Over the next few days, the entire school was still abuzz with the writing on the wall. Lucy didn't know what she was more enamored by— the world inside Riddle's diary, or the mystery happening within Hogwarts walls.
Everyone around her was certainly concerned with the latter. Once she saw the writing for herself, she had to admit it was unnerving. It looked like it had been written in blood. She wondered who would do such a thing, and how had they gotten away with it? Riddle was never out of the diary when she passed it, so she always forgot to ask him what he thought.
Ginny in particular was angry about the situation. She was a fierce animal lover, and the thought of a cat being harmed made her temper flare. Hermione was more worried than anything; she spent her time reading in the library, even more so than usual. Even Harry was on edge— although that had more to do with his involvement than anything else.
He told her everything from the beginning. The entire deathday party, to the mysterious voice, to finding Mrs. Norris at the scene of the crime. Lucy sat back in her seat as he told her, pursing her lips. Riddle was inside the diary, but she was sure he had been listening intently.
"It sounds to me, Harry," she began, pausing for dramatic effect. "...That you were the one who petrified poor Mrs. Norris. Shame on you, Harry!"
"What!" Harry complained, shoving her arm with a scowl. "After I defended you to Snape, too..."
"No doubt to shift the focus!"
Of course, she didn't really think Harry was involved in any way. She was curious about the voice, since Ron and Hermione hadn't heard it. She wished she was there to witness everything, too; it was odd not being involved in their adventures.
"I don't know what the fuss is about, personally," Ron snorted, turning a page in his textbook. They were all at the library doing their homework, and he was trying desperately to finish his History of Magic assignment. "Whoever did it, we should be thanking them— hopefully they've got time to petrify Filch next."
"That's horrible, Ron," Hermione scolded.
"Yeah, Ron," Lucy agreed. "You couldn't have volunteered Snape instead? Shame on you."
That sentiment only grew the next day, when Harry was held back after Potions. Ron told her this as they and Hermione worked on more homework, and it only made Lucy want to hex the man. She was still technically on her 'good kid' kick, but she was getting more tired of that as the days stretched on— what was the point of behaving when Dumbledore still thought she was up to something?
Harry joined them at last, looking sort of confused. He looked at Lucy. "Why did Justin Finch-Fletchley just sprint away from me?" he asked.
"Ooooh.." Lucy pursed her lips.
Right— her year was a bit divided at the moment. Justin and Ernie suspected Harry had something to do with Mrs. Norris getting petrified. They hadn't outright said it to Lucy because they knew she'd bite their heads off for it, but it was certainly implied.
"Dunno why you care," Ron muttered, measuring his essay. "I always thought he was a bit of an idiot. All that junk about Lockhart being so great-"
Lucy scowled at him. Just because Justin was being a git didn't mean he was stupid all the time. He was just nervous; he was a muggleborn, and Malfoy made it clear that 'enemies of the heir' meant he was included in the target demographic.
"All the copies of Hogwarts, a History have been taken out," Hermione said irritably, sitting between Ron and Lucy. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."
"Don't you have that book, Lucy?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked at her hopefully, and Lucy was sorry to shake her head. Oddly enough, her book had gone missing shortly after Mrs. Norris had been petrified. She didn't think her friends would have taken it so she had to resort to the conclusion that she'd misplaced it somewhere.
"Why do you want it?" Ron asked.
"The same reason everyone wants it," Hermione said, like it was obvious. "To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."
"What's that?" Harry wondered.
"That's just it. I can't remember," Hermione bit her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else— Lucy, what are you doing?"
Lucy froze from counting her collection of muggle pens. So far, she had stolen about half of Snape's supply, and the conversation had been so boring that she decided to take inventory.
"...Investigating..." she said slowly, sweeping the pens back into her satchel.
"Why are they all red? Where did you even get all those?"
Ron, Harry, and Hermione were all staring at her, and she looked back at them blankly. There was no way she was spilling her secret quest. After a few moments of staring at each other, Lucy scrambled to collect her things, and she sprinted out of the library.
All throughout transfiguration, Lucy tried desperately to keep sitting still. Professor McGonagall's lecture was stretching on and on about the differences between transfiguring objects of bronze and objects of silver, and she couldn't help but squirm. Theoretical magic was useful and all, but she learned best with a wand in her hand as she read, not getting all the information in one go and then trying it out for herself.
The two seats next to her were filled by Malfoy and Zabini today. Merlin knows why, but the timetables decided to stick the Hufflepuffs with the Slytherins this week. Each time that happened, Malfoy partnered up with her, much to Parkinson's horror.
"Ms. Rochester, do you have somewhere to be?" Professor McGonagall arched an eyebrow at her student who was clearly struggling to stay quiet.
Malfoy snickered next to her, but she wasn't bothered. McGonagall was known for her zingers.
"No, Professor, just super excited to transfigure is all," Lucy replied without missing a beat. "It'd be a lot easier if Malfoy here wasn't distracting me."
That wiped the smirk clear off his face. Zabini laughed at him while Malfoy scowled. "I am not, you're the one who isn't taking any notes."
"Is that so?" Lucy arched an eyebrow at him.
While she didn't have a roll of parchment in front of her, she did have her diary sitting on her desk. She flipped open the cover, and she smirked as Riddle got the hint and presented the page with scrawled notes on transfiguration. If one looked closer, they would see it wasn't her handwriting at all. Even when Riddle was trying to write messily, he could never match up to her chicken scratch writing.
She had to restrain a laugh when he added at the bottom, You're lucky I was paying attention, idiot.
Professor McGonagall's lips twitched in slight amusement, and she went back to lecturing. Malfoy, however, was looking at her diary curiously.
"You keep a diary, Rochester?" he whispered with delight.
"Yes, I write about cute boys all the time. Would you like to see my monologue about Snape's eyes?"
Zabini gagged while Malfoy rolled his eyes.
Riddle didn't come out of the diary, but his voice said, "Fortunate that he didn't ask to see it. I go along with a lot of your schemes, but I don't think I could force myself to write such a thing."
Lucy giggled. Classes were certainly a lot more interesting this year.
After class, she met up with her friends outside Binns' classroom. To her surprise, the entire class was lively and chatting excitedly to each other. Had she fallen into a parallel universe? No one should be that happy coming out of Binns' class.
"You won't believe what Binns just told us," Ron told her, stuffing a textbook into his bag.
"It's about the Chamber of Secrets," Harry added. "Hermione, you tell her—"
And Hermione did tell her. She recounted everything: Salazar Slytherin didn't believe that those from muggle descent had a place at Hogwarts. Salazar and Godric Gryffindor had a furious argument about it, and it ended up in Salazar leaving the school. Except before he left, he built a giant chamber— the Chamber of Secrets, which no one would be able to open except from his heir. The heir would open it and unleash the monster in order to purge Hogwarts of enemies of the heir.
Lucy looked thoughtfully into the distance, taking in all that information. Finally, she spoke. "It seems like an utterly ridiculous and convoluted thing for Salazar Slytherin to do— which is precisely why I believe it happened." She could practically feel Riddle's disapproval, even though he wasn't there.
Ron laughed. "I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony. But I never knew he started all this pureblood stuff..."
Riddle appeared beside Lucy, glaring at the boy. She rolled her eyes at him. He was so touchy sometimes, honestly.
"Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got the train straight back home..." Ron continued. Hermione nodded in agreement, while Harry looked uncomfortable.
She had a feeling the hat tried to put him in Slytherin, too. She didn't see what the fuss was about. "The hat tried to put me in Slytherin, you know," she told Ron, and he gaped at her. Even Harry looked surprised. "I don't think it's such a terrible thing. Merlin was in Slytherin, you know."
Riddle smirked down at her, a hint of pride in his eyes. Ron was utterly shocked and she had a feeling it had to do with Merlin being in Slytherin.
She continued, "I think the House stuff is a load of slugs, anyway. I only wanted Hufflepuff because the name sounded funny. The traits kind of overlap, don't they? Hard-working and ambition, aren't they the same? Creativity and cunningness, too. Bravery could be considered ambitious, too, if you're both brave and looking to save people..."
Ron looked uncomfortable with the subject. "I'd still rather be in Gryffindor," he said evasively.
"You make a good point," Riddle told her, looking thoughtful. "However, out of the four founders, Salazar Slytherin was still the greatest of them all."
Well, yeah. He went out of his way to build a secret chamber. That was pretty great.
They reached a crowd of students walking through the halls, and they passed Colin Creevy. Harry sighed while Lucy beamed at him.
"Hiya, Harry!"
"Hullo, Colin." No matter how the boy exasperated him, Harry always made time to greet him. Lucy thought that was awfully kind of him.
"Harry- Harry- a boy in class has been saying you're—"
The crowd swept him away, and all he could manage was a squeaked goodbye. Hermione looked around at Harry curiously. "What's a boy in his class saying about you?"
"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," he sighed.
Riddle looked disgusted at the thought. Lucy subtly elbowed him. He glared at her, and she rolled her eyes.
"You're clearly not," she looked back at Harry. She joked about it earlier but there was no way on earth Harry Potter would attack a cat. Did anyone at this school possess half a brain? "I'll hex anyone who says so."
"Hexing may be a bit far," Hermione said, but her smile said otherwise.
"D'You really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron wondered.
"I don't know," Hermione frowned. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think whatever attacked her might not be- well- human."
They rounded a corner, and to Lucy's surprise they arrived at the same corridor where the attack happened. The puddle on the ground below the threatening message of the heir was gone now, but it had been there yesterday. Her eyes surveyed the scene curiously, while Riddle looked on, bored.
"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.
Lucy looked over at Harry. His brow was furrowed as he looked at everything. She turned her gaze over to Riddle and said, "Wait for it..."
Harry did not disappoint. "Can't hurt to have a poke around," he said innocently, like the nosy hero he was. He dropped his bag and got down to his hands and knees, searching for clues.
Riddle watched in surprise at the casual show of investigation. He was also a little annoyed.
"Scorch marks!" Harry muttered. "Here- and here-"
"Come and look at this! This is funny..." Hermione gestured over to the window next to the message.
About twenty spiders fought in a line, trying to get through the small crack. She had never seen so many in one place, let alone seen spiders act frantic before. Her eyes narrowed, and she filed that away in her mind. Maybe Harry wasn't the only nosy one...
"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione wondered.
Harry shook his head. "No. Have you, Lucy?"
"Can't say I have. Have you, Ron?" Lucy tried to continue the train of questions, but to her disappointment, Ron didn't answer right away. She sighed and looked over at him.
His face was pale, and he had backed away and looked like he was ready to break into a sprint. "I- don't- like- spiders," he groaned.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times..."
"I don't mind them dead. It's a bit different with them scuttling around, looking at you with all their eyes!" One spider scuttled past his shoe, and he let out a yelp and jumped away. "Look how they move..."
Lucy and Hermione couldn't help but giggle at his predicament. Spiders were creepy, sure, but they were harmless little things. She preferred them to the bugs they ate.
"It's not funny!" Ron scowled. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had to many legs and-" he stopped to shudder. Lucy laughed at him again, and he elbowed her in the side. "I will find your fear, Lucy Rochester, and when I do, expect a lot of mocking!"
"I fear nothing!" Lucy said proudly. Riddle snorted, and she glared at him. "Except lame prefects," she amended. Now he glared at her.
That was better.
"Remember all that water on the floor?" Harry said, pointing below the message. "Where'd that come from? Someone's mopped it up."
"It was about here," Ron said, and he walked over to a wooden door. He went to open it, but he jumped away as soon as his hand touched the doorknob.
"What's the matter?"
"Can't go in there," he said awkwardly. "That's a girls' toilet."
"That's coward's talk," Lucy said, shaking her head.
Hermione smirked and nodded in agreement. "There won't be anyone in there. That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."
Moaning Myrtle was quite possibly the most annoying ghost Hogwarts had to offer, and that was including Peeves the Poltergeist. Lucy met her once last year and since then, she swore to never lay eyes on the ghost ever again. She knew she would have to break her promise, but she wished it didn't have to be so soon.
The bathroom was just as broken down as she remembered it being. She scowled at the sight of the dim lighting and the cracked mirrors. "Just because it's out of order doesn't mean they can't clean it up once in a while," she muttered, mostly to Riddle.
He was watching their investigation, showing no emotion. "Take it up with Dumbledore," he deadpanned. "I think it's rather silly to be looking here in the first place."
She ignored him in favor of going to find Myrtle. She got rather touchy when people showed up without announcing themselves.
"Hey, Myrtle!"
Myrtle looked at her suspiciously, then at the boys. "This is a girls' bathroom. They're not girls."
"We're investigating the attacks, you see, and I know nobody else keeps as much of a watchful eye around these parts than you do." Lucy gave her a charming smile and let her eyes wander over the bathroom, making sure her gaze was as appraising as possible.
Myrtle's cheeks turned a darker gray color at the compliment. It was a ghostly form of a blush. "Oh, well— I guess that's all right," Myrtle said slowly. Hermione stared at her friend, stunned. "I haven't seen you in a while... what's your name again?"
"Lucille Rochester. But all my friends call me Lucy," she said, keeping her tone pleasant. "Shame I couldn't have gone to the Deathday party— how was that, by the way?"
"It was all right," Myrtle muttered. She shot a dark glare over at Hermione. "But some people have... have no manners," and her eyes began to fill with tears.
"I'm terribly sorry, Myrtle. Peeves was just egging me on," Hermione said desperately. "Please don't cry."
Myrtle tried her best to keep the tears from spilling over. It might have been a personal record for her.
"Now, Myrtle— did you see anything suspicious on Halloween night? I hate to bother you like this."
"I wasn't paying much attention," Myrtle said, giving a dramatic sigh. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm- that I'm-"
"Already dead," Ron said helpfully.
Whatever restraint Myrtle had to keep from crying immediately broke, and she let out a loud wail. She rose into the air and then dived headfirst into the toilet. Lucy and Harry jumped backward out of the splash zone, but Ron and Hermione were left disgustedly shaking water off their sleeves.
Hermione sighed, casting a drying spell on the pair of them. "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle... Come on, let's go."
They left the bathroom, only for a loud voice to startle all of them.
"RON!"
Percy Weasley strode down the hallway, gaping at the sight of his brother. "That's a girls' bathroom! What were you-"
"Just having a look around," Ron said, unbothered. "Clues, you know-"
Percy swelled up, and Lucy recognized his stance; she had seen Riddle get a similar way plenty of times. He was about to give them all the lecture of a lifetime, and quite frankly, she didn't want to hear it.
"Please, Percy, we were only concerned, is all," she said in her best regretful voice. "And Myrtle invited us in, anyway. You can ask her, if you'd like—"
Hastily, Percy shook his head. "No, I'd rather not. Concerned as you may be, you all must realize what this looks like! Coming back here while everyone's at dinner..."
"Nobody noticed us, except you. And we know you'd never get us in trouble." Lucy smiled hopefully at him, widening her brown eyes.
She saw his resolve crumble before her eyes. "Yes, well— you're lucky it was me... Enough with the detective work, all of you." And with that, he turned around and left.
Riddle smirked down at Lucy. "I'm almost proud."
He should be. She was getting very good at lying.
They walked back to the Gryffindor common room, chatting along the way. "Who can it be, though?" Hermione muttered, "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and muggleborns out of Hogwarts?"
"Let's think," Ron said sarcastically. "Who do we know who thinks muggleborns are all scum?"
"Harry," Lucy said in an instant. Harry turned and gaped at her, to which she grinned. "Only joking. Malfoy, of course— but he's too much of an idiot to do anything like that. I've seen him jump away from his own shadow, once."
"You heard him," Ron argued. "'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' - come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him-"
Lucy shook her head, amused at the thought of Draco Malfoy ordering around a huge monster. Like a monster would ever listen to him in the first place.
"Look at his family," Harry agreed. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough."
"Most of the families in that house have all been exclusively Slytherin," she pointed out. "I can name a few off the top of my head- the Notts, Zabinis, Parkinsons, the Montagues.." She could go on, but Harry and Ron were clearly not convinced by her argument.
"Malfoy's family could have handed the key to the Chamber of Secrets down for centuries, father to son," Ron said.
To Lucy's dismay, Hermione was becoming convinced. "Well, I suppose it's possible..."
"But how do we prove it?" Harry sighed.
Lucy exchanged a look of suffering with Riddle. He seemed amused by the whole conversation, actually letting out a few snickers when Ron brought up Mr. Malfoy handing the key down to his son.
"I could ask him," she suggested.
Harry shook his head. "He could lie to you- you talk sometimes, but you're not friends or anything."
"There might be a way," Hermione said slowly. She stopped in her tracks, glancing around to see if any portraits were listening. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect-"
"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" Ron said irritably.
Hermione glared at him. "All right— what we'd need to do is get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us."
At this point, Lucy knew trying to change their minds wouldn't work. They were too far into their plan. At least she'd be getting a scheme out of it...
"We'd need Polyjuice Potion," Hermione continued. "It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him."
"I could just go down there and check," Lucy said exasperatedly. She hadn't gone to Slytherin's common room before, but she was certain Malfoy would let her in if she asked. If he didn't, he knew the consequences of him denying her far outweighed the trouble he'd be in with the other Slytherins.
"Then he'll know we're onto him. Getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library. You need a signed note of permission from a teacher."
"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really, if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions," Ron said.
"I think that if we make it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."
"That works surprisingly well," Riddle mused. "The professors here are so gullible. You wouldn't believe the books I've been able to check out. Although, you may want to do the lying portion— Granger seems to lack the natural ability. Such a Gryffindor..."
Lucy stared at him, stunned. He was okay with this plan? Seeing her look, he laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I think it's as good a plan as any. Go ahead, see if Draco Malfoy's the Heir— what's the worst that'll happen?"
She couldn't believe he was the one telling her to misbehave. Well, now that Riddle approved of the plan, she had to do it. She scowled as she looked back at her friends. "Leave this one up to me, I suppose," she sighed.
Hermione smiled brightly at her. "Oh, thank goodness! We needed our best liar on board..."
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled. Hypothetically, she could weasel a permission slip out of any teacher in this school, but there was an obvious suspect— Gilderoy Lockhart was the biggest idiot on the planet.
Lucy's next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson was as miserable as it could have possibly been. Lockhart claimed his 'theatrical energies' were drained from his class with the Gryffindors, so he resorted to leaning back in his chair, telling them all made up stories about his travels. What's worse, all the portraits on his walls listened in eagerly.
"—And then the chief's daughter asked me to marry her, and she was such a delightful woman, but I had to tell her my heart and soul belonged to my job."
He finished his story with a satisfied smile, waiting for any input. Hannah and Justin openly clapped while Megan and Susan gave him polite smiles. Lucy was busy reading out of one of her Dark Arts books. She switched the cover with Lockhart's Voyages With Vampires, so nobody suspected a thing.
"Why, Lucy, you've been awfully studious today! I hope your boyfriend hasn't made you fall behind on your studies?" Lockhart winked at her.
Ah, yes. Lockhart still thought she was Harry Potter's girlfriend, and she made no move to correct him. Neither did Harry, for that matter. They often used each other as excuses as to why they couldn't attend his 'celebrity meetings'. It worked out quite well in both their favors.
Lucy closed her book and looked up at the man. She couldn't bring herself to suck up to him, even though she knew she had to get a permission slip out of him. "No, but between you and me professor, I'm worried Harry's been looking at other girls." She made a show of looking downtrodden.
Megan ducked under the desk to keep from laughing, while Ernie stared at her like she had gone crazy.
Lockhart hastened to reassure her. "Lucy, my dear, I'm sure that's not the case! I know a little about teenage minds— he's only distracted by Quidditch, I'm sure. The first match of the season is coming up."
At that moment, the bell rang. As expected, Lockhart kept her behind class. He tried multiple times before but she always lied and said Harry was expecting her. This time, however, she forced herself to stay by the door, looking up at the man as he spoke to her.
"You're on your Quidditch team too, aren't you? Chaser, I believe? How do you think you'll fair up against Harry?" Lockhart laughed. "Won't go easy on him, I hope!"
"Oh, I would knock him off his broom if it came down to it," Lucy assured him. Maybe if Harry was only a few feet off the ground. "Sir— I was thinking of doing some background reading, but the only trouble is, the book I need is from the restricted section." She sighed and shifted, looking toward the door. "I want to make Harry a special charm bracelet for Christmas— I got the idea from your autobiography."
Even though she hadn't so much as read the cover of his autobiography, Lockhart's face lit up anyway.
"Well, I would never get in the way of young love!"
Lockhart reached over to pluck an enormous peacock quill out of a jar. Lucy had stolen one of them; they were amazing. To her horror, he caught her appraising look and they shared a moment of appreciation for the terrible quill. "Yes, Nice, isn't it? I usually save it for book-signings," he laughed.
He wrote on the note before handing it back to Lucy. "I was on my Quidditch team too, you know. I was a Seeker— they asked me to join the National Squad, but I couldn't shake my desire to rid the world of Dark Forces. Although, if you'd like some private training, my door is always open! I'm always happy to pass my expertise onto less able players..."
Okay, the thought of Lockhart teaching her to fly was so hilarious that she had to take him up on it. "You know what, Professor? I think that sounds brilliant. What time? I'll bring Harry, too."
The smile on Lockhart's face faltered. He clearly didn't expect her to agree. "Well- I'll have to check my schedule," he stammered. He cleared his throat. "And I've sent the Writing Club recommendation to Professor Dumbledore— he's sending it to the Board of Governors to get it approved... I've mentioned you were looking forward to it, so I'm sure it will pass..."
Good Merlin. With Mr. Malfoy on the Board of Governors, it was sure to pass.
"Wow, great," Lucy said with no enthusiasm. She looked at the clock and gasped. "Oh no, I'm late! Thanks again, sir, see you around!" And with that, she ran out of the classroom.
She met her friends at the library, and she handed them the note. The deadness in her eyes was clear to the three of them.
"I've got it," she said solemnly. "But at what cost?"
Ron patted her on the back as Hermione headed into the library to get the book. "It's for the betterment of Hogwarts, mate," he said consolingly.
"What about the betterment of my soul?"
"What soul?"
She whacked him on the arm. "Says the ginger!"
"Lucy has a soul, Ron," Harry agreed. He gave his friend a disapproving look. "It's just black and sort of rotten, is all."
The two boys burst into laughter as Lucy scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. They had a point, but still.
Hermione left the library with the book in her hands, as well as Lockhart's note peeking out of her pocket. Lucy decided not to comment on it for her own sanity, and the four headed back to Myrtle's bathroom. The ghost was sobbing in her stall, and Lucy decided to ignore her, Maybe crying made Myrtle happy?
"Here it is," Hermione pointed to an illustration of a man transforming, clearly in a lot of pain. "This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen... Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass. Well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store-cupboard, we can help ourselves... Ooh, look, powdered horn of a bicorn- don't know where we're going to get that- shredded skin of a boomslang- that'll be tricky, too, and of course a bit of whoever we want to change into."
"Dibs on turning into Zabini," Lucy said automatically.
Harry gave her an exasperated look. "Lucy, his hair's buzzed short, there's no way that'll work."
"Fine! Dibs on turning into Malfoy."
"What? No!"
"Fine, dibs on turning into Dumbledore—"
Ron cut across their arguing, much to Harry's relief. "D'you realize how much we're going to have to steal, Hermione? Shredded skin of a boomslang, that's definitely not in the students' cupboard. What're we going to do, break into Snape's private stores? I don't know if this is a good idea..."
Hermione slammed the book shut, her cheeks pink. She had an inspired gleam in her eyes— Lucy had only seen that look on her when she went into an exam. "Well, if you two are going to chicken out, fine," she snapped.
"Us two? What about her?" Ron demanded, jabbing a thumb in Lucy's direction.
"She'll do anything if it means breaking rules!" Hermione rolled her eyes. Lucy wanted to defend herself but the bookworm was absolutely correct. She had no business helping them smuggle Hagrid's dragon, but she did it just because of the rule-breaking factor. "I don't want to break rules, you know," Hermione continued. "I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out if it's Malfoy, I'll go straight to Madame Pince and hand the book back in—"
Ron and Harry shared an incredulous look. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be persuading us to break rules," Ron said. "All right, we'll do it. But not toenails, okay?"
"How long will it take to make, anyway?" Harry asked.
"Well, since the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon and the lacewings have got to be stewed for twenty-one days... I'd say it'd be ready in about a month, if we can get all the ingredients."
Lucy nodded, while Ron's jaw dropped. "A month? Malfoy could have attacked half the Muggle-borns in the school by then!" Hermione glared at him, and he hastily tacked on, "But it's the best plan we've got, so full steam ahead, I say."
After making sure the coast was clear, they left the bathroom. Ron was discouraged by the work of it all, and he said to Harry, "It'll be a lot less hassle if you can just knock Malfoy off his broom tomorrow."
"Or I could kill him," Lucy agreed.
"There'll be no killing anyone!" Hermione said firmly.
"Petrify him?"
"No!"
"Maim him? Surely a missing finger would be fine?"
"Lucy, you're starting to concern me."
Riddle, however, patted her on the shoulder. "That's the spirit, Lucy."
She laughed, shaking her head. She didn't know why there was such a fuss over Mrs. Norris, but she was certainly willing to break into the Slytherin common room for any reason.
Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?
Yeah, right.