1 September 1992, King's Cross Station
While he wouldn't want to be formally under a stranger's mercy, if it protected him from Dumbledore, then it would be worth it. Still, he was happy where he was, and he had a backup plan in case he was caught. That was a relief. But when thinking about what was probably going to happen the following day, he had the opportunity to get an advantage. The Potter scion took a breath and answered, "I need everything you have on Basilisks."
Harry walked around King's Cross station while earning odd looks from the passerbys. He could understand it, he was lifting up his trunk which was bigger than he was, as if it was nothing. It probably looked odd seeing a twelve-year-old child walking by himself in a train station while holding a giant trunk that looked more like an antique than any modern accessory.
Although Harry did buy this trunk, not because of how it looked, but because of its practicality. It was something that he had noticed, the less processed anything was, the better it can handle magic and the easier it is enchanted. It was probably why wizards and witches still used parchment and quills. It wasn't really about sticking to traditions, but it was simply easier to enchant a quill than a pen, and it was easier to enchant parchment than paper. Although, the Japanese have special scrolls that are very efficient in holding runes, only their own. They were very secretive people, the Japanese, and Harry ached to visit this civilization. They used magic so differently over there, and he wanted to figure it out as well.
Well, as for Harry's trunk, it was made of wood and covered with leather. If it wasn't enchanted, it would have probably collapsed under the weight of the hundreds of books and small knickknacks that he bought over the summer. Having the featherlight charm and a basic expansion charm added in was already proving to be worth the price. He would have had to drag that thing around the station.
He passed by the entrance to the Hogwarts Express and entered the train. He had already let Hedwig fly to the castle since he knew how much she hated being cooped up. He sat down in an empty compartment and decided to continue reading one of the books Arcturus Black had loaned him. The man really went above and beyond. Outside of widening his eyes at the request, the man simply gave him a dozen of books that pertained to Basilisks. Blacks really were something else if he didn't really mind giving a child a book on weapons of mass destruction.
Well, at least there was nothing on the creation of Basilisks, because that would be very irresponsible. Or maybe he just didn't have any books on it. Either way, Harry started understanding slightly how Basilisks worked, even if its glare was still subject to a lot of controversies. Well, the venom, outside of being very poisonous, was designed to destroy the structure of any magic it touches. If it touches a wizard, it will slowly dissolve their magic circuits, something that was agonizing for the accounts. Phoenix tears could theoretically counteract it since it promotes the generation of magic, outside of healing, of course, although the outcome would still be uncertain as the two substances would not really disappear but continue to fight each other for the rest of the mage's life.
Now, unfortunately, the basilisk's glare was widely considered to be soul magic. So, Harry was right on that part, but no one was ever able to study them properly, since, you know, you either kill them or you're dead if you look at them. What the Basilisk hunters did was use goggles enchanted to reflect what they see multiple times, which made them slightly resistant to the stare, to a point. After ten seconds of consistent eye contact, they were still petrified, but at least it gave them enough time to look away when the King of Serpents was attacking.
Of course, the Rooster's crow thing was a hoax. It did cause agonizing pain to young Basilisks, and could even kill hatchlings, but to an adult, it was like a particularly annoying voice, and they became aggressive towards anything near the rooster. Apparently, it was theorized that somehow, the ritual used to create Basilisks involved roosters somehow, probably as a training method when they were younger.
Still, Harry had some trouble understanding some of the theories behind the glare, and he'll have to focus a lot to counteract them. The refraction thing was a good initial idea, but he would rather be immune than only give himself ten seconds to run away.
Barely fifteen minutes later, with a huffing Tracy and Daphne came into the compartment. Harry smiled and commented, "You're late."
"We wouldn't have been late if it wasn't for those useless Lockhart books weighing down our trunks. Seriously, why would anyone need that many books," Daphne replied with some bite in her voice.
"Hey, Lockhart's books are not useless," Tracy protested weakly. The brunette shivered at the piercing glare her blonde friend gave her.
Harry, on the other hand, snorted, "Tracy, I'm not going to argue with you, but there isn't a single spell in any of the books, or any theories. They're adventure books that have no place in any educational institute outside of entertainment. But why didn't you just buy enchanted trunks? They're very handy."
The brunette glared at him, "Because they're too expensive and our parents don't trust us with something that costs hundreds of Galleons. Just because you can buy whatever you want doesn't mean that we all can as well."
Daphne nodded and sat down at the seat next to Harry. Soon afterwards, Blaise joined them and started regaling them of his trip to Italy. Halfway through the story, Daphne stiffened as the Hogwarts Express started moving, "Curious."
The dark skinned boy gave her a dirty look for interrupting his story, "What's so curious?"
"I didn't see Longbottom or Weasley on the platform. Usually, he's swarmed by photographers and admirers since people know where he's going to be."
Tracy simply shrugged, "Maybe he just took the floo to avoid people swarming the Express. But I did see the Weasley twins when I got up, so maybe you just missed Ron?"
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