Ginny Kidnapped

Lily dreamt that long, hairy spider legs were holding her, but woke up to no pain on her wrist, which was an improvement, but not enough to get her nor Megan out of their horrible moods.

"At least I have the recording of last night. I can get it to Professor McGonagall later," said Lily during breakfast as she and Megan finished updating Susan about their excursion to the Forbidden Forest.

"Didn't Dumbledore say Ron and Harry would be expelled if they stepped out of line again?" Said Susan, dropping Lily's hopes to the ground.

"I can't believe it! It was all for nothing!"

"It wasn't all for nothing. We know that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. We know that the monster inside of it isn't an Acromantula. In fact, we have another clue," said Megan. "The spiders are scared of it."

"Spiders are scared of my dad's slippers as well," said Susan.

"Because they aren't the size of a horse. What could possibly scare off a creature that size?"

"The same thing that can petrify a ghost," said Lily bitterly.

At that moment, Lily saw Ron waving at her from a corner near the entrance to the Great Hall.

"I'll see what Ron wants," she said to Susan and Megan. "I'll be right back."

"Harry was thinking… you know how the girl who died fifty years ago was found in a bathroom?"

"Yes," said Lily thoughtfully, a connection suddenly starting to form where there was only mystery. "Do you think…"

"Moaning Myrtle."

There was a near chill of enlightenment running over Lily. But only for a second, before she realized that it was no good to figure that now when they couldn't just go up to the abandoned girls bathroom and ask about it.

"How are we going to ask her?"

Ron's lips became a straight line with pure disappointment. "We haven't figured a plan yet."

Even less cheering was the news they received during Potions lesson, that they would still have to take exams within a week.

On a better side, for the first time in what seemed like forever, Snape did something other than ignore Lily. His attention came in the least expected way: he passed her a note in the middle of potions lesson, when he looked inside her cauldron to inspect the shade of turquoise of her strengthening potion. "I found no spiders in the grounds," it said.

"I followed the spiders into the forbidden forest last night," Lily whispered while the Potions Master still pretended to analyze her cauldron.

"Are you stupid?" Snape whispered.

"I think I am," Lily said. Later she wrote a note to Snape explaining that Hagrid's Acromantula wasn't the one who attacked people, and instead it was frightened of the monster of Slytherin. She didn't think it was necessary to point out that Myrtle was the ghost of the girl killed by the monster, since it should probably be a common knowledge between the teachers.

Four days later, Professor McGonagall made an announcement at breakfast.

"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

People asked whether it would be the cancellation of exams; the return of Dumbledore; the return of Quidditch matches; or the arresting of the Heir of Slytherin.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with us catching the culprit."

There was an explosion of cheering. Lily felt tears rush up to her eyes. Hector would wake up on that same night! A deep sense of relief filled her as well, since there was no longer the responsibility of going to ask Moaning Myrtle whether or not she truly was the girl killed by Slytherin's monster. It all seemed to be over.

She found herself wrong when, following Professor Binns to their Transfiguration lesson, she saw Snape standing on a corner. The Potions Master approached the ghost teacher and said "Professor, would you mind if I borrowed Miss Prewett for a moment? There is something I would like to discuss with her."

"Well," said Professor Binns dully. "I don't think there is a problem."

Lily exited the lines and followed Snape. She expected him to go down to the dungeons, but he simply entered an empty classroom.

"You said you had proof," he said.

"Yes, I recorded everything with my statue. Aragog, the Acromantula said it himself, he wasn't the monster."

"I will not waste my time explaining to you why it is that second year students shouldn't venture to the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night. Would you mind showing me the recording?"

"Of course," Lily said. She hadn't left her recording statue behind anymore. Not once. She took it out of her bag and showed him the recording.

"Why am I not surprised to hear Potter's voice in it?" Said Snape with a smirk. Lily had simply forgotten that she would be unable to show the recording without betraying her friends. "Well, that is solid proof, as long as the Minister believes in the word of an Acromantula."

"But they have to at least release Hagrid. Besides, I don't think Acromantulas are capable of petrifying people."

"That is true," Snape said. "Well, I think you may go now. Meet me at the staff room at Break if there is anything else."

"Can I go alone?" Lily said, surprised.

"I don't think there would be a problem with it. Everything will be over tomorrow. And, besides, you are protected by your own blood."

Lily left the room. She was climbing the last step when she stumbled on her own feet, dropping everything she was holding on the floor, including her recording statue. For some reason, it activated the tiny unicorn into repeating something that Lily would spend many years struggling to remove from her mind. A voice. She could not understand the words, it was more like a hiss, but seemed to be an organized speech. It sounded as something that could only be describable as frozen venom. It caused a chill to go all the way down her spine. And then realization fell onto her like an anvil. She had recorded the voice that Harry had been hearing, the same thing that made her badger bite her.

She sped back down to the room where Snape had talked to her, but he was no longer there. It had been a while since her last visit to the staff room, and she didn't quite know how to get there. It was on the second floor, wasn't it? She wasn't sure, but went towards the stairs anyway. Harry's face was almost unrecognizable through her confused thoughts when she bumped on him.

"Lily, where are you going?"

"Harry, I recorded it! I had my statue with me on the day of the match! I recorded the voice!" Lily's words were nearly tangled on each other. "I can't understand it, but you can! Harry, the monster is some sort of snake!"

"We figured it out too! It's a Basilisk, Hermione had this in her hand," said Ron, handing her a piece of parchment.

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

There was one word beneath it. Pipes. Lily didn't need an explanation for that. How else would a serpent that size move around the school without being spotted? It also explained why that girl had died in a bathroom fifty years ago. Could the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets be in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? Meters away from the spot where they had worked on the Polyjuice Potion for months? The thought gave her chills.

"We are heading to the staff room. You can show the teachers your recording."

They ran downstairs, to the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. They paced around, too excited to sit down. Once more, they could glance at a solution to all of that in the near future. All would be well. All they had to do was wait for the bell signalling break to ring, and the teachers would come. They would know what to do.

But why was it taking so long for the bell to ring? It should be about time now, shouldn't it?

It never rang. Instead, through the corridors came Professor McGon agall's voice, magically magnified.

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

"Another attack?" said Ron

"Not now!" said Harry.

"It can't be! Why didn't I feel it?" said Lily, looking at her wrist. She felt really stupid. Her sleeve was under the mouth of the badger, preventing its little teeth to sink on her skin. It had done a pretty good job at chewing down the fabric, but had never bit through it. "Oh, no."

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"

"No," said Harry, glancing around. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

There was a wardrobe, where the teachers kept spare robes. They hid themselves 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 Professor McGonagall arrived.

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

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

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

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

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

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

Lily thought she would faint. She thought of Ginny, of her pale face, of her frail body trembling, scared and alone waiting to die in a dark chamber in the company of the Basilisk. She felt Ron slide down onto the wardrobe floor, and wanted to sit with him. She wanted to sit on that floor and never get up again. But Ginny was all alone in the Chamber of Secrets, and she could still be alive.

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

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Lily was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming. Never did Lily want to jinx that grin off his face so much.

"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. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lily began to like a Snape a lot more when his words did what she wanted so much to happen. The smile vanquished from Lockhart's face.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor 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 -" stuttered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor 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 Professor 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 usual 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 Professor 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, one by one.

Lily barely remembered how she managed to stumble all the down to the Hufflepuff basement. She only remembered Cedric's arms grabbing her when she fell out of the hole, unable to keep standing. "What happened?"

Then many other arms embraced her when she frantically cried "it took Ginny!" again and again. She vaguely noticed someone guiding her to a chair. Someone else gave her a cup from which she couldn't drink between sobs without gagging.

It took her half an hour to finally be able to see the room behind the foggy tears. Anthony was crouched in front of her, with a flask in his hand. Megan and Susan were standing at either of her sides.

"Take it," he said. "It's the calming draught I brewed last week for Snape's class. He didn't take any points from me, so I assume it won't poison you."

"I'm better now," Lily said, although her voice was weak and her nose was stuffy.

"Professor Sprout said that the Fat Friar was to take you up to the Gryffindor Tower, so you could stay with the Weasleys."

"Ok."

Anthony offered her his hand to help her get up, and Lily took it. Her legs still felt cold, and her head was spinning with the pressure of her tears. She always felt stupid and helpless after crying so much, and crossing that room filled with people in front of she had just cried felt a little bit humiliating. Anthony's strong arm provided much needed support through the short distance until the passage, behind which the Fat Friar waited for her.

It was the second time Lily entered the Gryffindor common room. There was a lot more red than the Hufflepuff basement, and the chairs weren't as stuffed, and there were no dancing cacti. But it was just as crowded as her own common room, and people looked just as gloomy and concerned.

With a quick glance she found the red heads that belonged to Fred, George and Ron. They glanced at her with cheerless faces when she approached, but no one spoke. Harry explained that Percy had already gone to his dormitory.

No afternoon had ever lasted so long. Not even when Hector was petrified, because at least Lily knew he would eventually return. Ginny seemed to have been lost forever. Not a single word was exchanged until near sunset when Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.

"She knew something, Harry," said Ron. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was -" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was pure- blood. There can't be any other reason."

"She is pure blood, Ron." Said Lily, affectionately rubbing his arm. "She is still alive, I know."

"Do you really think there is a chance?" said Ron. Lily nodded. Harry didn't seem much convinced.

"Do you know what?" said Ron. "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."

Lily didn't think Lockhart would actually risk his neck to save Ginny, but there would be no harm in trying. At least they would be doing something.

The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.

Harry 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 - Mr. Potter - Mr. Weasley - Miss Boyd" he said, opening the door a bit wider. Lily spared herself of correcting him. "I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick -"

"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll 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?" said Harry.

"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?" said Ron 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 will regret it more if you don't try to save her," said Lily, her cheeks hot with fury. But he didn't stop packing.

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "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 -"

"No one expected that! And now we have to deal with it," said Lily.

"Even if I could save your friend, it is as I said. I received an urgent call," said Lockart.

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books -"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately. "You wrote them!" Harry shouted.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "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?" said Harry incredulously.

"Harry, Harry," 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, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

"You are always so proudly telling your lies about everything you did even though you can barely hold your wand properly! Do something actually brave once in your life!" Lily spat, finally starting to release all the anger she had built up against that wizard through the year.

"Why would I?" Murmured Lockhart. "Why would I risk my neck for a stupid little girl? Why be brave, when others can do so?"

Lily saw Lockhart take his wand just after closing and locking his trunk, and a feeling in her guts told her to grab hers too.

"If you are thinking of attacking us, just know that I have been waiting all year to jinx that annoying smile of yours out of your face," Lily said, and her voice sounded even more furious than she had meant it to sound.

Lockhart turned, still holding his wand, although his face showed that he had taken Lily's threat seriously.

"Awful sorry, kids, 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 -

But Harry had been quicker. "Expelliarmus!" He shouted. Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air. Ron caught it and flung it out of the open window. "Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Harry, furiously kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, Lily and Harry were pointing their wands at the wizard.

"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."

"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

They sent Lockhart in first. Lily was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Good evening, Myrtle," Lily said as nicely as she could in spite of all the rage she was still feeling at Lockhart.

"What do you want?" Asked Moaning Myrtle.

"I've been wondering… your name… is Myrtle Warren, isn't it? You were muggle born," said Lily, remembering what Hector had told her in the beginning of the year, about a muggle born that had been killed inside the castle.

"How do you know my name?" Asked the ghost.

"Because my brother told me. Look, Myrtle… we have to ask something," said Lily hesitantly, thinking that talking about her death would bring another wave of wailing and possibly a flood.

But then Myrtle took notice of Harry standing next to Lily, and all her attention changed to him.

"Oh, it's you," she said. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then -" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?" said Harry.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away . . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Lily.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face. Lily slowly moved closer to the boys, her wand always pointed to the teacher. She lowered it for a second to look at the sink, in case he tried to grab it out of her hand.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. Harry tried to turn one of the taps, but it didn't work.

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly. Lily took a closer look, and saw a tiny snake scratched to the copper.

"Only the heir of Slytherin could open it… because only his heirs could speak parseltongue. Maybe the entrance only opens to parselmouths!" Shouted Lily.

"Harry, say something in parseltongue!" Said Ron.

"But -" Harry didn't complete his sentence. Only after a full minute did he open his mouth again. "Open up," he said looking at the tap, and then looked at Ron, who shook his head.

"English," he said.

Harry looked at the snake again, and spent a long time staring at it, moving his head a little bit. Lily felt like every cell in her body was vibrating in expectation. If it worked, maybe they could still save Ginny.

A long hissing came out of Harry's mouth, similar to the voice she had heard from the recording in her statue. At once, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. Lily gasped.

"I'm going in there," said Harry after a second.

Lily nodded readily. If there was the slightest chance that Ginny was still alive, she was willing to face a hundred Basilisks, or another night with the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, if it meant her little cousin could be saved.

"Me too," said Ron.

There was a pause.

"Well, you hadly seem to need me," said Lockhart. "I'll just-"

He put his hand on the door knob, but Lily pointed her wand at him.

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

"Children," he said, his voice feeble. "Children, what good will it do?"

Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.

"I really don't think -" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go.

Ron turned to face Lily.

"Lily, I'm sorry, but this time I think you better stay behind."

"No!" said Lily.

"It is a really stupid idea to go into the Chamber of Secrets and not letting anyone know we are in there," he said.

"Myrtle can go warn the teachers, can't you Myrtle?" Lily asked, looking at the ghost. "Look, you can't go without me."

"Lily, it's bad enough that the two of us have to go!"

"When are you going to understand, Ron, that I am part of your family too? Ginny is my cousin, and she's all alone in there with a Basilisk!" Cried Lily. "I know I'm not so close to you, I know you would prefer if Hermione was here instead of me, but I am coming with you, and you won't stop me," said Lily, and without a second thought she jumped into the pipe in front of her.

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A/N: We're coming close to the end now... I can't believe it! There are only two more chapters left! And the third book is halfway done, so it won't be long until next part comes :D
I hope you liked the chapter! Please, let me know your thoughts!