Evie poked her head into the third-year girls' room. "Cedric wants to know if you're ready to walk down to the Quidditch pitch."
Maisie was fussing with her hair. She wanted it braided away from her face, but not too severely (she hated her jawline; it was too square). The current braid was too loose and already half-undone. "Argh! Pip, can you help me?"
Pippa eagerly bounced off the bed. "It's hard to get the tension just right."
"I just don't want to look like McGonagall," said Maisie.
Bryony laughed. "I don't know. I bet McGonagall was a looker in her day."
Maisie snorted.
"What, you think she never let her hair down?"
"No. I bet that if she ever did take the pins out, the hair wouldn't come down; it would just stay put."
Evie was still hanging on the doorframe.
"Yes, Evie, we're coming!" said Bryony.
Ever since Halloween, when a flooded corridor and bloody writing on the wall had terrified the entire school, nobody went anywhere alone. The entire Hufflepuff Quidditch team walked to and from practice together.
"All right, I'm ready." Maisie grabbed her broom.
"I'll come, too," said Evie. "I want to watch."
"You shouldn't sit in the stands alone," said Pippa. "Let me grab my jacket."
They weren't the last ones in the Common Room; Owen stumbled in two minutes later, juggling his broom and robes.
"Somebody help him," said Watson, exasperated. "C'mon, let's go. We're losing daylight."
Maisie took Owen's broom while he struggled into his robes.
"Jimmy still in the Hospital Wing?" said Cedric, falling into step beside Maisie.
"Yeah."
"Great dolt got burned by a fire crab in Care of Magical Creatures," said Bryony.
"Happens to the best of us," said Cedric, smiling. "He'll be out soon, though?"
"I think so," said Maisie. "The skin's all grown back on his left hand, so that's something."
"He wanted a scar." Bryony rolled her eyes. "But no way Madam Pomfrey lets anyone walk out with a scar. You'll never be able to tell."
"He'll have to think of other ways to earn scars," said Cedric.
"Like actually tangling with a dragon," said Maisie. "Any chance that's on Kettleburn's curriculum for next year, Ced?"
Cedric laughed. "Not a chance! Kettleburn's tangled with enough dragons in his time. No way he's letting a bunch of bumbling students loose with one."
The Hufflepuffs made their way down to the Quidditch pitch, talking loudly and laughing to prove they weren't afraid. It was only four o'clock, but the sun was already beginning to set.
"Gosh, it's cold!" said Pippa. "I should have put on another jumper."
"Wait 'til after warmups and you can borrow mine," said Bryony.
The Slytherin team was still practicing, zooming around the field on their brand-new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. The brooms were the talk of the school: Lucius Malfoy had bought seven of the year's top brooms for the Slytherin team. Whether this was before or after his son, Draco, became Seeker was anybody's guess.
"Oi! Flint!" Of all the Hufflepuffs, Watson was least afraid of Marcus Flint. "It's our pitch!"
Flint blew his whistle, and the Slytherin team coasted to a landing.
"Those are nice fucking brooms," said Archie Ford.
The Slytherins dismounted in unison (did they rehearse that? Maisie wondered). They were enormous compared to most of the Hufflepuffs; except for Malfoy, who was a similar size and coloring to Pippa's brother Hamish.
"Hello, Hufflepuffs." Flint sneered slightly. "Pitch is yours. We're all done."
"Good of you, Flint," said Watson bitingly. "Looking forward to our match."
"That's not until spring, Watson. Plenty of time for us to train our new Seeker. He can outfly Diggory any day on his new Nimbus."
"I don't know," said Cedric in a pleasant voice. "A high-quality broom like that takes some skill to handle."
"You questioning my skill, Diggory?" said young Malfoy.
"Not at all," said Cedric in that same mild tone.
"He's just saying," said Ford in a similar manner, "that first-class brooms require first-class Quidditch players. Good luck against Gryffindor."
The Slytherin team left the pitch. Adrian Pucey, who was in Maisie's year, jostled both Maisie and Pippa on his way past.
"Whoops," he said. "Didn't see you there."
"Like hell he didn't," muttered Bryony as the Slytherins left. "That Pucey makes me so mad, I could—"
"Save it for the pitch," said Callum Webb, Bryony's fellow Chaser.
The spectating Hufflepuffs filed into the stands. Jasper, who in a rare show of sociability had joined the group, huddled together with Pippa and Evie for warmth. On the final lap of their warm-up, Bryony tossed her jumper to Pippa.
After practice, the fourth-years tramped up to the hospital wing to visit Jimmy. They were not his first visitors: Professor Kettleburn sat beside Jimmy's bed. They were playing wizard chess.
"All right, Jimmy?" said Bryony as they came in.
Jimmy was intent on the chess board. His entire left side—including his face—was swathed in bandages, which were emitting a strange, tangy smell.
"Poppy said he'll be released on Friday," said Professor Kettleburn. "It's a weight off my mind, I must say. Student injuries are a lot of paperwork. The more serious the injury, the more paperwork."
"What about when you get injured yourself?" said Jasper.
Kettleburn's eyes twinkled. "Oh, that's nothing, my boy. I signed a liability waiver when I was hired. Dumbledore insisted on it. He knows me too well, I'm afraid."
"It must have been an extensive waiver," said Jasper.
Jimmy moved a knight forward and took one of Kettleburn's bishops. "Ha!" He looked up. "Oh! Hello."
"Hey, Jimmy," said Pippa. "Feeling all right?"
"Yeah. It doesn't hurt much."
Kettleburn gave Jimmy a sidelong glance but said nothing.
"Who's winning?" Pippa leaned over the edge of Jimmy's bed.
"Me!" said Jimmy proudly.
Tutting, Kettleburn moved his other bishop halfway across the board. "I'm afraid not, my boy."
Jimmy gaped at the board. "God dammit, Professor! I thought I had you that time!"
"Practice for another fifty years, Jimmy. Five points to Hufflepuff for a game well played." Professor Kettleburn stood up and collected his chess pieces left-handed; it was the only hand he had left. "And now I must away. The thestrals require attention before dinner."
"Do we get to meet thestrals in class, Professor?" said Maisie eagerly.
"Not until N.E.W.T. level, dear girl." Kettleburn smiled. "I hope I'll see you there? You need an 'E' or better to advance."
"We'll all be there!" said Bryony.
"I want to see a unicorn." Pippa clasped her hands together, looking for a moment like a Muggle statue of an angel. "Is it true they only like girls?"
"The adults, yes," said Kettleburn. "I have a hell of a time wrangling them. Some of them got out last year. Had to call in my sister all the way from Cork. She was miffed to miss her bowtruckles' breeding season. Bowtruckle mating rituals are certainly something to see. If all goes well, we can watch them in the spring." He waved cheerily. "Farewell, Puffs!"
When he was gone, Owen said, "Bowtruckle mating? What, like twig porn?"
Jimmy guffawed, but the girls rolled their eyes. Jasper said nothing.
"Has he come in here often?" said Bryony, sitting on the edge of Jimmy's bed.
"Once or twice. I think he feels responsible, but I told him it was my own stupid fault. I got distracted."
"How does a crab shooting fire out its ass not command your attention?" said Maisie.
The others laughed.
"I'll be really glad to be out of here," said Jimmy. "It's boring, and I haven't been sleeping well. The pipes make really odd noises; I never noticed it in our rooms."
"Probably 'cause we're underground," said Bryony. "You're not scared, in here alone, after what happened to Mrs. Norris?"
Jimmy snorted. "Because of what happened to a cat? Hell, nah. 'Sides, Madam Pomfrey sleeps in the next room. She'd come in a flash if I yelled."
As if summoned, Madam Pomfrey came into the ward. "Shouldn't you students get to dinner?"
The Hufflepuffs obediently turned away.
"Bye, Jimmy," said Pippa.
"Sleep tight," said Bryony in a spooky voice.
They went to dinner. Maisie, Bryony, and Owen were still in their Quidditch robes. The Great Hall was slightly more subdued than usual. Only the Slytherin table seemed unaffected.
The legend of the Chamber of Secrets had spread through the school like wildfire. Many students were skeptical, while others wanted to know why the other Hogwarts founders didn't have their own secret rooms. The running joke was that Godric Gryffindor had hidden an armory somewhere in the school.
"I bet Hufflepuff has a system of tunnels running all under the school," said Owen.
"Why tunnels?" said Pippa.
"Our symbol's a badger, isn't it? Badgers tunnel. Plus, our Common Room is basically a burrow."
"There are tunnels under the school," said Maisie. "That's no secret. I've been in some of them."
"With the twins?" said Bryony.
"Yeah. How'd you think they always have Honeydukes candy?"
"Speaking of Honeydukes," said Pippa, "remind me to buy Sugar Quills when we go to Hogsmeade."
"You expect us to remember that in a week?" said Bryony. "I can hardly remember when we have Potions!"
"Tomorrow morning," Maisie reminded her.
"Do you reckon the Chamber's real?" said Jasper.
"Of course not," said Owen. "It's just a legend, like the Warlock's Hairy Heart."
"That's a children's story, not a legend," Maisie said. "My dad always says that all stories are based in fact."
"Even Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump?" Owen laughed.
"C'mon, Owen, be serious."
"I am serious! There's no way that there's a secret room and a secret monster in a building that's a thousand years old. Somebody would've found it."
"Or," said Jasper, "because the building is a thousand years old, there are places that haven't been seen or touched in hundreds of years."
"I'm with Jasper," said Bryony. "The bloody staircases move on their own! Who knows what Hogwarts is hiding?"
Maisie shuddered. How horrible could something be to earn the title "Slytherin's Monster?"