Chapter Ten: Our Heroes Solve the Puzzle
It was now nearly four months since the double attack. Harish was looking for the Chamber harder than ever. He was making horrible grades in all of his classes, but he didn't even care. Still, with all of his looking and researching, he was no closer to finding the Chamber as Mr. Weasley was at becoming the Minister of Magic. The only clue he had to go on was the diary, and that wasn't a lot.
Everyone seemed to think that the attacker had retired, but the inactivity put Harish on edge. In March, several of the Mandrakes threw a loud party in greenhouse three, making Professor Sprout very happy. The next day, Draco came to Harish telling him that the Mandrakes were almost mature.
Draco, Hermione, and Daphne couldn't help Harish look so much when they had to make the decision on what classes to take the next year. Harish had asked Dean how he decided what classes he was going to be taken, and the boy had informed him that he had picked whatever classes his wand had landed on, causing Harish to laugh his head off.
Slytherin's next Quidditch match was going to be against Hufflepuff. The team had practices every weekend as usual. The practices went really well and they were certainly growing drier as the temperatures increased. The evening before Saturday's match he had bounded into the common room, whistling, to drop his broom off in the dormitory.
But, his cheerful mood didn't last long when he entered their dormitory. The twins whistled to indicate their surprise as the three of them stepped inside. The contents of Harish's trunk had been thrown everywhere. His cloak lay ripped on the floor. The bedclothes had been pulled off of his four poster an the drawer had been pulled out of the bedside cabinet, the contents strewn all over the floor and the mattress.
Harish walked over to his bed, his expression stony, treading on a few loose pages of Travels with Trolls. As he pulled the blankets back onto his bed, the twins inspected the rest of the room.
"Whoever did this must have been looking for something," Harish said. "Frantically."
"And they found it," Fred said.
"Wha—"
"The diary is missing," George replied.
The next morning they woke to brilliant sunshine and a light, refreshing breeze.
"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" Draco remarked enthusiastically as he sat down for breakfast.
"Buck up Harish," Flint grunted. "You need to eat."
Harish, who had been looking up and down the table, looked at his plate and dug into the eggs and bacon. When he left the Great Hall with the twins and Hermione, another serious worry added to Harish's growing list. He had just set foot on the marble staircase when he heard, yet again—
"Kill this time… let me rip…tear…"
He shouted aloud causing the twins to jump.
"The voice!" he exclaimed, looking over his shoulder. "I just heard it again—didn't you?"
The twins shook their heads, wide-eyed. Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead.
"Harish!" she said urgently. "I've just understood! I've got to go to the library!"
And she sprinted away, up the stairs.
Harish was still looking around, bewildered, trying to find the source of the voice. Then, he realized he was cutting it very close. He sprinted down the stairs, grabbed his broom, and rushed out to the changing room. His mind was still on the disembodied voice as he pulled on his emerald Quidditch robes, his only comfort was that everyone was outside to watch the match. So, no one could accuse him of anything.
The teams walked out onto the field to boisterous applause. Flint took off for a warm-up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last minute discussion of tactics.
Harish was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running onto the field clutching a purple microphone. Harish's heart sank when she said through it, "This match has been cancelled!"
There were boos and shouts. Flint looked murderous and the Hufflepuff captain looked devastated. Harish slid back off of his broom and watched as Flint landed on the ground angrily.
"You can't cancel the match!"
McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through the megaphone.
"All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where the Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"
Then she lowered her megaphone and beckoned Harish over.
"Blake, I think you'd better come with me…"
Wondering how she could possibly think it was him this time, he followed. The twins and Draco slid off their brooms and followed as well, but to his surprise, the professor escorting them didn't object.
"Yes, perhaps you boys had better come too…"
Students were swarming out of the stadium and all around them. Some of them were grumbling and complaining about the match being cancelled, but the others looked around worriedly. The four boys followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. They weren't taken to anyone's office to be punished.
"This will be a bit of a shock," Professor McGonagall said in an uncharacteristically gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack…Another double attack."
Harish's insides did a somersault as he realized that he hadn't included Hermione in the "everyone" who was outside to watch the match. She must have still been in the library. Sure enough, lying on a bed next to a Ravenclaw girl, with her eyes wide and glassy, was Hermione.
"They were found near the library," Professor McGonagall explained. "Along with this." She held up a small round mirror. "Does it mean anything to you?"
All of the boys shook their heads.
"I will escort you back to the Slytherin common room. Then I must address the Gryffindors."
"All students must return to their House common rooms by six o' clock every evening. No student is to leave after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the restroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training practices or trials are postponed. There will be no more evening activities."
The Slytherins packed inside the common room listened as Professor Snape read off of his roll of parchment in silence. He rolled it up and added, "I am afraid that unless the culprit is caught, the school will likely be closed. If any of you know anything,"—he glanced pointedly at Harish—"About these attacks, please feel free to tell a Head of House.
He strode out of the room and the Slytherins started talking immediately.
"—so that's one from each house now. Whoever this is must not be a student, or surely one house would be spared—"
"—who was Petrified this time?"
"Hermione Granger."
"—she lied to us! She's been a Muggle-born all along?"
"She has not," Harish said suddenly, cutting off the rest of the House's conversations.
"What?"
"She has not lied to you."
"Why do you say that? The Heir couldn't have attacked her if she was pureblood," Pansy Parkinson shot back.
"I think she was petrified by accident. She and the Ravenclaw that got petrified with her were the only students left in the castle. The monster most likely wanted out and happened across them." Then he began mulling everything over out loud. "They were found with a mirror, which means they must have been looking around corners with it…but why? Hermione didn't have a mirror…She must have figured out what the monster is! It must be some creature that can't be looked at directly! She must've gone to the first person she saw and asked if they had a mirror. Then they saw its reflection and were petrified!" he froze, practically vibrating with excitement. "I've got to go!" and he dashed out of the room.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see the twins running up to him. Egelbert was sitting atop Fred's shoulder.
"You heard Professor Snape!"
"We're not allowed to go anywhere—"
"Not without a teacher to escort us."
"This is too important," Harish said, dashing out of the dungeons and up a flight of stairs.
They flew out into the entrance hall.
"Where do you think you're going?" Professor McGonagall asked suddenly.
The three boys froze and turned to see her striding towards them.
"We—we want to see Hermione. We didn't really get to much earlier…"
"All right," Professor McGonagall said. "I'll go with you."
And she started leading them to the infirmary. When they got there, Professor McGonagall informed Madam Pomfrey they were there, before leaving them. Once they were alone, Harish dashed over to Hermione's bed.
"Why are we here?" the twins asked.
"To find some sort of clue," Harish said. "If she figured out what the monster was—oh!"
"What?" the twins asked.
"It's a snake! I don't know why I saw it before! Every time there's been an attack I hear a voice no one else hears. Why? Slytherin's monster is a snake! We need to search her pockets."
He began looking through her pockets, but there wasn't anything in them. Then he noticed that her hand was curled into a fist.
"What are you holding?" he muttered. He curled his fingers around hers and felt a piece of paper crumpled in her fist. He tried to tug it out, but he could hear the tearing of paper.
"Let me," Fred said. Harish nodded and backed away, letting Fred find the paper and then gently ease it out of Hermione's rigid grasp. It read:
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, none are more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the king of serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are wondrous, for aside from its venomous and highly deadly fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk runs from only from the crowing of a rooster, which is fatal to it.
Beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harish recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.
It was as though someone had clicked a light on in his brain. He could see where it all fit together.
"It's a Basilisk; a snake! It all fits!" Harish exclaimed, shoving the paper under Fred's nose. "It's stare is deadly, but no one's looked at it directly, so no one had died! Hermione had the mirror….Creevey saw through his camera…Finch-Fletchley saw it through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got full blast of it, but he couldn't die again…Mrs. Norris….Mrs. Norris saw its reflection in the water from Myrtle's bathroom! Spiders flee before it—the spiders were going out the window when Mrs. Norris and Justin were attacked. It runs from a rooster—Hagrid had said that three roosters had been killed. I knew it wasn't a Blood-Sucking Bugbear!"
"But how's something this big—"
"Been getting around the school unnoticed?"
Harish looked at the word Hermione had scrawled at the bottom of the page. "Pipes…Pipes! It's been getting around in the pipes!"
"But this still doesn't explain—"
"Where the Chamber is."
"The spider would know," Harish said, suddenly.
The twins both looked at Harish as if he had lost his mind.
"The spider?" they asked incredulously.
"The diary showed me a memory of my father framing Hagrid. He told them that the monster was Hagrid's pet spider. They believed it, of course, that thing was huge. Anyway, it escaped. The thing is, it was in the castle at the same time as the last time the Chamber opened. It could possibly know where the entrance is!" the twins shot him a look. "I know it's pretty farfetched, but currently it's all we've got."
They stood there looking at each other for a moment, enjoying the fact that they had solved the puzzle. Then, the twins broke the silence.
"Well, what're—"
"We waiting for?"
"Let's go," Harish said.
He pulled the cloak out of his bag and the three of them got beneath it. Then they dashed out of the Hospital Wing, back out into the entrance hall, and out of the building. They saw someone they didn't expect out there, walking out to Hagrid's cabin.
"Dumbledore?" the twins questioned loudly.
"Shhh!" Harish exclaimed and then added in a whisper, "And the Minister. Hagrid was framed for the attacks, remember? So now that there's been another one, Dumbledore and Fudge have probably gone to talk to him.
"Ohh," they replied.
The three teens watched as Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic were let into Hagrid's hut. Then, out of curiosity, they crept up to a cracked window and watched.
"—very bad business," Fudge was saying. "Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."
"I never," Hagrid said. They saw his head turn to Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir—"
"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," Dumbledore said to Fudge.
"Look, Albus," Fudge replied uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against him. Ministry's got to do something—the school governors have been in touch—"
"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help matters in the slightest," Dumbledore said.
"Look at it from my point of view,:" Fudge said, fidgeting with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Go to be seen doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty—"
"Take me?" Hagrid croaked. "Take me where? Not Azkaban prison?"
Harish turned and saw a third person walking up to the hut. This one had platinum blonde hair.
"Uncle Lucius?" Harish gasped.
The twins clapped their hands over his mouth, but Malfoy Sr. simply knocked on the door. He was let in by Professor Dumbledore and Lucius strode into the hut. Fang started to growl.
"Already here, Fudge," he said approvingly. "Good, good…"
"What're yeh doin' here?" Hagrid asked loudly. "Get outta my house!"
"My dear man, please believe me I have no pleasure in being in your—uh—you call this a house?" he replied with a sneer. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."
"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" Dumbledore asked politely.
" Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," Lucius said lazily, handing over a roll of parchment, "but the governors fell it's time for you to step aside. This is an order of Suspension—you'll find that all twelve signatures are on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? At this rate there'll be no more Muggle-born students left in Hogwarts, and we all know what a terrible loss that would be."
"Oh, now see here, Lucius," Fudge said, looking alarmed now. "Dumbledore suspended—no, no—last thing we want just now—"
"The appointment—or suspension—of the headmaster is a matter for the governors, Fudge," Mr. Malfoy replied smoothly. "And as Dumbledore has failed to stop these attacks—"
Harish, having heard enough tell that this was going to be an argument about whether Dumbledore should be removed, grabbed the twins and the three of them headed into the forest. Soon, Harish found a trail of spiders and he followed it. Harish cast a light with his wand and, following its light, they followed the steady trail of spiders. They walked along the path and the trees grew thicker and thicker around them as they continued walking. Then the spiders finally led them off the oath and into the dense foliage.
They followed them for what seemed ages until the trees began thinning again, and they found themselves in a giant hollow. Then, they could hear the sound of something enormous. They stood there, trying to catch a glimpse of what was making the noise until it finally came into sight, It was a spider the size of a small elephant. It had grey and black hairy legs and its pinchered head was milky white. It was blind.
"Hagrid? Is that you?' the ancient spider asked.
"We're friends of Hagrid," Harish replied.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," the giant spider said thoughtfully.
"Hagrid's in danger," Harish said. "There have been attacks at school and everyone thinks it was him.
"But that was years ago," the spider replied. "Years and years ago. I remember it all well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed I was the monster that dwells in the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"But they were wrong, weren't they?" Harish said.
"Yes. Hagrid did not do it, and I was not the monster. The only bit of the castle I ever saw was the cupboard in which Hagrid had kept me."
"So you never killed anyone," Harish finished for him.
"Never," the old spider replied. "The body of the girl was discovered in a bathroom."
Harish nodded. "That's all we needed, we'll just go now."
"Go?" the spider asked. "I think not. My family does not harm Hagrid on my command, but I cannot keep them from fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our hollow.
More spiders were already advancing on them. Thinking quick, Harish cast a spell that cut off their legs. Then he and the twins ran as quick as possible. He clutched onto the cloak as tight as possible to keep from dropping it. They ran out of the forest and all the way up to the castle.
"So," Harish panted once they had gotten into their dormitory. "A girl died in a bathroom…what if she never left?"
"Moaning Myrtle?" the twins asked. Harish nodded.
"She must know where the entrance is. It could even be in her bathroom."