The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|14| Petrified

After telling Harry and Ron what I told Hermione, we decided it was best to not bring it up to Hagrid unless another Petrification happened. And it did.

It had been after Easter break, Hermione and I went to our room, the entire room had been ransacked and the diary was missing; Harry and I heard more of the creepy whispering. When Harry and I told Hermione and Ron that we had heard the whispering, Hermione seemed to have had a breakthrough and left to go to the library while Ron and I went to Harry's Quidditch Game.

"This match has been canceled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver Wood, looking devastated, landed and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

"But, Professor!" he shouted. "We've got to play— the cup— Gryffindor—"

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone:

"All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Ron and I detached ourselves from the complaining crowd and ran after Harry and Professor McGonagall as they set off toward the castle. To my surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you two better come, as well..."

Some of the students swarming around us were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Harry, Ron, and I followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But we weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as we approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack... another double attack."

My insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and Harry, Ron, and I entered. Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth-year girl with long, curly hair— I didn't recognize her. And on the bed next to her was—

"Hermione!" I gasped.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy.

"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them..."

She was holding up a small, circular mirror. Harry, Ron, and I shook our heads, both staring at Hermione.

"I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities."

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately.

"What're we going to do?" said Ron quietly in Harry's and my ears. "D'you think they suspect Hagrid?"