In the late afternoon on Halloween their study group went down to the kitchen and collected a platter of turkey sandwiches, a pumpkin pie, a plate of sweets, and six bottles of butterbeer, along with plates and silverware. They made it up to their study room without being spotted by any of the teachers and spread the food out on the table.
"Sugar quills!" Millie said, taking one from the sweets plate.
Rachel examined the collection of sweets - there were small chocolates, little boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizzbees, Ice Mice, Jelly Slugs, Sugar Quills, and a chocolate frog. "Does anyone want the chocolate frog?" she asked.
"Go ahead, I know they're your favorite," Neville said.
When one else spoke up to claim the chocolate frog, Rachel took it.
"How are you today?" Hermione asked.
"I'm okay," Rachel said as she took her seat. "I spent some time writing a letter to my parents this morning, just telling them about my life."
"I like that. I still talk to my mom, sometimes," Luna said, picking up one of the Ice Mice.
"I did that for a while too, at first," Theo said.
"I just feel like I'm very lucky, though I didn't know it before," Hermione said. "My parents don't really understand a lot about the wizarding world, but they're there for me and they've always been supportive."
Millie nodded. "Mine are supportive about most things. Usually."
"Except for sugar quills," Rachel said.
"Why is that? Are they worried about cavities?" Hermione asked.
"Cavities?" Millie asked.
"You know, if you don't brush your teeth or take good care of them, they get little rotted holes in them," Hermione said.
"Ew," Neville said, putting down his jelly slug.
"Must be a muggle thing," Luna said.
"No cavities, we just use teeth cleaning charms every so often," Theo said, wrinkling his nose at the idea.
"My mom doesn't like me having sugar quills because she says they make me fat, and I'm already overweight," Millie explained, setting her sugar quill down.
Rachel frowned. "You're not fat, Millie."
"You're just tall and broad. It's not your fault that you're the tallest girl in our year. You're taller than most of the boys too," Hermione said.
"I wish I wasn't," Millie said.
"Look, my parents are big into health. Healthy bodies. Healthy teeth. They're dentists. They're people whose job it is to clean and fix teeth," Hermione added when she saw that most of the study group was looking at her with confused expressions. "A sugar quill every now and then isn't going to do you any harm and your body type isn't anything to be ashamed of."
"Tell that to my mom," Millie said, looking uncomfortable.
"I can, if you want. Or I can have my parents write your parents, if you think that would help," Hermione offered.
Millie shook her head. "I don't think it would help. My mom's a Healer, so she has certain ideas of what people are supposed to be like. And, she's really pretty."
Millie didn't have to say 'and I'm not' for all of them to hear it.
"Your parents should be proud of you for who you are. And, don't take this the wrong way, but you're twelve. Twelve year olds aren't pretty. We all just kind of look weird as we grow," Theo said with a firm nod.
Rachel nodded too. "I'm so short that Imogen had to shrink down the Quidditch padding so it would fit me."
"And you don't want to know how many arguments I've been in with my mom about my hair and just leaving it alone," Hermione added.
"My Gran talks a lot about what my dad looked like when he was my age, and I don't look like him very much," Neville said.
"So there you have it. Parents are judgemental about things they shouldn't be. You're okay as you are, really Millie," Theo said.
Millie smiled a little bit and picked her sugar quill back up. "Yeah, I guess they are."
Rachel opened up her chocolate frog and held it tightly as she pulled the card out of packaging.
"Who'd you get?" Neville asked.
"Andros the Invincible," Rachel read, turning over the card to see the description. "It says 'An Ancient Greek who is the only known wizard to produce a Patronus the size of a giant.' What's a Patronus?"
"It's a protection charm, it's like a spirit guardian," Theo explained. "I don't think we learn it until sixth or seventh year."
"I can't wait until we start learning some of that stuff," Hermione said. "We're going to be able to do so many spells."
Rachel leaned forward and took one of the sandwiches, setting her now still chocolate frog on her plate. "I'm looking forward to learning conjuring. It seems so useful. You need a cardboard box, wave your wand and now you have a cardboard box."
"I want to be an animagus," Theo said. "Something smart and sneaky."
"Professor McGonagall said that's really difficult," Neville said.
"Where's the fun if it's not difficult?" Theo asked with a smile.
"I want to go in some of the other greenhouses, see what plants Professor Sprout is keeping," Neville said.
"I bet she'd show you, if you asked," Millie said. "Or maybe Professor McGonagall could arrange it with her."
"Maybe," Neville said, brightening.
"I want to take Care of Magical Creatures," Luna said. "I wish they'd let us pick our electives sooner."
"Me too," Hermione said. "I still don't know which ones I'm going to choose."
"I want to learn some of the upper year charms. There are so many cool things. My mom and dad both got NEWTs in Charms," Millie said.
Rachel smiled as they all chatted about classes and snacked on food. She liked to think that if her parents could see her, this is where they'd want her to be.
Rachel, Theo, and Luna had just finished returning the platters, plates, and silverware to the kitchens and were on their way back out of the dungeons near the Hufflepuff common room when Rachel heard it.
"Rip, tear, kill," it said in a cold voice.
"Who said that?" Rachel asked, grabbing her wand as she turned around. She hadn't forgotten being grabbed by those Gryffindors last year.
"What?" Theo asked, turning around and pulling out his own wand.
"You didn't hear it?" Rachel asked.
"I'm so hungry. It's been so long," the voice said again.
"There!" Rachel said. "It said it was hungry."
"I didn't hear anything," Luna said, her eyes wide.
"Rachel, are you okay?" Theo asked.
"I heard it," Rachel said, hoping it was just Peeves playing a prank on them.
"Time to kill," the voice said, slightly fainter this time as if it was moving upward and away.
"This way!" Rachel said, hurrying up the stairs that lead out into the entrance hall, Luna and Theo following her. She could see that the Halloween feast was still in full swing in the Great Hall. She raced up the main staircase to the first floor.
"Rachel?" Theo raced along beside her. "You're worrying me."
Rachel froze and listened.
"I smell blood! I smell blood!" the voice exclaimed, still coming from somewhere above them.
"There's blood, it's going to kill someone!" Rachel said, half panicked now as she ran up the flight of steps that lead to the second floor.
"What is it?" Luna asked, panting as she followed them.
"I don't know," Rachel said, frantically running along the corridor in the opposite direction of the Charms classroom.
"Rachel stop, we need to stop and figure out what's going on," Theo called.
Rachel skidded to a stop, but it wasn't because of what Theo had said. Down the passageway in front of them were words painted in red along the wall between two windows, the torchlight illuminating them.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware," Theo read.
"What's over there?" Luna asked, pointing just past the message.
Rachel kept her wand out and edged closer. She looked down when she felt a wet and cold sensation creeping over her feet. There was a giant puddle of water on the floor. She kept walking and gasped when she saw what hung on one of the torch brackets. "Mrs. Norris! Oh no! Help me get her down!" She grabbed onto Mrs. Norris but couldn't quite lift her over where her tail was hooked on the bracket.
Theo came over and managed to help Rachel lift Mrs. Norris over the bracket.
Rachel knelt down as she held Mrs. Norris, ignoring the cold water seeping into her pants. "What's wrong with her? Is she dead? I don't think she's breathing."
"Lumos," Luna said, holding her wand down so Rachel could see better.
Theo gently touched along Mrs. Norris' neck. "I've never seen anything like this. We need help. Luna, go get the rest of the study group and bring them here. When they're here I'll go get Professor Snape."
"Okay," Luna said, hurrying away.
"Shouldn't we bring her to the hospital wing?" Rachel asked.
"I don't think a few minutes will make a difference," Theo said. "Rachel, I'm not sure Madam Pomfrey can help her."
Rachel nodded and kept holding Mrs. Norris. This was awful.
"Lumos," Theo said, and then held his wand up. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware. Does that imply that Mrs. Norris was somehow an enemy?"
"How could she be? She's a cat," Rachel said.
"Well. A lot of students don't like her because she can get Mr. Filch to come when they're making trouble," Theo said. "But the message seems excessive for a cat. And who is the Heir?"
"Maybe it was whoever I was hearing. You really couldn't hear them talking?" Rachel asked, looking up at Theo.
"No, I didn't hear anything," Theo said, frowning.
Rachel looked back at Mrs. Norris and gently stroked her fur. She didn't know Mrs. Norris well, but she had often stopped to pet her when she saw her in the halls. She didn't want her to be dead.
"What happened?" Hermione called from down the passageway as she broke into a run. She was followed by Millie, Luna, and Neville.
"We're not entirely sure yet. Careful not to slip on the water," Theo warned.
"The Chamber of Secrets…" Hermione trailed off as she looked at the message. "I've read about this in Hogwarts: A History, but I can't remember."
"Alright, stay here with Rachel. I'm going to go get Professor Snape," Theo said, waiting until Hermione nodded before hurrying away.
"Rachel, are you okay?" Millie asked, coming over and putting her hand on Rachel's shoulder.
"Something is wrong with Mrs. Norris, she might be dead," Rachel said, shifting so that Millie could see.
"Oh no," Millie said. She reached down and touched under Mrs. Norris' chin. "I don't feel a heartbeat. Is she breathing?"
Rachel shook her head.
"Rachel, why don't you bring Mrs. Norris over here, out of the water?" Neville suggested.
Millie helped Rachel to her feet and they walked out of the puddle of water.
Rachel sat back down again once they were on a section of dry floor and placed Mrs. Norris in her lap. She wanted to hope that Madam Pomfrey or Professor Snape could do something, but she didn't think they could bring anyone back from being dead. Millie sat down next to her.
"This is Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She must have flooded it again. Maybe she knows what happened," Hermione said, having traced the puddle of water back to a door.
"Maybe she heard the voice too," Luna said.
"Voice?" Hermione asked.
"Rachel heard a voice saying there was blood and it was going to kill someone. She followed it here," Luna explained.
"But you and Theo didn't hear the voice?" Hermione asked.
Luna shook her head and went back to the message. "I don't think it's blood though, I think it's paint."
"Is Mrs. Norris bleeding?" Neville asked.
Rachel carefully ran her hands down Mrs. Norris' sides. "No, she's clean and dry."
"Rachel?"
Rachel looked up at the sound of Professor Snape's voice.
"Professor Snape, it's Mrs. Norris. Can you help her?" she asked as she carefully got to her feet while still holding Mrs. Norris.
Professor Snape hurried down the passageway, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, and Theo following him.
"May I see Mrs. Norris, Rachel?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
Rachel nodded and gently passed Mrs. Norris to Professor Dumbledore.
"The wall, Albus," Professor McGonagall said quietly.
"Yes, I saw," Professor Dumbledore said, his attention on Mrs. Norris. He slowly moved his fingers through her fur and then pulled out his wand and tapped her on the side while speaking in latin.
Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall both watched him closely.
"Mrs. Norris has been Petrified, though I cannot say how," Professor Dumbledore finally said.
"Will she live?" Rachel asked.
"Yes. Once the Mandrakes are grown, we will be able to brew a Mandrake Restorative Draught and that will return Mrs. Norris back to her normal state," Professor Dumbledore explained. "In the meantime, I must explain to Argus what has happened to his cat."
Rachel felt a huge rush of relief. Mrs. Norris wasn't dead.
"You're shivering, why are you all wet?" Professor Snape asked.
Rachel felt a rush of warm air all over her as Professor Snape performed a drying charm on her. "We had to get Mrs. Norris down, she was hanging over there by her tail."
"Severus, why don't you take Rachel with you and ask her about what happened. The rest of you should return to your common rooms for the evening, unless there is something you'd like to tell us," Professor Dumbledore said.
"No, sir," Millie said quietly.
"Rachel, come with me," Professor Snape said.
Rachel's sense of relief was short-lived. Now she had to explain what had just happened and she wasn't sure she fully understood it herself.
"Are you still chilled?" Severus asked, watching as Rachel sat down on the couch with her arms wrapped tightly against her chest.
"A little," Rachel said quietly.
Severus cast a warming charm at her but noticed that she remained hunched with her arms drawn against her chest. She was afraid. "It must have been upsetting to find Mrs. Norris like that," he said, hoping to draw her out.
She nodded. "I'm glad she's not dead. But it will take months for the Mandrakes to finish growing. Is there anywhere else we can get Mandrakes for the potion? Could we buy them from somewhere?"
"They're not in season in the Northern hemisphere, but it's possible that some apothecaries may still have some, or may have some growing in a greenhouse on an off-season basis. Or we may be able to reach out to an apothecary in the Southern hemisphere," Severus said.
"Can we check?" Rachel asked.
Severus wasn't sure what was so important about the cat, but it clearly was important to her. "I will check and see."
"Thank you," she said.
"Can you tell me why you and your friends weren't at the feast tonight?" he asked.
Rachel looked down. "I didn't want to go. It feels wrong to celebrate on the day that my parents died."
"I understand," he said. Lily had been on his mind much of the day as well. "If you had wanted to, you were welcome to come here. If you wanted to talk, or just to have company."
"Thank you," she said quietly.
"How did you wind up in that passageway?"
"I heard a voice. And Theo and Luna couldn't hear it," she said, barely audible now.
"What do you mean?" he asked, trying not to let his concern show.
Rachel exhaled. "We had gotten food from the kitchens and were taking back the plates. And I heard a voice in the hallway. It said things like 'tear, rip' and 'I smell blood' and 'time to kill' and I was the only one who could hear it. I followed the voice up the stairs and that's when we found Mrs. Norris and the message on the wall."
"Did you recognize the voice?" Severus asked, trying to make sense of what Rachel had told him.
She shook her head.
"Was it male or female?"
She frowned. "A woman, I think. But it was hard to tell. I thought it might be a ghost, but then why couldn't Luna and Theo hear it?"
"I don't know," Severus said. He wasn't aware of any spells that could have the effect she'd described.
"Am I crazy?" Rachel asked, peering at him.
"I don't think you're crazy," he said firmly. "Sometimes things happen and we're not sure how they are done. That doesn't mean you're crazy or were imagining it, it just means we haven't figured out what happened yet."
"Who is the Heir? From the writing on the wall?"
"I believe that refers to the Heir of Slytherin, or Salazar Slytherin's descendant. However, since most people cannot trace their lineage back to the time of the Hogwarts founders, it is unknown who that person may be, if there are any surviving descendants at all. However, I doubt that the Heir of Slytherin is the person who wrote that message. Likely it is just someone who has taken up the less than savory ideals of Salazar Slytherin. We will find them," Severus explained. He had a number of his upper year students in mind that could have potentially written the message, and a handful of the younger students who may have done it as well. What he wasn't certain of was how they managed to Petrify Mrs. Norris.
"Do you think Millie should keep Midnight in our room for now?" Rachel asked.
"What?" Severus asked.
"So that she doesn't get Petrified like Mrs. Norris," she explained.
"I don't think Millicent's cat is likely to be in danger. After all, Millicent is a Slytherin," Severus said, trying to be patient. "But for now, I suggest that you stay with your friends in the halls, just as a precaution. Tell your friends that they should stick together when they can as well."
Rachel nodded, her expression serious.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
She shook her head.
"Alright, then I'll walk you back to the common room," he said, getting to his feet. And then he could make plans for questioning his students under the guise of meetings to discuss their academic progress.
"I'm going to go back to the common room," Ginny Weasley said quietly after they finished their Transfiguration review on Sunday afternoon. They'd covered both the Avifors spell for Ginny and Luna, and vera verto for the second years.
"Okay, do you want me or Neville to walk you back?" Hermione asked.
"No, I can go on my own," Ginny said as she gathered her books into her bag. "Thanks for letting me study with you today."
"We're here pretty much every afternoon," Rachel said. "You can study with us again if you'd like to."
Ginny nodded and then left the room.
"That didn't go as well as I was hoping," Hermione said once the door was closed.
"Give her time," Millie said. "She's probably shy and just needs some time to get used to us."
Rachel nodded. It must be intimidating to join a fully formed study group part way through the year.
"Well, I'll invite her again tomorrow during lunch," Hermione said, pulling a thick book from her bag. "In the meantime, I got this out of my trunk and I thought we should familiarize ourselves with the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."
"What is the Chamber of Secrets?" Neville asked.
"The writing on the wall said the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. The bottom line is that Hogwarts has been searched by many Headmasters, but no one has ever found evidence that Salazar Slytherin built a secret chamber within the school. Likely, someone is just using the legend to frighten people," Hermione said, opening Hogwarts: A History to chapter thirteen.
"How does that explain Mrs. Norris though?" Theo asked.
"It doesn't. I haven't found anything in the library on Petrification, but I'm still looking," Hermione admitted.
Rachel pulled Hogwarts: A History closer to her and began to read the section Hermione had left open. "None would be able to open it until Slytherin's true heir arrived," she read out loud. "On the wall, it said 'enemies of the heir beware'."
"Enemies, in this case, meaning muggleborns," Hermione said, her forehead creased with worry.
"So it's probably not a stretch to say that it's someone from Slytherin House who wrote the message," Millie said.
"It seems likely, but there are blood purists in all of the Houses," Neville pointed out.
"And likely an upper year, considering what they did to Mrs. Norris, though we'll know more when I figure out what spell they used," Hermione agreed.
"The real question is how long it's going to take them to go from attacking cats to attacking students," Theo said, coming over to Rachel's side to read over her shoulder.
"But then why attack Mrs. Norris at all?" Rachel asked. "Why not go straight to attacking muggleborn students, if they want to make a point?"
"Maybe they wanted to test the spell on an easy target, to see if they could make it work?" Neville suggested.
"What about the water?" Luna asked.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"The floor was flooded, near the writing. Why would they do that?" Luna asked, twirling her wand as she stared out the window.
"It was right by Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She has the tendency to flood it when she gets upset," Hermione said.
Rachel thought she realized what Luna was getting at. "Maybe Myrtle saw something and that's why she was upset?"
"We could ask her," Millie said. "Did Professor Snape say anything to you last night about what the teachers are going to do?"
"He just said we should try to stick together," Rachel said, shaking her head.
"I'm sure they're looking into it," Hermione said. "But there's no reason for us not to see if we can figure out some of it too. The sooner the person is caught, the better for all of us."
No one had to say that it would be better for Hermione in particular, considering she was muggleborn.
"So let's go back to the writing and see if there's anything that gives us new information," Theo said, standing up straight as he finished reading. "The other thing we should do is keep an eye out in our common rooms for anyone acting suspicious or strange."
"Suspicious how?" Luna asked.
"Leaving the common room alone at late hours, saying anything about blood status, acting unusually nervous," Theo listed.
"You just described half of the Slytherin upper years," Millie said.
"Then we know where our suspect pool starts," Theo said.
"I wish there was a way we could know who else skipped the Halloween feast," Hermione said, running her fingertips down the open pages of Hogwarts: A History.
Rachel nodded. That would be helpful, but there wasn't really a way to know without asking people and that would be really obvious what they were doing.
"Okay, let's go," Millie said. "The sooner we go look, the better chances we'll have of finding something before someone messes with things."
They arrived at the second floor corridor near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to discover that the water had been cleaned up but the words were still written on the wall.
Theo walked up to the words and held his wand up. "Lumos." He carefully examined the letters, running one of his fingers along the edges. "I'm pretty sure this is paint. You can see brush strokes. But why didn't Mr. Filch clean this up?"
"Scourgify," Hermione said, pointing her wand at one of the words.
Rachel came closer and saw that the Scouring charm hadn't had an effect.
"Scourgify," Millie tried, touching the patch on the wall she'd aimed at. "It's wet, so the charm worked, but it didn't do anything to the paint."
"Maybe there's some sort of spell that protects it from being cleaned off?" Neville asked.
"Sounds like another thing to look up in the library," Hermione said. "Writing on the wall is probably too different from writing with a quill for a handwriting comparison to be useful."
Rachel wandered a little further down the hallway. There weren't any portraits on the walls near here, so they couldn't ask them if they'd seen anything. There was a broken window pane and Rachel noticed a line of spiders making their way out of the castle. There was some dirt and dust on the window pane, so she decided it probably hadn't been broken yesterday.
She aimed her wand at the window. "Reparo," and watched as the glass reformed into a smooth pane. The spiders, now without an exit, scattered along the edges of the window.
"Shall we go into the bathroom?" Millie asked.
"We'll wait here," Neville said, glancing at Theo.
Rachel followed Hermione, Millie, and Luna into the girls bathroom.
"Myrtle?" Hermione called when the door had fallen shut behind them. "Are you here?"
"What do you want?" a girl asked from inside one of the toilet stalls.
"Can we talk to you about what happened yesterday, Myrtle?" Millie asked.
"Do you want to make fun of me too?" Myrtle demanded, flying through one of the stall doors.
Myrtle was short and wore her long hair in two ponytails that fell over her shoulders. She looked very upset.
"We're not here to make fun of you, we just want to ask you about yesterday," Hermione said.
"There was water on the floor," Luna added. "We thought it might have come from this bathroom."
"Who made fun of you?" Rachel asked.
Myrtle sniffled. "Two older girls. 'Myrtle's a pain' and 'Go away Myrtle' and 'We're busy Myrtle' and 'Nobody wants you here' they said."
"What House colors were they wearing?" Hermione asked.
"Ravenclaw," Myrtle said, dissolving into tears. "My own House."
"They call me Loony Lovegood," Luna said.
Rachel wondered how Luna could say that without seeming the slightest bit upset. She remembered being teased in school - mostly it was Dudley's fault. Often other students had avoided her, including telling the teachers they didn't want to work with her when they were assigned group work. She remembered feeling very alone, like one day she would just disappear and no one would even notice.
"Were they carrying paint with them?" Millie asked.
"No," Myrtle said, wiping at her face. "They were fixing their makeup and glamor charms."
"Did they say anything about their blood status, or anything about muggleborns?" Hermione asked.
"I'm a muggleborn!" Myrtle shouted. "There's nothing wrong with being muggleborn!"
"No, there isn't," Hermione said quickly. "I'm a muggleborn too. We're looking for people who don't want muggleborns at Hogwarts."
"Try the Slytherins then," Myrtle said, glaring at Rachel and Millie.
"Hey, we're both half-bloods," Millie said. "And Hermione is our friend."
Rachel nodded.
"Well, that's alright then," Myrtle said, sniffling.
"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary yesterday after the Ravenclaw girls made fun of you?" Hermione asked.
"No," Myrtle said, pulling a handkerchief out of her robes and blowing her nose. "After they were here I went to the u-bend and stayed there until it was nighttime."
"Okay. Thank you, Myrtle," Rachel said.
"Yes, thank you," Millie said.
They left the bathroom and found Theo and Neville waiting for them.
"Any luck?" Neville asked.
"Two Ravenclaw girls who were fixing their makeup and they upset Myrtle. I don't think they were the ones who wrote the message," Hermione summarized.
"Well, it was worth trying," Millie said, shrugging. "Let's go back to the study room."
They started walking down the hall and Rachel fell back so she was walking alongside Luna. "Luna. Do you want me to go with you to talk to Professor Flitwick?"
"About the Chamber of Secrets?" Luna asked.
"No, about the Ravenclaws who are making fun of you. Maybe Professor Flitwick can make them stop, if he knew about it," Rachel said.
Luna was quiet for a moment. "No. He can't stop them."
Rachel nodded. She had figured as much, but she didn't know what else to do. "Maybe if you tell Professor Snape who is making fun of you, he can give them detentions? It might not stop them, but at least it's something."
Luna shook her head. "I don't mind, really. It's just a name. Besides, you're my friend, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am," Rachel said. She'd grown used to having Luna in their group and she'd miss her if she wasn't there.
"Then it's alright. I have you as a friend, and the others in the study group, I think they might be my friends too," Luna said.
"I think they are," Rachel said, hoping she was right. "Having friends can help a lot. I didn't have friends before I came to Hogwarts."
"Me neither," Luna said.
"Well, if you decide that you do want to tell one of the teachers, I'm willing to go with you. Or, if you want someone else from the group to go with you, I bet they'd go if you ask," Rachel said, wishing there was more she could do.
"Okay," Luna said, fiddling with a strand of her hair. "It will be alright."
Rachel nodded. Hopefully it would.