This chapter is dedicated to Dame Maggie Smith.
I was originally going to wait a few days to update this story as I've been working on my other fics, but when I heard of her passing I couldn't help but get to writing this chapter. Two days later, I completed it in record time. Despite how quickly I wrote it, I'm very happy with the results. I'm sure I'll make some edits, as I always do.
As always, I only claim my OC. I hope you enjoy!
"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away!" Ron huffed bitterly at breakfast the following morning. Susanna glanced around impatiently, tapping her fingers on the table as she watched some of their classmates leaving the Great Hall. "And we could've asked her, but now -"
Harry nodded, understanding his frustration. "It was difficult enough looking for the spiders. Now we've got to figure out how to escape the teachers long enough to sneak into the girl's bathroom."
"The one next to the first, attack, mind you." Ron whispered in agreement. "This is going to be impossible."
Across from them, Susanna scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please, impossible? Both of you need to stop panicking. We've got the cloak. I can rig up distractions. The spiders were much worse. Now come on, we'll be late for Transfiguration."
"Oi, I'm still eating - nevermind." Ron griped as the other redhead stood up abruptly and walked away, half of her breakfast untouched. "What's got her wand in a knot?" He asked Harry as they followed her lead, still chewing on his strip of bacon.
"Shall I list the reasons alphabetically?" Harry asked, the two boys struggling to keep up with his cousin as she weaved through the other Hogwarts students.
"Fair enough." Ron conceded, frowning. "One of us should probably talk to her, right?"
Harry eyed his best friend. "You mean I should talk to her, right?"
"She's your cousin."
"She's your best friend."
"She scares me."
Harry snorted. "You're just lucky I was already going to talk to her."
Susanna barely acknowledged them when they joined her in the Transfiguration classroom, the red-haired far more engaged in opening her notebook and dipping her quill in ink. Her cousin and their friend sat at the desk next to hers, knowing full-well the empty seat was reserved for Hermione. "Suze?" Harry whispered as she remained focused on Professor McGonagall, who was using her wand to write notes on the chalkboard.
"Later, Harry."
Before he could respond, Professor McGonagall turned to address the class. "Good morning. Now, before we begin our lesson, I have an important announcement." Susanna began to perk up, hoping for one of two things - if they couldn't get both. The first; that those who'd been Petrified would soon be woken up. The second; that Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid would be returning to Hogwarts.
It was neither.
"Exams will start on the first of June."
The class instantly groaned, Susanna glaring down at her notes. Figures. It was never good news anymore.
"Exams?!" She could hear Seamus roar over the rebelling second years. "We're still getting exams?"
A loud bang echoed in the classroom as Neville's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on the desk he shared with Dean.
Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her wand before frowning at Seamus. "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive you education." She sternly reminded him before addressing the rest of the class. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard. 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."
"What about the Petrified?" Susanna spoke up without realizing it, gaining the professor's attention as the rest of her peers grumbled about having to study. "They're not awake to take the exams, and some of them have been Petrified for months. What about them? It's hardly their fault they haven't learned this year."
"That is something myself and the professors have been discussing, Ms. Dursley." Was all Susanna's Head of House said, before beginning the lesson.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" She heard Ron ask, turning her head to see him helplessly holding up his wand. It whistled when he raised it, the redheaded boy quickly putting it down.
Susanna stayed quiet the rest of the lesson, ignoring everyone around her as she focused on copying the notes and practicing the Avifors spell. Thanks to Hermione's help, she'd moved on from transforming living creatures into birds. Sadly, her heart wasn't in that day's lesson, for the tops of her acorns barely transfigured into beaks, squawking sadly at the red-haired girl.
She spent the rest of the day in an eerie silence, paying little mind to her cousin's and best friend's concerned glances and attempts to get her to help them plan how they'd question Moaning Myrtle. She thought she was safe from them once the rest of the Gryffindors stumbled up to their dorm rooms, but Susanna should have known better. For however stubborn she was, she had nothing on her cousin. He'd been stubborn enough to get her to actually like him, afterall.
"Suze?" Harry whispered as he sat across from her, Susanna pausing in her reading but refusing to look up from Asiatic Anti-Venoms. "We need to talk."
"I'm busy."
"You've read that book at least twenty times. You've probably got it memorized at this point."
"Go to bed. Hey!" She shouted, too slow to grab her book back from Harry, the youngest Seeker proving himself once more in his efforts to get her attention.
"You'll get it back when we're done." Susanna glowered at him, but her cousin merely raised his eyebrow, daring her to try and convince him otherwise. After a few tense moments the redhead leaned back in her seat, tapping her fingers on the table. "Susanna."
"Oh, no, my full first name. I am in trouble." She shot back.
"You're not in trouble. Ron and I are worried about you." Harry sighed, running his hand through his messy hair. Susanna scoffed and looked away, clenching her jaw. "And I think you're worried about you, too."
"If this is about the pranks -"
"No, those prats deserved what they got." Harry was quick to say. Susanna's eyes flicked back to meet his. "You've been… angry. Every since -"
"Don't." Susanna warned him, choking on the word as her eyes began to brim with tears.
Harry only continued. "Ever since Hermione was Petrified. I'm not scolding you or anything, Ron and I are angry, too. But you've been… you've been starting to act like you used to."
"I thought you said the Slytherins deserved what I gave them." She snapped, quickly wiping away the tear that slid down her left cheek. "Worried I'll slip into old habits?"
"Haven't you already?" Harry asked. "This is different, I know, but the last thing I want is to lose you to yourself."
Susanna exhaled shakily. "I think I've already started to."
"What do you mean?"
"The other… the other day. When I went to the loo with Pansy. I -" She paused and looked down at her hands, willing them to stop shaking. "I did a bad thing."
"Suze?" Harry whispered worriedly, but she refused to look at him. "Whatever you did -"
"The minute we were alone, Pansy started saying her usual horrid things. She called me pathetic, said I was pretending to be tough. That I'm more scared than I'm pretending to be, which made me angry because she wasn't wrong. All of that I could ignore. But then she mentioned Hermione, and the other Petrified. She said that they might not wake up, that 'anything could happen to the Mandrakes' and I just… saw red. Like dad would've. The next thing I knew I was holding her up against the wall by her robes." She closed her eyes, and suddenly Susanna was back in the bathroom. "I don't even know how I managed to get her to drop her wand, but I did. She called me a 'derange Mudblood'. I told her I was vengeful. I called her a bitch, too. She begged me to let her go, but it just made me press her harder into the bricks. She had the audacity to apologize, but we both know she didn't mean it. When she threatened to snitch, I dared her too." Susanna opened her eyes and looked at Harry, who was staring at her with wide-green eyes, mouth dropped open slightly. "I told her that if she didn't stay away, I'd ruin her. You and I both know how good I am at that." She exhaled shakily, wiping away her tears. "I've never seen someone so scared of me before, not even when I was the worst version of myself. I didn't just scare her, though. I scared myself, because I meant it. Because I felt powerful. I thought I'd gotten better, that you'd shown me better, but I'm still… I'm still a bad person, aren't I?" She began to sob, burying her face in her hands as all the rage, sadness, and fear burst out of her.
Something screeched next to her, and suddenly an arm was thrown around her shoulders, squeezing tight.
"I want you to listen to me, okay? Really listen." Harry whispered soothingly as he guided her to lean against him. "You aren't a bad person. You're angry and scared, but you aren't bad. And Parkinson… Parkinson's not innocent. That doesn't make it right, but it also doesn't make you like you used to be. I just worry that if you keep going down this path, it'll be a slippery slope."
"I'm sorry. For being so angry, for worrying you and Ron." She took a deep breath, trying to will her crying to stop. "I think I've always been angry, even when it's seemed like I'm not."
"You've always been good, too." Susanna scoffed at her cousin's words, and he nudged her. "If you weren't, I'd be the Boy-Who-Lived-Only-To-Be-Murdered-At-Nine-By-A-Prat-Named-Dudley."
Susanna couldn't help but laugh. "That's hardly the stuff of legends."
Harry nodded at her, lips forming a wry grin. "Not to mention how embarrassing that'd be. Imagine surviving Voldemort as a baby only to be killed when my Muggle cousin shoved me off a school roof?"
As Susanna laughed again, Harry shifted to pull her into a hug. "You're allowed to be angry, Suze. Just don't think you're alone. Ron and I are still here. We've got each other. Okay?"
"Okay." Susanna murmured, a calmness that she hadn't felt since September settled in her.
Following their talk, Susanna had found herself starting to smile more. Not the dangerous one that promised trouble, but a soft expression that brought warmth to her cousin and their best friend. It only grew wider when, three days before the start of their exams, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news." Her voice filled the Great Hall, which erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" Several students shouted gleefully.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" A girl from the Ravenclaw table squealed out.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" Oliver roared excitedly, Angelina joining him.
Professor McGonagall held up both hands, and the cacophony subsided. "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those who have been Petrified." Susanna turned to Harry and Ron, who were equally pleased. "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."
The Great Hall exploded into cheers, albeit most of the Slytherins remained silent while the other Houses celebrated. Susanna spared a glance at the snakes to smirk at Pansy, the girl's words fresh in her mind. The pureblood was quick to look anywhere but at her, heeding the redhead's warning.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" Ron said to Harry and Susanna, looking happier than he had in weeks. "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."
"Oh, please, like being Petrified would keep her from passing the exams with flying colors." Susanna was quick to interject. "We'd have to keep her asleep if Professor McGonagall decided those who were Petrified would have to repeat the year."
Before Ron could respond, Ginny came over and sat down next to him. She barely spared a glance at the three second years. "What's up?" Ron asked his sister as he helped himself to more porridge. Ginny stayed silent, hands twisting in her lap.
"Ginny, what's going on?" Susanna practically whispered, not wanting to spook the clearly anxious girl.
"I've got to tell you something." The younger red-haired girl rushed out as she looked up at Harry, rocking back and forth. Her face was twisted in terror, eyes darting around the Great Hall like she was waiting to be attacked.
"What is it?" Harry asked, as gently as his cousin had.
Ron was less soft, growing impatient the longer his sister stayed silent. "What?" Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry whispered as he leaned forward, Susanna following his lead. "Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
Ginny breathed in just as Percy appeared, exhausted. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving. I've only just come off patrol duty." His youngest sibling practically jumped off the bench, offering her prefect brother a frightened look before scampering away.
"I'll find her." Susanna assured Harry and Ron before hurrying after the other redheaded girl, pushing her way through the crowd of excited students. "Ginny! Ginny!" She called, catching a flash of the Weasley girl's hair. It was no use, though, the first year having found a way to blend in just as Susanna reached the entrance hall. "Damn it." She huffed, left to wonder if the youngest Weasley had an invisibility cloak herself.
Despite knowing the mystery could be solved tomorrow without them, neither Susanna nor Harry were willing to pass up a chance to speak with Moaning Myrtle. Ron was less thrilled by the notion, but after listening to Susanna's argument that there was no guarantee the Petrified would be able to identify their attacker, he agreed to join them in their efforts. Susanna was hoping to find a way to speak with Ginny as well, but somehow that seemed more impossible than speaking to the wailing spirit haunting the girl's bathroom. All they had to do was wait for the right moment to sneak off and speak to Myrtle. Susanna knew just the right person to make it happen.
Lockhart - who'd been constantly reassuring students that the danger had passed since Hagrid's arrest - had grown firmer in his beliefs. "Mark my words," he said as he ushered his class around the corner that afternoon, hair less sleek than usual as he'd been patrolling most of the night, "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 measures are necessary."
Susanna nodded at Harry, who spoke up first. "I agree, sir."
"Yes, this is all quite unnecessary. There hasn't been an attack in weeks!" Susanna added.
"Thank you." Lockhart looked incredibly pleased. Pausing to let a long line of Hufflepuffs march past them, the professor addressed his class once more. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night!"
"That's right." Ron was the one to agree with him this time, face morphed into an understanding smile. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one corridor to go -"
"You know, Weasley, I think I will!" Lockhart perked up. "I really should go and prepare for my next class!" With that, he hurried off, leaving the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws behind. The other students appeared unbothered by their chaperone's disappearance. They walked ahead of the three Gryffindors with quiet laughter and excited murmuring at the prospect of being able to go to their next lesson on their own.
"Prepare his class." Ron sneered in the direction Lockhart glided off to. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."
"Come on, let's not waste time." Susanna gently shoved the boys in the opposite direction of their classmates. They darted down a side passage and hurried towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, having visited so often they'd find it blind.
Just as they reached the infamous corridor, their brilliant scheme came to a screeching halt.
"Potter! Dursley! Weasley! What are you doing?" Professor McGonagall asked, mouth forming a thin line as she stared down at them in disappointment.
"We were… we were -" Ron struggled to come up with a lie, Harry stammering beside him. "We were going to go -"
"Visit Hermione." Susanna rushed out, stepping forward. "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor." She reminded the acting Headmistress, who's mouth shifted from a thin line to a sympathetic frown.
Harry stepped forward, coming to his cousin's aid. "We thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry."
"We just miss her." Ron added, shoulders slumped. Susanna knocked into him.
While the three second years shared a moment of grief, Professor McGonagall stared them down. Finally, she spoke, but her voice came out oddly croaky. "Of course." They were all shocked to see tears glistening in her eyes. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been…" She trailed off before clearing her throat. "I quite understand. Yes, 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 Ron wasted no time in walking away - probably scared she'd change her mind. The redheaded girl paused, though, then called after her Head of House. "Professor McGonagall? Thank you." She hurried after her cousin and their best friend, pausing once more when she heard the Professor blowing her nose.
"That," Ron said once they turned another corner, "was the best story you two have ever come up with."
"Except now we have to go see Hermione." Harry argued, but his smile didn't fool them. "Oh, who am I kidding, we can see Moaning Myrtle after.
After informing Madam Pomfrey that Professor McGonagall had given them permission, the matron reluctantly let them into the hospital wing. Susanna was less than pleased by the healer's dismissal of them speaking to Hermione. "There's just no point in talking to a Petrified person." Madam Pomfrey stated with a clinical tone.
"Actually, Muggle doctors have done studies on comatose patients being able to hear despite their state. Who's to say Petrified people don't as well?" Susanna argued as she took a seat on Hermione's right, hand resting on the girl's stiff hair. Madam Pomfrey hummed in thought, then turned to attend to the other Petrified patients.
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" Ron murmured, staring sadly at Hermione's frozen face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know."
Susanna nodded, then frowned when she noticed Harry bending towards their friend's frozen right hand. "What is it?"
"She's holding something." Harry whispered back, pointing out the crumpled paper Petrified girl was holding onto.
"Try and get it out." Ron responded just as quietly. He moved behind Harry while Susanna shifted her chair closer to her cousin, both of them trying to block Madam Pomfrey's view.
It wasn't easy. Hermione's fist was clenched so tightly around the paper that Harry had to take his time, lest he accidentally tear it. Ron and Susanna continued keeping watch as he tugged and twisted it. Fortunately, Madam Pomfrey had disappeared into her office.
Several tense minutes later, it was safely resting in his hands. He smoothed it out, revealing the paper to be a page torn from an old book. Susanna leaned in, Ron copying her, as Harry quietly read aloud to them.
"'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.' Look!" Harry exclaimed as quietly as he was capable, pointing to a single word written at the bottom of the page.
"'Pipes'." Susanna murmured. "It's her handwriting. Hermione figured it out." She smiled tearfully at the boys, then stood to hug her unresponsive friend. "You're amazing." The red-haired girl sniffled, wiping her cheeks as she straightened. "This is it." She turned to the boys, who nodded in agreement. "The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk. A giant -"
"Serpent." Harry interrupted his cousin. "That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the palace, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue." The three unpetrified Gryffindors glanced at the beds around them. "The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died, because no one looked it straight in the eye."
"That's right, Colin saw it through his camera." Ron agreed, then snorted. "I must've been listening to him more than I thought when he was telling us how cameras work. The film burned up, but the Pelican -"
"Pellicle." Susanna corrected him.
"Yes, that mirror just got him Petrified." Ron poked his tongue out at her. "Told you I listen."
Susanna rolled her eyes, then looked at Justin Finch-Fletchley. "Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again. Hermione and Penelope were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized what the monster was, and warned the first person she met in the library to look around corners with a mirror. Penelope pulled out hers, and they…" Susanna trailed off, gesturing to the two girls.
Ron frowned. "But what about Mrs. Norris?"
"The water…" Harry said slowly, his cousin nodding as she caught on. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection in the water."
"Let me… thank you." Susanna mumbled as Harry handed her the torn page. "'The crowing of the rooster… is fatal to it!'" She gasped, looking over at the boys. "Hagrid's roosters were killed, remember? 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?" Ron asked. "A giant snake wouldn't go unseen."
"Hermione figured that out, too." Harry reminded him. "Pipes. Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls."
Ron grabbed Harry's arm. "The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets! What if it's in a bathroom? Like -"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" Susanna smiled at her fellow redhead. "Don't let anyone ever tell you that you aren't smart." He beamed back.
"This means," Harry said, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's once, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."
"What're we going to do?" Ron asked. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staffroom, she'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break." Susanna informed them, then raised her eyebrows at the boys while they stared at her. "What?"
"How'd you know that?" Harry asked.
Susanna snorted. "Fred, George, and Lee've taught me everything they know, remember? Of course they memorized the Professor's schedules."
Sparing a quick glance at Hermione, the three Gryffindors raced out of the hospital wing and down the stairs. Not wanting to be found hanging about in another corridor, they went straight for the deserted staffroom, following Susanna's lead. It was a large, paneled room full of chairs and tables. They paced around it, all of them too excited to sit and wait.
The bell announcing break never came. Instead, Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the corridors, easily reaching the staffroom. "All students are to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please." Her urgent tone had the trio turning to each other, horror written on all of their faces.
"Not another attack! Not now!" Harry shouted, instantly reaching over to grab Susanna, like his mere presence would keep her safe from an attack.
Ron must've been reading his mind, for he sidled close to the other redhead as well. "What'll we do? Go back to the dormitory?"
"No - boys, some space, please, I can't breathe." Susanna struggled to shove her cousin and their friend off of her. "There!" She pointed to an ugly wardrobe to their left after a quick look around the room. "We'll gain more from listening in, then we'll tell them what we know."
They quickly hid themselves inside it, Susanna standing in the middle to make sure the door wasn't too open that the teachers would notice. Moments later, the Professors practically stampeded inside the room, some sounding confused while the others were terrified.
"It has happened." Professor McGonagall said. Susanna flinched, eyes squeezing shut. Someone had died, hadn't they? Someone was dead. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself." The redhead's eyes popped open, and she glanced at her companions despite barely being able to make out their features.
"How can you be sure?" Professor Snape asked.
"The Heir of Slytherin left another message." Professor McGonagall informed him, her voice shaking. "Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked as someone burst into tears. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley."
Susanna felt Ron slide silently down. She followed him, straining to keep her hand on the closet door's handle as she wrapped her free arm around him. She should have tried harder. She should've skipped class to find her. She should have -
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow." Professor McGonagall announced. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said -"
A loud bang interrupted her, followed by an obnoxiously cheerful voice. "So sorry, dozed off, what have I missed?" Lockhart asked, Harry gripping Susanna's shoulder tightly to keep her from angrily bursting out of the wardrobe and exposing them.
"Just the man." Professor Snape drawled, voice full of disdain. "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."
"That's right." Professor Sprout spoke up. "Weren't you just saying last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
Lockhart began to sputter. "I - well - I -"
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Professor Flitwick piped up.
"D-did I? I don't recall -"
Susanna would find it all hilarious if she wasn't brimming with fear and guilt about Ginny's abduction.
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested." Professor Snape spoke coldly. "Didn't you say the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given free rein from the first?"
"I-I really never - you may have misunderstood -"
"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy." Professor McGonagall dared the man. "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."
After what felt like an hour of silence, Lockhart cleared his throat. "V-very well. I'll - I'll be in my office, getting… getting ready."
"Right." Professor McGonagall said, signaling to the hidden Gryffindors that the man had left the staffroom - tail firmly between his legs as he was called on his bluff - "That's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them that 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 began leaving in droves. When the door finally clicked shut, Harry burst out of the wardrobe. Susanna was slow to follow, supporting Ron as he shook beside her, mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.
"We have to go back. You heard McGonagall, some of the teachers will be -"
"No." Susanna interrupted her cousin. "No, the plan doesn't change. We know where the entrance is -"
"D'you think there's any chance at all she's not… you know…" Ron spoke quietly, tears flowing down his cheeks. "I… Ginny, I can't -"
"Hey, no." Susanna was quick to stop him, pulling her sobbing friend into a hug. After a moment, Harry joined them. "No. Don't go there. We need to have hope, alright?"
"She's my sister -"
"If there's one thing I've learned about your family, it's how strong the Weasleys are. She isn't dead. Do you hear me?"
Ron nodded, wiping his face with the sleeve of his robe as he stepped out of Susanna's and Harry's arms. "We should… I can't believe I'm saying this… we should go after Lockhart. Tell him what we know."
Susanna bit her bottom lip, eyeing her cousin. He shrugged at her. "We might as well tell him where we think it is, and that it's a basilisk."
"You two really think he won't run screaming the minute we say anything?" Susanna argued, then exhaled when she glanced at Ron. "Fine. We'll tell him. But we need to be quick, or we'll be caught."
Harry nodded, then crossed the room to quietly open the door. Susanna grabbed Ron's wrist as they waited for the all-clear, as if holding onto the Weasley would keep him from being taken, too.
She should've tried harder to find Ginny. She should have been there. Still, it'd be of no use to say that to Ron, so Susanna kept her guilt to herself for the time being.
They moved as swiftly as they could through the corridors, hiding behind corners and statues whenever they heard footsteps. Eventually they made it to Lockhart's office, freezing outside the doors when they heard a commotion. There was loud scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps, the occasional muttered curse escaping the room.
Harry knocked, and a sudden silence fell over the office. The door opened, barely wide enough to slip in a pin, and one of Lockhart's eyes peered through it. "Oh, Mr. Potter… Ms. Dursley… Mr. Weasley." He opened the door a little wider. "You should all be… have you not heard? I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick -"
"Professor, we've got some information for you. We think it'll help you." Harry informed him.
Lockhart grimaced uncomfortably back at them. "Er - well - it's not terribly… I mean, well, alright -" With the door fully opened, the three Gryffindors were finally able to enter. Disgust curdled inside Susanna as she took in the stripped office. Two trunks stood open on the floor, one filled with hastily folded robes while the other was stacked haphazardly with books. The photographs that once covered the walls had been crammed into boxes.
"Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked, sounding as disgusted as his cousin felt.
"Er, well, yes." Locked said as he ripped a life-sized poster of himself from the back of the door, rolling it up. "Urgent call, unavoidable - got to go -"
"What about my sister?" Ron asked.
"Who?"
"Ginny's the one in the Chamber, you useless tosser!" Susanna shouted at the cowardly professor, uncaring if she lost Gryffindor all of its points - school might be closing tomorrow, anyway.
Lockhart scowled at her, then offered Ron a sad smile. "Well, as to that - most - unfortunate." His focus shifted to the drawer of his desk, which he wrenched open so he could dump the contents into a large bag. "No one regrets more than I -"
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Harry exclaimed. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"
"Well, I must say, when I took the job there was nothing in the job description - didn't expect -"
"You mean you're running away?" Harry said in disbelief, his cousin scoffing beside him.
"Christ, Harry, look around. He's obviously running." Susanna glowered at their professor as he piled socks on top of his robes.
"After all that stuff you did in your books -" Harry said, only to be interrupted by Lockhart.
"Books can be misleading." The man spoke delicately.
A hysterical cackle filled the stripped office. It took a few moments for Susanna to realize it was her laughing, practically doubled over as it all came together in her mind. "Y-you're a fraud. Ar-aren't you?" She took a deep breath as her laughter faded. "You never did any of what you wrote, did you?"
Lockhart straightened. "Of course I didn't! 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 hair chin. I mean, come on -"
"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" Harry asked, incredulous.
"Harry, Harry." Lockhart shook 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." He banged the lids of his trunks shut, locking them before glancing around the room. "Let's see, I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left." He turned to the three Gryffindors, holding out his wand. "Awfully sorry, children, 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 -"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry and Susanna both shouted, reaching their wands just in time. Lockhart's wand flew out of his hand as he was blasted backwards, flipping over his trunk. Ron caught his wand, throwing it out the window for good measure.
"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one." Harry kicked Lockhart's trunk out of the way, he and his cousin still pointing their wands at their fraud of a professor. He'd looked more feeble than ever.
"Wh-what d'you want me to do?" Lockhart said weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. My wand… There's nothing I can do."
Susanna crouched down, wand now aimed at his face. "You're in luck, Professor. We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."
Harry and Ron both helped the man off the floor, marching him out of his office and down the nearest stairs. Susanna walked behind them, wand pressed against his back to keep him from trying anything. As soon as they reached the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom - all of them trying hard not to look at the messages on the wall - they sent Lockhart in first, the man shaking like a leaf.
"Myrtle?" Susanna called. "Myrtle, are you here?"
The wailing spirit emerged from the end toilet, floating miserably towards them. "Oh, it's you. What do you want this time?"
Harry stepped forward. "To ask how you died."
Moaning Myrtle suddenly smiled, as though she'd been waiting all her death for such an intrusive question. "Ooooh, it was dreadful." She practically purred. "It happened right here. I died in that very stall." She pointed at the toilet she'd come out of. "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 away and use his own toilet, and then -" Myrtle sighed. "I died."
"How?" Susanna asked.
"No idea." Myrtle whispered back. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up and then I was floating away. 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."
Despite everything, Susanna nodded. "That's reasonable."
Myrtle hummed happily in response before gazing dreamily at Harry, who'd cleared his throat. "Where exactly did you see the eyes?"
"Somewhere there." The ghost pointed vaguely towards the middle sink. Harry and Ron hurried towards it while Susanna shoved Lockhart forward, wand pressed once more to his back.
At first glance, there was nothing special about the sink. Not until Harry turned to look at his cousin, eyes wide. "There's a snake, a small one, on the tap."
"It's never worked." Myrtle spoke brightly as he tried to turn it on, to no avail.
"Harry, say something. Say something in Parseltongue." Ron suggested.
"But -" Harry frowned. "I've only managed when talking to a snake."
"So talk to the tap, I guess." Susanna shrugged. "It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
Harry sighed, then looked back at the copper snake. "Open up."
"That was English, Harry." Susanna informed him, Ron groaning impatiently.
Her cousin took a deep breath, and began to hiss. The tap began to glow in response, a brilliant white light filling the bathroom as it spun. The next second, the sink moved. In fact, it sank out of sight, exposing a large pipe - one wide enough for a man to slide into.
Harry turned to his cousin, their friend, and their forced companion. "I'm going down there."
"You're an idiot if you think you're going alone." Susanna was quick to say. "I'm going."
"Me, too." Ron nodded. "That's my sister down there."
Lockhart shuddered in front of Susanna. "Well, you hardly seem to need me." He argued. "I'll just -"
Ron grabbed him, shoving the fraud closer to the pipe. "You can go first."
Lockhart spun around, white-faced and wandless. "Boys, Ms. Dursley," he tried to speak as charmingly as he was capable, "what good will it do?" As the three Gryffindors advanced, wands drawn, the man turned and began lowering himself into the pipe. "I really don't think -" He screeched as Ron gave him a pish, sliding out of sight. Harry followed after him, then Ron. Susanna was the last to go down, glancing back at Myrtle.
"Thank you." She inhaled sharply before letting go of the pipe.
"If you die, Harry's welcome to share my toilet! You can visit!" Myrtle called after her, loud enough that Susanna could hear the ghost over the wind rushing past her ear. It was like going down a slimy slide, one that felt neverending. She barely made out the other pipes surrounding her, all of them branching off into different directions. None were as large as the one Harry had discovered, twisting and turning steeply downward. All Susanna knew for certain was that they were all sliding further down the school than the dungeons.
The pipe leveled out and she went flying through the air, landing with a wet thud. Susanna groaned, quietly thanking Harry and Ron as they helped her up. "We must be miles under the school." Her cousin's voice echoed in the black tunnel they'd been dropped into.
"Under the lake, probably." Ron squinted around at the damp walls. Susanna eyed the shell-shocked professor they'd forced to accompany them, his once pristine robes and hair now covered with slime. It's the least he deserved for what he'd done.
"Lumos!" Susanna whispered, and the tip of her wand lit up. Harry did the same before looking at Ron and Lockhart.
"C'mon." He urged. The red-haired boy kept pace, but the professor stumbled around helplessly, shaking as their shadows seemed to take monstrous forms against the wet walls. "Remember," Harry said quietly, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away."
But the tunnel was silent. The only sounds that could were their shoes squelching as they walked on the wet ground, until Ron stepped on something hard enough that a loud crunch echoed around them. Harry and Susanna lowered their wands, the latter gulping when she saw the ground had become littered with small animal bones. Hoping against hope that Ginny would not be found in a similar state, Susanna followed her cousin as he led them ahead, around a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Harry, there's something - there's something up there. Susie, stop!" Ron said hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder while he glanced back at the other redhead. They froze, squinting at the massive outline ahead of them. Huge and curved, it was lying right across the tunnel, unmoving.
"Maybe it's asleep." Harry suggested.
Susanna stepped forward slowly, ignoring the boys as they attempted to stop her. She raised her wand slightly higher, and was met with a gigantic snakeskin. It was an unearthly green, curled and empty. The creature that shed it had to be at least twenty feet long.
"Blimey." Ron gasped weakly. There was a thud, and the three Gryffindors turned to see Lockhart's knees had given way, the man kneeling helplessly on the bone-covered floor. "Get up!" Ron said sharply as he walked forward to grab him, wand pointed at their professor. The man obeyed, only to dive at Ron. Both fell to the floor while Harry and Susanna leaped forward, their wands falling to the ground in their haste.
It was too late, though. Lockhart straightened up, panting as he proudly held up Ron's wand, award-winning smile back on his face as he pointed it at the three Gryffindors. "The adventure ends here! I shall take a bit of skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say 'goodbye' to your memories! Obliviate!"
Ron's Spellotaped wand exploded. Being closest to her cousin, Susanna grabbed Harry and ran, pausing to snatch up their wands. Together they slipped over the snakeskin and around the chunks of the tunnel ceiling thundering to the floor. The next moment, the cousins were face-to-face with a solid wall of thick debris.
Susanna coughed as dust flew around them, waving her hand to disperse the particle. "Ron!" She shouted. "Are you okay?"
"Ron!" Harry joined her.
"I'm here!" Their friend's voice was muffled from behind the thick stone. "I'm okay. This git's not, though, he got blasted by the wand!" There was a dull thud, then a pained yelp - Ron must've kicked Lockhart. "What now?" Ron asked. "We can't get through, it'll take ages."
Harry and Susanna glanced around, taking note of the huge cracks in the ceiling. Neither one of them had ever attempted to break apart anything as big as the rubble blocking them from their friend with magic. What if they caused the whole tunnel to cave in?
"Wait here!" Harry shouted through a small crack in the wall. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour -"
"If we're not back. I'm going with you." Susanna told her cousin firmly, leaving no room for any arguments. He nodded back, eyes shining with gratitude despite the fear etched in his face.
"I'll try and shift some of these rocks." Ron tried to keep his voice steady. "So you can get back through. And, guys -"
"We'll see you in a bit." Harry attempted to sound confident, but his voice was shaking too.
"With Ginny. Okay? I promise, we'll find Ginny." Susanna added.
There was a pregnant pause, then a sniffle. "Thanks, Susie."
Susanna turned to her cousin, who nodded past the giant snakeskin, deeper into the tunnel. They set off in silence, the tips of their wands illuminated once more as they made several winding turns. Susanna's skin had erupted into gooseflesh, and she could feel her heart beating erratically. She spared a look at her cousin, who looked every bit as frightened as she was.
Then, at last, they crept around another bend. A solid wall stood ahead of them, two entwined serpent carved into it. Their eyes were set with glinting emeralds, brighter than the cousins' own bottle green orbs.
Susanna stepped forward with Harry, who cleared his throat before hissing once more. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, its halves sliding smoothly out of sight. Shaking from head to toe, the cousins walked inside, free hands entwined.