"You don't have to stay with me, you know. I've spent Christmas alone before, you should go with your family" I'd told Draco as he signed himself up to stay at Hogwarts over winter break. My parents had sent me a letter telling me they would be busy during the break and would not have time to be with me. Not that I wasn't used to that but since given the choice I decided to stay.

"Don't be stupid. Like I'm leaving you alone on Christmas" he had told me. Draco's father had said he would be busy too so Draco chosen to keep me company. Because of all that was happening in Hogwarts and the possibility of the Chamber being opened Mr. Malfoy had taken this as an opportunity to make things "better" from within the Board of Governors. I wasn't sure what he had meant by that but just hoped it wouldn't be anything that would harm anyone.

Next Potions I began to grow bored. I found the class to be very easy because, besides the fact that I read potion books for fun, Professor Snape was very lenient towards us Slytherins so we didn't need to try as hard. Having finished my potion for the day, and not wanting to start another, I began looking around the room. Draco was misbehaving as usual from his seat by Crabbe and Goyle. I started walking around the room to distract myself since I knew Professor Snape wouldn't mind. As I did I saw Harry looking around and before I knew it saw he threw something into Goyle's cauldron. It exploded, showering anyone near with the Swelling Solution.

The students shrieked and panicked as the solution made them swell up. Professor Snape tried to restore composure to his class and I turned back to Harry. I noticed the seat by him, which was normally occupied by Hermione, was now empty. But she was just here I thought as I looked around but didn't find her among the screaming students.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Professor Snape roared. He instructed anyone who had been splashed by the potion to go with him to be taken care of. Draco pushed his way to the front of the line. Thanks to my inability to stay in one place for a long time I was able to avoid the potion. In the midst of the chaos and confusion I saw Hermione slipping back into the classroom with something underneath her robe. She had come from Professor Snape's office. Hermione made her way towards Ron and Harry and now I was even more dazed.

It seemed unlike Harry to do what he did but it was even more shocking that Hermione would do anything that broke any rules. At the end of class Harry, Ron, and Hermione went quickly up the stairs. I was curious as to what would make Hermione do something so out of character so I decided to follow them. I said goodbye to Draco telling him that I needed to go upstairs for something. They made their way up to the first floor and I saw them all go into the girl's lavatory; one that nobody used. Slowly, I made my way to it and opened the door. Immediately I heard their voices

"Snape can't prove it was you. What can he do" Ron told Harry

"Knowing Snape, something foul" Harry replied. They turned around but stopped suddenly when they saw me.

"Katerina!" Hermione said. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing in here? In the girl's lavatory." I said turning to Harry and Ron. "And why did you throw that firework?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry replied in an unconvincing tone

"I saw you throw it, Harry. What are you doing?"

"Nothing" Ron said and stepped in front of one of the cubicles, inside of it I saw a cauldron. Hermione saw me see it and came up to me.

"It's not what it looks like"

"Well it looks like you're making a potion that needed ingredients only Professor Snape would have so you caused a distraction, snuck into his office, and stole them to make whatever potion is in that cauldron there and you did it all here because you knew no one would want to come in because of Moaning Myrtle. No offense Myrtle" I added in case she heard me. They looked surprised that I had put it all together. That or they were surprised by how I managed to make all of that one sentence. Either way they didn't deny it

"Alright so it is what it looks like. Please don't tell anyone" Hermione said

"Why are you asking her? Of course she's going to tell, she's a Slytherin" Ron said giving me an untrusting look

"What potion are you making anyway?" I asked ignoring Ron

"It's a pol-"

"Hermione!" Harry warned obviously not trusting me either

"She already saw what we were doing anyway and I trust her okay!" Both Harry and Ron grew quiet. "We're making a polyjuice potion." I didn't have to ask about that; I'd read about polyjuice potions before. It had been in the book my Aunt Sacha had given to me last year. But that still left one question

"Who are you trying to turn into?" I asked. The boys looked surprised that I knew what it was but Hermione didn't. She did however look reluctant to tell me but finally did. They were curious about the Chamber of Secrets and suspected one of the Slytherins was responsible. They wanted to ask around in the Slytherin common room to see if anyone knew anything. They didn't say it but I knew they meant Draco, a lot of people suspected him.

I knew some things they didn't about the Chamber of Secrets but didn't mention it because that would only have made me look suspicious. No need to tell them I was related to the original founder of Slytherin either. I did want to tell them it was dangerous but knew they would ignore me regardless so I didn't. Gryffindors had the habit of doing risky things for others, regardless of the danger they were putting themselves in. So, I promised not to tell anyone, and I left them to finish their work.