Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Five

We sat there, excitement coursing through us, hardly able to believe it.

"This means," I said, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how they've been controlling the Basilisk"

"What're we going to do?" Ron asked, his eyes flashing. "Shall we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staff room," I suggested, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes, it's nearly break"

We ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, we went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, panelled room full of dark wooden chairs. Me and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.

But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please"

I wheeled around to stare at Ron. "Not another attack? Not now?"

"What'll we do?" Ron asked, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"

"No," I said, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to my left, full of the teacher's cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out"

We hid inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff-room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, we watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, other downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived. 

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "Two students have been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself"

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"The heir of Slytherin," Professor McGonagall said, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever"

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked, who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. "Who are the students?"

"Ginny Weasley and I fear the other one is Bella Swan," Professor McGonagall told them.

I gasped and felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside me. I followed suit, feeling as though my heart was breaking into millions of pieces.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," McGonagall said. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

The staff-room door banged open again. For one wild moment, I was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?"

MY BEST FRIEND IS IN THE CHAMBER THAT'S WHAT YOU MISSED!

Lockhart didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man," he said. "The very man. Two girls have been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last"

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," Professor Sprout chipped in. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets is?"