A/N: This chapter is actually quite long (compared to my other ones, anyway), as I really wanted to get more detail and information about the characters, and the general swing of lessons and stuff, now that the school year is (sadly) nearly ending. Hope you enjoy!

Summer was pouring in over the grounds around the castle, casting rippling images over the sky and lake while allowing the flowers stationed in the greenhouse to fully blossom. The sunlight casted a golden sheen over the river, and its heated glare caused the grounds to seem more magical. In fact, the scene outside was so magnificent, that it'd managed to draw my attention away from all the petrifications and the mystery of the chamber of secrets. Unfortunately, it didn't resolve the issue of the flying frantic plant lying in front of me. Nor Luna's.

"My father says that these are actually quite a good remedy for rashes." Luna peered excitedly over her goggles at the spiked plant, thrashing furiously in her grasp. "Their spikes," she prodded one with her gloved finger, "help maintain the level of water and it can also—"

"Right, class!" Professor Sprout's shout veered my gaze from the furiosites beside me, and from a likely inevitable lecture from Luna. "If you would just carefully place the plants into their assigned boxes, and pour in the water, then you are free to leave!" With that, she pulled of her smothered cap from her head, and patted her hands dry. Soon, the chattered buzz of gossip filled the greenhouse again, with Professor Sprout occasionally popping out behind someone's back and helping them with their plant; in other words - doing all the work for them.

I glanced back at Ginny, who had ventured off on her own towards the far corner of the room, keeping her head fixed determinedly on the floor. I had tried asking her if she wanted to work with me, but a quick shake stopped me from continuing on. I turned back sadly to my now potted plant, and took hold of the watering can next to it. "So have you prepared for exams?"

Luna's serene expression filled her face once again, giving the impression of a dreamy look. Whenever I tried to talk to her, it always seemed like she wasn't really listening; as if she was in her own far-away world. I knew it wasn't exactly her fault, but nonetheless, it did get quite annoying. And it was also times like these when I wished I was back in our group of three with Donna and Ginny. Luna breathed in deeply. "It's been going great. I've been revising for everything these past few weeks. I think I've got everything sorted. But I don't understand why everyone else seems so caught up in the chamber of secrets. I wonder why that may be, when the 'humdinger' from my father's Quibbler is much more interesting to talk about..." Her eyes darted outside again towards Hagrid's hut, and out into the grassy fields ahead once more.

I sighed. Looking down at my plant, I hastily poured the water and stared blankly at the movement of the water as it sank into the dark brown (nearly black) soil, and watched as it dissolved, making the soil seem even more darker. Happy with my work, I pulled off my gloves, stretching my hands out with relief and started heading towards the Great Hall, giving Luna a quick wave of goodbye.

Shaking my head free from any surfacing thoughts about Ginny, I kept my eyes transfixed at the sight of the looming castle before me. At the aroma of spiced herbs, roast chicken, and other mixed pungent smells, my body relaxed slightly. Taking a seat near to Fred (who seemed to be hiding something under the table), I glanced longingly at the filled plates of various meals. Maybe the food would help me feel better.

***

"Why the long face?" Fred asked, plopping onto the armchair cushioned behind the table.

I stared moodily at the wooden curves of the table in front of me, trying to ignore the towering stacks of papers on top of it. We only had a few weeks until exams, and I still hadn't revised anything. Not to mention Snape's essay due next lesson - which I also hadn't started on.

George leaned over my shoulder, his eyes dancing in amusement at my blank piece of parchment, excluding the neatly written out title: 'The Draught of Living Death.' He beckoned Fred over. "Reckon Snape's trying to kill you all?" He shot a cunning glance at Fred. "I'd say that's be his dream, murdering students quietly while all of this chamber of secrets stuff is going on."

Fred laughed. "Reckon that's what's happened to our dear old Ginny." He shared a fist pump with George.

I huffed. If that was Snape's goal, it was probably working. Nearly everyone was tired and lifeless in every lesson, so I wouldn't be surprised. But Ginny... she was a different matter. I really didn't know what to do with her at all, and Fred and George weren't exactly helping with their "banter." Sighing, I dipped my quill into the ink bottle beside me as I started writing again.

***

Snape's lesson, astonishingly, was quite calm and peaceful. I'd never thought I'd say those two words together when it was in the same sentence as "Snape", but with all the commotion going on outside of lessons, it seemed to have triggered a cool atmosphere in class. As I brought my powdered root of asphodel back to my single desk, I contemplated about the letter I had sent to my mum. I still hadn't gotten a reply, and the anxiousness was starting to kick in.

"Stewart, what exactly are you doing?" Snape's voice echoed across the silent classroom as his looming figure stood rigidly before me.

I glanced down at my potion, wondering with fear at what I had done wrong. Everything seemed fine: the powdered root of asphodel, valerian swigs, the juice of a sopophorous bean. The list went until I finally reached— "The infusion of wormwood," I whispered.

Snape's nose seemed to be leaning down more so than ever, his eyes glowering in annoyance. "At least you haven't lost complete control of your brain." He narrowed his eyes at my potion. "Start again. I wouldn't have expected you to be so sloppy with your work, but of course, Gryffindor disappoints again." Snape washes his eyes over the rest of the class, a scowl etched acros his face. "What are you all looking at? Get on with your work!"

With that final remark, the rest of the mixture of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors began shuffling again; cutting off various ingredients, adding them into the cauldron, and watching with hope that it'd change its colour. While all that was going on, I managed to scrape the rest of my remains away, and started grabbing the new ones. With every ingredient I added in, to the now perfect potion, I could feel someone boring their eyes into my back. I shook the thought off, not wanting to get distracted again, but I was fairly sure who it was, once I saw her usual escapade from the classroom.

***

I breathed in deeply, thankful that Snape had left us. His presence while walking us to Lockhart's classroom had given off a fearful aura, which was absorbed by every student, via their hushed chatters and anxious expressions. The fear had slightly dissipated now, but most of it had turned into dread at the coming lesson.

"Come now!" Lockhart's gleeful voice resounded against the tension-filled classroom. Faces of exasperation were shared between each other. "Surely you must know, the danger has passed! Why else would they have taken Hagrid?"

At the mention of Hagrid, I stiffened. My fists clenched as I knew the twins were right behind me, but I kept my gaze on the crazed teacher.

Lockhart beamed at the array of disbelieving faces. "I assure you, the Minister of Magic would have no reason to arrest him unless he was guilty." He stopped, rubbing his hands as if satisfied with his explanation. "Now let's get on with the lesson, shall we? I assure you, there'll be no more talk about the chamber of secerts, not now that everything's going well..." His voice trailed off as he strode giddily towards his towering pile of books situated at the front desk.

Suddenly, I felt a kick under my chair. My head turned sharply as I met Rebecca's gaze. "What?" I mouthed, careful not to drag the attention of Lockhart away from his rant about "Gadding with Ghouls."

Reyna glanced at the students around the classroom. Her eyes returned to meet mine. "Meet us at the girls' bathroom. We've just discovered something."

Rebecca nodded in agreement. "Something that is quite shocking, actually. Just make sure you don't bring—"

The sound of an ink bottle being dropped washed the rest of Rebecca's words away. I shifted in my chair again to see Lockhart frantically rubbing at his sea-green robes. "My robes!" His wail caused the rest of the students to stop their gossip and watch in amusement as he turned towards the victim. The young boy's face was filled with terror as he kept his eyes trained on the frolicking professor in front of him.

"I'm so sorry, sir!"

Lockhart seemed even more distressed at that. "I can't believe this! They're ruined!"

I watched with entertainment as Lockhart continued on jumping about, trying desperately, and in vain, to remove the horrid black stain from the sea-green background. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't doing much good — but at least that meant less time listening to his otherwise useless ramble about his "adventures."

Reyna sighed. "Does he not realise he's a wizard?"

I turned around again, grinning. "Musn't let him overhear that, we won't want to interrupt this."

Rebecca joined in. "Yeah, but it's not like he's actually going to use it. He barely knows how to say a spell!" She smirked at both Reyna and I. "Maybe we should cast a spell on him, make that black stain go all over his robes."

I gasped. "You wouldn't."

Reyna shared a devious smile with her sister. "You know, I always question why we weren't placed in Slytherin instead." She turned her gaze back to me. "And answering your question, we would. Maybe not to other teachers—" I snorted, thinking about how Snape would react if a student purposefully poured ink all over him "—but to Lockhart, definitely."

I smiled in response. I wouldn't mind the extra manic here. This was the first time a DADA lesson had seemed mildly interesting.

Looking back at Lockhart, I spotted a shadow nearing the doorway. A quick turn of my neck caused me to open my eyes widely; Ginny was sneaking out of class.

I watched helplessly as her form retreated down the hallway. It seemed as if no one else had noticed her: The twins were wrapped up in their own conversations again, Lockhart was busy with his robes, and every other student was either talking or staring at Lockhart with rapt interest.

"Get out! Out, all of you! I'm sure you'll be safe wandering to your common rooms. Dumbledore wouldn't mind..."

The scrape of chairs, rustle of books being packed into bags, and the growing din of students' voices trapped Lockhart, as he was pushed over (I wasn't sure whether it was accidental or purposeful), and cornered into his desk. I started shoving my own books in my bag, and once I had finished, waited for the twins. I wanted to get their "information" first before I went to the Great Hall, and received mum's post back.

***

Rebecca leant against the cool white composure of the sink. She breathed in heavily as she said, "The diary that Ginny's been keeping," she glanced at Reyna, "is why all these petrifications have been happening. Reyna and I were in our dormitory the other day when we tried looking in Ginny's diary. We wrote in it, once we found out that everything was blank. Then the most surprising thing happened." Rebecca looked at me. "It began writing back."

Reyna nodded. "Ginny's diary is what's made her so distant and ignorant. She doesn't realise it, but she's the one who's allowed the petrifications. This boy called Riddle," she spat out the name with distaste, "has been guiding her through everything." Reyna looked up at me sadly. "And we've decided that we're going to tell on her."

I took in a sharp intake of breath. I shook my head. No. It couldn't be Ginny, could it? All those times where she'd regarded the diary protectively, and kept away from me for this past week couldn't be because... "Please, let me talk to her."

Rebecca sighed. "We'd thought you'd say that." Her hands fiddled with her robes. "So we're going to confront her, together."

"Yes. After dinner, once she's in our dormitory, we're all going to go in together and tell her what we know."

I looked at Reyna. "Including you..."

Reyna nodded. "We have to. Otherwise, this school will start to close down. The petrifications have stopped now, but the mandrakes still haven't grown fully. We both need a definite answer," she gestured to Rebecca and herself, "so we have to do this."

"Right." I knotted my eyebrows together, taking in everything they'd said. "But why are you both so interested in this case? I know the school's in danger, but I don't understand why you're both so adamant on investigating."

The twins just gave me a look of despair. Rebecca sighed. "Let's just go eat dinner. I'm hungry."

I nodded, although I didn't dismiss how they'd purposefully avoided my question. However, as I arrived at the familiar Gryffindor table, I decided that I'd let it rest; for now. I leant back in my chair, taking a spoonful of lasagane before—

The letter. Once the owl had perched lightly onto the table, I wrung the letter out eagerly. Giving a chunk of bread to the owl, who twittered slightly at the choice of food, I skimmed my eyes over the letter.

"Dear Briar,
I'm happy that you're enjoying your stay at Hogwarts so far. I'm hoping you'll do really well in your exams, and classwork, and just study as hard as you can, in general!
However, I've discussed this with your father, and your siblings, and we've decided not to tell the Weasleys about the diary. I don't know if they know yet (they probably won't), but we feel it's right that Ginny, herself, should own up to her mistakes. I know that the chamber of secrets has been reopened (it's all over the news), and I was just waiting for a reply from you; in fact, I was just in the process of writing a letter to you when the post came!
Anyway, with all the friendship drama, I'm just here to say that you should give Ginny some time. You've both known each other for so long, and I sincerely hope that one little fight between you won't alter that. It's only your first year, so petty arguments were bound to come (I've had experience), and so I understand what you're going through, and I just advise you to keep calm; but if that doesn't work, tell the teachers - if you must. As to your other friend, Donna, I send you all my hope that she will revive again. Once she's up again, I'd love for you to invite her, Ginny and anyone else I don't know about back to our house.
So overall, we send you all our wishes (Monica nearly ripped your letter from me when she found out you wrote to us), and your little brother and father were also really happy. Stay safe, and write soon!
Love,
Mum xx Write soon Briar! Nica xx

I brushed away a tear from my eye as my fingers grazed the last few lines. Reading the letter had set up a nostalgia in me, one that I hadn't realised I'd missed so much. Storing the letter safely in the pocket of my robes, I stepped up with a newfound confidence and positivity surging through me, as if the letter had awakened me out of my robotic trance. As I pushed my chair in, I spotted the twins doing the same. Once they'd reached where I was standing, they beckoned me over towards the staircase.

"So, Ginny's already in the dormitory, I think," Rebecca said, as we trundled up the stairs to our dorm.

Reyna nodded. "And we're just going to tell her. No sugarcoating." She cast me a stern glance as she said that, making me raise my hands up in surrender.

I shot them a soft smile. "Don't worry, I'll play along with you. Just don't be too harsh, otherwise I'll side with Ginny. It's not her fault, remember." I stopped as my hands felt the doorknob and I twisted it — slowly, in apprehension.

The spotless dormitory greeted my eyes, with only stacks of books dotted here and there disturbing the neat, orderly stance. I looked over at Ginny, who ducked her head inside her diary as we came in. She sniffed. "Go away."

I sighed. "Ginny, we want to talk to you."

I distinctly saw her shake her head before she stood up. "I don't want to talk though."

Reyna stepped beside me. "Ginny, just hand in that diary, please. There's no point in trying to pretend it's innocent. It's not." Her hand stretched outwards towards the diary. "It's not your fault Ginny, but it will be if you keep the diary. We just want to help."

Ginny's nostrils flared at the last word. "Help?" She stepped forward defiantly towards Reyna as well. "Don't you think I know that? I've been trying to avoid this diary — but I can't. It's gone too far that I just can't..." Her eyes glossed over with tears.

Rebecca huffed. I gave her a wary glance as she spoke, "Ginny, just give it to us. You don't need to do anything. We'll just hand it in." She looked sympathetically at Ginny. "I'm sure your family will understand."

Ginny tightened her hold on her diary, shaking her head violently. "Actually, no, Rebecca. They won't understand. In fact, they don't even understand me. Look at perfect Bill, Charlie, Percy," she ticked off each name with her fingers, "and even Fred and George. Mum thinks they're annoying, but I know she secretly loves them for who they are. Ron, as well! Since he's befriended Harry," she choked back a sob, "I've had no one. And now my friends—" she looked up at all three of us "—don't understand that."

I paused. Ginny was right. I knew all about her troubles. These were all things she'd confided to me in the past, but to hear her admit that openly to someone else — people who she'd felt not as close to, made me really think about how hurt she actually must be. A wave of guilt passed through my body as I thought about the loving letter from my family, which I'd received earlier. The parchment seemed heavier now in my pocket, as I thought about the absence of letters to Ginny.

"Ginny, I'm so so—"

"No!" A firm voice interrupted my would-be apology. I glanced, askew, at Reyna, who was now standing right in front of Ginny, so that their noses were practically touching. Reyna glared down at Ginny's diary, her gaze unwavering even when Rebecca, (astonishingly), didn't side with her and tried pulling her arm back. Reyna shook her head, forcibly. "You, Ginny, don't understand what a priviledge you have. You're in a loving family, who support you and care for you, which you stupidly, don't see!" Ginny faltered, stunned at Reyna's words. "You don't understand why it's so hard, and painful to see all our friends — Donna, you and Briar, be constantly surrounded by people who support them. People who actually have a family!"

I gasped. Did that mean Reyna (and Rebecca), were actually—

"We're orphans! Orphans! That's why we were so keen on stopping these petrifications," Reyna turned sharply to face me before swivelling back, "and that's why we were so hostile to you! At least you have somewhere to go if Hogwarts closes! We don't!" She leered down at Ginny's trembling, horrified form. "And maybe if you—"

Rebecca threw Reyna aside, giving her a warning look. She turned warily towards Ginny and I again. "Everything Reyna said is true, you know. And I think it's because of that we are seen as hard to become friends with, why we are constantly on the alert for fights and scandals, why we always feel misunderstood. And I know it's hard on you, Ginny, but it's coming to a point where you really need to act on your mistakes. We forgive you, but will you forgive us?"

I watched with terror at the scene unfurling before me. It was as if months of tension had just suddenly been released in a ball of fury; there was nothing I could have done to stop it, and there was a very slim chance of mending it. Ginny was now blinking frantically, as if awoken suddenly. She stared at Reyna and Rebecca.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "but I need some time alone." Her head dipped down again, as she gave me a quick glance of worry and the twins — a look of pain.

As the door clicked shut behind them, my eyes travelled to the twins involuntarily. Reyna was leaning against the bedframe, while Rebeca patted her back encouragingly.

"Guys–" I started. But it was of no use.

Rebecca gave me a sorrowful look. "We're sorry, Briar, but we need some air as well. Maybe we'll come back later..."

I waved it off. "Go," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Once I was the only one in the dormitory, I sank down into the floor with despair. I thought about the letter, and what mum had said: Tell the teachers, if you must. I didn't want to do that now, after everything that had just happened. But if this wasn't resolved in a few weeks, then it would probably come to that.

My mind lingered over this for a few more minutes as I lay, staring blankly up at the cracked ceiling from my four-poster bed. The light breeze wafting through the window did nothing to ease my pain and anxiousness, as I contemplated over who's side I was actually on — now that I'd heard both sides of the argument.

I pulled my head into my hands in frustration. I wished there was someone who would give me a straight answer. Someone who would lighten the mood, and sit next to me as we would talk about something; anything other than what had happened. But the most annoying thing is was that there was that someone: But that someone was lying petrified in the hospital wing.