After a few minutes of silent walking down the tunnel, where the only noise was their footsteps echoing around the walls, the distant sound of someone slowly moving rocks reached their ears.

"RON!" Harry called out running towards the wall "Ginny's ok, I've got her, and Jack has Annie."

A strangled cheer was heard as the four turned the bend and saw Ron's face looking through the hole he had made in the wall.

"Ginny!" he said happily reaching out a hand and helping her come to him first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

He tried to hug her but she shook him off sobbing.

"But you're ok, Ginny" said Ron beaming and Annie came through next. "It's over now, it's – where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had just came through himself.

"He's Dumbledore's," Harry explained squeezing through himself, followed by Jack.

"And why do you have a sword?" Ron asked staring at the weapon in his best friend's hand.

"I'll explain when we're all out of here," Harry said with a sideways glance at Ginny who looked like she was about to start crying again.

"But -"

"Ronald, he said 'later'" Jack said firmly in his big brother voice he always reserved for Emma when she wanted to do something but he had a job to do first. "And not a few seconds 'later', but 'When we are out of here, and back up at the school' later. Ok?"

"Where's Lockhart?" Harry asked looking around and not seeing the man anywhere.

"Back there," Ron said thumbing over his shoulder to further back down the tunnel. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

"Oh he's more likely to be in a worse way when Tooth gets a hold of him." Jack muttered to himself wondering if he could magic up a camera to record it all.

o0o

At the base of the stairs, Lockhart was sitting down, knees together as innocent as a child might be, looking around and humming to himself.

"Oh hello," he said when he saw them "Strange place this isn't it? Do any of you live here?"

"Um, no…" Harry said answering for all of them as Ron said:

"His memory's gone. The Memory Charm backfired. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are."

"Well serves the git right," Jack said obviously not caring and walked past the man to look at the slide/pipe they came down.

"Yeah well, I told him to come and wait here," Ron said in an almost agreeing with Jack voice "He's a danger to himself."

Harry went to join Jack before looking over to Ron "Any idea how we're going to get back up this?"

Ron shook his head, but Fawkes came over and offered his tail to Harry.

"It looks like he wants you to grab on…" Ron said looking surprised "But you're much too heavy for a bird to fly up there."

"Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird," Harry said before turning to the others and explaining that they all needed to hold on to each other.

"While I bet I would love the experience," Jack said stepping away from the group a little "Why not just ask the place for some stairs in Parseltongue?"

"What do you mean?" Ron asked obviously not understanding.

"That Chamber was obviously more than just a home for the Basilisk," Jack said pointing back down the corridor they came from. "It was a place where Slytherin could get away from everything going up in the school. Us needing to remember the Chamber was built way before plumbing came along and therefore the entrance wasn't always in a girls toilet.

"Meaning, since I highly doubt that he had a phoenix with him every time he came down here, there had to be some way for him himself to get back up to the entrance of the pipe."

Everyone blinking in surprise at all these obvious facts, all eyes (except for Lockhart as he was playing with a rat's skull to pass the time) turned to Harry.

"Um… ok but how do I ask for them?" he said looking to Jack.

"I don't know, just say 'Stairs' in Parseltongue and see what happens." Jack said shrugging.

"Even if something does happen Jack," Annie said looking up the very long pipe "Can I fly up on Fawkes. Please…"

"I guess, but wait for us up there, and don't let go of his tail until your feet are on the ground again ok?" Jack said setting the measures and getting a big smile and a nod from Annie.

Taking a deep breath, Harry imagined a real snake was in front of him, just like Jack told him how to before and after a deep breath said:

"Stairs."

It took a few seconds, but one by one a lone line of spiral stairs popped out going all the way up to the top.

"That's a lot of stairs…" Ron said looking up at them.

"Well come on," Jack said taking charge and starting to walk up the stairs. Harry and Ginny followed him but Annie, Ron and Lockhart all grabbed onto Fawkes.

"Amazing!" they heard Lockhart say "This is just like magic!"

Rolling his eyes Jack carried on walking.

o0o

When they reached the top they saw Moaning Myrtle who frowned when she say them.

"You're both still alive?" she said turning from the boys.

"No need to sound so disappointed," Harry said helping Ginny out before the entrance closed itself.

"Well, it's just if you did die down there… You'd be welcome to share my toilet." she said grinning a little.

"As kind as on offer that is," Jack said after glaring at Ron to keep quiet "I already have a place in mind where I'd like to stay, but I would come and visit this bathroom for sure."

"You said you would explain what you meant by 'Other spirits' when you came back," Myrtle said remembering.

"I said when we got back and got everything sorted out," Jack said saying he'd come by tomorrow.

"Oh alright…" she said and said goodbye as the left, Ron teasing Ginny about competing for Harry.

But Ginny was still upset from the whole thing so she wasn't listening.

"Where now?" Annie asked looking up and down the hallway.

Harry pointed to Fawkes who was leading them, looking back every now and again to see if they were following, finally coming to a stop outside Professor McGonagall's office.

After taking a deep breath, Harry knocked and pushed open the door.