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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ sɪx

"Y/n, you can't sit out here all day. It's chilly. I know your wolf blood keeps you warm, but...I'm going to stay out here with you until you come inside. I'll freeze." Hermione was trying to convince me to come inside. We were out in then courtyard. She was watching me search through 'the spells bible' "Are you ignoring me?" She spoke with a hint of amusement.
"Hermione, look!" I pointed to a spell in the chapter 'protection and blessing spells' "This could help her, right?"
"Witchwood spell..." Hermione sat down beside me, finally, and took the book to read. "This is to drive evil away, Y/n."
"Exactly! She won't befall anymore harm if we protect her, right?"
"She is in the hospital wing, being watched constantly by Madam Pomfrey. As are everyone else who have been petrified. I don't think this will help. Maybe if you..."
"Cast it sooner." I nodded and stared down at the ground. Until Hermione spoke again.
"But I don't see a reason not to."
"What?" I looked at her, shocked but hopeful. "Y-You think we should cast it?"
"If it will ease your mind." She nodded and looked to the next spell. "Maybe you need this one?"
"...To ward off stress?" I read the purpose of it. "Harhar."
"Jokes aside-" Hermione  cleared her throat. "We do have all the equipment needed for this 'drive evil away' spell... Except for one."
"What?"
"This." She pointed to 'one sharp whittling knife.'
"...Couldn't we use any other knife?"
"No." Hermione shook her head. "If a spell requires any knife, it will say, any knife."
"I don't see how using a different knife will affect the spell, 'Mione."
"Pure bloods." She tutted. "Think they know everything. Think they can even bend the rules of spell work!"
"Okay, fine..." I eyed her with immense confusion. "Sorry."
"No need to apologise, my sweet, egotistical, dumb friend."
"Need I remind you I am in Ravenclaw, the house based on knowledge? And you're in Gryffindor?"
"...Let's not get caught up in houses." Hermione shook her head and read everything on the spell. Before muttering. "You're also in Slytherin...We both know most of them are stupid."
"I can hear you loud and clear, even when you mutter to yourself."
"Okay, I think I know where I can get a whittling knife from." She quickly changed the subject.
"Do they not have them here?" I asked her.
"They don't even have them in Hogsmeade, Y/n. These knives are more of a... muggle thing."
"...Why?"
"Well, you see, because witches and wizards and all other magical beings have, well, magic, they don't need to rely on tools, like a whittling knife. A-A whittling knife is used to carve things. Like pumpkins, and sculptures."
"Muggles carve pumpkins by hand?"
"Well how else do you expect them to?"
"I honestly always thought pumpkins were just a wizard world thing. I mean, I knew muggles ate pumpkins, but they actually carve them? L-Like, for Halloween? Like us?"
"Yes, Y/n. You never knew this?"
"...No. A-Anyway, how are you going to acquire this knife?"
"I'll need to send a letter to my parents."
"And they'll just send you a knife in the mail?"
"I'll tell them it's for a spell. They don't need to know that it isn't exactly for a school project, of course."
"Okay. How long will it take until we can do this, then?"
"I'll send the letter now." She took out a quill and parchment from her robes. "They should respond by tomorrow."
"Okay." I nodded. "I guess I could hold off for another day."

"What are you two doing out here?" Ron asked as he and Harry came over to us.
"You're out here, too." I pointed out the obvious.
"Yeah, because we saw you two." Harry told us.
"We were just heading back inside." Hermione finished writing and put everything away.
"Shouldn't we send that now?" I asked Hermione, watching as her letter was stowed in her pocket. "Better sooner than later."
"...Of course." Hermione gave me a half smile, shivering as she stood up.
"Are you cold?" I stood up after her, watching the three shiver. "Oh. You all are."
"It's okay." Hermione shook her head. "We'll send this off, and go inside!"
And so, the four of us headed to the owl tower. And Ron had brought up the conversation of Hagrid being the one who'd opened the chamber.

"Riddle might have gotten the wrong person." Hermione suggested. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."
"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked her.
"A lot." I shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fifty foot creature below the dungeons."
*lil jokey foreshadowing. we love those*
"What?" Harry looked at me, scared. "Really? Why do you think that?"
"Well, we already have a squid."
"That's in the lake, Y/n." Hermione told me.
"Yes, but if you tap on a specific window in the Slytherin common room-" I continued. "The giant squid will slap its tentacle up on it!"
"You're not being serious." Ron shook his head at me. "T-That's a joke, surely."
"No, it's true. I swear."
"That's really dangerous." Hermione spoke.
"The windows are enchanted not to break, 'Mione." I told her. "For obvious reasons. One being we're literally underwater in the common rooms. And the giant squid slapping the window every other hour counts as another. And the fact almost everyone has had a fight in the common room which has led to someone, or everyone involved, banging into the windows."
"I'm glad I'm in Gryffindor." Harry sighed.
"Here, here." As did Ron.
"Harry... You don't honestly think Hagrid had anything to do with opening the chamber all those years ago, do you?" Hermione brought the conversation back to Hagrid and the Chamber. "It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be."
"We don't even know this Tom Riddle." Ron started. "He sounds like a dirty rotten snitch, to me."
"We already knew that Hagrid had been expelled." Harry began. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise Riddle hadn't have gotten his award."
"Riddle does sound like Percy." Ron took a different route. "Who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"
"The monster killed someone, Ron!" Hermione told him.
"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts." I noticed confused looks on the three faces before me. "B/n and I were sent to an orphanage after our father lost custody of us." I explained. "Though it wasn't a Muggle one. It was still not the best, from what I could remember of it. Luckily they sent us to France when we were 3." '𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.' "My point is, I don't blame Tom for wanting to stay here."
"So you believe him?" Ron asked me. "That Hagrid was the one who opened the chamber?"
"No." I shook my head. "I believe he believed that. But we know Hagrid. He wouldn't do such a thing. Maybe his... pet, was doing it without Hagrid's knowledge?"
"I've never heard of spiders being able to petrify people." Hermione stated as we got to the owl tower.
"Neither have I."
"You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you?" Ron looked between Harry and I as we walked up.
"He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent." Harry told him.
"...Do you think we should go and Hagrid about it all?" Hermione asked us.
"That'd be a cheerful visit." Ron snickered. " 'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose on the castle lately?' "
"Yes... I suppose it's in best interest to not bring that up."