Chapter Eleven: Into the Chamber of Secrets
They wanted to go interrogate Myrtle that night, but it was too late. Over the next few weeks they couldn't figure out how to escape long enough to visit her bathroom. With the teacher escorting them everywhere, it was hard to slip away to the girls' bathroom. The girls' bathroom that was located in the corridor where Filch's cat had been attacked.
That wasn't the only thing. A week after Hagrid and Dumbledore had left, Professor McGonagall had made an announcement in class about their exams.
"We're still having exams?" the twins howled.
"Professor Dumbledore's wish was to continue life at school as normally as possible," McGonagall said. "This means taking end-of-year exams, and I'm sure I cannot stress how important they are as you have your OWL's coming up."
"But we won't be taking those for another year!" Harish exclaimed.
"And I hope you've been studying hard all year long."
Studying hard? Harish had been so focused on the Chamber that he had hardly been paying attention in class. What had he learned? That Clabberts are really cheeky? That was about it. He couldn't believe that after everything that had been happening that year, the teachers thought they had been studying. It was just absurd.
Three days before their first exam, McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have some good news," she said. Instead of falling silent, the Great Hall was filled with commotion.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several students yelled joyfully.
Harish did not want Dumbledore to come back.
"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" a Ravenclaw girl shouted.
And he certainly didn't think they could catch the heir, for the had no idea what it really was.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" Oliver Wood roared excitedly.
Harish snorted. Now that one was just silly.
Once the noise had subsided, McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight we will be able to revive those who had been petrified. I hardly need to tell you that one of them may be able to inform us who or what attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year may end with catching our culprit."
The hall erupted with joyful noise. Harish cheered alongside the rest of them, as he wanted his Hermione back. The twins, Draco, and Daphne looked happy at this news as well. The rest of the house just looked triumphant that they would be getting their pureblood back.
"She'll go crazy when she learns that we have exams in only three days," Draco said, referring to Hermione. "It may just be kinder to leave her until they're over."
Harish chuckled.
Then, Ginny came over and sat down across from Harish. She was still pale and Harish noticed she was wringing her hands nervously. Harish thought it looked an awful like Dobby when he was on the edge of revealing important information.
"What do you want?" Harish asked her softly.
Ginny glanced up and down the table frightfully.
"I've got to tell you something," she mumbled.
"What is it?" Harish asked.
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harish leaned forward and spoke where only she could hear, "Is it about the Chamber of Secrets? Do you know where it is?"
She opened her mouth, but then her eyes flashed oddly and she shook her head.
"Are you sure?"
She shook her head again.
"What were you going to tell me?"
"Nothing," she mumbled quietly and she slid out of her seat and dashed out of the hall.
"I doubt it was actually 'nothing'," he said thoughtfully, sitting back.
Harish, though he knew that the people who were petrified would wake that evening, didn't want to pass up a chance to interrogate Myrtle. Though they may have known who their attacker was, the only victim that could probably tell them where the Chamber was, was Mrs. Norris and she couldn't talk. Luckily, the perfect chance came up when Lockhart was escorting them to Transfiguration.
Lockhart, who had told them that all of the danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now whole heartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble seeing them down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; he had most likely been up all night doing patrols.
"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first thing 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 still needed."
"I agree sir," Harish said, making Fred drop his books onto George's foot in surprise.
"Thank you, Harish," Lockhart said 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…"
"That's right," the twins said, catching on.
"Why don't you leave us here, sir?" Harish asked politely. "Transfiguration is only one corridor away, and I am sure you could use the extra minutes to prepare for your next class."
"You know, Harish, I think I will," he said. "I really should go and prepare my next class—"
And he hurried off, earning a snort from Harish.
"Gone to curl his hair, more like," Harish said, sneering.
They let the rest of the Slytherins, who were regarding them suspiciously, go ahead of them and then they darted down a secret passage that would lead them right to the corridor where Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was located. Before they left the passage, however, they heard footsteps. Harish pulled out the Cloak and draped it around the three of them. They really were getting too big for it.
Harish listened until the footsteps faded away, before leading the twins out into the corridor and through the bathroom door. Then, they stepped inside.
"Oh, it's you," Myrtle said glumly from atop her toilet when she spotted Harish. "What d'you want this time?"
"To ask how you died," Harish replied.
She looked as if she couldn't have been asked a more flattering question. "Ooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right 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. Then, I heard someone come in. The said something funny, like in a made-up language. Anyway, I realized that it was a boy speaking, so I opened the door to tell him to go use his own toilet and—I died."
"How?" Harish asked.
"No idea," Myrtle replied in hushed tones. "All I remember seeing was a great big pair of yellow eyes over there, by that sink," she pointed to the sink nearest her stall.
Harish walked over to it and tried to turn the tap on. No water came out. He tried the next sink and water came pouring out on his hands. He went back over to inspect the chipped sink. On the faucet was a tiny snake engraved on it.
"This is it," he breathed. His eyes were alight. "This is the entrance to the Chamber."
"Say something—"
"In parseltongue!"
Harish leaned forward, about to say something, when McGonagall's voice echoed magically through the castle.
"All students are to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers are to return to the staffroom immediately."
"Now?" Harish shouted to no one in particular. "Come on!"
"If there's been another attack—"
"We should go to the staffroom to find out—"
"What's happened."
"All right," Harish replied, thinking furiously. "All right," he repeated as he pulled out the cloak. "Get under."
And soon the three of them were dashing into the staffroom after Professor Snape. They then crouched to avoid their ankles being seen and crept to a corner that they could watch from. Soon after that the rest of the teachers arrived.
"It has happened," McGonagall said once she entered the room. "A student has been taken down into the Chamber by the monster itself."
Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair tightly and said, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin has left another message right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
"Who is it?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley." Harish could feel the two red heads on either side of him let out a gasp. He clasped his hand over their mouths. "And that's not all. Three other students have gone missing. Harish Blake and the two Weasley twins."
All of the teachers let out a gasp.
"This looks like the end of Hogwarts. I will need each of you to tell your houses that the train will be taking them home tomorrow morning."
Just at that moment the door to the staffroom flung open and Lockhart entered, beaming.
"Sorry—dozed off—what've I missed?"
Every single other person in that room turned two glaring eyes in his direction, yet he didn't seem to notice. Snape stepped forward.
"Just the man," he said. "The very man we needed. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last."
"My m-m-moment?" Lockhart stammered.
"That's right, Gilderoy," Sprout chipped in. "Weren't you saying last night that you knew where the entrance to the Chamber was all along?"
"I—well I—"
"Yes, didn't you say that you knew what was inside it as well?" Flitwick asked.
"D-did I? I don't recall—"
"I certainly remember you saying that you were sorry you hadn't gotten a crack at it before Hagrid was arrested," Snape confirmed. "Didn't you say the whole affair was bungled and you shouldn't had free-reign from the start?"
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I—I really never—you may have misunderstood—"
"We'll leave you to it," Professor McGonagall said at last. "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 first. A free-reign at last."
Lockhart stared feebly around at them, but no one came to his aid. He was not even remotely handsome anymore. His lip quivered and it absence of his wide smile, his chin looked weak and feeble.
"V-very well," he said. "I'll—I'll be in my office getting—getting ready."
And he left the room.
"Right," McGonagall said, her nostrils flaring. "That's got him out of our way. 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 that no one has been left outside of their dormitories?"
The teachers rose and left, one by one.
Alone once again, Harish ripped the cloak off. The twins were sitting huddled together with blank expressions of shock on their faces.
"What are we waiting for?" he asked, receiving no reply. "Let's go get Ginny!"
The twins looked at him, shocked.
"Really?" they asked together.
"Really," he replied. They hopped to their feet and ran out of the room, not even bothering to get under the cloak this time.
"It hasn't been long," Harish said. "She must have been taken down right before we went in there."
He led them through the corridor, but instead of heading back to the bathroom, they went the other direction. They finally came to a halt outside their Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Harish pushed through the door and made his way through the classroom and into Lockhart's office. Once they got there, they could hear scuffles and the patter of hurrying feet.
The boy cracked the door open slightly to see Professor Lockhart's eye peering at him.
"Oh, it's you boys—" he said, opening the crack a little wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment—if you'd be quick—"
Harish heaved the door open and shoved past him. "I think you'll find that you're not busy," he said.
His office had been almost completely stripped and his trunk was laying over. Having his suspicions that Lockhart was going to try to run away, Harish smiled rather nastily.
"You see, I'm afraid we know your little secret."
"What do you—"
"You are a fraud," Harish said simply.
Lockhart banged the lids of his trunk shut and locked it.
"Really quite clever how you did it," Harish continued. "Tracking down all those people who really did something and wiping their memories."
"Right," Lockhart said nodding and drawing his wand. "And I'll—uh—have to do the same to you."
He raised his wand, but the three boys were quicker. They all three had their wands drawn and pointed at his face. Harish disarmed Lockhart and his wand shot out of his hand and out the window. Harish's nasty smile grew even wider.
"We want to go down to the Chamber and rescue Ginny, but of course it won't be safe," Harish continued. "So we'll need you to go down first."
"B-b-but I don't know where the Chamber even is," Lockhart protested, looking shaky and feeble again.
"Lucky for you," the twins said.
"We know where—"
"The Chamber is."
"And what's down there," Harish added.
They marched Lockhart out of his office, down the nearest set of stairs, through the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, and past the door to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Lockhart looked around nervously and Harish was pleased to see that he was shaking. Harish jabbed his wand into the man's back, forcing him over to the broken sink.
"Open up," he hissed in parseltongue and miraculously, the tap started glowing and the sink sank into the floor, revealing a large pipe in the wall. It was large enough for a man to fit through.
"Boys, I—I r-really don't think—"
Harish jabbed his wand in his back again, pushing him right in front of the pipe. "You first," he said.
Lockhart began shaking even harder. "Oh—well—all right."
Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe, hesitated, and then pushed himself the rest of the way down. The three boys could hear Lockhart's yells fade away into the distance, ending with a thud.
Harish looked at the twins, wondering if he had survived the plunge, but then the Professor said, "It's really quite filthy down here." Taking that as proof that the drop wasn't deadly, Harish slid into the pipe and followed.
It was like riding down and endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in different directions, but none were as large as the one he was in, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards. He knew that he was falling deeper beneath the school than even the dungeons. Behind him, he could hear the twins, grunting and thudding slightly at the curves.
And just as he began to worry what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe levelled out and he shot out, landing with a wet thud on the damp floor of a large tunnel. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and as white as a ghost. Harish stood aside and the twins came whizzing out, one after the other.
Fred landed with a crack. He whimpered and pulled his wand out of his back pocket—it had been snapped almost in two. The tip of it was clinging onto the rest by a couple strands of unicorn hair.
"My wand!" he exclaimed. George dug tape out of his pocket and handed it to him. Fred sadly wrapped the snapped bit back onto his wand.
"We must be miles beneath the school," Harish said as he stood up, his voice echoing about the tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," George said, peering at the wet walls.
All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos," Harish muttered and his wand lit up. "Come on," he said and he led the way into the darkness.
The tunnel was so dark, they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadow on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand-light. Egelbert whimpered and ducked down behind Harish's shoulder. His forehead still wasn't glowing, so the Basilisk must have been farther up the tunnel.
"Remember," Harish said quietly as they walked forward cautiously. "Any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away…"
But the tunnel was silent except for the random crunch when one of them stepped on various bones of dead rats. Finally they came to a halt after they rounded a corner and saw something huge blocking their way. Egelbert still wasn't glowing, so Harish guessed that it was a skin that the snake had shed.
Raising his wand, the light slid over the gigantic snake skin of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long, or more.
"Blimey," the twins said together in awe. They stepped forward and George pulled a scale off the skin and tucked it into his pocket. George did the same.
Harish found the skin's end and saw a couple of razor-sharp, venomous teeth lying on the ground. He tucked one of them into his pocket.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up," Fred said, pointing his taped wand at Lockhart.
Lockhart got to his feet—then he dived at Fred, knocking him over and grabbing his wand. Harish jumped forward but it was too late. Lockhart was straightening up with Fred's wand in his hand, a huge smile on his face.
"The adventure ends here, boys!" he exclaimed. "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 goodbye to your memories!"
He raised Fred's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
At the exact same time, George and Harish shouted, "Protego!"
The effect of the two shields and the broken wand Lockhart was using was so strong that the wand let out a loud BANG! And the spell bounced all around the room. Harish ducked and then rolled, clinging on to Egelbert for dear life as rocks came shattering down from the ceiling.
The next moment, he was standing alone, staring at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Fred! George!" he exclaimed, half worried that they had gotten crushed.
"We're here!" came their voices, slightly muffled behind the rockfall. "I'm okay!" both said in unison.
"Well—" Fred said.
"This git's not," George finished.
"He got blasted by the wand!" they both shouted through the rocks.
There were two thuds and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Lockhart had just gotten kicked in the shins.
"What now?" the twins asked, sounding concerned.
"We can't get through—"
"It'll take ages…"
Harish looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He wondered vaguely if he could blast the wall apart, but was worried he would hit the twins. And what if the whole tunnel caved in?
There was another thud and another "ow!" They were wasting time.
Making up his mind, Harish said, "You two try to shift this rock. I'll go on up ahead…If I'm not back in an hour…"
There was a great pause.
"We'll get started on it!" George shouted to him and Harish could hear them trying to move some.
"And Harish—" Fred started, but Harish cut across him.
"See you in a bit."
And he set off past the giant snake skin, with Egelbert atop his shoulders. Soon the sound of the two straining to move rocks was gone and the tunnel turned and turned. Every nerve in Harish's body was tingling unpleasantly. He had never faced anything as dangerous as a deadly Basilisk before. He walked on, wanting badly for the tunnel to end, but dreading what he would find when it did. Finally, the teen stopped as he turned a corner and saw a wall ahead on which two intertwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with glinting emeralds. Harish shivered—their eyes looked oddly alive.
He cleared his throat, knowing what to do and their eyes seemed to flicker.
"Open," he said in a low hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harish, shaking slightly, walked inside. Slowly the pustule on Egelbert's forehead began to glow a bright, vivid red.