[A/N. There are two things I just want to quickly mention: firstly that there are not really many classes in here like there were in the first story, but my excuse for this is that Sam is pretty much preoccupied at the moment, so classes are not really relevant. The second thing is, unlike the first story Snape has not really been as mean to Sam. And you're going to find out the reason for that soon, but I can't give it away at the moment without giving away something of the story. Cheers.]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Weasley's Pain.

"Listen," I hissed to Martin. "Come over here, I've got something I want to tell you." I didn't get the chance to speak to him after the feast the night before since the party continued once we were back in the common room, and then going down to breakfast I'd had Greg glued to my side complaining about his homework. But now some people were in the common room, whilst others were packing ready for the train in a few hours. Since I had packed yesterday I didn't need to worry about it.

Martin and I got a table in the corner of the room nearest the boy's dormitory. Hurriedly I told him about my conversation with the headmistress and then my suspicions about Alforth.

Martin made a face. "I wouldn't put anything past a Malfoy. Everyone knows they're rotten to the core. Maybe we should ask him what the hell he meant by that remark?"

I sighed. "Yeah, and he'll say well don't tell anyone but I'm the one who took Jenny. I've hidden her in my lair and you're not going to get her back." I said sarcastically.

Martin couldn't help but laugh. "Well all right, I admit that's not much of a plan. But I think when we get back here after the holidays we should keep a really close eye on Alforth and his sister, and Michael, even if the headmistress is convinced he's innocent."

I hesitated. "Well I don't know that Alison would have anything to do with it." I said slowly.

Martin raised an eyebrow.

"Well I met her one morning when she was running late for class because she was lost, so I helped her get to class and she seemed really nice- nothing like Alforth. And I get the impression Alforth doesn't really like her either." I said, feeling a slight blush creep up into my cheeks.

"Sam, please, please, tell me you don't have a crush on a Malfoy?" Martin said, with a grin.

"I don't have a crush on anybody." I protested. "All I'm saying is-"

But I never got the chance to tell him what I was saying because at that moment the common room door opened and in walked the headmistress with Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron. My heart sunk as I saw the looks on their faces. Aunt Hermione had been crying and she looked devastated. Uncle Ron looked lost, as though he couldn't believe this was happening.

"Aunt Hermione! Uncle Ron!" Francine, who was the only one of the Weasley's in the common room at that time, called. "Are you okay?"

Aunt Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't, and she looked at Uncle Ron helplessly. "Can you get your cousins?" He asked, and then he spotted me. "Sam, you better come and hear this too. You're practically part of the family."

Knowing only too well what I was going to hear I didn't want to go with them, but giving Martin a quick look I got up and walked over there. Francine had hurried to find Greg and Georgia, and I muttered a hello to them.

"Sam, good job on making the Quidditch team. Harry was telling us how well you played the other day.." Uncle Ron said, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it.

I mumbled a thank you, and then the other Weasley's were back in the room.

"What's going on?" Georgia asked, glancing around. I forced myself to put on a confused face too- it wouldn't do for them to know that I'd known all along, and we went along to an empty classroom, where the headmistress left us alone.

"I'll organise for your things to be sent to the train kids, so then you can just go straight there." She said, and she gave me a brief warning look as she left, but she needn't have bothered- there was no way I was going to say anything.

"Aunt Hermione!" Georgia demanded. "What's happened? Why do you look so sad?"

Aunt Hermione opened her mouth to speak, and instead she burst into tears. Uncle Ron put an arm around her and whispered something to her, and she nodded slightly. It was such a different picture to the parents seeing their child off on the Hogwarts train a few months back, I thought unhappily.

"Kids, this isn't easy for us to say, but you've got to know. Professor McGonagall called us up here to tell us something about Jenny-"

"Oh god," Georgia cried. "She's really sick isn't she? She's not going to die is she?"

Aunt Hermione cried harder and Uncle Ron swallowed what looked like a huge lump in his throat. "No, she's not sick at all. She hasn't been in the hospital wing the past few weeks like we all thought." He explained, and I had a brief pang of relied that he seemed to believe that I thought that as well, but this passed quickly as he continued to speak. "Jenny's missing."

"Missing?" Francine asked. "What do you mean missing?"

"We don't know where she is, and nor do the teachers. She's been missing the last few weeks and nobody knows where she is, or if she's even..if she's even alive." Uncle Ron choked on the last words.

Greg swore, but for once he wasn't reprimanded. "A few weeks? A few weeks and they haven't found her?" He managed to ask.

Uncle Ron nodded, it seemed as though he wasn't capable of speech anymore either. Francine hurried to hug Aunt Hermione, who clutched her to her as though she were her lifeline. Paul touched his head boy badge softly and muttered something which sounded like "Why didn't they tell me?" Beside me Georgia pressed her body closer to mine, and I automatically put my arm around her shoulders. Strangely enough Greg seemed to be the one taking the news the worst. His face was incredibly pale, and he turned and hurried from the room. He didn't reappear until we were all seated in our carriage on the Hogwart's Express. Martin had seen me at the station, and noticing the state of the Weasley's he'd told me he would go and share a carriage with the other Gryffindor second years, and he'd see me after Christmas. I nodded. Even though I'd known Jenny was missing this seemed to make it all worse, real somehow.

"Sam." Georgia said to me, about an hour into the journey. "Come and get something to eat with me. It'll make us feel a bit better if we've got something to eat."

Greg snorted, and I hesitated until I saw the look on her face and realised she wanted to speak to me about something. So I went out of the carriage with her.

"It was the Serpent of Slytherin." She told me firmly. "Remember my parchment, and then there was the writing on the wall and then Jenny-"

"Georgia!" I interrupted her before she could get started. "The headmistress assures me that there is no way that the chamber could be opened again as it's been destroyed along with the creature in it. Jenny has not been taken into the chamber."

"Well she's been taken by the Serpent of Slytherin then." Georgia insisted.

I shook my head. "The staff seem to think that was just someone being silly. I know I may have thought otherwise at first because of how the headmistress reacted to it, but I think her reaction was due to shock more than anything. Wherever Jenny is, she's not with the Serpent of Slytherin. If the Serpent of Slytherin even exists." I added scornfully.

Georgia hesitated, and then she nodded. "Okay." She said, seeming to believe me. "But Sam- do you think they'll find her?"

"I don't know." I admitted honestly. "I don't know."

We went and got some chocolate frogs and a few other goodies before going back into the carriage. I only wished that I could have been completely confident that there was no such thing as the Serpent of Slytherin, and that whoever, whatever, it was, hadn't taken Jenny as I had sounded. I decided then and there that once I got back to Hogwarts I was going to do the very thing I had been forbidden to do- I was going to search for Jenny!

*****

My parents met us on Platform nine and three quarters with big, happy smiles, but as we trooped off the train they must have realised something was wrong and their smiles faded. Uncle Ron told them what had happened and Dad looked shocked. Mum went straight to hug Aunt Hermione. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Alforth and his parents staring at us, and I turned to face them. His Dad has a slight smile on his face, and Alforth wore a satisfied smirk. Alison, however, was standing apart from them, looking anything but happy. She caught my eye and gave me a slight smile, but I didn't return it- after all, as Martin had said, the Malfoy's were all rotten to the core. A bad lot, all of them. My parents and I left the station, a very somber group.

In the car we attempted to act normal, but it wasn't a very successful attempt. Dad told about the latest letter from his godfather Sirius who lived in Ireland. I'd only met him on a few occasions, and although Dad had cleared his name of murder when he was at school there were still people around who Sirius wished to avoid (namely those who were death eaters, or didn't believe that he had ever really been cleared) and so he stayed out of the country for the most part. Mum told me about the latest book she'd read. After that the conversation petered out and we sat in silence as we drove through London to our house. I wondered what it was like at the Weasley house now, and decided I was glad I wasn't there. Normally we spent every second Christmas Day with them, and the other one with Mum's parents, but Dad had changed his mind after hearing about Jenny. I heard him telling Uncle Ron that it would be better off for them being alone. Uncle Ron had argued that Dad was part of the family, but his heart wasn't in the argument. He didn't seem to care where he was, or who he was with for Christmas. I sighed as we got home, even seeing my house didn't evoke the same excitement as it usually did after time away at school. In fact, I was pretty sure this was going to be one of the worst holidays ever.