━━━━━━ CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
━━━━━━
hogwarts had been becoming more and more anxious after the attacks of hermione granger and penelope clearwater. it was clear that the staff decided there needed to be heavy precautions made.
"all students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening," mcgonagall had stated in the gryffindor common room one 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. you three—" she had suddenly pointed at lani, carina, and rory. "to your dormitories, please."
"yes professor," the three girls muttered, quickly rushing out of the common room. the gryffindors had been packed inside it, listening to professor mcgonagall in silence.
"i need hardly add that i have rarely been so distressed," mcgonagall spoke as she rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading from previously. "it is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. i would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."
as she walked out of the portrait hole, lee jordan began to count on his fingers. "that's two gryffindors down, not counting a gryffindor ghost, two hufflepuffs, and a ravenclaw... haven't any of the teaches noticed that the slytherins are all safe? isn't it obvious all this stuff's coming from slytherin? the heir of slytherin, the monster of slytherin—why don't they just chuck all the slytherins out?" he roared, to nods and scattered applause.
evelyn had no visible reaction to any of this. she was sat on a chair, deep in thought, glaring at the ground with a numbness spread over her face.
"percy's in shock," she heard george weasley tell harry quietly. "that ravenclaw girl—penelope clearwater—she's a prefect. i don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a prefect."
she brought her eyes to look at the pair, only to see harry mirroring a similar expression as hers. evelyn sighed at his absent-mindedness and leaned over to him.
"you okay?" she asked him, watching him look up. "y'know, hermione and everything." harry merely shrugged.
"what're we going to do?" cindy whispered tearfully.
evelyn watched ron mumble something in harry's ear, to which he said, "i have an idea."
"what're you about to do?" evelyn asked grimly.
"keep your nose out of it," he replied, dragging ron and cindy up to his dormitory.
evelyn sighed, letting her head fall back onto the headrest of the chair as she voided out the voices of the gryffindors.
tom riddle was lord voldemort. realistically, tom riddle could've murdered her family, could've murdered her. and hogwarts may shut down due to the chamber that he opened fifty years ago. but he had everyone fooled, everyone. there was absolutely no chance that any of this was a coincidence. perhaps she should go to dumbledore, surely this information may be critical to finding the attacker.
"potter junior?"
evelyn looked up to see a familiar redhead looking down at her.
"evening, george."
"fred," he corrected, grinning. "you were quite lost in thought there."
"sorry," she replied sheepishly, sitting up.
"no worries," fred chuckled. "er—you still friends with my little sister?"
"ginny? yeah, why?"
he shrugged. "just never see you lot together anymore. where is she, anyway?"
"no clue," evelyn looked down glumly.
"oh," fred said. "well, let me know if you see her. nice talking to you, potter junior."
evelyn nodded ruefully as he walked away, moving to sit alongside his twin and lee jordan. she then decided she was going to go to bed, getting up and going up the stairs to the girls dormitories.
she opened the door to see ginny in bed, dozing off. the girl had her hair tied back in a braid, and she had snuggled into a small stuffed hippogriff beside her. evelyn couldn't help but smile.
"oh, gin," she whispered. "what ever is going on with you?"
***
evelyn rushed through the hallways, pushing through people to get to the great hall. she had overslept, of course she had.
"ev!" rory gasped, seeing her sprint towards them. "oh, don't you ever do that again. we thought you had gotten attacked!"
"what? no, i'm still here," evelyn said through breaths. she turned to look at lani and carina, who had both gotten once she was in their eyeshot. "i'm fine guys, really. i just overslept."
"they won't let us into the hospital wing anymore," lani muttered, slight tears forming in her eyes. "we can't see ben anymore."
"what?" evelyn said again, her heart sinking. "we—why?"
"they think someone's going to finish them off, the attacker," carina bit her lip. "madam pomfrey said they can't take any chances."
evelyn groaned, slowly sinking into her seat. "great."
but her friends had not sat down along side her.
"and... ev?"
"carina?" evelyn responded suspiciously, watching her breath hitch. "rin, guys, what?"
"dumbledore's been suspended," rory cried out.
"dumbledore—what?"
"he's been suspended," lani sighed. "from the school, by the governors. he's gone."
lani then pointed to the teachers table, in which the headmaster's seat was found empty.
"oh merlin," evelyn stuck her fingers in her hair. "what could he have possibly done?"
no one replied, worry growing amongst the group. there was no chance that they could possibly survive with dumbledore gone, and the rest of the castle appeared to think so too. great fear flooded the school. there was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.
however, despite everything that had happened, draco malfoy seemed to be absolutely thrilled.
"dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had," she heard him say loudly to crabbe and goyle at dinner. "i told you father thinks so. maybe we'll get a half decent headmaster. mcgonagall won't last long, she's only filling in. maybe snape should apply, reckon he'd do well..."
"i'll kill him," ron grunted. "i'll kill him with my bare hands, i will."
"don't be ridiculous, ron," cindy scoffed.
"that draco malfoy," evelyn heard owen's voice though the gryffindors. she turned to see him leaned over to the slytherin table, thea and max facing him as he spoke. "i won't be surprised if he was slytherin's heir."
"you know," max said in a low voice. "earlier, i heard him saying his father was the one that got dumbledore suspended. said something about the ministry thinking he can't handle all the attacks going on."
"rubbish," thea growled. "how many of them do you think he blackmailed?"
"bold assumption, thea," owen muttered uneasily. "and dumbledore could've handled this whole thing better."
max shrugged. "i mean, she's got a point. malfoy has connections, he could easily smooth talk anyone at the ministry to get on his side..."
evelyn swallowed shakily and turned to make a quick glance at carina, only to see that she was listening to their conversation with wide eyes. evelyn caught her eye just as tears began to form in them.
"of course it was him," she whispered.
"doesn't matter," evelyn mumbled. "it's too late now."
***
"why the long faces?" lockhart beamed at his defense against the dark arts class.
evelyn and lani gave each other irritated looks, as the rest of the class did with each other.
"as i said to my second-years earlier," lockhart said slowly. "the danger has passed! the culprit has been taken away—"
"who?" ginny spat out, her eyes growing wide at the realization that she spoke out of line.
"my dear, the minister of magic wouldn't have taken hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," lockhart said in a sweet voice.
"hagrid?" lani said loudly. "they took hagrid?"
"they did indeed," lockhart beamed again. "so you all have nothing to worry about!"
"cheers," carina grumbled.
"moving forward," lockhard began to pace back and forth at the front of the classroom. "your exams began on june first."
this was followed by loud groans by the class.
"that's in one week!"
"really?"
"that's outrageous!" lani cried. "we're still getting exams? after all this?"
"we must continue to educate you through this hard times," lockhart said seriously, but then grinned so quickly it was quite alarming. "but i trust you'll all do outstanding!"
three days before their first exam, professor mcgonagall made an announcement at breakfast.
"i have good news," she said, the great hall bursting at her words.
"dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled.
"you've caught the heir of slytherin!" squealed a girl at the ravenclaw table.
"quidditch matches are back on!" oliver wood roared excitedly.
professor mcgonagall rose a hand to quiet the students, then 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 us catching the culprit."
there was an explosion of cheering, but evelyn looked at her friends in guilt.
"should we tell them about the book?"
"absolutely not," carina retorted. "we're going to get it confiscated!"
"but it could help—"
"ev," lani rolled her eyes. "stop being a goodie-two-shoes for once."
just then, ginny entered the great hall and sat next to ron, gathering the attention of the group. evelyn noticed she looked extremely tense, her hands were twisting in her lap and nervousness was written all over her face.
"what's up?" ron said, unbothered as he helped himself to more porridge.
ginny didn't say anything, but glanced over at the group for a moment before looking back at him.
"spit it out," ron watched her.
"i've got to tell you something," she mumbled.
"what is it?" harry suddenly said.
taken aback, ginny looked at harry. all the colour from her face drained at the sight of him. harry and cindy exchanged an unreadable look and quickly looked back at her.
"ginny?" lani said. "ginny, what?"
ginny looked at her friends and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. harry then leaned forward and spoke very quietly.
"is it something about the chamber of secrets? have you seen something? someone acting oddly?"
ginny took a deep breath and, at that moment, percy weasley appeared, looking tired.
"if you've finished eating, i'll take that seat, ginny. i'm starving. i've only just come off patrol duty."
ginny jumped up off the chair, gave percy a terrified look, and took off. percy sat down in the spot she was in seconds ago.
"percy!" ron and cindy said angrily, then ron continued. "she was just about to tell us something important!"
halfway though his gulp of tea, percy choked.
"what sort of thing?" he coughed.
"i just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say—"
"oh—that—that's nothing to do with the chamber of secrets," percy said at once.
"how do you know?" ron's eyebrows rose.
"well, er, if you must know, 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?" cindy grinned at him. "go on, we won't laugh."
percy didn't return the smile.
"pass me those rolls, harry, i'm starving."
ron and cindy exchanged snickers at the change of subject, cindy then shushing him at the furious looks they were receiving from percy.
"we have potions," carina muttered to evelyn, drawing her attention. "let's go."
much to their annoyance, they were to be escorted by lockhart himself.
"the poor petrified people," he was saying to them, moving past students in the halls. "guaranteed the first thing they'll be saying is, "it was hagrid". mark my words!"
evelyn rolled her eyes at his idea of "assuring them they had nothing to worry about".
"i think the whole hagrid thing is rubbish," lani whispered to evelyn and carina, ginny trailing behind them with her head down.
"it is," max suddenly appeared on the other side of carina. "we all know it, we're not idiots."
thea sped up her pace to catch up to them. "you lot reckon it's a student?"
"it's not my brother," carina spat automatically. "don't flatter yourselves with the idea."
"no one said it was, relax," max responded smoothly, his eyebrows rising. "i doubt it's anyone from slytherin, it would be far too obvious."
"slytherin's heir not being in slytherin?" lani scoffed. "that's smart of you."
max gave thea a look, to which she pressed her lips together awkwardly, muttering a, "forget it, let's catch up to owen."
"what's up with you two?" evelyn asked them.
"why do they even talk to us?" carina scowled.
"because evelyn befriended them that one time. i told you, ev, the slytherins are trouble. watch yourself," lani said, to which carina nodded.
***
"should we play superhero and do something about all this," lani muttered to evelyn, rory, and carina at dinner that night. clearly she was reconsidering evelyn's suggestion.
"what can we do?" rory sighed. "this is all very unusual, perhaps it's best to step back."
"we weren't given the book for nothing," evelyn shrugged. "maybe this is our purpose."
"guys, look," carina suddenly gasped, looking at the floor. the other three looked down to where she was pointing, only to see spiders travelling in a straight line across the great hall.
"disgusting," lani gagged.
"should we—"
"guys!" evelyn nudged rory beside her to reveal her shaking book bag.
"come on," carina whispered hurriedly, ducking as she got up from her seat.
"where are you all going?" ginny asked them.
"later," lani quickly said, getting up as well. the girls followed carina, travelling in between the house tables so they wouldn't be spotted. once they had reached the hallway, evelyn busted open her bag.
the pages of the magical book flipped open, just as they had done previously. the first-years eagerly looked to see what it had stopped on, only to see it was the biography of riddle they read before.
"clues," rory said. "look for clues in the text."
evelyn darted her eyes across the page, reading the paragraphs multiple times. but her eyes slowed at the second paragraph.
"riddle became aware of his heritage and eventually opened the chamber of secrets," she suddenly read aloud, causing her friends to flinch. "he used the monster inside it to attack muggle-born students. resulting in the death of myrtle warren."
"okay," lani nodded. "okay..."
"myrtle warren," rory repeated, slowly, then turned to evelyn in shock. "say, you don't think—"
"that's exactly what i think."
"what?" lani questioned.
carina let a breath of air in, catching on. "father said that the last time the chamber of secrets was opened, a muggle-born died at hogwarts. but what if... what if she never left?"
lani's eyes narrowed at her, only for her head to then shake in disbelief.
"moaning myrtle?"
evelyn nodded. "exactly."
━━━━━━
b's notes
sm cos references in this chapter oops😭