Authors note: I struggled with this one so let me know how you think its stacks up.

Chapter 7: Hearing Things

It was as they had feared, Malfoy had clearly complained to Snape and his Father about the slug incident and the very next day Malfoy Senior was seen striding through the halls towards the Headmaster's office. As he was sat at lunch Harry noticed Malfoy's smug look and then with a sinking heart watched Professor McGonagall approaching. He nudged Ron to shut him up, as he was telling the tale of the slug curse to one of the first years.

"Mr Potter and Mr Weasley, could I have a moment of your time?"

They nodded immediately, well aware that they needed McGonagall onside. They rose to follow with Ron casting one last, longing glance at his unfinished sandwich and Harry trying to ignore the self-satisfied smirk on Malfoy's face. Harry was dismayed to find they were not in fact going towards McGonagall's office but rather, it seemed, the Headmaster's. She stopped in front of a stone gargoyle and waited. The boys glanced at each other not sure what they should be expecting to happen when the ugly, stone, guard suddenly hopped to the side and waved them through. Behind where the animated carving had been the wall was splitting in two revealing a moving spiral staircase a bit like an escalator. Professor McGonagall stepped through and glanced back to ensure her students were following before taking the stairs upwards. Harry and Ron immediately followed jumping slightly as they heard the wall seal shut behind them.

"The headmaster had been asked to investigate the incident with Mr Malfoy further," she explained, as the stairs lifted them higher, irritation clear in her clipped tones. "You will need to tell him everything you told me, the other students who were present will also be spoken to."

The Headmaster's office was fascinating, it was full of fantastical objects gently spinning and quietly humming, with swirling colours and mesmerising patterns. Harry would have loved the opportunity to examine a few of them but deemed it unwise to mention it at present, instead he looked towards Professor Dumbledore who was sat patiently behind his desk, apparently waiting for them.

"Mr Potter and Mr Weasley are a good place to start, I'll leave them with you while I find some of the other students." Professor McGonagall nodded encouragingly at them then turned and left leaving them with the headmaster.

"Well now, it seems you have a tale to tell me, though before you begin I feel I should explain that Lucius Malfoy is a Governor at Hogwarts and is under the impression that the incident with young Draco Malfoy has not been handled appropriately. It would seem there are differing accounts of the events floating around, and as is Mr Malfoy's right, he has requested a full investigation into the incident. I will say that I have absolute faith in Professor McGonagall's judgement and I'm sure your account will be most interesting." The headmaster eyes twinkled at them though his glasses.

Harry and Ron told their story as they had with McGonagall, though without the dramatics as they no longer had to appear concerned for Malfoy's health. The Headmaster didn't say a word, he simply listened as Harry and Ron between them reeled off the list of events. They stood silently in front of Dumbledore when they had finished, both fidgeting uncomfortably as they waited for Headmaster to say something.

"As I expected most illuminating." Dumbledore said distractedly as he chose a sweet from a bowl full of colourful confectionary. He offered them both the bowl and Ron a little uncertainly chose an orange sweet while Harry passed. Dumbledore apparently satisfied then sent them on their way without any further explanation.

"What the hell was that about?" said Ron once they were a fair distance from the office.

"Malfoy's causing trouble," replied Harry darkly.

They immediately went looking for Hermione and only found her in the library about an hour later, it seemed they had just missed each other in Dumbledore's office. She too had been required to give her account and reassured them that Dumbledore seemed far more affected by the mudblood insult than the slugs. They had managed to catch up with all of the Gryffindor quidditch team and Colin Creevey by the end of the day all of whom had had similar interviews with the Headmaster. Colin was absolutely buzzing at getting to talk directly to the headmaster and see his office and had taken several photos with Dumbledore's permission of course. The whole school knew there was a drama playing out and there were all sorts of rumours going around, one of the more interesting ones was that the note Flint had used to try and take over the pitch was actually a fake and that they did not have Snape's permission at all. There were also rumours of a rift in Slytherin though they were all being very close lipped about it.

Harry was torn, on one hand he wanted to know as much information as possible so that they could try and plan and react as necessary, but on the other hand he knew how unreliable the Hogwarts rumour mill was having been on the unfortunate end of it before. Fortunately it didn't take long for there to be a resolution. The very next day at breakfast Professor McGonagall let them know that no further action would be taken, though Ron would still have his detentions. They were all relieved of course, but Harry was incredibly curious to know what Malfoy's result was.

"Do you think Malfoy's got in trouble about the mudblood comment?" Harry asked his friends as they made their way back to their dorm

"He better have," said Ron indignantly.

"I don't know how much sway his father has, or even if the Slytherins denied it entirely, or how Snape might go about dealing with his house. We don't know anything about what's gone on really." Harry realised, feeling like he was being left out of the loop as usual.

"Yeah, Snape probably congratulated him or something," said Ron bitterly. "50 points to Slytherin."

"We know they didn't manage to get any of us in any more trouble," said Hermione reasonably.

"Not for lack of trying," Ron muttered.

"If you're that bothered why don't you just ask somebody?" Said Hermione in exasperation.

"What, you want me to just stroll on up to the Slytherin table and be like hey Bullstrode what do you know about Malfoy getting in trouble with Snape? I'm sure that would go down well," Ron scoffed.

"Obviously not Ronald, but we could ask Susan, she's friends with a couple of Slytherins in our year, she might be able to find out."

"And you'd trust something a Slytherin told you." Ron was not convinced.

"Not every Slytherin is a Deatheater or Malfoy," Hermione tried yet again to explain.

"I think it's a good idea," said Harry trying to stop the argument before it went any further, "Where do you think Susan will be about now?" He asked Hermione cluelessly.

"Probably going to her lessons," she rolled her eyes.

"Right," Harry blushed feeling foolish.

"She'll probably be in the Library this afternoon after lessons, I usually see her then."

"OK, we'll speak to Susan then." Harry said decisively.

The day passed with tantalising hints and various distraction in the form of lessons. Harry's distraction in Charms very nearly resulted in him injuring Professor Flitwick. Harry and Ron had been listening in to a conversation between Terry Boot and Michael Corner about the Slytherin quidditch team, they seemed to disagree whether or not Malfoy was on the team. The class were supposed to be practicing the dancing feet charm and Professor Flitwick was stood directly behind the three of them expectantly. Hermione panicking quickly cast a perfect dancing feet charm at Ron, who, taken completely by surprise suddenly found himself jigging about, his feet energetically prancing about carrying him along for the ride. Ron's attention now firmly back on the lesson he tried to cast his own dancing feet charm at Hermione but his feet twisted him away at the last moment and he hit a unsuspecting Harry. Ron's school issued, temporary wand seemed to work sufficiently well for him as Harry found himself leaping around with wild abandon very nearly kicking the tiny Professor in the head. Fortunately Flitwick had excellent reflexes and dived to the ground missing Harrys wayward foot, and continued to roll away as Harry's dancing feet continued to threaten him. Hermione was desperately trying to cast the countercharm but the unpredictable nature of a class full of dancing students made aiming very difficult. It actually became a great lesson in target practice which Harry thoroughly enjoyed, Hermione may be better at the charm in general, but Harry's aim and reactions ensured he was more successful at the countercharm.

Contrary to Harry's usual feelings towards Potions class, he was actually eager to for the lesson. He wanted to see how Snape behaved towards Malfoy. He was not disappointed. The lesson was as awful as usual for him and several of the other Gryffindors. Snape called Neville an imbecile, Hermione was completely ignored and Harry himself lost 20 house points though he couldn't have told you what for, so that was all normal. What was interesting was that Malfoy was not mentioned at all, no house points, or commendations by Snape, no comparisons or compliments, Malfoy was ignored as thoroughly as Hermione. On top of that Malfoy himself didn't say a word when there was a chance of Snape hearing him, he didn't volunteer a single answer, he barely even taunted the Gryffindors. It would seem whatever had been revealed during the investigation had left Malfoy out of favour with his head of house.

The end of the school day did eventually arrive and Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way to the library hoping to find Susan. They sat at one of the larger study table and Hermione immediately took out their History of Magic assignment.

"That's not even due for a week" said Ron appalled.

"Did you have something better to do?" Hermione asked as she watched the two boys sitting doing nothing.

"I swear Binns doesn't even read them," Ron grumbled but both he and Harry took out their parchment and quills.

Hermione left them for a moment as she went and gathered several books that looked like they'd have some information on the Goblin uprising of 1235. She shared them across the table and studiously began seeking out relevant information to include. Harry began a list of facts to include while Ron just jumped right in and wrote down anything vaguely related.

"You can't just copy directly out of the books Ron, that's plagiarism!" Hermione was aghast.

"Why, Binns'll never notice,"

"That's not the point," Hermione was indignant.

"Shh," urged Harry glancing nervously at Madam Pince, "You'll get us kicked out." Harry was thrilled to see Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott enter the library just then as both Ron and Hermione looked ready to battle this one out. "They're here" he said distracting them.

The two Hufflepuff girls noticed them but looked as though they were about to find a different study area. Harry quickly smiled welcomingly at them both which seemed enough for Susan and returning his smile she pulled her friend along to join them. "We don't usually see you in here," Susan said to Harry conversationally.

"We've decided to take a leaf out of Hermione's book and try and get ahead on some of this homework," he looked at his ever growing list of points to include in his essay. "Surprisingly it's proving to be easier to do when you're surrounded by all the information you could ever need. Who'd have thought it," he smiled self-deprecatingly. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and the girls laughed and settled themselves in a couple of spare chairs. They proceeded to chat comfortably as they all worked on the same essay and Harry began to understand how doing homework in a group could actually make it a bit less tedious.

Eventually after Harry felt quite pleased with his finished essay he started to bring the conversation around to the Slytherins. Susan didn't know much beyond the rumours they had all heard. She was under the impression that Malfoy had detentions though she wasn't sure. She did say she would ask Daphne and Tracey when she saw them, they usually met on Wednesdays to work on their charms homework. Hermione quickly stepped on Ron's foot when he opened his mouth to comment, whatever he was about to say would almost certainly not help the situation.

With evening approaching Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to take their things back to their dorm before heading to the Great Hall for tea. They said there goodbyes to Susan and Hannah and began the circuitous walk through the castle to their common room. It was just as they had stepped onto one of the staircases that Harry first heard something out of the ordinary. He stopped and frowned as he tried to make sense of what he thought he'd heard. Ron and Hermione barreled into the back of him confused at his sudden stop.

"Did you hear that?" he asked looking around.

"Hear what?" asked Ron.

"Shh" Harry hissed holding up a hand to his friends and tilting his head as he tried to listen, he thought he'd heard it again, a voice.

Hermione stared at him then closed her eyes as she too tried to hear what Harry apparently heard.

"Rip… Tear… Kill…" a low and dangerous sounding voice reached Harry's ears, but try as he might he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He looked frantically around trying to see who was there.

"Tell me you heard it too," he pleaded with his friends.

"Mate, I can't hear anything" said Ron bewildered.

Harry looked at Hermione in desperation but she shook her head at him.

"Let me taste blood…" Harry shuddered as he heard the voice getting quieter apparently moving away, but he still couldn't tell which way.

"What do you hear Harry?" she asked in confusion.

He tried to explain, the icy, evil voice and the terrible things it was saying. Both Hermione and Ron looked at him disconcerted. Why was he hearing it, or why couldn't they, and which was the correct question? His heart was still racing as the three of them stood in the middle of the staircase.

"It was probably a trick." shrugged Ron it off, "Malfoy getting back at you or something."

"You're the one that cursed him, wouldn't he try and get you not me?" retorted Harry, besides, he thought, the voice had sounded deadly serious, there was nothing joking about it. Hermione placed a hand on his arm reassuringly, he could see she wasn't convinced either.

Ron didn't really have an answer to that. "Do you want to tell someone?" He asked uncertainly.

Harry thought about it for a moment, what would he say? 'I heard a scary voice no-one else can hear' .He tried to imagine Professor McGonagall's reaction, she'd probably believe him but then what, there was nothing to see or do or act on, she'd be concerned maybe even send him to Madam Pomfrey, that was definitely to be avoided. What about Amelia Bones, he considered, again he was sure she'd listen and believe him, but there wasn't enough for an investigation and what could she do from outside the school. Dumbledore? He's probably say something wise and incomprehensible and he'd be even more confused than he was now.

"No. You're right it could be nothing. Let's just get back to the dorm." If anything else happened, he would speak to someone he decided, just not yet, he really didn't want anyone thinking he was hearing voices.