A Different Story

Chapter 30

29th Of May, 1993

Today was the 21st day of Hermione's being petrified. They all visited her daily, but Arcturus, more than daily after her petrification nowadays. Arcturus is not as happy as he was before nowadays. He does not smile at all, and even if he does, it's forced. At that moment, all the friends were sitting outside of the castle in front of the black lake, enjoying the warm weather. That was until Damian came running towards them with a piece of paper in his hands.

"I think Hermione had figured it out before she was petrified!" Damian said, out of breath. He raised his hand, which had a piece of paper.

"What do you mean?" It was Arcturus who asked the question. The others nodded along. "I found this paper in her hand when I was visiting her recently. It's a piece of paper about a basilisk. She must have figured it out. Don't you see, the monster inside the chamber is a Basilisk That's why only you and Harry can hear it, and none of us can hear it because it's speaking in Parseltounge."

They all looked at each other with wide eyes, and Daphne thought it was a good time to speak up. "This morning I went to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I was thinking, 50 years ago was around the same time she was killed, right?" At their nods, she continued.

"Myrtle said before she died, she remembered seeing a pair of bright yellow eyes. Before I told you guys, I wanted to know how the thing that we now know as a basilisk got around. Harry, you said you heard the voice in the walls?" Harry nodded, not knowing where this was going.

"Myrtle was killed in the bathroom. Harry heard the voice, which we can now say for sure was him hearing the basilisk, which is a giant snake, in the walls. The bathroom had pipes lining it, obviously, and the plumbing system is in the walls." Daphne completed

"So the Basilisk travels through the pipes?" Harry asked, and Daphne nodded. Before anyone else could say anything else, they heard Professor McGonagall's voice.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

Harry ran out of there. Everyone wanted to follow him, but Arcturus told them to go to their own common rooms rather than follow Harry, and he said that he would go and make sure that Harry was okay. They agreed.

"Harry, where are you going?" Arcturus asked his cousin. Harry didn't stop and just kept going. "If we tell the teachers what we've found out, they could save the student." Harry responded. Arcturus nodded, agreeing with him.

When they reached the staff room, they hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead and the staffroom door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them appeared perplexed, while others appeared terrified. 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 asked, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. which says that her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever." Professor Sprout burst into tears. "Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

Then Lockhart came and said that he was going to save Ginny Weasley, and that he knew where the chamber was and all that. So Harry and Arcturus decided to go to Lockhart, deciding that maybe their information would help him in his quest.

When they reached Lockhart's office, all they saw was him packing all his things up. When they asked him what he was doing, he went on about how they shouldn't believe everything they hear and read, and basically admitting that he's a fraud and about all the memory charms he used on the actual people who did those things in his books, not that they actually read them though.

Then they kidnapped him and took him to go with them to save Ginny Weasley in the chamber, all the while ignoring his plea to let him go.

When they reached Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Harry and Arcturus hurried over to the sink. Lockhart was standing well back, 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."Open" hissed Arcturus.

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 Lockhart gasp and looked up at him. And he made up his mind what he was going to do.

"You can go first," Harry snarled. White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening. "Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?" Arcturus 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 Arcturus gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go. After Harry Arcturus also jumped.

Falling down the chamber was absolutely disgusting. Old bones and giant snake skin were a few of the disgusting and disturbing things they passed. Everything was going okay. That was until the roof collapsed, knocking Lockhart out and trapping Arcturus on the other side.

"Arcturus!" Harry shouted. "Are you okay?"

“I’m okay” came Arcturus's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "This git’s not, though he got hit in his head"

"Listen, Arcturus, you go OK, I'll go and get Weasley," Harry said. "Are you sure, Harry?" Asked Arcturus. "I'm" replied Harry

And he set off alone past the giant snake skin. Soon the distant noise of Arcturus 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!" hissed Harry. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.