It was an entire week before I finally had the chance to confront Harry. But at that point the majority of my anger had already dissipated. I had never been too good at holding grudges. So I had let it go, and decided that rather than fighting with him about it, I would just ask Hermione what had happened.
After her explanation, all I felt towards my brother was exasperation and a hint of fondness. He was such an idiot, looking for trouble. I could only hope he would stay on the sidelines this year and not try to play the hero against the heir to Slytherin.
Emmett had taken to his name like a moth to a flame. And finally I had decided that it was the right one to go with. Though I had entertained several other possibilities; Shadow, Smoke, Chase, and much to my embarrassment... Kevin.
After much deliberation, I had come to the conclusion that Tom Riddle was, without a doubt, the one opening the chamber. The only question was; How?
The year was flying by, before I knew it Christmas had come and gone. The holidays had yielded no new information about the chamber.
Then Valentines Day passed and still I was no closer. Not that I had been trying very hard as of late. There had been no attacks since before Christmas. To be honest I had been a little distracted recently. Herbology had been kicking my ass as of late, despite Draco's ceaseless attempts to help me. Draco was third best at it in our year, perhaps it was time to get help from the best. I couldn't be sure who that was, but I had to assume it was Hermione.
So, when we queued up for potions, I pulled her aside.
"Hey Hermione," I greeted her.
"Hey Emma," She replied, a little distracted.
"Look, so I'm dreadful at herbology, I was hoping you could help me with it." I explained, tugging nervously at my fingers.
"I could try, but Neville is top in that class, maybe you should ask him." Hermione suggested.
Neville? Top in anything?
"Neville? Really? I didn't know he was any good in any of our classes." I whispered, careful to keep Neville from overhearing.
"Well, he's brilliant at herbology." Hermione said, distantly.
"What are you thinking about right now?" I asked her.
Her head snapped up, "What? Oh, er, nothing, I-"
Before she could finish, Snape opened the dungeon door and ushered us inside. I parked myself next to Neville, who usually sat alone. Much to my surprise, Draco followed, rather than going to our usual table.
"Why are we sitting here?" Draco asked.
"I don't know why you're sitting here, but I'm here because I wanted to talk to Neville." I said. Pansy, who was usually the third person at our table, now sat alone. She was glaring at Draco and me as though we had done something dreadful.
"You do?" Neville asked, looking at me, "Why?"
"I heard that you're top of our class in herbology and I'm shit at it, I was hoping you could help me." I said.
His face reddened and he sputtered, "I mean, I guess I'm alright at it, I suppose I can help you, I don't know if I'll be any good at it though."
"Perfect," I said with a smile, "How about every Saturday, I have Quidditch practice in the mornings, so maybe two?"
"Works for me." He mumbled.
"Thank you," I said, "You're a life saver."
A weight seemed to lift off off my chest, I had been worrying.
On my right, Draco hissed, "Wait, he's top of herbology?"
I gave a minute nod.
I was so glad to have Neville's help that throughout the class, I whispered instructions to him. And for the first time ever, Neville's potion was flawless. As Snape wove is way around the class, grading each potion, for once, Neville didn't seem nervous. He gave a satisfied nod to both Draco and me. A look of absolute shock crossed his face when he saw Neville's. His eyes drifted to Hermione, but she was much to far to have offered Neville any assistance.
Snape quickly came to this realization too because he asked the class, "Who helped Longbottom with this?"
Neville's ears turned bright red and he averted his gaze.
"I did," I said loudly, daring Snape to be angry.
He nodded and I saw him scribble a '100' beside Neville's name, before moving on to the next table.
As the weeks came and went, my grade in herbology began to steadily increase, all thanks to Neville. We spent hours in the library every Saturday during the homework together, often accompanied by Draco, and Neville had even taken to sitting with us in class.
In return, I, and Draco (begrudgingly), helped Neville every potions class, bringing him from a dreadful to an acceptable, and then later, an exceeds expectations. Snape had even stopped poking fun at him, and awarded him points for Gryffindor, when he had successfully brewed a potion all on his own. He was starting to understand the ideology behind potion making and had finally realized that Snape's instructions on the board differed from those in the books and often had better results.
We were watering the mandrakes when Draco brought up the topic of next year's classes.
"Listen Emma, we don't have much more time to pick classes, we need to figure out what we want to take." He said. My brain hurt from thinking about classes, there were so many choices and I had no idea what to choose.
"Neville, what are you taking?" I asked.
A look of great distress crossed his face at my question and he replied, "I have no idea, all of my relatives have sent me advice, but they all disagree, so I have no idea what to do."
I had already asked Harry and Hermione for help, but Harry had just selected things randomly and Hermione had picked everything, so I was left more confused than ever. There was muggle studies, care of magical creatures, divination, arithmancy and ancient runes.
"I think you should take muggle studies, Draco." I said suddenly.
He bristled, "What, why?"
"Because," I began, then paused to gather my thoughts, "Because I live with muggles. Over the summer I won't be able to communicate with you the wizard way, my aunt and uncle won't like it, they won't even let Ha- me do my homework. If you want to talk to me, you'll have to learn to do it the muggle way." I had nearly said Harry, that would have led to some awkward questions, lucky he seemed not to have noticed. He did, however, seem to be contemplating my reasoning.
After what seemed like forever, he said, "Fine, but you have to take it with me."
"Fair enough," I agreed, "So what else should we take? Care of magical creatures? Divination? Arithmancy? I don't want to do ancient runes, it seems insanely difficult and rather pointless."
"You would probably like care of magical creatures," Draco mused.
"I probably would, I love animals." This statement was punctuated by Emmett rubbing his face against mine. "But divination seems cool too."
"Well there we go then, muggle studies, divination and care of magical creatures." Draco said, reaching out to scratch Emmett behind the ears.
"Maybe I should do that too," Neville said. I glanced art his mandrakes, to make sure I was giving my own the correct amount of water.
"You could, but didn't you want a free period?" I asked.
"Oh right, so I can only take two of them." Neville said, contemplating. "I don't think I'll do muggle studies then."
"Right, well we've all got our classes now." I said.
Just then, Professor Sprout called, "Class dismissed! Please leave your gloves beside your pots." She began to walk around the greenhouse, examining all of the mandrakes and water levels. She tutted softly at a few of the drenched pots and some bone-dry ones.
Hastily, I pulled off my gloves and folded them beside the mandrake pots. I said goodbye to Neville and left with Draco. I considered it to be a high achievement that Draco had stopped teasing Neville. While they never spoke to one another, it was better than insulting and fighting each other.
***
The next morning, the Great Hall was buzzing with excitement about the quidditch match against Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, that would occur that day.
Draco and I were leaving breakfast, with Ron, Harry and Hermione right in front of us. Suddenly, Harry jumped and said, "The voice! I just heard it again! Didn't you?"
We couldn't hear Hermione's response, but a moment later she was bolting off in the opposite direction and up a staircase.
Draco glared off in the direction Hermione had disappeared in, but he said nothing.
Together the two of us made our way to the Quidditch pitch, excited to watch the match. We met up with Blaise, Pansy, Millicent and the rest of the Slytherins who had saved us seats. I watched as Harry entered the pitch with the rest of his team. He was mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall stalked onto the pitch.
Then she said, her voice magically magnified, "This match has been canceled! All students are to return to their house common rooms immediately and await further information from your head of house. Now!"
Everyone began to stand and exit the stands, confused muttering buzzing in my ears. But I was focused on the pitch where Professor McGonagall was leading Ron and Harry away from the rest and into the castle.
Draco grabbed my hand and half led, half dragged me back to the common room. My mind was racing and the world outside had become distant and blurred. What had happened? What was going on? And how was Harry involved? My stomach churned, had there been another attack?
Snape was waiting for us in the common room when we arrived. And his first words confirmed my worse suspicions, "There have been two more attacks, no one is dead, both girls are merely petrified. In order to protect the rest of you, some new restrictions have been put in place. All students will return to the common room by six o'clock every evening and will not leave after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson and the bathrooms by a teacher. There will be no further quidditch matches or practices until further notice. Nor will there be any other evening activities."
Once he was finished I asked, "Who has been petrified?"
Snape stared at me for a long moment before answering. "Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw and Hermione Granger from Gryffindor."
There were several jeers from fellow Slytherins, which served to conceal my gasp of shock and sadness. Not Hermione. Draco was scrutinizing me with an odd look on his face and it was clear to me that my displeasure had not gone unnoticed by him.
He didn't say anything though and I tried to pass the moment as though there was nothing out of the ordinary. Of course he saw right through me, but the others were oblivious to everything.
I felt numb. I couldn't believe it. Hermione... petrified.