The Basilisk
Loud echoing hisses.
Hundreds of serpents.
But nothing felt as scary, as bone-chilling as the haunting sound of the gray monster.
"You… have grown way bigger, haven't you?"
Even Sebastian, one who had grown up with snakes and beasts, felt a chill run down his spine as the behemoth of a serpentine stared at him.
"Hissssss!"
The loud and high-pitched noise of the serpentine beast hurt Sebastian's ears. But the boy didn't move.
He knew well enough that unnecessary movements would more than likely be enough to agitate the beast.
"How long has it been?" He asked, staring at the serpentine, "Over a thousand years."
Anyone would have been instantly killed upon looking at that beast and petrified by looking at its reflection –yet the boy suffered no such issue.
He took a step ahead but this immediately alerted the beast.
"HISSSS!"
"Calm." Sebastian said, slowing his steps. "I know that you can sense by blood."
"Every basilisk can."
A basilisk.
An ancient and considered extinct magical beast. One whose rating was considered as XXXXX by the Ministry of Magic.
A rank given only to beasts that were impossible to domesticate and could kill even the most experienced wizard with the utmost of ease.
However, Sebastian was not afraid.
Worried, yes. But afraid? No.
"Calm boy, calm."
A male Basilisk.
Males were aggressive but they were more logical beasts than females. And while both looked the same, there was one very distinct characteristic that separates the males from the females.
"Feel my blood, boy." Sebastian said, "Recall the blood that gave you life."
The basilisk stared at Sebastian, trying to process the words Sebastian spoke.
As a Slytherin, Sebastian was gifted with a skill that allowed him to converse with serpents.
The parseltongue.
However, being trapped in a cave and forced to look after a treasure that was buried in time had dulled the senses of the basilisk, preventing it from understanding the Slytherin.
And as such, it did what any blind beast would do.
Attack whatever came in front of it.
"Darn it!"
"HISSS!!"
In the fraction of a section, a venomous substance shot towards Sebastian and if not for the magic he had already casted on himself, neither would he have been able to react to it, nor would he have be alive.
"Speculo Supremus!"
Reflecting the acidic toxin, he stabilized his stance. The reflected acid, while useless against the basilisk skin, was still capable to immobilize it by melting away the floor and making it difficult to wriggle through it.
"On Solomon's name!" Sebastian yelled, "Remember who I am!"
The basilisk was enraged at his venom being thrown back at him and tried to lunge itself at the young wizard.
And if the basilisk went all out or did not have his sharp senses dulled –Sebastian would have been dead by now.
Because no matter how much ancient magic knowledge he possessed. Against a mythical beast of the ancient times, one that was hatched with the help of his grandfather's magic, he was merely a child with a few party tricks.
However, the situation was different.
Neither was the basilisk able to go all out nor were his senses as strong as they should have been.
And even if they were, it would have immediately recognized who the boy was.
But it didn't and as such it started to wreak havoc around it.
"Oh what in the demons' name is this!"
Sebastian could not understand what had made the Basilisk so agitated. No matter how powerful the beast was, the blood of a Slytherin was enough to calm and tame it.
"Even with my blood it–"
But then it clicked.
Then he realized the mistake, one grave enough that could have ended his life.
"I…"
The massive snake slapped his tail towards Sebastian and the boy could only squat to dodge it.
"Blood!"
Barely saving himself from being crushed by the tail, Sebastian realized what he was missing.
Immediately picking up a broken piece of the stone flooring, he sliced his wrist open –letting the blood drip down his wrist, uncaring of the sheer amount of it he was losing and the sharp pain he felt.
The basilisk lunged his upper body towards him, its massive mouth wide open to swallow him whole.
"Remember this blood you beast!!!"
The snake shot itself towards Sebastian, nearly putting the entire wizard inside his belly.
However.
However, the moment it reached the boy's extended wrist –it stopped.
It paused in a pose that was not possible to stop at –but it managed to do so.
How?
From the sheer shock.
The shock that one felt when they realized how badly they had messed up. When they realized they screwed with the wrong person. And when they realize that they had failed at the one job that was asked of them.
"Yes!" Sebastian yelled, "Yes, it is me you blind snake! The one for whom you are guarding this forgotten cave!"
The slit pupils of the snake became thinner, horrified and disgusted by his actions.
"I am Sebastian Slytherin!" He roared, "Your master!"
Actions which would have gotten him killed if it was the old man instead of the young boy.
…
…
Rumblings, loud noises and the falling of a roof.
What Sebastian failed to notice was that the moment the basilisk appeared, the seal keeping the noises and the magic trapped alsp broke loose.
Hagrid felt his heart dropping as he heard those noises.
"No!" he bellowed, almost leaping into the cave, "He can't be hurt!"
Even now Hagrid did not understand what was so special about the boy. He seemed like a normal kid who unfortunately lost his parents at a very early age.
However, he knew that to the Headmaster he was someone else. And this along with his sense of guardianship made him panic at the thought of the boy being harmed.
He ran inside the cave, uncaring of the possible dangers.
Yet not before using a certain magical equipment given by Dumbledore in case of danger.
A note that wrote itself by reading the mind of the user.
Hagrid activated it and ran.
'No other choice!'
The note that wrote itself had its message inscribed on a note that Dumbledore possessed –working as a form of magical messenger.
"Lumos!"
Hagrid was once a student of Hogwarts but was expelled due to certain circumstances. And as he was expelled, he was forbidden from using magic.
However, Hagrid was known for breaking rules from time to time. And at the current situation, he could not think of letting the boy get harmed in any way or form.
Even if that meant breaking the law and being punished for it later.
"Don't be hurt! Don't be hurt!"
He mumbled as he rushed through the magically illuminated crevices of the cave.
His heartbeat was thumping, it was eccentric. He knew that he shouldn't have listened to Sebastian and should have followed him inside.
Respecting the boy's privacy was proving to be detrimental to Hagrid.
And his worry and fear only got worse when he saw the trail formed by dead and paralyzed snakes. Each of which were venomous enough to kill multiple grown adults.
He was aware that he had botched the situation himself and the only thing he could hope for at the moment was the boy being alive.
Seeing the snakes, he had already given up hope of the boy being unharmed. And as of the moment, all he wanted was for Sebastian to be alive.
And that hope seemed to crumble down as he heard a high pitched noise.
"HISSS!"
A bone chilling hiss, one that was impossible for a normal snake to make.
And he was not wrong.
The moment he busted through a weak pebble covered wall and found himself in a massive open space –he noticed it.
'How…'
His breathing became hurried, and his body went numb.
"I think I asked you not to enter, Hagrid."
The Giant who had never been scared of a beast felt his legs tremble.
"One wrong move and you would have been petrified."
His fear and the boy's words were both justified.
After all, the behemoth in front of him was not a snake.
"Basilisk…"
But the king of all serpents.
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