62 Rumors

Arth trembled before slowly nudging Luna in the arm.

"...go get the teachers."

Luna nodded her head slowly before staggering off to alert everyone of what had happened.

Arth closed his eyes and sighed, his clenched fists trembling with an unknown emotion.

"God damn it."

Arth opened his eyes once more and his gaze had become apathetic.

He looked up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies.

"This is so god damn complicated."

Should he find out who the culprit was? Should he identify the monster? These were the things Harry had asked him when the Chamber of Secrets opened for the first time.

"It's more complicated than that."

It wasn't that he didn't want to, Arth knew that a part of him was screaming to solve this legendary secret. It was who he was.

"But none of it makes any god damn sense."

A hidden entrance that no one but the heir could activate.

A monster that can survive years without feasting.

A monster that can travel in the school virtually undetected.

A monster that petrifies, a monster that can stop a ghost.

A monster that cause spiders to act unnaturally.

"All these signs resemble the ones of a basilisk but how can a fifty foot long snake run around the school undetected?"

It can't be a basilisk, not even magic can make a giant creature invisible.

Nor can basilisks survive for a thousand years without any food. Even if they were in a hibernation state, something as big as a basilisk would need an exponentially large amount of food to sustain it.

Arth froze.

"Hagrid's roosters."

Hagrid told him that his roosters were being killed off.

The cry of a rooster is fatal to the ears of a basilisk.

Arth furrowed his brows even more.

"...is the creature a basilisk?"

Every fact he discovered would lead to the fact that a basilisk was the most likely suspect for the attacker, yet every piece of logic and reasoning went against the fact that the basilisk was the perpetrator.

None of this made sense.

Seeing the basilisk indirectly. The cat saw through the puddle, Colin through his camera, Justin and Peeves through each other.

Going around undetected. Invisibility does not erase the sound you make, the pipes are to small for a basilisk to travel through.

Hunger. They could survive off of rats, but how many rats could feed a fifty foot long snake?

A commotion was getting louder and louder as it approached Arth.

Crash — crash — crash — door after door flew open along the corridor and people flooded out. For several long minutes, there was a scene of such confusion that Justin was in danger of being squashed and people kept standing in Peeves. Arth found himself pinned against the wall as the teachers shouted for quiet.

Professor McGonagall came running, followed by her own class, one of whom still had black-and-white-striped hair. She used her wand to set off a loud bang, which restored silence, and ordered everyone back into their classes.

After a few discussions made within the teachers, Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Peeves.

In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to a student with instructions to waft Peeves up the stairs. This the student did, fanning Peeves along like a silent black hovercraft. This left Arth and Professor McGonagall alone together.

"This way, Kingscrown," she said.

"ARTH!"

There was a scream as Luna bursted through the crowd and attempted to get to Arth.

Professor McGonagall stopped her before she could get too close.

"Professor McGonagall! I can vouch for Arth! He didn't do it! I was with him! Don't listen to the rumors!"

Arth frowned.

What rumors?

"This is out of my hands, Lovegood," said Professor McGonagall curtly. "Would you please excuse us. We need to go to the headmasters office."

However, Luna wouldn't listen.

"Arth! Promise me that you will come back."

Arth sighed.

"Calm down Luna, I'm not going anywhere."

Luna seemed to visibly calm down.

"Tell then that the rumors aren't true."

"What rumors-"

"Now let's move along."

Arth left the trembling Luna and walked away with Professor McGonagall.

"Lemon drop!" she said. the gargoyle sprang suddenly to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two.

As he and Professor McGonagall stepped onto it, Arth heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, Arth saw a familiar oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.