Till The End | h.p

solved case

By the time the boys get back into the castle it's morning, but as they enter the common room, they can't find Sam anywhere. Fred and George rush down the stairs and grab onto both of the boys' arms, pulling them back out of the tower.

"What are two doing?" Ron asks in annoyance.

The twins usual demeanor and joyful expressions are nowhere to be found. Fred speaks up, "They found Sam."

Harry and Ron look at each other in fear before taking off for the Hospital Wing, with Fred and George in tow. They push the doors open aggressively and run past Hermione's bed and find Sam laying in the bed, petrified.

"What happened?" Harry asks frantically.

George, looking devastated, "McGonagall found her in the library."

Fred turns to Ron, "All the books scattered on the ground and the windows..."

"Shattered." George finishes.

Ron looks at them and then looks down. Harry looks between them, "Is there something I need to know?"

Madam Pomfrey strides in and ushers the Weasley's out saying they need to contact their parents to alert them of what has happened. Harry pulls up a chair between Hermione's bed and Sam's.

He looks at Sam and quietly says, "I told you to be careful...wish you were here...both of you. We need you, now more than ever. I'm sorry." His eyes fall to her hand and notice the pages still curled in her hand. He opens one and reads, 'The Montclairs, a family whose ancestry goes back thousands of years, are one of the most powerful families known to wizard kind. Practicing the most deadly form of dark magic and perfecting it over the centuries, have gained power beyond any wizards known. The drive of their power comes solely from emotion. It is said that within their bloodline a curse runs rampant. A curse that creates chaos and uncontrollable emotions stronger than any other being can muster. While it makes their magic significantly more powerful, it is devastatingly uncontrollable, proving to be most dangerous. Legend says after the night He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and his group of Death Eaters discovered the youngest of the Montclair's, they went to claim her. She was written in the prophecy along with the Boy Who Lived to be the most powerful of the Montclairs to ever lived, but with horrid consequences of the curse. Her mother, Jordana Montclair, was rumored to have married a Muggle, whose name remains unknown. The family perished the night of the attack, the girl, presumably lost in the rubble of their destroyed home.'

Harry's eyes lifted to Sam, who lay staring at the ceiling. 'Could you really be-?' He thought.

He opens the other paper and reads, before he gets halfway through he shouts for Ron. As Ron enters, Harry holds up the piece of parchment, "They found it. '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 I can hear it speak. It's a snake."

"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?" Ron asks.

Harry looks up to the window, "Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly, at least. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin- Justin must have seen the basilisk through Nearly headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it. But he's a ghost, he couldn't die again. Hermione had the mirror. And Sam must've looked through the reflection of one of the windows, unless it's another one of her powers."

Ron looks to Harry in shock, but Harry holds up the other paper and hands it to Ron.

As Ron reads, Harry asks, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Ron looks back up at him, "Honestly, mate, none of us really knew. We knew she had something, but not to this extent. I imagine only Dumbledore and my parents knew the full truth."

Harry nods slowly and then looks back to the paper.

"But it's a bloody snake, how does it get around? A dirty, great snake. Someone would have seen it," Ron states.

"Pipes, it's using the plumbing," Harry explains, "A girl died 50 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I have a good idea who it is, come on."