Petals of Oleander

Chapter Eleven: Insufferable.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." Hermione read aloud. These were the words written in blood on the wall of the corridor.

"Absolutely not. Let's go." Avalon said and turned to leave. 

"Yeah, it's a no from me." Kitsune followed her.

"What does that mean?" Ondie asked, her eyes wide as dinner plates. 

"I do not know. I do not want to know. I'm going to find Professor Snape." Miri headed away.

"I'm going to go talk to my dad. Do you want to come, Ondie?" I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She was still staring up at the wall. 

"Yeah... let's go.." I pulled her arm and her eyes finally broke free. 

We hurried through his classroom and opened the door to his office to find McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, and Dumbledore having a meeting.

"Excuse me a moment," Dad said, ushering us out of the room. 

"Dad, what's going on?" I asked shakily. 

"Nothing you need to worry about." He put his hands on my face..

"Professor Lupin, are the frozen kids going to die?" Ondie twiddled her thumbs nervously.

"Madam Pomfrey has them well taken care of." Dad replied. "I don't want to scare you, but I also never want to be anything but honest with you, you know that," 

"Yes." I said.

"There is something at work here that is causing these problems, and we are not sure what or who it is just yet. I promise you that if there is any threat of real danger, no one will be staying here. No one is going to be put in harm's way."  

This was somehow both comforting, and the scariest bloody thing I'd ever heard him say. 

"Is the Chamber of Secrets a real thing?" Ondie asked.

"Yes, it was built by Salazar Slytherin as a place to train students. It has sat empty for years. My guess is that someone is using the foreboding name as a means to manipulate, or insight fear in people here." Dad explained. 

"So there isn't anything.. scary.. down there?" I asked.

"That's what we are going to find out as soon as we can. Now, the two of you ought to head down to your common room. No more worrying tonight, yes?" 

We nodded and turned to leave. He did the same and began walking back toward his office. I stopped,

"Dad," I ran over and hugged him tight "Please be careful. Please be safe." 

He pulled away and knelt down.

"Always." He smiled and tapped the tip of my nose. Then he disappeared into the meeting.

We made our way to the common room, trying to hear all the snippets of whispered conversations as we could. All we could gather was that nobody knew what was going on, and that everyone was scared out of their minds. 

In the common room, we sat on the couch across from Draco and his cronies, hoping maybe they would know something.

"My dad said the Chamber of Secrets was built by Salazar Slytherin." I offered.

"Exactly." Draco said puffing his chest, "So it's obvious, isn't it?" 

"What's obvious?" 

"The enemy of the heir. Who was the enemy of Salazar Slytherin?" Draco urged.

"Helga Hufflepuff?" One of the cronies chuckled.

"No. It's muggles. And muggle-borns alike." Draco sat back and folded his arms, proud of his work.

I had nearly forgotten I had been sorted into the house that was founded by a raging blood supremacist.

"Thankfully, no mud-bloods are ever sorted into Slytherin. So we have nothing to worry about." 

I was taken aback by his choice of words.

"Please tell me I heard you incorrectly and you did not just spout a slur, Malfoy." I demanded.

"Malfoy? That's very formal." He smirked. "And it's just a word. Besides, like I said there's no one in this room who could take it personally." The dumb cronies laughed their unbecoming laughs once again. How I despised them.

Draco had let me down once again. He had a perfect chance to be useful and he ruined it with his convoluted, dimwitted views. I wished he would learn to think for himself, rather than repeating everything he had ever heard his father spit.

"You're insufferable. Goodnight." I stood up and walked straight to my room. Ondie stuck her middle finger in the air and followed close behind. My queen. 

As I laid in bed I thought about what Draco had said. Hateful as it became, he may have been on to something at the beginning. 

The next day, I found Harry and Ron in the Great Hall.

"I've got something, I think," I said as I sat down next to them. 

"It's got Hermione. It's targeting muggle-borns." Harry said sharply. 

Ron said nothing, just stared straight ahead. Mindlessly chewing. 

"Oh. That's what I had figured out, too." I paused, replaying what he had said in my mind "It got Hermione?" I gasped. 

"First Ginny, now Hermione. Won't be long until it takes us all." Ron slobbered.

"Merlin." I whispered, absolutely shocked. "What are we going to do?" 

"There is no 'we', Winnie. I'm sorry, but you've served your purpose. You don't need to get any more wrapped up in this. It isn't safe" Harry said.

Of course he didn't want me involved. I didn't even want to be there in the first place, but now that things were ramping up I no longer felt good about doing nothing. 

"What are YOU going to do?" I asked.

"Find Ginny. That's what we are going to do." He replied dismissively.

"And there's really nothing I can do? Nothing at all?"

"No, there's not. I'll let you know when we get her back safe." 

And with that, he and Ron stood up and left me there. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. My mind simply would not stop racing with ideas of how I could help, but each idea stopped at a dead end. He was right. There was nothing I could do. I looked around the room and realized I was sitting alone at the Gryffindor table. Humiliating, absolutely humiliating.