Chapter Text
It started in the hospital wing.
Which was weird, since things usually ended in the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey kept him in for three days, telling him that ‘he was bitten by a basilisk, and I don’t care if you were healed by a phoenix, you will stay here until I’m absolutely sure that there are no adverse effects.’
Personally, Harry felt tired and grateful that he didn’t have to deal with the entire school’s questions and incessant staring.
He had been told that Dumbledore had cancelled the exams, courtesy Ron (with glee) and Hermione (with much upset and anguished eyes).
With the exams gone, there were three weeks until school ended. No pressure from the school on the students to study for the exams, meant high spirits all around. Fred and George, actually, had once again managed to send him yet another toilet seat.
Stretching comfortably, Harry laid his head back against the pillows and dozed off.
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Two days later, he was bored enough to try convincing Pomfrey to release him early. There was nothing happening in the hospital wing, just watching the clouds passing by. So that was why Harry was trying to get up, only to be pushed back into the bed.
“I’m completely healed, seriously, I’m totally fine!” He complained, throwing his arm up dramatically.** ”And I need to start exercising again, otherwise I’ll waste away!”
“No.”
Pomfrey huffed.
He flopped back onto the bed, grumbling under his breath. Obscured by hair, his green eyes fastened their gaze on the nurse, bright with anticipation for the night. Hand slipping under his pillow, grazed the soft, cool material of his invisibility cloak.
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Harry slipped off the edge of the bed, tiptoed across to the door, and with practiced ease, opened it silently and padded out into the corridor. Once he was far enough away from the hospital wing, he broke into a run and raced through the castle’s hallways, enjoying the way his muscles stretched and the wind whistling past him.
He’d been going stir-crazy, sue him.
The castle was completely deserted, free of students milling around like they did in the daytime. The people in the portraits were all sound asleep, and the wonderful and complete silence in the castle, with only the sounds of nocturnal animals in the forest, sent a thrill racing down Harry’s spine as he ran.
Finally slowing to a stop, he spun around slowly, taking stock of his surroundings. He was on the third floor of Hogwarts. He could spend his night running around the castle, but there was always the chance that he would run into a teacher, or Filch. Another place he could go…
With quick and light steps, he walked over to a set of double doors leading to the Hogwarts Library. The door swung open on silent hinges, and he entered the gigantic room.
There was always a nice atmosphere to the place, a peaceful, unhurried quiet that contrasted with the chaos of the Gryffindor common room. Studying here was always nicer than the loud, crowded place.
Harry aimlessly meandered past the bookshelves – keeping away from the restricted section, he didn’t need reminders of that disaster – not particularly searching for anything. He browsed through the subjects, flipping the pages distractedly, then replacing the books.
There’s nothing that I need to catch up on exactly, and I’m not researching any topic right now…
But...
Harry made his way over to the section where the books on magical creatures were. Alphabetically arranged, the collection of texts included basic introductory books with illustrations, stories and legends about creatures, travel journals of famous wizards and witches, and several other, complex subjects that Harry couldn’t even hope to decipher.
He selected a book on basilisks. The huge, long serpent had been on Harry's mind a lot.
He dreamt of it emerging from the statue of Slytherin's mouth. Dreamt of it towering over him, so much that he had to crane his head back, its diamond shaped head pushing through the tunnel, its fang in his arm, the searing agony caused by the poison –
Well.
He still wanted to know more.
Carrying the book over to a seat by the window, the moonlight pooling on the table, lighting the words up enough for him to read.
Pg 72 The King of Serpents
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents.
This snake, originally found in Greece, was first created by hatching the egg of a chicken beneath a toad. Once it had hatched, its creator, Herpo the Foul, a Parselmouth, gained control over it and unleashed it on his enemies.
The Basilisk can grow up to fifty feet in length, and is a dark green color with large yellow eyes. Growing to more than fifty feet in adulthood, and two to three feet in width, the size of the basilisk is accompanied by eyes that instantaneously kill any one who looks directly at them, and a powerful venom that has no known cure, as it is incredibly fast acting and deadly. It has been hypothesized that the all-healing tears of a phoenix, rare as they are, could heal the victim of the snake, if immediately given to the wounded person.
The Basilisk has a classification as an XXXXX creature, meaning it is a known wizard-killer that cannot be domesticated due to its immense powers.
A known tell that there is a basilisk nearby, is the absence of spiders. The basilisk being its natural enemy, spiders have instinctual knowledge of basilisks, which leads them to immediately flee when one is nearby.
The basilisk is similar to a dragon, as its skin is also not susceptible to most offensive magical spells. However, a known weakness of the serpent is its fatal reaction to the cry of a rooster. Upon hearing the noise, it causes the basilisk, to put it simply, to die.
The basilisk can live for hundreds of years. However, it reaches its full maturity forty two years after hatching. As it grows older, it becomes even more powerful, which is why the oldest basilisks are the most dangerous.
The female and male basilisk can be differentiated in that the male basilisk has a red colored plume at the top of its head.
Pg 96, The basilisk’s young:
The female basilisk has the ability to create eggs without the need for intercourse with a male of its species. Its eggs are estimated to develop and hatch about two months after they were laid.
Once hatched, the newborn snakes are averagely one foot long and one inch wide. They are born with the eyes of their kin, as it is an inherent ability in all basilisks, but are not venomous at that point in their life. Neither do they have the second set of eyelids that are a characteristic of their older counterparts. These develop when they are a month old. The eyelids filter out the death–inducing quality of their eyes. No one knows why this is needed, although it has been suggested that basilisks are not, in fact, impervious to the gaze of their species.
They are carnivorous reptiles, eating whatever meat they find. Basilisks eat rats, mice, birds, fish, as well as rabbits, deer, other carnivores and humans as they grow. When they are newborns, their parent feeds them portions from her own meal.
The poison:
Basilisks have a curious impulse, which comes into effect when they are about six to seven months old.
The young of the snake start to hunt for themselves after a month of existence. Armed with their eyes and teeth, they are adept hunters, even without the infamous basilisk poison.
Killing small animals such as rodents and birds gives them sufficient sustenance, but as they grow older and bigger they require larger prey.
After six months, they develop an instinctual urge to ingest their mother’s poison. Researchers have found that this is how young basilisks gain their own poison. As well as making them venomous, it also physically strengthens them and grants them the quality of being immune to spells, like dragons, as mentioned before. The venom also kickstarts the production of their own poison.
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Harry slid the bookmark in between the pages he was reading. So the basilisk was female. He had had a vague notion that it had been a she. He hadn’t known, exactly, but he had noticed some definite female vibes to it – when he wasn’t being hunted and almost murdered, that is.
He yawned, being tired from absorbing all that information, slid the book back in to its place in the bookshelf, put his cloak on, and exited the library. Ambling through the halls, back to the hospital wing.