I burst into Gryffindor Tower. Twenty students, who are studying including Mr. Longbottom, instantly leap to their feet screaming bloody murder. Wands are drawn, but I effortlessly wave them away. My dark eyes lock onto the bushy brown-haired girl and redhead boy. Weasley gulps loudly and releases a soft whimper, while Granger only stares at me.

"Where is he?" I snarl angrily. When neither answers me after a few milliseconds, I uncharacteristically release a bit of uncontrolled magic. Glass throughout the room shatters, and several portraits start to rattle loudly. "WHERE IS HE?" I shout.

"We don't know!" Granger yells back glaring at me. "We thought he was in the dungeons."

"Well, he's not," I snap.

"Obviously," Granger drawls with a fierce look in her eyes. She then shakes her head furiously. "After you toyed with him last night, he screamed at us that he wanted to be left alone. How could you do that? You knew how badly he wanted a family, and you just held it out like a carrot for him!"

"Do not lecture me, Miss Granger," I snarl. Our conversation, if you could call it one, sounded eerily similar to my frequent arguments with Sinistra.

"WHY NOT, PROFESSOR!" she screamed. "You used him just like every other adult! I thought you'd be different, but I see I was wrong. You truly do hate him, don't you? Obviously, I'm right because why else would you tease him with those adoption papers? You KNEW!" Her eyes are slits of rage as she glares at me.

"Silly little girl," I hiss back in my deadliest voice. It doesn't faze Granger in the slightest, though. If anything, it only infuriates her even more. "Do not speak to me about things I knew when you withheld the quaint fact that he was hearing things!" I snarl back at her. Within seconds, confusion crosses her face. Perhaps you didn't know that, I think as confusion enters Weasley's face also.

"Hearing things?" she asks. "What are you talking about, Professor Snape?"

I do not reply. Granger is another dead end. I think back to my conversations with Harry. Nothing stands out as being odd. However, Draco's comment about Harry always being wet makes me pause. It would have been noticeable if he left the castle, and the charm I placed on him would have alerted me instantly. No. Harry must still be in the castle, but the question was where. I then recall a meeting that Dumbledore called that informed us about the idea of the Chamber of Secrets being inside of Hogwarts. I of course had dismissed the idea as being absurd, but perhaps the boy had found it. I then remember the fact that Harry is a Parselmouth. The attacks suddenly make sense. My eyes widen as I realize what the monster in the Chamber really is, a basilisk.

Hagrid has been complaining all term that something has been killing his roosters. I had previously thought that the reason for the deaths was the wild animals in the Forbidden Forest. The spiders are acting rather peculiar as if something dangerous resides in the castle. I believed this to be because the castle was cold now. The petrified students found in random corridors of pools of water. The voice Harry writes in his journal that only he can hear. I admit that I have dismissed all the evidence as coincidences, but there is no such thing. I have always believed that. However, my only question I have left is why would Harry go to the Chamber?

I then focus on the pools of water that surrounds the petrified victims. It is a clue. It has to be, but what it means I know not. I stare at Granger for a while longer before the answer hits me. Hogwarts is full of pipes. In fact, Peeves broke one just the other day, complaining that something was moving in it. I hear the Fat Lady's portrait behind me open, which makes me whirl around to the new arrivals. Several of my coworkers walk in with their wands drawn before lowering the wands while staring at me.

"Severus, is something wrong?" Minerva asks me with a look of concern.

I ask, "The girl who died in the castle fifty years ago, Minerva, where did she die?"

"Uh…well, she died in the second floor girl's lavatory. Why?"

I do not respond. I know not why, but there is a deep feeling of dread in my chest. Something is wrong. If Harry ran into it, if that was what truly resides there, he wouldn't know what to do. Granted, I am not experienced in fighting basilisks, but I at least have fighting experience. I run like a bat out of hell towards Moaning Myrtle's lavatory. She might at least be able to tell me if she's seen Harry. In the back of my mind, I can hear familiar boots behind me, but I pay no attention. Harry needs me.