//------------------------------//
// Chapter 34:  Dungeons and Basilisks 
// Story: The Accidental Invasion 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

Professor Dumbledore sighed, and looked around at the Chamber again.  He’d entered it just in time to see Tom Riddle disappear, surrounded by a veritable army, which included not just Hailey- who looked a little different than he remembered her- and her parents, but a shimmering girl he’d never seen before, a girl with gleaming silver hair, and no less than three girls with phoenix colors in their hair.
And that wasn’t even counting the massive pile of burning rubble at the head of the brightly flame-lit Chamber of Secrets.  Even the stone was on fire!  Even then, after he’d talked to the combatants and figured out what had happened, it was still on fire- though he understood why.  It was phoenix fire- it needed no fuel, and also wouldn’t burn anyone the girl that had produced it- Sunset Shimmer- didn’t want it to.
Apparently, Ginny- who was busy being strangled by her mother- had been taken unconscious and possessed by Riddle’s now ruined diary.  She had been taken down to the Chamber to wait.  Morning Sun, one of the Phoenix-haired girls, had happened to be in Myrtle’s bathroom at the time, and had followed Ginny in- apparently, she was also a parselmouth.  Once in the Chamber, she’d judged it best to wait and monitor Ginny, rather than to try fighting Riddle alone.
Silver had been next.  After getting her common room distracted about something else, she’d ‘disappeared’ and left.  She had refused to tell how she’d disappeared, nor even which common room it was; unlike every other student in the school, she wasn’t wearing the House Badge on her robes, which might have told which house she was sorted into.  She’d slipped up to Myrtle’s bathroom, used her own parseltongue powers to open the Chamber, and slipped in.  She’d intended to use her own unspecified Unique Talent to trounce the Basilisk and save Ginny, but while entering the main Chamber, she’d heard an explosion behind her, and had ‘disappeared’ again to wait.
Finally, Hailey.  She’d taken Ron and even Professor Lockhart with her- though Lockhart had attempted to wipe hers and Ron’s memories once they got into the tunnel.  Hailey had, as usual, been too quick for him- though rather than her normal approach, she’d merely forced Ron’s damaged wand- which he was attempting the spell with- to backfire.  It had, with force; Lockhart had only barely not forgotten how to speak English, and the wand had been destroyed.  The tunnel had also caved in- that had been a quick fix for him, with the Elder Wand- and cut Ron and Lockhart off from Hailey, who was free to go on.
So, while Ron started shifting rocks, Hailey had proceeded into the main Chamber to face Tom alone, apparently fully confident that he couldn’t hurt her, no matter what he tried.  She’d inspected Ginny, and used some kind of ‘borrowed consciousness’ spell- of her own invention, based equally on Hermione’s and Pinkie’s work- to wake her up in a way that would ensure she couldn’t be knocked out or possessed.  Following that, she’d very nearly defeated Riddle with her opening move, but he’d evaded her by the skin of his teeth- the miss had been so close her spell had singed the edge of the diary!
So, recognizing that he was clearly a duelist as well and not wanting Ginny to get caught in the crossfire, Hailey had gone for taunting him instead.  When he tried to kill her, that had actually been what she wanted.  She told him she’d been surprised when his spell caused a spike of pain in her scar, but aside from that, exactly as expected, the Killing Curse had absolutely no effect on her.  Her mother had cheerfully supplied that the fragment of Voldemort’s soul that had been trapped in her scar had been destroyed.
Her parents had appeared after that, exactly as Hailey had expected- and she had presented the Potter Family to Tom as his opponent…  then tacked him on almost as an afterthought.  When Tom had declared that he was gone, they had all declared, as one, that he was always coming- something which amused him to no end- and Fawkes had come.
So of course Riddle had called the Basilisk- and that was when things got dicey.  Ginny- as the only one vulnerable to its attacks- had been sent to the side to hide.  The Basilisk had apparently smelled both Silver and Morning, confusing it- but then Hailey had baited it too.  She’d done some creative gymnastics to get behind it, seized it, and thrown the massive, multi-ton snake, one-handed, at something a hundred feet away, and three times her height over her head.
And of course, shattered the statue she was throwing it at, so it would rain down on it for “Twenty dee six bludgeoning damage”, Hailey had grinned.  It had been at that point in the explanation that he’d noticed she had both her hands- albeit mostly because she’d used the missing one to throw the basilisk.  She’d even told him that ever since she got her hand back, she’d been able to enter the girl’s dormitories as well- it apparently wasn’t new from the fight, but from almost a week before.  Ariel had then demonstrated her own invulnerability when the basilisk next attacked, tried stabbing it with its own fang, and finally thrown the broken fang over to where Morning was waiting.
It had been about that time that Silversong, still ‘disappeared’, had acquired the Sorting Hat, slammed it on her head, and gotten the Sword of Gryffindor out of it.  By the time she’d un-’disappeared’ and set up the spells to protect her from its gaze attack, Riddle had already complained about Fawkes being useless.  Fawkes, for himself, gave off the impression of being disappointed that they’d crushed the Basilisk before he could help.  Hailey had responded to Riddle’s complaint by quipping about the other two- and by the time Silver was ready to fight, they had appeared and barbecued it.  How they knew when to appear, Sunset Shimmer and Angelina Johnson- who had yet to let go of each other’s hands- had refused to say, only smiling when he asked.
Meanwhile, when she’d gone down, Hailey had apparently taught Myrtle how to open the Chamber, and sent her after Bonbon- who had proceeded to gather her assault party with a few barked orders and fetch him herself, alongside Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick.  Myrtle had then let them down into the chamber, and finally opened the door into the main chamber for them.
Riddle had seemed to notice the Chamber opening- even though he’d missed when Morning Sun had swiped the Diary from his hand.  She’d also picked up Ariel’s basilisk fang- and of course Silver, next to her, managed to make it look like she’d been casually sitting out the fight for the whole time, despite having a glittering weapon.  Morning told Riddle what he’d done wrong, then brought the two- fang and diary- together to finish him.
Then Pinkie Pie had burst past Dumbledore’s line to fairly bounce over to Hailey.  “You know Hailey, Harmonia’s patience does have a limit.”
Hailey had chuckled.  “I’m still busy.  But tell her she can look forward to it tonight.”
Then Molly Weasley had also exploded past his line.  “Ginny!”





Hermione sat between Ron and Hailey at the celebratory feast, to celebrate the fall of the Chamber of Secrets.  “So,” she began.  Ginny was sitting on Hailey’s other side- then there was an unfamiliar girl, who looked amazingly like Ginny did, though a little more spectral, between her and Silversong.
Hailey looked at her, and smiled.  “So,” she answered.
Hermione wordlessly dropped the newspaper she’d taken with her from the Hospital Wing; her subscription to the Daily Prophet had been delivered to her bedside table, and Madam Pomfrey had- quite courteously- paid the delivery fees for her.  That was on her todo list:  Find out how much the nurse had spent on her newspapers, and reimburse it.
Hailey glanced at the headline- Hogwarts Discovers New Goddess of Report Writing- and chuckled softly.  “Yes.”
“How?” she asked.
Hailey smiled.  “Pinkie.”
“Yup!”  It was Pinkie, sitting backwards on Ron’s other side.
She raised an eyebrow.
“Have you read the report?” Hailey asked.
“There was a report?” Hermione asked.
She nodded.  “It’s eleven rooms long.”
“Eleven…  rooms!?!”
“And typed.”
“Typed!?  How did you type a report?”
“With a keyboard,” Hailey smiled.  “About how long do you think it will take for you to read it?”
Hermione paused.  “How…  Font size?”
“Six.”
“What is a font?” Ron asked, but both girls ignored him.
Hermione closed her eyes and started doing the math in her head.  “Margins?”
“Two centimeters.”
“Spacing?”
“Single.”
“Paper?”
“Legal.”
“Rooms?”
“Standard classrooms.  All furniture removed.”
“Four hundred eighteen minutes and twelve seconds.”  She opened her eyes.  “Give or take seven seconds.”
“Not bad.”
She looked at Hailey.  “Where is it?”
“Lima Four One.”
“I’ll have to look at it, then.”
Ron looked at her.  “Did you just pull random numbers out of your brain, or…?”
Hermione chuckled.  “Nope, calculated them.  Magic’s nice, isn’t it?”  She looked at Hailey.  “Who’s the new face?”
Hailey put her arm around both Ginny’s and the new girl’s shoulders, making Ginny gasp and blush, and the new girl giggle.  “Meet Ariel,” Hailey answered.  “Ginny’s imaginary friend.”
“Imaginary?” Hermione asked.
Ariel looked up at her.  “Until I became maginary,” she snickered.
Hailey chuckled, then drew a sheaf of pages from under the table- where Hermione was certain they hadn’t been before.  “This should explain everything- it was after the Report.”
She glanced at it, and up at Hailey again, doing some quick math.  “Two hundred eighteen milliseconds.”
“One eyeblink,” Hailey nodded, smiling.
Ron blinked.  “Wait, what?  How’d you have time to write a report on the Chamber?”
Hailey giggled.  “Fourteen milliseconds, Ron.  Fourteen milliseconds.”
“What-!”  Hermione took a deep breath.  “You’re multilayering the compression, aren’t you?”
She nodded.
“How?”