The Curious Chamber

The second term went by in a flash, there were no more petrification’s.

Fortunately, though, Lockhart had stopped using her for demonstrations in class as Guinevere was her bodyguard. One time in March, Lockhart had tried to pull her in front of the class and he ended up getting a kneazle to the face.

His face was covered in claw marks for the next week and he never touched Beth ever again which meant that Ernie was no longer threatning to kill Lockhart on a weekly basis.

In May, it was time for the Quidditch final, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

“Who do you think’s going to win?” asked Hermione.

“Gryffindor obviously,” gloated Ron who was wearing a Gryffindor scarf even though it was a warm day.

“Why?” asked Neville

“Because our team is far superior to yours!”

“You might want to keep your voice down Ron,” said Beth looking around the table, “you’re in enemy territory.”

“Besides,” said Artie smugly, “you’re wrong. The Gryffindor team doesn’t have me, or Cedric, Cedric always catches the snitch.”

Ron grunted slightly in submission.

“You coming to match Hermione?” asked Beth.

Hermione Susan and Beth had spent the last few weeks going through the library trying to cut down the list of possible monsters that the Heir of Slytherin could be using, they had cut it down to five now.

“No,” said Hermione, “we need to figure this out.”

“But the match Hermione!” exclaimed Zach, “it’s the final!”

“I’m sorry what’s more important,” said Susan, “the Quidditch final or getting Justin and Percy back?”

“I know it’s important Sus,” said Beth, “but can’t we have just one afternoon off?”

“Tell you what,” said Ernie, “we’ll help you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you later Sus,” said Beth giving her a hug.

“So hungry for so long,” said the voice again.

Beth flinched slightly and Susan looked at her concernedly.

“What’s up Beth?”

“It’s that voice again!”

“Hermione!” exclaimed Susan jumping up from the table, “I know what it is!”

Susan and Hermione ran from the Great Hall to the library together.

“You ready to beat the Gryffindors kiddo?” asked Malcom Selwyn the Quidditch captain.

“Aye aye captain!” said Artie giving him a brief salute and standing up.

“Lets go win a cup then,” said Michael the keeper giving her a pat on the back.

The Hufflepuff team headed out for the pitch followed by Beth, Ron, Hannah, Zach, Ernie and Neville. Hermione and Susan were in the library again.

“Heya guys,” said Nick and Nigel Artie’s older brothers joining them in the stands.

“Hi,” said Neville.

“It’s a shame Ravenclaws hopes for the cup this year are already gone,” sighed Nick.

“Yeah,” nodded Nigel, “we got slaughtered by Slytherin.”

“Who do you want to win then?” asked Zach, “Gryffindor or Hufflepuff?”

“Well the Hufflepuff have got the better team what with Diggory and Artie,” muttered Nick.

“And the Gryffindors are annoying enough as it is,” said Nigel.

“Imagine the ego boost if they win the cup!” gasped Nick.

“Hey!” shouted Ron, “we’re not bad!”

“Obviously we want Hufflepuff to win if Ravenclaw can’t,” chuckled Nigel.

“Our little sisters on that team, and Cedric’s the best Seeker in the school.”

“Artie is a great flyer,” said Hannah as Artie flew around the pitch for a warmup.

At this moment Professor McGonagall came rushing onto the pitch with a megaphone.

“This match has been cancelled!” she called clearly, “all students shall return to their dormitories!”

“What the fuck!” screamed Nick and Nigel.

“The cup!” yelled Ron and Zach.

“What’s going on?” muttered Beth over the protests. The match wouldn’t have been cancelled unless it was anything important.

At this moment Professor Sprout was seen pushing her way through the crowd to the second year Hufflepuff’s.

“Ah there you all are,” she sighed in relief, “Miss Potter, Mr Macmillan, Mr Weasley, you three need to come with me.”

“What?” muttered Ron as they followed Sprout from the pitch.

“What’s happening with the match?” asked Ernie.

“The match has been cancelled,” sighed Professor Sprout, “there has been another attack.”

“Another attack?” breathed Beth as they reached the Hospital Wing where there were two new beds.

They walked past a bed where Percy Weasley was laying and Penelope Clearwater a sixth year Ravenclaw was for some reason reading him her Charms notes.

The first bed had Hermione who was holding a mirror.

“Hermione!” whispered Ron taking Hermione’s hand, “not Hermione!”

Ernie was biting his lip trying to hold back his tears, but Beth was looking at the next bed over.

Susan was lying on top of the bed, her body frozen stiff, her dark red plait lying on the pillow. Her eyes that were always full of laughter and excitement, were now lifeless and blank.

“Sus,” muttered Beth taking Susan’s hand and sitting down on the bed next to her.

Tears ran down her face as she looked into Susan’s eyes. Susan meant more than anything in the world to her, she wasn’t just her girlfriend, she was her best friend, life without her seemed slightly pointless.

“Beth,” said Ernie nervously putting a hand on her shoulder, “we have to get back to the Common Room.”

Beth kissed Susan lightly on the forehead.

“Bye Sus, I love you.”

“Come on Beth,” sighed Ernie putting an arm around her as they walked out of the Hospital Wing.

When they got back to the Common Room the whole house was congregated, and none of them looked happy.

“What the hell is going on!” said Michael as Ernie and Beth came back into the room.

“Why have they cancelled the match?” asked Zach.

“Surely nothing could be more important than the Cup?” asked Artie.

Beth ran from the room and up to her dorm as Professor Sprout came into the Common Room.

Guinevere looked slightly confused at Beth coming back to the dorm so early in the day. She flopped onto her bed and burst into tears curled up under her quilt.

She couldn’t believe that Susan was gone, and all that Artie and the rest of that lot downstairs cared about was the bloody Quidditch final.

“Beth?” said Hannah poking her head around the door.

Guinevere hissed at her as Hannah and Artie tried to walk towards Beth’s bed.

“Woah calm down there Queen Gwen,” said Artie, “you’ve lived with us for two years, you know us.”

Guinevere looked at Artie confusedly before hoping onto Beth’s bed for a cuddle.

“Beth,” said Artie nervously “I’m sorry about Susie, nothing’s more important than friends, even Quidditch.”

“I just can’t believe she’s gone,” sobbed Beth from under the quilt.

“She’s not dead,” said Hannah, “she’s petrified, she will be back when the mandrakes are ready.”

“Sprout says, the mandrakes will be ready by the end of the month,” said Hannah.

“That doesn’t help right now though does it,” muttered Artie.

There was a knock on the door and Artie went to answer it.

Neville, Zach and Ernie were standing in the hallway and carrying bags of food.

“Hey,” said Zach coming in and dumping the bags on Hannah’s bed.

“How’d you guys get up here?” asked Artie.

“Same way it worked last year,” shrugged Ernie, “we’ve got permission, and we’re doing something good.”

“Sprout told us to the go to the kitchens and pick up some food,” explained Neville, “she said you probably didn’t want to eat in the Great Hall.”

“Thanks guys,” said Artie as she went through the bags of food.

“How’s Beth?” asked Neville looking over to the lump that was currently curled up under the quilt on Beth’s bed.

“Not great,” sighed Artie.

Ernie nodded in understanding as he went through the bag. He eventually found a tub of ice cream that would never melt.

“Hey Beth,” said Ernie, “we’ve got ice cream, it’s your favourite, neopolitan.”

Beth just continued to sob under her quilt Guinevere snuggling in next to her.

“Well, it’s not going to melt,” said Ernie, “so I’m leaving it here.”

He left the ice cream on the bedside table with a spoon.

“Beth,” said Ernie, “you do know that whatever happens, Susan’s going to back within the next month?”

“You promise?” said a muffled voice.

“Promise,” chuckled Ernie sitting down on Beth’s bed.

“Now come on, Susie wouldn’t want you to be starving yourself,” said Zach.

“Ok,” muttered Beth coming out from under the quilt and taking a small bite from the ice cream.

“Better?” asked Ernie.

Beth shrugged and took another spoonful, the ice cream did make her feel a little bit better, ice cream was her favourite food, but she just felt like there was a hole in her chest, Susan was gone, and even if she would be back by the end of the month it was going to be hard.

“Sus will be back by June?”

“Early June at the latest,” said Ernie nodding, “we just need to wait for the mandrakes to mature and then Snape can make the potion.”

Fortunately, the ice cream was the kind that never defrosted, Beth took much longer than she usually would to work her way through it because even though she loved ice cream, she loved Susan even more.

The young Hufflepuff’s spent the afternoon together, trying to distract themselves from the fact that now two out of the eight members of the second year Hufflepuff’s were now petrified in the Hospital Wing.

At eight o’clock that night Beth was lying on top of her bed watching Ernie, Zach, Neville and Artie having a game of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Guinevere was sat on Hannah’s lap.

If Justin and Susan had been there it could have been a perfectly normal day.

“Is there anybody in?” asked Cedric poking his head around the door.

“Hey Ced,” said Artie as she picked out a jellybean.

“I’ve got some news for you lot,” said Cedric biting his lip slightly.

“There can’t be more bad news can there?” asked Ernie raising his eyebrows.

“Dumbledore’s been fired by the board of governors, and Hagrid’s been taken to Azkaban.”

“That’s it,” sighed Zach, “the Slytherins will have taken over by the end of the month.”

Cedric nodded in agreement.

“Oh, and Pince asked me to give you these,” shrugged Cedric before leaving.

There was book and a note.

Beth looked at the book which was a book on various creatures.

There was also a note.

“Beth Ernie and Ron,
I’m sorry about your friends Hermione and Susan, I know you were all trying to figure out what the monster was. I don’t know if this could help you or not but before they left the library today, Hermione and Susan were reading this book and were talking excitedly as if they’d a breakthrough, they left it open on pg. 35, I hope this helps,
Madam Pince.”

Ernie took a quick look at the note and seemed nervous.

Beth was already flicking the book open.

“No Beth!” said Ernie taking the book from her.

“Why not!” pleaded Beth, “we could figure out what the monster is!”

“Because,” he sighed, “we spent the last six months trying to figure this out, and now Susan and Hermione are petrified. Maybe we shouldn’t get involved in this.”

“But we could figure it out,” said Beth getting close to tears.

“I’m sorry Beth, we’ve already lost Justin, Susan and Hermione, I don’t want to lose you too” said Ernie shaking his head taking the book and taking it up to his dormitory.

Beth burst into tears and sobbed into her pillow, Zach and Neville took this as their cue to leave.

Beth tried to get to sleep that night, but sleep evaded her. Usually if she couldn’t get to sleep or had a nightmare, she could just go find Susan who would give her a hug and then Beth would fall asleep next to Susan.

She tiptoed over to Susan’s bed trying not to wake up Hannah and Artie.

She sat down on the bed and picked the quilt off of Susan’s bed, it smelt like Susan, the pillow smelt like the strawberry in her shampoo and conditioner her quilt smelt of a combination of lavender and peppermint, her soap and her favourite type of sweets.

She must have eventually fallen asleep because when she woke up she was lying under Susan’s quilt on Susan’s bed.

But she wasn’t alone, Guinevere was curled up on Susan’s pillow and Artie and Hannah were on the bed too. Hannah was lying next to Beth underneath her own quilt, and Artie was sprawled out at the end of the bed.