Chapter 8: Deathdays and Petrifications
Harry thought that giving everyone the snouts or noses of their inner animal was their best prank by far. Even the professors had been affected! Dumbledore looked hilarious with the snout of a goat sticking out from his long beard, and Severus' bat nose was slightly disconcerting. However, it appeared that the prank had an unintended side-effect: those with full animal snouts could now only make the noises that their animal could, so the rest of breakfast just sounded like a zoo's animals had been released in the Great Hall. Overall, Harry was happy with his ermine snout, Draco delighted in the forked tongue that his snake mouth provided, Hermione looked ridiculous with a Barn owl's beak, Neville spent breakfast joyously roaring with his lion's muzzle, and the twins looked hilarious with their identical chipmunk cheeks and mouths.
Hogwarts was actually downright peaceful for Harry and his friends with Lockhart unable to go anywhere near Harry, and so September faded into October without issue, causing a damp chill to permeate the castle. Madam Pomfrey was constantly found fussing over the latest cold victim, student or teacher. Neville, who'd gone to the Hospital Wing because Peeves had stuck out a suit of armour's leg and tripped him up, thought seeing Snape in a pile of blankets and with a red nose, trying to bat away Madam Pomfrey's hands as she tucked him in even more, was absolutely hilarious. Luckily, Snape was out of there quickly, since her Pepper-up Potions worked almost instantly, although they left the drinker smoking out of their ears for several hours afterwards. Even Ginny, Luna, and Blaise had managed to get a cold, and the smoke pouring out of the red-headed girl's ears gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.
Hogwarts' grounds were constantly muddy and miserable, but that didn't stop Oliver from summoning his usual fanatic enthusiasm over Quidditch. The Gryffindor Quidditch team members were worked to the maximum extent humanly possible, and always returned to Gryffindor Tower drenched to the skin and splattered with mud.
One stormy Saturday afternoon, during practice, Fred and George reported back to Oliver that an anonymous benefactor ("Ugh, my father's impossible, isn't he?" said Draco) had gifted the whole Slytherin team with Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. The twins, having had turns riding on Harry's and Draco's brooms, knew how good they were, and so had decided that they were all royally screwed.
Once that day's practice, which was even more torturous than usual, was over, Harry, Draco, and the twins made their way up to the Tower, and in a deserted corridor, came across a muttering Nearly Headless Nick. "… don't fulfil their requirements… honestly, half and inch, if that…"
"Hello, Sir Nicholas," said Draco politely.
"Hello, hello," the ghost said, starting and looking at the four bedraggled students. "You four look rather troubled." He folded a transparent letter and tucked it inside his doublet.
"I'd say you look more troubled than we do," remarked Harry.
"Ah," he said, waving an elegant hand, "A matter of no importance… it's not as though I really wanted to join… but apparently even if I wanted to apply, I 'don't fulfil requirements'."
Fred and George shot each other a look at the extremely bitter expression on Nick's face.
"But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted, pulling the letter back out if his doublet, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"
The four boys could see that Nick was extremely passionate about the subject, so to avoid another outburst, Fred stepped in. "Well, what about if you got the Bloody Baron to use his sword to help you? I mean, it wouldn't hurt you, and you've got that ghostly letter, so a ghostly sword might do the trick, right?"
Sir Nicholas opened and closed his mouth like a fish a few times, then a huge grin came to his face. "Oh, yes! That just might work! Thank you, young Weasleys, and you two young Heirs, that'll show that Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore!" He made as if to float off, then quickly turned around and said, "You four, and of course the young Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom, are all invited to my five hundredth Deathday party, on the thirty-first of this month. By the way, you should probably clean yourselves up before Filch finds you. He's got the flu, and some third-years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five, so he's not in a good mood. If he sees you four dripping mud all over the place…"
"Right," said George, pulling his wand out of his sodden robes and cast a quick "Scourgify!" at everyone, and the floor where he could see puddles and mud trails. When that was done, Draco raced off in the direction of the Hospital Wing.
"Where's young Mr Black off to in such a hurry?" asked Sir Nicholas.
"Hospital Wing, probably," said Harry, scribbling a note down on parchment for Filch. "To see if he can't get some Pepper-up for Filch. He likes us a bit, you see."
"Well then, good luck in that endeavour. In the meantime, I must be off, see if the Baron can't help me with my problem," Nick said, and proceeded to float through the floor in front of them.
Just as Draco arrived back at Harry's side, out of breath and clutching a potions vial, there came a high-pitched mewing from the end of the corridor. "Mrs Norris!" called Harry, and she mewed again and trotted closer to the group. "Draco's got a potion for Mr Filch. It'll make him better, and stop him from sniffling. Will you take it, and this note, to him?" he asked, holding the potions vial and the note out to her. She mewed again, and took the two things carefully in her mouth and trotted back to where she came from.
By the time Hallowe'en arrived, Harry was wondering whether he and his friends could somehow go to the feast first, and then head off to the Deathday Party. He was sure that there wouldn't be any food there, or if there were, then it would most likely be inedible. So, he wandered out of the Gryffindor common room about an hour before the Hallowe'en Feast was due to start, and knocked on Professor McGonagall's door. "Enter," came her stern voice.
Harry walked in and took the proffered seat. "Professor, my friends and I were invited to Nearly Headless Nick's five hundredth Deathday Party, and we were wondering if we could maybe have an escort from the feast to the party, and then back after it's finished."
McGonagall's eyebrows were raised high on her brow. "I think I can manage something. How about I escort you there, then an hour later, Professor Snape picks you up. I seem to recall that you are somewhat friendly with him?"
Harry grinned. "Well, Draco's his godson. He only tolerates me."
McGonagall was sporting a smirk. "I suppose that makes sense, Mr Potter-Black. Who is it that Sir Nicholas has invited, exactly?"
"Er… me, Draco, Fred, George, Hermione, and Neville," Harry said.
"Very well. Off you go, back to the Tower, and tell your friends that I expect you all to have finished eating enough in the half-hour between when the feast starts, and when the party starts, which I assume is seven o'clock?"
Harry nodded, and did just that.
The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with long, thin, jet-black tapers, which were all burning with a ghostly blue flame. This served to cast a dim light over the corridor, and the group then started hearing what sounded like lots of fingernails scraping a blackboard.
"Looks like they brought the band," Fred joked quietly, causing the others to giggle. Harry swore he heard McGonagall snort behind them. They came across a doorway hung with thick, black velvet drapes, in which Sir Nicholas floated.
He nodded to McGonagall, then swept off his plumed hat and bowed, saying in a mournful voice, "My dear friends, welcome, welcome… so pleased you could come…"
It was a horribly beautiful sight. Hundreds of translucent people were inside, each glowing with an unearthly pearly-white sheen. Some were conversing in a corner, whereas others were drifting around the dance floor, moving with the dreadful, quavering sound of musical saws coming from the orchestra on a platform.
"Shall we?" asked Draco, sticking out an arm on either side of him, so that both Harry and Hermione were able to take an elbow. Fred and George shrugged, and grabbed an arm of Neville's each, which nearly made him lift off the floor.
"Just make sure not to walk through anyone," Hermione whispered.
They saw all sorts of ghosts; gloomy nuns, the Fat Friar, Hufflepuff's ghost, talking to an arrow-riddled knight; some ghosts even wore chains, including the Bloody Baron, whom all the other ghosts seemed to be avoiding. Draco decided to approach the Bloody Baron. "Good eve, my lord."
The Baron blinked and slowly turned to face the three small students. Harry could see his silver bloodstains flashing in the eery light. "Good eve, child. What brings you three to such an event? Wouldn't you rather be at the Hallows Eve Feast?"
"We just came from there," explained Hermione. "Sir Nicholas invited us, since we helped him solve the problem of how to get accepted by the Headless Hunt. It did work, didn't it?"
"Indeed, it did," his deep voice said. "I was pleased for him, as he had been moaning about it ever since he first took up his post in this castle. This way, my ear does not get nattered off with his complaining."
They went on their way, spotting Fred, George, and Neville doing a ridiculous three-way waltz on the dance floor. The rest of the party was enjoyable, if freezing, however they were all glad to see the form of Professor Snape in the doorway. They made their way through the crowd and greeted him, then followed him back along the blue-lit passageway in the direction of the feast.
However, Harry was stopped short when he heard the same chilling, murderous voice he'd heard before. :… rip… tear… kill…:
He stumbled to a halt, causing Draco, who was right behind him, to stumble as well. "What—"
"It's the voice again! The one from the RoR!"
:… soo hungry… for so long…:
"It's… it's hungry," he said.
Professor Snape asked, "What voice? What's going on, Potter-Black?"
Fred and George whispered short explanations to the Professor, and Harry heard it again, fainter this time. :… kill… time to kill…:
"It's going to kill something!" Harry gasped, and set off at a run, trying to catch up with the voice, which seemed to be moving upwards. He heard the clattering of his friends' and the Professor's feet following him, but he concentrated on the elusive voice as he ran up the nearest marble staircase to the first floor. From the next floor up, he heard, :… I smell blood… I SMELL BLOOD!:
Finally, after having run up another flight of steps and stopping at the entrance to the last, deserted passage of the second floor, Draco and the others caught up with him. "What is going on, Harry?" asked Neville, wiping sweat off his face.
Snape gasped behind them all, and they turned to him to see him staring at something farther down the corridor. As they approached cautiously, they saw something red shining on the wall ahead. Foot high windows had been daubed on the wall between two of the windows. It shimmered in the light cast by the nearby torches.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
"Oh, no!" gasped Hermione. "Mrs Norris!"
There, hanging by her tail from a torch bracket above a large puddle of water, was Mrs Norris. She was stiff as a board, eyes wide and staring. Professor Snape quickly levitated the old cat off the bracket and laid her on the ground to examine her. "Petrified," he muttered to himself.
"It's odd, though," Neville mused. "The Chamber of Secrets is a Slytherin thing, isn't it?"
Draco nodded, then his eyes widened as he understood what Neville was saying. "Enemies of the Heir, as in the Heir of Slytherin." He turned to Harry. "Got anything you need to tell us?"
Harry pushed him lightly on the shoulder. "Only that you're a git. Seriously though, if whoever did this thinks they're the Heir of Slytherin… then they don't know the House has been claimed by me, so… wait. Voldemort wouldn't know that I've taken the Heirship, since I'm going to bet he hasn't had the time to stroll into Gringotts and check up on his savings."
"You're saying he's back in the castle again?" asked Professor Snape, flummoxed at what he was hearing.
Harry nodded grimly. "That would explain the voice!" said George.
"Oh, yeah!" Harry said, slapping his forehead. "Parseltongue!"
"We've got a snake that can Petrify things, and from your actions, Harry, it can also move through walls," said Fred, only half-joking.
"Why can't I just have a normal year at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.