Once all three of them were together, Richard began:
"Ladies and gentlemen, any suggestions?"
"Maybe"—Potter glanced sideways at the remains of the serpent's carcass—"we could shoot it to pieces with the railguns?"
"Absolutely not!" Hermione snapped irritably, gesturing towards the ruined statue. "We've done quite enough shooting already."
"Since there are no other suggestions," Richard continued, "here's what I propose: we soak the lot in Transfigured napalm, get aboard the glider, open the passage... Match... and leg it!"
Hermione's eyebrows shot upwards.
"Napalm?"
"Napalm?" Harry echoed.
"Napalm." Richard nodded.
"Napalm?!" Granger's eyebrows drew apart in astonishment.
"Yep." Grosvenor blinked slowly in confirmation. "Excellent stuff for destroying all the evidence."
"YOU MEAN WE COULD HAVE DONE THAT ALL ALONG?!" an utterly dumbfounded Harry exclaimed.
"Not in a school," Richie replied, looking at his friend as though he were ill.
"We-e-ell..." Harry ruffled his thick hair. "Sounds like a decent plan."
"But I..."
Hermione never finished. She frowned and ran a hand through her hair. Bringing her hand up to her face, the girl stared at it in surprise.
"Water? Where did that come from?"
Another drop of water landed on Hermione's head. The girl hurriedly stepped aside. Drops began landing where she had just been standing. There weren't many at first, but gradually the patter of falling water grew faster.
All three of them craned their necks towards the ceiling. Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it upwards.
"Lumos!"
The focused beam of the spell illuminated the vaulted ceiling of the Chamber of Secrets. It looked like a sieve, riddled with holes left by the railgun fire. The ceiling was wet.
Without warning, a cracking sound rang out. Cracks spread across the ceiling, and the flow of water intensified. It was no longer merely dripping: a proper little stream was pouring from the vault.
Richard's expression changed, his face turning as white as chalk.
"LEG IT!"
Grosvenor's shout snapped his companions out of their shock. Harry and Hermione followed their friend's example and sprinted towards the glider.
Stones and clumps of earth began falling from the ceiling. The water poured down in an ever-greater torrent.
The two boys and the girl were already airborne, hurtling towards the exit at full speed. The cracking grew louder and louder, until it sounded more like a mountain landslide, an unstoppable torrent sweeping away everything in its path—rocks, trees, houses—as the entire mass thundered down the slope. There was no question of a little stream any more: a full-blown waterfall was pouring through the ceiling. The water level was rising rapidly.
By the time the three young adventurers reached the wall with the snakes, the water was already up to their necks.
Harry hurriedly ordered the doors to open in Parseltongue. Richard had to send the glider underwater so they could squeeze sideways through the opening. Everyone got soaked, but at that particular moment, none of them cared very much.
The glider raced along the tunnel, now filled with surging water, carrying two boys and one girl. For the first part of the journey, the flying artefact resembled a watercraft more than anything else, since it—and its passengers—spent most of the twisting passage underwater. Before long, however, the tunnel turned sharply upwards. The trio managed to burst free of the water and began gaining altitude, drawing closer to their cherished goal—the way out of this dangerous place.
His teeth chattering from their unplanned swim in the icy water, Harry shouted:
"I could swear I saw one of the giant squid's tentacles! Do you think it survived?"
"The squid?!" Hermione exclaimed in horror. "Now they'll definitely kill us, throw us in prison, or worse—expel us! Two! We managed to kill two relic creatures in a single day! That's a bloody fucking record!!!"
The filthy tunnel walls flashed past in the glare of the headlights. Without taking his attention away from piloting the glider, Richard offered his own comment as calmly as possible, with all his usual aristocratic composure:
"Well, what can I say? Oops."
"Oops? Oops?! OOPS?!" Hermione worked herself into a fury. "This is a disaster, Richie!"
"At least we got rid of the evidence," Grosvenor added with the same composure and a hint of relief.
"That's true..." Harry drawled. "Rather thoroughly, I'd say..."
Richard landed the glider on the platform in front of the secret passage's exit. The headlights provided enough illumination to light up the small patch of level ground.
The children stepped off the glider onto the stone floor. Their clothes were soaked through, leaving all three of them shivering with cold.
Harry was about to order the doors to open, but Richard stopped him.
"Wait. Harry, we need to change. Besides, Filch might still be waiting out there. How exactly were you planning to get past him?"
"Invisibility suit..." Potter began, then remembered that his clothes were hopelessly ruined, while Hermione's suit was filthy and might give her away. "Richie, have you got a spare?"
"I do... One!"
Harry's face fell. Then he suddenly brightened.
"I've got Dad's Invisibility Cloak in my bag!"
"Excellent," Grosvenor said with relief. "Then you and Hermione can make it back to Gryffindor Tower."
Richie briskly began pulling dry, clean clothes from his bag: a spare ninja suit for himself, and a robe and complete set of underwear, socks, and shoes each for Harry and Hermione.
"Men's pants?" Hermione exclaimed in horror.
"They're new," Richard replied, unperturbed. "Hermione, dry men's clothes are better than anything wet and cold. You don't want to leave wet footprints behind, do you?"
"No." Harry shook his head, promptly taking his set.
"If they're new..." Hermione took her clothes. "Boys, just turn around."
"No problem," Richard replied. "Boys face the exit, girls face the glider."
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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