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"What the bloody hell do you guys think you're doing?" Lyssa growled as the two boys in front of her changed into Harry and Ron.
"I don't really see how that's any of your business," Ron huffed as he unsuccessfully tried to move past Lyssa.
"Well, one, you broke into my common room," Lyssa started, "Two, you most definitely incapacitated two of my housemates and, three, you did all this to ask questions about someone targeting people with my blood status. So I think it's fair to say you owe me an explanation if you don't want me to tell anyone what you've just done." The two boys exchanged a nervous look before Harry opened his mouth to speak.
"We're trying to find out who the heir is," Harry said. Lyssa pondered this for a moment, the only Slytherins still here other than Crabbe and Goyle were herself and Malfoy and she would have no reason to cover for the heir.
"You think Malfoy knows who it is," Lyssa stated. Harry nodded.
"We thought it might be Malfoy," Ron mumbled.
"How could you possibly look and Malfoy and think he's the heir?" Lyssa asked incredulously, "Everyone knows he's all bark and no bite."
"After we found out that the chamber had been opened before we thought that maybe Malfoy's dad had done it and showed him how," Harry explained.
"So you thought that Mr. Malfoy was, what, in his mid-sixties? You really saw him in Diagon Alley and thought, hmmm, that man seems like he's on the brink of geriatrics?" Lyssa demanded. "Honestly how do you two function without any ounce of basic logic?"
"Maybe it wasn't the best plan but at least we're trying to do something!" Harry grumbled.
"Has it ever occurred to you guys that maybe you're not supposed to do anything? Last year we all almost died trying to save the stone. Things like this should be left to the grown-ups." Lyssa reasoned.
"So you haven't done anything about all this?" Ron countered, "You're just living life like nothing's happening?"
"I didn't say that," Lyssa refuted, "I'm just not going out of my way to figure out who's behind it. Not everything is a big mystery for you guys to solve, people's lives are at stake, your lives could be at stake."
"Wow careful there Lyssa it almost sounds like you care about us," Harry chided.
"Yeah, don't want people to hear you saying stuff like that," Ron added.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lyssa shrugged, "I just see no reason for you guys to end up dead." She turned to leave and go back to the common room but stopped short, "If someone in Slytherin were the heir they wouldn't go around announcing it, even to other Slytherin's. You never know who could be listening." She knew they wouldn't stop looking, but at least now if someone asked she could honestly say that she warned the boys against it.
𝀈𝀈𝀈
Winter holidays soon came to an end and the hustle and bustle of everyday life at Hogwarts returned. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened at all really. Lyssa had almost learned to ignore Malfoy's constant presence and was otherwise enjoying her year. Quidditch practices were going well and they won their match against Ravenclaw easily, Malfoy had even caught the sitch.
As Easter rolled around the second-years had been asked to start picking their electives for the next year. They had to choose at least two and whatever ones they picked would stay on their schedules until they finished their O.WL.s. Lyssa was putting a lot of thought into her choices as she knew they could affect her job prospects in the future.
The problem with that was that Lyssa had no idea what she wanted to do when she finished Hogwarts, what thirteen-year-old did? Perhaps she was overthinking it a little bit but you couldn't never be too prepared.
She looked at the list of electives in front of her, there were five choices: Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, and Study of Ancient Runes. She wanted to pick three, any more and her schedule would be overloaded. Obviously, muggle studies was out, given she was muggle-born, so that left four choices.
Care of Magical Creatures was a no-brainer, almost everybody took that class and the professor was well-liked. Study of Ancient Runes also seemed like a good option for Lyssa, it would be a good pick to help strengthen her knowledge of all types of magic. That left Divination and Arimancy, both were used to tell the future just in different ways. This was not a skill that Lyssa put much stock into, seeing the future seemed like a very wishy-washy branch of magic. Any little action can change the future so how can one predict it with any such accuracy?
Either way, Lyssa had a gap in her schedule without a third class and earning as many O.W.L.s as possible would probably be a good idea. In the end, she decided on her final class with a coin flip, heads for divination and tails for arithmancy. She watched the coin spin in the air before it landed back in her palm. She flipped it over the back of her other hand and revealed the result.
"Divination it is," Lyssa said as she checked the final box on her electives form.
𝀈𝀈𝀈
The following Saturday was the first day since Christmas break that Lyssa dared let herself be hopeful about the whole Chamber of Secrets situation. No one had been petrified since before the winter break and no more messages had appeared on the wall.
Lyssa and the other second-year Slytherins had made their way out to the quidditch pitch to cheer on Hufflepuff in their game against Gryffindor. The sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze. One might even say it was shaping up to be a perfect day before the professors announced that the game had been cancelled and they were ordered back to their common rooms. It didn't take long for them to find out why. Professor Snape was waiting for the Slytherins when they returned.
"There has been another attack," He announced to the room, "Another double attack," he corrected. The room was silent. Lyssa felt all too many pairs of eyes turn in her direction. "All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities," he concluded.
"Is all that really necessary for us," an upper-year boy whined, "I mean the monster's not going after people like us anyhow." Snape did not seem at all pleased to have to entertain such protests.
"Actually, it might interest many of you to know that one of the students attacked today was a half-blood. So it is highly unlikely that anyone is truly safe." Snape told the students. The energy in the room seemed to shift from annoyance to fear. "I should also add that it is likely that the school will be closed if the culprit is not caught soon. That being said if any of you have any information that might help catch whoever is behind all of this, I implore you to share it with a member of the staff." Snape dismissed the students and exited into the dungeons.
"I guess if there's no more quidditch then I'm off bodyguard duty," Mafoy grinned.
𝀈𝀈𝀈
Lyssa once would have given anything to get Malfoy to leave her alone but now she was silently grieving the loss of his presence. Not because she enjoyed his company but because she had grown accustomed to the promise of safety his presence had. Lyssa was back in the state of mind she had been in after the first attack, head on a swivel and considerably paranoid.
The fact that Professor Dumbledore had been dismissed was not helping matters at all. While Lyssa had never particularly liked the headmaster she was sure that she was safer with him at the school. She would think about the things other Slytherins said to her when it all started. They told her she would be the biggest target, because if the heir wanted to finish Salazar Slytherin's work why wouldn't they start with the filth in his own house? They had told her that nobody liked her anyway so she'd be easy to pick off. All these things played on a loop in Lyssa's head. Things only got worse as the spring days slowly began to fade to summer and the heir still hadn't been caught.
All of this meant that Lyssa had been missing out on most of her sleep. She was also barely eating. No one said anything but Lyssa knew that they had noticed the bags under her eyes and the paleness of her skin.
One day after potions Professor Snape called Lyssa into his office.
"You look unwell Miss Wiley," he said simply.
"I'm okay," she assured him.
"Don't lie to me, you have been ailing for weeks." Snape moved about his office perusing the shelves. "I would have called you in here sooner but I had been unable to find anyone to retrieve your classmates."
"Honestly, I'm okay so if you would just take me to charms that'd be great," Lyssa pleaded. She wasn't lying, she really did feel fine. Aside from the unrelenting anxiety and near-constant fear, that is.
"I'm taking you to the hospital wing," Snape stated. Lyssa knew that there was no room for argument so she followed her professor as he led her through the castle. When they arrived at the hospital wing Madame Pomfrey seemed to be expecting her.
"I'll take it from here Severus," the healer nodded and she led Lyssa to a bed near a window.
As they passed the sectioned-off beds Lyssa couldn't help but notice a gap in one of the curtains. Behind it, she saw Hermione lying frozen on the cot. Lyssa stopped and moved closer. She looked at the way her classmate seemed frozen in time, the way her skin didn't even react when Lyssa touched it. It was like a brick had hit Lyssa in the stomach, being confronted with the thing she had been scarred of this whole school year.
"They'll all be better soon." Madame Pomfrey touched her shoulder lightly. The contact still scared Lyssa who hadn't seen her behind her.
"Why the mirror?" Lyssa asked her, nodding to the small circular compact on the nightstand.
"She had it when we found her," Madame Profrey explained.
"Ah," Lyssa nodded. She was beginning to feel the exhaustion she had been ignoring for weeks. The ache in her bones felt excruciating as Madame Pomfrey led her away from the petrified students.
Madame Profrey asked her lots of questions and checked lots of things on her body. She eventually moved over to a large wooden cupboard and sorted through the many peculiar bottles.
"Where's the washroom?" Lyssa asked. She needed to splash some water on her face, to take a moment and collect herself.
"Just down the hall dear," Madame Pomfrey told her, "If you give me a moment I'll walk you there." But Lyssa was already moving, she needed to leave. The presence of the petrified students made Lyssa feel worse than she already did. Like they were screaming out that she would be next.
She ran into the bathroom and over to one of the sinks. Lyssa splashed some water on her face and stared at herself in the mirror. Her skin was paler than usual and almost looked grey. The bags under her eyes were dark and her cheeks were hollow in a way she had never seen them. Had she really been walking around all this time looking like she already had one foot in the grave?
Something large crashed behind her but Lyssa didn't move. She slammed her eyes shut and froze. Whatever was there was making a deep hissing sound, it reminded her of the snake from the duelling club. Lyssa made a mental assessment of her surroundings. Whatever was behind her was between her and the door and if the sounds it was making were any indication it was big. Her wand was on the bed back in the hospital wing so there was very little chance she could fight this thing. Lyssa didn't want to die. She tried to think of anything that could save her. If she yelled for help it would surely kill her.
All of a sudden Lyssa thought back to Hermione and the mirror on her nightstand. She thought about the first-year boy who always had his camera. Merlin, she hoped she was right, if she wasn't there was no way that she didn't end up dead. Lyssa took a deep breath and braced her hands on the edges of the sink and she opened her eyes.
All she saw were a great big pair of yellow eyes in the mirror behind her and then everything went dark.