Son Of Riddle

Chapter Fifteen - Snakes

James stood in shock at the sight before him, not knowing what to do. Part of him was slightly uneasy, knowing all that one glance at a bassilisk's eyes can do to a person, but at the same time, this one was only a baby. He guessed the most it could do was paralyze him for a few hours. He looked down in confusion, as he felt Charlotte trying to climb up his leg. He smiled and picked her up. A thought crossed his mind as he did so, which led to more confusion. Spiders hate bassilisks, and run away from them. Maybe it was because she was an acromantula? James' eyes led him to a small pile of tightly woven spiderwebs that resembled a spider's cocoon.
"Oh, I see. You were hatching at the same time, weren't you?" He asked, stroking her affectionately, remembering a snake's hatching time is far longer than that of a spider's. The baby snake hissed and screeched as it broke through the last layer of yolk and foam.
James stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the ground, looking at the bassilisk's shadow as it slithered out of it's shell. It was enourmous, compared to normal baby snakes, being roughly the size of a fully grown Amazon River Python. The egg itself was about the size of a small house.
The bassilisk slithered over to James and Charlotte, sniffing curiously. Oddly enough, Charlotte didn't seem at all phased. She was neither scared, nor paralyzed somehow, and jumped out of his hands and onto the bassilisk's head. James was pretty sure he was more confused right now than he'd ever been in his life.
He beckoned for Charlotte to come back to him so they could leave and let the bassilisk be, but seeing how she wouldn't leave it, he slowly backed away.
Guess I'm sleeping somewhere else tonight.
He wasn't oppsed to the idea of sleeping in the same room as a bassilisk because he was scared, but rather because he didn't want to wake up in the bassilisk's stomach, dead, or paralyzed. So he slowly turned around and walked down the hallway he came from, listening for the bassilisk or Charlotte behind him, and walked into the room he had been doing his homework in. He cleaned up his papers and his food, and walked down the corridor that lead to the entrance. Getting up was a very difficult task, so he used a shrinking spell on everything he was carrying and stuffed them in his pockets. There was no real way up, so he had to climb on rocks and freeclimb his way up. Once he reached the top and the entrance to the girl's bathroom, he said "open" in parseltoungue and the sinks parted. When he entered the bathroom, he heard faint crying in the bathroom.
Crap, I'll have to sneak out.
He really hoped the bathroom would prove to be as abandoned as it looked when he first discovered this chamber, but be guessed he was wrong. He heard rumbling and saw that the entrance was closing behind him. He also heard that the crying had stopped. He ran forwards so he wouldn't be seen, but it was too late. A little girl about 11 or 12 with circled glasses and dark hair put up in pigtails emerged from an open stall. James was puzzled, as he had never seen another person ever come in this bathroom before. He wasn't quite sure if she was even real, as she was almost completely transparent.
This must be the famous ghost that haunted the bathroom when Harry Potter was at school.
"Who are you?" She asked, not exactly politely.
"My name is James Riddle." He said curiously. Did this girl think she owned the bathroom or something?
The ghost looked confused like he seemed familiar, then a look of realization passed over her face and she became enraged. "You!" She screeched. She let out a horrible wail and flew into the toilet behind her with a sickening splash. James shook his head, confused. It did make some sense though. He had unfortunately inherited his father's last name, who had killed a lot of people during his time at Hogwarts, so it was completely natural the girl would get him confused. James made his way towards the secret passageway, so as to avoid any prefects undoubtedly searching the castle for any students wandering about, out of their dormitories. He finally got to the great hall and did the reverse spell on the dishes he was carrying and set them on the closest table. He turned around to get back to the passageway, trying to figure out where he was going to sleep tonight, when he heard a quiet whimper of fright. He paled as he turned around and saw a little house elf carrying a stack of dishes, no doubt cleaning after his classmates. It's ears were turned downward, it's eyes wide and it's whole body was trembling with fear. James put his finger to his lips in an effort to tell the little house elf to be quiet, and it didn't make a sound, but because of it's trembling, it dropped the dishes it was carrying and James cringed as they hit the floor with a deafening crash before he could react. The crash echoed through the walls and the house elf yelped and started running out of the great hall. He could hear voices coming.
"Muffiliato"James thought and pointed his index finger at the house elf. The house elf ran out of the great hall, but it didn't matter, he couldn't tell the teachers anything. James scrambled to hide under a table as the teachers came in.
"I could have sworn I heard a noise..." he heard a voice say, based on the sound of it, he would guess it was a prefect. The footsteps echoed through the walls as he walked through the great hall. He heard a second step of footsteps walking towards the table he was hiding under.
The tablecloth suddenly flipped up and he felt a rough callused hand grab the collar of his robes shirt. He saw the decrepit face of old Mr. Filch smiling greusomely at him as he pulled James from underneath the table. He held out the maurauder's map in front of his face.
"Good thing McGonnagle gave me this for looking through the castle. Thought you was smart, eh Riddle? Knew you was up to know good first day you got here, I did"
James would have loved to do something, anything to wipe the smile off the old caretaker's face, but he didn't want to live up to the expectations of the other students, plus he didn't want McGonnagle to expel him, so he held his toungue and kept his temper.
"Yer goin' straight to the headmaster, you are. Might even expel ya."
"Expel me for what, exactly?" James couldn't help but shoot back. Surely the students here weren't expelled just for leaving their rooms at night.
"Malicious intent. Leaving yer dormitory. Harming a house elf." Filch mumbled as he pulled James down the hall by his collar. It was getting harder and harder to keep his temper.
"I didn't hurt the house elf, I merely-"
Filch shook him. "Quiet! Save yer excuses for the headmaster."
James wasn't sure how much more of this he could take.
Filch pulled him to a magnificent marble Griffin statue and stopped abruptly.
"Solis occasum." He grumbled. The Griffin statue turned ninety degrees and ascended, and from underneath it, came a grand marble staircase. Filch yanked him up the stairs and shoved him into a large office. James looked back to see a still smirking Filch going down the now decending staircase. He turned back around to look at the office and let his eyes wander to get his mind off of how much he wanted to kill Filch. His eyes fell on a small silver tabby cat sitting on the desk. Its Jade eyes seemed to be watching his every movement. He squinted at the cat and walked towards it slowly. Something didn't seem right. Finally he realized what it was that was off, and stood up straighter.
"Evening, McGonnagle." He said, nodding his head in greeting. The cat's eye twinkled and it jumped off the desk, morphing into a human McGonnagle mid-jump.
"Impressive." She said, walking towards him. "Most adults cannot tell an animagus from a normal animal. Tell me, Riddle, where did you learn the difference?"
James stood as still as a statue. "...I was trained in many different areas. Telling an animagus is not among the difficult ones." He said finally.
"I see." McGonnagle said, walking away from him and sitting down at her desk. "Mr. Riddle, you are aware that no students, aside from the prefects of course, are allowed out of their dormitories at night?"
"I am aware of that, Professer, however there were some things I took from the great hall that I needed to return." James said.
"I understand you wouldn't want to eat in the great hall, given the large number of students that seem to dislike you-"
James scoffed at the word 'dislike', it was a bit of an understatement.
"However" McGonnagle continued "you could have left your dishes in your dormitory and the house elves would have cleaned them for you."
James stayed silenr. With the innocent expression on McGonnagle's face, he knew she knew he hadn't been staying in a dormitory. He glared back at her in response, unsure of what to do or say.
Finally she sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to outwardly tell her. "Once again, I see why you don't want to see the slytherin dormitory, but it is for your own safety and for the sake that we maintain the rules of this school, that you stay in a dormitory at night."
James stood up. "Professer, I see why there are rules and I respect them, but I'm afraid it would be detrimental to the students' health if I were to stay in a dormitory."
"Sit down Riddle, there's no need to get heated." McGonnagle said calmly.
James slowly sat back down.
"Now, all the students can't hate you. I've seen that little girl talking to you, she can't hate you at least." She continued.
James gave her a skeptical look.
"I'm sure most of the Slytherins will just leave you alone." She said.
He had many points he could argue, but he already had a taste of how stubborn McGonnagle could be, so je kept his mouth shut, lest this conversation lasted all night.
McGonnagle eyed him cautiously, as though she was contemplating saying something.
"Alright Riddle, I'll make you a deal." She finally said. James looked at her wearily and nodded.
"If you stay in the slytherin dormitory for one night and the students there provoke you that much, you can go back to wherever it was you were staying before, granted that you don't roam around at night. If they leave you alone, you stay in the dormitory."
James contemplated this for a moment. On one hand, he thought of Charlotte. If anything were to happen to her, he couldn't save her. Then again, he had only known her for a little while. On the other hand, he couldn't sleep in the chamber anyway because of the bassilisk. He might have ended up sleeping in the slytherin dorm anyways.
"...Alright Professer, I'll take your deal." He finally said. She opened her mouth to say something but James cut her off. "On one condition." He said.
McGonnagle closed her mouth and folder her hands atop her desk.
"I'll stay in the dormitory for one night, but if I harm the students in any way I am not to be held accountable for my actions because I warned you."
McGonnagle nodded. "Very well Riddle, I accept your your condition."
The sudden chiming of the bell tower reminded James of just how late it was. He stood up and nodded to McGonnagle once, and turned to leave.
"Ad Meliora" he heard McGonnagle say.
James turned and looked at her quizzically, then almost laughed at himself. He should have remembered the dormitories needed passwords. He thanked her, then turned around. He walked out of the office and went down the stairs. He knew the slytherin dormitory was near the bottom of the castle, so he took the secret passageway to the dungeon, as that was the most likely place.
He got there in a heartbeat, walking briskly because he was still stressed about Charlotte and the bassilisk.
He walked around for a while looking for the most likely place it could be. After a few minutes, he came across a blank stretch of wall. He smirked.
Too easy.
He stood up straighter and loudly said "Ad Meliora."
The wall moved slightly, then opened as though it were a normal door.
He entered a room full of dim green light, a cozy little dorm room; not as cold as he was expecting for it being nearly underneath the black lake. It had a low ceiling and the candles and furniture were both an emerald green though some of it was silver as well. As he walked in, the few remaining students still in the common room turned their attention to him. He ignored their staring eyes and walked up to a raven haired slytherin girl who seemed to be falling asleep in her chair.
"Can you tell in which of those two rooms do the boys sleep?" He asked her, his head gesturing to the two hallways on opposite sides of the room.
The girl drowsily pointed to the left one, her eyes closed.
"Thank you" He said as he walked away. He could feel the students' eyes on him as he walked and a part of him was slightly disappointed because the chances of staying in this dormitory until summer seemed pretty good and he was only pardoned for tonight if he harmed any other students.
He walked into the room where all beds were, and walked to the farthest empty one from the door. Or rather, started to.
"Oi, spider boy!" He heard a voice call from behind him.
James winced as he turned around. Just as he hoped it wouldn't be, the slytherin boy from earlier that day was behind him, leaning against a bed frame.
"Did you bring your spider to bed too?" He laughed.
James rolled his eyes and clenched his fists. He had a feeling of he retorted, this boy wouldn't stop talking and would undoubtedly end up in the hospital wing. James just kept walking towards the bed.
He heard the slytherin boy scoff. "Walking away are you? I thought the legendary son of Voldemort would be a little scarier. Turns out you're just a pathetic little coward."
James heard enough. He whipped around and blasted a spell at the bothersome child. The boy screamed as he became engulfed in flames. James paled as he knew how much trouble this could get him in if he didn't stop it, pardon or not. He reluctantly muttered the countercurse and scowled at the boy, laying on the floor, cradling his burns. He ran away, no doubt to tell the other students how much of a monster James was.
He sighed and turned back around to the bed he was walking to. He sat on it and looked around the room. It was too bad he couldn't keep his temper, it was quite cozy in here. His eyes wandered to a pile of neatly folded clothes next to the bed. He looked down at the blank robes and almost laughed. He was still wearing the plain black robes he had worm before he was sorted. He laid down on the bed and covered his eyes with his arm.
Man, being an orphan really sucks. He though as he exhaled sharply. Although it was better that it used to be, being trained endlessly day and night and constantly being told he wasn't good enough.
He slowly drifted off to sleep, stop thinking of the ups and downs of not having a home to go to.