Chapter 17: - The Chamber of Secrets
"All those times in the bathroom, and she was just three cubicles away." Ron said bitterly as they ate breakfast the next day, "And we could have asked her, and now… look," Ron said, concerned all of a sudden, "What's wrong with Yugi and Ombre?"
The two were just coming into the Great Hall, Yugi had tears in his eyes, Ombre was fuming. "What's wrong?" Joey asked, as Yugi sat down next to him.
"The antidote won't…won't…" Yugi started to cry.
"Someone stole the last of one of the ingredients for the antidote; it won't be ready for another three weeks." Ombre growled. "Who would be stupid enough to steal ingredients out of Snape's cupboard… oh…" Over on the Slytherin table, Bakura was looking like Christmas had come early for some reason.
"You don't think that we…" Harry asked.
"I don't know…" Ron sighed, "We don't know how much she took."
"I swear, if Bakura doesn't stop smirking at us, so help me Ra, I'll… I'll…" Ombre stormed, she stomped out of the room, grabbing a bit of toast on her way out. Twenty minutes later they heard Ombre's voice coming from upstairs, "BAKURA!" Ron and the others looked at each other as Ombre slammed the great hall doors open and the hall burst into giggles.
Ombre had gone from a tanned brown, to the Slytherin silver and green, her face had two silver stripes running down it, so her eyes were framed in silver and her hair too had changed colour, frizzing out, with the green bits trilling around and acting like the snakes they resembled, while the silver hair waved from side to side, while her normally red and gold tie, which was part of the Gryffindor uniform, had the words, "I want to be a snake." Written on it now in green and silver writing.
"I swear Tomb Robber, I'm going to rip you to shreds!"
"What happened?" Yugi asked.
"There's a spell or charm or something active in the hallway outside our Common Room. Someone," And the rage in her voice left no one in any doubt that she would have her revenge, "Set a trap there."
Bakura was laughing uncontrollably, "Ombre, if you wanted to be in our house so badly you could have just asked." Ombre roared and leapt on him.
Just as the fight between the two of them was getting interesting Neville came into the hall, looking worse then Ombre, pitiful even, but at least his hair wasn't hissing. He had diagonal stripes of silver and green which continued into his hair and made him look like a skunk.
"MISS IRONHIDE! MR MALFOY!" Snape roared, pulling the two off each other, "Finte incantum." It didn't work.
"Well it's not a charm or spell then." Joey said, wondering how he was going to get his books.
Over the next few days no one could figure out how to remove the spell, the teachers tried but while they could remove the charm from the students, it did no good because when they next went to their Common Room, they would be hit again. The Gryffindors got used to being green and silver, but it didn't do anything for their morals even if it did cheer up the rest of the school, since every student from the other houses burst into laughter at the sight of them. Finally the Weasley twins managed to counter the spell and took it apart, muttering something about potions and getting revenge.
Unfortunately with the exams only a few days away, Ombre and the others were unaware of what the revenge was until it occurred.
"OMBRE!" Bakura's voice could be heard as the whole of Slytherin house stormed into the Great Hall one breakfast time.
"What?" The Princess asked.
"Fix our Common Room now!" Bakura roared, the two of them were left inside a circle of Gryffidors and Slytherins, which encompassed most of the hall, as neither Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff were up yet.
"What is it you think I've done?"
"I know what you've done! And it has to be you because you're the only one out all these idiot Gryffindors that's clever enough." The Slytherins went and sat at their table, fuming.
Ombre turned to the Gryffindor table, "Did Bakura just sorta almost compliment me?"
"Aren't emotions shared through the link?" Joey asked, noticing the fact Ryou had walked in halfway through the argument.
"Yes, but I'm not going goo-goo eyes over you, Joey." Ombre stated, Ron snorted.
"Yeah but Kari isn't…ouch!" Joey yelped as Harry stood on his foot. Ombre glared at him.
"Don't mention the K word." Harry hissed. Joey blanched. "I wonder what's happened to the Slytherin Common Room." Harry said out loud. The Weasley twins laughed.
"We redecorated it."
Ombre laughed. "Let me guess, gold and red?" George nodded.
"And we improved the smell." Ombre lost her fight to control her laughter at that point and sat down on one of the benches.
"Is that why all the Slytherins smell of oranges?" Yugi asked, trying to keep a straight face. Fred nodded solemnly, and Yugi too lost his fight with his giggles.
"You do realise Bakura's not going to let this lie don't you?" Ron said slightly nervously.
The Tomb Robber didn't. The next day, Harry, Ron, Joey and Yugi were awoken by loud screams. Yugi sat up and froze… "H… H… Harry…" He stammered.
Harry sat up, on Yugi's bed was a large cobra.
"Leave him alone!" Harry shouted, Joey looked at the boy, Harry was speaking Parsletongue again. The snake slithered off of Yugi and over to Harry's bed. Yugi watched as Harry and the snake had a conversation. "This was Bakura's doing." He said in English to his dorm mates. "And there're more snakes everywhere in the Common Room, but apparently she's the only poisonous one."
"Trust Bakura."
"Okay, this is war!" Joey declared, Gryffindor House agreed with him. The Prank war had begun, venting the anger and fear that had been building up all year. It didn't take much to get Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to join in after meal times became a disaster zone and it steadily got worse over the three weeks.
Prime targets were the house prefects, if you were sneaky enough, and in one day Percy was bespelled green, yellow, blue and then gold, but wasn't complaining to much since every time he spoke bubbles floated out of his mouth.
The war got very bad, very fast and the only good thing that came out of it was the gang managed to escape Lockheart when a student 'accidentally' got him covered in gooey green slime. After only a few days everyone was too scared to touch their food or walk down the corridor alone for a whole different reason then fear of being attacked by Slytherin's monster.
Three days before their first exams, Yugi, Harry, Ron, Joey and Ombre slowed down enough to the rest of the Gryffindors get ahead of them, and headed for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. However just as they were about to turn the handle…
"Potter! Muto! Weasley! Ironhide! Wheeler! What are you doing here?"
"We were… we were…" Stuttered Joey, as he tried to think of a good excuse.
"Going to see our friends," Harry put in, "Except for Yugi and Ombre, we haven't seen Hermione for ages, and we haven't been allowed to talk to Yami, Kari or Seto either."
"Yeap, we thought we'd tell them the potion is nearly ready." Added Yugi when it didn't seem like McGonagall would accept their excuse.
"And it was safer for all of us to go, then just a few on our own." Joey added.
"Of course," She said, and Harry was surprised to see tears in her eyes, "Of course I realise this has been hard on the friends of those who have been… and for you lot especially so… I quite understand. Of course you may visit your friends. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
The group walked away, hardly daring to believe they'd gotten away with it. Once Professor McGonagall was out of earshot Joey turned to Harry and smiled, "That," He said, "Was the best story anyone I know has ever come up with."
They had no choice and headed to the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey was reluctant to let anyone but Yugi and Ombre in. She did so but not before saying, "There's no point talking to a petrified person," she sighed, "They can't hear you."
They had to admit that she had a point, not even their other halves had been able to get through to Yami and Kari. "I wonder if they did see their attacker, though." Said Ron sadly as he looked around at his friends. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, we'll never know."
But Yugi wasn't listening, he was too interested in the piece of paper in Hermione's hand, he gently teased it out, it was a page from a very old library book. Yugi smoothed it out and read it, his face lit up and he passed it to Harry who showed it to the whole group.
"A Basilisk! That's what the monster is! A basilisk!" Yugi said excitedly. "That's why Harry can understand it! It's a big serpent!"
"Shush!" Joey said, but was relieved, he hadn't seen Yugi get excited since Yami had been petrified. It seemed Yugi was becoming more like himself again.
"The Basilisk kills people by looking at them, but no one's died because… because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The Basilisk burnt up the film but Colin just got petrified." Yugi was off again, but a little quieter this time. "Rebecca… must have seen it through the emeralds on her dragon, Yami and Justin saw it through Nick, they got petrified but Nick couldn't die again… and Hermione and Kari had mirrors, Kaiba must have seen it using their mirrors too."
Ron and Joey's jaws had dropped, "And Mrs Norris?" Ombre whispered eagerly.
"The water…" Harry said, thinking hard, "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, she only saw the reflection." He scanned the text in his hand; it was making more and more sense. "The crowing of the roosters is fatal to it and spiders flee before it! It all fits!"
"But how's the Basilisk getting around?" Asked Joey, "Surely someone would've seen a dirty great big snake."
Harry however pointed to the word at the bottom of the page, "Pipes…" He said, "Pipes… Guys, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing the voice inside the walls."
Yugi suddenly grabbed Harry's arm, The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" He said, "What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in…"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" Joey exclaimed and got them kicked out of the hospital wing.
They headed for the staff room, "That must mean I'm not the only Parslemouth in the school. The heir's one too. That's how they've been controlling the Basilisk!"
"We have to tell the teachers!" Ombre said, "Come on, hurry up!"
They froze as McGonagall's voice echoed around the corridors. "All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to return to the staff room. Immediately please." Ombre sped up, the gang not far behind. They eavesdropped on the teacher's conversation as they stood outside.
It's happened," Professor McGonagall said, her voice echoing around the silent Staff Room, "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
The teachers all reacted differently but it was Snape who spoke, "How can you be sure?"
"The heir of Slytherin left another message, right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber for ever." Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" asked Madam Hooch.
"Ginny Weasley." Joey caught Ron as he slipped silently to the floor.
"Come on, let's go." Ombre said, forcing the others to follow her as they made their way back to the Common Room.
It was the worst day of the groups life, they were well aware of the consequences of this, Hogwarts would be closed. Yugi's mood had dropped back to the floor again, and the rest of the gang was sat there in total silence.
They sat quietly in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. Harry, Yugi, Ombre, Joey, Ron, Fred and George. Percy had sent an owl to Mr and Mrs Weasley and had then gone to hide in his dormitory.
Near Sunset Fred and George went up to their room, not able to take the pitying looks of everyone anymore.
"She knew something," Ron said, breaking the silence, "She tried to tell me but I was too busy, I was planning to prank Malfoy so I didn't listen to my sister, and know she's gone." He bit back a sob.
"Do you think…" Ron continued, "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not…you know…"
Yugi and Joey shared a glance, and Joey started; "We have to do something, we can't just sit around here waiting to be sent home."
"Lockhart's going to try to go into the chamber…" Yugi added.
"That's it then, we can go and tell Lockhart what we know, I mean if that git is going to try and save my sister he at least needs a fighting chance." Ron said jumping up.
Harry agreed and soon the four boys and a girl, were leaving the common room, no one tried to stop them.
They knocked on Lockhart's office and it opened a tiny crack. "Oh… it's you lot." He opened the door a bit wider, "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you can be quick?"
"Professor, we've got some information for you," Said Harry, taking the lead, "We think it'll help you."
"Er… well… it's not terribly…" Lockhart looked very uncomfortable. "I mean… well… all right."
He opened the door and the gang entered. Lockhart had been very busy packing; his room was almost completely stripped.
"Are you off somewhere?" Ombre asked.
"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, "Urgent call… unavoidable… got to go…"
"What about my sister?" Cried out Ron.
"He was going to run away, wasn't you professor?" Accused Joey.
"Well look here, this was never in the job description. I was meant to teach a few classes, and that was all." Lockhart said angrily.
"But what about everything you did in your books?" Ombre asked, truly shocked.
"Books can be misleading; you shouldn't believe everything you read." Lockhart told her delicately.
"You wrote them." Shouted Yugi.
"My dear boy." Lockhart began…
"I'm not your dear anything." Yugi said losing his shortening temper, and the shadow magic flared around him.
"You have no idea of the work I put in. Tracking down those witches and wizards, asking them exactly what they did, and then using a memory charm on them so they wouldn't remember what they did. It took a lot of effort on my part."
He banged the lid of his trunk shut. "And now there only one thing left to do" Lockhart said as he pulled out his wand.
"Awfully sorry boys," and with a smile, "and girl, but I'll have to put a memory charm on you now. Can't have you babbling my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book."
Harry, Yugi and Joey all reached for their wands and yelled "Expelliarmus!"
Lockhart was blasted forcefully backwards, hitting his head on a shelf. Ron caught his wand and flung it out the window.
"Shouldn't have let Snape teach us that one." Ombre snarled, her shadow magic flaring too. "You're coming with us, that's all there is to it!" The Orb glowed and Lockheart was surrounded by purple magic. Harry wondered if Ombre was aware that the magic she was using wasn't its usual golden colour.
Ombre moved towards the door and Lockheart followed, from the look on his face he was trying to fight the magic every step of the way but failing badly. Ron looked at Harry, "I thought they could only move inanimate objects." He whispered.
"Obviously not."
"Don't worry, she's not controlling his mind, just moving him." Yugi said, "It's the Rod that controls minds."
"Oh good, I was starting to think we'd have to save the world from Ombre next." Joey said.
"You guys know I can hear you, right?"
"Shutting up." Joey replied.
They walked down to Myrtle's bathroom, Lockheart following Ombre every step of the way, she didn't free him from her magic until there was three people between Lockheart and the door.
Moaning Myrtle heard them come in, and scared Lockheart half to death by appearing right in front of him. "Oh it's you," She said when she saw Harry and the others, "What do you want this time?"
Yugi stepped forward, "To ask you… how you died." He said.
Myrtle acted like she's never been asked such a flattering question in her life or death, Yugi wasn't a hundred percent sure which. "Oooh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I remember it so well, I was hiding because I'd been teased because of my glasses, and I heard someone come in. They said something funny, in a different language, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then I died!"
"How?" Harry asked.
"All I remember is seeing a pair of big, yellow eyes from somewhere over there." She pointed towards the sinks. Yugi and Harry made their way over to the sink and Lockheart made a break for it. Joey had him pinned in less then ten seconds. Ombre wheeled around and glared at Lockheart.
He stopped struggling to get free.
Immediately.
Ombre smirked and turned back around, watching Harry, Yugi and Ron doing something around the taps. The sink sank out of sight leaving a large pipe exposed, wide enough for a man to slip through.
"Nice one guys." Joey said, smiling, Yugi smiled back.
"I'm going down there." Harry said, everyone agreed with him except…
"Well, since you don't need me anymore…" Lockheart said feebly.
"You're going first." Ombre snarled savagely. She used her magic to push Lockheart into the tube, she went next, followed by Harry, Ron, Yugi and Joey brought up the rear.
"Lumos!" Harry and Yugi muttered to their wands and the tips lit up. "C'mon." They said to the others and they went, their footsteps slapping on the wet floor. "Remember," Yugi said, "Any signs of movement, close your eyes right away." But the tunnel was quiet as the grave and Yugi's mind was trying to push away images of what Ginny might look like if she was here as he helped Harry lead the way.
Joey tripped over something, "Joey! You ok?" Ron asked, Joey had blanched; he'd tripped over a giant snakeskin. Lockheart keeled over. "Get up!" Ron snarled, pointing his wand at Lockheart.
Lockheart dived on Ron and grabbed his wand. He smirked. "The adventure for your little gang ends here! I shall take a bit of this skin up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl and that you lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's wand, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of the small bomb and the gang scattered to get out of the way as the ceiling crumbled.
"Yugi! Harry! Are you two ok?" Joey shouted through the cave-in.
Harry glanced at Yugi and he nodded, still coughing from the dust that had been stirred up. "We're fine Joey. Is Ombre, Ron and Lockheart with you? Are you ok?"
"We're fine, Lockheart's not, he got blasted by the wand. But it'll take ages to get through this mess." shouted Ron.
"Yugi, do you want to go on?" Harry said, the little guy was looking serious.
"Ginny needs us." Yugi said, Harry nodded.
"OK," Harry said to Yugi, then he turned towards the cave-in again and shouted to the others, "We're both going on, if we aren't back in an hour…"
Joey laughed, "You'll be back, Yugi'll make sure of it. See you soon, we'll start digging out this tunnel."
"How can Joey be so sure?" Harry asked as he and Yugi walked further down the tunnel, the sounds of Joey and Ombre moving rocks and Joey's cursing faded out of earshot.
"I never let my friends down." Yugi said firmly. "And you don't either."
They came upon the door. "Ready?" Yugi asked Harry, the door was covered in snakes.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Harry replied, "Open!" He hissed and the serpents parted.
The two were just coming into the Great Hall, Yugi had tears in his eyes, Ombre was fuming. "What's wrong?" Joey asked, as Yugi sat down next to him.
"The antidote won't…won't…" Yugi started to cry.
"Someone stole the last of one of the ingredients for the antidote; it won't be ready for another three weeks." Ombre growled. "Who would be stupid enough to steal ingredients out of Snape's cupboard… oh…" Over on the Slytherin table, Bakura was looking like Christmas had come early for some reason.
"You don't think that we…" Harry asked.
"I don't know…" Ron sighed, "We don't know how much she took."
"I swear, if Bakura doesn't stop smirking at us, so help me Ra, I'll… I'll…" Ombre stormed, she stomped out of the room, grabbing a bit of toast on her way out. Twenty minutes later they heard Ombre's voice coming from upstairs, "BAKURA!" Ron and the others looked at each other as Ombre slammed the great hall doors open and the hall burst into giggles.
Ombre had gone from a tanned brown, to the Slytherin silver and green, her face had two silver stripes running down it, so her eyes were framed in silver and her hair too had changed colour, frizzing out, with the green bits trilling around and acting like the snakes they resembled, while the silver hair waved from side to side, while her normally red and gold tie, which was part of the Gryffindor uniform, had the words, "I want to be a snake." Written on it now in green and silver writing.
"I swear Tomb Robber, I'm going to rip you to shreds!"
"What happened?" Yugi asked.
"There's a spell or charm or something active in the hallway outside our Common Room. Someone," And the rage in her voice left no one in any doubt that she would have her revenge, "Set a trap there."
Bakura was laughing uncontrollably, "Ombre, if you wanted to be in our house so badly you could have just asked." Ombre roared and leapt on him.
Just as the fight between the two of them was getting interesting Neville came into the hall, looking worse then Ombre, pitiful even, but at least his hair wasn't hissing. He had diagonal stripes of silver and green which continued into his hair and made him look like a skunk.
"MISS IRONHIDE! MR MALFOY!" Snape roared, pulling the two off each other, "Finte incantum." It didn't work.
"Well it's not a charm or spell then." Joey said, wondering how he was going to get his books.
Over the next few days no one could figure out how to remove the spell, the teachers tried but while they could remove the charm from the students, it did no good because when they next went to their Common Room, they would be hit again. The Gryffindors got used to being green and silver, but it didn't do anything for their morals even if it did cheer up the rest of the school, since every student from the other houses burst into laughter at the sight of them. Finally the Weasley twins managed to counter the spell and took it apart, muttering something about potions and getting revenge.
Unfortunately with the exams only a few days away, Ombre and the others were unaware of what the revenge was until it occurred.
"OMBRE!" Bakura's voice could be heard as the whole of Slytherin house stormed into the Great Hall one breakfast time.
"What?" The Princess asked.
"Fix our Common Room now!" Bakura roared, the two of them were left inside a circle of Gryffidors and Slytherins, which encompassed most of the hall, as neither Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff were up yet.
"What is it you think I've done?"
"I know what you've done! And it has to be you because you're the only one out all these idiot Gryffindors that's clever enough." The Slytherins went and sat at their table, fuming.
Ombre turned to the Gryffindor table, "Did Bakura just sorta almost compliment me?"
"Aren't emotions shared through the link?" Joey asked, noticing the fact Ryou had walked in halfway through the argument.
"Yes, but I'm not going goo-goo eyes over you, Joey." Ombre stated, Ron snorted.
"Yeah but Kari isn't…ouch!" Joey yelped as Harry stood on his foot. Ombre glared at him.
"Don't mention the K word." Harry hissed. Joey blanched. "I wonder what's happened to the Slytherin Common Room." Harry said out loud. The Weasley twins laughed.
"We redecorated it."
Ombre laughed. "Let me guess, gold and red?" George nodded.
"And we improved the smell." Ombre lost her fight to control her laughter at that point and sat down on one of the benches.
"Is that why all the Slytherins smell of oranges?" Yugi asked, trying to keep a straight face. Fred nodded solemnly, and Yugi too lost his fight with his giggles.
"You do realise Bakura's not going to let this lie don't you?" Ron said slightly nervously.
The Tomb Robber didn't. The next day, Harry, Ron, Joey and Yugi were awoken by loud screams. Yugi sat up and froze… "H… H… Harry…" He stammered.
Harry sat up, on Yugi's bed was a large cobra.
"Leave him alone!" Harry shouted, Joey looked at the boy, Harry was speaking Parsletongue again. The snake slithered off of Yugi and over to Harry's bed. Yugi watched as Harry and the snake had a conversation. "This was Bakura's doing." He said in English to his dorm mates. "And there're more snakes everywhere in the Common Room, but apparently she's the only poisonous one."
"Trust Bakura."
"Okay, this is war!" Joey declared, Gryffindor House agreed with him. The Prank war had begun, venting the anger and fear that had been building up all year. It didn't take much to get Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to join in after meal times became a disaster zone and it steadily got worse over the three weeks.
Prime targets were the house prefects, if you were sneaky enough, and in one day Percy was bespelled green, yellow, blue and then gold, but wasn't complaining to much since every time he spoke bubbles floated out of his mouth.
The war got very bad, very fast and the only good thing that came out of it was the gang managed to escape Lockheart when a student 'accidentally' got him covered in gooey green slime. After only a few days everyone was too scared to touch their food or walk down the corridor alone for a whole different reason then fear of being attacked by Slytherin's monster.
Three days before their first exams, Yugi, Harry, Ron, Joey and Ombre slowed down enough to the rest of the Gryffindors get ahead of them, and headed for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. However just as they were about to turn the handle…
"Potter! Muto! Weasley! Ironhide! Wheeler! What are you doing here?"
"We were… we were…" Stuttered Joey, as he tried to think of a good excuse.
"Going to see our friends," Harry put in, "Except for Yugi and Ombre, we haven't seen Hermione for ages, and we haven't been allowed to talk to Yami, Kari or Seto either."
"Yeap, we thought we'd tell them the potion is nearly ready." Added Yugi when it didn't seem like McGonagall would accept their excuse.
"And it was safer for all of us to go, then just a few on our own." Joey added.
"Of course," She said, and Harry was surprised to see tears in her eyes, "Of course I realise this has been hard on the friends of those who have been… and for you lot especially so… I quite understand. Of course you may visit your friends. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."
The group walked away, hardly daring to believe they'd gotten away with it. Once Professor McGonagall was out of earshot Joey turned to Harry and smiled, "That," He said, "Was the best story anyone I know has ever come up with."
They had no choice and headed to the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey was reluctant to let anyone but Yugi and Ombre in. She did so but not before saying, "There's no point talking to a petrified person," she sighed, "They can't hear you."
They had to admit that she had a point, not even their other halves had been able to get through to Yami and Kari. "I wonder if they did see their attacker, though." Said Ron sadly as he looked around at his friends. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, we'll never know."
But Yugi wasn't listening, he was too interested in the piece of paper in Hermione's hand, he gently teased it out, it was a page from a very old library book. Yugi smoothed it out and read it, his face lit up and he passed it to Harry who showed it to the whole group.
"A Basilisk! That's what the monster is! A basilisk!" Yugi said excitedly. "That's why Harry can understand it! It's a big serpent!"
"Shush!" Joey said, but was relieved, he hadn't seen Yugi get excited since Yami had been petrified. It seemed Yugi was becoming more like himself again.
"The Basilisk kills people by looking at them, but no one's died because… because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The Basilisk burnt up the film but Colin just got petrified." Yugi was off again, but a little quieter this time. "Rebecca… must have seen it through the emeralds on her dragon, Yami and Justin saw it through Nick, they got petrified but Nick couldn't die again… and Hermione and Kari had mirrors, Kaiba must have seen it using their mirrors too."
Ron and Joey's jaws had dropped, "And Mrs Norris?" Ombre whispered eagerly.
"The water…" Harry said, thinking hard, "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, she only saw the reflection." He scanned the text in his hand; it was making more and more sense. "The crowing of the roosters is fatal to it and spiders flee before it! It all fits!"
"But how's the Basilisk getting around?" Asked Joey, "Surely someone would've seen a dirty great big snake."
Harry however pointed to the word at the bottom of the page, "Pipes…" He said, "Pipes… Guys, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing the voice inside the walls."
Yugi suddenly grabbed Harry's arm, The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" He said, "What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in…"
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" Joey exclaimed and got them kicked out of the hospital wing.
They headed for the staff room, "That must mean I'm not the only Parslemouth in the school. The heir's one too. That's how they've been controlling the Basilisk!"
"We have to tell the teachers!" Ombre said, "Come on, hurry up!"
They froze as McGonagall's voice echoed around the corridors. "All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to return to the staff room. Immediately please." Ombre sped up, the gang not far behind. They eavesdropped on the teacher's conversation as they stood outside.
It's happened," Professor McGonagall said, her voice echoing around the silent Staff Room, "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
The teachers all reacted differently but it was Snape who spoke, "How can you be sure?"
"The heir of Slytherin left another message, right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber for ever." Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" asked Madam Hooch.
"Ginny Weasley." Joey caught Ron as he slipped silently to the floor.
"Come on, let's go." Ombre said, forcing the others to follow her as they made their way back to the Common Room.
It was the worst day of the groups life, they were well aware of the consequences of this, Hogwarts would be closed. Yugi's mood had dropped back to the floor again, and the rest of the gang was sat there in total silence.
They sat quietly in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. Harry, Yugi, Ombre, Joey, Ron, Fred and George. Percy had sent an owl to Mr and Mrs Weasley and had then gone to hide in his dormitory.
Near Sunset Fred and George went up to their room, not able to take the pitying looks of everyone anymore.
"She knew something," Ron said, breaking the silence, "She tried to tell me but I was too busy, I was planning to prank Malfoy so I didn't listen to my sister, and know she's gone." He bit back a sob.
"Do you think…" Ron continued, "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not…you know…"
Yugi and Joey shared a glance, and Joey started; "We have to do something, we can't just sit around here waiting to be sent home."
"Lockhart's going to try to go into the chamber…" Yugi added.
"That's it then, we can go and tell Lockhart what we know, I mean if that git is going to try and save my sister he at least needs a fighting chance." Ron said jumping up.
Harry agreed and soon the four boys and a girl, were leaving the common room, no one tried to stop them.
They knocked on Lockhart's office and it opened a tiny crack. "Oh… it's you lot." He opened the door a bit wider, "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you can be quick?"
"Professor, we've got some information for you," Said Harry, taking the lead, "We think it'll help you."
"Er… well… it's not terribly…" Lockhart looked very uncomfortable. "I mean… well… all right."
He opened the door and the gang entered. Lockhart had been very busy packing; his room was almost completely stripped.
"Are you off somewhere?" Ombre asked.
"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, "Urgent call… unavoidable… got to go…"
"What about my sister?" Cried out Ron.
"He was going to run away, wasn't you professor?" Accused Joey.
"Well look here, this was never in the job description. I was meant to teach a few classes, and that was all." Lockhart said angrily.
"But what about everything you did in your books?" Ombre asked, truly shocked.
"Books can be misleading; you shouldn't believe everything you read." Lockhart told her delicately.
"You wrote them." Shouted Yugi.
"My dear boy." Lockhart began…
"I'm not your dear anything." Yugi said losing his shortening temper, and the shadow magic flared around him.
"You have no idea of the work I put in. Tracking down those witches and wizards, asking them exactly what they did, and then using a memory charm on them so they wouldn't remember what they did. It took a lot of effort on my part."
He banged the lid of his trunk shut. "And now there only one thing left to do" Lockhart said as he pulled out his wand.
"Awfully sorry boys," and with a smile, "and girl, but I'll have to put a memory charm on you now. Can't have you babbling my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book."
Harry, Yugi and Joey all reached for their wands and yelled "Expelliarmus!"
Lockhart was blasted forcefully backwards, hitting his head on a shelf. Ron caught his wand and flung it out the window.
"Shouldn't have let Snape teach us that one." Ombre snarled, her shadow magic flaring too. "You're coming with us, that's all there is to it!" The Orb glowed and Lockheart was surrounded by purple magic. Harry wondered if Ombre was aware that the magic she was using wasn't its usual golden colour.
Ombre moved towards the door and Lockheart followed, from the look on his face he was trying to fight the magic every step of the way but failing badly. Ron looked at Harry, "I thought they could only move inanimate objects." He whispered.
"Obviously not."
"Don't worry, she's not controlling his mind, just moving him." Yugi said, "It's the Rod that controls minds."
"Oh good, I was starting to think we'd have to save the world from Ombre next." Joey said.
"You guys know I can hear you, right?"
"Shutting up." Joey replied.
They walked down to Myrtle's bathroom, Lockheart following Ombre every step of the way, she didn't free him from her magic until there was three people between Lockheart and the door.
Moaning Myrtle heard them come in, and scared Lockheart half to death by appearing right in front of him. "Oh it's you," She said when she saw Harry and the others, "What do you want this time?"
Yugi stepped forward, "To ask you… how you died." He said.
Myrtle acted like she's never been asked such a flattering question in her life or death, Yugi wasn't a hundred percent sure which. "Oooh, it was dreadful. It happened right in here. I remember it so well, I was hiding because I'd been teased because of my glasses, and I heard someone come in. They said something funny, in a different language, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then I died!"
"How?" Harry asked.
"All I remember is seeing a pair of big, yellow eyes from somewhere over there." She pointed towards the sinks. Yugi and Harry made their way over to the sink and Lockheart made a break for it. Joey had him pinned in less then ten seconds. Ombre wheeled around and glared at Lockheart.
He stopped struggling to get free.
Immediately.
Ombre smirked and turned back around, watching Harry, Yugi and Ron doing something around the taps. The sink sank out of sight leaving a large pipe exposed, wide enough for a man to slip through.
"Nice one guys." Joey said, smiling, Yugi smiled back.
"I'm going down there." Harry said, everyone agreed with him except…
"Well, since you don't need me anymore…" Lockheart said feebly.
"You're going first." Ombre snarled savagely. She used her magic to push Lockheart into the tube, she went next, followed by Harry, Ron, Yugi and Joey brought up the rear.
"Lumos!" Harry and Yugi muttered to their wands and the tips lit up. "C'mon." They said to the others and they went, their footsteps slapping on the wet floor. "Remember," Yugi said, "Any signs of movement, close your eyes right away." But the tunnel was quiet as the grave and Yugi's mind was trying to push away images of what Ginny might look like if she was here as he helped Harry lead the way.
Joey tripped over something, "Joey! You ok?" Ron asked, Joey had blanched; he'd tripped over a giant snakeskin. Lockheart keeled over. "Get up!" Ron snarled, pointing his wand at Lockheart.
Lockheart dived on Ron and grabbed his wand. He smirked. "The adventure for your little gang ends here! I shall take a bit of this skin up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl and that you lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's wand, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of the small bomb and the gang scattered to get out of the way as the ceiling crumbled.
"Yugi! Harry! Are you two ok?" Joey shouted through the cave-in.
Harry glanced at Yugi and he nodded, still coughing from the dust that had been stirred up. "We're fine Joey. Is Ombre, Ron and Lockheart with you? Are you ok?"
"We're fine, Lockheart's not, he got blasted by the wand. But it'll take ages to get through this mess." shouted Ron.
"Yugi, do you want to go on?" Harry said, the little guy was looking serious.
"Ginny needs us." Yugi said, Harry nodded.
"OK," Harry said to Yugi, then he turned towards the cave-in again and shouted to the others, "We're both going on, if we aren't back in an hour…"
Joey laughed, "You'll be back, Yugi'll make sure of it. See you soon, we'll start digging out this tunnel."
"How can Joey be so sure?" Harry asked as he and Yugi walked further down the tunnel, the sounds of Joey and Ombre moving rocks and Joey's cursing faded out of earshot.
"I never let my friends down." Yugi said firmly. "And you don't either."
They came upon the door. "Ready?" Yugi asked Harry, the door was covered in snakes.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Harry replied, "Open!" He hissed and the serpents parted.