The Chamber of Secrets, Salazar Slytherin
"All the times we had been in the bathroom, and she was there with us, and we could've just asked her! But now..." grumbled Ron angrily at breakfast.
"Yes, this is a very unfortunate situation for us to be in," said Hermione tiredly, stirring her already spinning cereal. "We'll be lucky if we can even make it to her bathroom."
It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom; the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack on Mrs Norris, was going to be almost impossible.
But something happened in their first lesson, a Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Transfiguration class, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams?" Lisa shouted. "We're still getting exams?"
There was a loud bang behind Harry as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a lazed wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to her.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," She said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."
Studying! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state; And not to mention who'd be missing out on their exams anyhow. He rarely even did homework anymore! Harry picked at the bracelet, not being able to help thinking about Luna and Padma, who'd also be missing exams. Lisa, beside him, was frowning immensely and tapping her ring on the desk. There was a great deal of muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
Harry looked down at the pair of white rabbits he was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had he learned so far this year? He couldn't seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam. Especially not for Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Lisa was still fuming, looking at her rabbits as if it was their fault; Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest, and Hermione looked compelled. Apparently, the thought hadn't passed her mind either.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" Ron muttered after class, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly. "I'm toast! I'll have to take the year over again! I'll probably even have a bunch of those extra-help classes-- like English, and Math, and junk! I already know that stuff!"
"The remedial English classes are so boring," Lisa whined. "I had to take them first term. Mess up a couple incantations, and suddenly, you're illiterate! I've no clue how Luna even remotely tolerates them."
She gasped shortly, realising what she said. "Right... tolerated."
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast. Harry and Lisa had been sitting at Gryffindor table again, not being able to see any reason to sit at the Ravenclaw table.
"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed Amanda, across the hall.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Etta excitedly at the same time Oliver Wood did.
When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."
There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked back at the Slytherin table and was surprised to see that Draco was looking at him. He smiled hopefully, and Harry returned the smile.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" Hermione said cheerfully. "Padma and Luna will probably have the answer when they wake up! If they were gone for longer than you were--" she pointed at Lisa, "-- then they must've found something! They knew to have a mirror-- for something! Oh, if only the book was there... we would know by now... I swear, it's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember..."
"Mind you, they'll both go crazy when they finds out we've got exams in three days' time," said Ron, laughing. "It might be better to leave them where they is till they're over."
Just then, Ginny came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and began to bite her lip.
"What's up, sis?" asked Ron, helping himself to more porridge. "You alright?"
Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of someone, though he couldn't think of who.
"Come on, Gin', you can tell me," said Ron, watching her carefully as he bit into a piece of bacon.
Harry suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully looking at everyone but Harry.
"What is it?" asked Ron.
Ginny looked as if she couldn't find the right words, and started to bite her lip again. She then opened her mouth to speak, but didn't utter a word. A minute or so passed, before she tried again.
"I..." She started, when Percy suddenly appeared behind her.
"Hey, Gin'. If you're done eating, I'll take that seat-- I'm starving," He said, and Ginny didn't take a single moment to hop up out her seat and sprinted out the Great Hall.
"Perse! Why would you do that? She was about to give us information!" Ron asked angrily.
"Information?" Percy said, his tone weakening and his face going a light shade of pink. For the first time Harry could remember, his ears had fallen-- and not only that; They'd gone very, very low. "Well- er- I don't think she was going to give you information on the Chamber of Secrets. You see, er, well-- she may have..." nevermind. Harry, pass me a roll?"
Harry must've been staring off into space, for Percy turned to Hermione instead.
He knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help-- atleast one teacher must've figured it out-- only so many creatures could petrify, right?-- but he wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up. Maybe she really did know something. And to his delight, the chance did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by GilderoyLockhart-- the stupidest person intheschool.
Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; He had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor, and it was apparently beginning to take a toll.
"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."
"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Hermione, Lisa, and Ron gasp quietly, and Draco looked at him in shock, before catching on.
"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."
"That's true, sir," said Draco in a falsely innocent tone. "Say, why don't you leave us here, we've only got one more corridor to go, and it's a very short one anyway--"
"You know, Malfoy, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class--"
And he hurried off.
"Prepare his class," Lisa scoffed, staring at his retreating form. "He's a horrible teacher. Probably gone to curl his hair."
They let the other students trail ahead, before turning on their heels and making a break for a side passage. They had been well on a path for Myrtle's bathroom, when suddenly--
"Potter, Malfoy, Turpin, Weasley, and Granger! Why am I not surprised?" said Professor McGonagall's strict voice, her mouth thinner than Harry had ever seen it before.
"Er, we--"
"Well, you see..."
"We were going to see Padma and Luna." said Harry at once, screwing up his face to look miserable, and Draco, Hermione, Ron, and Professor McGonagall all looked at him. "It was all my idea, ma'am, I just dragged them along. I just, haven't seen them in so long, and I've gotten so impatient... I thought the best chance I'd get to see them would be now, especially since the Mandrakes are nearly ready, and..." He added on hurriedly, subconsciously fiddling with the bracelet yet again. He did realise, shortly, but he kept at it. Pity worked wonders.
Professor McGonagall was staring at him in surprise, before she spoke, in a very shaky voice. "Of course.... Yes, this.... This would be very hard for those who've lost their friends from..." She cleared her throat and straightened her posture. "You may visit Miss Lovegood and Miss Patil. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
Harry, feeling very hopeful otherwise, had been the second-quickest to walk towards the Infirmary-- Lisa was just ahead of him. When they had told Madam Pomfrey that they had gotten permission, she had been ever reluctant, but allowed them in anyway.
"No point in trying to speak to them when they're Petrified, especially when you'll see them upright tomorrow...." She grumbled, as Harry dragged a chair over between their beds. He knew she was right, but he didn't quite care.
Padma had been positioned rather oddly; Her blankets had been upturned, for she had been trying to hide her eyes from something. It looked as if she had turned at just the wrong moment. Luna, however, had looked as she did normally, wide-eyed and smiling. But Harry noticed-- her hand was clenched very tightly, but it had been made as though she was simply holding her earring. Just underneath her little finger, he caught sight of the corner of a tiny book.
Checking Madam Pomfrey wasn't near, he bent down and tried to grab it, only pointing it out to Draco, Ron, and Hermione after he couldn't quite get it.
"Try and get it, we'll cover you," Ron insisted, as he, Hermione, and Draco turned their chairs so Madam Pomfrey wouldn't see. After a few frustrating minutes, the book had been freed of whatever it was caught on.
It was shrunken, evidently, as the cover was too small to have been written. When he enlarged it, Lisa, Draco and Hermione gasped as they read the cover: Most Macabre Monstrosities.
"It's the book!"
"What?"
"The book we were talking about!" said Hermione. She took it from him quickly and skimmed through the pages before stopping at one.
'Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.'
"Basilisk," Harry breathed. "This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk, a giant serpent! But- it's giant. How's it getting around?"
"The pipes-- it's got to be!" Lisa hopped up, talking very fast. "The school's got a massive pipe system-- we saw that first-hand last year, when you protected the stone! We were in the pipes! There's, like, atleast three bathrooms on every floor, but they've all got to go one place-- a sewer, or whatever these people use-- for all we know, the pipes could magically shape to whatever's in them! If a Basilisk went in, the pipes would enlarge magically so it can get around and there would be no effect on the castle!"
"How do you even come to that conclusion?!" Ron gasped. "Merlin- you're kidding! I mean- it's brilliant, but-- but- Merlin!"
"It doesn't matter how she knows," said Draco. "she's probably right. But nobody's died. It's clearly a basilisk- it must be, but it doesn't mention Petrification."
"Oh, use your logic. I know you've got some," Harry said, and Draco glared at him as he spoke. "Because no one looked it straight in the eye. It's kind of like a Gorgon, but more indirect. You look straight into a Gorgon's eyes, you get Petrified, so if you indirectly look at a basilisk's, the same thing. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin was lucky and just got Petrified. Justin... must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again because he's already dead. Padma, Luna, and Penelope were found with a mirror next to them. That's self-explanatory-- Padma and Luna had just found that the monster was a Basilisk, and told first person they met to look around corners with a mirror first, and Penelope was just on her way to the match, and--"
All the others jaws dropped.
"And Mrs Norris? She got petrified too, but..." Lisa whispered.
Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water," he said slowly, the image of Mrs Norris hanging on the lamp post in his mind. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet Mrs Norris only saw the reflection of the basilisk. Someone must've put her there and she saw it in the reflection!"
He scanned the page eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.
"... the crowing of the rooster is fatal to it!" he read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"
"What about the entrance to the Chamber?" questioned Ron, but then he gasped. "It's in Myrtle's bathroom! She must've caught it face to face while she was in there being all mopey and it went out to Petrify someone! That's why she died! It all makes sense!"
They sat there silently for a minute, excitement coursing through them.
"We have to tell Professor McGonagall, she'd know what to do," said Lisa, jumping up.
"We should go to the Staffroom, it'll be break soon." Harry agreed, standing.
They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Ron and Hermione paced around, too excited to sit down. Harry meanwhile, had been to anxious to stand, and he supposed that was Lisa's reason too. Draco had been standing on the side of them, looking as though he were thinking deeply.
But the bell to signal break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."
Harry wheeled around to stare at the others.
"Not another attack?" said Hermione quietly, taken aback. "Not now, right?"
Harry shook his head. "I didn't hear anything-- every time the Basilisk attacked, we heard it. Did you?"
She shook her head.
"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"
"No, we can't, not now," said Harry, glancing around. There was an wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In there. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."
They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staffroom door banging open. From between the folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.
"It has happened," she told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and asked, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, very pale, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.
Harry heard Ron gasp.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall, and Harry put his hands over his mouth to stop himself from shouting out. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."
The staffroom door banged open again. For a moment, Harry hoped desperately it would be Dumbledore. But he could see between the crack of the doors that it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.
"So sorry-- dozed off-- what have I missed?"
He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.
"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."
Lockhart blanched.
"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"I-- um, well--" sputtered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"D- uh, well, I-- did I? I don't recall--"
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first attack?"
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I- I really never-- you must've misunderstood--"
"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."
Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.
"V-very well," he said. "I- I'll be in my office, getting... g-getting ready."
And he left the room.
"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses will go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. The rest of you, please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."
The teachers rose and left, one by one. Hesitantly, the five of them climbed out of the closet and and went silently to their common rooms.
It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life.
He sat in a corner of the crowded Ravenclaw common room, unaware of how to feel or what to do in general. No afternoon ever felt so long, and the common room had never been so full yet so silent.
"Ginny must've known something about the Chamber..." Harry mumbled to himself. He watched out the window as the sun faded below the skyline miserably and students began to go to their dorms.
"You think?" asked Lisa, and then she gasped. "oh, she must've! She was the last person to have checked out the book!"
"You only now mention that?"
"I was- I- I don't know! It's been- it's been a long day, and I am tired. I am tired out of my mind-- we- we should've said something- we knew! We knew it was a snake-- why didn't we say anything? We should've... o- once Lockhart left... we should've told them..."
Harry didn't catch a word of what she said. This would be his last night at Hogwarts-- this. Fretting over his own choice to not say anything-- stupid, stupid! And as if-- Lockhart didn't know what he was doing! He couldn't speak Parseltongue! He couldn't have even possibly known it was a snake, because he couldn't hear it, let alone where to find it!
...but Harry did. He knew it was a snake, he knew where it was, and he could speak to it. He had heard it since the very beginning.
It seemed yet again, that Harry would have to be the one to take matters into his own hands because the teachers certainly wouldn't. They couldn't, in fact. He had to do it, even if he didn't want to. And he definitely didn't want to, but he'd really take his chances. He'd much rather die to a giant snake than to the Dursleys. He'd rather die in the castle, where there was atleast a few people who liked him... where he'd enjoyed just under two years much more than he ever had his ten years with the Dursleys... he'd much rather die feeling crazy for trying, instead of dying at the hands of his relatives.
People stared at him ridiculously as he stood and left the common room, Lisa on his tracks and asking him time and time again where he was going, but nobody tried to stop them either. Darkness was falling as he walked down to Lockhart's office. Somewhere along the way, he met Ron and Hermione on the third floor. It seemed they were doing what he was, as they followed in his footsteps for the office.
Speaking of; There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. A moment passed, and Draco came sprinting down the corridor.
"I just knew you'd come here," He said tiredly to Harry. "You're manic."
Harry only shrugged. He knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.
"Oh-- children," he said, opening the door a bit wider. " the quintet in the flesh! Q- quintet, yes? W-well, er, it's not the best time, see, I'm rather busy at the moment-- if you would be as quick as possible--"
"Professor, we've got some information for you about the Chamber," said Harry, as casually as he could. "We think it'll help you. Tremendously."
"Er-- well-- it's not terribly--" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. His hair was so messed up that Harry could finally see the ends of his ears-- very large with a miniscule point, and they were twitching madly. "I mean- well- alright--"
He opened the door fully and they entered. His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight-blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; Books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.
"Are you... going somewhere?" said Harry slowly. It was evident he wouldn't be going to the chamber.
"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call-- unavoidable-- got to go--"
"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.
"Well, as to that-- most unfortunate--" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I--"
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" shouted Lisa. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark things going on here! It's against your whole title! You are supposed to defend!"
"Well, you see-- I must say-- when I took the job--" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description said- er-- I didn't expect--"
"So you're running away?" said Draco.
Lockhart's ears dipped lower. Hermione seemed to have spotted this too, because she yelled, "After all the work you haven't done! All that you did in your books-- you can't!"
"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.
"So you're a lying coward then?" Harry shouted.
"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on--"
"So you've been taking credit for what a load of other people have done? You're pathetic," said Harry incredulously.
"Harley, Harley," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog. It's not pathetic."
He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.
"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry, children, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book–"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before Harry quickly whipped out his wand and an unfamiliar voice echoed in his head, "Flipendo!" And then, before Lockhart was even off the ground-- "Depulso!"
Lockhart was midair by time the spell hit him, and then he suddenly went face-first for the ground, and his nose made a loud, cracking noise over the buckels of his trunk; His wand rolled across the floor; Lisa picked it up and buried it in her pocket to retrieve her own; Hermione, Ron, and Draco had their wands pointed directly at Lockhart, who held his bleeding nose, keeping him powerless on the ground.
"You're really, really pathetic," Harry repeated, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, feeble once more. Ron, Hermione, and Draco were still pointing their wands at him.
"What d'you want me to do?" asked Lockhart weakly, wincing as he spoke. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."
"Well, you're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We know where it is. And what's inside it. And you're going to deal with it, because whether or not it was on whatever sheet you signed to be the most incompetent professor we've ever had, you're a professor, and you signed up for this. Now, let's go."
They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the message shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
They sent Lockhart in first with a shove. Harry was very pleased to see that he was shaking.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw them. "What do you want this time?"
"To ask how you died." said Harry calmly.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall, I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something so funny and stupid-sounding. A different language, it must have been- but what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then--" Myrtle swelled, her face shining. "I died."
"How?" asked Harry.
"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away from my own corpse..." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again- dead. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where did you see the eyes?" said Harry.
"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.
Harry, Draco, Hermione hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face. Ron and Lisa stayed behind to make sure Lockhart didn't try and chicken out.
It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it. "Not even before I died."
"Harry," urged Hermione. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."
"But..." Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue was when he'd been speaking with Hydrus, and even then, it hadn't been on command. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was Hydrus.
He barely breathed, and was embarrassed when he choked on air. Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.
"Open," he said uncertainly.
At once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe which was opening itself wide enough for any of them to slide into.
Harry heard Draco, Hermione, Lisa, and Ron gasp and looked up again. He has made up his mind what he was going to do.
"I'm going down there," he said.
"Me too," said Ron.
"Not without me," said Lisa.
"Well, I didn't come here to be a wallflower," said Hermione.
"I've already come this far, I suppose," muttered Draco.
There was a pause.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just--"
He put his hand on the door knob, but Lisa, Hermione, Draco, and Harry all pointed their wands at him.
"You can go first," Ron snarled behind him.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Children," he said, his voice feeble. "Children, what good will it do? A man like me, wandless and nasally disabled--"
"Disabled my arse," Harry jabbed him in the back with his foot. "You can talk alright, won't need your sense of smell, and you can breathe out your mouth just fine."
Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe, which enlarged to fit him.
"I really don't think--" he started to say, before Lisa stepped forward.
"Just scream back up the pipe if it's not safe," She said leisurely, giving him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go.
It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear two figures, hardly bumping into anything, and then two knocking into the walls on both sides.
And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe levelled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Draco and Hermione came whizzing out of the pipe, and then Lisa and Ron followed, both of them covered in more slime than anyone else.
"We must be miles under the school," said Ron, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," said Draco, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls. "It's moulding."
All of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it was less dark. "C'mon," he said to his friends, dragging Lockhart along, and off they went, their footsteps echoing loudly on the wet floor.
The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead, even with the light. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous and seemed to be moving of their own will.
"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "Any sign of movement, close your eyes right away. Except for you," He added on, looking at Lockhart.
But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Wait, there's-- there's something up there--" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.
They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and carved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep," Lisa said hopefully as Harry glanced at the other three. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry groaned, before he turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it felt like both his and his Animagus's were pounding in his chest.
Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.
The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.
"Blimey," said Ron weakly as Hermione muttered, "My god..."
Draco was very pale and silent, and Lisa had begun to bite her nails.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.
Lockhart got to his feet-- then he dived at Ron, knocking him onto the ground, before he quickly leapt towards Lisa.
Harry jumped forward, but too late-- Lockhart was straightening up, panting. He had one arm tightly underneath Lisa's chin, Ron's wand in his other hand, and a gleaming smile back on his face.
"Let go of her!" Harry shouted, brandishing his wand.
"The adventure ends here, children!" Lockhart said as Lisa struggled to free herself. Slowly, Draco slipped around behind them, walking carefully. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you four tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body-- let's start with the wretched girl who pushed me down here! Say good-bye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's spellotaped wand over his head before any of them could move, he yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry flung his arms over his head and tried to reach for whosever arm he saw first, but slipping over the coils of snake skin, fell backwards in the process, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Hey!" he shouted, running over quickly and knocking against the rocks. "Are you guys okay? Someone answer!"
"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall.
"I'm okay!" Harry heard Hermione shout. "Ron pulled me out of the way! Lisa and Draco 've been separated from us!"
"I'm fine! I put up a shield around us," Draco called out, followed by a sharp "Lumos! Turpin's out cold. Can't see Lockhart anywhere."
"The git's over here with us--" grumbled Ron. There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though he had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"What now?" said Draco, sounding like he was trembling. "We can't get through right now-- it'll take a while to blast all this away without everything falling in..."
Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He felt very worried-- what if the whole tunnel caved in?
There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... Harry knew there was only one thing to do.
"Wait here," he called out. "Wait with Lockhart, I'll go on.... If I'm not back in... an hour..."
There was a long pause.
"I'll be out soon, Floppy," Draco said, just as a couple of rocks had been blown away.
"We'll try and move some of this rock on our side too," added Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can get back through. And, Harry--"
"I'll see all of you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.
And he set off alone past the giant snake skin.
Soon the distant noise of Ron and Hermione straining to shift the rocks and rocks being blasted to bits by Draco was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly, and the silence, with only his footsteps as noise, wasn't helping. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; Their eyes looked strangely alive.
He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.
"Open," said Harry, in a low hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.