Katie shot out the end of the pipe and landed hard on the damp floor of a dark, stone tunnel. Mere seconds later, the sound of Ron's high-pitched screaming filled the tunnel. He too shot out of the pipe, only he landed on Katie's back. The girl grunted in pain.
"I'm so sorry!" Ron screeched, his voice cracking.
"It's fine." Katie grumbled. Harry helped Ron to his feet before offering his hand to Katie and helping her stand up. Katie grimaced in disgust as she looked down at the thick slime that bathed her Slytherin robes.
"We must be miles under the school." Harry said. His voice echoed through the tunnel.
"Probably under the lake." Ron cut in, squinting around at the slimy walls.
"I have to say," Katie began as she pulled slime from her hair. "When I was told that Salazar Slytherin made a secret chamber, I was expecting something like great marble walls and water features, not a dirty old plumbing cavern."
Harry snorted. "The chamber is at the end of this tunnel, I expect." He pulled out his wand, muttered a spell, and a tiny ball of light appeared on the end of his wand, illuminating the filthy tunnel. The three children and Professor Lockhart began cautiously walking forward.
"Remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away." Harry warned. 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. As Harry lowered his wand and his light shone by the group's feet, Katie could see that the ground was covered in animals. She shivered in discomfort.
Suddenly, Ron grabbed Harry's shoulder. "Harry, there's something up there..." he said hoarsely.
Squinting through the darkness that was barely illuminated by Harry's light, Katie cold just about see the outline of something long and curved. All four of them knew exactly what they were looking at. Lockhart cowered behind his students and covered his eyes.
"Maybe it's sleeping..." Katie suggested. Very slowly, Harry began stepping towards the thing. Katie's heart was beating so hard that it hurt.
"Harry!" she hissed, but to no avail. Harry continued to cautiously move forward.
Harry's light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The snake that shed it must have been at least twenty feet long.
"Blimey." Ron said weakly.
A sudden movement behind them made the second years jump in fright. Lockhart's knees had given in and he had fallen to the floor. Ron scoffed and gave Lockhart an effortless kick in the side.
"Get up." he grumbled. Lockhart stood up sharply, but as he did, he snatched Ron's wand from his hand. Ron jumped back in helpless shock.
"The adventure ends here, children!" Lockhart began. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and how you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's sellotaped wand. Katie, Harry and Ron glanced around at each other, their eyes wide with terror. They were all frozen stiff in fear
"Obliviate!" Lockhart cried.
There was a loud bang and a flash of light. Lockhart let out a belting yell as he was flung backwards against the stone wall. A distant sound of rumbling, like thunder, filled the tunnel. Katie gulped nervously and slowly averted her gaze to the roof of the tunnel.
Cracks appeared in the ceiling before rock began to fall down. Katie found herself glued to the spot, unable to move. Luckily, Ron grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her out of the way of the avalanche of rock. The pair fell backwards at the force of Ron's tug and landed harshly on the cold stone floor.
"Are you OK?" Ron asked, gathering himself before helping Katie up. She dusted herself off.
"Yeah, thanks for that." she nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat.
The pair found themselves staring at a thick wall of rocks. Harry was nowhere in sight.
"HARRY!" Katie and Ron screamed in unison. "Harry, are you all right!"
"I'm fine!" Harry's voice called back. Katie let out a sigh of relief and her tensed muscles relaxed.
"Listen," Harry said. "I'll go on and find Ginny. You two start shifting some rocks so we can get back through. If I'm not back in an hour..."
Katie involuntarily let out a weak whimper.
"All right..." Ron said weakly, trying to keep his voice steady.
Katie felt tears bubbling up in her eyes, "Harry—"
"I'll see you in a bit." Harry cut her off, and then there was silence.
"Hello!" a cheerful voice broke the grim silence. "Who are you?"
Ron glanced between Katie and Lockhart, who was slumped on the floor with a merry smile on his face.
"Uhm... Ron Weasley..." he said cautiously.
"Really?" Lockhart beamed. "And who am I?"
Katie's mouth dropped open in realisation.
"His memory charm backfired!" He hasn't got a clue who he is!" she said to Ron.
Lockhart picked up a rock and twisted it around in his hand. "It's an odd sort of place, isn't it? Do you live here?"
Ron took the rock from Lockhart's hand and thumped it on the back of his head. The dazed professor had now been knocked unconscious. Ron then turned to Katie.
"Now what?"
Katie huffed and, placing her hands on her hips, looked at the large wall of fallen rocks. "We move the rocks like Harry said."
The pair scratched and tugged at rocks for what felt like centuries. By the time they had made all but a tiny gap, Katie fingers were burning and her knuckles were bleeding heavily. She collapsed on a nearby rock, quickly followed by Ron.
"Do you think Harry will be OK?" Katie quizzed, though she was scared of the answer. Ron took a long time to reply.
He sighed. "Harry is brilliant, but that snake — I don't know, Katie..."
Katie bit her lip to stop herself from crying. She decided to change the subject, though a cheerful topic didn't really seem to be in order, giving the deathly situation.
"After that day in the Slytherin common room... did you believe that I was the heir of Slytherin?"
Ron paused, and a thick silence engulfed the two twelve year olds. Katie was beginning to regret asking the question when Ron finally answered.
"I mean, it all fit, you know? But then I was in bed that night, thinking everything over, and I realised that there was no way you were the heir of Slytherin."
The corners of Katie's mouth twitched and her lips formed a small smile.
Not even ten seconds later, the familiar voice of Harry Potter rang through the tunnel.
"Ron! Katie!" he shouted. "Ginny's OK! I've got her!"
Ron sprung up off the rock at the speed of light and threw himself at the small hole in the rockfall, cheering as he did so.
"Ginny!" Ron reached out and pulled Ginny through the gap in the rocks. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"
Katie stepped towards the hole in the wall and aided Harry as he clambered through.
"Thanks." he breathed weakly. Katie's wide eyes scanned up and down the boy. Splatters of fresh, glistening blood complemented his slimy, mucky robes.
"Merlin, Harry, you're covered in blood. What happened?" Katie asked softly, gently grabbing Harry's arm and looking at a healed scar that was poking through a tear in his robes. It didn't make sense how a wound that he had only gotten in the last hour would already be healed, but Katie decided not to question Harry any further.
Ron tried to hug Ginny, but she held him back, sobbing.
"But you're OK, Ginny," Ron said, smiling, his face glowing. "It's over now, it's — where did that bird come from?"
A magnificent bird with fiery red and gold plumage swooped through the hole in the rocks after Harry.
"It's Dumbledore's." Harry explained.
"And how come you've got a sword?" Ron continued, gaping. Before that very second, Katie hadn't noticed the glittering, silver weapon that Harry was gripping tightly in his bloody hand.
Katie walked over to Ginny, who was standing pale-faced and trembling behind her brother. The Slytherin wrapped her arm around the Gryffindor's shoulder and pulled her close.
***
Katie hobbled back to the Slytherin common room, a great stench radiating from her. Some of the blood that matted Harry's robes had transferred onto her own robes, which was making the girl queasy.
The sun was beginning to rise, painting the sky with beautiful shades of yellow and orange. However, Katie didn't have much time to admire the sunrise because she soon found herself in the dungeons.
Her plan was to go straight to the showers as soon as she arrived back at the common room, but there was a snappy change of events when she walked in and found none other than Draco Malfoy sitting by the empty fireplace. His chin was resting on his closed fist and he looked to be very distraught.
"Drac— err... Malfoy?"
Draco wheeled his head around at lightning speed. His eyes flashed over Katie and widened when he saw the state that she was in.
"What are you doing up?" Katie questioned, ignoring the fact that she had just clambered into the common room in the early hours of the morning covered in slime, dirt and blotches of blood.
"Pansy came running into my dormitory about an hour ago, panicking," Draco began, bringing himself to his feet. "She said you were gone out of your bed. We — what happened to you?"
"Chamber of Secrets," Katie said irksomely, waving Draco down in agitation. "Where is Pansy now?"
"She just left to go and tell McGonagall that we couldn't find you — did you say the Chamber of Secrets?" Draco's eyes were popping out of his head with raw shock. Katie, completely disregarding Malfoy's crave for an explanation on why she was in the Chamber of Secrets, continued to interrogate him on what she believed to be the more important topic.
"Yeah, I was down there with Harry and Ron. Hey, did you say you were looking for me?" Katie was surprised that Malfoy cared enough to search for her, but she couldn't deny the fact that it pleased her. She found it very hard to fight back the smile that was threatening to form on her face.
"Merlin's beard, Blair, tone it down on the questions and explain why you went to the damn Chamber of Secrets!" Draco cried in exasperation, ignoring Katie's question. A small smirk tugged at Katie's lips when Draco avoided her question, but she quickly wiped it away.
"I'll explain later," she said. "I have more important things to be doing right now." She glanced down at her filthy self.
Malfoy stifled a laugh. "Yeah, you should probably go get yourself cleaned up."
Katie had almost reached the girl's dormitory when Draco called out to her.
"Blair?"
She turned around. "Yeah?"
"I'll bring you up some food. You know, you'll probably be tired so..." Draco said sheepishly, refusing to meet Katie's eyes. "I mean, I doubt you'll want to go down to the Great Hall—"
"Thank you, Draco." Katie cut in with a smile.