The days after the incident were long and hard for Petunia. Without Hermione's help she would have fallen behind in all her classes as she kept drifting off in lessons from sleepless nights, and the thoughts running through her mind made it almost impossible to concentrate on anything else but Mrs. Norris and Tom.
Filch didn't help, because when he wasn't guarding the spot where Mrs.Norris was petrified, he was on the offence by cornering students and handing out bogus detentions for being happy.
Hermione and December were no help either. Both of them seemed utterly facinated with the chamber of secrets, for opposite reasons.
"Man this Chamber of Secrets shit could totally shut this school down!" December said excitedly, plopping down at the Gryffindor table beside Neville. Neville looked up, surprised to see this Hufflepuff over here.
"Your not supposed to be sitting with us December!" Hermione hissed, looking up at the professors to see if anyone noticed.
December waved her off, nipping a strawberry from Fred's plate.
"I saw that." Fred said flicking December's ear.
"Whatever, but dude. Fo'real this shit could shut down the school." December said again, louder so that they would listen.
Harry didn't look convinced. "How? It was probably some prank gone wrong."
"Dude." December's mouth feel open and she stared at him. "A cat was petrified and the words written behind the cat were in blood. I don't know about y'all, but that's a fucked up prank if you ask me." She stood up, grabbed Petunia's hand and towed her off.
"Where are we going?" Petunia asked as they rounded the corner of the Great Hall.
"Library, Brandy's already there looking for books on that chamber." December informed her.
"Oh, I don't know about joining you guys. This Chamber thing gives me the creeps." Petunia said, shivering as a cold feeling crawled up her spine.
"Okay, I'll just tell Brandy you chickened out last minute." December shrugged, walking off.
"Wait," Petunia called, rushing to catch up, "What does that mean?"
"Oh nothing at all, just that you would rather ditch than hang out with her." December said coily.
Petunia looked at her, confusion written all over her face. "I still don't understand."
"Wow." December muttered, looking over at Petunia with a raised brow, "You really are something huh."
"What does that mean?"
This continued for some time
---Half an hour later---
Hermione had joined them in the library, closely followed afterwards by Ron and, finally, Harry.
"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short!" Said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "And Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny."
"I'd let you copy mine, but I don't have the same classes as you." December said, finishing off the Dutch braid she was placing into Brandy's hair.
"Where is Hermione anyways?" asked Harry, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.
"Somewhere over there," said Petunia, pointing along the shelves. "Looking for another book."
"I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas." Brandy said, pulling Petunia into her lap to do her hair.
