HARPER FELT RON SLIDE SILENTLY DOWN ONTO THE WARDROBE FLOOR BESIDE HER. She wanted to join him but her limbs didn't move. Not Ginny. Please, not her.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," Professor McGonagell said. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore alway said . . ."

The staff-room door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harper was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry—dozed off—what have I missed?"

He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkable like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," Professor Sprout chipped in. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I—well, I . . ." Lockhart spluttered.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" Professor Flitwick piped up.

D-did I? I don't recall . . ."

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," Snape said. "Didn't you say that the whole affair has been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

"I . . . I really never . . . You may have misunderstood . . ."

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," Professor McGonagell said. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gazes desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome any more. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin he looked weak-chinned and weedy.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll—I'll be in my office, getting—getting ready."

And he left the room.

"Right," Professor McGonagell said, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what had happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."

The teachers rose, and left one by one.

• ✧ •

IT WAS THE WORST DAY OF HARPER'S LIFE. She, Harry, Ron, Fred and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Arthur and Molly, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.

"She knew something, Harry, Harp," Ron said, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was . . ." Ron rubbed his eyes frantically and Harper put her arm around him. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."

"That's it," Harper said, standing up. "I don't believe Lockhart can do this alone. I'm going to go and tell him everything we know."

Harry and Ron agreed and the both of them got up, too. Nobody stopped them as we crossed the room and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. Harper could hear scraping, thumps and hurried footsteps.

Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh . . . Mr and Miss Potter . . . Mr Weasley . . ." he said, opening the door a mite wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quick . . ."

"Professor, we've got some information for you," Harry said. "We think it'll help you."

"Er—well—it's not terribly . . ." The side of Lockhart's face that we could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean—well—all right."

He opened the door and they entered.

His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them: books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" Harper spoke up, glaring at him, daring him to fill another box.

"Er, well, yes," Lockhart said, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke, and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call . . . unavoidable . . . got to go . . ."

"What about my sister?" Ron said jerkily.

"Well, as to that—most unfortunate," Lockhart said avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I . . ."

Harper had enough of this. All year she had listened to his bullshit. She was tired of it.

"Listen here, you total imbecile. That girl is my friend, my family, you understand that?" Harper said glaring up at him. "Now, I don't believe that you did any of those things you write about," she gestured at the books, "but I will make sure you get her. You're going to save her or I'll make you."

Lockhart straightened his back and Harper could tell he was taken aback.

"You're right," he replied. "I used a lot of Memory Charms. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charm.

He banged his lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he continued. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one think left."

He pulled out his wand and turned to the three of them.

"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now."

Both Harper and Harry snatched their wands from their robes.

"Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his thrill. His wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," Harry said furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at them, weedy once more. Harper was still pointing her wand at him as Harry and Ron stood on either side of her.

"What d'you want me to do?" Lockhart said weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," Harry said, forcing Lockhart to his feet. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We sent Lockhart first. Harper was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the cistern of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you," she said, when she saw them. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask how you died," Harry replied.

Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such flattering question.

"Oooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very cubicle. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard someone come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then . . ." Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, "I died."

"How?" Harper asked.

"No idea," she replied in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" Harry asked.

"Somewhere there," Myrtle said, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry, Ron and Harper hurried over it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below.

And then they saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"That tap's never worked," Myrtle said brightly, as Harry tried to turn it.

"Harry," Ron said, "say something. Something in Parseltongue."

Harry stared hard at the tiny engraving. "Open up."

He looked at them, but they shook their heads.

"English," Ron said.

Harry tried again and this time, a hiss escaped his lips. At one, 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," Harry said.

"We all are," Harper spoke up, "but he's going first." She pointed at Lockhart, who was still shivering in the back of the bathroom.

Ron and Harry nodded and made their way towards Lockhart to drag him to the pipe. Harper had pointed her wand back to him and nudged him to go first.

"Boys, what good will it do?" Lockhart sputtered, but Harper shoved him into the pipe.

"That's for calling me a boy."

She then lowered herself slowly into the pipe before letting go.

It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. She could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downwards, and she knew that she was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind her she could hear Harry and Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as she had begun to worry about what would happen when she hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and she shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel, large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little way away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harper stood aside as Harry and Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.

"We must be miles under the school," Harry said, standing up, his voice echoing the black tunnel.

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

The four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry and Harper muttered to their wands and they lit again.

"C'mon," he said to her, Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Remember," Harper said quietly, as they walked cautiously forwards, "any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away . . ."

But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound that they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry and Harper lowered their wands to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones.

Harry led the way forward, round a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Harry," she could hear Ron say, "there's something up there . . ."

They froze, watching. From over her brother's shoulder, Harper could see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's sleeping," Harry whispered.

Very slowly, Harry edged forwards, soon followed by Harper. She wasn't going to let him do stupid things . . . alone.

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 twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," Ron said from behind her.

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

"Get up," Ron said sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart. Lockhart got to his feet—then dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.

Harry and Harper jumped forward, but too late. Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his wand 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 the three of you lost tragically your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head. "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harper could feel Harry grabbing her and pulling her over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling which were thundering to the floor. Next moment, they were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broke rock.

"Ron!" they shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" Ron's muffled voice came from behind to rockfall and Harper sighed in relief. "I'm okay. This git's not, though—he got blasted by the wand."

There was a dull thud and a loud ow!. It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.

"What now?" Ron said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through. It'll take ages . . ."

Harry and Harper looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. She had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try—what if the whole tunnel caved in? 

There was another thud and another ow! from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours. Harper knew there was only one thing to do and as she glanced at Harry, she could tell he was thinking the same.

"Wait here," Harper called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. We'll go on. If we're not back in an hour . . ."

There was a very pregnant pause.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," Ron said, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can—can get back through. And, Harry, Harper . . ."

"See you in a bit," Harry said and they set off past the giant snake skin.

Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harper's body was tingling unpleasantly. She wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what they'd find when it did. And then, at last, as they crept around yet another bend, Harper saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

Harry approached and hissed again.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and the two of them walked inside.

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April 18th 2023
I hope you enjoy it & tell me what you think of it! :)