News spreads like wildfire around Hogwarts. Catherine and I were sitting together at lunch the day that Cornelius had been attacked when Garrett came up to us.

"Did you hear what happened to that Hufflepuff?" he asked breathlessly.

"Yeah," I told him, "he was supposed to be in my Potions class but he never showed up."

"You know what this means, don't you?" asked Garrett.

"I'm not sure."

"It has to do with the Chamber of Secrets."

Catherine gasped. "But we don't even know what the Chamber of Secrets is."

Garrett grinned. "I found out. There's a big book locked up in the Slytherin common room written by Salazar Slytherin. I broke into it and read it. It actually explained everything."

I frowned. "Surely there must have been some sort of magical enchantment on the book to keep it protected."

"Well, yeah." Garrett held up his left hand, on which all the fingers were extremely swollen and crooked. He winced. "I don't know if this will ever be normal again. But I don't want to stop by the hospital wing in case they figure out what I was up to."

"I'm sorry, Garrett." I reached out and instinctively squeezed his uninjured hand. The pain seemed to melt from his face at my touch, and although it didn't exactly thrill me, I was glad that something I had done helped make Garrett feel better.

"So anyway, what did the book tell you?"

Garrett's face became serious again. "It's not pleasant. I don't even know if it's true. Slytherin was known for making up some tales or stories that might increase his prestige or make him seem more powerful than he really was." He paused, then went on. "Slytherin claims to have created a secret chamber in the school in which he hid some sort of monster to get rid of all the 'unworthy' wizards and witches. He also says that the only one that can open this chamber is 'one of Slytherin.'"

"So that means that somebody in the school that's in Slytherin is unleashing a monster on other students," concluded Catherine.

"Not necessarily," I told them. "It could mean that the person has to actually be related to Salazar Slytherin."

"Maybe it means it's the person that's head of Slytherin house!" guessed Catherine.

"Professor Slughorn? I doubt it." I shook my head. "But even if that's true, we shouldn't assume anything. I'm sure it could be anyone."

It didn't seem like we could do anything. Sure, it was very sad and rather frightening, but it wasn't directly affecting us. We didn't know enough about the situation to go out there and slay some sort of monster.

oooooooooooooooo

A few weeks later I headed down to the Great Hall to meet Catherine for lunch just like I always do. As I walked in Garrett waved to me across the hall, and I smiled back at him. I settled down and put my books down next to me.

Some minutes passed and Catherine still hadn't shown up. I glanced around the room and saw that Nathan wasn't there either, so I figured she was probably off with him somewhere. I ate a few bites of food before I overheard a conversation between the two girls sitting next to me.

"I can't believe it," one girl said to the other.

"Yeah, another attack. It's so frightening. It just happened about ten minutes ago."

My stomach churned. Another attack? But who? I prayed to God it wasn't Catherine, but I knew it very well could be. I leapt up from my seat and ran out of the hall, desperate to find her.

The Ravenclaw common room was empty, and so was our bedroom. I sprinted down the halls and finally decided to check the second floor bathroom. Relief flooded me as the sounds of Catherine's sobs greeted my ears.

She was sitting on the hard bathroom tile floor with her back against the wall and her head buried in her hands. I ran over and threw my arms around her.

"Thank God you're all right!" I cried.

Catherine attempted to speak but was unable to at first. Finally she sobbed, "I'm not all right!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"It's N-Nathan!" Fresh tears rolled down her face. "He was attacked!"

"Oh no, I'm so sorry," I said, enveloping Catherine in a hug. "Is he going to be all right?"

She sniffed. "I guess so. He's down in the hospital wing. He's not dead or anything. They said he was just paralyzed, but they have no idea when he's going to be better." She paused. "And that's not the worst part."

My heart leapt in fear. Would the bad news ever stop coming? I asked wearily, "What else happened?"

Catherine stared at the floor. "I think it was my fault," she whispered.

I was confused. "Your fault? What?"

"About Nathan! It's my fault he's petrified!"

"Don't be ridiculous," I told her. "You're just upset. Of course it's not your fault."

"But I told him!" she cried. "I told him about the Chamber of Secrets! I shouldn't have done it!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked her.

"You know how Nathan is." She shook her head. "As soon as he found out anything about what was going on, he wanted to run off and be the hero. In his mind he was going to save the school from the terror and be the brave one that saved us all. I bet you anything he was off looking for the monster when it attacked him."

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that," I said soothingly. "That's just the way Nathan is. And you love him that way. Besides, there's no saying that he wouldn't have been attacked even if he didn't know about it. Maybe he was even better prepared because of what he knew."

"Maybe."

I escorted Catherine back to our common room, where she spent the rest of the afternoon napping and taking a break from the stress of her classes.

I saw Garrett in Transfiguration that afternoon and told him everything that had happened. He looked concerned and said, "This is getting serious."

I nodded silently. But who was letting a beast run loose around the castle? Who on earth was so cold hearted as to attempt to kill innocent students, many of them children? I just couldn't understand how anyone would have the ability to do such a thing, but I did know that whoever was the culprit was probably extremely dangerous- and he or she was probably one of my peers. For all I knew, I might see him in my classes daily. And somehow, knowing that made it even worse.

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A/N: Merry Christmas everyone!

I also want to say you guys totally blew me away- all your reviews were wonderful to receive, I don't think I've ever gotten so many for one chapter! I really appreciate your input and comments.

emaN- that's definitely something I'm working on. Hopefully I got the hang of it a little bit better with this chapter.

Rose- thanks for your comments, they were very helpful. I do work hard to try and keep the characters in canon. And yes, I suppose she is a bit overdramatic, but I think quite often teenage girls in love happen to be like that.