The Writing on the Wall
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd.
The old caretaker then saw Mrs Norris and he fell back, clutching his face in horror.
"My cat! Mr cat! What's happened to Mrs Norris?" he shrieked and his popping eyes fell on Harry, who was standing just a touch closer to the hanging cat than her, Ron and Hermione "You! You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Briar, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ad detached Mrs Norris from the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch "You, too, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, Miss Potter, Miss Granger"
Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.
"My office is nearest, Headmaster – just upstairs – please feel free-"
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.
The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore, so did Minnie and Snivillus.
As they entered Lockhart's darkened office, there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Briar snickered quietly when she saw that several of the Lockharts in the pictures were dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore lay Mrs Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her.
Briar exchanged a tense look with Harry, Ron and Hermione as they sank into the chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.
The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs Norris' fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Minnie was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snivillus loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: it was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.
"It was definitely a curse that killed her – probably the Transmogrifian Torture – I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter curse that would have saved her…"
Lockhart's comments her punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs Norris, his face in his hands. Much as she detested Filch she couldn't help but feel sorry for the horrid old git, if something like this happened to Onyx she'd probably be in tears too.
Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs Norris with his wand, but nothing happened: she continued to look as though she has been recently stuffed.
"…I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once…"
The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net, it seemed the pictures were as dim as the man himself.
At last Dumbledore straightened up.
"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly.
Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.
"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs Norris. "But why's she all – all stiff and frozen?"
"She has been petrified," said Dumbledore (Briar rolled her eyes as Lockhart exclaimed, "Ah! I thought so!") "But how, I cannot say…"
"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to her brother.
"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly "it would take Dark Magic of the most advanced-"
"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his face purpling "you saw what he wrote on the wall! He found – in my office – he knows I'm a – I'm a-" Filch's face worked horribly. "He knows I'm a squib!" he finished.
Briar's brows rose in surprise. She had never known that. However, now that she thought about it, it made a lot of sense. She had never seen him do magic and she knew he hated it when other people do.
"I never touched Mrs Norris!" Harry burst out loudly, everyone turning to look at him "And I don't even know what a squib is."
"Rubbish!" snarled Filch, "He saw my Kwikspell letter!"
"Sod off, you miserable, old git!" Briar shouted when she saw the expression on Harry's face and put a comforting hand on her twin's shoulder.
"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snivillus from the shadows and she saw Harry pale, she could see why, she was sure nothing Snivillus had to say was going to do any good.
"Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it "but we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast?"
Briar, Harry, Ron and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the Death Day party, "…there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there-"
"But why not joint the feast afterward?" said Snivillus, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight "why go up that corridor?"
Briar's hazel eyes narrowed and his upper lip pulled up in a snarl. She was starting to get extremely annoyed at the greasy old professor. She knew he was only doing this because he was hoping to get his old enemies children kicked out of Hogwarts.
"You know what, Snivillus-?" Briar started meanly.
"Miss Potter!" Minnie snapped, making her quieten, but continued to glare at Snivillus with gritted teeth, who was glaring back, his fingers twitching.
"Well?" Snivillus asked with a sneer in Briar's direction.
"Because – because – " Harry said, "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed"
"Without any supper?" said Snivillus and Briar longed for nothing more than to hex the triumphant smile from his ugly gaunt face "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties"
"We weren't hungry," said Ron loudly, but his stomach chose that moment to give a huge rumble.
Snivillus' nasty smile widened.
"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said "It might be a good idea if he and Miss Potter were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he and Miss Potter should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until they are ready to be honest"
Briar glared at him angrily. She was now certain he was just trying to live out some vendetta against them, she didn't hear anywhere about a punishment for Ron or Hermione.
"Really, Severus," said Minnie sharply "I see no reason to stop them playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that the four of them have done anything wrong"
Dumbledore was giving the four of them a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made her feel as though he was reading her every thought.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly.
Filch looked furious. So did Snivillus, even more so when Briar shot him a smirk, her hazel eyes shining meanly.
"My cat has been petrified!" Filch shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"
"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs Norris"
"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"
"Excuse me," said Snivillus icily "but I believe I am the Potions Master at this school"
There was a very awkward pause, but Briar broke it with a bubble of laughter escaping her lips, making the others turn to her.
"You may go," Dumbledore said to Brair, Harry, Ron and Hermione.
They went as quickly as they could without actually running. When they were a floor up from Lockhart's office, they turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind them.
"D'you think I should have told them about that voice I head?" Harry asked, squinting at their faces through the darkness.
"No," said Ron without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world"
"You do believe me, don't you?" Harry asked and Briar couldn't blame him, she had also heard the small undertone of doubt in Ron's voice.
"Of course we do, Harry" Briar cut in. "It's just, what would they have done if you told them you followed a strange voice to the scene of the crime? They'd have you checked into St Mungos"
Ron nodded quickly in agreement.
"You must admit it's weird…" he added.
"I know it's weird," said Harry. "the whole things weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber had been opened…what's that supposed to mean?"
"You know, it rings a sort of bell," said Ron slowly "I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once…might've been Bill…"
"Yeah, same here." Briar nodded in agreement, her brows pinched together as she desperately tried to remember "it was a horror story of some sort, but I just can't…." She shook her head.
"And what on earth's a squib?" said Harry.
Briar shared a glance with Ron and they both stifled a snigger.
"Well – it's not funny really -" Ron started.
"It is when it's Filch, if anyone deserve it it's him" Briar cut in and she and Ron sniggered slightly again.
"-but as Filch said," Ron continued "a squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of a muggle-born wizard, but squibs are quite unusual. If Filch is trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a squib."
"It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much. He's bitter" said Briar with a satisfied smile, she hoped the old git was suffering.
A clock chimed somewhere.
"Midnight," said Harry. "We'd better go get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else"
"I wouldn't put it past him. Stupid Snivillus, he needs to keep his greasy nose out of people's business" Briar grumbled as they made their way up to the common room.
When they finally got up to Gryffindor tower, Briar ascended the boys staircase with Harry and Ron rather than the girls' with Hermione, knowing Lee and the twins were probably staying up waiting for an explanation.
Sure enough, when she entered the fourth year boys' dorm, the three of them were sitting awake on their beds, talking, but fell quiet when she walked in.
"That was awful" Briar moaned.
She moved to sit next to Lee, who automatically put his arm around her. She looked up at her boyfriend with a smile, missing the small narrowing of Fred's blue eyes.
"What happened?" George asked hurriedly, gaining her attention. "There's been all types of rumours"
"Yeah, people are saying Harry's killed Mrs Norris. Merlin, I hope that's true" Fred added with a small smirk that Briar couldn't help but return.
She then began to explain to them about the Death Day party and how they stumbled upon the writing on the wall and the petrified Mrs Norris, (she left out the part about Harry hearing voices) and how Snivillus was trying desperately to blame them.
"Wow." Fred and George breathed.
"It's always you four isn't it?" Lee said, looking down on her fondly.
Briar cracked a smile and shoved him slightly, before lying back so that she could sleep in Lee's bed. She turned as Lee lay down to so that he could snuggle up to her back, but frowned when she saw Lee's tarantula in the cage next to his bed. The spider was pressed right up against the bars of the cage, as though desperately trying to escape it.
"Lee, what's up with your tarantula?" Briar asked in confusion.
Lee looked over her shoulder and frowned as he studied his pet.
"I don't know. It's never done that before" Lee told her and Briar continued to stare at the pet feeling as though she was missing something before her eyes finally dropped closed and she fell asleep.
For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back.
On their way to Astronomy, Briar and Harry had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone.
When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corrdors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'Breathing to loudly' and 'looking Happy'. Briar had gotten twelve of those already, her draw in Filch's office rapidly filling with documents of how she got detention for 'dropping her quill to loudly in the hallway'.
Ginny seemed to be very disturbed by Mrs Norris' fate.
"What's up, Gin?" Briar asked with a grin as she sat down next to her in the common room.
"It's Mrs Norris. Ron didn't make it any better, going on about how he wants Filch to be petrified…" the younger girl whimpered, her lip trembling.
Briar frowned, not quite understand what was wrong with her. She knew Ginny like cat's but almost crying over Mrs Norris was a bit extreme.
"Ginny, what's really bothering you?" Briar pressed.
Ginny looked up at her with wide brown eyes before she burst into tears, clutching the strange black leather diary to her chest, and running off up to the dorms before Briar could even call after her. This whole school year was getting more and more confusing, although she was sure anything could beat last her, she could still remember the agonizing pain of the cruciatus vividly.
The attack also had an effect on Hermione. It was quite usual for Hermione to spend a lot of time reading, but she was now doing almost nothing else and she wouldn't tell Briar, Harry or Ron what she was up to.
It wasn't until Wednesday when the three of them actually found out.
Briar was lounging in the library as Lee did his homework, feeling extremely bored, he was lucky he was her boyfriend or she would have gotten them kicked out by now. Suddenly she jumped slightly when a roll of toilet paper was slammed down in front of her and Lee. Looking up with startled eyes, she was met by a grinning Fred and George sitting down in front of the two of them.
"Why are you giving us toilet paper?" Lee asked, looking up from his Care of Magical creature homework to shoot the twins a questioning look.
Fred and George hared a glance before sighing, as though disappointed with the fact that she and Lee didn't know already.
"Because-" George started in a voice that said it should be obvious.
"-We helped Peeves steal all the toilet paper in the castle" Fred finished.
"Why?" Briar asked with snort of amusement.
Fred and George shared another glance before turning to her and Lee with a shrug.
"We were bored" her two best friends said simultaneously.
Briar laughed, shaking her head fondly and Lee chuckled, turning back to his homework. She looked at her boyfriend with pursed lips, feeling a small twinge of annoyance that he was actually doing his homework.
She grabbed the feathered quill from Lee's hand, making her look up at her in confusion, but as soon as he glanced up she pressed her lips to his. She felt that familiar jolt in her stomach as his lips moved against hers, one of his hands moving up to tangle in her mass of black hair.
A sound of disgust made them pull apart and looked at Fred questioningly, who actually seemed surprised at himself for the sound, the tips of his ears turning red. Briar rolled her eyes a decided o just add Fred's behaviour to the growing list of strange things happening this year. Maybe she would right her Uncle Moony about it.
"Is that Care of Magical Creatures homework?" George suddenly blurted, looking at Lee's parchment and distracting Briar from looking at Fred weirdly as he avoided her eyes.
George's words seemed to finally capture Fred's attention.
"We had homework, Merlin's pants!" Fred exclaimed and the twins scrambled to pull their text books, parchment, quill and ink from their bags.
"And that's my cue to leave" Briar said, placing a kiss on Lee's cheek, she was feeling rather put out that all her friends were spending their time to do homework.
The three boys waved dismissively as they focused on scribbling down answered and Briar sighed, walking over to wear Harry had just sat down next to Ron.
When she plopped down next to the pair she noticed that Ron was measuring his History of magic homework that Briar had finished a few days ago. Professor Binns had asked for a three foot long compositions on 'the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards'.
"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short…" said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "and Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny"
"Well, she's Hermione" Briar said, feeling that explained everything, and Ron and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Where is she, anyway?" asked Harry, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.
"Somewhere over there," said Ron, pointing along the shelves. "Looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas."
Harry then began to tell her and Ron about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from him in the hallway.
"Dunno why you care." Said Ron scribbling away, making his writing as large as possible.
"Yeah, I thought he was a bit of an idiot to be honest. Sprouting all that rubbish about Lockhart being so great" Briar said with a careless shrug.
Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves. She looked irritable and at last seemed ready to talk to them.
"All copies of Hogwarts, A history have been taken out," she said, sitting down next to her, Harry and Ron. "And there's a two week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."
"Why do you even want it?" Briar asked "the books a snore"
"The same reason everyone else wants it," said Hermione, "to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets"
"What's that?" said Harry and Briar simultaneously, Briar was seriously hoping Hermione knew, because the fact that she couldn't remember was really irritating her, she normally remembered everything.
"That's just it. I can't remember," said Hermione, biting her lip, and Briar let out a disappointed sigh. "And I can't find the story anywhere else-"
"Hermione, let me read your composition," said Ron desperately, checking his watch.
"No, I won't." said Hermione, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it-"
"Here, you can borrow mine" Briar said, pulling out her essay to hand to Ron.
Ron's eyes lit up gratefully, but it quickly turned to a glare as Hermione snatched the essay from Briar before he could take it.
"No, you're not helping him cheat" Hermione snapped, shoving Briar's essay into her own bag.
"I only need another two inches, come on-" Ron protested.
The bell rang.
Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering. History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule, the only lesson she hated more than it was Herbology and that's because she was abysmal at it. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the only good thing about his classes was that she could catch up on her sleep.
Ancient and shrivelled, many people said Binns hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach on day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone until nearly everyone was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again.
Briar had her chin propped on her hands, her eyes drooping as she was just about to fall asleep when she was suddenly snapped awake when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.
Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.
"Miss – err -?"
"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice, making Briar's brows rise in surprise.
Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.
Professor Binns blinked.
"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers…"
He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.
"Miss Grant?"
"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"
Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement that Briar was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.
"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale-"
But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns' every word, Brair included. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Briar could tell her was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.
"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see…the Chamber of Secrets…you all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago – the precise date is uncertain – by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school houses are names after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."
He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued.
"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school"
Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But there honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a bidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic"
There was a silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns' classes. There was more unease in the air as everyone continued to watching him, hoping for more.
Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.
"the whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible"
Briar decided she must be gullible then, because she could easily picture the chamber being real, only to opened by the heir and now it was. But what monster was inside the chamber? She was missing something, she knew she was, but what was it?
Hermione's hand was back in the air.
"Sir – what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the chamber?"
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the hair of Slytherin alone could control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.
Briar shared a nervous look with Harry before looking down at her desk with a frown. What was she missing? She could feel it niggling at the back of her mind. Something that linked the monster to the strange things she had noticed, something that linked Slytherin to it all. But what?
The cogs in her mind were turning furiously but is felt as though she was staring at a muggle jigsaw that had half the piece missing.
"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes "there is no chamber and no monster"
"But, sir," said Seamus Finnigan, "if the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true hair, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"
"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing-"
"But, Professor," piped up Parvati Patil, "you'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it-"
"Just because a wizard doesn't us Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore-"
"But you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't-" began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.
"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"
And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor.
"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told Briar, Harry and Hermione as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "but I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. honestly, if the sorting hat tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd have got the train straight back home…"
Hermione and Briar nodded fervently.
Briar glanced at Harry from the corner of her eyes. She knew that the sorting hat had in fact tried to put him in Slytherin, he had confided that in her, but Hermione and Ron knew nothing of it.
"What I don't understand," Briar cut in, changing the subject on behalf of her twin "is that the Slytherin line supposedly died out. I mean, all the pureblood families are related somehow, but there hasn't been any sign of the direct line in about seventy years or so…"
The others frowned in thought at that.
As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevey went past.
"Hiya, Harry!"
"Hullo, Colin," said Harry automatically.
"Harry – Harry – a boy in my class has been saying you're-" but Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people baring him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.
"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.
"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," said Harry with a forlorn expression.
Briar nodded slowly. It would certainly explain the reason Justin Finch-Fletchley had run away from earlier, he had told them he was a muggle-born.
"People here'll believe anything," said Ron in disgust.
The crowd thinned and they were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty.
"I know" Briar said, glaring angrily at a few people who were giving Harry funny looks "everyone knows the Potter's have been in Gryffindor for generations and our mum was a muggleborn so it's not like it could come from her side"
"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.
"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be – well – human"
Briar frowned.
"Not human…I'm missing something…monster…creature…" Briar muttered musingly her eyes lighting up as a sudden idea hit her. "I've got to go. See you later!" Briar called hurriedly and began to push her way through the crowds again.
She was walking so fast that she was bordering on running and had reached the Gryffindor common room in no time, when she did she hastily ran up to her dorm and began to root through all the books in her trunk, looking for one book in particular.
She frowned when she didn't find it and began to throw things out of her trunk in frustration. She sighed in annoyance when she still hadn't found it and all her belongings were emptied out on her bed.
Briar decided to go into the first year girls dorms and look through Ginny's trunk. She had given the younger girl some of her things so that the Weasleys didn't have to buy them, so it would make sense for her to have accidentally given it to Ginny.
She found the book in Ginny's trunk in a matter of second. It was the old book on Magical Creatures she had gotten from Hagrid for her birthday. Briar flipped through it hurried, trying to find something that stood out. She paused when she came to a few rips near the end of the book, several of the pages had been torn out. She frowned, she was almost certain the book hadn't been like that while she was at the Weasleys.
Briar sighed at the lack of success she found in the book, before she noticed Ginny's black leather diary.
She grabbed it and began flipping through it, hoping to see if it mentioned any of the girls sketchy behaviour as of late or anything updating her on her crush on Harry. However, when she opened the diary she found something even stranger than the torn pages in the other book. All the pages were blank.
That didn't make any sense. She had seen Ginny carrying it everywhere with her, had seen her scribbling in it out of the corners of her eyes as she talked to the twins or Lee in the common room.
"What am I missing?" Briar groaned in annoyance, throwing the diary carelessly back into Ginny's trunk.
That night Briar was sitting with Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had chosen seats as far away as possible from Percy from some reason, and she was quieter than usual, getting more and more annoyed with that tickling at the back of her brain telling her that she should know what's going on.
Ron was also in a very bad temper and kept blotting his charms homework. When he reached absently for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the parchment. Fuming almost as much his homework, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut.
Briar shared a surprised look with Harry when Hermione followed suit.
"Who can it be, though?" she said in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they had just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the squibs and muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"
"Let's think," said Ron in mock puzzlement. "who do we know who thinks muggle-borns are scum?"
Ron looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced.
"If you're talking about Malfoy-"
"Of course I am!" said Ron "you heard him – 'you'll be next Mudbloods!' – come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him-"
Briar frowned. She thought that Malfoy would probably be bragging a lot more if he was the heir of Slytherin, but then she supposed that the guess was as good as any. The Malfoys have always been in Slytherin and supported Voldemort.
"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione sceptically.
"Look at his family," said Harry as he and Briar closed their books too.
"The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; he's always boasting about it" Briar continued for Harry.
"They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough" Harry finished with a nod.
"They could've have the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" said Ron "handing it down, father to son…"
Briar frowned, something about the word 'key' didn't sit right with her. If it had to be Slytherin's heir, how would a key insure that? It could easily be stolen. It would have to be something only Slytherin and his heir would have, but what? She was missing something! It was all right in front of her, she felt like she was just going in circles.
"Well," said Hermione cautiously, "I suppose it's possible…"
"But how do we prove it?" said Harry darkly.
"There might be a way," said Hermione slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect-"
To be frank, everything, Hermione was saying was just making the unknown idea more and more appealing to Briar's troublemaking brain.
"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" said Ron irritably.
"All right," said Hermione coldly. "what we'd need to do is get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us"
"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.
"We could use the invisibility cloak" Briar pointed out, making the boys frown in thought.
"No, that's not what I meant," said Hermione "all we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion"
Briar's brows rose in shock. Hermione was talking about brewing an extremely difficult potion, taking it and pretending to be someone else to sneak in the Slytherin common room. A smirk appeared on her face as she ruffled her hair…she definitely liked this plan.
"What's that?" said Ron and Harry together making Briar roll her hazel eyes.
"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago-"
"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron, making Briar and Harry share an amused look.
"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into three of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the common room right now, if only we could hear him" Hermione said with a look of excitement.
"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," said Ron, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like three of the Slytherins forever?"
"Well, it's lucky for us that it wears off after a while, isn't it?" Briar said, shuddering at the very thought of being stuck as a Slytherin.
"Getting a hold of the recipe will be very difficult." Hermione said, "Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted section of the library"
Briar frowned again. There was only one way to get a book from the Restricted Section: you needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.
"It's hard to come with an excuse as to why we would want the book, none of the teachers would go for it, definitely not for me of all people" Briar said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, not if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions" Ron nodded in agreement.
"I think," said Hermione, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance…"
"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that, said Ron. "They'd have to be really thick…"
Briar's head snapped up sharply, her hazel eyes meeting her twins green ones, both of them seeming to come to the same conclusion at the same time. They did know a Professor that could sign the permission slip and boy was he thick…