You can expect a new chapter for this novel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:00, Moscow time. Or as I like to call it, the usual time.
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The two Gryffindors ran forward, closer to the sounds of destruction and screams. Harry's legs carried him forward faster with each step, helping the adrenaline to rush through his body faster. He knew that with every second they lost, they risked more losses. Time was of the essence in situations like this, something he'd learned a long time ago from Bella.
But when they found the source of the commotion, Harry was ready to scream.
The doors to the girls' lavatory on the second floor seemed to have been blown up from the inside, the floor and walls were scratched as if someone huge was dragging a dozen anvils behind their back on a rope.
"No, no, no, no, no-" he muttered under his breath, wishing with all his heart that his hunch was wrong.
Stopping in the doorway for a moment, one look at the ruined entrance to the Chamber of Secrets dashed all his hopes.
"Bollocks!" He cursed and ran on, Hermione hot on his heels.
The screams and the sounds of spells were getting closer, but not louder than the blood that pounded in his ears. The old walls of the school swept by, lit torches no more than a smear on his vision.
Jumping out of another corridor, Harry finally saw what was the source of such horror and froze in place. On the constantly moving stairs, occupying two flights of stairs at once, there was a huge basilisk. The terrible smell of rotten flesh and stagnant water wafted through the school.
The basilisk has changed a lot since the last time Harry saw it. The snake's flesh was rotten in several places, the scales that once were a deep dark green, were dull and dead. The creature's eyes were still destroyed, gaping holes were in their place, infested with something alive and moving. But the biggest piece of evidence that this basilisk was the one Harry had killed was the hole in the snake's skull.
"Oh Merlin." Hermione muttered, holding back the urge to vomit.
Harry, seeing that several students were dangerously close to the Basilisk's head, nearly exploded on the spot in frustration. The creature hung with its snout to the first floor, "looking" towards the path that led to the Great Hall. Even after lost it's eyes, died, and rotted over the past few months, this creature was still able to understand where large numbers of people were. How? Harry had no idea.
"What are you doing?! Run, it can't see you!" He yelled as he fired a concussive blast at the serpent's head.
The students immediately scrambled away, most likely to call for help.
The serpent winced from the explosion, its body writhing unnaturally in place, turning upwards where the impact had come from. There was a feeling that its body was controlled by a puppeteer with Parkinson's disease, the basilisk moved so clumsily and twitchy.
The creature turned up and emitted a strange hiss in the direction of the two Gryffindors. Its mouth was still full of sharp fangs, but there was a hole in one place. There used to be another fang, which now lay as a trophy in Harry's room. Proof that he had already killed the beast once.
"Do you have a plan?" Hermione asked hurriedly, aiming her wand at the beast's head and trembling with fear.
'And Harry killed it with just a sword?! How is he still alive?!' She was mentally screaming, making a note to hug the boy who had done so much for their School.
"Distract this cunt until the professors arrive." Harry muttered back and fired another spell at the serpent, but it swerved sharply to the side, hitting the railing with it's body.
Spell after spell fell on the dead basilisk's body, causing it to turn around to deal with its pesky problems.
The driver of the corpse, meanwhile, still hasn't fully figured out how to control the overgrown snake. The little slime melted half of its already small body and took control of the miraculously surviving brain and nervous system of the Slytherin monster.
It hoped to get to the people as quickly as possible, and what better way than to grab a ride with a huge snake? It would also be much faster! Of course, its vision was severely limited by what was visible from the wound in the basilisk's skull, but it managed.
Seeing people for the first time, the slime was happy! His first step was complete, he had found a point of contact with the human race! Now all he had to do was start a dialogue!
Only, the little people started screaming and running away from him, shooting strange lightning at its… err… suit from their sticks. It couldn't understand their words or why they were screaming. Was it that scary? He was just a friendly little slime!
But suddenly, one of the little people shot something sick at the dead basilisk's head, causing the little slime's body to shake with vibrations. It felt terrible! How could this little human immediately attack the first thing he met? Aren't humans supposed to be polite? The other humans only lit up his suit, not dealing any damage to himself. But this one...
So, the slime of course decided to protect itself from the evil little human! Straining the muscles in the body of the snake, the tail of the corpse quickly began to fall on the two humans on the second floor.
But suddenly, the stairs began to move. The one on which the basilisk's muzzle lay rose sharply to the third floor, blocking the path to the Great Hall for the creature.
Shaking unhappily from side to side, the slime finally realized one truth. These two humans were not going to let him go so easily. So he had no other options. The little slime, with his small slimy heart heavy, was forced to choose violence.
Unfolding the basilisk's body, the little slime sent signals to all remaining muscles to move.
"Run!" Harry yelled, now fully convinced that he had attracted the attention of the undead.
Hermione ran first, casting spells behind her as soon as Harry caught up with her running pace. Luckily for them, the undead basilisk was much slower than the living one, especially now.
Every time they turned back, they were sure that they would have nightmares about this scene. The half-rotted body of the basilisk that followed them didn't stop at any obstacle. There wasn't much that third-year students could do, especially in a situation like this.
"Throw concussion spells at his head!" Because that seemed to be the only thing that worked on the bastard.
Leading a snake through the labyrinths of Hogwarts, a company of two teenagers and one half-rotted basilisk frightened the ghosts and portraits on the walls. Harry mentally counted down the seconds in his head, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
"At the first sign of trouble, either the ghosts or the portraits alert the nearest professor about it. If you're going to cause trouble, know that once you're spotted, you'll have about seven minutes to get out of there." Bella once said. "If I hear that you've been caught after all I've taught you, I'll be greatly disappointed." She often added.
'Four minutes now.' Harry thought, 'we can hold out for four minutes against a corpse, as long as the cavalry arrives, we'll be fine.'
It turned out to be more difficult than he expected. Hermione wasn't used to running that long at full speed, so after a couple of minutes she slowed down and began to pant. Thinking quickly, he glanced at the nearest door and forced it open with a wave of his wand. And once they were fast, he pushed Hermione inside, jumping right after her.
The basilisk crashed into the passageway; its head too big to squeeze through. Harry and Hermione fell backwards from the force of the blow, crawling backwards so that it couldn't reach them. Grunting in displeasure, the basilisk hit the stone passage a couple more times, trying to squeeze through.
Finally, it stopped, lowering its head so that the wound in its skull seemed to be looking at the two Gryffindors. Harry could have sworn something was watching him from inside.
"Metallum vincula!" An old, strong voice sounded from the hallway, causing a dozen metal chains to burst from the floor. The cavalry arrived earlier than expected.
Although Harry couldn't see Dumbledore, he could imagine his figure. The old man must have looked at the basilisk with disappointment as he raised his wand and prepared to cast another spell.
"... Decapitatio."
There was a whistle of something flying through the air, that stopped just as he head the sounds of flesh ripping apart and the serpent's head slowly slid away from its own body.
Hermione chose this moment to pass out. All the accumulated stress and fatigue finally washed over her like a wave. Luckily, Harry reacted in time and caught her before his head was spinning from the abrupt ending of the chase.
He didn't even notice when the old man was next to him, shaking his shoulder.
"Are you quite all right, my boy?" Dumbledore asked calmly, blocking the terrible scene behind him with his bright robes.
"Yes, sir." Harry answered almost automatically.
"That's good. Now, I think you and Miss Granger could do with a visit to the medical wing. And later on, I'd like to hear what happened here." He muttered and waved his wand again, making Harry fall asleep. The boy didn't need to be conscious to visit the medical wing.
Putting his hands on the shoulders of his students, Dumbledore apparated to the medical wing, knowing that Pomona would arrive at the scene in a couple of minutes. He believed that a woman could easily keep order in his absence.
Unfortunately, his haste made it impossible for him to find the true reason for the "resurrection" of the Slytherin monster.
As the wizards went about their business, the little slime climbed out of its suit in confusion. It wasn't sure what had just happened. Why did it even go after those two people? Why did it want to hurt them?! This went against all its principles! Violence is never an option!
The dark influence of the basilisk was rapidly disappearing from little slime's mind. The magic that had driven Hogwarts' last line of defense insane, couldn't break the will of the pure slime heart, but it could wound it.
Full of regret and shame, the little slime jumped towards the crack in the wall, hiding from the world for a while.
It needed to think somewhere where no one would disturb it. So the little slime began to look for such a place, slowly hopping its way to the sixth floor, where behind the picture of a strange sir was an empty room with a bunch of things that the slime haven't seen in his life.
Here he decided to stop for a while. He felt very good inside, as if his body was being gently massaged and filled with magic at the same time. It was a pleasant feeling.
And this is how the little slime became a squatter in the room of one Danil Khromov.
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A/N: Unfortunately, I couldn't add Ron to this scene. I wanted to show how different he is in my novel, but my rationality said: he is already in the Great Hall, who will let him out? So no red boy for you, suckers.
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