ALOHOMORA | CEDRIC DIGGORY

60〝sixty〞

IN HER HASTE TO GET out of bed, Ellis became entangled in the sheets and tripped. She was struggling to extricate herself when Madam Pomfrey, no doubt attracted by the noise, came hurrying over, half-shouting.

"What are you doing?! You're supposed to—"

"I need to see Professor Snape," said Ellis breathlessly. "It's about the Chamber of Secrets!"

To her surprise, there was no further argument or attempts to fuss over her. Madam Pomfrey, for once, seemed to have gotten her priorities right.

"Of course," she said, though sounding moderately strangled.

Led into the matron's office, Ellis noticed a cauldron of bubbling liquid in a corner as she was told to sit. Madam Pomfrey bustled across to the fire, grabbed a handful of something from a small pot perched atop the mantelpiece, and thrusted it into the flames, which roared and burst into a luminous green color. Ellis thought this was somewhat familiar too...

"Professor Snape, Miss Grindelwald is awake and wishes to speak with you," said Madam Pomfrey loudly, into the emerald fire.

Within seconds, a silhouette appeared in it, looking as though it was spinning at high speed. The outline of the figure grew sharper, and then, climbing awkwardly out of Madam Pomfrey's fireplace, grayish soot all over his black robes, his greasy hair looking remarkably windswept, was none other than Professor Snape.

Of course—the Floo. Ellis had the vague memory of her mother going to work like this a very long time ago...

"Do you remember?" Snape asked Ellis urgently. "Do you remember who did—?"

Without really registering what Snape had said, Ellis blurted out, "It's Ginny! Sir," she added quickly, "I think Ginny's in trouble—I think she's gone into the Chamber of Secrets."

It penetrated Ellis only dimly that neither Snape and Madam Pomfrey looked alarmed or shocked by this news, but instead exchanged solemn glances, and that she didn't understand why—she had been so deep in her own problems over the past few months that she had neglected to work on her vision of Ginny, let alone consulting Snape about it, so none of them could have known—but she couldn't care less, and rushed on.

"And I think I know where the Chamber is."

Now they looked appalled. Madam Pomfrey's eyes had gone so round and wide they could fit Galleons. Snape, on the other hand, had already recovered. He waved his wand, muttering indistinctly; something blindingly bright issued from its tip: a gleaming doe, reminiscent of the glowing cats Ellis had once observed Professor McGonagall produce, leapt through the glass pane on Madam Pomfrey's door and out of sight.

"Come," said Snape briskly, seizing Ellis's wrist, "we're going to see the headmaster."

Snape didn't so much as whisper another word as he marched her through the deserted halls. Ellis wondered if he had merely misspoken out of habit when he said "headmaster" because they seemed headed to Professor McGonagall's study. Indeed, a minute later, they reached her door, but Snape whisked Ellis right past it and into the adjacent classroom.

Initially, Ellis thought it was empty. Then, gliding out of the shadows and towering before her was a sight the castle had missed for months—silver robes trailing the floor, platinum beard falling past his waist, and blue eyes glistening from behind half-moon glasses: Dumbledore. But he wasn't alone. On his shoulder roosted the handsomest bird Ellis had ever had the fortune to lay her eyes on. With plumage of the richest scarlet, a golden tail as long as its body that was rather as large as a swan, she knew immediately what it must be—a phoenix. It watched Ellis with its beady eyes as Dumbledore did with his own.

"Good evening, Ellis," said Dumbledore serenely. "I'm glad to see that you're well enough to be up and about. I hope you are feeling better?"

Ellis was saved the hassle of making small talk as Snape cut in.

"Miss Grindelwald has information regarding the Chamber, Professor Dumbledore."

Dumbledore looked from Snape to Ellis, said "Naturally" softly, then gave his wand a flick. Light was thrown everywhere around them as the lamps ignited. He gave it a second flick. Three chairs scuttled out from behind their desks, arranging themselves to face each other as though the vertices of an equilateral triangle, and Dumbledore indicated to them. As each took a seat, Dumbledore (still shouldering the phoenix) gazed at Ellis, smileless yet benign.

"Please," he said gravely, "do tell."

Glancing at Snape, who nodded reassuringly, Ellis began by repeating to Dumbledore what she had told her Head of House earlier, then going into detail about the voice in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Ginny's weird manner and what Percy Weasley once said about her blundering around, the Stunner, Ginny's splattered attire and her visions, her speculated location of the Chamber, and somehow concluded with—

"—and the monster's a basilisk. It's been getting around through the pipes to remain undetected—that's why I've heard it in the walls. No one's been killed because nobody's looked directly at it."

This was met with absolute silence, which Ellis thought was quite befitting, if they were both as astonished as she was. She had no idea why she had said those things or how she had come to even know them...or maybe she did... She suddenly became very aware of Snape examining her with a frown, the phoenix eyeing her almost shrewdly, and Dumbledore concentrating just as hard on the lamp behind her head, whose reflection was flickering on his semi-circular lenses.

"How do you know this?" said Snape finally.

"I—" Ellis faltered. She couldn't possibly say that somebody had told her in a dream...

She had roused in the infirmary from a dream of people discussing the matter, which she found curious not only because they had similarly postulated that Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was the key to the Chamber of Secrets—or had they seeded this notion too?—but because the whole thing felt strangely real, like it wasn't quite a dream at all... Could it have been another kind of vision? And then there was also the fact that she couldn't recollect seeing any faces; she merely heard their voices—boyish voices—from which she had managed to pick out the aforementioned material...

"I heard them," she said. It was not untrue.

"Ellis," said Dumbledore, still gazing at the lamp, "do you mind explaining what you meant by Miss Weasley's 'gone into the Chamber'?"

Ellis stared from Dumbledore to Snape, who displayed no sign that he thought the question was ridiculous either; if anything, he seemed keen on the answer. It was like they had both forgotten part of the English language.

"Er...I meant exactly that, sir," said Ellis, feeling stupid, "I think she's gone inside."

Amazingly, Dumbledore nodded, stroking his beard like he was digesting something extremely complex. Snape broke the quiet.

"Miss Grindelwald," he said, in his if-she-didn't-know-better-would-be-fatherly voice, "Miss Weasley was taken into the Chamber. We found the message left by the Heir of Slytherin when we found you unconscious along the second-floor corridor. But if she's the one who attacked you—"

"Excuse me, Severus," interrupted Dumbledore, "the boy you saw, Ellis, can you describe him for me, please? How old was he, do you think, for example? Did he have any distinguishing features you can remember?"

Revisiting visions was not Ellis's preferred pastime, but she obliged. She closed her eyes, focusing on the boy's face...he seemed older than Cedric, but not by much, so she guessed perhaps sixteen, and told Dumbledore this. The boy's brows were furrowed...he was getting impatient with whatever Ginny was saying...his eyes became red—Ellis felt herself shudder at the sight—but this Dumbledore already knew... Drawing a bracing breath, Ellis replayed it again...Ginny was rambling...the boy scowled...but no, there was a sparkle...Ellis (having seen it too often with Professor Lockhart) once dismissed this as coming from his teeth, but now she realized it wasn't...it came from his robes...it came from—

"A prefect's badge," said Ellis, "he had a Slytherin prefect's badge."

Snape stared at her in suppressed horror, Dumbledore with a piercing look. Then the headmaster rose to his feet so abruptly Ellis started in her chair.

"Miss Myrtle Warren's bathroom, you say?"