Double Double Toil and Trouble // Two // [ON HOLD]

Chapter Ten

Everything felt different when we started classes again on Monday. Anywhere I went, people would give me weird looks, much different to the stares I usually got because of the permanent mark on my forehead. And it didn't take a genius to know that Harry was getting the same treatment.

However, I tried to ignore the looks and focus on my classes. At lunch, Hermione had about four books stacked next to her plate.

"Hermione," Ron said, "you know lunch means eat, not read, right?"

She shot him a look. "I've been trying to find something, anything, about the Chamber of Secrets. There's no mention of it anywhere."

"Maybe it doesn't exist." Nat said. "It was probably just some older students messing around."

I shook my head. "No. There's messing around, and then there's writing blood messages on the wall and tying a petrified cat to a torch." She paused before nodding. "Fair enough."

After we finished eating, the five of us walked to History of Magic together. Professor Binns was seated at his desk, watching as each student filed in. His spirit-like body was similar to Nearly Headless Nick's but he was clearly much older when he died.

I sat with Nat at one of the two-person desks towards the front and pulled out my textbook.

Nat pulled out both her History of Magic, and her Transfiguration textbooks. I gave her an odd look.

"I need to study." She said.

I was fiddling around with my quill, waiting for class to start, and Nat suddenly started reading out of her books aloud to herself.

I elbowed her. "Can't you read silently?"

She looked up at me. "I can either read out loud, or not at all."

I sighed. "Fine, read out loud then." I said.

She shook her head. "Out of spite, I will not." And she continued reading, but to herself this time.

I sat there for a while wondering what had just happened, but I went with it nonetheless.

You'd think having a dead teacher would be more exciting than a living one, but Professor Binns proved that theory wrong. He spoke so slowly that you couldn't help but fall asleep.

To keep myself awake, I focused on something else. Much to Nat's dismay, I decided to start bugging her. As she took notes on what Binns was saying, I left subtle dots on her paper with my quill. She clearly noticed, yet she ignored it.

When Binns went on a long, slow rant, Nat held her head up to watch him. I took the 2opportunity to write I'm bored underneath her notes.
   
She glanced back down when I pulled my arm away. "That's not my problem." She whispered.

"Miss Cummings." Binns suddenly said. We looked up to find him staring at us. "May I continue?"

Nat nodded. "Sorry sir."

He looked down at his book again, and Nat gave me a glare. I smiled innocently.

Minutes went by, though it felt like hours, before something happened that never happened in Professor Binns' class: Hermione put her hand up.

Binns looked amazed. "Miss...er...?"

"Granger, sir." Hermione answered for him. "I was wondering if you could tell us more about...The Chamber of Secrets."

Everyone who hadn't been paying attention were suddenly all ears, people who were sleeping on their arms woke up with starts, and Neville Longbottom's elbow fell off the side of his desk.