The Chamber of Secrets
"AEL!", Delphinus called out, panting as Aelurus turned around.
"Delph, what is it", he asked.
"Come with me."
Delph led him through the common room, and they climbed the steps to their room, where Ael found...
Everything was a mess. Their trunks open, their belongings were thrown around, all the drawers in their cupboard (with the exception of the secret compartments) were open, clothes and anything else out.
"How?"
"Someone broke into our room", Ron panted.
"Why would someone break in to our room. Besides, most of our housemates have too much of a sense of decorum to do something like that.
Besides, they aren't exactly poor."
"Harry, you don't get it, Riddle's diary was stolen", Ron exclaimed.
"WHAT!"
"Uh huh", he nodded.
"Shit."
***
"Delph, how about we question Myrtle", Aelurus said.
"Really? Did you forget how our last attempt went."
"Only because you couldn't keep your cake-trap shut", Aelurus rolled his eyes.
"Fine, but you're doing the talking and everything", Delphinus rolled his eyes.
"Come on", the two made their way, yet again, to the gloomy bathroom on the second floor.
"Myrtle!", Harry yelled.
"Wha- oh, it you two. Where is that friend of yours, Hermione Granger"
"She's in the hospital wing, but anyway, how did you die", Harry questioned.
They ha expected more tears, more wailing but to their surprise, Myrtle gained a surprisingly gleeful look on her face.
"Oh, it was dreadful. I was hiding in the bathroom because Olive Hornby had made fun of my glasses.
Then I heard a strange sort of hissing. I recognised the voice as a boy's, and I went to tell him to go to his own bathroom, the pervert.
But then, I saw big yellow eyes, and I felt las though I was floating. And next thing I knew, I was dead.
Spent eleven years tormenting Olive Hornby", she grinned.
"And where did you see these eys", Delphinus pressed.
"Over there somewhere", Myrtle pointed at a sink.
The two headed to the direction Myrtle pointed, and after looking for a bit, found a sink with a snake etched on it.
They had just discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
They exchanged looks.
"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."
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, panelled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.
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 staff room. Immediately, please."
Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron. "Not another attack? Not now?"
"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?" "No," said Harry, glancing around.
There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks.
"In here. 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 staff room door banging open.
From between the musty 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 staff room. "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 said, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "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 felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."
The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But 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 - well, I -"sputtered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"D-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?"
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I - I really never - you may have 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 youself. 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'll - I'll be in my office, getting - 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 should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow.
Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."
The teachers rose and left, one by one.
It was probably the worst day of their lives. It was though the day would never end.
Hermione and Crystalline were merely petrified, and could be cured but Ginny?
She was probably dead by now.
"Come on", Ron said suddenly, getting up.
"What-"
"There's still a chance that Ginny isn't dead. Isn't Lockhart supposed to be helping save her.
Let's tell him what we know", Ron ushered him outside.
No one stopped them from exiting the common room.
The made their way to Lockhart's office. There were several portraits of him, scattered all over the desk.
Lockhart seemed to be packing all his belongings.
"We know where the Chamber of Secrets is. And the monster is a basilisk!", Harry exclaimed.
Lockhart jumped and turned around and nervously laughed.
"Oh hello boys? Had a slight emergency, got to leave. I'm sure you understand."
"What about Ginny", Harry asked, anger and disgust rising in his chest.
"Oh the girl, that's unfortunate, so unfortunate what happened to her..."
"You're supposed to be helping her!", Ron growled.
"Oh, what can I do?"
"W-what CAN YOU DO? WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE BOOKS. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THIS GREAT HERO, YOU BASTARD", Ron yelled, and Harry had to hold him back from lunging at Lockhart.
"Books can be misleading, dear child", Lockhart said patronisingly.
"YOU WROTE THEM!"
"Well, it's all for publicity. My books wouldn't have sold well if it was the face of an ugly American warlock on the cover.
Even if he did save a village from werewolves. And the witch who banished the bandon banshee had a harelip."
"So you've just been taking credit for the things other people have done. And even then there are inaccuracies", Harry snapped.
"Now now, it's not all that simple. I had to track down the people who've done all this, gotten an account of how they had done all these things and then obliviate them.
You see, I'm quite handy with memory charms and Even then, I had to research and improvise a bits."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry, boys, 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--"
Though, just then, Harry pointed at him and yelled,
"EXPELLIARMUS"
Lockhart was thrown back and his wand flew out of his hand and Harry caught it.
Ron then pointed his wand at Lockhart threateningly.
"You're coming with us", Ron hissed.
"Come on now boys, what exactly can I do", Lockhart weakly tried, but the glares he got from the two Slytherins cowered him.
The looked around, till Ron yelled out "HERE".
Ron led him to a tap, with a snake etched onto it.
"This must be it", they exchanges grim smiles.
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 up," he said.
Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and 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 wide enough for a man to slide into.
Harry heard Ron gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.
"I'm going down there," he said.
He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.
"Me too," said Ron.
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 Ron and Harry both pointed their wands at him.
"You can go first," Ron snarled.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"
Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.
"I really don't think -" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed quickly.
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 Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.
And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled 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 Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.
"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.
All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos! " Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again.
"C'mon," he said to Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.
The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.
"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away..."
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.
"Harry - 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 curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two.
Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.
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.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy 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 to the ground.
Harry jumped forward, but too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.
"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "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 two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories!"
Lockhart pointed the wand at them and yelled "OBLIVIATE", but just at that moment, everything around them glowed spectacularly.
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.
Harry flung his arms over his head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, 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.
"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"
"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay - this git's not, though - he got blasted by the wand--"
There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through - it'll take ages..."
Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try - 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 there," he called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on... If I'm not back in an hour..."
There was a very pregnant pause, "I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can - can get back through. And, Harry--"
"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.
"DON'T GET YOURSELF KILLED", he heard Ron yell.
And he set off alone past the giant snake skin.
Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone.
The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. 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, faint 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.