Dolonia

Chapter 13

        "All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," Ron said bitterly at breakfast next day, "and we could've asked her, and now..."

        It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.

        But something happened in our first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of our minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

        "Exams?" Seamus Finnigan howled. "We're still getting exams?"

        There was a loud bang behind Harry and I as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.

        "The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."

        Studying hard! It had never occurred to me that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

        "Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."

        "Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" Ron asked Harry and I, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.

        Three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

        "I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

        "Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

        "You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" a girl at the Ravenclaw table squealed.

        "Quidditch matches are back on!" Wood roared excitedly.

        When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

        There was an explosion of cheering. I looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.

        "It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to Harry and I. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."

        Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.

        "What's up?" Ron said, helping himself to more porridge.

        Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face, which concerned me.