Things are getting heated! A special shout-out to the best mom in the world, my mom! Tomorrow's her birthday! Love you lots, Mommy!

Enjoy!

Chapter 25

Another Rabbit Hole

Harry, Ron, and the Okumura brothers slowly came out of the wardrobe. Ron looked as pale as death.

"Ginny…" Ron breathed.

Rin looked at Harry for guidance. "Now what?" he asked.

"Of all the things that could have happened, that was the last thing I was expecting," said Yukio. His face was looking a little pale as well.

"It was the last thing anyone was expecting."

The boys jumped when they saw Shura emerge from the shadow of the wardrobe.

"Pro-Professor Shura!" Harry gasped. "How much did you hear?"

Shura waved a dismissive hand. "I've known you boys were there since the start. Weasley, you need to learn to be more subtle when you're hiding." Ron turned a little red but the paleness in his face won out. The teacher sighed. "Look, you kids were hiding in there for a reason. So… care to share?"

The boys looked at each other before facing Shura and explaining everything they'd learned since Halloween.

"I knew it!" Shura exclaimed. "I knew it wasn't a demon! I told everyone but they never listened to me!"

"Professor," Ron pleaded, "I know the basilisk is not a demon but are you going to help Lockhart save my sister?"

Shura twitched at the thought of helping Lockhart but she wouldn't be doing her job if she let a student die on her watch. She let out an irritated sigh.

"Yeah. Might as well tell Cueball what you kids know. It'll be helpful for fighting the thing," she answered. "I'll escort you to his office. You guys understand what we're up against more than me."

Shura escorted the boys to Lockhart's office where they heard a bunch of scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. The group looked at each other before Shura pounded her fist on Lockhart's door.

"Hey Cueball! Got something that might help ya fight the monster!" Shura called out.

The door opened a crack and the group saw Lockhart's face peek out. "Oh! Shura! I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick…"

Shura shoved herself into his office with the four second years in tow. They were shocked that Lockhart's office was completely stripped bare. The portraits were no longer hanging on the walls and covered with sheets. Two trunks were opened and filled with robes of many extravagant colors.

"Are you going somewhere?" asked Harry.

"Er, well, yes," Lockhart said hurriedly. "Urgent call. Unavoidable."

"What about my sister?" Ron asked jerkily.

"Well, as to that…" said Lockhart, as he emptied the contents of a drawer into one of his suitcases. "Most unfortunate…"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Yukio exclaimed.

"You can't bail now!" Rin reasoned. "Not with all the Dark stuff going on all over the school! It could close!"

"Well, I must say… when I took the job…" Lockhart muttered as he piled socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description - didn't expect -"

"You mean you're running away?!" Harry said in disbelief. "After everything you did in your books -"

"Books can be misleading," Lockhart said delicately.

"You wrote them!" Shura shouted.

"My dear Shura, use your common sense," said Lockhart. "My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things."

Now it made sense. "You're a fraud!" Harry accused. "You've just been taking credit for what other wizards had done."

"You really are a jackass," Shura growled, not caring that she was using foul language in the presence of second year students.

"Is there anything you can do?" Ron asked exasperatedly.

Lockhart straightened up. "Yes, now that you mention it. I'm rather gifted with Memory Charms. Otherwise all those wizards would have gone blabbing. And I'd never have sold another book."

"So you get famous wizards to tell you their greatest accomplishments and then you wipe their memory and take credit for said accomplishments?" Rin clarified.

"Yes exactly," Lockhart confirmed. "You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long, hard slog." He slammed his trunks closed and locked them. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."

He pulled out his wand and turned to the group. "Awfully sorry, boys, Shura, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on all of you. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place."

Harry had his wand out before anyone could blink. "Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart's wand flew out of hand and Shura caught it.

"Can't wipe our memories without this, can you?" she said with a smirk. She then snapped the wand in half over her knee.

"What do you want me to do?" Lockhart asked weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," Harry said as Shura grabbed Lockhart by the scruff of his neck. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

They marched Lockhart out of his office. The boys kept their wands pointed at him while Shura dragged him along. They kept going until they had reached Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"The crying ghost?" asked Shura when she realized where they were.

"Watch what you say to her," warned Rin. "Otherwise she'll start crying and we'll never get anything out of her."

Shura nodded as they entered. "I'll just leave the talking to you guys then."

Rin pointed to the weeping ghost sitting on the toilet in the stall near the end of the room. "There she is."

Myrtle looked up and saw that she had company. "Oh, it's you," she said before smiling sweetly at Harry. "Hello, Harry. What brings you here this time?"

"To ask how you died," Harry answered.

Myrtle's demeanor immediately changed, like what he asked was flattering to her.

"Ooohhh… It was dreadful," she answered with relish. "It happened right here in this very stall. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. I was crying, and then I heard someone come in. They said something funny, like in a made-up language or something. Then I realized that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to use the boys' bathroom, and then -" She then let out a shaky sigh. "I died."

"Just like that?" asked Rin.

"I can relate to her problems regarding her glasses," Yukio muttered to himself as he adjusted his own glasses. It was one of the main reasons he was bullied back in Tokyo.

"How?" Harry asked Myrtle.

"No idea," she answered. "I just remembered seeing a great, big pair of yellow eyes."

"Where did you see the eyes?" asked Rin.

"Over there," she answered, pointing towards the sinks. The children started examining them (Shura stood in front of the bathroom door so Lockhart couldn't try to escape).

Yukio then found something on one of the faucets. "You guys are going to want to see this," he called out. A snake was scratched on the side of the copper faucet.

"That faucet's never worked," Myrtle said as Harry tried to turn it.

"Harry," Ron said, "say something. Say something in Parseltongue."

"But-" Harry started. He didn't know how to speak in Parseltongue. He had only spoken it when he was faced with an actual snake. He stared at the engraving, trying to imagine it was real.

"Open up," he tried.

Nothing.

"English," said Ron who shook his head.

Shura suddenly spoke up. "Ya gonna have to try harder than that," she remarked. "Use your imagination."

Harry looked harder at it and imagined that the snake was actually alive.

"Open up," he said, except it wasn't the words he heard. Instead of English, he and everyone in the bathroom heard hissing. The sink started moving and sinking into the floor, leaving a giant pipe exposed, big enough for a person to fit into.

Shura let out a whistle. "It's one thing to hear about it from the other teachers, but it's another to actually see and hear it in action," she muttered, referring to Harry's Parseltongue.

"I'm going down there," Harry said suddenly.

"Me too," said Ron. "She's my sister."

Yukio nodded. "I'm going too."

"Count me in!" Rin piped up.

"Same here," Shura said. The boys looked at her inquisitively. "Look, if what ya say is true, then yer gonna need all the help you can get against a basilisk. Just because fighting demons is my specialty, it doesn't mean I can't fight other monsters."

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," Lockhart said as he slowly tried to shuffle past Shura and towards the door.

Shura was too quick. She put her arm around his shoulder and led him towards the open pipe. "Cueball! Thank you for volunteering! You can go in first," she said, feigning cheerfulness. The boys had their wands pointed at him to make sure he didn't try to flee. She shoved him towards the edge of the pipe.

"Shura," he pleaded. "Boys, what good will it do?"

Shura rolled her eyes and Spartan kicked the man down the pipe. They waited for a minute or two before they heard his voice say, "It's really quite filthy down here."

"He's fine," she said nonchalantly. "Who's next?"

Harry got ready to go down next.

"Oh, Harry!" Myrtle spoke up. "If you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."

Shura let out a snort as Harry hesitantly answered, "Thanks, Myrtle."

~0~0~0~

The large stone tunnel everyone landed in looked like a typical sewer in the Muggle world, from wet floors to slimy walls. Everyone was already covered in muck and grime from sliding down the pipe.

"We must be miles under the school," Harry observed, his voice echoing off the walls.

"Under the lake, probably," added Ron.

"Lumos!" Yukio muttered to his wand and it lit up the tunnel. The six of them started walking forward. Occasionally someone would step on a rat's skull or the bones of a random critter that met its unfortunate end.

"Harry - guys - there's something up ahead!" Ron cried hoarsely.

Shura's hand hovered over the tattoo on her chest. "Devour the Eight Princesses! Slay the Serpent!" she recited. Her signature purple sword appeared, handle first, from the tattoo. She drew it and stood ready to fight. The students and teacher stared at her in bemusement. "What? Where did you think I kept my sword?"

Harry wisely chose not to answer that question. He slowly approached whatever was ahead of them. It was long, curved, and it wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing at the others. Shura slowly approached the creature as well, poking it with her sword. Yukio, wand still lit, was the next to approach.

"It's not asleep," he said. "It's snakeskin."

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

Rin approached the skin. He observed it until he was standing next to Harry. "This thing has to be fifteen… twenty feet long tops," he hypothesized.

A sudden movement behind Ron and Yukio showed that Lockhart's knees had given out and fell into a heap on the ground.

"This is the guy who beat that stupid banshee?" Rin said unimpressed.

Shura rolled her eyes. "My hero," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Without warning, Lockhart dove for Ron's wand, knocking him to the ground. Rin pointed his wand at Lockhart, ready to fight. Yukio and Harry also had their wands out.

"The adventure ends here, everyone!" Lockhart said triumphantly. His gleaming smile had returned and he pointed Ron's broken wand at everyone. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you boys tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. And you, Shura, were so consumed by guilt, you fell into despair and sought comfort in my arms."

Shura readied her sword. "You can try. Every member of the faculty knows I hate your guts."

Lockhart aimed at Harry first. "Say good-bye to your memories, Mr. Potter." He waved Ron's wand. "Obliviate!"

The broken wand went off like the force of a small bomb. Big chunks of the tunnel came crashing down. Shura, who was standing closest to Rin and Harry, dove for them and tackled them to the ground. When Shura looked up, a giant wall of broken rock was in front of them.

Rin looked up and panicked. "Yukio! YUKIO!" he cried, his voice bordering on hysteria.

"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Ron! Yukio! Are you two okay?"

"I'm here!" Ron's muffled voice called out from behind the rockwall. "I'm okay! Yukio's fine too!"

"Can't say the same for Lockhart!" Yukio's voice called out. "Ron's wand backfired on him."

"Is he dead?" asked Shura.

The three of them heard a small "ow!" before Yukio answered, "No, he's alive." Rin guessed either his brother or Ron kicked Lockhart to check.

"What do we do now?" asked Ron, sounding desperate. "We can't get through. It'll take ages…"

"Then don't!" Shura ordered. "Just clear a space large enough for us to get through. In the meantime, I'll take Potter and Rin to get your sister, Weasley."

"O...okay…" Ron said hesitantly. "Good luck!"

I had a hard time deciding which twin would accompany Harry further into the Chamber of Secrets. On the one hand, the story is basically about Rin. On the other hand, Yukio has a connection with Ginny. In the end, I stuck with Rin since he has more of a fighting chance against the basilisk.

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