CHP 10

I calmed down quickly in the dilated time of my mind. I wouldn't have much time, perhaps 7 seconds more, but plenty mentally to devise a plan of action. What tools did I have? I would have to go completely blind, can't risk petrification or death, although it would be more likely petrification with my glasses. I couldn't use magic directly on it, it's hide was essentially immune with how resistant it was said to be. Indirect attacks like suffocating it by blocking its nose wouldn't be possible because I didn't have the precision for it without eyesight and I couldn't count on the Diary possessed to sit and let its basilisk die.

My Cursed Energy with its cutting attribute would be my main avenue for damage, unless its' magic resistant nature meant that Cursed Energy wouldn't work on it as well. The possessed was another issue, I didn't know how early into the possession process they would be and Tom could easily pilot the body to attack me.

This was looking to be a headache and a half to deal with. Outright fighting and winning was not possible as I was now. More than half my means of attack were rendered unusable with the loss of my sight and magic. Cursed Energy could reinforce, my Innate Technique couldn't do much of anything, currently acting as a form object telekinesis and weak enchantment. Martial Arts were less than ideal, the bulk of the snake enough to crush me if I were to approach from its side and the venom easily deadly enough to kill me twice over.

I didn't necessarily have to attack and kill though; escape would be easily managed but this was also the first real lead I had gotten to deal with the Diary Horcrux problem. I doubt Tom would give chase; it would attract too much attention. In canon, he needed nearly an entire year to finish possessing Ginny, I don't think I could rely on that considering how much was already changed. The beginnings of a plan were forming in my mind.

I was eternally grateful, even more so now, for my Six Eyes. The amount of strategy time they gave me mid-crisis, being able to think of what actions to take, just have breathing room to think was game-changing. But it seems it was time for action. I screwed my eyes shut immediately, the only time when my Six Eyes were 'off'. I held my stick and my wand in my hands. Even if my wand was seeing less use lately, any advantage would help now.

The sounds got louder and they came closer, from around the corner in front of me. I could hear footsteps but they were muffled by the sounds of the much larger snake. I was crazy, I was insane for thinking this was a good plan! The sounds got clearer, I breathed in deep, clenched my eyes tight enough that they started to tear up. I cast a 'Petrificus Totalus' on myself and fell forward. I going to play possum and hoping it wouldn't get me eaten.

My thinking for carrying out my 'daring' (read: stupid) plan was that the basilisk never once ate the students it harmed. This entire thing was essentially Teen-Voldemort throwing a hissy-fit and being a drama queen. He wanted the plebian populace suitably afraid before his rise to power, so a visible act, like the petrifications and the blood-written message for the 'enemies of the heir to beware,' was suitable. If I play petrified, chances were high he would send his basilisk back to avoid attracting attention and start writing on the walls, at which point it would be easy to fight him mano a mano and wreck his shit. I doubt a half-possessed child would be enough to defeat me.

"We have a hit already? How unlucky, I was hoping to roam around a bit more this evening," a feminine voice sounded. Despite the words expressing disappointment, the voice itself was emotionless, detached. I couldn't tell if it was because the person was genuinely uncaring or if tone just didn't carry over through possession. It was vaguely unsettling.

"Guess I'll get to work then," saying so, the voice started hissing, issuing commands for the basilisk in Parseltongue most probably. I heard the snake moving further away and my heart rose, it was working! And then the snake stopped moving. What? Why? Why did it stop moving? Keep going, get lost, I have an exorcism to do, a schedule to keep. Then it hit me, of course, why would he send away his biggest source of protection while he's still weak. It makes so much more sense to just keep the snake around to kill anybody who approached him while he was doing his vandalism. Fuck, I'm so stupid. Things went to shit immediately. No plan survives enemy contact, indeed.

Footsteps getting closer again. He kicks me, my clothes stiff and hard, making it seem like I'm petrified.

"First the cat and now this. Why can't things just die when I want them to? I wonder if you can hear me inside, all jammed up as you are. Hello?" he kicks my sides, twice this time, hard, "Hello?" the voice still emotionless. I'm angry at being treated this way but it's a small flame, overridden by the much stronger desire to salvage this situation and deal with the biggest thorn in my side right now.

He steps on me, walking this time, and I'm glad I petrified myself before this. My stiff muscles helping somewhat avoid getting the air driven out of my lungs from his weight and alerting him that I wasn't fully petrified.

"This is nice you know, stepping on creatures. You should try it too sometimes, if you can manage it. It gives you a real sense of power. It makes me feel like 'This is where I belong…, above the rest of the fools blessed with magic.' In that sense, I suppose you shouldn't step on other people. You can't have what's mine, after all," he singsongs, his voice still carrying that dead note to it, "no one can have what's mine." He jumps on me twice before grinding his shoes on the back of my head and stepping off. I hear cloth rustling before a metallic clang sounds out. I'm assuming he set down a bucket of chicken blood. He starts humming to an old jazz song I don't know the name of.

Presumably he's started painting by now, his humming coming from one direction and from one place. The basilisk is still behind me, its position given away by its breathing, but silent otherwise. I fear opening my eyes only to catch a stray reflection and being petrified, for real this time. My petrification spell can be easily undone, considering I was the one who cast it, but I don't know where to go from there. Attacking Tom right now would be suicide, his snake is right there. Attacking the snake is probably suicide. I'm coming to the slow realization that I'm helpless in this situation, and it grates. It grates like hell. I have all these powers, magic, and I can do nothing with it. Just sit there like a good little stool for little Miss Voldemort to step on. It's infuriating and I hate it. I just need a way to get rid of the basilisk and I can eviscerate him, I know I can. His soul's still in his teens and with Cursed Energy I can kill his Diary easy.

"Well I'm done with that, a nice little surprise for those at Hogwarts. Aren't I the best?" He says something to the basilisk, it responding by rustling and moving. "Thank you for being such a gracious listener Mr. Corpse. I commend your smarts, though I do have to wonder who you are, to have figured out it was a basilisk so quick," his voice moves further away, "Well, I'll find out tomorrow anyways, a nice little surprise for me, I suppose. I hope you have a murderous evening, goodbye." Saying so, he chuckled. He knew, he fucking knew. Shit, shit, shit. I quickly un-petrify myself and turn around eyes still closed. Its so tantalizing, one look and would know who has the Diary. But I can't risk it, Tom walked off in the direction of the snake, so if I open my eyes, I'll get a direct view of death. I can hear his irritating laughter moving further ahead. Guess I can't escape fighting a basilisk now, huh? A wry smile comes on my face. Ahh, I'm fucked. Time to survive, somehow.

My eyesight is useless, my smell is useless, my taste is useless, my sense of touch is useless, my ears are my best bet. I want to shout for help, but there's no way anyone coming here would be of any help against a basilisk. Fawkes, maybe? I quick cry for help reveals that, no, Phoenixes aren't somehow aware of random students calling their names like house-elves are. My cry seemed to signal the start of the fight, the basilisk lunging for me, my hearing letting me dodge but not fast enough to do it cleanly, my shoulder being clipped and sending me sprawling. Right, time to get serious. I flood my system with Cursed Energy, I kick off towards where the snake should be, but my distance estimate being wrong leads me to crash into the snake, my legs unprepared to brace me from the sudden floor. I stumble and get another hit to my sides.

This is pathetic, my focus is shot, I want to go after the Diary, I want to escape this fight, I want to destroy this basilisk, I want to know who the Diary holder is, a feminine voice so probably a girl, but who? I need to concentrate, concentrate. I sink deeper into the flow of the Principle of all Things, my eyes can't be used to gauge distances, speed, position, anything. But I get information of my surroundings from my other senses as well. I pay attention to my skin, the differences in pressure, the wind hitting it, the temperatures shifting. My hearing transformed to a crude form of echolocation, my touch a pressure sensor.

The snake whips its body, hitting me away, and bruising my arms and ribs, it didn't come out of it unscathed though, my arm leaving a glancing blow on its side. It screeches, outraged at being hurt at all by me. Guess it isn't Curse-resistant after all. My hearing sharpens, my nostrils flare, my skin tingles. I have all I need to win this fight. I need to believe in my capability.

I get on my feet, palms open, facing the basilisk. My Energy cuts it, so I need to capitalize on that. Blunt force trauma like punches and stomps won't do deep damage to it, I need to use the sides of my palms, like knives, and my feet as well. The snake senses the change in pace and pauses, I use the brief reprieve to kick off my shoes. I'm ready now.

The snake charges at me headfirst, I sidestep and slash its sides. It wriggles and tries to crush me by rolling over, trying to restrain my movements. I kick with my feet, jumping over its attempts, it lunges for me while I'm in the air, I rush to angle my feet to its head, the point of my feet enhanced by my Cursed Energy, slashing its sensitive nose, but my lack of momentum leading to a shallow cut. I've hurt it and avoided its fangs, but it's still moving towards me and crashes into me. Its' greater momentum and my lighter weight meaning I'm blasted further down the hallway, space between us. I cough out something watery, my ribs buzzing in familiar faux-pain. I rush back to it, but avoid charging in to attack. The pain means the basilisk is writhing, too much movement for me to accurately hit anything vital without risk of being crushed.

I wait for it to charge, vaulting over it and landing on its back, hoping to slash its neck before it rolls me off. I raise my leg high and charge it with Cursed Energy, bringing it down in a swing and severing its neck, not fully, but enough to sever its vertebrae and the spinal nerves flowing through it. The snake shrieks and bites empty air, struggling futilely to live. I go to step off its now paralyzed back half but stumble and fall off. My breath coming in pants, heavy gasps. Each breath exacerbating the buzzing of my chest.

I lean on the side of the at least 20 feet long snake, its tail still twitching and moving in whatever little impulse is still left over from my severing. I doubt its dead yet, magical things seem to have an annoying level of survivability. I avoid approaching it from the front, moving back to where I cut it to finish the job. If I die from one last lunge and getting nicked by a fang, I will rage. I go to hack at the cut I've made, my hands coated in Cursed Energy, 'chopping' it, for lack of a better word, its blood splashing onto me, and I realize belatedly that I'm lucky the basilisk doesn't have some bullshit poisonous blood that'll melt me. Still, for safety's sake I keep my mouth extra shut.

The massive blood loss as well as the loss of its body from below its head seem to have finally killed it, a keening sound coming from its mouth and I feel a little bad. The basilisk wasn't really evil, anymore than a carnivorous animal can be evil. It was just doing as it was commanded, and it died for it. I've always had a soft spot for animals and I didn't enjoy killing them even now. But what's done is done.

I open my eyes, finally feeling relatively safe after its death. I will have to assume its death gaze only works when it's alive, or that its eyes close on death. But I turn away from its head anyways. And promptly blanch at a scene that I can only call blood and gore porn. The walls are coated in streams of blood, like someone played with a super soaker filled with blood, I can make out Tom's message on the wall, its short distance from our fight meaning its mostly unblemished. I myself am quite soaked in blood, red liquid dripping from my robes and pooling by my bare feet. I look to the snake itself and find myself impressed at its size. I'm estimating it to be around 20 feet, and about thigh high, rough scales covering it, signs of our battle littering its corpse. I think back to Tom, I don't know who has the diary still, but I knew he was here and that meant I could find him. My Six Eyes can finally shine in their capabilities. I feel a giddy sensation coming from within me. I can track auras of people from their energy signatures and that means I could track Tom because he was a magical soul container actively possessing a person. Plenty of remnant magic for my Six Eyes to track. I would find and destroy him.

I unveil my eyes, the ambient magic bombarding my senses, foreign inputs too advanced for me to understand, but I pull on the Principle, leaning on it to filter through all the unwanted data, to find what I wanted. I see the lingering magical residue from the students roaming the hallways, but as I go through them, I focus on the newest ones, most of them from today afternoon. Until finally I manage to make out enough to put together the latest trace. A malevolent dark green aura, mixed with a softer 'flighty' blue aura, its darker green suppressing the intertwined one. Haha.

Got you.