"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away. . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.
"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet. Kirra, Harry and Ron hurried over to it. 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 and Kirra 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.
"Say something. Something in Parseltongue." Ron said quickly
"But —" The twins thought hard. The only times they'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when they had been faced with a real snake. They stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," Harry said. They looked at Ron, who shook his head."English," he said.
They looked back at the snake themselves to believe it was alive. If she moved her head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.
"Open up," Kirra said. Except that the words weren't what she heard; a strange hissing had escaped her, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. The 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 Aman to slide into.
"I'm going down there," she said "Im trading myself in for Ginny"
"Nobody is trading their lives I'll come down and help you save Ginny," said Harry.
"me too" Ron added
There was a pause.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just —" He put his hand on the doorknob, but the kids all pointed their wands at him.
"I swear to god dude, if you try to escape one more time I'm going to jinx your ass so hard you want to forget about magic all together," Kirra scowled, clearly getting fed up with the man
"You can go first," Ron snarled.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Children," he said, his voice feeble. "younglings, what good will it do?"
Harry 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 Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Kirra followed quickly. She lowered herself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide.
She could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and she knew that she was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind her, she could hear Harry and Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.
And then, just as she had begun to worry about what would happen when she hit the ground, the pipe levelled out, and she shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in.
Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. The boys came out next and they all stood up, dusting themselves off
"It's freezing down here" The girl muttered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm her body up
"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls. All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again and Kirra copied his actions
"C'mon," Harrys said to Kirra, Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor. The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand light.
"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away. . . ."
But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. The twins lowered their wands to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones.
Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Kirra led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Kirra — there's something up there —" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Kirra's shoulder.
They froze, watching. Kirra could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Is that the snake?" Kirra whispered to her brother and his best friend
"Maybe it's asleep," Harry breathed
Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Kirra turned back to look at the thing, her heart beating so fast it hurt, but she told herself she had to be brave, she had to save Ginny. Very slowly, her eyes as narrow as she could make them and still see, Kirra edged forward, Harry behind her, their wands held high.
The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least."Blimey," said Ron weakly.There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.
"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet — then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Harry and Kirra jumped forward, but too late — Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.
"The adventure ends here!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good-bye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Kirra flung her arms over her head and ran over to Harry, throwing her body over his protectively, slipping over the coils of snakeskin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor.The next moment, she and Harry were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Ron!" The twins shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"
"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay — this git's not, though — he got blasted by the wand —"
There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!"
It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate.
"We can't get through — it'll take ages. . . ." Kirra looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it.
She had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try — what if the whole tunnel caved in? There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. . . . Harry and Kirra knew there was only one thing to do.
"Wait there," they called to Ron.
Harry continued "Wait with Lockhart. Kirra and I'll go on. . . . If we are not back in an hour . . ."
There was a very pregnant pause.
"I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you guys can — can get back through. And, Harry—"
"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice. And the twins set off alone past the giant snake skin. Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. They didn't say anything to each other, but both of them could tell that they were scared. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Kirra's body was tingling unpleasantly.
She wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what she'd find when it did. And then, at last, as they crept around yet another bend, they saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds. They approached.
There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. They could guess what they had to do. Harry cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.
"Open," said Kirra and Harry, in a low, faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry and Kirra, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.
They were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
Her heart beat very fast, Kirra and her brother stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?
They moved forward between the serpentine columns.
Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. The twins kept their eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following them. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, Kirra thought she saw one stir.
Then, as she drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
The twins had to crane their necks to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
"Ginny!" the twins muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to their knees.
"Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead —"
The twins flung their wands aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be —
"Ginny, please wake up," Kirra muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
Kirra and Harry jumped and spun around on their knees. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching, Kirra felt her eyes widen and her mouth drop.
"You..." she whispered out and stood up slowly, it was the boy she had been seeing in her visions - the boy that she had occasionally had dreams about for as long as she could remember.
"Tom — Tom Riddle?" Harry and Kirra whispered.
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Kirra's face, it was as if he were studying her.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not— she's not — ?"
"She's still alive," said Riddle carelessly, he was still staring at the Potter girl, there was a desperate look in his eyes and something else... Sadness? "But only just. Give me her and you can take the Weasley girl"
Kirra went to walk forward to sacrifice herself but Harry grabbed onto her wrist as he stared at the boy in shock. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.
"A memory," said Riddle quietly, but obviously becoming annoyed. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."
He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle'sbathroom.
"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again."We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk and I can't sacrifice my sister . . . I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment. . . . Please, help me —"
Riddle didn't move.
Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again. But his wand had gone and so was his sisters.
"Did you see — ?" He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers while Kirra's was sticking out of his pocket. "Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth.
He stopped staring at Kirra and turned to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.
"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's deadweight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"
"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly. Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.
"What d'you mean?" Kirra said.
"Look, give me my wand, I might need it—"
Riddle's smile broadened. "You won't be needing it," he said.Harry stared at him."What d'you mean, I won't be — ?"
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see her again. To speak to her," he said as he looked at Kirra who moved behind Harry slightly
"Look," said Harry, losing patience, getting confused and thinking he was talking about Ginny "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later —"
"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand. The twins stared at him. There was something very funny going on here. . . . "How did Ginny get like this?" they asked slowly.
"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry.
"The diary," said Riddle, trying to keep his gaze on Harry, but not being able to help but continue to look at the girl, the only person that he had ever cared about, the person who he had lost. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes — how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how" —
Riddle's eyes glinted — "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her. . . ." There was an almost hungry look in his eyes. "It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on.
"But I was patient, after all, time didn't matter as long as I got to see Opehlia again," Tom then chuckled softly "Well I guess in this life it's Kirra. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom. . . . I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in. . . . It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket. . . ." Riddle laughed a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him.
It made the hairs stand up on the back of Kirra's neck. "If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed... There was only one person who didn't fall for my charm right away, it drew me to her, but of course, she fell for it eventually, she was the only person I ever cared about..." his eyes landed on the brunette
"So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted. . . . I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her . . ."
"Do you mean to say that that girl I keep seeing in my dreams, Ophelia.. that's me?" Kirra asked softly but Harry couldn't care less about that right now, he had his own questions
"What d'you mean?" said Harry to the boy who had just talked about pouring his soul into the Weasley girl
"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."
"No," Harry whispered.
"Yes," said Riddle calmly his eyes flickering to the Potter girl who was looking at the ground as if she were trying to figure something out, though he was just a memory, his desire to step forward and grab the girl, pulling her into his arm was as strong as it had been 50 years ago.
He didn't want to lose her and he finally had the chance to get her back, if he killed Ginny, he would become more than a memory, and better than that he would be back in his 16-year-old body again, he could start fresh, he could have a life with her like he was supposed to, before she was taken from him.
"Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries . . . far more interesting, they became. . . . Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, "I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there."
"Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me. . . . There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad. . . . I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"