If there was one thing I'd learned since coming back to Hogwarts, it was that fear made people talk far more than truth ever did.
By February, the castle had become a whispering hive.
Every corridor carried rumors.
Every staircase overheard secrets.
And Ron and I—thanks to having been trapped in the wrong bodies had become experts at listening.
Whoevers prank that was, it wasnt funny!
We were girls for weeks, WEEKS!
None of the guys wanted to hang out with us, me more than anyone, while the girls wanted all to do with us as we became their living dolls as they endlessly chattered about this and that.
We couldn't sleep in our own beds, having to live in the Hospital wing.
Couldnt use the school bathrooms either, instead being told to use a private bathroom on the 3rd floor reserved just for us.
Golly that first visit to the can nearly made me mess myself, that bathroom is haunted!!
Worse yet, by a tempermental ghost who hates girls!
No not bad enough, when we finally convinced her we were really boys, she got way, way to interested in us.
I couldnt even do my business in peace any longer.
Myrtle the young ghost was just a nuissance, constantly asking if we'd done this to ourselves... as if!
Then endlessly asking us to stay this way forever rather than changing back before getting all shy.
Finally after christmas break we did change back, and boy was i thrilled to be a boy again.
Only the perk of a private bathroom was hard to pass up, and well we also had something to prove to the ghost girl.
Only to find she was even more interested in me as a boy!
At least the one good thing about her new outlook on me was that she was far more interested in conversation and even told us her story about dying in this very bathroom.
The story ended there sadly as Ron couldnt hold back his crassness being a boy once more and angered the young 'maiden' causing her to fly off in a flurry.
~
By evening, we'd made the castle rounds—lingering outside common rooms, listening to gossip.
All this was made simple thanks to my dad's old cloak, we were able to surveil the school for any evidence to clear my name of suspicion.
Thanks to our efforts over the course of weeks that left us two with deep bags under our eyes from a lack of sufficient sleep we had overheard a couple of key conversations;
"My gran says it happened last time, too. A girl died in a bathroom."
"Yeah. My dad says they caught the one who did it. Big bloke—used to keep monsters."
"Hagrid?"
"Yeah! He had a pet spider or something. Nearly killed a student!"
Ron's eyes met mine.
Hagrid.
It was absurd.
The man could barely step on a beetle without apologizing to it.
But even as we carried on investigating the spreading rumors among the students cause more news to come out, someones folks in the ministry had confirmed Hagrid was expelled from the school over the previous chamber incident.
Some bloke called Riddle had caught him in the act apparently.
That was enough for me.
"We're going to Hagrid," I said.
Ron groaned. "You're just going to ask him?"
"Yes."
"Harry, what if— What if Hagrid really did open the chamber of secrets, if we go and tell him we know he could-"
"Well worry about that if it happens"
Leaving no room for discussion, i grabbed my dad's old cloak casting it over us as the two of us made our way through the familiar halls and out of the castle, just as the curfew was setting in locking everyone in their dormitories.
~
Hagrid's hut looked smaller than usual against the sweep of the moonlit grounds.
Smoke rose lazily from the chimney, and Fang's distant bark echoed through the trees.
Keeping ourselves fully hidden under the cloak as we approached.
The door loomed ahead.
I knocked.
Once.
Twice.
The door opened with a creak, and Hagrid filled the frame—massive, wild-bearded, smelling faintly of burnt pumpkin.
His beetle-black eyes squinted at us.
"'Ello?" he said uncertainly. "Hullo?"
Quickly seeing as he was armed with a crossbow i flipped the cloak off revealing ourselves.
"Whats that for?" I questioned.
Seeing our familiar faces Hagrid was quick to lower his weapon.
"Oh nothing i was... i was just expectin... Doesn't matter cmon in jus made a pot of tea."
Ushering us inside as the giant moved to pull out additional cups before filling them, or rather overfilling them with tea.
"Hagrid are you ok?" I questioned worriedly.
"I'm fine, it's alright" He responded but somber.
"Look we have to ask you something." Taking a deep breath before continuing. "Do you know whose opened the chamber of secrets."
I smiled as disarmingly as I could. "We were hoping to ask you about… the Chamber of Secrets."
The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush breath.
"What you have to understand about that is--" Hagrid began to defend himself only to be cutoff by Ron.
"We're your friends just tell us the truth!"
Seeing the pair of us staring up at him intently seeking answers, he slumped back into his armchair.
"Aight, i was blamed before aye. Though it weren't. They claimed me pet spider Aragog did them foul deeds, and killed that poor girl."
"But if thats the case then why?" I began unable to finish my sentance.
"Why blame me? Well after i was acused, and Aragog ran off after they tried to capture him, well the attacks stopped all together, n' well that was the end of my student life. Good man dumbledore those fought for me n let me keep living on the grounds."
"So if it wasnt you then who did open the chamber all those years ago?"
"Now i wont go round saying it aloud, but--"
KNOCK KNOCK
"Quick under the cloak!"
In a flash after the knocking on the door was heard ron and i vanished under the invisibility cloak.
Hagrid took one quick look over his shoulder before once more brandishing his crossbow to open the door.