Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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Ron bit his lip, then said tentatively, 'You met Hagrid down Knockturn Alley, didn't you, Harry?'

'He was buying a Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent,' said Harry quickly.

The four of them fell silent. After a long pause, Hermione voiced the knottiest question of all in a hesitant voice: 'Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?'

'That'd be a cheerful visit,' said Ron. 'Hello, Hagrid, tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'

In the end, they decided that they wouldn't say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to talk to him about why he had been expelled. It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Peeves had finally got bored of his 'Oh Potter, you rotter' song, Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in Greenhouse Three. This made Professor Sprout very happy.

'The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature,' she told Harry. 'Then we'll be able to revive those poor people in the hospital wing.'

*
The second-years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their subjects for the third year, a matter that Hermione and Amelia, at least, took very seriously.

'It could affect our whole future,' she told Harry and Ron, as they pored over lists of new subjects, marking them with ticks.

'I just want to give up Potions,' said Harry.

'We can't,' said Ron gloomily. 'We keep all our old subjects, or I'd've ditched Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

'But that's very important!' said Hermione, shocked.

'Not the way Lockhart teaches it,' said Ron. 'I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose.'

Amelia chuckled. ' I'm putting myself down for Care For Magical Creatures, how bout you?'

Neville Longbottom had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, all giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists