Chapter 7
There was chaos in the Gryffindor Tower. Once Minerva McGonagall had awakened the Weasley twins, they'd gone down to the third-year boys' dorm. The twins went to look through Harry's trunk only to find it wasn't there. That ended up with them waking up the three other third-years in the room, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnegan, and Dean Thomas. Neither of them had seen Harry since the previous afternoon.
"Perhaps if you boys would tell me what you're looking for, I could assist you?" she asked.
One of the twins, she thought was George, said, "It's just a spare bit of parchment, but it has hidden features."
The professor asked, "Have you considered a simple summoning charm?"
"Sorry professor," the other one said, "it's protected against summoning charms."
"Where's Ron, professor?" they said in unison.
Professor McGonagall turned to the twins and said, "He's in the Hospital Wing. Why?" Before she got the last word out, the twins streaked out of the dorm room as if the hounds of Hell were after them.
She continued her search of the Gryffindor Tower, but once the word was out, everyone started pouring out of their rooms wanting to know what the ruckus was about. Finally, the professor shot a blast out of her wand.
"Silence! Thank you. Have any of you seen Mr. Potter in the last few hours?" There was a chorus of "no's".
Someone in the back of the crowd said, "Hey! Granger and Weasley aren't here either. They're probably out there losing us another 150 points."
"Mr. McClaggen, that was out of order. Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley are perfectly safe. Mr. Weasley and Ms. Johnson, please go through the dorm rooms and ensure everyone else is accounted for. Once you have done that, you all may return to your beds. If anyone sees Mr. Potter, please let me know at once. I shall be with Professor Dumbledore in the Hospital Wing for now." She turned and left the tower even more concerned than she had been.
##### Hope is Fleeting #####
The Weasley twins took every shortcut they knew between Gryffindor Tower and the Hospital Wing. They burst through the doors looking for their brother to find he was stuffing food in his mouth.
"Ron!" they shouted together, "where's the map."
Ron replied, "Mf dnt no!"
They looked at him before Hermione translated for him, "He doesn't know. Oh! The map! Why didn't I think about that? I don't think Harry has it anymore. He said something about Professor Lupin caught him with it one night and confiscated it."
The twins turned around and flew back out the doors heading to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. They knocked on the door just to be polite, but he didn't think the Professor would be in his office this time of the night/morning. Sitting on the desk was a goblet and the map! They looked at it searching for the one name they cared about. It wasn't on the map. They began searching section by section but still couldn't find it. They hadn't seen the Professor in the Hospital Wing just now. As they were heading back to the Hospital Wing, they ran right into Professor Lupin.
"He's not here Professor," said George.
"Let's go back to the Hospital Wing, I have a few extra tricks I can try."
Upon their return, they saw Professor Babbling had returned from her search.
"I found a trunk and an owl cage on the third-floor corridor on the left side. I shrunk it and brought it back with me. There's also a list of people he wanted to have certain items."
The professor pulled two small matchbook-sized items out of her pocket and set them on the floor then returned them to size.
Hermione confirmed, "That's Harry's trunk, Professor Dumbledore."
"That confirms that he is probably still on school property then," said the Headmaster.
Fred then said, "Well he's not in the castle."
Professor Dumbledore said, "What do you mean he's not in the castle?"
"Bring it over here boys. Let's spread it out so we can check again," said Remus.
There was suddenly a crowd of people around the bed. Remus took the map from the twins and laid it out on the bed then said, "Mister Mooney solemnly swears that he is up to no good."
The map began to spread out as it usually did but there was a small box on the lower right side. Remus put his wand in the square and said, "Find me Harry Potter."
Nothing. Remus tried it again. The next time he tried with, "Find me the Son of Prongs." Still nothing.
"The twins are correct, Albus. Harry is not in the castle or on the grounds," the werewolf said sadly.
"You must tell me more about this fantastic piece of magic some other time, Remus, but is it possible there are other places that aren't on it?" said the Headmaster.
"It is possible. I know there are some parts of the dungeons we didn't get to and one spot on the 7th floor kept hiding every time we'd try to add it to the map, but,"
"The Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione quietly.
Everyone turned to look at the witch questioningly.
"What do you mean, Miss Granger? What does the Chamber have to do with Harry's disappearance?" asked the Headmaster.
"It's not on the map. Harry told us he'd gone in there and opened up the Chamber but the map just showed the bathroom," she said.
Remus said, "It wouldn't be. You have to go into the room you want to add and then speak the incantation to add it. I doubt Harry figured that out."
George asked, "You mean there are more places in the castle than this shows?"
"I'm certain we didn't find every room in the castle despite using Wormtail to search them out."
"Marvelous," said Albus, "let us go to the Chamber and see if we can find Harry then."
"If Harry is in the Chamber, you won't be able to find him, Professor," said Hermione, "It takes a parselmouth to open the Chamber."
"I believe there might be one other way, Miss Granger," he said.
"Fawkes!" called the Headmaster. Suddenly in a blaze of flames came the phoenix.
"Fawkes, can you take us into the Chamber of Secrets?" the Headmaster asked?
Fawkes let out a sad trill and shook his head.
"But you got in there before. Can't you do it again?" Hermione asked.
The phoenix shook its head again, and then flamed back out. A minute later he was back with the Sorting Hat.
The Sorting Hat looked around at the crowd of people and said grumpily, "Well, what did you wake me up for this time? Lost another student, have you?"
"Now is not the time, Godric. It seems Mr. Potter has gone back into the Chamber and may be in need of assistance," said Albus.
"I'm a Sorting Hat, Albus, not a Finding Hat," snapped the Hat.
Hermione broke in, "But you were able to go to him last year. Surely there is something you can do to help!"
"I didn't say I wouldn't help, Miss Granger, only that finding students who don't want to be found is not my purpose. When the Founders enchanted me, each one put a bit of themselves into me. That includes the ability to speak parseltongue. As this is a talent not looked upon very favorably, I've never made the ability public. If Fawkes will take us to the entrance, I will open it. Once the entrance is open and we are in the Chamber, Fawkes should be able to take us to Mr. Potter, assuming this is where he is. The entrance was already open when Fawkes and I went to assist Mr. Potter the last time. An entrance must be open to get through the wards Salazar placed on his Chamber."
"You mean you've known all this time where the Chamber is and never said anything?" Hermione asked in a huff.
"Nobody asked me," the Hat responded defensively.
"Now is not the time for arguments. Fawkes, would you be so kind as to take me, Professor Lupin, and Madam Pomfrey to the chamber entrance? I will hold onto Godric."
Four voices simultaneously shouted, "I'm going too!"
Albus replied, "Now children, I need you to stay here. We don't know if Harry is indeed down there nor do we know what condition he may be in. Plus, as the teachers will be returning here, I need someone to let them know what is happening. Bathsheda, when Minerva returns, please let her know that she is now in charge and where we've gone.
The doors to the Hospital Wing again burst open, this time revealing a skinny man in raggedy clothes and a raggedy beard.
"Albus! Where's my godson?" he shouted.
"Sirius. You shouldn't be here. I've got the situation under control," the Headmaster said.
Sirius waved the letter from Harry, "If this is what you call in control, then I hope I'm never in a situation where you are out of control! Now I'll ask again, where is my godson? Otherwise, I'm taking this castle apart stone by stone!"
Remus broke in, "We think he's in the Chamber of Secrets. Fawkes was just going to take us there when you arrived."
Sirius walked over to where the firebird was hovering, "Well Fawksie old buddy, let's get going."
Fawkes glared at Sirius, but waited for the other three people to grab hold of his tail, then flamed them all to the entrance of the Chamber.