Uh oh, here comes Filch!
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Filch pushed his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell backward, clutching at his face in horror.
"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. Then his eyes fell on Harry, standing just beneath her, trying far too hard to look innocent.
"You!" he screeched shrilly. "You've murdered my cat! You killed her- you... I'll kill you! I'll-"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived, along with several teachers. What they were all doing together, I didn't know. Do teachers have social lives? But now was not the time to be thinking about that.
The headmaster swept past the trio and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket within seconds.
"Come with me, Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."
I tried to protest that surely they hadn't done this, how could they? But the twins held me back as Lockhart offered up the use of his office. He looked far too excited by the whole thing to be honest.
Professor Flitwick then shooed the rest of us off to our dorms.
As badly as I wanted to sneak to the Gryffindor dorms and find out what happened, I had two young housemates who were rightly terrified to comfort. It wasn't until the next morning I was able to corner Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and get some answers.
"She's not dead, only petrified-" Harry began.
"But Filch is convinced it was Harry since he found out he's a Squib-" interrupted Ron.
"Really it's none of our business." Hermione pointed out.
"But the Mandrakes from Herbology will make a cure." Harry finished.
I processed the back and forth for a minute, my neck aching from turning to each speaker rapid fire.
"So it will be fixed, and the culprit caught?" I confirmed.
"Of course." Hermione was quick to reassure, repeating that Dumbledore was the greatest wizard of our time, and he would never let them get away.
I didn't find that as reassuring as Ron and Harry seemed to...
The school gossip chain spoke of little besides the attack for days. It didn't help that Filch paced the wall where Mrs. Norris was found and scowled when his attempts to clean the words off the wall were in vain. When he wasn't there, he was skulking through the halls, trying to inflict detentions on unsuspecting students for things like, 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy'.
Poor Ginny Weasley looked more disturbed than anyone else, although Ron tried to brush it off as her love of cats.
"But you haven't even really got to know Mrs. Norris," he tried to console. "Honestly, we're much better off without her around."
Ginny looked on the verge of tears.
"Stuff like this doesn't happen at Hogwarts." Ron ignored the fact that it already had, trying to be a good big brother and comfort his sister. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have them out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking-" He added hastily when she blanched.
Hermione was also affected by the attack. While it wasn't unusual for the muggle-born to be seen reading, she was now doing almost nothing else! And no one seemed to be able to get a response as to what she was researching until the following Wednesday.
"All the copies of Hogwarts: a History have been taken out, and there's a two week wait list!"
She plopped down beside Harry, Ron, and I as we were finishing up homework.
"I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but with all of Lockhart's books there was no room in my trunk." She moaned.
"Why do you need it?" Harry asked as I pulled out my wand.
"The same reason everyone else wants to read it," she sighed. "To read the entry on the Chamber of Secrets."
I tuned out her short squabble with Ron, who wanted to read off her homework, and concentrated. This was a spell far above my year, but if I could just focus...
"Accio Hogwarts: A History."
Then the bell rang and my concentration broke. We had to head to class.
History of Magic was the dullest subject on our schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was our only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.
Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.
"Miss - er -?"
"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.
Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.
Professor Binns blinked.
"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts , Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk slipping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers-"
He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.
"Miss Grant?"
"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"
Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement, I was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.
"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational , even ludicrous tale-"
But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. He was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.
"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets...
"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."
He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued.
"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."
Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.
"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."
There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.
"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."
Hermione's hand was back in the air.
"Sir - what exactly do you mean by the horror within the Chamber?"
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.
The class exchanged nervous looks.
"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."
"But, sir," said Seamus Finnigan, "if the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"
"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven't found the thing-"
"But, Professor," piped up Parvati Patil, "you'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it-"
"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't , Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore-"
"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't -" began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.
"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history , to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"
And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual stupor.
