snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabres. Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry, and before Harry could shut his eyes, it turned. Harry looked straight into its face, and saw that its eyes, both its great bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor and the snake was spitting in agony.

'Yes!' shouted Amelia. 'Go Fawkas!'

'No!' Harry heard Riddle screaming. 'Leave the bird! Leave the bird! The boy is behind you! You can still smell him! Kill him!'

Amelia turned on the spot, turning into a large hawk, and dived attacking Riddle, clawing at him as Fawkas had done to the Basilisk.

The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at the Basilisk's scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.

'Help me, help me,' Harry muttered wildly, 'someone, anyone!'

The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry ducked. Something soft hit his face.

The Basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry seized it. It was all he had left, his only chance. He rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the Basilisk's tail swung over him again.

'Help me ... help me ...' Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the Hat. 'Please help me!'

There was no answering voice. Instead, the Hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.

Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the Hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it.

A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the Hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

'Kill the boy! Leave the bird! The boy is behind you! Sniff – smell him!' 

Riddle was swatting at Amelia. "Get away from me you stupid shapeshifting menace!' screamed Riddle as he backhanded Amelia into a wall. With a loud crake and searing pain, Amelia's right wing had snapped. Amelia let out a screech which slowly turned into a scream as she turned back to her human form her bone sticking out of her arm.

Harry was on his feet, ready. The Basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous ...

It lunged blindly. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.