To change the future

Dueling Club

 Harry woke up on Sunday morning to find the dormitory blazing with winter sunlight and his arm reboned but very stiff. He sat up quickly and looked over at Colin's bed, but it had been blocked from view by the high curtains Harry had changed behind yesterday. Seeing that he was awake, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over with a breakfast tray and then began bending and stretching his arm and fingers.

 "All in order," she said as he clumsily fed himself porridge lefthanded. "When you've finished eating, you may leave." Harry dressed as quickly as he could and hurried off to Gryffindor Tower, desperate to tell his brother and their friends about Colin and Dobby but they weren't there. Harry left to look for them, wondering where they could have got to and feeling slightly hurt that they weren't interested in whether he had his bones back or not.

"Of course we did, but we were doing something important also." Hermione says, indicating herself and Ron.

 As Harry passed the library, Percy Weasley strolled out of it, looking in far better spirits than last time they'd met. "Oh, hello, Harry," he said. "Excellent flying yesterday, really excellent. Gryffindor has just taken the lead for the House Cup you earned fifty points!"

"You haven't seen Ron or Hermione, have you?" said Harry. "No, I haven't," said Percy, his smile fading. "I hope Ron's not in another girls' toilet .....

Harry forced a laugh, watched Percy walk out of sight, and then headed straight for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He couldn't see why Ron and Hermione would be in there again, but after making sure that neither Filch nor any prefects were around, he opened the door and heard their voices coming from a locked stall. "It's me," he said, closing the door behind him.

There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within the stall and he saw Hermione's eye peering through the keyhole. 'Harry!" she said. "You gave us such a fright - come in how's your arm?" "Fine," said Harry, squeezing into the stall. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim told Harry 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 Harry, with difficulty, locked the stall again. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

"It was, until this reading." Fred says, and the Professors nod. They would be checking that spot from now on

Harry began to recount the incident with Colin, but Hermione cut him off. "We're aware - we overheard Professor McGonagall informing Professor Flitwick this morning. Hence, we figured it was time to act," she said. "We need to extract a confession from Malfoy as soon as possible," Ron growled. "You know what my theory is? He was so upset after losing the Quidditch match that he lashed out at Colin." Harry, observing Hermione shred bunches of knotgrass into the potion, added, "There's more to it. Dobby paid me a visit last night."

Ron and Hermione looked up, astonished. Harry recounted everything Dobby had - or hadn't - told him. Hermione and Ron listened with their mouths agape. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione questioned. "That settles it," Ron declared triumphantly. "Lucius Malfoy must have opened the Chamber when he was a student here, and now he's instructed dear Draco on how to do it. It's clear. I just wish Dobby had revealed what kind of monster is in there. I'm curious why no one has noticed it prowling around the school." "Perhaps it can become invisible," Hermione suggested, pushing leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or it might disguise itself, maybe as a suit of armor or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls."

"It was a completely awful book." Jason snorts

"You read too much, Hermione," Ron remarked, adding dead lacewings to the leeches. He crumpled the empty lacewing bag and glanced at Harry. "So, Dobby prevented us from boarding the train and broke your arm." He shook his head. "You know, Harry, if he doesn't stop trying to save you and Jason's lives, he's going to end up killing you two."