The oncoming series of Quidditch Matches was enough to keep my mind off Ginny and her hateful words. With Ravenclaw and Gryffindor scheduled for the match, things were getting quite worked up. 

Oliver had given me a thoroughly nice little lecture (so little that it went on for almost an hour) as I had ditched the practice and he surely did not approve of it. 

"If that happens again Katerina I'll have to be strict with you," these were his last words to me. 

He had toughened up the practices saying that we should not take Ravenclaw easily and should be a force to reckon with. At that George had whispered in my ear, "yeah; force. Here it comes again." 

Then raising their voice, the twins spoke, "don't worry, Oliver, we'll drive the Ravenclaws out by sheer force. And we have also memorized all three of Newton's laws." 

He looked at them questioningly, "wait... What?" 

I spoke, "it's okay, sometimes they do get the nerve to really study."

***

On the day of the match, Wood got paranoid as always. Though it all didn't turn out that badly as he had dreamt about last night. I tell you this guy thinks nothing and absolutely nothing is more important than Quidditch. 

However Gryffindor won by catching the Snitch and we had a twenty points lead before that as well. Ravenclaw wasn't bad, in fact playing against it was difficult even. I had scored a goal and so had Katie but Angelina had scored two. 

She's probably the best Chaser at Hogwarts just like Harry is the best Seeker. Anyhow, we won the match. And Wood was over the moon but still kept lecturing us to improve.

When we entered the Common Room, it was decorated very festively and all the Gryffindors sprayed us with confetti. Quite surprising for such a great celebration to be held just due to winning the second match in the season. 

Something's fishy going on. And oh yes everybody's looking at me grinning as if I scored the winning goal. Hey, what's up with all of them? 

"No no no, Percy... Don't you dare!" Next moment I was completely covered in confetti and snow spray. Ugh, some of it went in my mouth and it doesn't taste good at all. 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" 

Wait, what? Birthday? Mine? How's that... 

Oh right, today's 4th of December. 

Katie and Angelina brought me in the center where a beautiful cake was set on the table. 

"Courtesy of Honeydukes, we ordered it by Owl post in the morning," the twins winked. 

Well... This is amazing! I'm having a whole birthday celebration with my friends. Mind you, this is my first birthday that ever got celebrated. 

"Hello," Katie waved her hand in front of me, "don't you like it?" 

I felt tears at the corners of my eyes, "just like it? I absolutely love all this!" 

Percy threw an arm around me and trust me that really is unbelievable, "it was my idea by the way. Can't let our little sister forget her special day now, can we?" 

The twins spoke up, "would you stop taking credit for everything, Perce? You only remembered the date of her birthday, the rest of it was arranged by us, y'know."

"Still, if I didn't tell you that it's her birthday then where will you be right now?"

I smiled at their silly little argument, "look, no matter who gave the idea the point that counts is that you all contributed in arranging this. And I love all of you for this." 

After that we had a big Weasley family hug. Well... Except Ginny. 

Now when I think about it, she wasn't even anywhere in sight. But I couldn't think any more of her as the others began to sing the Birthday song. Well, I must not think any saddening thoughts now because if I do, I'd be spoiling my very first birthday celebration. And surely I don't want that. I want these memories to last. 

"And we hid your mail," Fred took out some envelopes. 

"We wanted the party to come out as a complete surprise since we were so sure that you'd forget it," George added. 

I'm just so happy at the moment. Briefly glancing at the letters, I saw they were from Mom, Dad, Bill and even Charlie. 

"Cut the cake now, girl," Angelina spoke. 

I took the knife which was tied with a red ribbon. There were fifteen candles on my cake. I bent down to blow the candles and as I did so the little flames went off in a puff of smoke. But the smoke didn't vanish in the air. 

Instead it took a weird shape. That shape resembled a giant creature's open mouth. I saw a glimmer of fangs and then everything around me darkened. No, not again, not this time. I do remember the last time this darkening thing had happened, I had ended up seriously injured. 

I felt cold all of a sudden and it was such a weird coldness that it felt as if my blood had frozen entirely. There was a swish by my feet and a hissing sound was heard close by. I stumbled as it felt that whatever the thing was slithered right beside me. 

The next thing I saw were menacing jaws snapped open in front of me lined with rows and rows of fangs. It was so close that I felt dizzy from fear. Then a sharp pain shot through my body and I blacked out.

***

When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see clearly. All was dark around me except from the slight moonlight coming through the window and it was eerily silent. The last thing I remembered was me about to cut my birthday cake when a horrid fanged creature ruined everything. 

"Fred? George?" I called but got no response. 

After a while there were sounds drawing near. I immediately closed my eyes pretending to be still asleep as the Headmaster and a few other teachers entered this... whatever place it was. 

"This is not a good sign, Minerva," I heard Dumbledore and he sounded really anxious. 

"No Albus, do you... Do you mean to say that the Chamber...?" 

I peeked through my covers and saw Dumbledore shaking his head in disappointment, "yes. The Chamber exists. And it has really been opened." 

There was a gasp from Professor Sprout, "what should we do, Headmaster? The Muggle-borns are in grave danger then." 

Yeah, grave danger. And to think of it that I am also a Muggle-born to be honest. The fangs flashed again in front of my eyes and I shuddered. I saw that they had brought a student to the infirmary as still and lifeless as Mrs Norris. 

"Another one petrified," McGonagall spoke, "Colin Creevey. Second year." 

Colin? That is, the camera kid of our house? "At this rate, the school won't remain open for long," Sprout remarked and blew her nose on a big hankie. 

That means the monster had begun to attack students by now and Sprout was probably right about the school being shut down. I turned uncomfortably as I was slightly trembling. 

"And the girl Katerina, she's a Muggle-born too," Sprout spoke up for me.

"The Monster won't hurt her. There's no need to be worried for her. She's safe from all that's happening."

"But how?"

"Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction."

The next voice I heard was Snape's, "do you think we should tell her, Headmaster? About her origin. Her family?"

I closed my eyes immediately (which had flown open a few seconds ago from shock: how the hell did Snape know anything about my family? As long as I'm not related to Snape, I don't mind whichever family they dig my origin out from) as they stepped towards my bed.

"Not now, Severus. When the time comes she'll learn about the truth herself. Until then we shouldn't ruin all the happy moments she has and is looking forward to."

McGonagall spoke, "but Albus, the girl..."

He interrupted her, "she's not a Muggle-born and that's all I can tell you for now. Katerina is a pureblood hence out of any danger from the Monster whatever it is."

Me? A pureblood? This is all a freaking nightmare and nothing else. 

"But if she's not in danger from the monster, then why is she here?" Professor Sprout asked.

"This child here has certain... Powers. She has an inner eye able to see into the future and I won't be surprised if she told me that she saw the Monster itself tonight and that's the reason for her being in the Hospital Wing. Her vague expeditions into the future leave her exhausted as it happens with the very few Real Seers on this planet. So we have to see to it that she's not fatally harmed by any of her visions." 

They talked in hushed voices by then and soon afterwards the sound of footsteps moving out of the infirmary was heard. 

When I was perfectly sure that they had gone and were out of earshot, I sat up and took in a deep breath to calm my frayed nerves. All this was a lot to take in; students being petrified, Muggle-borns in danger, my unbelievable pure blood status, Snape knowing my family, envisioning the Monster by a certain inner eye... 

It surely was a great deal to believe and understand. And to think that there were secrets buried everywhere, secrets about me which those people knew who I hadn't expected in the least while I was unaware myself. Kept in the dark. For a long, unbelievably lengthy time period.

***