The snake had moved. Rumors about a certain notebook belonging to the Dark Lord abandoned at Hogwarts were already circulating heavily through student gossip. Although it would still be a couple of days before The Daily Prophet published it officially, those students whose families possessed key contacts within the Ministry or who had been present that day had already spread the news to their children, and they, in turn, to the rest of the school.
The snake was terrified; he was unaware if his secrets had been exposed, but time was running out for him. However, even feeling cornered, he could not leave Hogwarts—not without fulfilling one last task first. And to achieve it, he needed to drag his prey directly into his lair.
What that reptile did not know was that, at the exact instant he revealed his presence, another infinitely more dangerous hunter was already stalking him. In fact, while the snake was busy leaving a bloody message on the wall, the true predatory beast completely beat him to it.
...
Upon reaching Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, I ran into the ghost, who was notably indignant about my prolonged absence. Since my return from Brazil, I hadn't taken the time to look for her to chat. While I had replied to several of her [Messages], I hadn't shown up in person. Of course, that didn't represent a major issue; ever since she struck up a friendship with Lavender, she had the perfect confidante with whom to discuss those very peculiar "matters" that fascinated them both... Though, well, even Myrtle herself admitted that Lavender played in a much higher league, leaving even the perverted ghost bewildered.
After exchanging a couple of words and sealing a few promises—such as allowing her to meet with the Grey Lady, who hadn't been seen around the castle for a while, to show off her progress in necromancy—I headed straight for the sinks.
In front of me rose the iconic structure that concealed the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
"Well, I'm off. When anyone shows up, just hide; don't let them see you... unless it's the girls. And by the way, not a word that I was here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of your killer," I told Myrtle with absolute confidence.
"Yes... you can handle him, avenge my death," she pleaded, raising a clenched fist in a sign of support. "But... be careful, all right? Don't go dying... And if you do, make sure to come back as a ghost. You still owe me a lot of the things you promised me," she added, with a worry she could barely camouflage.
I simply nodded with serenity, a gesture that was enough to instill calm in her. Immediately afterward, I fixed my gaze on the sink pipes and, in a blink, transmuted my body into a puddle of fluid blood that slipped swiftly through the grates.
"Uhh...! That's... strangely disturbing. Don't show that to Lavender... or she'll want to experiment with what it feels like to have a reverse period," the ghost murmured, contemplating my transformation with a mixture of awe and morbid curiosity. Her words, unfortunately, were far too accurate.
In my liquid state, I managed to move rapidly through the immense network of underground pipes until I reached the threshold of the Chamber of Secrets, standing before the colossal stone door sealed with emeralds and carved serpents. This time, the trick of liquefying my body proved useless; Salazar Slytherin had been infinitely more foresightful and gifted than the descendants who altered the girls' bathroom on the surface.
Fortunately, that did not pose a real obstacle. I decided to test my new reptile Animagus form. Thanks to Elise accumulating massive amounts of gold and crystal coins from the campaigns and others, my capital was enormous; it was even estimated that it would be enough to acquire Morgana next year. For the time being, I had unlocked several conventional Animagus transformations: cat, snake, bat, crow, among others.
With a subtle change in geometric shape, my body adopted the physiognomy of a viper. I hissed a command with my serpentine vocals that made the gears of the great door give way, swinging open before me. I slid inside at full speed and sealed the access behind me, making sure not to leave any trace to preserve the element of surprise.
I traversed the rest of the tunnel until I reached the monumental statue that dominated the main wall. Slipping once more through the openings of the colossal sculpted mouth in liquid form, I accessed the inner chamber, where I finally recovered my physical form. And there, stretched along the immense room, lay a humongous serpent plunged into a deep slumber.
I had located my target. And just in time, for I could already perceive the imminent arrival of the wretched heir.
Aware that minutes mattered, I went into action immediately, leaping cleanly onto the colossal head of the basilisk. The impact woke the beast abruptly. The colossus was dumbfounded to discover an intruder in the heart of its sanctuary, and its predatory instinct exploded with wild fury upon feeling the vermin clinging tenaciously to its scales.
I was shaken violently through the air the moment the basilisk raised its neck, thrashing it frantically in a desperate attempt to hurl me against the ground. I held fast, gripping tightly while beginning to channel my [Sleep] skill through my entire body, injecting the energy directly into its skull.
Perhaps due to my current power limitation or its colossal magical resistance, the basilisk did not seem to be affected immediately; on the contrary, it redoubled its brutal efforts to free itself from me. Facing this, I multiplied into a dozen clones. Although individually weaker, they all distributed themselves strategically along the length of the reptile, activating [Sleep] in perfect synchrony. Fortunately, the room was hermetically soundproofed and protected by ancient wards; otherwise, the din would have alerted the outside.
Feeling the imminent danger and how its non-existent eyelids were beginning to grow heavy with an intolerable weight, the basilisk unleashed a final, frantic burst of survival. It slammed brutally against the stone pavement, lunged into the columns and walls, and even smashed its own back against the vaulted ceiling, destroying several of my clones in the process, which popped and dissipated upon being crushed.
However, the colossal snake was not fast enough to eradicate us all before fatigue bent its colossal musculature. The slumber overcame it completely; its breathing rate began to slow down drastically until, finally, its imposing head crashed lifelessly to the floor, plunging back into unconsciousness. My surviving clones did not stop the flow of magic; they continued draining every last ounce of its energy before vanishing, inducing the basilisk into a deep coma from which it would be absolutely impossible to wake up on its own.
...
Dusk at Hogwarts became utterly chaotic. Another grim message had appeared painted on the wall, explicitly announcing that a death was drawing near.
Many witnessed it, many feared it, and paranoia spread like wildfire. To make matters worse, the crisis erupted precisely on the day when neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall was in the castle. Snape, who had been left temporarily in charge of the school, did not take the situation lightly: he immediately ordered the confinement of all students to their respective dormitories while he and the rest of the staff deployed through the corridors, though not before sending a message of maximum urgency to the headmaster.
Harry and Ron also witnessed the message. What's more, upon finding themselves in the Gryffindor common room, they weren't long in discovering the identity of the missing person. True to their brave, reckless, and foolhardy—yet undeniably heroic—nature, they could not prevent the urge to act on their own. The drawback lay in the fact that, by themselves, they lacked the intellect and the tools to chart a real plan. Without Hermione, the know-it-all of the group, they didn't have the slightest clue where to start looking; for though Harry possessed a sharp deductive instinct, he lacked the necessary database to solve the mystery.
For that very reason, the Gryffindor pair went out in search of reinforcements. The first ones they ran into who showed a willingness to collaborate were the Weasley twins. Upon learning who the victim was and her imminent mortal danger, Fred and George didn't hesitate for a second to join the expedition. And they weren't the only ones they tried to recruit.
First, they tried to secretly locate Red and Ginny, but there was no sign of them anywhere. In fact, none of the girls from the main group were in the tower or on the grounds. The boys managed to infiltrate their usual gathering place without the slightest hitch due to the room being deserted; and if they asked students from any other house, no one could give an account of their whereabouts.
In the end, they gave up looking for them because time was running against them. They opted to resort to a last resort: a teacher. Someone who wouldn't force them to hide in their rooms and would allow them to fight for their own, something Snape would never have tolerated. The chosen one... because there were no other options... was Lockhart, whom they found in his office, hurriedly stuffing his trunks to flee the school.
The celebrated fraud found himself cornered by the horde of students, which Lee Jordan had joined along the way. Despite his desperate excuses and his attempts to slip away, Gilderoy could do nothing against the line of wands pointing directly at him. He had to give in and join them, although his incorporation subtracted more than it added to the group's effectiveness.
The next dilemma was that no one knew the exact location of the Chamber of Secrets. They handled a couple of imprecise conjectures, but unlike the girls' group—who relied on meticulous, organized research—this makeshift squad only had scattered ideas in the air.
Faced with the general bewilderment, they deduced that the most logical thing would be to descend to the dungeons, as it was Slytherin's historical territory, also harboring the hope of crossing paths with Red along the way. However, at the precise instant they turned to leave, Lockhart took advantage of the distraction to break free. He brandished his wand and attempted to ambush them with an Obliviate. The spell hit Lee Jordan dead-on, leaving him dazed, but the twins reacted with seeker-like reflexes, preventing the professor from memory-wiping anyone else and forcing Gilderoy to roll clumsily behind some furniture.
Thus began a skirmish of four students against an accomplished expert in memory charms. The confrontation turned chaotic in a matter of seconds due to Fred and George's first response being to hurl their homemade arsenal of dungbombs, flare fireworks, and smoke screens. Under normal conditions, the boys' odds of victory would have been ninety-nine percent... but the disarray they caused themselves altered the rules of the game.
It was an absurd battle, worthy of such a group, and highly dangerous. Lockhart's counterattacks were so erratic in their trajectory and effects that it was difficult to predict them; even several of his own flashes played against him by bouncing off the furniture. Nonetheless, the real danger lay in the single spell he mastered to perfection, though the dense smoke prevented him from executing it with the precision and concentration of his usual ambushes.
There were casualties on the student side. Lee Jordan, who could barely pick himself back up, was hit a total of three times by Lockhart's stray hexes. Ron and George took one hit each, while Harry and Fred managed to come out physically unscathed, if perhaps affected by the "friendly fire" of the detonations and the stench of the dungbombs. Finally, through sheer persistence, they managed to overpower and bring down Lockhart in that lamentable display of a duel.
And right at that precise instant, the door flew wide open. Snape and a couple of professors burst into the office, alerted by the racket, running head-on into the disaster.