On Aragog's words, Vega spun around and stumbled back as she stared at the sight above her. Feet away, towering above her and her friends, was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads. Vega knew that there was no way that they were just fooling around.
Vega jumped to her feet, pulling out her wand from her sleeve but her hand shook as she tried to think of something to do. Her mind swirled with all sorts of defensive and offensive spells.
"Baubillious!" Vega cried, the tip of her wand shooting a jet of white sparks toward the spiders, making them more and more angry as Harry, Ron and Fang rushed to move behind her out of fear.
Even if they had managed to get the initial attack by the spiders away, Vega didn't know what else to do but whatever her wand was guiding her to do. Her hand jerked around, shooting the spiders away.
Then, out of nowhere, there was a loud, long note and a blaze of light flamed through the hollow.
Mr. Weasley's car was thundering down the slope, headlights glaring, its horn screeching, knocking spiders aside; several were thrown onto their backs, their endless legs waving in the air. The car screeched to a halt in front of Vega, Harry, Ron and Fang and the doors flew open.
"Get Fang!"
Adrenaline pumped through their bodies as Harry jumped into the front seat, followed closely by Ron. Vega jerked her wand away from shooting at the spiders and grabbed the large boarhound around the middle, throwing him quickly into the back, yelping and she herself dove behind him.
The doors slammed shut – Ron didn't touch the accelerator but the car didn't need him at all; the engine roared and they were off, hitting more spiders.
They sped up the slope, out of the hollow, and they were soon crashing through the forest, branches whipping the windows as the car wound its way cleverly through the widest gaps, following a path it obviously knew. Vega held onto the seat tightly to keep herself from flying, and she held Fang down, too.
"Are you okay?"
It was Harry who asked this strange question in the middle of their joyriding journey, and Vega wasn't even sure who he had been questioning. Both Vega and Ron only stared ahead, speechless.
They smashed their way through the undergrowth, Fang howling loudly in the back seat, and Vega saw the side mirror snap off as they squeezed past a large oak. She gritted her teeth as they continued.
After ten noisy, rocky minutes, the trees thinned, and Vega could finally see patches of sky again. The car stopped so suddenly that they were nearly thrown into the windshield.
They had reached the edge of the forest.
Fang flung himself at the window in his anxiety to get out, and when Vega opened the door, he shot off through the trees to Hagrid's house, tail between his legs, making her fall out onto the ground as well.
Harry got out too, and after a minute or so, Ron seemed to regain the feeling in his limbs and followed, still stiff-necked and staring. Vega pushed herself onto her feet and heaved heavily.
"Thanks," Vega breathed as she stared at the powder-blue yet wildly dirty car, watching as it reversed back into the forest and then disappeared off from view.
"I'm going to go... get the cloak," Harry muttered and went after Fang into Hagrid's cabin, leaving Vega and Ron unsure what to do outside.
But then, Vega noticed that Ron's face was turning green and she quickly pulled him behind the nearest bushes – though he ended up throwing up behind the pumpkin patch. Vega didn't like watching people like this but she reached out to rub his back as he emptied his stomach of his dinner.
"Are you okay now?" Vega asked quietly as he stopped throwing up, but then he expelled more out and Vega scrunched up her nose. "I guess not... I'm sorry,"
Once Ron had finished with his session, Vega generously conjured a towel up for him and handed it over to him so he could wipe his mouth clean. Harry joined the two of them, bringing his cloak.
"Follow the spiders," Ron said weakly as he turned to look at his two black-haired friends. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive,"
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," Harry said.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" Ron said, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!"
"Don't say that, Ron," Vega mumbled, but Ron was shivering uncontrollably now.
"What was the point of sending us in there?" Ron asked. "What have we found out; I'd like to know? Do you have any idea, Vega?"
"Um, for one, we now know that Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," Vega pointed out. Harry threw the cloak over her and Ron, prodding the male in the arm to walk. "He was innocent,"
Ron gave a loud snort.
Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent.
But Vega wasn't bothered by that. Ron's question had forced her to think back to what Aragog said.
There was a girl who died in a bathroom fifty years ago...
And it was done by a creature that spiders are scared of...
As the castle loomed nearer, Harry twitched the cloak to make sure their feet, especially his tall friends', were hidden, then pushed the creaking front doors ajar. They walked carefully back across the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, holding their breath as they passed corridors where watchful sentries were walking.
We have to be careful around Filch and his corridor...
Why does he have to sit there all the time?
Vega glanced at the bathroom as they passed by it, and looked at the floor to make sure that no more water was seeping out. She could hear distant wails of Myrtle as she continued her session.
I wonder if Myrtle knows about the girl who died in the bathroom?
She's always moving out and around in other bathrooms, too, right?
What did she say? How long had she been in that bathroom, again?
At last they reached the safety of the Gryffindor common room, where the fire had burned itself into glowing ash. They took off the cloak and Vega quickly grabbed Harry and Ron's arms to stop them, causing them both to jump slightly when they felt her cold touch through their robes.
"Harry, Ron," Vega said in a low voice. "There's something... You remember what Aragog said just now? About the person who was killed back then? Fifty years ago?"
Ron groaned about wanting to go back to sleep, too tired to care about anything after their adventure. But Harry stopped to listen to the pale female and Vega stared at them with white eyes.
"That girl that died...." Vega said. "Aragog said that she was found dead in a bathroom..." Harry and Ron stared at her in confusion. "What if... she's still there? What if she never left that place?"
"You don't think – not Moaning Myrtle?"
⚡️
Vega was quiet as she joined Harry and Ron at breakfast the next morning. She absentmindedly picked at the slice of buttered toast in front of her and looked outside the windows that were streaming warm sunlight through the glass panes. Harry sighed and Ron finally broke the silence.
"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," Ron said bitterly. "And we could've asked her, and now..."
It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders.
Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.
But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks.
Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.
"Exams?" Seamus Finnigan howled. "We're still getting exams?"
There was a loud bang behind Vega as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," Professor McGonagall said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard,"
Vega wasn't quite as concerned with the exams – she had memorised everything along the way. She was more concerned about the Chamber of Secrets. She was quite surprised that there were exams in this state but she also agreed with what Professor McGonagall had to say about this.
There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly. It seemed like a lot of the students were not interested in exams at all, too.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," Professor McGonagall said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year,"
"We can't really blame her, can we?" Vega whispered as she flicked her wand and changed the pair of white rabbits in front of her into slippers.
But next to her, Harry looked like as if he had no idea what they had learnt the whole year while Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest. Vega sighed.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" Ron asked Vega and Harry, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.
"You know, we really do need to get you a new wand," Vega said as she watched his wand. "It's really... going to backfire at you again. Also, I think you'd do better if you had a wand of your own,"
⚡️
It was three days before their first exam that Professor McGonagall made another announcement. Vega, Harry and Ron were all gathered with the rest of the school at the Gryffindor table for their breakfast when their Head of House, as well as the standing-in Headmistress stood up.
"I have good news," Professor McGonagall said over the sound of light chatter in the Great Hall, and the students, instead of falling silent, erupted.
"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.
"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.
When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said:
"Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit,"
There was an explosion of cheering.
Vega smiled and clapped lightly with others, excited to finally see Hermione alright again. She looked over as Harry pointed something out and she followed his gaze to see that Malfoy hadn't joined in.
Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.
"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" Ron said to them. "Hermione will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is until they're over,"
"It's so lonely without Hermione in the dormitory," Vega said. "I'm glad she'll back – and you're right, we can ask her what she found out and catch the Heir, too! They must be so scared,"
Just then, Ginny came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous.
"Ginny?" Vega asked, noticing that the younger female's hands were twisting uncomfortably in her lap. "Are you okay?" Ginny paled even more.
"What's up?" Ron asked, helping himself to more porridge. Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face. "Spit it out,"
"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry. Vega wondered what was going on with the girl.
"What's wrong, Gin?" Vega asked quietly, but Ginny continued to open and close her mouth as if she wasn't sure what words to use.
"What?" Ron asked.
Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Vega, Ginny and Ron could hear him, "Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"
Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and worn-out, "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty,"
At this, Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away.
Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the centre of the table. Vega stared at Ginny as she fled.
"Percy!" Ron said angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"
Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy suddenly choked.
"What sort of thing?" Percy said, coughing.
"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say..." Ron said.
"Oh – that – that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," Percy said at once and Vega furrowed her eyebrows at him in wonder.
"How do you know?" Ron asked, his eyebrows raised.
"Well, er, if you must know," Percy stammered. "Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was – well, never mind – the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather –"
"What were you doing, Percy?" Ron said, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh," Percy didn't smile back. Vega shook her head at the two of them.
"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving," Percy said.
"I can't wait for Hermione to get better," Vega mumbled as she looked down at her breakfast. "I cannot deal with boys anymore... they're so strange..." She looked over at Fred down the table.
⚡️
"We should still have a talk with Myrtle, you know," Vega said to Harry and Ron as they finished with their breakfast and headed with their classmates to their first lesson. "Maybe it would help us get more information... and help with what Hermione has found out,"
"You're right," Harry said before Ron could say otherwise, and the tall redhead groaned. "But how are we going to get to do that?"
"I'm sure we'll get an opportunity to slip past, somehow," Vega replied. "Or we can go out tonight," She saw Ron's expression. "Let's just hope we get an early opportunity,"
And to Vega's delight – it did.
Midmorning, right when they were being led to the History of Magic classroom by Gilderoy Lockhart.
Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.
"Mark my words," Lockhart said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary,"
"I agree, sir," Harry said, making Ron drop his books in surprise but Vega smiled to herself, hiding it behind her curly hair as she looked away from them.
"Thank you, Harry," Lockhart said graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."
"That's right," Ron said, catching onto what was going on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go –"
"You know, Weasley, I think I will," Lockhart said. "I really should go and prepare my next class –" And he hurried off.
"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like,"
"He's really strange, isn't he?" Vega asked as she stared at their teacher running away. "I wonder how he managed to get a teaching job? Anyway, we did it. We can get away now,"
They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme –
"Potter! Miss Lestrange! Weasley!
What are you doing?"
It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines as she looked down at the three students.
"We were – we were –" Ron stammered. "We were going to – to go and see –"
"Hermione," Harry said. Vega, Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him. "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor, and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry –"
Professor McGonagall was still staring at the three of them, and for a moment, Vega feared that she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.
"Of course," Professor McGonagall said, and they watched, amazed, as a tear glistened in her beady eye. "Of course, I realise this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission,"
Vega, Harry and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.
"That," Ron said fervently. "Was the best story you've ever come up with,"
They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione. Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.
"There's just no point talking to a petrified person," Madam Pomfrey said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione.
It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" Ron said, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."
Slowly, Vega ran her eyes over the petrified brunette and then furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed the way her right hand was. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, looking very out of place.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Vega leaned forward and brushed her hand over the fist.
And then, she noticed that there was a piece of paper scrunched up inside her fist.
Vega's eyes widened in realisation.
⚡️