The Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch game came up quickly, and the Slytherins were surprised to find themselves on the side of the Hufflepuffs. If Gryffindor won, they might overtake Slytherin and win the Quidditch cup -- an unacceptable outrage, after the way they had snatched away the House Cup the year before.
Beth saw something more unsettling in the situation. One of the Hufflepuff Chasers had been injured, and they were forced to fill the spot with an alternate. They chose Cedric Diggory.
"Unbelievable," sighed Beth, watching the Quidditch teams leave to get ready for the game. "Diggory wasn't even on the team the first half of the year, and now he's a starting player."
"The Transcongus Brew must have worked," said Melissa quietly.
Beth felt a little sick at the thought. She pushed her plate away. "I don't want to see the game," she said unexpectedly. "I don't want to watch Diggory play and I don't want to watch Potter win another game in ten seconds. Let's go see Aaron instead. At least he earned his place on the team."
"But he's still out cold," said Melissa slowly. "Anyway, we're not allowed in the infirmary without permission."
"When's that ever stopped anyone?" asked Beth.
So once the Great Hall had cleared out, they crept up the stairs to the hospital wing and snuck inside. Madame Pomfrey must have been at the Quidditch match; at any rate, she was nowhere in sight. Aaron lay in a bed near the door. He was the only patient that was still breathing; all the rest were the Heir's unmoving victims.
"I can't believe he hasn't woken up yet," said Melissa in a small voice.
They stood there silently, and Aaron did not move. Through his slow breathing they could hear a faint rhythmic tapping, which grew gradually into shuffling footsteps.
Beth looked up fearfully. "Oh no, we'll be caught!"
"Come on, behind the curtain." Melissa grabbed Beth and yanked her closer to the side of the bed before wrenching closed the curtains around Aaron's bed. The footsteps grew louder. Beth held her breath.
Into the infirmary ... up to the curtained bed ... and past. The footsteps went down the length of the room and stopped a few beds away from Aaron's. A grizzled voice let out a long sigh.
"Ah, my dear, still stone. Damn lonely without you."
It was Filch. "Here to see that awful cat," said Melissa, leaning up to the curtains so she could hear better.
Filch went on, speaking more tenderly than Beth had even thought possible. "It's trickier without ye, too. Students skirting about, there's only me now, I'm not the scout that you are. I'm takin' that course like ye wanted. Maybe by the time yer -- cured -- I'll have some magic tricks to show you." There was a short choke that was almost like a sob. "I'll be the best son I can be. Always tried. You know that, mother."
Melissa let out a little hiccup of disbelief. Filch stopped talking abruptly.
"Oh no," Beth said softly.
The curtains were wrenched open and Argus Filch's ugly face loomed between them. Beth and Melissa pulled back a bit. The caretaker gave a snarl.
"Did -- you -- hear?"
"No," said Beth, alarmed, as Melissa blurted, "Hear what?"
Filch's lips contorted in rage -- but just then, the doors to the infirmary burst open and someone backed inside, carrying something in both arms. As he came in, Beth realized that it was Professor Snape -- and then she realized what he was carrying.
"That's Penny Clearwater," Beth breathed.
Snape had the frozen girl by the ankles. At the other end, Riggs supported her under the shoulders. Spotting them, he gasped out, "Give us a hand," before he and Snape laid her on an empty bed.
"Professor, these two were trespassin' --" Filch began, but Professor Snape interrupted sharply:
"Get out of the way, Argus! There's another one coming in."
Professors Sinistra and Vector came in, bearing another stiffened girl between them. They laid her alongside the first.
"Well," said Professor Snape softly, looking down at the Petrified girl, "Miss Granger has finally snooped too far, hasn't she?" Only then did Beth recognize the girl as the second-year who hung out with Potter, who had mixed the Polyjuice potion, who had last year braved the forbidden third-floor corridor.
Melissa stared at the two girls. "Where ... were they?"
"Outside the library," said Riggs. His voice was proud, but Beth saw that his hands were shaking badly. "I found them."
"Good thing that," said Professor Vector briskly. "Otherwise th' other students would ha' come in from the game an' -- woo!" She raised her hands in the air.
Filch tried again. "These two was snoopin' aroun' --"
"Mr. Filch, this is no time for petty accusations," Snape snapped. "Mr. Riggs, take these two back to the common room. The rest of the student body will be joining them shortly, once Professor McGonagall has put a stop to the Quidditch match. I will be along to explain the situation as soon as Headmaster Dumbledore has decided on action to be taken."
Filch's lip twisted into a snarl. Taking their cue, Beth and Melissa hurried out the door, dragging Riggs behind them.
"We were just going to see Aaron," explained Beth, as they went down the hall. "He was there to see his cat, and caught us."
Riggs pursed his lips. "You know the infirmary is off-limits. I'll let you off this time, but --"
"Oh, thanks!" gushed Melissa, and she leaned up and pecked him on the cheek.
Riggs flushed a brilliant red and cleared his throat a lot of times. "Get in there," he said gruffly, when they reached the common room. "I'll be along in a moment. Lapis lazuli," he added, and the door slid open. Beth and Melissa ducked inside, leaving Riggs outside madly polishing his spectacles, his cheeks still a blazing red.
It wasn't long before Riggs came back into the common room, waving his hands for quiet, and described the latest attack. He had to stand on a table to get the attention of the gabbing mob; his hair was a mess and his spectacles were crooked on his long nose. Beth and Melissa knew all about what had happened, of course, but they weren't expecting what would follow.
"Absolutely no one leaves the dormitories after dark, orders from Dumbledore." He was looking right at Richard as he said it. "You're going to be escorted between classes."
Loud complaints rose up; Riggs tried to shout over them. "Prefects and teachers are going to be scouting the halls -- we're all very concerned about your safety and we're all doing the best we can. Please -- just cooperate." Beth was astounded to see that he looked badly shaken, and his voice was little less than frantic. He got down from the table and fought his way back outside.
Melissa turned to Beth. "I still say we're not in danger," she said, although her face was worried. "We're Slytherin's own. He wouldn't attack a Slytherin, or a pureblood. Right?"
"I'm not a pureblood," said Beth dismally.
Melissa had nothing to say to that.
They found Bruce in the back of the room. He looked just as concerned as everyone else. Seeing him, Beth suddenly remembered what they had heard just before the attack. So did Melissa.
"You're never going to believe it!" Melissa bubbled, glancing around secretively. "Mrs. Norris is Filch's mother!"
"Really?"
Melissa nodded in delight. "Gruesome, isn't it?"
Bruce thought about it. "'Spect it was to help him along with the job," he said calmly. "Being a bit disadvantaged, and all."
Beth cocked her head. "Disadvantaged?"
"Yeah, he's a Squib, didn't you know?"
Melissa sniggered, but Beth shook her head. "I don't even know what that means."
"Honestly!" snorted Melissa. "And you call yourself well-traveled. A Squib is somebody born into a wizard family but doesn't have any magic powers, like a backwards mudblood. No offense," she added hastily, at Beth's glare. "Filch's parents must have been wizards, but he's not. Should have known. I bet his mother turned herself into a cat for good to give him a hand with it."
"That must be awful," said Beth thoughtfully. "You wouldn't fit in with Muggles, because you're raised like a wizard, but you don't fit in with wizards since you can't do magic. I don't know what I'd do."
"Well -- you wouldn't have that problem anyway -- one of each for parents --" Melissa said awkwardly.
"I'd run off and change my name," said Bruce. "Start over like a Muggle so nobody'd know I ought to be something else."
"You can take special classes for it," said Melissa. "They have these programs, remedial like. I'll bet that's what Filch meant, that he was taking some class that she wanted him to."
"He sounded really upset," said Beth, and her voice echoed some of the wistful loneliness of Filch as he stared on his near-dead mother. She looked up at the other two. "Let's make this one of those secrets that we don't tell anyone -- okay?"
And although neither Melissa nor Bruce said anything, Beth knew that they would.
Aaron came out of his coma that night -- presumably from all the commotion in the infirmary -- and came downstairs the morning after, his entire right arm in a cast and a shoulder splint. He was greeted first with wild cheers and secondly the story of what he had missed while he was out cold.
"I saw the two before I left," he said solemnly. "You couldn't tell they were alive."
"You looked the same," said Adrian Pucey in a strangled voice.
Just then Professor Snape came to lead them all to breakfast. They arrived to a Great Hall full of chaos.
"What's going on?" said Beth irritably, sitting down. "What's everyone so excited about?"
"Look," said Bruce, pointing to the head table. Professor McGonagall stood in Dumbledore's usual spot, trying to get the attention of the students. Finally she put her fingers in her mouth and let out a piercing whistle. The babbling ceased as everyone turned to look at her.
"Thank you." She surveyed the room grimly. "As many of you already know, our gamekeeper Reubus Hagrid has been taken into custody by the Ministry of Magic for questioning about these attacks." The room erupted into clamor again and she had to struggle for several more minutes to regain their attention. At last silence fell. "Also, Professor Dumbledore has been temporarily removed as headmaster. I will be serving his duties until he returns --" Now she had to shout to make herself heard. " --so it is vital that you obey your heads of house and the new restrictions. It is for the safety of us all." Giving up, she sat back down.
Food appeared on the tables, but no one seemed like they wanted to eat.
"Hagrid!" said Melissa disdainfully. "Of course he's not the Heir! He's not even a Slytherin! Even after --" She broke off with a somewhat guilty look. The news that Hagrid had been blamed fifty years ago had not yet leaked to the student body.
"What about Dumbledore?" demanded Aaron Pucey. "What's he done?"
"Hasn't stopped the attacks," Bruce guessed.
"What rot," Aaron grumbled. "I'd take him over McGonagall any day. She's got it in for us, she has."
"It's about time Dumbledore stepped down," said Draco Malfoy. He had come to sit with Bruce and Aaron; his two hulking friends were nearby. "The Board of Governors knew it, too. My father had to help persuade a few of the old-timers, but in the end they unanimously voted him out." He looked inordinately proud. "Once you've been around too long, you begin to lose your touch, you know."
"But McGonagall," Aaron said painfully, looking over his shoulder at the head table. "Why couldn't it have been Snape? Or one of the Governors? Your father was a Slytherin, he could do it, right, Draco?"
"Why," said Draco Malfoy, smiling broadly, "I suppose he could."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!