Elizabeth Kane and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 8

PLEASE VOTE!

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𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖝𝖙 𝖋𝖊𝖜 days were horrendous for me. Everywhere I went I swear, either Dumbledore, Snape, or McGonagall were shooting me conspicuous looks, waiting for answers. I'd given them a least a months worth of information, what more did they want from me? The grades to people's tests? Every little conversation that was between now and Colin's petrifying?

I was angsty and snapped easily, lashing out at everyone. Hermione had retreated inside herself, not talking to anyone and constantly reading, more than ever. The Hufflepuffs had taken to avoiding Harry despite my assurances that Harry wasn't the one who had petrified Mrs. Norris, and the fact that Dumbledore didn't believe Harry had done it.

A week later on Wednesday, I was with Ron in the library while Hermione was in the stacks of books father back. Ron was measuring his History of Magic essay which was supposed to be three feet long.

"I don't believe it." Ron said, letting the tape measuring shut as Harry walked into the library and sat down next to us. "I'm still eight inches short. And Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny." He let go of the parchment he had written his essay on and it sprang together into its original roll.

"Where is she?" Harry asked, grabbing the tape measure to measure his own essay.

"Mines four feet nine inches." I said with a smirk, able to gloat because Hermione wasn't here. Ron glanced over at my essay and scowled. My handwriting was just as small as Hermione's. Harry chuckled as he sat down.

"Somewhere over there," Ron said, pointing vaguely into the shelves. "Looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas."

I snorted with laughter and then refocused on my Potions assignment that was due next week.

"Listen, as I was coming here, I saw Justin Finch-Fletchley from Herbology class, remember him? Anyways, I was going to say Hello to him but he darted off in the other direction to avoid me." Harry said, sounding unhappy and a bit confused. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and rolled up my potions essay.

"Dunno why you care." Ron said, scribbling as largely as possible to take up more space on his essay. "I thought he was a bit of an idiot. All that junk about Lockhart being so great-"

I scowled, pulling the string around my essay just a little to tightly. My essay crinkled and I had to untie the string and retie it. Even though my Hufflepuff friends were wrong, I didn't like anyone talking bad about them.

Hermione came out from behind the stacks of books, looking irritable. I put my potions essay away and pulled out my charms essay that was due in three days. Shallow charming and is it better than deep charming? Two feet four inches due. UGH! Shallow and deep charms were so boring!

"All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out." She said, sitting down across from Harry. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

"They're a waste of space, you shouldn't have brought them period." I muttered under my breath. While Ron laughed, Hermione scowled at me, but otherwise ignored my comment.

"Why do you want it?" Harry asked curiously, shooting me a grin.

"The same reason everyone else wants it. To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets." Hermione said waspishly, obviously still mad about my 'Lockhart's books are stupid' comment.

I looked up quickly as Harry asked, "What's that?"

Hogwarts, A History had the Chamber of Secrets legend in it? My book was downstairs, I could run up and get it before class. Did I have enough time? Probably not, Transfiguration started in 10 minutes. I could get it after class.