Harry Potter and the Lighting Lord

Chapter 22

But if the Basilisk's stare kills, then back to his original question. Why didn't anyone die? Harry stared out of the window as he realised that no one had died because no one had actually seen it directly. Mrs Norris had seen the reflection; Colin Creevey had seen it though his camera; Justin Finch-Fletchley had seen it through Nearly Headless Nick; Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger were found facing the windows, so they too had seen the reflection and Daphne had figured it out and had a mirror just to be on the safe side.

Harry went over to the window and saw it. Small spiders were crawling through the small gaps in the windows and walls, trying to flee as fast as they could. Spiders flee before it! It all made sense!

He immediately took off to the other side of the castle. He went over to the Room of Requirement. "Toby" he called.

"Yes Master Hadrian?" said the elf, popping next to him.

"Toby we have a whole bunch of old newspapers at the castle, don't we?" he asked the elf hurriedly.

"Of course Master. It was kept in case we need to reference it later on" replied the elf.

"Bless whoever came up with the idea. Toby, I want you to bring me all the newspapers from September 1942 to June 1943. It's urgent" he said.

Toby nodded and immediately popped away. The elf came back a few minutes later with a huge pile of newspapers. "Thanks a lot, buddy" said Harry as he started flipping through them.

Four hours later, he finally found an article. It mentioned something about attacks at Hogwarts and how a student was killed. He looked for a name but wasn't mentioned. He searched more, and a few more papers later, he struck gold. Tom Riddle was given an award for special services to the school for catching the one behind the attacks. The girl killed was Myrtle Warren. He was suddenly assaulted by a memory –

He was standing in front of a corpse in front of a bathroom as the sink, which had a large hole, slowly slid back into place. Well, finally a mudblood was killed. But his work was not done; he would have to kill all the muggleborns to complete Salazar Slytherin's noble work.

He came out of the bathroom and looked at it. He could hear footsteps. He panicked slightly, but immediately disillusioned himself. Okay, he was on the first floor, if he hurried, he could reach the dungeons soon. Then he would have an alibi.

Harry gasped as he came out of the memory. The Chamber entrance was located in the girl's bathroom on the first floor! He had finally found it! But who was Tom Riddle? That name was so ridiculously familiar. Was he Voldemort's friend?

Harry returned to the Great Hall in a daze. What should he do now? Should he tell the staff about the Basilisk? But then again, they may choose not to believe him. After all, he had considered the beast himself many months back and had dismissed it; why would they believe him now?

He was having dinner when McGonagall spoke up "I have good news."

"Dumbledore's coming back!"

"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!"

"Quidditch matches are back on!"

Harry rolled his eyes. As if Quidditch was important at a time like this! Really, these people had no sense of what was actually important.

"Professor Sprout has informed me that the mandrakes are ready for cutting at last" said McGonagall. So we can finally revive those who have been petrified."

Harry suddenly looked up at her. Daphne was going to be cured? This was the best news he had heard in a long time. He then turned to observe the others in the hall. Draco Malfoy was understandably angry at this revelation (how the boy was sorted into Slytherin, he didn't know; the boy had no sense of subtlety what so ever). The others were cheering. His eyes narrowed when he looked at the pale form of Ginny Weasley. He hadn't run into the girl the entire year, having avoided her like the plague. But there was something odd about her; he couldn't put his finger on it, but Harry could sense foreign magic around her that screamed evil. What was it?