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A Saiyan With Magic
Chapter 12 Ginny?!
In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall, announced that their exams would start in a week, most of the class protested, but Professor McGonagall explained the only reason the school was still open is so that they could receive their education. Gohan saw that it was logical and realized that he needed to study.
Throughout the next four days, Videl tried to go to Myrtle's bathroom but every time she went to it Peeves was outside of the door throwing things at people. She had admitted to Gohan that she had been concentrating on her studying, which he more than understood, as he was doing the same thing.
Three days before the exams started Professor McGonagall made an 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.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.
When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit." There was an explosion of cheering.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" Ron said. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."
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.
"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.
"Spit it out," said Ron, watching her.
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled.
"What is it?" Videl asked
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.
"What?" said Ron.
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny, Gohan, Videl, and Ron could hear him.
"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."
Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.
"Percy!" said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked. "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 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. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather -" Percy looked very uncomfortable.
"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."
Percy didn't smile back. "Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving."
Gohan knew that the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he still wanted to speak to Myrtle if he could.
Midmorning, when Gilderoy Lockhart was leading them to History of Magic, the opportunity presented itself. Lockhart was wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; 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.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."
"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise, but Gohan understood what Harry was doing.
"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night…"
"That's right," Gohan said. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go -"
"You know, Son, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class -"
And he hurried off.
"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."
They let the rest of the Gryftindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme -
"Potter! Weasley! Son! Satan! What are you doing?" It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.
"We were - we were -" Ron stammered. "We were going to - to go and see -"
"Hermione," said Harry. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.
"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 -"
Professor McGonagall was still staring at Harry, and for a moment, Gohan thought she was going to yell at them, 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. "Of course, I realize 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."
They walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.
"That," said Videl impressed, "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.
"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point 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.
"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…"
Harry pointed out a piece of paper scrunched up in Hermione's hand.
"Try and get it out," Ron whispered.
"Harry or Videl you have to do it I don't want to hurt her." Gohan said and shifted, his chair so that he blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.
While Gohan kept watch Harry tugged and twisted on the paper, and at last, after several tense minutes, it came free.
It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and they all leaned close to read it.
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chickens egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are jinxed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.
And beneath this, a single word had been written, in Hermione's handwriting. Pipes.
"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…" Harry looked around at all the beds and the petrified people. "The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - 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 realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror - and -"
Ron's jaw had dropped. "And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.
"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.
"'The Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it'!" he read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! 'Spiders flee before the Basilisk? It all fits!"
"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Videl. "A giant snake… someone would've noticed…"
Harry pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.
"Pipes," He said. "Pipes… it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls…"
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" Gohan said. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in -"
"- Moaning Myrtles bathroom," said Harry.
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 he's been controlling the basilisk_"
"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staffroom," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."
They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.
But the bell to signal break never came.
Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron.
"Not another attack? Not now?"
"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"
"No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."
"I won't fit, I'll go around the corner in the hall and listen from there." Gohan said and went over to the side, Videl followed him after a few seconds.
"I didn't fit either."
Through the wall Gohan heard Professor McGonagall say, "IT has happened, a student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
"How can you be sure?" Snape said his voice hard.
"The Heir of Slytherin left another message, right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
"Who is it? Which student?" Madam Hooch cried.
"Ginny Weasley." Professor McGonagall stated. Gohan gasped and felt horrible for Ron and his family. "We shall have to send all the student's home tomorrow. This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"
Suddenly the staff room door banged open and Gohan heard the pompous Lockhart say, "So sorry – dozed off – what have I missed?"
"Just the man, 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." Snape said.
"That's right, Gilderoy, weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Sprout chimed in.
"I – well, I –" Lockhart sputtered.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"D-did I? I don't recall -"
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
"I - I really never - you may have misunderstood -"
"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."
"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, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."
The rest of the day and night was depressing, a feeling that Gohan knew too well, from the loss of friends and family in his many battles. Gohan, Videl, Harry, Ron, and the Twins sat in the corner not able to say anything to each other. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.
"She knew something Harry." Ron said breaking the silence. "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. Videl handed him a tissue, he gave her a small smile, in thanks. "I mean she was a pure blood. There can't be any other reason." He paused. "Do you think there's any chance at all she's not – you know –"
Gohan had been searching for her Ki ever since her name was mentioned in the staff room. He couldn't find her but he reasoned that the chamber could have some magical protection that he couldn't sense through.
"D'you know what? I think we should go and see Lockhart. 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!"
Harry, Gohan, and Videl agreed with him and left Gryffindor tower. When they reached Lockhart's office they heard scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps coming from the room. Harry knocked on the door and there was a sudden silence from inside. The door opened a crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.
"Oh – Mr. Potter – Mr. Weasley – Mr. Son – Miss Satan –" He said opening the door a bit 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. "I mean - well - all right -"
He opened the door and they entered.
His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor.
Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight-blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.
"Are you going somewhere?" Videl demanded.
"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call - unavoidable - got to go -"
"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.
"Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I -"
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"
"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 -"
"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "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, 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. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian Warlock, even if he did save a village from Werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on -"
"Your just like my father! Taking credit for what other people have sacrificed life and limb for!" Videl screamed.
Lockhart shook his head impatiently, "It's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog." He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. "Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry, 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 -"
Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmusl"
Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.
"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.
"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're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. 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 and he was shaking in fear.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Harry. "What do you want this time?"
"To ask you how you died," said Harry.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something 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 use his own toilet, and then -" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."
"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. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.
"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.
The four friends hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.
It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.
"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. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," Harry said in English.
"English," Ron 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 were moving.
Harry said something in a strange hissing language, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. "I'm going down there," Harry said looking down the pipe.
"Me too," Gohan said, echoed by Ron and Videl.
There was a pause.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile.
"I'll just –"He put his hand on the doorknob, but all four friends pointed their wands at him.
"You can go first," Ron snarled.
"No, I'll go first. Who knows, what's at the end of it?" Gohan said and lifted into the air. He flew down the pipe, feet first. He reached the end of the pipe; it was damp, but safe. "It's damp, stone, and it's safe. You can come down." Gohan yelled up to his friends and Professor hoping they could hear him.
A few minutes later, Lockhart, Harry, Ron, and Videl appeared in the tunnel. Once they were all there they walked on wands lit. The floor had tiny animal bones on it and they crunched as they walked.
"There's something up there –" Ron said hoarsely.
Gohan held out a hand and approached the huge curved object slowly, his eyes closed as much as possible. He reached it, it was a giant snakeskin, it was a vivid, poisonous green, and it must have been 20 feet long.
"It's just a snakeskin." Gohan sighed.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up." Ron said sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.
Lockhart got to his feet – then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Lockhart straightened up, holding Ron's wand in his hand. "The adventure ends here! 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 tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body – say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded, rocks were falling from the ceiling, and Gohan flew out of the way. He landed a few feet from the rocks next to Harry who had run ahead of the falling rocks.
"Ron, Videl are you ok?" Gohan and Harry called
"Yeah!" Videl shouted.
"I'm here!" Ron called, "I'm ok – this git's not, though – he got blasted by the wand –"
Gohan and Harry heard a dull thud and a loud "ow" coming from Lockhart.
"What now?" Ron said, "We can't get through!"
"Gohan, you think you could blast the wall?" Harry asked.
"No, I'll cause another avalanche and it'll take forever for me to move all this rock." Gohan responded. "I think we should go on ahead and save Ginny." He whispered. Thinking of Ron's reaction if the worse were to happen.
"Makes sense." Harry whispered back, "Wait there! We're going on ahead."
"I'll try to shift some of this rock." Ron said, "So you can – can get back through."
"See you in a bit!" Gohan called.
He and Harry walked forward.
Yes, it has been awhile since I updated. I'm sorry about that. Life is busy.
That's chapter twelve! Don't forget about the Facebook page! Let me know your thoughts and opinions!
Just Mione