Author's note: And we're back, folks. Thanks for sticking with me. I have two more exams, but to be honest, I've finished the three that I really care about... so I will be posting the next chapter in relatively quick succession to make up for the long wait time on this one. Keep an eye out for it. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Please review!

Warnings: none

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I referenced pages 211-218 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while writing this.

In for the Worst

"Are you feeling all right, Minerva?" Pomona asked as the elder witch arrived halfway through breakfast one morning, her robes looking a bit wrinkled and her hair wasn't coiled as tightly as was customary for her. "You look like you were up half the night."

"Yes, well"—Minerva shot an irritated look at Lockhart, who was busy pestering the Astronomy professor a little ways down the table—"as a matter of fact, I was up half the night doing damage control, thanks to that buffoon over there."

Pomona pursed her lips in sympathy. Severus was surprised that Lockhart hadn't tried to flat-out take over as interim Headmaster while Dumbledore was gone; the man's "helpfulness" seemed to have increased tenfold, much to the dismay of the rest of the faculty.

"What did he do?" asked Filius.

"I recently discovered that he had started sending out letters to parents, 'reassuring' them that although the school is in a state of 'train wreck,' the worst of the danger is past and there should be no further Petrifications or deaths, and that he is doing his best to help the less capable correct the damage."

Severus bit back the urge to snicker. The only thing at which Lockhart might be better than any of his colleagues was preening in front of a mirror for hours on end.

"The parents were rather upset by the mention of deaths, as they hadn't heard anything about this. Of course, there have been no deaths, that is merely an exaggeration he made, presumably to make himself look better, as if he's been fighting off the monster single-handedly." Minerva paused to take some deep breaths. "I got bombarded with letters demanding to know the full story."

They all turned their heads to look at Lockhart.

"… wrote a fantastic paper on Jupiter's ninety-four moons."

"Jupiter has sixty-seven moons."

"Yes, just as I said."

"I made him take over the fourth-floor patrol from me last night," Minerva continued, "so I could start on correcting the wealth of misinformation he'd sent out. He wasn't very happy. He went on about how unnecessary it was."

Severus sneered. "The real train wreck here is Lockhart's continued employment."

It was three days before the start of exams, at the end of May, that Minerva stood up to make an announcement at breakfast.

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

"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Oliver Wood, the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

When the hubbub had subsided, Minerva 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 our catching the culprit."

But the drama was not to be resolved so quickly.

"Bottle your potions and place them on my desk," Severus told his fifth-year class later that day. "If any information has managed to stick in those empty heads of yours, your potion should be pale blue, opaque, and chalky on the surface, while liquid and transparent underneath."

He glowered disapprovingly as the children began to line up with their potions. To his exasperation, about a third of the class had vials filled with some substance that certainly did not fit the description he had just given.

They were packing their bags for their next class—which Severus unfortunately had to walk them to, as though a few less rug-rats running around would be a bad thing—when Minerva's amplified voice came echoing through the classroom.

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

For a moment, the students all froze, exchanging wild-eyed looks of panic.

Severus was already striding towards the door. "Well?" he barked. "What are you waiting for? Class dismissed!"

It seemed like an eternity before the door opened and the interim Headmistress came through. You could have heard a pin drop.

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

Severus's only reaction, having opted to stand rather than sit—he would've liked to pace, but he didn't feel like doing so in front of the other teachers—was to grip the back of a chair very hard. "How can you be sure?" he asked quietly, although he knew that Minerva was not one for spreading false alarm.

"The heir of Slytherin left another message." The blood had drained from the Head Gryffindor's face, leaving her pale and grim-looking. "Right under the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.'"

The collective breath that the teachers seemed to have been holding was suddenly released as Filius burst into tears. Pomona looked like she was about to follow suit, and Rolanda slowly sank, weak-kneed, into a chair.

"Who is it?" Rolanda asked. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley."

Even Severus, who was no fan of the Weasley clan, found himself disturbed by this. Perhaps it was just the apparent lack of logic that bothered him: Miss Weasley was a pureblood—a "blood traitor," but a pureblood nonetheless. There were plenty of muggleborns in the school, and while a few had been Petrified, none had been straight-up abducted. If there was a reason for the Weasley girl's implied death, they weren't seeing it.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," Minerva said, sounding less and less collected. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said-"

The staff room door banged open to reveal a beaming Lockhart, who seemed not to notice that he was suddenly on the receiving end of many baleful looks.

"So sorry—dozed off—what have I missed?"

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

For once, the intention behind Severus's words did not go over Lockhart's head, and the man blanched.

"That's right Gilderoy," said Pomona, quickly catching on. "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-"

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Filius added, having recovered from the bout of tears.

"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," Severus said.

"Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

"I… I really never… you may have misunderstood…"

Severus had never seen Lockhart look so alarmed. It was fantastic.

"We'll leave it to you then, Gilderoy," Minerva said. "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. His lower lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usual toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and pathetic.

"V-very well," he said at last, "I'll- I'll be in my office, getting- getting ready."

And he practically tripped over his own feet in his haste to escape.

Good riddance.

"Right. That's got him out from under our feet." Minerva spit out the pronoun as though spitting out an earwax-flavoured Every Flavour Bean. "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."

Following this, there was a heavy silence. Then, one by one, they left the staff room.