3,160Chapter 63: Head of the Snake
Friday, 1st September 1995.
Hermione chuckled at Luna's comment as she stepped out onto the western platform, almost directly underneath the arched footbridge between the two platforms.
They had all taken a few minutes to gather their things when the train had arrived, allowing the other students to beat them off the train. Better than trying to muscle their way out through the overly eager crowd in the initial pour of bodies through the narrow corridors and limited doorways. This meant that the platform was already fairly full with teens who had been unable to locate one another on the journey catching up as they waited to cross the footbridge over the scarlet carriages to the eastern platform and the waiting Thestral-led carriages that would carry them all up to the school.
It was far busier than the only other time that she and Harry had ridden the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade back at Christmas. Most of the school had remained behind due to the Yule Ball, so the train and platform had been fairly empty. Another significant difference was Hagrid's looming figure at the platform's northern end, towering over the small first-year students. Towering over the seventh-year students too, despite the fact they were standing on the platform and he was on the flat section of ground that led to the nearby gateway exit from the station.
His booming voice summoned the wee ones forward and Hermione was tempted to join them.
There had been considerable debate held over the past few weeks, as there always was at the Potter home, about whether she and Harry would be returning to Hogwarts this term. They had successfully completed their OWL exams at the end of the previous term, and she was mostly happy with her grades across all subjects. Technically, passing grades at OWL level was all that was required to gain employment in most of the magical world. Although, neither she nor Harry were the type to settle for technically prepared for something.
They already had their work with the goblins. A task which they had proven so accomplished that their delving party was having to search further and wider for new pockets of Dementors for them to ferret out and destroy. They had already cleared a large buffer around London to the west in the direction of Wales. However, those tunnels were far less used by the goblins these days and thus had proven less appealing to the fleeing Dementors. Which left them with large periods of downtime that could be better used to study for the NEWT classes they wished to take.
It also meant that they would be sharing some classes with Nym. A chance that none of the three could pass up. While the elder girl was likely at the far end of the platform, down by the rearmost carriages where her other friends had been grouped during the trip, Hermione was very much looking forward to studying together with Nym on classes directly for the first time, rather than due to her habit of reading well ahead of her current studies.
However, Hermione and Harry had missed the rite of passage that the first-year students were preparing to go through. Riding the boats from the concealed dock just down the hill out onto the wide loch below. Sure, it wouldn't have quite the same wow factor for them as for the younger students, having already spent months inside the castle across the loch. But it would still be interesting to do. Perhaps for a date later in the year, she thought.
But as much as Hermione still had a lot she wanted to experience in and around the castle, the main reason for the two of them deciding to return to Hogwarts had been the friends gathered around them now. Neither of them had clicked well with their peers in primary school. Unlike the people beside her chattering away about what they wanted to eat at tonight's feast.
The nonsense with Riddle had somewhat sullied an otherwise wonderful summer holiday. The few times that they had spent with their new friends had been enjoyable, but the interspersed trips to the Ministry and the destruction of soul anchors had left a sour taste on some of the memories.
The trip they had just completed had certainly helped to wash away a lot of the bad taste.
Sitting with friends, people popping in and out to say hello, several different magical games with crazy new approaches by some of the players. Hermione loved playing those games with the Family, but the way that Luna approached some of the tasks involved in the games had turned them into an entirely new experience.
And here in the open air, the atmosphere of the students as they mulled about the station platform was almost electric. The few people that had not yet caught up running into one another out in the open was a sight to see, and Hermione was very glad that they had decided to make the trip.
Right until she heard a sinister whisper coming from the western slope beyond the tall stone wall nearby.
Her eyes immediately flicked to Harry's and she could see the fear in them mirroring her own. They had heard that sound before, during their trip to Peru last year to learn more about Kitty's form from the local tribes in the thick jungles. Upon hearing of their intended travel plans, Mr Scamander had suggested that they make some time to visit a reserve in the south of the country where they had been introduced to, what was supposed to be, the only domesticated basilisk on Earth.
Harry's skill of talking to snakes had allowed him to speak with the creature, and the large snake affectionately known as Blinky due to her need to speak with her eyes closed had a very unique timbre to its hissing. No other snake Hermione had ever heard sounded anything close to the sound a basilisk produced. And she could hear the same timbre in the whispering that now approached them from below.
"EVERYONE BACK ON THE TRAIN!" Harry shouted, startling everyone around him.
Hermione could see a few of the first years were shocked to tears by the sudden shout so close to them as they had been gathering near Hagrid at the end of the platform. The stairway leading down that very same hill to the loch being the most likely avenue for the danger to be approaching.
"Hagrid, get them inside the train." She said, rushing over to the large man. "Something awful is coming."
Hermione flicked her arm, wand appearing as she moved and the doors on the front two carriages opened. Normally, they were locked during this part of the trip, given the platform on this side dropped away earlier than the one on the eastern side as it met the gate and stairs down. Sets of stairs appeared out of thin air, to allow the students to climb up and into the train once more.
Another push of her magic had the windows of the carriages darken one after another until they were completely black. Not allowing any passage of light or the vision of a hunting basilisk. The spell continued to move slowly down the length of the entire train.
Hagrid seemed to stare at her dumbfounded for a moment as she turned back to him. For a moment, Hermione was unsure if he was going to heed her words. The huge man seemed to steel himself for a moment before a long thin wand was pulled free from his massive brown coat and the man stood even taller than usual, yet still bore that ineffable kindness for which the massive man was known.
"Alright now you lot, you heard the girlie. Back into the carriages." Hagrid said happily as if there was nothing at all wrong. An approach that seemed to work on quieting the nerves of several of the small children gathered around him. "It'll only be a moment and we'll have yer up to the castle now."
His black eyes fixed on her as he corralled the nervous firsties past her and Hermione knew a demand for further explanation would be coming soon.
"What do you mean by telling us all what to do, Potter?" A nasal voice said, pushing its way forward through the crowded students on this side of the train.
Hermione turned to see Harry staring at a pug-nosed girl in Slytherin robes, a girl who, despite being in their same year, they had not spent much time near at all. This one had preferred to spend her time hanging around with Draco and his thug friends who now bookended the girl instead.
Harry swept his hand through the air and his wand appeared in his grip. Hermione didn't need to see his face to know the intensity of the stare he had fixed the girl with.
"Get on the train." He said normally, with no hint of threat or anger. "There is a basilisk coming."
The stunned shock was equalled by sudden fear on the faces of the students around him as word rapidly spread across the platform.
"Everyone inside, now! Black out the windows on the carriages from the inside too." Harry reiterated, his voice louder now. "Hurry up, people!"
"Potter! What is the meaning of this?" The driver said, coming at him from the stationary locomotive next to where Hagrid had been gathering the first years.
"Alert everyone. Someone has set a basilisk loose." Harry replied, whispering into the tip of his wand before swinging it through the air and casting two spells.
The first came out when it was parallel to the ground, his patronus, shooting directly west over the loch at high speed before the silvery dart was visually blocked by the second spell he had cast up into the air. A large dome of blackness descended around the entire station.
"This won't work if it gets inside, but it should keep anyone from accidentally catching sight of it for the moment," Harry explained, the now frantic children around him rushing back into the nearby train. Only the many lights along the platform and train allowed them to see where they were going.
Hermione knew that some present still didn't believe them. She probably wouldn't if her bond with Harry hadn't allowed her to hear the hissing at this distance. And it was growing ever closer. She was beginning to make out the words.
~Rip. Tear. Kill.~
The basilisk was out here to murder students. Anger slowly surpassed fear in her body. She turned to the group of stunned friends that they had been chatting away with only moments before to see they had all drawn their wands as well.
"You as well. Back on the train."
"We want to help," Luna said instantly, a fierce look of determination on her face.
"Then help keep everyone inside. Make sure the windows are blacked out from the inside. Basilisks are extremely venomous, but they also kill with a glance. Make sure no one is stupid enough to peek." Harry said, coming up behind the group.
He fired off another patronus message, this one south towards the Ministry and Hermione knew it was headed for the Ministry. Evidently, Kitty had already delivered the message to those in the castle and was now ready to rocket south for additional help.
The station was the worst possible place to fight with such a dangerous creature. The terrain favoured the snake as it worked up through the tree-covered slope from the loch, the many trees planted to block the view of the castle, to help maintain that magical first glance provided ample natural cover from above. The steep hill and cliffs on the other side of the station buildings gave them nowhere to run either. North up the train line only led to a tunnel and the turnaround point by the nearby village in one direction and the tall narrow bridge to the south. Neither were places they wanted to be trapped by a basilisk.
Several of their friends looked as if they wanted to argue the point.
"Please," Harry said. "I need to know you're all safe. Trust me."
Luna shot forward and gave Harry a firm hug, before glomping onto Hermione as well. "You be safe." She said, before turning and ducking into the train.
"All of you, please," Hermione added, nodding towards the train as she prepared to send off a patronus message of her own. "Attack at Hogsmeade station. Basilisk. Come quickly, and carefully from the east." She whispered into her wandtip, flicking the spell off towards the pocket in which the Manor resided. Hopefully, most of the Family were together there at the moment.
The hissing was even closer now. It must have come out of the waters of the loch, and they had heard it first as it breached the waters below for it to have taken this long to crest the hill. Still, they probably had only moments before the creature was at the edge of the hill.
"Hogwarts elves, to me," Harry said firmly, summoning the nearby castle's force of elves.
Hermione watched as the force arrayed themselves along the platform, managing to avoid any of the still frantic children rushing back into the train or over the footbridge to the far side. The elves fixed immediately on Harry, all draped in their Hogwarts-stamped towels. He clenched his eyes tightly and raised both hands, his wand disappearing as he cast a massive conjuration spell using his elf magic.
Hundreds of dark glasses appeared in the air in front of the elves and they instinctively reached out and grabbed them. Hermione immediately recognized them as the kind used by Blinky's owner. They block a person's natural sight while worn, but provide almost a wireframe look of the world around you. It was all well and good trusting that Blinky would keep her eyes closed when people were around, but Cesar did not take chances. And the man had been more than happy to teach the magic to a fellow parselmouth, should he ever find a need to use it. None of them had expected to need it at a school.
"Put those on. Keep everyone on the train or inside the buildings. If they resist, hold them in place magically, knock them out, whatever it takes." Harry instructed, nodding at the train. "Do not let any of them off that train. Or look out the windows."
The elves all nodded their acceptance of the order and climbed aboard along the entire train. Normally, some of them would have been dispatched to collect the baggage and ferry it up to the school during the feast. Now they were helping to defend the entire train against a dangerous magical beast.
"Where are they all?" Hermione asked aloud as the two of them were finally the only ones left out in the open, at least on this side of the train.
"I can feel them coming. But not fast enough." Harry said, handing her a set of the same glasses he had just made for the elves.
"Are you ok?" She asked.
Hermione could feel how much energy that conjuration had taken out of him. He was still ready to go, but she couldn't help but voice her concern.
"I'll be alright. I've got you by my side." He said a cheeky smile on his face.
Hermione caressed his face softly and channelled a portion of her magic directly into his body, helping to replenish what he had expended. Harry smiled and pressed into her hand, clearly relishing the feeling as he usually did.
When he opened his eyes again, she could feel his magic searching the platform for something, and it reminded her of Harry's cousin once more. "Nym's in the second last carriage. She'll keep that lot under control."
They were both worried for the elder girl. She had not been present for the trip to Peru, spending her holiday with her own parents that year. She had no experience with a creature like a basilisk, and so had clearly decided to work crowd control rather than stepping outside and trying to help the fight directly. A decision well suited to her new role as the school's Head Girl. A welcome surprise to the entire family.
~Master is so kind. So many to eat. We shall feast tonight.~ The hissing voice sounded, and Hermione flicked her gaze southward.
"It's coming from the southwest. There is a path down there." She explained.
"The footbridge. Get a higher vantage point." Harry suggested, pulling away from her hand and quickly darting up the nearby stairs until they were both kneeling behind the railing of the footbridge.
Hermione was momentarily distracted from the approaching danger as she spied several people still mulling about on the eastern platform. She swept her wand over the buildings on the far side and all of the windows blackened as well.
"Get inside, NOW!" She yelled at the figures, mostly students, but a few seemed to be the confused folks who ran the station. "The basilisk is here!"
With that, she ducked down and focused to the south.
~So hungry… for so long.~ The voice said, slithering out from the dirt path at the far southwest end of the platform.
Hermione could now see the outline of the snake in her glasses and her heart froze for a moment.
Blinky was about sixty years old. Cesar had birthed her in his youth after successfully petitioning the ICW for authorisation to breed such a creature. He had then spent decades training her to behave. She was now about twenty-five feet long, which was considered massive for a basilisk, as most did not live long enough to grow to such a size. Most were birthed by dark wizards seeking an edge against their enemies, and as such they tended to die before reaching the age of ten.
Yet, comparing the now visible head of this creature to Blinky, Hermione estimated this one to be at least three times the size. It still retained the typical slender body that stretched off down the hill, she knew not how far.
"Ideas?" She whispered, stunned at the size of the beast before them. The last time they had tangled with a snake controlled by Riddle, it had been extremely resistant to their magic. And that had been a normal snake. Basilisks were naturally resistant themselves. With only the mouths and eyes being considered 'weak' points in their natural scaly hides.
"We should…" Harry trailed off as the snake suddenly rocketed forward, spreading its massive jaw wide and biting down hard into the rearmost carriage of the train.
Screams could be heard coming from the entire train as the powerful snake nearly derailed it with its first strike.
They could now clearly see much more of the massive beast, over twenty feet of coiled muscled body, and yet, the basilisk continued far out of sight.
"No idea, but we need to get it off the train." Harry snapped his wand at the snake and a thick bolt of magic roared at its side exploding powerfully against the resilient hide.
The basilisk roared as it was knocked free from the train, the rear carriage dislodging from the tracks as it was lifted in the air and dropped by the recoiling beast. Hermione got a good look at its head as it shook itself free of the stunning effect of the explosion. There was no red crown visible, meaning that they were dealing with a female. It did not take her long to shake off the attack and she immediately turned her gaze on the footbridge.
~Enemies…~ The voice almost sounded pleased.
She stared at them for several tense moments clearly thinking that her gaze would kill the pests that had dared to challenge her.
~Hungry.~
The snake lunged forward, but Harry and Hermione cast in unison, both blasting the creature further down the tracks and away from the train full of terrified children.
Not wasting time moving on foot, they both popped to the ends of the platform, Harry on the west and Hermione on the east. Hermione glanced over her shoulder as the snake rolled and righted itself against the train tracks, all of those who had been out on the platform had now gotten to cover.
She focused forward and cast a powerful blasting curse where the basilisk's head was now perched, but she ducked quickly to the side. However, this basilisk had never dealt with anyone who worked together as well as Harry and Hermione did, and it dodged directly into the line of Harry's spell, which exploded against her neck and tossed her against the nearby rock wall.
The basilisk hissed and spat at them and Hermione waved her wand, vanishing the approaching venom that had been cast up into the air at the movement.
Basilisks were XXXXX rated for very good reasons. Their natural strength was already enough to kill a magical if caught unawares. But add in their death stare and the potency of their venom, and there was no question why they were usually banned from even being born. Thankfully, they were sterile and could only be born by hatching the chicken egg underneath a toad.
The sounds of apparition came from the pathway behind the buildings to Hermione's left and she smiled. Reinforcements had finally arrived.
Harry perked up, even though he would have been too far to hear the sounds clearly, but she knew he had detected the magic. He fired off a quick chain of spells that the basilisk danced to avoid, but a few still found their target, battering the enormous snake further against the rocks.
"Need some help there, lassy," Moody said, as he clomped into the station from behind and Hermione was glad to have the help. While they had been lucky so far, she was not afraid to admit that this basilisk was likely too much for her and Harry to handle alone.
Spells began to pour out from the nearby pathway as the other professors advanced up the path. They pushed forth, all with blindfolds covering their eyes as they moved. Hermione could feel the supersensory charms they had cast and were using to guide them without the aid of their sight.
Sensing the increased danger, the basilisk turned away from the advancing attackers and coiled down, her full body becoming visible at last as she pulled it up underneath her head. With a mighty lurch, the powerful snake shot up into the air and all sixty-some feet of it were visible as it launched up onto the rock wall to the east of the tracks, quickly lifting its tail out of sight as well.
It gave an unintelligible hiss down at them all as she slid into place atop the rocks.
~Calm down.~ Harry said, advancing now that they had additional wands to hand. ~We don't mean you harm if you are willing to simply leave.~
~Nice try, speaker.~ The basilisk replied. ~But Evandra only obeys the bloodline.~
~That bloodline will end soon. I'd rather not have to kill you too.~ Harry replied and Hermione knew he meant it. As dangerous as Evandra was, Harry hated killing anything if it wasn't necessary. Killing Nagini had bothered him for weeks.
~Evandra will kill you now, and eat your boastful corpse.~
Harry quickly fired up another blasting curse which caught the snapping basilisk as she lunged at him, using her ample body atop the rocks as a base to snap and swipe with her deadly teeth.
Several of the professors had to dive out of the way, the supersensory charm not being powerful enough to give them the kind of time actual vision allowed.
The only one who was keeping up with her and Harry was Professor Moody, and Hermione noticed that he was not wearing a blindfold, but only an eye patch over his one normal eye. It seemed that his magical eye allowed him to behold a basilisk directly without any risk from the deadly gaze.
As she and Harry battered the deadly snake, keeping it from landing any blows on the professors, Moody wound a powerful spell up in the air next to her. Channelling the magic between his wand tip and his open hand, so much so that a ball of distorted air became visible to her.
With a deep grunt, he launched the formed magic up at the snake. "Down!" He yelled as the magic left his grip and hammered hard into the rock wall, cracking the stone and launching the giant basilisk up into the air.
Hermione quickly knocked the debris aside, keeping it from hitting any of the professors while Harry took the opportunity to claw at the snake's softer underbelly, battering it in the air as it twisted about looking for purchase. Evandra landed heavily on the small rock fence between the train tracks and the dirt footpath that ran alongside the tracks, shattering the stonework as her tail flopped off the side of the nearby cliff.
She was now almost on top of the bridge that the train had crossed over as it arrived at the station. A very tall and narrow length of stone, Hermione considered how it might serve them.
"Push her back onto the bridge." She said, jumping down from the platform and rejoining Harry as the two gathered with the professors and the freshly arrived Sirius and Remus. They too were wearing blindfolds and took up positions beside her and Harry as they all advanced on the angry basilisk.
"You two should…" Sirius began, trying his usual to convince them to remain out of danger.
"Shut it and push her back," Harry growled.
Even Hermione was a little taken back by the force with which he had said it. She knew that he would not retreat while his friends, and now family, were in danger from this creature.
"Fine," Sirius grumbled, pushing forward as the twenty-something magicals drove the snarling and snapping basilisk further away from the station and the train full of innocent students.
For every few feet that they pushed her back, Evandra would lunge forward again, attempting to snap and bite one of those arrayed against her. Several of the lunges came close to hitting, and Evandra even knocked a few of the professors off of their feet with her head as she retreated for another strike.
But the front of the assault remained Hermione, Harry and Moody. They were by far the most properly aware of what was going on. The glasses allowed them a measure of sight compared to the others who were relying entirely on the supersensory charm. If they had more than a moment between each of Evandra's powerful strikes, Hermione would have conjured the professors glasses of their own, but they would have to remove the blindfolds to put them on, and none of them were stupid enough to do so in the face of a now very pissed off basilisk.
A sudden whirl of flame appeared in the air in front of her and Hermione sent the spell she had been preparing wide of the new figure that remained in its wake. Dumbledore had finally joined the effort, though he had not come via apparition.
The large swan-shaped bird that had been on his shoulder immediately took flight and began to harass Evandra as well. The massive snake was now completely livid as she snapped at the nuisance flapping around her head.
Dumbledore channelled a huge amount of magic into his hands, similar to what Moody had done back on the platform and he swept his wand from right to left. Hermione felt the pull of the magic as it picked up Evandra and battered her hard against the broken rockface to the left.
Evandra screamed a high-pitched wail of pain before she was knocked back by the power of the incredible spell that Dumbledore had unleashed. But it left the old man obviously drained as he swayed in place and then dropped to his knee, panting heavily.
Harry and Hermione converged in front of the Headmaster, using his attack to press the advantage and battering Evandra further and further down the stone channel atop the large bridge. Evandra's scaled body slid easily along the metal train tracks, sliding far further than would have been expected of scales on stone. Soon, she was almost a hundred and fifty metres from the station, blocked from her prey by at least a dozen professors and Harry's nearest and dearest.
Hermione could now feel that a few of the professors had ducked out of the fight and returned to the train. She assumed they would be looking at the damage made by Evandra on her first strike and ensuring that no one inside had been in contact with the viscous venom that would be dripping from the gouges in the carriage.
~Last chance to call this off and leave.~ Harry hissed at Evandra in parseltongue once more.
~Never!~ Evandra hissed back, and she slipped the end of her long tail over the edge of the bridge.
Hermione wondered if the massive snake was actually intending to flee, faced with such long odds against so many. However, the tail reappeared over the far side of the bridge and it clicked what the animal was doing.
"DOWN!" She yelled as it reared up high and hissed, spitting her corrosive venom at them before following with a powerful strike forward.
Evandra was using the bridge as a base, her powerfully muscled length wrapped partially around the stone allowing her to lunge with even more ferocity and accuracy. Hermione had to knock two of the professors to her left aside as she dove into Harry on her right, barely missing the lunge by a hair.
She could feel a sharp pain in her side as Evandra's rough scales scratched against her body as the snake pulled back, sweeping her body right as she moved and dragging her weight over all of them.
As Hermione righted herself in the absence of the retreating snake, she noticed that Evandra was not returning to the bridge alone. There was a figure clasped in her mouth, dangling as she pulled back, one leg in the dangerous maw.
The snake whipped the figure back and forth and Hermione was unable to figure out exactly who Evandra had grabbed with her minimalist view through the glasses. All she knew was that it was not Harry, as she could still feel his magic beside her.
"Hit her in the neck with me." He said, not bothering to stand as they both lined up a shot at the retreating basilisk.
Together they fired off their blasting curses and they both hit almost the same point on the rising scaled surface. They both fired off a second spell immediately after the first, just aimed a little higher. As the blasting curses caused Evandra to howl in pain and open her mouth, the two summoning charms yanked the dangling figure free of the lethal teeth and their body roared back in the direction of the station.
Hermione prayed that the professors would be able to treat whoever that had been, but they needed to press forward now, before Evandra repositioned herself for another sweep like that.
Regaining her feet, Hermione was knocked briefly aside as another figure pushed past her and Harry, battering Evandra with a renewed assault of powerful blasts. Each one knocked her back and up, higher into the air with each attack. A few of the other professors had also gained their feet and were moving forward on the left and right, but the combined assault was not enough to tame the rampant beast with her solid grip on the bridge.
Evandra lunged again, sweeping her head in between the centre figure and those to Hermione's left. The basilisk did not bite this time, only swinging her head hard and bashing those professors hard into the stone wall that they had battered her against just before. With a whip of her neck, the massive snake's head collected those to the right and battered them up and into the air, knocking several of them down the steep hill leading to the loch and ravine.
Only the centre figure had managed to duck the attack.
Harry growled at the snake and pushed forward, a flurry of powerful spells leaving his rowan wand. Hermione gripped the elder in her own hand tighter and matched his casting, pushing back at the retreating snake.
They needed to end this battle, and fast. With a firm base to attack from, Evandra was more than holding her own against their force. And as yet, there had been no Ministry reinforcements arriving. It was going to fall to them to finish this fight.
As the pair moved past the downed figure in the centre, Hermione realized that it was Dumbledore. He must have recovered from his powerful arrival and pushed forward while the rest of them had been knocked down by Evandra's first sweep. But whatever he had done to avoid the second strike seemed to have left him holding his left leg in pain.
"Professor," Harry grimaced as they passed him. "Push her back and up again. I've got an idea."
Dumbledore nodded and lifted his wand, casting powerful battering and blasting curses one after another at the planted snake.
Each one hit hard and Harry and Hermione copied the attacks, battering Evandra up higher into the air, stretching her body upwards.
Harry briefly locked eyes with Hermione and even through the reduced visibility of the glasses, she could sense what he intended. It would be dangerous, and difficult. She had achieved the spell a few times, but this was something far larger and much more dangerous than a few Death Eaters.
With a nod, they both cast another three rapid spells up at the snake and popped away from the front of the bridge.
They reappeared in two of the tiny notches that repeated every so often along the bridge, Hermione on the east and Harry on the west, slightly recessed from the rest of the open channel through which the train usually passed. They were now on either side of the basilisk, Evandra's form towering dozens of feet above them in the air, though still several feet further down the train line as well.
Dumbledore's solitary attacks were no longer enough to subdue the massive beast and Evandra pulled back and down, preparing to strike at the lone figure now prone on the ground in front of her. Hermione could have sworn that Evandra almost smiled as she looked down at Dumbledore's body.
The moment she moved, Harry yelled. "NOW!"
Hermione pulled her magic inside her body and channelled the familiar feeling into her right hand, sending it furiously into the elder wood in her fingers. The flame whip spawned as it had several times before, but she swept the spell upwards as the basilisk lunged down and the extending magic wrapped quickly around the snake's head making Evandra pause in her attack as she felt the heat of the spell wind around her throat.
That pause helped Hermione's action as the long thin tendril of flames wrapped twice around the thick trunk of muscle and Harry reached out with his rowan wand and collected the tip of the spell. Hermione immediately felt the intense flow of magic they usually shared now running directly through the powerful spell itself.
Evandra seemed to realize she was trapped and she began to thrash in their grip. Hermione grimaced as she struggled to maintain the spell against the massive creature struggling ferociously to get free. Nothing had ever been as exhausting to her as physically and magically trying to hold on as a giant length of muscle whipped back and forth, up and down, trying its hardest to free herself from the burning whip around its throat. Hermione's arms screamed at her as she held tight to her wand with both hands, hoping that the elder would hold firm for long enough.
~Release me, filth!~ Evandra spat. Copious amounts of her venom flew out of her wide mouth as she snapped back and forth. ~My master will kill you for this insolence.~
"Don't let go," Harry said, pointlessly. Hermione knew the stakes just as well as he did.
With Evandra's firm hold on the bridge, her body formed a long S. Swooping up from the bridge itself back away south before curving over to the now restrained head only a few feet above the tracks. The livid basilisk still had quite a bit of movement of her head, as the whip had gripped about five feet behind the base of the arrowhead of the snake's massive skull. The sharp glinting horns at the back of the skull whipped in her direction, but thankfully, Hermione was recessed far enough away that they did not reach.
But if either she or Harry released the whip spell, those lethal spikes would be on her in no time. This was now a struggle for her own life, not just a way to protect her friends. A violent struggle which left them both looking as though they were riding invisible bulls in a rodeo with how Evandra was yanking them about.
Hermione could see that Sirius and Remus wanted to come to their aid, to help them power the spell or subdue the practically rabid snake. But the venom being flung hither and thither prevented them from approaching. Large splotches of steaming stone were hissing away as the thick fluid splattered the bridge. They were in this on their own until it was done.
Hermione could see the scales on Evandra's neck where the whip squeezed beginning to glow under the searing heat. She could only imagine the pain that the mighty basilisk was in under such an attack. And Hermione felt a great swell of pity for yet another creature turned into a weapon by Riddle.
"Pull!" She shouted at Harry across the struggling snake and she pressed her back against the low stone wall that separated her from the ravine across which the bridge spanned. They needed to end this fight before they ran out of stamina, and there was only one sure way to do that now.
Harry nodded his acceptance of the condition and the whip pulled at her arm even harder. Hermione could see it constricting the snake's flesh even tighter and the already warm scales buckled under the increased pressure.
Several of the scales along the whip began to break open and the flame dipped into Evandra's flesh, now making a hissing, searing sound as that flesh began to cook and burn under the hot magic. Hermione grimaced at the sight and sound, but she pulled harder, gripping her right arm with her left and using both as leverage to draw the magic back towards herself.
High-pitched hissing came from Evandra as she screamed in agony at the assault. No words formed in the sound, only the agony of a dying animal trying in vain to avoid death. It reminded Hermione of the horrible sounds of Nagini dying too. Riddle would feed anything else he could into the machine to avoid his fate. The man was the worst kind of monster imaginable.
"PULL!" Harry growled, actually leaning back over the stone wall now, he was pulling so hard against her magic.
The whip sunk even further into Evandra's neck, tearing through the powerful muscle. So deep now that not even the light from the spell was visible within the wound. Just a little more should do it.
The frantic hissing turned to baleful mourning as Evandra began to struggle less and less. The energy in her flesh diminished as they slowly killed the mighty beast. Bit by bit, strangling the life out of her. A creature possibly as old as the castle itself, if her size was any guide.
~Nooooo…~ Evandra practically begged, a final desperate hiss as her body continued to twitch frantically, but her head stopped spewing forth venom and began to droop.
The light of the spell was once more visible at the top of the now gaping wound as the weight of the massive head pulled it forward from the body. There wasn't enough flesh left to hold it up anymore.
Hermione sensed movement from her right and knew that the others were rushing forward now that the spitting had ceased, but Hermione kept her focus on the spell, wanting to finish the job rather than leave Evandra so horribly disfigured.
She took a deep breath and pulled one more time, giving it all of the strength in her fifteen-year-old body as she wrenched the magic deeper, carving through the last of the flesh in Evandra's neck.
With a sudden lack of resistance, Hermione screamed as she fell backwards, tumbling over the low stone wall and falling helplessly through the air for several metres before she stopped abruptly. Hermione glanced around to see what had stopped her fall but saw only air.
Air, and the slumping body of Evandra slipping down off the side of the bridge and landing heavily on the stone and water at the base of the pillar she had been using for support. Splashing the water that wound around the pillar on its way to the nearby loch, before she slowly began seeping blood from the massive wound at the top of the still twitching and curling body. Something that would continue for some time to come due to the basilisk's unique snake physiology.
Hermione looked upwards, trying to see what had arrested her fall and saw Remus Lupin lying on the nearby rocks at the edge of the ravine, his wand pointed down at her suspended body.
"Little help here?" He asked her, now that she seemed aware of his presence.
"Sorry." She replied and popped up to the rocky surface on which he was lying.
She immediately lost her feet and fell back on the mossy rocks, not caring that it was uncomfortable. What they had just gone through was exhausting, both physically and emotionally. Riddle had forced them to kill again. And while they were pragmatic enough not to think that killing was always evil, it was not something Hermione enjoyed doing either.
"I really hate Riddle." She groaned as Remus moved to his knees and began to cast several spells over her body. Ones that they had become rather familiar with thanks to Andi and their private tutoring. Harry and she often overdid it while training.
"You and me both, Hermione. I think you're ok. No sign of any venom on you. How do you feel?" Remus asked her, helping her to a sitting position.
"MOONY! HELP!" Sirius roared, from across the bridge.
Hermione only wondered what he would be yelling about for a moment before her brain connected the dots. If she had fallen over the side, so had Harry.
Without further thought, Hermione popped to the base of the bridge, avoiding the writhing snake body to her right and looked up to see Harry also dangling in midair. His face was perched a few feet above her own and she realized that Sirius had only just caught her boyfriend in time before he landed face-first on the stone base of the ravine.
"Hi," Harry said, a cheeky smirk on his face.
Hermione smiled and snapped her fingers, causing Harry to slip free of Sirius's spell and float slowly to the ground next to her. He immediately wrapped her up in his arms and the two let the world fall away as they took comfort in the other's continuing presence.
"Sure… just stay down there. We'll deal with all of this." Sirius shouted sarcastically down at them.
Neither of them cared much for the snippy tone, but they knew Sirius was just glad that they were ok.
"He's got a point. We at least need to go make sure everyone is ok." Harry said, slowly pulling away from the hug.
"Fine," Hermione agreed, rolling her eyes. "Let's go assess the damage."
Still in one another's arms, the two popped once more heading back to the station.