Chapter 3: Chamber of Secrets? Never happened….

During that summer, before his second year at Hogwarts, the muggle news was often reporting disasters, murders and tragic accidents. It was like the world had gone crazy. Harry didn't know more than that; he hadn't subscribed to the Daily Prophet. Upon his return to Hogwarts, ready for his 2nd year, Malfoy filled him in. As it turns out, the Daily Prophet reported more than Harry could imagine! These mysterious accidents and murders were the work of a Phantom. Nobody knew who he was, nobody saw anything, no witnesses to any crime, nothing. The Ministry was panicking! An invisible terror was sweeping over the wizarding world and slowly into the muggle world. Many Death Eaters had mysteriously vanished from their cells in Azkaban, no one could explain how or why. The Ministry reported, as it was impossible He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back since he's supposed to be dead, they thought some young, aspiring Dark Wizard tried to follow in his footsteps, like a copycat. No Dark Marks were left hovering over the crimes; that's what made it even harder to link Azkaban breakouts to the crimes. The Ministry advises the wizard population to be extremely cautious and assured them the Phantom would be identified soon.

But Harry, like Malfoy, knew exactly who was behind it all. Malfoy had informed Harry of it at the end of his 1st year when the Philosophers Stone was stolen. Harry was advised to keep it to himself of course, it seems Voldemort had a plan. He wanted the population to be scared, very scared. After all, nothing is scarier than the unknown… He would soon show himself, but now was not the right time…He wanted to play a little first.

One day, over breakfast, Malfoy almost chocked on his eggs while reading the Daily Prophet. It reported that the great Auror Mad-Eye Moody had apprehended someone on a crime scene. The man in question had confessed to most of the crimes committed over the summer and was given a sweet kiss by the Dementors. That man was Peter Pettigrew.

"What an idiot!" mumbled Malfoy. "Got himself caught, that pea-brain…"

"Who is he?" asked Harry looking at the article.

"He was a Death-Eater" replied Malfoy. "Useless piece of shit if you ask me! No wonder he got himself caught! Thank god he didn't say anything…"

Harry took the paper from Malfoy and read the article. He found out that a man named Sirius Black was released that same day, with full apologies. As it turned out, Black was in Azkaban for having killed Pettigrew. Black was also thought to be in Voldemorts' inner circle. Since a lot of Death-Eaters had disappeared, and Black hadn't, the Ministry assumed he wasn't one of them after all. Something wasn't right! Harry felt very uneasy about all this, he had a funny feeling. Did he know this man? Harry was interrupted in his thoughts by Malfoy:

"Christmas isn't for 4 months!" said Malfoy with a grin on his face.

"What?" asked Harry, quite confused.

He pointed towards the Gryffindor table where Harry saw a new redhead. He smiled.

"There's a new Weasley in town!" Malfoy added.

"Don't you have enough of teasing the Weasleys? Surely there's someone else worth picking on!"

Malfoy looked at Harry as if he was crazy.

"Why did I just say that?" He thought. "I'm taking sides with a Weasley! What is wrong with me?"

Yet, for some weird reason, Harry still refused to pick on her, despite Malfoy's constant pleading. He figured it was because she was a girl or because he was getting bored of them Weasleys. He forgot all about the article and went to class.

Since Voldemort was back terrorizing the population, Malfoy's father, Lucius, had not given the diary away but back to his master. Hence the Chamber of Secrets was not opened and Harry's second year at Hogwarts was much like the first. Detentions after detentions, more terror in the corridors, and not much academic effort on his part. Can't say he's going down the right path can we?

Plot unfolding...lol

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