AN: Early Christmas Present for all you readers.
I will try and get another chapter out before New Years, but i am not making any promises.
Quietly, Lockhart trying to get out of it once again, they stepped inside the bathroom where they could hear Myrtle crying to herself in her cubicle.
They went over to it, and saw her sitting on top of the cistern of her toilet.
"Hello Myrtle," Jack said getting her to look up at them.
"Oh, it's you…" she said sniffing a little, looking at the boys, ignoring the teacher, and turning back to Jack "What do you want this time?"
"To ask you, Myrtle Elizabeth Warren," Jack said bowing slightly to show his manners "How you came to join us in the After-Life."
Myrtle blushed a little but seemed very happy to tell them the story.
"Ooooh… it was dreadful," she said "It happened right here in this very cubical. I was hiding here, crying because Olive Hornby had been making fun of my glasses again, she was always picking on me. I had spent all day in here," she added before carrying on "The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in."
As Myrtle told them about her bully, Jack sent a side glare at Ron who was avoiding his eyes obviously remembering he had once sent Hermione into a bathroom where she spent all day crying to herself for things he had said.
"They said something funny," Myrtle carried on "A kind of strange made up language. But what got me was that it was a boy speaking, so I unlocked and opened the door to tell him to go away, and then… I died."
"Just like that?" Ron asked eyes wide in surprise "How?"
"No idea," Myrtle said shrugging "All I remember is seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. Then my whole body sort of seized up, and I was soon floating away…" she said looking between Jack and Harry, ignoring Ron and Lockhart "And then I came back again, I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby you see. Ooooh… she was sorry she ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" Jack asked looking around.
Myrtle pointed to the sinks, more specifically the one in front of her cubicle.
As Ron kept an eye on Lockhart, Jack and Harry went to have a closer look, soon finding a small snake etched into the side of the tap.
"That tap's never worked," Myrtle said as they tried it.
"Do you want to or shall I?" Jack asked coming to the same silent conclusion as Harry, that this was entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
"I will," Harry said and closed his eyes to concentrate. "Open up."
Nothing happened.
"English" Ron said from beside Lockhart, still pointing his wand at him.
"Harry, you know what a snake is right?" Jack asked smirking a little when he got an eye-roll and a nod. "How they move, how they sound, how they react when people get near them."
Again Harry just nodded.
"Well then picture all of that in your mind," Jack said calmly using his fingers to point to the sides of his own head for emphasis "Imagine that there is a real live snake here, and that you are talking to it. Ignore us, we don't exist," Jack carried on not believing he just said that. "It's just you and the snake. Now try again."
Taking a deep breath after a few seconds Harry nodded and then said 'Open up!' in perfect Parseltongue.
There was a loud 'CLUNK' and the tap started glowing and spinning. Next second, the sink began to move, actually sinking into the ground leaving a large pipe which a piece of grating slide across from to allow access to.
Slowly Lockhart and the boys came over and looked into it, all wondering how deep it was.
"I'm going down there," Jack said in confidence looking to the others for their say seeing that the boys were nodding, and the man looked more pale than ever.
"Well… you hardly seem to need me," Lockhart said with a small smile, turning for the door to the bathroom "I'll just…"
"Not so fast Sir" Jack said pointing his wand at him "We need a dummy to make sure if this pipe is safe."
Slowly the poor excuse for a teacher came forward and sat at the edge of the pipe.
"Boys… Boys what good would it do?" he asked looking at each of them in turn.
"It will make sure it's safe for us to follow you," Jack answered poking the man in the back with his wand "And/or distract anything that might be down there long enough for us to get to the girls and back out."
"But I really don't think…" Lockhart began but this time Ron just pushed him and his cries were heard as he slid out of sight.
Soon the cries ended and after a few seconds Lockhart's voice called up "It really is quite filthy down here…"
"Well he seems to be alright," Jack said sounding disappointed, looking up at the sound of giggles from Myrtle.
"You're not like the other boys Jack," she said as Harry took off down the pipe.
"Well that's because I'm not, like most other boys," Jack said smiling "I'm way more handsome, and smart, and know how to treat girls and ghost and other spirits with respect." he said looking over to Ron whose red hair had just vanished too.
"Other spirits?" Myrtle said a little confused then after a little thinking asked "Are you one of us too?"
Jack was about to reply when Ron called up to him to hurry up.
"I'll explain when we come back, and after we get this sorted out." Jack said bowing to her again before calling for the wind through the window to lift him up and shove him down the pipe.
o0o
His ride down was, Jack was guessing, more cushioned than the others thanks to Gale's protection.
But the further down he went, thanks to the other pipes and in fact how far down he was going the less power she had, soon the pipe started to level out and he came sliding out onto a damp floor of a pipe large, enough to stand up in, that was decorated with hundreds of thousands of miniature mammal and rodent skeletons.
"Whew I thought that would never stop," he said getting up and dusting off his robes as if nothing exciting was happening.
"We must be miles under the school," Harry said looking around, his voice echoing down the tunnel.
"Under the lake probably," Ron said agreeing.
"Any idea how to get back up this?" Harry asked looking back up the pipe.
"We'll tackle that challenge when we come to it." Jack said pulling out his wand and turning to the dark tunnel before them "Come on. Lumos." and he, Harry, Lockhart, and Ron all set off, their footsteps on the wet floor the only noise that could be heard except the occasional 'drip… drip…' of water from the ceiling.
Harry had lit his wand as well, but Ron thought it best not to light his one due to how bad it had been acting up lately.
However even with two lit wands, Jack's for some reason shining brighter than Harry's, the search party had to move a little at a time.
"Remember," Jack said quietly although his voice bounced back as if he was speaking normally "Any sign of movement close your eyes straight away."
They carried on and only stopped as they jumped at the sound of a loud crunch as Ron stepped on a rat's skull.
Calming down, they carried on.
A little further down they paused again as Ron said "Guys… they're something up there..."
Looking though squinted eyes, Harry tried speaking to it telling it they were just passing through, but nothing happened.
"Maybe it's asleep?" Ron said coming over.
"No. It's part of a snake's skin," Jack said realizing what it was and opened his eyes fully again as there was no danger.
"That Basilisk must be 50 foot long, or more," Ron said staring at the thing before them.
Just then there was a thud as Lockhart fainted.
Rolling his eyes, Ron went over to him, kicking him and saying "Get up!"
At once, Lockhart bounced back up, grabbed Ron's wand and threw him over to join Jack and Harry, who's wands were now pointing at him in return.
"The adventure ends here boys…" the man said grinning quite evilly in Jack's opinion "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, I shall tell them I was too late to save the girls, and I shall tell them how you all tragically lost your memories at the mere sight of them."
Grinding his teeth, Jack shot out a blast of cold winter air from his wand, just as Lockhart fired his spell at them, causing him to hit the back wall and an mini explosion to happen which caused a cave in, leaving Ron, who had dived forward to get out of the way of a falling rock, and Lockhart on one side and Jack and Harry on the other.
"RON!" Harry called out not sure how well his friend can hear him. "Are you ok?"
"I'm here!" Ron answered coughing a little "And I'm ok, this git's not though. And he's broken my wand!"
There was a loud thud and a small 'Ow'.
"Well serves him right for trying to erase our memories," Jack in a non caring way "I only just got mine back, there was no way I was going to lose them again without a good damn fight."
"What now?" Ron asked "I can't get through; this will take ages to move without magic."
"It might be safer though," Jack said looking at the rocks, the walls and ceiling that all had cracks in them "At least by hand you can test the rocks before yanking them out meaning you won't cause any more to fall."
"Ron, start trying to move the rocks," Harry said after checking his watch "Jack and I will carry on. If we're not back in an hour, go back and try and get some help."
"Right," Ron said sounding a little nervous, but if that was due to what Harry just said or wondering where to start, was never found out.
Together Jack and Harry set off further into the tunnel, the distant noise of Ron moving the rocks fading quickly.
The tunnel turned once more and again went on for ages. Jack was just wondering when it would end when they reached a wall on top of which stood two carved snakes who were coiling around each other, whose eyes were made of emeralds.
Jack and Harry approached it, both looking up into the eyes, Jack feeling as though he was being scanned by them.
"You need help here?" he asked looking to Harry who shook his head.
'Open!' Harry said in a faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves sliding out of sight, allowing Jack and a shaking from head to toe Harry, to step inside.