Chapter 14: The Chamber of Secrets
Mungo, after having the word 'bathroom' ringing around his head all morning, deduced that this thought was very strange. When he tried to get rid of it by reading a book, it shouted 'BATHROOM' in stentorian tones, and the only way it seemed to disappear was when he tried not to make it go away. So that's what he did; however, it gave him a vacant expression, and Duncan asked if he was going mental several times.
After classes about three days later, Professor Sprout came into the Hufflepuff common room with a joyful expression.
"I have wonderful news, everyone-" Professor Sprout announced. She was immediately drowned out by exuberant, happy exclamations.
"They got Dumbledore back!"
"They caught the Heir!"
"Get off of my foot, Ernie!"
Professor Sprout tossed some seeds into the air, which made thunderous banging noises, which not only restored some quiet but also rewarded Professor Sprout with some rather handsome green flowers.
"I have just discovered that the Mandrakes are ready for the Mandrake Draught. This very night, all those poor victims will be un-Petrified. We'll know who the Heir is at last!"
All of Hufflepuff cheered. Mungo felt very happy and proud, and applauded Professor Sprout with all of his might. She got slightly flustered, and left hurriedly. Right afterward, Duncan started bugging Mungo about studying for his exams again.
At breakfast next morning, Professor McGonagall announced that the Mandrakes were ready again. Despite hearing it already, the Hufflepuffs started cheering again. Mungo felt very special that Professor Sprout had told them about the Mandrakes before anybody else.
Mungo and Duncan went about their classes that day feeling very happy about the future. That night, the victims would wake up, and tell exactly who was controlling the basilisk.
Suddenly, Mungo realized what that would mean for Harry if he was the Heir, or the tool of the Heir. It would probably go badly for him… He might even get expelled.
Mungo told this to Duncan, and he went pale.
"He might do something really dreadful tonight! Maybe wrap it all up in one swoop!"
Mungo sat down on the floor in the middle of the third-floor corridor. He knuckled his forehead, grimacing with thinking.
He suddenly stood up decisively.
"You know how you said that the only things that kill basilisks are mirrors?" Mungo asked.
"Yes…" Duncan said cautiously.
"Git us some mirrors." Mungo said sharply.
"What?" Duncan asked, confused.
"Ye heard me, man, git us some mirrors. We're gooin' to confront this creature, an' Harry, or the Heir. We're gooin' t' fight it." Mungo said determinedly, staring at Duncan so hard that it seemed he was looking a good six inches into his friend's head.
"Mungo, that's impossible. We're only first-years, and we don't even know where the Chamber of Secrets is." Duncan protested, crossing his arms.
The word 'bathroom' took this opportunity to arise in Mungo's brain. Suddenly, Mungo remembered his dream, in almost painful detail. His left eye twitched.
"Duncan! I had a dream a few nights ago, about spiders and… other things. But one of the spiders said that the thing in the castle was something that even it feared, and it was as big as an elephant."
"Spiders flee from basilisks… Did you read that before?" Duncan asked.
"Noo. Anyway, that was the monster that Hagrid released. Or, rather, got expelled for. Hagrid was framed by somebody, I doon't knoo who. Anyway, the important thing was that the girl who died was found in a bathroom. What if the girl decided to haunt that bathroom?"
"That's rubbish Mungo. That could mean Moaning Myrtle-" Duncan paused, thinking. His brow furrowed.
"It couldn't hurt to ask." He finally said.
Out of nowhere, Professor McGonagall's voice came through the castle.
"All students will return to their dormitories immediately. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Mungo and Duncan looked at each other.
"Let's git those mirrors." Mungo said grimly. His gaze was so hard that Duncan didn't argue.
However, getting mirrors was not as easy as it seemed. Mungo and Duncan wandered throughout the castle,searching for a mirror they could take,and dodging teachers and staff whenever they appeared. They couldn't go to their common room and fetch one, because then it would be nearly impossible to get out again.
They were climbing the stairs to the second floor when there suddenly came a pounding of footsteps on the stairway across the landing. Mungo caught a glimpse of Potter, Weasley, and, against all expectations, Professor Lockhart, but Duncan dragged him out of sight so forcefully that Mungo cut his lip on the wall.
"Ouch…" Mungo said, running his tongue over his wound.
"What's Bundimun doing with them? Maybe Potter captured Lockhart.."
"Never mind that, follow them!"
"Why?"
"Potter speaks Parseltongue, right? You probably need Parseltongue to get in." Mungo said, sounding half-crazed.
"Mungo, calm down- Mungo, come back here!" Duncan exclaimed, running after Mungo. He had taken off, running up the stairs to the second floor and out of hearing of Duncan. He had to catch up to Potter, had to get in…
However, something happened to make Mungo pull up sharp, eyes bulging in terror.
He had come to the writing on the wall. Below the original message, there was another one:
HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER"Good lord…" Mungo swore, emotions overwhelming him. He stood as if he was Petrified, staring at the words. The Heir had taken someone, maybe already killed her… Who had been taken? What was Mungo going to do?
Mungo returned to consciousness at the sound of Duncan running towards him, puffing. His face took a stern look, as stern as eleven-year-olds can get.
"Let's goo." Mungo said, going towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Duncan caught sight of the writing.
"Mungo- they've taken someone- oh, this is awful-" Duncan sputtered.
"Git a grip, Duncan, we have t' finish this once an' fer all." Mungo growled, walking to the door of the bathroom. He pushed it open with a forceful shove that knocked it against the wall.
He saw the dingy bathroom, just like it had been when Mungo had seen it last. One notable difference was that there was a gaping hole where on of the sinks had been. Moaning Myrtle was looking dreamily down it.
"Oh, what do you want?" She asked irritably. Mungo didn't answer and walked up to one of the other sinks. He smiled in satisfaction, and pulled the mirror down from over it.
"Hey, see here, that's… good enough." Duncan said, trailing off at the sight of Mungo's expression. He pulled himself a mirror, but he overbalanced and bumped into Mungo.
Mungo lost his balance in turn, and the mirror he was holding flew from his hands. It flew through the air, and shattered against a wall.
Myrtle giggled.
"Ohhh, you are in so much trouble! Seven years of bad luck! I wouldn't want to be in your shoes!"
Mungo turned red as he pulled another mirror from a sink, with Duncan babbling profuse apologies. Mungo turned to Duncan, and shook his head.
"Jus'… Doon't do it again." Mungo sighed. He didn't want Duncan going with him and risking his life, when Duncan didn't even want to. "Listen, Duncan. Goo upstairs, to th' staff room, an' tell them what's gooin' on and our opinions. I'll goo doon. You knoo what t' doo if I doon't git back." Mungo squared his shoulders, and, before Duncan could protest, threw himself down the entranceway to the Chamber of Secrets. He could hear Duncan's annoyed shout, and Moaning Myrtle's giggling.
However, something told Mungo that it had gone wrong. The slime-coated pipe slid this way and that, and finally dumped him out into a flowing stream of sewage. Mungo didn't know this, but he had somehow passed the turn that would lead him to the correct way to the Chamber of Secrets.
However, at the moment he didn't pause to think of this, as he was currently floundering in ranking water. Mungo struggled to shore, trying to keep hold of his mirror and his hat. He finally found an edge, and dragged himself up.
Drenching wet, Mungo shook some of the water out of his hair. Because of the water-repelling charm, his hat was not wet at all.
Mungo shivered. He seriously thought about putting a water-repelling charm on all of his clothes. However, he turned his attention to the task at hand. Getting a firm grip on his mirror, which had a hook on the back that he could grab and hold it like a shield, Mungo drew his wand with his other hand. He then walked carefully along the edge of the stream of sewage.
Eventually, he came to a tunnel. It was littered with small white bones of rats and things, and made crunching sounds when Mungo accidentally stepped on one. Mungo gulped nervously as he walked along the tunnel.
Quite suddenly, the full impact of what he was doing hit Mungo with full force. He was walking to encounter a fifty-foot long serpent, which could kill with its eyes, destroy with its fangs, and smash with its tail. His only defense was a grimy old mirror and a pack of half-remembered first-year spells. Mungo's knees almost gave out, but then he heard a rattle. It sounded like a rock hitting the walls of the tunnel. Mungo froze. He struggled to remember something, anything that would help him fight the basilisk.
But he wasn't given time to think. Bursting out of the side of a tunnel came a horrible, horny purple head, baring its teeth viciously. But it wasn't this, or the horrible, roaring, hissing sounds it made, that made Mungo quiver in fear.
Its eyes were gone, bloody masses of scarlet tissue. Mungo felt quite sick. His mirror was useless now.
The basilisk turned to Mungo and opened its mouth, showing fangs as long as Mungo's arm. Mungo instinctively clutched the mirror to his chest, and extended his wand. Words flowed into his head, voices offered guidance.
The basilisk lunged, moving forward with horrible quickness. Mungo brought his mirror to the front, and dodged to the left. The basilisk smashed into the mirror, but got deflected slightly by it so that it slid forward past Mungo. Mungo felt the horrible strain on his arm and cried out loud. He yanked the mirror away from the sliding, scaly body and turned to face the head.
The tunnel didn't seem wide enough for the basilisk to turn around, but somehow it did it. Folding back in an awfully tight U shape, the basilisk turned back to Mungo. Mungo swung his wand in an arc and roared the first words that came to his mind, placed there by a nameless voice.
"Incendio!" Mungo roared. Bright blue flames swirled around Mungo's wand and arced at the basilisk. It struck, and Mungo could hear the basilisk scream. Not waiting to see what his attack would reap, Mungo placed his hands on the back of the basilisk and heaved himself up and over the scaly body. Behind him, he could hear the basilisk crashing into the tunnel wall behind him.
Suddenly, an intangible presence filled the tunnel. It was subtle, but there, like thunder rolling over the hills far away. The pained basilisk raised its head, listening like a dog hearing its master's steps on the door. Then it turned itself around again, unfolding the U, and headed down the tunnel where Mungo had come from.
The voices faded from Mungo's head, and he shook it. The cold from the water came back, and his teeth chattered. He gritted them, and set down the shattered remnants of the mirror, and ran along the tunnel after the basilisk.
Mungo heard a splashing that told him the basilisk had gone into the stream. Mungo increased his pace, a stitch developing in his side. He had to stop the basilisk, had to stop the basilisk, it became a mantra as Mungo ran as hard as he could. Had to stop the basilisk, had to stop the basilisk…
Suddenly, Mungo reached a grating. It must have opened up under the water, because there was no sign of the basilisk.
Mungo stuck an arm between two of the bars of the grating. It fit all the way to the shoulder. Nodding, Mungo stepped back, and waved his wand again, saying,
"Incendio!"
The blue flames licked the bars, and made them red hot. Then they became white hot.
Mungo picked up a huge rock with both hands, and flung it at the super-heated metal. It hit, shattering the bars into lots of white-hot iron pieces. The ones that fell in the sewage caused steam to rise from it.
Mungo ran through the smoldering wreckage, anxious to catch up to the basilisk.
