The next day, Samantha noticed that Leslie and Max had stopped trying as hard to get her to talk to them. At the end of the day, right as she was leaving Herbology and preparing to go back two spins to go to Care of Magical Creatures and then Muggle Studies, they cornered her.
"Sam, we need to talk," Leslie said.
"I can't talk right now," said Samantha, trying to push past them.
"Where could you possibly need to go?" Max asked. "You don't have detention, and homework can wait."
"I can't say, I just need to go," Samantha replied, still trying to escape their human barricade.
"Go to what?" Leslie asked.
"Class!" Samantha cried.
"We're done with classes," Max said, rolling his eyes.
"You might be, but I'm not," Samantha said.
"You've never had extra classes before, Sam. You're not sudden;y having them now," said Leslie.
"I've had them all year, you just haven't noticed," Samantha replied. "Please, just let me out, I need to go." She checked her watch, aware that even if she turned back right now, she'd still end up late to Care of Magical Creatures.
"There's nowhere you need to go!" Max cried.
Frustrated, Samantha made a rather rash decision. She turned away from her friends to face the wall and spun the Time Turner twice.
Max and Leslie watched as she vanished.
Leslie dropped her arms. "Where'd she go?" she asked.
Max stared at the spot where Samantha had just stood with his mouth open. "You don't think she learned to Apparate, do you?"
"You can't Apparate inside Hogwarts" Leslie pointed out.
"Well then what happened?"
Samantha ran through the halls, and was thankfully only three minutes late to her lesson. Professor Kettleburn was less strict than Snape when it came to tardiness, and Samantha thankfully did not end up with a detention.
She'd talk to Max and Leslie after class, but right now was not the time.
Once her Muggle Studies lesson was over, she ran to where she'd left Max and Leslie, right inside the door near Herbology.
"Hi," Samantha said softly.
Leslie turned around, her eyes wide. "Where'd you come from?" she asked.
"Muggle Studies," Samantha answered truthfully.
"How? You were just with us in Herbology, and then you vanished. What did you do?" Max demanded.
"I can't tell you," Samantha answered.
"Sam, we're your best friends, we have a right to know," Leslie said.
"Professor McGonagall told me I can't tell anyone," Samantha replied.
"With the exclusion of your best friend and boyfriend!" said Max.
"You've got too many secrets, Sam. You keep slipping off and showing up in random places, you disappear for twelve hours and then show up in Potions, and your schedule is probably the most controversial thing I've ever seen," Leslie ranted.
"I'm sorry guys, I wish I could tell you, but I have specific instructions not to," Samantha said.
"Well, when can you tell us?" asked Leslie.
Samantha shrugged. "After fifth year, probably," she said.
"Why so long?" Max demanded.
"That's when it'll all be over," Samantha responded.
Leslie sighed in frustration.
"Look, guys, I'm really sorry I jinxed you. I was just fed up," Samantha apologized.
"I'm sorry for flipping out about it," Leslie said.
"No, don't be. I shouldn't've done that. It was a really stupid decision," said Samantha. "I'd love if you could forgive me for that and for being a jerk all of yesterday."
Leslie smiled softly, and glanced at Max, who nodded. "We forgive you, Sam," she said.
Samantha grinned, and the group hugged. She held onto Max a little longer, and they kissed very quickly.
"Leslie?" Max then said.
"Right…" Leslie said.
"What's going on?" Samantha asked.
"I'm a lesbian" Leslie said quickly.
"You are?" Samantha asked, a smile playing at her lips.
Leslie nodded. Samantha hugged her again.
"You're okay with it?" asked Leslie, hugging Samantha back after a minute of shock.
"Of course!" Samantha replied, laughing.
Leslie grinned, very happy. "You're the best friend ever, Sam."
"You too, Les," Samantha said.
"Hey, what about me?" asked Max.
The girls pulled out of their hug. "You're pretty great too, Max," Samantha said.
"I'll settle for that," Max said.
For a fleeting moment, none of them thought about Mrs. Norris, or the Chamber of Secrets. That was ruined once they walked by the bathroom with the message on the wall, where Filch was sat, guarding.
"Where do you think the Chamber is?" Samantha whispered.
"No clue. Pretty good hiding place, though," said Max.
"Are we telling Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Lauren what we know?" Leslie asked.
Samantha shook her head. "No. Lauren's only in first year, I don't want to scare her even more. And Harry just dealt with Voldemort. We can do this on our own," she said.
The next few days, Filch was rarely seen anywhere but in front of where Mrs. Norris had been found.
"Are they still letting people use that bathroom? I haven't seen anyone go in for a while," said Max.
"Even if they were, no one would go in anyways," Samantha said.
"Why not?" Max asked.
"Moaning Myrtle. She's this ghost that lives in there, and she's always miserable. I try to make it a habit to avoid that place if I can," Samantha answered.
"Maybe she knows something about Mrs. Norris!" Max said.
"Maybe…" Leslie said doubtfully.
"We could go check," Samantha said.
"We've got to get to Defense," Leslie said.
"Do we really? All we ever do is listen to Lockhart read passages from his books while he makes people act them out," Samantha whined.
"We'll get in trouble if we're not there," Leslie said. "Come on, Sam."
"Fine, but we're coming back later," Samantha said.
Leslie nodded.
After all of their classes were over, they made their way back to the attack scene. Filch was nowhere to be seen, and cautiously, the three of them walked up.
They began to inspect the scene, looking for anything suspicious.
"There are scorch marks here," said Max., pointing to the floor.
"Look at the spiders," Samantha commented. There was a long thread of spiders climbing up and out of the window.
"What are they doing?" asked Max, watching them.
"Spiders don't normally act like that," Leslie said.
"No, they definitely don't…" Samantha said.
"Let's go in the bathroom and ask Myrtle if she knows anything," Leslie suggested.
"What if someone's in there?" Max asked.
"No one ever goes in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Samantha.
So the three of them stepped inside.
Samantha's eyes met Harry's. "What're you doing here?" she asked.
"What're you doing here?" Harry asked.
"You can't be in here, this is a girls' bathroom," Samantha told him.
"You're one to talk," Ron said, gesturing to Max.
"Are you guys looking for clues too?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, of course," Samantha said.
"How did you find out about the Chamber?" asked Harry.
"Max knew," Samantha answered. "How'd you guys do it?"
"We asked Binns," Hermione said.
"Why didn't you tell us you knew?" Harry demanded.
"Didn't want to stress you out," said Samantha.
"Good try," Harry said. "So, you guys found anything?"
"Scorch marks and suspiciously acting spiders," said Leslie.
"Us too," Hermione said sadly.
"Ask her if she knows anything," Harry mouthed.
In the surprise of finding her brother there, Samantha hadn't realized Moaning Myrtle had been there the whole time.
"What're you whispering?" Myrtle asked, pouting.
"There was a cat attacked out here a few days ago, do you know what happened?" Samantha asked quickly.
"On Halloween," Leslie added.
"I wasn't paying much attention," Myrtle said dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then I remembered I'm already- already-"
"Already dead," Ron supplied.
Myrtle let out a sob and flung herself into a stall and down a toilet splashing them all with water, and they could hear her muffled sobs from the pipes.
Samantha sighed. "There's nothing here. Let's go," she said.
The six of them walked out, and had barely shut the door when someone shouted "RON!"
It was Percy Weasley. "What were you- that's a girls-" he spluttered.
"Just having a look around, for clues you know-" Ron answered.
Percy strode over, pulling him away. "Get-away-from-there" he said, gesturing with his arms for them to move. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back while everyone's away?"
"None of us did it, Percy," Samantha said.
"Why shouldn't we be here?" Ron asked. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat."
"Try telling that to Ginny, or Lauren," Percy said.
"Lauren?" Samantha and Harry asked together.
"Yes, Lauren! They're both very upset, if you bothered to pay attention to your sisters… you might think of them," Percy said roughly.
"You don't care about Ginny, or Lauren," said Ron. "You're just worried I'll mess up your chances of being Head Boy."
"Five points from Gryffindor," Percy said. "I hope that teaches you a lesson. No more detective work, or I'll write to Mum." He strode away.
"Listen, we're not telling Lauren about anything we find out," Samantha said once Percy was out of earshot. "I'll talk to her tonight, try and calm her down."
Harry nodded.
That evening, Samantha told Lauren to meet herein the Common Room at midnight. She then went to sit with Hermione, Ron, Harry, Max, and Leslie.
"Who can it be, though?" Hermione asked. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"
"Let's think," Ron said with mock curiosity. "Who thinks all Muggle-borns are scum?"
"You don't think-" Harry asked.
"Not Draco Malfoy?" Samantha questioned.
"Of course Malfoy! You heard him-'You'll be next Mudbloods!'-come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him-"
"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" Leslie asked.
"Look at his family," Harry pointed out.
"Yeah. The whole lot have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it," Max finished.
"His father's definitely evil enough," Samantha added. "Right in You-Know-Who's inner circle, probably."
"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for years! Passing it down father to son," Ron said.
"Well…" Hermione said slowly, glancing at Leslie.
"I suppose it's possible," Leslie said.
"How would we prove it?" Harry asked darkly.
"There might be a way…" said Hermione. "Of course, it'd be very difficult…"
"Polyjuice Potion!" Samantha said.
"Exactly!" Hermione said. "What we'd need to do is go into Slytherin Common Room and ask Malfoy a few questions."
"What's Polyjuice Potion?" Ron asked.
"It allows you to turn into someone else," Hermione said.
"Think about it!" Samantha said when Harry, Ron, and Leslie looked skeptical. "We could turn into Slytherins. No one would know it was us, and Malfoy would probably tell us anything."
"He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin Common Room right now," Max added.
"This sounds a bit dodgy to me," Ron said. "What if we were stuck looking like Slytherins for the rest of our lives?"
"It wears off after a while, don't worry" Samantha said.
"Getting hold of the recipe will be hard, though. Snape said it was in Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the restricted section," Hermione said.
"So we've just got to get a teacher to let us brew a potion so we can sneak into the Slytherin Common Room?" Samantha asked.
"I think," Hermione started thoughtfully, "that if we made it seem like we were only interested in the theory, we might stand a chance."
"No one's gonna fall for that," Ron said.
"They might," Samantha said, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.
After her friends had headed to bed, Samantha got the Invisibility Cloak and ran down, taking Lauren out of the portrait hole.
"Here, put this on, it makes us invisible," Samantha said excitedly. She threw the Cloak over her and Lauren.
"Where'd you get it?" Lauren asked.
"It was a Christmas present," Samantha responded. "Here, I want to show you something."
She led Lauren through the halls to the library, and had flashes of the prior year when she'd taken Max to show him the same thing. They walked through the tables, and Samantha knew exactly where to go, even if she hadn't visited for a while.
"Under the table," Samantha said softly. Lauren climbed under and Samantha with her. "Lumos," Samantha whispered, and pointed her wand to where her parents names were carved.
"Mum and Dad," Lauren said softly.
"And Max and I," Samantha added.
Lauren smiled. She took off one of the gloves she wore all the time and touched their parents' names. "They came here at night, too. They were laughing as they did it," she said.
Suddenly, Samantha gasped.
"What is it?" Lauren asked.
"You could know who's opening the Chamber!" Samantha said.
Lauren's lip quivered. "I don't want to," she said softly.
"Lauren, this could be really helpful, please," Samantha pleaded as Lauren pulled her glove back on.
"I don't want to see Mrs. Norris get Petrified," Lauren said. "I don't want to see what supposed monster is in there. What if the heir targets me next, because I know?"
"Come on, Laur, please? This could really help," Samantha asked. "You're halfblooded, you're not a target."
Lauren stood up from under the table. "Stop asking me! I thought this was going to be fun, I didn't think you'd be telling me to go to the scene where Mrs. Norris got Petrified and look at the monster and become a target for the heir! Enemies of the heir, beware!" Lauren cried, and walked away.
Samantha stood in the pitch black library, angry at herself.
Lauren stopped talking to Samantha after this incident, and Samantha felt terrible. Lauren never seemed to be with people, always alone.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had plans to get the book from Lockhart that afternoon. They figured the sooner this nightmare was over, the better.
Samantha, Leslie, and Max were waiting for the trio in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, which they had chosen because no one ever liked to go in there, especially now.
The door opened and three people stepped in. "Did you get the book?" Samantha asked, rushing over.
Hermione took it out of her bag and held it up. "Let's find Polyjuice Potion." She set it on the counter and flipped open the cover. They stared down at gruesome pictures of people who were inside out.
"I can see why it's in the Restricted Section," Leslie said, looking at the illustrations with disgust.
"Here it is," Hermione said, ignoring her.
"I hope the pain on their faces is just from the author's imagination," Harry said nervously.
"This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen," Hermione muttered reading the ingredients.
"We can get Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed and knotgrass from the student cupboards," said Max.
"What about powdered horn of a bicorn? Shredded boomslang skin?" Leslie asked.
"I know where those are!" Samantha cried suddenly. "Maybe all those detentions sorting things for Snape really did come in handy."
"Do we have to steal them?" Leslie asked nervously.
"Yeah," Samantha answered.
"And a little bit of whoever we want to change into," Hermione finished.
"I am not drinking anything with Crabbe's toenails in it," Ron said.
"We add that last, don't worry," Samantha said.
"Do you realize how much we'll have to steal?" Ron asked. "Plus find a way to get a bit of Slytherin, how do we explain that?"
Hermione shut the book with a snap. "If you want to chicken out then fine," she said, flushed. "I don't want to break the rules, you know. I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out it's not Malfoy-"
"I never thought I'd see the day where you'd be persuading us to break rules," said Ron. "Alright, I'm in."
"Us too," Samantha added.
"How long will this take to make?" Harry asked.
"Well… fluxweed has to be picked at the full moon and lacewing has to be stewed for twenty one days… I'd say about a month," Hermione answered.
"Malfoy could attack half the Muggle-borns in the school by then!" said Ron. "But it's the best plan we've got," he added hastily.
Samantha took a deep breath. "Alright, let's get to work."