Clara POV
I bet Renee would call me crazy, but I swear I heard a hissing voice right before that cat ended up on the wall, dead.
I did the Hufflepuff thing and walked up to Ginny, who seemed to be crying. "It's okay." I looked at the cat, realizing that she may not have been dead after all.
Behind me, there was a laugh. Of course it came from the Slytherins. "Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, mudbloods!"
I still couldn't believe I was related to that devil-spawn Draco Malfoy, let alone that he was my brother!
I saw Kaylee look directly at Colin Creevey and laugh. "Yeah, mudbloods. And Squibs. And half-bloods! And Blood Traitors!"
There was a laugh from the Slytherin crowd, but I noticed that not all of them were happy. Tomasz and Sandra had grabbed Renee, while Stacy was restraining Gill. I could see that they were willing to fight Draco and Kaylee if it came to that, but I was grateful that Renee's classmates held her back, especially knowing that she and Draco had to play Quidditch on the same team in just a few weeks.
Filch had shown up by now, and I had a feeling that he would blame a student for this.
"My cat! What did you do to my cat?" He was pointing at Harry
Dumbledore came striding down and the students parted for him. "Argus!" he exclaimed, interrupting Filch's rant about what he would do to Harry. "Argus, come with me."
Before continuing, he locked eyes with some of the prefects in a way that told them to lead us back to the common rooms. Figuring nobody would notice if I left, I clasped Ginny's hand and we walked slowly to Renee, who was calmer now than she had been.
"Come on, let's go to the kitchens. We need to talk."
"Why not the Hufflepuff common room?" asked Ginny
"More people will notice, honestly."
She nodded and we left,
"Where were you, Ginny? I checked and I didn't see you or Ron, Harry, and Hermione!"
"I….I don't know."
"Were you the one who screamed?"
"Someone screamed?"
"That's why the feast ended."
"I'm not even sure how I got there, to be honest."
I shook my head worriedly. "Ginny, when did you first see the cat?"
"I don't know, Clara, I really don't."
"Why was there a puddle on the floor?"
"That's one of the few things I can explain. Moaning Myrtle."
"Who?"
"She's the ghost who haunts the girl's' bathroom next to there. She floods it whenever she's feeling really depressed."
Renee almost broke our cover by saying, "Why did she become a ghost, then? She could've gone to the Underworld. She definitely wouldn't have made it into the Fields of Punishment, and maybe she could've even been reborn."
"What? What are you talking about? Underworld, Fields of Punishment, what is this?"
Of course, we knew all of this from Percy and Annabeth's retelling of their quest, but Renee wasn't about to reveal anything. "Oh, I read a lot of Greek mythology. It's fascinating, really."
Ginny nodded, but it didn't seem like she was really there. "I'm going up to bed. I'm tired and I want to get some rest to process things."
Ginny POV
In reality, I was planning to ask my diary what to do about the feeling that I was part of whatever attacked that cat. Despite Clara's reassurances, I felt like it was all my fault. And where had I been? It was true that I didn't remember the feast, so I must've been somewhere else. But I never used Myrtle's bathroom, so why was I in that corridor, anyway?
I picked up my quill.
Dear Tom,
I don't know what I did tonight. Clara and Renee say I wasn't at the feast, and I'm actually pretty sure that's true. A cat was petrified and hung on a wall along with a message. It said, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." It looked like it was written in blood. Why do I feel like it all pertains to me, Tom?
I waited a few seconds for the response.
Dear Ginny,
I would think it's just nerves and worry about the cat. I can guarantee you did nothing to her. It's not you, I swear.
~Tom
Well, that sounded right. I had one more question for Tom, but I didn't think he could answer it. All evening I had been wondering what Renee had meant when I mentioned Myrtle, about the Underworld and stuff. It made no sense. I decided to sleep on it and not think too much. Taking a long drink of water, I walked to my bed, flopped down, and was out like a light.
A/N: So that was that. Sorry it was a little short, I really just wanted to get the perspectives on what had happened that Halloween night. I won't include much Ginny POV but I had to show her conversation with the diary. The next chapter will feature Renee as keeper for Slytherin and that should be back to my regular 2000+ words. I hope you enjoyed it and as always, please leave some feedback!
~Hufflepufferfish
