Draco

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.

Granger didn't flinch, nor did she make the slightest movement to indicate that he had surprised her. She absentmindedly looked up from the book she was reading as she walked and looked at him, annoyed:

"Get out of my way, Malfoy."

He frowned ever so slightly, taken aback by this reaction. She looked so much like Nott at that moment. It was disconcerting. He had expected her to tremble with fear like Longbottom, but she just looked disturbed. That annoyed him even more.

"Where are Potter and Weasley? They're always glued to you, usually."

"That's none of your business. Do I ask you why Parkinson isn't glued to you?"

Draco began to see red. She was already talking badly about Pansy, and on top of that, she always had that detached look that pissed him off.

"Aren't you afraid some prefect will come by and give you detention for wandering around the Castle this late, Granger? You're the one who gets the shakes whenever a teacher..."

"I just got out of Astronomy class, I have every right to be in the Castle this late." Granger cut in dryly. "You can't say the same, and besides, you're setting up an ambush to corner me in a corridor, you're the one who should get detention."

That girl was so annoying. Her high pitched voice was unbearable, how could Potter and Weasley talk to her without wanting to bang their heads against the walls? He looked at her for a few seconds: her uniform was perfectly ironed, her hair was flying all over the place, her eyes were flashing and the hand holding her book was full of little ink stains. A real Miss-Know-It-All.

She raised her eyebrows when she saw that he didn't reply and continued in her shrill voice:

"Nothing more to say? You're sorry you didn't come with Parkinson so you could take me on in a two-on-one duel, is that it?"

"I don't know what you mean." Draco hissed.

"Neville is my friend, and he showed me what you did to him. You burned his hand with the Lightning Sparks Spell, I recognized the effects. Why are you picking on Neville? Because he's the only one you can beat in a duel? Or because you're just afraid to fight more experienced people?"

Draco opened his mouth to throw a scathing repartee at her, but couldn't think of anything to say. He hadn't thought this altercation would take such an abrupt turn, he had surprised her to scare her and annoy her, but she was proving to be much more stubborn than he had imagined. Out of reflex, he brushed his wand pocket with his hand, and Granger caught his gesture:

"I wouldn't recommend doing that." she said quietly.

He didn't want to fight her. For the very good reason that he could get into big trouble if he was caught by a teacher in a corridor casting spells on a girl, not because he thought she might beat him. Never. So he preferred to arm himself with the strongest thing he had to hurt her: words.

"Weasley explained to you, then? What Mudbloods like you stand for?"

For a split second, Granger seemed to lose her composure at the word, but she quickly regained her usual features.

"It doesn't take a degree to guess what that means, Malfoy."

"So you've figured out that your blood is dirty? That you don't belong in this school?"

She was annoyed, now, he could see her cheeks turn pink and her eyes darken despite the darkness of the hallway:

"Yet I'm outperforming you in every subject. How do you explain that, if I don't belong in this school?"

"You cheat."

"Of course I am. Is that the excuse you give yourself to justify your mediocrity?"

Draco stiffened:

"Careful, Granger..."

"What? Isn't that right? No matter how hard you work, you can't beat me. You can't even beat Nott, or Zabini. So, instead of projecting your own mistakes onto others, why don't you try to realize that you're just... stupider than the rest of us?"

She gave him a half-smile, the kind of cheeky smile after dropping a spike, and Draco felt a wave of anger rise up inside him again. Granger resumed her walk, trying to get around him, and driven by rage, he grabbed her shoulder and forcibly turned her around so that she was facing him. She held his gaze and he saw that her eyes were animated by anger, too.

"How dare you speak to me in that tone?" he spat. "Did your Muggle parents give you that savage language, Granger? Are you going back to your instincts? You can try to convince yourself that you belong at this school all you want, but you won't do it to me. To me, you'll always be that Muggle, that weirdo who follows Potter and Weasley around like a little dog because no one wants you here."

"If you're so sure of yourself, try to beat me, Malfoy. Try to outdo me, even if only in one subject. If I'm as stupid and insignificant as you say I am, it shouldn't be that hard, should it?" she retorted.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, both equally enraged. Draco could feel the anger searing through him and heating his skin. He was sure he could hurt her, but she had managed to get to him as much as he had. He wanted to pull out his wand to hurt her, or to make her cry, but too afraid that the anger that made him tremble would take control of his body, he finally pulled away.

He returned to the Common Room. He wandered the corridors without really knowing where he was going, and without checking that he was alone. He didn't care. He just wanted to get as far away from Granger and her ability to drive him crazy like that.

His own reaction terrified him: if he'd stayed in that hallway, he probably would have snapped and hurt that insufferable girl. Her high-pitched voice echoed in his skull as if she were still standing next to him: "so instead of projecting your own mistakes onto others, why don't you try to realize that you're just... stupider than the rest of us?"

Finally, he found some stairs that led to the dungeons. He went down a few steps, and braked sharply. He couldn't go back in so agitated, the students would wonder. Draco leaned on the railing and inhaled several times to control his breathing. He tried to calm himself, to get Granger out of his head, her cheeky little smile and shaggy hair constantly flying around her.

After several minutes, it worked. Draco regained his composure, and continued walking. He was extremely lucky that he didn't run into anyone at such a late hour.

"Viridis." he whispered to the wall.

The door appeared and Draco entered the Common Room. A few students were still studying under the light of the green lamps. None of Draco's friends were there, so he headed for the dormitories and opened the door to his own on the fly.

Both Blaise and Theo's beds were closed and the dormitory was pitch black. As he approached his bed, Draco saw the small figure of Pansy who was wrapped up under the duvets. She was wearing a black top that probably belonged to Draco, and her straight hair was spread out on the pillow. She was so pale that she contrasted with the dark sheets, even in the darkness. As he approached, she turned her head towards him:

"Draco?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

"Go back to sleep." he said softly as he changed his clothes.

"Where have you been? What time is it?"

She sat up slightly and rubbed her eyes, trying to make out something in the darkness of the dormitory.

"Late. I took a walk around the Castle."

He climbed into bed and lay down next to Pansy, who rested her head on the pillow and murmured an "Hmm...". She rolled over and curled up into a ball, her favorite sleeping position. Draco covered her with the duvet and watched her back move with her sleepy breaths as he tried to find sleep, to no avail.

Hermione

.

.

Hermione climbed the stairs to the Gryffindors' tower quickly. When she entered, she saw that Harry, Ron and Neville had already gone to bed. Hermione had stayed after class to ask Professor Sinistra some questions about a map she had completed, and she had asked them not to wait for her before going to sleep.

Still, she would have liked to talk to someone about what had just happened.

She knew better than to tell Ron and Harry about Draco Malfoy, because they might want revenge. Besides, she would have a hard time retelling with certainty what they had exchanged a few minutes earlier, it was already blurred in her mind. She remembered that he had been obnoxious, as usual, but she was rather proud of having stood up to him like that.

She looked around the Common Room and spotted Ginny, who was sitting at one of the study tables. She was sound asleep, her mouth open, her head on her parchments, and she was still holding her quill in her fingers which was now forming a large ink stain on the paper.

"She fell asleep half an hour ago, but I dare not wake her." said a voice behind her.

She turned around. It was Fred. George was next to him, looking at his sister with a mixture of tenderness and concern.

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"She can't sleep lately." said George. "She told me last week. She says it's because of the stress of being at Hogwarts, but I find that hard to believe, she's never had insomnia before, it's not like her."

Hermione turned her attention back to the redhead. Her dark circles were even more impressive than they had been the previous week, she looked really unwell. Suddenly, the quill that Ginny was holding in a precarious balance with her hand fell on the table, waking her up with a start. She looked around as if she didn't recognize where she was, and Fred and George came up to her at once:

"Hey, Gin'... You fell asleep, we thought you wanted to get some rest..."

"What? Why?" the redhead cried out in a hoarse voice, suddenly panicked. "No! You should have woken me up! I'm late for this History of Magic essay, I thought I'd have time to finish it yesterday, but I..."

"Hey... Calm down, Gin'. You're too anxious. Professor Binns is never going to realize you didn't turn in your essay, don't wor..." began George quietly.

"No! No! I have to finish it!" replied Ginny, snatching the scrolls from Fred's hands as he took them from the table.

"Okay... If you want, we can help you do that." said Fred in a worried voice.

"Hm... Okay. Thanks."

The twins both sat down on either side of Ginny and began to whisper to each other as they took up their sister's essay. Hermione, who could no longer hear their conversation, took her leave and went to bed. She climbed the many steps to her dormitory, and when she opened the door, she was surprised to find Parvati still awake on her bed.

"Oh, hi Hermione!" gasped Parvati happily. "We haven't seen you all week, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." lied Hermione, who had no desire to talk about Draco Malfoy at all, lest the news spread throughout the Castle the very next day. "You're not sleeping?"

"No, I'm waiting for Lavender to finish her shower."

Lavender and Parvati, who had been best friends since the first day of school, had a habit of talking at night before sleeping in each other's beds. Hermione didn't mind at all because they always closed the curtain and probably cast a spell that covered up their words so as not to wake her.

Hermione put her things away and got into her pyjamas before going to bed. It was very late, but she still wanted to read, so she picked up the book on her bedside table, "Healing magic: The Revered Branch of Medicine", and began to read. She wanted to keep her mind off her altercation with Malfoy, and reading was the best distraction.

When she reached an interesting paragraph about one of the first wizards to invent a potion against poisonous plants, the bathroom door opened. Steam rose inside the dormitory just as Lavender came out in her pyjamas. When she saw Hermione reading in her bed, she grinned at her:

"Hey Hermione!"

"Hi Lavender."

"Since you're here, do you want this shampoo?" the blonde offered, handing her a glass bottle. "I bought it on Diagon Alley this summer, but I don't like the effect on my hair and Parvati already has several."

Hermione took the bottle in her hand and opened the cap: it smelled like strawberries.

"I love the smell!" she exclaimed.

"Take it." repeated Lavender with a smile. "I bought it at Madam Primpernelle's shop with my mother. I took one strawberry and one rose..."

"And why did you decide to keep the rose one, Lavender?" asked Parvati, giggling.

"You know very well why!" replied Lavender in the same tone as she returned to her bed. "It's his favourite smell!"

The two girls giggled even more.

"Um... Whose favourite smell?" asked Hermione shyly, who had no idea who they were talking about.

Lavender rolled her eyes exaggeratedly:

"Who do you think, Hermione! You should know, you're the one who passed everything on the beginning of the year test!"

"Gilderoy Lockhart?!" guessed Hermione.

Both girls nodded with blissful smiles on their faces.

"You like him?!" asked Hermione in dismay.

"Of course we do! Who doesn't?" replied Parvati. "He's so handsome, and his smiiiile!"

She pretended to pass out on her pillows as Lavender giggled even more. Hermione was amused, and frankly reassured: she wasn't the only one who felt attraction for her teacher!

"I had no idea you thought he was handsome too! Ron and Harry keep laughing at me when I say something nice about him..."

"But Ron and Harry are boys, Hermione." said Lavender, who had regained her half-seriousness. "They'll never understand how another boy can be handsome until it's them. Especially a teacher."

"Ron and Harry are just jealous!" completed Parvati.

Hermione didn't think Ron or Harry could be jealous at all, but she preferred not to contradict the girls who were laughing too hard to care.

"He told me I had a nice braid last time." Lavender gloated.

"And he told me that I did my defence spell perfectly." said Parvati proudly.

"Do you think he's handsome too, Hermione?" the blonde asked.

Hermione felt her cheeks flush a little. She had never told anyone about her attraction to Gilderoy Lockhart, and Lavender was bringing up the subject so deliberately. Hermione nodded slowly:

"Yes, he is rather attractive."

"That's for sure!"

"Are there any other boys you think are handsome, Hermione?" asked Parvati.

Hermione tried to analyze their expressions: they didn't look nosy, they were just curious. It must have been a hobby of theirs to discuss such things, they seemed to have a lot to say on the subject of 'boys', which Hermione never addressed. Ron and Harry weren't exactly experts in that area.

"Um, no."

"Oh, come on! There must be someone you think is handsome! Harry?"

Hermione winced, which made the two girls in front of her laugh.

"Harry?!" repeated Hermione. "No, never in a million years. He's my best friend."

"So what? Plus he's... all...murky."

Hermione suppressed a laugh at the adjective, which definitely didn't describe Harry.

"So, no boys?" asked Lavender with a chuckle.

The brunette pondered the question as she ran through the boys she was hanging out with in her head:

"Um... I'm not sure... Maybe the Weasley twins? Dean?"

Lavender and Parvati looked a little disappointed. Hermione thought of someone, but she had never told anyone about this boy. She thought that Lavender and Parvati would never get the chance to meet him, so she confessed to them:

"There's this boy..."

They both leaned forward, listening carefully:

"He's my Muggle best friend's older brother. His name is Thomas. I've had a crush on him for as long as I can remember, but I've never dared to mention it."

"Ooooh." said Lavender. "Is he handsome?"

"Yes, he's tall, and he has very light brown hair that falls in front of his eyes."

"Your best friend's older brother! Who would have thought Hermione Granger would be so skanky?" teased Lavender gently. "So no shameful crush?"

"Shameful?" repeated Hermione.

"You know, the kind of guy you can't really admit to, because it's embarrassing. For example, for Parvati, it's Draco Malfoy."

The concerned girl dropped a "hey!" to Lavender with a smile, and when she saw the look of pure shock on Hermione's face, she placed both hands in front of her as if to defend herself:

"Just physically! If you forget the arrogance and all that."

"And mine is Blaise Zabini." added Lavender with a sneer.

Hermione visualised Malfoy's best friend: he was tall, dark-skinned, and with perfect features, as if he had been carved from stone. It was true that he was handsome. Hermione also thought of Theodore Nott, who she thought was quite cute with his curly hair. But maybe it was because he had books in his hand all the time.

Lavender and Parvati continued their conversation until late, launching into a ranking of the cutest boys at Hogwarts, which they both listed with a laugh. Hermione listened, amused, sometimes giving her opinion, but she fell asleep before she could hear who had won first place.

Hermione

.

.

"And that's how you get to the Swelling Solution!" concluded Hermione in a whisper.

She had spoken so much that her throat was dry. Hermione studied Neville's reaction to see if he had understood her explanation about the potions. Seeing the look of incomprehension on his face, she leaned back in her chair and ran a hand over her face.

She and Neville had been sitting in the Library for several hours for their study session for the week. Potions class was the hardest for Neville, who in addition to his innate clumsiness, couldn't figure out the addition of ingredients and always ended up getting the order or properties of ingredients wrong. He swore that she helped him a lot, but she found it hard to believe.

She went back to the manual and explained each property of the ingredients, and then suggested that he do an exercise to understand their virtues. He began to answer the questions in the exercise book, and she waited patiently for him to finish, looking out the window.

It was raining outside, as it had been for a week, but that didn't stop Harry from practising almost every day. She could vaguely make out the red-clad figures flying over the pitch. Hermione was having fun trying to guess which of the figures was Harry when a nasally voice pulled her out of her thoughts:

"Longbottom? Is your girlfriend making you study for Potions?"

Hermione turned and met the darkly amused gaze of Pansy Parkinson. She was wearing her Slytherin uniform, but she had presumably shortened it, and removed her tie. Hermione didn't answer anything, but Neville had turned red.

"Ignore her, Neville." Hermione advised in a whisper.

"Careful Granger, your teeth will scratch the table if you keep talking." snapped Parkinson with a small laugh.

Hermione didn't answer but followed her with her eyes as she sat down at a table in the Library a little further away. Nott was already seated, accompanied by Malfoy and Crabbe who were reading. They didn't even greet each other when she arrived at their table. Pansy took a scroll out of her bag and spoke for a few seconds with Theodore Nott, who raised his eyebrows and laughed. He showed her something in his book, and Malfoy rolled his eyes and whispered something to Crabbe...

"Hermione?"

"Hm?"

"I'm done."

Hermione realised that she had been watching the Slytherin group for too long, and that Neville had probably repeated her first name several times to get her attention. She apologized and leaned over her exercise sheet to read it again. She corrected him on a few properties of ingredients he had confused, trying to teach him some memo techniques so he wouldn't forget in the next class.

"There, I think I've told you everything." she said, handing him his exercise book. "Did you need help with anything else?"

"Hm, yes actually... Did you do the Astronomy essay?"

"Yes, I finished it yesterday."

"I've almost finished it. Can I finish writing it so you can correct it for me?"

"Yes, yes. Sure."

Neville took his parchment and quill out of his bag and finished writing his essay. So as not to distract him, she preferred to keep quiet and wait rather than try to read over him.

Hermione had finished all her homework. She could have gotten up to choose a book, but her list of borrowed books was already full and she didn't want to start reading when there was already a very good book waiting for her on her bedside table. After several seconds, she put her head in her hands and continued her silent contemplation of the Slytherin table.

Pansy Parkinson was not working at all. She was talking with Malfoy and they were both laughing occasionally, while Nott was reading a book that Hermione couldn't identify. Crabbe, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling to finish a scroll, probably an essay, and was asking Nott for help, who refused with a wave of his hand without looking up from his book.

Malfoy had given up all plans to work: he no longer even glanced at the scroll in front of him. He had books and textbooks open in front of him, but his attention was completely taken up by Pansy Parkinson, who was telling him something while waving her hand. Hermione could see Nott's lips moving at times, but Pansy didn't turn to him and continued to talk to Malfoy who was watching her intently.

Pansy Parkinson was, admittedly, very pretty. She didn't like her because of her temper and the fact that she made fun of her all the time, but if you put her personality aside, she was really beautiful. She had a very pale complexion which contrasted with her black hair and dark eyes which she made up with eye liner to make them look like cat eyes. Her short bob stopped just below her ears and her hair was silky smooth and moved with her head movements like symmetrical waves. Hermione would have killed to have this hair texture.

Suddenly, without her expecting it, Malfoy suddenly looked at Hermione. She wanted to turn away, but his grey eyes pierced her so hard that it took several seconds before she could tear herself away from them. How could she see that they were grey when they were so far away? Had he turned to her because they were talking about her and looked at her at the mention of her name? Or had he sensed that she was already looking at him?

She pretended to be interested in Neville's essay, still feeling Malfoy's piercing gaze on her.

After several minutes, she discreetly looked back towards the Slytherin table.

It was empty.

"There! Finished!" Neville said proudly as he placed his quill on the table.

Hermione smiled and took the essay to read it again. She corrected a few sentences and the positioning of some of the planets, but all in all it was a very good paper.

They then both headed to the Great Hall for dinner. Ron and Harry had already finished eating (they liked to do it right after training), so Hermione had dinner with Neville and Seamus. They chatted about everything and then went back up to the Common Room, which was quite full on this Saturday night.

She sat down on one of the red sofas and sank into it. Ron was sitting at her feet finishing his Astronomy essay, and Harry came down from his dormitory a few minutes later. He sat down on Hermione's couch and gave her a small smile: his hair was longer than it had been in first year, it almost completely covered the scar on his forehead.

"How was practice?" she asked.

"Tiring. It was raining, plus Fred and George told me that the Slytherin team's brooms are much better than ours. And you, how was your study session in the Library?"

"Great, we studied a chapter of Potions and the Astronomy essay."

Ron let out a muffled complaint:

"What? You couldn't have helped me instead?"

Hermione rolled her eyes:

"You don't want help, you want me to write your essay for you. That's not working, that's resting on your laurels."

"So what? Being best friends with the first one in school should at least give me some advantages!" replied Ron with a half-smile.

"All you had to do was come to the Library with us, you would have had your study session with Neville."

Ron grumbled but didn't answer anything and continued to scribble on his parchment. Hermione glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had made a mistake in the two diagrams she could see.

"Oh, by the way, I bumped into Nick Nearly-Headless on my way back from training." Harry continued. "He asked me if I wanted to attend the anniversary of his death, it's on Halloween night. There's going to be some sort of party with lots of ghosts, and he's invited you two too."

"A deathday party?" said Hermione excitedly. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those, it'll be fascinating!"

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" grumbled Ron, "Sounds dead depressing to me..."

"Nick helped me avoid detention. Besides, when I was..."

Harry's sentence was interrupted by the sound of an explosion behind them. When they turned at the same time to see what was going on, Hermione was not surprised to see the hilarious faces of Fred and George, who were experimenting on a poor salamander that looked like it had swallowed fireworks. It was spinning in the air, spitting sparks.

Percy's authoritative voice barely covered the spectacle that was going on over the heads of the students and the laughter of the twins. Hermione didn't like it too much, she looked at the salamander disapprovingly, then back at the fire. She had forgotten what they were talking about.

Ron made a sound somewhere between a whine and a growl. Hermione sighed:

"Merlin, Ron, give me your essay."

Draco

.

.

On Halloween night, Draco couldn't have asked for a better feast. He had eaten almost nothing at lunch to save his appetite for the evening, and he devoured everything in sight, especially the desserts. After his third slice of pie, he forfeited.

He massaged his stomach as he contemplated the Halloween decorations: lots of pumpkins were flying below the false ceiling where the rain fell with a soothing sound, and there was a delicious smell of pumpkins and cinnamon that had spread through the Great Hall. Pansy, on the other hand, was absent-mindedly watching the bats circling in the centre of the hall.

Potter, Weasley and Granger were absent. Draco wanted to point this out, but given the reaction his friends had had the last time he had dared to speak out about them, he didn't bother.

"What are you reading, Nott?" asked Goyle.

The boy did not look up from his book as he instinctively replied:

"None of your business."

Blaise, who still wasn't talking to Crabbe and Goyle and so had sat on the other side of Draco to avoid being in front of them, gave a small laugh. Goyle ignored Nott's remark and insisted:

"We wanted to know... Could you do our History of Magic homework?"

Nott rolled his eyes:

"Not even in a dream."

"But you did it for Pansy!"

"Yes, because she's my friend."

"What about us? Aren't we your friends?!"

Nott arched an eyebrow and looked up for a few seconds to address Goyle directly:

"No."

Both boys rolled their eyes and sighed heavily in disappointment. Nott did not flinch. Suddenly Crabbe had an idea:

"How about we pay you?"

This time Theo suddenly looked up from his book and seemed interested for the first time all evening:

"Pay me?"

"Yes! We pay you for every assignment you do for us."

Goyle nodded vigorously in agreement.

"How much?" asked Theo eagerly.

"4 Galleons if you get us an 'Acceptable', 6 Galleons for an 'Exceeds Expectations' and 10 Galleons for an 'Oustanding'" replied Crabbe, counting on his fingers.

Theo seemed to think about the question for several seconds, then held out a hand over the table:

"Deal."

Crabbe shook it. All three of them were delighted, which made Draco laugh. Pansy, who hadn't moved her head to watch the exchange and was still contemplating the bats, asked:

"Why are you taking this, Nott? The door to your Gringotts chest is probably having trouble closing because of all the coins inside."

"Because it's not my money, it's my father's money." Theo replied, diving back into his book.

"So what? You can help yourself all you want."

"But that's just it, it's better to have some money set aside safely, just in case. Just... For me."

Draco frowned. He'd never thought about having money to spare, he knew he had plenty at Gringotts and that was enough for him. Pansy must have thought the same because she didn't object.

"And stop calling me Nott." added Theo coldly.

"Okay, Theodore." Pansy replied with a smirk.

"Still not. That's my father. Call me Theo by Merlin!"

Draco, Pansy and Blaise giggled as Theo continued to read with furrowed brows.

At the end of the meal, Dumbledore stood up to make a short speech, but Draco was talking to Blaise and not listening to a word the Headmaster said, other than "go to bed!" He got up, exhausted from eating so much, and followed the crowd of students who were heading to their respective dormitories. He shamelessly pushed the smaller students in order to get to the front of the line and to his bed faster.

But as he turned into the corridor, the sight he saw before his eyes stopped him dead in his tracks.

Potter, Weasley and Granger were all alone in the hallway, facing one of the walls that read:

"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE."

The message was written in red ink, which ran a little. Below, Filch's cat hung miserably from a torch, frozen like a plank. Draco felt a chill run down his spine as he realised that the red ink was actually blood. He heard Pansy's breath hitch at his side. He was both excited to see Potter get caught like that, and at the same time a little scared by the message in front of him.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! Soon it will be the turn of the Mudbloods!" he exclaimed.

He watched Potter's face lose what little colour it had left with delight.

"What's going on here?"

Draco turned to see the caretaker making his way through the crowd of people clumped together at the grim scene before them. When Filch saw Mrs Norris, his face cracked into a panicked expression that distorted all his features:

"My cat! My cat! What happened to my cat? You!" he shouted, pointing at Potter. "You're the one who murdered my cat! You killed her! And now I'm going to kill you! I'm going to-"

"Argus!"

Dumbledore appeared in his turn. He was not at all cheerful as he had been at the end of the Halloween feast a few minutes earlier, he was grave and serious. He unhooked Filch's cat from the wall and said calmly:

"Come with me, Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger."

The group walked slowly away. The crowd of students, silent until then, exploded with murmurs and shocked exclamations as everyone went their separate ways. Draco inspected the sentence on the wall again, then went to join Pansy, Blaise, Theo, Crabbe and Goyle as they descended into the dungeons:

"What do you think that was?" asked Pansy, her face livid.

"No idea." replied Blaise, concerned. "The Chamber of Secrets? And why was Potter out front?"

They arrived in the Slytherin Common Room. It was packed: everyone was discussing what had just happened after the Halloween dinner. Draco's group managed to find seats on a sofa and armchairs at the back of the room.

"Enemies of the heir, beware? What can this mean?" asked Pansy.

"That the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is going to attack Muggle-borns." replied Theo, who was sitting in one of the armchairs.

Everyone turned to him. He explained quietly:

"Haven't you ever read "Hogwarts : A History?" There's a legend that Salazar Slytherin created a Chamber inside the school, and that he hid a monster there that could wipe out students who didn't deserve to do magic."

"Mudbloods?" asked Goyle.

"Yes. According to legend, only the true heir of Salazar Slytherin would be able to open the Chamber."

"Is that true?" asked Pansy, both amazed and panicked.

"Only if you want to believe it." Nott replied with a shrug.

"That would be nice, a monster that could wipe out all the Mudbloods." said Draco.

"But suppose it's wrong and kills us..." said Pansy in a squeaky voice.

There was a small silence, where the six of them looked at each other as if one of them was suddenly going to transform. Then Blaise intervened:

"That still doesn't explain why Potter was out front. Isn't he supposed to want to protect the Muggle-borns? Like Granger?"

"Maybe he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Theo cut in and opened his book to the right page to continue reading.

"My father once told me about this Chamber..." said Draco quietly, deep in his memories. "I think he knew something about it, he once told me that one day Hogwarts would manage to get rid of the Muggle-borns when the true heir returned... I think it was opened before, and a Muggle had been killed."

"What?" exclaimed Pansy and Goyle at the same time.

"I'll send him an owl tomorrow and ask him."

"You have no idea who that might be, the heir?" asked Goyle.

"No..."

No matter how much Draco searched his memories, he couldn't specifically recall when Lucius had mentioned this Chamber of Secrets to him. He definitely had to listen more carefully during family dinners.

Everyone in the Common Room was tense, especially Pansy. Crabbe and Goyle looked around terrified, as if the monster was going to attack them any minute, and then they went to bed silently. Blaise seemed lost in thought, perhaps working out a theory. Theo was reading quietly in an armchair.

Pansy suddenly looked up and when she saw Theo, she snapped:

"Don't you get tired of reading all the time, Nott?"

"No. I can hear you when I'm reading, I can manage to do two things at once."

Pansy's eyes darkened and she stood up hastily.

"What are you reading, anyway? What could be more interesting than our conversation, eh?"

Theo realized what she was doing a second too late. He tried to hold on to his book with a faint, muffled complaint, but Pansy snatched it out of his hands.

"No!" screamed Theo.

He was completely panicked now. He was leaning forward with his arm in the air, trying hard to stop Pansy from reading the title of his book. Obviously, this reaction intrigued Pansy even more and she immediately read the book out loud:

"Twenty thousand leagues under the sea."

A wave of shock went through the group of Slytherins. Theo lowered his head, his cheeks red.

A Muggle book.