““Where the hell have you been?” Harry shouted. “Chamber of Secrets?” said Ron. “Chamber-- what ?” said Harry, coming to an unsteady halt before them. “It was Ron, all Ron’s idea!” said Hermione breathlessly. “Wasn’t it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after you left, and I said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn’t got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!” “What the--?” “Something to get rid of Horcruxes,” said Ron simply. Harry’s eyes dropped to the objects clutched in Ron and Hermione’s arms: great curved fangs, torn, he now realized, from the skull of a dead basilisk. “But how did you get in there?” he asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. “You need to speak Parseltongue!” “He did!” whispered Hermione. “Show him, Ron!” Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise. “It’s what you did to open the locket,” he told Harry apologetically. “I had to have a few goes to get it right, but,” he shrugged modestly, “we got there in the end.” “He was amazing !” said Hermione. “Amazing!” “So…” Harry was struggling to keep up. “So…” “So we’re another Horcrux down,” said Ron, and from under his jacket he pulled the mangled remains of Hufflepuff’s cup. “Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn’t had the pleasure yet.” “Genius!” yelled Harry. “It was nothing,” said Ron, though he looked delighted with himself.””