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(Word Count: 2,510)
That evening, Harry gathered the friends that were involved with the diary hunt: Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Hannah and Susan. Susan had learned the whole story from everyone when she learned Hannah had been possessed.
Harry had told Draco he had finally succeeded in finding the diary. When Draco learned that Hannah had been possessed by the dark artifact his father planted, he did have the decency to feel guilty about it. Though he couldn't exactly apologize to her without giving away the fact his family was to blame. Harry had invited Draco to join them in this meeting, but he declined. He didn't want to face Hannah.
They were gathered in the study group's room, which was mostly empty all the time.
"What's this about Harry?" Neville asked.
"I've gathered everyone here because this whole incident with the diary isn't quite finished yet," Harry said. Everyone stiffened nervously at that. "There is still one thing left to do, and I felt that you all had the right to see it through, considering your involvement so far. You see, when Riddle possessed you," Harry turned to look at Hannah, "he didn't just kill some chickens and petrified Mrs. Norris. He also opened the infamous Chamber of Secrets and released Slytherin's monster."
Hannah shivered, pulling her robes tightly around her for warmth. "That huge snake, right? Merlin, I thought that bit was a dream, a horrible, horrible dream."
"That snake is the king of all snakes, the basilisk. Luckily, it seemed to have returned to the chamber before we found you, Hannah," Harry said, then turned to the rest of the group. "This is why I told you to close your eyes when I tell you to. The basilisk is one of the most dangerous magical creatures in history. A single glance into its eyes will kill you instantly."
Everyone except Luna paled with fright.
"That's why Riddle killed Hagrid's roosters then," Luna said calmly, seemingly undisturbed by the idea of a basilisk inside the castle, "so his basilisk wouldn't die."
Everyone looked at her, bewildered. She looked back with her usual innocent smile. "A rooster's cry will kill a basilisk instantly."
Harry nodded, smiling at Luna's knowledge. "That's right. Despite being so dangerous, the basilisk has this one fatal weakness. I plan on going down to the chamber and releasing some roosters down there before I enter. A rooster will naturally cry out when it spots it, so there won't be any danger of fighting it. The only problem is, I can't just transfigure a rooster. I need to find the actual bird or it won't work."
"And all of the roosters in Hogwarts are dead," Hermione sighed. "How are we supposed to find one now?"
Hannah shrunk even further. "Sorry," she muttered.
"No, Hannah, it wasn't your fault!" Hermione and everyone rushed to reassure her.
"I was planning on sneaking out of the castle tonight to try to find one in Hogsmeade. I'm willing to bet at least someone has a rooster or two we can borrow for the night," Harry said. "Then, we meet up and we can go to the chamber if you want to come with. If you want to see the creature dead at least."
Hermione bit her lip in thought. She didn't really like the idea of sneaking out of school, but this was a dangerous basilisk they were talking about. They couldn't really wait for it to attack someone again. This was too important.
"Oh! Oh! Can I come with you?" Ginny said excitedly. "to get the roosters, that is. I want to sneak out of the castle."
Harry grinned, "Sure, I can fit someone else comfortably underneath my cloak."
"Yes!" Ginny cheered, looking smugly at Luna, who smiled and patted her hand.
"So," Harry looked around. "When I go down to the chamber, who wants to come? You don't have to. Honestly, it is a bit dangerous, even with the rooster. You never know what may happen. I'm only offering so we can get a form of closure."
"I'll go, of course," Hermione said quickly. "I trust you, Harry."
"Me too," Ginny said.
"I'd like to see the basilisk myself," Luna said. "I'm sure with the rooster, the basilisk won't be a problem anyway."
Neville looked at Hannah, then mustered up his courage and stepped forward, "I'll go," he said with determination.
Hannah looked at Neville, then at Susan, then back to Harry. "I-I'll go. I'm the one that started this whole mess anyway, It seems only right."
"If Hannah's going, then I'll go too!" Susan said, hugging Hannah protectively.
Harry looked at all of his friends, meeting Neville's eyes with a nod, and smiled proudly. "All right, then. After curfew, Ginny and I will sneak out to find our roosters, then we'll meet you all in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Hermione scrunched her nose, "That's an odd rendezvous point. Why there?"
"Because that's where the entrance to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets is. While you're waiting for us, why don't you ask her about how she died?" Harry said.
Ginny snorted, "Heh, the entrance to the legendary chamber of secrets is in a girl's lavatory?"
Harry chuckled, "in all fairness to the man, I'm sure it wasn't originally a bathroom."
~~ ITW,H ~~
With plans made, they split up and spent the rest of the day whatever it was they had planned to do. Soon enough, after curfew, Harry met up with Ginny in the common room. "Are you ready?" He asked.
She nodded with nervous excitement, "Let's do this."
He took out his invisibility cloak and they huddled under it. Now invisible, they left the common room. The Fat Lady couldn't see them, but called out anyway, "Whoever you are, you have until 1, then you'll be locked out! I have plans, you know!"
When they were far enough away from any painting, Ginny whispered, "So how are we going to actually leave the castle grounds without being spotted? Do you know a secret way out?"
"Remember that map I showed you?"
"Yeah?"
Harry pulled out the map, though it was barely visible in the dark, "It shows a couple of ways in and out of the castle."
They huddled into a corner and he opened up the map, and took out the hand of glory.
"Ugh. What is that? Is that a hand?" Ginny asked, disgusted.
"It's called the Hand of Glory. Its light is only visible to those that are holding it. Here, grab on to," Harry said, urging her to also hold it with him. She grabbed on, her hand overlapping his own.
'It's like we're holding hands,' Ginny thought with a faint blush.
Harry ignored the thought, reigning in his legilimency even more to not hear any more, and lit the candle held by the hand.
A faint candle light glowed beneath the cloak, revealing the map.
"Are you sure no one else can see the glow? It seems normal to me," Ginny asked.
"Yes, now come on, the tunnel is this way," Harry pointed out the entrance to the shrieking shack. He didn't want to use the honeydukes entrance because it would be closed and locked up, and who knew if there were some charms on the door at night.
"Um, Harry, isn't that the whomping willow?"
"Why yes, Ginny, it is," Harry whispered cheerfully.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if it attacks us?"
Harry ruffled her hair. "Relax, it won't see us under the cloak."
They made their way outside and towards the tree. Ginny gulped and hugged his arm tightly. As Harry had said, the tree didn't notice them under the cloak. They were able to enter the tunnel without issue.
"This place is spooky," Ginny said, looking at the dark dirt tunnel.
"You think this is bad, you're going to hate where it comes out in," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Why? Where does it lead?"
"Have you ever heard of the shrieking shack?"
Ginny froze midstep. "No way! That's the most haunted place in Britain!"
"Ginny, Hogwarts literally has hundreds of ghosts. How is the shrieking shack worse?" Harry asked.
Ginny blinked, "Well, it's… huh. That's a good point. But what about the screams people talked about? Something caused those!"
"Yeah, it used to be a werewolf student. He would come through this tunnel to the shack every full moon to transform safely. The whomping willow was actually planted to prevent the werewolf from coming back through to protect the school grounds. The screaming people heard were the painful transformations they went through. It's not a pretty process," Harry explained.
"Oh, wow. Hogwarts had werewolf students?"
"Of course. As long as proper precautions are taken, werewolves aren't dangerous at all."
They talked as they walked, hand in hand with the hand of Glory so they could both see their way through the tunnel. Soon, they came out of a closet into the rickety, swaying shack.
Ginny hugged his arm again, a bit nervous, but she was looking around curiously. All of the surfaces inside were scratched up with claw marks. The entire house was groaning as it visibly swayed back and forth. How it had managed to stay upright and intact, even with a werewolf tearing everything apart on the inside, had to be due to magic. The building had likely been built specifically to keep people scared to go near it, even without the screaming.
They were on the ground floor. So they just went to the front door, which had no claw marks around it. Casting some detection spells—using his mother's wand because he wasn't sure on how the trace worked—he found the door, and the entire wall in front of him, was covered in unbreakable charms. The door handle itself was also made in silver to further dissuade a werewolf from escaping.
The door itself was also made to be unopenable, it was transfigured to merge seamlessly with the wall, only appearing to be a door for any outside observers. Luckily, there were no spells in place to prevent anyone from undoing the transfiguration.
He did so, and the two students stepped outside.
A man in the distance—who was out for a late night stroll after a couple of beers—saw in the bright moonlight the door to the shrieking shack open on its own and ran away in terror.
Harry and Ginny were still underneath the invisibility cloak.
Harry pulled out a broom from his trunk and swung a leg over. "Climb on! We'll fly around to see if we can spot a chicken coop anywhere. This way we won't spend all night."
Ginny climbed on to sit in front of him, shooting him a cheeky grin, "Why don't I fly the broom, and you focus on keeping the cloak over us and keeping a look out for the chickens?"
"Alright, then." Harry just hugged her waist. "Keep us slow and steady so the wind doesn't blow the cloak away."
"O-Okay…" Ginny was fighting back a blush.
Before they took off, Harry decided to use a sticking charm to fix the cloak around the bottom so no one looking up would see their feet, and a silencing charm so they couldn't make any noise.
He gave Ginny a thumbs up, indicating they were ready and they took to the skies.
They did a lap around Hogsmeade, but unfortunately, they couldn't spot any chicken coop, not even in the houses on the outskirts.
They landed again, and Harry removed the spells.
"This is a bit of a problem. I wasn't expecting there to be no chickens anywhere," Harry muttered thoughtfully. "We may have to search farther, but where?"
"Oh, I know!" Ginny said excitedly, "We've got chickens at home! We can use our roosters!" Her excitement faded, "Wait, that would take forever to fly all the way back home. Forget it."
Harry grinned at her, "That's brilliant! Don't worry about flying, I can just apparate us there."
"You can apparate!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Of course. I've got my license and everything." Harry stashed his broom, but kept the cloak around them. "Hmmm… but I am concerned about the wards. Won't your parents wake up when they feel us crossing them?"
"Harry, we don't have any wards," Ginny said bluntly.
"You don't?" Harry looked at her with a bit of confusion. He remembered in the movies the death eaters broke through the wards when they attacked the burrow and burnt it down. They must have had Bill or Dumbledore or someone place them when the war kicked off again.
"Of course not. They cost way too much money."
"Right, sorry. Then, there's no issue. Are you ready? Just think of your home. I'll place us a bit away just so the sound won't wake them."
Apparition usually comes with a sharp crack but, with practice, that sound can be reduced or muffled. Harry himself got to the point where it was nearly silent. Nearly. That little bit of sound could probably wake someone up if it was close by.
Ginny nodded, gripping his arm tightly.
Harry apparated them down the road a ways, the burrow right in front of them.
"Home!" Ginny said excitedly. It had only been a couple of months, but she did miss it terribly.
They made their way over, and went around to their backyard. They could see a couple of gnomes wandering about, some sleeping against a tree, its hands resting over its pudgy belly. When they approached, some pointed hats began poking up from holes in the ground, the gnomes looking around nervously.
Several of them began grumbling irritably. In the silence of the night, they might as well have been yelling.
Ginny gasped, and Harry quickly hit the entire area in a silencing spell to prevent any ruckus. The gnomes freaked out and disappeared back into their burrows.
They nervously looked toward the window where the parents room should be. The window remained dark. Ginny sighed in relief, though it was now silent.
The chicken coop was also under the effect of his spell, so the chickens made no noise when they entered and Ginny grabbed the one rooster by its legs and scooped him up.
Rooster acquired, they hiked back up the road a ways before apparating back to the shrieking shack.
"Whoo!" Ginny exclaimed. "That was exciting! I can't believe we went back home!"
"This was a bit more of an adventure than I thought it would be. Those gnomes almost exposed us. Thanks for coming with me," Harry said. "Without your help, I probably would have spent all night searching."
"It was nothing," Ginny said. "But we only have one rooster, will that be enough?"
"One will be fine. I just wanted to have more just to be safer, but we really only needed one."
They made their way back through the tunnel, out of the whomping willow, and back into the castle.
Now, they just needed to meet up with their friends and slay a basilisk.