Treacherous | Hermione Granger Book II

|64| Chapter Sixty-Four

S I X T Y  F O U R 

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Saffron felt very fired up as they left Lockhart's office. She was furious at herself for not having the gumption that Harry had to stop Lockhart from attacking them. She used that regret as fuel to send Lockhart into the Chamber. There was no way she could be convinced to go down there, but sending Lockhart down to do it should be a sufficient enough thing to do should the Chamber exist in Myrtle's bathroom. Then, they could inform a teacher and let them sort it out.

They saw the new message on the wall near Myrtle's bathroom but didn't waste any time in examining it. Harry poked Lockhart with his wand sending him into the bathroom first in case the Basilisk was somehow waiting for them in there.

Saffron followed him in, not taking her wand off of him and made and called out for Myrtle: "Myrtle! Myrtle, we need to talk to you!"

"Oh, it's you," said Myrtle "What do you want this time?"

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

"Harry," groaned Saffron furiously, feeling certain that Myrtle would fly off in a fit of tears. "You can't just ask her how she died,"

"No, that's alright, I've been waiting for someone to ask me," Myrtle practically squealed with excitement. Saffron blinked. Myrtle was perhaps the most emotional being she had ever had the displeasure of meeting, so the fact that she was willing to talk about her death just spoke to how crazy the ghost was. "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 I died ."

"How?" asked Harry.

"No idea," answered Myrte importantly."I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away 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," Myrtle pointed at a sink to her right.

Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Saffron, however, did not move and kept her wand pointed directly at Lockhart threateningly.

"If you even think of running away, I'll burn your face off," Saffron stated simply, and wasn't lying. She was capable of conjuring a fire that could land on Lockhart should she want to. Lockhart shuffled back uncomfortably and fearfully but didn't try to evade her.

"That tap's never worked," Myrtle told Harry as he tried to force the tap to let some water out.

"Harry," said Ron softly, "Say something. Say something in Parseltongue."

"But -" Harry said, looking very bothered in the tap not budging. He exhaled and said "Open up,"

He looked to Ron for approval, but Ron told him that he had spoken in English.

This time, it had worked and Harry spoke in Parseltongue. The tap started to glow a bright white light and began to spin like crazy. Then the sink moved and sunk out of sight, leaving a mammoth of a pipe open, that they easily could slide down.

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.

"I'm going down there," he informed them matter-of-factly.