Set Fire to Rain

I, along with Harry, Ron and Hermione, was called to speak with professor McGonagall about what had happened to the girl that had picked up the cursed necklace. I could see it in Harry’s face that he knew it was Draco. But as much as Harry was going to accuse him, I would not allow it to be pinned on Draco. And Harry’s new belief in my honesty might aid me with just that.

Professor McGonagall had just dismissed a girl when she frowned at us. “Why is it when something goes wrong, it’s always you three?” She gestured to my three companions and I glanced at them.
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing for 6 years,” Ron said honestly. It made me smile some.
“And Miss Potter.” She sounded like she was scolding me. “I’ve never had trouble from you, explain yourselves!”
“I heard the scream from the town, Professor. By the time I got to the scene Harry, Ron and Hermione were trying to help her, not sure what happened. But that necklace-“ I thrust my hand at it. “-It gave off a feeling, a rather nasty one. Advanced, at that, beyond anything any of us could manage to figure out.”
“What do you think?” McGonagall asked Snape, who levitated the necklace and examined it. He didn’t look at me, but he had to know it was Draco.
“I think,” Snape said slowly. “That Miss Bell is lucky to be alive.”
“She was cursed, wasn’t she?” Harry stated more than asked. “I know Katie of the quidditch pitch, she wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Yes, she was cursed.”
“It was Malfoy.”

I stiffened.
“That is a serious accusation, Potter.” McGonagall didn’t look convinced.
“Yes,” Snape glared. “It. And what proof do you have?”
“I don’t, it’s just a feeling.”
“A feeling?” Snape asked skeptically.
I shook my head, “There’s no way, Harry. He was meeting Blaise and I at Zonkos, but even if he wasn’t, that is far too advanced for Draco. He’s my best friend, I know what he is and isn’t capable of.”
“You’re all dismissed,” McGonagall said, as if she were very tired.
Once in the hallway Harry grabbed me, “You lied in there.”
I stared at him. “I told you, Harry. I will do anything to protect Draco.”
*

Night fell over Hogwarts. The moon was not shining, and the stars were hidden by clouds. It was the kind of night that people walked quickly down the street, always casting looks over their shoulder. It was the kind of night that things came out, that evil things happened. It was a night like this that I walked quickly in the shadows of the hallway, navigating best I could by wand light.

I paused in the middle of a hallway, looking around trying to figure out if I was standing in front of the old girls lavatory. It looked like all the other bathrooms in the school, so I wasn’t sure if this is the one that Gregory was talking about or not.

If I could have made an excuse not to meet him, I would have. But when I recalled the tone of his voice, the glint in his eyes I knew I had to fallow through. He wanted something in the chamber, he wanted it so bad that he would kill for it. But if he thought I would go in and out without a fight, he was wrong. Like bloody hell I would go into that chamber without turning on him.

I also faintly wondered if Harry was watching the map on this night. I wondered if he saw where I was going, and if we would rush here when he realized where I was going. After all, he knew exactly where the Chamber of Secrets was. He had opened it himself, a long time ago, Draco had told me.

“Reagan.”
I looked at the arch way, watching as a figure melted out of the darkness in a black cloak. Gregory stood there, eyes glowing a pale blue in the wand light. His face looked pale and shadowed. He had his arms crossed behind his back, and it made my fingers twitch to see him standing there as if he were a part of the darkness, as if it were his essence.
“Bane.”
He gestured for me to fallow. I did, walking past him without the briefest of a glance. I felt the chill of him as I went by.

We stood in what looked like a simple bathroom. I didn’t understand how this could be the entrance to anything as legend as the Chamber of Secrets. Which I reminded myself, is exactly why Salazar Slytherin would have hid the chamber here. No one would have believed that it was in a girl’s bathroom.

“Well?” Gregory asked bluntly behind me.
I turned around annoyed. “What do you mean, well? I have no bloody idea what you expect me to do.”
He approached me rapidly, looking as if he were trying to intimidate me. He didn’t. “Speak it, Potter. You must speak the words.”
“I don’t even know what to speak!”
That bastard did something I didn’t expect then. He full on slapped me across the face, knocking me back a few steps. The shock wore off immediately and I whipped my wand out, throwing a curse at him and smacking him directly in the chest, knocking him back a few steps but he had his wand out too. He didn’t fire off any curses, probably because he wanted to avoided a duel. He needed me.
“Do as I say!”
“Don’t you ever touch me again, Bane or I swear on everything I’ll kill you like I did your father.”
“Langlock.”

I felt my tongue lock to the roof of my mouth and I found it impossible to speak correctly. I was enraged as Bane smiled viciously at me. He had the advantage now. Sure, wordless magic was easy, for it was what was used in duels. But the most powerful magic, and the most important had words to them, and he knew that. He even went to the length of walking up to me and reaching his hand out, pointing at my wand. I gave it to him without hesitation. There were still things Bane didn’t know about me.

“Now, I’m going to let you speak for a moment, to open this chamber here. Anything other than parseltongue from you, and I’ll cut your tongue out.”
I nodded once and he smiled, waving his wand at me and freeing me from my bind. I moved my mouth around a little bit before glaring at him and looking at the giant sink he was staring at with greedy eyes. This giant, old sink had something to do with the chamber. I walked around it for a moment, looking at it and then deciding on the words to use.
“Sai hasha seeth.” The words came out in a hiss, sounding very much serpent like, as the language often did. There was the sound of grates moving, and I watched as the sink shifted and moved outwards, expanding and then sinking into the ground to reveal a giant hole in the ground. I frowned at it.
“You first,” Gregory said, wand pointed at me.

I jumped down the hole lithely, sliding all the way down what seemed to be a concrete pipe. It was a long way down and I finally felt my feet hit land. I stumbled forward, nearly falling but managing to catch myself before I hit the dirty ground. There were a lot of old, fragile bones down here, mostly made up of rats.

Gregory came after me, not as gracefully and tripped, falling on the ground. I couldn’t help the snort that escaped my mouth, earning a wand pointed directly in the center of my back and Gregory’s cold hand gripping my neck tightly. I had to remind myself that he had the wands. Not me.

We walked down the tunnel silently until we came to a round doorway in the wall. It had snakes made of stone on the doorway. It was old, crumbling in places here and there from the water in the damp, creepy tunnel. I opened the door with the same words that I had used on the sink above and walked through the doorway, wand still pointed at my back.

It was wet and smelled like decay in the chamber. On either side of the walk-way there were pools of dark, murky water and serpents heads with large fangs made of stone. There was a large opening platform, surrounded by deep water and in front of a large stone statue that I assumed was Salazar’s face. In the middle of the large platform a large skeleton lay, bone only. I made a face at the remains of the basilisk.

“Do you not know why I have brought you here still?” Gregory asked me, looking at me. He reached into his robes, fishing out some kind of vile. My gut clenched and I shifted. “I brought you here, because as you know, my father was head master of Durmstrang, before you killed him. He and I both renounced the claim of Death Eaters… which you killed him for. but you don’t know why we did, do you? No, you don’t…

“I’ve always had a particular affinity for magic, Reagan. Its like… magic responds to me in such a particular way. I was always especially good at potion making, and when I was finally able to make a certain concoction, when I finally figure out the secret to giving life. Well naturally I wanted weapons, weapons against the world.”
I took a step back from him, study him. His eyes glowed like a mad man in the dark, glittering with hate and evil malice. The look that they held reminded me very much of the way Voldemorts eyes glowed. He smiled at me, as if I were some kind of prey.
“Voldemort doesn’t deserve to be ruler of the world, Reagan. There are far greater wizards than Lord Voldemort.”

“I hope you don’t mean yourself,” I snapped. “The greatest wizard in the world, is Albus Dumbledore-“
“Albus Dumbledore!” Gregory bellowed. “Is going to be but a myth when I am done, and I have conquered, Reagan Potter. Voldemort will be like Grindelwald, nothing but a mere memory. And the Potter Twins, the Siblings That Lived will be long forgotten, not even a really story. I am the new Lord. I deserve to rule.”
I cackled. “You’re bloody crazy! Blimey, I knew that you weren’t the smartest git in the world, but do you really believe you could ever match Voldemort?” I walked towards him. “He knows things you couldn’t dream of, Bane, and so does Albus Dumbledore. You have nothing but a fantasy, you have no future.
He opened the vial and it was then I saw what he was doing. He wanted that basilisk alive. “No!” I screamed, throwing out my hands and giving away the last secret I had from Gregory. Wandless magic.

Gregory stumbled backwards, dropping the vial, shattering the dark black liquid. It would have been a momentous victory, if he hadn’t dropped it right on the skeleton. I watched as the liquid touched the bone, making it glow white and spread rapidly over the aged bone. Material began to cover it, and I realize skin began to grow rapidly over the 60 foot snake.
Gregory was already up and moving by then, raising his wand at me. Mine lay a few feet away from him on the floor. I had no time to grab it. But just when I thought I would see the green jets of light hit me and end my life, Gregory was thrown off his feet the other way. I snapped my neck towards the entrance as Draco and Blaise came storming in, Crabbe and Goyle right behind them.

“Bane! Draco hollered. “You hadn’t mentioned how good you were with potions? Practice at home on your little toy chemistry set, did you?”
Gregory stood up, laughing. “Malfoy, always at the rescue but never able to bring just himself. I must say, this is quite the unfair match!”
“Accio,” Crabbe said, catching my wand in his hands and tossing it to me.
“Well,” Gregory sighed as if he were disappointed. “I suppose we can have to duel we’ve been craving for a while, more numbers or not.”

Mayhem broke out with curses flying everywhere. Regardless that there were more of us than Gregory, he was right when he said he had a way with magic. Blast of fiend fyre spread between him and us, but he wasn’t my worry at the moment, for there was a much larger problem. The basilisk on the floor began to twitched and finally it’s heavy head began to lift off the ground.
“Don’t look!” I screamed as it raised to it’s full height, surely blinking it’s lethal, yellow eyes. “If you look at it’s eyes, it’ll kill you!”
“How are we supposed to fight what we can’t see?” Goyle hollered, fending off curses from Gregory.
“Leave it to me,” I growled.
“Hath se hanas, sas an a las!” I yelled at the basilisk, only allowing myself to look at it’s body. From the way it moved, it straightened and looked at me. “Si a has sieth! Si a has saheith!”

The snake bellow and turned away from me, shrieking so loudly that I had to cover my ears from the sound. The snake slithered into the flames right at Gregory, who had no idea what he had just give life to. Whether he actually thought he could control the creature, was insane. Gregory’s horrifying scream confirmed that he had no hold of the creature, but the flames kept billowing after their creators death. The snake rose up again and I pointed my wand at it, shouting, “Fiend fyre!”

The poisonous and insidious fire shot from my wand at the creature, making it scream again. I grabbed Draco’s arm and began running, trying to get away from the fire. The fire would eventually die out, but not before killing us. We ran from the fire as it twisted into a creature, some sort of lion and came after us.

We barely made it out of the chamber and up the tunnel in time. The entrance to the chamber shut with a final bang, as we all stood there, breathing hard and trying to catch our breath. I turned around sharply, looking at Draco.

“Are you bloody mad? You could have gotten yourself killed, coming after me like that! What on earth were you thinking? I should kill you, where you stand you-“

I was cut off by Draco walking up to me and grabbing me, and doing something I would have never expected in my entire life. He grabbed my face gently and brought his lips down to mine, brushing mine only softly at first, but then firmly. The kiss was short and sweet, but left me wanted to collapse on my knees. He had completely taken my breath away, every ounce of it. He had suddenly made me feel as if for a moment, we hadn’t almost been killed. It was like for a moment everything was light, and the minute his lips were off of mine, it was dark again.

“You are the most stubborn, hard-headed, evil, cruel, amazing, intelligent, beautiful witch, I have ever met in my life, Reagan Lea Potter, and your asking me why I came after you? As if I would ever let the one thing that made me feel, that stood beside me, that understood me, out of my life? I’ve never dared to tell someone that before, Reagan Lea Potter, but I would tell it to you over and over again, every day. I love you.”