These chapters have been coming out fairly quickly, so I hope that doesn't affect the quality of the writing! You guys should be glad I procrastinate too much because I have like 4 different summer assignments to do and I've started exactly two of them.

So yeah. Homework is being put off super late. Oh well.

Anyway, glad you all liked the last chapter and Lockhart.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.

The school day started about as usual. Everyone piled downstairs for breakfast. The ceiling was nearly blocked out with owls delivering letters and things left behind in the rush to pack before school began. Schedules were handed out and students groaned as they saw which classes they had first.

Gabriel was just wondering why he was being forced to have Defense second period.

Lockhart was perhaps the most ridiculous teacher they had ever had. Gabriel's only experience came from last year, but he was still unsure how a man like that had gotten hired for the position. There were rumors that the position was cursed, right? Gabriel hoped that if there was one, it would take a hint and knock off the man before too long.

Their first class, which was mixed Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, comprised of a test which was made up entirely of questions like What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? and What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? and continued over three sides of paper until number fifty-four, which was When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?

Gabriel was sure at least ten minutes had gone by before he managed to get his head around the fact that yes, these were legit questions that they were supposed to be answering. He glanced over at Michael, who was already working.

Sighing heavily and internally, Gabriel reached for a quill.

Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color is the same shade of brown as his natural hair color.

His secret ambition is to rule the world via his fervent witch-only army of fans.

His greatest achievement is his ability to utterly bullshit his way through everything.

And so on, until...

His birthday is June 66 and his ideal gift would be some actual talent.

When Lockhart collected the papers, he began going through them at the head of the class immediately. "Tut, tut - nearly none of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac! I say so in - er," By the way his face had adopted a strange expression Gabriel guessed that Lockhart had come to the paper he'd turned in.

Lockhart stuffed the pile out of the way and his beaming smile returned. "Now - be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fear in this room." He bent down behind the desk and pulled out a large, covered cage. "Know that no harm can come to you while I am here! All I ask is that you remain calm."

Gabriel, despite his utter disbelief in the man, found himself curious as to what, exactly, was in the cage. It couldn't be that, dangerous, or else it wouldn't have been allowed in.

His mind provided short flashbacks to the cerberus and the troll.

Okay, so maybe it could be a little dangerous.

"I must ask you not to scream," Lockhart said in a low, theatrically foreboding voice. "It might provoke them."

As everyone held their breath, Lockhart whipped the cover off the cage.

"Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies."

Someone at the front gave a very obvious snort of laughter.

"Yes?" Lockhart asked the student - even he couldn't have mistaken that as a scream of terror.

"Well-" whoever was talking had a very thick Irish accent. "They're not very dangerous, are they?"

"Don't be so sure!" Lockhart wagged a finger in their face, from what Gabriel could see. "Devilishly tricky little blighters!"

Gabriel took a good look at the cage. The pixies were bigger than he might have imagined them being, and electric blue with tiny, pointed faces. Their calls were so shrill it was like listening to a load of broken dog whistles, which made many in the class wince.

"Right then," said Lockhart, and Gabriel suddenly realized what he was going to do right before he did it. "Let's see what you make of them!"

And he threw open the door of the cage.

Gabriel's foresight had given him enough time to shove his things into his bag and as soon as Lockhart turned away to open the door he'd sprinted for the classroom entrance. Even so, he had to surrender his bag to whatever caught hold of it to get out in time, running down the hallways with his robes flapping behind him.

From what he could hear of the classroom behind him, things were not going so well. This was confirmed at lunch afterwards, when a sullen Michael sat down next to him with a ripped sweater and Gabriel's bag as well as nir own.

"Thanks a lot for the warning," was all ne said.

"I have absolutely no regrets," said Gabriel, taking his bag back.

"You could have said something."

"I barely had time to get myself out of there!"

"How'd you know what he was going to do, anyway?"

"He's an idiot who thinks he can defend himself." Gabriel piled some food onto his plate. "Wasn't that big of a stretch."

Michael still looked put out. "Look, what do you want me to do? Fix your sweater?"

"D'you know a spell for that?"

"I do. Hermione showed me."

"Fine."

Gabriel watched as the spell knit the fibers of the sweater back into place. "There, happy?"

"No."

"Oh, come on!"

Gabriel had to spend quite a lot of time dodging Lockhart, who seemed to think that he wanted advice on how to properly be famous. Which he did not. How did Lockhart even have this much free time? Wasn't he a teacher? Didn't he have any other classes to terrorize?

Another person he had to avoid was a Gryffindor first year - C something, Gabriel thought his name was. The boy carried around a camera everywhere and did his best to snap photos of Gabriel, for whom he seemed to have developed some sort of hero-worship.

Gabriel still wondered what 'terrible plot' was supposedly being put in action. Nothing seemed particularly out of place. No one had been attacked yet. The Cerberus was gone [Gabriel had checked]. The only remotely dangerous thing in the school was the Venomous Tentacula in Greenhouse Three.

But Hogwarts being Hogwarts, the giant, mazelike, school of magic that it was, that didn't last long.

It was in late September that the first sign of something wrong made itself apparent. Gabriel was walking with Hermione down a corridor, just chatting about class, and Gabriel was ignoring Hermione ribbing into him about how he hadn't started his Herbology homework yet when something else spoke.

It was an ice-cold voice, with a hint of strangeness about it, like an unfamiliar accent, and if Gabriel had been anything but an archangel he might have been frightened.

Come... come to me... let me rip you... let me tear you...let me kill!

He spun around, trying to figure out where it had come from. Hermione looked at him in bemusement.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

"Didn't you hear that?" Gabriel glanced up at the ceiling. Had it come from the next floor?

"Hear what?"

Gabriel turned to her. "Are you telling me that you didn't hear the incredibly threatening voice talking from right next to us?"

"Harry, no one said anything." Hermione looked worried now. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm..." Utterly bewildered was what he was. Gabriel took one last glance around. Was this related to whatever had been pulling the carriages? He was hearing and seeing all sorts of things that no one else could this year.

"Let's just go," Hermione suggested.

"Sure." Gabriel agreed, eager to leave the corridor behind until he found out more about what had spoken.

Hermione came up to him and Michael during a study period a few days later. October had dawned bright and chilly on the castle, and already warming charms were necessary to get comfortably through the corridors. People were already looking forward to Halloween, and some of the muggleborns were talking about arranging a costume party.

Hermione looked nervous as she walked up. She was holding a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, its worn state indicating that it was from the library.

"Harry..." now she looked distinctly uncomfortable as well. Michael glanced up at her as well, both he and Gabriel curious as to what she was here about.

"I looked up what might be pulling the carriages, based on your description," she told Gabriel, sitting down. "I found this, actually, and I think I might know what it is."

"What?" Michael prompted, as Hermione paused.

"Thestrals," she said. "I asked the groundskeeper, Hagrid, and apparently Hogwarts has got a whole herd of them in the Forest. But, um..." Hermione trailed off, biting her lip.

"Yes?" Gabriel asked.

"They can only be seen by those who have seen death," she blurted out.

Oh.

Now Michael was looking at Gabriel oddly too. Gabriel felt a spasm of irritation - of course he'd sen death, he was at least three millenia old, not to mention meeting the Horseman himself - but that died out when he reminded himself that he was supposed to be twelve.

He affected a solemn look. "Oh."

Obviously no one was willing to ask the question, so Gabriel faked embarrassment and turned back to the homework he'd discarded when he noticed Hermione coming towards them. They remained quiet until the end of the study period, and while it was never brought up in conversation Gabriel spent several days curiously trying to remember when he'd have first been able to see them, before giving up and deciding it must have been sometime before the invention of the calendar.

Gabriel was entering the castle when he encountered Sir Nick. He'd been outside wandering around the edge of the lake - purely in curiosity, as it had occurred to Gabriel that there could be some sort of magical, aquatic life - when torrential downpour had started. He'd barely managed to get inside before it got too heavy, and even so he was soaked and his shoes were caked in mud.

"Oh-" The ghost stopped as he came around the corner, obviously surprised to see Gabriel.

"I don't suppose you remember a cleaning spell from your lifetime," Gabriel said dryly.

"Unfortunately, no," Nick said. He was holding some sort of transparent ghost envelope in his hands. Gabriel wasn't aware that ghosts sent mail.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing and contemplating whether he should really use his Grace to dry himself off.

"Oh? Er, it's nothing." Nick adjusted the collar which hid his nearly-severed neck in place. "Just a bit of correspondence."

"I wasn't aware ghosts could do that." Gabriel gave into temptation and darted a quick look around to make sure no one other than Nick was watching before snapping his fingers. The water evaporated off into a cloud of steam and the mud on his shoes vanished.

"We can," said Nick, watching in fascination, "Though it isn't very common. Takes a lot out of us."

"Who's it from, then?"

Nick went a darker shade of silver. "No one important," he grumbled. "Just that miserable...I mean," He continued louder, unfolding the insubstantial envelope, "You would think, that being hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would make me qualify, but no!"

"Qualify?" The ghosts here had much more interesting...er...afterlives than the ones Gabriel had known of previously. He was sure that the kind he was used to didn't do anything like this.

"For the Headless Hunt!" Nick burst out. "Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my head on but no, that's not good enough for Sir Properly-Decapitated Podmore!"

"For who?"

Nick seemed to suddenly remember who he was talking to. "But I'm sure you're not interested," he said hurriedly. "Didn't mean to unload on you like that. I - I think I'll be going." Nick swept off through a wall.

"Who the hell is named Properly-Decapitated?"

Halloween arrived with a bang. Gabriel made sure to bring his wand to the table, fully aware of the troll disaster of last year. The Hall had been decorated more festively than he imagined, with the candles charmed to light up black and orange, and huge carved pumpkins hovering among them. Live black bats fluttered here and there around the ceiling, and it made Gabriel almost regretful that he hadn't come last year. The candy as well was a huge benefit, and it was a good thing that Hermione was in a different House or she'd have had an aneurysm for sure at how much of it Gabriel ate.

"At least you seem to like Halloween," Michael said, amused at Gabriel's enthusiasm for the treats.

"I like candy," Gabriel corrected nir, grinning around the lollipop in his mouth.

"Doesn't everyone?" Michael retorted, leaning over to grab one for nemself, and Gabriel nodded in agreement and glanced up again as a colony of bats flew overhead, chittering.

Halloween didn't hold a lot of Gabriel's good memories, but it certainly didn't hold any bad ones - he'd sometimes gone out to celebrate the Pagan holiday, picking at whatever the locals left out for those they believed would come by. He hadn't done this often, though - Halloween was a spirit's holiday, not one to honor pagan gods.

"What do you think's going to happen this year?" Gabriel asked Michael over the din of chatter around them."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last year a troll broke in, right? Maybe something happens here every Halloween."

"Let's hope not." Michael said. "I'd hate for this to be interrupted."

"Seconded." Gabriel eyed a platter of Chocolate Frogs.

He had to forcefully remind himself of the possible limits while in his vessel, but Gabriel still stuffed himself on the candy with complete disregard for the food he'd eaten earlier. A sensation in the area of his stomach reminded him that he could still get full, but luckily this was near the end of the feast when everything was petering out and the roar of conversation had dulled to a light murmur.

Walking out of the Great Hall, they had to take the same route as the Slytherins for part of the way. Gabriel flashed a grin at Draco as he passed, who looked startled, and then nearly tripped Gabriel as the entire column of students came to a halt.

"What's going on?" Someone shouted from the back, and Gabriel had to wriggle his way through the crowd to a spot in the front. He stopped behind some third-years, craning over their shoulders to see what was going on and cursing his height - or lack of it.

Something furry-looking was hanging from a torch bracket, but that wasn't what had stopped the students. Most likely it was the message painted just above the bracket in something that looked eerily similar to blood.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

Shit, Gabriel thought to himself. I guess the Halloween bad luck lasted anyway.

He lowered his eyes to the furry thing again and realized what it was. It was the caretaker's cat, Ms. Something, and she was tied by her tail to the bracket with eyes wide at some long-gone horror. She was stiff, as if some taxidermist had come along and decided to practice their skill on her.

No one spoke. Draco and Michael were both standing behind Gabriel, each having pushed their way up to the front as well, but had varying reactions. Michael looked mildly sick, as if ne too had realized what the cat was. Draco looked torn between horror and something akin to delight - Gabriel frowned at him as he noticed this, which made Draco turn away quickly as soon as he realized he was being watched. The Slytherin ducked back through the crowd and vanished among the other students.

"What's going on here?"

Someone called out from behind the students, and Gabriel recognized the voice as belonging to the Headmaster. The students parted before him like the Red Sea to let him and the other teachers through, all of whom froze at the sight which awaited them. In seconds Dumbledore had swept up to the torch bracket and detached the cat.

"Someone alert Mr. Filch," he said quietly, Gabriel just barely picking the words up. Lockhart stepped forward.

"My office is nearest, headmaster," he said eagerly. "Just upstairs - please feel free -"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore, and he and the other teachers walked away again. McGonagall lingered for a moment.

"Continue up to your dorms," she called, her voice echoing around the hallway with the authority of a thousand professors. The students reluctantly started moving again, and as Ravenclaw broke off from Slytherin Gabriel ignored the murmurs and speculations tossed around him and glanced back to try anf get another look at Draco. The strange look in the boy's eyes was bothering him, a little wiggle in the back of his mind that Gabriel couldn't ignore.

Back in the dorms, Gabriel abandoned getting ready for bed in favor of climbing straight in and shutting the curtains around him with a swish in the now-familiar move to gain some privacy in a room shared with three other boys. He sat back against the headboard and wondered if this was what Dobby meant when he talked about 'great danger' at Hogwarts this year.

One thought was running on repeat through his head. What the hell is the chamber of secrets?

Tada! Done for today. I just uploaded three chapters in one day. I should be doing other things. You, my reviewing friends, are very lucky.

Anyway. Read and review please, all that jazz, let's hope I actually get something done tomorrow!