Adventures of Harriet Potter

The Dueling Club

Harriet woke up on Sunday morning to find the dormitory blazing with winter sunlight and her arm reboned but very stiff. She sat up quickly and looked over at Colin's bed, but it had been blocked from view by the high curtains Harriet had changed behind yesterday. Seeing that she was awake, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over with a breakfast tray and then began bending and stretching her arm and fingers. "All in order," she said as she fed herself porridge left-handed. "When you've finished eating, you may leave." Harriet dressed as quickly as she could and hurried off to Gryffindor Tower, desperate to tell Ron and Hermione about Colin and Dobby, but they weren't there. Harriet left to look for them, wondering where they could have got to and feeling slightly hurt that they weren't interested in whether she had her bones back or not.
As Harriet passed the library, Percy Weasley strolled out of it, looking in far better spirits than last time they'd met. "Oh, hello, Harriet," he said. "Excellent flying yesterday, really excellent. Gryffindor has just taken the lead for the House Cup — you earned fifty points on top of the hundred fifty for catching the snitch!" Harriet smiled kindly at the praise, she was glad to do her part in the team effort but would rather not flaunt her fame. One look at Lockhart showed where that could go and she didn't want that.
"You haven't seen Ron or Hermione, have you?" said Harriet. "No, I haven't," said Percy, his smile fading. "I hope Ron's not in another girls' toilet. . . ." Harriet forced a laugh, watched Percy walk out of sight, and then headed straight for Moaning Myrtle's lavatory. She couldn't see why Ron and Hermione would be in there again, but after making sure that neither Filch nor any prefects were around to accuse her of petrifying Mrs. Norris, she opened the door and heard their voices coming from a locked stall. "It's me," she said, closing the door behind her. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within the stall and she saw Hermione's eye peering through the keyhole.
"Harriet!" she said. "You gave us such a fright — come in — how's your arm?" Harriet felt better instantly, hearing that they were concerned about her arm. Though only marginally because they went to the lavatory instead of coming to see her first thing that morning. "Fine," said Harriet, squeezing into the stall. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim told Harriet they had lit a fire beneath it. Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a speciality of Hermione's. "We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained as Harriet, with difficulty, locked the stall again. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."
Harriet started to tell them about Colin, but Hermione interrupted. "We already know — we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going —" Harriet tried to look like the fact they already knew didn't disappoint her. "The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better," snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin." Harriet put her right hand on her chin, thinking about it carefully. It made a bit of sense, but didn't add up. If she were on better terms with the Slytherins she'd probably have been able to ask them, getting an alibi from Malfoy and confirming it with his dorm mates. She resolved to follow the available evidence until she had reason to doubt it.
"There's something else," said Harriet, watching Hermione tearing bundles of knotgrass and throwing them into the potion. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night." Ron and Hermione looked up, amazed. Harriet told them everything Dobby had told her — or hadn't told her. Hermione and Ron listened with their mouths open. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione said. "This settles it," said Ron in a triumphant voice. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious. Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school." Doubting it was Draco's father, mostly because the man struck her as a self preserving slime rather than the pure evil required to mount such an open attack on the school, Harriet had to admit it was some kind of monster causing the petrifications. Every spell capable of doing so was easy to reverse without using Mandrake Drought. As for how it was sneaking around, avoiding everything from the paintings to the ghosts, she wasn't sure. On her way to the lavatory she'd questioned several paintings about the night before and Halloween night, none of them could recall seeing anything. "Maybe it can make itself invisible," said Hermione, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself — pretend to be a suit of armor or something — I've read about Chameleon Ghouls —" Harriet smiled at Hermione, glad they both loved reading so much. Though doubted this was the work of a Chameleon Ghoul, the pattern didn't fit and someone would have had to let it into the school. "You read too much, Hermione," said Ron, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty lacewing bag and looked at Harriet. "So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm. . . ." He shook his head. "You know what, Harriet? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you."