Elysia Riddle [A Harry Potter Fan Fiction]

Chapter Nineteen ~ The Basilisk

The Christmas holidays were very nearly over, and I knew that this would be my last chance to get in to the Chambers... I had no choice but to try, lives could be lost if I left the Basilisk to venture through the school, killing and petrifying all those in it's way.

Staring intently at the small snake coiled, I could almost feel my mind flicking from English and in to snake tongue. Myrtle sobbed in the far corner of the bathroom, oblivious to my presence, giving me the freedom to use my other language at will.

"Open." I hissed, and soon the sink sunk away, and a tunnel large enough for a man to slide through was opened. Looking back at the damp bathrooms, I picked up the edges of my robes and slid, feet first, down the mysterious tunnel.

The trip down seemed to take forever, indicating that I was, most likely, miles beneath the school grounds. Fear spiked in my chest as I realised that I had no idea how to get back up, seeing at this slide was a one-way trip below the school.

Clutching my impossibly strong wand to my chest, I closed my eyes as my drop drew to a halt, ending with my body tumbling through a foul-smelling passageway. Rolling and rolling, my face lingered mere inches away from a sharp fang, hanging in the mouth of a Basilisk skeleton.

Taking a sharp intake of breath, which I soon regretted as the foul smell filled my lungs, I regained my composure and stood up, edging away from the fatal fang. Trying desperately to regulate my breathing and calm down, I surveyed the area around me.

It was identical to the dream that I had had only days before, with every last detail depicted clearly. I could sense that the Basilisk wasn't here right now, and I hoped that it wasn't away petrifying an innocent student, or worse...

Standing up, I ripped a Basilisk fang from the morbid jaw, and decided that it was the only thing lethal enough to kill the snake. Gripping the fang cautiously, as if it were a man-made bomb waiting to explode and murder me, I walked in to the long, dimly lit Chamber.

The high stone pillars on either side of it had long, thick serpents entwined against the cold surfaces. Running forward, me feet splashed against the water-filled stone beneath my shoes. Gripping in one hand my wand, and in the other the Basilisk fang, I felt ready to kill it.

"Basilisk! Where are you? The Heir requests your presence!" I bellowed, glaring at the stone snakes out skirting the Chamber.

I could have sworn that they were alive, blinking and moving, but that was, of course, crazy. I closed my eyes and listened carefully, waiting for the Basilisk to come to me, the Heir of Slytherin. I knew that i was not the true Heir, that my mysterious sister was, but I used the title to fool the beast.

Wissse Elysssia, clever Elyssssia, wicked Elyssssia... We will conquer... Tear... Rip... Devour... Blood... Filthy blood...

"That's right..." I hissed, egging the beast on.

Guide me... Guide me...

The thick, green beast slid out of one of the thick pipes, and my eyes immediately shut tight. I had to kill the beast blind... This would be difficult, at best. I listened as the beast moved, but soon I felt its slippery scales caress my skin.

Oh no! My dream was being replayed, and the Basilisk was coiling around me. This was the perfect opportunity, and I raised my hand to stab the beast with its poisonous fang, before it realised and squeezed me so tight that my breath ceased to reach my lungs.

My eyes became unfocused, and I grew dizzier by the second. It squeezed and squeezed, and I felt that my eyes would burst from my face, and that my lungs would collapse on to themselves. Wheezing, I gaped my mouth open and tried to suck in more air.