Clara POV:

I waited outside the hospital wing for days. Kat and Rebecca forced me to eat and to go to classes, but I couldn't even sleep in the Hufflepuff dormitory. I was, after all, the cause of Renee's stress attack.

Ginny hadn't spoken to me, and I wondered for a fleeting moment whether Renee had been right to suspect the diary. I noticed that Ginny had it back, which was good, I guess.

It was a bright March morning when Renee finally came to. "Miss Bradley, you may come in. Five minutes only, though, for everyone's sake, okay?"

I nodded. "Renee!"

"Clara?"

"Oh, Renee. It's all my fault!"

"It's not."

"It is, though!"

"Clara?" She looked into my eyes. "Clara, it's you!"

"Of course it's me." I heard a loud noise and remembered the day.

"Oh gods, it's the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor Quidditch game today!"

"The….I've been out for that long?"

I nodded grimly. "Madam Pomfrey has to let you go!"


It took a lot of convincing, but finally, Madam Pomfrey agreed. "But come straight back, Sanderson!"

As we were leaving the hospital wing, I heard it. "Riiiip….tear….kiiiillll…."

Renee reached out for my hand, but I was running. "Renee, I've just realized something! Go change, I'll meet you here in ten!"

"But what-" I left her for the library mid-sentence, sprinting up the stairs. I wasn't looking where I was going, and I ran right into-

"Hermione!"

"Clara! What are you doing here? The game's about to start!"

"I figured something out. Hermione, I think it's some type of-SNAKE!" I froze.

"Get behind this mirror, now!"

She grabbed me and another girl who happened to be walking by. "Don't move!" It was barely a whisper, but I stayed still.

"Rip….kill….I smell BLOOD!"

Then, I blacked out.


Renee POV

I was waiting for Clara when I heard a footsteps. "Clara?"

"Sanderson, what are you doing here?" It was Professor McGonagall.

"I was waiting for Clarissa Bradley. She said to meet here. She should have been here five minutes ago, actually."

"Wait here." McGonagall's face was white. I slumped against the wall.

A minute later, she was back, Harry and Ron in tow. "Sanderson, come along." Ron and Harry looked as confused as I felt. I rose to follow them.

"This will come as a bit of a shock to you all," she said softly, opening the door to the infirmary. "There has been another attack….a triple attack."

I scanned the room, my eyes resting on three girls. One, I recognized as a Ravenclaw prefect. The other two were Hermione and Clara. I choked back a sob.

"I don't suppose any of you can explain this?" She held a small, circular mirror. "Either Granger or Bradley was holding it when they were found."

We shook our heads. "I will escort you back to Gryffindor tower, then. I need to address the students, in any case."

We silently walked out, nobody in the mood to remind McGonagall that I wasn't supposed to be in Gryffindor tower.


"All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave after this time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom without being accompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no evening activities."

McGonagall rolled up her scroll with that information. "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She exited the portrait hole awkwardly, forgetting I was there. Harry and Ron stepped protectively around me, and I knew they trusted me and didn't want anything to look suspicious. I was grateful.

"That's two Gryffindors down, not to mention a Gryffindor ghost, two Hufflepuffs, and one Ravenclaw!" Yelled a fourth-year boy whose name may have been Lee Jordan. "Haven't any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn't it obvious this stuff's all coming from Slytherin? I mean, the Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin-why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out?"

Everyone was laughing. I buried my face in my hands. It was lucky that McGonagall came back in then.

"Sanderson! You'll be the death of me, I swear!"

"Sanderson? Here?"

"But she's one of them."

The whispers followed my name. "Sorry, Professor," I mumbled.

"Why didn't any of you say something?" She stared at Harry, Ron, and me.

"Sorry. I'll just….I'll just go."

I clambered out the portrait hole to taunts from other Gryffindors. I figured it was time for me to tell McGonagall about the diary, and I waited as she came out.

"Sanderson, that was wrong and you know it! Ten points from Slytherin!" I didn't bother arguing, but McGonagall was strangely calm. "Is there anything you wish to tell me?"

"Professor, Ginny has a diary. I think it might be controlling her, and I think it may have something to do with all….this."

"Thank you for bringing this to my concern, Sanderson. What do you know about it?"

"Whenever Clara used it, she would….change. It responded to them, Professor. I tried to get rid of it, but I wasn't careful, and it ended up with Harry. Then, well, I think Ginny might have it back, though. I don't know what it's doing to her. It changes them, makes them different. Distant."

"Thank you, Sanderson. I will investigate this." We had reached the Slytherin common room, and I knew I had to leave.

I realized something as I faced the portrait of Merlin. "Professor, they refer to the diary as someone named Tom."

McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "Thank you. Renee, go get some rest. It's been a traumatic time for you, as for all of us."

I nodded. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

She patted me on the shoulder. "Clara Bradley will be okay. And so will you. The potion is almost ready. Pomona and Severus are working harder than ever. I promise, you'll be okay."

I nodded and said the password, hoping for nothing more than a chance to collapse on my bed and let my sorrows overtake me, at least for a time.


Just a few hours after I fell asleep, Sandra was shaking me awake. "Renee?"

"Go away."

"Your friends are here. Potter and Weasley, from Gryffindor. They're asking for your help."

"They actually trusted you to relay the message to me?" I asked incredulously.

"No, they trusted Gill. But boys can't be in the girls;' dorms, so he trusted me. And you should as well, Renee."

She offered me her hand and I took it. I thundered up the stairs from the underground dormitory and saw that, yes indeed, Harry and Ron were waiting for me.

"Are you with us?" Ron whispered. "Because if so, you're coming with us right now. We have to talk to Hagrid."

I nodded and followed them to the doors, where they were wearing a strange cloak. "It should fit all three of us, Hermione's bigger than you and she still fits. It's an invisibility cloak."

I had no idea what Harry and Ron were doing, but I followed, glad that they had thought to include me in their plans.


A/N: So yeah, this was a bit of a filler chapter. I'm hoping to finish Chamber of Secrets canon within the next two chapters and move into Sea of Monsters. I hope to have CoS mostly done by Monday when I return to school after my winter break.

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