meant to be (2)

49

"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away!" said Ron bitterly at breakfast next day. "and we could've asked her, and now.."

It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into a girls bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.

But something happened in our first lesson, Transfiguration, which drove the Chamber of Secrets out of our minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

"Exams?" howled Seamus. "We're still getting exams?"

There was a loud bang behind me as Neville's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.

"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education." she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all revising hard."

Revising hard! It had never occurred to me that there would be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

"Professor Dumbledores instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible." she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."

"Not to set Pixies loose." I muttered quietly to Ron and Harry before looking down at the pair of white rabbits I was supposed to be turning into slippers.

Exams. Studying. Revision. I didn't even know what I was supposed to revise. My mind immediately slipped to Hermione. She would've known. It was hard without her, very hard. I missed her. Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.

"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked Harry and me, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly. I sniggered quietly.

Three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

"I have good news." she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted. "Dumbledore's coming back!"

Several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly. I sniggered into my porridge. Typical Oliver.

"When the hubbub had subsided." Professor McGonagall continued. "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit!"

There was an explosion of cheering. I looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Malfoy hadn't joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.

"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to Harry and me. "Hermione will probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go mad when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't revised. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over!"

Just then, Ginny came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and I noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.

"Is everything alright, Gin?" I asked, helping myself to more porridge. Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her facey

"Spit it out." said Ron, watching her in worry. I started getting anxious. I've never seen anyone be so scared.

"I've got to tell you something." Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

"What is it?" asked Harry curiously. Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.

"What?" said Ron. Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. I leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny, Harry and Ron could hear me.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?" I asked, quite hesitantly by the look of her face.

Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy appeared, looking tired and wan.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty!" he said, yawning unbothered by the way Ginny was rocking back and forth anxiously in her seat.

Then she jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scarpered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the centre of the table.

"Percy!" said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"

Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.

"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.

"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say-" Ron started explaining, but was cut off.

"Oh - that - that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets." said Percy at once.

"How do you know?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when was - well, never mind - the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think shed keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather-"

I had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable.

"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."

Percy didn't smile back.

"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving!" Harry did and looked as though he was ready to drop the subject - I wasn't.

"Come on, tell us!" I urged. Percy responded by grunting into his rolls.

What was he doing?