I muffle a moan. I get up, "I need to go" I mumbled, ignoring my friends calls I stumbled out of the common room. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and head down. Then I place my hand on my mother's necklace, which I got on Christmas last year, It let's me know whenever someone I cared about needed my help, I took a deep breathe and began remembering my happiest memories. A whoosh of air, and I was standing in front of...

Lockhart's Office?

I could hear voices, I moved closer. I heard Harry's voice "So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other peoplehave done?" said Harry incredulously. 

"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently,"it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managedto do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm onthem so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing Ipride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot ofwork, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, youknow. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hardslog."

"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm onyou now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'dnever sell another book —" Lockhart was saying. Before he even had the chance to utter a spell, I bellowed  "Expelliarmus!" 

Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wandflew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the openwindow."Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," I said  furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at us, feeble once more. Harry was now pointing his wandat him."What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don'tknow where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do.""You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet atwand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it.Let's go." Ron looked at me, "you coming?" he asked "if it saves my friends" I say stiffly. 

We marched Lockhart out of his office and down the neareststairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on thewall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. We sent Lockhart in first. Harry looked pleased to see that he wasshaking. 

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet."Oh, it's you," she said when she saw us. "What do you wantthis time?"

 "To ask you how you died," said Harry.Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though shehad never been asked such a flattering question.

 "Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happenedright in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. Thedoor was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebodycome in. They said something funny. A different language, I thinkit must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boyspeaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his owntoilet, and then —" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining."I died." 

"How?" I asked. 

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeinga pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up,and then I was floating away. . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry."And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt OliveHornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at myglasses." 

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry. 

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward thesink in front of her toilet.

 Me, Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing wellback, a look of utter terror on his face.It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it,inside and out, including the pipes below. And then I saw it:Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake."That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as I tried toturn it. 

"Harry" I say "your the only one who can speak parseltongue, I can just communicate telepathically. Say something to it."

"Open up," he said.He looked at me and Ron, who shook his head.

 "English," he said.

 Harry looked back at the snake. 

This time a weird hissing came out of his throat.  Next second, the sink began to move; thesink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, apipe wide enough for a man to slide into. Harry must've heard me and Ron gasp and looked up again. 

"I'm going down there," he said.

"I'll come." I said "Only for my friends, mind."

 He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to theChamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildestchance that Ginny might be alive. 

"Me too," said Ron. 

There was a pause."Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with ashadow of his old smile. "I'll just —" 

He put his hand on the door knob, but Me, Ron and Harry pointed our wands at him."You can go first," Ron snarled. 

White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening."Kids," he said, I snarled, his voice feeble. "Kids, what good will it do?"Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid hislegs into the pipe."I really don't think —" he started to say, but Ron gave him apush, and he slid out of sight. I followed quickly.

 I lowered myself slowly into the pipe, then let go.It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. I couldsee more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large astheirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and I knew that I was falling deeper below the school than even thedungeons. Behind me I could hear Harry and Ron, thudding slightly at thecurves.And then, just as I had begun to worry about what would happen when I hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and I shot outof the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a darkstone tunnel large enough to stand in.

 Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry and Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too. 

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel. 

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at thedark, slimy walls.

 All four of us turned to stare into the darkness ahead."Lumos!" I muttered to my wand and it lit . "C'mon," I said to Harry, Ron and Lockhart, and off we went, our footstepsslapping loudly on the wet floor.The tunnel was so dark that we could only see a little distanceahead. Our shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in thewandlight."Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away. . . ."But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpectedsound we heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turnedout to be a rat's skull.

 I lowered my wand to look at the floorand saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying veryhard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if we found her, I led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel."Harry —Emma -- there's something up there —" said Ron hoarsely,grabbing Harry's shoulder. We froze, watching. I could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving. 

"Maybe it's asleep," Harry breathed, glancing back at the Ron and Lockhart.Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. I turned back tolook at the thing, my heart beating so fast it hurt.

Very slowly, my eyes as narrow as I could make them and stillsee, I edged forward, my wand held high.The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonousgreen, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creaturethat had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least. 

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.There was a sudden movement behind us. 

Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way."Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.Lockhart got to his feet — then he dived at Ron, knocking himto the ground.Harry jumped forward, but too late — Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile backon his face."The adventure ends here, kids!" he said. "I shall take a bit ofthis skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save thegirl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of hermangled body — say good-bye to your memories!"He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled,"Obliviate!" 

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. I flunghis arms over my head. Next moment, I was standing alone, gazing at asolid wall of broken rock."Ron!" harry shouted, a few feet behind me. "Are you okay? Ron!""I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay — this git's not, though — he got blasted by thewand —" 

There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as thoughRon had just kicked Lockhart in the shins. 

"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can'tget through — it'll take ages. . . ." 

I looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. I had never tried to break apart anything as large asthese rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment totry — what if the whole tunnel caved in?There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind therocks. We were wasting time. Ginny had already been in theChamber of Secrets for hours. . . . I knew there was only onething to do."Wait there," I called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. we'll goon. . . . If we're not back in an hour . . ."There was a very pregnant pause."I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed tobe trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can — can get backthrough. And —""

See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidenceinto his shaking voice.And he set off alone past the giant snake skin, me close behind.Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks wasgone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in my body was tingling unpleasantly. I wanted the tunnel to end, yetdreaded what I'd find when it did. And then, at last, as we creptaround yet another bend, I saw a solid wall ahead on which twoentwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glintingemeralds

we approached, my throat very dry. I looked at Harry and nodded.He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and theemerald eyes seemed to flicker.   Harry said something, in a low, faint hiss.The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slidsmoothly out of sight, and Harry and me, shaking from head to foot,walked inside.