A/N: Oh My Gate, first chapter with the main plot! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own, especially that parts taken directly out of the HP books(Only way to get it work, unfortunetly.)
The rest of the month passed without too much of an incident; Harry and the gang's' first DADA came to mind.
But on Friday as the golden quartet was heading back to the common room from attending Sir Nicholas's Death-day party (something, Danny hadn't enjoyed...how could he have with all those ghosts... and hoped wasn't a tradition in the Ghost Zone), Harry heard a voice.
".. Rip ... tear ... kill ..." , it hissed.
Harry started. "Did any you hear that?" he asked the others.
"Hear what, Harry?" Ron asked.
"That voice!"
"There wasn't any voice, Harry," Hermione told the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I have to agree with Hermione, dude. There wasn't a voice," Danny told his twin.
"So you guys didn't hear anything?" Harry asked.
His friends all shook their heads.
".. Soo hungry ... for so long ... Kill ... Time to kill ..."
Harry stared at his friends.
"You really don't hear that?"
Hermione and Ron looked away awkwardly.
"Well, there was a quiet hiss, but that's probably just a draft or something," Danny told Harry.
Harry puffed up, annoyed, and before anyone could stop him he rushed after the voice.
The trio left behind quickly followed.
They followed him for a good amount of time before he suddenly stopped.
Danny ran up to his seemingly paralyzed brother, then froze himself.
Ron came up behind them, staring at the same sight as the rest of the group.
"Bloody hell, is that ?" he asked.
The incredibly disliked cat was as still as a (non-magical) statue; she was, also, hanging from a torch mount.
Hermione put her hand up to her mouth; her eyes misty.
The hall between them and the cat was flooded, cruelly reflecting the eerie light and the terrifying scene.
Then, most likely due to the Potter/Fowl family's horrible luck, dinner let out, all of the students came through that hall to get to their common rooms.
However, all of the chatter and footsteps stopped in front of the hall, replaced by stares and gasps at the disturbing scene.
Of course, the golden quartet were standing in the middle of the hall, making it look even worse.
As the murmuring started, the four 'suspicious' children noticed the reflecting letters on the wall.
'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE,' it read in all capital letters.
Then someone shouted through the quiet conversations.
"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Draco Malfoy yelled, much to the offense of elder muggleborns.
His face was bright with glee.
Once again, due to his family's curse, Harry's luck turn for the even worse.
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Argus Filch questioned, shouldering his way through the crowd.
However, when he saw his beloved cat, he fell back, clutching at his heart.
"Mrs. Norris! What happened to my cat!?" he exclaimed.
His shocked look quickly turned into a glare directed towards the quartet.
"You! You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll -" he screeched. However, he was interrupted by Dumbledore, who came sweeping through the crowd, along with a small army of teachers, one of whom Ed (who was watching the whole incident) was disappointed to see was Lockhart.
He strolled up to Mrs. Norris, gently taking her off the mount.
"Argus, Mr. Potter, Mr. Fenton, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger, please come with me," he told them.
Lockhart put on his irritating grin, before bouncing forward.
"My office is closest, Headmaster, do feel free to use it," he said, the grin somehow staying the intact while he talked.
The headmaster nodded his thanks before striding towards said teacher's office.
The four students followed closely behind, closely followed by Argus Filch.
As they entered the office Danny and Harry noticed movement on the walls, looking closer the movement turned out to be several dozen pictures of Lockhart all scurrying about.
Danny shivered; it was even creepier than he thought it would be.
The, unfortunately real, Lockhart light the candles, making his grinning face look demented in the light.
Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris down on Lockhart's insanely polished desk carefully examining her.
The quartet were tense, exchanging glances with each other. They were sitting outside of the rage of the candles.
Dumbledore was very close to Mrs. Norris; his long nose no more than an inch away from her fur.
Professor McGonagall was examining her too, though not to the extent the headmaster was.
Professor Snape loomed off to the side; it almost looked like he was trying not to smile.
And the annoying fly that was Lockhart buzzed around their heads, making ridiculous suggestions, such as, "It was definitely a curse that killed her - probably the Transmogrifian Torture. I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter-curse that would have saved her."
Filch was off in the corner sobbing, curled up in a ball in the chair from the desk, unable to look at his cat.
Even though Harry actively disliked the man, he couldn't help but feel sorry.
Danny even went up to comfort the man; the man accepted the comfort.
(Of course, in the back of Harry's head, he wondered if Danny was on every staff's good side.)
Dumbledore had now resorted to muttering strange words and tapping the cat; needless to say it did nothing.
Lockhart made another reference to his books, but no one paid him any heed, other than his portraits
At long last, Dumbledore straightened.
"She's not dead, Argus," he told the man softly.
"Not dead? But why's she all - all stiff and frozen then?" he asked, peeking through his fingers.
"She had been Petrified," Dumbledore explained. An "Of course!" from Lockhart was once again ignored.
"But how, I can not say," Dumbledore continued.
"Ask him!" Filch choked, turning to stare at Harry.
Dumbledore looked at Filch firmly.
"No second-year could have done this Argus," he said. "It would take Dark magic of the most advanced-"
He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his eyes tearing up again.
"You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found - in my office - he knows I'm a - I'm a -" here he
paused.
"He knows I'm a squib!" he finished.
Harry's friends all looked at him; he signaled he'd tell them later.
"But I never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry was uncomfortably aware of the stares, especially the Lockhart portraits. "I don't even know what a squib is!"
"Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "He saw my Kwikspell letter!"
"If I might speak, Headmaster, Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," Snape said as he moved out of the shadows. His sneer, however, informed Harry that he did not fully believe that.
"But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren't they at the Halloween feast?"
"And there's the turn," Harry thought.
The quartet launched into an explanation about the Deathday Party,
"... there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there -"
"But why not join the feast afterwards?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"
Harry's twin and best friends looked at him.
"Because, um, we were tired and wanted to go to sleep." He mental scolded himself for such a bad lie.
"Without any supper?" said Snape, a triumphant smile spreading across his face. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."
"We weren't hungry," Ron said, though any effect it had was ruined by his stomach rumbling.
Snape's grin widened. "I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthfully," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest."
"Now, Severus, I see no reason why the boy can not play Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick after all. And there is no evidence that he has done anything wrong," McGonagall scolded.
Dumbledore gave Harry a searching look, his blue eyes twinkling, making Harry feel as if he was getting an X-ray.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly. Snape looked furious, as did Filch.
"My cat has been Petrified!" the man cried. "I want to see some punishment!"
Dumbledore laid a hand on the caretaker's shoulder.
"We'll be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Madam Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made which will revive Mrs. Norris."
"I'll make it!" Lockhart butted in, offering his own 'expertise.' "I've must have made it a hundred time, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep -"
"Excuse me," Snape said icily, "but, I believe I am the potions master at this school."
There was a very awkward pause, leaving Snape glaring at Lockhart.
Dumbledore turned to the quartet.
"You may go," he said.
The four hurried out of the awkward room.
Guest review corner!
Matt: You are. . .CORRECT! :D She was made using Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler from Doctor Who! Nya~
A/N: So what do you think?
Sorry about all the OCs, but I had to make them, as most of the students in Hogwarts are nameless, not sorted in a confirmed year, have an unknown house, or two of those.
But more importantly, what do you think of Eron? In this incarnation her main purpose is to be another link to Amestris, and someone who can understand Ed. But I want to know if I should down play her or build her up. What do you guys think?