(Harry Potter Fanfiction) But Title Erased For Security Reasons

Chapter Sixteen

Hogwarts Castle, the Scottish Highlands

"Snape is a Death Eater! I knew it! Look, Harry, 'Twenty Death Eaters on Trial'." Ron waved the Daily Prophet in Harry's face. It had been terribly dull and painful since Hermione had been petrified. "I bet he's the one that set Slytherin's beast on everyone, the way he hates us all."

"He should be in Azkaban." Agreed the sandy-haired Irish boy from Gryffindor.

Harry clenched his fists and breathed heavily. Something didn't add up. Something didn't feel right. "I'm going to go see Hermione." He got up from the Gryffindor table, sick of all the stares he received for being the snake amongst the lions. Ron followed, heading to the Hospital Wing.

A little red-haired girl gazed longingly after them, after the dark-haired boy, to be specific. She had puffy, red eyes, and she held back a sob when her hero passed by without even sparing a glance at her. She retreated into the shadows, probably to scribble her feelings down into her diary, much like all other little girls her age would.

Except that the diary was not hers.

* * *

The creature in the Chamber was a basilisk. Harry and Ron pored through the passage Hermione had marked. At the bottom of the torn page, she had scribbled something.

Pipes.

The basilisk was getting around the castle through the plumbing. The two rushed to the staff room, but found it deserted.

Right, most of the teachers had gone to the Ministry for Snape's trial. Which left Lockhart (who was 'mysteriously' missing), Burbage (the Muggle Studies professor), Trelawney (a teacher they had never seen or heard about before) and Filch. The latter was a squib, and would not be very helpful in catching a basilisk.

"The diary said a girl died, the last time the Chamber was opened. She was found in a bathroom." Harry said. "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?"

"You don't think—not Moaning Myrtle?" Ron asked, wide-eyed. Harry nodded, and the two of them ran to the second floor girls' lavatory. The corridor was flooded, like it had been, the day the warning appeared on the wall. And sure enough, when they looked up, there was another message scrawled in red:

'HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER'

A student had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets.

It all had to be related, the attacks, pipes, the messages, they were all... they must have been near the entrance to the... The answer stared back right into his face; Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They ran inside, looking in each cubicle for Myrtle. Five minutes later, the ghost had risen out of her favourite U-bend, and was sitting on the tank of a toilet.

"Oh, it's you." Myrtle said sullenly when she saw Harry. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask how you died." Said Harry.

* * *

The Ministry of Magic, London

Minerva McGonagall had testified, followed by Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout; but all they could offer in his defence were about his essential goodness. That was not quite substantial in a courtroom. Snape could hear a faint knell; he did not know if it was his imagination or from the hall across, where the convicted Death Eaters were being handed over to the Dementors. The Ministry had reopened the Death Hall in the Department of Mysteries.

Murmurs filled the hall as the handsome and graceful figure of Tom Riddle left his seat following a heated discussion with the Minister for Magic. The wizard walked down to the chair, bowing elegantly.