People Watching.

Chapter Twenty.

When Harry and Ron met up with Hermione and (Y/n), both girls were deeply surprised to hear Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Surely there was another Hagrid? There is no way the sweet, magical-creature-loving gamekeeper opened the Chamber. 
They had always known that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. During their first (and second) year at Hogwarts, he had tried to raise a dragon in his little wooden house, and it would be a long time before they forgot the giant, three-headed dog he'd christened "Fluffy." And if, as a boy, Hagrid had heard that a monster was hidden somewhere in the castle, Harry was sure he'd have gone to any lengths for a glimpse of it. He'd probably thought it was a shame that the monster had been cooped up so long, and thought it deserved the chance to stretch its many legs; Harry could just imagine the thirteen-year-old Hagrid trying to fit a leash and a collar on it. But he was equally certain that Hagrid would never have meant to kill anybody.
Harry half wished he hadn't found out how to work Riddle's diary. Again and again, Ron and Hermione made him recount what he'd seen, until he was heartily sick of telling them and sick of the long, circular conversations that followed.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," Hermione said. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"A lot, I reckon," (Y/n) mumbled. Ron shot her a look. "What? We barely know how to get to our classes! There could be all kinds of secret chambers!"

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," Harry said miserably. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

Ron tried a different tack. "Riddle does sound like Percy— who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," Hermione objected.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts," Harry added. "I don't blame him for wanting to stay here..."

"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry?"

"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent," Harry answered quickly.
The four of them fell silent. After a long pause, Hermione voiced the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice.

"Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?"

"That'd be a cheerful visit," Ron scoffed. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"
In the end, they decided that they would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to talk to him about why he had been expelled. It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally got bored of his song, Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.

"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature," she told Harry. "Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing."

The second years were given something to think about during their Spring Break. (Y/n) was gone during this time and the time had come to choose their subjects for their third year, a matter Hermione took very seriously.