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The news that Harry Potter was a Parseltongue spread quickly to every corner of Hogwarts.
The way the students looked at Harry changed completely. The former curiosity and admiration were now mostly replaced by wariness, fear, and even outright hostility.
When he walked through the corridors, the crowd would part automatically, leaving a vacuum no one would come near. Whispers buzzed everywhere like gnats: "The Heir of Slytherin..." "He can talk to snakes..." "Who will be petrified next?"
Quidditch matches were also suspended indefinitely. Students were forbidden from wandering the school outside of class time.
Draco stood in the shadows not far from the entrance to Dumbledore's office. On his arm, the Mexican black kingsnake was quietly coiled, its cold scales against his skin.
Not far away, Hermione and Ron were waiting anxiously in front of the revolving staircase. Hermione was holding the ginger Crookshanks tightly, while Ron was nervously guarding the restless Scabbers in his arms.
The entrance to the office swung open, and Harry walked out. His face was a little pale, but those emerald green eyes burned with a determination that had not been there before, as if the conversation in the office had not broken him but given him some kind of resolve.
"Harry! Are you all right?" Hermione rushed forward at once, asking urgently. "What did Dumbledore say?"
Ron also came over, his voice tense. "They didn't... they didn't expel you, did they?"
Harry shook his head, his expression a mixture of exhaustion and determination. "No. Professor Dumbledore believes me."
He took a deep breath. "I have to find the real Heir and that monster. I can't let it hurt anyone else."
His gaze passed over Ron and Hermione and landed on Draco.
"Draco." Harry's voice was a little dry. "About the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets... do you know anything? Among the pure blood families, is there any... special lore?"
Draco looked at Harry's anxious eyes and weighed things in his mind. Letting Harry blunder around like a headless fly would only make things worse, especially since the order of victims had already changed.
He chose his words carefully and stepped closer, making sure his voice would not be heard by any students passing by.
"Slytherin's symbol is the snake. According to legend, the monster he left in the Chamber is... a very ancient, enormous serpent. A basilisk." Draco lowered his voice, making sure only the four of them could hear.
The black kingsnake coiled around his arm seemed to understand the word. It suddenly raised its body, nodded in Harry's direction, then opened its mouth threateningly, revealing its sharp fangs and letting out a menacing hiss.
Harry instinctively stepped back half a pace, his brow furrowed. "It says the thing is very dangerous and only obeys the Heir of Slytherin. It's a giant of its kind, but evil." He translated, his face growing a shade paler.
Ron and Hermione exchanged looks. They had only seen the snake open its mouth and hiss. This kind of "communication" that only Harry could understand made the atmosphere even stranger.
Draco sighed inwardly and continued, "A basilisk. Its gaze is said to be deadly." He noticed Hermione's eyes widen instantly, as if she had caught a key piece of information. "But the specifics... like how it moves, what its weaknesses are, I don't know."
"But... Colin and Mrs Norris were only petrified, not killed." Hermione quickly seized on the key point.
"I don't know the exact reason. Perhaps something weakened its power?"
Hermione pressed her lips together thoughtfully, a gleam of intellectual curiosity in her eyes.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Draco caught a familiar, small red haired figure flash past at the end of the corridor.
It was Ginny Weasley.
Her face was paler than usual, with heavy dark circles under her eyes. She looked like a flower about to wither.
"I have something to do," Draco immediately made an excuse, interrupting Hermione, who was lost in thought, and Harry, who wanted to ask more. "I'm leaving first."
Without waiting for their response, he turned and walked casually in the same direction as Ginny.
Following her was easier than Draco had imagined, and more unsettling. Ginny seemed to be sleepwalking, completely unresponsive to everything around her.
A few Slytherin students greeted Draco warmly. He only nodded perfunctorily, not stopping, his gaze locked on the red haired girl ahead.
They passed through several corridors and finally arrived at the library.
It was near curfew, and with everything that had happened, the library was frighteningly empty. Only a few lonely lamps cast dim yellow halos on the long tables. The huge bookshelves stood silently in the shadows, and the air was thick with the smell of old parchment and dust.
Draco saw Ginny sit down in a secluded corner by the window. She had clearly seen him too, but only gave him a cold glance. Her eyes were so empty they made Draco's skin crawl, completely lacking the lively anger or shyness from before.
She mechanically pulled out a... black covered notebook from her bag!
Draco's heart leapt! That was it!
He was about to hurry forward and find a way to snatch the notebook to see what it was, when another voice sounded behind him, urgent and impossible to ignore.
"Malfoy!"
Draco turned back impatiently and saw Hermione Granger running over, panting, carrying an old book as thick as a brick, A Complete Compendium of Medieval Magical Creatures. Her face was a mixture of excitement and fear at having discovered a major secret.
"Granger, I don't have time right now..." Draco tried to shake her off, his gaze anxiously darting toward Ginny, and he saw she had already opened the notebook.
"No! You have to see this!" Hermione grabbed Draco's arm with surprising strength, almost dragging him behind a nearby bookshelf.
Draco stumbled from the pull and muttered "mutant troll" under his breath, but since he could not draw Ginny's attention from afar, he had to endure it for now.
As he was reluctantly dragged by Hermione to a nearby table, he anxiously glanced at Ginny from the corner of his eye. She was holding a quill and writing quickly in the black notebook.
Hermione slammed the large book onto the table with a bang, sending up a cloud of dust.
She quickly flipped to a marked page, pointing at the text and a ferocious illustration of a serpent, her finger stabbing at a passage. "Look here! Basilisk. Direct eye contact is fatal! But..."
Her fingernail pressed hard on the next line.
"If seen indirectly through some medium... for example..." She quickly pulled a small mirror from her pocket. "Through a reflection, or like Colin, through a camera lens... it causes petrification!"
Just then, a very faint but scalp crawling sound, like cold slime dripping into the eardrum, came from deep within the library.
Hiss. Hiss.
Then came a heavy, grating, teeth aching rustle of scales scraping against some kind of metal pipe, coming closer and closer, like the footsteps of death echoing through the empty library.
Draco's blood ran cold! Merlin! It was the basilisk! It was nearby! In the pipes!
"Go! Granger! It's coming!" Draco's voice was tight. He grabbed Hermione's arm, trying to pull her away.
He had lived over forty years, been through war, faced death directly, but this was the first time he had ever faced a basilisk! Inside his sleeve, his black kingsnake shrank in terror, its cold body coiling tightly around his arm, conveying a clear trembling.
But Hermione was remarkably calm. She quickly, almost tearing, ripped the page with the basilisk information from the book and clutched it in her hand.
"If... if we get petrified," her voice trembled but was clear, "we have to leave this for Harry and the others!" She quickly glanced at Ginny, who was still writing, and raised her voice. "Ginny! Close your eyes! Don't look!"
"Close your eyes, Malfoy! Hold on to me!" Hermione quickly pulled a small mirror from her robes, holding it up in front of her with a trembling hand, trying to use the reflection to see behind them.
Draco did not have a habit of carrying a mirror. He had no protection at all! He could only do as Hermione said. Close his eyes and hold on to her robes.
The darkness amplified all sounds. The creepy hissing, the heavy, ever closer scraping, and his own heart pounding like a drum.
"Don't make a sound!" Hermione commanded in a low voice, with a calm beyond her years. "Follow me. We'll back away slowly."
On one hand, Draco cursed himself inwardly. A soul over forty years old, and he needed a twelve year old girl to protect him! On the other hand, the instinctive fear of unknown, lethal danger gripped him tightly.
He could only bend down, like a helpless blind man, clutching the corner of Hermione's robes, letting her lead him, step by step, carefully backing away in a world of complete darkness. The scraping of scales seemed to be right by his ear!
Suddenly, Hermione stopped dead and hissed, "Don't move!"
Draco froze, even holding his breath. He felt Hermione's hand on his sleeve tighten abruptly, and then he clearly heard a faint cracking sound beside him, like rock rapidly solidifying.
Then, with a dull thud, the fabric he was clutching was yanked away! Something brushed heavily against his calf and fell to the floor.
"Granger?!"
Draco gasped, his voice sharp with fear. "What happened?!"
No answer.
Dead silence, except for the scalp crawling hiss still echoing in the pipes.
Draco's legs gave way, and he slid down to sit on the floor against the cold bookshelf. His hand trembled as he reached out beside him, touching something cold, hard, like marble. It was Hermione's arm! She was frozen in some pose, completely petrified!
Helplessness and despair swallowed him instantly.
He was done for. He was going to die here too, like an idiot, eyes closed, unable to do anything. In the pitch blackness, he did not even know where the basilisk was!
He heard light footsteps ahead, not the scraping of scales, but the sound of shoes on the floor!
Terrified out of his wits, he scrambled backward a few steps, his back hitting the bookshelf hard and knocking down some dust.
A young, girlish voice spoke, with a strange, mature tone that did not match her age. "Platinum blond hair... such a rare colour."
Draco's body trembled. That voice... it was Ginny! But the tone, the choice of words, was absolutely not that shy first year girl!
He felt a cold hand grip his chin hard, forcing his head up. Even with his eyes closed, he could feel a malicious, appraising gaze looking him up and down, as if evaluating an object.
"Lucius's son?" The voice, using Ginny's throat, said slowly, with a condescending mockery.
Draco felt a cold, powerful consciousness trying to pry open his mind. Legilimency!
But he did not resist, or rather, he could not show resistance.
Occlumency, the skill he had painstakingly cultivated in his previous life when he was forced to become a Death Eater in his teens, and which had saved his life at the final moment of betrayal, had long since become instinct.
When Malfoy Manor became the Death Eaters' headquarters, when he was forced to identify Potter, when he finally threw his wand to Potter, he had to lock away his true thoughts, or he would not have survived to the end.
He carefully opened up the memories of being "an ordinary student, Draco Malfoy." Awe of his father, superficial pursuit of pure blood glory, life at school, jealousy, rivalry, and dissatisfaction toward Harry.
He locked the secret of his rebirth, the memories of future war, death, and regret, deep and firmly in the deepest part of his consciousness.
The force wandered through the maze he had carefully constructed and seemed to find nothing of value.
The search stopped.
The hand gripping his chin patted his cheek lightly, the gesture insultingly flippant.
"Your father... Lucius."
The voice said. Now, besides Ginny's tone, there seemed to be a faint mixture of a deeper, colder young man's voice, full of sarcasm. "Seems to be living quite comfortably. So comfortable that... he has almost forgotten his true Lord."
Instantly, Draco felt a searing pain on the skin of his inner arm. A huge fear drained all his strength, and he could not muster a single thought of resistance. He felt as if he had become that trembling boy at the long table in Malfoy Manor again.
Instinctively, a faint, terror filled murmur spilled from his trembling lips:
"L... Lord..."
His obedient, terrified appearance seemed to please the presence possessing Ginny. He heard a low, chilling chuckle.
"Very good... you actually know who I am. It seems the Malfoy family has not completely forgotten... the awe and loyalty they owe."
Draco clenched his teeth, his jaw chattering from the trembling.
"...For the sake of your father's former 'loyalty,'" the voice continued, as if granting a charity, "I will give you a chance, boy. A chance to... redeem your father's mistakes."
A hard notebook with a rough cover was shoved into Draco's arms.
"Give this... to Harry Potter." The man's voice carried a seductive malice. "Tell him you 'found' it by accident. Let him... open it and write in it. This is your chance for the Malfoy family to regain favour. Understand?"
The suffocating pressure and the cold hissing began to recede like a tide.
After a long while, Draco dared to tremble and carefully open his eyes a crack.
In the dim light, beside him was the completely petrified Hermione Granger, frozen in her last expression of terror, her hand that had been clutching the evidence stiffly extended.
Not far away, Ginny Weasley lay unconscious on the floor, her face as pale as paper.
The cold touch of the notebook's cover passed to his fingertips, as if he were holding a piece of ice that would never melt.
Draco looked at it, a complex emotion mixed with lingering fear, humiliation, and heavy responsibility almost crushing him.
That was Voldemort! That ordinary looking notebook was actually the Dark Lord's Horcrux! His father had actually sent something so dangerous into the school! Just to bring down Dumbledore?!
Voldemort... actually wanted to use his hand to get close to Harry.