HIS CHOSEN GIRL
chapter fifty seven-where is (y/n) (l/n)?
[Harry's P.O.V]
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I wake up with a smile on my face when the events of last night come to mind. Okay, even in my own brain that doesn't come across as I meant it too, I mean talking with (y/n). I don't know what came over me, I really don't, but I'm glad it did.
"Morning, mate," Ron says groggily, waking up a few minutes after me, shielding his eyes from the light shining through the windows.
"Good morning," I reply chirpily.
"What's up with you?" He asks, rubbing his eyes.
"What do you mean?" I ask as I tie my tie.
"I dunno," Ron shrugs, dragging himself out of bed. "You seem so happy... and it's morning."
I smile to myself. "Yeah, I know. Come on, let's go get breakfast."
Ron and I, after a fair amount of dawdling on his part, eventually make our way down to the great hall, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. I feel a little confused as to why (y/n)'s not already there, saving us a seat. Only once in a blue moon does (y/n) show up for breakfast later than we do, a side effect to rooming with Hermione I suppose.
I glance to the door once, then twice, then eventually once or twice a minute. "Where do you think (y/n) is?" I finally ask my best friend who smirks immediately.
"Oh, so that's why you're so happy," he replies grinning to himself.
I flick a piece of fruit at him. "Shut up."
Ron puts his fork down on the table and looks at me accusingly. "Look me dead in the eyes and tell me you don't fancy (y/n)."
"I can't," I shrug, speaking casually and hoping that in doing so he won't read any further into it.
"Why?"
I sigh. "Because it's true."
Ron's eyes widen as if he hasn't been teasing me about liking her for the past two years. "Wait, really? You really like her?"
I can't help but smile at the thought of her. "Yeah, I have for awhile actually."
"Well, are you gonna tell her?"
I deliberate for a moment. "Yeah. I think I am."
Ron stares at me, inquiring me. "Interesting. So you've kept these feelings to yourself, you know more or less, for the past two years and now you suddenly want to declare your feelings?"
It's a good question. Truth be told I don't even really have a good answer, I just know that yesterday, after we talked I realized that I'm being crazy in not telling her how I feel. I remembered how great she was, how much my life just isn't the same without her. I decided I wanted to do something about it.
"I don't know, I just... She's amazing, why would I wait?"
"Well then you've got it bad, lover boy," Ron teases.
"Shove off, Ronald," I reply, kicking him under the table before my eyes involuntarily flicker over to the door yet again. "But seriously where is she?"
"No idea," Ron shrugs. "Don't think she said what she was doing today."
"Maybe the owlery?" I wonder. "She had to mail a letter."
Ron nods. "Ok sure, we can go check there."
I stand up and begin making my way to the end of the hall, but Ron clears his throat dramatically, making me turn around. "I meant after we finish eating, obviously."
I roll my eyes but determine that surely a few minutes more won't make any significant impact. After a few more moments, we finish our breakfast and make our way out of the hall and over to the owlery. When we arrive there, however, I frown. She's not there, neither is her owl.
"Hmm, she's sent it already," Ron observes.
"I guess we missed her," I shrug. "Wonder where she is then?"
"Don't worry about it," Ron dismisses. "Let's just go do something that'll take your mind off of her. She'll meet up with us in a bit."
I nod, knowing he's right. We head back to the common room, spending a few hours with Seamus and Neville just goofing around. In fact, we even manage to get some homework done, without Hermione's nagging. However, throughout the whole day, I haven't once seen (y/n).
Is it possible she's avoiding me? Had I read this whole thing wrong? Maybe I weirded her out the other day. Surely she likes me back, right?
"Harry!" Ron waves his hand in front of my face.
"Yeah," I reply. "Sorry, what was that?"
"I said we should probably go to the hospital wing. It's been awhile since we've visited Hermione," Ron replies, throwing on a sweatshirt and heading out the door.
"Oh yeah," I nod, doing the same. "Good idea."
The two of us walk over to the hospital wing to visit our friend. When we get there, we go sit on the two chairs that are beside her bed, that the hospital staff have stopped moving due to the amount of times Ron and I visit. I go to the bedside table and replace the old flowers in the vase with new ones, then sit down on the chair beside her bed.
"Wish you were here, Hermione," I admit. "We need you. Now more than ever."
It's true. It's now that I realize how our group feels incomplete when one of us is missing. We need Hermione in more ways than one. We need her to help us find out what to do with all the petrifications, and, besides, I may need girl advice. Ron can only hope so much. I grab her hand, when I feel her holding onto something.
I grab it, whatever it is, and study it to see a crumpled up piece of paper. Among reading the words, my eyes widen and I feel goosebumps on my arms.
"What's that?" Ron asks.
"Ron, this is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked," I jump up from my chair awaiting him to do the same. "Come on!"
Ron and I sprint out of the hospital wing and navigate through the hallways like madmen. I glance down at the paper again and reread the words that I can almost recite from memory by now. On the paper is most certainly Hermione's printing, so it seems that she'd found information on the basilisk and was only moments away from showing it to us when she had gotten petrified.
"Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it...Ron, this is it. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk. That's why (y/n) and I can hear it speak, it's a snake!" I exclaim, excitement at the fact that the pieces are finally coming together.
Ron takes a moment to process this, thinking about my words carefully before responding. "
"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no ones dead?"
There it is, the one last missing piece of the puzzle. He's got a point, if it's the basilisk that resides in the chamber, the creature that's been the cause of all the attacks, how did everyone manage to make it out alive?
I think back to all of the attacks, searching for a common factor.
Then it hits me.
"Because no one did look it in the eye... not directly, at least," I hypothesize. "Colin saw it through his camera, Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost. He couldn't die again. And Hermione... had the mirror. I bet you anything she was using it to look around corners in case it came along."
"And Mrs. Norris?" Ron questions, wary of my theory. "I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry."
"The water..." I reply after a moments speculation. "There was water on the floor that night. She only saw the basilisk's reflection."
Ron nods along but still doesn't seem completely convinced. "It's a bit odd though, don't you think, how all of them managed to just nearly escape death?"
I have to agree with him on this one. While there's a possibility that it may just be a coincidence, its highly unlikely that anything that happens here is coincidental.
And then I finish the puzzle. "Maybe not."
"What do you mean?"
"(y/n) was the one behind all the attacks, we know that. She's a parselmouth too, she had to have been the one controlling it. Maybe it wasn't coincidence that everyone was petrified, maybe (y/n) was able to find a way around the imperio curse. She was instructed to kill, but (y/n) would never kill an innocent being, not even Filch's stupid cat. She made sure they wouldn't look directly at the basilisk's eyes, she saved them."
Ron shakes his head in disbelief. "So let me get this straight, even under the imperio curse, instructed to kill, she still managed to save people's lives?"
I shrug, the grey area of the matter making his question hard to answer. "Essentially, yes. I guess she did."
Ron gets a look of guilt on his face as he looks towards the floor. "Wow, I owe her an apology for sure."
I nod in agreement before urgently directing his attention to the paper after finishing the next line. "Look at this, spiders flee before it, Ron, it all fits."
"But how's the basilisk been getting around?" Ron asks. "Dirty great snake, someone would have seen it.
I point on the other side of the paper, Hermione, as usual, has the answers to our questions before we even ask them. "
"Hermione's answered that too."
"Pipes?" Ron reads her printing at the bottom of the page. "It's using the plumbing?"
"Remember what Aragog said about that girl 50 years ago?" I ask. "She died in a bathroom? What if she never left?"
Ron very quickly catches on to what I'm implying when a look of realization crosses his freckled face. "Moaning Myrtle."
I nod. "We've gotta tell, (y/n), now."
"I'm getting a little nervous her being by herself all day, do you think anything bad has happened?"
The familiar voice of Professor McGonagall prevents me from responding as the two of us stop in our tracks to listen to what she has to say. "All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately."
Ron and I look at each other, a bad feeling growing in my stomach and automatically the two of us begin sprinting to the second floor corridor.
We get there just in time, peering around the corridor wall to remain hidden as we spy on the emergency meeting of the Hogwarts professors.
"As you can see, the heir of Slytherin has left another message," McGonagall tells. "Our worst fear has been realized. Two students have been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself. The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts."
My heart drops and I almost jump around the corner right then to protest but I know that I can't.
They won't close Hogwarts, they can't. Not when Ron and I, well, technically Hermione has figured it out. All we need to do is inform Dumbledore about the basilisk and the Imperio curse and he'll sort everything out, surely.
I then grow more curious about the message on the wall and strain my neck to see it, but the swarm of teachers crowding around it leave me helpless.
Speaking of the message, it only now occurs to me that McGonagall has said two students were captured and I'm suddenly reminded that neither Ron nor myself have seen (y/n) all day. No, she's fine, she's safe. I can't think that way.
"So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed?" Lockhart struts towards the group as if only now that he's here can the meeting begin. Ron and I look at each other and roll our eyes.
"Two of our students have been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last," Snape informs the man in his usual emotionless voice making me only slightly angered. You'd think in a situation so serious, he'd show at least a little concern.
"My... moment?" Lockhart questions, the slightest bit of concern laced in his tone.
"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Snape asks.
Lockhart just stands there dumbfounded as McGonagall shrugs and pipes up. "That's settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend."
"Very well," Lockhart says in his usual cheery voice. "Uh, I'll just be in my office getting...getting ready."
He walks away hurriedly and Madam Pomfrey turns to McGonagall anxiously. "Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?"
Professor Mcgonagall sighs. "Ginny Weasley."
I turn to Ron in horror who looks as though he could faint. He looks understandably in utter shock as he shakes his head viciously refusing to believe that his baby sister is stuck down in the Chamber of Secrets.
"As well as (y/n) (l/n)."
No.
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