a/n; thank you for the reviews :) xD the criticsm will help in later chapters, for sure :P

SORRY FOR THE GINORMOUS WAIT! :huggles: forgive me, please!?

to make up for it, this chapter is nice and long :)

Chapter Two; Pipes and Petrified

Tom Riddle.

He manipulated two of my friends, one of whom was Ron's sister, Ginny. The other one was Harry.

That diary caused a lot of trouble, and I don't just mean the Chamber being opened, or the Basilisk that got loose. Ginny is what I meant. That poor little girl, shy and sweet and nothing at all like she should've been. She still has nightmares, about us, all of us, being killed in the Chamber, while Tom Riddle watches, laughing cruelly.

If I didn't remember much of my first year, did you really expect me to remember my second? Sure, I remember some of it, but I was Petrified in the hospital wing for half the year, and for that period of time, my memory's a blank.

I do remember writing to Ron that summer. In Ms Rowlings books, you don't see what Ron replied, or how I reacted. Well, of course you didn't, as Harry saw neither of those things.

Hermione,

Good of you to be so concerned with Harry getting into trouble. What about me? Am I completely worthless? I'm kidding, of course. Geez, you were probably worried that you'd lost your best friend. Nope, I'm still here, and so is Harry. We always will be, so if you want us to beat Malfoy up, just say the word. We'll do it even without you asking, actually!

How could you be busy with HOMEWORK!? IT'S THE HOLIDAYS, HERMIONE!!

On a happier note, we DID do something illegal to get Harry here, but WE'RE both fine. But when Mum gets her hands on Fred and George, however - er, never mind. Maybe it's better not knowing.

Yeah, we'll see you in Diagon Alley on Wednesday. See you there!

From, (What's with the 'love from' on your letter? It's...strange. Girly. Oh...right. Never mind. Pretend I didn't say that.)

Ron

I was jumping up and down in excitement after reading his letter.

Worried you lost your best friend...

I'm still here...

We always will be...

See you there!

I sighed and collasped on my bed, holding the parchment close to my heart the whole night.

Wednesday morning, I found myself looking at Harry, whose glasses were broken, and was covered in dust and rubble. Ron and his family showed up after a minute, and I finally got a look at Ginny.

I didn't know, then, that I was looking at my future best girl friend, my future sister-in-law. All I knew was that she was Ron's little sister, and she was already gorgeous at the age of 11.

Lockhart. I had already read all his books, and yes, I thought he was brilliant. I can't believe me, the one who reads the most, and gets pretty good grades, fell for his phony facade. (Try saying that three times fast; fell for his phony facade, fell for his phony facade, fell for his phony facade) I also saw a way of making Ron and Harry see that I'm a girl, thank you very much.

And then Draco Malfoy came up and starting insulting Harry, and Ginny stepped up to his defense. That was the first time I'd heard her speak, but Malfoy quelled her instantly with one sentence. I watched a man who had to be Draco's father stroll up like he owned the place.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Funny how it was me who said that, when I couldn't even say Voldemort's name until fifth year?

Anyway, there was a huge fight that Hagrid broke up easily, as nobody wanted to argue with him.

Later on, I was laughing silently at Mr Weasley's attempts to ask my parents how everything Muggle worked. But once they tried explaining, he would get so excited that they just gave up and asked about the wizarding world. It was really funny. Anyway, after all that, I went with Ron and Harry around Diagon Alley, slurping ice cream and trying not to look at either of them too much.

Yes, I still liked Harry in second year...

...And third year...

...And a bit of fourth year, but that's it!

Oh, and for about three weeks in what was supposed to be our seventh year.

...Don't tell Ron. Or Ginny, for that matter. I never even told her about my crush on the Boy Who Lived.

Anyway...

Diagon Alley was fun, strolling down the cobbled street with my two favourite boys and ice cream.

Can I skip all the boring stuff, please? No? Well, that's not fair.

So I went home with my parents, and spent the rest of the holiday dreaming of Harry - and Ron. I think I knew, even back then, that it was wrong. That Harry was my friend, that Ron would laugh if he knew. But I couldn't help what I dreamt.

My cousins came to visit, and it caused a bit of a stir when an owl swooped through the living room window, aiming straight for me. Acting on impulse, I reached up and grabbed the scroll before the owl could land; it swooped out the window as quickly as it had come.

My relatives were alarmed, as they had no clue I was a witch. Maybe I should have been a bit nicer to them, maybe I should have explained what was going on in later years, because those cousins fell at the hands of the Death Eaters a mere five years later. Not that I ever told Harry or Ron. Or Ginny. But oh well.

I raced upstairs before they could ask what was happening, and hurriedly unrolled the scroll. I didn't recognise the owl, but I had a hunch who it was from. I was right.

Dear Hermynee,

Er, how do you spell your name?

Sorry, you're most likely mad because I spelled it wrong.

I'm sorry.

Oh, this is Ginny by the way. Ron's sister?

Yeah, me.

Oh, and the owl is Hermes. Percy's owl. I swiped it to send you this.

Although I have no idea why I'm owling you.

Hi.

Uh oh, Percy's coming, gotta go.

Bye,

Ginny

I couldn't help but laugh at Ginny's letter. I reminded her of it in later years, but she says she doesn't remember it, and that it was probably the twins as a joke. But I know it was her.

The rest of the month went by pretty fast. I never replied to Ginny's letter, as the owl had left as soon as I grabbed it from his claws.

So on September 1st, my parents drove me to King's Cross station. Once I was on the platform and my parents had hugged me goodbye and hurried back to the car so they could get back to work, I looked around and didn't see a splash of red anywhere. I checked my watch. It was only 10:30, they were probably just running late.

"Hermione!" I heard someone shout my name, and I turned, expecting to see my boys, but instead my eyes found Seamus Finnagin and Dean Thomas, fighting their way toward me, grinning. I forced myself to smile through my disappointment, and when Seamus actually went to hug me, I hugged him back.

"Hey, Seamus. Dean. How was your summer?" I asked, hugging Dean as well. Okay, I know it's a little strange that I hugged those two, but c'mon, Ron and Harry hated it when I hugged them. Seamus was grinning at me the whole time, showing off his perfect teeth. I sighed. I had asked my parents if I could get the matron to shrink them at Hogwarts, but, being dentists, they disagreed.

"Oh, it was pretty cool. We were at Dean's house the whole time. He's got, like, five sisters!" Seamus sounded so amazed, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Ron has five brothers and a sister." His jaw dropped, and I remembered that practically nobody knew about Ron's two oldest brothers. Dean chuckled.

"Yeah, and my oldest sister bought Seamus a shirt," He pointed at the green lettering on his best friend's shirt, which read Kiss Me; I'm Irish! I couldn't help but giggle. But before I could say anything about the matter, the train's first whistle blew. I once again searched for the Weasleys, but couldn't see them anywhere. My fellow Gryffindors must have noticed my distress, for Dean invited me to sit with them on the train.

"Yeah, okay," I agreed, relieved. So I followed the boys down the corridor, amid many stares and whispers. I guess because of what I accomplished with Ron and Harry last term, and because of the fact that they weren't with me. I didn't relax until they found an empty compartment and sat down.

As the compartment quickly filled with people, I found myself sitting between Dean and Parvati Patil, with Lavender Brown across from me. Also in the compartment with us was Padma Patil, Parvati's twin sister, Neville Longbottom, and a Ravenclaw I knew was named Michael Corner.

As the boys began to talk about Quidditch, and Neville started talking to Padma about his old Remembrall, Lavender looked over at me in disdain. I realised that we never really talked in our first year, and I had always ignored my two female roomates.

"So, Hermione, where's your boyfriend?" Lavender asked scornfully. I gaped at her.

"What boyfriend?" I truly was confused. I had no idea that Lavender just wanted to hate me for any possible reason - we apologized to each other a few years ago, and ended up sobbing into one another's shoulder, before Ron walked by and was extremely perplexed.

"You know," She let out a short, humourless laugh, and everyone else quieted, listening intently. "The famous Harry Potter. You're always with him."

It felt like my jaw would never re-connect with the upper part of my mouth. "Harry's my friend, Lavender."

"Sure, sure," She rolled her pretty green eyes and tossed her dirty-blonde hair over her shoulder before leaning toward me and continuing in a whisper; "Have you kissed him yet?"

Before I could even retaliate, a shout erupted. "Stop it!" I looked for my defendant, and saw Seamus on his feet, panting and glaring at Lavender, who looked shocked. "She said he's just her friend. So give it a rest already, will you? We all know you're jealous of her. So just stop, okay?"

The compartment was still, before Dean broke the silence. "We're almost there - we better get our robes on."

As soon as I was changed, I grabbed my trunk and went in search of my boys. No luck. But I did find Ginny, who was so relieved to see me that we wanted to share a carriage, before she remembered that she was supposed to go in a boat, hurrying away and leaving me with the other boys in Harry's dormitory.

Once we arrived in the Entrance Hall, we were swept away by the crowd milling into the Great Hall, and were forced to seperate. I ended up on a bench at the Gryffindor table between Fred and George, who were also scouring the tables for any sign of their brother and Harry.

I didn't pay attention to the sorting until I spotted a quaking girl walk up to the stool, and the hat was placed over Ginny's red head. It didn't decide right away like it did with Ron, and I saw George's fist clench in anticipation. After about half a minute, the hat opened it's brim wide -

GRYFFINDOR!

I cheered with the rest of the table, but only half-heartedly. I was worried about Ron and Harry, and didn't notice when Fred scooched over to let Ginny in between us.

I didn't eat anything at the feast, and neither did Ginny. I guess she was worried too, because she kept looking around nervously.

After the feast, I rushed up to the staff table to talk to Professor McGonagall. I asked her if she knew where Harry and Ron were, and she explained what had happened with the Whomping Willow. I was livid, but before I could say anything about my fury, I heard a voice behind me.

"Potter and Weasley number six crashed into the Whomping Willow in a flying car!?" Lee Jordan asked excitedly, before sprinting out of the Hall, I knew, to go tell the rest of the Gryffindors about it. I scowled.

I can't really remember much after that, until Halloween. Oh, I remember Ron belching slugs for me, of course. That's when I knew subconciously that I was in love with him. But besides that, Halloween is the only clear memory I have.

It was horrible. The blood on the wall, Draco insulting me, the interrogation, Harry hearing voices, people getting petrified. Finding Ginny breaking down in the girl's bathroom, and taking her up to her dorm. I remember half-wondering if she knew anything, but decided that it was impossible; she was only crying because of the stress of first year. I would know.

And then the Polyjuice Potion was ready, and we found out that Draco wasn't the culprit. I was turned into a cat and in the hospital wing for a week or two. I didn't get a long break from it, either.

Harry showed me the diary once I was out, but no matter how hard we tried, the book remained blank. Soon it was gone, Harry's room ransacked. I never would have guessed that it was Ginny that had done all that.

And then - and then - I figured it out. Harry was a Parslemouth. He was the only one who could hear the voices. I raced to the library mere minutes before the Quidditch game was supposed to start. I found that my assumption was true. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk.

The first person I ran into on my way out of the library was Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw girl I didn't know personally.

"Do you have a hand mirror or something?!" I asked urgently, and she handed one to me, bemused. I searched the corners with it, as she stared over my shoulder, and the last thing I saw was a huge snake, with big, yellow eyes.

The next thing I know, I'm being woken up in June. I couldn't believe I was petrified for months. I also couldn't believe they figured it out without me.

So ended my second year at Hogwarts. I left the train that year with Harry's phone number, and a promise to meet both of them in Diagon Alley. I was greeted on the station by my parents with the news that I was going to France for my summer vacation.

I couldn't wait.

a/n; eep, i totally rushed it near the end, i'm so sorry. but i finally got another chapter up! :D aren't you proud of me?!