Blooming Flowers
October arrived, bringing with it a damp chill over the grounds and inside the castle. Poppy and Severus were kept busy with colds spreading among the staff and students. Ginny, who had been looking pale, was bullied by her brothers into taking a Pepper Up potion.
Soaking wet and shivering from the heavy cold rain, Ron and Harry returned to the Gryffindor Tower from Quidditch practice. Fred and George had wandered off the moment they entered the castle. Squelching along the deserted corridors, Ron hoped he wouldn't catch a cold, and if he did, was going to sneeze all over Oliver Wood, their Captain.
"I think your brothers would be proud," Harry grinned when Ron told him his plan.
The next day, he got a letter from Fenrir. He always enjoyed getting them. The Alpha was around before he started school, but it wasn't often since the Pack kept him busy. Now he only saw the Wolf on holidays although last summer he didn't see him at all.
He missed Fenrir.
"You should tell him," Draco suggested. They were in the Slytherin Common room, their homework spread out on the largest table. Crookshank laid on someone's parchment, purring contentedly.
Harry and Hermione looked quite comfortable in their pajamas while Ron pressed close to Draco, occasionally glancing at the mermaid that was watching them from one of the windows, her dark hair waving around her head. It had waved back when Hermione waved at her.
The Snape children and Draco had reassured Ron that no one was going to bother him, but that still didn't stop the redhead from being nervous.
Not all Slytherins were tolerant.
"But," Harry bit his bottom lip, "I don't want him to feel guilty, or anything."
"Well, he should," Hermione huffed. "I miss playing with the Pups, and I'm sure Alexander misses the Pack too."
Alexander was the wolf that was currently courting Anne, and staying in the town (though where was a mystery). Hermione and Harry had promised to take Ron and the other Weasleys to see Anne's bookshop one day.
"I doubt they're still Pups," Draco pointed out, poking Ron when the boy started violently at a passing Seventh year.
Ron glared at him before shoving at him a little with his shoulder. Draco grinned and went back to his homework.
"We're still older than them, so they're still Pups," Hermione countered, scratching Crookshank's belly when the cat rolled onto his back.
Draco rolled his eyes, his amused smile slipping when he noticed that Harry was still looking worried.
"You know," he said, "I bet he misses you too, or else he wouldn't be sending letters in the first place, right?"
"….I guess."
Harry did eventually send the letter off.
~.~
Come…come to me…..Let me rip you….Let me tear you…..Let me kill you…..
Harry awoke with a start, heart hammering. "Just a dream," he thought as he tried to get his heart to slow down, "Just a dream"
It didn't feel like a dream and as he calmed down, he noticed that something did not feel right.
Hogwarts was not happy.
It wasn't angry either. The best that Harry could figure out was that it was confused. Just like last year.
Brow furrowing, Harry got out of bed. He stood there with the soft snoring of his roommates the only noise. Finally, he left both room, and tower, not bothering with robe or slippers.
"And where are you going?" The Fat Lady asked, apparently not sleepy despite it being very late.
"Don't know," Harry shrugged.
The Fat Lady hummed. Out of the two Snape children, Harry was more interesting. At least, that's what all the portraits thought. It was the boy's eyes, deep green that sometimes seemed all knowing and gleamed with power.
"Don't get caught," she finally said.
Harry smiled, and walked off. The Fat Lady watched him go, wondering if she should put word out to the other portraits.
~.~
"Hey Hedwig, couldn't sleep?"
Hedwig settled down on Harry's shoulder, chirping softly. Harry smiled before he continued his way down the dark empty halls. So far, he hadn't seen or heard anything odd or out of place. And Hogwarts was now pulsing steadily underneath his feet. Still…..
"You haven't seen anything weird, have you?" Harry asked Hedwig as he rounded a corner.
Hedwig ruffled her feathers.
"Yeah, me neither."
Sighing, Harry continued listening for anything.
"You, young man, should be in bed."
The child stopped, and after a moment, brought up his lit wand to the portrait of one Helga Hufflepuff. The Founding Member was smiling at him, dressed oddly enough in Slytherin colors.
"They were a gift," the woman said correctly reading Harry's slightly puzzled gaze, "from Salazar obviously. Handmade too."
The fact that the supposedly "evil" Founding Member made clothes would have probably thrown anyone for a loop. That is, if they could get past the fact that they were currently talking to the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff.
Anyone wasn't Harry.
"They look comfy," he said.
Hedwig chirped her agreement.
"They are. Godric would never take his off if Rowena didn't make him."
Harry laughed.
Kill….Kill…Rip….Bleed….Break…
"Are you alright, dear?" Helga asked worriedly when the child suddenly stopped laughing and looked around, eyes wide.
"Erm." Harry looked back at her. "You haven't happened to notice anything... weird, have you?"
Helga's first reaction was to deny it. She knew for a fact that whatever was happening in the castle, Severus wanted his children far away from it. So did she as well as the other Founding members. This was their school, and their children after all, even if their abilities were limited.
However, she cannot deny that Harry had been touched by Fate.
It was obvious.
And yet—"He is only a child."
Helga made her decision.
"Speak with your father, he'll have the answers, I'm sure."
Having Harry go to his father meant that Severus would be aware of what his child was doing, which meant the man will, at best, be able to persuade Harry to leave whatever was going on to the professors. At worst, the man would be able to protect him.
~.~
Harry didn't talk to his father right away. He was distracted with avoiding Lockhart, putting up with his... favoritism in class, assignments and Quidditch practice. In fact, he forgot about the voices until one evening where he was rushing to the Halloween feast, and accidentally bumped into another student.
Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw with a quickly growing reputation for being weird. Even weirder then the Snape children although neither they nor their friends had met the girl. They had seen her in class though.
"I'm sorry," Harry apologized, helping her up before picking up the magazine she had dropped when they collided.
"It's fine," Luna said, voice airy like.
Harry opened his mouth again, intent on asking if she was hurt when he heard it.
….rip…tear…kill….
"Erm," Harry said after a long pause, "you wouldn't happened to have heard that, would you?"
Luna's eyes narrowed just so, almost suspicious and a warning, "Like what?"
"A voice?" he tried.
Luna, after a long searching moment, shook her head.
"Whelp, that's not good," Harry thought as he looked around the dimly lit hallway, vaguely aware of Hogwarts shifting to something unhappy.
…soo hungry….for so long…..
His brow furrowed, something was hungry? Luna's watchful expression turned curious. Harry did not notice, focusing on the voice and Hogwarts.
…..kill…time to kill…
The voice was... it sound like it was moving upward, which was impossible unless it was a phantom. Hogwarts was urging him to go.
He ran upstairs and into the entrance hall. Which unfortunately did no good as the roar of voices from the feast echoed from the Great Hall. Huffing in annoyance, Harry tried to listen for the voice again. He heard it, distantly from the floor above.
…..I smell blood…..I smell blood!"
Hogwarts was almost loud now, uncomfortably so. Ignoring it, he ran up the next the flight of stairs to the first floor, hurtled around the whole of the second floor not stopping until he got to a deserted passage. There, he took a moment to catch his breath.
"You are a very fast runner."
Harry jumped and turned. There was Luna. Apparently she had followed him and didn't look as winded as he felt.
"When—"
Luna's eyes flicked to something behind him, and her eyes went big. Curious, and concerned, Harry turned. Something was shining on the wall ahead. After a long moment, both moved forward, squinting in the darkness. Hogwarts's loud 'voice' was now soft but still unhappy.
Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR,
BEWARE.
"There is something hanging underneath," Luna said, bringing Harry from his stunned thoughts.
Harry doesn't move, not really wanting to know, but his morbid curiosity won out. As he stepped closer, he almost slipped. There was a large puddle of water on the floor. After steadying himself, he continued on, leaping back and almost slipping again in the puddle when he realized what it was.
Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.
For a long minute, they didn't move. Then Harry finally stuttered out. "W-We should go get my Dad."
Luna nodded.
However before they could move, there was a rumble from the direction of the Great Hall. The feast had ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people: next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.
The chatter, all noise stopped suddenly as the people finally spotted the hanging cat, and Harry and Luna standing alone in the middle of the corridor. Silence as everyone stared, some moving forward to see the grisly sight.
"Harry?"
Hermione pushed her way through crowd, face curious and a little frightened as she looked between her brother, Luna and the wall.
"What's going on here?"
No doubt attracted by the gathered crowd, Argue Filch came, shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.
"My cat! What happened to my Mrs. Norris?!" he shrieked.
And his eyes landed on Harry.
"You!" he screeched. "You! You murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll—"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived, followed by a number of other teachers, including Severus. In seconds, the Headmaster swept past Harry, and Luna, and detached the cat.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You too, Mr. Snape, Ms. Lovegood."
Lockhart stepped forward, looking inappropriately eager.
"My office is nearest Headmaster, just upstairs, please feel free to use it."
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.
He, Lockhart, Severus, Minerva, Filch and the two children headed for Lockhart's office. Once there, Harry settled next to his father's side. After a moment, Luna stood by him. Severus's eyes roamed for injures and upon not finding any, he told them to go sit while they looked over Mrs. Norris, smoothing out his son's hair in a comforting manner when Harry looked very nervous.
The students went to sit down.
Three of the professors examined the cat, gently prodding and poking, while Lockhart hovered, making suggestions which didn't help but had Filch sobbing. Harry wanted to go over to the man and say something, but he didn't know what. Not to mention he most likely wouldn't be welcomed seeing as how the man thought he had killed his cat.
Finally, Dumbledore straightened up.
"She's not dead, Argus," he said, voice soft.
"Not dead?" choked Filch. "But why's she all—stiff and frozen?"
"She had been Petrified, but how, I cannot say."
"Ask him!" Filch pointed at Harry.
Severus straightened up and his eyes narrowed dangerously
"No second year could have done this," Dumbledore said firmly.
"But he's no normal student, just look at his father! And the words he wrote on the walls! And that girl, she's—"
"Enough." Albus didn't raise his voice but it did the trick, silencing Filch, and most likely saving him, judging from the darkening glare of Severus.
"If I might speak, Headmaster," Minerva spoke up, " but it seems like Mr. Snape, and Ms. Lovegood were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. However," here she paused face twisting as though she wasn't going to like what she said next, "we do have suspicious circumstances. Why were you two not at the Halloween feast?"
"I got side-tracked with some homework, then I owled off a letter back home," Harry explained.
"I had gone to say hello to the moon," Luna said simply.
"Did it say hello back?" Harry asked curiously, "cause if it didn't that would be very rude."
Luna smiled. "It did."
"Good. One time, I saw a mermaid pop its head out from underneath the lake and—"
"Harry," Severus said, voice sounding like one who was used to things going side-tracked.
"Ms. Lovegood, Mr. Snape, this is serious." Minerva scolded lightly, "Now answer the question."
"We know, and we did answer." Harry said.
"Ms. Lovegood did not—"
"It's alright Minerva, tell me, why were you two up at that corridor?" This time Dumbledore asked.
Luna looked at Harry. Harry tried to think of something that didn't end with him saying he was hearing voices, because honestly, the thing he had going with his magic was something he didn't plan on telling Dumbledore or any adult that wasn't family. And he definitely wasn't going to tell them about the voice, only his Dad.
Thankfully, he didn't have to answer, because apparently, Dumbledore decided that they were innocent until proven guilty. They were dismissed, Severus giving his son a look that said they were going to have a talk later, before shutting down Lockhart's suggestion about the man making a Restorative Draught.
"You did not tell them about the voice," Luna said when they had turned into an empty room.
Harry shrugged, "Yeah, well."
A bell chimed somewhere.
"Come on, we better get back to our dorms, Oh! Almost forgot, my name's Harry Snape, and apparently I can hear voices."
Luna stared down at the hand, before taking it into her own, giving the boy an almost shy smile, "Luna Lovegood, nice to meet you."
~.~
Naturally, the students talked about nothing but the writing on the wall, and Filch was... not doing so good. Ginny especially was greatly disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate; apparently she was a cat lover. Hermione had taken to reading more than usual and Harry had the impression that Justin, the boy from Herbology, was avoiding him. On the plus side, upon meeting Luna, Hermione had decided that she was keeping her. Luna seemed happy to be kept.
"Alright, tell me what really happened that night."
Tucked protectively against his father, and taking a sip of his hot chocolate, Harry told his father everything, including the voices.
"So, it doesn't have anything to do with your magic?" Severus asked afterward.
"No," Harry shook his head, "it's different, with magic, it depends. Like with Hogwarts, it's kind of like feelings that I can interpret, or sometimes it's just a tingle. But this is actual words, I can actually hear it... dad, am I crazy?"
He always figured it was just his magic, especially with the way Hogwarts reacted to it, but the way his father was looking right now was making him doubt.
"No," Severus answered firmly, "you aren't."
And apparently that was that on the subject. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't believe him.
There are some scenes taken from the book
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