𝟏.| ✬ 𝒟ℯ𝒶𝓇 ℬ𝒾𝓁𝓁, ✬ {ℬ. 𝒲ℯ𝒶𝓈𝓁ℯ𝓎}

\𝒻ℴ𝓊𝓇𝓉ℯℯ𝓃\

~

The next day after Potions, Eleanora stopped to talk to Snape. He'd tried on several occasions to figure out why she needed to know such a specific type of poison, but Eleanora refused to give him any information. Instead, she changed the subject. "Have you figured out who's been stealing from your supply cupboard yet?" she asked, folding a piece of parchment into an airplane. Snape frowned.

"No... and if you have any information on the matter, you'll do well to tell me immediately."

"I don't. I was just wondering," she said softly.

Snape eyed her suspiciously. She knew he suspected her, which she found unfair. She knew that if she really needed ingredients from the private store cupboard, she could just ask. To be entirely honest, she had no idea who was doing the stealing. Snape wouldn't tell her what ingredients were stolen, either, so she had no clues to help her.

After her talk with Snape, Eleanora hurried to the greenhouse where she had Herbology class with the Hufflepuffs. She handed Professor Sprout her pass from Snape and slipped into her seat next to Cedric, who silently passed her his notes to copy. They were studying self-fertilizing shrubs, which proved to be extremely boring. Cedric reached over and wrote on her notebook, Hear about the latest attack? The first year boy?

She pulled the notebook closer, writing, Who hasn't? Found out some stuff about chamber. And pushed the notebook back to Cedric.

What about it?

Tell you after class.

They took notes in silence until the bell rang, and then gathered up their things and started walking up to the castle side by side. "So, what did you find out?" Cedric asked, taking Eleanora's books from her as if it was second nature. Eleanora pulled out the letter from Bill, now looking worn from the number of times she'd read it. She had circled the parts in which he'd talked about the Chamber.

"You only have to read the circled parts" she said, handing it to him.

"Oooh, Bill? Secret lover?" Cedric laughed.

Eleanora pushed him lightly. "Fred and George's older brother, now read."

Cedric did, his eyes scanning quickly down the letter. When he finally re-folded it and handed it back to Eleanora, he gave her a skeptical look. "Seems a bit far-fetched to me." She looked at him dubiously. "What?" he asked after a moment.

"So, you believe in werewolves, vampires, and ghouls, you go to a wizarding school in a castle, one of your teachers is a ghost- but you think a secret chamber sounds 'far-fetched."

"Oh I'm sure there's a secret chamber, I'll bet there's a hundred in this school. It's the whole 'unspeakable beast' thing inside of it that I think is far-fetched. And if it was real, wouldn't we have learned about it in History of Magic? You'd think it would be more well known if it was such a big deal."