"Is that...? Ginny?" Su Er stared in surprise at the red-haired girl floating before him. She looked frighteningly pale, her eyes tightly shut.
Snape looked far from pleased. He handed the black-covered notebook to Dumbledore.
"Everything is just as you planned," he said. "That damned Potter is already getting ready to come and save the world with his sidekick."
Snape's tone was full of displeasure, but Dumbledore paid it no mind.
"Thank you for your efforts, Severus."
From where Su Er stood, he could see Snape subtly rolling his eyes...
Huh? Su Er was astonished and snickered. The perpetually stern-faced Snape could actually make that expression?
"If there's nothing else, I'll leave. The basilisk is inside. Everything has been arranged as you wanted."
Dumbledore nodded, and Snape immediately turned and left without the slightest reluctance. Before leaving, he moved his lips at the invisible Su Er.
Su Er looked utterly bereaved. He had clearly read Snape's lips.
"Tomorrow evening at six. Come to my office."
The "basilisk" was in the square at the other end of the passage. The Slytherin Statue, whose mouth had previously had a huge hole blasted through it, gazed silently into the distance.
"This...?" Su Er worked up his courage and touched the enormous monster lying motionless on the ground. Cold scales brushed his fingertips, and he could feel the slow heartbeat beneath them.
Dumbledore gently lowered Ginny to the ground and explained softly, "Magic can always help us accomplish many things."
"All right, let's make the most of our time." As he spoke, Dumbledore drew his wand and sent the "fake basilisk" into the enormous hole in the Slytherin Statue's mouth.
Slytherin could never have imagined that his statue would one day get its mouth violated... twice, at that...
Under the pull of magic, the