Mysterious Hearts
~~~Troubles~~~
Severus' day just kept going down hill; it went from bad to worse. That morning getting out of bed he had stubbed his big toe. His favorite black robes had some unidentifiable substance on them, they ran out of pumpkin juice at breakfast, he had been late because he overslept due to a very late patrol of the halls, and practically had to hold his students hands as he took them to their next class.
That evening Severus paced in his small office; things at Hogwarts were not getting better. Students were still petrified and everyone was still in danger because of the heir of Slytherin. Hagrid had just been sent off to Azkaban. Which Severus found rather ludicrous. If Rubeus Hagrid was the heir of Slytherin than Severus was the tooth fairy, and unless the tooth fair wore lots of black and lurked around in dungeons scaring the snot out of children, Severus Snape was most definitely not the tooth fairy. And to top that off the school governors had Dumbledore removed from Hogwarts. Thank you Lucius for that one. And the worst news of the day was that Ginny Weasley had been taken in to the Chamber of Secrets. And it was just their luck that they still hadn't a clue as to the precise location of said chamber.
The rather nefarious deeds occurring at Hogwarts meant that unless you had a valid reason to be there you could not, so Severus could not even expect those wonderful surprise visits that his wife often bestowed upon him.
Minerva had left Hogwarts to go and find Albus, Hooch and Sinistra had taken to patrol the halls looking for unusual things, errant students, one Gilderoy Lockhart, and of course intruders, Poppy stayed in the infirmary with her patients. Snape and Flitwick had the task of attempting to locate the chamber, again, and the rest of the professors had the mighty feat of protecting the students.
Snape and Flitwick had entered the closed girls lavatory on the first floor. Severus growled when he saw the door of the chamber, "why is it always the last place you look?"
It was then that moaning Myrtle came out of her stall.
"Oh professors," she wailed, "it was just dreadful."
"What was," Flitwick gently asked patiently waiting for the ghost to collect herself. Snape did not have that endless streak of patients and after a few false starts on Myrtle's part the potions master wanted to throttle the ghost.
"Spit it out Myrtle," he snapped, "what happened."
"H-H-Harry,"
"POTTER," Snape growled, "what did he do."
"He opened that," she said pointing to the gaping hole in the floor."
"Damn," cursed Snape, "cant that boy…"
"Severus," Flitwick warned and then turned back to the ghost, "was there anyone with him?"
"Y-yes," she cried, "Ronald Weasley and Professor Lockhart."
"Well, Filius I can assuredly say that Harry Potter is officially an imbecile, and is as stupid as I have always thought."
"Severus."
"What, he went into a hole in the bathroom floor with naught but his wand and Lockhart and Weasley 6. Think about it, Lockhart, would you go into a hole with Lockhart, I would not be caught dead in a hole with Lockhart"
"Severus, we have to find Albus."
"Very well, I will go and get the other professors and you stay here, and Filius, do not enter the chamber with out me."
"Of course," the charms professor said pulling out his wand and settling down to guard the chamber and wait.
Severus flew through the halls gathering all the other professors he could find. The headed to the headmaster's office, but Albus had yet to return to Hogwarts.
"Severus, we can not go to the chamber until the headmaster return," Sprout told him calmly.
"And just why not?"
"Because we do not know what we will find."
"All the more reason to go!"
"Severus, Professor Sprout is right, we have to wait for the headmaster," Vector said.
"Now Severus does have a point." Alexander Vladimir, the ancient ruins professor, said.
"We should wait," Vector insisted.
"What happens when we are too late?"
"Then we live with our choice," Vector said, " Like we do with all our mistakes."
Excellent idea," Severus scoffed, "and by the way just what mistakes have WE shared, other than that one, but we don't talk about that."
"SEVERUS."
"I think that Severus is right, we have to do something now," said Alexander. The old Slytherin got up from the table, "come along, my boy."
Severus followed the older wizard, Sinistra shrugged and the Ravenclaw followed them out.
"Better make sure that they don't kill themselves," she commented and then she muttered to herself, "I am kind of surprised that it is the Slytherins going off half cocked."
The three professors returned to the bathroom wherein Flitwick had gained a lot more information out of moaning Myrtle. Professor Vladimir looked down into the hole; "There is no way I am young enough for that, my body will protest, in fact it already is."
"My knees will not like that either, I'm not as young as I used to be," said Flitwick.
"I guess that means you're with me," Aurora Sinistra smirked.
"After you," Severus sneered.
"No wonder Tonks snapped you up so quickly," said Aurora in a dry tone. Both her and Snape took the plunge and upon reaching the bottom they dusted themselves off.
"Gee, Sev, that was fun, can we do it again," she joked.
"Don't call me Sev," he snapped and pulled out his wand, "lumos."
"Was that 'silly wand waving', Severus," Sinistra asked with an overdramatic gasp.
"Yes, Aurora it was," Severus replied, as they started following the path, "and just how do I always get stuck with you."
"Beats the hell out of me," Sinistra said with a grin, "you think I like it, it must be because I actually don't mind you infuriating presence."
"Oh joy."
The two continued walking the path that was left by the three would-be heroes. They had to stop when they discovered a cave in, due to the large about of debris they could not continue on with out help.
"We have to go back," Sinistra said, "We need help, Severus."
"Well then, what are we waiting for, woman?"
"I'm following you, you git." The two professors hurried back to the entrance.
"Filius, Alexander," Sinistra called up the two others.
"Severus, Aurora," Alexander shouted down, "hold on."
"GET US OUT OF HERE!" snarled Snape. Vladimir pulled them out and they quickly explained what they had found. They headed back to Dumbledore's office to get the others.
Not long after they retuned, McGonagall and Dumbledore burst into the office.
"What has happened," Albus demanded. But at that moment he was interrupted by Hooch running into the office. She quickly relayed the message that they had found Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lockhart. Fawkes had gotten them to the hospital wing. The professors all took off from the office as if he fires of hell were at their feet.
To be continued…