Chapter 102: The Diary

The missing diary became harder to ignore as the castle grew quieter.

Ginny Weasley had carried it for months, yet she denied remembering where it went. When McGonagall asked about Lucius Malfoy at Flourish and Blotts, Ginny became frightened enough that her answers lost sequence. She recalled books falling into her cauldron, then waking at Hogwarts with the diary among them. She remembered writing in it. Everything after that came in pieces.

Edward heard only the portion McGonagall shared with the student witnesses. It supported what he had seen in Diagon Alley without proving how the book commanded a Basilisk.

"An enchanted object can influence a reader," Snape told him. "That does not permit you to interrogate the child."

"I was going to ask whether the book answered her."

"So was I. The difference is training, authority, and the ability to recognise when an answer is being forced."

Edward accepted the boundary. Ginny was moved to the hospital wing for observation, but she slipped away during a change of escort and reappeared an hour later with mud on her shoes and no memory of leaving.

The staff searched every place she could have reached. The diary did not appear.

Days passed without another attack. Flitwick's corridor mirrors and the escort rota reduced the creature's opportunities, while the portraits learned to report hissing rather than investigate it. Dumbledore remained removed. Hagrid remained in Azkaban. Lucius used the absence of fresh victims as evidence that both decisions had worked.

Edward spent his library periods comparing the old death inquiry with current records. The same locations connected through pipes too narrow for a person and large enough only in the oldest foundations. The third-floor bathroom lay above one of the broad vertical shafts.

McGonagall already knew. What no one possessed was a safe way to open the concealed entrance without Parseltongue.

Harry did.

The acting headmistress questioned him with Snape present. Harry could reproduce sounds he had heard from snakes, but he could not translate them into ordinary speech or command an object whose response he did not understand. Attempts made from outside the sealed bathroom produced no movement.

"It worked at the Dueling Club because there was a snake in front of me," Harry said. "I was telling it not to attack."

"Then we do not improvise with a deadly entrance," McGonagall replied. "If you hear the voice again, you find a professor."

Harry agreed. Edward believed he meant it.

The next message appeared on a stormy evening.

The castle bell called every student back to their common room. Edward was escorting two first-years from the library when a prefect met them at the dungeon stair and whispered that a student had been taken into the Chamber.

Ginny Weasley was missing from the hospital wing. Her name had been written beneath the threat on the wall.

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Edward delivered the first-years to Pansy and returned to the entrance hall, where McGonagall was assigning staff to searches. Harry and Ron had been present moments earlier. Neither remained.

"They heard Ginny's name," a Ravenclaw prefect said. "Potter said something about Hermione's page."

The hand mirror. PIPES. The third-floor bathroom.

Edward told Snape and ran only after the professor sent a warning to McGonagall. They took separate staircases so one moving wall could not delay both routes.

Edward reached Lockhart's office first. The door stood open. Inside, overturned cases covered the floor, and every portrait had been stripped from the walls. Lockhart wore travelling robes and held his wand behind one leg.

Harry stood between him and the exit. Ron had his own broken wand raised.

"You said in class that you knew where the Chamber was," Harry said. "Ginny is down there."

"A figure of speech," Lockhart replied. "Authors are permitted a little colour."

"Professor Snape is coming," Edward said from the doorway. "Put down the wand."

Lockhart's pleasant expression cracked. He spun toward Edward, then stopped when Harry aimed at his chest.

"You are confused," Lockhart said softly. "All three of you. A simple charm will make this much easier."

Ron saw the packed cases. "You were running away."

Lockhart admitted the books were borrowed victories. He found people who had done brave things, learned their stories, and removed the memories that could contradict him. His confession carried pride rather than shame.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor. Lockhart cast a Blasting Charm at the ceiling, dropping plaster between the office and the approaching professor. Then he seized Ron, pressed his wand beneath the boy's jaw, and ordered Harry to lead him to the bathroom.

Edward could not attack without risking Ron. He sent a silent red spark through the gap behind them, the distress signal Snape had specified, and followed.

Myrtle screamed when the four entered the sealed bathroom. Harry stood before the serpent tap and tried the sound he remembered from the Dueling Club. Nothing happened.

"Think of opening, not warning," Ron said through clenched teeth.

Harry tried again. The hiss changed. Stone rotated beneath the sinks, exposing a steep pipe descending into darkness.

Lockhart forced Ron forward. "You first."

"We wait for Snape," Edward said.

A curse struck the wall beside him. "We do not."

Lockhart sent Ron down, then Harry. Edward heard both land far below. The professor ordered him into the pipe next and followed before Snape could clear the fallen plaster.

The descent ended in a damp tunnel littered with bones. Harry and Ron were uninjured. Lockhart landed badly, lost his grip on Ron, and tried to recover control with a Memory Charm.

Ron raised his damaged wand on instinct. Lockhart tore it from his hand.

"Obliviate!"

The broken wand released the spell backward. White light struck Lockhart in the face and threw him against the tunnel wall. A second burst hit the ceiling.

Stone split above them.

Edward dragged Ron clear as the passage collapsed. Dust swallowed the tunnel. When it thinned, a wall of fallen rock divided them from Harry.

"Harry!" Ron shouted.

A faint answer came from the other side, then silence.

Ron struck the rocks with his shoulder until Edward pulled him back. Several smaller stones shifted above the gap.

"Can you turn into fire and pass through?" Ron asked.

"Not safely. I can change a hand or an arm for a few seconds. If I lose control inside the rock, you will have two people trapped instead of one."

They checked the edges together. A narrow channel near the floor carried air, but no voice passed clearly through it. Edward used a thread of ordinary flame to test the draught and extinguished it before heat could weaken the stone.

Ron began lifting loose pieces from the outer edge. Edward stopped him from touching the load-bearing slab and marked it with chalk. They could clear rubble once Snape arrived with proper supports. Moving the wrong stone now could bury Harry and Ginny beyond reach.

"He is my best friend," Ron said.

"Then help him by leaving the ceiling where it is."

The words sounded cold. Ron obeyed anyway. Together they opened enough space around Lockhart to keep falling dust from blocking his breathing, then placed themselves where anyone descending the pipe would see them at once.

Lockhart sat among the rubble, smiling without recognition. Edward checked that he was breathing, then sent another distress spark up the open pipe.

Snape and McGonagall knew the entrance now. Help was coming. Harry, however, was alone on the far side of the collapse, and Ginny's time was running out.