"What are we going to do?" Ron asked, running after Harry.
They climbed the flight of stairs and continued to DADA's office.
"Lockhart may be incompetent, but he's going to try to get into the House," the brunette replied as he entered the room "We need to tell him what we've found out."
Lockhart wouldn't be his choice for anything at that school, to be honest, but Harry couldn't deny that as impressive as the idea of the blond being a hero and taking on the Brazilian might be, he wanted to believe it was real.
They had to beat the Brazilian or the school would be closed forever, and above all they had to save Ginny.
Ron's little sister shouldn't have been involved in this no one should be a victim of it, but if he stopped to think perhaps he would question why she, a pureblood, was taken instead of another muggle-born. But he didn't have to wonder about that.
Ron had already had plenty of reasons to fear over the last few days, he'd had nightmares the night before after their encounter with the tarantulas, and now this.
That moment, with Fred, George, Percy, and Ron, when Professor McGonagall told them about Ginny's disappearance was one of the worst of his life. He felt as helpless and useless as when Hermione was attacked.
The sentence written in blood on the wall kept haunting his mind.
HER SKELETON WILL REMAIN IN THE SECRET CHAMBER FOREVER
Harry would do something to reverse this if only to tell Lockhart what he had discovered.
They reached the stairs at the back of the classroom, climbed up to the mezzanine, and knocked on the teacher's office door.
They didn't wait for an invitation, just opened the door. Harry took a step back, trying to make sense of the scene in front of him. It was being tidied up and put away as if someone was getting ready to leave.
to leave.
A mess of suitcases everywhere.
"Are you going somewhere?" Ron asked, as confused as Harry.
Lockhart stared at them for half a second, startled, before beginning to look everywhere but at them. His blue eyes widened, like a deer caught in a headlight,
the professor mumbled a few intelligible things for a few seconds before explaining that he had something urgent to do, away from Hogwarts.
"But what about my sister?" Ron's confusion began to be replaced by anger, and Harry was following in his footsteps.
How could he just abandon Ginny, and everyone else? With a simple: I'm sorry for her. Lockhart calls himself a hero, a great, powerful, and impressive wizard, but he's just a stupid coward, just as Harry imagined.
"You can't go now," Ron took the lead, facing Lockhart, "you're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
The blond tried to turn the table around.
"When I took the job, there was nothing about..."
"You're running away," Harry blocked his path as he spoke, "after everything you say you've done."
"Stories can be misleading."
"You wrote it," Ron retorted.
The professor dared to try to defend himself with a half-baked story about selling books.
"You're a fraud," Harry spat back, "everyone was right."
"Is there anything you know how to do properly?" Ron asked.
"Oh, yes" Lockhart drew his wand, and the boys did the same "I specialize in a specific spell, but don't worry, it doesn't hurt..."
"Expelliarmus" Harry cast.
Lockhart's wand flew up and Ron caught it in mid-air. The man stood still with two wands pointed at him.
"Well, let's go rescue my sister."
[...]
They entered the ladies' room to hear Myrtle's moaning sounds, something normal at this point. She wandered around the center of the bathroom instead of hiding in one of the booths.
The ghost, now that Harry could understand that she was just a student, really did look young. She died fifty years ago, but she would perpetually look fourteen, with her dark hair tied up in two pigtails, her round glasses very similar to Harry's own, and her full Ravenclaw uniform.
Now, looking at her was just depressing. That could be Ginny's future if they didn't save her.
She turned around angrily when she heard them enter.
"Who's there?" then her expression changed and she smiled weakly "Hello Harry, what do you want?"
This should be considered impolite, Harry had never asked a ghost before what the rules were when talking to one of them, whether asking about their death was polite or not, although he probably wouldn't want to tell them if he was the lost soul wandering around, but he had to know, this was a matter of life or death. Education can wait.
"I want to know how you died?"
"Oh, it was awful" she walked down towards the trio "It was right here in this booth" she pointed to the last of the doors in the row of booths "Olivia was making fun of my glasses, so I hid here. I was crying when I heard someone come in."
"Who was Myrtle?"
"I didn't see" Her mood changed to anger again "I was distracted. But I heard someone speaking a strange language, I realized it was a boy when I went out to tell him to go away...I died."
"That's it? That's all he died of?"
"You didn't see anything else," the redhead asked.
"I saw yellow eyes and then I died" She levitated away whimpering "They were right there in that sink."
The trio approached the sinks in a circle.
Harry looked closer, he hadn't noticed it before, but there was a snake embedded in the silver tap.
"This," he pointed to Ron, "is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."
But how to open it?
"Say something," Ron said "Say something in snake language."
"Open" The word left his lips as usual, but from Ron's approving nod, he had done it in pareseltouge.
Harry held his breath waiting for what was coming next, they hadn't planned this.
The sinks began to shake and move forward, opening in an ever-widening circle, and they moved back a few steps.
When the sinks stopped moving, they could finally see a huge hole in the ground, slightly smaller than the one formed by the sinks.
Harry approached it and looked inside; he couldn't see anything but the dark, not even a hint of the bottom.
"Well, that was impressive," Lockhart said for the first time since entering the bathroom, he was taking slow steps backward "We should..."
He was interrupted by the boys pointing their wands in his face.
"You first."