"Knock, knock, knock"
Harry and Ron stood in front of Lockhart's office door, glanced at each other, and then Harry reached out and knocked on the office door.
Soon, a "Come in" came from inside.
The two turned the doorknob and opened the door.
In the office, Lockhart was sitting leisurely behind his desk, flipping through a thick book. Harry subconsciously glanced at it; it was Lockhart's autobiography—Magical Me.
"Oh... Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," he said, looking at Harry and Ron. "What important matter brings you to me so late?"
"Yes, Professor. We have some information to tell you," said Harry. "We think it will be helpful to you."
"Of course! Of course... come, sit down and tell me slowly." Lockhart stood up, pulled Harry and Ron to the chairs beside him, and waited until they were both settled before continuing, "Go on, I'm listening!"
"It's like this..."
Harry told him the information he and Ron had gotten from the note and their corresponding deductions. Ron would occasionally add a few words from the side. Although the narration was a bit messy, at least none of the key points were missing.
After they finished, Lockhart nodded.
"That's some good reasoning. Who would have thought that the Chamber would be hidden in a dilapidated girls' lavatory!" Lockhart smiled as usual, but the smile looked a little stiff.
"Yeah! It's incredible, but I'm more concerned about my sister!" Ron said impulsively.
"Ah, indeed! That matter—it's truly unfortunate," said Lockhart. "I think saving her is the most important thing, and it just so happens that you've brought good news!"
"Are we going now?" Ron looked a little excited.
"Yes, of course! We're going now!" Lockhart nodded decisively.
"I'm going too!" Ron immediately added.
It could be said that when it came to matters involving their sister, everyone in the Weasley family was this reckless. To be honest, the current Ron was very different from his usual timid self.
But Lockhart shook his head.
"No, I don't think I can let students take the risk. This is my job," he said righteously.
Harry, on the side, looked at Lockhart again and again, feeling that he was not the same as he used to be.
"Professor Lockhart," Harry said suddenly, "I think we have to go. Ginny has been taken, and Ron and I can't just sit here and wait."
"Oh—" Lockhart showed a troubled expression, hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed.
"You can go, but you have to be careful," he said. "Remember, close your eyes as soon as there's any movement. Leave the basilisk to me."
With that, Lockhart led Harry and Ron, and hurried towards Moaning Myrtle's lavatory.
They went down the nearest staircase, walked through the dim corridor where the words shone on the wall, and came to the entrance of Moaning Myrtle's lavatory.
Lockhart took the lead and pushed open the lavatory door without hesitation.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the toilet at the very back.
"Oh, it's you," she said, sobbing when she saw Harry behind Lockhart. "What do you want this time?"
"To ask you how you died," said Harry.
Myrtle's whole demeanor changed at once. It seemed no one had ever asked her such a flattering question before.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in... They were saying something funny. A different language, I think—"
"But what annoyed me the most was that I heard a boy's voice! So I opened the door to tell him to go away and use his own toilet, and then—"
Myrtle puffed out her chest, her face glowing. "I died."
"How?" said Harry.
"No idea," said Myrtle in a hushed, mysterious voice. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body was seized up, and then I was floating away..."
She looked at Harry with a dazed expression.
"And then I came back again. You know, I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby. Oh, she was very sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.
"Somewhere over there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her. Harry and Ron hurried over.
Lockhart also went over and examined it carefully.
The sink looked very ordinary. They checked it inside and out, up and down, not even sparing the pipes underneath.
Then, Harry saw it—on the side of a copper tap, a tiny snake was carved.
"This tap's never worked," said Myrtle happily, as she saw Harry trying to turn it.
"Harry," Lockhart said suddenly, "try talking to it. In Parseltongue."
"Yeah, Harry, try it!" Ron added.
"But—" Harry desperately tried to recall his past experiences, but this wasn't something that could be done just by recalling.
In the past, he had only been able to speak Parseltongue when facing a real snake.
Harry stared at the small carved snake, trying to imagine it as a real snake.
"Open," he said.
He looked up at Ron and Lockhart, but Ron shook his head.
"No, you're speaking English," he said.
Harry turned back to the snake, forcing himself to believe it was alive. Harry thought that if he shook his head a few times, the flickering candlelight would make the snake seem to move.
"Open up," he said, unable to stop himself from shaking his head.
However, what Ron and Lockhart heard was not this sentence—from his mouth came a strange hissing sound.
Lockhart stared at Harry's mouth, lost in thought.
Instantly, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Then, the sink itself moved.
They watched as the sink slowly disappeared from view, revealing a very large pipe underneath, wide enough for a man to slide into.
Harry heard Ron gasp.
"I think," Lockhart also said, looking at the entrance to the pipe, "this does look very dangerous. You'd better not go in."
Harry pressed his lips together, suddenly raised his head, and had already made up his mind what to do.
"I'm going down," he said firmly.
He had to go. Now that they had found the entrance to the Chamber, now that there was a very small, very faint, very slim chance that Ginny might still be alive.
"I'm going too," said Ron.
A moment of silence fell in the small lavatory.
"Alright, alright... at least, let me go down first and have a look. It won't be too late for you to come down after I say 'it's safe'."
Lockhart said this, then took a decisive leap and slid down the pipe.
After a while, Harry and Ron heard a very faint shout from below. If they hadn't been listening carefully, they might not have heard it at all.
Harry and Ron nodded to each other, then jumped in one after another.
This slide was certainly not a pleasant one, at least not like the rides at an amusement park that could bring laughter to children.
Inside, it felt like rushing down a dark, slimy, endless slide. They could see many other pipes branching off in all directions, but none were as thick as this one.
Their pipe twisted and turned, winding its way steeply downward.
Harry knew he had already slid very deep under the school, even deeper than the dungeons. He could hear Ron behind him, making slight bumps at the corners.
Then, just as Harry was beginning to worry about what was to come, the slope of the pipe gradually became much gentler. A moment later, he emerged from the pipe's mouth and landed with a plop on the damp ground.
This was a dark, stone tunnel, large enough for a person to stand in.
Very close to Harry, Lockhart was standing there holding his wand, but unlike him, his body was not covered in dirt.
Harry stood to the side, and soon, Ron also shot out of the pipe with a "whoosh."
"Scourgify."
After Ron also stood up, Lockhart cast a Scouring Charm on each of them. Instantly, all the dirt on Harry and Ron disappeared.
"Oh, thanks, Professor," the two said, thanking him.
"We must be miles under the school," Harry said, then looked around. His voice echoed in the dark tunnel.
"Probably under the lake," said Ron. He squinted, looking at the dark, slimy walls around them.
Then, all three of them turned to look into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!"
Lockhart raised his wand and said in a low voice, and the wand lit up again.
"Let's go," he said to Harry and Ron.
The sound of their three pairs of shoes slapping on the damp ground was very loud.
The tunnel was so dark that even though Lockhart's Lumos was quite bright, it could only illuminate a short distance. Their shadows were projected onto the damp stone walls, constantly changing and twisting with the uneven surface of the wall, looking quite eerie.
"Remember?" Lockhart said in a low voice. "Although this seems a bit long-winded, I have to say it again... as soon as you hear any movement, close your eyes immediately!"
Harry and Ron immediately responded, indicating that they had heard.
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