Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to PenguinLord0029 and Gazaran, who beta this story.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Trouble at Hogwarts

As the week went by Harry was still pleased about what he was able to accomplish over the weekend, even if he only had little time to think about this because of his classes. Not to mention, now that she didn't have to spend her free time on the map, Hermione started getting on Ron and Harry to work extra hard on their Transfiguration. After one week of this Ron grumble about the extra amount of work that they had to do.

"You know Harry, if I knew that being you're friend meant that I would have to spend twenty hours a week in the library I might have reconsidered."

"Sorry mate," Harry chuckled at this. "But at least at the end of all this hard work we'll be able to do something beyond awesome …"

"Yeah," Ron smiled dreamily and then sighed, "I just wish we didn't have to wait so long."

"Well, at least Transfiguration classes have become a lot easier after all the work we've been doing," Harry said.

"Yeah, it was especially nice to see everyone's incredulous faces when McGonagall announced that we didn't have to do any homework because of our work yesterday in class," Ron smiled smugly. "Now if only Hermione wouldn't give us so much homework I would be happy."

"I'll try to remember that in the future," Hermione said suddenly appearing behind them, causing Ron to jump and Harry to chuckle.

"Blimey Hermione, don't sneak up on a person like that!" Ron glared at her.

"I thought you two were going to the Quidditch pitch for practices," Hermione said, ignoring Ron's comment as usual.

"We're just heading there now," Harry said heading for the front doors, when he got outside it was raining.

"Are you really going to practice in this weather?" Hermione frowned.

"Do you really think that Wood would let us not practice?" Ron sighed. "I know it is making me a lot better player, but Wood is seriously mental sometimes. Waking us at the creak of dawn one time and then making us practice in weather like this …"

"He just wants to win," Harry said, who was not too pleased about the weather either, but he truly wanted to win the cup this year. "We have to practices extra hard now that the Slytherin have those brooms."

"Yeah," Ron nodded his head.

"Well, see you later, I think I'll head to the library," Hermione said as the boys headed out into the rain.

"That's a shocker," Ron said when Hermione was too far away for her to hear him. "Honestly, I think she'd prefer it if she could live there."

"Finally you've come!" Wood exclaimed when they walked through the locker room doors; the rest of the team was already there. Harry looked down at his watch and noticed that they still had a few minutes before they were supposed to be there.

"Wood …" he started to say.

"I was just telling the others how important it is that we take this practice seriously," Wood said. "As you know I've been working on a solution to the broom issue …"

"Have you come up with anything better than practicing harder than we already have been?" Fred asked.

Wood blushed, "I've come up some more moves we can work on …"

"So that a no," George sighed.

"Hey, I know they're …" Wood started to say.

"You know, I was thinking that it might help if Harry played like a Chaser for a little while …" Ron said thoughtfully. "I know the Nimbus 2000 isn't as fast as the 2001, but I'm sure Harry could still fly faster and better than any of the Slytherin could on their faster brooms. It might make it so you can see what the new brooms will allow the Slytherins to be capable of."

Wood looked thoughtful at that and then nodded his head. "That sounds reasonable."

So that was how Harry found himself partnered with Alica, flying at breakneck speeds and working on skills that he never had much use for before. He did not mind so much, though it was not necessarily advantageous to his position, he felt like it would improve his overall flying skills. Knowing that it would make the practices somewhat useless if he flew at a speed that was more comfortable for him as he learn more about this new position, he pressed himself to the max. At first, it was very hard for the other to mark him (or for the Weasley to hit him with the bludgers) but as the practices went on there was a show of improvement.

"Well, I think that went well," Wood said smiling; he was covered in mud just like the rest of the team. "Angelina and Katie you really were starting to get how best to play defense, so I think next practice we need to concentrate more on offense."

"Don't forget that Harry needs to practices as being a Seeker, too," Katie warned.

"Yeah Olli, it would be horrible if we trounce them on the pitch but fail to catch the Snitch," Fred said.

"That's a good point," Wood frowned. "There's only a few more weeks before the game, I've really got to think of what to do."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Harry said encouragingly.

"Ron, do mind if you stay behind," Wood said as everyone made to leave. "I'd like to see if you have any more suggestions that would be useful."

"Er … okay," Ron said uncomfortable, especially since he did not have any ideas like that right now.

"See you, Ron," Harry smiled at his friend as he left to head back to the castle. Once inside he wished that he had been asked to stay behind, too. Though by the end of it he did have an interesting story he could tell to Sirius and Remus. That was why he had contracted them via the mirror that night, though there were a few other things he had to tell them about that he had not yet because he had been so busy this term.

"You'll never guess what I did last weekend!" he said after they got through their hellos.

"What?" Sirius said excitedly and Remus said with trepidation.

"It's nothing bad," Harry rolled his eyes at their reactions as he pulled out the map and opens it saying "Hocus Pocus!"

"Wow!" Sirius said as Harry showed the map in the mirror. "That looks just like the Marauder's map."

"I copied your outline, but we came up with all the other spells to use on it," Harry said.

"Cool!" Sirius said.

"It's rather impressive, making a map like that is a lot harder than it looks," Remus smiled. "How long did it take you guys?"

"About a mouth and a half," Harry sighed, knowing that the Marauders had accomplished this task in a shorter time period.

"I suppose you weren't as lucky as we were then," Remus said, suddenly frowning.

"What do you mean lucky, Pup just doesn't have the natural coolness that we had," Sirius said as Remus rolled his eyes.

"You know that we just got lucky that the way James decided to do the spells in were the correct order," Remus rolled his eyes. "We could easily have spent months trying the spells out and nothing would have happened."

"And that just prove our awesomeness in guessing," Sirius said like it was obvious.

"So you were able to make the map in only a month in your first year," Harry sighed.

"First year," Remus said shaking his head. "No we didn't make the map in our first year."

"Sure we did Moody," Sirius said. "Don't you remember James and I drawing the map towards the end of the first year after McGonagall caught us running away when we accidentally caught her in the prank we were trying to pull on the Slytherins?"

"Yes I do remember that," Remus chuckled. "And I also remember casting the spells on the map in our third year. The end of third year too, I was really surprise when you already had good nicknames for yourselves when you put the official title of the map on there."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Sirius said. "It was just a normal map the first two years. And of course we already had good nicknames; we had already known what our Animagus forms would be by then …"

"Yeah, but I didn't know that then," Remus frowned at him.

"So you mean what I told Hermione was wrong, you didn't do this in your first year," Harry said.

"Afraid not," Sirius sighed.

"Well maybe that will pacify her, she wasn't happy that you guys did better than she did," Harry mumbled before he changed to subject. "Hey, I did something else today that you might be proud of Padfoot …"

"I don't like the sounds of this," Remus frowned.

"Actually you probably would think this was an accomplishment too, Moony," Harry smiled.

"Just tell us already!" Sirius said.

"I was in Filch's office, about to get detention …" Harry started and Remus groaned. "I didn't do anything Moony, I swear, I was just coming back after Quidditch practices …"

"Oh, muddy robes ah, yeah I got a few detentions for that," Sirius said.

"Well anyway, he was about to give me detention when Peeve destroyed the Vanishing Cabinet …" Harry started again.

"I didn't know that Hogwarts had one of those," Remus frowned. "Maybe we should tell Dumbledore about that, he could at least see where it leads …"

"That's not the point, Moony," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Go on Pup."

"Anyway, when Filch was gone I looked on his desk and he had this envelope for Kwikspell …"

"Filch is a squib!" Sirius said shocked at first then said, "Actually, that's not really that surprising."

"No, I always thought he was one," Remus agreed.

"When he came back he noticed I was looking at the letter and he told me to leave …"

"Wait! Are you telling me that you got out of Filch's office without getting detention?!" Sirius said.

"Now that is impressive," Remus chuckled. "You have no idea how many times Sirius and James tried to do that."

"Yeah, but for some reason it always seemed to get us in more trouble in the end," Sirius sighed and then smiled at Harry again. "I'm very proud of you, pup. The next thing you'll have to do is get out of trouble when McGonagall has you cornered."

"Once again, that's something Sirius was never able to manage," Remus said.

"Okay, I'll do it …" Harry smiled.

"That doesn't mean that you should deliberately cause trouble in front of McGonagall," Remus warned, having the feeling that Harry might actually do that.

"Fine," Harry chuckled. "Oh, there's one more thing, Nearly Headless Nick invited me to his Deathday Party …"

"You didn't say you would go, did you?" Sirius said.

"Er … well he was the one that help me get out of detention, I sort of had to," Harry said, feeling unnerved by Sirius's response. "Are Deathday parties really that bad?"

"No, they're not that bad," Remus, said. "We went to one of Nick's but there are a few things you should know …"

"Not that bad, Moony, they have moldy food, horrible music and it's freezing in there!" Sirius said.

"Yes, and those are the things you should be warned about," Remus rolled his eyes. "Just eat before heading down there and dress very warmly and it won't be that bad."

"Okay," Harry said before he yawned. Remus took that as a sign that Harry was tired and said good night to him.

O

Harry, Ron and Hermione were now heading towards the dungeons after stopping at the kitchen to enjoy a rather large and filling snack/dinner. Harry had invited the twins, Luna and Neville to go with them but the other had declined. The twins because they loved Halloween in the Great Hall too much to miss it, and as they past the Great Hall and all of the decorations in there, Harry almost wish he could have gone inside too, but he had a promise to keep. Neville just didn't want go to a party full of ghost, having hated whenever one of them past through him and he was sure that was unavoidable. Luna said that Halloween was the best time to seen Hellicaps, and therefore would be spending most of her time up on the Astronomy tower.

Harry frowned as they continued to walk towards the dungeons, because he was thinking of Ginny and how she seemed to be avoiding him. He wasn't sure if this was true of not, but he noticed that she just never seemed to be around, he hadn't seen her at all in the week that he known about the Deathday party. He did finally send her a message this morning on his map to hers, though she didn't seem to respond at all. He had hoped that after including her in both the map and Animagus secret that she would talk to them more, but he felt that he has seen her even less than he had before.

"Harry?" Ron said waving his hand in front of him.

"Huh?" Harry said breaking out of his thoughts. "Sorry … were you saying something …"

"Not really, but it looked like you were being attacked by Wrackspurts," Ron said.

"Argh, Ronald you know those creatures aren't real!" Hermione grumbled, she had gotten use to Luna saying that, but it really annoyed her when Ron did.

He just chuckled in response as they enter the dungeons and immediately shiver. "It really is bloody cold in here …"

"I told it would be," Harry said.

"And that music really is horrible," Ron said.

"Again, I warned you about that," Harry said.

"Just stop complaining," Hermione rolled her eyes as they walked through the crowd of ghost that was filling this room.

"Wow, I didn't know that so many ghosts were around," Harry said. "How many of them do you think stay at Hogwarts?"

"Probably a fair amount …" Hermione started to say before she cut herself off and grabbed the boys by the elbows and steering them a different direction.

"What was that about?" Ron raised an eyebrow at her.

"Er … we were about to head towards Moaning Myrtle," Hermione said with a shudder. "She haunts one of the girl's bathrooms … she always wailing at you … it's horrible …"

"That really does sound lovely," Ron chuckled. "Hey look, there's Nick, maybe after we say hello to him we can leave …"

"Either way, I think we should head over there," Harry said and that is what they did.

"Harry!" Nick said smiling at the boy and his two friends, "I'm so glad you came."

"This is a very interesting party," Harry said, "though if you don't mind, I think I'm going to stay away from the food," he added looking down at the moldy peanuts and the rotten looking cake that was on the table near them.

"Argh …" Ron groaned from behind Harry. "Why is it so rotten …"

"Because the flavor is so strong that we ghost could almost taste them," Nick answer with a forlorn expression.

"You mean you can't even taste food," Ron said sadly, and Hermione step on his foot when he opens his mouth to say something else. She didn't know what he was going to say, but she could tell it would have been bad. Ron glared at her, but as a whole, he realizes it would not have been good if he said that it would be hell to be a ghost.

Before Harry could say anything, there were sounds of a hunting horn and a group of people flew through the walls, all of them headless. The one that seemed to be the leader came up to Nick, patted him on the back, and then looked at the three humans in the room.

"Live 'uns!" he said, his head falling off his shoulder in his act to look shock. Ron chuckled at this as Harry tried his hardest not to laugh, too. It was made easier when he caught the expression on Nick's face. Nick had asked Harry here so he could try to convince Sir Patrick that Nick belonged in the Headless hunt.

"Very amusing," Nick said bitterly.

"Don't mind him; Nick is still upset that we won't let him join the hunt," Patrick said to Harry, "but look at him, the poor fellow …"

"I think Nick is very terrifying," Harry said firmly, looking at Patrick, "you should see the looks on all the first years' faces when he takes his head off …"

The amusement in Patrick's eyes died a little, as he turned more serious, "I'm sure that is true, but that doesn't change the fact that his head is still attached to his body or that he can't really participate in any of our games …"

"That might be true, honestly I don't know why he would want to be in your group then," Harry said thoughtfully, "I mean don't get me wrong, it does sound like fun playing polo with your heads or whatever it is you do. But at least Nick is unique this way, instead of the hundreds of other of you ghosts that have been beheaded the right way …"

"Harry …" Nick tried to interrupt, as Patrick was now looking offended.

"Sorry, Nick," Harry sighed, "but it's true, they have to behave flashy as a group to even try to compete with how interesting you are just by being you … That's probably why they're really keeping you out, they're just jealous of you …"

"It most certainly is not," Patrick huffed. "It's because his head is still attached to his body and that's final!"

"Yep, jealous," Ron said and Patrick glared at him before flying off, causing the boys to sniggering.

"Er … I'm sorry Nick," Harry said after he could control himself. "I shouldn't have said that, I was just …"

"It's okay Harry," Nick said his mouth twitching upwards. "I have been trying to get into the hunt for five hundred years and I haven't gotten any closer to getting in. However, I've never seen Sir Patrick that angry before and that is worth this year's rejection …" he ended laughing.

"Well, I'm happy I could help," Harry smiled at him. "Are you still going to try to get into the Headless Hunt next year?"

"I don't see why not," Nick said, "It is one thing I have to look forward to through my long years, but I must say I appreciate that you said that I was unique …"

"It was nothing," Harry smiled at him. "Not to mention completely true."

"Well, I think it is time for me to start my speech, for which Patrick will interrupt before long," Nick said.

"That's rude!" Hermione said looking angry.

"He does it every year I have a Deathday party," Nick shrugged, "but with Harry's explanation, it doesn't seem that bad anymore."

Sure enough, Nick hardly said a few words of his speech before Patrick called out to the Headless Hunt and started a game of Head Hockey and everyone seemed to turn their attention to them. Nick gave a look to the trio as if to say, just like I'd told you, before he flew towards his cake.

"Er … does this mean we can go?" Ron questioned.

"I think so," Harry said, and they left.

As they were heading up the stairs Harry heard the chilling, deadly voice he had heard only once before and he hoped he would not have to hear again.

"… rip… tear… kill…"

"It's the voice," Harry said, looking upwards because that was the direction the voice seemed to be coming from.

"What …?" Ron and Hermione said looking at him oddly.

"The voice," Harry repeated, but trailed off as he heard the monstrous voice call again. Harry looked at his friend, and their expressions were confused and almost scared. He felt his heart hammer against his chest. "You … you can hear it, can't you?"

"No," Hermione said gravely as Ron shook his head.

Harry's mind tried to comprehend what this meant, wondering why he could hear the voice but his friends could not. He had been alone the last time he heard the voice, so he thought it was some kind of ghost or something like that, but now … what could this voice be?

"So hungry … for so long …"

The voice interrupted his thoughts and worry and he turned his head towards it, he would worry about why he was the only one that could hear it later.

"Come on, this way," Harry said, running towards the voice, as a voice in his head that sounded like Remus said, what are you thinking, cub, don't run towards danger like this … But he ignored it once the voice said that it was going to kill this time. He couldn't just stand by and let someone die when he was the only one that could hear the monster!

He ran past the Great Hall as he followed they voice, he could hear that Ron and Hermione were following him, but he didn't slow down. He ran until he came to a scene that made him stop; something was shinning off the wall across from a message that seemed to have been written in blood.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

"What the …" Ron started to say, as he looked at the scene in front of him.

"Is that … blood?" Hermione asked looking pale.

"I think so," Harry grimaced.

"What's that thing underneath it?" Ron questioned and Harry walked closer to it, noticing as he did so that there was water on the floor. He then looked up and almost gasped.

"It's Mrs. Norris," Harry said, frowning at the caretaker's cat.

"Harry we should get out of here," Ron said looking even paler than he was before. "We don't want to be found here."

"No … we don't," Harry agreed, but he didn't move, he was looking at his watch with a grimace, "but I don't think that could be prevented now."

"What …" Ron started to say but before he could even finish they could all hear the noise of the other students coming back from dinner, heading straight for them. They were surrounded in no time, Harry standing next to the cat hanging from the wall feeling like an idiot. He was sure what everyone was thinking as they stared at him with open mouths.

"Enemies of the Heir beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!" a voice called from the crowd and all eyes turned briefly towards Draco Malfoy, his cold gray eyes were directed towards Hermione. Harry and Ron both glared at him, but before they could do anything to him for that comment, Filch showed up and Harry froze with fear. The caretaker didn't care about anything as much as he cared for his cat. He felt the blood drain from his face as Filch realized what happened to Mrs. Norris.

"My cat! You've killed my cat, I'll kill you!" Filch screamed, his eyes were past deranged.

"No … I didn't …" Harry managed to say, but that didn't stop the caretaker from lunging at him.

"Argus!" Dumbledore said, causing Filch to stop, and Harry to feel relieved for a second before he remember the scene he was standing in.

Dumbledore quickly made the crowd disburse, but he made Harry, Ron and Hermione stay behind to explain what they had seen. There were several other Professors on the scene, including McGonagall, Snape and Lockhart, the last of which offered Dumbledore his office to hold the conversation. Lockhart also wouldn't stop talking about how great he was, prattling on about how he could have saved the cat from an early demise if he had been there only to find out Mrs. Norris had not been killed, but petrified.

"Your cat his been petrified," Dumbledore said frowning at said animal; he was obviously unnerved about something. "But how, I cannot say …"

Harry felt uncomfortable when Dumbledore announced that, he didn't like that whatever happened alluded even Dumbledore's knowledge.

"Ask him!" Filch said pointing at Harry and he felt like ice had filled his stomach as he looked at his headmaster with worry.

"No second year could have done this," Dumbledore said, and Harry felt slightly better.

"He did it; you saw what he wrote on the wall!" Filch said looking deranged. "He knows I'm a squib!"

"I didn't do this," Harry said, "and I don't care what you are …"

"See … He did this!" Filch said. "The little brat wasn't even at dinner!"

Everyone's eyes were on Harry now.

"That's true, I don't remembering seeing you at the feast," Snape said looking at Harry.

"I was at Nick's Deathday party," Harry explained. "We were just heading back to our common room …" he paused wondering if he should tell them about the voice he heard but he decided against it, he wanted to know what it meant before he told anyone else about it.

"Hm, do they even serve food at ghost's parties?" Lockhart asked.

"Not any you can it," Snape said. "I wonder why you didn't stop by the Great Hall …"

"We ate before we went to the party," Ron explained.

"I want to know what he did to my cat!" Filch demanded.

"I didn't do anything!" Harry said. "I'm not the one that put that sign up there … I mean if I did you would have caught me red handed," he added showing them his hands, that were not very clean, but at least they weren't red. "The b … er … paint on the wall probably would have been all over my hands if I put it up …"

"A very good point," Dumbledore said, but Filch did not look convince. "Argus, I don't believe Harry could have done this to Mrs. Norris." He then continued when he noticed the caretaker was going to argue, "either way, she will be return to normal as soon as the Mandrakes that Professor Sprout is growing are mature." He then turned to Harry, giving the boy one of his piercing looks and asked. "Harry, do you have anything more to say?"

Harry once again thought about telling him about the voice, and again he decided against it. "No, sir."

As they were leaving, Snape pulled him aside.

"I'm just wondering, Potter, why you didn't flee from the scene when you had realized what was going on. You must have known how guilty this makes you look …"

"Yes I do," Harry sighed, "but by the time I realize how bad it was, it was too late. It would have looked worse if even one person saw me fleeing from the scene."

"I supposed you have a point," Snape said. "Potter, just be careful from now on."

"Sir, do you know what's going on?" Harry asked. "Do you know what the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"No, I don't know what's going on, but Dumbledore is worried," Snape said before he stalked off.