The Girl Who Lived

Chapter 26

Staying at Hogwarts for the holidays wasn't terrible, but this time it was downright miserable. Snow meant that she couldn't go outside to draw and she'd have to stay indoors with Malfoy who decided to stay at the school this year for some reason.

Sitting at the table, she yawned as Hermione came back from fixing her and Raven's plate, since Harry had claimed Raven would fill it up with sweets if left to her own devices... well, her brother wasn't wrong, but still... she could've put a small scoop of mashed potatoes on there. She drowned out their voices, picking apart her food with her utensils until Harry got annoyed and shoved a spoonful into her mouth, forcing the girl to chew. All Raven could do was send her brother a death glare, cheeks puffed up with food.

Then Hermione pulled out two cupcakes with chocolate icing. Reaching over, Raven quickly took a bite... or at least, it meant to be a bite. The other girl tried to stop her, only to accidentally shove the rest of the dessert in her mouth. "I'll make another cupcake... Raven, you should-- oh. She's already asleep."

The girl was hunched over the dining table, arms curled around her head and a soft snoring barely louder than a whisper coming from the black haired girl. "Well, she'll be fine here, I guess. I can come back to get her when you boys are done." Hermione sighed, rubbing Raven's back.

It wasn't until the next morning she woke up and it wasn't until she went down into the common room that she found out that Hermione was in the hospital wing coughing up furballs. The boys summarized everything they heard: Draco wasn't the heir, the Chamber of Secrets had been opened fifty years ago by someone who was then expelled, and Hermione accidentally turned into a human-cat hybrid. "So... if Draco isn't the heir, then there's a chance that you're the heir, right?" Raven spoke hesitantly, Harry looking back at her with calculating eyes. "Or you. But I don't think either of us has anything to do with the Petrified victims."

The trio walked up the changing staircases, pausing at the sight of water. "What's that?" Raven spoke, quickly heading down the hallway. The further down they went, the higher the water got until it was more than two inches. "Looks like Moaning Myrtle flooded the bathroom." Harry sighed. "Why? Doesn't she have anything better to do?" Raven groaned, going towards the bathroom with her shoulders slumped. She walked into the threshold of the restroom when she heard Myrtle's crying, the sound stopping when the ghost saw her. "Come to throw something else at me?" she asked. "Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me."

"But... it can't hurt if someone throws something at you. I mean, it'll just go right through you." Ron spoke up, immediately getting smacked on the arm by Raven. "Oh sure! Let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head!" the ghost shrieked, flying close to be nose to nose with the ginger. "But who threw it at you?" Harry asked, his sister moving to turn off the running faucets. "I don't know. I didn't see them... I was just sitting around, thinking about death... and it fell through the top of my head." Myrtle answered, her voicing breaking towards the end. If Myrtle wasn't incorporeal, Raven would give her a hug.