"I think I would have known if I was on fire," Harry grumbled.
"I think I know fire when I see it!" Bellatrix declared. "Apparently you forgot the whole transportation idea and nearly cremated yourself."
Harry looked down at his sodden robes and cringed. "I didn't forget about the transportation. I was waiting until I felt the fire." He began to use his wand to cast drying charms. "There's no way I was on fire. I would have felt it."
"Harry," Bellatrix said, "if the guy who invented this spell felt the fire, he probably wouldn't have continued inventing the spell. Maybe if you didn't close your eyes every time you try to learn a new spell, you would have noticed the fire."
"Maybe you're right," Harry conceded reluctantly.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm right. Let's see you try it again. This time, keep your eyes open, and when you see the fire, focus on moving to the travel destination."
Harry was about to reply, but was cut off when a clock chimed midnight. He grinned triumphantly. "Well, I'd love to stay and continue setting myself on fire, but I do believe that is our cue to move onto the real purpose of this evening." He sheathed his wand in an arm holster and moved toward the door. Next to the door sat a small cage containing an unconscious rooster. "I hope our friend here recovers from your stunning spell, Bellatrix." Harry picked up the chicken cage.
Bellatrix joined Harry at the door to the Room of Requirement. "Of course he'll recover. Are you going to tell me what we're doing, now?" She looked at him expectantly.
"Might as well," Harry said, pausing to collect his thoughts. "The dark lord happens to be the heir of Salazar Slytherin. When he was a student at Hogwarts, he opened the Chamber of Secrets. Do you know what that is?"
"Every good Slytherin knows what the Chamber of Secrets is," Bellatrix answered.
"Great," said Harry. "Tom opened the Chamber, killed a girl, and in the uproar that followed, was forced to abandon his plans to rid the school of the Muggleborn students lest he be caught and brought to justice."
"Interesting," said Bellatrix, prompting Harry to go on.
"The monster placed in the Chamber by Slytherin and later used by the dark lord is a basilisk," Harry declared.
Bellatrix looked down at the unconscious chicken. "Of course. I should have guessed."
"You know about basilisks, too, I take it," Harry commented.
"I was born in a magic family and thus have had the advantage of a magical upbringing," Bellatrix said. "The question, though, is how do you intend to get into this Chamber that supposedly only the heir can open? And of course, how did you come to know all of this about the Chamber?"
"When I was at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets was opened," Harry said. "The dark lord had created a journal that he left behind. The journal was sentient enough to independently possess a girl that had the misfortune to come across it. My friend and I busted into the Chamber, saved the girl, and killed the diary."
Bellatrix frowned. "How did you… kill the diary?"
"Stabbed it with a basilisk fang," Harry said.
"Interesting," Bellatrix murmured. "I think we need to find out more about this journal. It will still be extant in this, the past, wouldn't it?"
"Of course," said Harry. "But if we go down and kill the basilisk now, that won't matter anymore. That's why I want to kill the basilisk while I'm still at Hogwarts."
"I don't know," said Bellatrix. "That journal sounds like an above-average dark artifact to me. It could have multiple uses. But, moving on. How are you able to open the Chamber of Secrets?"
This was a secret Harry was not anxious to reveal, but as he had reflected on the eventuality of revealing it to her this night, Harry had realized that he was not overly concerned about sharing the secret with her. She had proven to be on his side. "I'm a parselmouth," Harry said. "Any parselmouth can open the Chamber."
"Are you really?" Bellatrix said, surprise and shock evident in the tone of her voice.
"Uh, yeah," Harry said, trying to assess her reaction.
Bellatrix looked off into space and nodded to herself, quietly thinking. "That bodes well for our future against the dark lord. Are there other skills he has that you might also possess?"
"Eh, possibly," Harry said, not wanting to get into a discussion concerning his connection to Lord Voldemort.
"Right," Bellatrix said, appearing to not be overly interested in speculation. "I guess we're ready to start. Where is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry smiled. "You don't want to take any guesses?"
"I've heard so many theories that I just don't believe any of them anymore," Bellatrix said. "Just tell me so that we can get going already."
Harry held open the door to the Room of Requirement and followed Bellatrix as she walked out. "It's in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," he said.
Bellatrix put her hand over her mouth to stifle hysterical laughter. "Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? That's hilarious. But wait. She was the student who died, wasn't she?"
"Yes," Harry acknowledged, gesturing down the hall toward where they should be heading in order to reach the bathroom as quickly as possible. "She accidentally got killed when the dark lord opened it one day and set the monster loose."
"Well, I hate to say it," Bellatrix said quietly, "but she may have been the intended target. She is rather annoying."
Harry winced, a well of sympathy rising in his emotions on the behalf of Myrtle. "Let's not tell her that."
"Why not?" Bellatrix asked as they ascended a staircase. "Maybe she'll get angry enough to flush herself down to the lake. It's not like we need her hovering around watching us do our work."
"She'll never realize it, but I do owe her a few favors," Harry said, thinking back to her help in finding the Chamber and with the Triwizard Tournament.
"Oh, please," Bellatrix scoffed.
Not wanting to explain any further, Harry contented himself to silence. In short order, the couple found themselves outside of the infamously haunted bathroom.
"I can see why you've waited for nearly everyone to go to sleep," Bellatrix said, pushing open the door and walking into the darkened bathroom, Harry following close behind. "A guy walking into a girl's toilet would raise some eyebrows."
"Who's there?" came a girlish voice.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something snide, but Harry held out his hand and forestalled her. "It would be best if Myrtle remains unable to identify us to anyone who might ask."
"What if ghosts can see in the dark?" Bellatrix whispered back.