It turned out that the only Slytherins in their year group staying for Christmas were Eva, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. The latter two were only staying because they followed Malfoy around like lost puppies, but either way Eva knew this would be an awkward holiday.

Eva spent most of Christmas day in her empty dormitory, listening to Christmas music, eating snacks, and reading. Once the time came for the Christmas feast that evening, she reluctantly changed into her Slytherin robes, brushed her hair, and headed down to the Great Hall.

It was bizarre to her, seeing so few people in the usually bustling halls, but she tried to shake off that terrifying feeling. Especially during that dark time in the school, being alone made her feel even more unsafe than usual, so she soon found herself speed-walking to the Hall.

When she arrived there, the few students and teachers were already tucking into their meals. Of course, in typical Eva fashion, she was late. Initially, she went to sit with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they suddenly became very awkward when she approached them, so she simply wished them a merry Christmas and sat herself down beside Malfoy.

Malfoy glanced around and then back at Eva. "This is a large room, you know. You can quite literally sit anywhere here."

Eva shrugged. "Sitting alone at Christmas? Now that's just sad."

"What happened to your mudblood and blood traitor friends then?" Malfoy asked carelessly as he nibbled on a piece of gingerbread. "Doesn't your boyfriend Potter want your company?" Crabbe and Goyle both laughed at that.

"You act like toddlers, the lot of you," Eva sighed. "No, for the last time, Harry and I will never be together. Ever. And anyway, why do you care where I sit?"

"Because you're in my personal space," Malfoy snarked.

She rolled her eyes, picked up her plate, and shuffled only a few inches away. "Happy?"

"Not with you at the table, no," he remarked.

"Well, have a fucking miserable Christmas then, Malfoy, because I'm not budging."

While Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle continued their bigoted conversation on blood status, Eva piled a few gingerbread men and slices of chocolate cake onto her plate. So far, this Christmas wasn't exactly turning out as well as she'd hoped, but then again she probably shouldn't have expected much else.

Eva picked up a very large empty plate covered in crumbs. "What was on this plate?" she asked.

"Jam tarts," Crabbe replied, spitting crumbs out of his mouth as he did so. Malfoy rolled his eyes and cringed.

She snorted. "You mean to tell me that you finished that entire plate of jam tarts? Like, all of them?"

Goyle shrugged and continued to scoff down the remaining Christmas food left on the table. She really didn't understand the pair of them. Not only were they stupid bigots, but they were also absolute pigs, scoffing down any food within their eyesight.

Once Eva had finished chewing on her piece of roast turkey, she sighed and stood up again, straightening the creases out of her robes with the palms of her hands.

Malfoy glanced up at her. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Back downstairs," Eva responded, "this is just getting sad. Why do you ask? Are you gonna miss me spaghetti hair? Who am I kidding? Of course you are."

Just as Eva turned around to head towards the doors, Malfoy was about to get back to his meal when he looked up to see both Crabbe and Goyle still stuffing their faces. Finding their mere presence embarrassing, Malfoy stood up and followed after Eva.

Eva continued down the dark corridors anxiously with her hands in her pockets. Recently, she'd always felt like someone or something was watching her, and it definitely made her feel uncomfortable, without a doubt.

She almost reached the end of the corridor when she heard something which made her freeze in her tracks. It sounded like someone was moving, or something. A soft hissing followed it as the sound of something sliding along the corridor became increasingly louder. But the movements were with purpose, it wasn't on a random hunt.

It was coming for her.

In sheer panic, Eva slowly edged backwards. When she placed her right foot behind her, she felt herself bumping into someone and screamed.

"Infernum!"

The person grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, and she was left face to face with a very confused Malfoy holding a newspaper. The movement and hissing from the other corridor suddenly disappeared as if nothing had happened. Eva took a few shallow and quivered breaths, nervously glancing around them.

"What on earth's gotten into you?" Malfoy questioned, his eyebrows furrowed together.

Eva gulped. "T-t-there was a noise, i-in that corrid-d-dor, I swear, I heard a noise, and it s-sounded like hissing, and-"

"You heard hissing?" he confirmed.

She nodded. "I swear, I'm not making this up, it s-sounded like . . . almost like some kind of snake or something, but snakes aren't that l-l-loud, and it was c-coming towards me, I think it w-was the m-m-monster, I promise I'm not k-kidding."

"Take the other route back to the dungeons, away from the staircases," Malfoy instructed.

Eva cocked her head to the side. He wasn't making fun of her? "What?"

"Are you deaf or something? Take the other route back to the dungeons, away from the staircases and away from that end of the castle," he repeated again annoyedly. "You'll thank me later."

"Y-you know what that was?" she asked.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and stalked off ahead of her. "It isn't a difficult concept, Infernum. Take the other route to the dungeons if you want to make it back."

"Where are you going?" she called after him.

"Looking for Crabbe and Goyle. They've probably eaten the entire buffet in the Great Hall by this point," he snapped, "not that it concerns you in any way."

With that, Malfoy disappeared down another turning in the corridor, leaving Eva completely deserted and alone once more. She never thought it would get to the point where she preferred it when Malfoy was around.

For the first time since the start of her first year, Eva sprinted across the school, this time in pure fear. She didn't know what was happening, she didn't know what Malfoy knew, but she knew she wasn't safe, not for as long as she was away from the safety of the Slytherin dungeons.

It was about half an hour after the incident in the corridor. Eva bounced down the stairs to the common room, as bright as ever, so much so that you'd never guess anything had happened.

The common room was empty, but no emptier than she'd expected. A few older years were sat at the table playing some card game, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all sat on the sofas near the fireplace.

"You'd never know the Weasleys were pure bloods," Malfoy remarked as Eva made her way across the room to one of the bookshelves. "The way they behave, they're an embarrassment to the wizarding world. All of them."

"You're one to talk with your spaghetti hairstyle," Eva called over her shoulder while she began to climb up the bookshelves. "Now that's an embarrassment to all worlds."

Malfoy glanced up at her in confusion. "Infernum, what do you think you're doing?"

At this point, Eva was a few feet off the ground, climbing the bookshelf with ease. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm climbing this bookshelf." She pulled a small hardback book off the shelf and tossed it behind her. "Someone catch this."

"And I'm the embarrassing one," Malfoy muttered under his breath.

"Hey, I'm short," Eva defended as she began to messily climb her way back down. "We short people do death-defying stunts on a daily basis, so climbing this shelf is nothing."

Once her feet were firmly on the ground, she picked up the book that had fallen on the floor and sat beside Malfoy since that was the only seat left. Reluctantly, he moved his feet off the sofa but still gave her very little space to sit in regardless.

Malfoy glanced over from the book Eva was distractedly reading to Crabbe. "What's wrong with you, Crabbe?"

Now that he'd mentioned it, Crabbe was looking particularly riled up. His chubby hands were in tight fists by his sides and he looked like he was going to burst at any second. Goyle nudged him and he instantly seemed to return to normal.

"Stomach ache," Crabbe responded, in a very un-Crabbe like voice.

"You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't done a report on all of these attacks," Malfoy mused. "I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. Father always said that Dumbledore was the worst thing to ever happen to this place."

"You're wrong!" Goyle shouted.

Slowly, Eva lowered her book and gazed up at Goyle in shock. In the year or so she'd known him, he'd never, not even once, disagreed with Malfoy. The pair of them practically worshipped the blonde.

Malfoy was clearly furious. He stood back up from the sofa with a menacing expression on his face. "What? You think there's someone here who's worse than Dumbledore? Other than Infernum?"

"I'm right here, you know," Eva added nonchalantly as she flipped over another page in her book.

"I am aware," he snarked over his shoulder, and then turned back to Goyle. "Well?! Do you?!"

Goyle glanced up at Malfoy slightly anxiously. "Harry Potter?"

Malfoy straightened his back and sniffed a laugh. "Good one, Goyle. You're absolutely right. Saint Potter," he spat. "And people actually think that he's the heir of Slytherin?"

"Oh, those rumours do make me laugh," Eva murmured under her breath. "Like Harry was the one who sent out that snake monster thing to kill me."

"It went after you?" Goyle asked.

Eva shrugged. "Yeah, backed off when Malfoy showed up though. Why do you care?"

Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a curious look. "But then you must have some idea who's behind it all?" Goyle asked Malfoy.

"You know I don't, Goyle, I told you yesterday." Malfoy sat on the edge of one of the side tables. "How many times do I have to tell you?" He picked up a small green wrapped present and shook it beside his ear. "Is this yours?"

"It's mine, actually," Eva answered, placing down her book.

Rather than hand it over, Malfoy kept eye contact with Eva as he slowly and cautiously placed it into his pocket. Eva finally relented and rolled her eyes at him.

She sighed. "Keep it, fine, I won't stop you."

Without showing any gratitude, he placed it in his pocket and turned his attention back to Crabbe and Goyle. "But my father did say this; it's been 50 years since the Chamber was opened. He wouldn't tell me who opened it, only that they were expelled. The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a mudblood died, so it's only a matter of time before one of them is killed this time. As for me, I hope it's Granger."

"Yeah, yeah, that's just because you have a bet on it being her," Eva added, picking up her book and mindlessly turning another page. At this point, she was barely affected at all by all of the blood supremacy talk in her house.

"That is true," Malfoy agreed, "but that mudblood girl is an embarrassment, plain and simple."

Crabbe suddenly stood up angrily, only to be held back by Goyle.

"What's the matter with you two?" Malfoy questioned. "You're acting very . . . odd."

"It's his stomach ache," Goyle responded.

Eva continued to flip through her book while Malfoy sat back down on the sofa and opened the small wrapped gift box. Suddenly, Goyle and Crabbe ran towards the door in panic, causing both Eva and Malfoy to turn their heads.

"Hey, where are you going?" Malfoy called after them, but they didn't respond. "Stupid oafs," he muttered.

"What was the gift then?" Eva asked him without making eye contact.

Malfoy held the small silver object between his fingers. "A ring, and a rather expensive one at that." He pulled out the small label and read it out loud. "'You seemed fond of this ring in that jewellery shop in London in the summer. Merry Christmas, love Mum and Dad.' There's a smiley face and a heart drawn at the end of this note."

"Oh, they bought the ring I wanted?" Eva smiled and glanced at the ring held in Malfoy's hand. "It looks even prettier out of the glass cabinet as well."

Malfoy slid it on his finger. "I'll have a cheque sent to you for this later," he told her as he picked up her book to read it for himself.

Eva was stunned. "You'll what now?"

"Well it is rather expensive," Malfoy said, "and such a poor family like yours could never afford losses such as this."

"My family aren't that poor," she defended.

"So . . . do you want the cheque or not?" he asked dismissively.

"Oh yeah," she added quickly. "I'll gladly take the cheque, but I'm just confused as to why you're offering to pay for that."

He rolled his eyes and stood up. "I already answered that question, Infernum. Good lord, you're almost as bad as Crabbe and Goyle."

The next morning was as stormy and dark as it had been the previous night. Eva strolled along the corridor, slightly less uncomfortable since the lighting was much better than it had been before. Not looking where she was going, she accidentally bumped into someone. A pair of glasses fell to the ground.

"Oh, sorry." Eva bent down to pick them up and realised she'd walked straight into Harry. "Oh, Harry, why didn't you just move to the side for goodness sake? Hey Ron," she nodded at the ginger beside him, "um, where's Hermione?"

Harry glanced down at his feet guiltily and then at Ron. "Should we tell her?" he whispered.

Eva placed her hands on her hips irritatedly. "Tell me what?"

"Well, er . . . you see, last night, we . . . drank Polyjuice potion and Hermione's in hospital with a cat face coughing up fur balls," Ron blurted out, covering his mouth afterwards.

Eva's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"

Without waiting for any more information, Eva took off in the direction of the hospital wing at full speed. Harry and Ron followed behind anxiously, already regretting leaving her out in the first place.

Once they made it to the hospital, Eva skidded through the room, stopping at the bed near a window at the back. "Oh, geez, Hermy, what happened to you?!"

Hermione was sat upright in bed, reading a book to distract herself while her face was still covered in a layer of ginger fur. She was in her pyjamas, and on the bedside table was already one 'get well soon' card.

She glanced up and shook her head. "I think we have some explaining to do."

Hermione moved to the side to allow Eva to sit herself on the edge of the bed. Harry and Ron came in a few seconds later, standing near the end of the bed nervously.

Eva crossed her arms over her chest. "Explain then."

"You remember when McGonagall explained the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, and how the monster within can only be controlled by the heir of Slytherin," Hermione recalled. "Well, we had a theory, and we were pretty convinced that it was Malfoy."

Eva snorted. "Malfoy? You thought the heir was Malfoy?"

"I know, it sounds rather far-fetched," Hermione admitted, "but there were so many reasons it could be him. His attitude to us muggle-borns, for example. That's why we devised a plan to secretly interrogate Malfoy about it without him even realising he was being interrogated. I spent two months brewing Polyjuice potion."

"Polyjuice potion?" Eva asked.

Hermione sighed. "It can completely alter the physical form of the drinker. By adding hair from Crabbe, Goyle, and Millicent, Harry became Goyle, Ron became Crabbe, and I was supposed to be Millicent."

Eva gasped in realisation and whipped her head around to face Harry and Ron. "So that was why Crabbe and Goyle were being so weird last night. It was you both? This entire time?"

Harry and Ron both exchanged another guilty look and nodded in confirmation.

"That explains a lot," Eva mused. "And what was the point in turning into Millicent? She's not even staying over the Christmas holidays."

"I know, but it was the only other option we had," Hermione responded. "But I didn't end up with hair from Millicent. Instead, I ended up with her cat fur, so now I'm half cat, half human. At least we know it's not Malfoy, though."

"You do realise I could've told you that ages ago?" Eva snickered.

"What?!" they all asked in unison.

She nodded smugly. "Malfoy actually has been asked by people in Slytherin already, but he made it very clear that he isn't the heir of Slytherin. However, he's willing to help whoever it is. If you would've included me rather than making up these crazy and clearly dangerous," she motioned to Hermione, "schemes, we wouldn't have had this issue."

"We were just worried you'd tell someone in Slytherin, even just accidentally," Harry confessed. "Sorry."

Ron and Hermione both also muttered sorry very quietly. Eva rolled her eyes but nodded in anyway, since she knew this was the best apology she was going to receive.

"So, you were almost attacked by the monster?" Ron asked.

Hermione gasped. "You were? How did you get away? What happened? How are you still alive? Weren't you petrified? What does it look like? How-"

"Less questions," Eva interrupted her. "I was walking out of dinner last night, down one of the dark halls, when I heard hissing and what sounded like a giant reptile maybe, sliding across the floor. I'm still not sure about it though, because I didn't see it, but the only reason I'm okay is because Malfoy turned up and it backed off instantly."

"It backed away from Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, if I really did hear something last night. I took a different route back and that's when you both decided to play swapsies with Crabbe and Goyle," Eva snarked at Ron and Harry. "Please, just promise me you won't leave me out of this stuff anymore."

"We promise," Hermione assured, "that is, once I get out of this hospital."

"There's a name in this diary." Hermione turned the book sideways to read it. "Tom Marvolo Riddle."

It was several weeks after Christmas, and Hermione was almost fully recovered from temporarily being a cat-human hybrid. Eva had been sitting with Hermione to keep her company when Harry and Ron came running into the room with a random book in their hands.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle?" Ron questioned, also examining the name on the book under the faint bedside light. Hermione handed him the book. "Hang on, I know that name," he insisted, "where do I know that name?"

"But, there's no one in school with a name like that," Eva reminded them, "so where did you hear it from?"

"Of course," Ron glanced up with satisfaction, "that night I had detention. My job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember because I kept burping up slugs over Tom Riddle's trophy."

"What was the trophy for?" Harry asked.

"He won an award, 50 years ago," Ron informed them as he thumbed the pages of the book. "Special services to the school or something."

"50 years ago?" Hermione repeated in disbelief. "Are you sure? Do you remember what Malfoy told you?" She moved her pillow to sit up straighter. "The last time the Chamber was opened was-"

"50 years ago," Harry finished, "but that means-"

"Tom Riddle was here at Hogwarts when it happened," Hermione gasped. "What if he wrote about what he saw? It's possible he knew where the Chamber was, how to open it, even what sort of creature lives in it." She paused for a moment. "If so, whoever's behind these attacks wouldn't want this diary lying around, would they?"

Harry smiled weakly. "It's a brilliant theory, Hermione, but there's just one flaw." He flipped through the pages, which Eva noticed were somehow completely empty. "There's nothing written in this diary."

"It was Hagrid," Harry insisted as the group walked through the courtyard, "Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago."

"Let me get this straight." Eva stood in front of them. "You were absorbed into a magical teenage girl diary where you witnessed Tom Riddle and found out that Hagrid, of all people Hagrid, opened the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago?"

Hermione scoffed. "It can't be Hagrid, it just can't be."

Ron clutched his books to his chest. "I don't even know this 'Tom Riddle', but he sounds like a dirty rotten snitch to me."

"Great minds think alike," Eva laughed as the pair of redheads high-fived each other.

Harry seemed appalled. "The monster had killed somebody, guys. What would any of us have done?"

Hermione sighed. "Look, Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go and ask him about it?" she suggested.

"That'll be a cheerful visit," Ron remarked sarcastically. "Hello Hagrid! Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?"

Eva tugged on Ron's sleeve and pointed above their heads. "Um, Ron . . ."

Hagrid was standing over them, although apparently he seemed oblivious to the topic of conversation. "Mad and hairy? You wouldn't be talking about me, now, would ya?" he asked.

"No," they hastily responded.

There was an awkward silence for a moment as they exchanged glances between each other. Hagrid seemed like he knew something was up, but didn't explicitly ask.

"What's that you've got there, Hagrid?" Harry asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Hagrid held up the bottle in his right hand. "Oh, it's, er, flesh-eating slug repellent. For the Mandrakes, you know? Now, according to Professor Sprout, they've still got a bit of growin' up to do. But, once their acne's cleaned up, we'll be able to chop them up and stew them, and then we'll get those people down at the hospital un-petrified. In the meantime though, you four best be looking after yourselves," he cautioned. "Alright?"

The group nodded, and honestly all that warning did was boost the anxiety Eva had just gotten under control. After the almost encounter all those weeks ago, she still absolutely hated going anywhere alone and avoided it at all costs.

"Brilliant, now I feel more worried than before," Eva deadpanned.

Hermione rubbed her shoulder soothingly. "It'll be okay, Eva. We'll just have to stick together, that's all."

Hermione climbed down from one of the higher shelves in the library holding some kind of heavy-looking book. "Found it," she sighed happily, placing it down on the table with a light thud.

Eva glanced up briefly from her Potions homework at the ancient-looking and unkept book in front of them. "What is it?" she asked.

"I was looking into some information on how this . . . thing, whatever creature or monster this is, is actually getting around the school and attacking students, but I think I might've found our answer."

She slammed the book open to a specific page, sending a cloud of dust up above their heads. While Eva sneezed, Hermione handed her a tissue and eagerly scanned her eyes across the page.

That was when the hissing began.

Both girls froze and slowly lifted their heads from their books. Their gazes met with pure terror on their faces. It was an undeniably loud noise, and it came from just a few shelves away in the library. It was the same noise Eva had heard at Christmas.

Hermione bit down on her lip to keep herself silent and pulled an item out from her pocket. At closer inspection, Eva realised it was a small handheld mirror. Without any explanation, Hermione stood up, took Eva's hand to pull her friend up, and pointed to the mirror.

Eva shrugged and mouthed the word 'what?'. In response, Hermione picked up her quill and, in Eva's Potions homework, wrote;

'Don't look up.'

Eva's heart was racing in her chest. By keeping their eyes on the mirror and the mirror solely, they clung to each other tightly as they edged their way out of the library, using the reflection to check each corner.

Once they almost reached the door, Hermione tilted the mirror to glance to their left, and their eyes momentarily met a pair of piercing and deadly yellow ones.

Then came the darkness. It found them.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: Haha, a cliff-hanger, one of few things I'm good at. This whole chapter is pretty intense, not gonna lie, but I feel like it turned out better than I imagined so yay

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!