1. | BAD ROMANCE. (Draco Malfoy!)

❖ chapter five

"Okay, just say something to it." Melody encouraged me. I looked at my snake dead in the eyes.

"Hi Smaug." I began. Melody snorted. "What? I'm trying." I insisted. She raised her hands in surrender. I went back to Smaug. "Can you understand me?" I asked clearly. He did nothing. I was about to give up, before I saw his head move ever so slightly up and down. "So I can talk to snakes?" I asked him, shocked. "Yesssss." Smaug hissed back. I almost fell off my chair in shock. I turned to Melody and her mouth was wide open. "Y-you just spoke in a different language." Melody stammered. "How can I speak in a different language without even knowing it?" I asked. Melody shrugged. "Smaug, do you know where the chamber of secrets are?" I asked. Smaug shook his head slowly. "Worth a try." I sighed.

The next day, I decided to talk to Smaug more, while Melody went to the library to hopefully find out more about the chamber of secrets.

"So how long have I been able to understand you?" I asked. "Forever." Smaug replied. I crossed my arms. "I'm sorry I didn't know sooner." I apologised. Smaug slowly blinked, which I assumed was him accepting my apology. "The cassstle isn't sssafe." Smaug said. I snapped my gaze back to him. "What do you mean? Is this about people being petrified?" I asked. Smaug slowly blinked. "Is this.. Is this to do with the monster?" I asked in a whisper, even though I knew no one would be able to understand whether they were listening in or not. Smaug blinked slowly once again, but this time he looked scared, if it was possible to detect snake emotion. Instead of answering any more questions, he curled up and shut his eyes. I sighed. "I guess i'd better find Melody." I murmured to myself. I set off to the library, heading into the restricted section, where we did all our book finding. "Where is she." I mumbled to myself as I looked between rows. All of a sudden I noticed something lying on the floor, or rather, someone.

I ran up to the figure, bending down to see who it was. I recognized the chestnut brown hair and pale face almost instantly. "Melody, no.." I whispered, trembling in fear. My breathing sped up as I checked her pulse. She was still alive, but there was a look of pure terror on her face. The monster must have gotten to her. I cursed myself for letting her go alone. "Somebody help!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, worrying for Melody's safety. Instantly I saw Ron and Harry running towards me, seeing what was wrong. Behind them were Draco and Professor McGonagall.

McGonagall let out an audible gasp as she spotted Melody. The nurse ran towards us with a few seniors behind her, trying to get her onto the stretcher. I didn't want to let go of Melody's hand. "You'll be okay, Melody. I'll find out what did this." I whispered in her ear determindely. I felt a hand wrap around my arm as I was pulled away from Melody. "Miss Prior, you must go back to your common room. Hogwarts is no longer safe." McGonagall said gravely, letting go of my arm. "Draco, Delancey, will you please make your way back to the Slytherin common room and please, don't leave unless you're accompanied by an adult." McGonagall instructed us. I followed Draco out of the library, watching as Melody was carried away, worriedly. We walked swiftly down the corridor, not wanting to waste any time in case we were to get petrified by the monster. I kept a small distance between me and Draco so that we wouldn't get into a feud. Finally, we reached our common room. Draco turned around and glared at me. "Well are you going to your dorm or not?" He snapped, sick of my presence. Without a word, I ran up the stairs to my dorm, leaping onto my bed and screaming into my pillow. Melody was petrified, Hogwarts was unsafe, nothing was going my way at the moment. What made it worse was that the bed next to me was empty. Melody's bed.

I didn't remember falling asleep, infact, I don't think I did. I looked in the mirror and there were dark circles under my eyes, not a very attractive look. I sighed and walked to the great hall. I sat by myself, and I didn't have an appetite so I just sat there staring at the wall. I looked at the empty spot beside me. I had to sort this thing out, for Melody. I jumped up from my place at the table, and stormed out of the great hall in determination. I sprinted back to my dorm and got out my pet snake. "Look Smaug, I know you don't want to talk about it, but I really have to know what's going on right now." I pleaded, staring into his small black eyes. "What'ssss wrong?" Smaug asked. I looked down at the floor. "Melody was petrified by the monster." I breathed out. Smaug was still. "Check her pocketssss." Smaug hissed. Then it clicked. He knew something I didn't. "Thank you." I whispered, getting up quickly and rushing out the door. But I stopped and turned around for a brief moment. "Wait.. do you escape your cage at night? how do you know things?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows. Smaug slowly blinked. "Okay." I shrugged, before taking off for the hospital wing. Melody looked the exact same as she had when I'd left her, but that was to be expected. I tried not to look into her empty eyes for too long, as I rummaged my hands through her pockets. Aha. I pulled out a scrunched up piece of paper and unravelled it to see a drawing. I dropped it as quickly as I'd picked it up with a gasp. It was a snake. But not just any snake, it was a Basilisk.

As I made my way back to my dorm I spotted Harry talking gravely with Ron, no doubt about the chamber of secrets. I walked over to them quickly, forgetting the ongoing feud between Slytherin and Gryffindor. "Harry." I said, clearing my throat. He looked at me in confusion. "Melody was petrified. If you're trying to fix all this, I want to help." I said determinedly. Harry exchanged an awkward glance with Ron, it didn't look very promising. "How do we know we can trust you?" Harry asked suspiciously. I thought for a minute, I could tell him I could speak parseltongue like him, although I didn't really want to expose my secret. It shouldn't have been something to be ashamed of, but something in the back of my head told me I couldn't trust anyone with that secret, something about it was just off.

"To me, it looks like you need all the help you can get, especially since Granger, the smartest of your trio was petrified. I just want my friend back." I explained to Harry with pleading eyes. I waited anxiously for his reply. I was going to get to the bottom of this whether he said yes or not, just without him would take longer. "You're in." Ron chipped in. Harry and I both turned to him. Harry gave him a pointed look. "What, you don't get to make all the decisions." Ron said playfully. "So where do we start?" I asked, wanting Melody back as soon as possible. "Well Professor McGonagall will have our heads if we aren't back at our common room in 5 minutes so we'll have to leave the planning for tomorrow." Harry told me with a shrug. I let out a sigh of frustration. "Speak of the devil." Ron said, causing me to turn around. Professor McGonagall was standing with a group of teachers, all with pale faces like the blood had been drained from them. Ron, Harry and I positioned ourselves behind the wall, so we could hear what the teachers were fretting about.

"As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fear has been realized. A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself. The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall said warningly. "So sorry- dozed off, what did I miss?" I heard the obnoxiously confident voice belonging to Lockhart. "A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come, at last." Snape said sarcastically. "My m-moment?" Lockhart said unsurely. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Snape said suspiciously. Wow, they really fell for that? Even I knew Lockhart was a complete poser. "Well, that's settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are a legend." McGonagall said in satisfaction. "Very well- ah- I'll just be in my office getting ready." Lockhart said. "Who is it the monster's taken, Minerva?" Professor Sprout chipped in. I held my breath nervously. "Ginny Weasely." McGonagall said lowly. I heard a gasp from beside me, and with no surprise. It was Ron's sister. "'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.' Ginny.." Ron said, reading the words in blood written on the wall in terror. The teachers rushed off, leaving Harry, Ron and I standing in silence.

"Ginny was taken." I breathed out. Ron looked terrified. "Lockhart may be useless, but he's going to try and get into the Chamber. At least we can tell him what we know." Harry said, coming up with a plan. Ron and I nodded our heads in agreement. We headed to Lockhart's office. We entered, I noticed Lockhart seemed to be in some sort of rush. "Professor, we have some information for you! Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked quizzically as we noticed Lockhart was packing his things into his trunk.

"Uh, ah- well, yes- um, urgent call- unavoidable- got to go." Lockhart stammered. "What about my sister?" Ron asked in annoyance. "Well, um- as to that, most unfortunate. No one regrets more than I." Lockhart sympathised, continuing to pack his things. "You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! You can't go now!" Ron exclaimed. "Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of your job?" I chipped in. "Well- I must say- when I took the job there was nothing in the job description about a..." Lockhart trailed off. "You're seriously running away, after all the 'heroic' things you did in your books?" I asked in frustration. "Books can be misleading!" Lockhart protested. "You wrote them!" Harry cut in. "My dear boy, do use your common sense! My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things!" Lockhart said in a panic. Ron and Harry looked shocked. Honestly, I wasn't too surprised. "You're a fake! You've been crediting off what other wizards have done, you've done nothing!" I summarised. "Is there anything you can do?" Ron asked in annoyance. "Yeah, he can smile and look pretty." I mumbled. "Yes, now you mention it. I'm rather gifted with Memory Charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would have gone blabbing. And I'd never have sold another book. In fact, ah...I'm ah...going to have to do the same to you." Lockhart said quickly, pulling out his wand and pointing it towards us, but not before all three of us raised our wands and pointed them towards him. He was outnumbered 3-1. "Nice try." I chuckled.