Chapter 23: Lockhart the Fraud

Buffy handed the piece of paper to Harry who read it aloud, "Of the many fearsome beasts that

roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years,

instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it and only the

crowing of the rooster can kill it."

Harry nodded, "This is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why we and Dawn can hear it speak. It's a snake."

"But it kills by looking people in the eye," Ron said. "Why is it no one's dead?"

Harry thought about what Ron said before catching his, Buffy's and Ron's reflection in the window opposite them. "Because no one did look it in the eye. Not directly at least... Colin saw it through his camera. Justin - Justin must've seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost – he couldn't die again... And Hermione and Dawn... had the mirror! I bet you anything they were using it to look round corners, in case it came along."

"And Mrs. Norris," Buffy said, "there was water on the floor that night. She only saw the Basilisk's reflection..."

"The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it!" Harry said. "That's why Hagrid's roosters were killed!" Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

"But how's the Basilisk been getting around?" Ron asked. "A dirty great snake. Someone would have seen..."

Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page. "Pipes," he said. "Pipes… Ron, it's been using the plumbing. Buffy, Dawn and I've been hearing that voice inside the walls…"

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" Ron said hoarsely. "What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in—"

"—Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Harry.

Buffy smiled, "Moaning Myrtle! Of course."

At that precise moment, 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 second-floor corridor. Immediately, please."

Buffy frowned, "Let's go see what's up."

They raced to the second-floor corridor.

McGonagall stood before a desecrated wall, surrounded by the rest of the staff. Harry, Buffy and Ron crept up behind them staying out of sight. "As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fear has been realized. Two students have been taken by the monster. Into the Chamber itself. I'm afraid we shall have to send the students home. I'm afraid... this is the end of Hogwarts."

Lockhart burst onto the scene cheerily, "So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed?"

Snape smirked, "Just the man. Two girls have been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last."

"My m-moment?" Lockhart stuttered.

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Snape asked.

Lockhart shivered, "D-did I? I don't recall..."

"That settles it," McGonagall said. "We'll leave it to you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend."

"V-very well. I'll - I'll be in my office, getting – getting ready," Lockhart said as he turned and headed back the way he came.

McGonagall sighed, "The rest of us should go and inform the students what has happened."

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch. "Which students?"

"Willow and Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

Ron's knees buckled beneath him as Harry caught him before he could fall and give away their position. They watched as the professors left one by one and till what was written on the wall revealed: Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.

Harry, Buffy and a very upset Ron walked with desperate purpose a few moments later.

"They knew something, Harry, Buffy," Ron said. "They'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That's why they were taken. I mean, they were - are - pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."

"C'mon. Let's go see Lockhart," Harry said. "He may be a brainless git, but he's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him what we know..."

"You sure of that, Harry?" Buffy asked. "I don't trust him."

"I don't either," Harry said. "But I think we should if he can get in the Chamber."

Buffy sighed and nodded.

Ron looked at the twins, "Harry, Buffy. D'you think there's any chance at all they're not, you

know –"

Harry glanced over at Ron. "We'll find them, Ron. Ginny and Willow are going to be fine."

Ron nodded, smiled shakily, and looked away. Harry glanced at Buffy and saw in her eyes the same thing he was sure she saw in his, that neither of them believed what he had just told Ron.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.

Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh—Mr. Potter—Miss. Potter—Mr. Weasley—" 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?" said Harry.

"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 sisters?" 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—"

Buffy frowned, "I knew I shouldn't have let you two talk me in to coming to him. He's worthless."

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Ron. "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—"

Buffy laughed, "Books can be misleading. Can't they, Professor?"

"You are correct, Miss Potter," Lockhart said.

Buffy saw Harry looked toward her. "How many of the books did you read at home over the summer break, Harry? He obviously made some of it up."

"Not all," Lockhart said. "Some of it did happen, but 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..."

Buffy smiled, "You're nothing but a fraud. You've just been taking credit for what a lot of other wizards have done."

"Isabella. Isabella. Isabella," Lockhart said as he banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. "There was work involved. I had to track these people down and ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. No, it's not all book signings and publicity photos. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long, hard slog. Let's see. 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 three now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book—"

Buffy with the speed and agility of a Slayer swept Lockhart off his feet causing him to drop his wand. "Never mess with a Slayer or her family and friends. You won't like the results," she said.

Harry smiled as he picked up Lockhart's wand, "Looks like those training sessions with Giles paid off."

Buffy blushed and nodded, "Now Professor shall we go rescue Ginny and Willow? Or would you rather go to Professor McGonagall and explain how you're a fraud?"

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. They found Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Who's there? Oh..." She smiled at Buffy, "Hello, Slayer. What do you want?"

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

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 Buffy. "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 Buffy.

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

Buffy nodded in understanding, "She saw the Basilisk," she said as she, Harry and Ron hurried over to the sink. 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 Buffy saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"That taps never worked," said Myrtle brightly as Harry tried to turn it.

"Buffy, Harry," said Ron. "One of you say something. Something in Parseltongue."

The only times the twins had ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when they'd been faced with a real snake.

Harry stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real. "Open up," he said.

"English," Ron said as he shook his head.

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. "Open up," he said.

Except that the words weren't what they 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.

Buffy smiled, "That's it, Harry. Harry, Ron, you two take Lockhart to Professor McGonagall. I'm going down there."

"Buffy, I'm going with you," Ron said.

"Ron, please," Buffy said. "I promise I will bring back Ginny and Willow. I am the only one who can do this. I am a Slayer."

"What is a Slayer?" Ron wondered.

"Harry will tell you as you two take Lockhart to Professor McGonagall," she said.

Without another word Buffy lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. She could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as hers, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and she knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Eventually the pipe leveled out, and she shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in.

"I'm coming, Ginny, Willow," Buffy said.