Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

46 - Goodbye, Year Four

"My sister—"

"— and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body... Yes, I think that sounds good, don't you? Now, say goodbye to your memories!" he continued, smile growing wider.

All the three of us students could do was gape as he quickly raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

The wand suddenly exploded, the force so strong it was much like a small bomb. Instinctively, we all threw our arms up over our heads and bolted, trying to avoid being crushed by great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were crashing down to the floor around us with thunderous noise.

When the dust and debris in the air finally cleared before us, I first noticed Ron and Lockhart were near me, but soon realized shortly thereafter that there was now a solid wall of broken rock in front of us. It reached all the way up to the ceiling of the tunnel and, as I swiveled my head around the scene, I couldn't spot Harry anywhere. My stomach dropped at the realization that we must have been separated, us on one side and him on the other... unless he'd been crushed instead.

"Harry! A-are you there?" I shouted, running up to the massive pile of rock.

"I'm here!" he replied, his muffled voice sounding from the other side of the wall. "Are you okay?"

"Yes!" I breathed in relief, "I'm okay, and Ron's okay too—"

"Hello," Lockhart's polite voice suddenly rang out, interrupting me. Confused, I turned around, seeing him sit up and look up at Ron with a baffled and utterly confused expression. "Um— who are you?"

"Ron Weasley...?" Ron replied awkwardly, equally confused.

"Really?" Lockhart answered, furrowing his eyebrows. "And— uh— who am I?"

Ron looked over at me. "Lockhart got blasted by the wand. Clearly his Memory Charm backfired," he said, gesturing to our Professor who was staring around the tunnel with a mixture of both amazement and bewilderment. "He hasn't got a clue who he is."

"Wonderful." I sighed sarcastically before directing my nexts words at Harry. "Well, Lockhart isn't okay, Harry, but at least we are."

"It's an odd sort of place down here, isn't it?" Lockhart laughed, picking up a rock and inspecting it. "Do we live down here?"

"No." Ron grumbled, taking the rock from our useless professor and slamming it against the  back of his head without hesitation.

For a moment I looked at Ron with surprise, but as Lockhart slumped over onto the ground in an unconscious state, I quickly got over my initial shock. He kind of deserved it— after all, he had tried to erase our memories in the first place. He could take a rock to the head after something like that. And, also, Lockhart being knocked out would be for the best anyways. It would shut him up for awhile and keep him out of our hair— both very good things.

Ron brushed past Lockhart, coming to stand with me by the wall of rock so we could talk with Harry. "So what now?"

There was a brief moment of silence between the three of us as we each thought about what to do next. I inspected the wall before me once more, trying to see if there was any possible way of getting past it. But it was so packed with rock that there wasn't even a hole the size of an apple for us to squeeze through.

"You two are just gonna have to wait there," Harry said suddenly. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll... I'll go on. I'll get Ginny. And if I'm not back in an hour..."

"Right," Ron answered a bit croakily. "We'll— um— try to figure out how to move some of these rocks then."

There was no other option, so I could do nothing but reluctantly agree to this plan.