"What is [i]that[/i]?" a first-year asks, her voice shaking.

Through the window, the sun rays are playing lazily. Whenever the waves' sway al
lows it, a diffuse, greenish light falls on the Common Room floor, unveiling a r
ather odd, elliptical-shaped object. Intrigued, you approach it carefully. You'v
e never seen anything like this before, and, by the looks of it, neither have th
e others. There's tension in the air, everybody holding their breath, waiting...
If it wasn't for the green, almost phosphorescent slime, the [i]thing[/i] looked
like an egg. The weirdest egg you've ever seen, granted. Its surface is covered
dark green, as if it's rotten. And the foul odor! It smells like burnt skin, co
mbined with seaweed and really bad eggs.
Despite all that, there's something majestic about the egg. Larger than your reg
ular chicken egg, it looks like it's been carved out of some precious stone. Hel
iotrope, maybe? You can't put your finger on it, but it sure looks like one fine
piece of art.
[i]CRACK[/i].
The unexpected noise, although quiet, was followed by gasps and screams. Everybo
dy retreats as thin cracks appear on the surface of the egg. It trembles softly
as [i]something[/i] tries to dig its way out of it. The cracks turn into holes,
and you can now get a view of its inside. It's completely dark, but you glance a
tiny silhouette emerging from it. The body is all dark green and scaly. And the
head...
"LOOK AWAY," the Slytherin Prefect shouts all of a sudden as he runs down the st
airs. "That's a Basilisk egg and the thing that came out of it is a, well," he p
auses, catching his breath, "Basilisk." He eyes every student in the Common Room
sharply. "How did this end up in here? I'll have you know this is an illegal tr
ade, and I will--"
"Can we worry about this later?" a fifth-year old boy with blonde hair interrupt
s. "We have a possibly deadly snake in here, and all you care about is whether i
t's legal or not. How do we get rid of it?"
"Get rid of it?" a tiny girl asks, surprised. "But why, he's so tiny and helples
s... we should keep him!"
The room explodes into an amalgam of
rn your head to the little creature,
ve a fatal stare, and the last thing
Keeping a Basilisk pet is an insane

shouting and arguments. You are dying to tu

but know better than that. The Basilisks ha
you want to see are two [i]Yellow Eyes[/i].
idea, but exciting all the same.

"SILENCE," the Prefect's voice erupts again. "Since none of you is willing to li
sten to reason, we'll put it to a vote. I'll warn you, if anything goes bad, it'
s on you. A'right... who wants to keep it?" he asks, glancing around the room.
To your surprise, you find yourself raising your hand along with about three qua
rters of the Slytherin House. You know this is not a good idea at all, but what
could possibly go wrong?
[hr]
In the following couple of days, you all work together on a set of rules: do NOT
look directly at the Basilisk, do NOT handle the basilisk alone, do NOT bring t
he Basilisk into the Dorms, do NOT brag about having a Basilisk pet and, most im
portantly, do NOT leave the Common Room door open.

Each one of you now has an established task. The first year girls are working on
knitting blindfolds for the snake. Others are in charge with finding the food.
So far, no one has been lucky enough to catch Mrs. Norris, but you still have ho
pe. As for you, you're babysitting the hatchling. Once you get over the fact tha
t it could kill you any second, you grow quite fond of it. And the Basilisk seem
s to love the human presence more and more every day. It likes to sleep in front
of the fireplace, and sometimes you swear you can hear it purr.
You all agreed to name it Baby. The name is not quite fitting, however, as Baby
grows bigger day by day. While it could fit in your palm when you first got him,
now it easily curls around your arm. You know it will have to disappear soon, b
ut not now, however. Not now, when everybody seems to love it, even Eric, the Pr
efect.
[hr]
"AAAAAAAAAAAA," a loud scream cuts through the air.
You wake up at once, jumping out of bed. As you run down the stairs, you expect
to find a dead body on the floor. Instead, there's Christine, the one you've all
nicknamed Baby's Mommy, with tears in her eyes. She speaks, through sobs, "Ba-b
aby's go-gone..."
Within the next half an hour, you all meet in the Common Room. Nobody dares to s
peak. Somehow, you've all known that something like this could happen. How long
will it be until some unaware student gets killed? Will the School Staff dismiss
the House of Slytherin? Will they send you all in Azkaban?
At last, Eric stands up and clears his throat. You expect him to shout and act i
n his well-known superior manner, but this time, he speaks on a dry tone.
"Stating the obvious, we need to find Baby as soon as possible, before somebody
else finds it first, or," Eric looked gloomily around, "somebody dies. The searc
h takes priority before any other responsibility you might have. YES, this inclu
des Quidditch practice too, Lawrence," Eric glared at the Quidditch captain. Cle
aring his throat, he went on, "Walk in groups and don't rest until you find Baby
. I'll make some arrangements for when we find it. As much as it pains me to say
it, Baby cannot return in here."
[hr]
Things couldn't get worse. The Common Room is empty most of the time. Even when
it is not, nobody talks, and the silence is burdensome. On the top of that, petr
ified students have started to appear all over the castle hallways. Nobody knows
the cause. Nobody, apart from the Slytherins who have taken a silence vow.
Long story, short, it's chaos. You often ask yourself when and if all of this wi
ll end, and whether it will be a happy ending or not. You don't only fear for yo
urselves, but for poor Baby too. Even though Baby's a 30ft long snake now, in yo
ur eyes it's still the helpless, little hatchling.
[hr]
It's the evening of a yet another gloomy day. As always, the Slytherins are quie
t and tense. It's quite a miracle no one has taken their wands out to jinx every
one in sight. There has been no word on Baby, although the petrification has sto
pped. It's good news, and you all hope Baby has somehow managed to escape from t
he castle. On the other hand, you fear it might just be the silence before the s
torm. What if Baby is planning her first, big attack?

Suddenly, three Slytherins break into the Common Room.

"We found her," says the first, out of breath.
"She's quite restless... and BIG," says the other one. "At the 3rd floor, we nee
d help."
After endless weeks of suspense, you allow yourself a deep sigh. You get up and
proceed with the other rescuers. It's quite a late hour, so the only person you
need to worry about is Filch. And really now, how does a Squib stand a chance ag
ainst a squad of people who own a Basilisk pet?
Baby was, indeed, under the stairs on the 3rd floor. Besides her lays a body. Yo
u gasp in surprise.
"Ah, don't worry 'bout him," one of the boys assures you. "He tried to stun Baby
. Man, that made her angry. The skin of a Basilisk is spell-proof, did you know
that?"
You circle the snake, trying to figure out how to take her out of there. You dou
bt she recognizes you anymore, but she has made no attempt to attack you. [i]Yet
.[/i]
"Baby love," Christine runs up to the snake, closing her eyes just in time to av
oid the Basilisk's stare. "Ahh, I've been dead worried about you, don't you ever
do that to me again!"
Surprisingly, the snake seems to show signs of recognition towards the one who h
as been her foster mother. She approaches Christine slowly and then nuzzles her
neck.
[hr]
One hour later, and you're in the Main Yard. You've never been a part of a stran
ger group; almost all the Slytherin students sneaking quietly out of the castle,
led by a sobbing girl and followed by a giant snake. There, Eric awaits for you
with two older wizards, dressed in pale green robes. Without saying a word, one
of them gets closer to Baby as the latter grows impatient. The man opens his mo
uth, but instead of words, weird sounds come out. He's whispering, hissing. Slow
ly, Baby falls into a trance, closing her big, yellow eyes. Her body falls on th
e ground with a silent thud.
"We have put the creature to sleep for easier and safer transportation," the oth
er wizard speaks as the first one levitates the Basilisk into a huge, wood box.
His accent has a Latin sound. "We'll wake her up when we reach the reservation,
and she'll feel like home for the rest of her centuries."
"She's going to Brazil," Eric announced happily as the two men took their leave.
"This way, she'll be somewhere safe, and, who knows, maybe we'll visit one day.
"
You're sad to see her go but you know this is the only way. It will take a while
until you'll get used to not having her around anymore. As for now, you could r
eally use some sleep. You haven't had any since Baby has turned into a moody tee
nager and ran away.
Soon enough, the Common Room will turn back to ordinary. You'll go back to homew
ork, Quidditch practice and exams, and everything is going to be the same. Excep
t, maybe, one thing: the memory of the greatest adventure a Hogwarts student cou
ld have had.