I unfortunately do not own the world of Harry Potter.

I would just like to say a quick thanks to Allen Pitt, Erebwen, Celeste Belle, justplaincrazy8, Catastrophe Cullen, panneler-san, The Queen of Confusion, and BlondeGirly123.

This is my first fan-fic. Hope you like it! (And if you haven't guessed by now, reviews are greatly appreciated!)

Just so you all know - I have just started writing a new fan-fic - Mysterious Last Name. I would really appreciate it if you would check it out. Thanks!

Chapter 13:

Back at School and Strange Sounds

Ariella was just packing up a few stray belongings when she heard the door open and close behind her, and immediately was filled with a feeling of dread. She spun around and looked up to see Lucius Malfoy, smiling, (well, smirking really). Now she knew that something was wrong.

"I just thought that we would have a little chat to remind you what's expected of you." Lucius' cold voice filled the room. Ariella simply nodded.

"You will do as Draco says, no questions asked. Understood?"

"Yes, sir" Ariella replied quickly.

"And second: grades. I don't want you beating my son. It's humiliating. Maybe this will serve as reminder to you." And with those words, Lucius pulled out his wand, pointed it at Ariella, and yelled:

"Crucio!" And for the fifth time that summer, Ariella felt the pain of the Cruciatus Curse. But once again, Lucius had put a silencing spell on the room, so that as the young girl screamed and writhed in pain, no one but those present in the room could hear her. Lucius released the spell after a moment longer, and knelt down close to her ear.

"If I get word that you are disobeying me, you will have more than with to deal with" he threatened. Then he stood up and stalked out of the room, leaving a barely conscious Ariella on the ground.

As Ariella sat at the Slytherin table, she was more than happy to be back at Hogwarts. She glanced over to the Gryffindor table, and noticed that neither Harry or Ron were there. That's odd. she thought, but shrugged it off. Maybe they got held up, though as it was the first night there, she didn't see how that was possible. She turned her attention back to the sorting in time to see the little girl with red hair that she had seen in Flourish and Bott's go up to the stool. She was the last of her year to be sorted. Her name was Ginny Weasley, which explained the red hair and why she was with Ron at Flourish and Bott's.

A few days later, Ariella trudged into the library. Not even back for one week, and she already had hours worth of homework to do. She quickly sat down at a table and started on her Transfiguration essay first.

A few tables over, three Gryffindors were watching her. Finally, one of them got up and walked over to her.

"Excuse me, Ariella?" Ariella's head jerked up to meet the eyes of Hermione Granger.

"Yeah?" she replied cautiously.

"We, were, well, wondering if you would like to join us." Hermione said. A large smile spread across Ariella's face as she replied.

"Sure! I'd love to!" Hermione sighed a breath of relief, and returned the smile, as the two girls walked over to where Harry and Ron were seated.

"Er, hi," Harry said awkwardly.

"Hi," replied Ariella. There was an awkward silence, in which everyone looked down at whatever assignment they were working on. Ariella decided to break the silence by asking something that had been nagging at her for a few days.

"So where were you two on the first night? I didn't see you at the welcome back feast." The two boys looked sheepish, and exchanged a glance before turning back to answer her. It was Harry who spoke first.

"Well, for some reason we couldn't get through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4, so we "borrowed" Ron's dad's car, and we flew here..."

"You WHAT?" interrupted Ariella.

"Flew here," said Ron, picking up where his best friend had left off. "And when we got here, we sort of had a crash landing. Literally.l We landed in the Womping Willow." Ariella's eyes widened, but didn't say anything as Ron continued. "The bloody tree nearly killed us!"

"Wow! Well, that one way to get to Hogwarts, I suppose." She said with a laugh when Ron finished speaking. The others joined in, but the two boys' expressions quickly turned into glares as they saw someone behind her.

"Malfoy," Ron said coldly.

"What do you want?" Meanwhile, Ariella had, as soon as she had seen their expressions, taken out both her Charms, and History of Magic essays. Before Draco could reply, Ariella, without looking up or turning around, held up the two essays behind her. Draco snatched them, then stalked away. The three Gryffindors just stared at her, before Ron finally spoke up.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" he asked. Ariella looked up, startled, as she had been lost in thought for a moment.

"Huh, oh, er, nothing." She replied hurriedly.

"He wasn't even nice to you. And you're in his house." Hermione pointed out. Ariella looked straight at her, shrugging her shoulders.

"It's Draco, what do you expect? And if you could please refrain from reminding me that I'm stuck in Slytherin, I appreciate that, thank you very much." She said. The trio looked startled at her response, but said nothing. After a moment of silence, Ariella spoke again, but a bit uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry. I'm, er, just going to go now. I've got to get something from my dorm anyway. I'll see you later, I guess."

"Er, alright. Bye then," Harry said, as Ariella gathered up her books and left. Then, turning to his two friends, asked,

"What was that all about with Malfoy?"

"Beats me," Ron replied, shrugging.

A few nights later, as Ariella was heading back to the Slytherin common room from the library, (yes, again,) she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as she heard a voice.

"rip...tear...kill" She ran toward where she was hearing the voice. It continued to speak.

"...soo hungry...for so long..." Ariella continued to run, all tiredness forgotten. She suddenly ran right into Harry, and both started to speak at the same time, but stopped immediately as the voice continued to speak.

"...kill...time to kill..." The two looked at each other, wide eyed, then Harry said,

"It's going to kill someone. Come on!" before racing off, neck and neck with Ariella, with a bewildered Ron and Hermione following behind them.

"...I smell blood...I SMELL BLOOD!" The foursome stopped at the end of the corridor. Ariella suddenly stopped, and stared, then very quietly whispered.

"Harry? I think that thing got here before us. Look," and at that last word, pointed to Mrs. Norris' body. Suddenly, the very quiet hallway started to be filled with noise. The students were coming up from dinner. Ariella heard a familiar voice read a message that had been written in blood next to Mrs. Norris' body.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware" drawled Draco Malfoy. Suddenly, the Professors came through. The headmaster and Professor McGonagal looked in shock, while Professor Lockhart was stating that if he had been there, that this wouldn't have happened. Sure, thought Ariella sarcastically. Meanwhile, Filch was having a fit. After ordering everyone back to their dormitories, Dumbledore turned to the foursome.

"Is there anything that any of you would like to tell me?"

"No, sir." she and Harry replied, while Ron and Hermione remained silent. Dumbledore paused for a moment before replying.

"Very well, off to bed then."

As Ariella made her way to her dormitory, she puzzled over why Ron and Hermione couldn't hear that cold, awful voice. She replayed over and over what had happened in her mind, and suddenly thought of a conversation that she had had right before school had started. I really hope that this isn't what Dobby meant when he said that bad things were going to happen at Hogwarts this year. Because if it is, I'm know that this is going to be one hell of a year. These were Ariella's last thoughts before the young girl fell asleep, a certain cold, voice haunting her thoughts.

All quotes are from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Thanks to all who are reading, and liking it. If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, please feel free to review/private message me. Also, if you have any ideas at all, or would like to see something happen, let me know, and I'll consider putting them into a chapter. Thanks! ~ Leanora