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fired up as they left Lockhart's office. She was furious at herself for not having the gumption that Harry had to stop Lockhart from attacking them. She used that regret as fuel to send Lockhart into the Chamber. There was no way she could be convinced to go down there, but sending Lockhart down to do it should be a sufficient enough thing to do should the Chamber exist in Myrtle's bathroom. Then, they could inform a teacher and let them sort it out.

They saw the new message on the wall near Myrtle's bathroom but didn't waste any time in examining it. Harry poked Lockhart with his wand sending him into the bathroom first in case the Basilisk was somehow waiting for them in there.

Saffron followed him in, not taking her wand off of him and made and called out for Myrtle: "Myrtle! Myrtle, we need to talk to you!"

"Oh, it's you," said Myrtle "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry bluntly.

"Harry," groaned Saffron furiously, feeling certain that Myrtle would fly off in a fit of tears. "You can't just ask her how she died,"

"No, that's alright, I've been waiting for someone to ask me," Myrtle practically squealed with excitement. Saffron blinked. Myrtle was perhaps the most emotional being she had ever had the displeasure of meeting, so the fact that she was willing to talk about her death just spoke to how crazy the ghost was. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then I died ."

"How?" asked Harry.

"No idea," answered Myrte importantly."I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away and then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," Myrtle pointed at a sink to her right.

Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Saffron, however, did not move and kept her wand pointed directly at Lockhart threateningly.

"If you even think of running away, I'll burn your face off," Saffron stated simply, and wasn't lying. She was capable of conjuring a fire that could land on Lockhart should she want to. Lockhart shuffled back uncomfortably and fearfully but didn't try to evade her.

"That tap's never worked," Myrtle told Harry as he tried to force the tap to let some water out.

"Harry," said Ron softly, "Say something. Say something in Parseltongue."

"But -" Harry said, looking very bothered in the tap not budging. He exhaled and said "Open up,"

He looked to Ron for approval, but Ron told him that he had spoken in English.

This time, it had worked and Harry spoke in Parseltongue. The tap started to glow a bright white light and began to spin like crazy. Then the sink moved and sunk out of sight, leaving a mammoth of a pipe open, that they easily could slide down.

Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

"I'm going down there," he informed them matter-of-factly.

"I-Harry I don't know if this is a good idea," countered Saffron anxiously, "we need to get someone, Professor McGonagall-"

Harry cut her off, furiously. "That's Ron's sister down there, Saffron. With every second we wait here, the more she- well-"

These words had a great impact on Saffron When he put it like that, Saffron knew they had to go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive. "Of course- I was being-, shall I go first?"

"No," said Ron. "You can go first,"

Ron was talking about Lockhart and Saffron instantly agreed. It had been what she had contemplated doing previously. Saffron nudged him with the tip of her wand as Harry had done minutes previously, and forced him to walk over to the entrance to the chamber.

"Children," he said almost inaudibly. "Children, what good will it do?"

"It'll let us know if it's safe for us to go down," Saffron forced a smile. "You didn't seem to care about wiping our memories back there, so why should we care about you getting hurt either?"

Saffron gave Lockhart a nudge forcing him to slide his legs into the pipe.

"I really don't think -" he began, but was cut off as Ron gave him a great push making him slide out of sight. They waited until they heard Lockhart from down there until following. Harry went first, Ron followed soon thereafter and Saffron stood at the top, taking a deep breath and made herself slide down after them so that she wouldn't have the opportunity to ponder over her options.

Saffron couldn't see anything on her way down to the bottom of the pipe. It was pitch black and reminded Saffron of rolling down a dewy hill as she and her siblings would in Holyhead if they were bored. Her robes flailed around amidst the wetness, grim and slime that came with the pipe. It was apparent that because of how fast she was going that she and the others were likely going to a very deep down place under the school, possibly miles under it. All of a sudden, the downhill part came to an end and the pipe levelled out being very flat. But not before a drastic dip and Saffron hurled through the air, landing on her back next to Ron. Instantly, her front was covered from top to bottom in a substance that Saffron didn't allow herself to consider what it could be.

When Saffron stood up, Harry was already watching Lockhart like a hawk, whilst Ron struggled to get up. Saffron offered him her hand and helped pull him up.

"You alright?"

"I'm okay," nodded Ron. "How far down you reckon we are?" He looked up. "Looks to me like we're under the lake,"

All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead of them. Saffron gulped. Again, she didn't allow herself to think about what could be waiting for them over there.

"Lumos! " Harry muttered. Saffron did likewise. "C' mon,"

Saffron, Ron and Lockhart followed Harry, making an inordinate amount of noise as they did so due to how slimy the surface was.

"If I'd of known where we were going, I would have brought a coat," said Saffron, shivering and rubbing her bare legs, looking longingly at Harry and Ron's trousers. She had opted for the skirt as an alternative for the uniform because of the Summer weather but it was no very out of place in the Winter-like weather here.

"Remember," Harry told them firmly as he led the way through the tunnel, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away..."

It was getting increasingly difficult to see anything in spite of the wandlight Saffron and Harry provided. She was at the back of the pack, keeping her wand outstretched and pointed at Lockhart. Her focus was disrupted when Ron started to panic.

"There's something up there!"

Saffron looked up and could vaguely make out some massive curved immobile sort of creature across the tunnel. She felt confident that this must have been the Basilisk. This belief was further evidenced by how they had to walk over a massive line of snakeskin.

"Blimey," muttered Ron weakly.

"So it's true," said Saffron breathlessly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

"Get up," Ron turned around and pointed it at Lockhart. Lockhart did as Ron commanded, but what Ron didn't expect Lockhart to knock him to the ground and wrestle his wand out of his bare hand.

Saffron made a start towards him and just as the incantation for a body-binding curse formed on her lips, Lockhart made another move towards her this time and hit her wand right out of her hand. He then disarmed Harry.

"The adventure ends here, children!" he yelled triumphantly. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories!"

Harry flinched and Saffron screamed helplessly as Lockhart aimed the wand at Harry, shouting to send the spell in his direction.

But the spell didn't hit Harry. Saffron wasn't entirely sure that it hit anything as per se. But an explosion occurred sending all four of them backwards, and Saffron felt her body soaring through the air until it landed on some of the snakeskin. She blinked to look up and the last thing she saw was debris collapsing onto her, keeping her captive under it.

For some reason, it didn't hurt as much as it should have. This was as a result of her magic. But it hurt enough to make her start to literally begin to black-out amidst the literal darkness around her.

That wasn't the last thing she heard.

"Saffron!" yelled a voice that belonged to Ron. "Harry- I don't see her!"

"No, oh no . . . Saffron," The girl barely heard Harry let the words out. She didn't hear anything else.

Not until she was in the Grey.