Disclaimer: One Piece and Harry Potter does not belong to me, each belongs to their respective author.

Challenge by TheBlackSeaReaper.

-.- The Chamber of Secrets

Ace felt that he didn't sleep in years, and that this was the first time that he slept well, quiet and most importantly, without nightmares, perhaps for that reason, Ace slept hours, long hours that he did not know how many were, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the high, clear ceilings, and the curtains fluttering with the wind. At one point he thought he saw Mecha on the headboard of the bed, before falling back into the deep sleep he felt he needed so much.

But eventually he had to wake up completely, and get up, although before that, he had to be thoroughly checked by Madame Pomfrey to make sure he was completely well, and when she was satisfied, she handed his clothes to change.

"I will go for Professor McGonagall, so she can escort you back to your common room." And with that she left the infirmary.

It was strange, so much light, leaving the shirt half-buckled, Ace abandoned the safety of its cubicle, and went through the curtains to enter the infirmary, other stretchers were covered with curtains, surely victims of the monster, and he could see that there were two more than from when he left. Which meant that there had been another attack and therefore the reason why they had released him.

Who would have been, and with that he began to advance to one of the beds, one by one he discovered, at the moment he had only identified a new person, and it was when he reached the last bed that he stopped, feeling almost petrified, before the image of Hermione, completely still.

Slowly he took tentative steps, until he was beside her.

"It happened a couple of days ago," said a voice, the voice of Professor McGonagall that was just behind him. "We found her near the library"

"I should have been here to take care of her"

"It wasn't your fault"

"But maybe ... I could have ..."

He really had no way of knowing if he could have done anything.

"Tomorrow the potion will be ready, tomorrow will be fine," said the teacher.

"Can I stay a little longer with her?" Ace said.

"Of course," she said, "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been… I will go to class, and on the break I will return…" and with that Ace heard her walk out of the room.

Ace stood for a moment in front of the girl, unsure of how to proceed, until he advanced again, and extended his hand to touch the right hand of the girl. It was freezing, as if she were ... no, she's just petrified, tomorrow would be fine, and if he found out who had caused this, he would make him feel a living hell.

But suddenly something distracted him, a rough and flexible sensation, which was not skin. Looking down at the girl's hand, It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.

It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Ace was sure he was going to tear it, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. It was a page torn from a very old library book. Ace smoothed it out eagerly.

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 chicken's 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 fixed 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 a hand Ace recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.

Ace looked up, and for a moment he noticed Hermione.

"You're a genius," Ace muttered, but to prove his theory he had to get an answer first, and with that he prepared to leave the infirmary.

He didn't know where to go, he only had one idea, and that was in the room where Moby Dick appeared, and with that and determined step he advanced through the halls.

"Ace" called a voice, completely excited.

Ace turned to find Luna running towards him, followed by Mecha. The boy extended his arm for his friend with feathers, but he chose to place himself on his shoulder and pinch his ear in affection.

"Yes, I'm glad to see you too," and looked back at Luna. "It's nice to see you too."

"You slept a lot"

"Yes, I feel so"

"Do you know about Hermione?"

"Yes, I saw her," Ace said in a sad tone. "Maybe you can help me"

"Sure, tell me what you need"

"How did it happen?"

"About Hermione? Well she went to the library, and they found her near the library, curiously she had a mirror in her hand. "Watching Ace for a moment she added. "Why you ask?"

Ace then handed her the paper, and Luna read it carefully.

"Sure, this could explain why you heard it's voice."

"It is a snake. 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 you understand Parseltongue. . . . "Said Luna. "And the petrification… The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - because no one looked it straight in the eye. "

"Of course. 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. "Ace said" And Mrs. Norris .. "he whispered eagerly.

"I think the water . . ." she said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. 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 crowing of the rooster . . . 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! And Spiders flee!"

"Spiders flee before it, I don't understand that"

"Ron and Neville had an exciting adventure a couple of days ago"

"And they didn't wait for me?"

"They didn't even take Fred and George, they were very offended, their only consolation was that Ron's wand broke."

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" Asked Ace. "A giant snake . . . Someone would've seen . . ."

Luna, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes," she said. "it's been using the plumbing."

"I've been hearing that voice inside the walls. . . ."

They stood there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

"Ace, what do we do now?"

"I just know that I want to hit the Heir of Slytherin, we found that worm and surely we found the responsible"

Echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor Immediately, please."

Luna wheeled around to stare at Ace.

"Another attack?" said the girl "What'll we do?"

"The hall is near, let's go"

Ace and Luna ran through the corridors until they reached the corridor, where the teachers were already.

"As you can see, The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. It has happened," she told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth.

Lockhart arrived at that moment, and he was beaming.

"So sorry — dozed off — what have I missed?"

He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I — well, I —" sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.

"D-did I? I don't recall —"

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

"I — I really never — you may have misunderstood —"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll — I'll be in my office, getting — getting ready." And he left.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."

"Who is it?" Said Madam Hooch, still looking dismayed at the wall. "Which student was taken?"

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall

And they left, reveling the message at the bottom of the wall.

'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'

Ace clenched his fists.

"This was already personal" he said advancing to the wall "But now, I'm going to fry the heir"

.-.

Ace, Ron, Neville, 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.

Ace had been mired in his thoughts, turning the subject around and seeing how they could proceed. There was certainly no better time than now. Standing up, he let Mecha travel through the window, and turned to the boys.

"Well, are we going?"

"Where?" Asked Fred

"Go for Ginny" and with that he turned to advance to the exit.

Because they couldn't think of anything else to do, and because they wanted to be doing something, they agreed. 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.

"But we don't know what the monster is, or where it hides," said Neville.

"That is partly true" and with that he stopped in the hallway "Hermione knew what it was, and left a clue" and with that he lifted the book page. "As for where he is hiding, Lockhart may know something, he was claiming he knew where the chamber was, although I doubt it."

"Then we have to go for him," said Ron.

"Yes, let's do this, I've asked Luna to meet us in the Moby Dick room"

"¿Moby Dick?"

"The ship" Ace clarified, "you go for Lockhart, as soon as Luna arrives we will seek you"

"Done" and with it the boys let go running.

-.-

The room was alone as expected when Ace entered, the lights gave the image of a sunset, when it surely was not, and the Moby Dick's false deck was empty, as if it were early in the morning instead of late, since the time that simulated this illusion the ship must be full of people. Advancing the large room that reminded of an amphitheater where the crew normally sat down to observe any meeting that had Oyaji or small internal competitions between the crew, and on the other side of that room was the great seat of Edward Newgate.

Ace sat in front of the chair, watching the place wistfully, like a child watching his father's chair.

"It's my fault," he said. "Many things are my fault, but instead of regretting it, I already know what I must do what is necessary to solve it. I can't go back, but I can keep your memory alive and honor everything I learned from you. I don't know how they could tell you that you wanted me as King of the Pirates, after everything that happened for me, to try making my own crew would be like if I made fun of you and all your effort to rescue me "

Ace didn't know how to go on, he had so much to say.

"But perhaps, perhaps I was seeing it badly, and it is a tribute to you, if this time I guide them well, it will be a sign that I have learned something, that I learned something from you. And continue with your legacy, and your ideals, of freedom and family"

"They wanted to be a crew and that I were their captain, as I could be their captain when I have failed so many times, I led a crew to an end; then I became commander and someone in my charge betrayed us and killed a friend; finally You gave me an order and twice I disobeyed it. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again, I'm going to rescue my nakamadas"

"Ace"

Wiping away tears, Ace turned to the entrance, on the other side of the room, Luna stood at the door with mecha in her arms, and a mystical smile on her lips.

"Well, you're here" and with that he stood up "Ready"

"Yes, and I brought sacks"

"sack?"

"The treasure, if we are going to the chamber to rescue Ginny, we can bring some treasure.

Ace laughed.

"You're right"

"By the way, the boys are here too"

And with that, the twins were seen levitating a gagged and blindfolded body, before they closed the door

"You will not believe it, he was already on the run"

"I don't know why it doesn't surprise me" and Ace then took a seat at the foot of the great chair, while the body was laid on the floor and the bandage was removed.

"Oh - Mr. Potter - I mean Portgas -" he said.

"Are you going somewhere?" said Ace.

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, "Urgent call — unavoidable — got to go —"

"Sure, you're running away?" Ace said before adding in sarcasm. "After all that stuff you did in your books -"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"It means that they are lies, so I know: Imaginative stories or credit theft?" And with that he got involved and looked at the boys "What do they say Thief or liar?"

"I think in both cases it would be lies," said Neville.

"Right," Ace said, looking back at Lockheart, "He's a liar."

"it's not nearly as simple as that." Said Lockheart "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, Ace. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

"Memory Charm?" Said Ace "Its good to know that you have talent, you will need them when we go for Ginny"

"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 Ace, 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 the room, blindfolded 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. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Ace. "What do you want this time?"

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

Neville and Ron had briefly told him what happened with Aragog, a giant spider that they had to look for in the Forest, and as he had told them that a girl had died in a bathroom fifty years ago. Myrtle could be that girl.

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 Neville.

"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 Ace.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Neville and Ron 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 Neville 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.

"Ace," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."

"You know I don't control it," Ace said.

"Imagine it's a real snake," said George.

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.

Ace looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

"Open up," he said.

Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

"I'm going down there," he said.

He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.

"Me too," said Ron.

There was a pause.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just —"

But Fred and George were already by his side, holding him by the arms and Neville and Ron with raised wands.

"You can go first," Ace snarled.

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

"Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"

"Better you than us" said Ace.

And with the help of a kick Lockhart slid out of sight. Ace followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Ace stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too. Neville, Fred, George and Luna finally followed.

"We must be miles under the school," said Neville, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Fred and George muttered to their wand and they lit.

"C'mon," Ace said, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Remember," Ace said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away. . . ."

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Ace led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Ace — there's something up there —" said Neville hoarsely, grabbing Ace's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Ace could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," Ron breathed, glancing back at the others. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Ace edged forward, creating a fireball in the palm of his hand.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet — then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.

All turned, but too late — Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good-bye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. It was all confusion, Fred had taken Luna and moved apart, while George did the same with Ron, and Nevilie, like Ace, turned away in another direction, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, Ace and Neville were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.

"Ron!" Ace shouted. "Are you okay? Fred, George, Luna!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "We.. are okay — this git's not, though — he got blasted by the wand —"

There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.

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

Neville looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try — what if the whole tunnel caved in? There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. . . . Ace knew there was only one thing to do.

"Wait there," he called to Ron and the others. "Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on"

There was a very pregnant pause.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Fred, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you two can get back through."

"See you in a bit," Ace said, before returning to Neville. "Are you okay?"

The slightly agitated boy nodded. And they set off alone past the giant snake skin. Soon the distant noise of shifting rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Nevilles's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Ace approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive.

He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"Open," said Ace, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Ace, followed by a shaking Neville from head to foot, walked inside.