"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," said Blue bitterly at breakfast next day, "and we could've asked her, and now..."
It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. They knew it wasn't exactly going to be hard to sneak into a girls bathroom, what's going to be hard is sneaking into a girl's bathroom that is right next to the scene of the first attack.
But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams?" howled Seamus Finnigan. "We're still getting exams?"
"They can't be serious can they?" Lorena says in disbelief turning to blue who had a grin expression resting on her face. "These days I can barely remember which way it's our class let alone the lessons."
"The system's corrupted." Said Blue, petting a white rabbit "Let's start a riot."
There was a loud bang behind Bluebell as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk.Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard." She turned to Bluebell with a hard look "And there shall not be any riots, Miss King."
"I was just sayin' " bluebell whispers, looking down at her book with a joyless expression.
Studying hard! It had never occurred to Bluebell that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
Bluebell looked down at the pair of white rabbits she was petting that she was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had she learned so far this year? She couldn't seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam.
Lorena looked as though she'd just been told she had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.
"What are we supposed to do? And without Eric?" Asked Lorena, frowning in distress "I can't remember anything from this year."
Blue sighs in agreement "Yeah, and I don't think our knowledge in bewitchin' Snowballs and a couple of sticky charms count."
Lorena groans loudly and slump back on her chair, her own rabbit still intact. After a second or two she sat up straight. "Okay, no more brooding, no more forgetting things. We'll start studying today."
"Sure"
Fifteen minutes later the bell rang, by the end of the class Blue had successfully turned one rabbit into a slipper. Lorena did... but the spell was slightly weak so it only turned half of the rabbit into a slipper.
The two started to leave but just as the two were going to cross the class door to the hallways Pavarti's voice made them stop.
"Lorena" the two friends turned to her, and the girl came up to them with a book "You almost forget your Potions book."
Lorena blushed and took the book from her "Thank you, Parvati."
The two began to walk again, Blue snorted silently " I thought you weren't goin' to forget things anymore."
That earned a slap on the shoulder from the Blood girl. "It's not funny."
Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.
"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.
"Filch finally took a much needed bath. " Yelled Blue.
When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."
There was an explosion of cheering. Bluebell with her blurry vision looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy nor Elliott hadn't joined in. Lorena, however, was looking happier than she'd looked in days.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" she said to Blue. "Nips will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, he'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days'time. He hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave him where he is till they're over and don't even get me started with Roman, he'll be pissed when he hears about our... "she leaned in and whispered "adventure in the forbidden forest."
Blue smiled widely and nodded, "Personally, I can't wait to see his face when we tell him about the giant spiders."
Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to her much to her surprise. She looked tense and nervous, and Blue noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.
"Good morning, Ginny" Lorena greeted, helping herself porridge.
Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Blue of someone, though she couldn't think who.
A couple of heartbeats and Blue suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.
"Ginny, somethin' is wrong?" asked Blue softly, watching her.
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at her.
"What is it?" said Lorena.
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.
"What is it, Ginny?" Asked blue, starting to get worried.
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Blue, a little desperate, leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and Lorena could hear her.
"Ginny— Is it somethin' about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen somethin' ? Someone actin' oddly?"
Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.
"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."
Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.
"Percival, always appearin' when not needed," said Blue, annoyed. "She was just about to tell us somethin' important!"
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.
"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.
"We just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say." Lorena was Interrupted by the prefect.
"Oh - that - that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy at once.
"How do you know?" said Blue, her eyebrows raised.
"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was - well, never mind - the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather--"
Blue almost snorted, never seeing Percy look so uncomfortable.
"What were you doin', bruv?" said Blue, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we ain't goin' laugh... ."
Percy didn't smile back.
"It's none of your business." He hiss "Pass me those rolls, Lorena, I'm starving."
Blue knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but she wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up - and to her delight it did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.
Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.
"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be It was Hagrid .'Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."
"And I, sir, couldn't agree more," said Blue, making Lorena drop her books in surprise. "Of course, I wasn't expectin' less from someone like you, sir."
"Thank you, Bluebell," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."
"That's right," Blue continued. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go--"
"You know, King, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class--"
And he hurried off.
"What was that?" Asked Lorena, blue turned to her " To leave us alone so we can go talk to Myrtle."
Lorena nods, finally catching on "Right, that's smart."
They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"Wait" the blood said, stopping in her tracks, she tapped her robes and looked inside her bag.
"What? What did you forget this time?" Already knowing what's the matter.
"My wand" Huffs Lorena, angrily.
Blue stared at her wide eyes "Again, bruv? Really?"
"I told you, I don't know what's happening to me and now with the exams." Lorena runs a hand over her face "I'm going mad."
"Where did you leave it?"
"Uhhhh"
Blue sighs, shaking her head "We'll search for it later, first we have to see Myrtle."
Lorena nods defeatedly and continues walking but just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme.
"King! Blood! What are you doing?"
It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.
"We were - we were -" Lorena stammered. "We were going to - to go and see--"
"Our friends," said Blue. Lorena and Professor McGonagall both looked at her.
"It's been what? A few weeks? Months? Years? Can't even remember the last time I saw them, Mimi," went on Dramatically, treading on Lorena's foot, "and well, forgive me but I can't just forget about them that easy, so we were going to sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell them the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, that they'll be back in no time--"
Professor McGonagall was still staring at her, and for a moment, Blue thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.
"Of course," she said, and Bluebell, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes,King , of course you may visit Mr. Marcel and Mr. Quinn. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
Blue and Lorena walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.
"That," said Lorena fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."
Blue shrugged "I supposed. I'm gettin' good at lyin' , innit?"
They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Eric and Roman.
Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.
"There's just no point talking to a Petrified. person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to their friends.
It was plain that they didn't have the faintest inkling that they had visitors, and that they might just as well tell their bedside cabinet their thanks for holding the boys wands.
"Wonder if they did see the attacker, though?" said Lorena, looking sadly at Eric's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."
But Blue wasn't looking at either of her friends' faces. She was more interested in Roman's right hand. It lay clenched on top of his blankets, and bending closer, she saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside his fist.
Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, she pointed this out to Lorena.
"Go on and get it out," Lorena whispered, shifting her chair so that she blocked Bluebell from Madam Pomfrey's view.
It was no easy task. Roman's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Bluebell was sure she was going to tear it.
"Roman you shit." Bluebell grunted softly.
While Lorena kept watch she tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.
It was a page torn from a very old library book. Bluebell smoothed it out eagerly and hurriedly placed her glasses on. Lorena leaned close to read it, too.
"Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it."
And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Bluebell recognized as Eric's. Pipes.
It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in her brain. "Nips, you beautiful genius."
"Lore," she breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk - a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearin' that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue..."
Bluebell looked up at the beds around her.
"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again.. and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror - and--"
Lorena's jaw had dropped.
"And Mrs. Norris?" She whispered eagerly.
Bluebell thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.
"The water..." she said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection..."
She scanned the page in her hand eagerly. The more she looked at it, the more it made sense.
"...The crowing of the rooster... is fatal to it"! She read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it.! It all fits!"
"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Lorena "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."
Blue , however, pointed at the word Eric had scribbled at the foot of the page.
"Pipes," she said. "Pipes... Lore, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."
The Blood girl suddenly grabbed the blonde's arm.
"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" She said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in--"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Bluebell.
They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.
"This means," said Bluebell, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."
"What're we going to do?" said Lorena, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"
"Let's go to the staff room," said Bluebell, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."
"Wait. Do you think we'll be able to find my wand?" Lorena asks Blue grunts, twitching with the need tell McGonagall already.
"No, just hurry and grab one of theirs until we find yours"
They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. The two girls paced around it, too excited to sit down.
But the bell to signal break never came.
Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.
"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."
"You've got to be shittin' me" Blue wheeled around to stare at Lorena. "Not another attack? Not now?"
"What'll we do?" said Lorena, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?" "No," said Bluebell, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to her left, full of the teachers'cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."
They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. 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 said, "How can you be sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.
Bluebell quickly placed her hand over Lorena's mouth to prevent the gasp that was surely making its way out of her throat.
"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."
The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Blue was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.
"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?"
He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.
"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."
Lockhart blanched.
"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"I - well, I -"sputtered Lockhart.
"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.
"D-did I? I don't recall--"
"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
"I - I really never - you may have misunderstood--"
"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by youself. A free rein at last."
Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.
"V-very well," he said. "I'll - I'll be in my office, getting - getting ready."
And he left the room.
"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."
The teachers rose and left, one by one.
Bluebell felt like she did when she found out about Roman and Eric, she felt like throwing up, her breath was quicker than it was just a few moments before, her hands were starting to get numb... this time she distracted herself not wanting to make a scene. Not now.
From afar she watches Ginny's family Ron, Fred, and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory. Harry Potter along with Hermione trying to console Ron.
No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Ron, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.
"She knew somethin', Lore," said Blue, 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 thin' about Percy at all. She'd found out somethin' about the Chamber of Secrets."
Lorena nods in understanding "That must be why she was - I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."
Blue 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.
"Bluebell" said Lorena. "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not - you know--"
Blue didn't know what to say. She couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive... No, she couldn't be.
Ginny couldn't be dead.
"D'you know what?" said Blue standing with determination. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's goin' 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."
Lorena quickly 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.
Blue 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 - Miss. King- Miss Blood-" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment -if you would be quick--"
"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Blue. "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?"Asked Lorena.
"Er, well, yes," 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--"
"But— But what about Ginny?" said Lorena, appalled by the man.
"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--"
"You're the fuckin' Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Bluebell angrily. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"
"Well - I must say - when I took the job -" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "nothing in the job description - didn't expect--"
"You mean you're runnin' away? Like a damn coward?" said Bluebell disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books--"
"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.
"Aren't you the soddin' Author?!" Bluebell shouted.
"My dear girl," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Bluebell. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on--"
Lorena gasp "But that means—"
"You humongous piece of human shit!" Blue exclaimed with boiling rage "You've been takin' credit for what a load of other people have done"
"Bluebell, Bluebell," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, the insults Blue was throwing at him not helping, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Bluebell. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."
He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.
"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry, girls , but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book--"
Blue reached her wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Blue bellowed, "Expelliarmus! "
Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Lorena caught it, and flung it out of the open window.
"Ain't never thought I'll say this, it even pains me to say it but Professor Snape is a great dueler," said Bluebell furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at her, feeble once more. Bluebell was still pointing her wand at him.
"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."
"Well today's your lucky day, Bruv" said Bluebell, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."
They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
They sent Lockhart in first. Blue was pleased to see that he was shaking.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Blue. "What do you want this time?"
"If you don't mind Myrtle will like to ask you how you died," said Lorena.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then -" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died ."
"How?" Asked blue.
"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 Bluebell . "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 Bluebell.
"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.
The two gryffindors girls 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 Bluebell 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 she tried to turn it.
"Blue," said Lorena. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."
"But -" Bluebell thought hard. The only times she'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when she'd been faced with a real snake. She stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," she said.
She looked at Lorena, who shook her head.
"English," she said.
Blue looked back at the snake, willing herself to believe it was alive. If she moved her head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.
"Open up," she 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. 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.
Blue heard Lorena gasp and looked up again. She had made up her mind what she was going to do.
"I'm goin' down there," she said.
She couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.
"I— yeah, me too," said Lorena.
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 door knob, but the girls both pointed their wands at him.
"I'm normally a tradionist but I'll make an exception this time. you can go first, Professor" Lorena said with a hint of a snarl.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
"Girls," he said, his voice feeble. "Girls, what good will it do? Don't you think this is too much for some little girls like you two?"
Enrange Bluebell jabbed him in the back with her wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe. "Shut up, you chauvinist dickhead."
"I really don't think -" he started to say, but Lorena gave him a push, and he slid out of sight.
Blue and Lorena looked at eachother, Bluebell knew Lorena was scared, so she offered to go first. 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 Lorena, thudding slightly at the curves.
A breath of relief left her lungs, for a moment just a moment Blue thought she wasn't going to jump but was graceful to admit she was wrong.
And then, just as she had begun to worry about what would happen when she hit the ground, the pipe leveled 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. Bluebell stood aside as Lorena came whizzing out of the pipe, too.
"Shit. We must be miles under the school," said Bluebell, hier voice echoing in the black tunnel.
"Under the lake, probably," said Lorena, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.
All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos! " Bluebell muttered to her wand and it lit again. "C'mon," she said to Lorena 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 wandlight.
"Remember," Bluebell 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 Lorena stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull.
Blue lowered her wand 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, Bluebell led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.
"Blue- there's something up there -" said Lorena hoarsely, grabbing Bluebell arm.
"Oh shit"
They froze, watching. Blue could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep," she breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Blue turned back to look at the thing, her heart beating so fast it hurt.
"Lore, did you brin' a wand?" Blue whispered Lorena with her eyes closed, lifted her wand arm, Bluebell wanted to scream or laugh.
Out of the two wands, she grabbed Roman's.
"Forget it" Bluebell mumbled, not wanting to deal with the chaos Roman's wand could cause.
Very slowly, her eyes as narrow as she could make them and still see, Bluebell edged forward, her wand 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.
"Open your eyes, it's fine" Blue said
"Merlin," said Lorena weakly at the sight.
There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.
Bluebell rolled her eyes and pinche the bridge of her nose.
"Have some decorum for Godric's sake," said Lorena, pointing Roman's wand at Lockhart.
Blue wanted to tell her to put the wand away because of who it belonged but she didn't get the chance. Lockhart got to his feet - then he dived at Lorena, knocking her to the ground.
"Oi " Bluebell angrily jumped forward, but too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Roman's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.
"The adventure ends here, girls!" 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 little girls like you tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories!"
He raised Roman's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled , "Obliviate! "
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Blue flung her arms over her head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, she was standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.
"Lorena" she shouted, panicking. "Are you okay? Lore!"
"I'm here!" came Lorena's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay - this git's not, though - he got blasted by the wand--"
"Of course, it's Roman's" Bluebell huffs with a hint of amusement.
There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Lorena had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
"What now?" Lorena voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through - it'll take ages..."
Bluebell 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... Bluebell knew there was only one thing to do.
"Wait there," she called to Lorena. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on... If I'm not back in an hour..."
There was a very pregnant pause, "I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Lorena, who seemed to be trying to keep her voice steady. "So you can - can get back through.—"
"See you in a bit," said Bluebell, trying to inject some confidence into her shaking voice.
And she set off alone past the giant snake skin.
Soon the distant noise of Lorena straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Bluebell'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 she crept around yet another bend, she saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
Blue approached, her throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive.
She could guess what she had to do. She cleared her throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.
"Open," said Bluebell, in a low, faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Bluebell, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.
"No turnin' back"