When students were finally let out of their houses the next morning, Hary rushed to Melody so fast you'd have thought that she was on fire and he was trying to put her out.
The other students saw them embrace, driving home just how horrible it must be for them to lose Krinos like this. The three were rarely, if ever, apart. The only times that any of the three are not together is when one of them shares classes with Slytherin. Many of them figured that if they had a fourth sibling, that brother or sister would have been in Slytherin just so there would be two Gardnas in all their classes. Most of the trio's friends guessed that Olivia would have made an amazing Slytherin.
Harry almost did not want to let go of his sister, fearing that he would lose her as well if he let go. Melody sure felt the same fro the way she was squeezing him.
Looking at the tables, they were conflicted about where to sit. The Gryffindor table meant the Harpy and Garbage Disposal. Ravenclaw's table meant questions and the same people that bullied Luna for no reason. The Slytherin table meant the Self-Proclaimed Slytherin Prince, otherwise known as the Bleached Peacock. That only left Hufflepuff, which did not seem like the best choice at the moment. But it was the least of the four evils, so they soon sat down at the yellow and black table.
Their friends seemed to almost rush to them. Cedric, of course, being the first to join them since he was already at the table. Fred and George sat Harry between them, giving him as much comfort as they could. Neville and Cedric were beside Melody with Percy next to Neville and Lee next to Fred.
"How are you guys doing," Cedric asked.
It might have been a stupid question, but someone was bound to ask it sooner or later. Better to just get it over with.
"Melody is not so secretly planning a murder," Harry says.
That made their friends all look at the musical girl with weirded-out looks.
"What," she asked. "Whoever did this made me lose my other half. If someone else doesn't kill them first, you darn right that I'm gonna try and do it."
"Don't underestimate her just because she's a Ravenclaw," Harry smirked. "That means that she is smart enough to know how to get away with murder."
"Actually, that is more of a team thing," Fred said.
"You have the Ravenclaw that knows a lot of ways to commit the murder," George says.
"The Hufflepuff that is loyal enough to help hide the body," Fred pointed at Cedric.
"And a whole team of Gryffindors brave enough to lie to the Aurors and give you an alibi," George finished.
"Should we be concerned that you two have that type of information on hand," Percy raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe you should," Fred smirked.
"Maybe you shouldn't," George also smirked.
"We'll never tell," the twins say.
Harry and Melody slightly smiled from their antics. But even with all the joking and trying to stay positive, they were missing the third piece of their trio.
"At least even petrified, Krinos still helped us," Melody said.
Their friends all looked at her like she was missing a few screws.
"Uh... maybe explain a little more, Melody," Harry tells her.
Seeing the looks, she got what he meant.
"Right," Melody said. "Since the three of us know a lot of spells and magical creatures that can do a lot of different things, we've been researching what could be attacking the students. We know there are no spells that can petrify for more than a few hours, so we went to creatures."
"Since it is said to be Slytherin's beast, we started with magical snakes," Harry took over. "But other than gorgons, no other snake-like creatures could cause anything like this."
"So Slytherin's beast is a snake-haired woman that is somehow slithering around the school," Cedric asked, confused.
"No," Melody corrected. "Krinos and Luna were found with a mirror. Not only does the stare of a gorgon turn a person to stone, not petrify, but their gaze also doesn't work if you see them with a mirror or other reflective surfaces."
"Plus, gorgons are sentient creatures," Hary says. "They think for themselves and in no way would ever let anyone control them, even if they could speak to snakes like Salazar Slytherin was able to."
"This also shows that whoever is doing this is getting more reckless," Melody says.
"What do you mean, Melody," Neville asked.
"Look at the victims," Melody says. "Mrs.Norris and Sir Nick are a cat and a ghost. Colin and Justin might have been first-generation magic users, but Krinos and Luna are third-generation. In your terms, pureblood. If whoever is attacking the students is supposed to only hate those of non-magical parentage, then Krinos and Luna don't make sense at all."
"It's like whoever did this is either getting reckless with choosing their victims, it was an accident, or something about the two got them targetted," Harry said.
"Maybe the person doing this was a victim of one of Krinos' potato incidents," Lee's joke fell flat.
"How no one's found Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets definitely shows how well he hid it," Percy says.
"We're still not convinced of that old tale of him hating first-generation mages," Melody admitted.
"Why," Cedric asked. "Slytherin hating muggleborns has been what everyone has known about him for centuries."
"Just because people think they know something does not make it true," Melody used her 'wise Ravenclaw' voice. "It's been over a thousand years, people could have gotten their facts mixed up hundreds of times during that period."
"Maybe he was like the magical government back home," Harry suggested.
Their friends seemed to get what the animal mage was saying.
"You think he wanted to take the muggleborns out of the muggle world," Neville asked.
"I guess that would make sense," Percy says.
"Relations between magic and mortals were a lot different back then," Melody says. "Parents of first-generation mages did not take it as well as a lot of parents would now. There are even still cases of mundane parents subjecting their kids to exorcisms to try and get rid of their 'powers from the devil.' It was a lot worse back then."
"If anything, Salazar Slytherin probably saw a great number of children being abused by their parents or entire families and tried to help them," Harry said. "Children being abused always have ambitions to escape their tormentors and are also very cunning when it comes to hiding their injuries from the world since they are afraid to show them. A vast majority of abused children probably ended up in his house and he saw what was happening to them."
"Modern mundanes may be more accepting of their kids having magic, but there are still a lot that are not," Melody says.
"You two sound like you speak from experience," Cedric noticed.
Harry gulped, not liking whenever his time with the Dursleys was brought up. There were still a few scars that had not fully faded even after all this time. Not even mystic soul healing could get rid of everything completely.
Melody, seeing her brother's stress, quickly made the conversation go in a different direction.
"Olivia, as a member of the Magic Council, has had to deal with custody battles, orphans, and abused kids," she says. "Any cases that are serious enough for the council to have to take over from the Department of Child Affairs. Some of those kids don't get the happy endings that they deserve."
"It is a sad fact, but true," Harry was grateful for his sister steering the conversation this way. "There are divorced parents that want custody of their kid just so the other can not have them. There are orphans that are in line for a lot of money so that is why a lot of people want custody of them. And there are definitely parents and families that abuse the kids that either are magical, not magical, any reason they can think of if they are the abusive type."
Hearing about families abusing their kids if they are not magical seemed to effect Neville most of all. He had told the trio a lot about what his family had done in order to try and force magic out of him when they suspected that he was a squib. His own great uncle, Algie, had pushed him off a dock and nearly caused him to drown as well as hanging him out a third-story window and accidentally dropped him. Neville also still took his father's wand to school because he knew that his grandmother would never let him use the wand that the trio had given him for Yule.
"Hey, Harry," Lee started. "What was with the whole cat creature thing you did last night, anyway?"
Melody, who had been taking a drink, immediately spit out the water and started coughing up a storm. Neville had to slap her on the back a few times to get her to stop choking on the water.
"You did what," she gasped.
"It was awesome," Fred says.
"Ron was being his usual self," George said.
"Talking trash about Slytherins and other stupid stuff," Fred continued.
"And Harry slaps him and everyone else with a 'why house stereotypes are stupid speech," George says.
"Then Ron opens his mouth about all the victims," Fred said.
"Insulting every one of them," George continues.
"But Merlin was Harry mad when he insulted Krinos," Fred says.
"Harry tried to warn him to shut up, but Ron didn't listen as usual," George said.
"So when Ron keeps talking, Harry grabs him by the throat," Fred continued.
"And turns into a black cat creature right then and there," George finished.
"It was actually both cool and terrifying at the same time," Lee says. "It was like Harry was the cat version of a werewolf."
"The Garbage Disposal said what," Melody growled under her breath.
"It's my amulet," Harry covered up his powers. "Not only can it call animal spirits as guardians, of sorts, but I can also speak to animals and you saw what happens when I get really pissed off. Never anger a wild animal. You will never live to tell the tale if you piss off the wrong animal. Or, in my case, the wrong person with an animal-powered amulet."
"Is it a Greek thing," Cedric asked.
"There are ten different amulets that are passed down in our culture," Harry explains. "Each one are representatives of the ten original branches of magic. Water, air, fire, earth, ice, light, animals, lightning, nature, and music. And legend has it that the gods created the amulets to be handed down to each magic-user of that generation that shows the element the most. Each amulet is designed and enchanted to only be wielded by the one meant to inherit it. Some of the amulets have actually been able to be passed down through some families."
"How does someone represent an element so that they can get the amulet," Cedric looked confused.
"Personalities can match an element," Harry says. "Like as free as the air, as adaptable as water, as fierce as fire, you get the idea."
"So by what we've seen, you have the animal amulet, Melody has the music one, and Krinos has the nature one," Percy figured out.
"Exactly," Harry confirmed.
"It must have been surprising for all three of you to inherit an amulet," Cedric said.
"For Krinos and I, it wasn't much of a surprise since our parents held the nature and animal amulets previously," Harry says. "Melody got her shock when she woke up with an amulet floating in front of her. Gave her quite the scare."
That got a few laughs out of the group, but they were quickly drowned out by the sounds of someone yelling in shock and anger. Darting their heads around to look where the sound came from, they ended up looking at the Gryffindor table.
Ron was now sitting there with a bowl of mashed potatoes dumped over onto his head. Where Melody had gotten the bowl at breakfast, no one knew. But she did not look happy at the moment.
The group had to do a double-take when they saw Melody over there. They looked at her now empty seat, shocked that she had just vanished and they had not noticed. Harry wondered if she had been spending time with their friend Madison back home. She did have the power to turn invisible with her Dragon Ninja magic, so maybe she gave Melody some pointers.
"Insult my brother, will you," she growled. "Maybe this will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
Melody then stomped back over to her seat and sat down.
"Guess we should have seen that coming," Fred said.
"Like sister, like brother," George says.
"Where did you even get the potatoes," Lee asked.
"Secret that only a Gardna will know," she cryptically answered.
Harry simply shrugged when their friends looked at him. The siblings soon got up from the table to leave and go to the Hospital Wing to spend time with their brother, not caring if any teacher made them try to go to classes. But, unfortunately, they ran into Malfoy on their way out.
"Look at the pathetic trio without their third freak," Draco immediately insulted them.
"Malfoy, we do not have the patients to deal with your stupidity today," Melody waved him off as they tried to walk away.
"Go on and visit your mudblood goatbanger brother," Draco yelled at them.
Harry and Melody froze. Mudblood was one thing, but that other term was an awful racial slur for those of Greek blood. Now, Malfoy was proving that he was racists as well as sexist and blood purist. And to top it off, he said that about their brother.
"Shut it, you Bleached Peacock," Melody snapped at the blond.
"Is the pathetic goatbanger upset over having a goatbanger for a brother," Malfoy continued to sneer.
If Melody looked ready to kill before, then Harry looked ready to commit a massacre now.
"Grrr," Harry's eyes turned back into a jungle cat's.
"Nothing but pathetic little GAH," Draco choked.
Harry had just about heard enough out of him. He grabbed him by the neck to shut him up, finally.
"Shut. UP," Harry picked him up and threw him down the Slytherin table.
The self-proclaimed Slytherin Prince crashed into the table. He slid down a few feet, getting covered in food. And just to add a little more karma to the mix, Pansy Parkinson had also gotten food splashed on her when he had crashed down. Too bad for them that Snape had not made it to breakfast yet.
"Anyone else want to anger us today," Melody yelled at the school.
They were answered by a lot of shaking heads and younger students seeming to run away from them. They then continued their way to the Hospital Wing. But as they stared at their brother, they noticed a paper in his hand. It obviously meant something if he had with him when he was petrified, so they needed to look at it.
It was no easy task as his hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it if he pulled too hard. While Melody kept watch, he tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. It was a page Krinos had used his mirror pad to make a copy from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and Melody leaned close to read it, too.
"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 gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from 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."
It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.
"Melody," he breathed. "This is it. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk! That why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand animals, so I could hear it."
Melody looked up at the beds around them.
"The basilisk kills people by looking at them," she thought for a second. "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 must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again. Krinos and Luna were found with a mirror next to them. Krinos had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything he warned the first person he met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror and..."
"And Mrs. Norris," Harry eagerly asked.
"The water," Melody remembered. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection when she was drinking from it."
"Gross," Harry cringed at the thought of an animal drinking bathroom water.
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please, " McGonagall's voice boomed around the school.
Harry wheeled around to stare at his sister.
"Not another attack? Not now," he gasped.
They decided to get to the teachers as fast as they could, even if it got them in trouble. But when they got to them, they hid themselves inside of an alcove, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. They did not want to look suspicious, so they wanted to make it look like they got there after the teachers.
From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.
"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard.
"How can you be sure," the Potions teacher asked.
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white. "Left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
Professor Flitwick burst into tears. Melody felt her heart ache a little for her head of house. He loved all his students, even if they are not in his house.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.
Harry and Melody felt their eyes widen and pain flare in their hearts. They may never have interacted with the youngest Weasley, but they'd never let the twins and Percy go through the pain of losing a sibling, like they felt with Krinos in the Hospital Wing.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts."
Harry and Melody were about to talk to the teachers when Harry's amulet glowed. His eyes turned to those of a snake as he left the alcove. Melody quickly followed after him.
"Harry, what are you doing," she whisper yelled at him.
"I can sense it," Harry says. "The basilisk."
"And we're going toward it why," Melody asked.
"If we can find out where it comes from, then we can tell whoever comes to help deal with the problem and Hogwarts can open back up sooner," Harry says.
"Okay, that is actually a good idea," Melody says. "Only one small issue."
"What," Harry asked.
"Look where you lead us," Melody tells him.
Getting back into focus, turning off his snake eyes, Harry looked around.
"Are we seriously in a bathroom, right now," he asked.