Harry Potter is not mine

Chapter 19- Down the snake hole

The next day the sun was shining brightly and a light breeze was blowing lightly. Oliver was delighted because of the perfect Quidditch conditions, but Harry couldn't stop thinking about the diary. He tried to push it from his mind as he gathered his broom and robes. He was leaving the castle with Ron and Neville, who both wanted to get to the pitch early to get good seats, when he heard it.

"It's the basilisk again!" He shouted to the others. "We have to find Hermione." She had asked them to save her a seat since she wanted to stop at the library a moment.

Forgetting all about the game they ran back inside only to be blocked by a crowd that had gathered around Professor McGonagall. She was announcing that the Quidditch match had been canceled and without saying why she told everyone to go back to their common room.

"Except for you," she said to Harry. "You'd better come with me." She didn't object when Ron and Neville followed, and led them to the hospital wing.

"This will be a bit of a shock," she said, but she didn't have to say what the shock would be. Harry knew without asking that something had happened to Hermione. His only thoughts were "Please don't let her be dead."

Thankfully she was only petrified, but it was beyond terrible seeing her laying there with her eyes open and glassy, looking as if she were carved out of stone. In her hand was a small round mirror.

"Does this mean anything to either of you?" McGonagall asked. They shook their heads. Harry couldn't see what use a mirror would be against a basilisk.

That night, if it were possible, things got even worse. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had Hagrid arrested just so it would look like something was being done about the attacks. Harry knew Fudge had done everything in his power to stop his adoption when he was a baby and had passed strict laws regarding werewolves so he already had a strong dislike for him, but arresting an innocent man without even a shred of proof was just plain stupid and cruel. To complete the horrible day, Lucius Malfoy had shown up with an order that Dumbledore be removed from Hogwarts. Everyone was panicked that with him gone there would be an attack a day. Yet as summer came closer there were no more attacks, although they were no closer to finding either the person behind them or the basilisk.

It was a problem that nobody had stopped worrying about, least of all Harry. He couldn't get over the feeling that since he was a parselmouth he should have been able to do more. He was laying in bed one night thinking on that when a possibility came to him.

"Ron," he said, shaking his friend. "Ron!"

"Whayawant?" Ron yawned.

"A student was killed fifty years ago, right?"

"Yeah."

"Wasn't Moaning Myrtle wearing a Hogwarts uniform?"

Ron's eyes opened wider and he said "You don't think she was the one that was killed last time?"

With the heightened security it wasn't until three days before exams that they got a chance to slip away. Luckily Lockhart was assigned to escort them to class, and all Harry had to do was say that he agreed that all the security wasn't necessary. The supposedly heroic teacher saw that as his chance to leave them since they were "safe."

"Probably afraid he might actually have to defend us," Ron said.

They headed to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom but only made it part way when they ran into McGonagall. The stern Transfiguration teacher wouldn't be anywhere near as easy to fool as Lockhart. But when she asked what they were doing in the halls alone and Harry came up with a story that they were going to visit Hermione, she got all misty eyed.

"Of course. I understand perfectly," she said, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. She went with them to the hospital wing before leaving to take another group of students to class. Madame Pomfrey muttered about how she didn't see any good in visiting a petrified person and made a comment about Harry being as stubborn as his father, but let them stay.

It felt so strange having Hermione there but not being able to respond, looking so dead while she was alive. Harry was about to turn away and start back to Myrtle's bathroom when something caught his eye. Besides the mirror there was a piece of paper in her hand.

"Ron, I think there's something written on there. Help me get it out."

Careful not to tear it, the unwrapped the paper and saw a single word written on it" Pipes.

"What could that mean?" Ron asked.

It seemed like a strange clue, but somehow everything seemed to fall into place.

"If we're right about Myrtle being the one who was killed last time…What if she was killed in the bathroom she haunts? Why else would anyone want to haunt a bathroom? That could be the entrance to the Chamber, and if it is- Ron, it's using the plumbing! That's why nobody's seen it." Thinking back, he realized every time he heard the voice it seemed to be coming from inside the walls. If the basilisk were in the plumbing that explained it. Maybe it also explained the water on the floor that first time. It could have dripped from the basilisk instead of Myrtle's flooded toilet. Suddenly Harry also understood why nobody had been killed too. "The flood that first time- Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection. Colin saw it through the camera, and Nick couldn't die twice. Hermione must have been using the mirror to check around corners. That's why nobody died from looking it in the eye. Nobody did look it in the eye, not directly anyway."

No sooner had they figured it out than the announcement was heard throughout the school.

"All students report to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room."

"We have to tell them what we know," Harry said. They reached the staff room in time to hear that a student had been taken into the Chamber itself.

"Which student?" someone asked.

There was a pause before McGonagall answered "Ginny Weasley."

Ron and Harry both sank down. Not Ginny. Harry had always though of her as his sister the way he thought of Ron as his brother, and the thought of anything happening to her-.

McGonagall continued speaking, saying that Hogwarts would have to be closed, but Harry and Ron were too busy thinking about Ginny to notice what was being said until Lockhart walked in.

"So sorry. What did I miss?" He asked it as if he's missed part of a Quidditch match instead of tragic news. The other teachers looked tempted to hex the git, but Snape spoke up in a tone of voice Harry knew would mean the defense teacher was in for trouble Snape would enjoy.

"The very man for the job."

For once the five time winner of the most charming smile award was frowning.

"What are you talking about Severus?"

Snape took an intimidating step closer.

"I'm talking about the Chamber of Secrets. Only this morning you were saying you knew where the entrance was. Now a girl has been taken into it. You're the obvious one to go in after her."

Stuttering as badly as Quirrel once had Lockhart said "You- you m-must have misunderstood."

"I heard you say the same thing Gilderoy," Flitwick said. So had all the other teachers. There was no way out now.

"W- well then I'll just be in my office. Getting ready."

Harry and Ron watched him go, and wordlessly went after him. If he was going into the Chamber he'd need to know everything they did. But when they got to his office they found him packing.

"What are you doing?"

Lockhart looked at them with an expression of panic.

"Urgent call... unavoidable... got to go..."

"What about Ginny?"

"Well, as to that- most unfortunate,"

So he was just going to leave Ginny to die? So much for being the big hero.

"You never did one thing you wrote about, did you?" Harry demanded. "What exactly are you good at besides making things up?"

"I happen to be gifted at memory charms. My books wouldn't have sold half so well if people though someone else did all those things. Which reminds me-."

He aimed his wand at Harry and Ron, but Harry was faster and disarmed Lockhart.

"Now, we're going to find Ginny. And you're going first."

After telling Neville to get help and asking Myrtle how she'd died to be sure they were right, Harry went over to the sink where Myrtle said she had seen the yellow eyes of what the boys knew was a basilisk. He'd never thought about the snakes carved into it when they'd brewed the Polyjuice potion, but now, when the light flickered just right, he could almost imagine they were real snakes. He looked at them and said "Open," in Parseltongue. The sink moved revealing a pipe large enough for either a person to walk through or a basilisk to slither through.

"That's that then," Lockhart said nervously. "Help will be coming soon so I'll just be-"

Harry and Ron kept their wands aimed at him.

"I told you, you're going first," Harry said. "Just think what a wonderful book you'll be able to write about this."

If he hadn't been so worried about Ginny, Harry would have taken pleasure in the sick look that came over Lockhart. Ron gave the teacher a shove and then they jumped in and slid down the pipe. When they landed they could see what looked like rat bones covering the floor of the tunnel, and as they went on ahead they found the giant skin the basilisk had shed. Lockhart went down on his knees.

"Get up," Harry said, his patience wearing thin at the man who would have let Ginny die as long as it meant he was safe. No sooner had he said the words than Lockhart jumped up, tackled Ron and grabbed his wand.

"Don't worry boys," he said in a coldly pleasant voice. "The world will know your story. I was too late to save the girl and you two lost your minds at the sight of her body. Obliviate."

There was an explosion of light and rock and small animal bones. Harry crashed to the floor and when he looked up he saw a wall of rock where Ron should have been.

"Ron!" Oh no, he couldn't loose both Ginny and Ron. He just couldn't. "Ron! Answer me!"

"I'm OK," Ron answered. "Lockhart's not. Got hit by his own spell."

Thank Merlin Ron was all right. There didn't seem to be any way to move the rocks though. It would take hours they didn't have. If they wanted to save Ginny, there was only one answer.

"Help will be coming Ron. Try to move some of these rocks in the meantime. I'm going after Ginny."