𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 // 𝕙. 𝕡𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣

chapter 10: the entrance

your pov

harry, ron and i race into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and up the stairs to Lockhart's office.

"Lockhart may be useless, but he's going to try to get into the Chamber. At least we can tell him what we know!" harry tells us, opening the door to the office and stepping inside.

"Professor, we have some information for you." i say, but then i see Lockhart stuff some clothes into his trunk, which he closes as he turns toward us. is he serious? Ron scowls at him.

"Are you going somewhere?" he asks.

"Um... well, yes. Urgent call. Unavoidable. Uh, got to go." lockhart replies. he's obviously lying.

"What about my sister?!" ron exclaims, outraged.

"Uh, well, um... As to that, most unfortunate. No one regrets more than I." lockhart says. i look at him in disbelief.

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. You can't go now!" i say.

"Well, I must say, when I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about-" he says, but harry interrupts him.

"You're running away? After all that stuff you did in your books?!" harry says.

"Books can be misleading." he says.

"You wrote them!" i respond.

"My dear kids, 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!" he says. i don't believe it. i knew he was an idiot, but this..

"You're a fraud. You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done!" i yell. i hate liars.

"Is there anything you can do?" ron says.

"Yes. Now you mention it. I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would've gone blabbing, and I'd never have sold another book." he says. Harry, Ron and i look at each other as Lockhart walks toward his suitcase. "In fact, uh... I'm uh..." Ron nods at us, and we reach into our robes to pull out our wands. "going to have to do the same to you." lockhart collects his wand from the suitcase, but we already have our wands trained on him.

"Don't even think about it." harry says, pointing downward, gesturing for Lockhart to drop his wand; Lockhart reluctantly does so. we lead him to the girls bathroom, wands still out.

"Oh? Who's there?" myrtle says, floating toward us. seeing Harry, she smiles warmly.

"Oh, hello, Harry. What do you want?" myrtle says.

"To ask you how you died." harry says. Myrtle smiles slightly.

"Oh...it was dreadful. It happened right here in this very cubicle. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. I was crying, and then... I heard somebody come in." myrtle explains.

"Who was it, Myrtle?" i ask her.

"I don't know. I was distraught! But they said something funny, a kind of made-up language, and I realized it was a boy speaking, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go away, and... I died." she says.

"Just like that? How?" harry says.

"I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes, over there, by that sink." she points at the circle of sinks in the center of the bathroom and floats off to the stalls. Harry steps forward to examine the sinks. Reaching up to the circular stone above the sinks, he moves his hand downward to the sink in front of him; he turns the tap, but no water comes out. i walk over. At that second, something else catches my eye; looking more closely at the tap, i sees a snake carved on it.