Blood Magic ✤ George Weasley ✓

21 - Nobody Messes With Ana

musical mood: talk - hozier

Two days had passed before Cass made up her mind to go through with the twin's prank, two days in which Hogwarts was in full on crisis mode.

Only a week after Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevey had been found petrified, just outside the Gryffindor common room. According to Parvati, who had been the one to discover his frozen body, he was ice cold, and still had his camera in his hand.

Luna seemed to take this especially hard. Colin was in most of her classes, after all, so in most of her spare time, she'd wander off to the hospital wing to keep him company.

"He can hear us." Luna insisted, when questioned about it by Cass. "I can tell. So it's best to read to him, and talk to him, so he isn't lonely."

And where Luna went, Naia was sure to follow, so there were now two girls consistently absent from the Ravenclaw tower. If this kept up, Colin would have a choir of people at his hospital bed. Poor kid deserved it, too.

Bethany was noticeably withdrawn - more than usual, which certainly said something. Cass assumed she felt guilty, for being so harsh to Colin, now that he had been the target of the Heir of Slytherin. But then again, Bethany didn't seem one to feel regret...

"Poor Colin." Ana had her head in her hands, during potions class, the day after he had been admitted to the hospital wing.

Cass, Ana, Terry and Anthony Goldstein were all paired together to work on a massive cure to the Black Plague potion, though Cass ended up being the one doing most of the work. She didn't mind, it was a simple enough potion, though considerably useless, and the others seemed to have enough on their minds as it was.

With a glance over at Bethany, who was hunched over a cauldron of her own, paired with Padma, Theodore and Crabbe, Cass sighed. "Yeah, it's just so awful. I can't imagine who would do something like that."

"Well, I heard from Henry Nott, that Blaise Zabini has been caught out of bed by Filch several times now. Including the night Colin was found, and he wasn't at the feast when Mrs. Norris was attacked." Anthony said rather loudly, as Cass poured a liquid into the potion, causing its colour to chance from yellow to orange. "It's a bit suspicious, if you ask me."

Cass stiffened, hoping Blaise, who was in the same class as them, hadn't overheard.

"I doubt it." Terry interjected, looking slightly less solemn as Ana. "The Heir of Slytherin would be older, don't you think? Someone smarter, that you know...could open a mysterious chamber in Hogwarts that no one has ever seen before. I don't think a twelve year old could do that. Besides, Zabini got in trouble for the same stuff last year, walking around past curfew and such, and he didn't open any chamber then."

"He's probably just a troublemaker." Ana added, with a sad smile. "But I don't know about it being someone older. Isn't it just as likely a first year got told by their parent how to do it, and is going after their orders? Has the chamber been opened before?"

The three of them shrugged, none having an answer. Cass, at least, had never even heard of the chamber of secrets until Halloween, which made her feel incredibly dumb. She'd done some reading on it since, but there was hardly any information on it that she could find, and the little she did was nothing of use.

"If we're betting on first years, I'm going for Adelaide Burke." Terry said, lowering his voice in case Bethany overheard. "She gives me the creeps. I mean, she was practically celebrating what happened to Colin at breakfast today. Her and Malfoy seemed ready to have a party."