Proliferated Petrification

1- Threat of the Basilisk

Cover credit marina_swampert

Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fawkes, and "Professor" Lockhart stumbled into Professor McGonagall's office, covered in muck, slime, and blood on their return from the Chamber of Secrets. There was silence for a moment before Ginny threw herself into her parents arms.

Harry looked on and was immensely relieved to see Professor Dumbledore had returned. He leaned against the mantel and called Fawkes over to him. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were beside themselves thanking Harry, and Professor McGonagall was very interested in just what had happened, but no one said much coherently before Professor Dumbledore spoke up.

"I think, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, that you have quite a tale to tell," he said with a smile. "And I think that you should tell it presently."

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Then, Harry took a deep breath to collect his thoughts and began, "Well, sir, Professor McGonagall let us go to the Hospital Wing earlier to visit Hermione, and we found a note in her hand. She figured out what the monster was before she was petrified. It was a basilisk—"

"STOP!"

Harry froze, suddenly fearful. The atmosphere had turned from joyful to deadly serious so fast it made his head spin. No one dared speak, not even the hysterical Mrs. Weasley, nor the oblivious Lockhart, as every adult in the room, even Dumbledore himself, grew as pale as death.

Dumbledore stepped forward, staring at Harry with the most intense look he had ever seen. It was as if the Headmaster was boring into his mind and riffling through his memories with his eyes. "Harry," he said with a voice that was like holding back thunder, "did you say a basilisk?"

Harry gulped. He felt like he had broken some really serious law that he didn't know about. "Y-y-yes, sir," he said.

"Are you certain it was a basilisk?"

"Y-yes, sir. I saw it, but it's dead now."

"B-b-but how is it that no one was k-killed?" McGonagall asked with a look of terror Harry had not thought her capable of.

"No one looked it in the eye directly, ma'am. It was all reflections and stuff."

The intense pressure on Harry's mind vanished, and he saw Dumbledore and McGonagall exchanging a very worried look.

"You know what we must do, Albus," McGonagall said.

"Yes, I know. I am loathe to do it, but it would be no good if I went to Azkaban for not reporting it."

"You, Professor?" Harry said in confusion. "But what—?"

"Please be silent, Harry," Dumbledore ordered in a voice that brokered no argument. Harry was stunned. Dumbledore was always so kindly. And the battle was already won. What on earth was making him so…threatening?

"Expecto Patronum!" Dumbledore said. Harry watched as the Headmaster conjured a shimmering, silver phoenix and spoke to it: "Locate any students who are not in the dorms, the Hospital Wing, or this room." The Phoenix shook its head, apparently indicating there weren't any. A moment later, it vanished. Then, the old wizard spoke two eldritch incantations that made Harry's hair stand on end. The first had no noticeable effect inside the room, but the second filled the air with the densest fog he had ever seen. He could barely see the other people in the room. He had no doubt that it permeated the entire castle. Through a veil, he saw Dumbledore point his wand at his own throat and speak, "Sonorus!" Then, he had to clap his hands over his ears as Dumbledore's voice thundered through the castle, amplified a hundredfold: