The Little Pureblood [1]

Chapter 33: The Chamber of Secrets

The journey from Lockhart's classroom to the second floor girl's bathroom turned out to be more difficult then originally planned. For starters, we had a gagged teacher with us who would definitely yell for help if a teacher came close enough. And the second problem was that there were a lot of teachers out and about, all in search of someone in particular.

We were climbing up the side stairs in the shadows when I saw my mother, worried as ever, pacing between the corridors while asking teachers if they've caught sight of me yet.

"Did she give you any idea as to where she ran off too?" Professor Flitwick asked her as we disappeared up the stairs. Thankfully I didn't hear my mother's response as we neared the bathroom. 

Once inside, Harry immediately walked off to the center of the room where he then stopped in front of the ghost we were all curious about.

Moaning Mrytle.

" Hello there, Harry. What is it that you want this time?" She asked with a mopping expression. Either she didn't notice the three of us behind Harry or she just wasn't interested. Either way, when Harry mentioned her death, she suddenly acted like her time had come for the most important retelling of the century. 

"Oh it was dreadful!" she said with relish. "It happened right here, in this very cubicle. I remember it so well, I was hiding from Olive Hornby who had been teasing me all day about my glasses. The door was locked and I was sitting there for hours crying when I heard someone enter the lavatory. Thinking it was Olive, I said 'GO AWAY' but then I heard this sound. Almost like a different language. The voice was definitely from a boy so I remember opening the door to make him go away and then... I died," she said the last part pitifully but so anticlimactically I couldn't help but ask:

"Is that it?"

I obviously said the wrong thing, because next thing I knew Myrtle was looming over me with an outraged expression before yelling, "That's it? I never found out what killed me! That's what's it. Now I stay near this very cubical remembering those haunting moments of my life..."

"Um, alright then Myrtle, you wouldn't happen to know of where this person was when you opened the door, would you?" Harry asked quickly, causing the ghost to twist on him, leaving me to try and drop the uncomfortable expression clear on my face.

"Oh, I don't know," Myrtle wailed in passing. "I think he was somewhere near there." We all turned to the sinks where she was pointing and slowly moved toward them, dragging Lockhart in tow, who was at this point shaking.

"Let's examine the sinks," Harry started. "Any sign of anything Slytherin or snake-like should be it."

Making sure I kept a close eye on Lockhart, I started to look around the sinks, focusing on the metal work when suddenly Harry called out, having found the sink in question. We flocked to him and found, curved around the one sink that didn't work a symbol of a curved snake on the edge of the metal handle.

"Yup, that would be it," I muttered as I took a step back to view what Harry was doing.

Ron joined me after telling Harry to try saying something in parseltongue to it.

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"Let's start simple with Open up," I commented, hinting at my growing discomfort of the whole situation. But Harry didn't seem to notice as he was busy trying to click the words together in his head. After a brief pause, he spoke, speaking in hisses that reminded me instantly of the dueling club.

But like a key to a lock, the words fit and suddenly a groaning noise was heard, rebounding loudly through the bathroom before stopping just as fast. Harry started to back up just as the sinks started to rattle, causing one sink after another to twist and turn before the unusable sink sank down, opening a large black hole in the ground.