The Mudblood

Chapter 11 : Year 1

"Lainey! Lainey!"

I jolted back into consciousness, finding my face only centimeters from Harry Potter's. Alarmed, I scrambled backward, my gaze darting around as I tried to make sense of what was going on. From the eerie stone walls to the smell of decaying rats I concluded that I was in the Chamber of Secrets, although instead of chasing down Ginny, I was now sitting on the ground, surrounded by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Git Lockhart.

"Lockhart?" I questioned in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, well, I've been asking myself the same thing—"

"He promised to help save Ginny," Ron snapped with agitation. He reached down toward me to help me up, and I took his hand. Just the simple touch sent a warm sensation through my stomach, one I'd never felt before.

I brushed myself off awkwardly as Harry began to walk over toward the large, circular doorway that Ginny had apparently already gone through.

"She went through that door," I said as Harry approached it. I was about to follow him when I found that a wand was now pointed in my face.

"The road ends here, first years!" Lockhart proclaimed, now holding Ron's broken wand in his hand.

"We're second years!" Ron spat angrily. He looked like he was ready to lunge at Lockhart, but no one wanted to attack him while he had a wand drawn.

"Well, I'm not—"

"Shh!" Lockhart hissed. "I shall take a bit of this snake skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body—"

"You disgusting pig," I seethed, my fists clenched in anger.

"Say good bye to your memories!" Lockhart taunted giddily. My eyes widened as he raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head—pointed directly at me—and then yelled, "Obliviate!"

I was expecting a spell to hit me—to render me clueless—but instead, Lockhart's spell had backfired, and he went flying backward with an explosion so massive that it shook the stone walls of the cave we stood in. Alarmed, I jumped at Ron, my face slamming into his chest as he wrapped his arms around me and the rocks showered down around us.

When all was silent, I peeked my head out of Ron's chest. Through the dust, I could see that there was now a large barrier of boulders that separated Ron, Lockhart and I from Harry and the doorway.

"Ron! Lainey!" Harry shouted from the other side of the pile. "Are you okay? Ron!"

I looked up at Ron—realizing that I was still clutching his shirt, and he still had his arms around me—and we both quickly pulled away.

Ron cleared his throat before yelling back to Harry, "We're here. We're okay."

We both glanced over to the ground where a dust covered Lockhart was lying, dazed.

"This git's not, though—he got blasted by the wand—"

At the same time, Ron and I both kicked Lockhart and he let out a loud yelp as he jolted back to life.

"Wha—wha—" he babbled, although no coherent words came from his mouth.

"What now?" Ron called back to Harry.

"C'mon," I said as I grabbed Ron's arm. "Let's start moving these rocks."

"It'll take ages," Ron replied glumly, holding firm to his position. He kicked Lockhart again, who had started to doze off.