"Dong dong dong"
Harry and Ron stood in front of Lockhart's office door, looking at each other, and then Harry reached out and knocked on the office door.
Soon, a "Please come in" came from inside.
The two turned the door handle and opened the door.
In the office, Lockhart was sitting leisurely behind his desk, flipping through a thick book. Harry glanced subconsciously. It was the autobiography written by Lockhart - "Magical Me".
"Oh... Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," he looked at Harry and Ron and said, "come to me so late. Is there anything important you have to do?"
"Yes, Professor. We have something to tell you," Harry said. "We think it will be of some help to you."
"Of course! Of course... Come on, sit down and talk slowly." Lockhart stood up, pulled Harry and Ron to the seats next to him, and waited until they were both seated firmly before continuing, "Go on, I’m listening!”
"Here's the thing..."
Harry told him all the information and corresponding speculations he and Ron had obtained from the note, with Ron adding a few words from time to time. Although the narrative process is a bit messy, at least one key point is not missing.
After they finished speaking, Lockhart nodded.
"What a good reasoning. Who would have thought that the secret room would be hidden in a girls' bathroom that was in disrepair!" Lockhart smiled as usual, but his smile looked a little stiff.
"Yeah! That's unbelievable, but what I care more about is my sister!" Ron said impulsively.
"Ah, indeed! That thing - it was so unfortunate." Lockhart said, "I think saving people is the most important thing, and you just happened to bring good news!"
"Are you going now?" Ron looked a little excited.
"Yes, of course! Go now!" Lockhart nodded decisively.
"I'll go too!" Ron immediately answered after hearing this.
It can be said that everyone in the Weasley family looks like this when it comes to matters related to their sister. To be honest, there is a big difference between Ron now and his usual timid temperament.
But Lockhart shook his head.
"No, I think I can't let students take risks. This is my job." He said righteously.
Harry on the side looked at Lockhart again and again, always feeling that he was different from his previous image.
"Professor Lockhart," Harry said suddenly, "I think we have to go. Ginny has been taken away, and Ron and I can't settle down and wait here."
"Oh—" Lockhart looked embarrassed and hesitated for a while, but finally agreed.
"You can go, but you must be careful," he said. "Remember, close your eyes when there is any movement. Leave the basilisk to me to deal with."
After saying that, Lockhart took Harry and Ron and hurried to Myrtle's bathroom.
They went down the nearest staircase, walked through the dim corridor with the words flashing on the wall, and came to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Lockhart took the lead and opened the bathroom door without hesitation.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the innermost toilet.
"Oh, it's you," she sobbed when she saw Harry behind Lockhart, "What do you want this time?"
"I wanted to ask how you died," Harry said.
Myrtle's whole demeanor suddenly changed. It seemed that no one had ever asked her such a question, which she felt honored to do.
"Oh, it's terrible," she said with relish, "it happened here. I died in this toilet. I remember it very clearly. At that time, Olive Humbe laughed at me for wearing glasses and looking like I had four eyes. Dog, I hid here. I locked the door and was crying inside, and suddenly I heard someone coming in... What they said was funny, I thought it must be in another language!"
"But what pissed me off the most was I heard a boy's voice talking about life! So I opened the door, told him to go away, go to my boys' room, and then—"
Myrtle puffed out her chest, thinking she was great, and her face was radiant, "I'll die."
"How did you die?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Myrtle said in a mysterious low voice, "I just remember seeing a pair of scary big yellow eyes. My whole body seemed to be grabbed, and then I floated away..."
She looked at Harry in a daze.
"Then I came back again. You know, I wanted to get some revenge on Olive Humbe. Oh—she regretted making fun of me for wearing glasses."
"Where on earth did you see those yellow eyes?" Harry asked.
"That's about it," Myrtle said, pointing vaguely to the sink in front of her. Harry and Ron hurried over.
Lockhart also walked over and looked at it carefully.
That sink looks ordinary. They checked it inside and out, up and down, even the water pipes below.
Then, Harry saw a small snake carved on the side of a copper faucet.
"No water ever comes out of this faucet," Myrtle said happily when she saw Harry trying to unscrew the faucet.
"Harry," Lockhart said suddenly, "try speaking to it in Parseltongue."
"Yeah, Harry, give it a try!" Ron followed suit.
"But -" Harry tried desperately to recall his past experiences, but this kind of thing couldn't be accomplished by just recalling it.
Previously, he could only speak Parseltongue when faced with a real snake.
Harry stared at the small carved snake, trying to imagine it as a real snake.
"Open it," he said.
He looked up at Ron and Lockhart, but Ron shook his head.
"No, you are speaking human language," he said.
Harry turned to look at the snake again, forcing himself to believe that it was alive. Harry thought that if he moved his head a few times, the flickering candlelight would make the snake appear to be moving.
"Open it." He couldn't help shaking his head and said.
However, that was not what Ron and Lockhart heard - a strange hissing sound came from his mouth.
Lockhart kept staring at Harry's mouth, wondering what he was thinking.
Suddenly, the dragon's head emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly. Then, the sink also started to move.
They watched as the pool slowly disappeared from sight, and a very thick water pipe was exposed underneath, which was more than enough for one person to get in.
Harry heard Ron gasp.
"I think," Lockhart also looked at the entrance of the water pipe and said softly, "this looks really dangerous. You'd better not go in."
Harry pursed his lips and raised his head suddenly, having already made up his mind on what to do.
"I want to go down," he said firmly.
He had to go, now that they had found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, now that there was still a tiny, tiny, slim glimmer of hope that Ginny might still be alive.
"I'm going too," said Ron.
There was a moment of silence in the small bathroom.
"Okay, okay... at least, I'll go down and take a look first, and it won't be too late for you to come back down when I say 'it's okay'."
Lockhart said this, jumped decisively, and slid down the pipe.
After a while, Harry and Ron heard a very faint shout from below. If they hadn't been listening carefully, they might not have been able to hear it.
Harry and Ron nodded to each other and jumped in one after another.
The slide was certainly not a pleasant ride, at least not as fun as those in amusement parks that usually bring laughter to children.
Inside, it feels like hurtling down a dark, slimy, endless slide. They could see many more pipes branching out in all directions, but none were as thick as this one.
Their pipe had twists and turns, seven twists and eights, and the slope was very steep all the way down.
Harry knew that he had slipped very, very deep beneath the walls of the school, even deeper than the underground classrooms. He could hear Ron following him, making a slight clatter around the bend.
Then, just as Harry began to worry about what was to come, the slope of the pipe gradually became much gentler. After a while, he emerged from the mouth of the pipe and fell to the wet ground with a pop.
It was a dark stone tunnel large enough for a man to stand in it.
Very close to Harry, Lockhart was standing there holding his wand, but he was not as dirty and covered in mud as he was.
Harry stood aside, and not long after, Ron came out of the tube with a whoosh.
"Cleaned up."
After Ron also stood up, Lockhart cast a descaling charm on each of them. Suddenly, all the stains on Harry and Ron's bodies disappeared.
"Oh, thank you, Professor." The two couldn't help but thanked him.
"We must be miles beneath the school." Harry looked around, his voice echoing in the dark tunnel.
"Probably under the lake," Ron said. He squinted his eyes and looked at the dark, slimy walls around him.
Then, all three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.
"Lumos!"
Lockhart raised his wand and whispered, and the wand glowed again.
"Let's go," he said to Harry and Ron.
The shoes of the three people clicked on the wet ground, making a loud sound.
It was too dark in the tunnel, and even though Lockhart's wand glowing spell was quite bright, it could only illuminate a section of the way. Their shadows were reflected on the wet stone wall, constantly changing and twisting along with the uneven surface of the stone wall, which looked quite strange.
"Remember?" Lockhart lowered his voice. "Although this sounds a bit verbose, I must say it again... once you hear any movement, close your eyes immediately!"
Harry and Ron responded immediately to show that they heard it.