survivor | HARRY POTTER

-Chapter 9-

Millie awoke that Sunday morning to find the Hufflepuff dormitory ablaze with winter sunlight and her arm bent at an awkwardly odd angle beneath her. Yawning and running a hand through her hair, she smiled in greeting at her dorm-mates, Susan Bones and Hanna Abbot, before heading over to the bathroom and glancing at the clock on the wall. 8:00am. Grumbling nonsense about waking up too early, Millie quickly dressed into a pair of jeans a loose grey hoodie with an elephant on it and ran a brush through her hair, brushing her teeth and grabbing her bag at the same time. She had agreed to meet Hermione, Ron, and Alyssa in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor at quarter past, leaving her plenty of time to grab some breakfast on the way there.

As she headed towards the large stone chamber haunted by the wailing ghost, a piece of toast in her mouth and a glass of pumpkin juice in her hand, she spotted Harry and Jess making their way towards her, stuck in an awkward silence. "Hey, hows your leg?" Millie asked Jess as the Gryffindor pulled her in for a one armed hug. "All mended. Good as new."

"There you three are! Have any of you seen Alyssa? It's not like her to be his late." Hermione asked she poked her head around the door, dragging them all inside and over to the stall where they were brewing the potion. It was impossible for all six of them to fit in, so only Hermione stayed beside the cauldron and the others loitered about behind her. "She's not here yet?" Jess asked as she leant against the door, tugging at a fragment of loose fingernail on her right hand and frowning in concentration.

"No. We were going to come and meet you two as well, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion. We've decided that this is the safest place to brew it." After Ron had spoke, Harry eagerly leaned forward and began explaining in a hushed whisper what he and Jess had seen about Collin, but Hermione quickly interrupted. "We already know, we heard Professor McGonagall telling Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we better get going-"
"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better." Ron snarled viciously. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul mood after the Quidditch match that he took it out on Collin."

"There's something else." Harry added as he watched Hermione tear bundles of knotgrass and throw them into the bubbling cauldron. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night. Turns out there is a Chamber Of Secrets, and he knows who's opened it. He can't tell me, though. Whenever he did he kept trying to throw himself out of the window. Apparently, it's been opened before now as well. But he was the one that closed the barrier at Kings Cross Station and sent that rogue bludger after me. Apparently, he thought I'd be in less danger if he kept trying to kill me every five minuets."

"The Chamber Of Secrets has been opened before?" Jess gasped, abandoning her attempt to right her fingernails and settling for staring at Harry with a confused expression instead. "This settles it, then. Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's taught dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious. Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around school." Ron said.

"Maybe it has magical powers that can make it invisible!" Millie wondered out loud, envisioning a unicorn with demonic red eyes and long, fanged teeth. Shaking her head, she immediately cleared the thought from her mind. She didn't want to envision her favourite animal as a psychotic killer. "Or maybe it can disguise itself - pretend to be a suit of armour or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls..." Hermione pondered, making Ron roll his eyes.

"You read too much, Hermione." Ron groaned as he poured dead lacewings on top of the leeches, crumpling the empty lacewing bag and looking at Harry. "So Dobby stopped us getting on bs train and broke your arm..." He cut himself off, shaking his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying fo save your life he's going to kill you."