This is sort of a breeze through chapter. I want to wrap up Year 2 and get to Year 3 without just cutting off the ending of the Chamber of Secrets. Year 2 is still one of my favorites, but I want to try to change up the story a little bit to keep it interesting. This chapter doesn't have as much romance in it. Sorry in advance! It'll still take me a few chapters to get through Year 2.
The Christmas holidays came and went, but it had become a miserable break for the trio. Harry, although terribly glad to be away from the Dursleys, still felt bad for his two friends, particularly Hermione, who seemed to be looking more miserable and unhealthy every day. He had gone with her and Ron to do more research on what the monster was or anything else about the history of Slytherin, but had no luck finding anything of use.
One day, after feeling particularly dreadful, Ron suggested that they all go and visit Hagrid's hut to check on him, thinking it would make Hermione feel better and knowing that Harry always enjoyed going to Hagrid's. They agreed; however, upon arriving, Hagrid, too, surprisingly looked pale and uneasy.
"What's the matter, Hagrid?" asked Harry as they arrived. He could immediately tell something was off.
"They think it was me," said Hagrid vaguely, beckoning them to sit down. "They think it was me, just like las' time."
"What? What are you talking about?" asked Ron wrapping his arm around a shivering Hermione for warmth and solace as they sat down.
"The Chamber…" said Hagrid grimly, putting more wood in the fire. "Dumbledore warned me. Fudge is going ter come looking for the two of us. Thinks Dumbledore's lost his touch and thinks it's me tha's done it again."
"Done what?" said Harry, becoming uneasy himself. "What about the Chamber?"
"Harry," said Hagrid in the most serious voice Harry had ever heard him use. "The Ministry believed tha' it was me who opened the Chamber o' Secrets 50 years ago."
The trio was stunned, flabbergasted, unable to comprehend what they just heard.
"That's impossible!" said Harry.
"Outrageous!" yelled Hermione, who had gained some of her strength back being in Ron's arm and feeling defensive over Hagrid's pronouncement.
"So you were still here 50 years ago then?" asked Ron curiously, but not in an impolite way.
"Tha's right," said Hagrid darkly. "Tha's what got me expelled. Dumbledore did everything he could. Knew I'd been framed, but the evidence was stacked against me. Had this giant pet spider, and people thought tha's wha' killed the Muggle-born girl. But I kept Aragog in this giant box and never let 'em out, see? Unfortunately, he was banished to the Forbidden Forest after the Ministry suspected 'em. Sent me ter Azkaban prison for a few days until Dumbledore argued my case and let me stay 'ere as gamekeeper. The rest is history…"
Hermione looked teary-eyed. Ron and Harry looked shocked.
"Who did open the Chamber last time?" asked Harry tentatively.
"Felle' by the name o' Tom Riddle," said Hagrid resentfully. "I didn't have proof though, but I knew it was 'im cause he's the one that set Aragog loose from his box. Tried to stop him. Told me I had no chance arguing my case against the Wizengamot. Told me I was finished. I knew it was him, but, like he said, no one believed me. Only cause the Wizengamot respected Dumbledore that they set me free from Azkaban. Great man Dumbledore…" said Hagrid, tears stinging his eyes as he tried to hide behind his matty, black hair.
"Hagrid…" breathed Hermione, tears falling from her eyes.
Ron looked puzzled. Then it dawned on him.
"Hang on, Hagrid, I know that name," said Ron furrowing his brow. "Tom M. Riddle won an award for special services to the school 50 years ago." Harry and Hermione looked shocked, wondering how Ron knew this information.
"Tha's the problem," said Hagrid. "He was top o' the class and everyone's favorite student. Nobody would believe that he would murder an innocent girl. But when he pointed at me, being a half-giant, everybody jumped on and thought I was the murderer."
Nobody spoke. Not even Hermione knew that Hagrid was a half-giant although she suspected some unusual genetics given that Hagrid must've been ten or eleven feet tall. Ron thought it was a bad magical accident that had made him so large. Harry didn't suspect much, not knowing what was normal or weird still, and seeing Hagrid as nothing more than his best friend who happened to be an adult. Nobody knew what to say.
"Who do you think opened the Chamber this time?" asked Harry hesitantly.
"Hard ter say," said Hagrid bitterly. "I wish there was more evidence. They'll take me to Azkaban again. I just know it."
Harry clenched his fists in fury. He was so mad thinking about how Hagrid had been unjustly convicted.
"Hagrid, I swear, I'm going to get to the bottom of this and guarantee you that I'm going to fix this," said Harry angrily.
"Wish yer could," said Hagrid grimly. "I'd help yer if I knew I could. Not allowed to use much magic though. Can't read very well either," he said frustratedly.
"Not a problem," said Harry. "We'll take care of it and prove your innocence."
Ron and Hermione nodded fervently in approval.
After leaving Hagrid's hut, the trio had a new found determination to get to the bottom of this mystery. Hermione began eating and sleeping more again, feeling more normal due to her motivation to help Hagrid. She suggested to Ron one night in the common room that the two of them go out to the library. They went and finally found a page on a monstrous creature called a basilisk.
"This is a type of snake!" said Hermione.
"Okay?" said Ron slowly. "And?"
"Do you know what this means?!" she said excitedly.
"What?"
"This is what Harry has been hearing in the walls! This is why he's hearing voices and we aren't! He's a parselmouth, and he's hearing the basilisk moving through the walls!"
"Of course! That's it, Hermione! Brilliant!"
"'Everyone who looks into the basilisk's eyes will meet certain death upon gazing at it,'" read Hermione out of the book. "Hang on, but why hasn't anyone been killed?"
Ron thought for a moment or two as he and Hermione looked at each other, deep in thought. "Nobody directly looked at it. They all made indirect contact with it by accident, and they were merely petrified," he said.
"Of course!" said Hermione. "I'm going to write all this down. Here…"
She wrote all their revelations down on the library book page and tore the page out of the book.
"Are you mental? Tearing a page out of a library book?" asked Ron.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, my love," said Hermione. "Besides, I don't see anyone else checking this book out. We need to give this to Harry. We need his brain power too."
"Okay."
"We should use mirrors from now on while we walk the halls," said Hermione as they were leaving the library.
"Good idea," said Ron.
"Here, I just happen to have one in my pack," said Hermione, pulling a tiny, personal mirror from her store.
Ron furrowed his brow. "Do you always carry a mirror around with you?"
"Not always, but most of the time, yes," said Hermione smugly. "I am a girl, you know."
"Hard to forget that fact," said Ron with a grin.
Halfway to the Gryffindor common room, they heard a noise that sounded large and slimy.
"Do you hear that?" asked Hermione.
(the next morning)
"Potter, you need to come with me," said Professor McGonagall to Harry at breakfast the next morning. She had approached him with the saddest expression he had ever seen on her face. Harry feared the worst, noticing that his two best friends were not down at breakfast. He agreed to follow her.
They came into the hospital wing. Harry knew this couldn't be good.
The sight was startling: Ron and Hermione were both petrified. Ron appeared to be looking off into the middle distance while Hermione was holding a tiny mirror in front of her.
Angry and frustrated tears came to Harry's eyes as he thought about his two best friends being petrified.
"I know this is hard for you, Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "If there's anything I can do, please do not hesitate to ask."
"Thank you," he said weakly. McGonagall left, leaving Harry to examine the stony bodies of Ron and Hermione. He noticed a balled up piece of paper in Hermione's hand, which he unravelled and read.
"A basilisk? This is it!" said Harry, regaining his confidence. "Too bad you guys couldn't make it back to the common room last night to tell me," he said bitterly to the stony forms of his friends.
"Don't worry," he said, knowing they couldn't hear him but not caring. "Snape's potion and Sprout's mandrakes should be done in the next month or so. You'll be back to normal….I hope…"
Harry left, feeling more alone than ever. It was time to put an end to this monster. Hagrid, sure enough, had been confronted by Ministry officials, and had been hauled off to Azkaban prison. Dumbledore had been taken in for questioning, while McGonagall was left in charge as temporary headmistress. All of his real friends seemed to be gone...
(The next day)
Half of Hogwarts' classes had been cancelled when the students had returned from Christmas break. Teachers were fearing the school being closed any day. Students were advised to stay together in groups of more than three and to never go out of their common rooms past 6 pm, forcing the students to eat an early dinner every night.
It wasn't until two weeks into January that another attack had happened, and it was by word of mouth that Harry found out.
"Harry did you hear?" asked Dean Thomas one night as Harry entered the common room from dinner. "There's been another attack." The other Gryffindors knew that Harry was probably not the attacker now that his two best friends had been petrified.
"Who was it?" said Harry quickly.
"Dunno," said Dean grimly. "But there's another message that the attacker left behind. I heard a Ravenclaw talking about it in between classes. 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.'"
Harry looked shocked. He thought of Hermione, thinking that somehow the monster had stolen her from bed. Even if it wasn't Hermione, he had to confront the teachers. Admit that he was hearing parselmouth in the walls. Admit that he knew about the basilisk, even if it meant being expelled or being put in Azkaban himself.
Harry rushed out of the common room at a full sprint, leaving Dean to shout, "Hey! We're not allowed out past 6 remember?" Seamus walked up to Dean. "Like that's ever stopped any of us before.." he said with a smile. Dean smiled back in agreement.
Harry ran, suddenly realizing he didn't know where he was supposed to go to find the writing on the wall until, of course, he heard the voices and followed them for awhile. He then changed his direction, thinking that he would find the message on the walls if he predicted the path of the basilisk. Sure enough, he stumbled upon the scene, where McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Lockhart were present.
"Potter! You shouldn't be here!" said McGonagall sharply. Snape eyed Harry with immense curiosity.
"Sorry, professor, uhh...yeah…" said Harry awkwardly, thinking that maybe it was best to leave. But he couldn't help himself. "Who did the monster take?" he asked, still out of breath.
"Ginny Weasley…" said Snape with a frown, still eyeing him.
Harry felt an awful lump form in his throat. His knees felt weak. His best friend's sister and secret love interest had been kidnapped by that awful, horrible beast?!
"Potter, I must ask you to go," said McGonagall swiftly.
"Professor, please, I know Ginny. Perhaps I can help?" said Harry anxiously.
McGonagall was about to retort when Snape intervened. "Potter is a parselmouth, Minerva. He could be useful."
Minerva looked shocked. "Is this true, Harry?" she asked, using his given name instead of his surname for the first time ever.
"Yes," said Harry. "I've... been hearing voices...in the walls…"
McGonagall looked unnerved. "We've been suspecting that the beast could be a snake because of the connection to Slytherin…"
"Ahh!" interrupted Lockhart. "I've been suspecting that the whole time!"
McGonagall and Snape suddenly rounded on Lockhart.
"If you are so confident in your abilities, Gilderoy, then I, as temporary headmistress, order you to deal with the beast yourself, and see to it that he is thoroughly vanquished!" said McGongall angrily, her mouth as thin as sheets of paper.
Lockhart had a shocked look in his eyes. "Fine...I'll be in my office...uhh...getting ready."
Lockhart fled the scene. Harry was desperate to follow but stayed there, hoping he could give some clues. There was an awkward silence before McGonagall began asking Snape and Sprout about the recovery potion. Harry began walking after Lockhart to tell him what he knew.
"Potter," said McGonagall briskly. "I've decided again that you should return to your dormitory. It's for your own good."
Harry almost retorted, but instead nodded. He turned around and left without another word, chancing another curious glance at Professor Snape before leaving.
However, upon entering his dormitory, Harry couldn't sit still. He decided he had to do something, unable to get his mind settled. He snatched his invisibility cloak and headed off to Lockhart's office, hoping to give him any information that could be of use.
Upon arriving, he put the invisibility cloak away and entered Lockhart's office, which began looking oddly sparse. Lockhart had apparently been packing all of his belongings.
"Are you going somewhere?" asked Harry confused.
"Urgent call, most regrettable. No one regrets more than I," said Lockhart quickly, turning back to pack his things.
"What about Ginny Weasley?!" bellowed Harry.
"They never said anything like this in the job description!" said Lockhart defensively.
"But all that stuff you did in your books!" said Harry.
"Books can be misleading!" said Lockhart.
Harry glared at him. "You're a cheat! You didn't actually do any of those things in your books did you?!"
"Actually…" said Lockhart, his voice suddenly sinister, still turned around not facing Harry. "There is one thing I was particularly good at…"
Lockhart turned around and pulled out his wand but not before a black smoking figure flew into the room and bellowed "expelliarmus!"
"P-professor Snape?!" said Harry incredulously, his jaw dropped from sheer shock to see his normally cruel Potions teacher come to his aid.
"Stand back, Potter!" growled Snape. Harry did as he was told.
"Incarcerous!" bellowed Snape. Thick black vines issued from his wand and attached to Lockhart's extremities, suspending him in air as though he was tied to a torture rack.
"How dare you attack a teacher!" said Lockhart, his voice timid again.
"How dare you attack a student!" retorted Snape angrily. "I've had my suspicions about you Lockhart, but I came just in time before you could do any more damage. Now I have my proof. You were going to obliviate Potter before you escaped Hogwarts. I clearly saw you. "
Harry was suspended in disbelief, thankful for the first time in his life that he was in the same room as Professor Snape.
"I wasn't going to obliviate him!" said Lockhart.
"You lie!" said Snape. "I've figured out your little secret Gilderoy. Your time is up, and you will pay for your crimes in the same way that you have committed them."
"No!" said Lockhart desperately.
Snape turned to Harry. "What I do, Potter, I am doing for the greater good. This cannot go on any longer. Lockhart is a dangerous man. He needs to be stopped. Dumbledore knows now too…"
Harry nodded, unsure of what Snape was exactly referring to, until he saw him turn back around.
"Obliviate!" said Snape as he pointed his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart retained his angry look, but his gaze became unfixed, as if staring off into the middle distance, as he continued to struggle in the vines.
"There, Potter," said Snape, he said with a grimace, disgusted at the mere sight of Lockhart. "Now, tell me what you know about the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry obeyed without hesitation this time. "There's these voices that I hear in the walls at night. I think I can hear them because I am a parseltongue. Hermione, Ron, and I have been doing research and we've come to the conclusion that the monster in the Chamber is a basilisk."
"The mythical snake that kills merely by eye contact?" said Snape.
"Yes. Weird things have happened to keep anyone from dying. Like Ron and Hermione must've been looking in that mirror. Colin looked at it through his camera. Coincidences like that."
Snape eyed him with interest. "Go on…"
"The basilisk must be moving through the school somehow because I can hear it in the walls. I have no clue who the heir of Slytherin is though, or where the Chamber is."
"I think I can be of assistance there," said Snape. "While I do not know who the heir is, I have a hunch as of late where the Chamber is."
"Where?" said Harry, finding it hard to believe that he was about to team up with Professor Snape to do anything.
"Follow me," said Snape.
Harry nodded. Snape freed Lockhart and made him follow them. Lockhart, although confused by everything, obeyed. They walked briskly for a few minutes until they arrived at the haunted girls' toilets in the abandoned corridor.
"Professor?" said Harry cautiously, as a confused Lockhart bumped into him from behind.
"Potter," said Snape, stopping right in front of the entrance to the bathroom. "You are vital to this mission because you are a parselmouth. If what you say is true about the basilisk, then Salazar Slytherin's Chamber is real and is in this very castle, possibly beneath where we are standing. The reason I say this is that a girl was murdered in this bathroom almost exactly 50 years ago. Rumors spread that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened at that time, and a monster killed the girl, but many others, particularly those in the Ministry, believed it was Rubeus Hagrid because of his association with monster-like creatures and his giant status. I, for one, have heard of Dumbledore's theory that Hagrid was actually framed and that it was, in fact, the Dark Lord who opened the Chamber 50 years ago when he was a student here."
Harry's eyes grew wide. "You mean Voldemort opened the Chamber?!"
"You dare say the Dark Lord's name?" said Snape. "You are either very brave or very foolish."
"You call him the Dark Lord?" asked Harry, glaring at Snape.
"Do not question me, Potter!" snapped Snape. "However, yes. The Dark Lord opened the Chamber 50 years ago. He was the only parselmouth at the school at the time."
Harry gulped. This was becoming more and more terrifying.
"The Dark Lord," continued Snape, his voice lower and colder, "went by another name while he was at Hogwarts. Do you, perhaps, know the name Tom Riddle?"
Harry's mouth opened in shock. "Yes! I've heard the rumor that Tom Riddle was the one who opened the Chamber. So then, if Tom Riddle was Voldemort, then Voldemort was the heir of Slytherin last time?"
"Yes," said Snape darkly. "However, this time, I am not sure who it is…"
"So you believe the entrance to the Chamber is in this haunted bathroom?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Snape. "Now, follow me."
Snape took Lockhart, who was still dazed, and made him go first. Snape and Harry followed him in. No one was there, and the night had fallen fast.
"Myrtle Warren, show yourself!" said Snape, his voice echoing through the bathroom. Harry and Lockhart shuddered.
"What do you want?" said a resentful teenage girl's voice. The ghostly voice rang throughout the dark and damp bathroom. "Be gone!"
"Reveal yourself! As head of Slytherin house, I inform you that the Chamber of Salazar has been opened! You were murdered by the beast! I order you to reveal your secrets!"
"Very well," said the voice, suddenly calm.