LITTLE MISS MUDBLOOD – ACT 1 ; SCENE 2 : CHAPTER 26
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Summer crept over the grounds around the castle quietly yet quickly; sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang and Goldfish at his heels, the scene didn't look quite right; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.
Harry, Ron, and Y/N had tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were now barred from the Hospital Wing.
"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off. . . ."
With Professor Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. 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.
Y/N constantly repeated Professor Dumbledore's final words to herself. "I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. . . . Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." But what good were these words? Who exactly were they supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as they were?
Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand – the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Y/N looked everywhere she went, helped by Daphne, as Theodore and Blaise were still in the dark. They were hampered, of course, by the fact that they weren't allowed to wander off on their own but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Slytherins. Most of their fellow students seemed glad they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Y/N found it very irksome.
One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. And it wasn't because of the petrifications (although he expressed his happiness for Hermione's petrification on multiple occasions), it was because Professor Dumbledore was suspended. Two weeks of his non-stop yapping and Y/N was just about fed up.
"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," said Malfoy one Potions lesson. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in. . . ."
"Professor McGonagall already practically runs this school, so if Professor Dumbledore were to be permanently removed she would obviously take his spot and fill it well – however, Professor Dumbledore is only out on an Order of Suspension so don't get your hopes too high, Malfoy," said Y/N fiercely as she scribbled down the properties and uses of bat spleens.
"Whatever, Granger," said Malfoy, rolling his eyes. "Professor Snape? Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"
"Now, now, Malfoy," said Professor Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."
"Yeah, right," said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job – I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir –"
Professor Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.
"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Malfoy went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger –"
Y/N's fist connected with Malfoy's cheek the minute the bell rang. However, in the midst of all the scrambling to collect bags and books, only Crabbe and Goyle noticed, and nobody was going to report that a Mudblood punched Malfoy.
"Hurry up, I've got to take you Gryffindors to Herbology and you Slytherins to Charms," barked Professor Snape over the class's heads, and off they marched, with Y/N and Malfoy arguing in the middle (away from Professor Snape) and Harry and Dean bringing up the rear, holding Ron back. Professor Snape dropped off the Slytherins on the way to the greenhouses, leaving Y/N and Malfoy to argue louder and louder with each passing second.
"You little Mudblood, you punched me!" said Malfoy, voice rotten with despise.
"You act like you didn't deserve it!" Y/N scoffed. "And don't deny it, Pureblood, you wished a death sentence on my sister. In fact, you deserve way more than a stupid little punch in the face –"
Professor Flitwick joined them and ushered them inside, interrupting the argument between Y/N and Malfoy. He set them to work on learning, practicing, and perfecting the Shrinking Charm, the counter-charm to the Engorgement Charm, however, Malfoy's glaring eyes distracted her from her work. Y/N would glare back every so often, and no matter how much she wanted to hex him, she couldn't – not with Professor Flitwick watching.
"Theodore, I need you to stand in front of me so I can't hex that stupid Malfoy over there," Y/N growled, glaring at the blonde punk.
"Why me?"
"You're stockier than a pitbull and Blaise is skinnier than a stick," she said. "Now get your arse over here before I actually do hex Malfoy."
He grunted but obliged, trading desks with Blaise and successfully blocking Malfoy from Y/N's view. Letting out a 'hmph', Y/N finally got to work in peace, and easily perfected the Shrinking Charm on her first try. She turned to Daphne when she had finished.
"I think the monster has something to do with snakes," said Y/N to Daphne, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. "Listen; both Harry and I can hear the voices, but nobody else can, right? And then at the duelling club, only Harry and I can understand and speak to snakes, and Slytherin's known for snakes. So it's only right that the monster in Slytherin's Chamber is some sort of snake."
"And that's why Hermione's gone to the library, that's what she realized," said Daphne, understanding what Y/N was saying. "But how would it be getting around the castle? I don't think it's been making its way through the corridors, or else someone would have seen it."
Y/N thought for a moment. "Maybe there's something lining the inside of the castle. . . but what?"
At the end of the lesson Professor Flitwick escorted the class to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Gryffindor (again). Y/N and Daphne lagged behind the others (while Theodore and Blaise acted as a wall between Y/N and Malfoy) so they could talk out of earshot.
"Maybe it's moving around underground – like, under the dungeons," said Daphne.
"Can't be," said Y/N, shaking her head. "I can hear it all the way up to the second-floor."
"Well let's hope Harry and Ron have something," Daphne sighed as they took their usual places at the back of Lockhart's classroom. The Gryffindors hadn't arrived yet and Y/N was anxious to know if anything had come up.
"Listen," said Harry's voice a minute later, as he took his seat next to Y/N, "spiders. We found spiders and they're headed for the Forbidden Forest."
"That's great!" said Y/N, delighted to know that at least Harry and Ron had something other than snakes.
"We'll have to use the Invisibility Cloak," he told her. "We can take Fang and Goldfish with us. They're used to going into the forest with Hagrid, he might be some help."
"Well count me out," said Daphne, shivering. "I've never been in that forest and I intend to keep it that way, you hear?"
"Yes, Daph, we know," sighed Y/N. "Ron, you're going, I take it?"
"He is, even if I have to drag him out of bed," said Harry. "Midnight, tonight."
Lockhart bounded into the room and the class stared at him. Every other teacher in the place was looking grimmer than usual but Lockhart appeared nothing short of buoyant.
"Come now," he cried, beaming around him. "Why all these long faces?"
People swapped exasperated looks, but nobody answered.
"Don't you people realize," said Lockhart, speaking slowly, as though they were all a bit dim, "the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away –"
"Ten Galleons Lockhart takes credit for controlling the monster," said Blaise to Theodore, rolling his eyes.
"What a stupid bet – you're on."
"Says who?" said Dean Thomas loudly.
"My dear young man, the Minister of Magic wouldn't have taken Hagrid if he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty," said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.
"Oh, yes he would," said Ron, even more loudly than Dean.
"I flatter myself I know a touch more about Hagrid's arrest than you do, Mr. Weasley," said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.
Ron started to say that he didn't think so, somehow, but stopped in midsentence when Y/N kicked him hard under the desk, accidentally hitting Harry in the process.
"We weren't there, remember?" Y/N muttered. "And sorry not sorry, Harry, you're an idiot."
"Why?"
Y/N scoffed. "Don't ask me why you're a blithering idiot, you're the one who wants to go into the Forbidden Forest again."
Lockhart's disgusting cheeriness, his hints that he had always though Hagrid was no good, his confidence that the whole business was now at an end, irritated Y/N so much that she yearned to throw Gadding with Ghouls right in Lockhart's stupid face. However, Y/N resorted to playing Muggle tic-tac-toe with Harry instead.
The Slytherin common room was always more crowded than usual these days, because from six o'clock onward the Slytherins had nowhere else to go. Many students had taken up Muggle activities (despite some being prejudiced) like sewing or knitting, unashamedly asking Y/N to teach them. Of course, she was always happy to teach others how to sew and knit, but that night in particular was not the best for her to be losing track of time.
Lucky for her, students were teaching each other so no one had come to her in days. So that night, she sat on the couch in front of the fireplace with Daphne, going through her new issue of Witch Weekly and waiting. She could have been knitting but her fingers were far too sore, to the point where she had to put bandaids on them to prevent blisters. She could have also been peppering a volleyball with herself, but last time she had done that, she had hit some sixth year and had gotten herself yelled at.
Y/N and Daphne waited for everyone to go up to bed before casting the Disillusionment Charm on Y/N. She left Daphne in the common room and hurried off to Hagrid's hut, hoping to already find Harry and Ron there. Unfortunately, they weren't and Y/N was forced to deal with two happy dogs barking.
"Shh! Be quiet!" she whisper-yelled, and hastily fed them both Hagrid's treacle toffee from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued their teeth together. Sighing, she sat in an armchair and waited.
It was well past midnight when Harry and Ron arrived. It surprised Y/N when they entered (she was that close to falling asleep) so much that she almost hexed them both when they walked through the door.
"Oi!" shouted Ron, who barely dodged her Knee-Reversal Hex.
"Sorry, you scared me," said Y/N, shoving her wand back into her robes. "Why are you two so late?"
"Fred, George, and Ginny didn't go to bed until a few minutes ago," said Harry, placing his Invisibility Cloak on Hagrid's table. "And then we had to dodge all the teachers and prefects."
"Okay, whatever," said Y/N, standing and straightening out her skirt. "C'mon, Fang, Goldfish, let's go for a walk."
Fang and Goldfish bounded happily out of the house behind Harry, Ron, and Y/N, dashing to the edge of the forest and lifting their legs to their favorite trees.
Y/N and Harry took out their wands, murmuring, "Lumos!" and two tiny lights appeared at the end of them, just bright enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders.
"Good thinking," said Ron. "I'd light mine, too, but you know – it'd probably blow up or something. . . ."
Y/N tapped Harry and Ron on the shoulder, pointing at the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from her wandlight into the shade of the tree.
"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."
So, with the dogs scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, they entered the forest. By the glow of the wands, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and Y/N and Harry's wands shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.
They paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside the little sphere of light was pitch-black. Neither Harry nor Y/N had never been this deep into the forest before. Y/N could vividly remember Hagrid advising them not to leave the forest path last time she'd been in here. But Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.
Something wet touched Y/N's hand and she jumped, but it was only Goldfish. Calming down, she pet him calmingly.
"What d'you reckon?" Harry said to Y/N and Ron.
"We've come this far," said Ron.
"Agreed," Y/N said.
So they followed the darting shadows of the spiders into the trees. They couldn't move very quickly now; there were tree roots and stumps in their way, barely visible in the near blackness. Y/N could feel both dogs hovering around her. More than once, they had to stop, so that Y/N could crouch down and find the spiders in the wandlight.
They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low-slung branches and brambles. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever.
Then Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, followed by Goldfish's, making them all jump out of their skins.
"What?" said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Y/N's elbow very hard.
"There's something moving over there," Harry breathed. "Listen . . . sounds like something big. . . ."
They listened. Some distance to their right, the 'something big' was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.
"Oh, no," said Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh –"
"Shut up," said Y/N forcefully. "It'll hear you."
"Hear me?" said Ron in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!"
The darkness seemed to be pressing on their eyeballs as they stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise and then silence.
"Hold on," said Y/N, and she gripped her wand tightly. "Lumos Maxima!"
A blinding white light came from the tip of Y/N's wand and illuminated the area for a few seconds. However, in those mere seconds, neither Harry, Ron, nor Y/N saw anything lurking, leaving them more scared than ever.
"What d'you think it's doing?" said Harry.
"Probably getting ready to pounce," said Y/N.
They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.
"D'you think it's gone?" Ron whispered.
"Dunno –"
Then, to their right, came a sudden blaze of light, so bright in the darkness that all three of them flung up their hands to shield their eyes. Fang yelped and tried to run, but got lodged in a tangle of thorns and yelped even louder. Goldfish, being only about two years old and not realizing his size, jumped into Y/N's arms and clouding her with heaps of fluff.
"Harry, Y/N!" Ron shouted, his voice breaking with relief. "Guys, it's our car!"
"What?"
"Come on!"
Y/N dropped Goldfish onto his feet and they blundered toward the light, stumbling and tripping, and a moment later they had emerged into a clearing.
Mr. Weasley's car was standing, empty, in the middle of a circle of thick trees under a roof of dense branches, its headlights ablaze. As Ron walked, openmouthed, toward it, it moved slowly toward him, exactly like a large, turquoise dog greeting its owner.
"It's been here all the time!" said Ron delightedly, walking around the car. "Look at it. The forest's turned it wild. . . ."
The sides of the car were scratched and smeared with mud. Apparently it had taken to trundling around the forest on its own. Neither Fang nor Goldfish seemed at all keen on it; they both kept close to Y/N, who could feel them quivering. Her breathing slowing down again, Y/N stuffed her wand back into her robes.
"And we thought it was going to attack us!" said Ron, leaning against the car and patting it. "I wondered where it had gone!"
Y/N squinted around on the floodlit ground for signs of more spiders, but they had all scuttled away from the glare of the headlights.
"We've lost the trail," she said. "C'mon, let's go find them."
Ron didn't speak. He didn't move. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Y/N. His face was livid with terror.
Y/N didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly she felt something long and hairy seize her around the middle and lift her off the ground, so that she was hanging facedown. Struggling, terrified, she heard more clicking, and saw Ron and Harry's legs leave the ground, too, heard Fang and Goldfish whimpering and howling – next moment, she was being swept away into the dark trees.
Head hanging, Y/N saw that what had held her was marching on six immensely long, hairy legs, the front two clutching her tightly below a pair of shining black pincers. Behind her, she could hear another two of the creatures, no doubt carrying Harry and Ron. They were moving into the very heart of the forest. Y/N could hear Fang and Goldfish fighting to free themselves from two more monsters, whining loudly, but Y/N couldn't have yelled even if she had wanted to; she seemed to have left her voice back with the car in the clearing.
She never knew how long she was in the creature's clutches; she only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for her to see that the leaf-strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning her neck sideways, she realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene she had ever laid eyes on.
Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. Y/N would never admit it, but she did have a slight fear of spiders. The massive specimen that was carrying Y/N made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
Y/N fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released her. Harry, Ron, Fang, and Goldfish thudded down next to her. The dogs weren't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly how Y/N felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping. Harry was silent, horror-struck, but didn't seem as petrified as Ron.
Y/N suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped her was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clocked his pincers with every word he spoke.
"Aragog!" it called. "Aragog!"
And from the middle of the misty, doomed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was a gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was a milky white. He was blind.
"What is it?" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.
"Men," clicked the spider who had caught Y/N. "And a woman."
"Is it Hagrid?" said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.
"Strangers," clicked the spider who had brought Ron.
"Kill them," clicked Aragog fretfully. "I was sleeping. . . ."
"We're friends of Hagrid's," Y/N shouted. Her heart seemed to have left her chest to pound in her throat.
Click, click, click went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.
Aragog paused.
"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly. "Nor has he ever sent a woman."
"Hagrid's in trouble," said Y/N, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."
"In trouble?" said the aged spider, and Y/N thought she heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "But why has he sent you?"
"They believe, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a creature on students. They've taken them to Azkaban – they think he's opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Y/N, as calm as she could.
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually frighten Y/N.
"But that was years ago," said Aragog fretfully. "Years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free."
"And you . . . you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" said Harry, a sliver of fear in his shaky voice.
"I!" said Aragog, clicking angrily. "I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness. . . ."
"So . . . you never attacked anyone?" asked Y/N, as nicely and flatteringly as she could.
"Never," croaked the old spider. "It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet. . . ."
"But then . . . Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Harry. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again –"
His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around them.
"The thing that lives in the castle," said Aragog, "is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school."
"What is it?" said Harry urgently.
"We do not speak of it!" said Aragog fiercely. "We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times."
That was another hint. Whatever type of snake the monster was, spiders were distinctly frightened of it. In fact, they seemed to flee from it. . . .
Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward Harry, Ron, and Y/N.
"We'll just go, then," Harry called desperately.
"Go?" said Aragog slowly. "I think not. . . ."
"But – but –"
"My sons and daughters do not harm neither Hagrid nor women, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh men, when they wander so willingly into our midst. Good-bye, friend of Hagrid. Mortho, take the woman-friend to the edge of the forest."
The spider that had brought Y/N to the hollow picked her back up around the middle and took off toward the edge of the forest.
"Put me down!" Y/N shouted. "I have to – put me down!"
However, it was as if the spider hadn't heard her. She screamed and shouted and tried to pry its long, hairy leg from around her, but it wouldn't budge. At last, it set her down next to Hagrid's hut and scuttled off, leaving her no clue as to where the hollow was.
Y/N paced. She didn't know whether Harry and Ron were clever enough to escape the spiders, let alone find their way out of the Forbidden Forest. Nevertheless, she waited impatiently.
Despite how little Y/N thought of Harry and Ron's intelligence, she wasn't as surprised as she thought she would be when they flew out of the forest using Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia. Fang and Goldfish darted out of the car as fast as they could, and Goldfish flew into Y/N's arms, refusing to let go. Harry and Ron soon got out too, and the Ford Anglia disappeared back into the forest.
"You – you're so lucky you didn't have to –"
Ron cut himself off and vomited in the pumpkin patch. Harry went back into Hagrid's cabin to get the Invisibility Cloak, coming back out a minute later with it.
"Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive. Me and you, Harry, Y/N just had to be a bloody girl to be let off without a scratch."
"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry.
"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where's it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"
"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry, throwing the Cloak over Ron, Y/N, and Goldfish, who was still in Y/N's arms. "He was innocent."
Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent.
As the castle loomed nearer, Y/N made sure Goldfish was asleep before they pushed the creaking front doors ajar. They walked carefully across the Entrance Hall and down the heaps of steps to the dungeons, until they approached the vast stretch of stone wall that led to the Slytherin common room.
"Goodnight," she said to Harry and Ron after whispering the password.
Ron simply grunted his response whileas Harry gave Y/N a friendly side-hug. Quickly and quietly, she entered the common room to find Malfoy and Daphne arguing.
"It's none of your concern where she is!" Daphne whisper-shouted. Y/N's eyebrows shot to her hairline. They were arguing about her?
"It is if it loses Slytherin house points!" argued Malfoy. Y/N attempted to sneak around the pair but Malfoy had spotted her. "I swear, Granger, if you had lost Slytherin house points –"
"I didn't, now leave me alone," she said, tired and ready to go to bed. "Go bother your father or something, you seem to do that well."
"Granger, get your arse back here!"
But Y/N had already hurried off to her dorm, with Daphne following close behind.
"I swear I will hex that git one day," Y/N whispered to Daphne and swore loudly. She set Goldfish on her bed and undressed. "Honestly, he can mind his own damn business."
Daphne hummed in agreement before saying, "Y/N, what's that ring say on your finger?"
Confused, Y/N looked at the ring on her finger. She didn't remember exactly when she had gotten it, but she didn't care; it was a nice piece of jewelry that she'd never worried about.
"Well, there's an 'M' in the middle and that's about it . . . I assume it stands for Magnificent?" she awkwardly laughed and put on a zip-up and shorts. "Why?"
"No reason, I've just always been curious," said Daphne, avoiding her eyes. They both climbed into bed. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Y/N replied, and pulled Goldfish close to her. She thought about what Aragog had said.
"The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom."
Y/N thought for a second and then it occurred to her. Why hadn't she thought of it before?
"Daphne," she hissed, sitting up in her bed. "Daphne –"
"What?" groaned Daphne, obviously tired and half asleep.
"Daphne – so we found out Hagrid didn't open the Chamber fifty years ago, right? But we did find out a girl was killed in one of the attacks," said Y/N. Daphne waited for her to elaborate. "Well, the spider, Aragog, he said 'the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom.' What if – Daphne, what if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there, haunting it?"
Daphne came to the realization too.
"You don't think – not Moaning Myrtle?"