Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.


Chapter 15 – The Voice in the Walls


To say Ron and Hermione were as shocked as Harry that someone was planning for terrible things to happen at Hogwarts this year, and that it was a house-elf, of all beings, that gave the warning, was an understatement.

"But what terrible things?" Ron asked for the third time as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. The three had claimed a compartment to themselves near the back of the train.

"I don't know Ron." Harry ground out, having explained this twice already.

"It must be something really bad though." Hermione said. "For a house-elf to go against their family is no small thing, they're are usually extremely loyal to their masters. I worry about him, what if they find out he betrayed them?" Hermione was almost more concerned about the house-elf then she was about the potential danger awaiting them. She had not taken the existence of house-elves well when she found out about them on a visit to Harry's over the summer. It was slavery, she said, plain and simple, and she had been incensed ever since. Harry tried to explain that house-elves needed to be bonded to a family or they would die. Their magic was different than that of most other magical creatures. Alone a house-elf was nearly powerless, every bit of their magic being used to keep them alive, though even that would eventually fail. Being bonded to a witch or wizard, however, allowed the elf's magic to draw power from their master. This not only kept them alive, but gave them the power to circumvent most spells, including apparating in and out of heavily warded areas, such as Hogwarts. Hermione said she understood all this, and she had no issue with house-elves needing to bond with wizards. Her problem arose from the mentality that because the elves were dependant on wizards it somehow translated to house-elves being required to serve wizards, many of whom abused that power, as was clearly the case with Dobby. Harry had no response to that.

"I'm sure he'll be ok, Hermione." He tried to reassure her. "He seemed like a resourceful elf, and I've got Misty keeping an eye on him." That didn't do much to reassure Hermione, but she let the matter drop. For now, anyways. The train picked up speed as they left London and the trio turned their attention to other matters, knowing that continuing to speculate on the potential terrible things wasn't a good idea. They had been left alone for the most part, a few heads checking to see if the compartment was empty, but no one tried to join them until they were nearly thirty minutes into the journey. The compartment door opened to reveal Ginny, who was lugging her trunk with her and looked quite sheepish, as if sorry to have interrupted them.

"Do you mind if I join you?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah we do." Ron replied rudely. "Go away, Ginny." The twelve-year-old boy clearly didn't want his annoying little sister hanging around, a fact neither Harry nor Hermione understood, having no siblings themselves.

"Ronald!" Hermione hissed, smacking him with the book she'd taken out when they'd stopped talking about Dobby's warning.

"I mean, can't you go sit with your friends?" He tried again while rubbing his arm where Hermione had hit him, even though she hadn't hit him hard enough to actually hurt him. "What about Luna?"

"She's in a compartment that's already full, with her head stuck in the Quibbler. And before you ask, Percy's at a prefects' meeting and Fred and George don't want me around either." She'd gained some annoyance, and even anger, to her voice when talking to her brother, but by the end the shyness had returned.

"Of course you can join us, Ginny." Harry stepped in before Ron could say something else mean. Ginny smiled and thanked him when he came forward to help with her trunk, placing it in the rack above the seats beside his own. Ron didn't look happy but kept his mouth shut with a withering look from Hermione. When she was sure he wasn't going to harass his sister anymore, Hermione returned to her book while the boys began a game of Exploding Snap. Ginny followed their lead and pulled out a book of her own, beginning to write in it.

-H/G-

The first month of school passed by quickly, and with no incidents, though Dobby's warning was still at the forefront of Harry's mind. The most dread Harry could complain about having came from Lockhart, who had proven himself just as incompetent as Harry predicted. The very first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson comprised of a quiz that had questions all about Lockhart himself; Harry couldn't for the life of him think of what use knowing Lockhart's favourite colour could have. Each class after that had Lockhart reading passages from his books and then getting the students to help him act out the most heroic scenes. Even Lockhart's staunchest supporters among the students had to admit he was useless, as a teacher at least, a fact Hermione was quite upset about.

However, no one was more upset than Professor Snape. It was no secret that he wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job and yet every year he was overlooked. So far Dumbledore had been able to find at least semi-competent teachers to fill the post and so Snape hadn't had as much to complain about, but with Lockhart he was on a near rampage, and Harry couldn't really blame him. Dumbledore may have his reasons for not giving Snape the job, but to have been passed over for someone so incompetent was more than Snape could bear, and everyone was made well aware of his displeasure. His classes were more unbearable than usual, the other heads of houses receiving more complaints about Snape's behaviour than ever, and the trio got it twice as worse. The very first week back Snape had resumed their training and had not been impressed that they hadn't spent the entire summer practicing. They had done what they could, but they hadn't wanted to draw attention to their training, and of course they were underage still, so their options were limited. Snape hadn't cared though and had worked them twice as hard, much to their consternation.

It was halfway through October when Dobby's warning was brought crashing back to the forefront of their minds. The trio were walking with their classmates back to the common room after class when suddenly Harry stopped walking.

"Hey!" Dean cried as he crashed into his dormmate.

"Shush!" The group of second years all quieted, though why they didn't know. Ron and Hermione were looking worriedly at Harry as his eyes widened and he took off running.

"Harry!" The second years chased after him, moving down two corridors to one of the main thoroughfares of the castle. The sound of their pounding feet changed to splashing, much to their confusion, though no one stopped to investigate, continuing to follow Harry to a junction of three corridors used my most students several times a day as they moved about the castle. Harry had stopped in the middle and was looking in horror at the wall where bright red letters where written.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir…beware." Hermione read. "It's written in blood." Unfortunately that wasn't the worst sight before them. A few feet away was the true source of Harry's horror: a very stiff and recognizable cat.

"Mrs. Norris." He murmured. Gasps broke out as the other Gryffindors spotted the cat, and more voices quickly joined them as other students began to arrive, on the way back to their own common rooms.

"Enemies of the heir…beware?" A voice Harry knew well spoke. "You'll be next, mudbloods." It was not the first time that Draco had used that word while directing it at Hermione, and while the use of it still enraged him, Harry knew there were more important things than punching Draco right now.

"What's going on there?" The bad news continued as Filch, the last person Harry wanted to see right now, pushed his way forwards. "Potter. What are you-" He stopped as he saw Mrs. Norris, the colour draining from his face. After a moment he turned back to Harry, a crazed look in his eyes. "You've murdered my cat."

"No!"

"I'll kill ya. I'll kill ya!"

"Argus!" Someone must have gone to fetch a teacher for Dumbledore to be here at this time of day, McGonagall, Snape and several other teachers following behind him. "Argus, I-" Dumbledore too stopped as he saw what was before him, though unlike the caretaker his attention was on the message on the wall. "Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately. Everyone except, you three." None of the trio were surprised they were singled out, though this time they weren't involved in what was going on. The students began to file away, prefects calling for students to hurry up, and it wasn't until they were gone that Dumbledore spoke again. "She is not dead, Argus. She has been petrified."

"Ah, thought so!" Lockhart spoke up. "So unlucky I wasn't there. I know exactly the counter-curse that could have spared her." Snape looked murderous when Lockhart spoke and even Dumbledore, who usually was quite indulgent, shot the professor a look to silence him.

"But how she has been petrified I cannot say."

"Ask him!" Filch pointed at Harry. "It's him who's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall."

"It's not true, sir, I swear." Replied Harry. "I never touched Mrs. Norris."

"Rubbish!"

"If I might, Headmaster." Snape speaking up for a student was rare, even more so when it wasn't one of his Slytherins. "But perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"That's right, sir." Hermione agreed. "We were with our classmates heading back to the common room when we found Mrs. Norris." Dumbledore nodded, though the look he sent the three of them said he knew there was more to the story.

"My cat has been petrified." Filch was unable to turn his attention away from his companion, and no one could blame him. Every student in the castle hated both Filch and Mrs. Norris, but none of them would actually want to cause the caretaker the pain of harming his familiar. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus." Dumbledore tried to soothe. "As I understand it, madam Sprout has a very healthy growth of mandrake. When matured a potion will be made which will revive Mrs. Norris." The news didn't calm Filch any and Madam Pomfrey came forwards and forced a calming draught into him. "And in the meantime, I strongly recommend caution…to all." The trio nodded and knowing the dismissal for what it was they took off, though instead of returning to the common room, they went to the empty classroom used for their training.

"What was that?" Ron asked the moment they were safely inside the warded room. "Why'd you take off like that? How'd you know about the message? And Mrs. Norris?"

"I didn't." Harry replied. "I took off because I heard a voice. It was coming from the walls, or the ceiling or something. It said it was going to rip, tear…and kill."

"Kill!?" Harry nodded. "And the voice led you to Mrs. Norris?" Again Harry nodded. None of them knew what to think, but anymore talk was interrupted as the door banged open and Snape entered. The three students looked to him as he stalked forwards, coming to stand before them with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow.


A/N - In celebration of me actually having the brain power and inspiration to write a grand-smacking FIVE chapters in the last two days, here's a chapter much earlier than I anticipated!

Hopefully this will give me a nice little stockpile of chapters so I can keep them coming every week even if I go through another dry patch again.

Review please!