October drew toward its close, bringing with it the damp, freezing fog of late autumn and the eager anticipation of the Halloween feast.
Inside the old Diary, Ethan spent the intervening days calculating his plans.
The original Tom Riddle had operated like a theatrical serial killer, releasing a lethal monstrosity with no concern for consequences and entirely indifferent to whether a student died or whether the Ministry shut Hogwarts down.
That reckless arrogance had nearly gotten Riddle expelled fifty years ago, forcing him to frame Hagrid and seal the Chamber to save his own skin.
Ethan had no intention of repeating such amateur mistakes.
If a student died, Dumbledore would not simply watch from the sidelines. Aurors could be sent to Hogwarts, the Board of Governors might suspend the term, and the students could even be sent home.
Ethan supposed the Ministry might drag its feet if the victims were only Muggle-borns, but he wasn't about to gamble his entire future on that.
He didn't want the entire school descending into chaos before he had secured Harry. That meant Ethan would have to carefully control the sequence of events.
He didn't need the entire Chamber of Secrets incident.
He only needed the parts that benefited him.
On the night before Halloween, Ethan waited until the castle fell into its deepest sleep.
At half past two in the morning, he reconnected with Ginny, controlling her with effortless ease and made his way back to the Chamber.
This time, however, Ethan wasn't going there to experiment.
He was going to wake the Basilisk.
Moaning Myrtle was nowhere to be seen. The sink groaned open at his hiss, and within moments, Ethan descended the vertical pipe, stepping carefully down the spiralling stone stairs he had transfigured during his previous visit.
He walked down the slime-coated tunnel, pushed past the heavy serpent doors, and entered the grand hall of the Chamber of Secrets.
The Chamber was just as he remembered it, vast and ancient, the enormous stone pillars disappearing into the darkness above while the statue of Salazar Slytherin watched silently from the far end.
He took a deep breath, looked down at his feet, and let the Parseltongue roll out of his mouth.
<Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.>
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the statue's mouth slowly opened.
Something began to move deep within it.
A heavy scraping sound echoed through the Chamber, followed by the unmistakable sound of enormous scales sliding against stone.
A low, rattling hiss vibrated through the Chamber as something massive began emerging from the darkness within the statue.
The Basilisk finally slithered into view, its enormous body coiling across the ancient stone floor.
Ethan smiled.
'There you are.'
<Stop.>
The enormous serpent halted instantly, its massive body coiling across the stone floor.
Ethan kept his eyes firmly fixed on the ground.
<Close your eyes.>
The Basilisk obeyed.
Ethan waited for several seconds before finally allowing himself to relax slightly.
'Good. At least it listens.'
Ethan slowly lifted Ginny's gaze, looking at the creature now that its eyes were safely sealed.
Up close, the beast was even more terrifying than he had imagined. Its emerald scales were thick and hard, gleaming faintly beneath the faint light of the Chamber.
The Basilisk lowered its enormous head toward him.
<Master... hasss the time come to kill once again?> the serpent rasped, its voice echoing throughout the Chamber.
The creature was intelligent enough to understand him and follow his commands, but there was something disturbingly simple about the way it thought. It didn't question why he wanted it to kill. It simply assumed that was what it had been summoned for.
That was useful.
It also meant Ethan would have to be extremely careful with his instructions.
<You will be able to leave the Chamber,> Ethan hissed. <But you will never look directly into the eyes of a human. You will only look at them through reflections. Do you understand?>
The Basilisk remained motionless for several seconds before giving a slow hiss.
<I underssstand, Massster.>
He spent the next several minutes refining the instructions, making sure there was as little room for misunderstanding as possible.
No wandering through the corridors looking for prey. No lingering. No second glance. One target, one attack, and then retreat.
The Basilisk would exit the Chamber, travel only through the pipes, and wait for the single student Ethan had already selected in his mind.
Colin Creevey.
The boy was small, eager, and most importantly, often alone with his camera late at night. A petrified first-year found with a camera still clutched in his hands would create exactly the right level of panic without triggering too much mayhem.
There was another reason Ethan had chosen him.
Colin was close to Harry. Ginny had mentioned more than once how the boy followed Harry around whenever he got the chance, and if Colin became the first victim, the students would inevitably start talking about Harry.
Ethan wasn't particularly interested in whether they genuinely believed Harry was responsible. He simply needed Harry's name to become associated with the attacks.
The more suspicious people became of Harry, the easier it would be to manipulate the situation later.
The more the other students talked about Harry, the more likely he would be to investigate the Chamber himself.
Harry had always been the sort of person who couldn't leave a mystery alone, especially when someone he cared about was involved.
After making sure there wouldn't be any problems, Ethan made his way back out of the Chamber and sealed the entrance behind him.
Tomorrow was Halloween, which made it the perfect time for the attack.
Most of the students would be occupied with the feast, and if events followed canon, Harry would be away at Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party, leaving him out of the way when the attack happened.
Ethan only needed to make sure Colin was where he expected him to be.
So tomorrow, Ethan would first need to find out whether Harry and the others were actually going to the Deathday Party.
If they were, the rest of the plan would be relatively simple. He would have Ginny draw Colin away from the Great Hall and make sure he ended up following Harry and the others when they returned from the party.
The Basilisk would then attack Colin on the way back, using only his reflection to petrify him. Ethan would make sure the creature retreated immediately afterward, leaving Colin alive and unharmed beyond the petrification.
Then came the important part.
Harry and his friends would be discovered beside Colin's petrified body.
And if the timing of it all could be as perfect as canon that would be even better.
Ethan didn't particularly care if it wasn't, though. If necessary, he could simply use Ginny to spread the rumours himself and make sure the suspicion gradually settled around Harry.
After giving proper instructions to the basilisk on what to do tomorrow, Ethan made his way back to the room and quietly returned Ginny to her bed. He released his control and let her body settle naturally beneath the blankets before withdrawing his consciousness completely.
Within moments, Ginny was once again sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what had happened during the night.
The next morning, Ethan waited until Ginny was seated at the Gryffindor table before briefly taking control of her body. He had no intention of doing anything suspicious; he simply needed confirmation that his plan for tonight would work.
Ginny turned toward Ron, who was sitting beside her, and asked casually, "Are you excited about the feast tonight?"
Ron's expression immediately soured.
"Not really," he grumbled. "We're not even going to be there."
Ginny blinked innocently. "What do you mean?"
"Harry promised Nearly Headless Nick we'd go to his Deathday Party," Ron said, looking thoroughly unimpressed by the idea. "So we're going to spend Halloween in some freezing dungeon with a bunch of dead people instead of eating a proper feast."
Ethan immediately felt a quiet satisfaction.
'Perfect.'
The plan was still on.
He released his control and allowed Ginny to continue eating normally while he retreated into the background of her mind. He had done this before, so he knew that a few minutes of passive control wouldn't cause any harm.
Ginny wouldn't even register that anything had happened, and Ethan could simply observe through her senses without interfering with her actions.
Now he knew exactly where Harry would be tonight.
All that remained was making sure Colin Creevey was where Ethan needed him to be.
Ethan allowed Ginny to spend the rest of the day normally, keeping his presence buried deep within the connection.
Then, as evening approached and the Charms class finally ended, the students began spilling into the corridors, heading toward the Great Hall and their common rooms.
Ethan watched through Ginny's eyes, casually scanning the crowd until he finally spotted Colin Creevey.
The boy was exactly where Ethan expected him to be, camera hanging around his neck as he hurried along the corridor, looking around eagerly for something interesting to photograph.
Ethan smiled faintly.
'There you are.'
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