Chapter 17 - Chamber of Secrets

        Harry and Ron started making their way down the halls with me and Eric in Harry's robe pocket.

"I think the Slytherin common room's this way," Harry whispered.

"Ok," Ron replied with a shaky voice. As I felt us move further down the hall, I heard Ron suggest, "Don't swing your arms like that. Goyle holds them sort of stiff."

There was silence until Ron spoke again, "Yeah. That's better."

"You alright there, Ella? Eric?" Harry asked, and I quickly answered from within my brother's pocket,

"Yeah, just try not to move so fast."

"It's making your robes fly about," Eric added, to which we felt Harry's robes still slightly. Not a moment later, I heard the muffled voice of Percy Weasley,

"Excuse me?"

I felt Harry stop moving as Ron quietly gasped, and Eric and I shared a worried look.

"What are you doing dow-" Ron started until it felt like Harry elbowed him, causing Ron to make his voice more like Crabbe's, "I mean, what are you doing down here?"

"I happen to be a prefect," Percy replied, "You, on the other hand, have no business wandering the corridors at this time of night. What are your names again?"

"Uh..."

"I'm-" Harry started, but then I heard Malfoy,

"Crabbe. Goyle. Where have you two been? Pigging out in the Great Hall all this time?"

The sound of footsteps got closer before it sounded like Malfoy was right beside Harry, "Why are you wearing glasses?"

"Ah...um...reading," Harry quickly answered.

"Reading? I didn't know you could read. And what are you doing down here, Weasley?"

Percy's tone was filled with frustration,

"Mind your attitude, Malfoy. You want to show a little bit more respect to a school Prefect."

Eric and I didn't hear anything else until, a second later, Harry started walking again. It wasn't long before Malfoy was saying the password to the Slytherin common room, and we were in. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of someone sitting down, and then Malfoy spoke,

"Well, sit down."

Harry sat down, it seemed, across from Malfoy when the blond spoke again. "Listen to this..."

There was a crinkle of paper when Malfoy started reading, "'Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car. "Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," said Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws, and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately."'"

Another crinkle of paper. "Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go join them. You'd never know the Weasleys were purebloods, the way they behave. Embarrassment to the wizarding world. All of them."

I heard a very low sound come from who I assumed was Ron. "What's up with you, Crabbe?"

Harry moved as though he had elbowed Ron for a second time tonight before Ron cleared his throat and answered,

"Stomachache."

"Well, go to the hospital wing and give all those Mudbloods a kick in the arse for me!"

It was so hard not to want to jump out of Harry's pocket and punch Malfoy in the nose, but Eric gripped my hand as comfort while Malfoy continued talking, "You know, I'm surprised The Daily Prophet hasn't done a report on all these attacks yet. I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if it doesn't stop soon. Father always said Dumbledore's the worst thing that's ever happened to this place."

"You're wrong!" Harry shouted, and I immediately panicked when I heard Malfoy stand up and demand,

"What? Did you say that I was wrong? You think there's someone here who's worse than Dumbledore? Well? Do you?"

"Harry and Ella Potter," Harry quickly amended.

"Good one, Goyle. You're absolutely right. Saint Potter. He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that Mudblood Granger. And all Baby Potter manages to do is follow him like a lost little puppy."

It was really annoying how all Draco managed to think was that I trailed my brother all day. "And people actually think that they're the Heirs of Slytherin?"

I furrowed my brows and shared a glance with Eric.

"Then you must have some idea who's behind it all?"

"You know I don't, Goyle. I told you yesterday. How many times do I have to tell you?"

There was a noise before Malfoy asked, "Is this yours?"

I assumed Harry and Ron shook their heads in response since there was silence for a moment. It wasn't long before Malfoy started speaking again, "But my father did say this much: It's been fifty years since the Chamber was opened. He wouldn't tell me who opened it, only that they were expelled. But I know this: the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So it's only a matter of time before one of them's killed this time. As for me... I hope it's Granger."

I immediately felt Harry stand up as anger filled me. "What's the matter with you two? You're acting very... odd."

"It's his stomachache," Harry explained. I couldn't hear anything for a bit except muffled words from Harry and Ron. Suddenly, Harry started running, and I quickly held onto Eric in a hug when we shook in Harry's pocket.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Malfoy yelled, but Harry and Ron kept running. It seemed as though the polyjuice potion had run out. It wasn't too long before I heard Ron speak as Harry carefully pulled Eric and me out of his pocket,

"That was close!"

My twin gently placed me and Eric on the floor to make ourselves big again with the right spell,

"Engorgio."

Once Eric and I were our normal sizes, the four of us rushed toward the stall Hermione seemed to still be hiding in.

"Hermione, come out," I excited smiled as Eric added,

"We've got loads to tell you!"

Instead of happily opening the stall door, Hermione yelled,

"Go away!"

As Harry, Ron, Eric and I all exchanged a puzzled glance, Moaning Myrtle suddenly appeared,

"Ooh, wait till you see. It's awful!"

I furrowed my brows when I heard the lock to the stall door click open and gently asked,

"Hermione? Are you ok?"

As Harry slowly pushed open the door, Hermione explained,

"Do you remember me telling you the Polyjuice Potion was only for human transformations...? It was cat hair I plucked off Millicent Bulstrode's robes!" Slowly, Hermione turned to face us, looking like a human-cat creature. "Look at my face."

I felt horrible for my friend, but Ron seemed to try and cheer her up with a smile,

"Look at your tail."

Moaning Myrtle didn't help with her evil giggles, but without another thought, I helped Hermione to the hospital wing.

It had been two weeks since the five of us had used the polyjuice potion, and Hermione had turned herself into a cat. Harry, Ron, Eric and I were bringing Hermione another stack of books for her to read while she was in the hospital wing. When the four of us arrived, Hermione smiled,

"Oh, good. Put those anywhere."

Looking around Hermione's bed, there really wasn't anywhere since her bed was covered in books already. Not knowing what to do, we just placed the books on the floor before Ron said,

"Madam Pince asked that we relay a message to you, Hermione: She'd appreciate it if you'd leave a few books for the rest of the school."

Hermione shook her head,

"I've got to keep up, haven't I?"

Suddenly, Hermione's tail twitched and came out from under the blanket, so Eric asked,

"Is that thing ever going away?"

"Any day now, according to Madam Pomfrey. I'm just thankful I've stopped coughing up furballs."

"We all are," Ron said, "Believe me."

"Now. What about the Chamber of Secrets? Any new leads?"

I shook my head as Harry audibly answered,

"Nothing."

"And has it gotten any better? I mean... is anyone speaking to you two?"

As I replied, I gave Hermione a pathetic smile,

"Neville asked to borrow a tubeworm in Potions yesterday. I suppose that's something."

Just then, Ron started reading a Get Well card that he found,

"'To Miss Granger. Wishing you a speedy recovery from your concerned teacher Gilderoy Lockhart.' You sleep with this under your pillow?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion about where Hermione kept Lockhart's card, but Hermione insisted,

"Of course not. I don't know how that got there. Now go. I still have six hundred pages to read in Transformation Through the Ages."

"Alright, see you later," I waved before Ron, Eric, Harry and I all left. As we were making our way up a set of stairs, Ron scoffed,

"I know Hermione's mental, but can you believe she falls for that smarmy nonsense of Lockhart's?"

Suddenly, I stopped and made the boys stop as we noticed a great flood of water streaming from the second-floor corridor. We quickly splashed further down the hall to see that the water was coming from the girl's bathroom, to which Eric blurted,

"Yuck!"

"Looks like Myrtle's flooded the bathroom," Harry said all our thoughts aloud. Carefully, so as not to get our socks wet with bathroom water, the four of us walked into the bathroom only to see all of the taps running, streaming like tiny waterfalls. Even with the water being quite loud, it was easy to hear Myrtle's wracking moans echoing off of the bathroom tiles. As we came toward the window by the stalls, Myrtle seemed to notice our presence and turned to ask,

"Come to throw something else at me?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion,

"Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..."

"But it can't hurt if someone throws something at you," Ron said, "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"

All of a sudden, Myrtle flew straight in Ron's face to yell,

"Oh, sure! Let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head!"

Eric quickly interrupted,

"Who threw it at you anyway?"

"I don't know. I didn't see them. I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell through the top of my head."

With that, Myrtle turned around and floated back up to the window as she moaned some more. I frowned, wondering why someone would throw a book at a ghost when I noticed a small black book on the floor. Curious, I went to pick up the soaking book and walked back to the boys when I heard Ron whisper jokingly,

"Fifty points if you can get it through her nose."

"I HEARD THAT!" Myrtle shouted angrily, causing Eric, Harry, Ron and I to dash out of the bathroom as quickly as we could. As we walked back down the corridor to the staircases, Harry examined the black book I had picked up,

"This is a diary. And it's old..."

"It's a diary, it's old... and was most recently in a toilet, Harry," Ron said with a disgusted look. When my brother started to open the book, Ron quickly grabbed his hand to stop him. "Are you mad? That could be cursed."

Eric nodded his head in agreement,

"Dad once told us about a book the Ministry confiscated that burned the eyes out of anyone who tried to read it."

Harry simply shook his head,

"I'll take my chances..."

Only slightly worried, I watched my twin as he slowly opened the small book until he suddenly started screaming, "Ahhh! MY EYES! MY EYES!"

My eyes widened with panic as the three of us froze, but after a moment, Harry stopped and grinned. Anger and irritation immediately crossed my features before I lightly smacked my brother on the arm as he laughed. Just then, at the end of the corridor, I noticed Ginny standing and looking from the diary to Harry with utter terror on her face before dashing off. Trying to make her feel better, Harry shouted after her, "Ginny! I was only joking- Brilliant. Even your sister thinks I'm the monster now."

"Who doesn't?" Ron partly joked, then suddenly frowned as he looked at the diary, "Tom Marvolo Riddle? Hang on. I know that name..."

I followed Ron's gaze to see the slightly smudged name written on the first page of the diary. Harry then started fanning the other pages, and I noticed they were empty,

"That's odd. He never wrote in it."

Later that night, after dinner, we visited Hermione in the hospital to show her the diary we found. As Hermione opened the book, she noticed the name written on the first page,

"There's a name in this diary. Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Ron nodded as he started trying to remember once more,

"Yeah, I know that name. Why do I know that name? Of course! That night I had detention, my job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember. Because I kept burping up slugs over Tom Riddle's trophy. I must have wiped slime off his name for an hour"

"What's the trophy for?" Eric asked.

"He won an award 50 years ago? Special services to the school or something."

"50 years ago?" Hermione questioned, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?" Ron frowned.

"Don't you remember what Malfoy told you? The last time the chamber was opened was-"

"50 years ago!" Harry and I finished simultaneously before I added,

"But that means-"

Hermione nodded to confirm what I had started thinking,

"Tom Riddle was here! At Hogwarts! When it happened. What if he wrote about what he saw? It's possible he knew where the chamber was! How to open it. Even what sort of creature lives in it. If so, whoever's behind these attacks wouldn't want this diary lying around. Would they?"

"It's a brilliant theory, Hermione, but there's just one flaw," Harry gently said, "There's nothing written in this diary."

"It might be invisible ink," Hermione quickly pulled out her wand and said a spell, "Aparecium!" She then tapped the diary three times, but nothing happened. The pages remained blank. Hermione frowned and then passed the book back to Harry. "I don't know, Ella and Harry. But I think you should be careful with this. Something tells me Ron might be right. It could be dangerous."

I frowned and worriedly asked,

"You don't think we're dangerous, do you, Hermione? I mean, you're not scared of us."

Hermione gave me a small, warm smile,

"I'm scared, Ella. But not of you two."

The next day, before classes, as the five of us walked together across the grounds, Harry started telling me, Ron, Eric and Hermione about what the diary had shown him last night. My twin explained,

"Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago."

Hermione protested,

"It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be."

Ron agreed as he said,

"We don't even know this 'Tom Riddle'. He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch to me."

"The monster had killed someone, Ron," Harry argued, bringing us to a stop, "What would any of us done?"

"Look. Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go ask him about it?" Hermione suggested, but Eric sarcastically disagreed,

"That'd be a cheerful visit. Hullo, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?"

"Mad an' hairy?" I suddenly heard Hagrid's voice from behind us, "Wouldn' be talkin' 'bou me, now would yeh?"

The five up us wheeled to see Hagrid grinning at us. Eric immediately shouted in defence,

"No!"

Hagrid looked at us all curiously until Harry nodded toward the strange canister in our giant friend's hand,

"What's that you've got, Hagrid?"

"Oh, it's flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. Fer the Mandrakes, yeh know. Accordin' ter Professor Sprout, they still got a bit o' growin' up ter do, but once their acne clears up, we'll be able to chop 'em up, stew 'em, an' get those people in the hospital un-Petrified. In the meantime, though, you five best watch yerselves, all righ'?"

We all nodded before Hagrid turned to walk away. Just then, Neville came running up, looking pale with fright,

"Harry, I don't know who did it, but... you'd better come. Come on!"

Immediately, Eric, Ron, Hermione, Harry and I ran after Neville to Gryffindor Tower. Quickly, Neville said the password to the painting, and the six of us were all let in so Neville could bring us up to his, Ron and Harry's dormitory. When I came up behind my brother, I noticed him looking toward his space which was a complete mess. His trunk had been riffled through, drawers had been flung open, and bedclothes were strewn on the floor.

"It had to be a Gryffindor," Hermione guessed when she saw what had happened, "Nobody else knows our password besides Ella and Eric, and you've no reason to go through your brother and best friend's stuff. Unless it wasn't a student..."

"Whoever it was," Ron said, "They were looking for something."

Harry then looked up from going through his things on the floor,

"And they found it... Tom Riddle's diary is gone."

"Maybe it was the person who through it at Myrtle," I guessed, and Eric asked,

"Then who could it have been?"

Hermione shrugged,

"I don't know."

It was Saturday morning, Eric, Ron, Hermione, Harry and I were all headed down the stairs to start making our way to the Quidditch Pitch for the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff game. Harry was dressed in his Quidditch robes but didn't seem super excited about the match. Trying to get him out of his thoughts, I took my twin's hand and gave him a smile that he happily returned.

"Hey, Ginny! Going to the match?" Ron suddenly asked, and I turned to see the youngest Weasley down below. Ginny looked up at the sound of her brother's voice but looked very startled before she shook her head and left. "I tell you, she gets weirder and weirder by the day..." Ron frowned. Suddenly, I heard it. The cold voice that had been heard before every attack.

"Kill this time..." the voice spoke, and I froze along with Harry as we listened, "Let me rip... Tear."

Ron, Hermione, and Eric stopped, most likely knowing by our faces when Eric asked,

"No... don't tell me..."

Harry and I turned to follow the sound, almost absently touching the wall as we glanced around. When the cold voice stopped, I shook my head and turned to look at the others. Eric and Ron seemed a bit worried, but Hermione looked as though her thoughts were turning.

"Harry, Ella..." Hermione softly said, "I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

As Hermione suddenly started sprinting back up the stairs, Harry yelled after her,

"What do you understand!?"

But Hermione didn't stop and was out of sight before we could say or do anything else. Puzzled, Harry and I turned to Eric and Ron once more.

"The library?" Eric questioned, just as puzzled as the rest of us, but Ron just shrugged,

"That's Hermione. When in doubt, go to the library."

The four of us decided to leave Hermione be and continued down to the Quidditch Pitch. It didn't take too long to get there, and before Eric, Ron and I went to find somewhere in the stands, I gave Harry a good luck kiss on the cheek like always. As the three of us were making our way up the stairs of one of the towers, we suddenly heard Professor McGonagall calling our names from down below,

"Mr Weasley! Mr Underwood! Miss Potter!"

Immediately, the three of us stopped and started back down at the sight of McGonagall's gesture to come.

"Yes, Professor?" I asked when I noticed Harry with McGonagall and grew more confused.

"The match has been cancelled, and I will need the four of you to come with me, please."

"Sure, Professor," Ron nodded before we all followed after the Gryffindor head of house. Professor McGonagall led the four of us to the hospital wing, which confused me even more. As we continued walking, I shared a confused glance with my brother and two friends until Professor McGonagall paused at the door and said,

"I warn you. This will be a wee bit of a shock."

The transfiguration professor opened the door and continued to lead us in when I saw Madam Pomfrey leaning over a bed where there was a person lying. As Madam Pomfrey straightened up, I gasped a the sight of Hermione.

"Hermione!" Ron whispered in utter shock while the rest of us just stared.

"She was found near the library. Along with this," Professor McGonagall explained before holding up a hand-held mirror. "Does it mean anything to any of you?"

Harry and I shook our heads in response,

"No."

McGonagall gave us a grave nod and put the hand-held mirror back down on the bedside table while Eric, Ron, Harry and I all processed Hermione being petrified.

Later that evening, while a bunch of Hufflepuffs were gathered in the common room, Eric and I sat on one of the chairs, still processing what happened to Hermione. Just then, Professor Sprout walked in from the entrance with a piece of paper and called out to all of us,

"Pardon me, everyone! Listen up, please!"

Everyone stopped and turned to our head of house, allowing her to continue, "Due to recent events, these rules are being put into effect immediately: All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. All students will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No exceptions. Now continue on with your activities."

With that, Professor Sprout turned and left. I turned to Eric with a deeper frown,

"I can't believe this. We have to find out who's behind these attacks before someone is killed."

"But how?" Eric whispered in response, "The only lead we have is what that Tom Riddle diary told Harry, and even that doesn't seem like enough."

"I don't know. Maybe we could-"

Suddenly, one of Harry's letters popped up:

Ella,

Ron and I think it would be a good idea to ask Hagrid about the Chamber of Secrets. If it's possible that he opened the Chamber last time, then he will know how to get inside. I don't want to believe it was him, but it's the only start we've got. Ron and I'll meet you and Eric outside the Hufflepuff entrance tonight with Dad's old cloak. Be ready.

Love, Harry

"Looks like they've got a plan," Eric slightly smiled after we had read the letter together.

"Yes, and looks like we'll be sneaking out," I nodded.