"Who would've known that Slytherin started all this pure-blood stuff." Ron questioned.
"Um... everyone." Bella replied sarcastically.
Ron had been going on about the Chamber of Secrets since Professor Binns class that afternoon and Bella was getting extremely frustrated with him.
"Do you -"
"Oh my Merlin, Ron! Enough about the Chamber already!" Bella cried.
"You don't have to be rude about it." Ron snapped.
Bella huffed as he piled his plate with food and began to shovel it into his mouth. For some reason Bella was in a very snappy mood and the thought of staying in the Great Hall much longer made her irritated. She pushed out of her seat and stormed from the hall without a word. Bella stomped through the corridors until she reached the seventh floor, dropping onto the window sill at the end of the corridor.
"Are you alright?" Seamus asked her as he sat down on the window sill, startling her.
"Yeah." She sighed, leaning back against the wall and pulling her knees to her chest.
"You're not. What's wrong."
"I don't know. I just feel really annoyed today."
Seamus moved to sit next to her, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her into him. She snuggled into him, burying her face in his chest. She breathed in the scent that lingered on his robes and her irritated mood began to dissipate. They sat like that for a while before Bella pulled back, leaning against the window behind her.
"Are you alright now?" Seamus asked.
"Yeah. Thank you." She smiled.
Seamus leaned forward and kissed Bella's lips softly.
"Get a room."
The pair sprang apart awkwardly and Bella looked over Seamus' shoulder to see a disgusted looking Draco standing a few feet away. Bella groaned as Seamus' turned to see who had interrupted them.
"Why are you everywhere?" Bella groaned.
"People don't need to see your public displays of affection. I'd like to keep my dinner in my stomach thanks very much." Draco drawled, leaning against the wall opposite them.
"You know what to do then, piss off." Seamus snapped.
"Come on, he's not worth it." Bella said to Seamus as she grabbed his hand and pulled him from the window sill.
Bella looked over shoulder to glare at Draco as he smirked at her anger. She didn't let go of Seamus' hand as they walked down the long corridors back to Gryffindor tower.
"He's such an arrogant git." Seamus fumed.
"Yeah." Bella replied as she stepped through the portrait hole, dropping Seamus' hand.
Bella plopped down onto the sofa in the deserted common room and her stomach let out a growl in the silence which made Seamus chuckle as he sat down in the arm chair opposite her.
"I feel bad that you've barely eaten." Bella said.
"Don't be. I've got loads of sweets in my room, do you want some?" Seamus asked.
"No, thanks." She smiled. "I'm actually not even that hungry."
"Your stomach begs to differ." Seamus teased.
The pair sat in the empty common room, teasing and bickering as they waited for the rest of their house to return. They didn't have to wait long before the hoards of students flooded the common room.
"Just who does he think he is?!" Ron was yelling as he soldiered through the portrait hole.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked him.
"Percy, as usual." Ron groaned as he dropped down on the sofa beside her.
"What's he done now?"
"We were having a look in the corridor with the writing on the wall and he yelled at us and took five points from Gryffindor." Hermione explained.
"What were you looking for?" Seamus asked.
"We weren't actually looking for anything specific, just seeing if we could find any clues about what's attacking people." Harry answered.
"And did you find anything?" Bella asked.
"Well, there were some scorch marks on the ground and the spiders were acting oddly." Hermione replied as Ron shuddered.
"Oddly?" Seamus asked.
"Yeah. They were all scrambling towards the crack in the window, as if they were trying to escape." Harry replied.
"Can we please stop talking about the spiders now?" Ron cried.
Bella laughed at his discomfort as Hermione struggled to contain her giggles.
"Who do you think it could be? I mean, who would want to kill all muggle-borns?"
Harry, Hermione and Ron had now told Emily and Freya what they found in the corridor and they were just as confused as the rest of them.
"I think we all know who that could be." Ron sneered.
"If you say Malfoy -"
"Of course it's him!" Ron fumed, cutting Bella off.
"Don't be stupid!" Bella fumed back.
"It does make sense, 'You'll be next, mudbloods', who would say that if they weren't guilty?" Harry added.
"It's not him." Bella defended.
"How would you know?" Ron asked.
"I'm telling you, he doesn't have it in him." Bella replied.
"We'll only know for sure one way." Hermione said, looking deep in thought.
"How?" Emily asked.
"We have to ask him." Hermione answered.
"So we're just supposed to walk up to him and ask him, cause he'll definitely tell us." Ron scoffed.
"No." Hermione snapped. "We have to ask him without him knowing it's us."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Freya asked.
"Polyjuice potion." Hermione replied.
"No. No way. Absolutely not." Bella said.
"Why not, it's the best option we have!" Hermione cried.
"What's Polyjuice potion?" Ron asked.
"It's a potion that makes you turn into someone else. It's perfect really, we can turn into a couple of the Slytherins, sneak into the common room and ask him. I'll bet he's down there right now bragging about it." Hermione said.
"This doesn't sound very safe Hermione." Harry said skeptically.
"Oh come on, we've got to try. The only thing is getting a copy of the recipe, it's in one of the books in the restricted section." Hermione stared off into space as she pondered what to do.
"And just how do you expect to get it. No teacher's going to sign a permission slip for it, they're too smart." Ron scoffed.
"Not all of them." Harry commented.
All eyes in the group turned to Harry as his eyes widened in surprise.
"Lockhart would sign anything if you asked." He added.
"I'll get the slip from him in class tomorrow." Hermione smiled.
"Yeah cause he likes you." Ron grumbled.
Bella thought the entire plan was horrendous. There was no way Draco was the heir of Slytherin; yes he could be nasty when he tried but he didn't have the courage to do anything like that. As for the plan, Bella would save everyone the hassle and ask him herself.
