Good Enough | hp

19| The Black Diary

"It's 'cause he has all those fancy books about all his achievements," Estella informed.

"I don't think he did any of that stuff; he's hopeless in class."

Then an angry outburst from the floor above reached their ears.

"That's Filch," Harry muttered, as they hurried up the stairs and paused, out of sight, listening hard.

"You don't think someone else's been attacked?" said Ron tensely.

"Well if they have, we really shouldn't be standing around," Estella said anxiously, peering up and down the corridor. "You two don't want to get blamed again, do you?"

No one replied, and for a moment they stood still, their heads inclined towards Filch's voice, which sounded quite hysterical.

"... even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do! No, this is the final straw, I'm going to Dumbledore..."

His footsteps receded and they heard a distant door slam.

"Wow," said Estella, after a pause. "That was... certainly something."

They poked their heads around the corner. Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post: they were once again on the spot where Mrs Norris had been attacked.

They saw at a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Now Filch had stopped shouting, they could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.

"Now what's up with her?" said Ron.

"Let's go and see," said Harry.

Just before they crossed the threshold, Estella grabbed both of them by the arm. "Listen," she said quietly, "don't you think it's better if we just, you know, leave it?"

Ron opened his mouth to speak but Estella hurried on.

"Only, this is the place of the first attack. You know how this would look to other people, and," she steeled her nerves, "and it's not exactly like we need to check up on Myrtle. Let's just- let's just leave it and go back to the common room." She faltered under their gazes. "Right?"

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," said Ron, in a tone that was harsher than the situation warranted, Estella thought.

"I- I don't think any of us should go," she tried to say firmly, but her voice wavered.

"Nothing bad will happen," Harry reassured. "Besides, we've been here plenty of times to brew the Polyjuice Potion."

"I don't know..."

Is this really the right decision? Am I making the right choice? Should I let them go? Harry's right, we've been here lots of times before.

But what if we get in trouble, the other side of her mind argued back, What if we get caught and get put in detention, or worse- expelled?

...

What if you never get to prove yourself?

Then Estella found herself spiralling down a very familiar train of thought that she often fell into at moments of indecision: What would Hermione do?

Would her twin have followed Harry and Ron without hesitation? Or would she have paused, hesitated, and tried to convince them otherwise?

Hermione would've waited and thought things out like I am.