(Author's Note – Hello. Three more chapters to go, we are the biggest point in the story, the Chamber of Secrets. I hope you guys have enjoy it. Now, if anyone is still wondering why I'm posted two chapters in a space of a few days, it's because that I wanted to be finished by the 16th of December so I can have the rest of the year off and start fresh next year. Now, let's return to the story. As before, I don't own Harry Potter, Enjoy!)
Last time: Telling off a teacher, getting detention, a trip to the Forbidden Forest, almost becoming dinner for the spiders, and finding out that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets, an eventful day for Sophie.
We reached the safety of the common room after dodging teachers and Me Filch after spending a long time inside the Forbidden Forest, don't want to go inside there again. The fire had burned itself into just a glowing ash.
"Follow the Spiders." Said Ron Weakly. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his." Said Harry.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Said Ron. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"
"Oh, come on, Ron. You're still alive." I said in a cheerful tone.
"Barely." He added.
"Well, guys, I don't know about you but I had enough excitement for one day so I'm off to bed."
"Make that two." And we all started crawling up the stairs to our Dormitories.
"Guys wait." Harry hissed at us that made us stop at the stairs. "Guys – the girl who died. Aragog said was found in a bathroom."
"Yeah, so." I said.
"What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's never there?"
"You don't think – not Moaning Myrtle?"
...
"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away." Said Ron bitterly at breakfast next day. "And could've asked her, and now..." It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girl's bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible. But something happened in our first lesson, Transfiguration, which drove the Chamber of Secrets out of our minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams." Howled Seamus Finnigan. "We're still getting exams?" There was a loud bang behind me as Neville Longbottom's wans 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 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 revising hard."
"Studying hard?" I said. "Miss, my mind has been on other things lately."
"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."
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" He asked us, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly. The bell rang so it was time for us to leave.
"Miss Lestrange, can I talk to you for a sec?" She asked me. Oh right, I miss detention with Lockhart, bet that what this is about.
"Professor."
"Lockhart told me you went off at him?" She asked me.
"Yes." I said.
"And you told him that he's useless as a teacher?"
"Yes."
"And you had detention with him, which you didn't turn up to?"
"Yes."
"Have a biscuit."
"Yes – Wait, What?" I asked in confusion.
"While I disagree that you shouldn't be skipping out on detention, I do agree that Lockhart is a bit 'useless' at his job." McGonagall said.
"But that's not -.."
"Right? Yes, I know. Lockhart has asked to take action against you. So I will." Great, detention, here I come. She grabbed a quill and some parchment and wrote on it and then passing it to me.
Miss Lestrange has permission to leave class at any time to go to the Hospital Wing to visit Miss Hermione Granger for any length of time.
Sincerely, Professor McGonagall
"What?" I asked.
"You've been punished." She said with a smile.
"This is more of an reward than a punishment." I said.
"Yes it does. I'm letting you off because I've been told by your fellow housemates that you been 'upset' with the attack of your best friend."
"Yeah. My friend." I said with sadness in my voice.
"Miss Lestrange, I understand that it's been tough for you but I must implore you that you keep your cool, even if that person annoys the living hell out of you."
"Yes, Professor." I said.
"Good." Said Professor McGonagall
...
Three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news!" She said, and the Great Hall, instead of failing silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" Several people yelled joyfully.
"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" Squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" Roared Wood excitedly. 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. Yes, I'll be able to get my best friend back.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" He said to us. "Hermione will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, She'll go mad when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't revised. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."
"If we do that, She'll go mad too." I said. I suppose I'll leave class, use the note to visit Hermione and tell her the good news. Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.
"What's up?" Said Ron, helping himself to more porridge. Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded me of someone.
"Spit it out." Said Ron, watching her.
"Ginny, are you okay?" I asked her.
I've got to tell you something." Ginny mumbled.
"What is it?" Said Harry. Ginny looked as though couldn't find the right words.
"What?" Said Ron. Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
"Ginny, we're not to going to be mad at you, but if it's something important, you got to tell us." I said. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only me, Ginny and Ron 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 the 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 scarpered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the centre of the table.
"Percy!" Said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!" 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.
"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 -." I had never seen Percy looks so uncomfortable.
"What were you doing?" Said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh." Percy didn't smile back.
"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving."
...
I knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without our help, but Harry wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up – personally, I rather go and see Hermione and tell her the good news. Unfortunately, I had to hand the note to Professor Loser heart.
"Miss Lestrange. " Lockhart said.
"Sir." I replied. Then, I shown him the note.
"How do I know this note is real?"
"You can always take it up with Professor McGonagall."
"Alright, you can go."
"Thank you."
"I'm still not happy that you skip out on detention with me." Like I care, I left his classroom and I flew straight to the Hospital wing and I knocked on the door when I arrived.
"Who is it?" Said Madam Pomfrey on the other side of the doors.
"It's Sophie Lestrange." I said.
"No, No, No visitors."
"I have a note from Professor McGonagall."
"Nope. Nope." Then there was a little creak of the door opening. "Is this note legit?"
"You can check it for yourself, if you want." Pomfrey stuck her hand out and took the note right off me and shut the door on me. After a few minutes, she opened the door.
"You can come in and see Miss Granger but I must close the door to keep the 'Heir of Slytherin' from trying to finish these people off." I walked inside and Pomfrey took me straight to Hermione's bed. There's she was, still frozen. Still I tell her about the exams? "Alright, I'll leave you to it." And she walked straight off.
"Hello, there." I started as I held her hand. "The mandrakes are ready for cutting. Meaning you'll be back with us. We have exams, so you'll be back on your toes. I miss you. I miss you so much. I had lots of fun with the boys, no problem about that. It just that you're the only one that understands me." I did something out of the ordinary, I kissed Hermione on the cheek. "We need you, Hermione. We may be getting close to finding out about the Chamber of Secrets but, well, it hasn't been easy without you." Then Madam Pomfrey let Harry and Ron in then they soon came out.
"How did you two get out of class?" I said to them.
"We never did." Harry Answered. "We got away from Lockhart but we got caught by Professor. We told her we were going to see Hermione but we wanted to see Myrtle."
"How is she?" Ron asked.
"Only if I knew." I said.
"Wonder If she did see the attacker, though? Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."
"Ron, Sophie look." Said Harry. He pointed at what was lodged inside her right hand. It was a piece of paper.
"Try and get it out." Ron whispered. It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that I was so sure that Harry was going to rip it. Al last, after several tense minutes, the paper came out. It was a page torn from a old library book. Harry smoothed out the page and we leaned in close to read it.
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds od 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 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.
Ron, Sophie." Harry breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the chamber's a Basilisk – a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltounge ..."
"But if it kills people by looking into its eyes, how is it no one's dead?" I asked. Harry looked up at the mirror sitting near Madam Pomfrey's office.
"Because no one was looking at it, not directly at it." He answered. "Colin saw it through the 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 Nick1 Not got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermione and that Ravenclaw Perfect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had realised that the monster was a Basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look round corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror – and..."
"And Mrs Norris?" Ron said. "She didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry."
"The water..." He began slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs Norris only saw the reflection... 'Spiders flees before it,' It all fits!"
"But's how's the Basilisk been getting around the place?" I asked him. "A dirty great snake, someone must've seen it."
"Hermione has answered that too." Harry said as he pointed at the scribbled writing on the bottom of the page.
"Pipes?" Ron said " It's been using the plumbing?"
"That's why I only heard the voice inside the walls."
"Guys, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!' I said Hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in..."
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Said Harry. "This means I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how they've been controlling the Basilisk."
"What're we going to do?" Said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Shall we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staff room." Said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes, it's nearly break." We ran downstairs. Not waiting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, we went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, panelled room full of dark wooden chairs. We placed ourselves around it, too excited to sit down. But the bell to signal break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically transformed.
"All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, Please!"
"Not another attack? Not now?" Harry said.
"How did the heir of Slytherin sneak out of class?" I asked. "The teachers are watching us like hawks, they've noticed if someone left."
"What'll we do?" Said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?'
"No." Said Harry, glancing around. "In here, let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out." We hid ourselves inside a ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. We listened to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overheard, and the staff-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. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard.
"How can you be so sure?" He said.
"The heir of Slytherin," Said Professor McGonagall, who was very white. "left another message, Right underneath the first one, 'Her skeleton will in the chamber forever.'" Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" Said Madam Pomfrey, who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley." Said Professor McGonagall. No. No, not Ginny. Then I felt Ron slide down onto the wardrobe floor beside me.
"We shall have to send all of the students home tomorrow." Said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts." The staffroom door banged again open. For one wild moment, I was sure it would be Dumbledore but it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.
"Do sorry – dozed off – What have I missed?" He didn't seem to notice 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 had been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last." Lockhart blanched.
"M-My moment?"
"That's right, Gulderoy." Chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"Well – I, I..." Sputtered out.
"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 moment at the monster before Hagrid was arrested." Said Snape. "Didn't you say that whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?" Lockhart stared around his stony-faced colleagues.
"I... I really never... You may have misunderstood..."
"We'll leave You to it, then, Gulderoy." Said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last." Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome any more. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin he looked weak-chinned and weedy.
"V-very well." He said. "I'll – I'll be in my office, getting – getting ready." And he left the room.
"Right." Said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them that the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories." The teachers rose, and left one by one.
...
It was probably the worst day of my entire life. Me, Harry, Ron, Fred, George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr and Mrs Weasley, then shut gone up in his dormitory. No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.
"She knew something, Guys." Said Ron, speaking for the first time since we entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why she was taken. It's wasn't some stupid thing about Percy. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was." Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason." I can't think. First, Hermione and now Ginny. Can this get any worse.
"Harry." Said Ron, 'D'you think there's any chance at all she's not – you know -."
"Uh-huh." That was all I could say.
"D'you know what?" Said Ron. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."
"Okay." Harry said.
"Sophie?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, Let's go get your sister." The Gryffindor around us were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as we got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole. Darkness was falling as we walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. We 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 we saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.
"Oh... Mr Potter... Mr Weasley... Lestrange..." 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 we could see looked very uncomfortable "I mean – well – all right." He opened the door and we entered. His office was almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into 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?" Said Harry
"Er, well, yes." Said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke, and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call... unavailable... got to go..."
"What about my sister?" Said Ron jerkily.
"Well, as to that – most unfortunate." Sais Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I -."
"You're the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher!" Said Harry. "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?" I said disbelieving.
"After all that stuff you did in your books?" Said Harry.
"Books can be misleading." Said Lockhart delicately.
"You wrote them!" Harry Shouted.
"My dear boy." Said Lockhart, straightening and frowning. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those thing."
"What?!" I said in shock.
"You're a fraud." Said Harry incredulously. "You've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done!"
"So, you practically been lying to everyone about what you done?" I said.
"Is there anything you can do?" Ron asked in disbelief.
"Yes." Said Lockhart. "As of it, I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, those other wizards would've gone babbling. And unfortunately, I have to do the same to you." He pulled out his wand out and pointed it at us. Unfortunately, for him, we already had our wands pointed at him.
"Don't even think about it." Said Harry, twirling his wand, telling him to drop his wand, which he did.
"What d'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. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go." We marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We sent Lockhart in first. I was pleased to see that he was shaking. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the cistern of the end toilet.
"Oh, It's you." She said, when she saw Harry. "What do you want this time?"
"To ask you how you did." Said Harry. Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Oooh, it was dreadful." She said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very cubicle. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to use his own toilet, and the-" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died"
"How?" Said Harry.
"No idea." Said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great be yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away..."She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" I asked her.
"Somewhere there." Said, Myrtle, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her toilet. We hurried over to it while Lockhart was standing well back, with a look of utter terror on his face. It looked an ordinary sink. We examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That tap's never worked." Said Myrtle brightly, as he tried to turn it.
"Harry." Said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltounge."
"But-".
"Harry, we need to get to Ginny now." I said.
"Open up." He said. He looked at as.
"English." Ron said. He tried again but this time it was a bit more of an hiss. The tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move. The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
"I'm going down there." Harry said.
"Me too." Said Ron. "Sophie."
"Come on, let's go get Ginny." I said.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me." Sais Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just-" He put his hand on the door knob, but we all pointed their wands at him.
"You can go first?" Ron snarled. White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached t bcc e opening.
"Children." He said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"
"Better you than us." I sneered. Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.
"I really don't think-" He started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. I followed quickly. I lowered myself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. I could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as ours, which twisted an turned, sloping steeply downwards, and I knew that I was failing deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind me I could hear Harry and Ron, thudding slightly at the curves. And then, just as I had began to worry about what would happen when I hit the ground, the pipe levelled out, and I shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel, large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little way away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. I stood aside as the boys came whizzing out of the pipe, too.
"Nice of you boys to join us." I said to them. "Where are we?"
"We must be miles under the school." Said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably." Said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls. All four of us turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. I lit my wand a couple of minutes later. "C'mon." He said to us, and off we went, our footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. The tunnel was so dark that we could only see a little distance ahead. Our shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.
"Remember." Harry said quietly , as we walked cautiously forward. "Any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away..." But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first, and the first unexpected sound we heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and I saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard, not to imagine what Ginny might look like if we found her, Harry led the way forward, round a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Guys, there's something up there..." Said Ron Hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder. We froze, watching. I could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep." He breathed, glancing back at us. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing. My heart was beating so fast it hurt. Harry's wand light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have twenty feet long at least.
"Blimey." Said Ron weakly. There was a sudden movement behind us. Gulderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up." Said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet – then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his wand and a gleaming smile back on his face.
"The adventures ends here, boys and girls!" He said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!" The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. I flung my arms over my head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling which thundering to the floor. Next minute, I was standing with Harry, gazing at the wall of broken rock.
"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Are you ok? Ron!"
"I'm here!" Came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock fall. "I'm OK. This git's not, though – He got blasted by the wans." There was a dull thud and a loud 'Ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins. "What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through. It'll take ages..."
"Wait there." Harry called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. Me and Sophie will go on. If we're not back in a hour..."
"I'll try and shift some of this rock." Said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you two can - can get back through. And Guys-"
"See you in a bit." Said Harry, trying to inject some confidences into his shaking voice and we set off, past the snake skin. Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in my body was tingling unpleasantly. I wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what we would find when it did. And then, at last, as we crept around yet another bend, we saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes with great, glinting emeralds.
"How do we get in?" I asked Harry. He approached, his throat very dry. He hissed something to those two conjoined snakes. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight.
"Well done." I said to him.
"Thanks." He said with a shaky smile. "You ready?"
"Yeah, Let's get her." So with the both of us, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.
(Author's Note – Done. Now, next chapter, It will be tough getting Sophie written into the story but I'll try my best. I might be working next Friday so the next chapter could either Thursday or Sunday so bear with me. As usual, leave a review if you like it, don't like it or if you want to see something in the next chapter. So until next time, Kizzard245 out!)