The Sun, Moon & Stars

24. Second Year, Part 1

Second Year was not at all liked they planned. It didn't go swimmingly, as the four of them had hoped and expected it to; it went the exact opposite. It was tainted with darkness, and evil; and Ophelia very much wished to block it out of her life forever.

Their new self-absorbed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, was only the start of their problems. Along with that, there was Dobby; whom was doing everything in his power to get Harry kicked out of the place: like stopping his letters, blocking him entry to the platform (which led to the second incident with the car and a nasty howler from Molly) and sending a bludger his way on the Quidditch pitch.

However Dobby's antics, the wrath of Molly Weasley and new teachers were the least of the problems they had this year. Soon into their second year, they had come to the, slightly unsettling, discovery that Harry was a parseltongue; meaning he could talk to snakes. And Harry, the parseltongue himself, had no idea he had even done it.

The four of them were under the close eye of their peers from then on. Rumours about Harry being evil, and his friends conspiring with him; made eager to hang out with them. Nobody except Luna, who despite ludicrous rumours, could never have been scared away from them.

Letters to Remus calmed Ophelia down, and as promised she didn't leave anything out of them this year. With that, came him being worried about her. Worried about all of them, but she assured him she was safe.

But things at Hogwarts weren't safe, or they wouldn't be soon at least.

Things with her other friends were rocky. Even Dean, Seamus, Pavarti and Lavender had their doubts about Harry and who he 'really was', as they so graciously put it. And then there was Draco Malfoy, the one that just wouldn't quit. After their, somewhat civil, interaction at Flourish and Blotts in the summer with the Weasley's; she steered clear of him. But it wasn't until he called Hermione a mudblood one day before a Quidditch match, that Ophelia was finished.

'Ophelia! Wait!' Draco had called, running after her a couple days after the incident.

She had whirled around, more furious than she had been in ages, and just shook her head. 'No, Draco, no. We're finished whatever pathetic friendship we had before -- and it ended the moment you dared to call Hermione that nasty name.'

They were done.

...

                                                                                                                              As the days morphed into weeks, and the end of summer turned into fall, it became more evident how unsafe Hogwarts was becoming. Eventually the discovery of the first victim of what was to be a gruesome year had been found. Mrs. Norris had been petrified, in puddles of water overflowing from a bathroom. And above, on the stone wall, a frightening message;

'The chamber of secrets has been opened; enemies of the heir beware.'

Naturally; Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ophelia were the first on scene by coincidence; which of course led to the continuing of the rumours they they were up to something.

And as the students of Hogwarts were downright frantic about the attack on the cat, their professors seemed to be in denial. They refused to talk about the Chamber of Secrets, and shot down any ideas that might suggest there was any imminent danger.

Others weren't doing so well. Ginny Weasley, for one, was downright shaken up about the crime. She seemed to be on edge all the time, refused to talk to anybody, and seemed to be trembling at any given moment. Ron insisted it was because she was a cat lover, that she was upset about Mrs. Norris, but Ophelia disagreed. Something was different about this eleven year old than the carefree, bossy one she met at the summer in the burrow.