Happee Birthdae, Harry! It's not every day your young man turns thirty-seven, now is it?

ahem. RM helped me a great deal with these next few chapters, so, so helpful, couldn't have done them without her. I did borrow from JK on parts of some of these next chapters, kinda hard not to, but no infringement intended, ever. Anyway, RM and I don't own Harry Potter or its expanding universe. Read, enjoy, and please, for Harry's birthday, leave us a review.


The Second Message

May 29th, 1993

Fourth Year

There was writing on the wall again. Jo knew it. She knew it half a second before Interim Headmistress McGonagall ordered all students back the their dormitories. Leili barely had time to reflect that since Harry had come to the school, she and Jo had done a lot of rule breaking before Jo asked her to recast the Disillusionment charm.

"There's blood on the wall again," was all the explanation Jo needed to give, there was no time for her to examine this knowledge or the surety with which she knew it. Leilani cast the charm and they fought the flow of traffic to where the teachers had gathered.

"Who is it? Which student has been taken?" Madam Hooch asked; she'd sunk to the floor like putty in a microwave upon the discovery of a missing student.

"Ginny Weasley," Interim Headmistress McGonagall said, her voice sad and devoid of any hope that the little girl was still alive. Somewhere down the hall a door slammed open and Lockhart came beaming in.

"So sorry, dozed off, what've I missed?" he said genially. Everyone looked at him with hatred on their faces.

Professor Snape stepped forward saying, "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." A smile twisted on Snape's face as Lockhart blanched.

The teachers kindly reminded him of all the things he'd told them: that he'd known where the entrance lay, that he'd wished he'd had a crack at the beast before Hagrid had been arrested, that he knew what the dreaded creature inside truly was, that the whole affair had been bungled and that he should've been given free reign from the start, forcing the blonde buffoon to stutter.

"We'll leave it you, Gilderoy, free reign at last."

"V-very well then, I'll-I'll just b-be in my office getting re-re-ready, then." With that he left the room, faster than you could say 'lickedy split'.

"Well that gets him out from under our feet." McGonagall continued. "The Heads of Houses should inform their students of what's happened and that the Hogwarts Express will be arriving to take them home tomorrow. The rest of you, please make sure no students have been left out of their dormitories."

As the teachers rose and left one by one, the girls took their cue to get back to their house before Professor Sprout-at least that was Leili's plan. Jo had a different idea. The professors weren't going to do anything so they would.

They didn't know that Harry and Ron were just around the corner in the staff room, though they later suspected they should have guessed.

"What do you expect him to do, Jo?" Leili asked as they snuck along the wall. Lockhart was an A-class idiot, they'd have better luck hitting the library and trying to figure out what they were up against and telling literally anybody else.

"I don't know!" Jo responded, frustrated. She was frustrated with the situation, she was frustrated with Leilani, she was frustrated with the teachers, she was just all around frustrated and it was high time they did something about it. "But it's better than just sitting here doing nothing; that girl is dying! Don't tell me you're okay with that!"

"No! Of course not! But-! But how can we do anything? We don't know where the monster is, we don't even know what it is!"

They hurried after Lockhart, only to find Harry and Ron had beaten them there and Lockhart was threatening to Obliviate them. They lurked just behind the door, listening, ready to fling it open and rescue the boys if they needed to.

"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book—"

Everyone reached for their wands but Harry beat them all to it. Lockhart had barely raised his when Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air. Ron caught it and flung it out 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 and small. Harry was still pointing his wand at him and by now everyone else had done the same.

"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 wand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

Jo jabbed Leili in the arm as if to say, "See! This was a good idea!"

Leili smacked her hand away as if to respond, "How was I supposed to know that?!"