Hiya guys! Your friendly Slytherin Astronomy student here! This is my round 6 drabble for Houses Competition! I picked the prompt (event) staff meeting. I had a good one, so let's gooooo!
Beta: Aya Diefair, VanillaAshes, ShynGr8
Word Count: 564
Dumbledore looked around at the other professors. Every one of them wore expressions of fear and apprehension. Dumbledore knew what had happened, but no one knew what had caused it, or how they would move forward.
A young first-year Ravenclaw girl had been found dead in a bathroom upstairs. The whole year had been filled with mysterious disappearances, and several students had been discovered Petrified. Madame Hoskins, the school Healer, had assured everyone that they would be revived by her Mandrake draught she was brewing, but what good would it do if people kept turning up Petrified? And now a girl had been murdered.
Everyone ended their hushed conversations as Armando Dippet, the Headmaster, entered the room. Unlike the others, whose expressions were anxious and upset, Dippet's was drawn and sad.
"I've just met with the girl's parents," he announced. "Arrangements have been made to have her sent home for a private service."
"What about the students?" Professor Merrythought asked, almost a tremble to her voice. "What are we going to tell them? Their fellow classmate has been murdered!"
Dippet sighed. He looked around slowly at everybody in the room. "I believe Miss Hornby has assured that everyone knows what's happened. She is the one who found Miss Warren's body, after all. It's regrettable, but perhaps for the best."
"We still need to say something to them, to acknowledge it," Professor Slughorn called.
"Will we even be able to stay open?" Merrythought wondered aloud. "Parents won't want their students to stay if there's a murderer loose in the school."
"We can't stop this," Slughorn argued. "The Chamber only opens for the Heir. No one even knows where it is."
Dumbledore's eyes jumped from professor to professor as they all verbalised their ideas. There was only one solution in his eyes though. And it was time he spoke up. "We must find out who is the cause of this." Dumbledore looked around, seeing that he had gained everybody's attention. "We will catch the creature, and the person behind its actions, so we all can remain in the place we love."
Dippet nodded, but he didn't seem to be properly in it. "Fine words, Albus, but it's not that simple. As Horace said, we don't even know where the Chamber of Secrets is located, much less how to stop it."
"We could ask the students," Merrythought suggested. "It's likely one of them has seen something we can use, even if they don't know it. We can—"
"Galatea, that's a nice thought," Slughorn interrupted. "But the students are scared. If we start interrogating them right after something so awful, we'd only get a lot of false claims and students seeking the attention knowing something might bring them."
"No, I don't think so," Albus contradicted. "That's a good idea, Galatea. The students likely see much more than we do. Someone might know something."
Albus had an idea of who might know something. He'd had a conversation with one of the older students, Tom Riddle, who had been interestingly curious about Hogwarts' fate. He acted like he knew something.
"I think we should move forward with this," Dippet said. "Gently ask the students to come forward if they know something, at the very least. We can discuss what else we might do to keep Hogwarts open."
This satisfied Albus. He knew they would find something out. They had to.