A Ravenclaw, a Slytherin and a Mystery

The walk up to Dumbledore's office seemed endless to Nicole. She felt numb. She had failed everyone. Her best friend would hate her, her father would be disappointed. And Flitwick. He had told them to report anything unusual. Why didn't she? You'll get expelled, she thought, or worse. If someone died it would be her fault.

Albus Dumbledore finished his advertisement for the Daily Prophet. What happened to Professor Lockhart was very unfortunate. Maybe they would get a more qualified teacher next time. He was angry that Lucius Malfoy had gotten away, but sadly they had no real proof of his involvement. At least there was a terrific feast to look forward to. His musings were interrupted by a knock on the door. Professor Flitwick entered, followed, to the Headmaster's surprise, by Miss Williams.

"And then Eliza just froze and I ran. I completely panicked. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital wing," Nicole ended her story, hanging her head in shame and waiting for the storm to come.

Dumbledore tried to suppress a smile. Fascinating, how different people try to do the same thing, with such different outcomes.

"Miss Williams, I can assure you that the danger is over. At this moment the victims are receiving the mandrake juice and there will be no further attacks."

Nicole's head snapped up. "How? Why? Who...?"

"It seems like Mr Potter and his friends had been on the monster hunt too and they managed to succeed. They discovered the Chamber of Secrets and Mr Potter was able to defeat the basilisk responsible for the attacks."

"Potter fought a full grown basilisk?!" Flitwick exclaimed.

"With a little help," Dumbledore said, glancing over at Fawkes on his perch.

"And what's going to happen now?" Nicole asked in a small voice.

"Well, of course there will be a feast of celebration in the Great Hall," Dumbledore smiled. In a more serious tone, he continued, "But I can only warn you, Miss Williams. Please refrain from such dangerous actions in the future. You two have been lucky this time; it could have ended far worse."

"You mean you're not going to expel me or Eliza?"

"I think you both had enough trouble to learn your lesson. And it would be highly unfair to punish you, when Mr Potter and his friends receive praise for doing the same thing. Professor Flitwick will take you back to the hospital wing, but maybe Madam Pomfrey can be persuaded to let you join the feast."

Floating on a cloud of relief, Nicole followed Flitwick through the dark corridors. However, there was one thing still bothering her.

"Eliza will never forgive me," she mumbled.

Flitwick looked at her questioningly.

"When Eliza got petrified, I ran away. I was a coward. I just left her there, helpless, and ran away. The monster could have killed her, but I was only thinking of getting myself to safety. As a true friend I should have stayed with her and fought. She would have."

"And what would you have accomplished?" Flitwick asked gently. "You would have gotten petrified too. There are situations when running away is the smart thing to do. Without your accident you would have been able to give us information which would have helped us to figure out what we were up against."

"But Harry fought against it and he won."

"Yes, but it seems like Mr Potter has a very bright lucky star shining over him."

They continued on their way in silence.

The blackness started to dissolve and Eliza could see blurred shapes surrounding her. She blinked. She could move her eyelids! Something warm was spreading out from her stomach, chasing the freezing cold away. Eliza tried to move her hands and it worked. They felt a bit strange, but she could move them again. Gingerly she tried to sit up and look around.

"Easy now," Madam Pomfrey said and put a steadying arm around her. When she was sure everything was all right, she moved along the row of beds and administered the mandrake potion to Colin Creevey.

Nicole came over and sat down on the bed. She didn't say anything and seemed engrossed in studying her toes.

"OK, what did I miss?" Eliza asked.

Nicole didn't look up. "It was a basilisk. You got petrified when you saw its reflection."

"And? Did they get it?"

"Harry Potter found the Chamber of Secrets and killed it."

"Wow!"

They sat next to each other in silence. In the next bed Colin started to blink and drowsily raised his head.

"Nicole, what else happened? You are awfully quiet."

Nicole took a deep breath and then started in a rush.

"I'm so sorry. You were in danger and I ran. I was even stupid enough to fall down the stairs and hit my head."

"Ouch. So our great adventure ended with both of us in the hospital wing."

Nicole looked up for the first time.

"You are not angry?"

"Why should I? You ran, big deal. What else should you have done? Fight whatever was lurking around that corner? After all, I was the one who dragged you into this whole mess."

"But Harry was looking for the monster and fought it," Nicole said stubbornly.

Eliza put an arm around her and smiled.

"Harry is Harry," she said. "Remember, he defeated the most dangerous dark wizard ever and back then he was just a baby. The whole thing was out of our league."

"You really think?"

"Yes, I'm the one jumping straight into something without a second thought and you're the voice of reason, pointing out the danger. We're a great team; we are just not hero material."

Nicole giggled. "Voice of reason? Can I get that in writing? Otherwise my dad will never believe someone called me that."

"Oh god, our parents!" Eliza groaned.

"I don't think Dumbledore will give them the whole story," Nicole tried to calm her.

Eliza's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean? Are we not getting punished? I thought they would give us detention for the rest of our lives or expel us right away."

"Dumbledore thinks we had enough."

"Thank god," Eliza said and tried moving her feet.

Madam Pomfrey needed a bit of persuading to let Nicole join the feast. All the petrified students were up, ready to join the rest of the school for the celebration. One bed was still curtained off and while Eliza was arguing with the nurse, Nicole caught a glimpse of Ginny Weasley, still pale, but otherwise looking fine. A red haired couple was with her, obviously her parents. Finally, Poppy gave in and Nicole and Eliza followed the others to the Great Hall. Hermione Granger was in the front, half running. The feeling of walking down a dark school corridor again, without fear, was wonderful and for the first time in months laughter and loud voices filled the air again. Nicole and Eliza made up the rear, since Nicole still felt a bit weak. Penelope had been walking in front of them, but slowed down, so they could catch up with her.

"So," she began, "how did you two end up there?"

Both girls turned bright red.

"Eh," Nicole started, "It's a long story. I'll tell you later, but only if you promise not to hurt me... ."

Penelope raised her eyebrows, "I'm looking forward to hearing it."

The Great Hall was an unusual sight, filled with laughing and shouting students dressed in pyjamas and night-shirts. Soon Harry Potter entered, his face still showing some smears of dirt. Hermione Granger ran towards him, screaming, "You solved it! You solved it!" excitedly. Nicole noticed Penelope secretly waving in the direction of the oldest Weasley brother with a bright smile. The Gryffindor prefect blushed and quickly averted his gaze.

"Looks like Penelope has a secret admirer," she whispered to Eliza, but Eliza was still staring at Harry with a look of pure adoration. "Hello, earth to Eliza...."

Eliza dragged her eyes from the boy, who was looking a bit uncomfortable as Justin from Huffelpuff was wringing his hand.

"Sorry, what did you say?" she asked distractedly.

Nicole smiled. "Never mind. From the look you're giving Harry, I think you're on the brink of a serious case of hero worship. Maybe you can join Colin Creevey and form a Harry Potter fan club?"

"Don't be silly, I'm just wondering how he managed to get that basilisk," Eliza tried to defend herself, but her eyes were already glued to the Gryffindor table again.

The rest of the term passed quickly, the bright sunny weather outside matching the happy mood of the students.

Professor McGonagall's announcement, that the exams had been cancelled, was met with a wave of relief. Nicole was especially happy to have escaped the dreaded potions finals. She had worried about them a lot and had been convinced she would fail miserably. DADA lessons had been cancelled, since Professor Lockhart had lost his memories due to some unfortunate accident with a memory charm.

Eliza did her best to find out more about what really happened in the Chamber of Secrets, convinced there were some parts missing in the official version, but with no luck. Things had started to improve for her in Slytherin since Draco Malfoy's father had to give up his post as school governor without a real explanation. The official news was only some vague standard announcement about Mr Malfoy sadly being forced to resign due to personal reasons. Instead of making other people's lives miserable, Draco now spent his time sulking.

Morag had set her mind on trying out for the house team next term, so the second-year girls spent most of their free time on the Quidditch pitch. Eliza had joined them in the beginning, but her flying skills were less than stellar. After nearly crashing into the stands, she decided it would be safer to just sit on the sidelines, reading one of her beloved Sherlock Holmes novels. Nicole did her best to keep up. Her flying was tolerable, but whenever she had to take one hand of her broomstick to catch the quaffle, things got rocky. Morag, on the other hand, was terrific, and Eliza reported she had seen the Ravenclaw team captain, Roger Davies, stop by once, nodding approvingly.

Soon it was time to get on the train again. Hermione, Harry and the Weasleys were searching for an empty compartment, dragging their trunks behind them, when they passed a compartment full of excited Ravenclaw girls. Hermione looked inside. There were far too many people in there; two girls were already sitting on the floor. To her surprise one of them was wearing Slytherin robes. The other one was the formerly green-haired girl she had met on the first day on the train. Hermione hadn't seen much of her during the year except for her time in the hospital wing. It looked like she had changed a lot.

Nicole could feel someone's eyes on her and looked up. Outside she could see Hermione Granger watching her. Nicole smiled and gave a little wave, remembering how she snapped at the girl when they first met. Hermione waved back before she picked up her trunk again and followed her friends. Nicole returned her attention to the conversation.

"I really need a better broom if I'm going to try out next term," Morag said, waving the latest edition of "Which Broomstick".

"You know, I'm spending the first week of the holidays with Eliza and her family, but we are going to stay at my place for the last week. Maybe we could all meet at Diagon Alley and buy our school things together?" Nicole suggested.

Morag's face brightened. "Sounds good. I need all the help I can get talking my parents into buying a Nimbus 2001."

They spent the rest of the journey making plans and exchanging addresses. The train arrived at King's Cross far too soon. Outside the barrier Mr Williams and the Greenwoods were waiting.

Eliza sent a last wistful glance towards Harry Potter. He was pushing his trolley past them, heading in the direction of a large man with a bushy black moustache. The man was already tapping his foot impatiently. It looked like Harry wasn't that happy about going home for the summer.

"And?" her father asked as he made his way through the afternoon traffic. "How did you like your second term? That letter about your accident had me a bit worried. Do you still want to go to another school?" Nicole turned around to see if the Greenwoods' car was still behind them. They were going to eat together at an Indian restaurant before their drive home. "Don't worry about that accident, I was just clumsy, that's all." Nicole was still grateful that Dumbledore had kept the circumstances vague. "And you were right; Hogwarts is a very interesting school and I learned a lot."

"Really?"

"Yes. You know, I'm already looking forward to next year. I'm wondering what's going to happen."