"I can't believe we're still getting tests" Ella whined to Draco as they made their way out of their first class
"Well the school only stayed open during this mess so we could still get our education" Draco explained smirking
"blah blah blah" Ella rolled her eyes
"Ella, behave" Snape said
"yes father" Ella said innocently and Draco rolled his eyes, smiling
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another 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 Wood excitedly.
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 our catching the culprit."
There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days. Harry looked over to see Ella laying her head on Malfoy's shoulder, at which he became angry at.
"how boring" Draco commented
"I want some more action" Ella complained at which Draco smiled to
They looked at each other and laughed. They think so much alike, that's what makes them good friends. Later in the day they were walking when they suddenly heardProfessor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
"Another attack?" Ella asked
"let's go" Draco said taking her hand and hurry to their dorm
Later that night Ella heard tapping on the window of her room. She opened the window and Harry's Owl flew into the room with a letter. She took the letter and opened.
Meet me outside the Slytherin Dormatorys, we need your help
-Harry
Ella closed her window after Hedwig left. She quickly put on her green Slytherin skirt, white shirt, and Green tie. She slipped her black flats on and wet out of the room, Nobody was in the common room. She went outside and saw Ron and Harry.
"what's up guys?" Ella asked
"Ginny'a been taken into the chamber" Ron said
"we need your help, we're going to Lockhart" Harry explained
"of course I'll help, I've been looking for some action" Ella agreed excitedly
"your so weird" Harry smiled a bit
"thanks Ella" Ron said
"no problem Ronny" Ella smiled
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 Potters, Mr. Weasley -" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "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.
"Going somewhere?" Ella asked suspiciously
"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'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--"
"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."
He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.
"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry,children, 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--"
"You coward!" Ella shouted taking out her wand and shouted " Expelliarmus!"
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 my dad teach us that one," Ella said as Harry furiously kicked Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at them, feeble once more. Ella was still pointing her wand at him.
"nice sis" Harry said smiling at her
"thanks" Ella said glaring at Lockhart
"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, as Ella and him forced 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. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking. Ella had the tip her her wand lit, probably a spell ready to be cast if he decided to run. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Harry. "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 Harry.
"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 as Ella watched the boys.
It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.
"Harry," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."
"But -" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he'd been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," he said.
He looked at Ron, who shook his head.
"English," he said.
"let me try" Ella said trading places with Harry
"Open up," She hissed and looked back at the boys to make sure she said it right
"Parseltongue" Ron said confirming it
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.
"I'm going down there," Harry said.
He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.
"Me too," said Ron.
"looks fun" Ella said happily, Harry shook his head at his sister's weirdness
There was a pause.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just--"
He put his hand on the door knob, but Ron, Harry, and Ella pointed their wands at him.
"You can go first," Ron snarled.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Children" he said, his voice feeble. "what good will it do?"
Ella jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe. Ella laughed at him.
"your enjoying this aren't you?" Ron asked her and she nodded
"I really don't think -" Lockhart 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.
It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons.
And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost.
Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too. Ella soon followed, she landed on her feet laughing. The boys shook their head at her, she was so weird.
"how'd you land on your feet?" Ron questioned
"I'm skilled" Ella answered happily
"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.
"that i'm used to" Ella said
All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!" Ella said and her wand lit up.
"C'mon," Harry said to them and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.
The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.
"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away..."
"Right, if i see Ginny moving i'll close my eyes and pretend not to see her" Ella said sarcastically
"Ella" Harry said
"i know" Ella smiled
The tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Harry - there's something up there -" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.
They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.
Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.
The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.
"oh my fucking god" Ella said breathlessly "that thing's huge"
There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.
Lockhart got to his feet - then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.
Harry jumped forward, but too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face. Ella quickly hid behind some rocks.
"The adventure ends here!" he said. "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 three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled , "Obliviate! "
Ella quickly raised her wand "confringo!" Ron's wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.
Harry flung his arms over his head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"
"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay - this git's not, though-"
There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"Ella... where's Ella?" Harry asked worried
Ella came out from behind the rocks, on Harry's side. Harry sighed in relief and hugged her.
"what was that spell?" Harry asked
"Blasting curse" Ella answered
"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "I can't get through - it'll take ages..."
Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try - what if the whole tunnel caved in?
"Can't Ella use that blasting spell again?" Ron asked
"No it's too dangerous, the blast can crush you" Ella answered
There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... Harry knew there was only one thing to do.
"Wait there," he called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on... If we're not back in an hour..."
There was a very pregnant pause, "I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you guys can - can get back through. And, guys-"
"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.
"don't worry I'll keep him out of trouble" Ella laughed trying to lighten the mood
And with that they set off past the giant snake skin. Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly.
He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as he and Ella crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
They approached, Harry's throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. Ella saw the worry in her brother's eyes and held his hand.
"Don't worry Harry, your not alone. I'm here with you all the way" Ella smiled
"thanks Ella, your the best little sister ever" Harry said holding her hand tightly
"Open" Ella said in a low, faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside with Ella right next to him.