Investigation into the Heir (III)

"We can't just sit here and wait," she said, each word like a nail hammered hard into the table. "We can't count on the professors. They can't even confirm whether the Chamber of Secrets exists! We need information. Firsthand information!"

"Information?" Ron blinked in confusion. "Where are we supposed to get that?"

"Slytherin."

Hermione spat out the word as though it were poisonous.

Ron's eyes widened like saucers. "What did you say?"

"You saw it too," Hermione said, speaking faster and faster like a train picking up speed. "Malfoy and the others didn't go to class at all today. They're always like that! Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson—they look down on History of Magic and never show up. But usually, in the corridors, in the Great Hall, on the Quidditch Pitch... have you noticed their attitude?"

She paused, her gaze sweeping over Harry and Ron's faces.

"After the Petrification Incident, everyone has been scared. Lavender was so frightened she wanted to change dormitories. Dean won't even go to the toilet without someone with him. Even some pure-blood students are worried that they'll be next. But what about Malfoy?"

In a perfect imitation of Draco's lazy, faintly mocking tone, she said, "'The king personally crowned by Dumbledore becoming Slytherin's heir makes perfect sense.'"

Her expression shifted back, and her eyes sharpened. "Listen to that tone. He isn't scared. He's showing off. Or hinting at something. He knows things we don't. He has to know something!"

Harry's heartbeat quickened.

She was right.

There really was something off about Malfoy. Not his usual arrogance of my father is a school governor, but something deeper, more secretive... certainty. Like a student who already knew the answer, watching everyone else tear their hair out over an exam paper.

"Even if he knows something," Ron said, his