Good Enough | hp

27| The Fraud

No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had the Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet.

Her friends had long gone up to their dormitory, nodding silently when Estella expressed her wish to stay with Harry and Ron.

Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer. 

Estella wished she could've said something to comfort them, but she was speechless.

"She knew something," said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was-" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pureblood. There can't be any other reason."

Estella could see the sun sinking, blood red, below the skyline. This was the worst she had ever felt. If only there was something they could do. Anything.

Again, the white glinted in her mind and she grabbed her head with her hands, covering her eyes.

"Harry, Stella," said Ron, "d'you think there's any chance at all she's not- you know-"

Estella didn't know what to say. She couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive but she knew that if she voiced that thought, Ron would break, lose all hope.

"D'you know what?" said Ron, "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."

Because she couldn't think of anything else to do and because she wanted to feel like she was at least doing something, Estella agreed. 

The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

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... Mr Weasley... Miss Granger..." he said, opening the door a mite 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.

"To find the monster?" Estella added hopefully.

"Er, well, yes- no I mean-" 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 my sister?" said Ron 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-"