CHAPTER NINE
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
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"Naturally" Harry muttered.
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"He better not have laid a hand on you" Sirius said defensively as he wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders.
"He was stopped in time." Harry said.
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"Good idea." Tonks said. "Do this in private."
"Not so sure." Ron argued remembering how everyone had suddenly become scared of Harry after that night.
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Everyone but Molly, Moody, and Tonks laughed, though Tonks looked as if she was struggling not to at the mental image and Moody was just rolling his eyes.
"Everyone should have been in bed." Molly defended Lockhart.
"Mum. They were PAINTINGS!" Ron reminded her.
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"I hated that cat as much as any student." Snape explained. "Even as a student myself."
Harry held in a laugh at the facial expression on Sirius' face as the godfather realized he actually has something in common with Snape.
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"I knew that no student could have done it." Dumbledore informed Harry.
Ginny shifted uncomfortably. Harry caught her eye and mouthed when he knew nobody else was looking: It wasn't you. It was the basilisk.
She gave him a small semi-reassured smile.
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"Wait. She CAN'T be dead." Remus realized. "She was there just as annoying as ever the next year."
"It's explained." Dumbledore informed the werewolf.
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"Can't tell the difference between alive and dead" Moody muttered under his breath.
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All the wizards snorted.
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"It is difficult to remember that despite being Lily and James' son, that you were raised in the muggle world" McGonagall admitted.
"I'm getting better at it." Harry told her.
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"That's actually sensible Severus." Arthur mused.
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"Yeah. Ron wasn't hungry" Fred joked.
"And we don't like pranks." George added just as sarcastically.
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"What does Quidditch have to do with this?" Charlie asked the Potions Master.
"Yeah." Tonks agreed with her ex-classmate. "Now if the cat was hit over the head with a Nimbus, then maybe."
"I think SOMEONE was still feeling threatened on the Quidditch pitch despite the seven Nimbus 2001s because he knows that a player does not a broomstick make." Sirius said with a smirk in Snape's direction.
"That was one of James' favorite sayings." Remus whispered to Harry.
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Tonks' hair and face went red as she had more or less said what the Transfiguration teacher had said.
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"Did he really just say that with Snape in the room?" Bill asked.
Snape had been recently named a Potions Master when he had been in the third year. Bill knew how proud the Potions teacher was of the title.
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"It was me." Bill confirmed. "During Christmas and Summer, Charlie and I would tell you stories of the castle."
"I would talk Quidditch and teachers, and Bill would talk legends and classes." Charlie added.
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"It's not funny!" Molly scolded her son who was smirking at the memory at Harry's questioning what a squib was.
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"Is it still there?" Tonks asked.
Ginny paled. She had never checked because she avoided that section of the castle at all cost. She would even go the long way around if there was a classroom in the area she needed to get to.
"It is," Dumbledore answered. "But we have it covered by a charmed tapestry."
"How is it charmed?" Hermione asked.
"When a major event happens at Hogwarts, the scene will appear." Dumbledore hinted.
"Like a guy teaching trolls ballet?" Sirius asked confused.
"Ballet is a very complex dance so teaching the trolls from the forest was quite the achievement." Dumbledore confirmed.
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"Not that great." Ginny muttered.
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"Probably shouldn't have said that." Ron said looking back on it now knowing that his sister had been possessed by the maniac so it looked like that she was the one doing it.
"You think?" Hermione asked cuffing him upside the head.
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Sirius glared at Snape.
"I caught him talking in class to Miss. Granger when they were working on a potion." Snape defended.
"I was trying to get an answer from her." Harry argued.
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"That was odd." Tonks mused.
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"Ronald!" Molly scolded.
"I just wanted a hint of what else I could add!" Ron defended.
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"I was a bit preoccupied with the Deathday party." Ron stated before anyone could say anything.
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"So nothing unusual." Fred and George chorused.
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"Someone started snoring?" Bill asked.
"No. That's happened before." Remus said smirking at Sirius.
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"The most attentive class he's ever had" Dumbledore chuckled.
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Sirius sat back having heard the tale before. Both from his father and from James' father so he had two points of views.
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"And a heads up for those who might WANT to help the heir" Sirius added thinking of his father's tale.
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Harry subconsciously placed his hand over his arm where the monster had sunk its fang into him. If that had been no monster, then he was the keeper for the Slytherin team.
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"That's not his name." Tonks said.
"Maybe not, but there was an O'Flaherty in our year." Remus said "Ravenclaw. Seamus must have been sitting where Robert had sat all those years ago."
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"You really should have said something" Ron told his friend.
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"Oh please" Sirius said rolling his eyes. "You're more closely related to Gryffindor than Slytherin."
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. Not heir-related, but I think James said something about the relationship between Gryffindor and the Potters was like 5th or 6th cousins" Sirius explained.
"Legend has it," Dumbledore added. "That the Potters were one of the first families invited to learn at Hogwarts."
"That's interesting." Hermione said. "How come that's not in Hogwarts: A History?"
"It's in the earlier editions" McGonagall answered. "But after the 100th, they took out the family names. Seniority got to be an issue."
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"I wonder what it was" Tonks mused.
"I'm not sure I WANT to know." Remus said thinking of Harry's luck.
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"And the meddling begins." The twins chorused.
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Ginny slapped a hand to her mouth to hide the smirk. She knew what Ron was like around spiders.
Especially as a scene of a five year old Ron standing on a chair screaming like a girl with a wet spot on his pants while she had stomped on the spider to kill it entered her mind.
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"It was accidental and I said I was sorry." Fred stated.
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"That didn't stop you with the troll" Bill told his little brother.
"Well, Hermione was about to be killed by the troll." Ron said. "Nobody was in immediate danger at this point."
"But there was still a danger." Charlie argued.
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"No?" Fred gasped jokingly.
"Really?" George added.
"Don't you two DARE ask for proof." Harry warned.
The twins pouted. Asking was the fun part. Especially seeing whether or not the two younger boys would oblige.
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"That wasn't that helpful." Tonks said with a wince.
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"That was pretty cheerful for Myrtle" Molly mused.
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Everyone laughed as Molly and Hermione blushed.
"They say you marry your mother." Sirius whispered to Ron.
"Sirius!" Ron exclaimed blushing bright red himself.
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"Busted." The twins laughed.
"RON!"
Laughter stopped. If Ron was being singled out, it wouldn't have been one of the random students. More than likely one of the Weasleys. And seeing the clueless look on Ginny's face proving it hadn't been her, and the twins didn't remember confronting Ron, then it could be only one Weasley.
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"That was low." Fred and George said.
"He was just trying to keep Ron out of danger." Molly said.
"No. Ron was right." Ginny said. "Percy spent that year, when he wasn't with Penny, obsessing over keeping me happy, Fred and George in line, and Ron out of trouble. But when you look at it from Ron's point of view… 'Enemies of the Heir' refers to Muggleborns…one of which is Ron's best friend and the other best friend was being suspected. Wouldn't you want to do your part to keep your friends safe be it from the danger of the Chamber or ridicule? Especially after the previous year when those same two friends had been shunned by 75 percent of the school and teased by the other 25 percent?"
Ron blushed at being found out.
"That's the sign of a true friend Ron" Remus praised the teen. "Doing what you can to help your friends."
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"HUH!?" everyone, but the trio asked.
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Ginny nodded subconscious. It had been Lucius who had given her that damned diary.
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"That is a very good question" Snape said eager to hear the trio's plot.
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"How did we not hear of this?" McGonagall asked.
"Because whatever they planned, they managed to keep it quiet." Dumbledore said though he knew what the plan was.
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"How? Sneak there under the invisibility cloak and get him to talk in his sleep?" Sirius asked.
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"That's an advanced potion! Not even NEWT students learn it." Snape exclaimed. "Very dangerous and easy to mess up, which can be catastrophic."
"He got the cat part right" Ron whispered to Harry causing the two teens to laugh and get whacked by Hermione.
Sirius and Remus exchanged clueless expressions.
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Snape glared at Ron.
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"One of the dangers." Snape said. "And it's in the restricted section so you would need a teacher's signature. And even if you had come to me, I wouldn't have signed it."
"Like we were going to go to YOU?" Harry challenged.
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"That answers THAT question" McGonagall muttered.
"What?" Arthur asked.
"It's a little trick amongst the teachers." Flitwick explained. "Not only do students need a teacher's signature to check out a restricted book, but the teacher's subject needs to be involved in the book topic. So a Potions book would require either Snape's, Sprout's, or the Defense Professor's signature."
"And Lockhart will sign anything if it stands still long enough" Snape said.
"Well, that was chapter 9. How about we break for bed?" Molly suggested.
Everyone got up.
"Mr. Potter. Might I have a word with you?" McGonagall said
