Harry hung in the air, completely unable to move. He simply floated along behind Peter.
He thought he heard something in the grass below. He looked toward the sound and shuddered again.
A huge, brilliantly multicolored snake slithered out of the grass.
Harry had seen snakes far bigger than this, but he had never seen one so gaudy and yet so large.
In nature, the more gaudy an animal was, the more venomous it generally was. This was particularly true of venomous bugs and reptiles. Spiders, for instance, or lizards, or snakes.
Judging by its coloring, the huge, dark green snake before him, covered in vivid markings, ought to have been highly venomous.
But venomous snakes were generally supposed to be relatively small. This huge snake, however, was a full five or six meters long. That was the size of a nonvenomous python or even an anaconda.
It made very little sense, but considering that this was the wizarding world, Harry thought perhaps the natural laws of the Muggle world did not necessarily apply.
Well, the basilisk was highly venomous too.
The basilisk currently outside the doors of the Great Hall at Hogwarts was well over ten meters long.
Whatever else could be said, Harry truly had nerves of steel, as befitted a Gryffindor. Even at a time like this, he could still think about such things. Until the snake reached the spot directly beneath him.
The faint itching in his scar had already been there, but now it grew more noticeable.
This time, it even began to sting slightly.
Harry's gaze suddenly sharpened. He had felt this before, at Sirius's Ancestral Home. What had happened then was...
"Can this child help you, Tom?" Suddenly, a soft, somewhat wavering female voice reached Harry's ears. Harry gave a violent start, and