After a lot of consideration, I decided that Darcy will be going into the Chamber of Secrets with Harry and Ron and Lockhart. I felt like she needed to have some sort of action this year and she also needs to test out her icy powers.

So this is chapter is going to be when they go into the Chamber and its going to be pretty epic. Probably not actually.

Chapter Twenty-One: Year Two

Rescue Missions and Recognitions

A couple of weeks later, the school was still open. Though it wasn't quite the same.

Dinner in the Great Hall was quiet. Not a lot of people felt like talking to their friends because they were all so concerned about being petrified or being killed. We had managed to convince Dean that it was necessary for him to leave the Common Room to eat and go to lessons. He hadn't done it very willingly though, Seamus has the black eye to prove it.

After I finished eating, I managed to distract Percy long enough that I could slip out of the Great Hall without anyone noticing. I licked my lips in apprehension and took off down the corridor.

I figured out a few days ago that Moaning Myrtle might have an idea of what was going on in the castle. I was planning on questioning her and telling Professor Dumbledore at our next lesson. Behind me, I heard footsteps running toward me. I panicked slightly and hid in the broom closet that was nearby.

I watched out of a crack in the door as several of the Professors ran past. I poked my head out once they were gone and followed them down the corridor.

I was almost about to turn a corner, when I head a person whisper, "Darcy!" I turned my head and saw that Harry and Ron were hiding behind a column. I ran to hide with them and was quiet as McGonagall began talking to the other teachers.

"It has happened," she said. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

There was a collective gasp from the teachers as they realized what this meant."How can you be sure?" Snape asked.

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very pale, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"

I bit my lip and trembled slightly. Someone had been taken? They'll die...Hogwarts will close...

"Who is it?" said Madame Hooch, who was leaning up against the wall. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall. I made a soft squeak and Ron looked like he was ready to pass out.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow." McGonagall said. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

Lockhart came running down the hall with a red face. "So sorry- dozed off- what have I missed."

"Just our man," Snape said. "A girl has been snatched by the monster and taken into the Chamber itself. Your moment has come at last."

"M-my moment?" Lockhart stuttered.

"Weren't you just saying last night that you've known where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is this whole time?" Snape asked, obviously being sarcastic.

"That's settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy." McGonagall said. "Your skills, after all, are legend."

"Very well." Lockhart said, with a fake smile. "I'll just be in my office getting...getting ready."

With that, the teachers dispersed and left the three of us in the corridor. "Ginny..." Ron whispered.

A few minutes later, we were all running through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to Lockhart's office.

"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." Harry called as we neared the office.

We burst through the door, not completely expecting the sight we saw. "Professor, we have some information for you!" Harry said, then he looked around and saw that Lockhart was packing his things. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, blushing slightly. "Urgent call- unavoidable- got to go-"

"What about my sister?" Ron asked jerkily.

"Well, as to that- most unfortunate-" said Lockhart, avoiding our eye contact. "No one regrets more than I-"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" I cried. "You can't go now!"

"Well- I must say- when I took the job-" Lockhart muttered, "nothing in the job description- didn't expect-"

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry in disbelief. "After all that stuff you did in your books-"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on-"

"You're a fraud! You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done!" Harry cried.

I let out a sound of triumph. "I knew it! I knew you couldn't have done those things!"

"Can you do anything?" Ron asked.

"Yes," Lockhart said. "Now that you mention it, I am rather gifted with a Memory Charm. If I wasn't all those other wizards would have gone blabbing. And regrettably, I'm going to have to use it on you..."

"Don't even think about it." Harry said. We all pulled out our wands and aimed them at Lockhart who was staring at them with wide eyes.

We were walking into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Lockhart's back still to the tips of our wands.

"What are we doing in here?" I asked Harry.

He gave Ron a look and said, "Look, we appreciate what you've done, but you'd better go back to the Common Room. Seamus is probably freaking out-"

"Harry, no." I said. "I'm coming with you. I want to help save Ginny."

Ron smiled, "Thanks."

"Oh, hello Harry." Moaning Myrtle said, coming into view. "What are you doing here?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Myrtle's face brightened as much as it could. "Oh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking . So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and se his own toilet, and then-" Myrtle swelled for a moment. "I died. "

"How?" I asked

"No idea." Myrtle replied. "the only thing I remember seeing is a pair of great, big, bright, yellow eyes. Over there by that sink." She pointed at on of the sinks in the center of the room.

Harry walked over to it and fiddled with it for a minute before saying, "This is it. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Harry, say something. Something in Parseltongue." Ron said. What the hell was Parseltongue?

Harry stared at the sink for a moment before saying. "Open up."

Ron shook his head, "English."

Harry stared harder and licked his lips. Then he took a deep breath and spoke in the same slurred language that he did during the dueling club. His words sent a shiver down my spine. As soon as h finished talking, the sinks spread apart to reveal a passageway leading straight down.

"Right, well you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart. "I'll just-" he turned to leave but was wrestled back by Harry and Ron. I pointed my wand at him.

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

"Boys," Lockhart said. I sent him a glare and he paled. "And girl, what good will it do?" Harry prodded him with his wand and Lockhart slid his legs into the passageway. "I really don't think-" he started to say but Ron shoved and Lockhart vanished out of sight. Harry went next and I followed after him.

The inside was slimy and dark but the worse part of it all was the endless smell of sewage. The pipe twisted and turned, those hurt a bit, and it was pretty alarming how fast I was moving, considering it was a pipe.

Before I knew it, I was shooting out of the end of th pipe, hitting Harry who was just about to stand up. We clattered to the ground.

"Jeez, Darcy. What'd I ever do to you?" Harry joked. I rolled my eyes and helped him up just as Ron came sliding out og the pipe. "We must be miles under the school." Harry said.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, looking around at the slimy walls. We stared at the vast darkness in front of us.

"Lumos." Harry muttered to his wand. It lit and he gestured fr us to follow him, "Come on." Our footsteps echoed off the wet floor. Even with Harry's light, we could only see a little ways ahead so I lit my wand which created a little bit more light. "Remember," Harry said, "any sign of movement , close your eyes right away..."

As we walked, I noticed our footsteps were being replaced with the crunching of bones. Harry held his light close to the ground. I almost screamed when I saw that the ground was littered with animal bones.

"Harry- there's something up there-" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder. I started trembling and my body grew cold as I saw the outline of something huge and curved, lying across the tunnel.

"Maybe it's asleep," Harry breathed, glancing back at us.

We walked forward and I let out a sigh of relief when I realized the object wasn't a monster, but a snake-skin. It was a very large snake-skin, but it held no danger whatsoever.

"Blimey..." I whispered in the dark.

Behind me, I saw Lockhart fall to the ground.

"He's fainted!" Ron exclaimed. "Heart of a lion, this one."

Lockhart got to his feet- then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Harry jumped forward, but it was too late- Lockhart was standing, Ron's wand in his hand.

"The adventure ends here, kids!" 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 goodbye to your memories!"

Lockhart raised Ron's wand and wove it around, "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded in his hands which ricocheted over the entire cavern. Great chunks of rock and ceiling fell to the ground. Harry and I dove out of the way just in time, a piece of ceiling fell right where we had been standing.

When the dust and soot cleared, I coughed and realized Harry and I were alone.

"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Are you okay? Ron?"

"I'm here!" came Ron's reply from behind the wall of rocks. "I'm okay- this git's not, though- he got blasted by the wand-" We could here a dull thud and a loud "ow!" I'm not certain, but it sounded as though Ron kicked Lockhart roughly.

"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through- it'll take ages..."

"You wait here, Darcy and I will go on. Try to shift some of this rock." Harry told Ron.

He looked at me and nodded in fake confidence. I bit my lip and nodded back.

We walked for what seemed like ages, through twist and turns in the tunnel. I was desperate to run back, out of the chamber and climb into bed. But I couldn't leave Harry now. Not when I was certain he was going to need my help.

Eventually we came to a solid wall on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds. Harry approached it and cleared his throat.

"Harry..." I said. "What are you going to do?"

But then I understood as he spoke in the same dialect he used earlier. He stared at the door intently and said the word with such force that the door opened almost immediately.

Harry glanced back at me. I smirked and followed him inside the Chamber.

It was cold and dark inside. At first I couldn't see anything, but then a small torch lit at the end of the chamber, causing all of the others to light as well. There were many terrifying statues of snakes, their mouth open and wide like they were going to attack us.

Out of habit, I grabbed Harry's hand and started forward. This was it.

When I woke up, my head felt like a ton of bricks had fallen on my head. I groaned in pain.

"Is she awake?" I heard a concerned voice ask.

"Mr. Finnigan, please, don't over crowd her. She needs to rest. Your sister went through quite a trauma." Madame Pomfrey scolded.

I laughed and managed out, "Seamus wouldn't be living if wasn't overcrowding me."

Several people shouted, "Darcy!" And came running over to my bed. I peeled my eyes open to see Seamus, Dean, Fred, George, Ron, and surprisingly Harry surrounding my bed.

"Did you guys through a party without me?" I asked.

Fred chuckled, "You scared us, Blackbird. Thought you were never going to wake up."

"Oh please, I'm completely fine."

"No you aren't!" Harry exclaimed. "You fought the basilisk and killed all of the smaller snakes that came at us! You were magnificent, but Tom Riddle knocked you out with one blow. A blow to the head. It looked like it hurt a lot."

"Snakes? Basilisk? Who the hell is Tom Riddle?" I asked. I had no memory of this encounter at all.

"Do...do you remember anything?" Ron asked me. "You and Harry went into the Chamber and while Harry went after the basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, Tom Riddle sent thousands of smaller, but just as powerful, snakes to attack you. According to Harry there was ice flying everywhere and you were doing brilliantly-"

"Tom Riddle hit her over the head," Harry said. "That must have wiped her memories of the attack."

Seamus frowned, "You mean some old codger hurt my sister? Where is he? I'll beat him in-"

"Calm down, Seamus!" I said. "I'm okay and maybe it's better that I don't remember. Sounds...frightening."

"Are you joking?" George asked. "That sounds amazing!"

"We forgot to tell you, Darcy. Dumbledore wants to see us. All three of us." Ron said, talking about Harry, me and himself. "Well, as soon as you feel better."

I smiled at him and pushed my covers down. "Alright let's go then."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Easy there Darcy." George said. "Are you sure your ready to move around? According to Harry you took quite a blow to the head."

I sighed, "I'm fine, really." I sat up, and even though I was still sore and my head still hurt, I managed to sit up and slip on my shoes which we at the end of the bed.

Seamus hugged me tightly and whispered, "Be careful, alright?"

I laughed, "Relax, Seamus. It's only Dumbledore. He's not going to hurt me."

"Yeah, I know, but he might expel you."

Oh. I hadn't thought about that. I smiled innocently at him and followed Harry and Ron out of the Hospital Wing.

When we arrived at Dumbledore's office, it opened for us automatically.

"He must have been expecting us." I said. We walked up the stairs and faced his door.

"Who's going to knock?" Ron asked.

"I think Darcy should do it." Harry resolved quickly. I rolled my eyes and rapped on the door hard.

"Come in!" A cheery voice said. We entered the room with sorrowful expressions. I was expecting Dumbledore to be quite angry with us. We probably disobeyed every school rule known to man. We walked over to Dumbledore's desk where he was sitting.

"First, I would like to point out, that you three have broken over a dozen school rules." Well there you go. "So, naturally, I am going to give you each special recognition for services to the school." That was unexpected. "You all showed great bravery and loyalty in that Chamber. And for that I thank you."

Ron, Harry, and I exchanged surprised, but happy looks.

"And now, if you don't mind, Ron could you take this Azkaban release form to the owlery. It will set Hagrid free." Ron took the paper and gave us one last look.

"Now, Miss Finnigan. I understand you are having some trouble recurring yesterday evenings events?" Dumbledore said. I nodded and he smiled, "Well, I will tell you that you have come to control your powers very well. You only have a few more skills to learn before you are completely trained. I must admit, I am quite impressed that you have learned this quickly."

"I'm sorry but what has she learned?" Harry asked.

I smiled and closed my eyes. I concentrated very hard on what I wanted, and I felt it happen. Snow began to fall from the ceiling in beautiful flakes.

"Wow..." Harry mused. "That's what. You can control snow?"

"And ice." I finished.

He grinned and whispered, "Brilliant."

"Darcy." Dumbledore said. "You have behaved admirably. It is quite a feat for a second year. I shall be expecting great things from you. And now I must ask you to excuse Harry and I. I must speak with him privately."

I nodded, "Of course Professor." I said. "Th-thank you."

I walked out of the office feeling slightly nauseous but also rather pleased with myself.

I had done good. And that's all I could ask for.

Okay...so this chapter took a lot longer to write (since I promised a chapter by 3:30 and I'm several hours late. Oh well. I also really didn't feel like copying the whole book to be able to write out the scene in the Chamber so I just made it that she lost her memories. How convenient

I'm watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and I'm at the part now when we find out Fred is dead and we see Remus and Tonks and I'm crying so...that's my life.

Review!

xxx

rosslynchandbeyond