Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Four

"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," Ron said bitterly at breakfast the next morning, "and we could've asked her, and now..."

It had been hard enough trying to look for the spiders. Escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.

But something happened in our first lesson, Transfiguration, which drive the Chamber of Secrets out of our minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told us that our exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.

"Exams?" Seamus Finnigan howled. "We're still getting exams?"

There was a loud bang behind me as Neville's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.

"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time if for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will, therefore, take place as usual, and I trust you all are revising hard"

Revising hard! It had never occurred to me that there will be exams with the castle in this state. There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.

"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she told us. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year"

I looked down at the pair of white rabbits I was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had I learned so far this year? I couldn't seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam. Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.

"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked me, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.

*

Three days before our first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table

"Quidditch matches are back on!" Wood roared excitedly

When the chatter had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one them may well be able to tell us, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit"

There was an explosion of cheering. I looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.

"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to me. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go mad when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't revised. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over"

"What about Bella?" I asked, knowing that one of my closest friends were still missing and they haven't mentioned her.

Ron's face dropped and he shrugged. "I'm sure they're close to finding her"