The Slytherins

25

As they arrived back in the common room, Cassie noticed the looks plastered all over her friends' faces, as if they knew something she didn't.

"You feeling better now?" Blaise smirked, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards, as if he knew something everyone else didn't.

"Yeah, I am actually. Just had to go and grab Laurie's present," Mattheo quipped.

"Presents!" Laurie cheered gleefully.

That evening, Cassie tried her best to engage with her friends and had a smile plastered across her face, but all she could think about was the little Weasley. It was possible that Ginny had nothing to do with the diary- she could have just been in the wrong place in the wrong time- but Cassie thought it was still suspicious.

She skimmed over her memories in her head until she came across the one of Ginny, and she vividly remembered her desperately searching for something. It must've been the diary, she thought. But how did Ginny Weasley come across the diary? And what part did she play in the chamber of secrets?

When Cassie went to bed that night, her dreams were filled with snakes and ginger weasels.

As February faded into March and March faded into April, the Slytherins were no longer freezing to death in the greenhouses or having to cast warming charms in history of magic under their desks.

Cassie had been keeping a close eye on Ginny Weasley; she and Mattheo had agreed to put the diary back in the girl's toilet, hoping that the girl would look for it there again. And sure enough only a few days after it had been placed back, the diary had vanished.

Ginny Weasley, it seemed, had too. Everywhere Ginny went, she would charge ahead out of sight and slip into shadows until some days Cassie couldn't see her at all. It was almost like the youngest Weasley was avoiding her.

One day in the middle of April the Slytherins were trying to complete their Transfiguration homework when Draco appeared out of the entrance.

Glancing at the startled look on his face, Cassie asked, "What's wrong D?"

He gulped. "I've just been sent a letter from my father," Draco told them all. "He's coming to hogwarts."

They all sat up. "What? Why?" Theo asked.

Whilst only some of them of them had had the pleasure of meeting Lucius Malfoy, all of them had heard of him, and his reputation was almost as frightening as Mattheo's father.

"He says there's been too many attacks. They're coming for that gamekeeper- apparently he was one to open the chamber last time, and they need to make an arrest."

Cassie glanced at Mattheo only to find him staring back at her. They were both thinking the same thing- Hagrid was framed by Mattheo's father fifty years ago.

"That hairy oaf? Took them long enough!" Pansy laughed.

"Where are they taking him?" Blaise asked curiously.

"To Azkaban." Draco stated. The group was silent. Even Laurie, who had continued with his essay during Draco's speech had dropped his pen and was gaping at his blonde friend.

"Azkaban?" Theo whispered. "That's a bit far isn't it?"

Pansy scoffed. "Of course it isn't! If what they say is true and that Hagrid opened the chamber then Azkaban is what he deserves!"

"What's Azkaban?" Asked Mattheo completely out of the loop.

Laurie shivered. "You don't want to know."

Shooting Laurie and annoyed look, Blaise explained, "It's the wizard prison. Only it's..."

"Terrifying?" Pansy suggested.