Sometime in the night, a voice whispered through the walls causing Harry to wake up, looking around he tried to see if someone had snuck in when he felt a wetness on his forehead and so he reached for his glasses. Now that everything wasn't a blur he found that there was a house elf standing at the foot of the cot. It was holding a cloth and looked shameful that it was caught.
Taking a moment to adjust himself in the bed Harry then recognized the elf after a few seconds. "Wait a second, you're the house elf that was taking my mail," Harry angrily said as he made a move to stand but only caused himself to wince from the shift. If his arm didn't feel like it was full of splinters he'd be getting out of the bed to grab the elf but for now he'd just have to glare at the creature.
"Dobby is sorry," the house elf whimpered and retreated. "But Dobby had to do it. Harry Potter must be kept safe."
"What do I need to be kept safe from Dobby?" Harry inquired of the house elf who looked frightened.
"Dobby cannot say, but Dobby must protect Harry Potter," the house elf declared before popping out of the room.
Clenching his unbroken hand Harry exhaled in frustration that the house elf hadn't given him a clue as to what the danger was, if it had he could have owled Tonks.
The sounds of footsteps approaching however made Harry look over as the doors opened and the nurse, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall came rushing in with something floating behind them.
"Here," Poppy said as she motioned to an empty bed. "Place her here."
Pushing off his sheets, Harry got up from the bed to see that it was a student and that they were petrified in the same manner as Mrs. Norris.
"Is that Colleen?" Harry asked which startled the adults that he was even awake. It looked like the first year girl that had a massive crush on him, and while he hoped that over time she'd taper down on her obsession with himself, he didn't like to see that she had been hurt. "Is she alright?"
"Ah Harry," Dumbledore cleared his throat while looking down at the wizard. "No, unfortunately, Ms. Creevey has been petrified. Unharmed but not alright."
Harry looked a bit saddened that the muggleborn girl had been attacked. "Do you think it was a prank?"
"I dare say not, I do not believe one would call this a prank at all," Albus sadly answered as Poppy handed him the girl's camera that she had in her grasp after carefully removing it.
"Maybe she managed a picture of whoever did this?" Minerva nodded to the device, it would certainly speed up the process of ending this incident.
Popping open the back, there was a spark and hiss as smoke billowed out of the back, it was obvious that the film had been destroyed, covering the tracks of whoever the perpetrator was.
"What does it mean Headmaster?" Poppy asked because if anyone could understand what was the cause of all this, it would be Albus Dumbledore.
Albus however closed the latch and set the camera down on the side table next to its owner. "It means that the students are in danger. And the Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again."
Turning to Harry, Albus motioned that he should return to bed. "I will have to make an announcement later."
After being released the next afternoon Harry noticed that the witches in the castle were more skittish than before. He surmised that this was a result of the headmaster making his announcement to the school. It probably didn't help that it wasn't a pet this time, and that if a student could be attacked, they worried who would be next.
So it wasn't entirely out of the ordinary to see large groups of younger students going to classes together or even to see prefects standing at the corners to keep an eye on things.
But Harry was just worried about Colleen, it had been weeks now since she'd been brought into the Hospital Wing and she still was petrified. Harry sighed as he read through more of his books in his dorm room which was becoming quite the retreat from the rest of the castle. Tonks had marked a couple of pages that she thought he might benefit from looking into.
There was a knock on his door and Harry closed his book. "Come in," he called out and was surprised to see that it was Gindrey standing there. "Oh hey Gin," Harry smiled at the other wizard.
Gindrey took a moment to register that he'd just been given a nickname by his idol but after trying to not look like he had a goofy smile on his face he stepped in. "So Harry, um… how's it hang- I mean, you're working on spells, that's cool," the redhead stammered before trying to lean against the wall and missing by a few inches so he stumbled before catching himself.
"I was just finishing up, is there something I can help you with?" Harry inquired as to the reason for the visit. If Gindrey just wanted another wizard to talk to or play games with he was up for that, since Harry figured that approaching the older boys in the school might be a bit intimidating. It was for himself which is why he didn't talk with them all that much last year but they at least got to know each other through Quidditch, which Gindrey didn't really have a chance as there were no vacancies on the Gryffindor team.
"Actually yeah," Gindrey nodded as he came over and sat down on Harry's bed. "Professor Lockhart is going to start a dueling club for students to better learn to protect themselves and I was hoping you might want to do a bit of practice before then."
"Sure, we can do that, plenty of space in here," motioning to the still mostly empty room. Having his bed to a far wall and not having a lot of belongings left him a very large space that would likely have been taken up by beds for other wizards that he would have shared a room with had things been different.
"Really you mean it?" Gindrey excitedly blurted out because he was worried Harry would tell him he was too busy.
Harry nodded his head back. "Yeah, we can keep it simple, just practicing shield charms and other basic spells."
"Great, let me go get my wand," Gindrey said as he scurried out of the room to go back to his.
That had been a productive use of his time so Harry was excited when the dueling club was opened to the students at large.
All the students crowded around the platform as Professor Lockhart took the stage. "Can you all see me? Can you all hear me?" he asked the students before spinning on his heels.
"Now Professor Dumbledore has asked me to head this new club so that you may all be better prepared for anything that may come your way," he smirked as the girls around the room swooned. With a practiced flourish he removed his dueling cape and tossed it into the crowd, drawing a massive squeal from the girl that had caught it. "I would like to introduce to you all my partner, Professor Snape."
Heads turned as the potion's mistress rose up the steps, and it was apparent to Harry that she did not want to be here.
"She has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration, but worry not, you'll still have her when I'm done with her, never fear," Gilderoy said, flashing a smile at the crowd.
The two adults approached, drew wands and then moved the appropriate number of paces away from each other. Gilderoy began his count and on three, Severia snapped into motion.
"Expelliarmus," she shouted as the spell erupted out of the tip of her wand and raced across the distance, striking her opponent in the chest.
Gilderoy let out a surprised yelp as he was thrown back quite a few feet and landed on the platform hard.
The girls around Harry let out shocked gasps before Professor Lockhart stood up. "An excellent choice to show them that Professor Snape, although very basic and I could have blocked it quite easily."
Severia stared flatly at the man, her lip twitching in annoyance. "Perhaps it would be prudent to teach the students how to block spells."
Taking a moment to think about it, Professor Lockhart gave a smirk. "An excellent suggestion Professor Snape. Let's have a volunteer pair. Ah yes, Mr. Potter," not even really looking for him in the crowd. "And Ms. Weasley."
Harry went up to the platform and stood across from Ronalda who seemed a bit concerned for being up in front of everyone. But he tried to give her an assuring smile so as to ease her nervousness for being part of the example. He didn't really get a chance to determine if it was successful as Lockhart quickly moved to stand between them.
"Now then on the count of three, I would like you Ms. Weasley to cast the Protego charm, and Harry, please use the Disarming charm that your lovely Potion's mistress so demonstrated on myself.
Nodding because that was a simple enough set of instructions, Harry waited for the count but because of the distance between Ronalda and himself he could not see just how much her wand was trembling between her fingers. "A one, a two and a three," Lockhart dramatically counted before bowing out of the way.
"Proti-Protego-ga," the redheaded witch stammered out as she watched Harry flick his wand.
"Expelliarmus," Harry firmly said because he had seen the example from Professor Snape, she spoke with conviction and perfect enunciation and got a noticeable and effective result and he would do as she had done. As expected the spell erupted out of the tip of his wand and shot across the platform, racing towards his target.
Ronalda let out a yelp as her shield was a half-formed screen that looked like crumpled up paper so she started to just swing her wand around in a frenzy. Her wand flickering a number of colors before by pure happenstance, the spell was deflected into the crowd striking another girl and launching her backwards into the mass of students.
There were some concerned shrieks as a half dozen girls toppled over. But the groans did indicate that they were unharmed, startled and maybe a little sore but unharmed. Severia cleared her throat and strode over to the platform. "Perhaps we have someone who is not currently suffering from a speech impediment?"
Lockhart nodded his head because he hadn't seen this possible outcome but frankly it was expected as there was not an instruction on the casting of the shield charm. "I see, Ms. Weasley if you'd go back to the crowd and take a moment to calm yourself."
Biting his lip however Gilderoy didn't want to just send Harry back down to the mass of other students, he wanted him front and center where he could capitalize on his fame. And he didn't know who to bring up next, but it was Professor Snape who unintentionally came to his rescue. "Might I suggest Ms. Malfoy, I know she is already capable of the shield charm and would not let someone's fame overcome her."
That was just as much a brag as it was a warning to the blonde girl that she was to not embarrass herself. She bowed to her godmother as she took up the position vacated by Ronalda and raised her wand. While Lockhart was busy schmoozing for the crowd, Severia leaned over and whispered something.
"Now this time, Harry, it might be for the best if you are the one to block," Lockhart coughed into his fist. "Probably safer that way."
Many of the girls nodded in agreement and thought it had been an oversight to allow a wizard the first offensive cast. "Now once again, on three."
Harry waited for the count then once the defense professor moved out of the way, Harry whipped his wand and shouted his spell. A solid mass of blue formed in front of him, like a sturdy wall that would be as impenetrable as the caster believed but instead of a simple jinx striking Dracaena spun around, "Serpensortia."
Harry raised an eyebrow at that spell he'd never heard of when a long black snake landed on the platform, clearly disoriented from being brought into existence as its newly formed instincts gave it a drive. With a hiss it snapped at the girls who had gotten too close to the platform.
"Never fear, I will take care of this," Gilderoy haughtily said as he aimed his wand and with a confident smirk casted. "Alarte Ascendare."
Harry saw the flash and then the snake was sent skyward, landing down even more agitated than it was when formed.
Gilderoy's eyes widened as he realized that his spell had no beneficial results. "Um well," he stammered while trying to quickly think of a way to salvage this event before the snake bit into a student and he had to explain how he managed to get a student killed by an venomous African snake in the middle of Scotland when Harry stepped past him.
"Hey," Harry called out and he saw that the snake stopped before it lunged at a girl who had been too close to the stand to move away without making the snake attack. "Please don't bite any of these nice girls."
What he didn't notice was how quiet and still the rest of the room had gotten. "I would very much like it if you calmed down so that I can get one of the professors to help you, but I can't do that if you bite someone."
Being so fixated on the snake he didn't notice that Professor Snape stepped forward and launched a spell at the snake making it burn up into ash. Looking up at the woman in shock that she would just ignore what he was saying when he finally saw that people had backed away from the platform and were looking at him fearfully.
"Um… yes, the ummm Dueling Club has now come to an end," Gilderoy cleared his throat loudly to garner everyone's attention back onto himself. "Please take what you saw here to heart as it may save your life one day."
Harry had never seen the girls in the castle try to get out of a room so fast before. He was finally left standing on the platform when Professor Lockhart came up to him. "Mr. Potter, I… I do believe that you have earned yourself a detention with me before you leave for the holidays for that stunt of yours."
"What stunt?" Harry questioned because this was the first time he was getting in trouble at school and he didn't know the reason why.
"Plausible deniability will only go so far with your fame young man," Gilderoy stated as he quickly exited the room.
That left Harry quite perplexed about what had just happened, and he didn't really know who to ask because as soon as he was back up in the common room, the girls that normally smiled, waved and greeted him just clammed up and tried to look at anything other than himself.
Hopefully when he had his detention with Professor Lockhart some of his questions would be answered.