Chapter Ten: The Body Count Rises
The following evening, during study hall, Harry was unable to concentrate on his work. He felt the stares of his classmates on him since yesterday's incident. He was now suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin because he was what they called a "Parselmouth". Not even his friends could cheer him up right now. Having had enough of the piercing stares from his classmates, Harry decided to take his leave, and started packing up his stuff.
"I'll see you back in the common room." he whispered to his Housemates.
Hermione, Ron, Riley, and Tony watched as their friend took off out of the room. Tony cast Riley a look, and the latter nodded, quickly packing up his stuff to take chase. Hermione looked back at Tony, confused.
"What are you two up to now?" she asked.
"We're trying to prove Harry's innocent." replied Tony. "Riley's going to shadow him when he tries to go off alone. It's all I can come up with right now."
"Good idea."
Riley discreetly followed Harry as much as he could down the hallway, ducking against the wall out of sight if Harry should hear his footsteps approaching. However, he was too slow to dodge out of sight again when Harry suddenly turned around to see who was following him.
"Riley?" he called. "What are you doing here?"
"Tony thought that one of us should stay close to you so if there's another attack, we can say you didn't do it." said Riley. "We're sorry. We just wanted to help."
"It's alright. Thanks."
The two Gryffindors started to head up the stairs when they saw Hagrid coming downstairs, with a dead rooster in his hand.
"Hello, Harry, Riley." he greeted.
Riley nodded in acknowledgement, while Harry remained quiet, which caused Hagrid to appear concerned.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Hagrid, what are you doing here?" asked Harry.
"And what's with the dead rooster?" asked Riley.
"Second one killed this term." answered Hagrid. "And I reckon it's either a fox or a blood-sucking bugbear. So I'll just be up at Dumbledore's and get permission to put a little charm around the hen coop."
Riley looked between the limp rooster corpse and Harry, and raised an eyebrow.
"This year just keeps getting stranger and stranger." he stated.
"Tell me about it." nodded Harry.
Hagrid looked closely at the latter, suspicious.
"You sure you're alright?" he asked. "You look awful hot and bothered."
"It's nothing." replied Harry. "Look, I...I better get going. I've got a lot of studying to do."
He quickly moved up the stairs, casting a lasting glance back at Hagrid, before continuing back up. Hagrid looked down at Riley, who hung back for a moment.
"What's eating him, Riley?" he asked.
"People think Harry's the Heir of Slytherin because he's a Parselmouth." explained Riley.
"Codswallop. If Harry was behind that boy and Filch's cat being Petrified, I'll expect to see Filch being nice to these kids."
Riley nodded, and excused himself to follow after Harry. He found his friend walking down the hall, standing against the concrete wall on the side, and hurried after him. Riley knew exactly why Harry was pressing an ear against the wall, and it gave him that awful feeling in the pit of his stomach again.
"The voices." he whispered to his friend. "What are they saying?"
Harry just shushed him, and continued to walk down the hall, straining his ears. He stopped, looking around for a moment, apparently having lost whoever was talking.
"They're gone." he said.
"What did they say?" asked Riley.
"'They all must die'. I think it's going to attack again."
The Gryffindors raced down the hallway, and looked for any sign of the monster. When they turned a corner, they saw the ghost of Sir Nicholas, A.K.A. "Nearly Headless Nick", floating in the middle of the hall. He was frozen stiff with his head hanging off of the edge.
"We're too late." whispered Riley.
He saw Harry staring ahead at something, and followed his gaze. To their horror, Justin Finch-Fletchley laid on the ground nearby the ghost. He was also Petrified. Harry knelt down onto the ground beside Justin, while Riley stood beside him. Unknown to them, a figure stood right behind them.
"Caught in the act." Filch's voice declared.
Startled, Harry and Riley turned around to face him. Filch stood behind the two students, wearing a malicious smile.
"Now, hold on there, Filch,..." Riley started.
Filch wouldn't hear of it.
"I'll have you out this time, Potter." he announced. "Mark my words."
He left Harry and Riley standing there, intending to get a professor for "help", while they tried to plead Harry's innocence. Riley stopped talking and pushed his hair back over his head, sighing heavily.
"Brilliant." he groaned. "And knowing your luck, he'll get Professor Mishap."
Harry wasn't listening. His attention was on the line of spiders heading for the window, across from where he was facing.
"Riley." he called.
Riley turned to face him, and saw what he was looking at.
"Talk about deja vu." he whispered.
Suddenly, the two heard footsteps approaching, and turned to see Filch had returned. This time with Prof. McGonagall. Prof. McGonagall looked between the Petrified ghost and student, then at Harry and Riley.
"Professor,.." Harry started, nervously. "I swear I didn't..."
"We walked down the hall and saw them like this." Riley defended his friend. "I was walking with him back to the common room when we saw-"
"This is out of my hands, boys." Prof. McGonagall told them. "I'll escort you to Prof. Dumbledore, Potter, then I will take Mr. Cross back to the dormitory."
Harry and Riley marched behind their teacher to the headmaster's office. To their surprise, they had stopped at a statue of an eagle inside of tiny room.
"Prof. Dumbledore will be waiting for you." said Prof. McGonagall.
Harry hesitantly stepped inside the room in front of the eagle, and looked at Riley who smiled at him, also nervous.
"Sherbet Lemon." Prof. McGonagall spoke, waving her hands at the statue.
To Riley and Harry's surprise, the statue started to spin clockwise and go up. A staircase formed as it did so, and Harry started climbing the steps quickly. Once he was out of sight, Prof. McGonagall turned to face the remaining student beside her.
"Come along, Cross." she told him.
"Professor, Harry's not going to be expelled, is he?" asked Riley. "I was watching him after we left study hall."
"That will be up to Prof. Dumbledore."
Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Gryffindor students had returned a little while after Riley did, and Riley explained the whole situation to Ron and Hermione. Now the three of them were waiting in the common room for Harry to return. Riley paced back and forth in front of the fire, while Ron and Hermione sat on the couch, with the latter tutoring the former. Finally having had enough, Hermione switched focus back to Riley, her limit reached.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, Riley," she exclaimed, exasperated. "Sit down and read a comic book already!"
"There's no time for reading silly comic books, Hermione." Riley said, looking at her. "Stupid Filch! I was watching Harry the whole time! He didn't do anything!"
"Relax." Ron told him. "Dumbledore's more reasonable and willing to listen to people than Filch is."
At that moment, the portrait swung open and Harry finally appeared. He saw Riley, Ron, and Hermione staring at him, and walked over to join them.
"I suppose Riley's told you what happened?" he asked.
"That Justin and Nick have been Petrified, and Filch tried to get you expelled." Hermione listed, casually.
"If Filch wasn't a Squib, I'd believe he was the Heir of Slytherin." said Ron.
Riley looked at him, confused. So Hermione filled him in.
"Squibs are magic folk who possess no magic abilities like we all do." she explained.
Riley nodded, understanding now. Harry collapsed into a chair next to the sofa, and sighed heavily.
"I don't get it." he said. "How can this thing move around the castle without being seen except by those it Petrifies?"
"When we meet the Heir of Slytherin, we'll ask him that." said Hermione. It's only a couple of more weeks until the Polyjuice Potion is finished."
Riley stood in the forest, and watched as Fluffy charged back towards him and Hagrid, a long thin branch in the dog's center mouth's teeth. The branch dropped to the ground with a loud thud, and Fluffy barked once, excitedly.
"Good boy, Fluffy! Good boy!" Hagrid called up to the tri-headed canine. "Alright, then, throw it." he added, looking at Riley again.
Riley pointed his wand at the branch, and muttered the incantation that he had learned in Charms class last year.
"Wingardium Leviosa." he spoke.
The branch began to levitate into the air, with Fluffy watching it patiently. Once it was high enough, Riley waved his wand again.
"Depulso!" he shouted.
The branch soared through the air with Fluffy taking chase after it, making loud, rumbling footsteps along the way.
"Y'know, this is good practice." said Riley. "I feel some muscle growing on this arm."
"But you'll probably be tuckered out before Fluffy even breaks a sweat." Hagrid pointed out.
Riley couldn't argue with him there. He felt sweat starting to soak his shirt, and his wand arm was starting to tire. Playing with a giant puppy wasn't easy, but then again, nothing at Hogwarts had been easy all year long. Suddenly Hagrid turned around, and patted Riley on the shoulder.
"Who is that?" he asked.
Riley turned to see where he was looking, and saw Luna walking down the trail towards them. She wore a blue sweater and a pair of black pants, and a smile on her face.
"Oh, that's Luna, she's a friend of mine." answered Riley.
Hagrid nodded, knowingly, and gave a soft chuckle.
"Luna, huh?" he asked, slyly. "Well, I think I'll leave the two of you alone."
Riley looked up at him, confused, as Hagrid walked away. Somehow, he had the distinct feeling Hermione's joke-turned-rumor had spread to him as well. He made a note to get Hermione for this. Luna made her way over to Riley, and watched as Hagrid walked away.
"How have you been?" she asked.
"Doing good." replied Riley. "And you?"
"I'm doing very well."
Riley then noticed that Luna was barefooted, and looked up at her, curiously.
"I'm not trying to be rude, but where are your shoes?" he asked.
"Disappeared." replied Luna. "I think the Nargles took them."
"But why? You didn't do anything wrong."
"I told you, they're just mischievous."
Riley nodded, but on the inside, he was still trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. He had never seen or heard of a Nargle before, but from what his dad taught him, just because you've never seen something, didn't mean that it wasn't there. Meanwhile, Fluffy had bounded back towards them with the branch in his middle head's jaws. Surprisingly, Luna was not exactly startled or frightened by the sudden appearance of the three-headed dog.
"Good boy, Fluffy!" called Riley.
"Is this your dog?" asked Luna.
"No, he's Hagrid's. Since Fluffy likes me so much, I get to come out and play fetch with him every now and then. So long as my school work is finished of course."
"He seems very friendly."
"Hagrid did a good job of caring for him. My mom's a veterinarian, she taught me a lot about how to tell if an animal's healthy or sick, how well someone takes care of the animal. See how shiny his coat is? And his eyes are clear, too."
Luna looked at him, impressed at how much her friend knew about animals. At the same time, she looked a little sad. Riley took notice of this, and turned to face her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's nothing. I was thinking about my own mother." Luna replied, honestly.
It hit Riley then what she meant, and he felt a little guilty.
"I'm sorry." he started, quickly. "I didn't know-"
"It's alright." Luna reassured him. "Does it bother you or your friends? Being Muggleborns?"
"No. Malfoy can call us 'Mudbloods' all he wants, but Tony, Hermione, and I, we're here to stay. It's not exactly a matter of pride, but it's more of a 'we came all this way, so we're not gonna give up after all we went through' thing."
Riley's attention was grabbed when Fluffy barked at him. He was wanting to have another go at the branch, so Riley waved his wand and threw it into the air again. Fluffy barked once again and chased after it.
"You're not afraid of it." observed Luna.
"I was a little at first, but I remembered a trick that my mom taught me when I was real little." said Riley. "If you want a dog to trust you, you must hold out your hand for it to smell, but don't shove it into their face or raise it over their heads. Dogs don't like that. When the dog sniffs your hand, they will take that as a sort of sign that they can trust you, and perhaps they will even lick it."
"And so you did that?"
"Yeah, and I was surprised that Fluffy started being nice afterwards. I guess the dogs in the Muggle world and the dogs in the magical world are kinda the same after all. It's the same with people. No matter where you come from, whether you have magic blood or Muggle blood, you're still the same species as them."
"That's a wonderful perspective on it. If only more people thought like that, there wouldn't be as much hate in our worlds."
Sorry about the late update, guys. I've been working for about seven weeks at a daycare, and I barely have time to write anymore with the chores and random added shifts and me having to fix the computer I gave my cousin. I would've updated sooner, but I needed to add another scene with Luna in this fanfic, and I wanted Fluffy to make an appearance again. Thank you guys for the patience.
Disclaimer: I own just the Cross family, and the Gabriels. I don't own the Harry Potter series (books, movies, you get it), or any of the DC comics, books, the Walkman player, any artists or songs that appear in this story. If I did, I'd be richer than Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, the Malfoys, you get it. 'kay? Cool. Catch you later.