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there, I'm going to scream so loud it'll wake up everyone who's petrified,"

Saffron was very worried that their, or rather, Hermione's efforts in making the Polyjuice potion and setting them up perfectly to talk to Draco would be foiled by Draco simply not being there. For all they knew, he could have gone to the owlery, gone to play some Quidditch with his brother or gone to the library to study.

Although some scenarios were more likely than others, the most likely one being that he was in the common room, it didn't mean that something else couldn't happen and that was a scary thought. All the effort could be for nought and they would be no closer to discovering who the Heir of Slytherin was.

"We just have to go off the assumption that he'll be there," said Hermione, who seemed to have taken some of Saffron's worries and let them dominate her thoughts too. "It's just down there,"

She came to a halt. Harry and Ron caught up with them and looked at them in confusion.

"Go right down to the end of the call and turn right, you won't be able to miss it," Hermione told them quietly. "Good luck, and remember----"

"We remember," Harry nodded at her, continuing to walk in the direction of the common room. "We'll meet you in the common room once we're done,"

Saffron watched the boys walk all the way down to the bottom of the hall until they were out of sight. So much could go wrong, but so much good could come out of it should everything go according to plan. But oftentimes the best-laid plans could go awry. Saffron inwardly prayed that this wouldn't be one of these times.

"And now," said Saffron finally, her eyes still fixed on the now empty hall. "We wait,"

Hermione sighed. "We wait,"

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After a nervous hour that Saffron and Hermione spent near the fire in the Gryffindor common room with just each other for company, Harry and Ron finally arrived back, bursting through the common room door, panting.

Saffron gripped the edge of the couch she was sat on tightly. She was yearning for information and hopefully confirmation, but she could already read Harry and Ron well enough to know that it hadn't been the desired outcome. "Well?"

Ron shook his head, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. He collapsed into the nearest armchair.

"Nothing?" Hermione asked them gloomily. She looked defeated. It was evident she felt as though all her work had truly been for nothing. "What happened?"

Harry and Ron took turns in telling Saffron and Hermione exactly what happened. Once the girls left them, they managed to run into Percy which delayed them. But then, as luck would have it, Draco found them and they followed him back into the common room. They asked Draco about whether or not he knew who opened the Chamber and sadly it seemed as though he was just as much in the dark as they were. But he was happy about it and boasted about how he would willingly help the Heir if given the opportunity.

There was some new information though. According to Draco, the last time the Chamber opened was indeed fifty years ago, and that during that time a Muggleborn was murdered. Draco claimed that it was only a matter of time before the cycle repeated itself, meaning it was only a matter of time before someone got killed.

"But he told us that his dad keeps some Dark Arts stuff in a secret chamber under the drawing room floor, that's a silver lining, eh!" Ron said happily with a note of finality.

"That's not going to help us put a stop to this, Ron," retorted Hermione glumly. She pursed her lips and folded her arms, leaning back on the couch. "I think our next move is to find out who opened up the Chamber fifty years ago? What else do we have to go off?"

"Nothing," replied Harry with disappointment.

The mention of the Chamber of Secrets being opened fifty years ago brought Saffron back to a conversation she had been involved in during the night of the Duelling Club. If Saffron remembered it correctly, Luna told her that it wasn't Harry who opened the Chamber and that Hagrid had done so the time previous. As unlikely as it was, Saffron decided to let her friends know this, as like they said, they had very little to go off.

"Okay, don't laugh when I say this," Saffron prefaced. "But the night Olly and Emilia were petrified, I was talking with Luna, (Hermione rolled her eyes) no hear me out, look, she told me that Hagrid opened the Chamber last time, I know it's unlikely. I know that, but it's not impossible,"

"It's nearly impossible," said Hermione in disbelief. "Why would you even believe something Loony Lovegood said? She's a compulsive liar---"

"Wait, who are we talking about?" asked Ron furrowing his brow. Harry too was looking at the girls with blank expressions.

"It's Luna," Saffron snapped at Hermione hotly. "And how can you know for sure that she's wrong? The time fits, fifty years ago,"

"Luna also gave your friend Olly a necklace of protection from the monster and he got petrified," said Hermione cooly, narrowing her eyes at Saffron.

"He knew it wasn't real, he ---" exclaimed Saffron, completely flustered. "What does that even matter? You just don't want it to be Hagrid,"

"And you probably want it to be Hagrid," stated Hermione matter-of-factly. "Because you still hold a grudge from last year, you're just as bias as I am,"

Saffron shook her head profusely. "I don't want to argue with you, Hermione," She paused and exhaled loudly. "Not today, all I'm saying is that Hagrid isn't a perfect person. If the three of you stop and think about how irresponsible he was last year, maybe you'd agree. He kept telling us things he shouldn't have. He told You Know Who about Fluffy. He made us take a dragon up to the astronomy tower and we lost two hundred points for it. He makes mistakes, so why couldn't he have made one fifty years ago?"

"This is Hagrid we're talking about, though," said Ron with a grin. He clearly fell on the same side of things as Hermione. "He might make mistakes, but he'd never open something that would hurt people,"

"I never said he did it on purpose," countered Saffron. "Maybe it was an accident?"

"I really don't think so," said Harry slowly, throwing Saffron an apologetic look. She responded by rolling her eyes at him. "It doesn't seem like something Hagrid would do, even accidentally,"

"Funny," started Saffron, glaring at Harry. "Funny that you said the exact same thing about Quirrell last year and he ended up having You Know Who on the back of his head," She got up out of her now uncomfortable position on the couch. "You three might not think it's Hagrid and I'm not saying that it's for sure him either. But it's all we have to go off right now, and I'm going to look into it, with or without the three of you,"

With that, Saffron stormed off into her dormitory and didn't exchange a single word with the three of them for the rest of the night.