Harry stared at the deep, almost blood-red color of the Hogwarts Express, curiously wondering at the decision behind the colour of the train. He realized then that he had never finished reading through Hogwarts, A History last year and wondered if perhaps the answer he sought lay in the renowned text. Harry would have to scamper off to the library first thing tomorrow morning.
As he moved through the cars, his eyes searching through the windows for one person, Harry started to wonder about the choice of the yearly start date. Why September 1st? Why not the first Monday or Tuesday of September? Not that he was complaining of course, seeing as this year's September 1st landed on a Friday, and thus, class wouldn't start until Monday. Professor Snape would have to wait an extra two days before he could resume his deep, dark, brooding stares at Harry… Harry considered being more alarmed over them, but couldn't find it within him to care – especially not after finding out about Snape's active role in keeping that irritatingly persistent dark lord away from him. He recalled the ginger twins bemoaning their shock over that tidbit of information.
Lost in his thoughts, and not for the first time, Harry missed a flurry of movement in one of the compartments and smacked right into the exiting figure.
Harry swore.
Adjusting his glasses, he fixed a cold stare on his face and looked up at the offender. And then blinked in surprise and delight.
"Theo!"
The boy, Theo, also looked back at Harry in delighted surprise.
"Oh, good, I was just leaving to look for you." Harry could feel that oh-so-familiar warm feeling worm its way around his body.
"Convenient… I was looking for you too." And Harry smiled.
Harry also noticed the couple of inches Theo now had on him. He must be one of those 'early bloomers' Petunia was always disparaging in the face of her still rotund, chubby-cheeked son.
"Come. Let's find a compartment.' At Harry's side glance towards the compartment he'd just come out of, Theo replied shortly, 'It's full."
Sensing the boy's aversion to the compartment in question, Harry nodded and gestured for Theo to lead on.
The duo quickly found Harry's favoured Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's. Harry beamed at the chorus of Hi's and Hello's that greeted them at the opening of the door. Squeezing themselves into the already full compartment, Harry settled on the bench next to Dean and Seamus while Theo placed himself between Harry's legs on the floor. Over the long course of the journey, Harry and Theo switched spots frequently to allow an equal share of comfort and discomfort – because that's what friends do – waving away any protests or offerings of switches by the others.
To Harry's utter delight, Theo stayed with the group (with Harry, really) up until the train neared Hogsmeade, where he announced his departure back to his previous compartment to grab his trunk. Harry gave him a more somber smile this time, vowing to have the boy meet him in the library the next day. Parvati nudged Padma at Harry's forlorn gaze out the compartment door, and both girls giggled and waggled their brows at the boy who - still gazing longingly out the door window – failed to notice either of their antics.
Dean, on the other hand, glanced between Harry and the girls questioningly, but went unanswered by both parties. Shrugging, he swiveled back to Seamus who had now stood up to grab his robes.
Harry, happy to not have to travel to the castle via an old, rickety wooden boat, loaded himself and his trunk into a carriage, and squeezed himself against the side to fit himself, Parvati, and Padma on one side with Dean and Seamus on the other. As they neared the castle, Harry couldn't help but recall his awe and mesmerisation at the beauty and grandeur of the place he called home. Because anything was better than the Dursley's at Number 4 Privet Drive.
Although, Hogwarts did have it drawbacks… Ghosts (it was insanely weird for muggle-raised Harry), Peeves the poltergeist (who decided this was a good idea in a castle full of school-children?), moving stairs, the flipping Forbidden Forest (WHO decided THIS was a good idea in a castle FULL of school-children?), not to mention the Whomping Willow – speaking of which, where was Ron Weasley? Harry had not been harassed once by the ginger for the whole train ride up! It was too good to be true.
Oh! And then how could Harry forget about dear old Dark Lord Voldemort!
Harry had asked around… His first year had been the only year to have been disturbed by a dark wizard of any kind since those dark times before his birth. No records of traumatic, dangerous events occurring to any students in the last 10 years at Hogwarts – the library had such a wonderful collection of records if one knew where to look and how to charm Madame Pince. Of course, Harry figured Hogwarts wasn't much of a target for the dark wizard back then. But Harry had overhead talk of his favour for recruiting followers from Slytherin as, supposedly, the "man" had been in the house of snakes – he was even said to be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself! Imagine that…
Harry wondered about the other houses and their descendants – if they had any that is.
When he voiced his thoughts to Theo, the boy joked – though, he would deny it later – that if anyone was a descendant of anyone, it was the Weasley's that were Gryffindor's – what with all their hair and their long history of placements in old Godric's house. Harry had a bit of a laugh at that, more so when he was informed of Gryffindor's long, flaming red hair.
As the weeks strolled on, Harry had ended up having multiple conversations with various school-mates about this very topic – a topic that sparked intrigue and wonder in many of his fellow year-mates, as well as many upper-years. That is until the first petrification incident.
Mrs. Norris, the crazy cat, was found on the second-floor corridor by the Granger girl and Weasley. According to Lavendar Brown, they were arguing – again. Mrs. Norris, Filch's feisty feline mistress, hung on a broken lantern hook by her scraggly tail, soaking wet with her eyes wide open, and frozen solid down to the bone. Or well, petrified down to the bone.
Harry was, understandably, creeped out. As were many Hogwarts students… Many of whom had only heard exaggerated re-telling's of the original situation. Harry had actually caught Seamus spooking the first years with talk of dripping blood and some odd interpretation of the Bloody Baron. Harry did have to give it to him for the dripping blood bit, as that was mostly true. Parvati, who'd heard from Lavendar, who'd overheard Granger confiding in Neville Longbottom about how there had been blood-red writing dripping on the wall next to a hanging Mrs. Norris that read "The Chamber of Secrets is Open / Enemies of the Heir Beware".
As if a hanging, petrified Mrs. Norris wasn't creepy enough!
Frankly, Harry was a bit put-out at the terror that continuously seemed to wrack the school. In a funny way, it made sense when he considered what he'd originally thought about magic and witches. It was turning out to be an annual Halloween nightmare – one that lasted almost 10 months of the year!
Gloomily, Harry wondered if he would still be taken in at Stonewall… But that would mean being back at the Dursley's all year long.
Yeah, nope, Harry would take his chances with Hogwarts. At least if he got petrified, he wouldn't be sent back home! Though, knowing Aunt Petunia, he'd be shoved straight back into the cupboard under the stairs – a frozen boy had no use for a perfectly good bedroom.
So, Harry remained at Hogwarts, shaken and slightly horrified by Mrs. Norris' unfortunate petrification, curious about this "Chamber of Secrets".
He and his fellow classmates got some answers to the many questions that had been bubbling around the castle when Granger (Harry is starting to see why people call her a know-it-all swot) interrupts Binns in History of Magic a couple days after the incident. With the somewhat sparse knowledge he now had on the Founder's, Harry was starting to see the whole anti-Slytherin rhetoric that seemed to consume Hogwarts' community. Tensions seemed to rise between the houses (well, mainly towards Slytherin) following the spread of word that Slytherin's heir had been the one to open this "Chamber". Of course, there was also the fact that nobody, even Dumbledore, knew where the chamber even was. Harry thought that that fact alone was quite terrifying. Even more terrifying was Slytherin's monster – a creature supposedly hiding within the walls of the castle itself, ready to strike at any moment!
Even Theo seemed uneasy and tense at talk of the heir and the monster.
Harry was, quite understandably, on edge these days.
Which is probably why, in a fit of hurry to find a loo, Harry stumbled into the "abandoned" second-floor girls' bathroom, only to find it wasn't quite as abandoned as he'd thought. Moaning Myrtle was the ghost who "haunted" the loo, her name having been inspired by the aggravating wailing she made during most encounters with the living. More importantly, however, was when Harry walked past an overflowing toilet on his way to the sink and noticed a black, bound notebook sticking out of it. Intrigued, Harry yanks it out of the toilet and stuffs it into his robe pocket, musing at the name engraved on the back: T.M. Riddle.
It's later that night, after showing the damp diary to Theo, that they find out about another petrification. Colin Creevey, a first-year Gryffindor, who'd taken to following Harry around, irritatingly star-struck, had been found petrified with his camera in the dead of the night before. The duo had the misfortune of having to listen to Draco Malfoy sneer at the incidents while expressing his desire for Granger (he had actually referred to her as the know-it-all Mudblood, much to Harry's distaste when Theo informed him what the word meant) to be petrified next. Greengrass and Davis had shown up by that point and told the boy to remove himself from their presence if he was going to be so "uncouth" (Harry had to look that up), to which he responded by sneering and storming out of the library. The girls rolled their eyes and settled at his and Theo's table.
Not for the first time that year, Harry questioned whether Hogwarts was worth it.
Wah sorry again for the delay, hope you enjoy this chapter! x