Slytherin Raised by Wolfstar: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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Chapter Seventeen: The Chamber of Secrets

'We were idiots,' said Theodore bitterly at breakfast next day, 'we have known it was a girl who died since February but didn't figure it out and now we can't ask her anything...'

It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girls’ bathroom, the girls’ bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.

But something happened in their next Transfiguration class which drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

'Come on,' Zacharias Smith howled. 'After everything that we have been through we still have exams?'

‘The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education,’ she said sternly. ‘The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all revising hard.’

Revising hard! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

‘Professor Dumbledore’s instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible,’ she said. ‘And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year.’

Harry looked down at the pair of white rabbits he was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had he learned so far this year? He couldn’t seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam.

Allison looked as though she’d just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.

‘I have been so stressed these past few months I don't think I remember almost anything we've been taught,’ she told Harry.

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

‘I have good news,’ she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

‘Dumbledore’s coming back!’ several people yelled joyfully.

‘You’ve caught the heir of Slytherin!’ squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table.

‘Quidditch matches are back on!’ roared Wood excitedly.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, ‘Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. 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.’

There was an explosion of cheering. Even most of his house was cheering, but when he looked over at Draco he wasn’t at all surprised to see that he hadn’t joined in.

Tracey, however, was looking happier than she’d looked in days. ‘We woun't have to sneak out to ask Myrtle, Terence will be awake tomorrow and will tell everyone what attacked him.'

Just then, Hermione Granger came over and stood next to Harry. She looked tense and nervous, and he noticed that her hands were twisting her robes.

‘Is something wrong?’ Harry asked her. She didn’t say anything, but glanced up and down the Slytherin table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.

‘There is something I have to tell you,’ Hermione mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

‘What is it?’ said Harry.

Hermione opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Hermione and him could hear. ‘Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?’

Hermione drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Theodore appeared, looking surprisingly cheerful at her.

'Good morning Hermione, how are you today?'

Hermione did not respond however, instead she jumped up, gave Theodore a fleeting, frightened look, and scarpered away. Theodore just stood there confused.

‘Theo!’ said Harry angrily. ‘She was about to say something about the Chamber of Secrets!’

'Wait, she was? What does she know?'

'I am not sure. But whatever it is, it was making her really nervous.'

Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he wasn’t about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up–and to his delight it did, mid-morning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong straight away, was now whole-heartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn’t as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

‘Mark my words,’ he said, ushering them around a corner, ‘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.’

‘I agree, sir,’ said Harry, making Allison drop her books in surprise.

‘Thank you, Harry,’ said Lockhart graciously, 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,’ said Tracey, catching on. ‘Why don’t you leave us here, sir, we’ve only got one more corridor to go.’

‘You know Miss Davis, I think I will,’ said Lockhart. ‘I really should go and prepare my next class.’ And he hurried off.

‘Two Galleons he's actually going to do his hair,’ Theodore sneered after him. ‘For once his stupidity was worth it.’

They let the rest of the Slytherins draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off towards Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme…

‘Children! What are you doing?’

It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.

‘We um–well we–’ Tracey stammered, ‘we were going–to go and see–’

‘Terence,’ said Harry. Tracey and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.

‘We haven’t seen him for ages, Professor,’ Harry went on hurriedly, ‘and we thought we’d sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell him the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry.’

Professor McGonagall was still staring at him, and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

‘Of course,’ she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. ‘Of course, I realise this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been…I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Mr Higgs. I will inform Professor Binns where you’ve gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission.’

Harry and his friends walked away, hardly daring to believe that they’d avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

‘You are really good at that,’ said Allison fervently, 'coming up with stories I mean.’

They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall’s permission to visit Terence. Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.

‘There’s just no point talking to a Petrified person,’ she said, and they had to admit she was right when they’d taken their seats next to Terence. It was plain that Terence didn’t have the faintest inkling that he had visitors, and that they might just as well tell his bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

‘I bet he did see the person or thing that attacked him,’ said Tracey, looking sadly at Terence’s rigid face. ‘Because if the person snuck up an them all, they would probably all be dead.'

'Not necessarily...' Theodore let slip.

'What do you mean?' Tracey whispered.

'I had developed a theory right before the last attack, but haven't had the ability to go to the library to check to see if I am right.’

Allison then whispered excitedly, ‘Let’s go right now. We don’t have a teacher stocking us at the moment. Let’s make our way to the library and not leave until we are certain what the monster is.’

They were in agreement. They put on their best somber faces and walked past Madam Pomfrey, telling her they were headed back to class. She looked like she was going to stop them, but eventually decided not to. Careful they made their way through the castle, looking around corners before entering corridors.

By some miracle they had made it to the library without being caught, they slowly opened its doors and slipped in. Ms Pince didn’t appear to be inside, so they walked a little less cautiously.

‘We are going to the biology section, specifically the reptile subsection.’

‘Why reptile?’ Harry asked.

‘Because,’ Theodore said while starting to take books off the shelves, ‘I think the monster is a snake.’

The other two gasped, and Harry opened his mouth in realization. That was why only he could hear the voice.

‘What kind of snake could do all this?’ Harry asked.

‘I’m not sure yet, that is why we are here. Everyone take a book and start looking for snakes with descriptions that match what has been occurring this past year.’

They did as he asked. For the next ten minutes they started flipping through books as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. It was Allison that held what she was reading up into the air.

‘I think I found it.’ She was holding up a very old book. She handed it to Harry, opened to a page about halfway through, for him to concur. He read it aloud for the others to hear.

‘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.’

‘This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber’s a Basilisk–a giant serpent…’

‘But Harry,’ Tracey questioned, ‘It says its stare is deadly, so far everyone is just petrified.

‘The Basilisk kills people by looking at them, but 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…Penelope had her mirror...’

‘That makes sense,’ said Theodore, ‘But what about Terence and Mrs Norris?’

Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Hallowe’en. ‘The water…’ he said slowly, ‘Moaning Myrtle often floods her bathroom, their must have been water on the floor in both occasions. I bet you Terence and Mrs Norris only saw the reflection…’

He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.

‘The Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which 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 the Basilisk! It all fits!’

‘But how’s the Basilisk been getting around the place?’ said Tracey. ‘A humongous snake…No way only four people saw it…’

‘I actually got that part figured out,’ said Theodore confidently. ‘That’s how I came up with my theory, the sound was coming from the walls, but when I listened all I heard was plumping. It was only later that I realized that was exactly what I was supposed to hear, it’s traveling through the school’s pipes.’

Tracey suddenly started jumping up and down. ‘Guys, Myrtle was killed in her bathroom, and two others were petrified just outside of it. What if the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom?!’

They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

‘This means,’ said Harry, ‘I can’t be the only Parselmouth in the school. The heir of Slytherin’s one, too. That’s how they’ve been controlling the Basilisk.’

‘What do we do now?’ asked Allison, whose eyes were flashing. ‘Should we go straight to Flitwick, or maybe McGonagall?’

‘Let’s go to the staff room,’ said Harry, jumping up. ‘She’ll be there in ten minutes, it’s nearly break.’

They quickly made their way through the halls and into the deserted staff room. It was a large, panelled room full of dark wooden chairs. Harry and the others paced around it, too excited to sit down.

But the bell to signal break never came. 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 wheeled around to stare at the others.

‘Not another attack? Not now?’

‘What do we do, do we stay and tell them what we know, or leave so we don’t get in trouble?’ asked Allison anxiously.

‘No,’ said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers’ cloaks, and a dinning table with a tablecloth. ‘We should all hide. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Then we can tell them what we’ve found out.’

Tracey and Allison went under the table and Harry and Theodore hid themselves inside the wardrobe, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff-room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering 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,’ said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, ‘left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber for ever.’

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

‘Who is it?’ said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. ‘Which student?’

‘Hermione Granger,’ said Professor McGonagall.

Harry almost gave away his position as an audible “no” had left his lips, Theodore stepped on his toes to make him be quite.

‘We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…’

The staff-room door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

‘So sorry–dozed off–what have I missed?’

He didn’t seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

‘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 blanched.

‘That’s right, Gilderoy,’ chipped 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–’ spluttered Lockhart.

‘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 stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

‘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. He didn’t look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin he looked weakchinned and weedy.

‘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, whose nostrils were flared, ‘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.

It was probably the worst day of Harry’s entire life. He, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey sat together in a corner of the Slytherin common room, unable to say anything to each other. When Malfoy entered the common room Harry marched right up to him, and before he could change his mind he punched him in the face.

‘You are the true monster! You wanted her dead! She did nothing to you but you you said the awfulest things about her. She is going to rot all alone for eternity, how does that make you feel you inhuman maggot!?’

Later Harry would never be completely sure if it was from the shock of the situation, or the punch to the face, but a single tear had escaped Malfoy’s eye. A sound that was just barely a whisper came out of Malfoy, ‘I didn’t want anyone to actually die...’

‘Well if we all live to see a next time you better think about that! Because you wished her dead and now that is her fate!’

Malfoy couldn’t take Harry’s yelling anymore and ran away towards the dormitories. Harry then silently went back to sitting with his friends.

No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Slytherin Dungeon ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset the majority of their house had gone to their dormitories to pack and get some rest as it would be a long day tomorrow.

‘She was taken for her knowledge,’ said Harry, speaking for the first time since they had left the wardrobe in the staff room. ‘She knew something at breakfast and she was scared off before she could share it. She knew something about the Chamber of Secrets, and the heir took her because of it–’

Allison spoke up, ‘I believe she was Muggle-born, Hagrid said it would only be a matter of time before one of them was killed.’

This was the worst Harry had ever felt. If only there was something they could do. Anything.

‘Harry,’ said Theodore, ‘what are the odds she is still alive down there? Is there even a small amount?’

Harry didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t see how Hermione could still be alive.

‘Well I am sick of just sitting here,’ said Tracey, ‘I don’t want to look back on my final day of Hogwarts and know I did nothing to try and help. Let’s go tell Lockhart what we know, that way he’ll be prepared.’

Because Harry couldn’t think of anything else to do, and because he wanted to be doing something, he agreed. The Slytherins around them were so miserable, and felt a little bit guilty of their treatment towards Muggle-borns, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the hidden wall.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart’s office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They 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 they saw one of Lockhart’s eyes peering through it.

‘Oh…Mr Potter …and friends…’ he said, opening the door a millimetre 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–’ The side of Lockhart’s face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. ‘I mean–well–all right.’

He opened the door and they entered.

His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, midnight blue, 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.

‘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 Hermione?’ said Theodore jerkily.

‘Well, as to that–most unfortunate,’ said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. ‘No one regrets more than I–’

‘You’re the Defence 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 furiously.

‘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 hairy chin. I mean, come on…’

‘So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?’ said Harry incredulously.

‘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 booksignings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog.’

‘You were a hero to me! I used to look up to you!’ Harry shouted.

‘Well next time don’t believe everything that you read.’ He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

‘Let’s see,’ he said. ‘I think that’s everything. Yes. Only one thing left.’ He pulled out his wand and turned to them.

‘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…’

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, ‘Expelliarmus!’

Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk. His wand flew high into the air; Allison caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

‘I’ve been practicing that one since the beginning of my first year, and yet I doubt you could cast it if you tried,’ said Harry in a rage, kicking Lockhart’s trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, weedy 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 wandpoint. ‘We think we know where it is. And what’s inside it. Let’s go.’

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.

They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the cistern of the end toilet.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said, when she saw Harry. ‘What do you want this time?’

‘To ask you how you died,’ said Harry in as a polite tone as he could put it.

Myrtle’s whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

‘Ooooh, it was dreadful,’ she said with relish. ‘It happened right in here. I died in this very cubicle. 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 and use his own toilet, and then–’ Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, ‘I died.’

‘How?’ said Harry.

‘No idea,’ said Myrtle in hushed tones. ‘I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…’ She looked dreamily at Harry. ‘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.’

‘Where exactly did you see the eyes?’ said Harry.

‘Somewhere there,’ said Myrtle, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry and Tracey hurried over to it while Theodore and Allison kept their wands facing Lockhart. Lockhart was standing with a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

‘That tap’s never worked,’ said Myrtle brightly, as he tried to turn it.

No matter which way Harry turned the knobs nothing happened. Theodore then called out some advice.

‘Harry, try speaking Parseltongue at it.’

‘But–’ Harry thought hard. The only times he’d ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he’d been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real. ‘Open up,’ he said.

He looked at Tracey, who shook her head.

‘English,’ she said.

Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it was moving.

‘Open up,’ he said.

Except that the words weren’t what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move. The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. Harry heard Tracey gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.

‘I’m going down there,’ he said. He couldn’t not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Hermione might be alive.

‘I am coming with you,’ said Allison.

‘You’ll need me at your side, the spiders proved that,’ said Tracey excitedly.

‘You helped me out of the hell I was living in. Where you go, I go,’ Theodore said confidently.

There was a pause.

‘Well, you hardly seem to need me,’ said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. ‘I’ll just–’

He put his hand on the door knob, but all four of them pointed their wands at him.

‘You can be the test jumper,’ Theodore snarled.

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

‘Children,’ he said, his voice feeble, ‘children, what good will it do?’

Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.

‘I really don’t think–’ he started to say, but Allison gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go.

It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Allison , thudding slightly at the curves, and faintly the other two following them down.

And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe levelled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel, large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little way away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Allison came whizzing out of the pipe, too, followed quickly by Tracey and Theodore.

‘We must be miles under the school,’ said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

‘Most likely even deeper then the bottom of the lake,’ said Theodore, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

‘Lumos!’ Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. ‘C’mon,’ he beckoned to Lockhart and the others, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

‘Remember,’ Harry said quietly, as they walked cautiously forward, ‘any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away…’

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Tracey stepped on what turned out to be a rat’s skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Hermione might look like if they found her, Harry led the way forward, round a dark bend in the tunnel.

‘I think I see something up ahead…’ said Theodore hoarsely, grabbing Harry’s shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn’t moving.

‘Maybe it’s asleep,’ he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart’s hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.

The light slid over a 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 at least.

‘Goodness,’ said Tracey weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart’s knees had given way.

‘Get up,’ said Allison sharply, pointing her wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet–then he dived at Allison, knocking her to the ground and took her wand.

Harry jumped forward, but too late. Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Allison’s wand in her hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

‘The adventure ends here, children!’ he said. ‘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 four tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!’

Before Lockhart could cast a spell, Tracey and Theodore who had been guarding Lockhart, both simultaneously cast a spell.

‘Obliviate!’ Tracey said nervously, aiming directly at Lockhart’s head.

‘Reducto!’ Theodore shouted, aiming at the ceiling above Lockhart.

A lot then happened in a matter of seconds, a flash of blinding light hit Lockhart, causing him to stumble backwards. Then Theodore’s spell hit its target, he had probably only intended for a small amount of debris to fall onto Lockhart’s head, but the Chamber was so ancient it had triggered a cave in.

Light shot right out of her wand and onto Lockhart

Harry flung his arms over his head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling which were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.

‘Theodore! Allison! Tracey!’ he shouted. ‘Is anyone their? Anyone?!’

‘I’m over here!’ came Allison’s muffled voice from behind the rockfall. ‘The others are ok to it looks. The blithering idiot is not, though – it looks like in the confusion he couldn’t dodge all of the debris.’

‘What do I do now?’ Allison’s voice said, sounding desperate. ‘Should I try blasting my way through and…’

Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn’t seem a good moment to try – what if the whole tunnel caved in? ‘No, I think this wall of debris is all that is holding the ceiling up at the moment. You and the others will have to dig a hole through.’

‘That may take ages,’ Theodore called out.

‘It’s that or have the ceiling collapse on our heads. We don’t really have a choice.’

They were wasting time. Hermione had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. Harry knew there was only one thing to do.

‘Wait there,’ he called to his friends. ‘Wait with Lockhart. I’ll go on. If I’m not back in an hour…’

There was a very long pause.

‘We’ll try and remove some of this rock so you can get through it when you and Hermione return,’ said Tracey, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

‘Harry-be careful-‘ he heard Allison say in an almost whisper.

‘See you all in a bit,’ said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.

And he set off alone past the giant snake skin.

Soon the distant noise of his friends straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry’s body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he’d find when it did. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real, their eyes looked strangely alive. He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

‘Open,’ said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.