[[!meta title="No Mere Basilisk"]]

The Beast of Slytherin wasn't a basilisk; that was just a monster that moved in
later. Instead, the Beast is something much darker; a demon, who recognizes
Harry as the next heir.

This is basically just an excuse to introduce super!Harry at a reasonably early
year, by giving Harry a tutor interested in making him great, as per the Sorting
Hat's original recommendation.

Some possibilities:

* The demon has to be contained to the Chamber of Secrets, or there's no reason
  for any of the other characters to get involved in conflict.
* Does Harry have to pay for his training, or did Slytherin already reach a
  bargain?
* Can other characters be trained, or will the demon only recognize Harry?
* Either Tom was not accepted by the demon and left the basilisk to prevent
  others from finding it, or the demon simply never recognized him as a worthy
  heir and he thought the basilisk was the Beast. I prefer the latter, I think.