HP : The Chronicles

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"Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?" Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe. "I really don't think…" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. They waited for him to fall all the way down and only then, when he reached the bottom with a loud thud and complaining, did the two wizards get ready to jump. Harry simply looked at the pipe blankly his heart thumping fast in his chest; Ginny was down there and soon his brother would be too. And then there was the basilisk. He wasn't going to enjoy this.

Ron jumped in first and Adrian soon followed; Harry cast a silencing spell on himself and followed them too; the cloak might gift him with invisibility, but if the loud thumbing sound Lockhart had made going down was any indication, it wouldn't be enough. He held the cloak tight between his knees so it would stay in place as he slid down and jumped down the pipe. He was sliding, falling down at a dizzying speed, turning abruptly again and again but he didn't dare to scream even with the silencing spell; a loud scream would pierce right through it easily. He chose instead to concentrate on not landing on his face -as Lockhart had probably done- or on his brother if he could help it.

After what seemed like hours he landed, falling on his knees. The chamber he found himself into was humid and resembled a cave if anything else. Harry guessed they were somewhere under the lake, miles beneath the school. Not wanting to consider the great mass of ground -and the cold body of water- that separated him from the surface, Harry stood up and looked at the floor of what seemed to be a dark tunnel stretching forever; it was littered with the remains of thousands of rodents, the skull of one Ron had just stepped on.

He followed them silently, looking around and on the floor for any type of movement, ready to duck his head the moment he caught the slightest inkling. But the only thing that disturbed the silence was their footsteps and the occasional little yelps from Lockhart. Harry was walking ahead of the group, ready to hex whatever dared to appear, Adrian trailing behind and finally Ron marching Lockhart forward. It was the redhead that spoke first.

"Adrian… there's something up there…" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Adrian's shoulder. Harry had seen it to and had almost believed it was the snake and tried to curse it when he realized it wasn't moving; it was an empty snake's shirt and from what the green eyed wizard could tell, the snake that had shed it must have been over twenty feet long. "Blimey." Ron exclaimed. Harry agreed completely. A thudding sound and bones on the floor crunching as they broke caught his attention; Gilderoy Lockhart's legs had given way. "Get up!" The redhead ordered, pointing his wand at the fallen Defence teacher. Lockhart got to his feet; then, he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground. Adrian jumped forward, but too late; Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face. He wouldn't do something that stupid, Harry thought frozen still; even a moron such as Lockhart would understand that obliviating someone in a dark, half crumbling tunnel with a broken wand that was notorious for exploding was dangerous.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. But apparently he would; Harry tried to move around Adrian -who was standing in his way- to get a clean shot at Lockhart. "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 good-bye to your memories!" He raised Ron's spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!" The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry flung his arms over his head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing further down in the tunnel, his back against the wall, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock. He had been trapped in one side with his brother while Ron and Lockhart remained on the other.

"Ron!" Adrian shouted panicking. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" Came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay… this git's not, though… he got blasted by the wand…" Served him right, Harry thought. And judging from the dull 'Ow!' that followed Ron's statement, said git must have been kicked viciously in the shins. He deserved that too, the green eyed wizard decided. Harry turned at the other side of the tunnel; they were wasting time he realized; sparing one last glance at his brother, who was still trying to communicate with Ron, he moved ahead getting a head start from Adrian. He moved swiftly down the tunnel, the distant sound of stones shifting -probably Ron trying to get through- accompanying him soon joined by a pair of footsteps belonging to his brother.

Then Harry saw it; a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds. This time he didn't hesitate; he just hoped the silencing spell he had casted on himself would be enough to mask the soft whistling of Parseltongue as he ordered;

"Open!" The wall cracked in half evenly, the serpents making way for a door to open, just at the moment Adrian appeared around the corner; looking once at his pale and trembling brother, Harry gathered is wits and entered the Chamber. He tried to take in his surroundings; the chamber was very long and the ceiling was unbelievably tall, especially in contrast to the tunnel before. Serpents rose on each side of the room instead of columns, supporting a ceiling lost in darkness, the faint glow coming from lit torches on the walls giving the chamber an eerie green colour.

There was water on the floor, the air was humid and every step his brother took echoed on the walls; looking towards the other side of the room, his gaze fell and locked on a statue as tall as the Chamber itself. Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above; it was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor; the green eyed wizard had seen enough statues of the man in various ages to recognize Salazar Slytherin. And between the feet of his statue, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair; he gasped and started running towards the prone form. Adrian had seen her too.

"Ginny!" He screamed and followed his brother's example. The hazel eyed twin dropped his wand as he kneeled next to Ginny Weasley. Harry was observing her, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness claim him as Adrian tried to shake her awake. Ginny was extremely pale, the freckles on her face showing painfully clear against her white skin, her hair being the only thing that still had colour on her. Her lips were purple and her hands were cold and Harry's heart constricted painfully as he feared for the worst.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice. Harry jumped up swiftly and spun around, his wand pointing at the newcomer from behind his cloak. It was a tall black-haired boy, leaning carelessly against the nearest pillar; his features were handsome, if somewhat cold, and he was oddly blurred around the edges. Harry's breath caught on his throat; that boy reminded him of someone. But whom?

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