78 Celes (1/2)

\”I see you idiots figured it out.\” Nova said.

\”Nova you are right this guy is a fraud.\” Harry gestured to Lockhart with his wand.

\”Nova, we are going to save my sister.\” Ron said and then went on to explain the situation.

\”Harry, you said you were hearing voices?\” Nova asked. \”What did it say?\”

\”Master kill . . . Samuel destroy. No Kill Master. Or something like that.\” Harry said.

\”Ok.\” Nova said.

\”Ok Harry open it up.\” Ron said.

\”Open up,\” he said.

He looked at Ron, who shook his head.

\”English,\” he said.

Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

\”Open up,\” he said.

Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, 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.

\”I'm going down there,\” he said. .

He 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.

\”Me too,\” said Ron.

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 Ron and Harry both pointed their wands at him.

\”You can go first,\” Ron snarled.

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening. \”Boys,\” he said, his voice feeble. \”Boys, what good will it do?\”

Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.

\”Oh enough of this.\” Nova said and kicked Lockhart in, then turned to Harry and Ron, \”Do you need an invitation?\”

Nova then grabbed Luna and jumped down with her. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Harry and Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.

\”We must be miles under the school,\” said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

\”Under the lake, probably,\” said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

\”Lumos!\” Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. \”C'mon,\” he said to Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

\”Remember,\” Harry 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 Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his 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, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

\”Harry - there's something up there -\” said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

\”Maybe it's asleep,\” he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.

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 thousands of feet long at least.

Nova walked up to the shed skin and could help but shake his head. \”My dear, how long were you here.\”

\”Blimey,\” said Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

\”Get up,\” said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet - then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Harry jumped forward, but too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

\”The adventure ends here, boys!\” 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 you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories! And as for you, Mr. Void, I will tell them that you were in league with the creature down here and not only assisted in killing the girl but you also kidnapped another first year and killed her as well.\”

\”Oh you will, will you?\” Nova said.

\”Indeed. It is your own fault for calling me an idiot and a fraud all the time. For locking me in that cage with the pixies and making me look like a fool during the dueling class.\” Lockhart said.

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, \”Obliviate!\” But before anything could happen, Nova snapped his fingers and the wand disintegrated and moved forward grabbing Lockhart by the throat.

\”Oh Professor Lockhart. Didn't you want to make a story on your deeds of saving a girl from a Basilisk. We can't be having you wiping your memory just yet. Come along.\” Nova said and started dragging Lockhart.

Soon they came across a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

\”Open, \”said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside. He was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

As Nova tried to walk in he found that he was blocked, \”You three go ahead. It seems I need to undo something for me to pass.\”

As he looked around Nova saw a string of void ruins.

\”This might take a minute.\”

***************************

Harry - POV

***************************

As Harry, Ron, and Luna went through the hole, leaving Nova and Lockhart on the other side. His heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?

He pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls.

He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.

Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.

\”Ginny!\” Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees.

\”Ginny - don't be dead - please don't be dead -\” He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be alive.

\”Ginny, please wake up,\” Ron muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

\”She won't wake,\” said a soft voice.

Harry jumped and spun around on his knees. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him

\”Tom - Tom Riddle?\”