A/N: OK, first of all, I am so sorry that I didn't update last night, but my mum started this big cleaning frenzy, and I didn't get the chance. I really hope you like this chapter, as it's so important, and I didn't know if I did it justice. Also, I would like to apologise, as I used quite a few large quotes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in this chapter and the next, because there was rather a lot of explanations needed, and, let's face it, nothing I wrote could be as good as JK's original. Which reminds me, I don't think I've actually done a disclaimer yet. So, this will be one disclaimer to cover the whole story.
As sad as it may seem, and as hard as it is to believe, I am not JK Rowling, nor will I ever be, so Harry Potter does not belong to me at all. In fact, really, besides my laptop and my rather large collection of teenage fantasy novels, not much does.
Chapter Eight:
Harry stared in confusion at the letter in his hand. The owl had only just flown through the window of the Hospital Wing, where he and Ron were sitting with Hermione. They had been granted special permission from McGonagall again, because Ginny had arrived that morning to visit Hermione, and the Professor had thought it would be less distressing if they were there too. Professor McGonagall had not wanted to let Ginny visit at all, but Ginny was insistent that she come, and she was so distraught that the adults had agreed. But Ginny had only been in the room for ten minutes or so before saying she needed to use the bathroom and leaving. It was only five minutes later that the owl arrived bearing a letter that she had obviously written that morning. Which was strange, as she hadn't mentioned a letter. And the letter itself was so unlike Ginny. It was covered in scratching out, as though she'd gone to say something and then stopped. It hardly even made sense.
Harry was worried. Ginny had looked pale and worn out all morning, a mere shadow of the girl he remembered. She looked like she hadn't slept in months. He had seen her only last week, and she had looked nowhere near as bad then. Harry sighed. Something was definitely wrong. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had noticed some of these signs over Christmas, he probably would have brushed them off as worry for Hermione. But that just didn't fit. Especially since she'd barely glanced at Hermione the entire time she was in the Hospital Wing, preferring to stare at her shoes.
With another sigh, Harry lifted the letter up to the window. If he squinted, he could just make out the words written under the crossing out. What he read made him frown. He was certain there was something wrong now, and equally certain that he shouldn't have let Ginny leave on her own. He looked over to Ron, and if he wasn't so worried, Harry would almost have been amused. Ron was so busy staring at Hermione that he hadn't even noticed Harry's preoccupation with the letter. Doubtless he hadn't even noticed the letter arrive.
"Ron," he said, causing his best friend's head to jerk up in surprise.
Harry gave Ron the letter and let him read it over before he continued. "Something's wrong with Ginny. She's not acting herself. And this letter – it's almost like she was trying to tell me something, but something kept stopping her."
Ron frowned. "Where'd she go anyway?" he asked, looking around him as though expecting her to pop out from behind one of the beds.
"She went to the bathroom about twenty minutes ago," Harry replied "I'm getting worried. I think we should go to McGonagall. She'll know what to do, and if not, maybe she can take us to Dumbledore."
Ron looked hesitantly at Hermione, before he nodded and stood up. "You're right. This isn't like Ginny. Let's go to the staff room. She'll be there in ten minutes, it's nearly break."
They ran downstairs. When they reached the staff room, they hesitated before going straight in to the deserted room. They didn't want to be caught hanging around anymore corridors, after all. They had barely walked in when echoing through the corridors came McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
Harry wheeled round to stare at Ron.
"Not another attack? Not now?"
"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"
"No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell her about Ginny."
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 coats, 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 child has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
Harry felt a cold feeling of dread settle into the bottom of his stomach. Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of his 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. Her 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.
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall, and Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him as the bottom seemed to fall out of his stomach. He vaguely heard the teachers exclaiming. Questioning why Ginny of all people, a pureblood who wasn't even a student at Hogwarts, had been taken by the monster. But Harry didn't bother wondering why. Ginny was definitely connected to all of this, and they had to get her back. They had to.
Harry was jolted back into the present at the sound of the staffroom door banging open. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.
"So sorry – dozed off – what have I missed?"
He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.
"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."
Lockhart blanched.
"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"I – well, I – " spluttered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"D-did I? I don't recall ..."
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free reign from the first?"
Lockhart stared around at his stony faced colleagues.
"I ... I really never ... You may have misunderstood ..."
Harry could feel his hatred for the man double as he watched the blustering idiot trying to talk his way out of helping Ginny. He barely even noticed when Lockhart left and McGonagall finished speaking. As the teachers rose and left one by one, he looked to Ron, seeing the same determination on his best mate's face as he was sure was on his own. They would get Ginny back.
After they crawled out of the wardrobe and left the staff room, they looked at each other.
"I think we should go and see Lockhart," Ron said "Tell him what we know. He's going to try to get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."
Harry doubted very much that Lockhart would be of any help, but it would be a few hours before their parents could arrive, and Lockhart was probably their best bet at the moment. If they waited too much longer ... No. He couldn't believe that she was dead. Ginny was strong. She'd fight. But even so...
There seemed to be a lot of activity going on in Lockhart's office when they finally reached it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.
Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.
"Oh ... Mr Potter ... Mr Weasley..." he said, opening the door a mite wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quick..."
"Professor we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."
"Er – well – it's not terribly – " the side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean – well – all right."
He opened the door and they entered.
His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.
"Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked, feeling his earlier fury come back at full force.
"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke, and starting to role it up. "Urgent call ... unavoidable...got to go ..."
"What about my sister?" asked Ron jerkily. Harry himself was finding it rather difficult to talk.
"Well, as to that – most unfortunate," said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a draw and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I – "
"You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Harry exploded "You can't go now! Not with all the dark stuff going on here!"
"Well, I must say ... when I took the job ..." Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes, "Nothing in the job description ... didn't expect ..."
"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books?"
"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.
"You wrote them!" shouted Harry.
Harry listened in disgust as Lockhart explained how he'd cheated so many people with his memory charms, but most of his mind was on Ginny. How long had she been down there? How much longer could she –
Harry pulled himself away from those thoughts. That wasn't going to help anything. He looked up just in time to see Lockhart pulling his wand on them, and acted instinctively.
"Expelliarmus!" he cried.
Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk. His wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the window.
"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," he said furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, weedy once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.
"What do you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."
"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."
*~*
Harry could feel his heart beating in his chest. They had found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, just where Harry and Ron had thought it would be. He had used Parseltongue to open the entrance, pushing Lockhart through first. But when Lockhart had stolen Ron's wand and attempted to Memory Charm them, the roof of the tunnel had caved in, separating him from both Ron and Lockhart. He didn't have time to wait for Ron to dig a hole through, although he knew that's what Ron wanted to do. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. Harry knew there was only one thing to do.
"Wait there," he called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour ..."
There was a very pregnant pause.
"I'll try and shift some more of this rock." Said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can – can get back through. And Harry – "
"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.
And he set off alone, leaving the distant noise of Ron straining to lift the heavy rock behind him. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real, their eyes looked strangely alive. He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.
"Open," said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.