"I hope Ron will be okay at practice without me," Harry worried on his way out of the commonroom. Hermione walked a few steps ahead of Harry at a brisk pace, clearly eager to prove her Chamber of Secrets theory. "I mean usually the seekers go to practice, but they gave us to the off, so Ron and the Gryffindor Team are doing a non-seeker scrimmage against Slytherin. Merlin, I sure hope Draco doesn't give him a hard time because..."
"HARRY!" Hermione cut him off mid-ramble. "Please, Harry. Ron will be just fine! Right now what you really need to do is focus! If we do find the chamber, you've got to be ready to fight whatever is in there, and get Ginny out safely if she's trapped. This stuff isn't fluff here, this is serious business!" This comment made Harry refocus, she was right. He couldn't let his daily stresses distract him from his goal. He was the chosen one, and he could never get a break from that. Although he'd really like a break. Actually, a break would be amazing right now. His muscles were tensed, and Hermione must have noticed. "I'm sorry, I guess I'm just anxious for this as well." She put a warm hand on his shoulder and give him a look of reassurance . Harry looked back at her. Their eyes met, and their lips were oh-so-close. Harry giggled and looked away, and Hermione gave a small smile of understanding. Had she wanted to kiss Harry? Did she like him in 'that way'? Did Harry like her in that way? He didn't know. what to make of this The kids had barely begun their adolescence and had never had feelings like that before.
Without saying a word, Harry and Hermione reached the base which led to three different stairwells. "This way," Hermione said in her usual bossy tone, clearly recovered from the awkward situation from moments ago. She grabbed Harry's hand firmly and led him up the center staircase, where they met a wall. "Now watch," Hermione commanded. "Revealus," she said, casting her want at a small square of tile down on the floor. A stream of light shown through the perimeters of the square, and Hermione guided Harry and herself onto it. They began to travel downwards, under the staircase, and into the unknown realms of what might have or might not have been the Chamber of Secrets.
When Harry awoke, he was not in the Chamber of Secrets, but rather, what looked like a photobooth at a party, but without a camera. Above him was a blue light, and on the walls were small holes and what looked like a series of buttons, and what looked like the screen of a videogame. "Hermione," he called out, his voice cracking again. Oh, crap. He thought to himself. Why for Merlin's sake does my voice have to change NOW. When he heard no response, Harry drew the curtain back and looked at the surrounding area. It was large and open, the only other object was another booth, which emitted a light similar to Harry's, but pink. All of the sudden, Harry's booth began to grow to about 6 times the size of it's original . Hello, Harry Potter, the booth appeared to be a machine-like device. Suddenly, the booth sprayed out a gas through the holes. It was smokey and blue. Harry couldn't see anything, but when the smoke cleared and Harry regained awareness of his surroundings, he felt...different.