The next chapter is up, as usual, likes, comments, questions, suggestions, reviews, follows, etc. are appreciated. Violence against animals is mentioned in the chapter so read with caution if that is upsetting for you.

Chapter 13 A Bloody Condition

How could one rooster produce so much blood?

Dean Thomas was starring at the dead rooster on the floor by the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He had been standing there for at least 5 minutes, mute, horrified by the scene in front of him. The poor bird was mutilated; wings and neck broken, eggs gouged out, and numerous stab wounds riddled its still body.

All Dean had hopped to do was go for his daily early morning run around the grounds. Quidditch skill didn't just appear overnight, one had to work for it.

He had not wanted to nearly step on murdered bird.

Was this how Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione felt when they found Mrs. Norris those weeks ago?

This thought snapped Dean out of stupor, and he turned back into the common room to find Percy or Annabelle, the Gryffindor prefects. Stepping back through the portrait he nearly walked straight into Parvati. They stumbled away from each other and she had an apology on her lips when she caught sight of the rooster and let out an ear-piercing scream. She grabbed her wand and shoved him backwards, and he nearly fell out into the corridor onto the rooster. She leveled her wand at his chest. Dean raised his hands in front of himself and tried to calm her.

"Wait Parvati, its not what you think…"

"THEN WHAT HAPPENED?" she shouted, "BIRDS DON'T JUST….. DO THAT"

"I don't know, I was just leaving too, please you have to believe me. I just found it there 5 minutes ago," said Dean, "I don't have any blood on me," he also added quickly, desperately trying to convince her that he had, just like Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione, been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Parvati lowered her wand and considered what he said. She nodded, "You're right, sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. You wouldn't have done this"

Now pacified she tucked her wand away and approached the dead bird. She reached her hand overtop its torn breast and Dean couldn't stop from exclaiming "Don't touch it!"

She turned her head and glared at him, "I'm not, I'm trying to see if its still warm…"she swallowed, "it is".

They both realized the danger at the same time and all but jumped back into the common room.

Dean was shaking as he spoke "Do you think the attacker is nearby? What if they are waiting out there to attack the first Gryffindor the leave the corridor."

As Parvati shook her head the low light from the nearby fireplace reflected brilliantly off her butterfly hairclips, "I don't know. But I do know that this was a sign. A sign from the Heir of Slytherin".

Not long after Percy and Annabelle came down the stairs with a couple of other curious students. After finding out what had happened, they made the other students move far back away from the entrance to the common room and Percy left to fetch Professor McGonnell. The professor whisked away the dead body of the bird with one wave of the wand. Surprisingly, she did not seem as concerned as Parvati and him and so the Gryffindors were told to go about their day as though nothing had happened. She was however clearly cross with The Fat Lady.

Their resident ghost had been away "visiting" (drinking with) another portrait when the rooster had been killed but she confessed to have seen three people enter/leave the common room. Himself, Parvati, and a small hooded figure. The figure had given the password and so the not so sober lady let the person in no questions asked. Professor McGonnell informed her that she would speaking with Professor Dumbledore about this and Dean swore he heard some older students whispering about The Fat Lady finally getting sacked.

Lavender and Parvati went off to prepare for the day (Parvati had also desired a run but now was too worried to go running about with a crazy person), and Dean found himself sitting by the fire, watching the flames move. He reflected on, of all things, the cleanup of the rooster. Maybe it was because he was raised in a muggle household but watching something so horrifying being waved away like it was nothing seemed wrong to him.

What did you expect a funeral for the poor thing?

The snarky voice in his head sounded suspiciously like Seamus. With that thought of Seamus he smiled slightly to himself in spite of what had happened. The Irish boy was a hard sleeper and it generally took Dean practically shoving him out of bed to make their early morning classes.

But no, he didn't expect a funeral. But he did wish for the wizarding world to take things like this more seriously.

Maybe it was the Heir of Slytherin, the semi mythical villain who want the purge the world of muggles and muggleborns. Dean was half-blood, his mother had recently revealed to him over Christmas break that his father had died in the first wizarding war while fighting Death Eaters.

But maybe it was something or someone else.

Sometimes the wizarding world infuriated him, purebloods pretending as though their society did not suffer from the same ails as muggle society. Racism (not blood status) didn't exist in their eyes. But Dean knew better. His fellow Black students had noticed as well. Hermione told him of when she had been followed around the bookstore in Diagon Alley, and Angelina Johnson and Lavender had been bullied many times by Slytherins and a couple Hufflepuffs for their hair. Perhaps this symbol wasn't for muggleborns but in fact was motivated by racism or some other bigoted belief.

At this point there was no way to be certain.

Looking around the common he noticed that the other students had mostly gone back to bed, with the exception of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were each playing chess and reading, respectfully.

Before re-establishing his focus on the gradually lowering flames in the fireplace, his eye caught a slight movement to his left. It was then that Dean realized that the other couch, the one farthest from the fire was not empty like he had thought. Curled up like cat was his roommate's twin, Ginny Weasley. She was clutching her left armless shoulder with one hand, and the way the flames reflected on her eyes reminded him even more of a cat.

They caught eyes briefly and Dean began to greet her, but she was off in a flash, leaving the common room and allowing the once again empty portrait slam shut behind her. But as one conversation closes, a new one opens, and the Golden Trio left their games and books to sit with him by the fire.

Ron spoke first. "She's gotten a lot stronger since coming back from break… at least physically."

Hermione nodded, seemingly continuing on Ron's thought, "but she's just as jumpy and withdrawn as before, maybe we should talk with Mrs. and Mr. Weasley. She might not be ready to come back."

Harry disagreed immediately, "No. She doesn't need to be alone at home. She'll feel like she's been locked up, no one wants to feel that way." Harry was not looking at them, rather starring the fire, rubbing his left shoulder.

"Maybe once all of Heir of Slytherin stuff is fixed, she'll feel better? I mean the person doing it is bound to get caught, and you can't just get away with these sorts of things," said Dean, trying believe his own words.

The other three exchanged a look. "What?" said Dean confused, "Have people gotten away with this before?"

"Um, remember when I got hit by that rogue bludger last week?" started Harry, Dean nodded and he continued, "Well, when my bones were being regrown after Lockhart removed them…"

Ron coughed in a way that sounded suspiously like "idiot".

"...I got a visit from a house-elf."

Dean frowned, confused, "a what?"

Hermione answered immediately, "They are magical creatures that old rich pureblood families use as slaves, they serve their master to the death."

"This one set the bludger on me to get me to leave school, but since it didn't work, he came to warn me about the Heir of Slytherin. He said that chamber of secrets had been opened before and that the culprit had never been caught."

"But that person can't still be here, they must have passed down the family tradition, so to say." said Dean, "But do you guys really think there's someone in the school who would-". He cut himself off as the trio exchanged another look, this one dark. The three of them spoke the name that came to his mind.

"Draco Malfoy."