A.N.: Thank you for your continued readership! I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter X: A List of Suspects
The Hufflepuff shouted "What do you think you're playing at?" and ran from the hall, looking very frightened. Snape magically vanished the snake and fixed Potter with a calculating look, more intense than the one he had given Timothy when Timothy had gotten his wand. Terence and Fatimah were looking at each other significantly and Antigone and Astoria were slowly moving through the crowd to rejoin Timothy. Weasley and Granger had pushed their way to Potter's side. Weasley muttered something to Potter and he and Granger nearly dragged Potter from the hall.
"C'mon." Terence muttered to the Court, who followed him out and back to the common room.
"Do you think it could be Potter?" Fatimah asked Terence as soon as they were in the common room. Adrian, seeing the grim looks on their faces, quickly joined them.
"Potter's a parselmouth," Terence told Adrian, who stared disbelievingly at him as Terence filled Adrian in on the events of the dueling club.
"Wait—Parselmouths are people who can talk to snakes?" Timothy said, finally catching up with the conversation.
"Yeah, and it's the mark of a Dark wizard. It's really rare, but Slytherin himself could do it, and so could You-Know-Who…" Terence turned to Fatimah, "Yeah, it could be Potter…"
"Could be? He can talk to snakes! What's Potter's lineage, anyways?" Adrian asked, looking both scared and angry.
"But if it is Potter, why does he always hang out with Granger? She's Muggle-born," Terence told Adrian. "Plus, Gryffindor's Golden Boy, the Heir of Slytherin?"
"Potter hates the Muggles he lives with during the summer. Everyone knows that," Adrian shot back.
"What about Malfoy or Lyons? Both of them hate Common-bloods…" Antigone said.
"Malfoy's certainly a pretty obvious suspect… He's always talking about how Mudbloods are ruining everything. And he was really happy about the attack on that Creevey kid… But that still doesn't explain Potter." Terence replied.
"I'm not complaining that I don't have to put up with Creevey anymore, either, but that doesn't mean I attacked them," Timothy replied, to Antigone's sniggers.
"The Malfoys are a really old family and they're more obsessed with purity than my parents are," Astoria said, speaking for the first time, "But I don't think that Lyons is really that much of a pureblood. That name isn't on any of mother and father's genealogies…"
"Wait a minute… You're a pureblood? Why do you hang out with Timothy, then?" Fatimah asked, looking at Astoria with sudden suspicion.
Astoria rolled her eyes. "It's so I can know where he is so that my fanged pet can attack him next time I decide to let it out of the Chamber," she told Fatimah.
"Let's say it is Potter. Then why doesn't he attack anyone except for Muggle-borns? Even if he hates all Muggles, that doesn't mean he hates Muggle-borns and if he does, why is he best friends with one? There are plenty of people Potter hates here, like Malfoy and Snape. Why not try to get them rather than Creevey, who was really just annoying?" Terence said.
"Could he even have snuck out of the hospital wing to attack Creevey?" Timothy asked.
"Probably? He was regrowing the bones in his arm, so he would have really been hurting, but maybe that's why he did it. Creevey wouldn't stop taking pictures of him after the match and Potter might have taken his anger over Lockhart's screw-up out on Creevey by sending the monster after him," Adrian said. "We don't know how long Creevey was on the stairs before he was found. Potter might have had time to sneak out of the hospital wing and back in before Creevey was found…"
The members of the Court were talking late into the night. Looking up from one of the higher windows in the room, built just above water level and used for all-hours owl post, Timothy saw that it had begun to snow, large white flakes that stuck to the glass before melting.
It was still snowing the next morning, in fact, it had really turned into something of a blizzard and the halls of the castle felt dark and claustrophobic. As Timothy walked to Transfiguration with Antigone and Astoria, he was extremely pleased he didn't have either Astronomy or Herbology that day.
Transfiguration was always hard, but Timothy usually enjoyed himself. Today, however, was catastrophic. Timothy's first attempt to transfigure an air-filled balloon into a water-filled balloon had resulted in the balloon itself being transfigured into very cold water, which, of course, splashed all over him and his books. The second attempt set the balloon on fire and earned a warning from McGonagall. However, on his third attempt, the spell reflected off the wet desk and, bizarrely, travelled through Astoria's spell before hitting Antigone right between the eyes. There was a loud pop and a bright flash of light, followed by lots of poisonous smelling orange smoke. When the smoke cleared, Antigone had somehow been turned into a badger.
McGonagall was furious. She transformed Antigone back with a wave of her wand, although in her shock and anger, she failed to notice that Antigone's hair was still stripped black and white. McGonagall rounded on Timothy, shouting very loudly, "Never in all my years of teaching have I seen a first year manage to so completely mangle the simple instructions given to him. I have told you time and time again that you need to learn to exercise control over your Transfiguration work, but you seem continually unwilling to listen. 20 points from Slytherin and detention! Maybe that will finally get through to you!"
McGonagall turned to look at Antigone, who seemed to have found the entire experience highly amusing, although she was also working hard to keep the smile off her face in front of the teacher. "Are you alright, Miss de Winter? I'm sorry; let me repair your hair as well."
"If it's all the same to you, Professor, I think I'd like to keep it this way," Antigone replied, causing Astoria to give a very un-ladylike snort of laughter. McGonagall was not amused, her lips went thin and her nostrils flared, but she didn't reply.
Class continued as normal from that point, but Timothy was dreading the detention he would have to serve and only made half-hearted efforts to continue his classwork. Just as he was about to give up, there was a shout from down the hall, "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"
McGonagall ran to the door, with her class behind her. There were loud crashes as doors were thrown open. Students were running out of the classes and teachers were shouting for quiet. McGonagall and the Slytherins arrived on the scene. The Hufflepuff second year that Potter had set the snake on the night before was lying on the ground, glassy eyed and rigid. Nearby, however, was something that was almost worse. One of the ghosts was floating six inches off the floor, immobile and, rather than white, black and smoky, with a look of shock on his face that mirrored the Hufflepuff's. And, in the corner of the hall, was Potter, looking shocked and scared.
McGonagall raised her wand and there was a loud bang, silencing the students who were shouting and crying. "All students are to return to their classes immediately!" she shouted. The halls cleared somewhat, although McGonagall, Flitwick and Sinistra, the Astronomy professor remained in the hall. The Slytherins began walking back to class, but as they reached the corner, Timothy ducked down, watching the teachers from his concealed position. A second year, rather heavyset Hufflepuff had just rushed into the hall near Potter and the teachers and shouted "Caught in the act!" pointing at Potter in what he must have thought was a dramatic gesture.
McGonagall said something to the Hufflepuff in a sharp voice, but Timothy couldn't hear what it was and Peeves, who was grinning wickedly, started to sing loudly enough for Timothy to hear:
"Oh Potter, you rotter, oh what have you done,
You're killing off students, you think it's good fun—"
McGonagall silenced Peeves with a loud rebuke and Sinistra, and, rather bizarrely, given his height, Flitwick, carried the Petrified or dead Hufflepuff in the direction of the hospital wing. McGonagall and another professor Timothy didn't recognize stood looking at the ghost in obvious confusion for a few minutes before McGonagall conjured a large fan, which she handed to the Hufflepuff who had shouted to Potter and the Hufflepuff began fanning the ghost down the hall.
McGonagall turned to Potter and Potter seemed to plead with her briefly before she led him down a side corridor.
Timothy returned to the Transfiguration classroom just as a piece of chalk was writing that class was cancelled as well as assigning homework to them for the week. As they filed out of the classroom, Timothy related what he had seen to Astoria and Antigone, although they were interrupted as Peeves shot down the corridor, singing "Oh Potter, You Rotter" at the top of his lungs.
When Timothy, Astoria and Antigone went to lunch, they joined the rest of the Court and Timothy again related what had happened in the hall. Adrian shot a significant look at Terence and said "Still think Potter might be innocent?"
Terence remained unconvinced. "If Potter's the Heir of Slytherin, he's also the school's biggest idiot. How dense would you have to be to set a monster on something and be right at the scene of the crime to get caught?"
"What if there isn't a monster?" Timothy said, earning the stares from everyone at the table. "Well, what if the Chamber of Secrets has some sort of spell that's only copied down there, so you have to go to the Chamber of Secrets to get it?
"That could explain why no one's ever been able to find the Chamber. If it only has to be big enough to hide a single spell, written on the wall or something, it'd be a lot smaller than a room big enough to hide a monster. Plus, that would explain why Potter was at the scene. He thought he was safer than he was and Peeves just showed up at the wrong time and caught him" Astoria replied.
Just then, Potter joined his friends over at the Gryffindor table, and the three of them started talking, all looking very grim. "Okay, there is no way that Dumbledore thinks Potter's the Heir of Slytherin or he would have kept him in his office until they could have had him arrested. McGonagall probably took Potter to Dumbledore's office," Terence said. Adrian shrugged and looked, if not convinced, at least less suspicious.
The nervousness which had spread throughout the school turned into a panic following the double attack that day. Timothy was more alarmed that whatever was doing this could hurt a ghost. Anything that could hurt something that was already dead was a terrifying prospect and the panic was not alleviated at all when the headmaster had announced at dinner that, like the others, "Justin Finch-Fletchley" had only been petrified. There was an immediate rush to sign up to leave for Christmas, so much so that Timothy found that the hallway in front of McGonagall's office was impassable through the throng of students.
With the crowds lining up to get out of Hogwarts, Timothy was intensely glad he'd signed up the first time around and he was looking forward to seeing Lucy over the Christmas holidays. He had considered not telling her about the attacks because he was Muggle-born and she would worry, but couldn't bring himself to lie to her.
Professor McGonagall never mentioned the detention that she had assigned to Timothy and Timothy wasn't stupid enough to remind her. He reckoned that the distraction had gotten him out of it and he wasn't complaining. However, 20 points marked the largest amount he had lost for Slytherin in one go, and despite the shock of the day, Lyons spent most of the rest of the week complaining about how "the Mudblood" had probably just cost Slytherin the House Cup and, except for Astoria and Antigone, the other first year Slytherins seemed to agree, forcing Timothy to be even more careful lest his classmates try to trip him or attack him.
Antigone was thrilled that McGonagall had been distracted and seemed to really enjoy her bizarre new hair colors, although she did finally ask McGonagall to change it back during the last Transfiguration class before the Christmas holidays, telling Timothy and Astoria that she doubted that her parents would have thought very highly of it.
Late that week, the Court, joined by Astoria and Antigone sat down in their corner of the common room and began compiling a list of suspects. Harry Potter's name was at the top of the list, with Malfoy's right beneath that. Terence pointed out that any pure-blood first year was also a suspect, which increased the list substantially. Astoria even insisted that they put her name on it so that they could do a proper job of their detective work, although they quickly checked off the Slytherin first years, as they had all been in class during the second attack.
Timothy didn't see much of Potter, as he was both a year older and in a different house, but when he did, Potter and his friends were always being given a very wide berth by the other students, who constantly whispered or even ran away from him as he walked down the halls. The Weasley twins seemed to find the whole idea that Potter was the Heir of Slytherin to be both absurd and hilarious and had taken to walking ahead and behind Potter shouting things like "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…" Timothy, who wasn't sure about Potter, nevertheless found the whole thing very funny and, given that the brothers of Potter's best friend thought the idea of Potter as the Heir was ridiculous, Timothy found himself increasingly looking elsewhere for suspects.
Whenever Malfoy saw the Weasleys heralding Potter's approach, however, he looked furious, which the entire Court found very suspicious. "If it's Malfoy, he'd hate for someone else to get credit for his 'good work,'" Terence said one night as they discussed the problem. "And, unlike Potter, he's got motive. He actually does hate Muggle-borns," he added, rather pointedly to Adrian, who just rolled his eyes. Timothy agreed with Terence, but nevertheless pointed out that if Malfoy hated Muggle-borns, he hated Slytherin Muggle-borns all the more, and none of the members of the Court had been attacked.
With one week left before term ended, Astoria told the Court that her parents had any number of pure-blood genealogies and that she would see what she could find out over Christmas Break. However, it was Antigone who found the biggest clue to the Heir's identity. She had written to her father following the double attack and he had written back that he thought that there had been some strange incidents during the 1940s and from what he remembered, it sounded almost the same as what was happening now. Most ominously, they learned that one of the students who was attacked had been killed.
In his spare time, Timothy practiced the spell he had seen Malfoy use on Potter during the dueling club. Timothy had very much taken to Slytherin's animal, as had many Slytherins, and the idea of being able to summon an attack-snake was just too good to pass up. At first, all Timothy had managed to summon were a couple of rather skittish garter snakes and a particularly aggressive earthworm. Two days before the Christmas holidays started, though, he managed to summon at least a poisonous snake that he had tentatively identified as an American snake called a Copperhead.
Adrian was staying over the break and during one of the meetings, he told the Court that he was going to keep as close an eye on Potter as he could, although he didn't expect to be able to learn much. At Terence's request, he agreed to also watch Malfoy.
The night before term ended, Timothy was helping Astoria with the last bit of Potions homework when one of the school owls flew in through the high window in the Slytherin common room. To his surprise, the owl dropped its letter on his lap.
The letter was simply piece of folded paper with the word "Hogwarts" scrawled on it. That was odd… Whenever Lucy wrote to him, she always managed to dig up an envelope from somewhere. Timothy opened the folding piece of paper and saw that it was a hospital chart. For a young, unidentified girl who was in the critical care unit at the Royal Brompton Hospital, the hospital closest to Timothy's flat.