simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff-room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.

Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming round long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.

Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lec- ture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.

'Miss – er –?'

'Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us any- thing about the Chamber of Secrets,' said Hermione in a clear voice.

Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville's elbow slipped off his desk.

'Oh, no, Mione you started a riot,' yawned Amelia.

Professor Binns blinked.

'My subject is History of Magic,' he said in his dry, wheezy voice. 'I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends.' He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and con- tinued, 'In September of that year, a sub-committee of Sardinian sorcerers –'

He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.

'Miss Grant?'

'Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?'

Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement, Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

'Well,' said Professor Binns slowly, 'yes, one could argue that, I suppose.' He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. 'However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale ...'

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Harry