there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk,
known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may
reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born
247
from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are
most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk
has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall
suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal
enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is
fatal to it.
And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry
recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.
It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.
"Ron," he breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the
Chamber's a basilisk - a giant serpent! That why I've been hearing
that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because
I understand Parseltongue . . . ."
Harry looked up at the beds around him.
"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died
because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his
camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got
Petrified. Justin . . . Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly
Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again .
. . and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a
mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a
basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to
look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her
mirror - and -"
Rods jaw had dropped.
"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.
Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water. . ." he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's
bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection . . . ."
He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it,
the more it made sense.
248
`: . . The crowing of the rooster . . . is fatal to it"! he read aloud. "Hagrid's
roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere
near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spidersflee before it.! It
all fits!"
"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A
giant snake . . . Someone would've seen. . ."
Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the
foot of the page.
"Pipes," he said. "Pipes . . . Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've
been hearing that voice inside the walls . . . ."
291*
Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely.
"What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in -"
`= Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, "said Harry.
They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able
to believe it.
"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in
the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been