OOO

Narcissa brushed the ashes off of her husband when he stepped through the Floo port. Though his brow was furrowed, she still held out hope that the situation might not be totally bleak for Draco.

"What happened with Dumbledore?" She whispered.

"The old fool." Lucius tossed aside his walking stick and shed the light traveling robe he wore. "Says that no matter what he believes, there's nothing he can do to silence gossips."

"Is Draco in any actual trouble?" She pressed.

"Not so far," he sighed, falling down into a chair in front of the fire. "They have no hard evidence against him, only a series of unfortunate coincidences that go against his favor."

"Enough to condemn him in the minds of his peers," she said plaintively.

"But he can't be thrown out. Not yet." Lucius looked up at his wife, furious. "And can you believe that idiotic, Muggle-pandering old fool had the nerve to blame me for Draco's troubles?"

"What?" Narcissa hissed.

"Precisely! He insinuated that Draco might have come into contact with dark objects I was keeping around the house and implied that people would not be so quick to blame him if I had not my reputation! He can't keep control in his own school, could have a monster wandering around the hallways, and he blames me for Draco's predicament!"

"Imbecile!" Narcissa's hands clenched at her sides, but she nevertheless shot a sideways glance at her husband. "Lucius, dear? I do not want to give anything that blathering geriatric says credence, but you don't suppose Draco could have come across anything?"

"Nonsense." He shook his head firmly. "Definitely not. I check the wards every few months and there's no way a wizard of his age could have gotten through any of them."

"How long has it been since you checked?" She rubbed a nervous hand around her wrist. "I'm sorry, Lucius. I do not mean to suggest that we are to blame for this. But if it's even a possibility – I do not want Draco to suffer for a lapse in our judgment."

He looked at her in disbelief for a moment, but then bowed his head in concession. "I must admit, it has been a while. Perhaps I should check to be sure that Draco or Harry didn't stumble upon something or accidentally release anything while they were here. Draco's waves of accidental magic were quite strong when he was a child. It isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, I suppose," he admitted begrudgingly.

"Will it take much time to check them? Is there anything I can do to assist?"

"Since I placed the wards and know where and what kind they are, it will be quickest if I do it. Running a thorough check, perhaps a few days? Not very long, I should think."

"It would set my mind at ease," she confessed.

"Then I shall begin to do so at once."

He began systematically going through the house, starting from the basement and moving up, checking each source and cache in turn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he took his time and made sure to be thorough. The hour grew late but, out of worry for Draco, he insistently rubbed the slpeep out of his eyes and continued on his task. About a fifth of the way through, however, his efforts were brought to an abrupt halt by the appearance of a red-eyed Narcissa, disheveled and in her night clothes.

"Is there something wrong?" He slid a panel of bookshelf back into place after making sure that all of the daggers enclosed behind it were accounted for and untouched.

"Draco," she whispered.

"I have found anything out of place." He rushed over. "Did something else happen? Was another attack blamed on Draco? Has evidence been produced against him?" Then he noticed his wife's eyes were tearing. "Narcissa?"

"It is Draco!" She murmured and the tears spilled over. "Draco was the one attacked!"

"What?" Lucius felt his stomach drop and shook his head. "No, no that cannot be right."

"They found him along with the Diggory boy outside of the greenhouses." She sniffed and daubed her eyes with a handkerchief clenched in one hand.

"Is he dead?" The forced whisper came.

"Only Petrified, thank goodness." She sniffed again then laughed sardonically. "I suppose this will clear him if nothing else. But… oh, Lucius!"

He held her to his chest and rubbed, feeling numb as he did. His son had been attacked, his son had been Petrified, could have been killed…

"Dumbledore will pay with his job," he growled. "I suppose he's been taken to the infirmary?"

"That's what his Head of House said," she replied in a hoarsening voice. "She was the one who contacted us. He was going to serve a detention with her for fighting with the Smith boy and she was the one who found him." Narcissa tried to blink away a fresh round of tears. "She was very complimentary you know, dear. Called Draco a good-hearted boy. "

"As if that will help him now," Lucius muttered, releasing his wife. "I'm not leaving him in that castle for those idiots to watch over him. Whoever did this might come back to finish the job."

"What are you doing to do?" She asked as he pulled a robe on over his suit.

"I'm going to retrieve him and bring him home, that's what," he said, brushing his hair back and grabbing his walking stick. "We will guard him until he can be cured. I can brew a potion as competently as anybody and I'm sure I can find access to the materials needed for the potion much more quickly, with my resources. They're waiting to grow the mandrakes, but I'm not going to have Draco remain Petrified for that long."

"Severus would brew it for you, I'm sure, if you asked," Narcissa suggested.

"Are you saying I'm incompetent?" He snapped at her.

"I'm saying that it's best not to take chances with our son!" She rejoined, furious. "Snape's whole job is brewing potions – it is no slight to you to suggest that he might be better at it!"

His jaw clenched, but again he nodded. "Of course. Of course. For Draco." He swallowed. "I apologize for my outburst. It's only that…"

"I understand," she interrupted, touching his arm. "Now go and get our son back before something worse happens to him."

With a nod, he disappeared into the fire.

OOO

The trick, Theo realized, was to realize that, unlike Unspeakables which were fueled with hatred or Patroni which depended upon joyful memories and positive feelings, emotions did not help in Occlumency; in fact, they were detrimental. Getting mad about his situation, worried about his friends, anguished, furious… they were all 'ins' to his mind. They opened him up and made the whole situation worse. Instead, he had to suppress his emotions, close himself off.

Let everything fall away. Concern, hatred, anger, guilt – everything. He allowed his mind to drift, to go back to an earlier time when it was considered improper to show emotion, before an excitable young boy had coaxed him into wearing his heart on his sleeve. He felt a small burst of panic when he realized where they were going, what they were likely going to do once they go there, but he managed to allow even that to fade.

It didn't need to be long, he thought. Just long enough to try, at least.

OOO

"Theo? What are you doing?" Ginny stopped short when she saw the older Gryffindor kneeling in the middle of the floor, bent over a book with his wand pointed at it. "Did you come to see Harry? And what is that…"

"Ginny!" His head snapped up. "Ginny what are you doing?" His eyes flickered as Luna and Millicent joined her.

"We stopped by to see how Harry was doing when we thought we heard something. I was just going to see Draco…" She shook her head. "what are you doing to that book?"

"You shouldn't have interrupted me!" He burst out, then stood and ran, leaving the book behind in his wake.

"Theo!" Ginny called after him and gave brief chase, but when she rounded the corner couldn't find him. Backtracking, she saw Luna and Millicent had picked up the book and were flipping through its pages. "What is it?"

"I dunno." Milli frowned. "It looks blank inside."

"What do you think Theo was trying to do with it?" Ginny held out her hands and Millicent handed her the volume.

"Destroy it, I think." Luna frowned. "I don't like that book. It has a bad feel to it."

"Luna, it's blank," Milli said.

"Doesn't mean it's not hiding anything." Ginny pulled out her wand, but Millicent grabbed her wrist.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? If there is something wrong with it, we probably shouldn't mess with it," she pointed out. "Maybe we should get a teacher before something goes wrong."

"And tell them what? That Theo dropped a diary we're scared of? They won't pay attention. Even if they do, it might get Theo in trouble if there's something wrong with it. Besides that, we might get in trouble for wandering about this late."

"Theo is still wandering," Luna murmured. "Did you see where he went?"

Ginny shook her head. "He disappeared when I rounded the corner. Something weird is going on and this book might have something to do with it. We need to check it out."

"Well if we're not going to get any teachers," Millicent said, "maybe we should at least sneak in to see Harry again. He at least has some experience with this sort of… thing."

"Alright. We'll take this to Harry."

"We won't have to sneak in if we wait a day or so," Luna said.

"True." Ginny sighed. "Alright, we wait. Luna and I will stash this. Not that we don't think you should have it," she said to Millicent, "but if this is dark then the last place I want it to be is around a bunch of Slytherins. Who knows what might happen if one of them found it and did something with it? Someone like Pansy, I mean."

Millicent nodded. "We'd better head back."

"Keep an eye out for Theo, alright?" Ginny added with a look towards Luna. "Something is out of place." She bit her lip. "You don't think… I mean… not Theo," she whispered.

"His eyes…" Luna murmured. "I feel like there is a shadow moving."

"As soon as possible, then," Millicent said. "Before anything else happens – to Theo or anybody else."

The made their way nervously back to their dormitories, then, and each settled down for a rather fitful night of sleep. When they woke up they made for Harry's room where they might have realized that something did happen, something had gone wrong.

If they had ever reached the room.

OOO

"I can't believe anybody suspected him, even for a minute." Susan looked down into her porridge, and then another wave of tears came. "I knew he didn't do it!"

"I asked him not to hurt me because I was a Muggle-born," Justin muttered miserably. "He sleeps right next to me, I should know him better than that. But with everything that Smith said last year and then the attacks started up this year and everybody was saying it was him… I should have given him a chance," he said in a guilt-laden voice, gathering up his school supplies before leaving the table.

"And Cedric!" Hannah picked apart her buttered toast, tearing it into crumbs without actually eating any of it. "Who would hurt Cedric? He never did anything to anybody!"

"Something is… I don't know! Something is really, really wrong. I mean, everybody was looking at Draco but now that he's gone…" Ernie kept stirring a cup of tea but, like Hannah, didn't actually eat or drink.

"And he isn't even hear, anymore," Hannah whispered.

"What do you mean?" Susan looked over.

"I went up to the infirmary this morning before breakfast to visit him and Cedric, but when I got there only Cedric was sitting in the bed." She fidgeted. "Harry was awake though. He said Draco's father came storming in past midnight, demanding the body of his son. Rumor is that he's gone to the school's Board of Governors, trying to get Dumbledore fired."

The remaining Hufflepuff second years exchanged worried glances.

"What good will sacking Dumbledore do?" Ernie said, disbelieving. "If anything Dumbledore's the only one who might know how to help!"

"Well what good has he done?" Susan shot back. "I mean, I've heard as many bad rumors about Lucius Malfoy as you, especially from my Aunt Amelia. But how many people have been Petrified now? Have they even looked for a Chamber of Secrets? Called in Aurors? Done anything more than let people wag their tongues about Draco and wait for the next attack?"

"So what are we supposed to do in the meanwhile?" Ernie shot back. "Go looking ourselves?"

"We could, you know," Hannah murmured.

"What?" Susan turned to look at her.

"I mean, we don't have much to go on. But we could try to find out something. Maybe look at the place where he was attacked." She snapped her fingers. "And what about the spiders?!"

"What about them?" Ernie still looked confused.

"Draco said that the spiders were behaving strangely the night of the first attack. That they were running away from the castle or something. Maybe the two things were related."

Susan looked at her doubtfully. "A line of spiders and attacks that Petrify? I don't see how they could be related."

"Maybe it isn't obvious. Maybe… we could see where they go. He wanted to see where they were headed, remember? Perhaps we should do the same. I mean, Draco knows more about animals than anybody I know, at least in our year. If they were acting strangely, strange enough to get him interested, then it had to be a sign of something."

For a moment Susan hesitated but then nodded. "Seeing as we don't have anything better to go on and how nobody else is doing anything – we might as well look. I mean, what could go wrong?"

"Depending on where they lead, quite a lot!" Ernie said. "What if they go into the forest? And once we're there, what do you think we're going to find?"

"Then that's where we'll go." Hannah said. "As for what we'll find – who knows? But something would be better than nothing."

"Alright then. We leave this evening." She stood. "I seem to have lost my appetite – but I'd like to see Cedric before class starts. Does anybody else want to go with me?"

"I'll come." Ernie stood immediately.

"I'd like to see him again," Hannah agreed.

The made their way up the winding stairwells, moving quickly so they wouldn't be late for class – though anybody short of Snape, they suspected, would excuse them if they knew where they'd been. Rounding a corner to head up one of the stairwells, however, Susan suddenly tripped and fell over.

"Ow! What did… OH!" She screamed as Hannah and Ernie stepped around and stopped short. Quickly, she clambered off of the pile of bodies she had fallen over, drawing her wand and looking down.

Hannah rushed up to the bodies and gently rolled them over. "It's Ginny, Luna and Millicent!" She looked up at Susan.

"Are they Petrified?" Susan asked, the wand in her hand quivering.

"I don't think so. We need to get a teacher, though," she said, turning to Ernie.

"Right. Be back as fast as I can."

He dashed off down the hall, leaving the girls to nervously guard the bodies.

"Where do you think they were going?" Susan wondered. "And what do you think happened?"

"Maybe to see Draco and Cedric? Or Harry?" Hannah pushed them. "I don't know what happened but… I'm getting really scared, Susan."

"I know." She nodded. "Me too."

"But… but I'm not going to back down, not like the last time," Hannah suddenly, fiercely murmured. "We are going to look for those spiders and figure out what's happening around here!"

Ernie came back moments later, panting, with Professor McGonagall following him. She bent over the girls, studied them for a moment, then pulled out her wand.

"Rennervate," she murmured to each in turn.

Groaning, the girls sat up one by one, rubbing their eyes and shaking their heads.

"What happening?" Ginny asked in a sleepy tone.

"You mean you don't know?" Hannah looked at her. "We found you three in a pile on the steps."

"There's something we were doing," Luna frowned, trying to concentrate.

"Were you going to visit Harry?" Susan suggested.

"That might have been it," the blond admitted. "I can't quite remember, though."

"Do you know who did this to you?" McGonagall asked them in an urgent voice. "Any idea at all?"

"I… I…" Ginny's eyes were wide and she seemed on the verge of saying something, and then shook her head dejectedly. "I don't recall."

"Come then," McGonagall straightened up. "We shall have to see the headmaster about this. Assuming he's still there. You three too," she said, motioning to the Hufflepuffs. "Since you came upon them."

"Assuming he's still there?" Ginny turned to the trio of Badgers. "Why wouldn't he be?"

"You didn't hear?" Hannah asked and all three shook their heads no. "Draco got attacked last night. I went to visit this morning and Harry said his Dad was up at the castle in the middle of the night, storming and vowing that he would have Dumbledore's job for his carelessness."

"Do you think he means it? You think he can do anything about it?" Millicent looked doubtful.

"He is Lucius Malfoy," Luna said. "Which means he will do what he thinks he must although perhaps not what he should." A shadow of a smile crossed her face. "He always has been a bit self-deceiving."

"Something happened to us," Ginny changed the subject in an agitated fashion. "And I can't figure out what it was for anything!" She looked at the others helplessly. "Why can't I think of it?"

"Maybe you were Obliviated," Hannah said nervously. "I mean, that could do it."

"But why though?" Ginny frowned. "That's what I want to know."

"I can't say," Hannah sighed. "Other than it's one more weird thing that's happened. And speaking of which – we're going chasing after spiders tonight. You lot want to come along?"

OOO

A few stories up, Theo walked into the infirmary, earning only a brief glance from Madame Pomfrey, and smiled at Harry.

"Brought you a cinnamon roll," he said. "Figured it might taste better than infirmary food."

"Thanks," Harry said, giving him a reluctant smile.

Theo looked over at the new bed with curtains drawn. "Who's in there? Was there another attack? And where's Dragon? I though he was staying with you while you convalesced."

"It's Cedric," Harry explained in a low voice. "And Dragon… Dragon went with Draco." Harry chewed then went on. "He got attacked last night, outside of the green house. His father came in past midnight and took him home. But… we need to do something about this Nott. Before somebody dies, before something worse happens, we need to do something."

Nott paled.

"Indeed we do," he said, his hand quietly drifting over to his bag, feeling the outline of a book inside of it.

OOO

A/N: Yes, I'm back, having seen several settings (including parts of Wiltshire, Bath where Pansy lives, and various other locales in London) which will probably show up now and again. Settings – now with 10x more realism and accuracy! So more has happened and been revealed and more is to (quickly, hopefully) come.

Hope you enjoyed this latest installment and I promise more soon, with reviews and encouragement much appreciated, as ever. :)