"Are we finally going to figure everything out?" Harry said.
"It seems like it. Or, rather, you'll at least figure out a bit more than what you know now," Cedric said.
"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," said Ron bitterly at breakfast next day, "and we could've asked her, and now ..."
"Well, you've never had a reason to ask her," Hermione said. "None of us have. It's not like we knew, after all."
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, was going to be almost impossible.
"Somehow, I think you'd be able to do it, though," Hermione said.
But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, which 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.
"What? Exams?" Cedric said. "But there's no way people would do any good on them – there's too much worry and panic going on. No one would have been able to really study and pay attention."
Hermione was about to say that it was a good thing they still had their exams going on, but what he said made her pause, and she realized that he was right – it wasn't a good time to expect them to do their exams with everything that had been happening.
"Exams?" howled Seamus Finnigan. "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.
"I don't think Neville is happy to hear that," Luna said.
Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly.
"Does she really think people can concentrate with what's happened that year," Harry said.
"Seems like it," Luna said.
"The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all revising hard."
"She has really high expectations of all of us," Cedric said.
Revising hard! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state.
"I wonder if Dumbledore would make us actually do the exams," Harry said.
There was a great deal of mutinous 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,"
"Which means exams," Harry said, sighing.
Hermione frowned. Despite how she tended to be when it came to them, she actually loved doing exams, and, it appeared, this year, that she would have to miss them...
she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
"Which, I somehow get the feeling, is not a whole lot," Luna said.
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?
"Nothing that can be useful for an exam," Harry said. "At least, I haven't noticed anything of the likes."
"Neither have we," Cedric said, motioning towards Luna, Hermione, and himself. "Of course, just because it doesn't say anything
He couldn't seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam.
Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.
"I'm sure that a few others probably have that look on their faces as well," Hermione said, laughing with the others.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked Harry, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.
"It's as if the wand is making sure he doesn't forget that he can't really use it," Hermione said.
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.
"That would be good news," Hermione said, knowing that the students in the school would probably feel much more at ease with him there.
"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table.
"That would be the best news, though, if it is who we think it is, then I would have to feel sorry for the Weasleys," Harry said. "It would be hard to learn that your daughter was attacking Muggleborns out of some misguided belief that I would appreciate it."
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.
"Of course he would say that," Cedric said, shaking his head.
"I don't think it's any of those three, though," Luna said.
"Well, if it's not any of those three things, then it must be the fact that the Mandrakes are finally ready," Hermione said. "Which, outside of catching the heir of Slytherin, is the best news possible."
"For us," Harry added, knowing that there would most likely be a couple of people who wouldn't find that good news – Malfoy sprang to his mind at that particular thought.
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."
"Somehow, I don't think it'll be that easy," Hermione said.
"Yeah, I get the feeling that was seen was the eyes," Harry said.
There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in.
"Yeah, I didn't think that he would," Harry said.
Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.
"Please don't tell me that he expects me to be able to answer everything or that he wants me to talk to Myrtle," Hermione said.
"He most likely does," Cedric said.
"Somehow, though, I don't think that's what going to happen," Luna said. She looked at Harry. "Considering the danger from the previous year and the fact that you went straight into the heart of it, I get the feeling that it's going to happen again this year as well."
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to Harry. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up!"
"So, he's not expecting you to find the answers, he expects you to already know them," Cedric said, shaking his head.
"He'll probably be disappointed once he hears that I don't have any answer, except for whatever it was that I went to the library," Hermione said.
"Mind you, she'll go mad when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time."
"I would probably be a bit mad," Hermione said. The other gave her looks that suggested they didn't believe her on that. "Okay, I'd be a lot mad," she amended. "But I would be able to catch up pretty quickly. I mean, knowing how I am, I probably worked ahead on things anyway."
"She hasn't revised. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."
"No it wouldn't," Cedric said. The other two agreed on that sentiment.
"Even if you might drive them crazy, it doesn't mean that you should remain petrified," Luna said.
"Plus, I have the feeling that we'd end up being driven even more mad if Hermione knew she missed the exams," Harry said.
"That's probably true," Hermione said, laughing a bit.
Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and Harry noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.
"I wonder what's up with her," Harry said, not feeling particularly kind towards Ginny at the moment.
"Maybe she wants to tell you and explain herself to you," Luna said.
"What, try and get me to forgive her for petrifying one of my best friends?" Harry said. "I would hopefully tell her that she needs to talk to McGonagall."
"What's up?" said Ron, helping himself to more porridge.
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 who.
"Spit it out," said Ron, watching her.
Harry suddenly realised who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backwards and forwards slightly in her chair,
"That sounds a bit like Dobby," Luna said.
exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.
"Apparently you think the same thing that I do," Harry said.
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.
"What is it?" said Harry.
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.
"I think that's understandable," Hermione said. "Especially if what she's going to say is what we think it is."
"What?" said Ron.
"He's rather impatient with her," Luna said, shaking his head. "Does he not like her talking to him or does he not want her talking to Harry is what I would like to know, though."
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and Ron could hear him.
"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
"You know, I have to wonder how Ron doesn't notice that Ginny is acting odd, how none of her brothers are," Luna said.
"Well, we do know that the twins were concerned, even if they were trying to cheer her up in the wrong way," Cedric said.
"Which was probably the only way they could think of doing so," Hermione said. "I mean, they can probably take things seriously, but they probably also think that they need to make people laugh to keep things from getting to serious and keep spirits high. It probably makes them feel like they're doing something."
"True. What I want to know is why neither Percy or Ron seem all that concerned at all," Harry said.
Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.
"Darn," Harry said. "I get the feeling that she's not going to say anything now."
"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."
"Well, that makes sense as to why he's tired," Hermione said. "I wonder why he chose there to sit instead of somewhere else."
"He probably saw two members of his family and wanted to sit near them," Cedric said. "Of course, he also probably discovered that there wasn't a free seat, and that his sister wasn't eating – something that I would have thought would've worried him."
"Maybe he actually does think that she was done eating," Harry said. "I mean, if she's just sitting there, then it's easy to believe that."
Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scarpered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the centre of the table.
"Percy!" said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.
"I think Percy might be thinking that it has something to do with him," Cedric said.
"That makes me wonder what he's hiding," Harry said.
"Maybe we'll learn as the chapter goes on," Luna said.
"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.
"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say –"
"Oh – that – that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy at once.
"How would he know? It easily could have been about the Chamber," Luna said. "He doesn't know what she was about to say, after all."
"I get the feeling that she knows something about him that he believes that she'll tell, even after asking her not to," Hermione said.
"Well, that does make sense. Ginny can keep secrets, but, for certain things, she will tell her brothers," Luna said. "And as this is Percy, her least favorite brother, her holding the secret for him isn't really likely to last much longer."
"How do you know?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.
"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was – well, never mind – the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody."
"That definitely makes it seem like that one female prefect, the one petrified, was his girlfriend. And, it seems, that he is definitely hiding that relationship," Cedric said.
"But why hide it?" Hermione asked.
"You forget who he's family with," Cedric said.
"The twins," Luna said. He nodded his head.
"They love him, but they also tease him a lot, and it most likely has gotten worse because of him being a prefect and their mother's perchance to always compare them to him, and always pointing out how short they come up to him, which probably cause some resentment towards him from them, which means they prank him the most," Cedric said.
"And they would tease and prank him if they knew that he had a girlfriend," Hermione said. "And, from the sounds of it, Ginny will tell eventually. I kind of hope that she at least waits until the year's done, so that they can spend the summer doing that, which would mean that they would be calmer during the next school year."
"Knowing Ginny, she probably will if asked about it – Ron now knows that she knows something about Percy, and will most likely remind her. The only reason why she hasn't is because of what's happening this year, otherwise they would have known within a week of her finding out," Luna said, having seen how Ginny worked, and doubting that she had changed all that much.
"I must say, I did think she'd keep her word."
"That right there says that Luna here is right. If her own brother doubts her word, then there has to be a reason for it," Hermione said.
"It's nothing, really, I'd just rather –"
Harry had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable.
"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning.
"Yeah, Ron's not going to forget," Harry said, shaking his head.
"Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."
"Somehow, I doubt that isn't true," Cedric said. "He'll probably be so surprised to hear that Percy has a girlfriend, in fact."
Percy didn't smile back.
"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving."
"Avoidance, the best think for him to do at the moment," Cedric said.
Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up –
"I wouldn't either," Cedric said. "And I get the feeling that you'll be able to get that chance sometime soon."
and to his delight it did, mid-morning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Of course," Hermione said. "The one teacher who, most likely, wouldn't hesitate to leave his students, especially if, like Percy, he's been patrolling and hasn't been able to spend a lot of time on himself."
Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong straight away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors.
"Of course," Luna said, shaking her head. "Though, we haven't heard of another attack happening for a while, ever since Hagrid was taken away, in fact."
His hair wasn't as sleek as usual;
"Which is probably why he's complaining so much," Hermione said.
"Yeah, he must hate not being able to look so put together," Harry said.
it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.
"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.'"
"That's what he wishes. I do hope we'll see what his expression is when the first words out of our mouths is that it was big snake," Hermione said. "Of course, that depends on how much we actually saw."
"Frankly I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."
"I agree, sir," said Harry,
"You're striking now," Hermione said.
"I guess so," Harry said, knowing that he wouldn't agree with Lockhart for anything otherwise.
making Ron drop his books in surprise.
"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 ..."
"I think he means that he has something more important to do, like making sure he looks as perfect as he possibly can," Hermione said, shaking her head.
"That's right," said Ron, catching on.
"Took him awhile," Harry said, shaking his head.
"I think you must have really shocked him on you spur of the moment agreement with Lockhart," Cedric said.
"Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go."
"You know, Weasley, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class."
"He's probably gone to perfect himself," Harry said, shaking his head.
And he hurried off.
"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."
"I think I like Ron's comment more than yours, Harry," Luna said. "Sorry."
They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them,
"And did none of them realize what you'd just did?" Hermione said.
then darted down a side passage and hurried off towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"You might want to make sure that no ones there, and that you get into the bathroom itself extremely quickly before you do any congratulations to each other," Cedric said.
But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme …
"We tried to do it outside," Harry said, shaking his head.
"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"
"I say it's Professor McGonagall," Hermione said.
It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.
"Oh, she's angry," Cedric said.
"We were – we were –" Ron stammered, "we were going to – to go and see –"
"He better not say Myrtle," Hermione said. "That would ruin all of your hard work in getting there to see her, and get you in trouble."
"The only good thing about that is it would probably also get Lockhart in trouble as well," Luna said.
"Yeah, you should mention how he let you all go on alone to go curl his hair," Cedric said.
"Hermione," said Harry. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.
"You better hope that Ron doesn't have a clueless look on his face," Hermione said, then she realized who it was that they were going to see. "I'll be glad to know that you're there, even if I can't talk to you." She didn't know what being petrified meant for her, but it did still comfort her that they would be there.
"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry."
"I wonder if I will be able to hear you," Hermione mused.
Professor McGonagall was still staring at him, and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode,
"I don't think she will," Cedric said. "As stern as she is, when it comes to things like this, she's not as stern as she normally appears. I mean, I did see some evidence of it last year, and we read about it in the first book, when she learned that you're parents were dead, Harry. She's not as cold and unfeeling as she seems to be portrayed."
but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.
"Of course," she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye.
"She is human, Harry," Hermione said.
"Of course, I realise this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been ... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
"We get to visit you," Harry said, a smile on his face. Even if they didn't sneak away from Lockhart for this reason, it was still be nice to see her.
Harry and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.
"She must've been very touched to know that you care about Hermione enough to risk a lot to go see her," Luna said.
"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."
They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.
Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.
"I get the feeling that she doesn't approve of you're visit," Luna said.
"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said,
"Well, honestly, has anyone ever asked what a Petrified person feels when underneath the petrification?" Harry asked.
"I don't think so," Cedric said.
and they had to admit she was right when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.
"Just because I don't show any sign of noticing you doesn't mean that I don't know you're there," Hermione said. "Until I get confirmation that I really was completely unaware, I'm going to assume that I could at least hear you."
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know ..."
"It does make sense that it would sneak up on them," Harry said. "Though, it might have also been coming towards some of them as well."
"I like how he assumes the attacker is a he, like no female could have been doing it," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "There have been females who have harm and murdered people in the past."
"How do you know that?" Harry asked.
"One, I read a lot, and there are mentions of it in history, and two, I've heard about it a lot from my cousin, who wants to be a criminal profiler if she can," Hermione said. "She studies stuff like that kind of obsessively."
But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand.
"I wonder why," Harry said.
It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.
Hermione suddenly began to smile.
"What?" Cedric asked, noticing that smile.
"I think I tried to make sure that someone found out why I was in the library," Hermione said. "And I probably didn't want Ginny to know that I'd figured out the monster attacking everyone."
"Assuming she was there to 'admire' her work," Harry said.
Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Ron.
"Try and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.
"Yeah, because it's a smart idea to keep authority to know what's going on," Hermione said, a frown on her face that was directed at Harry.
"Hey, one, we don't know that in the book, and two, you can't say you yourself wouldn't do what we're doing; in fact, you did," Harry said. Seeing her confused looked, he added, "What led to you're petrification. Instead on getting a teacher to tell your suspicions to, or, at the very least, to tell them that you might know what's attacking everyone, you ran straight to the library without a thought, as if you forgot that you could be attacked."
"Right," Hermione said, sighing. When it was put like that, it was a stupid thing to do, and getting on Harry and Ron's case for what they were doing was kind of hypocritical of her. But then, all I had were suspicions, and I could exactly tell them all why I had the suspicions Hermione thought; while Harry hadn't outright forbidden it, it wasn't her place to tell a teacher that he was hearing a voice, and that one of the times he heard it was during an attack, and they most likely would have wanted to know how she had her suspicions...
It was like being between a rock and a hard place there, where she should have gone to a teacher, but also knowing that she couldn't tell someone that Harry was hearing a voice without his permission – it wasn't hurting him, after all.
It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it.
"You gripped that paper well," Cedric said.
"I must have wanted to make sure that I didn't lose it," Hermione said.
While Ron kept watch he tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.
It was a page torn from a very old library book.
"I tore a page out of a book," Hermione said, sounding astonished. That wasn't like her.
Harry smoothed it out eagerly and Ron leaned close to read it too.
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk,
"We were right," Cedric said. "Though, somehow, I don't think there were any doubts about it."
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.
"Well, that's just so smart," Hermione said sarcastically. "They're basically giving you a way of creating even more basilisks."
"Hmm, I guess it's not a good think to highlight how they're born," Luna said, realizing that anyone reading this would be able to have a pet basilisk if they chose to.
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.
"And they call that most wonderous," Hermione said, shaking her head.
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.
"Which would explain why Hagrid's roosters were being killed," Hermione said.
"What I would like to know is how it's able to move through the school," Cedric said. "I mean, I do believe that someone would noticed a great, big, dirty snake slinking around."
Harry was about to say something when Hermione, who happened to glance down at what was next, made a motion for him not to speak, and quickly read the next sentence out.
And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry recognised as Hermione's. Pipes.
"So you pretty much figured it all out," Cedric said to Hermione.
"All but where the chamber is it seems," Hermione said.
It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.
"Ron," he breathed, "this is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a Basilisk –a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue ..."
"And I think that must have been what made me realize it," Hermione said. "I probably looked up possible monsters after the diary thing, glanced at the Basilisk, and then, when you heard the snake before the game, remembered reading that it was a snake, and wanted to take a closer look, realized that it was probably it and how it was getting around, and then was on my way back or to a teacher or something of the like. At least, that's how I'm suspecting it was."
Harry looked up at the beds around him.
"The Basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died"
"Which is probably why no one thought that it might be it," Luna said. "I haven't ever seen anything say that it'll petrify the victims instead of kill if you indirectly look it in the eyes, whether through something or in a reflective surface."
"– because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The Basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin ... Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again ...and Hermione and that Ravenclaw Prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realised the monster was a Basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look round corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror – and –"
"And we ended up petrified instead of dead," Hermione finished, thought she wasn't sure if that was what he was actually going to say, or if she just added on to it.
Ron's jaw had dropped.
"And Mrs Norris?" he whispered eagerly.
"The only example you didn't give," Cedric said.
"It was the water on the floor," Harry said. "She saw the reflection in it."
"So, basically, Myrtle was able to save Mrs. Norris from dying," Luna said. "I wonder if she realizes that."
"Somehow, I don't think so. In fact, I don't think we in the book realize that," Harry said.
Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water ..." he said slowly, "the flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs Norris only saw the reflection ..."
He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.
"Yeah, it does, doesn't it," Hermione said.
"The Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it!" he read aloud.
"Which explains why Hagrid had a dead rooster that one time," Luna said.
"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 the Basilisk! It all fits!"
"But how's the Basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A dirty great snake ... Someone would've seen ..."
"I guess he either didn't notice the what you wrote at the bottom or he didn't read it himself," Harry said.
Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.
"Pipes," he said. "Pipes ... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls ..."
"I wonder why there are pipes in the walls," Cedric muttered to himself. Usually, places like Hogwarts – wizarding places – used runes to conjure water and it when it headed down a drain.
Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in –"
"– Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Harry.
"Okay, how did we get onto the subject of guessing where the Chamber is, and why is it guessed to have been in a bathroom," Hermione said.
"Don't know, but it would make sense if it was in a bathroom," Harry said. "I mean, that's most likely were you'd find some pipes."
They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.
"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how they've been controlling the Basilisk."
"I would imagine that's a given once you know that it's a Basilisk, without everything else being said," Hermione said.
"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Shall we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Yes," Cedric said. "The teachers need to know this information."
"Though, knowing this will probably guarantee a school wide evacuation," Luna said. "It would be plain irresponsible, and dangerous, not to."
"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes, it's nearly break."
"It might be better to go to Madam Pomfrey," Cedric said.
"Yeah, because I'm getting the strange feeling that you're not going to get to tell her about what you found," Hermione said.
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.
"You do realize that you're not supposed to be there," Hermione said, though the look on her face wasn't disapproving; in fact, she looked like she was keeping from smiling at the moment.
"It'll make sure we don't get into trouble," Harry said, shrugging.
But the bell to signal break never came.
Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"I think we're definitely right about you not being about to share all of this information," Hermione said, sighing.
"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, stay there, and be prepared to blow through any objections by saying you know what's in the chamber and a possible location to where it is," Hermione said.
"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."
"You shouldn't be hiding," Hermione said, shaking her head. "You'll end up finding a reason not to mention what you went there to talk about if you do."
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.
"I hope that it wasn't another attack," Harry said.
"I have a feeling it's worse than that," Cedric said, who had been looking at Hermione, who, upon reading the next line, had gone pale.
"It has happened," she told the silent staff room.
"I get the feeling that something worse than a petrification happened, and they were fearing that it would happen," Harry said, tensing.
"A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
"Oh, no," Luna said, eyes wider than usual.
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?"
"Knew that he wouldn't want the chamber to stay open," Hermione said. "The fact that he's showing concern over a student says it right there."
"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 for ever."
Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"He probably feels like he's failed whichever student it was that was taken," Hermione said.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.
This was met with a lot of surprise to the readers.
"What?" they all said. That didn't make sense – if she was the one who was doing all of the attacks, why would she kidnap herself...unless she wasn't the one doing the attacks, as they thought.
"Poor Ron," Luna finally said, as none of them were sure what else to say. It was a surprising piece of information that left them wondering who the culprit was. And they also felt a bit sorry for Ron, having to hear that and discover that his sister was most likely dead.
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 staff-room door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore.
"At this point in time, that would be a good thing," Harry said.
"Yeah, he'd most likely get everyone calmed and make them feel safe," Luna said.
But it was Lockhart,
Everyone wrinkled their nose at that.
"Why is he just arriving now?" Hermione asked, shaking her head. "He should have been there when the call was first placed."
"You know, it's probably a good thing that he wasn't there," Harry said. "He probably would have started sprouting off his 'accomplishments' again and saying on and on how he knew that Hagrid couldn't be the culprit and that 'it was just too bad that he hadn't been there to save the girl'. You know, like he was doing with Mrs. Norris, saying that his presence could have saved her and all."
"True," Hermione said. "At least we're spared that."
and he was beaming.
"Oh, I really hope that some hits him," Cedric said, shaking his head at Lockhart's behaviour.
"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.
"He's not like by anyone in that room, or this one," Harry commented.
Snape stepped forward.
"Excellent," Cedric said. "Hopefully Snape will curse him or something."
"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."
"Oh, this is even better," Cedric said. "Lockhart will have no choice but to either go to the chamber and take care of the monster, or run. And since it'll get out that he was sent to take care of the monster, well, I'm sure you know what'll happen."
Everyone in the room grinned at that. Lockhart would prove to be real, and that his reputation actually was earned, or it would be ruined and in tatters. Either way, it would get rid of Lockhart in one way or another.
Lockhart blanched.
"Now, why would he do that," Hermione said, her voice completely sarcastic. It was clear why he would; there had been many examples throughout the book that he was all talk no action.
"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 think she's getting back at him for not only what happened with the Willow, but probably because he probably tried 'helping' her with the mandrakes as well," Cedric said. The others didn't doubt that at all.
"I – well, I –" spluttered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"I think Professor Flitwick is getting him back for Valentine day," Hermione said, remembering how Lockhart pretty much embarrassed Professor Flitwick in mentioned some type of Enchantments that he supposedly knew of.
"D-did I? I don't recall ..."
"Yeah, he says that now," Luna said. "If they weren't turning on him, he'd be repeatedly saying the same thing over and over again."
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape.
"Oh, he wouldn't have survived it," Harry said.
"Nope, he wouldn't have," Cedric said.
"Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
"It would have gotten rid of him a whole lot quicker if he'd done that," Hermione said.
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I ... I really never ... You may have misunderstood ..."
"He's in trouble," Hermione sang out.
"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."
"He's finally being given what he wanted, how nice," Luna said sweetly. She was being sarcastic, of course.
Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue.
"Did he not realize that hardly anyone likes him?" Harry asked, shaking his head.
"Well, considering that he had most of us school girls to sooth his ego, as well as any fan mail sent to him from the outside world, I doubt it," Hermione said. "I can only hope that most of us – me included – realized that he might not be all that he seems."
He didn't look remotely handsome any more. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin he looked weak-chinned and weedy.
"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."
There was some sniggering at that, though it was stiffled quickly because of the situation. While it was funny that McGonagall was only giving Lockhart free range to get him out from under their feet, the fact was that Ginny would probably never be rescued – if she was still alive – kept the them from really enjoying McGonagall's actions.
"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.
"And we followed after them," Harry said. "Probably using a shortcut to get to the tower before anyone realized that we weren't there."
"Actually, since everyone was probably there by now, you just have to hope no one mentions that you came in late," Cedric said.
It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life. He, Ron, Fred and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.
"That's just has to suck for them," Luna said.
"Yeah," Harry said. He'd never had any siblings, but he was sure that he would
No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet.
"I'm sure that most of the other houses are just as quiet," Cedric said. "The only house that I can't imagine being completely quiet is Slytherin, and that's mostly because of Malfoy and others like him, probably celebrating the fact that a 'blood traitor' would die, even though they would prefer a Muggleborn dying." He also knew that the word 'Muggleborn' wouldn't be the one used, but, unless it came up in the reading, he refused to say it.
Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.
"And I'm sure that others are following them," Hermione said.
"She knew something, Harry," said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staff room.
"He was quiet for that long. I would have expect him to begin planning to go after her," Hermione said. "I mean, even though he complained about them, he does seem to care a lot about his family, and, considering that those two would have most likely gotten close to each other because they're the youngest in the family. I expected him to charge to find her."
"Yeah, but, with what you're thinking, it also serves to say that they also close enough that he feels the pain of possibly losing her a lot more than his siblings do. Plus, with the way he's been treating her this year...well, he's probably also has a huge heap of guilt on his shoulder's as well," Cedric said.
"That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was –" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."
"That's true," Hermione said. "Unless she concocted being taken as a way to be rescued by Harry for some reason."
"But that really wouldn't make sense with the message left behind, because she doesn't have any proof that Harry would know where the Chamber is to rescue her," Luna said.
"I know," Hermione said. "Though, in her mind, it might make sense. I mean, we know that there are books out there about Harry – you mentioned them during the first book – and it's probable that the contents in them would make it sound like Harry could pretty much do anything and figure anything out."
"True," Luna said. "There is that."
Harry could see the sun sinking, blood red, below the skyline. This was the worst he had ever felt. If only there was something they could do. Anything.
"Somehow, I think you'll figure out something to do – maybe you should go to McGonagall, and tell her what you know," Cedric said.
"Harry," said Ron, "d'you think there's any chance at all she's not – you know –"
Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive.
"D'you know what?" said Ron, "I think we should go and see Lockhart."
"Is he serious? Considering the way he's been acting about Lockhart throughout the entire book, he's willing to go to him," Hermione said, shaking her head. "He's the one with the biggest doubt about Lockhart – why would he trust him in any fashion?"
"Because he's the teacher whose apparently going to go down into the chamber," Cedric said. "Because of that, and because of the books, he probably thinks that he's the best person to do to. Besides, I think a good portion of his complaining is because of your reactions to Lockhart."
"What do you mean" Hermione asked, frowning.
"Well, with the way he bickers to you about him, all the time, I think he might have a crush on you," Cedric said. Hermione wrinkled her nose at that.
"Well, considering that we argue like brother and sister, I would have to say that it's not mutual – at least, not for me. I have no idea how my book self might feel about it, though I hope that she doesn't have one of him. Having my book self have a crush on one guy that real me can't stand is more than enough for me," Hermione said.
"Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."
Because Harry couldn't think of anything else to do, and because he wanted to be doing something, he agreed.
"You're like Hermione – you don't like feeling helpless," Cedric said.
The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.
"While it's a good thing that no one stopped them, technically they should have," Hermione said.
Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps and hurried footsteps.
"Oh, he better not be doing what I think he's doing," Hermione said, eyes narrowing. She turned to look at Harry.
"If it is what I think it is, make sure you let me know. This will be a very quick way of killing my crush on him," she said.
"You should make sure the whole school knows, Harry," Luna said. "It would kill the crushes in many of the girls in the school."
"But how many would actually believe it," Hermione said, sighing a bit
"Probably a lot of them, since the actions he's done would probably already have some of them questioning his actions," Luna said.
"True," Hermione said, nodding her head.
Harry 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.
"He'll probably be surprised to see you," Luna commented.
"Oh ... Mr. Potter ... Mr. Weasley ..." he said, opening the door a mite wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quick ..."
"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."
"Er – well – it's not terribly –" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable.
"Makes sense," Cedric said. "You've just put him into a hard place." It was pretty clear, with Lockhart's attempts not to show them how the room looked the he was running away. However, as he most likely wanted to at least attempt to preserve his image, he couldn't deny them at the moment.
"I mean – well – all right."
He opened the door and they entered.
"Well, no way for him to preserve his image now," Luna muttered, knowing what they would most likely find there.
"Also shows how smart he is," Hermione said, shaking her head. Lockhart obviously didn't realize that his reputation wouldn't survive with Harry and Ron knowing that he was leaving instead of helping.
Cedric, however, frowned as his eyes narrowed. As stupid as Lockhart seemed, he didn't think he was that stupid, unless he had another plan in mind...
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.
"He sounds like he didn't even take time to think about helping," Luna said, shaking her head.
"And he's obviously materialistic – otherwise, he'd be long gone by now," Hermione said.
"It's his downfall here," Harry said. "I do not believe Ron and I will just let him leave."
"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry.
"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 ..."
"Yeah, his reputation will not survive, especially had you gone to another teacher and done what you're doing now. It would be kind of interesting to see how he responded when it became known that he ran away, leaving the other teachers to deal with the problem going on," Cedric said. He, however, didn't bother to mention that it was probable that Harry and Ron wouldn't get away from Lockhart with this knowledge.
"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.
"Unfortunately, I don't think he cares what happens to Ginny or not," Hermione said.
"Well, as to that – most unfortunate," said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes
"He's guilty of running away, that faker," Harry said.
"Yeah, it'll most likely come out sooner or later that he hasn't even done anything written in those books had assigned everyone to read," Hermione said.
as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I –"
"That I might be found out," Luna improvised, knowing that it wasn't anywhere even close to what Lockhart was going to say.
"You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "You can't go now! Not with all the dark stuff going on here!"
"As much as I hate to admit it, nothing says that he has to say in the job description. It's just an implied deal, and a moral one," Cedric said.
"Well, I must say ... when I took the job ..." Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes, "nothing in the job description ... didn't expect ..."
"He didn't expect that he would end up having to do something that he's always bragging about being able to do," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Yeah, you really better make sure you let me know that he's a fraud."
"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books?"
"You're mentioning the same excuse that I did during the pixies," Hermione said, where she had mentioned that he was only giving them hands on experience, and that Ron was wrong because of what he did in the books that he wrote.
"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.
"Which is why you can't and shouldn't always trust them," Luna said.
"That's a lesson I'm going to have to really learn," Hermione said.
"You are getting a bit better about it, though," Luna said.
"You know, I have to wonder if everything being said in these books are true or not," Harry said. "I mean, how do we know that they're true or not?"
"I'd say that we probably shouldn't treat everything as true, but that the fact that whoever sent them went through a lot of work to do so, and I can't see it being a trick," Cedric said. "I'd imagine that they are, though how this person would know the intimate details of your thoughts, Harry, I don't know, unless a spell was cast to make these books."
Before anything else could be said, a note appeared in the book. This note was a bit different compared to the other ones – the handwriting was different, not as neat as the other one. Plus, there were two different sets of handwriting on it, and Hermione recognized her own.
"What does it say?" Harry asked. Hermione cleared her throat.
These books are real and show what will happen unless you change what's to happen.
Now, however, you should be warned to be careful, because if you try to change things to fast, you might do something that'll have an even worse effect on the future, which would make sending these books to you worthless.
"The writing for both is different," Hermione said. "And I think my future self is the writer of the second part of the note."
She showed the note to the others. Harry's eyes widened as he recognized the writing of the first writer. "I think my future self wrote the first part of the note," he said.
"So, what, our future selves – or, at least, yours and Harry's – are with whoever T. C. H. and watching us like she is," Luna said.
Another note fell down, and, when Hermione read it, she couldn't help the little laugh that came from her mouth.
"What?" Cedric said.
"All this note says is Yes, oh, and Harry, don't worry about the chicken you set to cook, we've been keeping an eye on it, so you don't have to panic. T. C. H.," Hermione said. "However, the first part, the 'yes', is repeated three times, by your future self, mine, and T. C. H. Oh, and it says here at the bottom not to try and ask them anything – in fact, it's preferred if we just kept reading the book."
"So, basically no cheating," Cedric said, sighing. "I think we would all prefer it if we could cheat, especially when it comes to super tense moment."
"Yeah, but I guess that I can see where they're coming from," Luna said. "They don't want you to to start asking questions a lot and forget about the books. Plus, some of the small details in the books can help us with the big ones."
"That does make sense," Harry said. "And I am kind of glad about the food I set up to cook earlier is being watched – I kind of forgot about it in the events of the last chapter."
"I have the feeling that it's why there are some options for meals that would require a set time to cook," Luna said. "The fact that they would be able to keep an eye on them for us if we got too drawn into the books. It's already been shown with this one – I can only imagine that it'll be a repeat occurrence throughout the rest of the books."
There was the sound of a stomach growling at the mention of food.
"I'm kind of getting hungry now that food's been mentioned," Cedric said.
"So am I," Hermione said. "I think we should eat once this chapters over."
"Okay," Harry said, also feeling hungry.
"Agreed," Luna said, nodding herself. All four of them hoped that the chapter wasn't much longer.
"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.
"And what should come next is a confession," Luna said, though a confession to what, she didn't know. She just knew that he hadn't done what he said he'd done in the books.
"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "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."
"So, basically, he fakes having done it to get more people to buy his books," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Sadly, I think there are quite a few people who would buy them anyways simply for the fact that he's described as handsome."
"No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves."
"Wait, does that mean that he didn't just write fiction, but something that another person did," Hermione said. "But then, how did he get away with it? I mean, wouldn't not only the person who did do the deed, but the villagers that he saved, mention something or complain about it?"
"I would imagine so," Luna said.
"Unless he did what I think he did," Cedric said. Hermione looked at him, confused.
"A memory charm," Cedric said. "I think he used memory charms – just erase who supposedly did the tasks and put himself into there place, and, as far as the world knows, he's the one who did the task."
"But how could he erase an entire village's memory?" Hermione said. "I mean, wouldn't that take a lot of work."
"Only if every villager knew who it was that saved them," Cedric said. "If only a select people knew, then it's very easy to do it."
"Wait, if he's telling Ron and I this..." Harry started.
"Then chances are that he's probably planning on doing the same with you," Cedric said. "I had a feeling that him letting you into the room wasn't good."
"You mean -" Hermione started.
"He's probably been planning on doing it the minute they said that they had information for him about the Chamber," Cedric said. "The fact that they came to him says that, if he runs, they can easily mention that, which wouldn't really help him keep his career."
"And what, the teachers in the school wouldn't mention his running act," Hermione said.
"Not if he was going to try it on them as well," Cedric said.
"He wouldn't win against them," Luna said. "Especially Flitwick."
"He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on ..."
"So that's how he justifies it, because they aren't attractive at all," Hermione said, shaking her head. "That shouldn't matter, especially since, I get the feeling that you can't do that job and not get some kind of scar of some sort."
"That's true," Cedric said, remembering one of the pictures of an auror he once saw from when the war was going on.
"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" said Harry incredulously.
"Pretty much, though I doubt that he'll think of it like that. He's definitely doesn't care about anything other than himself, and, as such, doesn't see doing what he's done as wrong," Cedric said.
"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that."
"Like I said, he doesn't she anything wrong with what he's done," Cedric said.
"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."
"And yet, strangely enough, quite a few people actually manage to do it without falling down to you're level," Hermione said. "Though, I do suppose that, for some, it's more like it falls into their laps without a single shred of work." Her eyes were looking at Harry when she said that, leaving no doubt as to who she was talking to.
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.
"So he's going to try to erase our memory now," Harry said, shaking his head. "I wondered when he would do it."
"Somehow, I think you'll be faster," Hermione said, then a grin crossed her face. "And do you remember the only major defense spell you've learned this year?"
The others grinned at her, realizing what she was getting at – if Harry was going to defend himself, there was more than a good chance that he would use the same spell that he'd used to get the diary away from Malfoy, as it was the only defense spell that they'd all really learned this year.
"Awfully sorry, boys,"
"Somehow, I doubt it," Hermione said.
"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 ..."
"Considering the fact that there's no way it wouldn't get out that you ran instead of staying and helping at the school, I get the feeling that you probably will never sell another book, even if you actually do manage to do the spell on Harry and Ron," Luna said.
Harry reached his wand just in time.
"I'm going to have to learn how to be faster to help defend myself," Harry said.
"That's something I think we all can work on together," Hermione said.
Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmus!"
Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk.
Everyone in the room laughed; none of them cared a lick about Lockhart to wonder if he was okay, and actually hoped that he'd gotten more than just his pride hurt.
His wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.
"Idiot. Did he forget that his wand was malfunctioning?" Hermione said, her face becoming cross.
"I think so. However, you've got to admit, that, if Lockhart manages to overpower him, they're protected quite well – Ron's wand is more likely to hit Lockhart with a curse rather than any of those two," Cedric said.
"True," Hermione said. "Especially since I get the feeling that Harry's not going to give up his wand as easily as Ron would."
"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one,"
"Never thought I'd be thankful to have learned something from Snape," Harry said.
said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, weedy once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.
"Yes, never take you're wand off of your opponent," Cedric said.
"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."
"You can be the bait," Hermione said.
"Yeah, go to the Chamber, bring him along, and if they're attacked, let him be the first to face the basilisk," Luna said.
"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is."
"Making sure that he knows exactly who the credit goes to," Hermione said. "Nice."
"And what's inside it. Let's go."
They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.
"Considering how much he probably annoyed you throughout the year, I'd be pleased as well," Hermione said.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the cistern of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said, when she saw Harry.
"She sounds oh so happy to see you," Hermione said sarcastically.
"What do you want this time?"
"To ask you how you died," said Harry.
"Let's hope that there are no tears," Hermione said.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Unbelievable," Hermione said.
"So, to get on her good side, you should ask how she died," Cedric said.
"You know, considering how touchy she gets when you mention her being just a ghost and all, it's hard to believe that she likes talking about how she died," Luna said.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish.
"She must not mind it that much, though I do have to wonder if she ever told Dumbledore how she died," Hermione said.
"Why?" Cedric said.
"Because if she did, then he probably has an idea of what's in the chamber, and, as you seem to be right about the basilisk, it means that he's put all of the student's at risk by not immediately sending them home when Mrs. Norris was petrified," Hermione said.
"Basically, it's just another strike against him," Harry said. Hermione nodded her head.
"Exactly," she said.
"It happened right in here. I died in this very cubicle."
"So that must be the cubicle she's always at, then," Hermione said.
"I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses."
"I wonder if something else happened before the teasing, or if Myrtle was always overly sensitive," Luna said.
"The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been."
"Parseltongue," Harry said. "So that means were right as to where the chamber is."
"What I want to know, then, is how is it that no one has noticed that when they were putting the plumbing in," Hermione said.
"Probably because they don't need to tear into anything, and, chances are, it has always been a bathroom," Cedric said. "I guess it's different in Muggle places, but in wizard places, we use runes to conjure the water and vanish the waste."
"Oh," Hermione said. "Then how does Myrtle flood the place?"
"That's a question that I wouldn't mind knowing myself," Cedric said.
"Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking."
"Ah, she wanted to know what a boy was doing there," Luna said.
"That, or she wanted to reprimand them," Cedric said.
"So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then –"
"Looks like you were right, Cedric," Luna said.
Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, "I died."
"That would be a very weird tale to hear," Harry said. "'Oh, I was just going to tell someone to go away, but died instead, without any warning'."
"Yeah, that would be weird to hear," Cedric said, shaking his head.
"How?" said 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 ..." She looked dreamily at Harry.
"Why?" Harry asked. "Unless the feeling of her dying was dreamy to her, why would she look at me like that?"
"And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see."
"Wait, what?" Hermione said. "She came back to haunt her bully."
"That's one of the...weirdest reasons I've heard for a ghost coming back," Cedric said. "Most that I know the stories of either weren't ready to die or were afraid of what might await on the other side."
"Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"I get the feeling that that's completely true," Hermione said.
"Somehow, I get the feeling that this Olive Hornby regretted those actions for a long time," Cedric said. "Probably not doing it as much anymore, though, if she's still alive."
"Wouldn't the fact that Myrtles there at the school say that she isn't," Hermione said.
"Not necessarily," Cedric said. "This Olive person could have gone to the ministry to demand them to make Myrtle stop. Since they could exorcise her, she would really have no choice but to comply with the demand. Why she chose there to go is a bit of a mystery, though, unless she did it because it's where she died, and she wasn't sure were to go."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.
"Good question, Harry," Hermione said. "Since it sounds like the chamber had just been opened, wherever she saw the eyes is probably where the entrance is at."
"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her toilet.
Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.
"He's probably just now figured out what monster it is that she's talking about, and it's scares the hell out of him," Luna said.
It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below.
Harry was about to ask why there were pipes if they weren't used, then realized that they might, just not in the way he imagined them to be.
And then Harry saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That's smart. Something so small and tiny would be easily overlooked, even if you knew what to look for," Cedric said.
"I take it that a snake doesn't have to be alive to have parseltongue spoken to it," Hermione said.
"Not as far as I know," Cedric said. "Then again, not much is known about the subject to begin with." He didn't have to mention why that was.
"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly, as he tried to turn it.
"Harry," said Ron, "say something. Something in Parseltongue."
"But –" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he'd been faced with a real snake.
"I wonder if you could actually talk it, without realizing it, but also without having a snake in front of you," Cedric said.
"Well, we already know that I can't force it," Harry said, thinking back to when he tried to do that without a snake. "At least, not without a snake there."
He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," he said.
He looked at Ron, who shook his head.
"English," he said.
"And it doesn't seem you can force it if it's not real," Hermione said.
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 was moving.
"Okay, that sounds extremely creepy," Hermione said.
"Open up," he said.
Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him,
"You did it," Cedric said.
"Now, we get to see what the chamber looks like," Luna said.
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,
Hermione giggled at that.
right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
"Or a large snake," Luna murmured, before frowning.
"What?" Harry asked, noticing her look.
"Well, can you see Slytherin and his heir actually sliding down a dirty pipe?" she asked. He shook his head. "Exactly. Plus, they do have to get out, and I don't see how they would do that with just a pipe, since it's basically just a slide." She shook her head. "There's probably some other word to say in Parseltongue to get something like stairs to appear. That, or there's actually two entrances, one for the snake, and one for a person."
"And we most likely found the snake's entrance," Hermione said.
Harry heard Ron gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.
"You're going to go down there," Hermione said. It didn't take a genius to figure that out.
"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.
"I don't think Ginny deserves to die, even if I think she's a bit delusional to think I'd want to become her husband without knowing her," Harry said. "Plus, Ron shouldn't have to go through the pain of loosing a family member, especially if we could save them.
"Me too," said Ron.
"Of course he was going in, there wasn't even a question about it," Hermione said. "It's his sister, after all."
"I would have been quite disappointed if he didn't," Luna murmured.
There was a pause.
"Lockhart's going to try and get out of going with them," Cedric said.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile.
"No, they need him," Luna said. "He's the bait and shield for them, after all."
The others sniggered at that.
"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.
"He's taking Lockhart's lack of a spine, and lack of help, very personally," Hermione said.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Boys," he said, his voice feeble, "boys, what good will it do?"
"Quite a bit," Hermione said. "If the basilisk is waiting for them, they'll have warning not to follow you down straight away, after all. If you can say something, then they'll know it's safe."
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,
"I don't think they care what you think," Cedric said.
"None of us do, in truth," Hermione said.
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.
"Hope you have fun," Luna said.
It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide.
Hermione wrinkled her nose. There was a part of her that was glad that she was petrified – she would hate having to go down that. Not that she wouldn't, had she not been petrified. She knew that she would have gone with her friends if she was there. Not even a disgusting pipe would stop that.
He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons.
"Well, that would make sense, wouldn't it," Hermione said. "If it was on the same level as the dungeons, it would probably have already been found." She really doubted that the castle hadn't gone through at least a few changes since it had been built.
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 levelled out,
"Oh, I hope you don't go shooting out at the end," Luna said.
"Somehow, I don't think your hope is going to pan out," Cedric said.
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.
"Wouldn't do much if it wasn't large enough to stand in," Hermione said.
Lockhart was getting to his feet a little way away, covered in slime and white as a ghost.
"Somehow, I don't think it's the fact of where he is that has him white as a ghost," Luna said.
"Yeah, all the blood probably drained from him when he saw how filthy his robes were," Harry said.
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.
"That's probably an understatement," Harry said.
"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.
"I hope not, because, should there be a cave in..." Hermione trailed off, and the others shook a bit.
"I would hope that Slytherin put some safety spells to ensure that didn't happen," Cedric said.
All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"I'm going to need to light my wand again," Harry said.
"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.
Hermione shivered a bit.
"Remember," Harry said quietly, as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away ..."
"Yeah, good advice," Cedric said. "You really don't want to chance it and end up looking it into the eyes."
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.
"The basilisk's food," Hermione said.
Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her,
"I don't think she'd be bone quite yet," Luna said. "If she was dead already."
Harry led the way forward, round a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Harry, there's something up there ..." said Ron hoarsely grabbing Harry's shoulder.
Everyone in the room became tense.
They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"It's either asleep, or what you're looking at isn't the actual snake," Hermione said.
"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes.
"Not chancing getting caught by it's eyes, is he," Harry said.
Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.
"I hate it when that happens," Hermione said.
Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see,
"Ready to shut them at a moments notice, but still able to see if it's needed or not," Harry said.
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," Cedric said. "And, unfortunately, we can't assume that it's still that length either. Who knows how old that skin is, after all."
"Blimey," said Ron weakly.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Somehow, I don't think he did that because of any kind of shock," Hermione said. "I hope that you or Ron keep a wand on him...and are standing far away enough that he can't get your wand from you."
"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.
"Oh, no," Luna said.
"Well, at least it's Ron's wand that he'll be getting, not yours," Hermione said. "With Ron's wand, chances of him successfully casting a spell are severely diminished."
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.
"Since he hasn't had any practical work in his class – and the other teachers don't like him enough to warn him about it – he doesn't know that Ron's wand is malfunctioning," Cedric said, a smile crossing his face as he waited for Lockhart to get his come-uppance in a few seconds.
"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said.
"I bet he's just thinking about his new book as he says this," Cedric said.
"And I bet he's going to enjoy making it seem like Harry wasn't much of a worth while hero as he does it, too," Hermione 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 goodbye to your memories!"
"That probably won't work, because he'd have to explain why you two were with him to begin with, plus I know you well, so the minute I woke up, I'd call him out on his lie," Hermione said. Then, she deflated. "That is, if I realized what a fake he is before my petrification."
"Oh, I think you would still do that – the minute you heard his story, you'd realize that he was wrong. I don't think you're crush would overpower the fact that they're your best friends, and you know them well enough to know how they are," Cedric said.
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.
"Uh oh," Harry said.
"You're about to get separated, I just know it," Hermione said.
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 which were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Knew it," Hermione muttered.
"How is it that you end up being separated from him when it comes to the most dangerous part of the whole book," Cedric said, shaking his head.
"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you OK? Ron!"
"I have the feeling that he's just fine," Luna said.
"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm OK. This git's not, though – he got blasted by the wand."
"Which is a good thing, for you guys," Luna said. "Otherwise, you're memories would be completely gone by now."
There was a dull thud and a loud 'ow!'. It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"He probably did," Cedric said, grinning. "I know I would."
"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate.
"He probably wants to get to his sister as quickly as possible," Hermione said.
"We can't get through. It'll take ages ..."
"And Ginny doesn't have time for you to work you're way through," Cedric said.
Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it.
"Don't try any magic," Cedric warned.
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?
"Hence why I say not to try any magic," Cedric said.
There was another thud and another 'ow!' from behind the rocks.
"Might as well vent any frustration he has in the best way possible," Harry said.
They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours.
"It would probably be best if you just went along, then," Hermione said. "Ron can work on a path, and catch up to you later on if he manages to get it done before you have Ginny."
Harry knew there was only one thing to do.
"I think I've figured that out," Harry said.
"Wait there," he called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart."
"He probably hated having to be told that," Cedric said.
"I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour ..."
"I don't think there is anything for him to do. He's kind of trapped down there without you," Hermione said.
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.
"He not only has his sister to worry about, but now his best friend as well," Hermione said. "This is just turning out to be a very bad day for Ron, isn't it?" The others nodded.
"I'd hate to see what the rest of the Weasleys are feeling once it's known that Harry and Ron went down to try and rescue Ginny," Hermione said.
"So you can – can get back through. And, Harry –"
"I don't think I'm going to want to hear the rest of what he says," Harry said. "It would probably sound too much like a good-bye."
"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.
"I get the feeling that I don't succeed in doing so," Harry said.
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.
"I wonder how it turns," Hermione murmured. "Does it go in a spiral, heading downward, or does it do a left, right, left, right type of turning?"
Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did.
'I don't think anyone would blame you," Cedric said.
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.
"Another door," Luna said.
Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real, their eyes looked strangely alive.
There was a shudder from all of them at that.
He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.
"Okay, that's kind of creepy," Hermione said.
"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.
"That's the end of that chapter," Hermione said, placing a bookmark in the book and setting it down. The group headed into the kitchen, where Harry took out the chicken, which looked perfect when he checked to make sure that it had been cooked all the way through – he wasn't doing it because he doubted what they'd been told, but he still wanted to make sure at the same time.
Serving everyone that and some premade salad that Hermione pulled out of the fridge, the four ate in silence, all wondering what the next chapter would bring. It was kind of nerve wracking for them, knowing they were pretty close to figuring out the rest of the mystery, while also praying that Ginny was all right. While she wasn't high on any of their lists, they still didn't want her dead. They also worked on their notes for the first book, Hermione and Cedric having gone to their respective dorms and gotten the copies of the first book and then gone back to the reading room to get he notebooks and pens. They worked silently on that for a while, though they had a bit of trouble concentrating.
They finished eating pretty fast, wanting to get back to the book. Once they were done, Hermione quickly washed their plates while they waited a bit for the food to settle – and taking any trip to the bathroom that was needed, while still working on their notes – before they went back to the reading room.
"All right," Cedric said, picking up the book. "Time to find out who the heir is, if it tells us."
"It should," Luna said, getting comfortable in her seat. "There's no reason why it shouldn't."
"Right," Cedric said, opening to the page that the bookmark was at. "Ready?" he asked. The other three nodded their heads, and he began to read.