The twins were ecstatic when I told them Harry and I were going to stay for Christmas. As they put it, this meant that they didn't have to suffer through a second Christmas with just Ron and Percy. Ginny would also be staying, but she was still being uncharacteristically timid and always seemed to be upset. It also looked like she hadn't been sleeping.

Hermione had also decided to stay since she was part of the Polyjuice scheme and they were determined to figure out who the actual Heir of Slytherin was.

The days leading up to the break were uneventful and by the time the rest of the school had left, I found myself starting to relax. This was despite the fact however, that my father had been extremely upset when Harry and I had told him our decision to stay for the holidays, Ginny acting on edge, and Harry having an identity crisis while simultaneously trying to reveal the Heir of Slytherin. It also didn't help that since the entire school was determined that Harry was in fact the heir, Harry was also starting to believe he shouldn't have been sorted into Gryffindor. He had told me this one night after everyone went to bed, but I didn't think he had told this to Hermione or Ron yet.

XXX

Christmas morning was met with a cool draft, heightened by the fact that I was the only one sleeping in the dorm. It also took me a moment to realize I had been woken by the sound of something pelting at the door. Skeptically, I got out of bed and opened it cautiously to find bits of broken quills and rubbish piled up on the ground.

"I'll be down in a minute!" I hollered at the boys who were no doubt waiting for me to accompany them for breakfast.

I went back to my bed and noticed the small pile of presents at its foot. I frowned slightly as I knew this was a tradition for a lot of families, but one my father stoutly dismissed. Instead, he believed in spending every moment of Christmas morning together and watching the expression of everyone as they opened their gifts. My stomach fell picturing my father all alone. Remus would be recovering in bed or off somewhere in the woods while my dad would probably be sitting alone with his cup of tea.

I tried to push these thoughts away as I noticed his familiar scrawl on one of the presents. I took it in my hands and carefully opened the small sack. Inside were dried purple hyacinths; the forgiveness flower. This caused tears to tinge my eyes before I wiped them away and smiled. This meant, although in his own particular way, that my father wasn't angry about Harry and I staying here, or at least he wasn't anymore.

I was even more pleased since purple hyacinths are used in potions for healing small cuts as well as love potions. I would have to crush them up later and store them in my trunk.

Next was one from Remus which was another book on Defense Against The Dark Arts. I almost laughed out loud when I read the title: The Real Lessons in Defense Against The Dark Arts.

Hopefully this would help in learning something useful. I had written to Remus about Professor Lockhart's lecture on werewolves to which Remus had replied I needed a proper education away from this obvious fraud.

Harry and I had decided we didn't need to get each other anything this year, along with the rest of my friends. But I noticed the last package which I eagerly opened to reveal my standard orange sweater from Mrs. Weasley. I had grown out of my old one by the fall, so I had been eagerly awaiting a replacement. I was also pleasantly surprised to reveal a homemade carrot cake which was also my favourite. I put it off to the side to bring down and share with the others once I was ready, but I noticed a small package which had been covered by the others. I picked it up curiously and read the tag.

To Marnie,

You still didn't tell me specifically 'no presents'

Happy Christmas

~Cedric

I felt like a fool that he had found this loophole and that I hadn't gotten him anything in return. Despite this, I opened the small little box to uncover a very handsome looking quill.

There was another note inside.

My father has been working with hippogriffs this summer and I had a few feathers saved.

I inspected the grey-hewed feather flecked with black and gold. It was very beautiful and extremely extravagant. Since hippogriffs are very proud creatures with a level three classification, their feathers are not often used for quills. I carefully stowed it away in my trunk before quickly getting ready and bringing my carrot cake downstairs.

It seemed that Harry had gotten a plum cake from Mrs. Weasley as well which created a nice Christmas breakfast for all of us. We even tried to eat some of the treacle fudge that Hagrid had made for Harry, but it needed to be melted on the fire first so as to not chip our teeth. Once we stuffed ourselves I followed the twins outside to play in the snow. Harry and the other two second years were too worried about their plans for tonight while Ginny and Percy seemed to have better things to do. I was kind of hurt that Ginny flatly denied my invitation, but then again, I knew there was something bothering her. I would have to take some time over the holidays to talk to her.

It was a glorious afternoon with the shining sun and thick snow. We built an impressive fort with a look out, a dungeon, and a trick door built into it. By the time the sun was setting we made our way back to the castle to change and head down for dinner.

"Look at all the food!" I exclaimed when I entered the Great Hall with George and Fred.

"Oh yea, you missed out last year," George said as we took our seats.

"This was definitely the best thing about having to stay here last year," Fred added.

"Still doesn't beat mum's cooking," Ron piped in.

"Of course not, you idiot," Fred answered in an annoyed tone.

"Be nice," I said reproachfully but my constant defense for Ron's sake had all but lost its meaning by now.

"In the spirit of Christmas, I will agree to behave and ignore my brother's glaring idiocy," Fred continued but did so very reluctantly.

"You're unbelievable," I said but unable to stop my victorious smile.

We spent the rest of the meal stuffing our faces with every type of food imaginable. I had roast beef, turkey, ham, and casserole served with potatoes, yams, turnips, carrots and peas. This was followed by more carrot cake, pumpkin pie, plum pudding and treacle fudge.

By the time we were done Fred was dragging me by the hand in an attempt to coax me up the stairs. I felt much too heavy on my feet and was thankful to see the plush couches by the time we reached the common room. I plopped down into the loveseat beside the fire and pulled one of the faded quilts over me. I don't think I had ever been so full in my life. Fred sat beside me and pulled me close so I laid on his chest while he talked to George. Fred started to stroke my hair casually which caused me to close my eyes and forget all about the fact that Harry was currently disguised as Gregory Goyle somewhere interviewing Draco Malfoy about him being the Heir of Slytherin. I didn't even know when I fell asleep, but I hadn't felt that relaxed in a long time.

I was even more surprised when I woke up the next morning in our makeshift fort in Fred and George's room. The curtains were all closed except for the middle ones which is where I was laying. George was still asleep on my left while I saw Fred stirring on my right.

I rolled over, so I was facing him and put my thumb on finger on his nose and waited. Moments later he was gasping for breath.

"You trying to kill me Hare?" he asked groggily while rubbing his eyes, a smile already apparent on his face.

"How did I get here?" I asked.

"I carried you of course," he said simply.

"Why?"

"Because I can't climb the girl's stairs and you don't deserve to sleep on the couch," he answered.

"Why didn't you wake me?" I continued.

"Because you looked so peaceful," he answered softly.

I stopped my interrogation and just looked at him. It had been very sweet of him to carry me up to their dorm without waking me and allowing me to sleep in their beds. Plus, the three of us hadn't done this since last year. It was also nice to do this without there being some sort of crisis.

This thought then brought me to think of Harry and the others.

I got out of bed, but not before rolling over a disgruntled George who tried to push me off the bed before rolling over and covering his head with his pillow. I went back to my dorm and got dressed before heading back down. I poked my head in the second-year dorm on my way down and was surprised to see Hermione's bed was empty. This made me feel uneasy about what had happened last night. But before I continued down to go find Harry I stopped by the first-year dorm and found Ginny already dressed and sitting on her bed.

"Good-morning Gin," I greeted but she only looked startled that I had interrupted her staring into space.

I could also see the purple circles under her eyes; I think she was getting worse.

"Can we talk?" I asked prompting her to look at me skeptically.

"I guess," she answered after several moments pause.

I took the half-hearted answer in stride and sat down across from her.

"What's been going on?" I asked directly since I figured it was passed the point of beating around the bush.

"Nothing," she answered unconvincingly.

"Come on Ginny, we've all noticed that something has been going on," I continued as I left it open for her to explain.

I was still unconvinced it was homesickness.

"I'm worried about Harry," she blurted before she covered her mouth as if she had said something she shouldn't.

"We all know he's not the Heir of Slytherin Ginny, and the whole school will figure that out soon enough," I explained while watching the girl worriedly.

"But he's going to get hurt," she urged, making me feel like I was missing some key point.

"Well, he is prone to danger, but I'm sure it'll all be okay," I tried to soothe her while she shook her head.

"You don't understand, he's in danger!" she continued with tears welling up in her eyes.

I moved over and put my arms around her. It felt as if the younger girl had more to say, or at least I was missing some crucial detail, but Ginny had stopped talking at this point. She was now sobbing in my embrace while I stroked her hair to try and calm her down. It was twenty minutes later before she stopped and at that point I didn't want to bring it up again, she was obviously high strung about whatever was going on. Plus, since the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, I didn't have to know this secret detail to realize that Harry was some sort of target in all of this, especially since his name was being thrown in the ring for being responsible.

I walked down the stairs nearly an hour after I entered the first-year dorm with Ginny who had puffy eyes but hadn't said a word since she started crying. I was holding her hand and shook my head at the twins who looked at her skeptically. Thankfully they took the hint and the four of us instead went down to the Great Hall in silence.

I was thankful to see Harry and Ron already sitting and eating breakfast. This also seemed to lighten Ginny's mood, if only slightly, since she let go of my hand and went to sit beside Percy.

"Where's Hermione?" I asked the two boys who in return looked slightly embarrassed.

"Well, the potion went a little wrong for her," Ron whispered as I sat down and leaned over towards them.

"She used cat hair," Harry continued while I took a moment to realize what that meant.

"She turned into a cat?!" I asked wildly, causing them both to shush me.

I felt terrible for Hermione who had spear-headed the whole scheme and was now confined to a hospital bed with curtains around it for privacy.

"So, is it Draco?" I asked eagerly but watched as their faces fall.

"No," they answered dejectedly.

"Does he know who it is?"

"No, it was useless!" Harry answered in a frustrated tone.

I sighed and felt even worse than I had when I found out about Hermione, it had all be for naught.

The boys continued to brood while Ginny stayed silent beside Percy with a far-off gaze. My morning which had started off happily had quickly soured.

XX

This continued to be the theme for the next few months as the fear associated with the Chamber of Secrets remained and everyone around seemed to be soaking it in. Even though Harry and the others had disproven the Draco theory they had somehow replaced it with an even more disturbingly posited one that suggested Hagrid; I had outright refused to believe this.

It was now February and worse than ever it was being topped off when Professor Lockhart hatched another one of his imbecilic plans and arranged to have grumpy looking dwarfs deliver valentine cards amongst the students. Apparently, the miserable mood brought by the petrification of our classmates could be uplifted with this expert plan. I couldn't even fathom his level of idiocy; neither could the other professors who were enraged with the presence of the dwarves constantly interrupting their classes on February fourteenth to deliver pink and red coloured love declarations.

We were sitting in Potions class when an extremely hairy looking dwarf with wonky looking wings barged in and delivered a valentine to Katie. Her cheeks ended up turning the colour of Lockhart's fuchsia pink robes as she hurriedly tried to stash the letter into her bag. Unfortunately for her, George grabbed the letter and we figured out quite quickly that it had come from Lee. We all almost lost it right in the middle of Snape's lecture which caused him to send us death glares while Lee sank down in his seat with his head in his hands.

Angelina also ended up getting one from a first year named Dennis who apparently had a crush in her from watching her on the quidditch pitch. It was pretty cute, especially when we saw him staring at her during lunch and then turning away in a blush when he noticed our attention was turned on him.

The best though was when Harry had apparently received a singing valentine in the middle of the Charms corridor on his way to class. The twins had been there and had subsequently been singing it every chance they got, typically when Harry was within ear shot. I could see Harry was even more irritated than usual and tried to convince the twins to lay off, even if it was hilarious.

The most surprising though was on my way to dinner when one of the straggling dwarfs came up to me in a gruff manner by harshly pulling on my robes. I stopped and looked down at the cupid impersonator to see him extending a letter towards me. I took it which allowed for the dwarf to let go and disappear down the hall. I turned the envelope over in my hands before ripping it open and reading the script.

Meet me in the Astronomy Tower for a night you'll never forget, 1900hrs

That was all the letter said.

I had half a mind to think it was Marcus Flint creating a plot and to just toss the letter. But another, more curious part, wondered if it might be Cedric. He always seemed to be doing nice things for me and the way he wrote was similar to this, short and to the point.

I decided to tuck the letter into my robes and headed towards the Great Hall with a smile plastered on my face. I couldn't help but think about the letter all throughout and had a hard time focusing on the conversations around me.

"Coming back to the common room Marn?" Angelina asked.

I hadn't noticed the others were already finished and were all standing.

"I'll meet you up there," I answered.

The others didn't press the subject further which I had found surprising and waited until they had left. I then stood up with the letter clutched in my pocket and headed towards the Astronomy Tower. It wasn't long before I entered the east corridor and headed towards the staircase. There was an evident chill in the air as I noticed a window had carelessly been left open and now there was a puddle of water which I'm sure at one point had been a heap of snow. I walked over to try and close it since I could feel the chill running through my body and was giving me shivers. Unfortunately, I was born without the blessing of great height and fumbled around as I stood on my tiptoes trying to bring the latch down. The water was also, unfortunately, icy which I found out when my feet came out from under me. I was face down on the ground before I could register anything else. Irritated, cold and sore, I tried to raise myself up. This was instantly thwarted however when I realized my wrist hurt enough to indicate that it was sprained.

Sighing, I raised my hand for inspection and contemplated forgoing the rendezvous with this mystery person to head for the hospital wing instead. But when I looked down to push myself up with my good hand I saw two bright yellow eyes reflected back at me in the icy waters.

I just wanted to point out that I know this chapter went a little off course from the book, but I wanted it to match up with Marnie on Valentine's day which meant Harry couldn't have the diary at this point. Just switched the timeline a little but I think it still reads similarly. I am also very pleased with this chapter since this is another plot point I knew was coming from the beginning.