The Hogwarts Lonely Hearts Club

Real Rivals

Harry returned to Hogwarts after three days, slipping in late on Wednesday night after the school-wide curfew had already been enforced. He said goodbye to Sirius in the Entrance Hall, picked up a note from Professor Flitwick that gave him permission to be out of bed after-hours, then solemnly made his way up the Main Staircase.

But he had no intention of returning to the Ravenclaw Common Room and his bed. At least not until he had attended to another matter that demanded his attention. So, instead of following the path all the way to the Fifth Floor, and the turn-off that led to Ravenclaw Tower, Harry left the staircase on the Third Floor, hurrying along the once-locked corridor and stopping at the trapdoor in the floor about half way down.

Then, after checking that he was alone, he pulled open the heavy trapdoor, took a look into the darkness, then jumped in ... falling down, down, down, until he landed on the Devil's Snare that lived there. A quick jet of emerald green flames from his wand and Harry was free, leaping clear before setting off along the maze of dark tunnels that would eventually lead him to the Chamber of Secrets.

Now Harry knew very well that there was a surface entrance in one of the girl's toilets, but he had never fancied sticking his face where however many naked girly private bits had been just so he could access the Chamber from there. He was more than comfortable in the dark and dank of these underground spaces. Besides, it was a far more sanitary route in his opinion.

And it was a route he literally knew in the dark. So soon enough he found himself emerging from the draughty passageway and facing the large, ornate, circular doorway to the Chamber of Secrets, whispering the 'open' command in Parseltongue to the seven carved serpents depicted there, watching them move and slither as the door slowly opened.

Then Harry hurried inside. Marici, Harry's pet basilisk, raised her great head to him as soon as she heard his footsteps. She knew not to invoke her Language of The Eyes when she looked at him, so he was quite safe. One of the misconceptions Harry had soon learned about basilisks was that the stare killed arbitrarily, but that was a mistake.

For 'The Stare' was a language, capable of healing as well as harming and completely under the great serpent's control. In conjunction with tail flicks, patterns made by Marici's tongue and blinking sequences to denote inflection and meaning, Harry very quickly understood that to speak Parseltongue as a Master was far more than simply making hissing sounds and hoping for the best.

But by now he was adept at the language, mimicking the speech patterns as best he could by making angular twists with his tongue and using his fingers to gesticulate in the absence of a tail. He combined all these techniques to speak to his pet in some urgency now.

"How is Hermione? Have you been watching her?" Harry asked.

Marici nodded her head. "Yes."

"And?" Harry demanded, impatiently.

"The duck-boy pays her lots of attention," Marici replied. "Some she knows about, some she does not."

"What does that mean?"

"In the library, she sees him. At meal times, she knows where he is. But when she walks the grounds alone, or moves between classrooms, she does not know that he watches, sometimes follows."

"Krum follows Hermione?" Harry hissed angrily. "You saw this?"

"Yes, and I follow his scent also," the basilisk confirmed. "He keeps a distance mostly, but not always. He has spoken with her on three occasions since you went away, Harry. Once at the feast, and twice more in the library for much longer times. They spoke at length about a golden egg, mer-people and the Great Lake. Duck-boy wanted your friend to give him a tour around the lake, but they were interrupted by other girls who took your friend away."