'... sometimes I just really miss them, you know? I've never really had a proper parent figure before, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon liked me, but they just didn't act like parents ...' I wrote into the diary at night.

'I know how it feels. My father left my mother when he found out that she had put him under the effects of a love potion and abandoned her when she was pregnant with me like the scum he was. My mother died giving birth to me, and all my childhood I lived in an orphanage.'

'That's awful! I can't imagine that ever happening to me ... if my father left my mother in that way ...' I clenched my fists suddenly, a weird spark of rage that didn't seem like mine firing up in my mind. 'I would kill him.'

'That's what I ...' He paused. I felt apprehensive.

'... felt like doing too.' I sighed in relief.

'Well, goodnight.' I put down.

'Goodnight.' I slid the diary under my mattress again.

I had charmed Parvati, Lavender, and Hermione's hair bright blue for a day. I'd also put a fake spider on top of Lavender (she hates spiders) and I'd jinxed the bed hangings to come down on Parvati and Hermione as soon as they wake up.

~~~

"AAAHHHH!" I woke up to a scream the next morning. Lavender was on the floor, screaming her head off at the fake spider.

Parvati and Hermione shot up in their beds while I just lay there, the room spinning.

I heard their shrieks as their bed hangings came down on them.

Then they noticed their hair.

"DAISY!"

When I got down to the common room, I was jerked up, upside down in the air by my ankle.

"Fred! George! Let me down!" I whined, the room spinning worse than it had been before.

They both grinned evilly at me. "No can do, Daisy, this is a prank war, remember?"

Then the room REALLY started spinning ... they were spinning me around!

A minute later, I fell to the ground, the room still spinning. I lay there for a few minutes, eyes closed, trying to wait the worst of it off, but the dizziness didn't subside. I tried to get up, but the room tipped sideways and I fell back down again. I got up and latched myself onto an armchair, trying to steady myself, but it was no good. I staggered worse than ever towards the portrait hole.

"Hey, Daisy, try not to fall off the moving staircases!" Seamus joked, and everyone laughed.

"Shut up Seamus!" I said, flipping him off, but he was spinning around along with the room. "Huh? Where are you ...?" I said, my eyes crossing slightly. Everyone laughed again.

I staggered towards the portrait hole and stepped through it, managing not to fall again. I latched onto the railing of the nearby staircase and staggered down it. The twins followed behind, laughing.

"Assholes." I muttered. I managed to get down to the Great Hall, only falling three times. I met Terry at the doors.

"Daisy, you okay there?" He asked, amused.

"Obviously not." I muttered, stumbling past him, the room tipping diagonally again. I pushed a hand against the wall and squeezed my eyes shut.

"You idiots are going to pay for this." I said. "Dearly." The twins just cackled, and Terry held my wrist, leading me to the Gryffindor table.

The rest of the day was full of me staggering, falling, the twins evilly cackling, Terry steadying me, Harry worriedly looking on, and everyone else laughing. I am so going to prank them later. I'm getting back at them!

The next day, I was only slightly dizzy in the morning, as usual. Thank Merlin the effects of yesterday hadn't carried on to today!

I came down to the common room to see them lounging in armchairs near the fireplace, scheming I suppose. They hadn't seen me yet. Perfect.

I drew out my wand and muttered an incantation at them, smirking evilly.

A minute later, I heard George comment to Fred, "You know, I feel really dizzy."

"Same." Fred replied.

"Now you know what it feels like!" I yelled in triumph. "Boo yah! Taste of your own potion!"

And so the twins were dizzy for the rest of the day. Hah!

~~~

The rest of the Insurgents and I crowded around the small bag I held. It was full of Muggle coins.

"Alright. Let's do this!" I said, and put my hand into the middle of the circle. Terry followed, and then the twins put their hands on top of his.

"Insurgents unite!" I said.

"Insurgents unite!" We yelled, throwing our hands up into the air.

We scurried out of the Great Hall and walked with purpose through the halls. "There." I said, pointing to a Hufflepuff first year.

We all smirked at each other and hurried over to him.

"Hey, you!" Terry said. The first year spun around.

"Would you like some -" Fred began.

"- Precious Muggle currency -" George continued. 

"- For only a Galleon each?" I finished.

The kid looked at us, pondering. "Yeah, sure, alright." He dug in his pockets for a Galleon and held it out. I gave him a coin in return, and he skipped off to his friends, saying, "Wow! Look at this! It's SO cool!"

We high-fived.

---

"D'you REALLY think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked the next day. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I had just come from History of Magic, where Hermione had gotten Professor Binns to tell us about the Chamber.

"I don't know." Hermione said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be - well - human."

Dumbledore had taken us and Mrs Norris to Lockhart's office (which was nearest) but said that even though we were found at the scene, we were innocent until proven guilty.

As she spoke, we turned a corner and found ourselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. We stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message 'The Chamber has been opened.' 

At the window, there was a trail of spiders going through a small crack in the glass. 

"That's weird." I said.

Ron was backing away, and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run. 

"I - don't - like - spiders." Ron said, noticing me smirking at him.

"I noticed." I grinned.

"I never knew that." Hermione said, looking at Ron in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times ..."

"I don't mind them dead." Ron said, carefully looking anywhere but the window. "I just don't like the way they move ..." 

Hermione giggled, and Harry and I burst out laughing.

"It's not funny." Ron said fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a dirty great spider because I broke his toy broomstick. You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and ..." He broke off, shuddering.

Hermione and I looked at each other, trying not to laugh. Harry subtly changed the subject.

"Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up." 

"It was about here." Ron said, recovering himself to walk a few paces past the chair and pointing. "Level with this door." 

He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned. 

"What's the matter?" Harry asked.

"Can't go in there." Ron said gruffly. "That's a girl's toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there." Hermione said, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."

And ignoring the large 'Out of Order' sign, she opened the door.

The bathroom was badly vandalised. Just my scene!

I heard sobbing in the end cubicle. "Actually, I'd better get out of here." I murmured to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They all nodded in understanding, knowing that Myrtle and I weren't exactly on the best of terms.

I hurried outside and leaned against the wall. Did I write that message? There was blood on my hands, after all ... and I can't seem to remember what I was doing ...

Something really creepy is going on. I couldn't have been taking a nap, because I remember being at the Deathday party and then suddenly, Gryffindor common room. 

Nah, it couldn't have been me! I wouldn't write anything of the sort!

There's probably something wrong with me. I'm losing my memory. And it's probably red ink or something, or fake blood - it was Halloween, after all.

I couldn't have written that message. I couldn't have Petrified the cat. I couldn't have opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Could I?

"Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle ... come on, let's go." I heard Hermione's voice at the door, then the door opened.

They all came out, and Harry had barely closed the door on Myrtle's sobs when a loud voice made all of us jump.

"RON!" Percy had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face.

"That's a GIRL'S bathroom!" He gasped. "What were YOU -?" 

"Just having a look around." Ron shrugged. "Clues, you know ..."

Percy swelled in a manner that reminded me forcefully of Mrs Weasley.

"Get - away - from - there -" He said, striding towards us and flapping his arms.

When Percy was gone, we all looked at each other.

"Well, that was certainly eventful." I said. "What did Myrtle say?"

"Nothing, she just got offended at something Ron said, and dived down a toilet." Harry said.

"What did you say, Ron?" I asked, sniggering.

We all huddled together and they recounted in giggles what Ron had said. Needless to say, it was typical Ron being Ron.

Oh Ronald, what are we going to do with you?