Miss Quinn

44 ~ The Chamber of Secrets

"I swear if Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him!" It was Ron, he'd been going on about it since Aragog had almost killed the three Gryffindors. Harry seemed to agree with him, but not completely. Emma on the other hand, thought he was a lunatic. She spent almost as much time as Hermione had in the library. She searched and searched for a monster that scared spiders away. The problem was, she couldn't find any that did, that also could petrify people. Either that or she found monsters that could petrify, but not scare away spiders.

Once, she was looking through a book and found that a page had been torn out. She brought the book to Madame Pince, the librarian. Madame Pince flipped through the pages and then checked a book where she had all the page numbers and what's on them written down for every book.

"Looks like someone tore out the page about Basilisks." Madame Pince said, frowning.

Emma thanked her and asked if there were any other books on Basilisks. Madame Pince said there weren't, and Emma slumped away in defeat.

Later that day, she visited Hermione and Venus. Harry and Ron were there, too.

"I wish you were here, Hermione," Harry said.

"Yeah, maybe if you and Ron had switched places, we'd know what was attacking the students." Emma joked from her place beside Venus.

"Hey!" Ron protested, "Why not you?"

"Because at least I'm trying to figure it out! You're only lazing about, following along half-interested!" Emma said, lightly stroking Venus's cold, stiff hand. Only, part of it wasn't cold or stiff, it was crumbly. Emma frowned and pulled out the balled-up piece of paper from Venus's hand. She opened it and spread it out on the bed. It was the missing page from the book!

"Guys, look! It's a basilisk! The monster is a basilisk!" Emma exclaimed, shoving the paper under Harry's nose. Harry read the writing and gave the paper to Ron, who read it also. Both boys stared at Hermione in awe. Emma took the paper out of Ron's hand and dragged the boys out of the hospital. They ran to a secluded corridor and slowed down by a torch. Under the light of the torch, the three Gryffindors discussed the basilisk.

"But how has it been getting around the school?" Ron asked.

"Hermione's answered that, too." Emma showed them the word scribbled at the bottom of the paper, pipes. She knew it was Hermione who'd figured it out because it was in her neat handwriting.

"It's been using the plumbing?" Ron asked, disgusted.

"Apparently, yes," Harry said.

"Attention," said McGonagall's voice on the loud speaker. "All students are to report to their dormitories immediately. Teachers, please report to the second floor corridor."

Emma shared a glance with Harry and took off towards the second floor corridor. Harry was right on her heels. Ron, on the other hand, was a little behind. They reached the corridor and hid behind a pillar. All of the teachers except for Lockhart were gathered at the wall where the mysterious writing was. Only now, there was more.

Emma couldn't make out the full message, but she thought it said something along the lines of

"H ske ill lie n t amber fore"

Then the teachers shifted and Emma could read the whole message. "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever".

Emma gasped, and Harry covered her mouth with his hand.

"Who is it the monster has taken, Minerva?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"Ginny Weasley," McGonagall said shakily.