Chapter 15: The Chamber of Secrets
I don't own Digimon or Harry Potter
Even after the talk with Aragog in the Forbidden Forest, Daisuke, Ron, and Harry were still no closer to solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. They knew Hagrid was innocent but had no way to prove it without revealing they had broken curfew to speak to a dangerous magical creature.
The only thing that had taken their mind off the Chamber and the Heir of Slytherin had been Professor McGonagall's announcement during a Transfiguration class a few weeks after their trip into the Forbidden Forest that the exams at the end of the year would be taking place as usual.
"Exams? With all that's been going on. What was she thinking?" Ron muttered as the trio walked out of the classroom with Veemon right behind them.
"She did say it was Dumbledore's instructions to keep the school going as if everything was normal." Daisuke reminded him.
"Kind of hard to believe that with several people petrified in the Hospital Wing," Veemon muttered.
"And we've not even bothered to start revising yet," Daisuke added. Her friends nodded though they knew they weren't the only ones who hadn't thought of revising for exams with all the events that had transpired during the year.
"I bet ya that Hermione will freak out about this," Ron said, trying to lighten the mood before he spotted his younger sister Ginny hiding behind one of the suits of armour that they walked past. "Ginny?"
Daisuke and Harry looked at the young girl who shuffled into view, looking down at her shoes and holding her robes nervously. "Is everything alright?" Daisuke asked.
"I…I've got to…tell you something…" Ginny muttered, looking away from the three humans and Digimon. Daisuke kneeled and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright, take your time. You can tell us anything." She encouraged. She noticed Ginny's eyes were filled with fear and worry; bags were under her eyes as if she hadn't been sleeping for a while. "Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen anything, noticed anyone acting strange?"
Ginny looked around and opened her mouth to speak when suddenly, Percy chose that exact moment to walk around the corner. "Ginny! There you are. I thought I told you not to leave your class while I was escorting them."
His younger sister jumped in fright, and she quickly ran past him back to rejoin her class, who were all nearby. "Percy!" Ron growled. "You scared her; she was just about to tell us something important!"
Percy blinked, and his face turned bright red. "Oh, she was?" he asked, and they nodded. "Oh, don't worry about it; that has nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets or anything like that."
"Really?" Veemon asked. "Lemme guess, she caught you and Jun snogging in the broom closet?"
Percy's face turned even redder, and he began to sputter out denials as they walked away, leaving him to go back to his escort duties.
"He thinks nobody knows he and Jun are together." Daisuke snorted.
"More like he didn't think anyone would catch them snogging," Ron said as they caught up to the rest of their class as they headed for the next lesson. Later that afternoon, however, the four had managed to give their escort and class the slip and were sneaking towards the Hospital Wing intent on visiting Hermione and Jun.
They were almost there when a voice called out to them. "Potter, Weasley, Ainsworth, what are you three doing?" It was Professor McGonagall, and she looked ready to explode at having caught them without an escort and without their classmates.
"We…we…were…." Ron gulped before Daisuke jumped in.
"We were just going to see Hermione and Jun, Professor." She sniffled and rubbed her eyes as tears dripped down her cheeks. "It's been so long since we've visited them…I…I thought it would be okay if only for a little while…." She dipped her head as the others stared at her in surprise.
Professor McGonagall's thin-lipped frown and stern glare melted away into a look of sympathy. "Of course. I had forgotten what this must be like for the friends and family of those petrified. You may visit them, tell Madam Pomfrey you have my permission, and I will inform Professor Binns where you are."
"Thank you," Daisuke said softly, and they walked around the corner to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey let them in, and they gathered around Hermione's bed first.
"I wish you were here, Hermione; we could really use your help," Harry whispered.
Daisuke then noticed a scrunched-up piece of paper in Hermione's clenched right hand. She frowned and gently freed it from her friend's grasp. "What's that?" Ron asked her as she read the page, her eyes going wide with each line she read.
"This is the reason…the reason why she and Jun were in the library the day they were attacked. Come on." She told them, and they quickly left the hospital wing and began walking down the hallway.
In Daisuke's hands was a page from a very old library book. "Of the many curious and fearsome beasts who roam our lands, none are more deadly than the Basilisk, also known as the King of Serpents. Known to grow to a great size and capable of living for hundreds of years, it is created by hatching a chicken's egg under a toad. Any who meet this serpent's eye die instantly, spiders flee before it, and the crowing of the rooster is the only thing which the Basilisk fears."
Harry stopped in his tracks. "That's why I can hear it speak. It's a snake."
"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, how come nobody has died yet?" Ron asked.
Daisuke frowned and looked out a window, and saw her reflection. "Because nobody did look it in the eye, not directly at least." Walking off down the hallway, she continued to explain. "Colin saw it through his camera, the stare of the Basilisk must have melted all the film, but he just got petrified. Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost, so he can't die again. And Hermione had the mirror; I bet you anything she was using that to look around corners in case it came along."
"What about Jun? Why was her wand broken?" Ron asked.
"She must have taken it out and was using the mirror to try and use a spell to attack it without needing to make eye contact." Daisuke reasoned her cousin was very bright; she probably knew a few spells that could have blinded the creature for a few moments for them to escape and warn someone.
"And Mrs Norris…there was water on the floor that night," Harry said. "She only saw the reflection of the Basilisk."
Daisuke held up the paper to one of the torches nearby. "Spiders flee before it; that's why the spiders were fleeing the castle. They knew what it was. And the crowing of a rooster is fatal; remember how we heard someone mention Hagrid's roosters had all been killed earlier this year. I bet the Heir of Slytherin didn't want one near the castle."
"But how's the Basilisk been getting around? A great dirty snake, someone had to have seen it." Ron said.
"Hermione's answered that too," Daisuke said, showing a word written on the page in Hermione's handwriting.
"Pipes! It's using the plumbing?"
"Remember what Aragog told us about the girl who died in the bathroom fifty years ago? What if she never left?"
"Moaning Myrtle." Veemon and Harry whispered in understanding.
"We've got to tell Professor McGonagall, now that we know what it is, I bet you the teachers will be able to handle a giant snake," Daisuke said with a smile. However, her smile faded when a magically amplified voice filled the entire castle.
"All students are to return to their dormitories at once. All teachers proceed to the second-floor corridor immediately."
"Come on!" Harry said, and the four ran off to the corridor and made it just before the teachers and hid around the corner, they spotted Professors McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, the other school teachers as well as Madam Pomfrey all running down the hallway and they came to a stop in front of fresh writing in blood on the wall, the same wall where the first message had been written.
"As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fears have been realised; a student has been taken by the monster itself into the Chamber of Secrets." Professor McGonagall said, distraught. "I'm afraid all the students must be sent home; this is the end of Hogwarts itself…"
A moment later, Professor Lockhart strode into view. "So sorry, dozed off, what have I missed?" he asked, clearly not noticing the other teacher's expressions.
"A girl has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets by the monster Lockhart," Snape said rather fiercely, his eyes narrowed in nothing short of hatred. "Your moment has come at last to do your job."
"I'm sorry…" Lockhart said.
"Weren't you just saying last night how you knew all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets all this time had been?" Snape continued.
"Well…I…I never really said…."
"That settles it." Professor McGonagall said. "We shall leave this to you, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legendary. We will ensure that no one gets in your way."
Lockhart gulped. "V…v…very well…I…I'll just um…get ready." He turned and ran off down the hallway.
"Who has been taken into the Chamber Minerva?" Madam Pomfrey asked once the blonde fool had left.
"Ginny Weasley." Ron's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped as the teachers and staff all walked away.
"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever…Ginny…" he whispered, falling to his knees in dread. "Not her…"
"Come on," Daisuke said, grabbing her friend's hand and helping him to his feet. "We need to tell Lockhart what we know. Even if he is an idiot, he still has to know what he's up against." She and her friends ran off, heading for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. They threw open the door and ran up to Lockhart's office.
"Professor, we have some information for you!" Harry said as they entered his office. Lockhart spun around, slamming a suitcase shut, and he stared at them in surprise. "A…are you going somewhere?"
"Uh yes…of course. Urgent call, hate to leave on such short notice."
"What about my sister!?" Ron shouted.
"Yes…well, sorry about that…but I really have to go."
"You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. You can't go now!"
"When I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about…"
"You're running away!?" Daisuke snarled, standing in his way as he tried to run around his desk to get to the door. "After everything you did in your books!?"
"Books can be misleading!"
"You wrote them!"
"My dear girl, please do use your common sense! My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think that I had done all those things!"
"You…you're a fraud. I knew it!" Daisuke hissed, her eyes glowing bright gold. "You've just taken credit for the work others have done!"
Lockhart gulped as Harry, Ron and Veemon all glared at him, barring the door with their bodies. "Is there anything you can do?" Veemon questioned.
"Yes. There is. You see, I am quite proficient in Memory Charms elsewise those wizards and witches would have gone blabbing, and I would have never sold another book. Now regretfully, it seems I have no choice but to do the same to you." Lockhart told them. He turned his back and grabbed his wand off the desk.
Daisuke, Harry, and Ron whipped out their wands as he turned around. "Expelliarmus!" they shouted together, and three red lights shot from their wands and knocked Lockhart's wand out of his hand.
"Bet you're regretting us learning that one!" Daisuke said fiercely, catching his wand and throwing it out the window. "Come on, get moving you, fraud!" She grabbed him by his robes and threw him out the door, and the four pushed him down the stairs and out of the classroom.
"Where are you taking me? This is kidnapping, you know!"
"Shut up!" Veemon shouted, kicking the man in his backside. They pushed Lockhart down the hallway towards Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom, since everyone else had been sent back to their dormitories, they didn't need to worry about anyone catching them throwing the door open.
There, Moaning Myrtle floated about moaning and whimpering before she spotted them and gasped. "Hello Harry, Daisuke, what do you want?"
"To ask you how you died," Daisuke answered softly, her wand jabbed firmly in Lockhart's ribs while Harry and Ron's wands were trained at his back.
Myrtle blinked before she giggled and floated over to them. "Oh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I died over there in that cubicle, I had been crying because a boy was bullying me about my glasses. I locked the door and cried before I heard someone come in, they said something in a funny language, and I realised it was a boy. I threw open the cubicle door to tell him to use his own bathroom, but that was when I saw them."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Two bright glowing yellow eyes, the moment I saw them. I died. It felt like I was floating away before I found myself back here like this, and I've been here ever since."
"Where did you see the eyes?" Daisuke asked, and Moaning Myrtle flew over to the sinks at the end of the cubicles. Harry and Ron walked towards the sink while Veemon and Daisuke pushed Lockhart along with them.
Harry ran his hand over the tap of one of the sinks, he felt an odd carving on the metal. It was covered in dirt and filth, but after a few wipes with his sleeve, he saw it was a serpent. "This is it…the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets…"
"Harry, say something…say something in Parseltongue," Ron told him.
Harry nodded, and he stared at the carving and concentrated. "Open." He hissed after a moment of silence, the group waited with bated breath before miraculously the circle of sinks which clinked and hissed and slowly the sliding of metal and grinding of stone rang out as the circle opened revealing a large hole in the floor and the sink with the snake carving sank into the floor, a metal grate sliding into place over it.
Lockhart stood there stunned and weakly let out a chuckle. "Ah…marvellous work Harry…I…I'll just be going." Before he tried to run, Harry and Ron grabbed his arms and dragged him back in front of them.
"You're not going anyway. Except down there." Daisuke told him; her wand aimed firmly at his face. Lockhart turned around and looked down the seemingly bottomless hole.
"Um, perhaps we ought to…" he was cut off when Ron kicked him in the butt sending him falling down the hole, his screams echoing up as he fell before the sound of him landing on something hard and crunchy reached their ears. "Really quite filthy down here." He grumbled.
"Let's go," Harry told his friends.
"Oh, Harry." Moaning Myrtle called out to him. "If you happen to die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."
Harry gulped and nodded. "Um, thanks, Myrtle…" Ron went first, jumping down the hole, followed by Veemon, Daisuke and finally himself, and the four found themselves sliding down a pipe deeper and deeper into the bowels of the castle.
Eventually, the pipe levelled out, and they all landed in a heap in a small circular room, the floor littered with old bones of rats and other small animals.
"Oh...gross…" Daisuke gagged as Harry helped her to her feet, all their robes were now filthy, covered in dirt and slime from the ride down the slide and Veemon's skin was also covered in muck.
"I'm gonna need a bath after this." He muttered before looking around the circular room which had several exits, anyone could be hiding the Basilisk if it was still around.
"Remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away," Harry said before jumping over a small ledge, and he began to walk down a tunnel.
"Go on," Ron told Lockhart, aiming his wand at the man who whimpered as he followed Harry, Daisuke, Ron and Veemon right behind him. The group walked through the tunnels before Harry led them into another area, a small cavern with an angled ceiling, taking up most of the space was a giant snakeskin.
"What is that?" Veemon asked.
"It looks like a…snake," Lockhart whispered.
"It's a snakeskin," Daisuke said, following Harry as they walked to the other side of the snakeskin to check it out.
"Bloody hell, whatever shed this must be at least sixty feet long by now," Ron said. Lockhart let out a pathetic whimper and fainted, curling into a foetal position beside him.
Daisuke and Harry looked back at the others and saw Ron looking at them. "Heart of a lion this one." He muttered only for Lockhart to spring to his feet, snatching his wand from his hand.
"Ha, the journey ends here, children." He said, smirking at them with the wand trained at Daisuke and Harry. "The world will know our story, however, how I was too late to save the girl. And how you four lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body."
"You wouldn't dare leave Ginny here, you bastard!" Daisuke growled, taking a step only for Lockhart to aim the wand at her.
"You first, Miss Ainsworth, say goodbye to your memories. Obliviate!" Lockhart waved the wand just as Daisuke's eyes flashed bright gold, a shield of golden magic appeared, sending the spell right back at Lockhart with incredible force, sending him flying into the ceiling before he hit the floor with a thud.
The others stared in shock at what had just happened, only for the rumbling of the cavern to catch their attention. "Move now!" Harry shouted, grabbing Daisuke and throwing her to the ground, and he jumped on top of her while Veemon tackled Ron back as the ceiling between them began to crack, and suddenly it collapsed, separating the four with a wall of rock and stone.
Ron and Veemon got to their feet, coughing and waving the cloud of dust away. "Harry! Daisuke!" Ron shouted, rushing to a small gap in the rocks. There he could see Daisuke and Harry slowly getting to their feet.
"We're okay!" Daisuke replied. "Thank goodness for my magic…but how the heck did I manage to do that?"
"No clue, but we've got bigger problems to worry about," Harry told her.
Veemon tried to budge the rocks, but they were too heavy for him in his Rookie form. "Dai, I need to digivolve into Ex-Veemon!"
"No luck, you'd be too big and could cause another cave-in," Daisuke replied. A groan made Ron and Veemon turn back to Lockhart as he sat up with a dazed expression.
"Hello…who are you?"
"Um, Ron Weasley," Ron answered.
"Really? And who am I?" Lockhart asked, looking around bewildered.
Ron and Veemon shared a look. "Lockhart's memory charm must have backfired when whatever you did to reflect the spell hit him. He doesn't know who he is!"
"Oh great…" Daisuke groaned in disbelief.
"This is an odd sort of place," Lockhart said as he picked up a rock. "Do you live here?"
"No," Ron told him, he grabbed the rock and whacked Lockhart in the head with it hard, knocking the man out.
"Now, what do we do!?" Veemon asked.
"Wait here, try to move some of this rock so we can get back through," Harry told him. "We'll go find Ginny."
"Right." Veemon and Ron replied and got to work moving the rocks as best they could. Harry and Daisuke walked further down the cavern and stopped in front of a large metal door with two snakes entwined together with bright green emeralds for eyes.
"Open," Harry whispered, and the emerald eyes of the snakes glowed before the door split apart slowly, and both walked through cautiously.
After a quick climb down a ladder, both came to a halt when they saw they were now standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber, towering serpent-like columns rising out of the water around them to support the ceiling that was lost in darkness. Both held out their wands, moving together in sync, their eyes narrowed, ready to be closed at the slightest sign of movement. The entire chamber was bathed in an eerie green glow.
At the end of the path, they saw a giant wizard's face carved into the back wall, it was as high as the chamber itself and laying before it was a familiar red-haired girl…it was Ginny.
The End of the Chapter
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