A light chapter in comparison to some of the previous ones, but hopefully, enjoyable none the same...
Chapter 26 is here... Enjoy!

"I can't believe we spent Halloween evening here. I can't stand much more of this," muttered Ron.

"Let's go," agreed Harry.

"There might still be some pudding left," sighed Ron as the 3 of them left the death day party for the great hall.

And then Harry heard it, "... rip ... tear ... kill"

It was the same voice, the same cold and spine-chilling voice he had heard a few weeks back at Professor Jane's office. He stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall. He looked around vigorously up and down the dimly lit passageway.

"Harry... what are you..." began Hermione but got interrupted by Harry.

"It's the same voice... Can't you guys hear it?" said Harry, struggling to speak.

"... so hungry ... for so long ..."

"Listen...," said Harry. Ron and Hermione stood still and tried extremely hard to listen to any sound, but they got nothing.

"... kill ... time to kill ..."

The voice grew fainter and fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away, moving upwards. Harry dashed up the stairs into the entrance hall, Hermione and Ron followed instantly. He tried hearing for the voice but the all chatter from the Halloween feast made it almost impossible to hear anything else. He sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor.

"... I smell blood ..."

"It's going to kill somebody," shouted Harry. He continued running up the flight of stairs to the second floor while Hermione and Ron followed him panting hard.

"What... was that... all about? I couldn't hear anything," grunted Ron breathlessly.

"Look... there," said Hermione and pointed ahead. There was something shiny written on the wall.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

"What's that hanging over there?" asked Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.

The golden trio edged near; Harry almost slipped. There was a large puddle of water on the floor. They inched closer to the message. When they got near enough, all of them realized at once and leapt backwards with a splash. Mrs Norris, Filch's cat was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket.

"Let's get out of here," began Ron.

"Shouldn't we try and help..." interrupted Harry.

"Trust me... we don't want to be found here," replied Ron. But before they could do anything, they heard footsteps. From either end of the corridor, they could hear the footsteps of hundreds of students walking up the stairs. The next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends. The sudden silence that fell when the students glimpsed the scene was deafening.

"What's going on here? What's going on?" shouted Argus Filch as he came shouldering through the crowd. Then he saw his cat and fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs Norris? What did you do to her? You killed her," enraged Filch looking at Harry.

The commotion created had attracted all the Professors to arrive at the scene including Dumbledore.

"Argus!" said Dumbledore. He had swept past the golden trio and had detached Mrs Norris.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You too, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger," he added.

Filch, Harry, Hermione and Ron followed Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and Jane to her office.

"He murdered my cat," began Filch but was cut short by Dumbledore.

"Mrs Norris isn't dead, she's petrified, Argus," he said calmly examining the cat. "I don't know how though," he sighed.

"Ask him, he's the one who did it," snapped Filch.

"No... I" began Harry but was interrupted by Dumbledore.

"No 2nd year could have done this Argus," he said.

"You saw what he wrote on the wall. He knows... he knows I'm a... I'm a... he knows I'm a squib," said Filch stuttering.

"I didn't do this," pleaded Harry. "I don't even know what a squib is," he added.

"If I may speak Professor, maybe Mr Potter and his friends just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Snape. The golden trio looked at Snape surprised at seeing him take their side. "But I must also add that, they weren't at the feast tonight," he added.

"We were at the death day party of Nearly Headless Nick," snapped Ron.

"But why were you upstairs? Why not join the feast afterwards? These are a suspicious set of circumstances," replied Snape. Harry's eyes intuitively fell on Professor Jane who had been staring at him. He tried his best to convey that he had heard the voice but didn't know how to do it without telling others.

At that instant, Professor Jane spoke up, "we should take Mrs Norris to Madam Pomfrey without delay. We can investigate the events later. It's getting late anyway."

"Very well... Argus, take your cat to Poppy. Professor Sprout has grown some mandrakes. They'd be helpful in reviving your cat. We'll speak with her," said Dumbledore.

"My cat has been petrified, I want to see some punishment," pleaded Filch.

"Your cat will be fine, Argus. Now go," said Dumbledore. "You too," he added looking at the golden trio.

Harry, Hermione and Ron immediately got out of there and dashed towards the Gryffindor common room. There was no one in the common room when they got there.

"We'd have been in so much trouble, if not for Professor Jane," said Ron gasping for breath.

"Why didn't you tell them about the voices?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know why I didn't... I thought I should, I even glanced at Professor Jane. She's the only one who knows about this," replied Harry.

"Hearing voices is not a good sign, even in the wizarding world," said Ron.

"Only if John was with us... he'd have known what to do exactly," sighed Hermione.

"Had he been with us, Mrs Norris might not have even been petrified," sighed Harry in response.

"John's a genius, but even he's not capable of fighting invisible monsters that only Harry can hear," said Ron laughing. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other silently.

Pretty soon after that, Hermione went to the girl's dormitory while Ron and Harry made their way to the boy's. Barely a few people were awake in the dormitory. That's when Ron's eyes fell on the bed which had remained empty for so long. It wasn't empty anymore.

"Harry... look," he whispered, pointing at John who was fast asleep.

"When did he come?" asked Harry.

"Not a clue mate," replied Ron.

Harry woke up early the following morning. He looked around at Ron's bed and found Ron still fast asleep. But when he glanced at John's bed, he found it empty. He decided to go to the great hall hoping to find John there. There were a few students in the Great Hall when Harry reached there. The smell of breakfast was too much to handle and made Harry feel hungry almost immediately. He was tucking into his breakfast when he was joined by Hermione.

"Good morning, Harry," greeted Hermione.

"Hi Hermione, Good Morning," greeted Harry back.

"Woke up early today?" she asked as she seated herself beside Harry and started buttering a toast.

"Yeah... did you know John came yesterday?" he asked.

"John came yesterday? When? Did you tell him about Mrs Norris?" asked Hermione excitedly.

"No... that's the thing... when we went to our dormitories last night, we saw John fast asleep. I woke up today and found his bed empty. And he isn't here either," replied Harry and looked around once again to make sure he wasn't sitting somewhere else.

"Where could he possibly be this early?" wondered Hermione aloud.

Just then they heard footsteps heading their way and saw Professor Jane walking towards them.

"Good morning, Mr Potter, Miss Granger," she said the moment she came near them.

"Good morning, Professor Jane," they greeted together.

"I was hoping to find you here early. Could you 2 please come up to my office once you're done with your breakfast? It's about last night," said Professor Jane.

"Sure," replied Harry.

"Thanks," replied Professor Jane and left the pair alone.

"She knows I heard the voice," said Harry the moment Professor Jane left.

"I wonder what the chamber of secrets is," sighed Hermione.

Once they were done eating, they made their way to Professor Jane's office. Harry was half-hoping to find John in there, but unfortunately, he wasn't.

"So, Harry... what happened last night?" asked Professor Jane the moment the pair entered her office.

"When we were coming back from the death day party, I heard that voice again," replied Harry.

"And then what happened?" she asked.

"We followed the sound. I sensed it growing fainter and it sort of moved upwards. That's how we ended up at the second floor," replied Harry.

"And that's when you saw the writing on the wall and Mrs Norris?" she asked.

"Yes, it was already there when we got there," replied Harry.

"Mr Pot... Harry, I know you all didn't do it. No need to get so defensive. I just need to understand the sequence of events," replied Jane.

"Professor? What's the chamber of secrets?" asked Hermione who had remained silent till then.

"I don't know what the chamber of secrets is," replied Jane. Harry and Hermione looked at her in disbelief. They were certain she'd know.

"Professor, what should we do now?" asked Harry after a few seconds.

"I'll talk with Professor McGonagall about this. Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall know about the voices. They will know the best course of action. But Harry, the next time you hear the voices, come to me, or Professor McGonagall. Don't go chasing the voice," replied Jane.

"Ok," replied Harry.

"You may go now," said Jane.

"Professor, do you know where John is?" asked Hermione.

"John... John needs some more time before he can come back," replied Jane.

"But Professor, he already came back, didn't you know?" asked Harry surprised.

"What are you talking about, Harry?" asked Jane, taken aback by the revelation.

"Yeah, he was sleeping in his bed at our dormitory last night. When I woke up today, the bed was empty," replied Harry.

"Oh... then I don't know where he might be," replied Jane. With that Harry and Hermione left Professor Jane's office and returned to the great hall where they found Ron sitting alone. They told him the conversation they had with Professor Jane.

"Whoever the maniac was that did this will be caught soon," sighed Ron. Something in Harry told him that it wasn't going to be as straightforward as that.

Over the following few days, the only thing that was being talked about in the school was Mrs Norris and the incident of Halloween night. But there was another thing that bothered Harry and Hermione. It was the suspicious behaviour of a certain John Smith. On his first day back from suspension, which was a Sunday, he was nowhere to be seen. The first time the pair of them saw him was at dinner that day. He barely spoke to them and just nodded on hearing the events of Halloween night. He looked duller than ever before. In the days that followed, his demeanour during classes was also lacklustre. So much so that he lost Gryffindor 5 points from Snape. The usually chirpy, charming John wasn't the one that had come back to Hogwarts. He remained awfully quiet when they ate together, sometimes he didn't even join the golden trio. They finally had some respite in the Chamber of Secrets front during one of their History of Magic class. They finally learnt about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

"Do you think the chamber really exists?" asked Ron.

"Honestly, I don't know Ron! Somebody definitely thinks so," replied Hermione.

"Who?" asked Ron.

"The one who wrote on the wall, dummy," replied Hermione.

"Dummy? Who're you calling dummy?" raged Ron but went silent immediately after getting a glare from Hermione.

Harry however had another problem to contend with. Students had started running away at the sight of him ever since the attack on Mrs Norris, and rumours had started spreading about how he was the heir of Slytherin. When he mentioned this to Ron, his reply was classic Ron.

"They'll believe anything... You're not the heir of Slytherin mate," said Ron laughing.

Just when they were engrossed in their conversation, they saw a 1st year Ravenclaw girl hand a note to John, who was sitting a few feet away from them.

"Thanks, Luna," said John and gave her a brief smile. The moment he read the note, he got up and walked away.

"He has been acting weird, hasn't he?" asked Ron. Harry and Hermione sat there silently wondering the same.

As of when this chapter gets released, I'm working on Chapter 33 of this story. And my plan is to complete publishing "2nd year" worth of stories by the end of 2021. So, stay tuned!

PS - Liked this chapter? Would you have wanted to see something more? Anything you want to see being written in the future chapters?
Leave your thoughts on these questions and more... Ciao!