You gape at the carriages. Last year they took you and the rest of the first years up by boat, so you've never seen carriages that pull themselves before.
"Come on!" Ernie urges, and you do. The carriage jostles as it begins to move. You smile politely at Hermione Granger, who is sitting in the corner, looking worried. She seems less sure of herself in the absence of her friends. She's hunched over and biting her nails, and she's not even reading a book.
"Where are Ron and Harry?" you ask.
Hermione bites her lip. "I don't know! They weren't on the train, and no one's seen them anywhere!"
"They'll turn up," Susan says reassuringly. "They probably just missed the train. My mum says that's happened a few times."
"But they probably just came up by Floo Powder, or the Knight Bus. That would be the sensible thing to do." Ernie catches your eye, and you know that you're both wondering if Harry and Ron have ever to this point done the sensible thing.
"But they can't have missed the train! The rest of Ron's siblings were on it, and he and Harry were supposed to be with them! His little sister is really upset, she doesn't know if she'll ever see him again!" Her lower lip quivers a bit, the way that yours does when you're about to cry.
"It'll be okay," Susan promises, giving Hermione a hug. You nod in agreement, and Hermione manages a watery smile. None of you speak again until you've left the carriage and entered the Great Hall. You look over at the Gryffindor table every so often, but Ron and Harry never show up. The next day, Ron gets a Howler, and you suddenly understand why.
You see a red haired first year standing in the Entrance Hall and looking befuddled. You go up to her and ask what's wrong.
"I don't remember how I got here."
"That's not good," you say, unsure how else to respond. "Did one of the older kids Confund you or something?"
"I don't think so," the girl replies, looking taken aback.
You look around, unsure of what to do, when your eyes land on a Gryffindor prefect. He has red hair and freckles, and you are fairly certain that he's this girl's brother. "Excuse me?" you call. He turns around and walks over.
"How may I help you?"
"Your sister is…" you begin, but the girl is shaking her head frantically from behind him. "Is feeling sick," you finish lamely. You have no idea what could be going on with her if she really wasn't Confunded, and it really isn't your business, anyways. You might as well let her decide for herself what to share with her brother.
"Are you, Ginny? Why didn't you say something? I'll take you to the hospital wing straight away. Thank you, Miss…?"
"Abbott. Hannah Abbott."
"Thank you, Miss Abbott.
The Halloween feast this year far surpasses last years, mostly because it's really not that hard to top a feast that included a teacher running in during the middle, screaming about a troll. There are many theories regarding Professor Quirrell's not returning this year, including that he was fired, that he's really a squirrell, that he had You-Know-Who on the back of his head (Who came up with THAT one?) and that he was still at Hogwarts, cleverly disguised as a suit of armor. Professor Dumbledore had never properly explained what had happened. He didn't explain much, really, like why the third floor corridor (on the right hand side) is no longer forbidden.
You know that you'll never really be able to understand Professor Dumbledore. Why, for example, would you make a forest forbidden and then turn around and send first years there for detention? Neville hadn't been the same for weeks. You are thinking about this so intently that at first you don't notice Ernie repeating your name.
"I'm sorry. What were you saying?"
"I wanted you to pass me the pudding. Sheesh, you looked like you'd been hit with a Bedazzling Hex. "
You pass the pudding across the table, realizing with a start that your dinner has disappeared to make room for dessert. You can't remember if you ate any of it at all. Hoping that something made it into your stomach, you help yourself to some treacle tart. As you are finishing eating, Professor Dumbledore stands and claps once.
"Ah! Another wonderful Halloween here and gone. And now it is time for us to say farewell and retreat to our Houses. Good night!"
You follow Ernie up the stairs. On the second floor there's a crowd gathered around the girl's bathroom. Your first thought is to wonder what on earth Myrtle could have done this time. Draco Malfoy, your Charms partner, shouts something unintelligible from the front of the crowd. There's loud voices, and you think you hear Filch shouting about Mrs. Norris. You crane your neck, but you're just not tall enough to see. Ernie is standing on his tiptoes. Justin Finch-Fletchley pushes his way towards you, looking worried.
"Let's get out of here," he says.
"Why? What's going on?"
"I don't know, but that Malfoy kid said something about Mudbloods, and I can't think of any situation where that would be a good thing, can you?" You nod in agreement, and tell Ernie that it's time to leave. You're starting to panic, and you've never been very good with crowds. High anxiety, or something like that. The Healers you'd talked to as a kid recommended a potion you could take, but you've always hated taking potions when you don't have to. You've misbrewed enough potions to be aware of the danger.
"You go," he says. "I want to see what's going on."
"You're never going to be able to get past this lot. Come on, we can find out first thing tomorrow."
Ernie finally agrees, under the condition that you be ready to leave the common room to investigate by no later than 6:30 in the morning. As is turns out, other people have the same idea. You run into Pansy by the Entrance Hall. "Have you seen it yet?" She asks. When you shake your head, she leads you and Ernie to the second floor. There's a crowd surrounding the bathroom, but it's much smaller than the one there was there last night, and people move aside so that you can get to the front.
Painted across the wall in what looks like blood is THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.
Ernie says something about Hogwarts, a History, and you leave at once in search of it. You'll do anything for pure, simple answers. You get to the library just before 7:00, and by this point, there's only one copy left. You check it out and lead Ernie and Pansy to a round table on the edge of the library. The Table of Contents proves unhelpful, and you worry that you will have to perform the search manually.
"I've got it!" Pansy cries. "Mum taught me this spell over the summer. She said it'd help with my studying. "Verbum Invenire!" she cries. The book flies open to Chapter Five (Slytherins's Departure.) You read about the founders, and Slytherin's selectivity in choosing students. About the arguments that broke out, Slytherin's leaving, and the revenge he took by sealing the Chamber- with a monster inside. When you finish the chapter, the book jumps ahead to near the end, and you read about the Chamber's reopening fifty years ago, and the girl that died.
For once, you are utterly and completely glad to be a Hufflepuff.
"So it was Slytherin that started it all. Figures," Ernie says.
"Excuse me?" Pansy stands up and puts her hands on her hips. You've always avoided the topic of Muggle-borns around her, never sure of how she will react. It looks as if now you might be finding out. "Might I remind you of what house I'm in?"
"Yeah, but you don't honestly buy into that pureblood elitist stuff, do you?"
She hesitates. "I don't know. I mean, Mud- Muggle-borns aren't really- like us, are they?"
"Great. You're just like the founder of your wonderful house, thinking Purebloods can do whatever they want, and Muggle-borns deserve to die."
"I never said that they deserved to die! They're not like us, but they don't deserve to die!"
Ernie just glares at her. She stares back, until he ends up looking away. "I should go. Bye, Hannah!" Pansy turns and leaves the room.
"God, I can't stand that girl. Why do you even talk to her?" Ernie explodes. You want to chastise him for being so mean to your friend, but you don't wand to seem like you support Pansy's views, with are extremely unsettling. So you shrug and stand up, returning the book to Madame Pince.
The second attack is on Colin Creevey, a first year student you've seen around school. He goes from being annoying to being a celebrity in a day, but he's not awake to witness the transition. You're absolutely terrified that you or your friends will be next. You've begun walking around in packs of people, hoping for safety in numbers. Deep down, you know that this isn't true. There's no safety.
Maybe that's why you join the Dueling Club. Maybe it's the same safety instinct that drives you to walk around with your friends. But as it turns out, the Dueling Club is a big fat waste of time.
"Expelliarmus!" you shout. Ernie's wand jerks a little, but doesn't actually leave his hand. He makes an attempt, with similar results. Neither Professor Lockhart nor Professor Snape even tried to explain how to do this spell, so it's no wonder you can't figure out how to make it work. Neville's spell misses Justin by a mile, instead hitting Ernie, who is thrown off his feet.
Professor Lockhart stops the chaos and chooses two "volunteers" to demonstrate. Unsurprisingly, one of them is Harry. It seems as if every time anything happens at Hogwarts, it happens to him. His partner is Draco Malfoy, who has a notorious grudge against him. You shiver, sure that this can't end well.
Draco raises his wand and yells, "Serpensortia!" A black snake flies from it. You almost scream, but stop yourself just in time.
"Don't move, Potter," Professor Snape says. "I'll get rid of it." You breathe a sigh of relief.
"Allow me!" shouts Professor Lockhart. The snake goes flying through the air, landing with a thunk right next to Justin. His face goes pale, and you wonder if there's something, anything you can do to make the snake go away. You and Justin aren't very close, but he's Ernie's best friend, and you really don't want anything bad to happen to him. It's so quiet at first that you don't notice anything, except for the strange hush that has fallen over the crowd. Then you hear it- a strange sort of hissing sound. It takes you a second to realize that the sound if coming from Harry, and then it's over.
"Hello," Harry says. "I'm looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley." You stare at him in horror. You hadn't believed Ernie, not really, but now that you're confronted with this, you're beginning to worry.
"What do you want with him?" Ernie asks, sounding scared.
"I wanted to tell him what really happened with that snake at the Dueling Club."
"We were all there. We saw what happened."
"Then you noticed that after I spoke to it, the snake backed off?" You had noticed that, actually. It was one of the holes you'd noticed in Ernie's theory.
Ernie, pigheadedly in your opinion, continues to snap at Harry, going even so far as to tell him just how many generations back his family's magical roots can be traced. Harry finally loses his patience and leaves. Ernie takes out his potions textbook and opens it to a random page, making it clear that he doesn't want to be spoken to. After a few minutes, you get up and leave. Susan and Zach follow.
On the way back to the common room, you run into Pansy. You are about to say hi when she pointedly turns around and walks the other way. You haven't spoken to her since the day you read Hogwarts, a History, but you thought that it was just because you were both too busy.
You'll have to owl her later and ask what's going on.
You've never seen Ernie cry before. Not when Hufflepuff came in last for the House Cup, not when he didn't' get picked for the Quidditch team, not even when Marcus Flint hit him with a Stinging Hex back in October.
The evening after Justin is found Petrified, Ernie cries in the common room for hours.
Last year you stayed at school for Christmas. That was last year.
This year, all you want to do is escape, get away from all of the fear and the feelings and the memories. Everywhere you go reminds you of Justin. You can't enter a classroom or utter a spell without thinking of being in that class with Justin, watching Justin learn that spell. You and him weren't even very good friends, but you're still feeling wretched, and every time you see Ernie look over as if to say something and then realize that the person he wanted to say it to isn't there, a part of you breaks.
So you run away, go home. The nice thing about being a Hufflepuff is that they understand that sometimes you need to run away, and there's no shame in it. Ravenclaws would only run away if it was the logical conclusion, and Slytherins and Gryffindors have to much pride to run. Hufflepuffs don't care about pride. Hufflepuffs can run away if they need to.
Only going home for Christmas doesn't help. Your mum fusses over you, and Neville visits, and Pansy responds to your owl with an apology for snubbing you, but Ernie doesn't leave his house, and his absence is like a gaping hole. You don't even know what's going on at school, and it scares you, to think of who could be dead or Petrified by the time you get back. You're scared, and running away doesn't help.
Last year, you stayed at school for Christmas. That was last year.
Time and emotions work in funny ways. Your first thought when Professor Sprout says that the game is cancelled is annoyance. Hufflepuff's team is really good this year, and you're sure that they can win if they're given the chance. What 's so important that they would cancel a Quidditch game?
Professor Sprout takes everyone back to the common room and explains about Hermione and Penelope Clearwater. It takes a little while for the information to sink in, and, try as you might, you can't shake your annoyance about the game. It's such a small thing, so insignificant in the face of all that has happened, of all that is continuing to happen, but you can't get the small thing out of your head.
You see Ernie sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, and go over to sit with him. "You can't still think it's Harry. He would never do that to Hermione."
"I know," Ernie says gloomily. "It never really made much sense, did it? Why would the Boy Who Lived attack Muggle-borns? It was just clutching at straws." You think that this may be the most sensible you've seen him all year. Then he goes and ruins it. "Hey, maybe that Draco Malfoy kid's the Heir of Slytherin!"
You're unsure of whether to respond. You feel like you should say something, but you don't want to crush his hope. Ernie has all of these heroic ideas about swooping in and defeating the Chamber's monster, being the one to save Justin, and you don't want to be the one to crush his dream. So you smile and say, "Yeah. Maybe."
Nothing is the same with Dumbledore gone. Pansy is talking to you again, but there's a weird tension that there never was before, and your friendship seems strangely forced. You avoid the topic of Muggle-borns, but you know that you can't avoid it forever.
Ernie has become quieter, almost subdued. The longer Professor Dumbledore is gone, the harder it is to feel hope of any kind. So when Professor Sprout asks you to gather in the common room, you don't feel surprised, only numb, and you wonder who was attacked this time.
"I'm afraid something rather- horrible- has happened," she says, tears running down her face. "A student has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets. The school will, of course, be closing. It would be good to pack your bags tonight. We'll be leaving first thing in the morning." Through your numbness you feel a weird sense of longing for your mother, and she are suddenly flooded with wanting, no, needing, to be home with her where everything is safe, and if something happens she can just come in and make it better. You know that that's unrealistic, and that your mother won't always be there to protect you, but that knowledge isn't as strong as the want.
Everyone is silent for a moment. Then a sixth year named Bruce asks, "Which student was taken?"
Professor Sprout hesitates for a moment, then says, "Ginny. Ginny Weasley." Several first years begin to cry. You remember finding her alone and confused in the beginning of the year, but you push the thought away. You can't let yourself feel. You are numb. You want your mother, and everything's awful, and you don't blame Professor McGonagall for wanting to close the school one bit.
"Everyone wake up!" Professor Sprout calls. you are instantly awake, wondering what's happened now. It takes you a moment to realize that her voice sounds happy. "Ginny is alive! That Chamber has been found, the heir's caught, and the monster's dead! Quick, get to the Great Hall, and Professor Dumbledore can explain." You have no idea what's going on, but you hardly care. You suddenly feel alive, and you let that feeling of life push through the numbness and take hold of you.
End of Book Two
