"Miss Griffin!" Snape snapped.
Draco slapped my arm and I lifted my head, which I hadn't even realized was falling.
Snape stared for a moment and sighed. "There are some who believe they are too intelligent to listen in class. Do not be such a character."
I nodded and looked down at my notes, realizing that I had starting falling asleep mid-sentence and a line of ink from the word cauldron trailed off the page and onto the desk.
"What's the matter with you?" Draco questioned.
"I ran out of coffee. I need to send a letter to my dad." I crumpled the piece of paper and rewrote everything on the page.
My mind kept straying, wondering if one of the creatures I had read about resided within the castle. The very thought made me shiver.
When we left Potions, I was suddenly conscious of the strange hissing noise that echoed in my ear, faint but detectable. I looked around, spotting a hoard of spiders leaving through the window.
"Since when did spiders move in groups?" I wondered.
Perhaps I wasn't so occupied with the topic of animals that I'd be able to list every fact as if I were Hermione, but at least I knew that spiders didn't travel in groups if they lived in a place as dry as Britain.
I went up the stairs and saw Professor McGonagall walking down the hall and began rushing towards her, meaning to ask her a question about Salazar Slytherin.
However, when we turned to the corner, we found much worse.
"Justin..." I whispered, then looking up to see Sir Nicholas frozen in the air. Peeves the Poltergeist, who I had only heard of previously, screeched, "Attack, attack! No mortal is safe! Attack!"
My eyes flickered to Harry, who stood there insisting that he had nothing to do with it.
It was getting hard to believe, but I continued to anyway. He saved the school once, he wouldn't do that just to destroy it the next year.
Right?
The hallway cleared except for me, who was hypnotized by the sight of the frozen figures. Whether out of horror or fascination was, morbidly, unknown to me.
I turned to the window, spotting spiders running off again, and furrowed my brow.
"Y/N," Cedric appeared behind my, grabbing my shoulder. "What are you doing here? It could be dangerous, what if whatever thing that petrified him is still here?"
"I'm fine, Ced."
"I'll walk you to your tower."
"Right, and then tonight I'll have an assassin holding a knife to my throat." I began walking away but I heard his footsteps follow, a smirk tugging at my lips.
Some passing students stared at the lost puppy that followed me. I would have liked to say that he resembled a bodyguard but the gentleness of his face could never.
He had only known me for a few months but he cared for me as if he had held me when I was a baby. Of course, he seemed more acquainted with me than I was with him so that was a possibility.
I got to my common room and everyone had their eyes glued to the Hufflepuff that walked me to the door, his hands on my shoulders as he warned me to be careful in the halls.
"Could you tell me how to get into Ravenclaw Tower? I could wait for you in your common room."
"I would, Ced, but..." I glanced at the bronze eagle knocker and knocked on the door. He shook as if he were asleep and asked, "I fool by appearance and sound; I am loved and hated equally; I cannot be hidden but I can be lied; what am I?"
I looked at Cedric, who stared at the eagle-shaped knocker with confusion. "Um..."
"Age," I replied, to which the eagle unlocked the door and opened into the common room.
He sighed and shook his head. "Okay, but be safe."
"I will, geez. Besides, I can handle myself. You know should know that, seeing as you seem to know everything about me."
"Still." He pulled me into a quick hug and smiled. "See you at Christmas?"
"Of course."
The door shut and I turned, seeing some people staring at me from their places in the common room.
"He's my brother," I assured with my hands raised. "Promise."
"You're so lucky!" one girl whined, dramatically collapsing onto a couch. "I want him to hug me and tell me he'd see me at Christmas time!"
I rolled my eyes and took out my notebook and quill to note down the events that just occurred. "My dad's just in a good position."
"Not just your dad, apparently," Mandy teased as she snatched my quill from my hand.
"Hey—"
"This is from Longbottom, isn't it?"
"Oh, you mean the cute, little one in Gryffindor?" another girl asked.
"Yep! Got him wrapped around her little finger."
I snagged the quill back, my face burning. "Mandy!"
•••
Not long later came the game between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Seeing as the year before, I had found Snape and Quirrell trying to jinx and fight the jinx on Harry's broom, I felt the need to go.
I watched the broom zoom by on the field, Bludgers being beaten back and fourth, the Quaffle soaring through the air and being caught and swatted by the players.
Slytherin was up 30-90 against Gryffindor, with the snitch still no where to be found.
One of the Bludgers suddenly changed directions and began chasing after Harry.
It was moving strangely, like it was fixated on Harry alone despite the multiple players he passed.
Jinx.
I grabbed the stand and leaned forward, searching the stands for someone who was enchanting the Bludger. My eyes landed on Lucius, who was at the game for Draco. However, he wasn't causing the Bludger to go after Harry.
Harry and Draco had caught sight of the snitch and began chasing it through the field, diving under the stands, the sound of the Bludger destroying the supports sounding through the stadium.
They emerged, Draco falling off his broom and hitting the ground, while Harry continued avoiding the Bludger while reaching out for the snitch.
He glanced at me and I motioned to one of the taller stands where the teachers were.
With a nod, he followed my hand and went beneath the fabric covering one of the stands.
The Bludger in clear sight, I aimed my wand. "Finite Incantatem!"
The Bludger froze then continued in a different direction, away from Harry.
"Isn't that cheating?"
"If the teachers are fine with a Bludger chasing a student, they should be fine with me stopping it."
Harry jumped to catch the snitch and fell to the ground, his arm broken.
I rushed down with a few others and knelt down next to Harry. "Are you alright?"
"I... I think I broke my arm."
"Not to worry, Harry, I will fix that arm of yours straight away," Lockhart said as he arrived on the scene.
No matter how Harry begged, Lockhart pulled out his wand. "Brackium Emendo!"
An odd squish came from Harry's arm and when Lockhart lifted it, it drooped like a plant. Many students groaned in disgust as the sight of the boneless arm bending.
"Well, at least your bones aren't broken."
"Broken?" Hagrid exclaimed. "There's no bones left!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "You had six syllables to stop yourself and you took none of the chances!"
Neville took my shoulder and I flinched, remembering what Mandy had said before. "But it's possible to grow them back, right?"
"Y-Yeah, for sure." My face burned and I hid it behind my scarf.
"I thought you'd go to Malfoy first," Neville continued. "You know, since you're friends and all."
I hummed, glancing at Draco, who sat in the middle of his Slytherin friends. "He's okay."
•••
The next morning, the Great Hall was buzzing about the new victim of petrification.
"Colin Creevey, that first year Gryffindor that's been bugging Harry," Sue whispered. "Y/N, you don't really think that..."
"No, it can't be Harry."
"But everyone's been connected to Harry somehow. He found Mrs. Norris, he found Justin right after egging on that snake, Collin's been bothering him—"
"He saved the school last year. If he wanted it to perish, he'd just let it happen. You-Know-Who likes Muggle-borns as much as Salazar Slytherin." I paused.
In 1943, the Chamber of Secrets was opened.
But, if not Hagrid, who opened it then?
There were precious few that I knew of that outwardly hated Muggle-borns. One stood out quite obviously in my mind.
"Do you guys know if You-Know-Who had gone to any specific school?"
Everyone around me shrugged.
I pulled out my notebook, writing out everything that I had found thus far.
The Chamber was last opened in 1943.
In that time, Hagrid was accused of it.
A girl died. (+but nobody has died currently)
The one who made the Chamber was Salazar Slytherin.
Inside there is a creature that only he can control.
Slytherin could speak Parseltongue.
Those who have been petrified are Muggle-borns, meaning "enemies of the heir" Muggle-borns/Muggles
Spiders are often found near the scene, running off.
I stared at the parchment, trying to connect the dots but not quite being able to.
Somehow, there was a creature that could both kill and petrify. And somehow, no one's been killed yet.
"Oh, shoot," I muttered as I searched through my bag. "I'm missing my quill."
"You can borrow mine," Cho offered.
"No, I have to use that quill." I started to get up, hearing Mandy add, "Because Neville gave it to her."
"Shut up, Mandy." I rushed off to our dorm and began searching through my things, oddly finding my quill on top of the book about magical creatures, which was opened to one of the pages.
Did I leave this open?
When I picked up my quill, I noticed the title of the page: Basilisk.
Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.
My brow furrowed and I looked around, trying to find someone hiding amongst the curtains of our canopies or behind the open door, only to find no one.
Who had opened this page?
And whoever it was, why were they so bloody brilliant?