Death is a strange thing. You know it exists, you know it's inevitable, but to see it is nonetheless horrific. That's what I used to think. My first experience witnessing a dead body was certainly scary, but not horrific, especially once the initial surprise of it all had worn off.
Truthfully, as I sat opposite the Headmaster with his eyes red behind his half-moon spectacles, I realised that he was much more shaken and much more upset than I was. I think it's because he knew Filch - no point worrying about calling him "Mister" Filch now, he's not the caretaker anymore after all - whereas I only knew him briefly as someone to avoid at all costs and as an annoying and sometimes worrying roadblock to my mystery's resolution.
Dumbledore sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. I didn't know if he was thinking or trying to pretend this situation hadn't happened. Cedric and I had been in his office for the better part of the night. Aurors - that's wizarding police fellows - were called in, we gave our statements, the petrified body of Fred Weasley and the ghost of the Bloody Baron were moved - though how they moved a ghost was mind-boggling to me - to the Hospital Wing to give Alicia some company.
The Aurors did not know about the voice in the walls. Cedric made a tactical decision to keep that little tidbit to ourselves because he was right, the last think we wanted law enforcement to think was that I was somehow suspicious or off in the middle of a murder investigation. We knew we had to figure this out somehow, but how? Cedric had long since departed for the Common Room, but I was still sat in the Headmaster's office.
My chest twinged and I wrapped my left hand in a fist in my lap. That's two of my friends who had been attacked now and there was nothing I could do about it. Fred should have never been in that situation, I should have listened to Cedric, we should have never split up-
"Don't, Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore.
I looked up. "What?" I paused. "Sir." I added.
"Through my many years and my many failures, I have learnt some hard-won lessons. One of them is this: Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you cannot learn from it, you can only wallow in it. What is done is done, ruminating on it, brings you nothing." He fingered a small candy in a dish on his desk and unconsciously unwrapped it and stuck it in his mouth. He chewed.
"Fred is in the Hospital Wing," I said.
"Where he will make a full recovery in time, I assure you. I cannot sadly say the same for Mr. Filch." Dumbledore sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose. He looked back at me with the expression of a man who was tired, bone tired, but could not help but go on.
"What's going to happen now?" I asked the dreaded question.
"The school will likely close, Mr. Potter."
I sat up at that. That couldn't happen. I had only just found Hogwarts. I had only had the gift of being here for a scant few months. He couldn't take that away from me. He couldn't! "What can we do to stop this?"
"Even if we can somehow convince the Board of Governors to abandon that course of action, it seems inevitable that Hogwarts is not safe for you anymore." He intertwined his hands before his face and regarded me from over them - a hint of steel in his eyes - and I knew, this was a battle I wouldn't win.
But I had to fight nonetheless. "What if I say no?"
He shrugged. "We have the right to remove a student for his or her own safety from school premises."
My breath got stuck in my throat and I could feel moisture welling up in my eyes. They would send me away. They would send me back to the Dursleys. I would never see Hogwarts again. "What can be done to stop them?" I hated the way my voice broke as I asked that question.
The Headmaster, mercifully, pretended not to notice. "Nothing short of catching the perpetrator."
I blinked. "There is a voice, in the walls, that only I can hear."
The Headmaster looked up surprised.
"I first heard it a few days after Halloween when Alicia was attacked. That's what Cedric, Fred and I were looking for…"
And I sang like a canary.
#
Headmaster Dumbledore had addressed the school population at dinner and announced the death - murder - of the caretaker, Argus Filch. Everyone was suitably horrified. Then he announced that the school was being shut down and all hell broke loose.
You couldn't find a single spot to sit anywhere in the Common Room that night. All the students were whispering and talking urgently to one another.
"But what about the OWLs?" Moaned a Fifth Year.
"What about them?" Another snarked back. "A man is dead, I think exam dates should take a backseat."
"Did you hear Fred Weasley was petrified but only Filch died? I reckon it was because Filch was a squib."
"How am I going to fulfil the conditions for my St. Mungo's Apprenticeship without giving my NEWTs?" A Seventh Year exclaimed from somewhere else.
"Merlin, have some bloody respect for the dead, Daniel!" His girlfriend said while smacking him upside the head, her eyes red with tears.
"How can they shut down Hogwarts? Are they mad? Over the death of a squib?"
"He was still a person, Jackie! Don't be rude. Besides, one of us could be next and I rather it not be me."
I closed my eyes to shut out the voices and heaved a deep breath.
"Harry?"
I opened my eyes at the familiar voice and smiled weakly at Cedric. He looked thin and tired like he hadn't slept a wink. I imagined I looked similar. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see Filch's body laid out, resting, on the cold stone floor. I remembered the sound of Cedric screaming and I remembered the terrible fear that gripped me when my eyes travelled to the petrified form of a crouched Fred Weasley right behind the dead caretaker.
"Are you doing alright, Cedric?" I knew he wasn't.
"Yea-yeah. I'm coping." He knew it was a lie.
But these are the games of pleasantries we play.
Cedric sat down beside me on the floor and wrapped his arms around his knees and stared forward with a blank expression. I figured his mind was miles away.
"Dumbledore promised me that nobody would know about our involvement." In the grand scheme of things, I knew Cedric didn't care about that. But I figured I should tell him anyway.
He jerked at that bit of news and looked at me, really looked at me for the first time since that night. He nodded quickly. I was concerned he hadn't heard me at all. It didn't matter.
"Hogwarts is shutting down," he said.
I didn't respond. What was the point?
He chuckled weakly. "I really thought we would go on a grand adventure, you and I." His voice broke a little and he paused, getting himself under control. I gave him the dignity of not looking at him while he did. "I should have figured that it would be…" He trailed off. There was no delicate way of putting it after all.
"I want you to have a good break, Cedric. However long it may last." Winter Hols were being moved up by a few days and all the students would be departing for Hogsmeade station tomorrow after breakfast. I pushed myself up from the floor and dusted myself off.
"Harry-"
"Good night, Cedric."
I walked away without looking back. Two friends. Both attacked. I wouldn't let Cedric be the third. I could feel a sob making its way up from my chest and I ruthlessly pushed it back down. No. This was not the time.
#
Breakfast was a subdued affair that morning. The Headmaster was not present and McGonagall was going to take the lead in shepherding the students on after breakfast. Questions lingered and were whispered among the worried students. When would Hogwarts reopen? How did Filch die? Harry badly wanted to tell them all he knew. But he knew it wouldn't help.
He waited for the sombre meal to end and Professor McGonagall gallantly moved the shuffling students along. I followed from the rear. I watched as a mass of students from all Houses were led to the lake where a team of carriages being pulled by invisible forces stood waiting for them. I carefully dawdled as the students departed and made my way back into the Great Hall and waited.
And waited.
The silence was deafening.
"Mr. Potter." I looked up and saw Professor Flitwick standing at the entrance of the Great Hall. "Please come with me."
I nodded and got up. I joined the Professor in the Entrance Hall as he stood with the other Heads of House, the other teachers were watching - guarding - the students up until the moment they got on the Hogwarts Express with most of them accompanying the students all the way back to London. The quartet of Professors looked at me with various unreadable expressions. None of them said a word, though I knew they had a lot of words to say.
We marched in synchronicity up the Grand Staircase and made our way to the Headmaster's office. I nodded to them and made my way upstairs. They didn't follow. I knocked on the Headmaster's office door at the top of his winding staircase.
"Come in, Mr. Potter," he said.
I turned the door and entered. At this point, none of the various moving instruments even distracted me. Although I noted that many of them were curiously silent.
"Have a seat," he said pointing to the chair in front of his desk.
I did so and placed my hands on my lap in front of me. This was the arrangement we had made. Since I was the only person who could hear this voice, I would be here to help the Professors and Ministry officials track down the monster that killed Filch in a controlled, measured environment with as minimal direct involvement as possible.
"Now Mr. Potter, shortly, various Aurors will be joining us, along with some creature experts. I have already passed on your observations to them and they have been studying the clues. Before they arrive, I would like to conduct a little experiment with you, if I may?" He raised his wand and sat ready.
I nodded.
With a swish and twirl, he conjured a little brown snake onto his table. I leaned back instinctively as the snake wriggled around the Headmaster's desk. I looked at Dumbledore confused and back at the snake.
"What do you want me to do?"
He pointed at the snake. "Can you talk to it?"
I blinked. I had spoken to a snake at the zoo once, so I knew I could do it.
"Hello."
The snaked stopped its wild slithering and turned to me and froze.
"Ssspeaker callsss me."
"Ssstay in that position and don't move."
The snake obeyed without question. I looked up to Dumbledore who was frowning heavily. He nodded as if I confirmed his thoughts.
"You're a parselmouth, Mr. Potter," he said.
The confusion on my face was likely clear.
"A parselmouth is a wizard with the ability to talk to snakes. The founder of Slytherin House, Salazar Slytherin, and all of his descendants were parselmouths, as was Voldemort. His use of that skill is widely documented and he is known to have killed many people with the use of poisonous snakes in his raids. It is widely believed to be the sign of a dark wizard because of that."
I paled at his words and my mouth went dry.
"Not to worry, Mr. Potter. Your secret is safe with me. I suspect that the night you survived The Purge, whatever magic connected you to Voldemort, it may have given you some of his abilities, including this one. However, even with my endorsement, this will be difficult to prove to the wizarding world at large and now, in the wake of two student attacks and the murder of one of our staff members, it would be unhelpful to release this information to the general public."
He paused to take a breath and regard one of his instruments. With a lazy turn of his wand, the stoic snake disappeared off his desk and his fireplace sparked green flames and came to life.
Several men dressed in Auror robes emerged from within. My eye was particularly drawn to a tall black man with a serious demeanour. I was only mildly less terrified of him when he gave a small smile and a wink. His name was Kingsley, as I came to learn.
Leading the charge was a man with more parts missing and replaced than whole. His stringy brown hair was always thrown and in disarray as he turned his head from side-to-side to observe every aspect of his surroundings, with every step his took. A curiously revolving blue eye that could not have been natural peeped out of his right eye socket.
"School's empty?" He asked.
"Yes, Alastor." Dumbledore responded. He turned to me. "Mr. Potter, you will accompany Auror Moody around the castle with his team. I shall join you in some time. I am waiting on the arrival of our dangerous creatures expert. He took an emergency portkey from India and his on his way as swiftly as possible."
I nodded respectfully at the Headmaster and rose to follow the strange Auror and his retinue.
#
Auror Moody tactfully decided that he would lead with me on his own to get some more information from me as we searched. The other Aurors would explore different parts of the castle in smaller teams. They had been given Cedric's description of what a normal wizard would be able to hear in the vicinity of the perpetrator and were using something called supersensory charms on their ears to help them pick up on the sound. I felt guilty for having kept this information to myself for so long because neither Cedric nor I had ever even imagined such a charm existed, let alone considered using it.
"Albus tells me you did some investigative work of your own accord, lad? For some time?" Auror Moody asked me to break up the sound of our footsteps hitting the stone floor of the eerily silent castle.
I gulped. "Yes, sir."
He harrumphed to make his displeasure clear. "Did you discover anything useful during these merry little midnight jaunts?"
My back tensed at his tone and my jaw clenched, but I pushed my anger back down and looked him straight in his magical eye. "Whatever it is, it's large, Fred Weasley and Alicia, if you look at their bodies, they were staring right at the thing in their petrified forms. Also, it can kill and petrify people, including ghosts, without any mess. There was no blood or signs of struggle around Mr. Filch, which means there was no chance for a fight at all. If anything, Mr. Filch looked shocked and that's it."
Auror Moody continued to look at me while his magical eye went round and round in circles. "Hmmm…keen observations. Not terrible for a child. I think we can safely assume that whatever it is, is some kind of large snake then."
My steps faltered at that, but I kept up with Auror Moody and hoped that my fear didn't show too much.
"You have to get better at hiding your reactions, lad," he said. "Not to worry. Albus and I, we have an accord, of sorts. What he tells me, stays with me." He tapped the side of his nose.
I nodded in relief.
"Have you heard of Slytherin's infamous Chamber of Secrets?" Auror Moody asked.
"Can't say I have."
Auror Moody nodded as if expecting this answer. "Legendary secret room that Salazar Slytherin himself left behind when he was banished from the castle for trying to kill muggle-born students, or so the story goes. Records say that he left a monster behind, one to do his bidding and finish his great work of making Hogwarts the finest institution for proper young witches and wizards."
"This pattern of attacks, it's happened before. Fifty years ago, in fact. It was all very hush hush back then. I only know about it because I was a first-year at Hogwarts at the time. Petrified students, fear around the castle. But the perpetrator then had more flair. All around the castle, it would leave signs saying that the 'Heir of Slytherin' is back at Hogwarts and ready to 'cleanse the castle of muggle filth'. Curiously, none of that propaganda and fear-mongering this time. Just attacks."
I stared on wide-eyed. "Did they find out what happened then?"
Auror Moody shook his head in the negative. "A student was implicated. But they could never make the charges stick. The student was housing an illegal creature in the castle, but it was a baby acromantula, a dangerous creature, but not something that had the ability to wreak the havoc of these incidents. They did kick him out of school for good measure. And the attacks did mysteriously stop after that. So nobody looked into it any further."
I didn't know what an acromantula was. Something else to look up alongside supersensory charms once all this was said and done. I was lost in my thoughts and a thought came to me. I remembered studying Greek history back in muggle school and there was a snake-like being that could petrify with just a look.
"Could it be Medusa?" I asked.
Auror Moody looked at me confused when a voice spoke from behind me.
"That's a good guess."
I turned around to see Headmaster Dumbledore walking up with a young, smiling man next to him. The young man came right up to me and folded his arms, his eyes alight in thought. "The pattern of attacks does certainly fit a gorgon to some extent. But gorgons cannot survive in cold temperatures, something you will learn if you continue with Care of Magical Creatures until your NEWTs. A Scottish winter would have flushed a gorgon out faster than you can say 'Quidditch'. I think it's something closer to the snake family than a bastardised humanoid experiment gone bad."
"Any guesses as of yet?" Auror Moody asked.
The young man regarded Auror Moody with a thoughtful expression. "A few, none of them you would like. My leading guess, given the mythology of the Chamber of Secrets that the Headmaster explained to me, is a basilisk."
Auror Moody stepped back and for once, placed both his eyes squarely on the man in front of him without any distractions. "That's a bold claim."
"A man is dead. I think we should consider every option, bold or otherwise."
"You're sure it's a creature?"
"I'm a creature specialist." He shrugged. "The Headmaster is certain it's a creature. If you think it's a person, well, it's certainly not my job to prove that one way or another." He stood with his hands on his waist and mirth in his blue eyes.
"Even if it is creature, someone is controlling it." Auror Moody countered.
The man nodded. "Certainly. But again, that's for you to figure out, not me." He smiled. "I've missed you, Mad-Eye."
Auror Moody rolled his eyes. "One of the best days of my career was when you left the corps. Nobody can convince me otherwise."
The young man chuckled. He turned to look at Harry and bent low. "And you must be the wizard at the centre of it all. It's nice to see you again, Harry. My name is Sirius Black."
He held out a hand for me to shake, which I did.
I liked him already.
11
