Aside from having to work overtime on making the basilisk early-warning devices, this Christmas was, for Avada, actually quite relaxed and comfortable.
Because of the frequent petrification incidents and Snape's earth-shattering explanation, the entire Hogwarts had been thrown into a state of panic. The atmosphere of this year's Christmas was unprecedentedly oppressive and tense—and as a result, the gift-exchange tradition that had always given Avada a headache was quietly pushed aside.
Among his friends, Baron had to stay busy working overtime with him; Harry and the others were at a critical stage of brewing Polyjuice Potion and couldn't afford any distractions. After learning what he was doing, his dormmates also refrained from bothering him too much. As for the rest of the friends he could really talk to, most of them had chosen to leave the school for the holidays…
And so, after spending half a day making a batch of cookies and candies and sending them to classmates, friends, and the orphanage, he was completely free of other worries. He could continue to properly rest and recuperate, enjoy the luxury of waking up naturally, and occasionally spend some time working on the basilisk warning devices.
"Whew… it's been a long time since I've felt this good…"
After finally experiencing once again the feeling of being awakened by eight-o'clock morning sunlight, Avada opened his eyes in contentment. His mind felt unprecedentedly light and comfortable, and the persistent soreness that had long plagued his eyes was completely gone. He reluctantly stretched his limbs out from under the blanket and gave a lazy stretch, his bones cracking all over, before curling back up like a turtle.
What could possibly be more comfortable than staying in a warm bed on a winter morning?
He lay there for who-knows-how-long before the protests from his stomach finally forced him to get up.
"Misjudged that… I should've prepared food and put it by the bed last night."
After washing up unwillingly, he put on his clothes, left the common room, took a small detour, and headed straight for the kitchens to get something warm to fill his stomach. Breakfast service in the Great Hall was definitely over by now—if he wanted to eat, the kitchens were his only option…
And unsurprisingly, he ran into some familiar faces there.
"Yo, Merry Christmas, Harry, Ron. You two slept past breakfast as well?"
Avada picked out a few slices of bread, spread some jam on them, slid them into the oven, and cheerfully greeted the two familiar figures who were hunched over the table, devouring food like wolves.
"Ken?"
Harry and Ron froze when they heard the familiar voice. When they looked up and realized it was Avada, they were even more surprised.
"You stayed at school?"
"Yeah. What's so strange about that?"
He smiled. "I probably won't be leaving the common room area much this holiday anyway, so there's no need to worry about getting hit by the petrification curse. Besides, isn't there that warning device that came out of nowhere?"
"Oh, right!"
At the mention of the device, Harry immediately looked much more excited, while Ron's expression turned a little complicated.
"Do you have that warning device on you right now?"
"…I don't think so. Why?"
Avada felt around inside his clothes and shook his head. He didn't really need the thing himself—his magical senses were no worse than a spider's perception. As long as the basilisk came within a certain range, he would definitely be able to see its vitality and mental power.
"You have to carry it with you!"
Harry said urgently. "Yesterday, when I was with Colin—oh, you don't know him, Colin Creevey, a Muggle-born student—when we were walking together…"
"More like he was chasing you down the corridor."
Ron mercilessly exposed him while cutting butter.
"Uh, that's not the point… Anyway, when the two of us were walking together, the warning device on him suddenly went off, and almost at the same second, I heard that sound too!"
"The basilisk acted again?!"
Avada was startled. "And then?"
"Then we followed the instructions—glanced at the nearest classroom's location and rushed in with our eyes closed."
Harry recalled the incident with lingering fear. "We stayed inside with our eyes shut for nearly ten minutes. The alarm never stopped during that time, and the sound I heard kept getting clearer… That attack was probably aimed at Colin."
"Only after the alarm completely stopped, and that sound vanished from my ears, did we dare run out and rush back to the Gryffindor common room as fast as possible. That device really works—and it proves once again that the culprit really is the basilisk!"
"You're Muggle-born too, right? You absolutely have to carry that thing with you! The basilisk is active again—this thing can genuinely save lives!"
Harry warned him again, his expression serious.
"…I understand."
Avada nodded as he took his bread out of the oven. "I'll carry it with me."
To be honest, after hearing this news, he was quite happy despite the tension—he and Baron had finally made something that was truly effective against the basilisk, something that could protect students. And they had even successfully saved Colin Creevey, who in the original story would have been attacked.
Moreover, once news of Colin Creevey's incident spread, and as the warning devices activated more and more times, the students would eventually be completely convinced that the true culprit behind the petrifications was the basilisk. They would no longer believe the so-called "will of the castle" nonsense, and things would naturally escalate into protests toward the Board of Governors and Snape, with public opinion spreading throughout the entire British wizarding world.
When that time came, it would be the perfect moment to deal a fatal blow to the stubborn pure-blood faction.
Hopefully things were going smoothly on Dumbledore's side as well, even though no one knew what he was doing at the moment. Hopefully he had also prepared a way for Snape to clear his name and escape unscathed…
"The person who invented this thing must be a genius,"
Harry said admiringly. "When you made the chicken-crow badge before, Hermione looked up information on basilisks and found that spiders are especially afraid of them—but none of us ever thought it could be used like this!"
"It'd be better if it didn't involve spiders,"
Ron sighed gloomily.
"..."
'That's exactly why I didn't publish the manufacturing method and encourage students to make their own—afraid someone would develop countermeasures, or inferior knockoffs would backfire.'
Avada complained silently to himself. If that happened, the entire school would be filled with spiders…
The fact that the basilisk warning device was made by him and Baron was currently known only to three dormmates and four people in total—himself, Baron, Fred, and George. To avoid unnecessary complications, they had unanimously agreed to keep it secret. Of course, there might be people who, like Shabby and the others, could guess that the device had something to do with Avada and his group—but it would remain nothing more than speculation, with minimal impact.
After finishing breakfast and saying goodbye to Harry and Ron, Avada slung his bag over his shoulder and headed toward the library.
After all, even though this Christmas holiday was anything but ordinary, not a single piece of homework had been spared. He planned to spend the entire day blasting through all of it, then devote the remaining time wholeheartedly to putting his plan into action…
Suddenly, his steps halted.
Within his magical perception, inside a wall not far from him, a blazing, elongated mass of vitality was silently sliding forward. At its very front was an extremely complex structure of dark magic. That dark magic was now extending out through a crack in the wall, landing directly on him…
And there were no isolation measures whatsoever.
'The basilisk…'
'It wants to kill me?!'
Avada kept his body tightly tense while maintaining an unhurried pace, rigidly controlling his gaze to remain fixed straight ahead, not shifting even a fraction.
(End of Chapter)