"All those times we were in there, and she was just three toilets away!" Ron said once more, still annoyed with himself, the next morning "And we could have asked her, and now…"
"Oh quit whining Ron," Jack said more tired than usual and not up for this yet "We'll get a chance to ask her. Besides once I find the notes which were taken from bag that in the library, we won't need to ask her."
"You still haven't found it?" Hermione asked surprised.
"The Lost and Found room is a big place Hermione, and there is a lot of stuff in there." Jack said yawning loudly. "Probably going back, near the start of the Founding of Hogwarts."
"I didn't know this place had a Lost and Found room," Harry said surprised.
"That's because unless you need it, it's not there," Fred answered for Jack, and George carefully pulled the bowl of cereal away from their friend so he wouldn't start using it as a pillow.
Still confused, but needing to get to their lessons everyone finished up and went to class, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Jack just making it due to Jack's slow pace.
About 10 minutes into their Transfiguration lesson, just as Jack was drifting off he was brought back by Seamus yelling "Exams! We're still getting exams?"
There was a loud bang behind Jack, Ron and Harry, as Neville's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs of he's desk.
As McGonagall fixed it, Jack asked what was going on and Harry said that she just said they'll be starting in one week from today.
At last McGonagall turned to Seamus frowning.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said calmly, about to say more when Jack gave a loud:
"Yeah right! How is anyone getting taught anything from that idiot Lockhart being here, Professor?" he asked not caring how rude he was being or that everyone was watching him "The only thing he taught us was 'Don't let 2 week held captive Pixies out in the classroom'. Apart from that all he's done is read out of his dumb book, which I myself believe to be A) All fake, and B) A complete waste of money!"
There was some murmuring and nodding from the other boys and some uneasy looks from the girls.
"Be that as it may Frost," McGonagall said surprisingly calm "I trust you have all been revising hard."
There was more unsure looks on the student's faces, and more muttering, which made McGonagall scowl some more.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said "And this includes seeing how much you have learnt this year."
Jack rolled his eyes and turned to look at Harry and Ron, one looking at the pair of white rabbits they were supposed to be changing into slippers having a far off look on his face, and one looking as though he'd just been told to go live in the Forbidden Forest.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" Rom asked them holding up his wand which was starting to shoot out red sparks.
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall stood up at breakfast and said she had an announcement.
Now normally the hall would have gone quiet at these words, but today there was a lot of shouting from the students trying to guess what the answer was.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" loads of people called out.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed Alix and Cindy together, from the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Oliver Wood excitedly.
"You're finally getting rid of Professor Lockhart!" Jack roared out the loudest getting a few cheers of agreement to that guess.
Once everyone had settled down, Professor McGonagall spoke up.
But it only turned out that the schools Mandrakes were finally fully grown.
"It wouldn't matter that we never got to ask Myrtle then," Ron said returning to his food. "Besides it's getting so close to the end of the year, it's not like the Heir has time to make another attack right?"
Jack was about to say that Ron shouldn't challenge fate by saying things like that, when Ginny came over looking more shy and nervous than she normally did as she took a seat next to Annie.
"Are you ok Ginny?" he asked carefully.
"I… I need to tell you all something," she said avoiding Harry's eyes, her hands in her lap, playing with a piece of paper.
"Well, spit it out then," Ron said watching her.
But Ginny stayed quiet, rocking backwards and forwards gently, flinching a little as Ron said that.
"Ron. That is no way to speak to your sister," Hermione said annoyed at him, but he didn't seem to care.
Slowly Harry leaned over the Ginny and asked in a whisper:
"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked "Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
After a pause and a deep breath it looked like Ginny was about to say something when…
"If you're done eating I'll take that seat Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just got off patrol duty."
Ginny jumped, the piece of paper falling to the ground, a frightened look on her face, and ran off.
Annie was quick to follow to check she was alright.
"Percy!" said Ron angrily "She was about to tell us something important."
Jack drowned out the nose of the redheaded brothers fighting and reached down to see what was on the bit of paper Ginny had.
To his surprise it was his notes on the Basilisk.
"Guys, I'm just going to go and check up on her too," he said getting up "See you in class."
Only he couldn't seem to find her all day.
"I think we should still ask Myrtle what she knows about all this" Harry said to Ron and Jack that morning in Defense against the Dark Arts.
"How?" Ron asked trying not to fall asleep.
"Really Ron?" Jack asked rolling his eyes "Who's leading us to our next class?"
At this Ron looked up to see Lockhart who at this moment was fighting off an imaginary Manticore.
o0o
On the way to the next class as planned out, the boy's tricked Lockhart into leaving them since it was only one more corridor to go, let the others go ahead, Hermione included so she would take the notes they would be able to copy later, and then headed for Myrtle's bathroom.
They were almost there when…
"Potter! Weasley! Frost! What do you think you are doing?"
It was Professor McGonagall and she did not look happy.
"We were looking for you Professor," Jack said stepping forward.
"Me?" she asked, a mix of surprised and and curious and looked around "And why Frost, would you look for me here?"
"Well Professor, we didn't know where you were, but seeing as this was the scene of the first attack we thought you, being the wonderful and brave, and smart teacher you are, would be here, or have someone here, watching while Mr Filch wasn't doing it." Jack said using all his skills of flattery and praise so Professor McGonagall wouldn't be mad at them.
"That still doesn't explain why you are looking for me and not with your class." she said but her mood seemed a little better.
Harry and Ron stayed quiet.
"We are looking for you, Professor," Jack said pulling out his notes on the Basilisk and showing them to her "Because that day when I was attacked in the library. I found out this… was what has been attacking everyone. But when I came round these notes were missing, and I only got them back this morning at breakfast."
Professor McGonagall read over the notes on the giant snake, slowly connecting that everything did seem to match up.
"If this is the creature Frost, and it does as you say 'Kill victims by looking into their eyes'…" McGonagall read out "How is it that no one is dead?"
"Because…" Harry spoke up thinking "No one did look it in the eye Professor. Not directly at least. Colin saw it through his camera. And Justin must have seen it through Nearly-Headless Nick."
"Nick got the full blast of it, but as he's a ghost already, he couldn't die again. He can get hurt, or offended when people walk through him, or ask him how he died in public, but he can't die again." Jack said helping with the explaining "and the girls and I had the mirror."
"And Mrs Norris?" Ron asked speaking up "I'm sure she didn't have a camera, a mirror, or a ghost with her, you two."
"The water," Jack spoke up after a bit of thinking "There was water on the floor that night, from when Moaning Myrtle flooded the bathroom because of what Peeves said to her at Nick's Deathday Party."
"And do you have any theory as to how it's been getting around, Frost?" she asked.
"I've been hearing something inside the walls Professor," Harry spoke up, to which Jack agreed.
"It's either using ancient secret passages, or, it's using the plumping." Jack said confidently "Also after every attack, there had been spiders running away from the victim." he added for more evidence "And the Basilisk is the Spiders natural enemy on account for then having four pairs of eyes, instead of just two."
"And Hagrid's roosters were all killed by something, or someone," Harry said after reading the notes himself "If the cry of a rooster is what kills it, the person controlling it wouldn't want one around."
Professor McGonagall was looking a mix of confused and worried now as it was adding up to the fact that the Chamber of Secrets might actually be real.
"But…" she said looking at the notes, then the boys and then the message on the wall. "But the Chamber of Secrets if a legend. It doesn't exist."
"All legends have to have some line of truth in them Professor," Jack said smiling, loving it when he was right about things like this. "They need to be, for their stories to get started in the first place. It's the listener's choice to choose wither they believe in the story or not."
"And if it is real Frost," she asked a little shakily, but getting a hold of herself. "Where exactly do you think the entrance to it is?"
"Right behind that door, Professor," Jack said, stepping aside, and pointing towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.