Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

2: chapter twenty one

"Are you sure we're allowed in there?" Sirius asked as he, Ernie and Hannah paused outside the third floor girls bathroom.

"Of course, no one comes in here because of Myrtle." Hannah said, opening the door. "Come on." She grabbed the boys by the wrist and dragged them into the room as they were still hesitating.

"I just don't feel very comfortable-" Sirius cut himself off as he saw an entire part of the sinks sunk into the ground. "Is that normal?"

"Oh no!" A ghost of a girl in old-fashioned robes and round glasses floated out of a cubicle. "Harry and Ron and that professor Lockhart unlocked it and went underground."

"Mrytle, you saw them?" Hannah asked as she inspected the hole.

"Oh yes, I hope they die so they can share my toilet." Myrtle floated off dreamily, leaving the three to stare at her in disgust.

"We have to go right now!" Sirius went over to the opening, wondering how long it went on for.

"Sirius no, it's too dangerous, we don't know what's down there." Ernie argued.

"My brothers down there! And we were going to go anyway!" Sirius replied.

"Oh he can handle it. Saves us doing it." Hannah scoffed, Sirius shook his head.

"I can't just do nothing, the basilisk is down there." With that he disappeared into the tunnel that led from the bathroom.

"Sirius!" His friends shouted desperately after him, worried about what he would meet down there.

After being a steady incline for a few minutes, the tunnel suddenly dropped, sending Sirius shooting down. Hr landed on a bed of something rather strange, something rather strange and crunchy. Looking down, sirius found the strange, crunchy intems to be boned. They looked like animal bones and he was hoping that it would be the case.

"Who's there?" He heard professor Lockhart call.

"Professor?" Sirius asked as he moved further into the cavern he had found himself in.

"Sirius, is that you?" Shocked to hear the voice of Ron Weasley, Sirius continued further on to find Ron in front of a caged in part of the cavern and Professor Lockhart sat on a rock humming a merry tune.

"Ron? what's going on, wheres Harry?" Sirius asked immediately helping Ron with removing the rocks from the passage.

"Harry's through there, Lockhart tried to use my wand to cast a memory charm at us, but it back fired and hit him, and brought the roof in." Ron explained as they worked on the wall. "Lockharts a fake, and he didn't want us telling people."

"So where is Harry?" Sirius asked, struggling slightly with the rock he'd picked up.

"In the chamber, he's going to save Ginny from the basilisk." Ron replied.

"It took Ginny?" Sirius asked in shock. He'd never imagined that the Basilisk would be able to do that. "Ron, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Harry will save her, I know he will." Ron's faith in his best friend was admirable, but Sirius couldn't stop the seed of doubt in the back of his mind.

"I hope so." He agreed nearly jumping out of his skin when he heard someone yell his name.

"Sirius!" Hannah bellowed as she and Ernie made their way to where the others were standing. "Oh good, you're still alive."

"Nice place, do you live here?" Lockhart asked them brightly, stopping mid song.

"No!" Ron said irritatedly, before sighing dramatically. "He's already asked me that three times today."

"So, I guess you need help clearing this then." Ernie asked, Ron and Sirius just nodded, getting on with clearing again.

Suddenly, they heard the loudest crash possible and looked at each other in dread. They had cleared most of the wall of rock now, and heard shouting coming from deeper in the chamber.

"What was that?" Sirius asked.

"Not a hundred percent sure I want to know." Ernie replied, glancing from the way in front of them, to Lockhart and back again.

"Come on, Harry might need our help." Ron said determinedly, climbing up the rocks they hadn't moved and continuing into the chamber of secrets. Hannah, Ernie and Sirius glanced at each other, asked Lockhart to follow them and then went after Ron.

Passing through a huge seal decorated with snakes, they made their way into the chamber of secrets. Statue after statue of Salazar Slytherins face decorated the walls and in the middle, sat Harry, Ginny, a giant snakes body and a diary with a hole through it.

"Harry! Ginny!" Ron ran over to them at once, whilst the others hang back, amazed by the chamber itself.

"That's the Basilisk!" Sirius exclaimed. "Its huge!"

"Yeah, good point." Ernie mused as they went over to the body. "How was that fitting in the pipes?"

"And you fought that?" Hannah seemed impressed.

"Yeah." Harry nodded.

"This place just gets weirder and weirder." Sirius shook his head, looking up and seeing Fawkes, Dumbledores Phoenix flying overhead clutching the sorting hat and a sword.

"Lovely! Do you live here then?" Professor lockhart patted the basilisk head.

"No!" Ernie and Ron said at the same time, Lockhart getting on their nerves.

"How do we get out of here?" Ginny asked quietly, they all looked at her.

"Umm..." Harry paused, before seeing Fawkes and smiling. "I have an idea."

Holding each others wrists, Fawkes flew the group out of the chamber and back up to the third floor girls bathroom. Once deposited on the floor, Fawkes left the group there, as Dumbledore and McGonagall rushed in.

"Oh Merlin, what have you lot been doing!" Professor McGonagall fretted, she ferried them all out of the room, Sirius slipping away as he saw Aro lurking in the corner.

"So your brother disposed of the basilisk and the memory." He said, Sirius shrugged.

"He got there first, it's done anyway." Sirius pointed out.

"At least it not have been done by you keeps you under the radar." Aro said, it was a strange sentence and seemed not to make any sense.

"Okay... so I'm not in trouble?" Sirius asked.

"No, but you need to improve." Aro told him. "Your grades aren't great."

"Sorry, it's been difficult." Sirius felt like a young child being told off for the first time.

"Improve, I won't tell you again, I need you to be better." Aro said. "And Gideon is getting worse again."

"How bad?" Sirius asked quietly.

"He keeps getting up and banging on the door, like hes been possessed." Aro replied.

"How is it possible?" Sirius asked.

"It isn't." With that Aro left Sirius to stand confused in the corridor alone.

"Ah Mr Potter, there you are." McGonagall appeared behind him. "If you would please follow me."

Nodding numbly, Sirius followed her, his head spinning with everything that had happened that day.