"Oh!" Granger still hadn't quite rebooted. "But we could be expelled!"
Potter's face twisted at that.
"Is that really all you're worried about?" he asked ironically.
"Well... he did attack you." Hermione shrugged, looking at Potter.
Richie kept his eyes fixed on the statue of Slytherin.
"Harry, even if you do manage to open that passage, I'm not climbing into the statue's mouth. What if it's a trap? The moment you climb inside, the jaws snap shut..."
Harry was glad of the change of subject.
"Richie, who even makes traps like that?"
"Well, someone did put a passage in there..." A note of doubt could be heard in Richard's voice. "Possibly... Though I'm not certain."
Hermione still couldn't get the killing out of her head.
"Boys," she continued, "wouldn't Professor Trelawney, for example, have heard the railguns firing?"
Harry couldn't think of an answer. He spread his hands and shrugged.
"Hermione," Richard replied, "it's the end of the year, Divination lessons and exams are over, and our railguns aren't actually all that loud because the projectiles are microscopic. Professor Trelawney is rather fond of a drink. I'd even say she's a professional at it. She was probably drunk out of her mind."
Potter was desperate to get rid of the corpse, return to bed, and forget everything that had happened as though it were a terrible nightmare. Harry clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails dug deep into his palms. Summoning his resolve, he fixed his eyes on one of the snakes depicted on the statue's robes and said with a sibilant hiss:
"Open!"
Richard and Hermione immediately broke off their conversation. Both watched what was happening with barely concealed dread.
Something enormous shook the floor, and Richard felt the flagstones tremble beneath his feet. He didn't know what was happening, but he had a very bad feeling about it. The sculpture's gigantic mouth yawned open. Suddenly, Grosvenor spotted a monstrous serpent slithering out of Slytherin's mouth.
"Harry..." he whispered.
Potter stared in horror at the consequences of his rash decision.
"What?" he whispered back.
Richie continued quietly:
"Remind me never to help you dispose of a corpse again..."
Hermione, rooted to the spot at the sight of the gigantic serpent, whose head was the size of a small car, let out a piercing scream. She shrieked incredibly loudly and at great length, all on one note, seemingly on the verge of going ultrasonic. The girl's scream made Richard's ears ring.
Grosvenor didn't wait for the snake to emerge fully from its lair. He caught the creature's head in his crosshairs and activated both railguns at once.
A prolonged whistle rang through the Chamber of Secrets, produced by the microscopic projectiles. The arms of Richard's glasses fired a thousand projectiles in the space of an instant, each travelling at seventy-seven kilometres per second. Although every 'bullet' weighed a paltry hundredth of a gram, the destructive effect was incredible. The enormous snake didn't even have time to crawl all the way out before its head was sliced clean off, as though by a gigantic guillotine.
The monster's enormous head crashed to the floor with a horrific boom, making the ground shake.
The shots striking the statue of Slytherin sent a hail of marble fragments flying. But Richard had already thrust his cane out in front of him as he opened fire. A round blue shield formed at its tip, and every fragment bounced harmlessly off it. The shield protected both Richie and Hermione without interfering with his ability to fire over it.
Harry, not being a complete idiot, noticed the shield, whose colour and structure reminded him painfully of Richard's Jedi lightsaber. Potter hurried towards Richard as quickly as he could, trying to get behind the shield. But several dozen small stone fragments struck him before he made it, leaving numerous bleeding scratches all over his body. It was already the third set of clothes he'd ruined that evening.
Richard kept firing the railguns without pause, driven by sheer terror. He riddled the serpent's enormous carcass with shots, reducing it to small chunks of mince and flesh. Another burst sheared an arm off the statue of Slytherin. It crashed to the floor barely a metre from the three young adventurers.
Hermione was still screaming. She had Richard in a death grip. The girl's eyes were unnaturally wide, her skin whiter than chalk.
A stunned and bloodied Harry stood behind Richard. He grabbed him by the shoulders and began shaking him.
"Richie!" he shouted. "Stop! It's dead! RICHIE!!!"
Only then did Richard stop firing. He looked little better than Hermione: just as pale, his eyes bulging. The boy's chest heaved, hoarse breaths rasping from his mouth.
At that exact moment, Hermione fell silent as though someone had suddenly switched off her sound.
"F-f-f..." Grosvenor managed through chattering teeth. "F-f-f-fu..."
"What?" Harry couldn't make out his friend's muttering. "Is that Parseltongue? I don't understand..."
"Fuck you, Harry!" Richard finally managed to finish the sentence.
"That's not Parseltongue..." Hermione agreed in an icy voice. "...and I agree with Richie!"
Richard deactivated the shield and lowered his cane. His hands were trembling so badly that the cane tapped a rapid tattoo against the stone. Hermione still couldn't bring herself to move, though at least she'd found her voice again.
Realising he'd just been insulted, Harry pursed his lips in offence. He understood that he'd deserved it, but it still stung. What bothered him even more was that he hadn't thought to use his own weapon.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰