CHAPTER FOUR
"You don't think... you don't think it was me do you?"
Trixie shook her head a stubborn expression on her face. She and Ginny were in the Room of Requirement researching anything that could help explain Ginny's black out.
"It wasn't you!" Trixie insisted. "There's no way YOU would ever do anything like that..."
"What are you thinking?" asked Ginny, her keen eyes not missing the change in her friend's expression. Trixie shook her head again, sighing out loud.
"I don't know..." she replied slowly, "it's like the answer is right there... but I can't reach it"
They sat in silence for a moment, before with a grin, they raced out of the Room of Requirement, bags of dungbombs and fireworks in their pockets.
"Miss Velair, Miss Weasley!"
The two first years skidded to a halt, spinning around to face Professor Snape, guilty expressions on their faces.
"Yes?" asked Trixie, feigning innocence as well as she could. Of course, the Potions Master was not fooled. He strode towards them, cloak billowing out behind him. He stood in front of them, waiting. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, who he had just been giving points, watched them in curiosity.
No one spoke, as stubborn gaze met stubborn gaze. For a moment, Severus was convinced that neither of the young girls would give up, but finally Trixie sighed, and he knew he had won... or so he thought. The blonde reached into her pocket and pulled out a brown paper bag, holding it out to him.
"Cream puff?" she asked.
Ginny snorted, quickly falling silent at the Professor's glare, though she couldn't stop the grin from forming on her face. Severus Snape locked eyes with Trixie once more. He knew exactly what else was in her pocket, and she knew he knew it. Casually he reached forward to take a puff.
"Thank you Miss Velair" Trixie couldn't hold in her own snort now. "As you were"
Professor Snape spun around, biting down on his cream puff casually striding past Draco and Blaise as though there had been nothing uncommon about the interaction. Trixie and Ginny stared after the Professor, neither paying attention to the Slytherin boys who were watching them in interest.
"Did he... just give us permission to blow up McGonagall's office?" asked Trixie. Ginny nodded.
"I think he did..."
They exchanged glances before holding up their hands and high fiving, laughing loudly as they did.
"WE LOVE YOU PROFESSOR SNAPE!"
Ginny groaned, scrunching up her nose as she scrubbed yet another trophy.
"I wish we'd just stop TELLING Professor McGonagall when we blow things up" she muttered. Trixie only shrugged.
"She asked if we did it, I simply answered her question"
Ginny glared accusingly at her friend, throwing a dirty rag at her face.
"You didn't have to throw in a "what's new Pussycat?"..."
Trixie smirked.
"You enjoyed the look on her face just as much as I did"
Ginny opened her mouth to argue, but found she had nothing. So instead she laughed.
"Trix, what are you doing?" Trixie said nothing, instead holding up her fingers to form a gun, peering around the corner dramatically, pulling back and holding her 'gun' up by her chest.
"Dun... Dun dun dun dun"
"I'm being a spy"
"What's with the song?"
Trixie rolled her eyes.
"It's my spy music!"
She peeked around the corner again, waving Ginny forward. Ginny giggled, but quickly did the same thing with her hands, and running to stand beside Trixie, backs pressed against the wall.
"Dun dun dun dun dun"
Trixie nodded at Ginny, and together they burst around the corner, pointing their guns in every direction, before running down the halls, zigzagging back and forth, pressing their backs up against the walls, pointing their weapons around every corner, jumping out from behind portraits and hiding behind suits of armour, frightening several students and earning strange looks from the rest.
"Dun dun dun dun dun dun"
And so the year continued. Ginny was getting more and more frightened. She had blacked out so many times that she was starting to lose count, and every time she did, something bad happened. She and Trixie had been trying to figure out what was causing them, but so far they were having no luck.
Professor Snape eyed the two 11 year olds as they tried to clean out his store cupboard (they had been in detention so often there was no longer any need for cauldron's to be scrubbed, so he had to think of something new!) He was resisting the urge to snort as he thought back to why they were in detention this time.
"Professor Lockhart!" gasped Madam Pomfrey, as the Professor was carried in on the shoulders of a couple sixth years, a miserable expression on his face. Severus placed the potion Poppy had asked for on the table, hoping to duck out before the idiot opened his mouth.
"We found him by the whomping willow" that sixth year Ravenclaw whose name Severus couldn't be bothered remembering said as he tried to lower the Professor onto a bed.
"What on earth were you doing by that blasted tree?" asked the nurse in exasperation.
"Miss Velair, and Miss Weasley... they said my fan club was waiting!"
Now Severus really had to get out of there. He rushed down to his dungeon as fast as he could, before throwing his head back and laughing.
He was trying not to laugh again, when Ginny sighed, again. His eyebrows furrowed. They had been awfully quiet. Suddenly Trixie spun to face him, a pleading expression on her face.
"Professor, can I ask you a question?"
Severus nodded, a strange feeling in his chest, a feeling he later identified as worry.
"What do you do... if your friend... is doing something... something they shouldn't?" Ginny glanced up at her, tears in her eyes.
"What if you're hurting people? Badly?" she murmured.
"What do you do... if you know it's not their fault?" Trixie pressed, a strange desperation in both their voices.
"I'm not sure I understand..." he asked, coming around the desk to stand in front of them. Suddenly, Ginny seemed unable to control herself. She collapsed against him, sobbing into his chest.
"I don't know what's happening to me!" she cried. "I don't mean to hurt anyone! I want it to stop!"
Severus patted her back awkwardly.
"Want what to stop?"
Trixie took a deep breath.
"It's Ginny. Ginny's opening the Chamber of Secrets"