The Other Potter Book Two

Chapter Twenty Nine: Apprehension

I urged Ginny forward; we stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. 

I was so completely exhausted by now. Considering I hadn’t eaten or slept or had a moments rest in three whole weeks, and I’d driven a magical car and crashed through a forest and killed Voldemort and saved Ginny and saved Harry and Ron’s arses multiple times.

Life is hard.

And my legs still aren’t working properly, and helping to pull Ginny along is basically torture.

God damn it.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, where we were all quiet except for Ginny's sobs, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached our ears. 

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"

Ron gave a strangled cheer, and we turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall. 

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How - what -- where did that bird come from." Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny. 

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, as I started to crawl through. Halfway, I gave up and lay in the hole.

“I have given up on life.” I declared.

“Come on, Will.” Ron said tiredly. “I believe in you.”

“Willow your butt is in my way.” Harry called out.

“I’m too tired for this shit.”

“You’ve literally been sleeping for three weeks.”

“No, I’ve been ghosting around the place being confused and saving your arses. Cars don’t just drive by themselves now, do they?”

“No. Way.” Ron said, completely baffled.

“Yes, way. You sat on top of me, and like I was a ghost. It was weird.”

“Will, please climb through.” Harry said from behind me.

“You’re going to have to push me through.”

I felt two hands on my butt and Harry seemed to show some inhuman strength and pushed me though, making me roll down the rest of the rock pile and hit the ground.

“Wow, geez Harry, you couldn’t wait five seconds. Gosh.”

“You told me to push you!”

“Far out, you’re so rude.”

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand. 

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry as he climbed through the hole. 

"But --"

"Later," I said shortly.

"Where's Lockhart?" Harry said changing the topic.

"Back there," said Ron, still looking perplexed but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see." Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, we walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. 

Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself. 

"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself," Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all. 

"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

“I do, I love it. I’ve just painted.” I said.

“Really?”

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at us. 

Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe. 

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to Ron. 

Ron shook his head.

Fawkes swept past us, and waved his long golden tail feathers. Harry looked uncertainly at him. 

"He looks like he wants you to grab hold ..." said Ron, looking mystified. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there -"

"Fawkes," said Harry, "isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to the others. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Willow, grab onto Ginny's other hand. Professor Lockhart --"

"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.

"You hold Willow's other hand --" I gave Harry a 'I hate you' look as I held onto Lockhart. Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron took hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's tail feathers. 

An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through my whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, we were flying upward through the pipe.

Lockhart dangling below me was saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"

I had a divine wish to let him go. The chill air was whipping through my hair and then all five of us were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place. 

Myrtle goggled at us. 

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry. 

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses. 

"Oh, well ... I'd just been thinking ... if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver. 

"Urgh!" said Ron as we left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"

But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face. 

"Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed. 

Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. We strode after him, and moments later, we found ourselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. 

Harry knocked and pushed the door open.