Following the day of the attack, Slytherin and Gryffindor had Transfiguration together and the focus would be on turning animals into water goblets. We had learnt about the background of the spell the previous class, but it was time for us to put it into practice. After a failed attempt from Ron and his broken wand caused a round of laughter from all of the students, mostly the Slytherins, Hermione's hand shot up in the air.
"Professor, I was wondering if you could tell us about the Chamber of Secrets." The entire class fell silent and all looked towards McGonagall hopefully.
Seeing the looks on everyone's faces, the professor dove into the story about the founders of Hogwarts. I already knew from hearing from Daphne that Salazar Slytherin didn't like anyone who had anything to do with Muggles, but I didn't realize that meant he just wanted Purebloods in the school. It made me even more confused as to why I was put into Slytherin, but I had to move on from that and focus on McGonagall explaining about the rumoured hidden chamber that Slytherin had built.
Despite McGonagall's claim that no chamber had been found, it was clear that she herself didn't believe that the chamber didn't exist. She almost seemed frightened as she told us about the supposed monster that lived within the chamber, a monster than only the true heir of Slytherin would be able to open. It was nearly impossible to get the class to focus back to the task in front of us once we had been given the information about the supposed Chamber of Secrets.
"I, for one, hope that the Chamber has been opened again. It would be good to rid the school of all of the Mudbloods." Draco said as we left the classroom once we were dismissed.
"Come off it, Draco." Daphne snapped at him. She had seen my face fall when Draco spoke so harshly. "You don't really believe that this is happening, do you? Who could possibly have opened the Chamber? It would have to be a first year, otherwise it would have been opened ages ago, and I doubt any of them are smart enough to do something like that."
"I don't know who would've opened it, Greengrass." Draco sneered at her. "Maybe one of the older students had to wait until they were told to open in in order to do so."
None of us could deny that that was a possibility. We fell silent as we pushed past Harry, Ron and Hermione, none of us even sparing a glance back at them. The rest of the week was filled with all sorts of rumours flying around the school about the Chamber of Secrets and who could be the so-called heir of Slytherin. The fear of an attack coming from whatever it was that may have been in the chamber was taken over by the excitement of the first Quidditch match of the season being that weekend. The match was between Slytherin and Gryffindor, so tensions were high as both houses wanted the win.
I was sat between Daphne and Nott in the stands as we watched the two teams race around the pitch. Slytherin got the lead early on and we were sure that we would win the game, we just needed Draco to catch the snitch before Harry. I looked around at the stands that were a bit higher up than the rest, the ones reserved for staff, and noticed a man I had never seen before sat with Professor Snape.
"Daphne," I nudged my friend to get her attention. "Who is that sat with Snape?"
Daphne followed my gaze towards the two men before turning back to me. "That's Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy. I suppose he came to watch Draco play."
"I wouldn't get used to seeing him." Theo joined in to our conversation. "I'm surprised he's here at all. Granted, he's probably making sure those brooms he bought are being put to good use."
I found the way Theo talked about Draco's father very curious, but I didn't push the subject any further. Theo made it sound like Draco and his father weren't very close and seeing the elder Malfoy supporting his son was something that was rare. I turned my attention back to the game just as Harry narrowly dodge a bludger that was going straight for him. I could see Draco laughing at Harry's expense, causing him to miss that the Snitch was flying right beside him.
Once he saw Harry take off after the small ball, Draco followed quickly, the pain of them diving under the stands to chase the snitch together. They resurfaced for a short period before disappearing once again. It wasn't until Draco came flying out from under the stands and landed hard on the ground that we saw him again. I gasped as he rolled on the ground, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of his lungs. A quick glance towards Draco's father showed him looking down at his son with disappointment before turning towards Snape and disappearing from the crowd. Harry, despite getting hit very hard by a bludger, managed to catch the snitch and win the game for Gryffindor, causing a groan of disappointment and outrage from the entirety of the Slytherin house.
I quickly made my way to the Hospital Wing with Daphne, Pansy, Theo, Crabbe and Goyle all in tow, finding Draco laying on a bed and moaning in pain with a couple people from the Slytherin team standing beside him.
"Draco, are you alright?" I walked right up to the bed and looked at him with concern.
"Draco! You poor thing!" Pansy looked as though she was going to burst into tears at the sight of seeing Draco in a hospital bed. I heard Daphne scoff loudly and caught Theo trying to hide his laughter.
Draco just continued to moan in pain, earning himself a scolding from Madame Pomfrey who told him he could go, and soaked in all the attention he was getting from everyone. While Pansy was the most dramatic out of all of us, Draco still loved to get attention and would put on a bit of a show any time he could to get it. When Draco finally let the Hospital Wing, still complaining about the pain he was in, it was well into dinner and we just managed to make it for a bit of food before going back to the Common Room.
No one expected the news that another attack had happened during the night, this time on a first year Gryffindor by the name of Creevey, to be the first thing we heard the following morning. The news had sent everyone into a panic and it was announced that a duelling club would be formed within the next couple of days. It was clear that the teachers were looking for a way to calm the students, but for everyone who had any bit of Muggle blood in them, the fear had already set in that any of us could be next.
The first session of the duelling club had everyone excited at the idea of learning more than just how to perform spells, but how to properly duel another witch or wizard. Lockhart had been the one to form the club and he took it upon himself to take the lead and have an example of what a duel would look like against Professor Snape. Snape knocked Lockhart back with one simple spell and I couldn't help but let out a giggle as the so-called amazing professor was knocked backwards. The two professors decided to bring two students up to duel it out, choosing Harry and Draco.
"Let's see if Potter is really so great at everything he does." Theo whispered quietly, earning a little laugh out of me and Daphne.
Draco got the upper hand on Harry right away, sending him flying backwards. Harry returned with another spell right away, earning the same result that Draco had gotten, the blond Slytherin landing directly in front of us.
"Come on, Draco." I muttered to myself as he got back up and countered right away, ignoring Lockhart's warning to try and disarm his opponent only. A snake shot out of Draco's wand and started towards Harry. Lockhart, being the hero the thought he was, tried to get rid of the snake but only sent it flying up into the air before it landed back in front of Harry.
Harry seemed to focus on the snake and started to make hissing noises at it as it started to move towards a boy in Hufflepuff. "Merlin, Potter's speaking parseltongue." Daphne gasped.
I didn't know what she meant and didn't focus on it, only watching in shock as Harry continued to hiss at the snake and it slowly moved towards the Hufflepuff boy, almost as if he was telling it to attack him. It wasn't until Snape finally got rid of the snake that everyone seemed to be able to move again. Daphne quietly explained what it meant to be a parselmouth and how both Salazar Slytherin and Lord Voldemort had been able to speak the language, which is why it was so shocking that Harry could as well.
"Of course, Potter's a parselmouth." I couldn't tell if Draco was mad or happy that it was revealed that Harry could speak to snakes, but it seemed like a mixture of both. "Freak Potter."
"Maybe it's him who's behind all the attacks." Pansy offered. "Maybe he's playing it off like he's this saint, but really he's secretly the one who's planning all of this and he's the one that opened the Chamber of Secrets."
I couldn't help but scoff at Pansy's idea. "Please, you think that Harry could really do that? You-Know-Who was a parselmouth as well and he killed Harry's parents. I highly doubt he would want anything to do with anything remotely evil or bad."
Pansy seemed offended that I brushed off her idea so quickly and didn't say anything else for the remainder of the evening. As silly as the idea was, it wasn't until we found out the next day that the very same Hufflepuff boy that had been targeted by the snake during duelling club had been the most recent victim of the attacks and it didn't seem so far fetched that maybe it was Harry that was responsible for everything that was happening.