Chapter 32

December 1991

Hogwarts

Mrs Norris was not the first.

A few weeks after the events of Haloween Slytherin First Year Emmalynn Pope was found petrified on November 16th.

The fact that the first human to be petrified was a Slytherin caused much worry amongst all the students including Slytherins.

Was Pope going to be the only one to be petrified and if there were going to be more attacks was anyone off limit.

The news of Pope's attack had spread through the school like wildfire causing the air to become thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the

castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured

fourth alone.

Daphne had practically never left his side in the time since the attack, something she had done ever since third year but had increased since the attack.

Harry didint mind.

What happened had unnerved him and he didint want to leave his girlfriend's side.

He would be devastated if Daphnee had gotten petrified.

Harry did notice that hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school.

That seemed a bit much to Harry though.

As if an amulet could be used to stop whatever was doing the petrifications.

SCENE CHANGE

On a Friday afternoon Harry and Daphnee were walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of

parchment that had just been pinned up. Edmund beckoned them over, looking excited.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" he said. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind

dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

"Could be useful," Harry said to Daphnee as they went into dinner. "Shall we Go?"

Daphne was all for it, so at eight o'clock that evening the three of them hurried back to

the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared

along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety

black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying

their wands and looking excited.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Daphnee as they edged into the chattering

crowd.

"Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young — maybe it'll be

Him." Edmund said.

"As long as it's not —" Harry began, but he ended on a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was

walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none

other than Professor Snape, wearing his usual black.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "Gather round, gather round! Can

everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club,

to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on

countless occasions — for full details, see my published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile.

"He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to

help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you

youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him,

never fear!"

"I can't wait for Lockhart to get his arse handed to him?" Daphnee muttered in Harry's ear.

Harry nodded eager for their Head of House to take Lockhart down a few notches.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with

much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised

their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart

told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us

will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Edmund murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.

"One — two — three —"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent;

Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was

blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid

down it to sprawl on the floor.

Harry,Daphnee,Edmund and the other Slytherins cheered.

Lockhart started to get unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was

standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a

Disarming Charm — as you see, I've lost my wand — ah, thank you, Miss Burton — yes,

an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying

so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would

have been only too easy — however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough

demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs.

Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me —"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners.

Daphne got paired with Layla Murdock,Edmund got paired with George Horrigan and Harry got paired with Raymond Schnider

"Ok"Lockhart said "As you can see you all are divided into years 1-3, years 4-5, and years 6-7,We will have a duelling tournament for this lesson, just for fun and the winner from each age group will get to fight me or Professor Snape to see where you need to get to."

Lockhart after getting trounced seemed a bit nervous at the idea of fighting the winners and as he was speaking probably was hoping that the winners chose to fight Professor Snape.

He then gave the indicator to start.

Harry and Schnider looked at each other and gave the standard bow and then immediately started shooting spells.

Harry reduced and transformed his wand motions to a series of quick whips and cracks as jets of rainbow coloured lights emitted from his wand, most blinking out against Schniders's bright yellow shield,

Schnider then sent back a few of his own, formidable and high level spells but not containing the speed that Harry possessed with his practise of airbending.

Harry weaved through the area of the spells, which were relatively accurate but far enough apart that they failed to build any pressure on him who responded with another string of spells, this time putting more power into it, crashing Schnider's shield and forcing him to throw himself out of the way, something that Harry was ready for.

He sent a stunner into the corner Raymond had hurled himself into who had quickly summoned a chair that was destroyed.

There was a reason Harry and Raymond were in the Top of their class.

Lying on the floor now Raymond was at a major disadvantage, gasping for breath and trying to block as many of Harry's spells as he could, rolling himself onto his feet somewhat awkwardly, shooting back a spell or two when he got the split second chance but nothing he had sent hit Harry.

Harry waved his wand around in some intricate patterns and directed a strong jet of water Augmenti out of his wand that crashed right through Schnider's shield and smashed right into the him and knocked him against the wall, drenching him and leaving him shivering and shaking before falling prey to a causal stunner from Harry that won him the match.

Harry cracked his knuckles and smiled, Raymond was considered one of the best duelers in the 4-5 age group and was the favorite to win actually.

The next few battles Harry was in were pitifully easy, most falling to his first barrage of spells that were relatively simple and one of the simple textbook barrage techniques that he had learned from Cyrus Greengrass over the summer.

Warrington was a bit more of a challenge, having been taught how to fight a little bit dirty by his father and someone who fought with scare tactics reminiscent to the death eaters, his first move was to conjure a large snake, which Harry promptly vanished and sent a burst of air to clear Warrington's smoke-screen, catching the pureblood heir with a stunner once he managed to press him properly in one-on-one magical combat, after Harry outmaneuvered Warrington and pushed his advantage.

Warrington was one of the students who had attacked Daphne and Harry was glad to get one over him.

The last battle of his group was him against Edmund who had also done remarkably well in his duels though he certainly looked worse for wear.

Harry started with a slightly more complex opening streak, all of which either hit Edmund's shield or were dodged by the wizard who moved forward aggressively, something not normally done against a faster opponent, as less space meant less dodge time.

Edmund rapidly fired spells at Harry, faster than anyone else had but without efficiency in movements and insisting on separate movements for each spell and less fluid motions which meant that Harry still had the upper hand despite being pushed back a bit by Edmund's furious casting. Harry let off another stream of water.

Edmund sent a freezing charm at the water that froze it, letting it act as a shield for Edmund as he shot his spells around the ice, which took Harry 3 spells to tear down the hindrance and once more continue the battle, fighting hard now, his spells got harder and harder, pushing Edmund back.

And with Edmund on the back foot now they both knew that he couldn't keep up with Harry's heated barrage for much longer.

Edmund started to slow, stopping his attacks completely and reinforcing his shield, building up his magic and throwing one last strong stunner before one of Harry's clipped him and he fell, unconscious.

Harry looked around, breathing hard.

Daphne had been beaten by Edmund and Harry watched as Teddy Taylor won the 6-7 year matches and Katie Bell won the 1-3 year matches.

Lockhart seemed exceedingly nervous after having watched the battles but he smiled shakily.

"We're running a bit short of time, but I suppose we should get through as many of the duels as we can…" Lockhart said, sounding like he was concerned about them getting back to bed and not his own reputation being hurt any more, "Let's have Mr. Potter up here with me and Mrs. Bell and Mr. Taylor with Professor Snape!"

Harry smiled politely and came to the stage where Lockhart was on.

Harry inclined his head elegantly, Lockhart bowed comically deep and flung his arm into the air, sending the first spell, a weak expelliarmus which went way over Harry's head.

Harry didn't even move from his spot as Lockhart sent spells flying into the walls.

He had been looking forward to this moment

One of the spells came sort of close to Harry and he caught the spell on his wand and flung it back, hitting Lockhart in the nose and having his wand fall out of his hand.

Harry sent a strong combo of spells at Lockhart, sending Lockhart flying, giving him a red nose, a black eye, hitting him with several painful stinging hexes, tripping him in mid-air, forcing him to summersault and sending his regained wand flying into Harry's hand/

Lockhart landed with a thud and a groan and Harry could have sworn he saw Snape and a good number of students smile.

"Oh, Professor Lockhart! You didn't have to go THAT easy on me… I really want to improve, how about another one where you don't hold back? I want you to be brutally honest about my skill." Harry said earnestly, in a way that wouldn't allow Lockhart to slip through.

A trickle of blood seeped through Lockhart's lips from the impact but he smiled jitterily.

"Sure my boy, but go easy on me, these injuries might slow me down a bit."

Harry nodded deferentially and took his stance, which Lockhart clumsily reciprocated.

"Stupefy!" Lockhart went for the simple but efficient strategy and sent a weak stunner in the approximate direction of Harry, following it up with a Petrificus Totalus, which Harry had to actually block with a shield.

Lockhart briefly let the triumph of getting a shot near his target take over his face, and this time, Harry sent a knockback hex right at the unnaturally white grin that Lockhart possessed.

Lockhart's front two teeth cracked, marring his smile and getting a wail of dismay and tears welling up in his eyes from that.

Harry feigned concern while the student populace sniggered at the expense of their defense professor.

Snape dismissed the class, after it was ascertained that Lockhart was inconsolable.

SCENE CHANGE
Harry, Daphne and the rest of the students from the Dueling Club walked up the stairs chattering about what had happened and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark; the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane.

A Scream from one of the students then alerted them to something that made their stomachs feel like they had dissolved.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his

face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another

figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.

It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and

smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off

and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

Harry felt Daphne grab onto his arm.

Harry saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies.

And then the panic began.

As the students started to scream, Harry saw Edmund run back to the Great Hall and was soon followed by Professor Snape who gained order fairly quickly.

He got Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra who where nearby to take Justin to the hospital wing

Unsure of what to do about Nearly Headless Nick though Professor Snape conjured a large fan out of thin air which he gave to one of the students with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs which they did fanning the ghost along like a silent black hovercraft.

As Professor Snape directed them back to the Common Room Harry held onto Daphne as the both of them felt numb.

Mrs Norris,Emmelynn Pope,Justin Finch-Fletchey and Nearly Headless Nick.

Something was going on in Hogwarts

What though.

SCENE CHANGE

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had been

nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to

worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other;

What terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a

stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for

Christmas.

Harry had stuff he wanted to do over break that the events of this year had taught him where essential.

How to fight with bending.

SCENE CHANGE

Chaos at Hogwarts

For the first time since nineteen fourty three our dear readers the mysterious Chamber of Secrets has been opened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Earlier this year the cat of groundskeeper Argus Filch was found petrified shortly followed by a Mrs Pope,and a Mr Finch-Fletchey

The confusing part though was the Petrification of Gryfindor House Ghost Nearly Headless Nick.

Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge has pledged to work with Headmaster Albus Dumbledore to search the school over the holidays break on a renewed search to find the Chamber of Secrets.

Thankfully Mandrakes are being planted at Hogwarts that will allow those petrified to recover.

And hopefully Minister Fudge and Headmaster Dumbledore working together can solve this problem before anyone gets hurt.

Both men have taken great lengths to reassure people that security will be beefed up and they will find the person responsible for the incidents and that the students will be safe coming back to school.

We at the Daily Prophet believe them and can not wait for the perpetrator to be apprehended.

Putting down the paper while sipping her tea Lily looked at it.

The Chamber of Secrets.

She remembered once of the ghosts talking about during her first year the events that had happened just twenty five years previously.

And now they were repeating themselves.

At first she was glad that they decided not to send Michael to Hogwarts

Dangerous stuff going on.

He was much safer being trained at home by tutors and his parents.

After all that's why Lily and James got at home jobs.

A thought then passed through her head about Harry.

She hoped he was being safe at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had said that he was keeping track of Harry when he was with Petunia and at Hogwarts and she trusted him on that.

It was tough not to see her other son but with the wards around Petunia's place only allowing Harry and Dumbledore that was not an option.

And she had to stay to help train Michael as the Boy who Lived.

That would be a bad environment for Harry to grow up in.

He was better off with Petunia where he could be loved.

She knew she would meet up with Harry at some point later in life.

Surely he would understand that they had to ensure the safety of the Boy who Lived above all else.

They had to do it for the greater good.

And besides, Dumbledore said that if anything major happened to Harry he would contact them.

And she knew they could trust him on that.

Right