The Great Hall looked magnificent. Once again, it was decked out with live bats, and had giant pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns. Once Harry saw it, he seemed to regret telling Nick he'd go to his deathday party.
"A promise is a promise," Hermione reminded him, and so at seven o'clock, while Samantha made her way to the Halloween feast with Max and Leslie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked right past and down to Nearly-Headless Nick's deathday party.
"I can't even imagine how depressing that's got to be," Samantha commented as they walked in.
"Maybe it'll be fun, who knows?" Leslie asked, sitting at the table.
"Celebrating your death? Really?" said Max.
"Well, it's a party, isn't it? Parties are happy and cheerful," argued Leslie.
"What could possibly be happy and cheerful about celebrating your death?" Max retorted.
"Shut up, you two," Samantha told them. "It's annoying, and we have food."
They ate their food, Samantha too busy talking to her friends to notice anything going on around her. Soon enough, though, it was time to leave the Great Hall, and they began walking up the stairs, Samantha, Max, and Leslie in the front of the crowd.
They were talking and laughing, but all of that died down quickly, when they were in front of the second floor girls' bathroom.
"Sam…" Leslie said softly as Samantha talked to Damon about Arithmancy homework.
"Yeah, Les?" asked Samantha, turning to her friend.
"Look," she said, pointing straight ahead.
"Wha-," Samantha started, but the scene was too bizarre to put into words.
On the wall next to the bathroom were words written in what looked like red paint reading:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
On the nearest torch bracket, Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, was hanging quite still from her tail.
Underneath the door of the bathroom was a puddle of water.
But, strangest of all, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing right there, next to all of this, frozen in fear.
The crowd was silent, taking in the scene, until one cold voice shouted through the quiet.
"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Draco Malfoy yelled. He had pushed through to the front, his pale face flushed and his grey eyes alive while he grinned at the repulsive sight.
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Filch asked, no doubt attracted by Draco's shout.
He pushed his way through the crowd, and froze when he saw Mrs. Norris.
"My cat! My cat! What happened to my cat?" he shrieked, falling to the ground.
His eyed landed on Harry, nearest to Mrs. Norris.
"You. You've killed my cat! I'll kill you! I'll kill-," he shouted at Harry.
"Argus!" an assertive voice said, and Filch straightened out at once as Albus Dumbledore walked to the front, followed by McGonagall, Snape, and Lockhart.
"Come with me, Mr. Potter. You too, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said.
"My office is nearest, headmaster, you can go there!" Lockhart offered eagerly.
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore, and began to walk in that direction. "Students, off to your Common Rooms!" he said, and the crowd quickly departed their separate ways.
"What was that?" Samantha asked quietly as they walked up to Gryffindor Tower. She, Max, and Leslie had departed from Elias, Connor, and Damon and were walking alone, so as to speak privately.
"I have no clue," said Leslie, shivering.
"Do you think it has something to do with the voice Harry heard?" Max whispered.
"Probably," said Samantha. "Here." She pulled her friends into the group of Ravenclaws walking by and followed them until they got to an unused classroom.
"What's gonna happen?" asked Leslie. "What's the Chamber of Secrets?"
"I don't know," Samantha said sadly.
Max sighed. "I might…" he said delicately.
"What is it?" Samantha asked immediately.
Max took a deep breath. "Well, my parents never really believed in sheltering me or Margot from anything, you know? They told us all about You-Know-Who's rise to power, and about Sirius Black's imprisonment, and about Grindelwald, and about Unforgivable Curses, and Inferi-"
"What's Inferi?" asked Samantha.
"Dead bodies enchanted to do a dark wizard's bidding," Max answered. "Anyways, that's not the point. Basically, since both of my parents are Aurors, they've always trained me and Margot to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, and told us all of the dark tales that have happened. Before Margot came to Hogwarts, they told us the story of the Chamber of Secrets," he explained.
"Well, what did they say?" Samantha asked, wishing he'd hurry up.
"I'm getting there, calm down," said Max. "The Chamber of Secrets is supposedly a legend, but it's happened before, many years ago. The story goes that Hogwarts was founded a thousand years ago by the four founders, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. As the school grew, they didn't quite agree on what students they should take in, hence the four houses. Well, they had arguments, and Slytherin eventually became the first to leave."
"What's the Chamber?" asked Leslie, waiting with bated breath.
"The Chamber is a so-called rumor that before he left, Slytherin made a secret Chamber with a deadly monster so he could rid the school of Muggle-borns. He set it up so only his true heir could open the Chamber and release the horrors inside" said Max.
"Why 'so-called rumor'? What proof is there?" asked Samantha.
"No one's ever actually found it, but the Chamber has been opened before. It attacked students by Petrifying them, and eventually killed one," Max said. "Just before the school was going to be closed for good, the person opening the Chamber was caught and expelled."
"Who was it?" Samantha asked.
Max sighed. "That's just it, though," he said. "My parents wouldn't tell me."
"Why not? That seems rather stupid!" Leslie cried.
"They said that the person who was caught hadn't been doing it. They said they had met the person, and they would never do such a thing," Max said.
"That makes no sense," said Samantha.
"Maybe the person realized their mistake, and is nicer now?" suggested Leslie.
"Why would they be doing it again, then? Slytherin's only got one true heir, that's the only person who could be doing it," Samantha said.
"Maybe someone else discovered it?" Leslie said.
"My parents said only Slytherin's true heir can open it. It's gotta be the same person" Max said.
"Maybe the heir told someone else, someone they trusted, and that person decided to try to open it," Leslie retorted.
"The Chamber's gotta have some sort of protection against someone that's not the heir opening it," Max told her.
"Maybe it doesn't. Maybe the heir told someone and they tried to open it because they didn't think the heir was telling the truth, and they accidentally set some beast free in the castle."
"You can't just accidentally send a murderous beast free in a castle, Leslie."
"Well, maybe you can-"
"That doesn't make any sense-"
Max and Leslie's yells got louder and overlapping as they screamed at each other.
Samantha, growing fed up, decided to practice a spell she'd never actually use before, or been taught how to use, for that matter, on them.
"Silencio!" she cried twice, pointing her wand first at Leslie then at Max.
Both turned to face her. Lesle tried to say something, but no sound came out. She gave Samantha a confused look, her head moving between her and Max.
"You two are driving me insane," Samantha said. "I had to do something!"
This time, it was Max trying to speak.
"I can't hear you," Samantha told him simply. "Now come on, we've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower so I can figure out how to undo the spell."
Leslie's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in panic.
"Don't worry, it can't be that difficult."
Fifteen minutes later, Samantha performed a countercurse in the boys' dormitory and Max and Leslie were able to talk again, spilling their thoughts to Samantha.
"You could've just told us to be quiet!" Max exclaimed.
"You wouldn't be able to hear me over the racket of your fight," Samantha answered.
"Why would you perform an unknown spell on us?" Leslie asked incredulously.
"The teachers or Madam Pomfrey would be able to set you straight if anything had gone wrong, which it didn't," Samantha said, defending herself.
"Well what if something had gone wrong?" Leslie said.
"You can't just perform random magic on us, Samantha!" Max cried.
"Nothing happened! What's the big deal?"
"We're supposed to be our friends! Friends don't randomly curse each other!" Leslie said.
"I was just trying to get you guys to stop arguing!" Samantha said.
"There are better ways to do that!" Max told her. "Just… go."
"What?" Samantha asked softly.
"Please. Just leave. I don't want to talk to you right now," said Max.
Hurt, Samantha left, walking down the stairs, through the crowded Common Room and out of the portrait hole. After this, she began running, sprinting through the halls to the room she had spent many hours in doing homework and catching up on sleep. When she got there, she found it looked exactly the same as she remembered, except there was a stuffed teddy bear perched in the center of the bed.
Samantha grabbed the pajamas the room always had for her and pulled them on before pulling back the blankets and cuddling up underneath them, sobbing and hugging the bear to her chest until she fell asleep.
Lauren watched as Samantha pushed her way through the Common Room. It was puzzling to her. Samantha was always so bright and cheery. Why did she suddenly look so sad?
After debating with herself for a moment, Lauren got up and walked out of the portrait hole behind Samantha. She followed behind her quietly for a while, until she couldn't anymore, because Samantha had turned a corner and vanished.
Lauren looked around, looked into the doors in that hall, around the other corners, but Samantha was nowhere to be found.
"Samantha? Sam?" Lauren called, but no answer.
Confused, Lauren walked away. Not realizing where she was going, she wandered into the hall where the cat had been found and stared at it, scared. She wondered if Meadow would be next. She wondered who had opened it. But most of all, she wondered where she had been when it happened.
The next morning, Samantha woke up warm in bed, and it took only one look around the room for her to remember the events of the night before.
"What have I done?" she asked herself, sighing. She laid back in the bed for a minute before remembering that today was, in fact, a Monday, and she therefore had classes. Panicking, she checked her watch and realized it was almost ten, and she had skipped the first half of their Double Potions class.
Quickly, Samantha threw on her Muggle clothes from the day before and dashed through the halls back up to Gryffindor Tower, where she changed into her school robes and grabbed her book bag before turning her Time turner back once, so as to make it to Potions on time.
With only three minutes to make it from the top of the castle to the bottom, she left the dormitory and sprinted down to the dungeons, panting when she got there five minutes late.
Guiltily, and trying not to draw attention to herself, Samantha walked into the classroom.
"Ah, Miss Potter, nice of you to join us," Snape drawled.
"Sorry, overslept," Samantha mumbled, walking to the back of the class where Hudson sat alone at a table.
"You have detention," Snape said. "My office, five o'clock."
Samantha sighed, nodding. She set her books down and began to listen to Snape talking.
After class, Samantha tried her best to avoid Leslie and Max. She didn't feel like talking to either at the moment. So, instead of going to Transfiguration and then turning back for Care of Magical Creatures, she ignored Leslie and Max as they tried to talk to her and went straight to Care of Magical Creatures, where she at least had Ellie, Bella, and Riley not mad at her, and then turned back to Transfiguration, making it only just on time and not giving Leslie or Max an opportunity to talk to her.
She skipped lunch and instead went to the room that was at this point her second home and did homework.
She ignored Leslie and Max the rest of the day, not letting them get more than a word out.
At four thirty, Samantha decided she should have some sort of food that day, and cleared up her homework and made to leave the Common Room.
"Oh, Sam, Samantha, we need to talk!" Leslie called as Samantha walked by.
"Can't, I've got detention," Samantha replied.
"That doesn't start for half an hour!" Leslie protested.
"Don't wanna be late," Samantha lied, and walked out of the portrait hole.
Instead of going straight to the dungeons, though, she made her way first to the kitchens, where the house elves gladly made her a sandwich, her first meal of the day. After quickly eating that, she ran down to the dungeons to find Snape.
"Ah, Samantha, you're early," Snape drawled.
"Well, being late was what got me here in the first place," said Samantha quietly.
"For your detention, you will be rearranging the jars on my shelves in alphabetical order," Snape said. "Get to work."
Sighing, Samantha began taking all of the jars off the shelves. She couldn't imagine a worse way to spend her Monday night. Then again, it got her away from Leslie and Max for an evening.
After what felt like hours sorting the jars, Samantha had finally finished.
Snape inspected that she had done it right, which also seemed to take hours.
"Alright, Miss Potter, you may go. I hope you have learned your lesson about punctuality," said Snape.
Samantha left, walking up the stairs. Her arms were sore from lifting so many bottles and jars and she still had homework to be completed.
"Sam, you're back! We have to talk," Max said as Samantha walked into the Common Room.
"Homework," Samantha told them.
"We can talk while you do homework," Leslie said.
"That's distracting," said Samantha.
"You do it all the time," Max countered.
"Just leave me alone, will you?" Samantha asked. She grabbed her bag and left, going down to her study room.
"Where does she keep going?" asked Leslie.
"I don't know. She's been acting so strange this year. Always tired, disappearing at random times, and she's got so many overlapping classes," Max replied.
"Something's going on with her," Leslie said, looking sadly at the portrait hole.
"Wanna see if we can find her?" asked Max.
"Sure," Leslie agreed.
The two left the Common Room and walked around for a while, looking for Samantha. After an hour of searching, however, they were forced to conclude she wasn't anywhere.
"Where could she possibly have gone?" Max asked, looking in a classroom for a second time.
"You don't think she took the Invisibility Cloak, did she?" Leslie said.
"You can check, can't you?" Max asked.
"What, you mean go through her stuff?" Leslie questioned. "That's not really a good idea, Max."
"I want to know where she disappears to!" Max said. "Come on, please? Then we'll know if she's becoming invisible or not."
Leslie sighed. "Fine. I'll do it," she agreed.
"Yes! Lets' go."
Leslie went up to the deserted dormitory and began looking through Samantha's trunk, where she found the Invisibility Cloak folded in the bottom.
Sighing, she walked back down the stairs to Max. "It's there. She's not becoming invisible."
"What could she possibly be doing, then?" Max asked, frustrated.
"Let's look around again," Leslie suggested. "She's not invisible, so she's gotta be somewhere in the school where we can find her."
The pair again searched the entire school, still unable to find where their friend was lurking.
Max sighed. "I just want to know where she is!" he cried, kicking the wall.
"Calm down," Leslie said softly.
"What if she's the next to get Petrified?" Max asked. "She's wandering around all day, she didn't come back last night-"
"She's halfblood, Max. Muggle-borns are being targeted, not her," said Leslie.
"Her mom was-"
"Yeah, her mom. Her mom's gone. The children of Muggle-borns shouldn't be targeted. Besides, her dad was pureblood."
Max sighed. There was a pause of silence. "We've known each other for two years and we've never been alone together," he said.
"Really? Never?" Leslie asked, leaning against the wall.
Max shook his head. "Always in the group, or with just Samantha," he answered.
"That can't possibly be true," said Leslie.
"Well, it is."
"That's insane."
"I know." Max sighed. "Maybe Samantha ditching us is a sign. Maybe we're supposed to get to know each other better."
"Like how?" Leslie asked, turning to Max.
"I don't know," Max shrugged. "Do you have a crush on anyone?"
Leslie eyed him skeptically. "Why do you care?" she asked.
"Just a question," Max said. "You don't have to answer if you don't want."
Leslie sighed. "Ellie," she said.
"Hm?" Max asked.
"I have a crush on Ellie."
"But- she's a girl," said Max.
"Exactly," said Leslie. She met Max's eyes, and he understood.
"Oh," said Max. Leslie nodded. "Does Sam know?"
"No. She's never asked."
"You didn't feel it was worth mentioning?"
"I didn't know how," Leslie confessed.
"Just tell her," Max suggested.
"First we have to get her to talk to us again, then we can focus on me coming out to her," said Leslie.
"Right…" Max said.
"And we can't do that until we find her."
"She'll have to be in class tomorrow," said Max. "We'll corner her right after Herbology, and make sure she can't go anywhere."
Leslie nodded. "Alright. It's a plan."