Not Again//Harry Potter [2]

24

In Myrtle's bathroom, they saw Myrtle floating in the air like she normally does then made eye-contact with them.

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

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Autumn was shocked as to how blunt Harry was, but was happy that Myrtle answered.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. 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 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 paused. "I died."

"How?" Autumn asked.

"No idea," Myrtle said. "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. 

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle pointing to the sinks.

They hurried to it, while Lockhart cowardly stood back. It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below.  Harry called Autumn and Ron over. He pointed out a small snake on a copper tap.

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

"Harry, Autumn," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."

"But-" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed 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," Ron said.

Autumn closed her eyes, and felt the scar on her left hand start to burn.

"Open." Autumn said. 

It appeared to work, as Ron's eyes widened and a large sound was echoed.

The sinks slowly moved away from each other, opening the ground underneath them. A giant pipe was exposed, one big enough for Autumn to jump into.

"I'm going down there," Harry said.

"Not without me." Autumn said. Ginny could still be alive, and just that thought was enough.

"Me too," said Ron.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart. "I'll just—"

Harry and Ron grabbed their wands and pointed them at Lockhart as he tried to leave.

"Don't even think about it," Autumn said, holding her wand at the ready.

"You'll go first," Ron said.

 Lockhart walked towards the pipe. "Boys," he said smally. "Boys, what good will it do?" 

Harry poked him in the back with his wand. 

Lockhart turned around and faced the kids. "I really don't think t-"

Autumn finally go the chance to do what he heart desired: punch him. She hit him in the chest and he fell down the pipe. Autumn wiped her hands together.

"You just punched a teacher!" Ron exclaimed.

"It was great," Autumn smiled. "It goes down as my favorite memory yet."

Autumn lowered herself carefully. "Well, here goes nothing." Autumn then dropped herself down.

The pipe was almost like a slide, but it was dark and sticky. When the 'slide' was over, she was shot out of the pipe, and landed on her broken foot.

"Ouch!" Autumn muttered.

Harry and Ron came out soon after Autumn, and they stood up.

"We must be miles under the school." Harry said. 

"Under the lake, most likely." Ron said.

"Aura Conspirco." Autumn muttered. The tip of her wand shot small orbs of light around her, and ultimately, around the four.

"Lumos." Harry said.

Lumos was a good spell for concentrated light while Aura Conspirco was a good spell for overall light.  It was a good mix.

"Remember," Harry said as they walked forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away..."

"Harry, Autumn, there's something up there." said Ron hoarsely, grabbing their shoulders.

Autumn shot some of the light orbs towards where Ron was pointing, and they noticed it was a snakeskin.  It was at least 20 feet long.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

Behind them, Lockhart fell over.

"Get up," said Ron harshly, pointing his wand at him.

Autumn hobbled over to the Ron, Harry behind her.

Lockhart got to his feet, then he dived at Ron, knocking Autumn to the ground in the process.

Harry tried to help, but he was too late. Autumn was on the ground, tears threatening to spill. She stared at her leg. You could clearly see where the bone had snapped now. Before it wasn't as noticeable, but now; it was as if you snapped a piece of wood in two.

Lockhart stood up again, looking happy as he held Ron's wand.

"The adventure ends here, students!" 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 goodbye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's broken wand over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!" 

The wand exploded. The rocks above them began to shake as they fell to the ground.

Harry grabbed Autumn and dragged her out of the way as Ron dove out of the line of stones that fell. Coughing, Autumn pushed herself to stand. Standing was unbearable, but Autumn ignored it, yet again.

"Ron!" Autumn yelled. "Can you hear me?" 

Harry shouted as well. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" Ron's voice was muffled from behind the new wall of rocks. "I'm okay, this git's not, though -- he got blasted by the wand—" 

From behind the rocks, an "ow!" was heard. But not from Ron.

"What do we do?" Ron asked.

Harry looked up to the ceiling.

"Harry, I think Autumn and I have to go on," Harry said. "If we use magic to move the rocks, they'll all fall down."

"He's right," Autumn yelled, trying to get her voice to carry over to Ron.

"I'll try to clear a path for you when you come back." Ron said.

"If one of us isn't back in an hour, you bring Lockhart back up and tell McGonagall," Harry said.

"See you in a bit," Autumn said, hopeful that at least Harry would return.

Harry and Autumn made their way down the giant pipe.