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Aurora Areli
"ALL THOSE TIMES WE were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," Ron said bitterly at breakfast the next day, "and we could've asked her, and now . . ."
It had been hard enough trying to find spiders to follow. Escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, which was right next to the scene of the first attack, was virtually impossible.
However, ten minutes into Transfiguration, something happened that completely drove the Chamber of Secrets from my mind for the first time in weeks. Professor McGonagall announced that exams would be starting on the first of June, exactly one week from that day.
"Exams?" Seamus howled. "We're still getting exams?"
There was a loud bang from behind me as Neville's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk, which Professor McGonagall returned with a wave of her wand. She turned, frowning, to Seamus.
"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. "The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all revising hard."
Oh no. With everything that had been happening, revising hadn't even crossed my mind. I didn't think that exams would even be taking place with the castle in this state. It seemed that most people felt similarly, because there was a chorus of muttering around the room that made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.
"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible," she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."
Combine the Chamber of Secrets situation and having Lockhart as a teacher? Not very much.
I looked over to see Harry staring hopelessly at his desk, while Ron looked as though he had just been told to go live in the Forbidden Forest.
"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" Ron asked Harry and I, holding up his wand, which had began 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!" a girl on the Ravenclaw table squealed.
"Quidditch matches are back on!" Oliver roared excitedly.
Once everyone had calmed down, 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 of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."
