I don't own Harry Potter
Chapter 16- Secrets in the open once again
Harry was regretting his decision to go to Nick's death day party. The dungeons were depressing enough, but having them decorated to celebrate a death made it much worse. Plus, the place was absolutely freezing and the rotting food on the table gave off a terrible smell. But Nick had distracted Filch by having Peeves smash a cabinet, so Harry did owe him.
The only one there who seemed to be enjoying himself was Peeves, who delighted in calling Myrtle over after Hermione finished telling Harry, Ron, and Neville how the miserable ghost threw tantrums and flooded the girls' bathroom. Even Nick was having a terrible time, mostly thanks to Sir "Properly Decapitated" -Podmore interrupting his speech and starting a game of head hockey. Finally Harry and his friends couldn't stand it any more and left, hoping they could at least make it to the Halloween feast in time for pudding.
They were at the steps leading to the Entrance Hall, when Harry heard the voice again.
" ... rip ... tear ... kill ..."
Harry hushed his friends and listened, hoping he could pinpoint where the voice was coming from.
" ... soo hungry ... for so long ..."
"Can't you hear that?" Harry asked desperately. The other shook their heads.
"... kill ... time to kill ..."
Harry ran up the stairs following the sound with the other right behind him.
"... I smell blood ... I SMELL BLOOD!"
"It's going to kill someone!" Harry shouted, continuing to run after the voice, which had taken a turn into a passage. And on the wall ahead was a message written in blood.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
And hanging over a pool of water in front of it was Mrs. Norris.
"We should get out of here," Ron said in a frightened whisper, but it was too late. Footsteps were coming down the corridor. Draco Malfoy was looking ecstatic.
"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
Filch was definitely not in as cheerful a mood.
"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked, then turned on Harry. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll -"
Thankfully just then Dumbledore arrived on the scene and told Filch and Harry to come with him. Not so thankfully, the nearest office happened to be Lockhart's. Once inside, Dumbledore carefully examined the cat while Lockhart was going on abut how it was probably the transmogrification torture that killed her. Harry had never heard of such a spell in either his lessons from Remus or in classes, and doubted if such a spell even existed. Even if it did, he doubted Lockhart really knew the counter curse like he said.
It turned out that whatever spell was used on the cat she wasn't dead. Just petrified. Not that that made any difference to Filch.
"I want to see some punishment! He did it. You saw what he wrote on the wall!" He was still pointing at Harry. "He did it because he knows I'm a- a- a squib!"
That brought on a fresh wave of hysterical sobbing from Filch.
"I didn't even know you were a squib until now. And anyway, I never touched Mrs. Norris."
Harry tried to explain that he'd been at the death day party and was about to say how he'd been following the voice when he remembered what Remus had written about the voice, that even in the wizarding world hearing voices wasn't a good sign, so he left that part out, something that didn't escape Snape's notice. Ever since Harry started at Hogwart he'd gotten the impression that Snape could read minds, and now was one of those times he was almost sure of it.
"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," The potions master said. "I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest."
Now that just wasn't fair! Being falsely accused plus not being able to play Quidditch? At least McGonagall agreed. Harry knew she wanted to see the Gryffindor team win as much as he did, and in the end, Dumbledore remained firm that Harry wasn't going to be punished and let Harry go back to the common room.
Over the next few days, all anyone could talk about was Mrs. Norris being petrified and the Chamber of Secrets being opened. Harry remembered reading in Hogwarts: A History that some monster was supposed to live in the chamber and that only the heir of Slytherin could control it.
"Well, we know that leaves you out, " Ron told Harry cheerfully. "After all, you're in Gryffindor."
Harry gulped at that. The sorting hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin at first, but even though he knew his dad and his friends would be there for him no matter which house he was in, Harry had almost begged not to be sorted into the house with the reputation for turning out dark wizards. That train of thought was broken when a group of spiders crossed their oath, hurrying out a crack in the window single file. Ron jumped back and paled.
"Oh come on Ron. I know Fred turned your teddy bear into a spider years ago, but give it a rest already. And after all, you did break his broomstick."
"Still," Hermione put in, "it is odd seeing them act like that."
The talk then turned back to who the heir of Slytherin could possibly be.
"Well let's think," Ron said. "Who do we know who's family has been in Slytherin for generations and thinks muggleborns are scum?"
"Draco." they said together.
"But how are we going to get any information from him?
"Didn't you pay attention when Snape was telling us about Polyjuice potion, Ron?"
"Er-no."
Hermione rolled her eyes and explained how the polygenic potion worked.
"The only problem, other than the fact that we'd be breaking about fifty school rules, is that the recipe is in a book in the restricted section, and we'd need a teacher's permission to get it. We could always say we're just interested in the theory, but what teacher would be thick enough to believe that when we're only second years?"
The boys looked at each other. They could think of one.
"I don't care if we did have to keep Lockhart happy. I wasn't going to act out the part of a werewolf howling and attacking villagers while he throttles me."
"It was just acting, mate," Ron said, although he gave Harry a sympathetic look. He knew, of course, why Harry was sensitive about werewolves. Nobody else was in on the secret, so the rest of the class including Hermione had just thought Harry hadn't wanted to act silly.
"Well, scratch that plan. Hey, hang on a second." Harry disappeared and a moment later he came back grinning.
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
"I just told Lockhart I'd been having a bad day and it would make me feel better if he'd give me an autograph. He didn't look what he was signing, and he'll sign anything that stands still long enough."
Ron laughed, while Hermione shot him a look.
"How exactly did this happen?"
It was the next day, and Harry had won the Quidditch game with what he was told was his best flying yet in spite of breaking his arm. A bludger that had mysteriously kept going after him had smashed into it, and with one bad arm he'd crashed into the ground after catching the snitch. His arm would probably be healed by now if it hadn't been for Lockhart, so now Harry was explaining to Madame Pomfrey why his arm now resembled a rubber glove.
"That git Lockhart insisted on trying to heal it and ended up removing the bones."
"He couldn't even say 'episky' right?"
"That's not even the spell he used."
Muttering about incompetent teachers and dangerous sports, the healer gave him the dose of skele-grow and ordered everyone else out of the room. Harry ended up falling asleep sometime later, and was woken up after a few hours by someone sponging his forehead.
"Dobby! What the-?"
The house elf looked at him with huge, downcast eyes.
"Oh sir. Why didn't Harry Potter-Lupin listen to Dobby? Why didn't he go back home when he missed the train?"
"You knew I missed the train? You didn't stop us from getting through, did you? You did, didn't you!"
"Indeed, yes sir. Dobby had to iron his hands for it. But it would have been worth it, sir. Dobby thought Harry Potter-Lupin would be safe at home. And then Dobby thought his bludger-."
Harry felt sorry for the elf until the meaning of his words sank in.
"Your bludger? So you were the one who tried to kill me!"
"Not kill you, sir. Never kill you. Better to be sent home hurt than to stay here."
Then Dobby went into a speech about how much Voldemort's defeat meant to house elves, and therefore how important Harry was to them, ending by letting it slip that the Chamber had been opened before. As soon as he realized what he said he grabbed the water jug beside Harry's bed and started breaking it over his head shrieking another chorus of "bad Dobby." Before Harry could do anything they both heard footsteps outside, and Dobby disappeared. Harry turned to the door, and watched horrified as a petrified Colin Creevy was brought in.