Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Nineteen

That night, we all sat as far from Percy as possible in the common room. Ron, who was still a bad mood, kept on messing up his Charms homework and when he reached for his wand to remove the smudges, it set the parchment on fire. I jumped back and watched as the flames burned away the paper. 

"You really need a new wand," I say slamming The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 book shut. 

He glares at me. "Yeah, I know"

Hermione waved her wand making the flames disappear. Ron sighed and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and started his homework again.

As Ron worked on his homework, I heard Hermione sigh and slam her book shut too.

"Who can it be, though?" she asked in a quiet voice like she was continuing a conversation we were just having. "Who'd want all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," Ron said in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?"

He looked at Hermione, Hermione looked back unconvinced.

"If you're talking about Malfoy-"

"Of course he is!" I said. "You heard him: 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' Come on, you've only got to look at that ugly thing he calls a face to know he's the guilty one!"

Hermione looks at me and raises her eyebrow. "Malfoy the heir of Slytherin?"

"Look at his family," Harry stepped in, closing his book too. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough"

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" Ron said looking at us. "Handing it down, father to son..."

"Well," Hermione took a deep breath. "I suppose it's possible..."

I roll my eyes. "Nothing possible about it. It's them and that's final"

"But how do we prove it?" Harry asked darkly, scooting closer to me.

"There might be a way," Hermione said slowly, dropping her voice and glancing at Percy across the room. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect."

I look at her and gasp. Is she seriously suggesting what I think she is?

"Hermione...you can't be serious!" My eyes widened.

Ron looks at us both. "If, in a month or so, you both feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?"

I glare at him before throwing a pillow at his head. He dodges it and glares at me, I just simply stick my tongue out at him. Mature Bella. Very mature.

"All right," Hermione rolled her eyes. "What we'd need to do is get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realising it's us"

"But that's impossible," Harry said, as Ron laughed.

I shake my head. "Not it's not, it's risky but not impossible. All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion"

"What's that?" Harry and Ron asked together. 

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago." Hermione was cut off by Ron.

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" He muttered.

I roll my eyes and sigh. "It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him"

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," Ron said, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherin's forever?"

"It wears off after a while," Hermione said before I could, "but getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Moste Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library"

That would be a problem. The only way to get a book out of the Restricted Section was to have a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," Ron said and Harry nodded. "If we weren't going to try and make one of the potions"

"I think," I press my lips together, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come off it. No teacher's going to fall for that," Ron rolled his eyes. "They'd have to be really thick..."

I shared a look with Harry and grinned. His eyes widened and he too grinned before winking at me.

"We know," Harry grins. "Which is why Lockhart is our teacher"

"Because he's thick as pig poo," I high five Harry. 

Fase One is a go!