6th November
Over the next few days I was hardly at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall kindly apparated me to and from the hospital over the weekend, Monday and Tuesday. I sat by Granny's side, keeping her company and speeding her recovery. I knew that Madam Pomfery would have had a potion or something that would have cured her in an instant, but Professor McGonagall said that it was too risky and could potentially be fatal to muggles. I left the conversation there.
In the short time that I had with Hermione each evening, she helped me catch up with the latest news. She also tried to get me to catch up on class and homework, too, but that wasn't happening. She found out about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets from Professor Binns in History of Magic during Monday morning's lesson. She and Ron had managed to have a massive argument over how I may or may not have petrified Mrs Norris. Harry managed to spill some ink over her homework (the end of the world, basically). Professor McGonagall didn't give any homework (for once) and she was particularly gutted. Lastly, from what I actually heard, Draco Malfoy apparently particularly missed me in potions.
I returned back into the normal school routine on Wednesday morning. I had already missed enough work in those two days and I couldn't really afford to miss much more. Besides, Auntie Jenny came over from Northern Ireland to care for Granny when she got discharged last night, so I knew she wasn't alone.
After classes that day, Ron was the first to speak, "If the Sorting Hat tried to put me into Slytherin, I would have been on the first train back home. I knew Slytherin was a loony."
I immediately felt a little sick. I remembered the first of September last year, when with the Sorting Hat said, "Pink, eh? Strange, very strange! Parentage seems to be Slytherin..." I thought I had finally escaped my family coming to Hogwarts, but it keeps coming back to haunt me. Family seems to be Slytherin, "But I'm in Gryffindor" I said aloud to myself unintentionally. Harry looked up at me. I think the look explained a lot to us, that we both kept the secret from that first night to ourselves until today...
We walked around the school toward the Gryffindor common room. We quickly found ourselves in The Corridor. It had only been a matter of days before in which we found the petrified Mrs Norris. The scene was just as I remembered it- no Mrs Norris though and there was a chair against one of the walls. I looked up and saw writing on the wall:
"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED."
I shuddered and we started investigating.
"Scorch marks- here and here!" Harry noticed.
"This is funny..." Hermione said, pointing at an army of spiders at the window, "Have you ever seen spiders act like that?"
Harry went over to inspect, but my attention was focused on how strangely Ron was acting. He cowered in the opposite direction.
"I- Don't- Like- Spiders" he said. I picked one up by its leg and brought it over toward Ron who ran away from me. We laughed at him. Apparently Fred turned his teddy bear into a spider when he was a kid for breaking his toy broomstick. I didn't know if I should have been impressed by Fred's abilities or sorry for Ron being traumatised.
Hermione pulled herself together and said, "Someone has mopped all the water up!"
Ron, who was half way down the corridor commented, "The water must have come from this girl's bathroom, in here!"
Knowing it was Moaning Myrtle's bathroom; we ignored the 'Out Of Order' sign and walked straight on in. The environment was normal to Hermione and me, we came here to chat and to keep Myrtle some company but NEVER will I use those facilities again.
What we didn't notice as we walked in was that Percy Weasley was strolling down that corridor and saw Ron. "That. Is. A. Girls. Bathroom." He said in the same manner as Mrs Weasley.
"Yeah, we're looking for clues?" said Ron matter-of-factly.
"Don't you know what this looks like?"
"Just because you're worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy." Ron snapped, raising his eyebrow.
Percy blushed, "5 points from Gryffindor." And he strode off in his usual huff.
"He's such a girl." I said.
Later that night, we decided to sit in the opposite end of the common room, trying to avoid losing any more points for our house.
"Who'd want all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts anyway?" Hermione questioned out loud.
"Let's think..." Ron said sarcastically.
I speak the name everyone was thinking, "Draco. But would he?"
"Yes. He'd do anything." Harry replied.
Hermione began, "Well there's only one way to figure out-"
It was at this precisely wrong time that Colin Creevey approached me with a letter, "From Professor McGonagall!" he said happily and sort of skipped off in the other direction.
It read,
"Miss Pink,
I do not wish to cause you any worry or anguish, I merely request your presence in my office to discuss recent events.
Professor M. McGonagall"
I reluctantly left immediately and found myself in her office, a cup of tea and a Ginger Newt sitting waiting for me.
Professor McGonagall started talking once I sat down, "The first day I met you, I saw that you weren't happy at home, I thought you'd be trouble and I definitely thought you would have been placed in another house. But you haven't and you've surprise me, but then again, I saw the way your father acted with you on Friday night-"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"You didn't expect me to leave you at the doors? That would have been highly irresponsible of me!" McGonagall explained, she paused momentarily, taking a sip of her tea, "You know you can talk to me about anything?"
"I suppose?" I reply, quite confused.
"Is everything alright at home Kathryn?"