Chapter Thirty-Four, The Truth

Just before sunrise Heir Draco Malfoy snuck into the Hospital Wing with a screwed up piece of paper torn from a tome clutched within his palm, checking the coast was clear he snuck further into the hospital and over to Hermione Granger's bed.
"I may not like you Granger and mostly due to your know-it-all attitude and how you don't like when Izzy does better than you, but Izzy is my friend and I don't like seeing her upset." Draco hissed scowling at the prone figure on the bed before he smoothed out the crumpled paper spying the page he tore from the book on Basilisk's over the summer in Flourish and Blotts. "I'd heard what my father had planned and knew Izzy was getting blamed for all this, which is ridiculous! So what if she's a Parselmouth like You-Know-Who, you're all just sheep looking for a twelve year old to save you and it's disgusting but... she doesn't deserve the ostracisation that's being done to her. So if this helps her.... I'm all for it."

Snatching a quill from the desk at the bottom of the bed, Draco hurriedly scrawled 'pipes' written across the bottom of the page - making sure it wasn't recognised as his own in the process while he kept an ear out for Madam Pomfrey or his friend, Longbottom and Weasley who he knew often visited Granger before breakfast; satisfied he wasn't about to be caught he screwed up the paper into a ball and stuffed it haphazardly into Hermione's half clenched palm as he could now in the earliness of the morning - hear three sets of footsteps approaching the Hospital Wing - and quickly hid in the cupboard at the end of the room just in time for his friend and two frenemies to enter the wing while he watched with trepidation for he knew Izzy was to observant for her own good.

However, it appeared Draco was smiled upon by Mother Magic that morning for the trio not Madam Pomfrey caught him and he was able to slip out of the hospital wing back to the Slytherin Common Room without being caught; he shuddered if he was caught by his Godfather, Cousin or heavens forbid his mother, only for that dreaded announcement to be heard magically throughout the entire school.
"All students are to return to their House Common Rooms at once! All teachers please head to the Second Floor corridor! Immediately!!" Headmistress McGonagall's voice magically announced starting what would be known in Hogwarts History as the tensest twenty four hours in the School's history.

***

"As you can see, the Heir of Slytherin has left us another message! Our worst fears have been realised!" Professor McGonagall informed all of her staff unaware that Izzy, Neville and Ron were hiding around the corner listening. "A student has been taken by the monster and into the Chamber itself! The students must be sent home as soon as possible, I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts!!"
"Who is that the monster has taken, Minerva?" Madam Pomfrey asked with trepidation.
"Ginny Weasley." She answered grimly, leading them off to the staff to plan their next steps on what they could actually do.
"'Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.'" Ron read. "Ginny!!" He complained, slumping down onto the cobbled floor.
"Ron. Ron, come on. We can tell Remus where the chamber is. I could maybe help him get in there with Parseltongue." Izzy suggested, her brain working mile-a-minute as she tried to help her friends.

***

It took much convincing but the trio were finally able to convince Remus to let them come with him as he would have no way to access the Chamber without Izzy's help and if they didn't have more help it could be too late for Ginny. However, Remus didn't like it, in fact he hated it; especially when they didn't give him much choice in the matter as they took off for the bathroom leaving Remus only seconds to send off a Patronus informing Minerva, Augusta, Andromeda and Sirius on what had transpired before he followed after them fully intending to ground the three until they were all sixteen, that is however; until he arrived down in the Chamber to realise that Izzy had been separated from Neville and Ron due to a cave-in as she was now left alone to face the Basilisk and whoever had taken Ginny down into the chamber.

"Wait!! Wait stop!!" Remus panted heavily, coming across Neville and Ron as they were trying to shift some rock, as he felt like he'd been sucker punched in the gut.
"Please. Please tell me Izzy isn't buried..." his voice broke as he couldn't even contemplate that reality.
"No. I yelled when I saw the snakeskin and it bounced off the walls over and over again and caused this cave-in. She's okay but she's gone on alone. We have to move it. It's my fault. My sisters are all alone and -" Ron panted harshly as he started to have a panic attack as the days events caught up with him.

"Ron, it's okay. Breathe. Just breathe." Remus muttered reassuringly even though he himself was pale as Myrtle and was trembling from head to foot like the two teens before him.
"It's my fault too. She's my sister I swore I'd protect her-" Neville muttered, his eyes overly wide.
"Shh." Remus soothed, grasping their shoulders, grounding them before they lost control of their magic and caused their dyer situation to become worse. "What we are going to do is take a breath before we lose control of our magic, then I'm going to assess the structural damage and see what we can do about making a wide enough hole for Izzy and Ginny to get back. But first-"
"NO!!" Neville and Ron shouted, their timbers reverberating off the jagged rock walls.

"We're not leaving them. We're sorry for running off but we just wanted to help and now we've made things worse, haven't we?" They asked remorsefully.
"Let's not worry about that now until we're all safely back up at the school." Remus decided, praying his little Cub and Ginny would be alright until help finally arrived.