THE SHOCK OF THE CENTURY!
"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," said Simran bitterly at breakfast next day, "and we could've asked her, and now."
Ron was just looking at the pair with astonishment. "You discovered all this, last night?", He asked.
"Yeah we did. It was very easy to connect the dots, anyway. The only question remaining, is who is doing all this, and what is the monster that is attacking all the people.", Natasha said thinking.
"We need to find where the entrance is too!", Simran said.
"Yeah even that. Then we can inform the teachers about the development, I am sure that they can take care of this thing.", Natasha said.
"Wow! I think we are getting too far ahead of all this. First let us see if, you can figure out where the entrance is!", Ron said.
It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible. Filch was wandering the corridor day and night, and even the teachers had joined him nowadays. But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today. Natasha was seriously shocked as, the preparation for the exam on her side was really poor, as they were now facing the ever-growing danger of the monster of the chamber.
"Exams?" howled Seamus Finnigan. "We're still getting exams?". There was a loud bang behind Natasha as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus. "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."
Natasha made a mental note to herself so that, she will start studying even more seriously from now on. But it was really difficult as, all their efforts were in solving the mystery of the chamber.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year.", the Professor said again. Natasha looked at the other two of her friends. They were still looking utterly bad about all this. Ron looked like he had been slapped hard, and Simran was like she could use more study time. "Can you imagine me taking exams with this?", Ron asked Natasha, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.
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. Natasha facepalmed herself, as she could not believe that, her captain was still worried about Quidditch in the middle of all this. 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. Natasha looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in. But most of the table joined the cheering that was happening. Simran, however, was looking happier than she'd looked in days. "It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to Natasha. "Hermione will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over, and I will not have to worry about some idiot attacking me!"
For some reason, Ron was looking pale. "What happened to you, Ron? You look like you are really seriously ill!", Simran asked with concern in her voice. Ron had started looking like this, from the day Professor McGonagall announced about the exams.
"I am just not feeling very well, Sim.", Ron said, but did not give any more explanation.
Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and Natasha noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap. "What's up?" said Simran, helping himself to more porridge. Natasha suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.
"I've got to tell you something,", Ginny mumbled, looking at Ron.
"What is it?" said Ron.
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words. "What?" said Ron. Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Natasha leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and Ron and could hear him. "Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."
Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table. "Percy!" said, Simran angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!". It was very rarely that, Simran becomes really angry, but if she did she was a really formidable girl to be faced.
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked. "What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.
"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say-"
"Oh - that - that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy at once. Percy was blushing profusely, his cheeks and neck going red as he looked down at the table. If he had known, paid better attention, maybe his little sister wouldn't have been taken…
"How do you know?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.
"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was - well, never mind - the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather-"
Natasha had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable. "Pass me those rolls, Ron, I'm starving."
Natasha knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but she wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up - and to his delight it did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart. Unfortunately Ron decided to stay in the tower, as he said he was not feeling very well. Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.
"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary.". Natasha was just angry at the fact that, Gilderoy was still accusing her friend. It was just unbearable, but she knew what she had to do now. "I agree, sir," Natasha said, making Simran drop his books in surprise. Simran was staring at her, with a look of shock which said ' you better explain this!'
"Thank you, Natasha, said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."
"That's right,", said Simran, when she came to know what was going on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go-"
"You know, Simran, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class-"
And he hurried off. "Prepare his class," , Simran sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like. That guy cared about his appearance even more than any girl in the castle". Natasha just giggled and walked. They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme.
"Potter! Simran! What are you doing?", It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.
"We were - we were -", Simran stammered. "We were going to - to go and see-"
"Hermione,", said Natasha immediately. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him. "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor,", Natasha went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry-"
Professor McGonagall was still staring at her, and for a moment, Natasha thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice. "Of course," she said, and Natasha, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
Natasha and Simran walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose. "That," said Simran fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."
They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione. Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly. "There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Simran, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."
But Natasha wasn't looking at Hermione's face. She was more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, she saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist. "Why in the world, didn't I notice that before?", Natasha asked to herself.
Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Simran. "Go on and get it out," , Simran whispered, shifting her chair so that she blocked Natasha from Madam Pomfrey's view. It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Natasha was sure she was going to tear it. While Simran kept watch he tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free. It was a page torn from a very old library book. It just made the matter even more confusing. "Hermione tore a page from a library book? It must be that big of a thing.", Natasha thought.
Natasha smoothed it out eagerly and Simran leaned close to read it, too.
"Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it."
And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Natasha recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.
And then it all made sense to Natasha in a moment. It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in her brain. "Sim- ," he breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk - a giant serpent! That's why we had been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because we understand Parseltongue..."
Simran looked at Natasha in shock. But it all made sense to her too. "The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again.. and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror - and-", Natasha continued.
"And Mrs. Norris?", Simran whispered eagerly. Natasha thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water...", she said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection..."
She scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more she looked at it, the more it made sense. "...The crowing of the rooster... is fatal to it"! , she read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it.! It all fits!"
"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Simran. "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."
Natasha, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page. "Pipes," ,she said. "Pipes... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."
Simran suddenly grabbed Natasha's arm. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!". she said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in-"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," , said Natasha nodding at her friend.
They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it. "This means," said Natasha, "We can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."
"What're we going to do?" said Simran, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall? I think she can solve our problems."
"Let's go to the staff room," said Natasha, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."
They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, panelled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Natasha and Simran paced around it, too excited to sit down. They decided that, they will tell all this to Ron afterwards. Then to their surprise, Ginny Weasley came into the staff room. She looked like, she was going to give some assignment to one of the Professors.
"Hey, Natasha and Simran. I see that you both are also waiting for the professor. I had skipped the hour to finish the essay fast. Mind if I be here too?", she asked.
Natasha and Simran shook their heads, as to say it is ok. So the three of them just waited in the staffroom. But the bell to signal break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified. "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Natasha wheeled around to stare at Simran. "Not another attack? Not now?". Simran was now again feeling really scared, and Ginny had a pale face now.
"What'll we do?" said Simran, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"
"No," said Natasha, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to her left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."
"I will be with you!", Ginny said as she also entered the wardrobe, amidst the protests of the other two girls.
They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived. "It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Professor Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. His skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.". Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ronald Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.