? — ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER’S FAC- ING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT’S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE’LL 12 страница

But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

“ Exams? ” howled Seamus Finnigan. “We’re still getting exams? ”

There was a loud bang behind Harry as Neville Longbottom’s wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor

? 283‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.

“The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education, ” she said sternly. “The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard. ” Studying hard! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

“Professor Dumbledore’s instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, ” she said. “And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year. ”

Harry looked down at the pair of white rabbits he was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had he learned so far this year? He couldn’t seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam.

Ron looked as though he’d just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.

“Can you imagine me taking exams with this? ” he asked Harry,

holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made an- other announcement at breakfast.

“I have good news, ” she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

“Dumbledore’s coming back! ” several people yelled joyfully. “You’ve caught the Heir of Slytherin! ” squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.

? 284‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“Quidditch matches are back on! ” roared Wood excitedly. When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, “Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the cul- prit. ”

There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn’t at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn’t joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he’d looked in days.

“It won’t matter that we never asked Myrtle, then! ” he said to Harry. “Hermione’ll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she’ll go crazy when she finds out we’ve got ex- ams in three days’ time. She hasn’t studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they’re over. ”

Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and Harry noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.

“What’s up? ” said Ron, helping himself to more porridge. Ginny didn’t say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of someone, though he couldn’t think who.

“Spit it out, ” said Ron, watching her.

Harry suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rock- ing backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden in- formation.

? 285‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“I’ve got to tell you something, ” Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

“What is it? ” said Harry.

Ginny looked as though she couldn’t find the right words.

“ What? ” said Ron.

Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and Ron could hear him.

“Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly? ”

Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.

“If you’ve finished eating, I’ll take that seat, Ginny. I’m starving, I’ve only just come off patrol duty. ”

Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.

“Percy! ” said Ron angrily. “She was just about to tell us some- thing important! ”

Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.

“What sort of thing? ” he said, coughing.

“I just asked her if she’d seen anything odd, and she started to say —”

“Oh — that — that’s nothing to do with the Chamber of Se- crets, ” said Percy at once.

“How do you know? ” said Ron, his eyebrows raised. “Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was — well, never mind — the point is, she spot-

? 286‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

ted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she’d keep her word. It’s noth- ing, really, I’d just rather —”

Harry had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable. “What were you doing, Percy? ” said Ron, grinning. “Go on, tell us, we won’t laugh. ”

Percy didn’t smile back.

“Pass me those rolls, Harry, I’m starving. ”

Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he wasn’t about to pass up a chance to speak to Myr- tle if it turned up — and to his delight it did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheart- edly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn’t as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

“Mark my words, ” he said, ushering them around a corner. “The

first words out of those poor Petrified people’s mouths will be ‘ It

was Hagrid. ’ Frankly, I’m astounded Professor McGonagall thinks

all these security measures are necessary. ”

“I agree, sir, ” said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise. “Thank you, Harry, ” said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. “I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night. . . . ”

? 287‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“That’s right, ” said Ron, catching on. “Why don’t you leave us here, sir, we’ve only got one more corridor to go —”

“You know, Weasley, I think I will, ” said Lockhart. “I really should go and prepare my next class —”

And he hurried off.

“Prepare his class, ” Ron sneered after him. “Gone to curl his hair, more like. ”

They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myr- tle’s bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme —

“Potter! Weasley! What are you doing? ”

It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.

“We were — we were —” Ron stammered. “We were going to — to go and see —”

“Hermione, ” said Harry. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.

“We haven’t seen her for ages, Professor, ” Harry went on hur- riedly, treading on Ron’s foot, “and we thought we’d sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry —”

Professor McGonagall was still staring at him, and for a mo- ment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

“Of course, ” she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. “Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been. . . I quite understand. Yes,

? 288‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Profes- sor Binns where you’ve gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission. ”

Harry and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they’d avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

“That, ” said Ron fervently, “was the best story you’ve ever come up with. ”

They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall’s permission to visit Hermione.

Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.

“There’s just no point talking to a Petrified person, ” she said, and

they had to admit she had a point when they’d taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn’t have the faint- est inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do. “Wonder if she did see the attacker, though? ” said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione’s rigid face. “Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one’ll ever know. . . . ”

But Harry wasn’t looking at Hermione’s face. He was more in- terested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched in- side her fist.

Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Ron.

“Try and get it out, ” Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey’s view.

? 289‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It was no easy task. Hermione’s hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it. While Ron kept watch he tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.

It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed

it out eagerly and Ron leaned close to read it, too.

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken’s egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and ven- omous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand

Harry recognized as Hermione’s. Pipes.

It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.

“Ron, ” he breathed. “This is it. This is the answer. The monster

in the Chamber’s a basilisk — a giant serpent! That’s why I’ve been

hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It’s because I understand Parseltongue. . . . ”

Harry looked up at the beds around him.

? 290‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one’s died — because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin. . . Justin must’ve seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it,

but he couldn’t die again. . . and Hermione and that Ravenclaw

prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror — and —”

Ron’s jaw had dropped.

“And Mrs. Norris? ” he whispered eagerly.

Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Hal- loween.

“The water. . . ” he said slowly. “The flood from Moaning Myr- tle’s bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection. . . . ” He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at

it, the more it made sense.

“. . . The crowing of the rooster . . . is fatal to it! ” he read aloud.

“Hagrid’s roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn’t want

one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spi-

ders flee before it! It all fits! ”

“But how’s the basilisk been getting around the place? ” said Ron. “A giant snake. . . Someone would’ve seen. . . ”

Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

“Pipes, ” he said. “Pipes. . . Ron, it’s been using the plumbing. I’ve been hearing that voice inside the walls. . . . ”

? 291‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ron suddenly grabbed Harry’s arm.

“The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets! ” he said hoarsely. “What if it’s a bathroom? What if it’s in —”

“— Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, ” said Harry.

They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

“This means, ” said Harry, “I can’t be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin’s one, too. That’s how he’s been controlling the basilisk. ”

“What’re we going to do? ” said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. “Should we go straight to McGonagall? ”

“Let’s go to the staffroom, ” said Harry, jumping up. “She’ll be there in ten minutes. It’s nearly break. ”

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.

But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGon- agall’s voice, magically magnified.

“ All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teach-

ers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please. ”

Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron.

“Not another attack? Not now? ”

“What’ll we do? ” said Ron, aghast. “Go back to the dormitory? ” “No, ” said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers’ cloaks. “In here. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Then we can tell them what we’ve found out. ”

? 292‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hun- dreds of people moving overhead, and the staffroom door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puz- zled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived. “It has happened, ” she told the silent staffroom. “A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself. ” Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, “How can you be sure? ”

“The Heir of Slytherin, ” said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, “left another message. Right underneath the first one.

‘ Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever. ’”

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

“Who is it? ” said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. “Which student? ”

“Ginny Weasley, ” said Professor McGonagall.

Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor be- side him.

“We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow, ” said Professor McGonagall. “This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said. . . ”

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry 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 remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

? 293‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“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, ” chipped in Professor Sprout. “Weren’t you saying just last night that you’ve known all along where the en- trance to the Chamber of Secrets is? ”

“I — well, I —” sputtered Lockhart.

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

“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, ” said Snape. “Didn’t you say that the whole affair had 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, ” said Professor McGona- gall. “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 gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn’t look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

“V-very well, ” he said. “I’ll — I’ll be in my office, getting — getting ready. ”

And he left the room.

“Right, ” said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared,

? 294‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“that’s got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses

should go and inform their students what has 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 probably the worst day of Harry’s entire life. He, 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 Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut him- self 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, ” said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staffroom. “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. “I mean, she was a pureblood. There can’t be any other reason. ”

Harry could see the sun sinking, blood-red, below the skyline. This was the worst he had ever felt. If only there was something they could do. Anything.

“Harry, ” said Ron. “D’you think there’s any chance at all she’s not — you know —”

Harry didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t see how Ginny could still be alive.

“D’you know what? ” said Ron. “I think we should go and see

? 295‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He’s going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it’s a basilisk in there. ”

Because Harry couldn’t think of anything else to do, and because he wanted to be doing something, he agreed. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, 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. They 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 Lock- hart’s eyes peering through it.

“Oh — Mr. Potter — Mr. Weasley —” he said, opening the door a bit wider. “I’m rather busy at the moment — if you would be quick —”

“Professor, we’ve got some information for you, ” said Harry. “We think it’ll help you. ”

“Er — well — it’s not terribly —” The side of Lockhart’s face that they 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 jum- bled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

? 296‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“Are you going somewhere? ” said Harry.

“Er, well, yes, ” said Lockhart, 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? ” said Ron jerkily.

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

“You’re the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! ” said Harry. “You can’t go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here! ” “Well — I must say — when I took the job —” Lockhart mut- tered, now piling socks on top of his robes. “nothing in the job de- scription — didn’t expect —”

“You mean you’re running away? said Harry disbelievingly. “Af-

ter all that stuff you did in your books —”

“Books can be misleading, ” said Lockhart delicately. “You wrote them! ” Harry shouted.

“My dear boy, ” said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. “Do use your common sense. My books wouldn’t have sold

half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things. No one

wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He’d look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Ban- don Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on —”

“So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done? ” said Harry incredulously.

“Harry, Harry, ” said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, “it’s not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had

? 297‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn’t remember doing it. If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my Memory Charms. No, it’s been a lot of work, Harry. It’s not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog. ”

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them. “Let’s see, ” he said. “I think that’s everything. Yes. Only one thing left. ”

He pulled out his wand and turned to them.

“Awfully sorry, boys, but I’ll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can’t have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I’d never sell another book —”

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised

his, when Harry bellowed, “ Expelliarmus! ”

Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; 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, ” said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart’s trunk aside. Lockhart was look- ing up at him, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.

“What d’you want me to do? ” said Lockhart weakly. “I don’t know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There’s nothing I can do. ” “You’re in luck, ” said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at

wandpoint. “We think we know where it is. And what’s inside it.

Let’s go. ”

? 298‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

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.

They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet. “Oh, it’s you, ” she said when she saw Harry. “What do you want this time? ”

“To ask you how you died, ” said Harry.

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

“Ooooh, it was dreadful, ” she said with relish. “It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I’d hid- den because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody 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? ” said Harry.

“No idea, ” said Myrtle 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? ” said Harry.

? 299‘

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Somewhere there, ” said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry and Ron hurried over to 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 Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake. “That tap’s never worked, ” said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.

“Harry, ” said Ron. “Say something. Something in Parseltongue. ” “But —” Harry thought hard. The only times he’d ever man- aged to speak Parseltongue were when he’d been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.

“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.

Harry heard Ron gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.

? 300‘

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

“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.