Chapter 22
Secrets
"Harry, I don't think this is working," Ginny sighed.
"But…what if it's in here?" Harry scratched his head, looking downtrodden.
"We've been looking in here for weeks," Ron said. "There's just way too much stuff."
"Which is why it's the perfect place," Neville reminded them.
"Professor Trelawney says-"
"I don't care if Professor Trelawney doesn't 'sense' it in here!" Harry rounded on Luna.
"There's no need to snap. It's not like I just go by her, you know. I know she's a bit dotty. But there's also the ogle-"
"Yes, we know about the oglethrops," Ginny sighed, leaning back and looking tired.
Hermione rubbed her head, and looked dejectedly across the Room of Requirement, and the stacks and stacks of lost things. "Wherever the Horcrux is, we need a new game plan to find it."
"Yeah, we'll never get anything done at this rate," Ron said.
"I know," Harry sighed. "Just, I figured with all this lost stuff in here, this would be the perfect place…I mean at least SOMEWHERE in the Room of Requirement!"
"But when we asked for a Horcrux…"
"Yeah, I know…"
"Or even for a cup…we asked for everything," Neville reminisced.
"Maybe we should all just go to bed," Luna suggested.
"That's probably a good idea. Thanks for your help, guys," Harry told Neville, Ginny and Luna. "You didn't have to-"
"We know we didn't have to," Ginny rolled her eyes.
They filed out of the room, yawning and stretching, after another nights hard work sifting through everything from champaigne bottles to ancient jewels (all of which Ron collected with a "finders keepers") and still hadn't found Hufflepuff's cup, or anything Horcrux-ish. Or maybe they had, and had not even noticed. At any rate, their search was starting to seem fruitless, and the six of them were tired and dejected. Luna headed off for Ravenclaw, and Neville remembered he had forgotten something in the library, so it was just the three of them and Ginny, who was leading the way, who headed down for Gryffindor tower, all deep in thought, especially Harry, when suddenly-
"Ow!" Harry cried out.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione turned anxiously to him. "Is your scar hurting?"
"No…my hand…" and Hermione saw he was rubbing it with a grimace. "Suddenly it just started-"
All four of them jumped as they heard a wailing from inside the walls.
"What the-?" Ron muttered, and pushed open the door nearest to them, the sobbing getting louder and louder. "Oh for-it's just Moaning Myrtle."
"Oh, yeah," Ginny said. "I found a shortcut to the Tower, that goes by the bathroom. Decided to use it tonight."
"Wh-who's disturbing me?" they heard Myrtle sob. "Why can't yoooou just leave me alllooone…"
"What's the matter, Myrtle?" Ginny sighed, leading them in the bathroom.
"I-I told you…oh, it's you," Myrtle quickly stopped crying in order to glare at Harry. "I thought you had left."
"Nice to see you too, Myrtle," Harry rolled his eyes.
"Murderer," Myrtle spat.
"He is not, it was self defense," Ginny snapped.
"Besides, Harry didn't kill Draco, just injured him, if that's what we're talking about," Hermione said.
"And Malfoy turned out to be a Death Eater. Didn't you hear, Myrtle?" Ron finished.
"Yes, but I don't believe it. He was far too sweet," Myrtle sniffed.
"Forget this. Let's get out of here," Harry mumbled. He turned and walked toward the door, his hand swinging with him. "OW!" He grabbed his hand again. "What's the matter with this thing?"
"Hmmm…" Hermione leaned toward the sink and saw the serpent engraved on it. "This is that sink that led to the Chamber of Secrets!"
"Yeah, so?" Harry said.
"Put your hand near it again."
"Er…okay…" Harry reached out and touched the faucet. "ARRRGHHH!" He jumped back, clutching his hand once more.
"That's weird," Ron said. "It's almost as if your hand hates the Chamber of Secrets or something. Not that I'd blame it, that place was creepy."
"You don't have to tell me, Ron," Ginny snapped.
"Maybe it's not a coincidence," Hermione said excitedly. "Tom Riddle spent a lot of time in the Chamber of Secrets, right? And he was the only one who knew about it. The only person who could get in there was anyone descended for Slytherin. There was a giant basilisk inside to guard it…it was a place Voldemort…um, liked. Wouldn't it be a perfect place to hide a Horcrux?"
"Well, yeah, now that I think of it…what does this have to do with Harry's hand?" Ron asked.
"Maybe when that gauntlet Horcrux infected Harry's arm, it gave it the…power to sense Horcruxes!"
"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Ron said.
"No, it isn't," Hermione replied dismissively.
"Well, it's definitely in the top…thirty."
"But it makes sense!" Harry said. "We should check this out."
"What's a Horcrux?" Myrtle asked.
Hermione ignored her. "Open the Chamber, Harry!"
Harry closed his eyes and then opened them and let out a long hiss. And without further ado, the tap glowed an awesome white and the sink sank out of sight, leaving a pipe sizable enough that any of them would be able to fit into it, with room to spare.
"Still works, I see," Harry said.
"You would have never found that if it hadn't been for me," Myrtle said smugly.
"Yeah, thanks bunches, Myrtle," Harry said, crouching down and looking down the drop. "Well, let's go."
"It's filthy down there," Hermione said, wrinkling her nose at the slime.
"Yeah, I know. Took me days to stop smelling like gunk after I went in there," Ron said reminiscently.
"Are you afraid of getting dirty, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"No…I was just commenting," Hermione said defensively.
"Well, come on then," Harry said and slid down.
"This was not an experience I ever wanted to Irepeat/I," Ron sighed but he slid down after. Hermione and Ginny were left alone. Hermione looked at her friends and saw she was biting her lip. Hermione put a hand on her shoulder.
"Memories?"
"Yeah," Ginny said, curling her hands very tightly. "Lots of them."
"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Hermione said.
"No. I can handle it. Besides, in all the excitement, Harry's forgotten to be all, erm…him. I need to prove-" She trailed off.
"It's okay, Ginny."
"Uh huh. W-will you go first?"
"Sure," Hermione said, knowing with full confidence Ginny would follow her. She slid down the tunnel, grimacing slightly at the feel of slime against her hands. As she slid in the darkness, hands coasting at the turns, she heard Ginny bumping behind her, and Ron faintly ahead of her. After going deeper and deeper into the school, the pipe finally leveled out and Hermione thudded on the ground, then scrambled out of the way to let Ginny in after her. Harry had already lit up his wand, and gestured for them to do the same, and they followed him down the tunnel. They traveled the dark tunnel for a while, until eventually their feet started crunching on animal bones. Ginny was breathing very heavily beside her. She squeezed her hand. Harry and Ron didn't seem to notice, they looked oddly thoughtful, and Hermione knew they had to be remembering the last time they were here. Soon after, they reached a solid wall of rock, with a hole in the middle of it just big enough to fit through.
"Yup, I did that," Ron said. "With my bare hands, too."
"I'm proud of you, Ron," Hermione said wedging herself through the rock, then letting out a high pitched scream as she came face to face with a huge snakeskin.
"And that's what happens to the sarcastic," Ron said triumphantly, holing in after her.
"Ugh," Ginny shuttered.
"Bigger than I remember," Harry said casually, shrugging. He slipped up the coils of the snake, and gestured at them to follow him.
After another long walk, and silence which would be broken occasionally by Ron making comments like "I never got to this part. It's very dark," and "This must have been scary, Harry,"; they reached a entrance on which was carved entwined serpents with glinting jeweled eyes. Harry didn't hesitate, and hissed immediately, and the wall cracked open. Harry walked through, looking slightly unnerved and the rest followed.
The chamber they walked into was long and filled with greenish gloom, but Hermione could automatically make out a huge dark shape, and as they approached closer, she couldn't help but gasp.
"Bloody hell," Ron muttered.
The huge dead basilisk curved around on the floor, it's bottom half already decomposed into skeleton, but it's top half intact enough for Hermione to see the huge gash that traveled from the bottom of it's mouth to the top of it's head, and how it's eyes were gouged out. There was long dried blood all over the floor, particularly in one corner. Ginny was now squeezing Hermione's hand so hard now, she was afraid it might break, and looked terribly pale.
Harry, however, merely glanced around, before he walked up to the foot of a humongous statue of a giant monkeyish bearded man, who Hermione recognized from her reading as Slytherin. When they reached him, they saw he was clutching his hand and his face was twisted in pain.
"My hand hurts more the nearer I get to the statue," he said sharply. "And I remember seeing the basilisk coming from Slytherin's mouth last time I was here. If a Horcrux is in this chamber, it's in that statue. We need to get up to the mouth."
Hermione nodded, and with a few muttered words, wrenched a large chunk of rock from the ground. She gestured at the others to step on it, then stepped on it herself, and levitated the rock all the way up to Slytherin's huge stone mouth. It was easily big enough for them to get through, and when they got in, they slid down a tunnel similar to the way they had slid down the pipe into the chamber. As soon as they thudded at the bottom, light exploded around them, throwing the room they were in into focus, and they all gasped.
"Well," Ron said. "We're definitely in the right place."
"A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction"
-Rita Mae Brown