Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty Three

The next morning I woke up to find the girls' dormitory blazing with winter sunlight. After changing quickly into my robes and brushing my teeth, I walked out of the bathroom to find Hermione sitting on my bed. 

"You do know you have your own bed, right?" I asked pulling out my hairbrush from my trunk and brushing out the tangles in my hair.

She nods. "Yeah. Hurry up, we're meeting Ron in the Common room before heading to Myrtle's bathroom"

"Why?"

She gave me the 'are you seriously asking that?' look before jumping off my bed and heading out of the door. I sighed and finished brushing my hair before braiding it and headed out of the door myself. Hermione and Ron were both waiting for me, and it felt weird not seeing Harry standing there too. Man,I hope he's out of the Hospital Wing soon. We left the Common room and headed towards the bathroom, trying not to look like we were up to something. Once there, we locked ourselves in a cubicle. 

"What are we doing here?" I ask squeezing against the wall. 

Ron looked at me. "We're starting the Polyjuice Potion"

"Today?"

"Today," Hermione confirmed. 

Not even five minutes later, a knock was heard at the cubicle door and we all froze. 

"It's me," Harry said, Hermione dropped something making a splash, I gasped and peered through the keyhole. 

"Harry!" I say smiling. "You're here!"

"Yeah," Harry said, squeezing into the cubicle. He looked fine, better than fine actually. He took notice of the old cauldron perched on the toilet, and the fire cracking under the rim. Hermione had conjured that, she was really good at making water-proof fires. 

"How's your arm?" Hermione asked him.

"Fine," Harry shrugged. "It's like it had never been boneless"

"Madam Pomfrey is good," I smile and he nods. 

"We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained, as Harry, with great difficulty, locked the cubicle again. Having four in a cubicle was a tight fight. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it"

"Have you told them?" Harry asked Bella. 

"About Colin?" Bella asked and he nodded. "They already know. We heard Professor McGonagall telling Flitwick this morning."

Hermione nodded. "That's why we decided we'd better get going-"

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better," Ron snarled. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin"

"There's something else," Harry said, watching as well as me, as Hermione started tearing bundles of knotgrass and throwing them into the potion. "Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night"

Ron and Hermione looked up, amazed but I shrugged. When I told Hermione that I snuck out to visit Harry, she wasn't at all happy with me. She claimed that I shouldn't be 'breaking school rules', yet, here we are, breaking about a hundred of them. Harry told Ron and Hermione everything Dobby had told us- or hadn't told us. Ron and Hermione listened with their mouths open.

"The Chamber has been open before?" Hermione asked. 

"This settles it," Ron said in a triumphant voice. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious. Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking round the school"

"Maybe it can make itself invisible," I say, helping Hermione prod the leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself - pretend to be a suit of armour or something. Hermione read about Chameleon Ghouls and of course, told me about it..."

"You read too much, Hermione," Ron said, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty lacewing bag and looked at Harry.

"So Dobby stopped us getting on the train and broke your arm..." He shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you"

I sigh. "And that's what worrying. The big question is, do we need to worry about Dobby trying to save Harry or the monster in the school?"

To that, none of them had an answer. Damn, this is a lot of pressure for 12-year-olds. 

******

Short chapter!

Longer chapter coming up next!

I'm also going to be writing another Harry Potter story! It's going to be where his parents return from the dead!

See you soon!