that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities.'

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and said in a somewhat choked voice, 'I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward.'

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately.

'That's two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff,' said the Weasley twins' friend Lee Jordan, counting on his fingers. 'Haven't any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn't it obvious all this stuff's coming from Slytherin? The heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin – why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out?' he roared, to nods and scattered applause.

Percy Weasley was sitting in a chair behind Lee, but for once he didn't seem keen to make his views heard. He was looking pale and stunned.

'Percy's in shock,' George told Harry quietly. 'That Ravenclaw girl – Penelope Clearwater – she's a Prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a Prefect.'

'You're wrong,' whispered Amelia as the first time she had talked senses earlier that day. 

But Harry was only half-listening. He didn't seem to be able to get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, he was looking at a lifetime back with the Dursleys. Tom Riddle had turned Hagrid in because he was faced with the prospect of a Muggle orphanage if the school closed. Harry now knew exactly how he had felt.

Ron grabbed Amelia's hand led her to an empty part of the common room and gently shoved her into the chair.

'What happened?'

'Ron be nice,' said Harry.

Amelia took a breath and sighed she shook her head. 'I wish I knew,'

'What do you mean you wish you knew? You have to know something? You were there weren't you?' Harry grabbed Ron's shoulder and moved him back a little he was getting agitated.

'Yeah, I was. We were looking through book after book after book, for what Hermoine wouldn't tell me why. Then I heard it. The voice hissing in the halls and it was close to close. Hermoine shoved me to the ground telling me to close my eyes and not look up,' Amelia took a shaky breath, 'There was screaming a lot of screaming. When I finally did look up I saw them frozen. I'm sorry I didn't see anything.'

'What're we going to do?' said Ron quietly in Harry's ear. 'D'you think they suspect Hagrid?'

'We've got to go and talk to him,' said Harry, making up his mind. 'I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start.'