Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Forty

Last update before Christmas! Hope you all have an amazing day! Thanks for a great year! Merry Christmas everyone!

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The hope of someone saving her vanishes faster each day as she grows paler...suddenly, death doesn't seem so scary...

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Summer was looming over the grounds and the castle, the sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and the flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But without Hagrid around to see from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to me; no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were going terribly wrong.

Me and Ron tried to visit Hermione, but visitors were now barred from the Hospital Wing.

"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told us through the crack in the hospital door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread through the grounds like wildfire. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried, scared or tense, and any laughter that rang throughout the corridors sounded forced and unnatural and was quickly silenced. 

I constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words to myself. 'I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me...Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.' But what good were these words when you have no idea what they meant? Who exactly were we supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared like we were?

Hagrid's hint about the spiders was easier to understand - the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. I looked everywhere I went, helped (rather reluctantly) by Ron. He still hated spiders, and if Bella was here, she'd feel the same way. God, I miss her, I hope she's alright...Anyway, the only trouble was, looking for the spiders was hard because we weren't allowed to wander off on our own, but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of our fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but I found it very irksome.

One person, however, seemed to be really enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. I didn't realise what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about a fortnight after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, I overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he said, not even bothering to keep his voice down. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst Headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent Headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in..."

Snape swept past me, making no comment about Hermione's and Bella's empty seats and cauldrons.

"Sir," Malfoy said loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Malfoy," Snape said, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. Douche. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I dare say he'll be back with us soon enough"

"Yeah, right," Malfoy said smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job. I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir..."

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Malfoy went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger or Swan..."

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky; at Malfoy's last words, Ron had leapt off his stool, and in the scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Malfoy went unnoticed.

"Let me at him," Ron growled, as myself and Dean hung onto his arms. I was angry too, but attacking Malfoy now didn't seem like the best idea. His time would come. "I don't care, I don't need my wand, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands-"

"Hurry up, I've got to take you all to Herbology," Snape barked over the class's heads, and off we went, crocodile fashion, with myself, Ron and Dean bringing up the rear, Ron still trying to get loose. It was only safe to let go of him when Snape had seen us out of the castle, and we were making our way across the vegetable patch towards the greenhouses.

The Herbology class was very subdued; there were now three missing from our number, Justin, Hermione and Bella.

Professor Sprout set us all to work pruning the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs. I went to tip an armful of withered stalks onto the compost heap and found myself face to face with Ernie Macmillan. 

Ernie took a deep breath and said very formally, "I just want to say, Harry, that I'm sorry I ever suspected you. I know you'd never attack Hermione Granger or put Bella Bla-Swan in any danger, and I apologise for all the stuff I said. We're all in the same boat now, and, well-"

He held out a pudgy hand, and I shook it. 

Ernie and his friend Hannah came to work at the same Shrivelfig as me and Ron.

"That Draco Malfoy character," Ernie said, breaking off dead twigs, "he seems very pleased about all this, doesn't he? D'you know, I think he might be Slytherin's heir"

"That's clever of you," Ron said, who didn't seem to have forgiven Ernie as readily as me.

"Do you think it's Malfoy, Harry?" Ernie asked me.

"No," I said firmly making Ernie and Hannah stare.

A second later, I spotted something that made me hit Ron over the hand with my pruning shears.

"Ouch! What're you-"

I was pointing at the ground a few feet away. Several large spiders were scurrying across the earth.

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, trying, and failing, to look pleased. "But we can't follow them now..."

Ernie and Hannah were listening curiously. I watched as the spiders ran away.

"Looks like they're heading for the Forbidden Forest..."

Ron looked even unhappier about that.