Chapter 39: Exposed
Harry and I knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without our help, but we wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up, and thankfully, we were able to trick Lockhart good enough to sneak off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as we were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme...
"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"
It was McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.
"We were - we were -" I stammered. "We were going to - to go and see-"
"Hermione." said Harry. "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor, and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry. "
McGonagall stares at Harry as if she were going to scold him. Instead, she sighed and gave us both sympathetic looks.
"Of course." she said, a tear glistening in her eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
Harry and I walked away in disbelief. As we turned the corner, we heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.
"That was the best story you've ever come up with." I said, high giving Harry.
"I'm not only light on a broom." joked Harry.
We had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that we had McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.
Madam Pomfrey let us in, but reluctantly.
"There's just no point talking to a Petrified. person,l." she said, as we took our seats next to Hermione.
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" I said as I looked sadly at Hermione's face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know."
I took my hand and lightly rubbed her arm. Though warm, she felt rigid. Her stiffness scared me, even though I had been to visit her many times and had seen her like this.
But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. There a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.
I had noticed it before, but not wanting to touch her, I never took it out.
"Go on and get it out," I whispered, shifting my chair so that I blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.
It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it. After several tense minutes, the paper came free.
It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out and I leaned close to read it, too.
"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 a hand we both recognized as Hermione's. Pipes .
Lightbulb moment!
"Ron! 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 Parseltongue!"
I looked at Hermione, and then back at Harry.
"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... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again. And Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror - and-"
My jaw dropped. Everything was coming together.
"And Mrs. Norris?" I whispered.
Harry thought about it. "The water..." he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection."
He read off of the torn paper again, making more and more sense.
"...The crowing of the rooster... is fatal to it"! he read aloud. "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?" I wondered. "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."
Harry pointed to the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.
"Pipes," he said. "Pipes... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."
Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" I whispered. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in-"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" finished Harry.
We sat there, excitement coursing through our veins so quickly, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Even being Petrified, Hermione was absolutely brilliant.
"This means that 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." said Harry, standing up.
"What're we going to do?Should we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."
We ran downstairs, heading straight into the deserted staff room, waiting for the bell to ring for break.
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 staff room. Immediately, please."
Harry turned to me. "Not another attack? Not now?"
"What'll we do?" I asked."Go back to the dormitory?"
"No," said Harry, looking at an old wardrobe in the corner of the room. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."
We hid ourselves inside it, listening to the sounds of hundreds of feet moving quickly overhead, and the staff room door banging open. We watched the teachers come 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 and said, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.
I slid against the wall and onto the floor of the wardrobe. My mind was swirling, I felt as if I was going to hurl.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."
The staffroom door banged open again. It was Lockhart, and he looked happy for some stupid reason.
"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?"
The teachers glared at him. Snape stood up and placed a condescending hand on his shoulder.
"Just the man." he said. "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 looked like he just got two pieced by the Whomping Willow.
"That's right, Gilderoy." said in Professor 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 -"stuttered the great idiot.
"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 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 looked as if he were about to crawl out of his skin.
"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. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usual toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble. Like the bitch that he really was.
"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, "That's got him out from under our 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.
"Come on Ron." said Harry, sadly as he held out his hand to help me get up. "It's all right. We will handle this. We will put this right."
It was probably the worst day of my entire life. Me, Harry, Fred, and 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 himself up in his dorm.
My baby sister. I was supposed to protect her. Even though she had four of us there, I was the one that she trusted the most. And I had failed her.
"Should we do anything?" asked Fred.
"What can we do? No one knows where this fucking chamber is. And it seems like no one really cares." said George.
I looked over at Harry. He gave me a look that said for me not to say a word.
Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer. Harry and I sprung into action.
"She knew something, Harry." I said. "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...I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."
Harry nodded, agreeing with me, but I could tell that his thoughts were everywhere, just like mine.
"Harry, do you think there's any chance at all she's not - you know-"
"Don't even think that, Ron." said Harry.
"Do you know what? 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." I suggested. As much as I didn't want to, I could think of no one else
Harry agreed and we rushed out of the portrait hole. 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 -" he said, opening 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 -" bumbled Lockhart. "I mean - well - all right-"
He opened the door and we entered, looking around.
His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes had been hastily folded into one 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, suspiciously.
"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 - unavoidable - got to go-"
"WHAT ABOUT MY SISTER?" I yelled.
"Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" said Lockhart, avoiding our eyes "No one regrets more than I-"
"You're the Defense 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?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that 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 harelip. I mean, come on!"
I couldn't believe how shocked I was at the shit spewing from his mouth.
"I KNEW IT! I FUCKING KNEW IT! YOU'RE A BLOODY FRAUD!" I yelled, throwing up my hands.
"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" said Harry.
"Harry, Harry," 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, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."
"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to us.
"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 sell another book-"
Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, " Expelliarmus! "
Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; I caught it, and flung it out of the open window.
"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one." said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.
"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, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."
Lockhart walked on, defeated. Hermione was going to have kittens once I told her about this!