Chapter 62 Food

9th May 1992.

Harry is reading a book in his bed when suddenly the mirror lying on the bedside table starts to ring. Harry puts the book aside as the mirror floats right in front of him.

The mirror in front of him is flashing a green snake insignia at him. It's that time again Harry thinks as the mirror stops showing the snake and goes back to his bedside table.

Harry turns to the clock hanging on the wall and sees that it's 11:04 pm. Harry then gets up from his bed still in his pyjamas as a trunk comes out from under his bed.

Harry then moves to the giant landscape painting on the wall behind his bed as the trunk floats behind him. $Open$ he hissed at the painting which causes it open like a door.

Behind the painting instead of the wall are stairs leading downwards towards darkness. Harry brings his hand up and a glowing ball of light comes out of his palm and starts to float in the air illuminating the path in front of Harry.

Harry makes his way down the stairs with the trunk following behind him. After a while, Harry reaches the end of the stairs with nothing but a stone wall in front of him but he keeps walking, the wall as if sensing his presence opens inward like a door.

Harry walks through the entrance and finds himself in the basilisk chamber, he enters through the opening near the corner in the wall at the right side of the main entrance of the chamber. Harry sees the right side of the giant Slytherin head statue right in front of him as he enters the chamber.

Harry comes right in front of the giant statue as the trunk following behind opens and large quantities of raw meat come out of it and gentle lands right behind him. The meat was magically kept in stasis so it is very fresh with blood still oozing out of it.

Harry hissed at the statue causing its giant mouth to open, he waited in front of the opening for a few moments but nothing came out. Seeing that the basilisk is not coming out Harry realised that the giant serpent is still not awake $wake up and come out$ he ordered.

Hearing his command the giant serpent slowly woke up from her slumber before coming out of the statue's mouth. Still half asleep Slinky hissed at Harry.

"It's beef this time, I know you like this so I bought a lot more this time" Harry answered while gesturing towards six cows worth of beef sitting behind him.

Instead of being excited, Slinky lowers her head ignoring the meat in front of her.

Harry sighs "I know it's not a fully grown acromantula but I can't bring you one every time you need to feed. If I did that then the colony in the forbidden forest would go extinct in less than a century." He explained to the giant serpent.

Slinky reluctantly agreed and then started to feast on the meat in front of her. She started to happily devour the food in front of her. Harry couldn't help but shake his head at the basilisk in front of him, Slinky always puts up the sad and lonely snake act in front of him to extort more and better food out of him. But after knowing the basilisk for the last four years Harry is more than familiar with all of her tricks.

Harry feeds Slinky twice a year, usually the basilisk only needs to feed every few years as she mostly stays in a petrified sleeping state, that's why even though Slinky has been in the chamber for thousand years she is still only in her late 280s. But due to Voldemort's actions, Slinky was in a bad state for the last few years.

Slytherin secretly kept a basilisk inside the school as means of protection, so Slinky is bound by Slytherin's command to protect Hogwarts and the students. But Slytherin also ordered her to follow the commands of his descendants, Voldemort used this to trick Slinky into killing Myrtle, a Hogwarts student.

This had a horrible impact on Slinky's mental state, even though she wanted to protect the school she was forced to kill a student. As if that was not enough after the death of Myrtle the portrait of Slytherin was forced to seal the basilisk to protect the students.

Since she was sealed for decades the basilisk could only survive with the school's vermin population as sustenance. Being in a state of constant hunger for decades only added to her failing mental state. Slinky almost went mad due to all of this mental trauma.

After Harry released her from the seal, it took an entire year for Slinky to return to a somewhat stable state of mind. Harry is still surprised by that fact that he actually fought a nearly insane and starving basilisk in his second year, even with the help of Fawkes and the hat he still nearly died multiple times during that battle.

While Harry is feeding Slinky the portrait must have sensed him, since it came flying right next to him. The basilisk stopped eating and angrily hissed at the floating painting. The portrait flinched back like the serpent might actually eat it one large bite.

Slinky is still angry at the portrait for forcing into her petrified state and sealing her in the chamber.

"Slinky I see you are still mad at me due to that unfortunate incident. I know you are smart enough to know that what I was forced to do was necessary. Even though you are being unreasonable, I still forgive you and hope you come to your senses." Slytherin's portrait shamelessly spoke while hiding behind Harry.

Slinky hissed angrily at the portrait before completely ignoring it for her meal. After finishing the meat the serpent went back inside not even acknowledging the portrait's existence.