Regulus Black the Potions Master

Capítulo 36

The descent down the dark tunnel was frightening, although all too easy. They slid down a huge slide and landed at a fork in the pipe. The place was a circle with several entrances in huge circles, which adult people could pass through without any problems.

"Ugh," Ron said, something on his feet making loud cracking sounds "Bones?!"

Harry looked down at his feet, there were thousands of bones of various sizes, but still all small enough to be animal bones. The smell around them made his eyes water.

"Let's go," Harry said, turning towards the entrance to a pipe.

No one there was very happy with the plan, especially since there wasn't one. Harry didn't think much about how to stay alive against a basilisk apart from not looking it in the eye. Even Ron didn't have much input; the idea was to save Gina, but many details were missing.

He realized this when he came across the snake's skin, which was gigantic. It would reach its height with the thing lying on the ground, but its length would be several meters.

They must have made some plan or found a more competent teacher than the lying Lockhart. For the first time, Harry wished he'd asked McGonagall, or Black, or Flitwick, or some other capable adult for help. But they didn't have time, nor did he know if she was still alive.

Things only got more complicated when Lockhart disarmed Ron, who was distracted by the snakeskin.

"Sorry boys, but this whole thing ends now."

"How are you going to explain our disappearance?" Ron asked, Lockhart pointed his mended wand at him.

"It was an absolute tragedy, when we got to the little girl's corpse you two went crazy and attacked each other."

"No one will believe such nonsense."

"Oh, but you won't be able to disprove me," the blond twirled his wand "Not without your memories. Obliviate."

A light came out of the wand, but not from the tip as usual, from the cracked middle of it, and then a loud sound. Lockhart was thrown backward and upwards. Ron and Harry were thrown half a meter from where they had originally been. And then the whole structure shook for a few seconds.

Harry was further into the tunnel than the others, so when the ceiling stones began to fall, he was forced further away. Into the pipe, they were following.

The earth, concrete, and stones took the air for a moment, Harry couldn't see anything around him, his lungs filled with the dust that rose and he coughed repeatedly, running out of breath.

It may have only taken a few minutes, but it seemed a lot longer before the cloud of dirt subsided enough for a breath of fresh air to enter his lungs.

Harry looked at where his best friend had once stood, and a wave of cold dread hit him. Part of the structure had collapsed with Lockhart's botched spell, and where there had once been a tunnel was now just rocks of various sizes. Ron was nowhere to be seen.

It was for a moment, that moment when all that was around him was silence, and the claws of panic at perhaps having lost his best friend clung to his neck, making breathing even more difficult.

If anything happened to Ron, it was entirely Harry's fault. It was he who had brought the redhead here, and even though Ron might have been able to do something like try to face a basilisk to save his little sister on his own, he would never have been able to access the entrance to the chamber without Harry. And Harry let him come along, he put his friend's life at risk, again, and...and...