The woman's rage seemed to settle into something closer to pride, "I tried to tell her, tried to win her back you know. I even found the Chamber of Secrets, the one thing she had been searching for herentire life, and do you know what she said when I told her? She laughed. Laughed in my face and called me a liar. Told me there was 'no possibility someone like you could have found it.' She treated me like an object, like something to be used when it was convenient then discarded when I was no longer wanted. Well now who's unwanted? Stripped of her precious titles, of her freedom. Now she's the one who is worth nothing."

"And those you hurt?" Harry growled, "my friends, my sisters."

She waved off his concerns, "I made sure they weren't seriously harmed or killed. You don't think the petrification was by coincidence, do you?"

"And the last target? You said, 'only one more'."

This had her pause, before glancing over at him with a sickening light in her eyes, "That is the grand finale. All the research I did throughout the year, overhearing rumors through the walls and in the bathrooms, planning every attack, every injury perfectly timed out to point to only one possible conclusion, and with you providing Snape the Basilisk information… well there really only could be one responsible. As for my finale, just imagine how devastated Grace will be when her newest toy disappears, never to be seen again. Originally, I was going to have them find your body, not petrified but lifeless. One last victim to the woman whose mind was twisted, and hate filled. Either she ends up with The Kiss, or rots away in Azkaban with the guilt that it was all her fault."

He saw her go for her Wand, but his was already out, and he had been waiting, anger building as her sick plot came to light. If he had just investigated at the start of the year, or after any of the attacks, none of this would have happened.

"Fulmen!"

His Wand lit up as the emotion pulsed in his veins, a bolt of lightning filling the room with a bright light as it burned across the expanse, striking the wide-eyed woman with lethal accuracy.

She screamed as electricity coursed through her body, causing it to spasm and spark. Her body, oddly enough, began to partially shift one body part at a time, as if the transformation was linked more to her muscles than her magic.

Still, it gave her enough time that she hissed out a command, and he didn't just hear, but felt, the shifting of stone and a much louder hiss as the Basilisk slithered from its home.

****

It was the moment he had been fearing, terrified of, and at the same time thrilled by. How many hours had the boy-who-lived put into strategizing and research, how many spells had he practiced and memorized just for that one situation?

Countless, at least in his mind, and it was because of all that preparation that he moved almost on instinct. His eyes closed, head turning away even as his Wand was raised.

Then, he brought forth the Sun.

"Ardenti Lux"

The Chamber of Secrets, once dark and mysterious was filled with a blinding, almost scorching light. Shadows were burned away, water shined in ways it never had, and a horrific screech fills the air as a creature's eyes gazed upon a star created by a mere child.

Even with his face turned, even with his eyes closed Harry had to blink a few times after the spell ended. Looking over he saw that Nagini was still rolling on the floor in agony, but now there was something large flailing about as well.

He chanced it, and his risk paid off as the two burned remains of the serpent's eyes were obvious.

Step one complete, but that certainly did not defeat the creature. It was still immensely dangerous, and he had to kill it then and there. The problem was accomplishing the task.

A flurry of thrown spells did not but splash off its skin, everything from blasting curses to elemental incantations failed to do more than bother the creature and reveal his location to its remaining senses. It lunged forward, jaws wide to try and swallow him whole.

Luckily, he had been anticipating the retaliation, and dove out of danger just in time. Still, he didn't have an answer to its defenses that didn't involve magic swords.

For a moment a thought crossed his head that perhaps the eyes were still a weak spot, but this theory was proven wrong when a handful of curses right to its face as it turned around for another pass did nothing but splash like water upon rocks.

A thousand-year-old Basilisk… even the beasts he had read about which took entire teams to were only a century or two. This was stronger, faster, more dangerous.

Frankly, he was surprised his original idea to blind it worked as well as it did.

Another attack by the Basilisk, another narrow dodge and failed retaliation and Harry began to get desperate. There was only so many times he could narrowly avoid the strikes, only so long that Nagini would be out of commission, only so long until his luck ran out.

He needed a plan or failing that a ridiculously stupid idea that might get him killed but might not. Then, one popped into his head.

It was stupid, reckless, and the chances of it backfiring were so high it could probably be classified as 'suicidal'.

Then again what other options did he have?

He fell back, as quietly as possible, so that when the next time his enemy turns there existed a larger gap between them.

Then he began to gather his magic.

He focused as much as he could, the way Riddle had mentioned during class, the way he read about in books, the way he felt while training for elemental spells. It surged into his wand, building until it was nearly visible.

When the Basilisk snapped forward, mouth open as before Harry didn't dodge. All his attention on his magic, on his Wand, and the spell that had been so ludicrously overpowered it felt almost solid.

He waited until the last moment, then threw it forward.

The boy-who-lived's plan worked. A blasting curse, perfectly aimed, shot directly into the serpent's jaw, before exploding.

Blood and organs splattered, yet the explosion was mostly contained due to the scales. What was not contained were the fangs, and Harry became aware of one that had been launched like shrapnel into his arm a moment later, earning a wince as the pain surged through his body.

"So much for the Potter luck…" he mumbled, before his legs gave out and he fell to the ground, darkness consuming him.

_____________________

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