Work Text:
[Ominous music plays]
Tom Riddle glances both ways and then, seeing no one, slips swiftly into the girls' toilet. In his excitement he pays no attention to the sounds of sniffling from one of the stalls.
Serpent of Slytherin! I, Slytherin's heir, command you to come forth and continue his most noble work!
There is a pneumatic hiss, and three of the sinks begin to slide into the floor, leaving a large gap from which there emits the smell of damp stone and mould...
...and a rasping, slithering noise.
The head of the Basilisk emerges, and Tom is careful to keep his eyes closed. So he does not see the Basilisk curl around the sinks, allowing the rest of its body to emerge from the pipe.
He does not see when it looks around.
He does not see when it meets its own reflection in a mirror.
He does hear the thud as it hits the floor. He risks opening his eyes just a crack.
The Basilisk has petrified itself.
What?
In his shock, he doesn't notice the stall door opening, or the girl emerging, scrubbing fiercely at her eyes to remove all traces of crying, hated and mocked glasses clenched in one fist. So when she speaks, he is very much startled.
"This is the girls' bathroom. Can't you go and speak your made up language and make a lot of noise in your own ... Oh."
Eyes now dry and glasses shoved back onto her face, she stares between the boy and the frozen form of the giant serpent. He stares back, utterly blank with shock.
The door opens, and another girl walks in. "Are you in here again sulking, Myrtle? Because Profe- WHATTHEHELLISTHAT?!"