Hermione Granger stepped into the library, it was dark and deserted, she gulped and looked around, and tightening her grip on the mirror she held to look around corners. She scanned the shelves marked ‘M’ for monster. Hermione came across a thick book with a deep green spine, the colour of the sea. She stroked the spine with her finger and gently took it out ignoring the groan of the book.
Suddenly there was a creak coming from the doorway, Hermione jumped, she carefully aimed the mirror with her shaking fingers until it was directly in front of where the sound came from.
Nothing.
She waited for a minute for anything else, but no sound came. Hermione turned back the book, she opened it slowly and began to scan the old and withered pages for something interesting, and one stood out more than all the others ‘Monster of Petrification’ Hermione looked at the monsters of the section, none stood out. Just as Hermione was about to close the book one word caught her eye: Basilisk –
Of many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk. This snake, which may reach a gigantic size, is born from a chickens egg hatched beneath a toad. The basilisk has a murderous stare, all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before it.
It was all beginning to sink in for Hermione, it must be a basilisk, she thought, no one has looked it in the eye, that’s why no one is dead. Hermione smiled. But how is it getting around, Hermione thought back to the people who were petrified, something clicked, she pulled out her no-ink quill and jotted down one word.
Pipes
A crash ran out and a hiss, Hermione gasped and ripped out the page and screwed it into a ball, tightening her fist around the page, she looked into the mirror.
It was there.
