A/N: Welcome back! I hope you are enjoying this so far, please review either way. I appreciate any feedback I can get. I apologize, somewhat in advance, for the OPness of my OC. Let me explain, I made her practically a shyer version of Hermione, so she's hella smart. I'm just compensating for my own stupidity! XD But seriously, I apologize. I make sure not to change the storyline too drastically, just tie in her revelations with events in the HP series. Good reading, loves! :))

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC, Skylar Wolf, all credit goes to the amazing J.K. Rowling! :)

Word Count: 2,317

Hermione slipped on her pair of oversized Slytherin robes, offering another pair to Skylar, who refused. Harry and Ron came into the bathroom, tufts of hair in each of their closed fists. Hermione gave them the robes she sneaked out of the laundry.

"I'm sure I've done everything right. It looks like the book said it should," Hermione pointed to the cauldron, which resembled bubbling mud, "Once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly one hour before we change back into ourselves."

"Now what?" Ron glanced at the potion warily.

"We separate it into three glasses and add the hairs." As Hermione, Ron, and Harry dropped the hairs into the potion, each glass turned from murky brown to another disgusting color. Ron's potion became a murky yellow color, Harry's resembled light dirt, and Hermione's became the color of khakis.

"Ugh," Ron looked at his potion in disgust, "Essence of Crabbe…" He swallowed the potion quickly, doubling over right afterwards. "I think I'm gonna be sick…" He ran into the nearest stall and bent over, his features morphing and growing. When he re-emerged, he was the spitting image of Crabbe. Harry downed his glass of Polyjuice Potion, reacting in a similar manner before transforming into Goyle.

"Hermione, what's going on?" Skylar examined the brunette's worried expression before she dropped the empty glass and hid herself in a stall. "Hermione?" Skylar knocked on the stall door. Harry and Ron were too busy staring at each other.

"Harry?" Ron's voice emitted from Crabbe's body.

"Ron?" Harry's voice emitted from Goyle's body.

"Bloody hell." Ron gaped at Harry's new form

"We still sound like ourselves," Harry realized, "You need to sound more like Crabbe.

"Bloody hell." Ron went an octave lower.

"Lower."

"Bloody hell." Another octave.

"Less intelligent."

"Bloody hell." Ron said dumbly.

"Excellent."

"Hey…" Ron looked to Skylar, "Where's Hermione?"

"She doesn't feel well, you should go on without her." The redhead insisted.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked with Goyle's voice.

"Just go!" Hermione shouted from the stall, "You're wasting time!" The boys heeded the brunette's instructions, running out of the bathroom in a hurry.

"Alright, they're gone," Skylar spoke to Hermione through the crack in the stalls, "Come on out." Hermione obliged, her head hanging down in shame. "Oh, dear…" Skylar examined Hermione's new form with worry. Tufts of brown fur had sprouted along her arms and face, along with whiskers. Two cat ears sprouted from her bushy, brown hair, and her nose had morphed into that of a cat. Her eyes had become green and slitted, like a cat, and grown significantly larger. She even had a fluffy tail.

"I-It must have been a cat hair…" Hermione hiccupped through tears. Skylar pulled the brunette into her chest and hugged her tightly.

"Don't worry, we'll get it fixed." Skylar assured her as they hugged. "In the meantime…" Skylar stepped back and waved her wand. Two black cat ears protruded from her head, along with a matching tail. "You won't be alone." She smiled. Hermione smiled back, still teary-eyed, and hugged the redhead. The two girls were busy talking and cheering each other up when the boys re-entered the bathroom.

"What-" Skylar held up a hand to stop Ron.

"Don't ask." She chuckled, Hermione joined in, a few stray tears streaming down her fur-covered cheeks.

Skylar sat beside her best friend in the hospital wing, both reading from a stack of library books. Harry and Ron entered the hospital wing with armloads of books, gaping at the book-covered bed where the girls were sitting.

"Oh, good," Hermione looked up as the boys walked up, "Put those anywhere." She returned to her book, leaving the boys perplexed and astounded. Finding no free space, they simply placed the stacks of books on the floor at the foot of the bed.

"Madam Pince asked that we relay a message to you, Hermione: She'd appreciate it if you'd leave a few books for the rest of the school." Ron told the brunette. Skylar and Harry giggled off to the side.

"I've got to keep up, haven't I?" Hermione responded sassily, her brown tail flicking back and forth. Ron eyed the furry appendage warily.

"Is that thing ever going away?"

"Any day now, according to Madam Pomfrey." Skylar responded, her own black tail twitching.

"I'm just thankful I've stopped coughing up fur balls." Hermione grumbled.

"We all are, believe me." Ron chuckled.

"Now, Chamber of Secrets… any new leads?"

"Nothing." Harry sighed.

"Has it gotten any better? I mean… is anyone speaking to you?"

"Neville asked to borrow a tubeworm in Potions yesterday. I suppose that's something." Harry gave a small smile. Ron dug under Hermione's pillow, pulling out a Get-Well card.

" 'To Miss Granger', " He read, " 'Wishing you speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher Gilderoy Lockhart'," Ron gaped at her, "You sleep with this under your pillow?"

"Of course not!" Hermione blushed, "I have no idea how that got there. Now go, I still have six hundred pages to read in Transformation Through the Ages." Skylar rolled her eyes.

"I offered to give you my notes, 'Mione." She pestered the brunette bookworm.

"I know, and I politely declined," Hermione stuck her nose back into the book, "I'll do my own work, thank you very much." Skylar just laughed.

"Fine. I suppose this means I have to go babysit the boys, then?"

"Of course!" Hermione giggled, "Who knows what sort of trouble they'll get themselves into?"

"I know Hermione's mental," Ron started as Skylar caught up to the boys on the stairs, "but can you believe she falls for that smarmy nonsense of Lockhart's?"

"Oh, leave her be!" Skylar swatted him, "She'll figure out that he's a fraud so enough." Her eyes widened as she looked at the boys, "Don't tell her I said that, she'd kill me!" Harry and Ron laughed at the redhead's comments. They stop on the staircase for a moment to see the girls' bathroom flooding out into the hallway, Moaning Myrtle moaning from inside.

"Looks like Myrtle's flooded the bathroom." Harry sighed, the three friends wading through the water.

"Come to throw something else at me?" Myrtle sobbed as the three entered the bathroom.

"Why would I throw something at you?" Harry asked, confused, Ron and Skylar shrugging at him.

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me…"

"But it can't hurt if someone throws something at you," Ron started, "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" Skylar sighed and facepalmed at Ron's rude behaviour.

"Oh, sure!" Myrtle cackled, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach. Fifty points if it goes through her head!"

"Who threw it at you?" Skylar asked the ghost gently.

"I don't know," Myrtle sighed, "I didn't see them. I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell through the top of my head." Harry spotted the discarded book and picked it up.

"Fifty points if you can get it through her nose." Ron snickered.

"I heard that!" Myrtle screeched, Ron and Harry scrambling out of the bathroom.

"I apologized for them, Myrtle." Skylar said before taking off after the boys.

"This is a diary," Harry examined the small, black book as they walked down the corridor that night, "And it's old."

"It's a diary, it's old, and it was most recently in a toilet, Harry." Ron snorted.

"Perhaps it's from back when the Chamber was first opened." Skylar murmured. Harry began to open the book, stopping when Ron grabbed his hand.

"Are you mad?" He glared at Harry, "That could be cursed. Dad once told me about a book the Ministry confisticated that burned the eyes out of anyone who tried to read it."

"I'll take my chances…" Harry opened the book before yelling, "Ahh! My eyes! My eyes!" He chuckled at Ron's terrified expression, Skylar rolling her eyes with a smile. Across the hall, Ginny stared at Harry and the diary, her eyes widening in terror, before she ran off.

"Ginny!" Harry called, "I was only joking- brilliant," He sighed in defeat, "Even your sister thinks I'm the monster now." Ron frowned down at the diary as ink appeared on the pages, spelling out three words. "Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"Hang on, I know that name," Ron gasped, "The night I had detention… I had to polish silver in the trophy room. I remember because I kept burping slugs all over Tom Riddle's trophy. I must have wiped slime off his name for an hour." Harry fanned through the diary, revealing blank pages.

"That's odd. He never wrote in it." Harry frowned before shutting the diary. The boys walked off, leaving Skylar alone to her thoughts. The diary wasn't as it seemed, she knew that for a fact. She could feel a strong magical energy radiating from the book, even before Harry opened it. But that wasn't what bothered her. It made sense that Ron recognized the name from a trophy, but if Skylar had never seen it, why did the name sound so familiar to her?

"Is this what Hermione felt like when she couldn't remember who Nicolas Flamel was?" Skylar pondered to herself.

Skylar stopped by the hospital wing after her class, intent on speaking to Hermione about her concerns. Once she got there, she saw Harry and Hermione discussing the diary and she decided to listen in. It wasn't bad if they were her friends, right?

"Tom Riddle was here, at Hogwarts, when it happened," She heard Hermione say, "What if he wrote about what he saw? It's possible he knew where the Chamber was, how to open it, even what sort of creature lives in it." That was enough for Skylar to hear, her aqua eyes widening in realization. She rushed back to the Gryffindor Common Room, sprinting up the stairs and pulling out a book from underneath her bed. She remembered researching the Chamber of Secrets, learning that it was opened in 1943, the same year Moaning Myrtle had died. She knew it was no coincidence that Myrtle was a Muggle-born. That was why she was targeted by the Heir, and the creature within the Chamber.

"Tom Riddle, who were you?" She tapped her quill against her chin in thought. "Hmm… I know Myrtle was a Ravenclaw… what about Riddle?" She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "Ugh, we're coming back to you, Riddle." She said to herself. "Now, what could that creature be?" She stared at the Slytherin crest in realization. "Of course! A serpent! But what...wait a minute. Serpent...Petrification...I need to confirm this." Skylar ran to the girl's bathroom. "Myrtle!" She called. "Myrtle, I need your help!"

"Oh, you do?" Myrtle purred, floating around the redhead.

"Yes. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you about…"

"My death? Oh, I've been waiting for someone to ask!" Myrtle giggled excitedly.

"Oh, really?" Skylar looked relieved, "So I didn't offend you, then?"

"Nope! Not at all!" The ghost replied. "Well, it started when Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses," She adjusted said glasses before continuing, "So I ran in here to cry. When I was in the stall, I heard someone come in and start talking. It was a boy, I could tell. I opened the stall door to yell at them to get out and then…"

"You died." Skylar finished for her.

"I died." Myrtle repeated.

"Do you remember anything else…"

"Oh, an enormous pair of eyes. I didn't see who they belonged to though-"

"Oh, that's all I need to know, thanks Myrtle!" Skylar yelled before running off. She rushed back to her dorm, taking out her book of magical creatures. Making her way past the dragon section she had bookmarked, she landed on a picture of a gigantic basilisk. "Aha! I knew it!" She scanned the description.

Basilisks are known as the King of Serpents, born of a chicken's egg and hatched by a toad. They are green with large, yellow eyes, along with scarlet plumes if they are male. They have an average life span of 900 years, and can get up to 50 feet in length. The Basilisk's huge eyes are their tool of destruction, anyone who makes eye contact with this creature suffers instant death. It also possesses deadly, venomous fangs. One bite from a Basilisk, and the victim suffers a long, painful death. Basilisk breeding was banned back in the Medieval times due to its destructive nature. Basilisks are classified as XXXXX creatures; known wizard-killers that can't be domesticated. While that is the case, Parselmouths can place a Basilisk under his or her control if they form a bond with the creature.

"Alright, where is it… I know this is it…"

Spiders flee from the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy. The Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

"That's why the spiders were running away when Ms. Norris was petrified!" Skylar gasped, "And the Heir must have slaughtered all those roosters to keep the Basilisk safe!"

If a victim looks indirectly at the Basilisk's eyes, they will merely become petrified, similar to the Medusa stare. This also is the case when a victim looks through an object.

"Colin Creevy must have looked through his camera…" Skylar realized, "And Justin Finch-Fletchley through Nearly Headless Nick."

Basilisk skin is armored like that of a dragon's. Which deflects spells cast at it. The only animals immune to the deadly gaze of the basilisk are phoenixes, who possess healing tears.

Skylar slammed the book shut and slid it under her bed, along with the other. She lay down on her back and stared at the ceiling. "Oh, we are in for one hell of a year."