ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ 1-3

progress

a/n: I've had so much fun rewriting second year — anne was not originally a part of it and I've been putting the Dean & Lila arc on hold.

I felt overwhelmed, which unlike most people I tended to enjoy. I liked to keep my thoughts organized, so I'd drawn and redrawn several mind maps, laying them beside me on the table as I worked.

1942. Chamber of Secrets. Monsters that could petrify people. I had about four books open at once, taking notes from them all simultaneously. As expected, I didn't find much. Surely, there'd be some news about a student dying at Hogwarts. I had some more luck with the newspaper clippings. An article from the Daily Prophet caught my eye.

14 June, 1943
STUDENT FOUND DEAD AT HOGWARTS
A young, Muggle-born student (age 14) was found dead in one of the Hogwarts lavatories yesterday. No sign of foul play. Killing curse suspected. The school is under threat to be shut down, lest someone come forth to turn themselves in.

Anne R. Pendragon, young musical prodigy and Ravenclaw prefect, has promised the Prophet a statement in our next issue.

No sign of foul play, I re-read. But they were dead. Not petrified. Was it the same monster, or was it truly a killing curse?

I leafed through the archives to the next issue, where I was left disappointed.

15 June, 1943

For the sake of privacy, we have removed the students name from Pendragon's statement.

"What was done to [redacted] was heartless, cruel, and unforgivable." She begins tearfully. "I hope whoever is responsible for stripping this earth of such a kind, wonderful soul feels unimaginable guilt."

"However," she continues, "Hogwarts is to stay open. We have caught the one whose Acromantula poisoned and killed [redacted], and both them and the spider have been dealt with. There will be a memorial service at—"

I stopped reading, rubbing my eyes. Acromantula. I took Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from my bag, skimming through the pages until I landed on the chapter about them.

Enormous spiders native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia with a taste for human flesh. Their venom was potent, enough to kill a person quickly. But could they Petrify a person like they had Filch's cat? Or Andrews, from Anne's time?

I scribbled down the name anyway, as well as both newspaper clippings. For once, I felt like I was getting somewhere.

"Can I ask what you're doing?"

Startled, I turned to see Dean behind me. He had a few books in hand, likely returning them. I recalled that I hadn't spoken to him since the feast, when I'd ran away after he tried to hold my hand. Whoops. I felt my face grow hot.

"Just trying to figure things out, is all," I gestured vaguely to the mess I'd made. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

"I can see that," he glanced at my work. "Everyone's looking for information on the Chamber. Every last copy of Hogwarts, a History has been checked out."

"Yes, I know," I sighed. I too had been looking for it and left my copy at home. Malfoy seemed to have checked out the last copy.

Dean cleared his throat awkwardly. "I should let you be then. There's a lot going on for you, I'm sure—"

"Wait," I grabbed his wrist as he turned to leave. He looked back at me, confused. I awkwardly let go of his wrist, bringing my hands back to my lap.

"I just wanted to remind you to be safe," I said. "We're the targets, you know? I just don't want anything to happen to you."