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the second years would be selecting new subjects for the following year was an exciting one. They had known this was coming for a while now and during the Easter holidays, conversation was dominated by which subjects they were going to elect to study.

Students had starkly contrasting approaches as to how they were going to choose, and Saffron was torn between which one to go along with.

"Can't we just choose the classes that the best looking boys are picking?" Lavender asked Saffron, Parvati and Hermione one night in their dormitory. "Someone should just tell me what Anthony Goldstein and Olly Jowett are choosing and I'll choose them ones,"

"You shouldn't choose subjects just because a boy wants to do them," chided Hermione, folding her clothes she had just gotten back from the laundry neatly into piles.

"No, I think that's exactly what I'll do," stated Lavender simply. Her response was put across in that way partially because it was the truth and partially because she knew it would evoke a reaction from Hermione.

"But it's your future, not theirs," Hermione furrowed her eyebrow at Lavender confusedly.

"Ideally it'll be ours," said Lavender dreamily. "I'm in it for the long run, Hermione," Lavender turned to Saffron. "I'm sure Saff will be holding out too, hoping to catch a look at mini Ollys choices,"

"Ha-Ha," said Saffron, who was used to constantly being teased about him. "No, I won't be,"

"Like I always say, I might be blonde but I'm not dumb, Saff," Lavender smirked at her. "You can seriously sit here and tell us that not even a tinsy tiny part of you wants to be in class with him all day,"

Saffron blinked, nonplussed. "Yes,"

Lavender looked to Parvati and then back to Saffron, grinning. "Sure, Saff,"

While Lavender went with the 'choose what the cute boys choose approach', other Gryffindors adopted different mechanisms. One of which Saffron found very amusing. Whilst on her way down to the Great Hall with her fellow Gryffindor girls one morning, they walked on the scene of Seamus and Dean deciding to end the consideration process by Dean jabbing his wand on the list of options and choosing those options.

Hermione and Lavender, upon being asked to witness this decision had two different reactions that made Saffron and Parvati giggle.

"You can't be serious!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Oooh, close your eyes and I'll read out what you choose!" squealed Lavender.

Nonetheless, the four Gryffindor girls watched the selection unfold. At first, Dean jabbed his wand on Muggle Studies, but hastily said that it didn't count as being a Muggle, the class would prove to be ineffective. In the end, they went for Divination and A Care Of Magical Creatures.

Neville seemed to be relieved to have something else to focus on other than to think about getting cornered by the Heir of Slytherin. He had been getting numerous letters from members of his family, all of which gave him advice about what he should choose. That had made him rather stressed, but at the very least his stress was at something that wouldn't potentially kill him on the spot.

"At least you have some direction, Neville," said Saffron, who was in an irritable mood. She, Neville and Hermione all sat in the common room pondering over their decisions. "My sister told me to do what I felt was best for me. I mean what kind of advice is that?"

Hermione, on the other hand, wasn't letting anybody give her advice. She read over the descriptions given about each subject and by the end of the night she finally seemed to succumb to the supposed weight of the decision and exclaimed:

"Forget it, I'm doing them all!"

Neville left the two girls alone, as he headed up to his dormitory. No sooner was he gone, did Harry and Ron come into the common room. He had just finished a Quidditch session that Ron had watched from the stands. They followed suit in heading up to their dormitory. Saffron watched Harry walk up to his dormitory through narrow eyes. She then turned to Hermione.

"You know, I actually think that tomorrow could be a good game for him," Saffron voiced her thoughts out loud and Hermione looked up from the Ancient Runes book she had loaned from the library. "It'll only be his fourth one, both of them last years were stressful as with Quirrell and Snape, then this year had Dobby, but I doubt Dobby will be at this one if the monster is gone,"

"I hadn't thought of that," nodded Hermione with a slight smile. "That will be nice, don't you think? There'll be much less worry from the stands, of course, that is, that someone else doesn't involve themselves in Harry's game,"

"Heres hope---"

But Saffron was cut off by Harry and Ron who were thundering down the stairs, looking anxious and furious.

"Someones gone through our dormitory----" Harry started.

"Riddles Diary---" began Ron.

"It's gone," finished Harry, with a firmness that Saffron and Hermione heard over Ron's splutterings. Ron paused to let Harry tell them exactly what they knew. "The whole room was a mess, whoever it was, they must have been looking for the diary. They must have, nothing else looked like it was nothing. No money, nothing,"

"But why would a Gryffindor look for that, it must have been one," Hermione stammered, aghast. "Unless somebody else found our password,"

"That's not unlikely," said Saffron, her eyebrows raised in shock at what she was hearing from the boys. "It was really easy for us to get into the Ravenclaw common room, all it would have taken was for someone to overhear a Gryffindor say it,"

"But you two went when there was barely anyone at school," countered Harry fairly. "If a non-Gryffindor was to come into here, someone would have reported it, unless they were with someone,"

"Maybe they used polyjuice?" suggested Ron thoughtfully.

"That seems a little complicated to doing something as simple as break into a dormitory," said Hermione. "And the potion isn't easy, they would have had to of started only weeks after you found the diary,"

"So the odds are that it was a Gryffindor," Ron essentially concluded.

The four exchanged worried looks. If someone from Gryffindor had stolen something that was so linked to the Chamber of Secrets, then maybe the Heir wasn't anybody on their radar whatsoever. That thought frightened the four of them immensely and they proceeded to continue to count down the days to the Mandrakes being ready.