Harry's POV:
"Hi Myrtle," I started, since Ron appeared to be too uncomfortable around the ghost to speak to her. "How are you doing?"
"Well I am dead aren't I?" She answered dramatically. Not the best way to start this. "Came to laugh at me for it?!"
"No, absolutely not!" I immediately said. "We just wanted to know some stuff. Like how you died..."
"Oh, it was very awful," she said, now getting enthusiastic upon being asked such a sad thing. "It was right here actually. I had locked myself in this very cubicle because this girl had bullied me for my glasses."
Ron and I shared a look. We were right. "And then?"
"Well, someone came in," she continued. "And I heard them talk in a funny way, but I heard it wasn't a girl. So I went out, to tell him to get out!"
"What happened then?" Ron asked her.
"Then I died, suddenly..."
"The basilisk!" I exclaimed, turning to Ron. "So we were right! Where did you hear the guy?"
Myrtle pointed to the sink. "Right there."
Ron and I walked over to it and started looking. "Funny how so many people are suddenly so interested in me..."
I turned around to face her again. "Wait, who else came to you?"
"This little girl, red hair, also a Gryffindor..."
"That must be Ginny!" Ron said. "How else would she know too much?"
"She was here a few minutes ago and then she disappeared, suddenly."
"Did you see who was with her?" Ron asked, forgetting this was Myrtle for a second because of his worries for Ginny's safety.
But I knew I was missing something. Something wasn't right.
"We should go get Lockart," I said. "He was gonna go look for the monster right?"
"Yeah," Ron answered. "We should lead him here and tell him what we know!"
And so we did.
--
In Lockart's office it was a total mess. Suit- cases, paintings and many other objects were flying around the room and Lockart was seemingly in a hurry.
"Professor, we know where the Chamber of Secrets is!" Ron yelled, storming in. Lockart turned to us, looking... caught? Guilty?
"What are you doing?" I asked him, while looking at all the already packed suitcases. "You're not leaving are you?"
"Well-"
"What?!" Ron exclaimed shocked. "B-but what about my sister? You were going to save her!"
"Well, that's all very unfortunate what happened," Lockart stammered, looking very awkward around. "But I'm afraid I can't do much for her."
"But what about your books? You're the Defense against the Dark Arts professor!" I retorted angrily.
"Well, I wrote them," he answered. "Books can be deceiving. And when I took this job, it didn't mention I'd actually have to do..."
"So you didn't do all those things?!" Ron concluded, looking disgusted with the adult.
"Well, no one would've read the books if the person on the cover were ugly!" Lockart sputtered.
"You used other people's stories!" I was actually perplexed by this. If I would later look back on this, I would always ridicule myself for believing a man as dumb as Lockart was the hero he said he was.
"Is there anything that you can do?" I asked him, giving him the hardest death stare I could manage.
"Now you bring it up," Lockart said turning around, getting his wand. "I had to get those stories out of people, but I couldn't have them remember, could I? So I happen to have quite mastered the memory charm."
But before he could erase our memories, Ron and I pointed our own wands at him.
"Expelliarmus!" His wand flew straight into my hand. "You shouldn't have let Snape teach us that one."
"Now now boys!" Lockart held up his hands defensively.
"What do we do with him?" Ron asked me, acting as if Lockart wasn't even there. "Do we take him with us or do we hand him in?"
"No time," I decide and I look back to Lockart. "You're coming with us. Into the Chamber."
"Really boys," Lockart tried again. "I don't think that's-"
"Go on!" Ron poked his wand in Lockart's back. "Move!"
And so, we walked back to Myrtle's bathro- om, back to the sink. I looked at all the little details of the sink again, and then I saw it.
The snake engraving.
"Ron, this must be it!" Ron came to look, while I watched Lockart. "Say something in Parseltongue Harry..."
Now, I'd never intentionally spoken Parsel- tongue, so the first two times, I spoke English and nothing happened.
The third time however, the sink disappear- ed and a deep tunnel appeared where the sink once had been.
"This is it!" Ron exclaimed. We stood there for a few seconds, both silently wondering what to do exactly.
"Well kids," Lockart said, out of the blue. "Good work that was, very impressive! You won't need me anymore, will you? I thought so-"
"You're going in first." I pointed my wand at him again and he swallowed. "N-no boys, I-"
Before he could have finished, Ron pushed him over the edge (the literal way) and with a scream he fell down.
We waited in silence for a response from below, to see if he was still alive. "D'you think I killed him?" Ron asked after half a minute.
"If you did, I think Hermione will probably kill you." Ron shivered at the thought of that, 'cause there's no way if he killed a professor, especially Lockart, that he would survive Hermione.
"It's dark down here!" Lockart's voice finally came from very far down. It must've been under the castle. "Could you maybe get me out of here?!"
Ron and I locked eyes and then we jumped at the same time.
The tunnel felt like a massive slide, formed like a tube. It seemed to take an extremely long time to get to the end, despite the fall going extremely fast.
But we landed at the bottom at last, where Lockart also was. The place was cold as ice, most likely because it was so far down. And it was really really dark.
"Lumos," I said and my wand lit up and Ron followed my example. It wasn't until now that I realised we were standing on hard objects: bones.
"Bloody hell," Ron whispered as he looked at them. "How many people do you think have died here already?"
"Excellent question," Lockart said, suddenly jumping on Ron and grabbing his wand. "Whatever the answer is, I will not be next."
He had his wand on me, I wasn't gonna be first if I tried to disarm him again. We were doomed. "I will obliviate you two. I'll tell them you went crazy when you saw that little girl's dead body."
"You can't do that!" Ron exclaimed with a dreading look in his eyes, almost desperate.
"Oh, I can. And you, Harry Potter, are first."
I braced myself, but when he said the incantation, nothing happened to me or Ron. The spell shot out the wrong end of the wand, because this was the broken wand. Lockart himself got hit with it.
He flew backwards against the wall and fell to the ground like a doll. This hit caused the room's ceiling to break down. Rocks fell from above us.
Ron and I both dove away from the rocks coming down for us, both another way. I luckily didn't get hit with rocks in my head very hard. "Ron, are you OK?" I asked, looking around feverishly.
"Yeah, I'm good! Are you?" Ron's response came immediately. "Lockart's here too, just unconscious I think."
I tried to follow Ron's voice, but there was a wall of rocks between us now. Damn it! "You can't get through here!"
I was on the end that led to another path, Ron was definitely on the side from where we got in. "I'll have to go on, there's no time," I yelled back to Ron. "If you try to get this wall away, I'll try to get Ginny back."
Ron stayed quiet and I felt the regret and pain, even on my side of the wall. All the quarrels he'd had with Ginny, all the times he wasn't there, the short time we'd known each other.
"Good luck Harry."
*~*
Lucy's POV:
When I found out Ginny had been taken, I was beyond confused at first. After a bit of thinking, I realised Tom had gained total control and had taken her, before I could do something.
Just in time, a*shole.
Anyways, I made a decision: I was the only one who knew enough to go after her. I had to go and try to save her, if I had the chance.
And so I went to Myrtle and quickly heard the weird snake sound, with my super sensitive hearing. I opened the Chamber and went down.
So now I was here, walking into another huge underground room. I gasped as I was walking up the path: at the end lay Ginny, very still. Riddle was nowhere to be seen yet.
I tried to walk as fast and as quietly as I could manage towards my friend, avoiding the puddles of water on the floor.
Please Ginny, be alive.
I felt for a pulse once I'd reached her and sighed in relief when I felt one. Thank God. But then I heard someone coming.
I knew it was Riddle: it had to be him. Should I stay here and confront him? Or should I hide?
In the last moment, I decided on hiding. I practically dove behind the gigantic statue of a snake, probably a basilisk. And just like I'd expected, Tom Riddle appeared.
Tom Riddle was a tall, young and I hate to admit it, but handsome guy. Hot handsome, not cute handsome. His skin was pale, his dark hair seemed to be shining (I'm not kidding). His posture was elegant, no his entire being was elegant.
And those eyes.
Even while he wasn't looking in my dir- ection, I could see how entrancing his eyes were. They were dark, both in colour and in the way he looked. Yet I could imagine if he tried to look innocent and kind, he'd have no trouble doing that.
Had Ginny seen him? Is that what attracted her in the first place? If so, I had to admire her taste.
"Well well," he said, looking down at Ginny. "Ginny Weasley. Despite all the attempts of your dear friends, here you are. Let's see how long it'll take before I've completely gained your strength."
No.
"And we'll see how long it takes for Harry Potter and his little sister to try and rescue you here."
He was using her as bait to get to Harry and me. What the hell did he want from us other than get us out of the way?
Tom turned around, to where he'd come from, but I didn't actually see a door or anything. But he started speaking.
"Come," he summoned and I could already guess what it was he summoned. I gasped, which caused Tom to turn to my direction. He didn't actually see me, but I'd be foolish to think he didn't know I was here.
If he hadn't already known.
"Go and search in the tunnels," he comman- ded, and I heard something huge move. The basilisk. Fuck.
I heard the basilisk slyther into my tunnel, he could probably smell me. I stayed dead still for just a moment, to figure which way he came from. Right now, for the very first time, being a werewolf really felt like a plus.
I heard it come from the right and it was coming my way. Let's get the other way. But I had one more disadvantage: though I could smell and hear very well, just like the basilisk, I didn't know these tunnels like he did. He literally lived here.
But I knew how to play the game, so I moved. Being quiet was not gonna do much now, so I was free to run, as long as I didn't run right into the snake or Riddle.
I ran left and made sure to take turns where I could. I needed to stay out of its eye sight, whatever I did.
"You can't run forever Lucy!" Tom called out, but I ignored him. I wasn't gonna fall for his tricks. I was smarter than that.
And so I kept running, but without realising I'd lost track of where the monster was. I couldn't really stop running, or it would win this race. By this point, I didn't know where the finish was.
Well, turns out I was out of luck: I wasn't running away from the monster anymore: I was now running directly towards it. There must've been some short cut the snake knew.
I turned the other way and took a run for it again. If there wouldn't come some kind of rescue quickly now, I was dead. I wasn't gonna be able to keep doing this much longer.
"Stop!" Tom suddenly called to the snake. I heard it stop, and so did I. Why did they stop? I mean, not that I was complaining, but still... Something made him stop the basilisk.
And now, I heard it too: someone was yelling from the entryway. A man, if I heard correctly. Was this the rescue? But how did this someone figure it out? Unless...
Unless it was Harry.
We all waited and listened in silence. And sure enough, a couple of minutes later, there were more voices. I recognized them as Harry and Ron's voices.
They figured it out too. And now, they were gonna die as well.
_____________________________________________
A/N:
Sorry for the long wait guys, but here's another chapter.
I really hope you still like the story, despite all the long waits. I try to update more regularly, but I'm pretty busy with school.
I was going to make this year longer then I did in the end, but since Vanessa and Hermione are both petrified, there's not a lot of interacrions with them after that.
I wanted to limit interactions with Ginny too, to create the distance between Ginny and the group in general. I mainly just wanted a bit of an introduction for the group, Luna, Marley etc. and a couple introductions between Lucy and some of Harry's classmates.
I think there's gonna be 2/3 chapters of year 2 and then I'll get to year 3 (which is my personal favourite tbh). Year 3 will also give some more information and answers.
As for the comments about Lucy speaking Parseltongue, there's gonna be answers, but it's not what you guys were thinking of. It's probably coming soon, still in this year I think.