The Exchange Student - Cedric Diggory⁴

➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟏𝟐 "𝙏𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙮 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙡𝙚"

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"We need to make it quick, the next class starts in ten minutes," Nicolás urged.

After stressful days, Harry and Ron had requested to see Nicolás, rather desperately. With how high tensions were, the professor had been more rigid and very worried, taking every single student from classroom to classroom, keeping constant vigilance on them and their moves at all times.

Nicolás and Caelum had tried all week to speak with either McGonagall or Sprout, to no avail, as neither of the professors seemed to be able to spear a single minute to hear them, and Dumbledore was so out of reach, leaving them no option but to wait.

"We were talking about how the Basilisk is moving through the plumbery," said Harry. Nicolás nodded.

"And we believe is the bathroom! Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Ron.

"We need to get to the staffroom and speak with McGonagall, then," said Nicolás.

"She'll be there in ten minutes! It's nearly break," urged Harry.

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staffroom. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. They paced the room, waiting for the bell to ring.

But the bell to signal the break never came. Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please."

Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron and Nicolás. "Not another attack? Not now?"

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast.

"We should go back to the dormitories," Nicolás suggested.

"No," said Harry desperate, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

Nicolás was about to argue with them, but Harry gave him those desperate and pleading puppy eyes. He sighed. Don't blame him, he had never had to take care of anyone more than a few days younger, and Harry was adorable.

They hid themselves inside the wardrobe, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staffroom door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staffroom. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"

Professor Flitwick burst into tears with Professor Sprout patting his back trying to console him.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

Nicolás felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him. Crouching to his level, Nicolás brought Ron's crestfallen face, pressing it to his side, a firm hand on the boy's head.