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PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: And in his seventh year... the petrifications, the death of poor Myrtle... The ominous message on the wall...
Two grey-faced, immobile students flank a place where a message is written messily in bright, runny paint. It says "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Dumbledore, your world will crumble around you."
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: Hagrid's roosters had been killed beforehand, so we professors deduced that someone was setting a Basilisk on the school. We quickly devised a solution.
Past Dumbledore is carrying a rooster and pointing zir wand at it.
PAST DUMBLEDORE: The rooster's crow is fatal to it... Therefore... Sonorus. { The incantation for a spell that makes someone's voice very loud. }
ROOSTER {in gigantic, glowing letters}: Cock-a-doodle-doo!
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: We searched the castle and found first the expired Basilisk and then the Chamber entrance. Riddle had left it open for us.
Past Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall approach the tunnel to the Chamber, next to a sink. They step carefully past the giant Basilisk, which is upside-down and dead. Off to the side, the ghost of Myrtle floats, with zir arms crossed.
MYRTLE {quietly}: Bah! I die, and still everyone ignores me.
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: When we found him inside, he made no move to defend himself. He just stood there and laughed...
Tom Riddle stands on a low platform under the giant statue of the head of Salazar Slytherin. Dumbledore and McGonagall are pointing their wands at zem. Ze isn't wearing the Time-Twister.
TOM {in the Voldemort voice}: Ha. Ha.
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: We apprehended him and turned him over to the courts, thinking that would be the end of this tragic story.
Two grey-faced, immobile students flank a place where a message is written messily in bright, runny paint. It says "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Dumbledore, your world will crumble around you."
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: Hagrid's roosters had been killed beforehand, so we professors deduced that someone was setting a Basilisk on the school. We quickly devised a solution.
Past Dumbledore is carrying a rooster and pointing zir wand at it.
PAST DUMBLEDORE: The rooster's crow is fatal to it... Therefore... Sonorus. { The incantation for a spell that makes someone's voice very loud. }
ROOSTER {in gigantic, glowing letters}: Cock-a-doodle-doo!
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: We searched the castle and found first the expired Basilisk and then the Chamber entrance. Riddle had left it open for us.
Past Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall approach the tunnel to the Chamber, next to a sink. They step carefully past the giant Basilisk, which is upside-down and dead. Off to the side, the ghost of Myrtle floats, with zir arms crossed.
MYRTLE {quietly}: Bah! I die, and still everyone ignores me.
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: When we found him inside, he made no move to defend himself. He just stood there and laughed...
Tom Riddle stands on a low platform under the giant statue of the head of Salazar Slytherin. Dumbledore and McGonagall are pointing their wands at zem. Ze isn't wearing the Time-Twister.
TOM {in the Voldemort voice}: Ha. Ha.
PRESENT DUMBLEDORE: We apprehended him and turned him over to the courts, thinking that would be the end of this tragic story.
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"The crow of the rooster is fatal to it" is a rather silly rule; I wouldn't have used it if the Basilisk was a major character. Here, it provides a anticlimactic solution to one of the books' major conflicts, much like the way Voldemort was eliminated after zir attack on Harry's family.
One of my principles for Voldemort's Children as I was developing the story was that the characters should be forced to make decisions without having a convenient Dark Lord to oppose or seemingly wise adult authority figure to look to for guidance. By comparison to the other choices the characters make, the choice of how to dispose of the Basilisk is an easy choice, and therefore it can be covered in a quick and even silly way.
As a side note, the statue in the Chamber of Secrets is supposed to be a full-body statue and not just the head, but this is more recognizable from the films and fits more easily on the page (and this is a small enough detail of the story that it doesn't deserve the drama of taking up more page space or having a cooler view angle).