Chapter 7: Snakes Aren't Dank

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and the characters, not me.

A/N: I just wanted to take a moment to give a great thank you to all of my readers of this story. You guys letting me know that you like and appreciate my story and my writing is what gave me my drive to get back into writing this story. I'll be honest - I'm not 100% confident on where I want this story to go. I have small ideas but, just like you guys, I won't know where I'm taking this story until I get there. Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys all a great big thank you for loving my work. It really did brighten my night last night when I read through the reviews and saw that a few of you cried - it means that I'm doing my job well. Thank you, my readers - I mean it.

In the broken down girl's bathroom, Luna and Tom were standing in front of the round of sinks, his green and silver Slytherin tie in his hands. Luna tilted her head to the side, a small smile on her face, "We're about to see a basilisk, aren't we?"

"How did you know?" His voice broke a little bit from surprise.

She gave him a small giggle and replied, "During my first year at Hogwarts, a young girl had let loose a basilisk in the school and he had come from a secret chamber under the school that's connected to the drainage system and the pipes. I don't know the whole story, but I do know that the basilisk was very large and very dangerous," she took the tie from Tom's hands, "is this so that I don't get petrified?"

Nodding, Tom replied, "Did I...was I responsible for unleashing the basilisk at your school?"

Shrugging, Luna proceeded to tie the tie around her eyes like a blindfold, "I'm not sure, really."

"Well," Tom went behind Luna to help her tie the tie behind her head, "don't be afraid of the basilisk, Luna. He's not very big in this time."

They headed into the chamber through the series of doors and tunnels, Tom speaking Parseltongue at the doors that required the passwords. Luna spoke softly, "I wish I knew a language that would allow me to speak to another creature like that. It's an extraordinary gift, Tom."

Sighing, he continued to pull the blindfolded Luna deeper into the chamber. He marveled at how much trust she was giving him, especially knowing that he was leading her to meet the basilisk that lives under the school. His voice came out somber, "I used to think that it was a gift...until a few months ago."

It was warm and humid in the chamber. The spring air was filtered down into the chamber through air vents from up inside the school castle and could be felt down there. Tom stopped them and Luna could feel his hands on her shoulders, "Wait right here. And please," he gave Luna a soft short kiss before whispering to her, "Don't take the blindfold off."

He left her side quickly. She thought she could hear him speaking in hisses far away. Instead of standing, Luna decided to sit down and wait. The air smelled very stagnant and moist. Dripping sounds echoed through the area. She honestly had no idea what the place looked like but she knew better than to let curiosity get the better of her.

She moved her face to point in the direction of Tom's footsteps. She smiled with excitement as Tom came to sit in front of her. He gave a nervous sigh as he whispered, "hold out your hand with your palm up, Luna."

Complying, she slowly and gracefully opened her hands and held them out. A very soft silky snake body was placed in her hands. It was sort of heavy but it wasn't unbearable. The basilisk had to only be about six feet long, give or take a foot. It was maybe the width of her arm, which wasn't all that thick, really. She giggled when she felt a snake tongue lick her cheek. It turned into full on laughter when it nudged her chin with its head, "Oh Tom, he's adorable!"

"I'm glad you like him," Tom spoke with a hint of sadness in his voice, which did not go unnoticed by Luna.

"What's wrong, Tom?"

He reached out and pet the basilisk on the head, then stroked her cheek with his fingers and then decided to come clean, "I found out shortly before you got here that I'm the heir to Slytherin. That's why I can speak Parseltongue without any effort. My attitude before was that of...wanting power and wanting people to fear me. Before I knew you, I had a plan...I was going to kill someone with this basilisk. I was going to make people fear me."

Gently stroking the basilisk, Luna whispered softly so as to not startle it, "And now? How do you feel now?"

"I...that is..." he was at a loss for words but he knew that he had to say something, "I...do not want to kill anyone. But I also don't know what to do about him now," Tom gestured to the basilisk and then rolled is eyes to himself when he realized that Luna couldn't see him.

Luna smiled brightly, "Then there's no harm done. And I don't see why he can't stay here? He's safe here and no one will get hurt...speaking of which, Tom, may I ask you something?"

"Of course you can, Luna," he reached out to pet the basilisk again.

Luna tilted her head to the side, deep in thought, "How come you can look at the basilisk and not be petrified or killed?"

Tom laughed, "Because the basilisk thinks I'm it's mum. When I found him, he was still in an egg. I didn't know this either, but I read in a book by Newt Scamander that if you are the first living being that a basilisk sees, he imprints on you and it's petrifying death gaze won't be effective on you."

"Oh, that's fascinating!" Luna got booped in the nose by the basilisk's snout and she nuzzled him back playfully, "I wish I could look at him. He's so cute!"

Sadly, Tom reached out and took back the basilisk and stood back up, "Unfortunately, that won't ever be able to happen. But any time you want to spend time with him, I can take you down here."

Luna looked straight ahead, still blindfolded, and gave a small peaceful smile, "I would love that, Tom."

Returning the smile a bit, Tom turned around and walked back to where the basilisk nests.

Later that day, Tom and Luna found themselves outside under that same tree that Tom had been thrown into by the thestral back when they first met. It was raining and Tom had his wand out, tip up with a magic umbrella over them. A family of thestrals were grazing in front of them in a clearing but only Luna could see them. The irony of the day made Luna laugh a little bit.

The sounds and smells from the rain made it very comfortable for the two of them to sit there in perfect silence. A bird landed on the back of one of the grazing thestrals, but to Tom it looked like the bird was hovering in midair. He lazily rested his cheek on the top of Luna's head and spoke softly, "Do you believe in fate, Luna?"

Thinking deeply, she gazed at the baby thestral grazing right next to it's mother's face. She breathed softly yet deeply before replying, "I think that people who are good at divination can make predictions based on current circumstances and situations. But I also believe that if we want to change the result of a prophecy or a prediction of what could be considered 'fate', I think we have the power to change the path that we are on so that we can change the outcome," she looked up to see the shape of Tom's jawline and some of his slightly wavy dark hair, "Why do you ask?"

Tom chuckled a little bit from her in-depth answer. It was a well thought out answers, even for a Ravenclaw. Sighing a little, he continued to look in the direction of where the thestrals were, "I think...or, that is, I feel like we were meant to be together like this. It's hard to explain, but...you get me. You don't judge and you and I are able to have such wonderful discussions. I never would have wanted to harm another being in order to protect someone who wasn't myself before...I've never felt like i needed to protect someone else who wasn't me. I used to believe that feelings like these were weak or that having feelings like this would make me weak but...I feel like the opposite is true."

A pink dusting came to Luna's cheeks as she lowered her gaze to Tom's hand on his wand. She reached out slowly and put her hand around his, helping him hold up their magical umbrella. She smiled a small bit and started to speak, wetness coming to her eyes, "I have this feeling, too. Back in my time, I didn't have any real friends. Everyone would just look at me think I was weird, or strange or that I had strange ideas and had my head lost in the clouds all the time. But here, while I still deal with that same problem...you're here," she leaned her head over to rest on Tom's shoulder and she closed her eyes, letting the tears fall from her eyes, "I've never met anyone like you before. You have a good heart," she placed her other hand upon Tom's chest, "you have a brilliant mind and you actually like me for just being me."

Tom smiled and moved to kiss Luna on the top of her head. She continued, "You're kind, you care about me and...I've seen the way your face lights up around other creatures like the thestrals and the basilisk," she paused and then laughed a little as she said, "Well, maybe not with the basilisk. I was blindfolded, after all."

The both of them laughed a little and then Luna dreamily added, "It is also sort of funny that we both have creatures that one of us can see but the other cannot."

"Huh," Tom continued to watch the rain fall gently to the ground, "That is quite the coincidence."

Some time passed while they sat there, listening and watching the rain; Luna watching the family of thestrals. When the light started to fade from the sky, they both stood up and started to walk back toward the school, hand in hand. Tom looked down at Luna and pondered aloud, "I wonder how life will be for us once we are done with our classes and we leave school...do you know what you want to do?"

Luna looked around her with a sort of thoughtful and dream-like gaze, "I think I'd like to become an author. I think I want to research different kinds of rare plants and creatures from our world and get to know them better. How about you?"

Suddenly, a lost sort of look flashed onto Tom's face and his voice became sort of fearful and stressed sounding, "I'm...not sure what I want to do with my life once I'm done with school."

With a little side smile, Luna tilted up her head to look up at Tom, "Maybe you could join me in my research and we could write books together?"

"Well," Tom paused before nodding, a hint of happiness in his stressed tone, "I suppose I could try that. We might work well together?"

Side smile transformed into a full smile and she began to skip, dragging Tom with her back towards the castle. He decided to take that as a positive reaction.