Chapter 38:
Dumbledore sighed as he looked down at the still form of one of his Slytherin students, he turned his gaze towards Pomfrey, the look on her face had long turned for the worse... She'd been scanning the child for the past half hour...
The girl who had led him to the disaster had already been sent off back to her dorm; no one else had seen them on their rush back to the infirmary, it seemed the Quidditch game had sent the houses inside their common rooms, each for their own reason. He had no doubt rumours of what had transpired would quickly spread throughout the castle. He'd sent a Patronus to both his Slytherin and Gryffindor head of house's to clear the mess in the first-floor corridor. It was that same mess that had his thoughts warring with each other... The boy had killed the beast of the chamber, a Basilisk... No those weren't the right words to describe it; the boy had destroyed it. In all his years at Hogwarts, Dumbledore never once thought to see such a scene. A child had taken Salazar's monster and torn it apart.
Rodrick certainly didn't get off lightly.
...
Young Miss Lovegood had bumped into him on his way back to his office; she had a bewildered look on her face, he had thought she was being chased or lost, he couldn't quite tell. The girl had spoken in rather strange terms, ones he'd not heard of before. It oddly reminded him of Newt.
After he'd asked her to calm down, she'd said one word that quickly got his attention, 'Rodrick.' She had then proceeded to lead him back to the scene of the first opening of the chamber... To say he was shocked would be an understatement, the girls yell had gotten him out of his reverie. Rodrick had been in a crumpled heap on the floor still clutching his wand. There was clear blood and a large cut on his robes, when Albus had opened it to see the damage, Fawkes had quickly flown over the boy's body and let off his tears onto the injury.
It was two deep bite marks on his shoulder; his arm was a complete wreck. There were purple blotched marks going down the length of his arm until his wrist, both sides of it, with two long deep scratches down the bottom side, worriedly enough the Phoenix tears could only keep him alive, the arm didn't look at all different. The boy's transfiguration had cracked, it had quickly unravelled itself, Albus had watched it slowly before being brought back to the situation at hand.
The young girl had thrown her hat over the boy's face, covering it, she'd stated it was dangerous to see his face. If it weren't such a bad situation, he would've chuckled. He turned to the poor frightened girl and nodded slightly before he reinforced the Transfiguration with his own magic, having to take out his wand to do so was another worrying factor. He lifted the boy up into his hands, hearing a groan, Levitation refused to work. As he'd turned to take the boy to the hospital wing, he had finally seen the state of the beast.
A nauseating burning smell emanated from it, from the outside the monster looked fine but from within... It looked hollow, inside through the mouth of the giant beast Dumbledore found charred skin, organs melted in. The Basilisks venom sprayed out everywhere across the hallway...
'Only one spell could've caused such devastation...' When he heard the girls frantic breaths, Dumbledore quickly put those thoughts aside and made his way to the hospital wing.
...
Madam Pomfrey hadn't asked much, the moment she saw the boys state she pointed to a bed and sent off the young girl.
Dumbledore's mind warred with itself trying to decide the next course of action; the boy had killed a Basilisk, a terror that had threatened his students, something all the current and future students would forever be grateful for. He found himself almost indebted to the boy. The other part of his mind, however, focused on the 'how' part of it all. A 13-year-old boy should not be able to harm such a creature. A 13-year-old boy should not be able to live after encountering such a creature. A 13-year-old boy should not be able to cast Fiendfyre. Albus eyed the wand in his hand; it belonged to the student in the bed in front of him. Casting a silent Priori Incanto, he felt his own shoulders slack. It was worse than he'd thought. A 13-year-old boy should definitely not be able to cast the killing curse.
His musings on his next actions, however, were disturbed quickly, however, in fact, they almost disappeared, replaced with worry.
"Albus..." Pomfrey spoke up a depressed tone in her voice.
Dumbledore's eyes swept to her own, worried at the sound she had made, when he caught her gaze, he almost winced.
"Is there a problem?" he asked, unsure.
The woman made no reply, only eyeing her wand's spark slowly dissipate over the boy, revealing no information. Albus's brows furrowed, that was not meant to happen.
"What is happening exactly?" he asked once again.
Pomfrey shook her head, "I can't do anything," she answered.
Dumbledore's face took on a weary expression, "What do you mean?"
"His arm is cursed." The tone in her voice went lower and lower before she turned her eyes to the headmaster, "What happened? Why is his arm covered in Basilisk Venom?" she asked dejectedly.
"He was attacked by one... I found him in the first-floor corridor."
The medical witch's eyes grew wider at that, but before she could ask a question regarding it the headmaster raised a hand, "It has been taken care off, by the young man in front of us, Fawkes here, has already administrated a cure to the venom, the boy will not die," he finished hoping to calm her down.
The medical witch's reaction, however, was not expected. Her eyes widened before taking a confused look.
"That's not possible," she spoke in a faraway voice.
Albus Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at that.
"The Venom has already seeped in so far... It takes weeks before it could get so far..."
Albus' eyes narrowed slightly in thought before his answer came rather quickly. The cursed fire had sped the process up significantly.
"What will happen now?" he asked feeling powerless. "The boy is still alive, how bad is the curse?"
The medical witch had nodded at that before she returned her gaze back to the headmaster, "I do not know the full effects... I only understand one thing from it... My magic is not working on him. The curse simply soaks it up before destroying it, leaving no effect... without magic being able to interfere..."
"The boy is in a coma." He finished, his eyes glazed with worry. The boy may not even wake up to deal with the repercussions of the spells used. That thought sent the headmaster mood even lower. How could he consider judging him after what he'd done? The difficulty of the Transfiguration now dawned on him; it had taken the elder wand as well as mastery in the field to overcome the curse.
Pomfrey nodded slightly, "One I cannot help him wake from... The rest is left to him"
Silence permeated the hospital wing; They could only hope. Madam Pomfrey had questioned whether they should send him off to St Mungo's before the headmaster had quickly rejected it, stating it would be too risky to let them attend to him. The doctor had nodded at that; they would no doubt consider amputating the arm off to get rid of the curse, that alone was too risky a process. Of course, the headmaster was referring to them removing the Transfiguration, With how hard he tried to hide it and how much he knew...
Considering it took the elder wand to have any positive effect, their efforts would no doubt fail and as much as it irked the headmaster he was not well versed enough to risk making it even worse, he wasn't sure but considering what made up the curse... Odds were the dark arts could work, unfortunately, anyone who decided to venture to the dark arts rarely saw a need to find a way to wake from a coma, they were more focused on ways to wake up from death.
Dumbledore sighed, there were too many unknowns to consider, one thing he was certain of. The boy's guardians were not going to be happy. The irony hit too hard, if the attack had happened a year earlier the Philosophers stone would've certainly helped.
As he bade the medical witch good night and assured her the boy would no doubt wake up eventually, he made to leave for his office to contemplate the situation further, he had two heads to talk to as well. Pomfrey felt resigned as she covered the boy's bed with curtains and moved away.
Dumbledore turned and saw the despondent healer before he remarked that thanks to the boy's actions no more students would be in danger.
...
The next day, the message was given off at the great hall. Several Slytherin students left the hall as soon as it was uttered, one Ravenclaw followed them. The rest of the house of snakes had mixed reactions to the news; some felt relieved that the danger had passed, others were angry, not that their own had killed it but that it had the audacity to attack a Slytherin in the first place. Others simply couldn't decide how to feel about the situation, one of them was Malfoy who was staring up at the headmaster in disbelief.
The Hufflepuffs had cheerful looks on their faces, no doubt having only heard the part about the beast being dead and not the boy who may not wake up. The Ravenclaws took the more intelligent side and were curious about how everything had happened. The Gryffindors looked both upset and relieved they did not have the chance to do it themselves, one Ginny Weasley looked especially relaxed, although no one really knew why she had been in a bad state all month.
Some Gryffindor's were relieved their points weren't in danger anymore... And they called Slytherin the bad house.
House unity is quite wondrous at Hogwarts, they each showed their sympathy in their own unique way.
Of course, Some Gryffindors really didn't think things through at all.
"The heir of Slytherin killed his own pet? Did he forget to feed it before it decided to eat him or something?" Draco heard a Weasley like voice mutter.
"He probably spoke to it in English and forgot it only understood Parseltongue," A reflective image of the first answered back, having just learned the beast was a Basilisk.
Some Gryffindors had laughed at the twins antics before they saw their head of houses thunderous glare, Professor Snape took the opportunity to disregard them of the few points they had, although he didn't look nearly as cheerful as they expected.
Even when he wasn't directly involved, Rodrick demonstrated a knack for irritating Gryffindors.
Draco turned to the person in front of him, Nott, the boy, had an almost worried look on his face, although that could translate to a sneer as well. Nott really had no idea how to make any expression. "What do you think happened?"
Nott blinked in surprise at that, "Why would I know; I wasn't sightseeing about yesterday." he answered.
Draco rolled his eyes before he turned his attention back to the headmaster.
"The headmaster's hiding something though, all he's told us is that Rodrick's in a coma and that he killed a giant snake, bit of heresy if you asked me, what's next? Ravenclaw's cutting up a book? Gryffindors thinking? Hufflepuffs... I am not actually sure about that one, not showing up to a friends birthday party?" Nott remarked.
"What do you think he's hiding?" Draco asked back ignoring the boy's attempts at humour.
Nott shrugged, "Best visit Rodrick though; I don't wanna be on his bad side when he wakes up and finds out we didn't,"
Draco blinked, "You're a closet Hufflepuff aren't you?"
Nott told him to shove it up somewhere, Draco didn't hear, he was already on his way to the hospital wing.
Nott idly eyed the Defence professor; he had both an angry and hungry look to his face, he looked like someone who'd just lost a Ministry for Magic appointment due to being late. 'Sometimes I understand why my friends think I am crazy. My imagination really goes too far sometimes...' Nott thought to himself before frowning, 'Friends? Merlin I really am becoming a Hufflepuff... Why didn't that Basilisk put me in a coma instead, maybe reset that transformation...' Shrugging that off, he quickly got up and followed the trail of the other Slytherins.