AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I have a feeling the chapters will start getting really long, lol.

Have fun reading!

Leave feedback if you wanna!

=P

****

I had realized that I badly needed to get out of this Deathday party of Nearly Headless Nick's. Since we had Quidditch practice this morning, a brilliant idea popped into my head. I smiled at Oliver, and then ran over to Fred and George.

"One of you needs to hit me with a Bludger." I told them.

They were speechless.

"What?" They asked.

"One of you needs to hit me with a Bludger." I repeated.

"But, why?" Fred asked.

"Because I just really need you to. Just 'accidentally' hit me. No one will get mad at you." I pleaded.

"Well, if you insist." George said slowly.

"I do." I said firmly.

Now when this idea popped into my head and I acted on impulse, I hadn't expected the Bludger to hurt so much. We had been practicing for 15 minutes, when George 'accidentally' hit me with a Bludger. Little did Fred know, because he 'accidentally' hit me with a Bludger too. I was struck in the left arm, and the right leg.

God was it painful! I heard a crack, and my broom was broken in two. I fell to the ground, which hurt really bad as well. Harry was closest, and ran to me. The rest of the team followed him quickly.

"Are you all right, Lana?" Harry asked.

I cringed in pain. "I think so."

Oliver gingerly touched my leg, but I squealed. When I opened my eyes, Fred and George were looking horribly sad. I just shook my head, and sent them secret messages telling them not to feel bad.

I hadn't realized that McGonagall had been watching, and had brought Lockhart of all people out with her. He knelt by my side and grabbed my arm. I screamed, and smacked him with my right arm.

"She has a broken arm and a broken leg." Oliver told them as they came up to me.

"Don't touch it!" I cried as Lockhart got close to my leg.

"I can fix it." He said.

"NO! Don't touch it! Don't touch it!" I screamed.

Lockhart pointed his wand at my arm, but I knocked it out of his hand.

"I only trust Madam Pomfrey with this. DON'T TOUCH IT!" I told Lockhart.

"Miss Langston, I must remind you that you are talking to a teacher. Professor Lockhart only wants to help." McGonagall said. "But if you really want Madam Pomfrey to touch it, then Professor Lockhart will respect that."

Lockhart gave McGonagall and I pleading glance, but I refused to let him touch my arm or my leg. Oliver picked me up, and carried me to Madam Pomfrey. He set me on the hospital bed, and sat by me. I smiled at him, as I waited for Madam Pomfrey, who wasn't there yet.

"Shouldn't you be returning to run practice?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Lockhart is bound to try and show up before Madam Pomfrey. I have to stay here and make sure that he doesn't try to heal you when you obviously don't trust him with his wand, and…to make sure that you're okay."

I smiled. "Thanks, Oliver."

Dumbledore came in and looked at me.

"Lana, what happened to you?" He asked.

"She got hit in the left arm and right leg with two Bludgers during practice today." Oliver told him.

I was actually relieved not to have to talk. I was about to pass out just from the pain. Dumbledore noticed that I was in pain.

"Where could Madam Pomfrey be?" Oliver asked.

"Maybe…maybe…" I started.

"Don't try to talk, Lana." Dumbledore told me.

He set his hand on my forehead. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even really think straight. I just tried to smile, but I ended up passing out just as Madam Pomfrey let out a shriek and rushed over to me.

****

I woke up later that evening, to a blonde boy with a concerned look on his face. He was sitting next to my bed. I looked at him and smiled.

"I see that you're awake now." He told me.

I nodded. "Yes, but still sore."

"Well, you got hit by two Bludgers. Dumbledore announced it at Dinner."

"What are you doing here, Draco?" I asked.

"Just making sure that you're okay." He said.

I smiled. "Thank you for caring."

"Of course I care. I wouldn't have invited you to my home for Christmas, or gave you the locket, or met you on the third floor when it's forbidden, or comforted you when Oliver was going to kick you off the Quidditch team, or let you tutor me if I didn't care."

Draco smiled at me, and I sighed.

"You are something." I told him.

"As are you." He replied.

Then he stood up. I was going to reach out and stop him, but my left arm was still broken. I was confused.

"Why hasn't my arm healed completely?" I asked.

"It's because you haven't been able to take your medicine for it. You've been out for hours." Draco said, turning back towards me.

"I'm sorry about our plans." I told him.

He shook his head. "That's fine. It gives me more time to prepare."

He smiled slyly.

"Prepare for what?" I asked.

"If I told you, then it would no longer be a surprise."

I smiled. "Oh."

He took my left hand and bent down and kissed it softly.

"Did that make it better at all?" He asked.

I smiled. "Slightly. Now go before you get caught."

Draco kissed my forehead, and left, just as Scott, Chelsea, Ron, Hermione, and Harry came in. Harry and Ron glared at Draco, and Draco returned it. Well, not necessarily a good thing…but okay.

"What was he doing here?" Ron asked me.

"He was just wondering what stupid thing I managed to do this time." I said quickly.

Chelsea clapped her hand over her mouth, but only I noticed.

"Well it wasn't your fault." Hermione told me.

I smiled awkwardly. The truth is, it was my fault. I had been the one who had told Fred and George to hit me with the Bludger. I just hadn't expected each of them to hit one at me. My plan had backfired…in a way.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" Harry asked.

"I mean are you really sure, because I heard it was really bad." Scott added.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know if I'll be able to go to classes tomorrow."

"Madam Pomfrey should have you healed by tomorrow." Ron said.

"Yeah. I'll make sure that she treats you now." Chelsea told me.

I smiled. "Thanks. But I'll let her get to me in the morning. So what happened at the Deathday party?"

"We didn't go." Hermione told me.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Well, we kind of found Mrs. Norris. She was petrified." Harry said slowly.

I sat up and then quickly lied back down and coughed slightly. That had really hurt! Harry ran his fingers over my forehead.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" Harry asked.

"Very sore, but okay." I assured him.

They all smiled at me—even Scott—could it be he liked Harry more than Draco?

"Now, Mrs. Norris was petrified?" I asked. "How and who?"

"We don't know, but before we found her, Harry said that he was hearing voices in the walls." Hermione said.

I looked at Harry. "What?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I just heard someone's voice. It kept talking about how hungry it was, and how much it wanted to kill…and eat."

I shuddered. "That's creepy."

The rest of them nodded.

"I think that you should all let Lana rest." Uncle Albus's voice said.

I smiled. "I am kind of tired." I admitted.

Scott, Chelsea, Harry, Ron, and Hermione said 'Goodbye', and then Uncle Albus kissed my forehead.

"Let's hope that we can fix that arm and leg of yours first thing tomorrow morning." Uncle Albus told me.

I beamed. The faster I got out of this hospital bed, the better. I was terrified of hospitals, but I couldn't really think about that, because I drifted off into a deep sleep.

****

The next morning, I woke up and Madam Pomfrey healed my arm and my leg. It was good to be walking around again. I even missed all of my morning classes. I walked into the Great Hall for lunch, and sat next to Hermione, across from Harry and Ron.

"Hey, guys." I said.

"Hi!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.

"Hello, Lana." Hermione mumbled.

She was in the middle of reading a book. She had a stack of a few more next to her. I just looked at Harry and Ron funny.

"What's up with her?" I asked.

"She can't stop finding new books and reading them. She's determined to find out what did that to Mrs. Norris. And about the Chamber of Secrets." Ron explained.

"Oh. Wait. What about the Chamber of Secrets?" I asked.

"There was a message on the wall near Mrs. Norris that read: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE." Ron told me.

"Oh." I said. "Well I can help you figure this all out. I've read about the Chamber of Secrets somewhere, but I'm not sure where exactly. I can't remember, but with Hermione and I on the case, we'll have it figured out in no time."

I took a book off of Hermione's stack, and opened it. Then I saw Ginny and Chelsea, Ginny of which seemed very disturbed.

"What's wrong with Ginny?" I asked Ron.

"She's freaked out about this whole thing. She loves cats more than anything." Ron answered.

"Ron keeps telling her that we're better without Mrs. Norris, but she seems really touched by this whole thing." Harry added.

I nodded. "So, basically Hermione is figuring out what happened, Ron is convincing Ginny that it's better without Mrs. Norris, Ginny is freaking out, Chelsea is comforting her, Harry is…what are you doing Harry?" I asked.

"I'm trying to stay out of trouble." He told me.

I smiled. "Good idea. Hey, Matty!"

****

On Wednesday, I had helped Hermione read as much as possible, but we hadn't gotten very far. Ron was convinced that we were trying to read the whole library before Christmas, and was complaining about the homework for Professor Binns had assigned. Harry had people running away from him, and I was exhausted from reading. I also hadn't seen Draco other than a few classes, since Sunday evening, and it was Wednesday now.

"We need a copy of Hogwarts, A History." Hermione told Ron and Harry when we saw them next.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Because it talks about the history of the Chamber of Secrets." I said.

"Then why aren't you going to get it?" Harry asked.

"Because all of the copies have been checked out. We have to wait at least 2 weeks to get any of them back." Hermione explained.

Ron then tried to get Hermione to let him copy a part of her composition for Professor Binns' class, because we needed to have three feet of writing on our parchment. She had said no.

"But I only need two more inches!" Ron pleaded.

"Here." I said.

I handed him mine. It was shorter than Hermione's by seven inches, but that was okay, because that made mine 4 feet long. Ron beamed, and Hermione shook her head. Then the bell rang, and Ron handed back my composition, and we headed off to Professor Binns' class.

Today was as boring as ever. You see, Professor Binns was a ghost, and he droned on, and on, and on, and on, and on…you get the picture. Some said that one day he just left his body when he died, not knowing that he was even dead. The most exciting part of class was him entering the room through the blackboard. Does that draw things out for you?

He had been speaking for half an hour today, when something happened that never happens. Hermione put her hand up.

"Miss—er—?" Professor Binns asked.

"Granger. Professor, can you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" She asked.

"That's nothing but a myth. This is History of Magic." Professor Binns told her.

"But aren't myths and legends based in history?" Hermione tried again.

"Well that is usually true." Professor Binns admitted.

The whole class immediately began to pay attention. Professor Binns had never seen us so interested in his class, so he decided to tell us a bit about it.

"Well, as you all know, Hogwarts was founded by four teachers: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built the castle away from Muggle eyes, so that wizards and witches could come and learn magic in peace because it scared Muggles. The four teachers worked in harmony for a few years, but then a rift was created between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wanted to be more selective about which students were allowed to attend, thinking that only pureblooded wizards could be trusted. Then Gryffindor and Slytherin got into an argument, and Slytherin left." Professor Binns told us.

He looked at the class, who was more enthralled by this lesson, than any other lessons all year.

"This is what reliable history sources tells us, but there is a ridiculous notion that Slytherin built a chamber in the school that none of the other founders knew about. Legend also says that Slytherin sealed the chamber so that only his true heir could open it when they came to Hogwarts. The heir alone would be able to unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic." Professor Binns said.

We all looked at him expecting more, but he seemed irritated with us.

"The whole thing is nonsense though." Professor Binns said. "Naturally the school has been checked numerous times by the most learned witches and wizards, and no such chamber has been found."

"But Professor, if only the heir can open it, maybe only the heir can find it." Seamus suggested.

Professor Binns would hear no more, and changed gears back to what he had been talking about previously, and lost his audience.

****

After class, Ron kept talking about how he was glad that the Sorting Hat never put him in Slytherin, and Hermione readily agreed, but Harry had a strange look on his face. I personally knew he was thinking about something, and I didn't mind Slytherin. Yes he was a little extreme, but not all of the people in Slytherin were bad…at least not that bad.

Before I could ask Harry about what he was thinking, though, Colin came by and Harry blew him off. People had been talking about the attack on Mrs. Norris for days, and people thought that Harry was the heir of Slytherin. It was quite entertaining actually, but only the four of us knew that he wasn't.

"Do you really think that the Chamber of Secrets exists?" Ron asked.

"I don't know." Said Hermione.

I nodded. "I think that it does. I know that Professor Binns said that it was a bunch of Rubbish, but I for one have no problems believing that it exists. Slytherin was extreme."

We came to the corridor where Mrs. Norris had been found. We knew that Filch had been guarding it, but no one was there. We had a look around, and found some spiders, at which point Ron looked like he was going to faint. Ron was terrified of spiders. They were moving in a weird pattern too, right out of the window in a straight line.

"I never knew you were afraid of spiders." I told Ron.

"We use them in potions all the time." Hermione said.

"I don't mind them dead." Ron protested.

Hermione and I started to laugh.

"Hey!" Ron cried. "If you must know, Fred turned my teddy bear into a spider when I broke his broom in two. You would be scared too if you were holding onto your teddy bear and it suddenly grew legs and…" He shuddered, obviously not wanting to relive the memory.

Hermione and I were still trying very hard not to laugh, but really, it was hopeless.

"Do you remember the water?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione. "Where did it come from?"

I pointed to the girl's bathroom. "It would have come from there."

Ron turned the knob, and then backed away.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"It's a Girls' toilet." Ron said.

"Trust me Ron, no one will be in there." I told him, pointing to the OUT OF ORDER sign over the door.

"Why not?" Ron asked.

"Moaning Myrtle." Hermione said.

We walked inside, and Hermione pointed to the last stall. A girl came out of it, and looked straight at Harry and Ron.

"This is a girls' bathroom, and they're not girls." Myrtle said.

"No." I agreed. "They're not girls."

"We just wanted to show them how…er…nice it is." Hermione said.

"Ask her if she saw anything." Harry mouthed to Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" Myrtle asked.

"Nothing. We wanted to ask…" Harry began.

"I wish that people would stop talking about me behind my back!" Myrtle cried. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead."

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you." I told her.

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" Myrtle said.

"We just wanted to ask you if you saw anything unusual on Halloween, or lately, because there was an attack on a cat on Halloween right outside your door." Hermione told her.

"Did you hear anything that night?" Harry asked.

"I wasn't paying attention." Myrtle admitted. "Peeves had made me so mad that I came in here to kill myself when I realized…"

"That you're already dead?" Ron asked.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob, and plunged into the toilet, splashing us all. Harry and Ron were about to say something but Hermione spoke up.

"That's almost cheerful for Myrtle." Hermione said.

I nodded, and we left the bathroom, and were stopped by Percy, who was appalled that Ron had been in the girls' bathroom.

"What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" Percy asked.

"Looking for clues." Ron said.

"Don't you care what this looks like?" Percy asked. "All of you wondering about here when everyone else is at dinner."

I gasped slightly. Dinner? I had to tutor Draco this evening. Shoot!

"Listen, Percy, we never laid a finger on that cat!" Ron said.

"That's what I tried to tell Ginny, but she's so afraid that you guys, well not Lana because she was in the hospital wing, are going to get expelled. Maybe you should think about her before going out gallivanting. All the First Years are thoroughly excited…" Percy said.

"You don't care about Ginny!" Ron cried. "You're just worried that I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy…"

"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy said, fingering his prefect badge. "And I hope that that teaches you a lesson! No more detective work, or I'll write Mum!"

He turned to leave.

"Ron, do you mind if I lose us a few more points?" I asked him.

Ron was confused, but he saw me clenching my fists and nodded, smiling.

"Hey, Percy!" I called.

Percy turned around and I walked up to him.

"You know, I was thinking about what you said, and well, Ron's right. You only care about being Head Boy, and before you take points from me for taking Ron's side, let me give you a reason to really take points away from me." I said.

I punched him as hard as I could…and well…let's just say that I broke another nose. To my surprise, however, he only took away ten points, and never told anyone that I punched him. I guess George was right when he had said that Percy didn't want to admit that a Second Year girl was stronger than him. He made up some lame story about a levitating spell going wrong, slamming a book into his face.

****

That night, we chose seats as far away from Percy as possible. When I told Chelsea about breaking Percy's nose, she couldn't stop howling with laughter. She even went over to tease him about it, but when he pulled out his wand, she and Ginny squealed and ran up into the Girl's Dormitory.

I was the only one who was doing homework…well keeping up with my homework. Ron was trying to blot up the inkblots on his paper, but when he tried to use his wand to remove them, he accidentally ignited his paper. He slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut. To my surprise, Hermione shut her book to.

"Who can it be though?" She asked. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think." Ron said in mock puzzlement. "Who hates them, and thinks that they're all scum?"

He looked at Hermione and I, and Hermione looked back unconvinced.

"If you're talking about Malfoy—" She said.

"Of course I am! You heard him when we found Mrs. Norris! He said that the Mudbloods would be next. Come on, you've only got to look at him to know it's him-" Ron protested.

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" I asked.

"Look at his family." Harry said, closing his book as well. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, and he's always boasting about it. They could easily be descendents of Slytherin…I mean his father is evil enough."

"They could have had the key for centuries, handing it down from father to son." Ron offered.

"I suppose, that could be true." Hermione said slowly.

I shook my head. "Draco couldn't possibly have that much power. Do you really think that he could control the horror within the Chamber?"

Hermione looked skeptical again, even more so than before, but Harry and Ron wouldn't let it go.

"It has to be him." Ron said.

"But how do we prove it?" Harry asked.

I sighed. "There's a way, but it would be very risky." I said.

Hermione nodded and looked over at Percy.

"It would be difficult, and dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect—" Hermione began.

"If you're done explaining in a month or so, tell us." Ron said.

Hermione and I glared at him irritably.

"We need to get into the Slytherin Common room, and ask Malfoy a few questions about it." Hermione told him.

"But that's impossible." Harry said as Ron laughed.

"No. We just need to use a Polyjuice Potion." I told them. "Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago."

"Do you think we would actually pay attention in Snape's class?" Ron asked.

"It transforms you into someone else. We could change into four Slytherins. No one would know it was us, so Malfoy would probably tell us anything." Hermione said. "Like Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent, and Pansy."

I was a little skeptical of that. Draco would probably tell me more things than he would tell Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent, or Pansy. I guess it was worth a try though. Then I noticed the look on Harry and Ron's faces.

"Don't worry, it wears off." I told them. "The problem will be getting a hold of the book. It's in the Restricted Section of the Library."

You see the only way to check out a book from the Restricted Section was to get a note signed by a teacher.

"That will be hard to do." Ron told us.

"Well, maybe if we explain that we're just interested in the history." Hermione suggested.

"Please, Hermione, no teacher will fall for that. They'd have to be really thick." Ron said.

I smiled. I knew just the teacher to ask.

****

Just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione were getting up, an owl flew in from the Girl's Dormitory, and dropped a package and a note in my hands, and flew away. I looked at the long, deep blue, box over a couple times, and then looked at the note. I recognized the handwriting as Draco's.

"Who is that from?" Ron asked, sitting back down.

"I don't know." I lied.

Hermione smiled slightly, obviously thinking she knew whom it was from.

"Well, open it." Harry told me.

I blushed. I didn't really want to open the note, so I put it in my pocket. I opened the box in front of them, and beamed. It was a red rose, still with the thorns on it, I realized after I had touched it and pricked my finger. I stuck my pricked finger in my mouth, and sucked on it.

"It's beautiful." Hermione said, now knowing full well whom it was from.

"What does the card say?" Ron asked.

I took the card out and read it. I had no other choice! It read:

Lana,

I have a surprise for you, but I won't be ready with it

Until Christmas, so meet me then. Further instructions later.

Love You-Should-Know

"Problem is, I don't know." I lied.

Harry and Ron were laughing, and Hermione thought it was so romantic. I just sat there waiting for the laughter to die down.

"So, who do you think it's from?" Ron asked.

"I don't know." I said.

"I bet it's from Oliver." Hermione lied.

"Or Fred." Ron guessed.

"Or George." Harry said.

Now why did they have to go and say that?

"Maybe." I said. "I guess I'll find out later."

Draco had obviously known that the owl would find me somewhere in the Gryffindor Tower, so he hadn't signed his name. He was smarter than I thought he was.

****

"So what are you doing out of the Tower?" Scott asked.

I frowned and turned to him standing there in the corridor.

"What are you doing out of the Dungeons?" I asked him.

"Look, I know that Draco sent you a package, and I would really like it if you didn't date him." Scott said.

"I'm 12, Matty. I'm not dating anyone—not that it's any of your business, or your say." I told him slowly.

Scott smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's what I expected you to say. What's stopping you from telling him how you feel anyway?"

"Maybe the fact that—" But I stopped. "Matty, you're my older brother, and though it's in your job description to 'protect' me from boys, I don't talk to you about them."

"So there's another boy?" Scott asked happily.

I laughed slightly and then I looked up at him.

"You are too sly and sneaky for your own damn good, Matty." I told him.

"Hey now! What would Mum say if she heard you talking like that?" Scott asked.

I shrugged, and stuck my hands in my pockets.

"She wouldn't be too happy, and Dad wouldn't care one way or the other." I said sadly.

"Hey! What's with that?" Scott asked.

"Oh wake up, Matty!" I cried. "You know you're your father's favorite child! That one year that you weren't with us was sad, I admit it, I missed you, but Dad paid attention to me—I was his favorite! I keep wondering what would have happened if you hadn't come back to live with us if I would still be his favorite."

Then Scott wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.

"I'm sorry about that." Scott told me. "I didn't know you felt that way. Dad's just happy to see his only son, that's all. I'm sure I'm not replacing you."

"You don't get it, Matty! You're not replacing me, you're taking your spot back!" I cried.

"Lanni, I'm sure that's not true." He said. "Calm down. Dad loves us all the same."

"You just keep telling yourself that." I told him, and pulled away. "You know, I think that being in Slytherin had changed you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scott asked.

"I don't think I even know that yet." I said.