“You got this!” Rue yelled, cupping her hands to her mouth.

Grace blew a kiss to the spectators, giving Rue an extra grin. She snatched the Quaffle from one of the Chasers already on the team, who was playing as the opposite side, speeding towards the goal and scoring. Four more goals later, she was excused.

Rue ran to meet her coming off the field.

“How did I do?”

“I think you’ll make it, you flew twice as well as everyone else.”

“Especially better than Draco, I think. Did you hear he made it on because his dad got new brooms for the team? That’s why he’s guaranteed a spot.”

“What?” Rue’s jaw dropped. “He bribed the team!”

“I’m sure he would have made it on anyway. I’ve played him before, he’s pretty good.”

“Get out of the way, I can’t see, move!” Grace shouted as she shoved her way to the front of the crowd. The Quidditch team rosters had been put up a couple minutes earlier. “Can you see?” she asked Rue.

“Behind all these people a thousand times older than us? No.” She stretched her neck out and stood on her toes, trying to get a peek of the list.

Grace finally pushed her way to the front, giving everyone dirty looks as she passed. She shrieked when she saw her name.

“Ha! Beat that, idiots!”

“Shut up,” Rue whispered, pulling her back. “Do you want everyone to think you're crazy? Or are you actually insane?”

“You’re not my mom,” Grace said, irritated.

“Yeah, and I feel bad for her. She has the worst job in the world. Did you happen to check the Hufflepuff team?”

“If you hadn’t pulled me back so fast, I could have gotten a glimpse.”

“Ugh, whatever. I’ll just check when everyone leaves.” Rue glared at Grace.

“It’s not my fault you’re too nice to get to the front.”

“If you had a little common sense, I wouldn’t need to be in the front.”

Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin team, chose that moment to walk up behind Grace and tell her practice was the next day. He glowered at both of them while he spoke.

“Yeah, good luck. He looks like he’ll kick you off the team if you so much as sneeze during a match,” Rue said as soon as he left.

“He does seem a little intense,” Grace agreed, forgetting about their argument. “My flying should keep me on, though.”

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.

“So it’s not Draco,” Grace said, scratching his name off of their short list.

“So who is it then?”

“Do I look like I know?”

“I still think it’s Potter. That whole Parseltongue scene makes him suspicious.”

“It’s definitely not him. He’s the most un-Slytherin someone can be.”

“We don’t know anything for sure yet, but he is quite shady. However, it is true that he’s not very Slytherin-esque,” Pansy pointed out.

“We’ll continue this later, I have to go to Quidditch practice,” Rue said, picking up her belongings.

“Oh, okay, bye.”

“I still think it’s Potter,” Rue called out before she closed the door behind her.

“Walk faster,” Snape shouted, herding his whole house towards their common room. “Move it along! Lockdown started ten minutes ago.”

“Professor, I can’t walk faster when the seventh years are taking up the whole corridor,” Grace complained loudly.

“Are you trying to get in trouble?” Pansy asked.

“I’m just being honest, it’s like a circus exploded in here.”

“And everyone be quiet,” Snape added, shooting a look at Grace, who gave an innocent smile.

When they finally made it to the common room, half of the students went into their dorms to avoid crowding it.

“I’m going to our dorm if you want to join me,” Pansy said.

“I’m good. I want to stay involved, and know the news first.” Grace made her way to an open armchair and curled up, staring into the fire. “Does anyone have any food?”

“Why would we have food?” someone asked. 

Grace frowned at him. “We were in the middle of dinner. Nobody thought to smuggle in some snacks?”

“How come you didn’t, if you’re so clever?”

“We’re all in the same situation here,” Draco chimed in. “You can stop bickering now.” He took out a piece of chocolate and started to unwrap it right in front of her face.

Grace gasped and grabbed it from him, eating it before he could even react.

“That was mine!”

Grace shrugged. “It’s mine now, unless you’d like me to-”

“I don’t need to hear the end of that sentence.”

Just then, Crabbe and Goyle came barreling into the room. “It’s Ginny Weasley!” Goyle gasped, falling onto the couch next to Draco.

“Who?” someone asked.

“Ginny Weasley. She’s in the Chamber. She’s the heir of Slytherin!”

The common room burst into chatter, everyone processing this new revelation. So Grace was the only one to ask the more important question.

“How do you know?”

“From the teachers, duh,” Crabbe said.

“We were eavesdropping.”

“It’s a miracle you two pea-brains didn’t get caught.”

They stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out her meaning, before giving up and turning to talk to Draco.

Grace leaned a little closer to them, attempting to listen in on what they were saying.

“And anyway, isn’t Ginny Potter’s girlfriend?” Draco asked. “Remember that Valentine’s Day thing?” Crabbe and Goyle goggled at him with matching blank expressions.

“I do,” Grace volunteered.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“You are now.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.”

While everyone else went to bed, Grace stayed behind.

“Are you going up to the dorms?” Draco asked when they were alone.

“Do you see me going up?”

“Why are you so aggressive?”

“You’re the one who started this conversation.” Grace rolled her eyes. “I didn’t ask you to talk to me.”

Draco looked at her with nothing to say. “You don’t have to like me, but can you at least pretend to not hate me?” he finally asked.

“I don’t hate you.” 

“Really? Because it sure seems that way.”

“What do you think will happen to Ginny?” Grace questioned, changing the subject.

“She’s probably going to die,” Draco admitted. “But how would I know?”

“I just asked because I thought you might know.”

“I don’t, are you satisfied now?”

“No, I’m not, but sorry for talking to you.”

Meanwhile, Rue was sitting in her own common room, much like Grace.

“Hey, do you need some company?”

Rue looked up to see Cedric Diggory, one of her Quidditch friends, sitting down beside her.

“Sure, I guess.” She returned her gaze to the fireplace. “I was so sure the heir was Harry,” she added randomly, thoughts turning to Ginny in the Chamber.

“Were you? You didn’t think it was Malfoy?”

“No, even if I didn’t know from a friend, I’d think he was too much of a wimp to be the heir.”

“I thought you were friends with Draco?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to him every second of my life.”

“Your friend seems to do enough of that for everyone, so I guess you're fine.”

“They do seem to be very close, don’t they?” Rue grinned. “I don’t think they realize how obvious they are.”

“I believe everyone thinks that they’ll end up together, other than them, which I find kind of unfortunate.”

They talked for a long time, and eventually went to their dorms. Rue blushed to herself as she dragged herself into bed. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep with a big smile on her face.

In the end, Harry saved the day, getting rid of Lockhart and rescuing Ginny at once. He killed the Basilisk, closed the Chamber, and defeated the heir of Slytherin.