"This means," said Lyla with excitement, "we can't be the only Parselmouth in the school! The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how they've been controlling the basilisk."

The group of Potter friends sat circled close to one another on the floor of the library.

"That seems to make the most sense," said Draco wearily, "but the pipes theory– I just don't–"

"What are we going to do?" asked Daphne, whose eyes were flashing with alarm. "Should we go straight to a professor or– ?"

"I think we should go to the staff room," said Arabella, scrambling to her feet.

"It is nearly break time," agreed Blaise.

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Draco and Theo paced around as the minutes ticked by, while Lyla chewed on her lip. They were all too energetic to sit and wait.

However, the bell to signal break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students are to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."

"Not another attack?" asked Daphne. "Now?!"

Lyla wheeled around to stare at Arabella.

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast.

"Go back to the dormitory?" suggested Blaise.

"No, we won't," said Lyla firmly, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to her left, full of the teachers' cloaks, and looked big enough to hold their small group "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

They hid inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room in a strained voice. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

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

"How can you be sure?" asked Snape, fingers gripping the back of a chair.

"The Heir of Slytherin," said McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' "

Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Astoria Greengrass," said McGonagall.

Lyla could sense Daphne slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Lyla was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it wasn't. It was Lockhart, 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 with relish. "The very man. What you've missed Lockheart, is that a girl has been snatched by the monster, taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in 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 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 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 the room.

"Right," said 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?"

The teachers rose and left.

It was probably the worst day of Arabella's entire life. She and Ron sat together in a corner of the common room, unable to say anything to each other. No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one. Once sunset had come around, only Arabella, Ron were left inside the common room. They couldn't bring themselves to sleep knowing what they did about Daphne.

"Uh, Ara?"

Both second years jumped, surprised to find Ginny standing only steps from them. She looked awful, her eyes red from crying. But of course, she had, Astoria had been one of her best friends in the castle.

"What's up, Ginny?" Arabella managed.

"I– I was trying to tell you earlier, but Percy– Astoria's hurt because of… of me…"

And a fresh wave of tears came pouring from the girl's eyes.

"Why would you say that?" asked Ron, rubbing his younger sister's shoulders. "How could you have known?"

"Be-because I sh-should be the one in the Ch-chamber of Secrets," wailed the small girl. "She got it from me– said it was bad and that I shouldn't have– said she'd destroy if she c-could–"

"Got what from you?" prompted Ron eagerly. "Ginny, what did you give her?"

But now the youngest Weasley was sobbing, and words were useless.

"Stop hounding her, Ron," Arabella said, bringing the smaller girl into a careful embrace. "Can't you see that you're frightening her? Enough with the questions."

"But Astoria's a pure-blood," said Ron. "Why would the heir take her?"

Ginny was practically howling. After persuading the girl to go to bed, Arabella sighed and threw herself onto a plushy couch.

"Arabella," said Ron seriously. "Do you think there's any chance at all Astoria's— you know —"

Arabella didn't know what to say, but she couldn't see how Astoria could still be alive.

"You know what?" said Ron, sitting up, "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Because Arabella couldn't think of anything else to do, and because she wanted to be doing something, she agreed. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and no one would question Arabella or Ron due to their connection to the Greengrass family. Without a second thought, they stood up and made their way through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office, and the two were shocked to find Daphne and Lyla standing outside the professor's door.

"Daphne!" exclaimed Ron.

"I see you two were thinking something similar," said Lyla with a forced smile. "Come on, let's go, shall we?"

There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. Arabella 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 — you all —" he said breathlessly, 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 Daphne. "Information we think will 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?" asked Lyla.

"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 sister?" asked Daphne 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 —"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" shouted Daphne. "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 Ron disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books —"

"Books can be quite misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Arabella shouted.

"My dear girl," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Arabella. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd 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 front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on —"

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" asked Daphne incredulously.

"Oh, Miss Greengrass," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. 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. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he said. "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 now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book —"

Arabella reached her wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when she bellowed, "Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Daphne caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Lyla furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at the redhead, feeble once more.

"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."

"Well, you're in luck," said Arabella, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

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