Dan and Phil and The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 8

Sooner than anyone wanted, lessons started back up again. The Christmas decorations were taken down, and people's merry spirits with it. The school returned back to its hushed atmosphere. Rumors flew like wildfire. An attack hadn't been in several weeks and people were almost expecting one. This did not aid the already present hesitance to continue on with their studies. No one wanted to wander the castle hallways for too long.

Spencer groaned when Dan sat next to him at lunch. "Christmas break just ended and they're already piling homework on! I have to write a potion essay, fill out a stars chart, practice transforming a frog so it has spots-"

"Spencer," Dan interrupted. "I know. I have the same things. You don't need to remind me."

It wasn't so much the fact that the assignments were particularly challenging than how much they had gotten. It was like the teachers saw Christmas break as a waste of time and now in the days after were trying to teach them all they could've been learning

"Did you ever figure out who delivered Phil's gift to you?" Spencer asked as he took a bite of lunch.

"There's no way I can," Dan said. "Not unless I suddenly recognize the handwriting."

"I read that there's spells that reveal who wrote something, but it's quite complicated magic."

"You researched this?"

Spencer grinned. "I love a good mystery." As an afterthought he added, "except the mystery of the heir of Slytherin. That's a bad mystery."

Dan snorted. He carried on through lunch, looking over at Ron, Harry, and Hermione. They were all bent towards each other in their seats, apparently talking together. Dan had a guess that they were talking about Draco, trying to find anything suspicious in what he had told them disguised in the Polyjuice potion. Sure enough, he saw them glance several times at the Slytherin table. At one point Harry made eye contact with him and gave a small wave. Dan waved back in return before returning back to his lunch. He finished earlier than everyone else so he could get a little more homework done before their next class.

"I'll see you in Herbology, alright?" He said to Spencer as he packed his stuff up. "I'm going to get a bit more homework done."

"Okay, see you later," Spencer said, waving him off. Dan shouldered his bag of books and walked out of the dining hall. He looked out the large windows to the grounds. The snow looked very appealing in its untrodden state, and he wasn't the only one thinking that. Some students were already messing it up. Dan was glad there had been snow this Christmas and not mud and dirt like last Christmas. It could be as cold as winter could get, but if there wasn't any snow, Christmas just wasn't the same.

As he was walking, he saw the caretaker Filch walking down the hall. His thin, straggly hair was wet and his gaze was murderous. He appeared to be muttering furiously to himself and Dan caught some of it as he passed.

"-even more work for me, as if I haven't got enough to do! Mopping all night, blisters on my hands. Dumbledore's going to hear about this, probably doesn't know there's a ghost in that bathroom he's so-"

Dan only knew of one bathroom that had a ghost haunting it. Looking back at Filch one last time he began running down the corridor. He took a turn and jogged up the staircase to the second floor, careful to avoid the jinxed steps. He thought it was rather curious that something had happened at that very specific bathroom the day after they had been in there.

He didn't even have to go into the bathroom to see why Filch had been wet head to toe. Seeping from under the door was a puddle of water. As he got closer he heard the sound of running water. Looking around to make sure no one was around, he opened the door. It swung open with a creak. The bathroom floor was completely covered with water which appeared to be stemming from a particular stall. He stepped through the water and opened the stall door. The toilet was overflowing over the edges.