Harry Potter 02 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

be heard.
    For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Harry heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.
    ‘C’mon … gotta get yeh outta here … c’mon now … in the box …’
    There was something familiar about that voice.
    Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Harry stepped out behind him. He could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.
    ‘Evening, Rubeus,’ said Riddle sharply.
    The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.
    ‘What yer doin’ down here, Tom?’
    Riddle stepped closer.
    ‘It’s all over,’ he said. ‘I’m going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They’re talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don’t stop.’
    ‘What d’yeh –’
    ‘I don’t think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don’t make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and –’
    ‘It never killed no one!’ said the large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind him, Harry could hear a funny rustling and clicking.
    ‘Come on, Rubeus,’ said Riddle, moving yet closer. ‘The dead girl’s parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered …’
    ‘It wasn’ him!’ roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. ‘He wouldn’! He never!’
    ‘Stand aside,’ said Riddle, drawing out his wand.
    His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. And out of it came something that made Harry let out a long, piercing scream no one but he seemed to hear.
    A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers – Riddle raised his wand again, but he was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight. Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it; he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand and threw him back down, yelling, ‘NOOOOOOO!’
    The scene whirled, the darkness became complete, Harry felt himself falling and, with a crash, he landed spread-eagled on his four-poster in the Gryffindor dormitory, Riddle’s diary lying open on his stomach.
    Before he had had time to regain his breath, the dormitory door opened and Ron came in.
    ‘There you are,’ he said.
    Harry sat up. He was sweating and shaking.
    ‘What’s up?’ said Ron, looking at him with concern.
    ‘It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago.’

 
— CHAPTER FOURTEEN —
     
Cornelius Fudge
    Harry, Ron and Hermione had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. During their first year at Hogwarts he had tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house, and it would be a long time before they forgot the giant, three-headed dog he’d christened ‘Fluffy’. And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, Harry was sure he’d have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it. He’d probably thought it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long, and thought it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs; Harry could just imagine the thirteen-year-old Hagrid trying to fit a lead and collar on it. But he was equally certain that Hagrid would never have meant to kill anybody.
    Harry half-wished he hadn’t found out how to work Riddle’s diary. Again and again Ron and Hermione made him recount what he’d seen, until he was heartily sick of telling them and sick of the long, circular conversations that followed.
    ‘Riddle might have got the wrong person,’ said Hermione. ‘Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people …’
    ‘How many monsters d’you think this place can hold?’ Ron asked dully.
    ‘We always knew Hagrid had been expelled,’ said Harry miserably. ‘And the attacks must’ve stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn’t have got his award.’
    Ron tried a different tack.
    ‘Riddle does sound like Percy – who asked him to grass on Hagrid, anyway?’
    ‘But the monster had killed someone, Ron,’ said Hermione.
    ‘And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts,’ said Harry. ‘I don’t blame