Chapter 50

Harry's Point of View

The sound of dripping water echoed eerily in the large cavern, the only sound in the large dark space. Far above sunlight spilled in, casting a pool of white brightness in the gloom. But even with the dim lighting the snake impressions on the carved walls were impossible to miss. The Chamber of Secrets was unmistakeable. Merlin only knows I'd been in there enough times to recognise it.

The sound of footsteps broke the sound of the steady beat of dripping water, startling me. As I glanced around for the source of the noise, I became overwhelmingly aware that Percy wasn't sharing this dream with me. That meant either he was in a different dream entirely, or he was awake with Leo. Again.

The shock of red hair stood out like a torch in the dark colours of the chamber. Its owner was young, and – judging from the length of their hair – female. Don't get me wrong, I understand that boys wearing their hair long was coming into fashion again (Draco kept me up to date with these things) but there was an unmistakeable difference between girls and boys hair. Don't ask me to explain it, there just it.

Her hair fell over her face, hiding it in a mixture of shadows and red cascading hair. Her voice was low and deep, almost masculine and completely unrecognisable (if we even knew her) as she hissed her commands to Alyssa.

$Speak to Salazar, greatest of the Hogwarts four!$

I winced as the noise of stone grating against stone filled my ears, making my head ring. Gods of Olympus that sound set my teeth on edge. I watched in a horrified fascination as Alyssa was forced to answer the call, slithering gracefully from her den, and hissing threateningly. It was reassuring to know she hadn't given up quite yet.

$Thrice already I have ordered you to cleanse the castle of the mudbloods! Do not fail me again, Basilisk, or there will be consequences.$ The red-headed girl hissed, her voice cold and threatening.

$Failed? I have removed them from lessons. It is your Mediwitch that keeps them here. Perhaps bring up the topic with her?$ Alyssa hissed under her breath. The girl snarled, sending a crimson red spell at the Queen of Serpents. Her thick skin certainly protected Alyssa from the worst of the curse, but her pained hiss was enough to make me want to strangle the red-head.

$You will respect me! And you will obey me.$ The girl warned. $So. Off you go now.$

Alyssa hissed miserably, swinging her yellow gaze on me, pain and regret in the familiar deadly orbs. Then she slithered off, waving her tail angrily and crushing a snake statue in the process. Taking off at a run, I followed her, grabbing on to Alyssa's tail to hitch a ride up the pipes. Alyssa was letting out a stream of curses about the red head. I couldn't help but fully agree with her.

When we exited the pipes I recognised the familiar hallway outside the library. I shifted uneasily, knowing how busy this hallway got. If Alyssa wasn't careful...

Suddenly a familiar voice made my blood run cold. I tried to grab Alyssa, to pull her back, pull her away, but I wasn't really there. She may be able to feel my presence, but my friend was deaf to my shouts, and my hands, which had been able to grab hold of her earlier to tag a ride, slipped through her body.

The voice got louder, talking to somebody else – presumably an older year judging from the slightly deeper voice that replied. I didn't hear the words, just the familiar tones of the voice I knew so well.

A shiny bronze dagger appeared from around a corner, and two pairs of eyes – one grey and one blue – reflected in the shiny surface. I screamed as the dagger and the hand holding it fell to the floor, followed by her body. I rushed to her side, going to sweep away Luna and Annabeth's long blonde hair before remembering that I couldn't, and so merely stroked it instead. Beside Annabeth and Luna, another Ravenclaw – Penelope Clearwater I think it was – was on the floor too. Two more paralysed. Two more to the growing number of victims. First there had been Mrs Norris, then a couple of weeks later a first year Gryffindor – Colin Creevey – had been found, his hands still clasping his camera to his face. That had been back in November though, and the teachers and students had grown complacent in the lack of attacks.

I suddenly felt the living world tugging at my spirit, pulling me away from Annabeth and Luna. I fought it as hard as possible, but as was the case with these things, the faster I fought, the faster I woke.

Leo was peering at us worriedly when I opened our eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief as I gained consciousness.

"Thank the Olympians! Are you ok Harry? You were thrashing something horrible."

Suddenly the reality of what I had just seen flooded over me and I grabbed Leo into a hug, tears bubbling up in our eyes. Leo reflexively brought his hands up around me, letting out a small comforting noise as my tears soaked into his night-shirt.

Percy woke up slowly, his thoughts muggy and still coloured with the bright colours of sleep. After a few minutes he woke enough to start receiving my emotions and immediately started to question me.

'Harry! What's wrong? And don't tell me nothing. You're crying and I can feel your emotions.'

'I wouldn't do that.' I whispered back. 'I do know when I can actually get away with lying, you know?'

I sent Percy the memory of my dream, and tried to voice its contents to Leo. By the end, Percy was fuming, ready to declare war on the girl that forced Alyssa to attack the students of the school. It wasn't that we didn't care before, it was that now it was more personal. Tracking her down had become a serious priority now.

"You... you never told me there was a basilisk threatening the students at Hogwarts." Leo said, his voice shaky and his eyes glinting with anger. "But worse, you let Annabeth and Luna stay in a school with a basilisk over the holidays when you could have taken her home."

We sighed regretfully, and rubbed our eyes. "It's no excuse, but there had been no attacks in over a month. We had though they had stopped. And Annabeth and Luna... we thought they were going to camp. The holidays just never came up in conversation until it was too late to put their names on the list of students leaving school for the duration of Yuletide."

Leo simply glared at us.

"And Alyssa isn't attacking the students! She is deliberately making sure not to make direct eye contact with any of the students! Hence why Annabeth and Luna are simply petrified – while it may not be pleasant it's definitely a step up from dead!"

Suddenly a new wave of tears threatened to break, but we tried our best to push them back. But that didn't mean Leo couldn't see them. Guilt crossed Leo's face, and he sighed.

"Sorry. I know that it's ridiculous to blame you but..."

"But she's hurt and we sort of knew what was going on." Percy finished. Leo nodded. We pulled him in for a hug.

We sighed. "We should tell Chiron. Maybe he could tell us what to do."

"Apart from finding that daughter of a Fury that set the basilisk – Alyssa did you call her? – on the school?" Leo remarked dryly.

Leo and Percy and I all burst out laughing, somehow finding hilarity in the situation. I mean, what else was there to do? Clearly the teachers weren't doing anything to help the matter. Oh yes we had curfews and escorts, encouraged to move round in pairs or groups. But what good was that against an unknown non-human threat?

Having no solid evidence of the attack on Annabeth and Luna and the other Ravenclaw Leo and we had to wait impatiently for the news to arrive by owl. James and Lily had noticed our quiet moods, and so shot us slightly suspicious looks. Our parents knew about demigod dreams, but they were unwilling to put too much stock in them really. But they understood when one of them came true.

The letter had arrived two days after I'd had my dream, when we had been eating breakfast. It was the twenty-fourth of December, Christmas Eve.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear parents,

Due to an issue with the wards at Hogwarts, we are sorry to say that we must send all the students that remained here during the holiday home whilst we remedy the situation for their own safety. They shall be arriving at King's Cross station (on platform 9¾) at ten am on Wednesday 24th December.

Unfortunately, the previously unknown gap in our wards has resulted in the attack of two of our students, who have been petrified.

May we assure you that the problem shall be rectified, and the school should be perfectly safe for students to return in the New Year.

We apologise for any inconvenience,

Professor McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Lily's voice was coloured with disbelief as she read out the note. "Harry, Percy dear, did you know anything about this?"

We sighed. "Harry dreamt of Annabeth and Luna and other girl being attacked two nights back."

"Did you see what by?" James' voice was unusually serious as he snapped straight into Auror mode.

I shook my head immediately without hesitation. I wasn't about to rat out Alyssa. They could kill her! "No, whatever it was had been around the corner. Annabeth was using her dagger to look round corners for whatever reason. I think whatever petrified them was reflected off it."

James nodded for a moment, then froze. "Her dagger... in school?"

"Force of habit." Leo winced. "We are almost constantly under attack from monsters in America after all."

James grunted, unwilling to look too understanding when Lily had her disapproving face on. He stood up, mumbling something about collecting Charles up from the station. Lily handed him another letter, this one from the Mr and Mrs Weasley, requesting (if it wasn't too much hassle) to look after her boys and Ginny as they were currently in Egypt with their eldest son Bill. James nodded, and set off again.

Nandy! Tippy!" Lily called, the two elves appearing with a crack. "Could you two dears set up four guest rooms? Percy, Fred and George, Ron and Ginny are staying for a while. The twins of course will want to share a room..."

"Mum!" We butted in. "Fred and George are more than just 'the twins'. Couldn't Nandy and Tippy set up two rooms, then they can decide if they wish to share or not? Us twins are more than just one single entity."

Leo sniggered. "Well, in the case of you..."

"Sh! We're making a point here! Harry and I are one, and we know that. But we wouldn't like to share a room with Charles, just because we're twins and so it is obviously expected of us." Percy pouted.

Lily nodded. "True. Could you..."

"Tippy and Nandy will set straight to it, Lady Potter ma'am!" The elves chorused, disappearing with their normal crack.

"Right, are you two finished? I suggest you go find somewhere slightly out the way for a little bit while. The boys and Ginny will no doubt be here in a couple of hours, and there will no doubt be a fair amount of mayhem when they arrive, so maybe, just till lunch –"

"Could we stay out the way?" We nodded, glancing at Leo. "What do you say about sparring in the gym?"

Leo agreed, and before Lily could protest we were sprinting down the hallway to the gym with Leo close at our heels. We spent maybe ten minutes choosing weapons, Leo marvelling at the quality of some of our Goblin-made blades and commenting on the small flaws that various other ones had.

Eventually he chose a long steel dagger, which (due to his young age) looked more like a sword in proportion to his body. We picked up the silver sword we had attempted to use against the Minotaur last year and Percy set into his ready stance. I moved back to give him full control, and watched in delight as Percy and Leo warmed up, before starting to full out spar. There was something beautiful about sparring with swords, with the way our muscles shifted and flexed as we slashed, ducked, turned and rolled in some complex dance of skill. Leo held up well against us, clearly having spent a good deal of time over the autumn term practicing with his cabin mates. Of course, we did have several years more experience however, and so beat him in all of our matches. Leo didn't look put out however, and kept on coming back again and again with more determination, and our matches became closer as the hours dragged by.

Eventually, as Percy disarmed Leo and held our sword to his throat, we heard multiple people clapping, and spun around, our breathing laboured to see Charles, Ron, Fred and George watching us, with James a few meters behind.

"Damn, Percy and Harry." Fred whistled.

"Remind us not to get on your bad side!" George finished, grinning.

We let out a shaky laugh, replacing our sword on the wall. Leo did the same, his breathing just as heavy.

"So, who's you're little friend?" Ron asked, earning him a glare from Leo.

Leo turned his puppy-dog eyes on us. "I'm not little, am I?"

We squirmed. "Not for your age, no, but compared to Ron..."

Leo pouted, crossing his arms in a mock huff. "You're all mean!"

"Oi Potter! I've warned you before about being mean to my brother, haven't I?"

I turned in surprise at the familiar voice, spotting Beckendorf watching us all with amusement from within his rainbow iris-message. Leo grinned as he ran up to his brother, describing his stay so far with us in England animatedly.

Fred and George circled the iris-messaged with curiosity before turning to us to ask us questions on it.

"What is it?"

"Nobody has ever invented a spell to communicate through rainbows before have they?!"

"Slow down!" I held out our hands as if to ward off the excess of questions. "It's actually an ancient spell, used back in the time of the Ancient Greeks. One of our friends – a centaur called Chiron who we met in the woods at Camp last summer – is related to the original Chiron, told us about it. We use it to keep in contact with our magical friends we met at Camp, since America is a long way to send an owl."

The twins huffed at us, but let us off for now.

"We came to see if you two wanted to play some Quidditch – three a side." Charles told us, glancing warily at Leo. "That's if Leo can fly."

"Of course he can!" I grinned. "There is magic in is heritage, after all."

Well... it was true. The Hecate children back at camp were always recruiting (occasionally through blackmail if needs be) to play their shortened form of Quidditch back at camp, and demigod powers could be considered magic really.

"Hey Leo!" I called. "You up for Quidditch?"

Beckendorf groaned. "You willingly play that game? No, I don't think it should be even called a game, its torture!"

I smirked as Percy fully agreed with the son of Hephaestus. "Come now, it's not that bad! Besides, you've never played it properly, with bludgers."

Beckendorf turned pale white. Ops, maybe he had. We laughed, assuring him it wasn't that bad before we cancelled his message and pulled Leo down to the field.

"So." Fred grinned. "Each team gets one chaser, one seeker and one keeper. Chasers also get beaters to protect themselves from bludgers. Yes?"

We nodded. The twins whispered quickly for a minute, then Fred joined Leo and us, and George joined Charles and Ron.

Fred offered to be our chaser, if Leo thought he could cope being a keeper. Leo grinned. He had learnt that while he was rather bad at catching the Quaffle while flying he was very fast still, and brilliant at getting hit by it.

Percy grimaced as he slipped to the back of our mind, and slipped into the weird trance thing he did when I flew. I flashed him a comforting feeling before kicking off into the air, watching Leo follow. To little surprise, Charles was the other seeker, Ron the opposing Keeper, and George the chaser-come-beater.

When we were all in position James, who had followed us down from the gym, transfigured us some goal hoops before releasing the balls, first letting the snitch go, then the bludgers, and finally tossing up the Quaffle to Fred and George, who both rushed in to catch it. There was a small squabble, much to my amusement, but George ended up in possession, and we were all off.

I watched the game with one eye as I also scanned the pitch for the glint of gold that was the snitch. George, unprepared for the might that was Leo, didn't even feign as he aimed to score. Leo quickly hit the ball aside, and Fred gained possession of it, easily dodging his shocked brother as he aimed to score. Unfortunately, Ron wasn't as shocked, and blocked the goal.

The game continued in a similar fashion for a while longer, our chasers and keepers being fairly evenly matched. Ron was a better Keeper than Leo, but then Fred had a better aim then George... So, in the end, it came down to a match between Charles and me, each desperately scanning for the pitch. Finally, almost an hour later, I finally spotted the tell-tale glint of gold that gave away the position of the snitch.

It was halfway between Charles and me. We spent a moment circling, wondering if the other had spotted it too before full out speeding for the little gold ball that would end the game and announce one the winner. I flattened myself to the broom, deciding to speed vertically towards the snitch below, while Charles headed straight for it. In the end I only just managed to steal the snitch away from his outstretched fingers before having to pull up sharply and safely decelerate in order to land.

Grinning, I shook hands with Charles. "Nice game!"

Charles grinned, not at all put off by his close loose. "Next time, in an actual House match, then I will beat you!"

James called us in to lunch, briefly pulling Percy and me aside to warn us against pulling off more daring stunts such as the one we had pulled whilst in a few miles of Lily, just to be on the safe side. We got off with it this time, but there would be no telling next time.