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"You don't see him anywhere?!" Harry called to Ron frantically. "He's nowhere over here! Milo! Milo!"
The more he called for his brother, the more he was met with the sound of his own voice as it echoed in the side of the tunnel he was trapped in. There was no sound of movement nor the sound of his brother calling back to him. The only person who responded was Ron, confirming the worst that he couldn't see Milo on his side either, which meant one thing. Milo had been caught in the middle and was currently trapped under the heavy rubble. Forgetting his wand in the moment, Harry began pulling away at the fallen rocks, trying to figure out where his brother was. If Milo was trapped and unresponsive it was a terrible sign.
"He has to be trapped then, Ron! Help me dig him out!" Harry said, feeling his hands trembling terribly. After going so many years with the idea that he didn't have any family outside of the Dursleys to rely on, Harry had finally reconnected with his brother and they were at a place where they were both happy. Things, of course, were not perfect but they were on their way of being better. Harry couldn't lose it all, not so suddenly and not in such a tragic way. Was losing their parents in such a horrible way, not enough?
The way Milo always looked out for him and tried to help Harry in any way that he could, Harry wished that he had just stayed behind. At least that way, he wouldn't be stuck with the possibility that his brother was dead underneath all the rubble.
"Harry....what about Ginny?" Ron asked his friend. While they were worried over Milo as well, Ginny's life was still in the hands of the monster and time was running out if it hadn't run out already. Harry felt conflicted, the rubble had left him separate from the others, meaning Ron couldn't even go after his sister even if he wanted to. The number of rocks that had piled up was massive and as Ron would claim, it would take ages for them to get through.
"Harry, I'll get him out," Ron said to him in a promising tone, "if he's under there, I'll get Milo out, I can go back and get some help for all us of-"
"Get Milo out, I'm going to go get Ginny," Harry told him. He knew he had to get a move on to find Ginny before it was too late and the Heir of Slytherin's words became the truth about her body lying in the Chambers forever. The two boys were trying to remain confident and calm for the sake of the other as their siblings' lives were on the line, left to the responsibility of each other.
Ron could hear the sound of Harry's footsteps travelling in the opposite direction as the boy left to find Ginny. He could also hear the hesitation to leave every few steps as if he was glancing over his shoulder and see Milo appear at any moment. Once the footsteps could no longer be heard, Ron starting moving as fast as he could to pull rocks away in hopes of uncovering Milo. As much as Ron wanted him to be there, at the same time, he didn't. He didn't want to be the one to uncover Milo's body as he didn't think Milo would be able to survive such a crash.
Turning to Lockhart, who was looking around in a daze, Ron narrowed his eyes at the man. In his hand, he clenched one of the smaller rocks, glaring right at the professor.
"This is all your fault!" Ron yelled at him, throwing the rock and hitting Lockhart in the knee. The man cried out in pain but looked all too confused as to why Ron was treating him in such a way. It was then that Ron realised that when the spell backfired, it actually ended up oblivating the man. Now he was stuck with a version of Lockhart was even more clueless than before.
"Help me!" He called to Lockhart as he continued pulling away the rocks and other debris. "Help me!"
He was regretting everything that had led up to the moment he was stuck in currently, thinking that he should have paid better attention to Ginny throughout the term. He remembered her coming up to him and Harry before Percy had shooed her off. Ron just wished he would have been sensible enough to go after her and see what was wrong, rather than just going through the motions. He saw how much Milo was willing to go out of his way to help Harry in any way that he could, and he couldn't even do something as simple as approaching his sister and ask if she was okay.
It was up to Harry now, to see if he could find Ginny and help her. It was a lot of pressure to place on Harry's shoulder, especially when the boy was counting on Ron to help his brother in any way that Ron could.
Lockhart was of no help or use as the man was fearful of Ron, hiding away in the shadows, afraid that Ron was going to hit him with another rock out of anger. Ron continued to work picking up the heaviest of rock and then throwing it behind him. There was one part that was lodged, making it a bigger struggle on the boy as he continued to pull at it. He didn't think of the consequences of the wall of rock collapsing in any further, but Ron was lucky because as he pulled some of the rock away, it did crumble further but provided a small opening.
However, it also revealed something else.
Milo's wand.
Broken in several places but still somewhat held together by the core was Milo's wand. It didn't survive the tunnel collapse and no amount of Spellotape was going to be able to salvage it. Yet it was still managing to produce a flickering light that would fade but attempt to light up again. As if the wand itself was trying to hold on to its own life. But Ron wasn't focused so much on the wand as his eyes drifted as he caught sight of a mangled hand sticking out as well.
"MILO!"
As if poor Ron wasn't doing enough, he pushed himself as much as he physically could to pull away the rocks. But he was damn near exhausted from everything he had been doing. During one last desperate attempt, Ron turned to Lockhart.
"Please help me, he could die if we don't help him," Ron pleaded with the man, " please help me!"
Lockhart approached cautiously, as if Ron was setting up a trap to hit him, but as he saw the tears streaming down the overwhelmed boy's face, Lockhart's expression softened. With no recollection of what had taken place with the boys prior, Lockhart didn't have any malicious intent to see the red-headed boy suffer, even though he was kind of the reason that he was down there to begin with. Finally, with Ron wiping at his face and returning to free Milo, Lockhart joined in quietly.
He pulled away the larger of the rocks. There were a few times where the rocks slid and undid all of their work, but eventually, after what felt like ages, they were able to uncover the upper half of Milo's body. The collapse had left Milo's clothing torn and tattered, stained with blood that Ron could see in the flickering and dim lighting. The boy knelt down by Milo's side, to see that Milo's clothes were not the only thing stained with blood but practically his entire body. The boy's face was bruised and bloody, his glasses shattered and the pieces of glass embedded in his face. His body was contorted in a painfully awkward position that just reiterated that he had plenty of broken bones.
"M-M-Milo," Ron stammered as he tried to keep his composure, " Milo, come on now, you have to wake up. Harry's g-g-going to b-be back any second with G-G-Ginny. He's n-not going t-t-to want to see you like this."
He moved closer, careful to not disturb the bed of rocks that Milo's body was resting on. He reached out a hand to shake Milo but he wasn't sure if that was the best action to do since he didn't want to create a further injury. That was if Milo was alive, he was hoping and praying in that moment.
His second attempt, Ron reached out and placed his fingers to Milo's neck checking for a pulse, he leaned forward to check Milo's breathing, both of them non-existent.
"I think he's dead," Lockhart claimed bluntly from where he stood. Ron turned to him with a murderous look and quickly Lockhart backed away to avoid any further wrath. Everything was just terribly wrong, if Harry came back with Ginny alive, then he was going to be faced with the idea that his brother had been lost and if Harry returned without Ginny, the two boys were going to be left with the fact that they had both lost siblings that very same night. Ron wasn't even sure how he was supposed to tell Harry, obviously, the scene would be self-explanatory but what was going to happen right after Harry saw his brother's lifeless body?
Faced with the idea of two people dying, Ron couldn't help but think of every time where he had been mean or rude to Milo and Ginny. He thought back to the every time where he told Ginny to go away or when he called Milo mental. It was hard to focus on any good when he could only think about all the bad and how they didn't deserve anything that had happened to them. Lockhart watched as Ron just cried over the other boy's body.
To make matters worse, as Ron moved a rock shifted causing Milo's limp hand to flop over. In the boy's hand was part of the basilisk skin that he had apparently collected in hopes of presenting it to Newt Scamander. Now he wasn't going to get the chance to do that.
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Cedric woke with a sudden start, looking around the dorm room in confusion. Quite frankly, he didn't remember falling asleep, all he remembered was Milo reading over several textbooks that he had in his possession trying to figure out what the monster was in the Chamber of Secrets. His thoughts travelled specifically to Milo as he saw the books left open but no sign of the boy. He looked around to see Paden asleep on the pillow but still, Milo was nowhere to be seen. Cedric didn't like that and went to check the showers and the rest of the boys' dorm, he even travelled to the common room, but Milo didn't seem to be in the Hufflepuff house at all.
Frantically, he ran back to the room, trying to see if Milo left behind a note, but he saw that Milo had left one book open in particular, something about a cockatrice with the word basilisk circled. Cedric had no idea what any of it really meant, all he knew that Milo was missing. Quickly he grabbed the book as if it would offer any insight and left the dorms to find Professor McGonagall or any of the professors to see where Milo had ventured off to during the night.
When Paden awoke moments later, he found that the bed was empty, both boys gone and no trace of where either one of them had left to.