"But I've cuts on my knees
Falling down as the winter
Takes one more cherry tree
She's been everybody else's girl
Maybe one day she'll be her own"

Girl - Tori Amos

"To be or not to be
To free or not to free
To crawl or not to crawl
Fuck all those perfect people"

F**k all the Perfect People - Chip Taylor

The end of the holiday season was always a bit of a downer, but Eleanor found it especially difficult this time around.

Unlike the previous year, Eleanor was returning to a castle she no longer felt safe in and returning to people she cared about who could very well be lying petrified in the hospital wing.

When Eleanor returned to the Slytherin common room, the first person she saw was Draco Malfoy, sitting by a fire and playing chess with Blaise Zabini. When Draco saw her, he rushed up to greet her, automatically starting with an assurance that nobody had been petrified, and there hadn't been any attacks whatsoever over the holidays. There was something comforting to the fact that she didn't even have to ask.

Relieved, Nell returned to her dorm room and found another surprise laying in wait.

On her bed laid a stack of golden wrapped presents adorned with big green bows.

She tore in at once. Daphne Greengrass had left her two gifts, one for her birthday and one for Christmas, each carefully designated so Nell could not mistake them. The birthday gift was a large vial of the potion Daphne had used on Nell's hair a handful of times, invented by Mrs. Greengrass to instantly smooth tangles. Giggling, Nell immediately sprayed it into her messy hair, and delighted as it fell in brushed sheets, shiny and pretty for once.

The second gift was a handheld mirror with a lovely butterfly decal on the front, golden and intricate. It came with a note wishing her a happy Christmas, and telling her it was so she could admire her new, much more easily maintained hair. She used the mirror to do just that, and, as she stared at her giggling reflection, she realized that Daphne Greengrass might be the closest friend she had now, besides Draco.

And yet there were two more gifts that remained. A bit more poorly wrapped, but gifts nonetheless, begging to be opened. She tore through the green wrapping paper and found that they were both from Draco. A lovely emerald green jumper, and a new set of Slytherin robes made with the same expensive fabric that Draco's were. They felt silken to the touch, and swished beautifully when she shook them out to look them over. With glee, she donned the robes, slipped the mirror in her pocket, and dug through her bag to find the Christmas gifts she intended for the two of them.

She left the present she had for Daphne on her still unoccupied bed, figuring that the girl was off somewhere and would likely be back soon. Nell had gotten her a muggle ballet book that she had found in a second-hand store. Earlier in the year, Daphne had mentioned to Nell how she wished her ballet teacher would allow her to study muggle techniques, even though they were forbidden in most wizarding ballet academies for being supposedly uncivilized and backwards. The second she had said that, Nell decided to find a way to give Daphne an opportunity to study the techniques herself, despite her teacher's prejudice.

And, as for Draco, Nell's present was a little… different.

She hunted him down in the common room, and engulfed him in a big hug that he eventually shrugged off, the way a brother would to a sister.

"How did you know it was my birthday?" Nell asked.

"You say that like you're surprised," Draco said with a roll of his eyes.

Nell laughed. "Well I wanted to say thank you! I love them both. The jumper is so lovely," she said while she held her arms out to show off the robes he had given her, which were perhaps a bit big. She didn't mind, though.

"You're welcome," Draco said, and Nell noticed the slight blush that crept along his cheekbones.

"I've got something for you as well," Nell said with a smile, reaching into her robes and pulling out the soft package wrapped in red paper. She handed it over, and Draco tore it open with the same frantic energy he had the year prior.

Out flopped an old and battered leather hat with long fur lined flaps over the ears and across the forehead. Atop it, laid a pair of muggle goggles.

"What… is it?" Draco asked, eyeing the thing as if it might combust.

"It's a muggle aviator hat," Nell explained, trying to choke down the giggle in her throat. "Or a leather flying hat. It's what muggles wear when they fly planes. I thought it could help you on your broom when you practice. Make you look like a proper airman, and all."

"What's a plane?" Draco asked, still inspecting the hat with an unconvinced furrow to his brows.

"I… I'll tell you later," Nell said, the laugh hiding in her chest beginning to truly threaten her composure.

With a nervous grimace, Draco pulled the hat on top of his posh head.

And Nell broke, laughing deeply and fully at the sight of the ragged old thing on top of Draco's perfectly combed hair. It was too much for her to hold back when she realized how much it made Draco look like Snoopy.

"Why're you laughing?!" Draco demanded, ripping the hat off and mussing up his hair.

"Because you look funny wearing muggle clothing!" Nell answered honestly.

"Is this some sort of stupid muggle joke?"

"No!" Nell said, though tears still leaked in her eyes. "I mean, it's a little funny. But it's meant to help you, honest."

Draco eyed her warily.

"I promise! Look, let's go show Hermione, alright? She'll confirm that it's not a joke."

"We can't. She's still in the hospital."

All of the good humor drained from Nell immediately and she felt a cold dread wash over her. "What?! Draco, you said she wasn't–"

"She wasn't attacked!" Draco answered quickly. "I've no idea why she's there. I can't get anyone to tell me."

"I'll go see her," Nell answered definitively. "Would you like to come?"

"No."

Nell rolled her eyes, but trudged away all the same, aiming for the hospital wing.

After a bit of pleading with Madame Pomfrey, Eleanor was finally allowed into the hospital wing despite the rules that forbade visitors as the attacker still remained at large. She realized why she had been allowed in, though, once she got to Hermione's bed, and found Ron and Harry sitting beside it.

"Hello!" Nell said to the three of them, beaming and excited to see her friends again.

The three heads shot to her, turning so quickly on their necks that it looked like it hurt.

"Er–," said Harry with wide eyes. "Hi."

"What's happened, Hermione?" Nell asked, scanning over the girl, who looked no worse for the wear, other than a few odd markings across her face.

"Oh… just a bit of a spell mishap doing homework," Hermione responded in a clipped mewling voice that was quite unlike how she sounded normally.

"I thought you might've been attacked when Draco said you were in the hospital. I'm so glad you're alright," Nell explained, sitting by the foot of the bed. As she did, Hermione seemed to scramble backwards, and Ron shifted his seat further from her.

She stared at them. "What's wrong? Do I smell or something? Is your spell mishap contagious?"

She was met with silence.

"Sorry," Harry said finally. "We're a bit on edge. We found out…" but he trailed off, looking at Hermione.

"Found out what?" Nell asked.

"Show her, Harry," Hermione said with a shrug.

Nell watched Harry extract an odd looking diary from his robes. With a wary look in his eyes, he handed it to her, so uncomfortably that he looked as though he were handing her a bomb.

Nell flipped the diary open, and found on the inside cover the name T. M. Riddle written in smudged ink. However, when she flipped past that first page, she found the rest of the diary to be completely blank.

"It's like my mother's journals," Nell said quietly. "Or— has it just not been written in, do you think? I mean, it doesn't look nearly as beaten as hers."

She looked up and Harry shrugged, taking back the diary with the same clinical precision.

"It's fifty years old," Ron said, pointing to the faded year on the front cover. "The Chamber was opened fifty years ago."

"Oh!" Nell gasped. "When did you find that out?"

But instead of meeting her with excitement and filling her in the way she expected, they looked between each other, returning nervous glances that Nell couldn't interpret.

"You're all being very strange," Nell said finally, when the silence became too much.

"Can we compare the journal to one of your mother's?" Harry asked.

"Sure," Nell said with a shrug that seemed to surprise Harry and Ron.

And instead of responding, they sat there and continued to stare at her as though they were waiting for her to do something.

"What, d'you mean now?" Nell asked.

"Er– yeah," Harry answered.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

With a sigh, Nell stood up, told Madam Pomfrey she forgot a Christmas present, ran all the way down to the Slytherin dorms, pricked her finger, opened the Pandorette, extracted the first journal she saw, closed the Pandorette, and heaved back up the stairs, breaking only to try to catch her breath.

She reentered the wing and tossed the journal into Harry's lap with a bit more force than probably necessary. As Harry flipped it open, Nell collapsed at the end of Hermione's bed and tried to calm her heaving breaths, choosing to ignore the weird flinch Hermione had when she did so. Instead, she laid back, watching the ceiling, and thinking she really ought to introduce exercise back into her routine.

"This looks different," Harry said with a frown, as Nell sat up to meet his gaze. "You're sure they all looked the same?" he asked, turning instead to Hermione.

"Positive," Hermione answered, not even glancing at Eleanor.

" Hello , have you forgotten I'm here?" Nell demanded. "You can ask me, you know."

Ron grimaced, and Nell finally shot up to her feet, her annoyance demanding to be made clear.

"You three are acting weird . What is it? What's happened?" Nell demanded.

"We found the diary in Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione explained, which was far from the answer that Nell was seeking.

"Okay?" Eleanor responded. "And other than how old it is, what's so special about it? Why are you three being so… flinchy?"

At this, the three continued their game of silence, eyes cast downward and away. But, when Eleanor was just about to shout, Ron finally spoke up.

"DidyourmumtellyouabouttheChamberofSecrets?" he asked so fast that Nell could barely make it out.

"Did… did my mum… What?! " Nell scoffed. "Are you serious? I don't even know if my mum knew about the Chamber of Secrets. All she's ever told me about was in that stupid letter that Hermione read. And I've told you everything I know about the Chamber," Nell said, her voice clipped and angry. "Is that what this is about, then? D'you think my mum had something to do with it the first time? Fifty years ago she wasn't even born!"

Harry and Ron glanced at each other, and the way their eyes met so shiftily made Nell's skin crawl with anger.

When they gave her no response, Nell snatched her mother's journal back out of Harry's hands and left, feeling hurt in a way that was the polar opposite to how she had felt only an hour earlier.

Hermione's release from the hospital in early February did nothing to reduce the strange behavior the Gryffindor trio continued around Eleanor. Despite her hopes that they'd have moved past whatever theory was making them so looney, they continued to flinch whenever she got near and still only gave her odd half-responses whenever she asked them about it.

Luckily, nothing appeared to change in her relationships with the Slytherins, who all continued to act just exactly as Nell had expected. Pansy continued to be sarcastic and defensive, Daphne was as giggly and nonchalant as always, and Draco maintained his perpetual sneer. With this familiarity a small comfort, Nell was able to better ignore Harry, Ron, and Hermione, though she did find herself missing them from time to time.

Another surprising relief that made the strangeness easier, was that there were no new attacks all throughout January. The mandrakes continued to grow, and, soon, the petrified students could be awakened, hopefully leaving this whole mess behind as nothing more than one long extended nightmare. Eleanor hoped that once the petrified students were sorted that maybe the five of them could return to the relative peace of the prior year, though even she had to admit that the fantasy of that was becoming less and less likely by the day.

Nell had asked both Daphne and Draco if they had ever heard of a T. M. Riddle, but both had told her that the name was unfamiliar. Daphne promised she'd ask her mother, but Nell hadn't heard anything new on that front, so she assumed that it was another dead end.

One thing Nell was sure of, however, was that, despite his proclamations, Gilderoy Lockhart certainly had no part in bringing the monster down.

During a lesson where Nell and Draco sat by the window, both trying their best to stay awake, Lockhart decided to rouse the dreary class with a sudden announcement.

"Isn't it so wonderful the attacks have stopped?" he asked the class full of kids, interrupting the story he had been telling of the time when he had supposedly taken down a giant beast off the coast of Scotland, saving villages that had been terrorized by its presence for decades. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now."

Blaise Zabini raised his hand.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Zabini?"

"Are you saying, sir, that you had a hand in stopping the attacks?" he asked Lockhart, his eyes all false-innocence.

But Lockhart either didn't notice, or didn't care, as he answered Blaise with only a wink before saying, "What this school needs now is a morale booster."

Nell whispered to Draco, her voice full of hope, "Does that mean he's to feed himself to the giant squid?"

That evening, as Eleanor and Draco worked on their History of Magic homework, Nell asked Draco for the thousandth time what he thought was going on with the trio. Following their class, she had tried to catch up with them to see if there were any new leads, but they only gave her short clipped answers before they escaped her completely into Gryffindor Tower.

"I've told you I've got no idea," Draco said, his voice sounding honest, if not a little exasperated.

Nell sighed. "You're sure nothing happened over the Christmas holiday? I think that's when this all started. They only started being really weird to me when I got back to the castle."

Draco shrugged. "I barely saw them. I spent most of it in the Slytherin dorms."

"It's like they suspect me behind all the attacks," Nell said.

In the candlelight, Nell saw something flash across Draco's face.

"What?" Nell asked.

But Draco went quiet. "Nothing. I've just had an idea. I'll tell you when I've figured it out."

Nell eyed him suspiciously but shrugged, trusting Draco to tell her if he knew anything relevant. Afterall, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione acting so weirdly, Nell's number of trusted friends had diminished by more than half, and she didn't want to risk another spat with Draco.

They returned to their homework, the dull tedium a welcome reprieve.

Nell didn't get a chance to ask Draco if he had figured anything out the following day, February fourteenth, as the castle had come under attack. The halls had been bombarded by an explosion of pink and red, flowery hearts and cupids lining the walls and ceilings with tacky explosive decadence.

Nell found Daphne in the Great Hall, eating raspberries and sorting through a stack of pink and red cards next to Pansy, who looked even more surly than usual.

"What are those?" Nell asked Daphne as she sat down and pulled a muffin toward her to smother in butter.

"Oh, just love notes from Daphne's many admirers," Pansy explained, glaring at the stack.

Daphne giggled. "It's all rather funny, isn't it?"

She handed Nell a portion of the stack and Nell flipped through it with eager interest. The cards were mostly sent by Slytherins with a handful of other houses mixed in between, and Nell did not miss the understated card that had been sent from Theodore Nott. It was rather dull in comparison to the glitzy others, but it did have several candied heart lollies magically stuck to it, apparently bewitched to fizz in your mouth as you ate them.

"You have quite a lot of fans," Nell said, laughing at a particularly garish card covered in rose petals.

"Do you even know half of these boys?" Pansy demanded.

"I'm sure I've spoken to them before," Daphne said, tucking away the cards she had already read into her bag.

She pulled one open from the table. "Here, look. This one is from that Ravenclaw, Michael Corner. We worked on an essay together in March last year for McGonagall. He was so friendly."

Pansy narrowed her eyes, but sorted through her stack. After a moment, she extracted one at random. "And what about, uh, Cormac McLaggen?" Pansy asked.

"Oh, yes, him! He's a Gryffindor in the year above us. We talked once after dinner on a Thursday back in September. He asked me what I thought of Slytherin's chances in Quidditch this year."

Nell watched her in a daze, before she narrowed in on her own stack of cards. "And, what about, uh, Zacharias Smith?" Nell asked, picking one at random just as Pansy had.

Daphne thought for only a moment, before she smiled and said, "Yes, him. Hufflepuff, our year. I met him at a Christmas party my mum threw three years ago. He told me my dress was very pretty, and my mum later told me there are rumors he's distantly related to Helga Hufflepuff."

Nell stared at her. "Daphne, how do you remember all of that so well?"

Daphne shrugged. "Isn't it easy?"

Nell stared back at her, unsure of how to tell her just exactly how not easy it was.

But the booming voice of Lockhart interrupted all conversation.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all - and it doesn't end here!"

As he shouted, Draco made his way over to Eleanor's seat, handing her some of the chocolate covered strawberries that looked to have been delivered from his mother. Nell bit into the strawberry and found that it had the same fizzing enchantment from Theodore's card, when the sweet tang bubbled across her tongue.

As she ate, Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

Nell nearly spit out the strawberry in shock. "What on earth?" she asked around her mouth full of chocolate.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

And, as she sat there, Eleanor had a horrible mischievous idea present itself to her.

Eleanor had snuck off immediately after breakfast, and delivered to one of the surly dwarves a small card. She waited with bated breath as all day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, much to the annoyance of the teachers.

Finally, her brilliance unfolded during Herbology.

As the Slytherins worked on the Mandrakes, helping to rub acne cream into their wrinkled faces, a dwarf banged open the glass door, looking annoyed for having to trek all the way across the grounds.

"Oy! Where's, uh, a Missur Drackun Malfun?" he yelled, reading over the small card Nell had given him earlier.

"Drackun is right here!" shouted Blaise Zabini, pointing at Draco, who was red in the face and attempting to duck below the tables.

"You twat–"

"Drackun! 'Ve got a special message for ya. From a Missus Kate Bushing," the dwarf shouted, before he began to sing.

It was either the glare that Draco had turned to Nell or the sound of the broken attempt at Hounds of Love sung in a horrible pitchy voice that sent Nell into a laughing fit that didn't subside for several hours. Draco swore his revenge at her, but he seemed to be the only one upset, as Pansy and Blaise had both told her she was their new favorite housemate, and Daphne had told Nell she just had to let her listen to how that song was supposed to sound when it wasn't being sung by an angry dwarf.

It turned out, afterall, that Lockhart had truly done a wonderful job in raising morale. Nell never would have guessed it.

On their way to Charms, Daphne, Nell, and Draco ended up caught behind another dwarf who had been chasing down Harry Potter. Despite the weird coldness she was still receiving from him, Nell couldn't help but find the spectacle delightfully amusing.

"What a surprise, Potter's got an admirer. I bet it's the fifth one of the day," Draco sneered as they watched Harry attempt to shake off the dwarf. The hall was mostly empty, but the tousle between the dwarf and Harry had blocked off the path for the three Slytherins, along with a handful of Hufflepuff first-years and Ginny Weasley, who all were caught up in the crowded mess.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"My money's on the dwarf," Draco said to Nell, his anger clearly having subsided. "Your thoughts, cave-dweller?"

Nell glared at him. Clearly not as subsided as she had hoped.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging on the bag that the dwarf had been using to anchor Harry back.

With a giant rip, the bag opened, spilling out the contents across the hall for everyone to see. Nell watched spellbooks erupt alongside glass vials of ink, exploding and sending black and red everywhere. She watched as a particularly thick glob hit the T. M. Riddle diary that she hadn't seen since that awful day in the hospital.

She pointed it out to Draco. "That's the–"

"What's going on here?" Draco shouted, interrupting her. Nell watched him dart forward to the mess while Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived alongside Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini, who both took in the sight with loud echoing laughter.

The dwarf suddenly tackled Harry, who had tried to run for it. He sat on Harry's legs, pinning him in place as he sang:

"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,

His hair is as dark as a blackboard.

I wish he was mine, he's really divine,

The hero who conquered the Dark Lord"

"I think I'm going to be sick," Draco said to Nell.

"At least the dwarf I sent didn't tackle you," Nell said, holding back her laughter poorly.

After the dwarf finally relented and let Harry back up, Percy Weasley began to herd everyone else out, but, before he could get to the Slytherins, Draco had scooped up the diary that Nell had pointed out, his face unnervingly blank and drained of color.

"Where'd–" Draco said, but Harry interrupted, reaching for the diary.

"Give that back," said Harry quietly, his face still red and his eyes blazing.

"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Draco, looking strange himself, as he let the book fall open. Nell made no move to try to stop him, as she knew the diary was blank, and was truthfully a bit curious to see if the Gryffindors had managed yet to reveal anything.

The onlookers had gone quiet as well, all watching the scene unfold. Ginny was staring at Draco looking terrified while Percy was looking rather stern.

"Hand it over, Malfoy," said Percy, reaching for the diary.

"When I've had a look," said Draco, holding it back tauntingly.

But Harry had lost his temper. He pulled out his wand and shouted, " Expelliarmus! "

The diary shot out of Draco's hand and into the air, and Ron, grinning broadly, caught it. Nell's jaw hung open at Harry's bold move, shocked to have seen him use a spell on Draco outside of lessons.

Draco, for his part, looked just as affronted.

"Harry!" said Percy loudly over the milling crowd. "No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!"

And Draco's shock turned to fury, as he shouted at Ginny Weasley, who was attempting to pass by him in the hall, "I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!"

Nell gaped as the young girl covered her face with her hands and ran off into class, an unwitting casualty in the whole mess.

"That was unnecessary, Draco," Nell sighed, but turned to find Ron now whipping his wand out and pointing it at Draco.

Spluttering and panicked, Nell pulled out her wand as well, aiming it back at Ron. She held it, her hands trembling with shock, but stayed firm, determined to not let Draco get hit with any more unexpected spells. This was all despite the fact that she wasn't quite sure what she could even manage if it came down to it. Perhaps one of those knock-back jinxes she had used on the pixies months and months ago.

But they never had to find out, as Harry pulled Ron away, ignoring his protests and furious glare still aimed at Draco.

"Er– thanks," Draco said once they were gone, his eyes on the wand Nell was still holding in her shaking hand.

"That felt… unnecessary. For Harry, I mean," Nell answered as she tucked her wand back into her robes. "That diary's empty. Why was he so upset?"

But Draco didn't seem to be listening, his thoughts having turned inward again and away from Eleanor. The bell rang, interrupting any further conversation, and the two of them hauled off to Charms.

After dinner the following day, Draco remained closed off and quiet, still affected by the strange trance that had come over him after the incident in the hallway. Tired of all of the guessing, Nell cornered him in the common room and demanded an answer.

"That… that diary. Where did you say Potter got it?" he asked, his blonde eyebrows furrowed.

"I told you. They found it in the girl's bathroom on the second floor."

"What were they doing–"

"They're always where they aren't supposed to be, Draco," Nell sighed.

Draco thought this over for a moment before he nodded.

"Did you at least figure out why they've been suspecting me?" Nell asked.

"What?" Draco said, confused. "Oh– no."

"Oh."

Before they could talk more, Draco wandered off, forcing Nell to confront the fact that he must be hiding something from her now as well.

Luckily, Draco's weird pensive mood didn't last long, though he never did manage to reveal to her what he had been thinking.

Later in March, the second-years were given a new distraction that pulled them all from whatever endless thoughts had been plaguing them through the end of winter. It was time for them to choose their elective courses for the next year.

The only one Nell was sure of was Care of Magical Creatures, which she had selected first while sitting at a table in the common room with Pansy, Daphne, and Draco. With all the firmness she could muster, she asked them to choose it with her, and they complied, much to her delight.

"If I'm to do Creatures with you, then you have to do Ancient Runes with me," Draco said, snatching Nell's paper from her hands and circling it himself.

"That sounds difficult," Nell pouted.

"It isn't, really!" Daphne said with a smile as she circled it on her sheet, and Pansy followed close behind.

Nell looked over the remaining courses.

"I've heard Divination is always good for a laugh," Draco said. "The quidditch team says the Professor who teaches it is a total loon. Very entertaining, though."

"That could be interesting," Nell said, shrugging, as she circled it alongside the rest of them.

"Is that enough?" Pansy asked, looking over her sheet with a scowl.

"Looks perfect!" Daphne said before the four of them went to deliver their matching choices to Professor Snape.

On the following Saturday, Nell awoke early with Draco to go and watch the Gryffindor quidditch game against Hufflepuff. Though she had yet to talk to either Harry, Ron, or Hermione, she couldn't help but say yes to Draco, who told her he didn't want to be sitting out there alone.

They were eating breakfast in the common room and Draco was reading the Daily Prophet when Ron came rushing up to their table.

"Someone stole the diary," he said to the two of them, his face red and panting.

"What?" Nell asked, mouth still full of toast.

"Someone has stolen the diary," Ron repeated. "Right out from Harry's trunk in our dormitory."

"And what are you coming over here yelling at us for?" Draco said, his face curling into a sneer. "It obviously wasn't me or Nell who stole it."

"Nell's the only one who knew about it," Ron said, his eyes narrowed. "Suppose you did, too, then?"

"You can't possibly think I had something to do with it," Nell said, that hurt rising back up again.

"Why don't you go off to your table of dunces and leave us to a breakfast free of your ugly face?" Draco said, anger threading through his voice, matching the tone of Ron's accusation.

Ron glared, his face pure fury, before he stomped off, leaving Nell in a familiar awful mood.

"They still think I'm involved somehow, don't they?" Nell said, her voice quiet.

"They're idiots," Draco said.

"It has to be because of my mum," Nell said, thinking about what Pansy had told her on the train.

"No, it's because they're idiots," Draco repeated.

Nell sighed. "There… there has to be something I'm missing, hasn't there?"

Draco shrugged.

And it hit her.

She shot up from the table.

"What're you doing?" Draco demanded, his eyes wide.

"I'll be right back!"

"Where–" he shouted to her, but she had already begun to run off.

She sprinted to her dormitory at full speed, chiding herself for having been so careless. In all of her ruminating over the Pandorette, all of the hours she spent trying to reveal the notebooks or stare into the floating memories, she had overlooked something else entirely. She had been so foolish.

The textbooks. So sure they could offer nothing, Nell had never even opened them, had never even torn apart the twine that held them together. She felt so stupid to think of it now. Her mother could have left her perfect instructions inside, hidden to look like a textbook so nobody would think twice. It was so simple, Eleanor couldn't believe it.

She rushed into her shared room, which, luckily, was empty. With a hasty prick of her finger, she opened the Pandorette, yanking out the textbooks she had ignored for far too long. She tore open the twine, and separated the books out across her bed.

And that was when she finally noticed it. A bookmark, worn at the edges, sticking out of Beasts: The Most Fearsome and Wicked by Thornbrook Vicious. Nell gasped, eager energy coursing through her shaking hands as she pulled the book to her.

The book opened and Nell quickly surmised that each page showed a different beast, alongside a brief description.

On the left, written across the top was The Scottish Isle Serpent, or, the Stoor Worm . It described a breed of dragons that had gone extinct sometime in either the 17th or 18th century. The Stoor Worm was a dragon that could fly without wings and had horribly vicious venom stored in its two large tusk-like teeth, a drop of it enough to kill a hundred men.

And, on the next page, the book described a Basilisk.

A horrible giant serpent with venomous fangs just like the Stoor Worm who could kill with a single look of its gleaming yellow eyes.

And, as Nell read with a horrifying dawning creeping up in her mind, who could petrify when looked at indirectly.

The Basilisk. It was the monster of the Chamber, surely. Justin must have seen the serpent through Nearly Headless Nick, Colin Creevy through that camera that was basically permanently affixed to his face. They all had seen the Basilisk indirectly, and had thus only been petrified.

Though she still had no idea who was controlling the Basilisk, Nell knew this was an incredible revelation in her hands. And it had come from Ottilie . Her mum had left this information for her to find so she would know what she might have to face at Hogwarts. Eleanor had been right. Her mum was trying to protect her.

Frantically, she ripped the page from the book and tucked it into her pocket, before she and ran off to find Ron or Hermione and to show them the incredible discovery.