The Chamber of Secrets (Hermione x male reader)

The King of Serpents

Y/N's POV

The next day Ron had still been furious with Hagrid for telling us to follow the spiders, he had calmed down a little bit.

"At least we know Hagrid never opened the Chamber." I said happily. 

"Yeah..." Harry sighed, "wait a minute," his eyes lit up, "didn't Aragog say that the girl who died was found in a bathroom?" 

"Yeah..." I said looking up at Harry. 

"You don't think-" Harry gasped. 

"Moaning Myrtle." I said amazed. 

"Oh god, not her." Ron mumbled. 

We were at breakfast and were talking about Myrtle. "All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," I said, "and we could've asked her, and now..."

We were cut, McGonagall was making an announcement. 

"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted into conjecture. 

"Dumbledore's coming back!" Several people yelled, relieved. 

"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table. 

"Quidditch matched are back on!" Wood roared. 

Eventually the chatter subsided and McGonagall spoke. "Professor Sprout has informed me that the mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

A loud cheer erupted throughout the hall, as I looked over to the Slytherin table I was surprised to see Malfoy join in the cheering. 

"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" Ron said to us happily. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when she wakes up!"

"I still think we should talk to her," I interrupted. 

A couple hours later Lockhart was leading us to History of Magic, we only needed to get rid of Lockhart for our plan to work. 

"Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go-" I said. "You know, Alpherian, I think I will," Lockhart said, "I really should go and prepare my next class-"

He hurried off, leaving the Gryffindors alone in the hallway. 

"Prepare his class," I mocked him, "more like gone to curl his hair."

We let the rest of the Gryffindors walk ahead of us, then darted to Myrtle's bathroom quickly. Just as we were celebrating our plan working McGonagall came bolting into the corridor. 

"Alpherian! Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?" She implored. 

"We were-we were," Harry stammered, "we were going to-to go and see-"

"Hermione!" I said quickly. Ron, Harry, and Professor McGonagall stared at me. 

"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," I lied, I had seen her multiple times a week just to talk and leave notes for when she woke up. "We thought we'd sneak into the Hospital Wing, you know, and tell her the mandrakes are nearly ready, and, er, not to worry-"

Professor McGonagall stared at me, then she spoke. 

"Of course," she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek, "of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Alpherian, of course, you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

We walked away briskly, amazed that we had avoided detention. As we turned the corner we heard McGonagall blow her nose. 

"That," Ron said, "was the best story you've ever come up with."

We had no choice but to go to the hospital wing now and visit Hermione but I wasn't complaining, my visits with her had been the calmest times in a lot of turmoil. 

Madam Pomfrey let us in as soon as I explained that we were there to see Hermione. 

"There's just no point talking to a petrified person," she said exaggerated as we sat down in the seats next to Hermione. 

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" I said sadly, looking at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if it sneaked up on them all, no one would ever know..."

I looked at Hermione right wrist, the one bearing the enchanted bracelet. It glowed brilliantly, bringing me hope that she was fine. I looked at her hand admiring the delicateness of her fingers before seeing a scrunched up piece of paper between her fingers. 

I pointed it out to Harry and Ron. 

"Go on and get it out," Harry whispered, moving his chair to block Madam Pomfrey's view. 

As I gently wrestled my fingers into Hermione's I was able to wrestle the paper carefully from her fingers. I smoothed it out as Harry and Ron looked over my shoulder and read it with me. 

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, which may reach a gigantic size and live many hundreds, if not thousands, of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside form its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it. 

Beneath the page a single word word had been written, I immediately recognized it as Hermione's. 

"This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk, a giant serpent! That's why we've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else heard it. It's because we understand parseltounge..." Harry said. 

"The basilisk kills people by looking at them, but no one's died... because no one looked it straight in the eye! Colin saw it through his camera, the basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got petrified. Justin...Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly-Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again. Hermione and the Ravenclaw girl were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I guarantee you she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror, and-" I added. 

Ron's jaw had dropped in amazement at our discovery. 

"And Mrs. Norris?" He whispered eagerly. 

"The water..." I said slowly, "the flood from the bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection..."

I read the page again, the more I read, the more I understood. 

"'...the crowing of the rooster is fatal to it!' Hagrid's roosters were killed! The heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! 'Spiders flee before it!' It all makes sense!" 

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" Ron asked skeptically. "A giant snake... surely someone would have noticed..."

"Pipes," I said looking at the paper, pipes...Ron, it's been using the plumbing. Harry and I have been hearing the voice inside the walls..."

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" Harry exclaimed. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in-"

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," I finished. 

"We need to tell the teachers," I said standing up and walking out of the hospital wing. 

We heard McGonagall's voice echoing through the corridors. 

"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please." We heard her say. 

"Not another attack? Not now!" I gasped. 

"What'll we do?" Ron said. "Go back to the dormitory?" 

"No," Harry said, glancing at us, "let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."