Sadly, the victory celebration was destroyed rather quickly by the news that Hermione had gone missing. Professor Mcgonagall, pale and obviously terrified, rallied the whole of the Hogwarts staff and put the entire castle on full alert. All dorms were put on lockdown and all students were given to the Head Students in order to maintain accountability. Percy made sure Harry, Ginny, Fred, George and Ron were all present before moving onto the rest of Gryffindor.

"Ginny, no one is blaming you for this. You did what you could in a terrible situation." Harry whispered to her and she nodded. "And you didn't see where she went?"

"No, I thought you would have seen her from where you came in." Tears continued to stream down Ginny's cheeks as she gazed at Harry and her eyes flicked to all of her brothers.

"Well, the important thing is you're safe and we find Hermione." Ron reasoned and all of them heartily agreed.

They needed freedom to search, but that wasn't going to come easily. Hermione was out there and Harry needed to do something then and there! Then, as if seeing his frustration for himself and understanding whole-heartedly, Fred put his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Look, mate, we'll give you and Ron as much time as we can. We got some fireworks leftover from last year and we've been looking for just such an occasion." Fred offered and George held up a paper bag and pulled out several small, rocket shaped, color cardboard firecrackers with long fuses.

"Just say the word, mate." George winked and Harry looked at them both.

"Won't you both get in trouble?" Harry asked, and both of them had to work hard to stifle laughs.

"We feel sorry for you, so we'll let that one slide for now. Now, do you want our help or not?" Fred asked and Harry clapped him on the shoulder.

"Thank you." Harry smiled and Ron nodded to both of them. Then he looked back toward his dorm and a thought occurred to him. "Oh bloody hell, I don't have my cloak." He very quietly whispered to Ron. The thought of going through a heightened security Hogwarts with his own stealth alone was a very terrible thought.

"It was on my bed." Ron whispered as he held the invisibility cloak up from under his shirt. Harry looked at him with a flabbergasted expression. "I thought you put it there."

"Whatever, let's figure it out later." Harry said as he got to his feet.

"I'm going with you. I know where we need to start." Ginny said, stepping up to Harry and Ron. All four of them eyed her with dumbfounded expressions.

"I've been doing some digging of my own on this Chamber of Secrets." Ginny said, looking at all of them with defiance in her brown eyes and fiery red hair. "We can use your invisibility cloak."

"How do you know about…" Ginny was looking over toward Ron, who was already in an expression of shame. As were Fred and George, who also knew. "Oh, come on! All of you?"

"I need to make sure she's okay," Ginny pleaded with Harry, "for what I did."

"Anyone would have done what you–" He said and she shook her head. Harry wouldn't understand and there was no time to explain. "Alright, then." He shook his head and stood up from the chair in the common room as the rest of them seemed to mope about there not being a celebration of Gryffindor's triumph and overall worry for their own, Hermione.

"Well, I'm sorry, lads. We sure showed those serpents what for, eh?" George said as he walked among them. "I suppose I'll just be off to an early bed, don't see any reason to stay here worryin– oh I seem to have fallen!"

As he very unconvincingly fell, he tossed the bag in front of himself. As he came down gently onto his chest, his wand swatted the top of the bag. Instantly, there came a sizzling before a loud crack and a bang followed by a crackle!

In an instant, the room was covered in sparks, whizzing, smoke and color!

"Fred! What have you done!" Percy shouted as he ran out of the dorm stairwell. "Stop these things this instant! Have you no dignity!"

"I'm George, you right git, and you're the one I caught snogging that Ravenclaw bird! Don't talk to me about dignity after you look like a carp sucking on another carp!" George shouted as more students came into the common room and the portrait hole opened for staff members coming into see what the ruckus was.

"Weasley!" Mcgonagall shouted, generally assuming one of the Weasleys was somehow responsible. "What on Earth! What is going on here!" She shouted above the streaming fireworks blazing through the common room.

"Sorry, Professor Mcgonagall! I tripped!" George shouted over them, making all of the prefects, head students and arriving staff scoff at such rubbish.

Harry, Ron and Ginny escaped as quickly and quietly as they could. Gilderoy's hair came very close to the flames and claimed his hair care was very flammable.

"We need to talk to Hagrid first." Ginny whispered to them and both of them looked back at her in the invisibility cloak. "Just trust me."

There was a problem, though, as they approached the ground floor entrance hall. There was Dumbledore conversing with Snape at the bottom of the stairs, only a few feet away from the door. As invisible as they were, they still had to open doors.

"Yes, Severus, I am aware of Hagrid's former charges, but as you have gathered by his continued presence in our midst, he has been cleared of all of them." He told him as they walked across the entrance hall toward the doors.

Harry didn't know why, but he began to follow them, despite Ron whispering if Harry was crazy or not. He gave Ron a look of incredulity before continuing.

"Where are you going?" Snape asked as the headmaster opened the doors and drew in a deep breath.

"The castle has been closed up for too long. We've searched every corridor and every passage we know. It's time we search the grounds and air out the stuffy old castle. There is still no sign?" He asked as he gave a passing invisible trio a warm smile that Severus couldn't see.

"None, professor." Snape said, gravely. "When shall I inform Mr. and Mrs. Granger?"

Harry didn't wait to hear the answer. He rushed over as close to the wall as possible so that they could duck out of eye shot as fast as possible. It was dusk, very quickly turning to nightfall.

"Who's there?!" Hagrid shouted as he came to the door, fighting off a rambunctious Fang, his large boarhound. "Get off me, ya mangy thing!" He growled before Harry uncovered all three of them.

"Oh, blimey, Harry. I was just about to head out to find Hermione on the grounds. What're ya–" He saw that Hagrid had, indeed, been gathering a lantern, his crossbow and other little supplies for a long trek into the forest.

"Tell them about why you were expelled!" Ginny said before another word could be uttered.

Hagrid looked stunned. Ginny looked as if she were already on the verge of tears. Both Ron and Harry looked at each other, then to Ginny.

"What? What's going on?" Harry asked as Hagrid began stuttering.

"N-n-now Ginny, there's no need to be bringing up–"

"Hagrid! Hermione is missing and someone has her! She went to the Chamber of Secrets! You told me you were expelled because you opened the chamber!" She was freely sobbing now.

"What?!" Both boys looked at Hagrid and he recoiled.

"Hagrid?" Harry asked him, almost seeming to accuse him.

"Look! Come on, you little rascals. Get in." He said in an exasperated, almost parental tone as he shut the door behind them. He sighed big and began filling his kettle from the basin.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked and Hagrid growled.

"Well, since you're all wondering about the worst day of me life, I suppose a story comes with a cup of tea. Now listen, you lot." He pointed at them as he began. "I didn't open no Chamber of Secrets, let's make that clear. Second, I don't know who did. All I know is that it was opened, and I got expelled, even though I was found innocent." He sounded more than a little bitter as he put the kettle over the fire and glared at it.

"But you were innocent. What's the point in keeping you expelled?" Ron asked and Hagrid shrugged.

"Unfit to wield magic. Even if I didn't commit the crime, I still wasn't a wizard. Never have been." He said with no real care for the concept, "I've known that my lot's always been with nature. A quiet life with a few cute little critters at my side. That's my place in life." Hagrid looked out longingly at the grounds. All three of them understood what he considered "cute" and were grateful not to be included in his retirement plan.

"So," Ginny pressed, "you can't tell us anything else about the chamber?" She asked with little hope, especially when he shrugged. Her heart sank.

"Not much else to tell. They caught me with a giant spider in my closet, thought he was the beast, but no, he couldn't have been. Poor Myrtle Warren's entire body was paralyzed. That's how she died. Aragog doesn't kill like that."

"Someone died?" Ron asked, sloshing some tea down his front and flinching at the heat.

"Who did you say it was?" Ginny asked, her eyes bulging. But that was impossible.

"Little Myrtle Warren, poor girl was a muggle born in her first year." Hagrid lamented, pouring a bit of Brandy in his tea.

"When you say, 'Myrtle'... you don't actually mean…" Ginny winced as it dawned on her.

Ginny regretfully knew where to go next. On the first floor right above the entrance hall, was a bathroom haunted by a ghost Ginny had met two months before.

"I was nearly done when she appeared through the door to my stall and shrieked at me that I was peeing too much in her personal toilet." Ginny sounded scornful as she whispered this to them as they came to the lavatory door. "I never came back here, not even with an upset stomach."

"I don't blame you." Ron admitted, seeing the state of the bathroom as they opened the door. "Blimey, it looks like a hurricane has been through."

Harry agreed. Tiles were broken and cracked by the dozens, the mirrors were either broken or murky while the toilets seemed in working order, though with enormous puddles underneath where they had flooded.

"Myrtle doesn't take very good care of it. I've even seen her flood all the toilets at once because a student said she didn't like her voice." Ginny admitted as she looked around. "Myrtle? Are you here?"

"It is very hard to concentrate when I hear boys in the girls' bathroom." A voice said from one of the stalls, which flushed. As the door opened, it was revealed to be Luna Lovegood, pulling her shirt tail out a bit as she looked at all of them. "You're not being naughty, are you?"

Then she eyed Ron with a gasp of shock. "What?" Ron's eyes went wide and Luna looked affronted. She trudged over to the crumpled looking sink, which somehow still worked, and began to wash her hands.

"Ronald, I expected better. I hold you in such high regard after you introduced me to that lovely sea creature in the lake." Luna said and for some reason, Ron did seem guilty.

"But we're looking for Hermione." Ron said in his defense and Luna brightened at this.

"Oh no, I did hear about that." Luna gasped and looked around the bathroom. "Is she here?"

"Probably not, we're looking for Myrtle. Have you seen her?" Harry asked, then blinked at her, "wait, the school is on lockdown. How did you get here?"

Luna sighed as there was a loud voice from the far side of the room.

"What are boys doing here in the girls' bathroom!?" Another, much more shrill voice asked as Moaning Myrtle floated very fast toward the two of them as they recoiled in terror. She frowned and then turned on Ginny and Luna. "You're not supposed to let them in here!"

"They have more right to be here than you do." Luna said, causing a waspish expression from Myrtle, "they're alive."

"You're not supposed to be so mean!" Myrtle moaned, "that was uncalled for! I didn't want to die!"

"How did you die?" Harry asked and all eyes turned to him as he very purposefully latched onto the subject as it arose.

"What?" Myrtle's sadness, tears and wounded expression vanished in an instant as she turned to Harry. She seemed to consider the question and her expression became somber, though, in a much more grounded way.

"I found a boy in this bathroom." She began, and all of them were surprised that her voice became sad, but normal at the same time. There was no whining or whimpering at all. "I was in a toilet stall, crying because a girl made fun of my glasses. As I cried, I noticed a boy talking in some strange, hissing voice."

Both Harry and Ron glanced at each other, knowingly.

"Then, as soon as I opened the door, I saw two great big glowing yellow eyes and my body locked up. I couldn't breathe and the older boy didn't seem to want to help me." Myrtle began to weep at the memory, and Harry started to feel himself grow rather uncomfortable. Though, he did feel for her, deeply. She was younger than he was now.

"Where did it come from?" Ginny asked and Myrtle looked at her, puzzled. "The thing, with the eyes, did you see where it came from?"

Myrtle seemed to really be thinking as she replayed what had happened. "I saw Tom…" she said as she pointed.

"Tom? Who's Tom?" Harry asked, a jolt going through his system at the idea of new information added to the mix.

"Tom Riddle," she pointed, and the name "T.M. Riddle" came to view in his mind's eye. "He was a sixth year and he was standing right there by that sink. He was hissing, saying something strange. Then I saw the eyes." Myrtle began to cry once again.

"Awww, it's okay, Myrtle. You're in a better place now." Luna smiled at her and all three of them eyed Luna, mortified.

"Thank you…" Myrtle said as she sniffed and even managed a smile toward Luna.

Harry had already turned toward where she said Riddle was. As he looked, Ron was quick to keep with him.

"What you think? She off her rocker?" He asked and Harry thought for a moment.

"Yeah, but I think she does remember this." Harry said, motioning toward the sink, "she sounded sober enough."

"I suppose." Ron reasoned, keeping an eye on the two girls as they attempted to cheer Myrtle up. She kept breaking down into tears randomly anyway.

As they investigated the sink, Harry saw what looked like a tiny snake symbol etched onto the metal pipe. He pointed it out to Ron and he nodded excitedly. "Brilliant! Now what?" He said in a somewhat bashful manner.

"Myrtle said she heard him hissing in a language." Harry reminded Ron and he looked a little hesitant.

"Guess it's lucky you speak Parseltongue." Ron pointed out, "we need to talk a little more about that by the way. I've been waiting to sic something on George for changing my teddy into a giant spider."

Harry wasn't sure he would want to send a python after George, but he didn't see any other answer it could be to open the passage. What better way to hide a chamber than with a password they couldn't possibly know?

"Open the chamber." Harry said, stopping all conversation in the bathroom.

"That was English." Ron pointed out, but Harry had surmised as much. That's when he concentrated, trying to think of the language outside of his thoughts. He looked at the serpent again.

"Sssirasahi!" Harry whispered and hissed, causing Moaning Myrtle to go frigid and the other girls to wince at the sound of words spoken in Parseltongue.

"Oh! God!" Gilderoy Lockhart opened the door, walking in as quietly as possible before noticing four students and a ghost staring at him. He nearly fumbled the case in his hand, but it opened up, fumbling many hair rollers onto the ground instead. "Ah! Harry! Richard–"

"Ron…"

"What are all of you… doing here?" He tried very hard to sound authoritarian but came off sounding weak and tired. His face, normally in a state of smugness now seemed like it would break under the pressure of even thinking of looking intimidating or important.

Then all of them noticed the sink lift from its place. Several gears began to work and the sink was pulled up way higher, revealing a gust of cold air from miles below the castle. It smelled like Uncle Vernon's worn shoes. Cobwebs clung to the floor and the walls all around the entrance.

"We're doing your job. Can't say I wonder about you." Ron growled as he kicked a pink roller across the puddled floor. Lockhart didn't react to this. He looked at the dark passage and his eyes were locked in a gaze. In a trance, his growing terror seemed to mount all the more as he started to figure out what was going on. "I-i-is that the Ch-Chamber of Secrets?!" He whimpered as he shrank away.

"Oh! How nice! You can go save Hermione now." Luna said to Gilderoy Lockhart as she stepped up to him, drawing his attention. "I've read all of your books and I know banshees and vampires aren't as bad as a giant serpent, but this should be good practice for you."

"Vam… S-s-s-serpent?" Gilderoy stammered before looking from her to the entrance. "N-n-no–"

"Oh, bloody hell, we don't have time for this nonsense!" Ron finally said when he lost patience. He quickly turned toward the entrance.

"He's right," Harry said, "Hermione is down there. Tell Dumbledore I'm going down there after her." Harry said before Ron caught him by the shoulder as he attempted to walk away.

"You'll what? I think not! She's my best mate too!" Ron said, grabbing his wand.

There was a moment as Harry looked at Ron, taken off guard. He blinked and saw his friend rearing to go. Was it under false pretenses though? When Harry thought of Hermione, it certainly wasn't as a friend. Still, he looked at Ron and how eager he was with his wand in a white knuckled hand. He nodded to his friend.

That's when they heard it. Deep below the depths of the castle, a sound reverberated from deep within the tunnel. Harry knew that could only mean one thing.

"It's coming." Ginny whispered, then looked to Harry.

"We need to run." Harry declared, "stay ahead of it and don't look into its eyes!"

Before any of them could turn around, Gilderoy Lockhart had already bolted. All through the castle, there could be heard a raving lunatic, screaming his head off about a giant snake.

"Harry," Luna said but there was no time. Harry tried to get them all out of the room, but the door shut firmly.

There was Hermione at the door, glaring toward Harry with a grin that was not her own spread across her face. With a wave of her wand, the door was locked up tight.

"There you are, Harry…" Hermione's grin came with a voice so like hers but it was not. That was when his scar began to sting. "We meet at last."