━━━━━━ CHAPTER NINE.
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"it's not my fault ginny didn't come get you!"
"this is a sign never to trust gingers," lani groaned into a pillow. "we got caught because we were in front of the portrait too long and filtch found us!"
"besides, you didn't even get the invisibility cloak," carina pointed out as evelyn opened her mouth furiously to answer.
"yeah well—"
"what happened to ginny?"
everyone turned to rory, who asked the question. benjamin seemed to be thinking the same because he looked up from the floor.
"well, we don't know, do we?" lani said. "we just know she wasn't there."
benjamin sighed. "to any other house, it's that she wasn't there. but to us hufflepuffs—" he looked at rory, who nodded in agreement, "—it's why she wasn't there..."
"and what's that supposed to mean?" evelyn said angrily. "look, when I got up to find the cloak she wasn't in bed, so i just thought—"
"she wasn't?" rory interrupted. "that's odd."
"i know, which is why—"
"where do you think she went?" benjamin asked.
"i don't know, she doesn't leave often—"
"really?" rory rested her head on her hand.
"yeah, and—"
"hey guys?"
"what?" evelyn grumbled exasperatedly, then turned to see ginny standing in front of them. "oh... sorry ginny."
"it's fine," ginny murmured. "so uh—"
"ginny," rory said, sternly. "are you alright?"
"of course i am!" ginny smiled forcefully. "why wouldn't i be?"
benjamin looked at her doubtingly. "you're acting awfully odd."
"well i'm fine," ginny repeated. "i'm going back to bed, goodnight."
"yeah, night."
as ginny headed for the dorm rooms, lani mumbled to the others,
"there's something red isn't telling us, isn't there?"
"you think?" carina replied.
***
"what're you doing?" lani asked after arriving at the library and seeing evelyn behind a book.
"hm?" evelyn looked up. "oh, just homework. you?"
evelyn was in the library nearly everyday now. not only was she still looking through every book for some kind of information on the book rory found in myrtle's bathroom, there was also the mystery of the writing on the wall. "the chamber of secrets has been opened", what did this all mean? but there was something that evelyn knew for sure, the chamber of secrets, whatever it was, had been opened fifty years ago. she overheard a couple of second-years saying that, apparently mcgonagall talked about it in transfiguration class. unfair.
lani eyed the books that were piled up beside her. "i was at the quidditch game, gryffindor verses slytherin. that doesn't look like anything we're studying, by the way."
evelyn simply tossed her hand at her carelessly and put her head back into her book, choosing not to respond to her last remark.
"oh! hello."
evelyn looked up again, it was hermione.
"hey," lani said, learning against the table.
"hi," evelyn smiled at hermione. "what's up?"
"er... i'm sorry to bother you but i think you'd want to know, i mean, i would if i were you—harry's in the hospital wing."
"harry's in the—what?"
"the hospital wing," hermione repeated. "you weren't at the quidditch match just now but well, he sort of—broke his arm?"
"oh yeah, i saw that. so what?" lani asked. "madam pomfrey can mend that up in two seconds."
hermione flushed a bit. "well—"
"spit it out, granger!"
"alright! lockhart came and tried to help but accidentally removed all the bones in his arm," hermione said in one breath as evelyn and lani gaped at her.
"in other words, the moron turned harry's arm into a sausage," lani said as evelyn snapped her book shut.
"he is not a moron!" hermione flushed even more. "he—he just made a mistake."
"right," evelyn gave hermione a look. "let's go to the hospital wing then, shall we?"
"alright, come on."
***
they followed hermione to the hospital wing and saw ron and cindy huddled up beside harry's bed, looking at him worriedly. harry was lying there, his arm looking extremely feeble.
"harry?" evelyn glanced at his arm. "are you alright?"
"oh yeah, never better."
evelyn cringed at the tension between them. it was a bit awkward, seeing that the last time they talked was during their disagreement. madam pomfrey came storming into the hospital wing.
"you should have come straight to me!" she rushed over to harry and held up the sad, limp remainder of his arm. "i can mend bones in a second, but growing them back—"
"you will be able to, won't you?" said harry desperately.
"i'll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful," said madam pomfrey, grimly, throwing harry a pair of pyjamas. "you'll have to stay the night." she then walked off.
"how can you stick up for lockhart now, hermione, eh? if harry had wanted de-boning he would have asked," said ron.
"anyone can make a mistake," said hermione, alike to what she said to evelyn and lani in the library. "and it doesn't hurt anymore, does it, harry?"
"no," harry looked at his arm.
"but well—it doesn't do anything at all, does it?" cindy winced.
madam pomfrey came in again, holding a large bottle of something labelled 'skele-gro'.
"you're in for a rough night," she said, pouring out a steaming beakerful and handing it to him. "regrowing bones is a nasty business."
harry took a sip, and almost immediately spit it out.
"well, what were you expecting?" said madam pomfrey. "pumpkin juice?"
harry forcefully took down the skele-gro, coughing and spluttering as he did. madam pomfrey retreated, leaving the others to help him gulp down some water.
"we won, though," ron said, a grin breaking onto his face.
"oh yeah!" lani's eyes suddenly lit up. "that was some catch, harry."
"yeah, malfoy's face... he looked ready to kill!" cindy giggled at the memory.
"i want to know how he fixed that bludger, though," hermione said darkly. evelyn let her jaw drop.
"malfoy did something to the bludger?"
lani nodded. "it wouldn't leave him alone. it was chasing him the whole game."
"we can add that to the list of questions we'll ask him—" harry stopped.
lani raised her eyebrows. "list of questions?"
"that you'll ask him?" evelyn's eyes narrowed.
"keep your noses out of it," harry said, sinking into his pillows.
"but—"
the door of the hospital wing burst open at that moment. filthy and soaking wet, the gryffindor quidditch team had come to see harry.
"unbelievable flying harry," said george. "i've just seen flint yelling at malfoy. something about having the snitch on top of his head and not noticing. malfoy didn't seem too happy."
they brought all kinds of things for harry. sweets, cakes and bottles of pumpkin juice, they gathered them around harry's bed and were just getting started on what was going to be a good party when madam pomfrey came storming in, shouting at the top of her voice.
"this boy needs rest, he's got thirty-three bones to regrow! out! OUT!"
they all left, slightly disappointed. lani turned to evelyn.
"bummer, huh? should we go find the others?"
"no," evelyn said slowly. "i—i need to get back to the library."
"oh come off it, ev," lani groaned. "all you ever do is go to the library! come with me, now!"
and before evelyn could refuse, lani grabbed her by the arm and pulled her, leading her to the hufflepuff common room. they caught a tall boy walking out.
"oi!" lani called, running towards him. "let us in, would you?"
"er... no?" he looked down at their red and green ties. "you aren't hufflepuffs."
"get benjamin caddel for us then," she noticed the boy's suspicious glare and quickly added, "please?"
the boy shrugged and went in, and a moment later, benjamin came out of the common room looking drained, but cheered up at the sight of them.
"ah, brilliant."
"what?" evelyn looked between benjamin and lani, who were now both wildly grinning at her.
"come in," benjamin said finally, motioning inside the hufflepuff common room. the common room was a bit similar to gryffindor's, but instead of the room being bright red and gold, it was a warm yellow and black. evelyn sat on the couch awkwardly, and benjamin and lani sat on either side of her.
"blimey, are you two going to quit looking at me like that and explain?"
"chocolate?" ben offered her, pulling a bar out of his bag.
evelyn glared at him for a moment before taking it. "sure?"
she bit into the chocolate bar, and furrowed her eyebrows at her friends as she chewed it.
"what?" evelyn groaned as she swallowed the chocolate in her mouth.
just as she had done so, the two pairs of eyes lit up. they high-fived as they burst into laughter.
"i think you've both gone mental."
"ev!" lani grinned. "look!"
she pulled her to the window, in which evelyn glared at her reflection and gasped loudly. her red hair had turned blonde.
"how—?" evelyn was at a loss for words.
"ben," lani's eyes went from evelyn to benjamin. "care to do the talking?"
"gladly," benjamin said. "well, remember the first time rory showed us that book? in the bathroom?"
"yeah...?" evelyn replied slowly.
"well, you weren't convincing at all, and i knew you were up to something. it was obvious you took the book, ev. and ever since, you've been in the library nonstop, which is why we saved you the trouble."
"come again?"
"you're slow, dung-brain," lani rolled her eyes. "we know about the book. well information about it, at least."
"what!?" evelyn said a bit too loudly, drawing attention. "sorry—what?" she said, more quietly. "but how? i've been looking through every book in that library—"
"remember when we tried to get into the restricted section?" benjamin asked her.
"yeah? but wait... you two didn't—"
"we did," lani nodded proudly.
"you got into the restricted section? how the bloody—"
"we tricked lockhart into getting us in. you need teacher's permission to go into there, don't you? he's real stupid so he signed the paper, and we got in," benjamin shrugged as if their attempt was effortless.
"woah," evelyn said, letting out a breath. "so... why's my hair blonde?"
lani smirked. "we had to try something from the book for ourselves, just to make sure the spells were legit."
"so you decided to try it on me?" evelyn's eyebrows rose. "and you stole the book from me?"
benjamin and lani looked at each other before lani said, "sorta? but we put it back!"
she laughed at her bluntless. "well, what did you find in the restricted section?"
"a lot of stuff, actually," lani said, picking at her fingernails. "but we won't bore you, so we'll get to what's important—"
"which is this," benjamin took out a piece of paper and handed it to her.
"the blueprint to mysticism was made fifty years ago, but not for what it is known for today. the book was made for evil that many cannot imagine of. after specific events, events that broke the curse that was keeping its dark powers alive, the book is now the only thing that can stop the most evil when it returns."
"when it returns?" evelyn repeated. "when it returns? when what returns? what evil?"
"no idea," lani sighed. "it's some sort of weird studious code, but interesting, isn't it?"
evelyn's mind was racing, but then something clicked. something she was thinking about for a while.
"fifty years ago? it said fifty years ago?"
"i believe so," benjamin said, looking back at the paper. "why?"
"nothing," evelyn muttered.
enemies of the heir, beware.
for the first time in a month, something made sense.
the three of them didn't speak for a while, all staring at the small piece of paper. that was until—
"guys! guys! did you hear?" rory was breathless as she ran up to them.
"we've been here this whole time," lani stood up. "what happened?"
"it's the creevy boy, colin creevy. he's been petrified!"
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