SCARLETT: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Chapter 7: Polyjuice Potion

After dinner, Eliza helped Eden carry her canvas to the kitchens while I carried the paints. I tapped on the barrels for us and opened all the doors up as to not get any paint anywhere. When we arrived outside our dormitory, I pushed down the handle on the door. It didn't open. I frowned, pushing my shoulder against it. Still nothing.

"The bitch has gone and locked us out," I muttered, putting the container of paints on the floor, kicking the handle with my foot. It fell off onto the floor, so I entered.

Piper and her friends were still there, sitting on our beds, going through our things. There was no way this was authorised. They were all frozen in shock, one girl half-way through cutting one of my posters.

"Alright," I said, "You've seen what I just did to the door with only my body. I may be a second-year but I will fuck you up if you don't fucking leave right now."

I don't think many of them were that scared, maybe more scared that I would rat them out, so they all walked briskly out the door. When they were all gone, Eliza repaired the door, Eden went into the bathroom and I decided to have a little chat with Piper.

She looked genuinely scared, sitting on her bed in the far corner. I walked over to her, taking one of her ornaments off the shelf.

"Guess what, Piper? If you break my stuff, the only response I'm going to have is to break yours back!" I dropped the ornament onto the wooden floor, watching it shatter. Eliza didn't even gasp, which is proof of how annoyed everyone was with her.

-

Harry and Ron seemed convinced that Draco Malfoy was the 'Heir of Slytherin', which was what had been painted on the wall on Halloween. Even Hermione was warming up to the idea, which was what surprised me the most.

"Draco? That dumbass?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah well, who else would it be?"

I was currently sitting in an abandoned bathroom with Harry and Ron while Hermione brewed ingredients in a cauldron. She was consulting a book called Most Potent Potions. Don't ask.

"How did you even get a note for the book anyway?" I asked.

"Professor Lockhart isn't exactly smart," said Ron, leaning against one of the sinks.

"Oh...I think I've already gathered that."

"We just gave him the slip. I don't even think he looked to see what book we wanted out." cut in Harry.

"Yeah, well he'd sign anything that kept still long enough," I mumbled, kicking the door.

"Someone here was very keen on keeping the slip..." said Ron. Hermione blushed a deep rose colour.

"Anyway," she said, "The potion should be ready in a fortnight. We just need two more ingredients, which I don't think will be in the student supplies. We need to break into Snape's private stores."

Ron's eyes widened. "How are we going to do that? He'll kill us on the spot if he sees us in there."

"That's why we're going to need a distraction!"

-

I still hadn't had a chance to talk to Hermione about my dad. I just thanked my lucky stars that I could stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because I didn't want to go home. However, we still had a week left of term and it was dragging on.

Eliza had talked to Professor Sprout and had discovered that Piper's note had been fake. She had asked for one but got declined. That made me want to rip her to shreds, but I didn't want to go to Azkaban so I decided on ripping her clothes instead. Eliza was still mad at me about that, as it landed me back with Professor McGonagall for a chat and got thirty points taken off.

Finally, the holidays rolled around the Piper went home. People's presents had started arriving via owl, so I looked up a spell to conjure a tree in our room to put them under. Eliza was staying again, and Eden was too. I obviously was, as I wanted to avoid my mum's boyfriend as much as possible.

In our first year, we had been too distracted by the Philosopher's Stone to focus on Christmas, which might've been a good thing. My mum hadn't sent me that many presents that year, and by 'not many' I meant two. Of course, that was better than nothing, but I didn't want Eliza feeling sorry for me.

The only post office that you could hand send letters was in Hogsmeade, which we weren't allowed to visit until our third year. To solve that problem, we got sent catalogues around Christmas time and teachers could deliver letters for us. They could also pick up any parcels too. For muggleborns, they had started an interesting process where mail from muggle relatives that don't know about magic was redirected to Hogwarts by squibs.

I hoped my grandparents hadn't forgotten again.