"We are going through the plan one last time," Robards said, in his best commanding officer voice. The assembled Aurors and teachers stood in lines, paying attention. Harry stood just behind them, focusing as if his life depended on it. Which, it very well might.
"Based on the mapping we have managed to do, the entrance seems to lead to a large tunnel which opens into a cavern. It is in this cavern that we expect to find the basilisk"
"Minerva will be outside the bathroom door, accompanied by Grubbly-Plank, Hagrid, Dawlish, and Lambert. If everything goes to hell it is up to you to hold the snake up while evacuation proceeds"
McGonagall gave a curt nod. Next, to her, Hagrid merely seemed upset that he wouldn't be joining them in the Chamber. And that they would be killing the beast, of course.
"Inside the bathroom, Pomfrey, Flitwick, Stevenson, and Smith will be waiting just outside the entrance. You will be watching for flares, or for any form of communication. It is up to you to handle any injuries, and to pass messages on to the evac team if need be"
The mentioned team positioned themselves near the sink, but not too close.
"The rest of us will be heading in. Dumbledore, Kettleburn and I will take point. Snape will be at the back, with Potter. Everyone else will be in between. Once we get it, we will proceed as cautiously and quietly as possible. Understood?"
"Yes, sir" Came a chorus of replies.
"Good. Remember, we have received authorization for the use of the killing curse. Do not cast it if there is even a possibility of it hitting one of us. Rather use the Conjunctivitis"
There were nods, some of the task force looking quite green.
"Any sight of anything that isn't one of us, cast Obscuro and the Conjunctivitis before anything else"
"Wait!" Kettleburn burst into the conversation. He looked quite odd, waving his metal arm in the arm and stamping his wooden leg. "Do you realize what an opportunity you would be ruining by blinding it?"
He received a lot of confused looks at that.
"An opportunity to get ourselves killed?" Someone said weakly
"No! No-one has ever had the chance to research a basilisk's gaze. We don't know whether or not it's active after death!"
"And this matters, why?" Robards said.
Dumbledore looked like he wanted nothing more than to laugh like a loon.
"Because it's a prime chance to test it! Once it's killed, we make a mouse look into its eyes, and if it dies we have an answer"
Robards stared at Kettleburn for a few minutes. "Ok," he said slowly, "If we manage to kill the damn thing without having to blind it first, you can test all you want"
Kettleburn looked disgruntled at that, but Robards just turned away from him and addressed the team again.
"Keep in mind that we only have a vague idea of the set up down there. We could be walking into all sorts of surprises"
"Potter"
Harry looked up at him. "Yes, sir"
"You've got your mirror with you?"
Harry nodded.
"Good. Will you do the honors?"
Harry walked forward, heart pounding. He stopped before the sink. The sink would take them down.
Taking a deep breath, he released it with a hissed "$Open$"
The tap spun, glowing white. The sink disappearing, fading away, leaving a large pipe jutting into the bathroom. A pipe that was getting bigger and bigger by the moment. Eventually, once the pipe was almost at the ceiling it stopped growing. Harry turned around to face the astonished crowd. More than one face was deathly pale.
Dumbledore stepped forward.
"Thank you, Harry. If you will take your place with Professor Snape"
Dumbledore meanwhile, was casting spell after spell into the descending darkness.
"Nothing living in this section. Onward gentleman. Into the Chamber of Secrets. Careful on the stairs, I may have made them slightly rough"
The stairs weren't exactly rough. They were stone, and if Dumbledore hadn't said that he had made them, Harry would have been sure they had been there since the Chamber was made.
Bringing up the rear with Snape, Harry looked at the forest of Lumos' in front of him, and the little balls of light above Dumbledore. It wasn't enough to really light up the place, but it did cast enough of a glow around to see where they were going.
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, the front already moved quite a bit forwards. Flaming letters shot into the air where the front group was and formed out words.
SMALL ANIMAL BONES AHEAD. TREAD CAREFULLY
Shortly after seeing that, Harry and Snape reached the bones. They seemed to carpet the ground. The crunching feeling they gave off made Harry feel quite ill. There was some strange type of moss on the walls here, giving off a bit of light in a greenish hue. It made the whole place feel far creepier than before.
"Holy shit! Look at the size of this!"
Kettleburns exclamation sent a shock through everyone, and Snape gripped Harry's arm quite hard.
"Did you forget we were being quiet?" Came Robards' hiss a few seconds later.
"Of course not, but if a skin it already shed is this large, it must be at least sixty foot by now! That's-"
"Shut up! Unless you want the sixty-foot snake with deadly eyes to be waiting for us?"
Kettleburn's reply was lost in the echoes, and Harry lets go of a breath he didn't know he was holding.
' Sixty fucking foot!'
When they reached the skin, Snape ran a hand over it. "My god" He whispered to himself.
The flaming letters appeared again.
POTTER AND SNAPE, COME TO THE FRONT
Harry gulped.
When they reached the front, they found everyone standing together, in front of a statue. They were speaking in very hushed tones. Dumbledore motioned them over.
"The statue conceals a small room. There is something living inside"
Harry looked at the statue. He recognized the face from the portrait in his common room.
"I believe that it requires Parseltongue to open"
"But won't the Basilisk come out as soon as it opens?" Harry asked, trembling.
"Vey possibly" There was no trace of humor on Dumbledore's face or in his eyes now. "Which is why, you will open it and run to the back immediately"
"Shouldn't I try speaking to the snake?"
"I doubt anything you could say will calm it down when it sees so many targets before it"
Harry looked up at the statue again.
' I can't do this'
He was shaking hard. He was about to release a fucking basilisk, one that he would not be able to control at all.
' If you do this, no-one will be able to think you were behind it. You're better than them aren't you? Prove it'
Harry nodded to Dumbledore, not willing to speak.
The flaming letters appeared again.
POSITIONS
The assembled wizards spread out in a semi-circle around the statue, with Harry and Snape dead center.
Harry looked around. Robards nodded at him, looking grim.
" $Open$" Harry hissed. Immediately the mouth of the statue was growing huge. Snape gripped Harry's arm and pulled him away.
A chorus of voices shouted out "Obscuro"
" $KILL ALL OF YOU! ATTACK ME?! I WILL EAT YOUR BONES! I WILL FIND YOUR SPEAKER AND CRUSH HIM! YOU WOULD FIGHT ME? DRINK YOUR BLOOD!$"
And the room was lit up with green, as eighteen voice shouted "Avada Kedavra!"
An enormous thump that sent tremors through Harry's legs announced the success of their curses.
Harry and Snape stopped their frantic run and turned around to the cheering crowd.
Kettleburn was busy with the snake's corpse, while the rest of them seemed to be watching and talking amongst themselves. Dumbledore stood off to one side, shaking his head slightly as he watched.
"Aha! As I suspected. It only works when the basilisk is alive!"
"Well," Robards said, with a grin that somehow didn't seem to fit his face, "You got your wish. Mind telling us why this is so important?"
Kettleburn looked incredulous at this. "Why this is important? It just means that a basilisk's gaze works totally different to a gorgon's! We have so much to learn!"
"Well Silvanus, you'll be able to learn a lot when we dissect it," Dumbledore said.
"Dissect it? But it's a perfect specimen!"
"Yes, but it's parts are exceedingly expensive. And since we will be losing out on some of our Mandrake revenue this year, it would be most foolish to waste it"
"It's not a waste! Think of the educational opportunities!"
Dumbledore masterfully ignored the ranting professor and turned to cast a spell around the room.
"No presence of any living beings here, other than ourselves. Thank you, gentlemen, you have just saved many, many lives"
"Just doing our job," Robards said, still wearing that terrible grin.
"Come, let us not allow Minerva and the others to spend too much time fretting. I also believe we have a feast to plan"
The feast was enough to rival even the Christmas feast. Somehow, the news had already spread throughout the entire school that the creature causing the attacks had been a basilisk and that it had been killed. And that Harry Potter had helped kill it. Harry didn't disabuse anyone of that notion but instead basked in the admiration. Even from within his own house, who seemed a bit disgruntled that the attacks on the unworthy would now cease, they still were impressed enough that it covered up their unhappiness. After all, Basilisk's did carry a rather intense reputation.
After everyone was getting quite full from the amazing meal, Dumbledore stood up to speak.
"Hogwarts owes a great debt to the Aurors and representatives of the ministry who have helped rid us of the basilisk that was causing so much damage. This is a debt that I feel we will not be able to repay in full. At the very least, we each owe them our thanks"
There was a round of applause as Robards stood up to shake Dumbledore's hand.
"Additionally, there is someone else who deserves our thanks. Harry Potter" The Hall went silent as everyone turned to stare at him, "Who, using his gift of Parseltongue made it possible for us to even reach the basilisk. He did so, even though it was quite likely he was putting his own life at risk"
There was loud applause. Dumbledore waited for it to die down before continuing.
"For this, he will be receiving the Order of Merlin, First class. As well as, oh let's say, seventy-five points to Slytherin"
There was applause again, but nothing came close to the eruption that occurred at the Slytherin table. He found himself the center of a giant hug, and someone was shouting "We'll win that cup again this year!"
All Harry could think, was that now people wouldn't hate him.
He had no idea how wrong he was