Chapter 4
It's been a few days since I was put on the quidditch team and I'm back to my usual schedule of classes, homework, and hanging out with Hermione, Harry, and Ron. Of course there's also practice for the next game, so I have my hands full but I just smile and curl up with a good book after each day is over. I'm sitting in the 2nd year girls dormitory when someone knocks on the door, I jump up to see who it is and smile when I see Harry. "Hi Harry! What brings you over here?" He looks at me and smiles but I can tell something's wrong from the look in his eyes and sigh "Have a seat and tell me what's wrong but don't be to loud, Parvarti is in the same room as me and Hermione." Harry laughs slightly and pulls me into a tight hug which surprises me but I smile and feel my cheeks burning but I push the blush down before he lets go. "What was that for?" He smiles and says "Just, you seem as if you always know what's going on and I love that you always are quick to understand and don't make any fuss about it." I laugh and say "Well somebody's already cheered up!" But I realize the rooms total mess and mumble a cleaning spell before he can see it. "So do you need help with your homework or do you just need a friend?" He sits down on the end of my bed and I join him "Both, but let's start with the friend bit first, okay?" I nod and say "Sure, and you can tell me what you need to when you're ready." He smiles and looks at the lack of girlish stuff in my part of the dorm and has a curious look on his face. I look at him and smile "Why do you look so curious?" He laughs and says "Because most of the time when I think girls dormitory I think make up and pink and glitter everywhere. But you don't seem to have any of that. Why?" I frown and say in a bit of an annoyed tone "Not every girl likes pink and glitter and make up you know!" I blush embarrassed when I see the look of surprise at my tone of voice on his face and feel ashamed. "I'm sorry Harry, it's just...Lily would always make fun of me as kids because I didn't use make up or any of that and she would always say that if it wasn't for the fact she knows I'm a girl she'd swear I was a guy." He looks at me and says softly "I'm sorry. I didn't know, but I like that you don't use the same stuff as the other girls. It makes you extra special." I smile and say "Thanks, that means a lot." He pulls me into another hug and I hug him back smiling and whisper "You're the best friend a girl could ask for.." I rest my head on his shoulder for a minute and then he says "Thanks. Hey Abby?" He pulls back from the hug and looks at me and I respond "Yeah?" He frowns and says "I think I have been hearing things but I swear there's something trying to kill the students, but I can't find it." I look at him and furrow my brows "Have you I don't know been able to speak to snakes?" He nods and then says "Why do you ask?" I shift back into my sitting position and think for a moment and accidentally say one of my thoughts "But it isn't possible.. the Basilisk shouldn't be back..no one can open the Chamber..." Harry looks at me and raises an eyebrow "What in Merlin's name is a Basilisk and what's the chamber?" I sigh and tell him what happened several years ago that was very similar to what's happening now. "If we don't stop the Basilisk now it might harm more students and Hogwarts might be closed.. forever." He immediately says "I'll do it, and don't try to follow you might get injured." I laugh and say "There is no possible way you can make me not help! I will not let you get hurt, and if there's one thing you are going to need to do first it's find out who has opened the Chamber and so we have to pay extra attention." He smiles and says "Okay, but be careful. If something happens to you I'll never forgive myself." I just smile and hug him. "Let's get started on the home work and after that we can start snooping, okay?" He smiles and nods getting up he says "I'll be right back with my books." I nod and get my own books when I jump hearing Hermione come in the dorm. "Hey 'Mione!" She looks at me and smiles fondly and I know she had watched me and Harry. "Hi Abby, how was your chat with Harry?" I blush and say "It was good. He'll be back in a minute for home work." She comes over to me and hugs me. "You are so...kind to him." I laugh " Well he's the only person who talked to me willingly and became my friend at the beginning of this year, you and Ron and Harry are my best friends, I consider myself very lucky to have you guys." Harry comes back with his books and we study for several hours an when we finish he goes back to the boys dorm and me and Hermione go to sleep. I wake up to a familiar voice saying it's time to get up, I slowly open my eyes and see Harry and almost shout "HARRY! What in bloody hell are you doing in here?!" I immediately pull my covers up and look at him like he's insane and all he's doing is laughing softly while trying to talk "It's time for breakfast and we have a game after that remember? Also I regret having to wake you because now I know you're not one for surprises." I roll my eyes and laugh a little. "I love surprises just not when I'm in my bed and am wearing only a long t-shirt and shorts." I stick my tongue out at him. "I suggest you wait outside the dorm while I get ready." He mock pouts but goes outside. I jump out of bed and get ready for the day within 10 minutes and than smile as I come out of the dorm and give Harry a playful punch on the shoulder. "What was that for?" I laugh and say "Thats what you get for scaring me!" We walk to the Great Hall talking about anything we could think of. As we enter Lily and Draco walk over and I start to change our direction but it's too late because Lily yells "Can't a sister talk to her twin?" I look at Harry and he looks as confused as I am but I put on brave face and keep walking. Lily runs over but this time her face is frightened sad and grave and I immediately stop and say "Alright, what's wrong?" She pulls me into a hug and I feel shocked but don't let my guard down. "What's wrong? You haven't hugged me since we were 9 years old." I notice she has signs of crying as she lets me go and quietly hands me a letter. "Read it." Was all she said and I quickly open the letter and go pale as a ghost and say quietly "I-is this a cruel joke?" She shakes her head and whispers "I wish it was." I nod and look at Harry and Draco who both look confused. Me and Lily say in unison "Our grandma is dead." I look at Lily and she starts to cry and I pull her into a hug and say "Why don't we go out to the grounds for the morning? Just like we would at home an it sad?" She gave a weak smile and said "Yeah" I take her by the hand and we start walking outside and as soon as we're out of the castle I break down and start crying. "I can't believe she's gone.. How are mum and dad holding up?" She shakes her head "From his letter it seems like they are going to need us over the holidays, we'll have to be like normal siblings." I laugh half heartedly and say "That will be interesting since we haven't had a normal conversation since we were 10" Lily just wraps me in a hug and says "I really am sorry for how I've treated you." I sigh "I can't forgive you that easily sis, but I can tease you for having feelings for Malfoy." She turns scarlet red and lightly punches me on the arm "How could you tell?" I smile "You're my twin. It wasn't hard to figure out." She laughs and says "I've missed this. But do you think we can go back to being the close sisters we were as kids?" I sigh and say "I'm not sure, we've been fighting for such a long time it will be hard to go back to being close. I have to go Harry will be wondering where I am and Malfoy will be wondering where you are, come on let's go." We get up and go back into the castle and split up once we get to the Great Hall "Bye Lils" "Bye Abby" I walk over to the Gryffindor table and eat my breakfast with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. After the quidditch game (which we won) I went up to the girls dorm and curled up to try and sleep but instead I ended up crying. After 2 hours of crying I fall asleep and dream about when me and Lily would play in our backyard laughing and not having a care in the world. In my dream I hear my mum calling me and Lily in for lunch and we run in hand in hand laughing our heads off. Suddenly I wake up and groan when I remember the test Snape gave us for potions on monday. I went to the common room and saw Harry studying and had a idea so I quietly crept up behind him and put my arms around his torso. He nearly jumped out of his seat and I broke into a fit of laughter while he looked at me with an amused look on his face, I noticed I was still holding his torso from behind and blushed out of embarrassment and let go as I put my homework on the table and sat next to him. "Hey Harry, have you started Snape's potions assignment yet?" He laughed and said "Yeah, but don't think you're getting away with sneaking up on me that easily!" I smiled fondly and just started on the assignment but I could feel his green eyes staring into my head and after 15 minutes I gave in and looked up. "What's on your mind?" He looked back at his parchment pretending to be working on his assignment and said "I don't know what you're talking about Abby." I didn't quite believe him but decided to shrug it off and went back to my homework in silence. I started to feel sick a few minutes later and I knew my face was white and that my hands were shaking but I continued to work ignoring Harry's eyes staring at me and he finally said "Abigail? Are you feeling alright?" I nod and quickly roll up my parchment and say "I'm going to go drop this off at Professor Snape's office, I'll see you at dinner." He nodded and said "Bye." I walked out of the portrait hole and went and dropped off my parchment at Snape's office and he looked up at me with an almost worried expression and said "Miss Williams are you okay? You look ill." I looked at my feet and said "I feel fine professor." But my body disagreed with me as I fell and soon was unconscious as Snape carried me to the infirmary but I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there when I woke up. I look around and see Harry sitting by my bedside and smile inwardly. "Hi Harry." I said it in such a small voice I even surprised myself. What had happened to me? He smiles "Hey, how're you feeling?" I look at him and say "Better but not great...What happened?" He looks at me and sighs "Your sister snuck a potion in your water before you left her the other day that makes you sick for two days." I look at him to see if he's telling the truth and sigh when I see he is. I stay silent for several minutes just thinking about how foolish I was to trust her, and how kind Harry is to me all the time. I finally speak "How could I have believed she was the sister I had when we were kids?" He just smiles and holds my hand "Because you are determined to see the good in everyone." I smile and squeeze his hand lightly. "You're so kind to me Harry, and you've only known me two months and a day. Yet it feels like we've known each other for ages. Why are you so nice to me?" He laughs softly "Because I think you're amazing and I want you to always be happy." I blush and smile at him and say quietly "I feel the same about you, you're an amazing friend and I hope you never forget it. "Thank you Harry, I truly appreciate that you're here with me." With that I fall asleep with a smile on my face. Once I've been let out of the infirmary I go about my classes as usual. After 4 weeks of being out of the hospital wing I go with Hermione to the library. "Thanks 'Mione, I really appreciate you helping me find out more about the Basilisk." She smiles and says "You're welcome Abby, after everything that's happened it's great that you're helping Harry find out what's going on." I just nod and look through the shelves for books on deadly snakes and take them to a table Hermione found for us. "We should start with these." I set them down and start reading. Hermione says "I think I found something! Here it has a drawing of the Basilisk and I think I figured out how it's been traveling through the walls!" I look excited and immediately ask "How?" She says "The pipes! Come on we have to get this to Harry and Ron!" We both start running towards Gryffindor Tower, Hermione clutching the paper in one hand and a mirror in the other so she can see if it's coming. We look at the mirror and see big green eyes and become paralyzed. My mind starts racing and I think "What if Harry and Ron don't figure it out! If they do Harry could die trying to save the rest of the school. I wish I could've helped him more." I sigh inwardly because I know that whatever happens Harry and Ron will find a way