SCARLETT: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Chapter 10: Powers

The next attacks were incredibly inconvenient. The minute I'd convinced Ernie that 'maybe Potter isn't so bad', Justin got attacked, along with Nearly-Headless-Nick. I was quite curious. What happened when someone who was already dead became petrified? Would he fade or something? I made a mental to ask Hermione later.

Speaking of Hermione, her and the boys were finally ready to go through with their stupid plan. Eliza made me stay out of the actual thing, but I was allowed to plan. Unfortunately, it all went horribly wrong and Hermione ended up with the face of a cat.

However, Harry and Ron did get some information. Draco wasn't the heir of Slytherin, but he did make comments about me in his spare time too, which was fun to know.

Hermione stayed in the hospital wing for 3 weeks. It took that long for all of the fur to come off her face and for her eyes to go back to brown. In between classes, people would stop in front of the hospital wing just to try to catch a glimpse of her; of course, everyone thought she'd been petrified. Madam Pomfrey pulled the curtains around her bed to save her from embarrassment. Harry, Ron, Eliza and I visited her everyday carrying stacks of homework. Sometimes Eden came along, but she was known for doing her own thing.

"If I had a furry face, I'd take the chance to slack off..." I muttered. Hermione hit me on the back of the head with a piece of parchment. "What was that for?" I grumbled.

"I need to keep up with all of you! There's no time for slacking off!" Hermione said frantically. I gave her an exasperated look.

"You're the cleverest in the year, of course, you'd keep up with us! I don't know about you, but I'm practically failing in potions."

"Really? You've always seemed pretty good at potions!" Hermione said.

I scoffed. "Fuck no. The only reason I'm not failing is because of the notes you give me and the help from Eliza.

Eliza nodded. "It's true. If Scarlett could drop any class, it would be Potions."

Hermione looked scandalised. "You can't drop Potions, it's needed for practically every career."

After originally laughing at Eliza's comment, I became a little worried at Hermione's. The only teachers that ever seemed to change were Defence Professors, so I'd probably be stuck with Snape every year until I left. There was no way I was passing exams with Snape as my teacher, and without qualifications I was nothing.

-

That was all I thought about over the next few weeks. I had always conquered intrusive thoughts, and I had often worried about my future, but never this badly. Before it had been about money, now it was about how if I didn't get wizard qualifications, there was no way to get muggle ones either. If I wasn't smart enough for these, I was going to be a failure.

Hermione finally got out of the hospital wing with all her cat features gone and started classes again. Lockhart was still an airhead, Snape was still a dick, Eden still hung out with meth-heads. Life went on, yet I couldn't get this thought out of my head.

One afternoon, I was sitting on the floor of Myrtle's bathroom, my future still on my mind. I didn't notice the air becoming colder, the ice creeping up the walls, the goosebumps on my skin. Not until Hermione slipped her way through the bathroom and sat down next to me, some blood on her leg.

"Thought I saw you come down here. Are you alright?" she said kindly. That's when I looked up at the room.

"Holy fuck," I whispered. Hermione laughed.

"The hallways are worse. It's an ice rink out there. What spell did you use for it? Glacius?"

"I didn't use one. I guess it just... happened. How fucking weird." I looked around the room again. It looked like an ice palace.

"Are you sure? That's strange..." Hermione said, subconsciously tugging her hair.

"What's strange?" I said, my heart sinking. Would this be another Harry situation, where only evil people can turn things to ice?

"I've never read anything about this type of magic before..." she muttered, "But that doesn't mean it's bad!" she added hastily, seeing my face.

"Something similar has happened before, now I think of it," I said, "Except it involved fire, not ice."

Hermione thought for a moment. "I reckon we should keep this between ourselves until we know what it is. I don't want people finding this out only to discover that it hasn't been seen in centuries or something."

I nodded in agreement. "Alright. So, agree not to tell anybody," I said, putting my hand in front of me for her to shake.

Hermione nodded in return. "Nobody."