Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

2: chapter sixteen

"Where on this good earth have you been?" Hannah screeched as she hit Sirius over the head repeatedly with a pillow. "What did I tell you! Why do you ignore everything I say!"

"He needed help." Sirius defended himself, ducking as Hannah made to hit him again.

"I highly bloody doubt it!" She screamed.

"Alright Hannah, leave him alone." Cedric came to intervene as Justin and Ernie had failed to do so. He took the pillow from the girl and set it down on the sofa.

"You alright?" Justin asked, Sirius nodded, "how did she even find out?"

"I don't know." Sirius shook his head. "She's right though."

"Of course I'm bloody right." Hannah dodged around Cedric and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry, but I hate him."

"I'm sorry too." Sirius said back to her, accepting her hug, glad at least she was not mad at him.

"Come on, why don't we head down to the kitchens?" Ernie suggested, eating freshly baked goods made by the houseelves was one of their favourite things.

"Great idea." Justin said with a grin, glad that everything was resolved. Sirius shook his head.

"You go." He said. "I think I'll go and find Harry."

"Sirius come with us! please?" Justin sighed, looking at his friend with a saddened look. Sirius shook his head again.

"I need to talk to Harry, I haven't seen him for ages." Sirius responded, " I'll see you guys later."

"Sirius please, we're worried about you. Just chill out please." Justin told him, Sirius sighed and gave in.

"Alright, alright." He said without much conviction.

"That's good, because there's something bugging me." Ernie said, they all stared at him in surprise, but he refused to say anything else until they were in the kitchen.

"What?" Hannah asked irritably, as Ernie had yet to spill what was on his mind.

"So I was thinking about what you told us on the train." Ernie began. Sirius stared at him.

"Ern that was days ago!" He pointed out.

"I needed time to think. And I think Aro was talking about the chamber of secrets." Ernie said.

"The what?" Sirius glanced at Justin and Hannah, but neither of them seemed to have any idea either.

"Back when the school was founded, it is thought that Slytherin made a secret chamber, and in it enclosed a monster." Ernie said mysteriously.

"And you think that this is what we need to find?" Hannah asked, seeming more excited now.

"I do. They have searched the school many times, but no one has found it." Ernie told them. "I found a book in the restricted section, but it doesn't tell me enough, I haven't searched the section properly yet, but I think there may be more information."

"So when do you want to go?" Justin asked.

"Tonight, we have to know." Sirius said, more engaged with the conversation than they had seen in a while.

^^^
The four were surprisingly quick at sneaking down the corridor, needing only the light of the full moon to guide them, they took little time getting from the hufflepuff common room to the library, adrenaline rushed through them as they snuck in and quickly and expertly opened the door to the restricted section.

Justin showed them the place in which he had found the book full of the information he had already shared, there was no other like it around it, but Sirius shuffled through the other books any way. he didn't find anything useful though. the group continued searching, there had to be something somewhere, whether it be a memoir, a piece of parchment or a published book. They found nothing, just another dead end. Nothing was ever easy, or at least simple enough for them, they were only twelve years old.

"There has to be something, there has to be." Hannah stressed, shoving a book roughly back onto the shelves and sighing. "Maybe we're looking in the wrong place."

"What do you mean?" Justin asked, he had one arm wrapped around Sirius' shoulders protectively.

"Well, I remember Draco saying that the chamber was opened fifty years ago, so we need to talk to someone who was there." She said.

"But who do we know who was there?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"The ghosts." Ernie twigged what Hannah was getting at before the other two.

"What?" Justin asked.

"The ghosts have been in this castle for decades, centuries even! They must have seen something, know something." She told them.

"So where do we start?" Sirius asked.

"the fat friar, and then the bloody baron."

^^^

The group overslept the next morning, and as it often happened Hannah was designated to go and wake the boys, as she was first to wake up, as per usual.

"Good morning boys- Oh for gods sake!" She most certainly was not impressed that the boys had taken a four AM trip to the kitchens and eaten what looked like an entire chocolate cake between the three of them.

"Han shut up." Ernie complained at her, he was the only one who had woken up at her cry.

"you can't sleep in all day!" She complained, sitting down on the end of Sirius' bed and slapping his arm. "Its unnatural."

"Hannah its five in the morning." Sirius mumbled, pushing her away.

"It's seven!" Hannah told him in despair.

"Early!" Sirius complained back at her, before pulling his pillow over his head.

"Boys!" Hannah scoffed, she was about to stand up when Jane walked in.

"Thank god I'm not the only one awake." She sighed sitting down on the spare bed.

"Whats up with you?"

"I have no other friends except you, which means I have to hang around with you and its embarrassing."

"Charming." Sirius muttered, despite his best efforts he had not managed to get back to sleep.

"Oh." Jane glanced at him. "You're still alive."

"Yes, he is, because we're here with him." Hannah said defensively, she sighed. "We try really hard to keep him alive and I don't want you or your stupid brother to ruin that."

"Don't worry about me, Ollie though... Well you can't win them all."

"Comforting."

"That's life."