A new pressure mounted on the Hammer's shoulders the next day when Professor Flitwick stepped through the eagle door of the common room to give an announcement before anyone could head to breakfast.
"All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."
The Ravenclaws all listened in abject silence as Flitwick read the announcement.
"Needless to say, it will be difficult for now, but we will persevere. It is, however, a very real possibility that the school may be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. No one has died yet, but it is quickly becoming clear that this mystery attacker is a clear and present danger. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about these actions with the facts to support it, to come forward." He looked about the room, pausing for a moment when he made eye contact with Harry. When no one spoke, he cleared his throat before exiting back through the eagle door. The Hammer ran a hand down his face, thinking alone with his hand on his chin as the rest of the Ravenclaws fell into heated discussion.
"It has to be a Slytherin - at least one of every other house has been attacked. The heir of Slytherin? Slytherin's monster? Surely it's one of them." Terry Boot's deductions came in at a shout over the general murmur of the crowd.
The Hammer sat in a chair by the fireside wishing he had a glass of bourbon - even just to hold onto so he might be able to channel some of his heroes. Shutting down the school was a dumb idea - the monster was going to still be here whether or not there were people in it, and as far as the Hammer could tell it had managed to survive at least fifty years without being let loose into the student population. He didn't want to go home. He needed to solve the mystery. He needed to talk to Neville. He wanted to talk to Hermione.
Not long after, Robert Hilliard led everyone down to breakfast when another teacher showed up at their door, the feeling of moving in a house sized herd giving everyone a sense of security but making the Hammer feel more alone than ever. In the Great Hall, Harry made a bee line over to the Gryffindor table when he spotted the Weasley Twins, skipping over taking his usual seat.
"Oh, heya, Hammer," They both looked up to greet him from speaking with Ginny - she looked pale and shaken at the news they had all received this morning, her complexion more pallid than he had seen before.
"Gents, I've got an emergency order. Nothing off-colour, I just need something done right and done quick."
They looked between each other and back to Harry, "Uh, sure, Hammer. We can see about it - what is it you're looking for?"
"I need something that can reliably make a rooster's crow." Harry said, putting down a fistful of Galleons on the table next to George. George covered it with his hand immediately and looked around, "You know, if you had just wanted a wheeze, you could've mail ordered it from Zonko's, but we'll have it for you tomorrow." He spoke carefully and slowly, a certain amount of trepidation on his face when he saw the wild look in Harry's eye.
The Hammer went back over to his usual seat at the Ravenclaw table and grabbed a handful of toast and scooped some eggs onto it to make a quick sandwich before turning back to Neville,
"Nev, help me out here. If a basilisk can kill with a single look why was it nobody else died so far?"
Neville accidentally ran a greasy hand through his own hair, making a face when he realized what he had done. "I-I dunno, it's strange. Can I see that parchment you got from Hermione?"
The Hammer gave it to him, puzzling over what it was they were missing. Neville wasn't able to come up with anything more as they were rushed from their meal and separated for classes, Professor Flitwick escorting a group of them away for the first day's lesson. Harry spent the day in a fog, running over the facts of the old case with the new one, flashes of Myrtle's face and Hermione's playing out in his head. It had been an extremely close call. The Hammer shuddered. It wouldn't have been the same with a spectral Hermione nagging him to follow the rules.
George came to him at breakfast the next day with his order, setting it down on the table next to his silverware.
"You're not just taking the mickey, are you George?" Harry asked, picking it up.
"'Course not! You said it was a rush job, so we had to use something we already had. This keeps it topical, doesn't it?" He said with a subdued grin, "What is it you needed it for?"
"I'm going hunting," the Hammer said, "for a monster."
Neville came back with the paper neatly folded, handing Hermione's notes back to Harry, "it has to be something to do with the mirror, Hammer."
"The way she was holding it…" The Hammer bit his lip, rubbing his dark ringed eyes. He felt like he hadn't slept well in months.
"Maybe she was using it to look." Neville drank from a mug of coffee - he hadn't been quite right since Luna.
"That's it! You're a genius, Nev!" Harry pulled out his notebook and started to flip through it, "Come with me! I want to take this to Longbaugh!"
They looked up at the few teachers in the room with them, seeing that Longbaugh was out on patrol or in his class, Harry tapped Neville and indicated one of the side doors. They slipped out while no one was looking at them, heading out in the direction of the Muggle Studies class.
"It was all about the angles, Nev." Harry explained his logic on the way, "Hermione and Penelope only got petrified because she was being careful with the mirror. Justin and Luna-"
"Saw it through Nick!" Neville caught onto the game.
"And Mrs. Norris was drinking from the puddle, so she saw the reflection!" "And Colin's got one of those cameras with a mirror in the viewfinder!"
"But what about Myrtle?"
"She saw it directly, Nev. But I think she might've been sitting on the answer the whole time!"
"You're saying the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in the girl's loo?"
"Yes! It makes sense why there'd be a boy in that lavatory and how she died so immediately!"
They came to a halt when Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the corridors, magically amplified.
"All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately please."
The Hammer looked round and saw that they were right next to the staff room. He dragged Neville in with him and found there was a large, ugly wardrobe full of the teacher's cloaks, hiding them both inside. The time passed with the rumble of all the students moving back to their houses for a while before the staff room door banged open. The two watched through the crack between the wardrobe doors as teachers filed in looking anything from puzzled to scared. Finally, Professor McGonagall arrived, stone faced as she closed the door behind her.
"It has happened," She spoke, her voice like a leaden echo in the silent staff room, "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. Snape gripped the back of a chair til his knuckles turned white and asked, "How can you be sure?"
"The heir of Slytherin," Professor McGonagall continued, paler than Harry had ever seen her, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber for ever."
Professor Flitwick burst into tears. Professor Longbaugh had pulled out a small pipe and was stuffing it robotically.
"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked, having sunken into a chair, "which student?"
"Ginny Weasley." Professor McGonagall said.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow." She continued, "this is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"
The staff room door banged open again, catching everyone off guard. Professor Longbaugh held a small, cheery flame at the tip of his wand not far from the pipe in his mouth. It was Professor Lockhart, fashionably late.
"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," Professor Sprout chipped in, "Weren't' you saying just last night you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"I - well, I -" Lockhart babbled.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Professor Flitwick added.
"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 the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
"I seem to remember you said you had just the right spell to take down the monster." Longbaugh said after taking a puff on his pipe, the smoke ring he blew to the ceiling circling as a dragon before dissipating.
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I… I really never… You may have misunderstood…"
"We'll leave it to you then, Gilderoy." Professor McGonagall said, "tonight would 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 looked like the result of a bad decision the morning after. 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," Professor McGonagall said with a little flare of her nostrils, "that's got him out from under our feet."
Longbaugh lifted himself from the counter he was leaning on, "I'm going to go make sure he doesn't get himself killed, Minerva." She nodded as Longbaugh stepped out the door, spurs jingling down the hall.
"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.
Waiting till all of the professors were well and truly gone, Harry and Neville stepped out of the wardrobe.
"They took Fred & George's sister." Neville said, a haunted look on his face.
"There's a dame who didn't deserve it. First year at Hogwarts and now she's caught up in all of this. No wonder she looked so pale."
"You think she knew something, Hammer?"
"Maybe, Nev, maybe. But we definitely know a few things. We should go after Longbaugh. He'll have the solution to this."
The two of them went down to the DADA office, Longbaugh's voice carrying down the hall clearly before they even got near it.
"What the hell, Gilderoy?" Longbaugh yelled, "You said that you were going to try and help that girl and now you're packing up to run?"
"Well - I - " Lockhart mumbled a response that Harry couldn't hear. The two children ran faster.
"You're the goddamn Defence against the Dark Arts teacher! You're supposed to be the expert on this!" Longbaugh continued, "Even if you're incompetent you can at least stay to help the rest of us instead of acting like a coward!"
"Well you see, there's an urgent call…" Lockhart trailed off, there was the sound of drawers being emptied.
"What about all those books, Gilderoy?"
"Well, you see, books can be misleading."
"You wrote them. They've all got your face in them at least four times apiece!"
Harry slowed down, putting a hand across Neville's chest to get him to do the same, finishing their approach to the door by sneaking up to it and peering through the opening just enough to watch the exchange play out.
"Well they wouldn't have sold as well if people didn't firmly believe I had 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…"
"Is there anything you're actually good at, Gilderoy?" Harry and Neville had drawn their wands. The Hammer felt more vindicated than ever.
"Well, my research. I had to track all these people down and ask them things, and my memory charms-" The two children watched as Lockhart began to reach into his coat whilst Longbaugh was turned away, trying to contain his disgust.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry and Neville burst into the room, interrupting Lockhart's conniving, blasting him backward over his trunk and his wand flying through the air to Neville. Longbaugh spun back around and drew his revolver in the same motion, pointing it at the helpless Lockhart.
"Get in the chair, Gildreoy." Longbaugh narrowed his eyes, thumbing the hammer back and waving the revolver at the chair in the room. "Thanks for the save, boys. I should've known it would be you two."
"It-it was a misunderstanding!" Lockhart spoke with a quaver as he scooted sideways to the chair, both of his hands up.
"Put your arms down you idiot." Longbaugh commanded him, allowing Lockhart to lower his arms down before saying, "Incarcerous!" In a commanding tone. Ropes appeared and bound Lockhart to his chair, tying him up at the hands, arms, legs and torso.
"Professor, I want to find out what he actually knows." Harry tugged on Longbaugh's duster. The cowboy looked down at him and decocked the revolver, placing it back in the holster.
"I don't think he knows much, Harry. But sure. I think I owe you this much."
"You're going to leave me with them?" Lockhart spoke pleadingly.
"Sure, Gilderoy. I mean, what's the harm a couple kids could do?"
He tipped his hat to Harry and Neville before saying, "When you're done, or if you need me I'll be outside."
He left, closing the office door behind him. Lockhart whimpered.
Harry turned around to face Lockhart, looking to Neville a moment before saying, "What do you actually know about the Chamber of Secrets? About these attacks?"
"Harry, my boy, I-" He stopped, taking a large gulp as the Hammer pulled the pair of pliers out from his belt pouch.
"Let's see if messing up your chances for Witch Weekly's most charming smile gets you to tell the truth." The Hammer stepped forward and started to shove the pliers up against Lockhart's lips.
"I don't know anything, Harry! Please! All I've ever done in my life is research people's accomplishments and record them for posterity! I claimed to do all of it and then modified all their memories! It's the only thing I'm good at!"
The Hammer put one knee down onto the chair between Lockhart's legs and grabbed the man's collar with his other hand, getting leverage.
"Uhm, Hammer..." Neville started to speak, but trailed off.
"There were fans too! They came to me in awe of my celebrity and they were so willing!"
The Hammer raised an eyebrow, but kept the pliers where they were. Lockhart kept on talking, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a deluge.
"Some of them were young! I had to modify their memories or else it would've been seen as improper! I had a sense! I knew they wanted it!"
"Yeah, and what about this teaching job?" Harry pushed, looking back to Neville who stood with his mouth agape, unsure of what to do.
"It was supposed to be a way to garner more fame! I wanted to meet my younger fans! I wanted to know them! I could mould the girls just the way I wanted, they loved me, your friend Hermione, I had such plans-" Harry's blood ran cold. He shoved the pliers over one of Lockhart's front teeth and started pulling to get him to shut up. He didn't want or need to hear more. The Hammer could feel the corners of his mouth tugging down, his whole face going into a snarl.
Lockhart started screaming as the root gave way, his voice gurgling as the blood started coming out. Harry tossed the tooth out of the nearby window.
"Nev. Go get Sundance. We just solved a bunch of crimes we didn't know were happening." Neville, pale and shaking, nodded before heading out the door. Harry cleaned up his bloody pliers on Lockhart's silk robes, the captive man sobbing in pain. That left him with the one mystery, and one person left to talk to: Myrtle Warren.
"Harry, what the fuck did you do?" Longbaugh asked as soon as he walked in, seeing the Hammer standing a few feet from a bloodied Lockhart, pliers still in hand.
"He's guilty of a whole lot of memory wiping and… and... some... things with students. Girls my age. I don't know what or how much. He copped to enough I pulled a tooth to get him to shut up. You need to call the police, Professor. Or whatever passes for that in the wizarding world." The Hammer told him, stone faced, the dark rings under his eyes and the set of his jaw making him look a decade older than he should have been.
"Harry - you - are you OK?" Longbaugh took in a deep breath, releasing it in a slow hiss.
"I have to go, Professor. I can save that girl."
"Harry I can't let anyone go from what you're telling me. You and Neville are still students. I'm responsible for your safety."
"I can't stay, Professor. I'll fight you if I have to, but I have to run this lead down before it's too late. I can save Ginny. That stupid snake-speak I can do might be the difference between life and death. Please."
Longbaugh reached a hand up toward the Hammer and stopped, taking another look around the room, placing his face into his other palm for a moment.
"I really, really want to doubt it, Harry; but my gut is telling me to let you go. Where are you headed to? I'm going to tell Professor McGonagall so we can send help after you when she gets here. Neville's going to stay. I can't justify sending him with you. If you can open that Chamber thing, you do it, but don't go inside by yourself. Do you understand me? We'll be there as soon as we can to help."
Harry looked to his friend and back, "First floor girl's lavatory. The one with Moaning Myrtle in it."
Longbaugh nodded. Harry ran.