The Grim

Harry and Ron soon heard the sound of footsteps hurrying away. When they could hear this sound no more, Harry motioned to the door. They crept quietly across the room aware of every creek they made on the floorboards and every breath that they took. Then, from outside came the sound of voices.

"Ginny," came the exasperated voice of Fred, "it was only a rat. You didn't have to wake up the whole castle."

"It was only Ginny," Ron whispered to Harry.

"Shhhh." Was all he got as an answer.

"But I'm afraid of rats and this one was the most horrible one that I've ever seen. It looked like it was missing a lot of it's body parts, like it had been in a big fight and had been thrashed at and torn. And the way it was scuttling around made it seem like it could crawl on be in a matter of seconds."

"Now, now Ginny, I am sure that you got a fright but the rat has gone now and I'm sure that I can speak for everyone when I say that a nice long rest would be well suited." Harry and Ron recognized this voice as professor McGonagall's.

"But I don't want to sleep by myself any more, what if there's another rat?"

"Do not fear little Ginny, I'll get that rat with a simple charm." Before anyone could stop him, Lockhart pointed his wand at the room and shouted out,

"Incanti." The spell hit the bed and rebounded on to Percy, whose ears immediately grew the size of elephant's ears.

"Ahhhhh, What have you done?" shouted Percy feeling his ears with growing fear.

"Oppps."

"Oh dear," I think we'll need Madam Pomfrey." Said professor McGonagall. Just then, who would come into the room but Madam Pomfrey.

"What's all the racket in here," she said.

"Poppy, you don't know how pleased I am to see you. Percy here needs your assistance. Lockhart seems to have hit him with and enlargement charm."

"Lockhart! I remember very well what he did to Harry Potter at that quidich match. I will not put up with inept teachers and…"

*

Downstairs, on the level just below the teacher's dormitory, Mrs Norris, Argus Filch's cat, was prowling around the castle, trying to find someone doing wrong (she didn't know that everyone was in the teacher's dormitories.) Her ears twitched as she picked up a noise coming from around the corner next to her. She silently crept, with the stealth of a cat so that she could just have a peek at who was there.

If she could have gasped she would have. Instead her eyes bulged, her back arched and she could feel the prickling of all her fur standing on end. Then, in a second she had turned and ran away.

*

"What is it, my sweet?" asked the caretaker, very worried at his poor cat's state. She was shaking uncontrollably and was winding her way through his legs, trying to find comfort.

Filch bent down to see Mrs Norris' face better and, somehow, he knew what was bothering her.

"This can't be true." But when he looked at his terrified pet, he doubted this statement.

*

Harry and Ron had decided to take the risk that Snape was on the other side of the door. If they were found in here, it would look very suspicious that they hadn't come rushing out to see who had screamed. Harry's hand was just about to reach the door handle, when it slowly turned by itself. They looked at each other in horror and quickly jumped into an open cupboard. The door opened as Ron closed the cupboard, leaving only a few millimetres so that they could peek through.

In walked Snape followed by Filch.

"Professor," Filch practically yelled, " Something terrible has happened to Mrs Norris."

"Well, spit it out."

"She can't die, she just can't. It's not fair, I'm the squib, howcome every bad thing has to happen to me. I don't know what I am going to do. You just have to help me professor, you just have to."

"Filch, kindly explain what you are on about."

"She has seen," Filch paused for a second and then said in a low voice, " the Grim." Ron nudged Harry and whispered, "cool," earning himself an elbow in the ribs. Filch looked very scared at his own words.

Snape however, looked quite annoyed.

"And how do you know that your cat has seen the Grim if you didn't see it yourself?"

"She told me."

"Oh, I see it now, how could I have been so daft, she told you. And could you please tell me how she told you this?" But before Filch could answer, Snape said, "Listen, Filch, right now I don't have time to worry about your flea infested cat or your imaginary death omens. My patience is about to stretch one bit too far in a matter of seconds unless you get out this instant."

"But Professor," Filch could see Snape's face go red and he immediately scrambled out of the room.

When he had gone, Snape muttered to himself something about doing everyone a favor for it to die.

As he walked around the room, taking things of shelf and putting others back, Ron nudged Harry.

"What are we going to do?" but before Harry could answer they noticed that Snape was walking straight to the cupboard that Ron and Harry were hiding in. Ron and Harry both started to panic. But it was too late to do anything; Snape's hand was already gripping the doorknob. Harry lent back, but instead of bumping into the back of the cupboard as expected, he fell. Harry grabbed Ron and both boys went tumbling down the hidden tunnel. They seemed to go down forever and Harry was starting to worry where they would land. When they did land, however, Harry felt something soft but firm under him. As he felt it more, he realized that it was grass.

"We're outside!" exclaimed Ron.

Harry turned around to face where they had fallen from and jumped to see a figure that looked very dark and menacing coming towards them and it didn't look very friendly.