disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just Arabella and her story. Hope you all like it!

The Chamber of Secrets

Ron was bitter the next morning at breakfast. "All those time we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away and we could've asked her, and now…."

It was hard enough before looking for spiders, but now, sneaking off to the girls' bathroom with two boys was going to be almost impossible, especially when that bathroom is located next to the area of the first attack.

During their first lesson of the day, Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today. Arabella blinked at her. Exams? She almost completely forgot about them with the Chamber of Secrets and not having Hermione around! What's she's playing at?

"Exams?" howled Seamus. "We're still getting exams?"

McGonagall frowned at him. "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education. The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."

"Studying hard?" asked Arabella, her mouth ajar. "Quite hard to study when there's a monster going around the school and one of your classmates is in the hospital Petrified!"

McGonagall scowled even more darkly. "Do not take that tone with me, Miss Black. Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, and that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year. If you haven't been studying, then I suggest you work hard this next week or risk repeating your second year."

There was a great deal of muttering around the room, making McGonagall more cross than before. Ron looked completely and utterly defeated.

"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" He held up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.

Arabella was panicking and angry to think that she had to fit a whole year's worth of subjects and lessons into a week's worth of revision. She set out to start reviewing that night itself but the idea of Myrtle knowing who the Heir was or knowing what the monster was preoccupied her mind so much that she could barely concentrate for days on end.

That announcement was not the only one from McGonagall that week. Three days before their first exam, McGonagall stood up during breakfast, calling for silence. Arabella looked up from her Charms notes to see McGonagall giving them a tight smile.

"I have good news," she said to the Great Hall, which erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!"

"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!"

"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood. Arabella snorted at his enthusiasm.

After a couple minutes of waiting for everyone to settle down, 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 from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, excited to have Hermione, Justin and Penelope back, but no one from the Slytherin table seemed particularly happy or pleased. Malfoy, in fact, seemed gloomy at the thought that his beloved Heir failed to kill the Muggle-borns. Ron looked happier than he had in days.

"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" said Ron to Arabella and Harry. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."

Just then, Ginny came over and sat down next to Arabella. She looked tense and nervous, and her hands were twisting in her lap.

"Ginny, are you all right?" asked Arabella.

Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face. Arabella was confused and remembered Valentine's Day and how she paled in the corridors. Her behaviour was making Ron and Harry stare at her as well.

"Spit it out," said Ron.

Ginny was rocking back and forth slightly in her chair. She then mumbled, "I've got to tell you something."

"What is it?" said Harry.

Ginny opened her mouth for a moment, but said nothing. She looked as though she couldn't find the right words.

"What?" said Ron.

Ginny opened her mouth again, but nothing came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly so that only the Ginny, Arabella and Ron could hear him.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"

Ginny took a deep and at that moment, Percy appeared, looking tired and warn out.

"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 from her chair, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down beside Arabella and grabbed a mug from the center 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 rather –"

"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."

Arabella wasn't so sure on that. She doesn't like Percy and he didn't like her either. She didn't expect him to apologize and he didn't. She cared for the Weasleys, but not for Percy, not one bit.

Percy didn't smile back.

"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving."

The whole mystery surrounded the Chamber of Secrets, the Heir and the monster would be solved by tomorrow morning at the latest without their help. But that didn't stop them from wanting to speak with Myrtle if that chance turned up. And it did.

Lockhart was leading them to History of Magic and was so convinced that there was no more danger that there was no point in leading them down the corridors anymore. He looked tired and warn out from patrolling the corridors and couldn't find a good reason for leading some second-years safely to their next class.

"Mark my words," said Lockhart as he was ushering them around the corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measure are necessary."

"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise.

"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night…"

"Quite right, sir," said Arabella, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here since we've only got one more corridor to go? We'll be safe enough to –"

"You know, Miss Black, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class –"

And he hurried off, leaving them all standing in the corridor.

"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They were so close when –

"Potter! Weasley! Black! What are you doing?"

It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was in a thin line, so thin that her lip disappeared.

"We were going to see Hermione, professor," said Arabella very quickly.

Harry, Ron and McGonagall looked at her, and she wasn't really lying, not completely. Arabella really did want to see Hermione and has been aching to do so for a while now.

"We haven't seen her in ages, Professor," said Arabella, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and not to worry and that exams are coming and that we would help her catch up and –"

McGonagall looked as though she was about to exploded and when she spoke, it was a strange croaky voice and it seemed as though her eyes were glistening. "Of course. Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been…. I quite understand. Yes, Black, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

Arabella, Harry and Ron walked away, hardly believing that they avoided detention from Professor McGonagall. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose. Arabella felt bad for lying to her, but now she got to see Hermione again.

"That," said Ron enthusiastically, "was the best thing you have ever come up with."

They went to the hospital wing and told Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione. She let them in but very reluctantly. She thought that there was no point in talking to a Petrified person and there was a part of Arabella that agreed with her, but another part that did not care as she took a seat next to the bed. It was nice to be near Hermione again.

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know…."

But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He redirected Arabella and Ron's attention to Hermione's right hand. It was clenched on top of her blanket and there was a piece of paper scrunched inside her fist.

"Try and get it out," whispered Ron. He and Arabella shifted their chairs so that they blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.

After several minutes of Harry struggling, the paper came free. It was a page torn from some old library book. Harry smoothed it out and Arabella and Ron leaned 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 also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of 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 are 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.

And beneath this, a single word had been written in Hermione's handwriting. Pipes.

"This is it," breathed Harry. "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 Parseltongue and that's why nobody has died. The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified."

"Justin saw it through Nick," said Arabella, realization dawning on her.

"Nick got a full blast but he couldn't die again," continued Harry. "And Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror net to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look round the corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror – and – "

Ron's jaw had dropped. "And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

Arabella was slipping on water that night when she saw Mrs. Norris. "There was water. I remember slipping on it. She… she must have saw the reflection from it. There was a flood from Myrtle's bathroom at the time."

Harry scanned the page. "…. The crowing of the rooster is fatal to it! Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake…. Someone would've seen…."

Harry pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the bottom of the page. "Pipes… it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls…."

Ron suddenly grabbed Arabella's arm. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in –"

"– Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Arabella and Harry said together.

"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do?" said Ron. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Definitely," said Arabella at once.

"Let's go to the staffroom," said Harry as they jumped up at once. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."

They ran downstairs and went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. They paced 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 magnified. "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

They stared at each other.

"Not another attack? Not now?" said Harry.

"What'll we do?" said Ron. "Go back to the dormitory?"

Arabella glanced around and there was a wardrobe to their left, full of teachers' cloaks. "We can hide in here and find out what this is all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out. Come on, get in."

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staffroom door banging open. They looked between the folds of cloaks and watched the teachers filtering into the room. Someone looked puzzled, others scared. Then McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick squealed, Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth and Snape gripped the back of a chair very tightly and said, "How can you be sure?"

McGonagall paled considerably. "The Heir of Slytherin left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."

Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk into a chair weakly. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," said McGonagall and Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside them. "We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow. This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…."

The staffroom door banged open and Lockhart walked in, beaming. "So sorry – dozed off – what have I missed?"

It seemed as though he couldn't notice the look of utter and pure hatred on the other teachers faces for him. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man. 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 paled.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in 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 –"sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes," piped Flitwick, "didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?"

"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 rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues. "I — I really never — you may have misunderstood —"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," 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 anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll — I'll be in my office, getting — getting ready."

And he left the room.

"Right," said McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them 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 quite possible one of the worst days she has ever felt in recent memory. Top ten worst days at best. Arabella, Harry, Ron, Fred and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy had shut himself up in his dormitory after sending an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. The afternoon seemed longer than ever, the Gryffindor Tower seemed overcrowded and yet, no one spoke to each other. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.

"She knew something," said Ron, speaking for the first time in hours. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. 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 pureblood. There can't be any other reason."

Arabella said nothing because there was nothing she could say that could make any of them feel better.

"D'you –"began Ron, unsure, "d'you think there's any chance at all she's not – you know –"

Arabella hugged a cushion close to her. It would be a miracle of Ginny was still alive.

"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."

"But – but it's Lockhart," said Arabella. "It would be better to tell McGonagall or Flitwick. There're more capable teachers than Lockhart."

Harry sighed. "As terrible as it is to say, Lockhart's our only hope. He's the one going into the Chamber, not McGonagall, not Flitwick. We ought to inform him."

The words Lockhart's our only hope was possible the most saddest and depressing words Harry had ever uttered in Arabella's presence. To think that Lockhart was the key to saving Ginny's life was just terrible. But Arabella wanted to do something and agreed with Ron and Harry. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

They walked to Lockhart's office in silence and when they got there, it seemed as though there was a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps and hurried footsteps. Harry knocked on the door and there was silence coming from inside. The door then creaked open and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh – Mr. Potter – Mr. Weasley – Miss Black –"he opened the door a bit 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 –"He seemed uncomfortable. "I mean – well – all right –"

He opened the door and they entered. His office seemed almost stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes of different colours were everywhere, had bene hastily folded into one of them and books jumbled into the other. The photographs that once covered the walls were not crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere, professor?" said Harry.

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, rolling up a poster of himself. "Urgent call – unavoidable – got to go –"

"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that – most unfortunate –"Lockhart was avoiding their eyes. "No one regrets more than I –"

"You're our Defense against the Dark Arts teacher!" yelled Arabella. "Ginny needs you! The school needs you! You can't leave!"

"Well – I must say – when I took the job –" Lockhart muttered, 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 the stuff you did in your books –"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on –"

"So you took credit for what others have done?" asked Arabella, her hand slowly reaching for her wand. "You did none of it?"

"Arabella, Arabella," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. "Let's see. I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left." He pulled his wand and turned to them. "Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never see another book –"

"Expelliarmus!" cried Arabella, whipping out her wand.

Lockhart basted backward, falling over his trunk and his wand falling high into the air. Ron caught it and flung it out of the open window.

"I'm a girl," growled Arabella. She pointed her wand at Lockhart's face.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Harry, pointing his wand at him as well.

"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."

They marched Lockhart out his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the message was still on the wall and to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They sent Lockhart in first and he was shaking. Good. Myrtle was sitting on the tank 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 died," said Harry.

Myrtle's attitude seemed to change. It seemed as though Harry had asked her a very flattering question.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with pleasure. "It happened right here. I died in this very stall. 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 was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then –"Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?"

"No idea," said Myrtle in a hushed tone. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, 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?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Arabella, Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face. It looked like an ordinary sink and they examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. Harry then tried to turn on one of the taps. Arabella looked closely and saw that there was a tiny snake on it.

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly.

"Harry," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."

"But –"

"Just try," said Arabella desperately.

Harry stared hard at the tiny engraving for a moment and then a strange hissing noise escaped him, it was almost not human at all coming from Harry. The tap glowed with a white light and began to spin. The sink began to move and sand right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed. It was big enough for them to slide into.

Ron gasped as Arabella looked down at the darkness.

"I'm going down there," said Harry.

"Me too," said Ron.

"Same here," said Arabella.

There was no doubt in her. She was not leaving them, especially after finding the entrance to the Chamber. There is a chance that Ginny could be alive and she wasn't going to turn her back on that small chance.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just –"

He put his hand on the door knob, but the three of them pointed their wands at him.

"You can go first," snarled Ron.

Wandless and pale, Lockhart approached the opening. His voice was feeble when he spoke. "Boys, boys, what good will it –"

Arabella had enough. She took a step forward and pushed Lockhart down the pipe. He screamed all the way down. Arabella looked at Harry and Ron before lowering herself into the pipe and then letting go. Harry followed her and then Ron.

She was rushing down a slimy, dark slide and she could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but they were not as large as theirs. It twisted and turned and sloped steeply downward. They were falling deeper and deeper below the school than the dungeons, she was sure. Behind Arabella, she could hear Harry and Ron thudding slightly at the curves.

The pipes then leveled out and she 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 ways away, covered in slime and just as white as Myrtle. Arabella stood aside as Harry and Ron came whizzing out of the pipe as well.

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing as he stood up.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark walls.

"Lumos!" muttered Arabella. "Come on, then."

And then went off, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a few feet away, even when Harry lit his wand as well.

"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away…."

But the tunnel was dead quiet and the only sound they heard were the loud crunch of Ron stepping on a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand for them all to see the floor littered with small animal bones. Arabella looked away quickly and they walked forward around the dark bend in the tunnel.

"Wait," said Ron hoarsely, "there's something up there –"

They froze, watching. Arabella could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's sleeping," breathed Ron, glancing at the others. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes.

Arabella turned back to look at the thing with her heart beating furiously against her chest. It felt as though it was about to burst. With one hand on her chest, over her heart, and her wand held high, she edged forward. As she got closer, she narrowed her eyes just enough to still see.

Her wand-light slid over a gigantic snake skin of a vivid green. It laid curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that once held it must have been twenty feet long.

"Blimey," whispered Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Lockhart's knees had given away and he was sobbing loudly. It was echoing off the walls.

"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Suddenly, Lockhart got to his feet, dived at Ron and knocked him to the ground. Harry jumped forward, but it was too late – Lockhart straightened up, panting with his smile back on his face and Ron's wand in his hand.

"The adventure ends here, boy!" he said. "And girl. 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 good-bye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's taped up wand high over this head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded like a bomb. Harry flung his arms over his hand and ran, knocking Arabella to the ground with him. Great chunks of tunnel ceiling thundered to the floor with dust filling the air. Arabella covered her head and when silence returned, she lifted her head. Harry helped her to her feet and they gazed at a solid wall of broken rocks.

"Ron!" shouted Arabella.

"Are you okay?" yelled Harry. "Ron!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the wall. "I'm okay – this git's not, through – he got blasted by the wand –"

There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kick Lockhart in the shins.

"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through – it'll take ages…."

There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time.

"Wait here," Harry called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on…. "If we're not back in an hour…."

There was a pause.

"I'll try and shift some of these rocks," said Ron, trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can – can get back through. And –"

"See you in a bit," said Arabella. She looked at Harry and whispered, "Are you ready?"

Harry gave her a shaky nod and said, "You?"

"Not one bit," said Arabella.

She clenched her fingers, trying to get some feeling into them and they set off past the giant snake skin. The sound of Ron straining to shift the rocks were soon gone. The tunnel was almost never ending and she hoped it stayed that way. Every fiber in her body was tingling with dread and at last, they crept around another bend. There was a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Arabella was shaking when Harry approached the snakes. He cleared his throat and the emerald eyes seemed to shine. He hissed faintly and turned back to Arabella, holding his left arm out towards her.

"Come on," he whispered faintly. "Ginny needs us."

Arabella held onto his arm as the serpents parted and the wall cracked open. The halves slid smoothly out of sight. Arabella was shaking from head to toe, and from what she could tell, Harry was as well. They looked at each other for a moment and understood without saying anything – they walked inside together.

Thank you so much for reading! Tell me what you guys think!