As they settled back down for another year, Eddie was increasingly anxious trying to figure out his feelings for Hannah. He hadn't ever felt like that before, in either universe. Sure, he'd had a few crushes here and there, but nothing like he felt in that classroom. He had felt pure jealousy. Eddie wasn't scared he'd lose Hannah to Lockhart, of course, that would be absurd. No, his thoughts were if he really loved Hannah or it was just a mere infatuation.

Before he or the rest of the Fateful Eight knew it, it was Halloween, and they all knew what was upon them. The first basilisk attack. He had warned the rest of the Hufflepuffs in his year about it, and they were shell shocked, but they knew to keep calm and act surprised when they inevitably saw Mrs. Norris and the writing on the wall.

That evening, they all took in the Halloween decorations, which were stellar and amazing as always. Eddie saw Ron at the Gryffindor table lean over and say something to Hermione, who nodded. Perhaps they had developed a friendship even without Harry's help. When the feast ended, they started to make their way back to the common room but braced themselves for a pileup in the hallway.

Sure enough, the message was there. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." He started talking with Justin about it, and they both spoke as though they had no idea this was going to happen. Finally, Filch, obviously already incensed by the mass gathering, started jostling people out of his way. When he saw the scene, he was lost for words, as his face turned white. He finally spoke again, but his voice was scratchy.

"Someone's murdered my cat," he said over and over until finally he shouted at the crowd.

"Which one of you did it?" No one spoke. Eyes popping, the caretaker looked as though he was ready to beat the answer out of everyone, but then Dumbledore arrived, accompanied by McGonagall, Snape, and Lockhart.

"Argus! Argus, I…" Dumbledore too stopped speaking as his gaze caught the Petrified body of Filch's cat. "Everyone will please return to their dormitories while we try to figure out what has happened here."

As they weren't discovered at the scene of the crime, the Fateful Eight followed the rest, knowing the gist of the conversation that was going to follow between the teachers.

Eddie lay in bed that night, his head was full of questions, not all of them about Hannah. Riddle had specifically sent his basilisk after the people that Harry had argued with or gotten mad at. Would he change his tactics? Would there be new victims? And he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, wondering…

He awoke the next morning and decided to go train alone for his upcoming Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, ignoring all the chatter about who the heir of Slytherin was. He finally caught up with the others at lunch.

"Where've you been?" Susan asked. "We were looking for you!"

"Oh-" he glanced at Hannah for the briefest of moments, "training. We gotta beat Ravenclaw, don't we?"

"Yep," Justin said. "When's that, the..uhh... fourteenth?"

"Yeah," Ernie answered, walking over. He sat down. "What d'you think about that Lockhart bloke?"

Eddie just shook his head simply. "I don't like him." He leaned in and whispered to the rest, "He's a fake. He used Obliviate on every wizard that did what he wrote in his books. Come on, can you seriously believe he did all those things? I mean, look at him. The guy can barely tell his wand from a twig."

Susan whispered back, "Yeah, that makes sense when you think about it.

"It doesn't matter," Eddie told them. "That's not our biggest problem."
He then told them all about the Chamber of Secrets, and they were in awe as he expected. Justin had turned pale, like he was already Petrified.

"D-does that mean that I'm gonna get-you know?"

"It doesn't, actually," Eddie reassured him. "Small changes to timelines can have big effects," he said simply.

"Oh, okay." Justin said, and looked mollified.

The game against Ravenclaw arrived. Slytherin had beaten the Harry-less Gryffindors on their new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones the week after Halloween, and of course, Malfoy was the seeker. Natalie was furious and at one point had to be forcibly restrained by Tom while hearing Malfoy gloat in the Great Hall the following day.

Eddie's team looked the same as it did last year, with one minor change- Zacharias Smith was now on the Hufflepuff team, replacing Patricia Stimpson, who had graduated, at Chaser. Eddie groaned when he had recieved this news. He hadn't talked to Zacharias for much of his first year, and for good reason. Zacharias was a pompous, arrogant brat who was far from exemplifying Hufflepuff House's core traits- loyalty, kindness, and hard work. Quidditch practices with him were oddly fine, though Zacharias was a bit lackadaisacal in the drills. But Eddie was confident in Zacharias' ability, and so they took the pitch against Ravenclaw. The day was rather windy, but at least there would be no rogue bludger.

Hufflepuff quickly jumped out to a 30-nil lead, but then Ernie got cocky and let in three goals to tie. Eddie was watching Zacharias very closely, to make sure he wasn't yelling at anyone. Surprisingly, he wasn't. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, Eddie thought, quoting Senator Palpatine in his head from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He liked Star Wars nearly as much as Harry Potter.

Eddie ended up with a solid three goals, but that wasn't to be the most remembered part of his day.

After the third, he was turning around, and almost in slow motion, he saw Nathan falling off his broomstick. Noticing the bludger fly past and tracing it back to Jake's appalled look, he put two and two together. Without any preamble, he zoomed towards Nathan's unconscious body and caught him with a struggle. He yelled for Terry to call time-out, who immediately did, granted by Madam Hooch.

When they touched down, Eddie told Madam Hooch he was going to take Nathan to the Hospital Wing. Zacharias flew down to dispute this.

"Oi, Pattinson, you should stay, we'll have an advant-"
"Can it, Smith, just get back to playing!" he shouted, and walked off.

When he put Nathan down on the hospital bed, Madam Pomfrey came bustling in.

"Quidditch-" she said, noticing his robes. "Never liked that sport. Dangerous. Alright, what is it?"

"Got hit with a Bludger," Eddie told her. "Probably just a concussion."

"Alright then, I'll take a look. You can come back to visit later."

Eddie nodded, and walked out of the wing.