The tryouts were held on Saturday and we were able to get a decent Chaser and a couple of other players who were assigned to reserve.
The days seemed to meld into each other, not because they were fun but because of the workload I had.
I could have handled just school work but I had to keep up with school work and also level up my stats. It was exhausting.
We had resumed on a Wednesday, 1st September, so the two-week mark of my stay in Hogwarts just passed yesterday.
It was another Thursday, one of my worst days of the week.
I had Transfiguration today.
After breakfast I made my way down to the dungeons, as usual, we had had enough classes with each other that Hazel and Witter were now acquaintances of mine.
Well, just Hazel. Witter still hated my guts.
Potions class started up without preamble.
"Today we will discuss and prepare an Everlasting Elixir. As the name suggests, these potions never run out." Professor Slughorn spoke to the rest of the class.
Halfway into the class, someone came stumbling in, attracting the attention of everyone seated.
It was that one girl among the three girls that hadn't believed her friend's tale about the Basilisk. I think her name was… Jolene?
She walked like there was something wrong with her legs, her skin was pale and her eyes were wide with horror like she had seen a monster.
I was really impressed that she had managed to make it all the way to the class.
"Jolene? What is…" Before Professor Slughorn could ask her what happened, curdling screams rang out in the castle.
The entire class hurried to their feet, ignoring Professor Slughorn.
Jolene's friends rushed forward to catch her because she almost fell forward.
"J-Jo? What ha-happened?" Nellie was the one to ask, near tears.
Jolene's voice was faint but her response was loud enough. "Ba-Basilisk…"
The entire class got thrown into an uproar, it didn't help that the screaming outside only got louder.
The bell started to ring too, dishing out announcements to the students.
"Students are to head to the Great Hall immediately! Teachers and Prefects are to offer their assistance!"
The announcement was enough to send chills through everyone's bones.
"Alright! Children, come with me…" Professor Slughorn immediately took charge of the class.
I wasn't about to follow quietly though, this was probably a dumb move to take but I had to check the issue out.
This could be a way to level up and also gain SP, I wasn't letting it pass by me so easily.
In the commotion that ensued as everyone tried to keep as close as possible to Professor Slughorn, I slipped out of the class.
I headed for the stairs that led out of the dungeons, only to hear steps behind me.
"Hazel? What… Why did you follow me?" I asked in disbelief when I found her behind me.
Behind her, Witter stepped out from behind a pillar. "I'd like to know why too."
Now, this I expected, if Hazel was going anywhere, Witter couldn't be far behind.
"West?!!" Hazel exclaimed, thoroughly caught by surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, you're both here now," I mutter dryly. "Witter, take her to the Great Hall." I decided, already making a move to continue my journey.
Witter looked pleased by this suggestion but Hazel wasn't having it.
"What about you?"
Before I could reply, a loud scream came from down the Dungeon corridor.
We all shared a look, then I started off in that direction. I expected Hazel to try and stop me, what I did not see coming was her trying to analyze the situation.
"Something isn't adding up." She started to talk rapid fire as we all cautiously made our way down the corridor. "If students are seeing a Basilisk, they aren't supposed to be able to scream…"
"How about how impossible it is to have even one Basilisk, not to talk about the supposed hundreds running rampant through Hogwarts." Witter quipped, still grouchy.
"It has to be something else then?" I spoke up.
"Or someone else making people see things that aren't there…"
We got to the point where we had heard the scream so we all fell quiet, moving silently.
There was a bend but we couldn't just go marching forward when there was a potentially dangerous thing just ahead of us.
"Anyone's got a mirror on them?" I whispered quickly, reflexively looking at Hazel.
She raised both her hands silently, shaking her head to indicate that she didn't have one.
A brief moment of quiet rustling later and a mirror got pushed into my hand.
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I shot Witter a look, he looked down to avoid me.
I sneakily put out the mirror and took a peek, then in the next moment, I was running forward.
"Audri…" Hazel panicked but then fell quiet at the scene in front of us.
There was a student lying down on the ground out cold, they looked to be in Hufflepuff and their complexion wasn't very encouraging.
But that wasn't what stunned us into silence. The reason I ran forward so abruptly was because there was a Professor standing right beside him.
Professor Esme.
She stood stiffly, gripping her wand in both hands and staring at us with wide guilty eyes.
"Professor Esme?" Hazel was the one to break the tense silence between us.
Professor Esme seemed to snap out of it, she turned around and tore down the hallway, her robe billowing behind her.
Even after she went out of sight we could still hear the echo of her clacking heels.
We all watched wide-eyed, unable to do anything.
"What the fuck?" I muttered, still staring in the direction that she had run in.
"Shouldn't we have gone after her or something?" Witter spoke up, his green eyes were dark.
The student on the ground groaned, attracting our attention.
Hazel immediately dropped to the ground beside them. "Hey, can you hear me?" She asked gently.
The boy slowly opened his eyes, confusion dancing in them for a brief moment before realization hit and with it came horror.
He shot upright so violently that Witter immediately pulled Hazel behind him but the student wasn't violent, if anything, he stiffened.
His eyes were wide with horror as he stared into space like he saw something that no one else was seeing.
"Ba-Basilisk…" He stammered out the same thing that Jolene had said, passing out in a dead faint again.
'What the hell is going on?'
The announcements were still being repeated, the bells were ringing and there was screaming and shouting. It made the perfect scene for a horror movie.
"We can't leave him here but we've got to keep moving." I expressed my worries.
I wasn't planning on playing hero but I wasn't about to actively murder innocent people either.
Witter also had a grim expression, it was clear that he also didn't like our options. "We'll have to take him with us then."
Witter and I supported the passed out student as we doubled back to where we were before.
Most of the ruckus was coming from the first floor above us which was not a surprise in all honesty.
At the end of the stairs, we ran into a Ravenclaw Prefect that looked appalled to see us.
I just dragged the Hufflepuff student and dropped him on the Prefect. "Please take him to Madam Pomfrey." I tossed at the Prefect, hurtling up the stairs after Hazel and Witter who were smart enough to already be on the move.
"Wait! Don't go running around, it's dangerous…"
We ignored the Prefect's shouts, heading to the first-floor girls' bathroom first thing.
That was where this entire thing had sprouted from, if we wanted to figure out what was going on, we had to start from there.
Other than running students, we fortunately didn't come across anything dangerous or strange.
At least, till we got to the corridor that led to the first-floor girls' bathroom.
There right in the hallway was a Basilisk in real life, it had its back to us and seemed to be terrorizing someone on the other side because we could hear their horrifying screams.
We all froze in place, unable to move a step.
Behind us, Hazel suddenly exploded. "I've figured it out!" She exclaimed, pulling out her wand.
"Riddikulus!" She chanted, pointing her wand at the enormous green snake.
The Basilisk vanished and was replaced by a dog-sized spider.
Hazel's voice was less sure this time but she didn't falter. "Riddikulus!" She shouted again, louder this time and the spider danced a jig before vanishing.
Across from us, there was another pale-complexioned student on the ground, passed out.
Witter and I turned to look at Hazel who was slightly panting, her hand gripping her wand so tightly that it turned white.
"So…"
I trailed off, breaking the silence when nobody seemed to be interested in doing it.
"It's Boggarts?"