Chapter 10

(Jasmine POV)

Jasmine was dreading today. October 31st, the anniversary of her parent's deaths. Perhaps if she'd always known that it was an anniversary of such she would've been used to the day by now. But she had only learned anything truthful about her parents after Hagrid had told her she's a witch.

No, she had only known about her parent's death, their love for her, and her status in the magical world for less than a year and a half.

The only good thing that's ever happened to her on Halloween was becoming friends with Hermione. True, the bushy-haired witch spent the majority of her time alone, practicing magic or exercising. But she chose to spend her little free time with Jasmine.

Before the troll, Hermione had been a lot more unsure of herself. She had been interested in the history of The-Girl-Who-Lived, but not the fame. When she had tried too hard to fit in or help she came across as bossy and rude instead.

Now, and ever since the troll incident, Hermione had…changed. Jasmine doubted any others noticed as much as she did. The most obvious change was the ridiculous amount of exercise the witch performed. Jasmine hadn't even known an eight-pack existed until she walked in on Hermione changing after summer break. Of course, their bulky Hogwarts robes showed off none of her physique.

Other changes, however, we're more subtle. Hermione had a surety to her steps now. Steps that had become entirely silent. She ignored Malfoy entirely the few times he called her a mudblood without the tiniest flicker of hurt.

And her practical abilities in magic improved as well. Once Hermione cast a spell one time she did it flawlessly every time afterwards. And it normally didn't take more than two tries for her to cast any spell in class.

Perhaps most shocking of all is that Hermione wasn't completely book-obsessed anymore. Sure, she still read more than any other Gryffindor, but her reading choices were more selective and she no longer took every book as gospel.

Jasmine wasn't sure what the troll had changed for Hermione, but she was glad for her friend's changes.

It was thanks to her friend's newfound confidence and audacity that Jasmine had begun to channel some of her own. She had told Lockheart off because Hermione had called him out first. Now he avoided Jasmine like the plague, never calling on her to act out his books in class.

Jasmine also used that confidence to tell Hermione to let all her professors know she wasn't feeling well today. Instead, she spent the day writing to her parents everything she wished she could tell or ask them. The parchment had been quite blotchy by the end but Jasmine felt lighter.

Hence, when Hermione mentioned before dinner that she'd been invited to Nearly-Headless-Nick's deathday party, Jasmine joined her. There they saw more ghosts in one room than they had ever seen and the occupants were not shy about passing through mortals. One corner of the room held a revolting banquet of rotting food that Jasmine and Hermione stayed far away from. They chatted with a variety of spirits, Jasmine talked the most to Crawford Miltone, a wizard who died during the Black Plague. He had a fascinating view of potions and the artistry of the craft.

However, before two long both witches were making their way back to the dorm when Jasmine heard a great hissing. §Kill! Rip! Tear!§

Jasmine paused for a moment before running forward, Hermione following and asking what was wrong.

"Don't you hear it?" Jasmine asked.

"Hear what?" Asked Hermione.

"That voice! It's saying 'Kill! Rip! Tear!'" Jasmine shot back, running around a corner and almost falling. Hermione grabbed her by the arm and steadied her before she darted off again.

Once more, Jasmine heard §Kill!§ before she finally came across where she thought the sound was coming from. Where she found something, but not the culprit and certainly not anything expected.

Hanging by her tail, stuck to the wall, was Mrs. Norris. Next to her, written in blood, were the words. "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware"

Hermione sniffed the wall and prodded Mrs. Norris before turning to Jasmine, "It's written in red paint, not blood, and the cat is petrified, not dead," she explained.

A great number of feet could be heard coming from the direction of the Great Hall. Soon enough, the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins came upon the scene. Gasps and murmurs of shock could be heard throughout the crowd.

Suddenly Malfoy spoke up, "Enemies of the heir, beware," he turned to look directly at Hermione as he continued, "You'll be next, mudbloods."

Before Jasmine could come to her friend's defense, Hermione laughed and responded, "I'd rather be a mudblood than inbred."

Just then, Filch stormed through the children, almost knocking one girl to the ground. "What's going on here? Come on, make way, make way," He started to demand, before catching sight of the scene before him. "Potter! What did you do to my cat?" Filch yelled.

"You murdered her. I'll kill you," he continued, walking forward and trying to reach for Jasmine. Hermione was too fast for him, however, knocking his arms aside and standing between them.

"Mr. Filch, Jasmine had nothing to do with it and if you continue to go after her you'll be letting the real culprit roam free. Besides, she's petrified, not dead," Hermione finished her statement by crossing her arms and planting her feet.

"Well said, Miss Granger," Albus Dumbledore said from behind them, causing Jasmine to whirl around to face the three other professors. McGonagall appeared slightly shocked and disturbed while Professor Snape's countenance remained blank.

Dumbledore continued, "I would like all students to return to their dormitories immediately. Except you two," he gestured to Jasmine and Hermione. He finished off by turning to Filch, "Mrs. Norris truly is alive, only petrified. Please take her to Madam Pomfrey, I assure you Hogwarts will spare no expense to treat her and no stone unturned in searching for her attacker."

Everyone listened to the powerful old wizard, leaving Jasmine and Hermione alone with the three professors.

Hermione spoke up first, "Honestly, Professors, we came across the scene just moments before everyone else. We were just going for a walk after leaving Sir Nicholas's Deathday party."

Jasmine noticed Dumbledore stare at Hermione for a long moment, his eyes twinkling. "I see."

"Highly convenient you both were absent for the entire Halloween feast," Snape drawled in his famous acerbic tone.

Jasmine spoke up, this time, her anger getting the best of her. "My apologies if I didn't want to celebrate the night my parents died. Sir."

"That'll be three points for your cheek, Potter," Snape replied.

Hermione set a hand on Jasmine's shoulder before she could lose more points by opening her mouth.

"Attitude aside, there is no reason to believe two-second years capable of such advanced petrification. Why, off the top of my head I don't believe I could replicate such a feat," Professor McGonagall said.

"Innocent until proven guilty," Dumbledore added.

McGonagall turned back to them. "Head back to your dorms children."

o0o

(Sakura POV)

Sakura couldn't get the feeling of looking into the headmaster's eyes out of her head. Something happened to her, a familiar feeling, but she couldn't remember in what way.

Not being able to figure it out led her to once again sneak into the Restricted Section using Jasmine's cloak.

She was reading an old manuscript about the eyes being 'windows to the soul' and the various ways magic could affect the eyes. Such as the imperious curse adding a subtle glaze to the victim's eyes. Or how dark rituals used to be performed to see beyond the physical plane and almost always ended with the subject going mad.

But finally, she found it. As soon as she read the description of legilimency she knew. The feeling had reminded her of Ino's mind-to-mind communication jutsu, that was the feeling she tried to remember. Dumbledore had read her mind.

That old coot! Mind-reading children can't be legal. More importantly, what had he seen in her mind?

A half-hour of searching brought her answers; surface thoughts. Only the most powerful legilimencers could read surface thoughts without a wand. Diving deeper was supposedly unheard of. But thoughts the victim was having at the moment were easily picked up.

With more narrow search parameters, Sakura began taking books off the shelves relating to the mind arts. She quickly discovered occlumency, the art of defending one's mind from legilimency.

But apparently, that was not the extent of occlumency. In addition to defending the mind, it can be used to organize memories and control emotions. Masters of the art can create false memories, even an entirely false mindscape. And finally, the final ability to resist veritasium. She'd bet that was the reason knowledge of occlumency was restricted.

A few of the memory-sorting techniques reminded Sakura of the memorization tricks the academy taught. Magic supposedly went beyond that, however, allowing the user to interact with their mindscape-like reality, actually seeing representations and interacting.

An hour after she first came across the mind arts, Sakura had memorized the beginning steps of learning occlumency. Meditation would come easily to her, she has plenty of practice. She was not so sure about how magic was supposed to be incorporated. Was simply having magic in the body enough to grant access to her mindscape? Or did she need to manipulate her mental energy and magic somehow?

That night she snuck back to bed satisfied with a successful information-gathering mission. In the morning she'd start teaching Jasmine and Ron. She'll pitch it as Professor Snape reading her mind instead of Dumbledore though. If they think Snape is the one after their thoughts they'll be more motivated. Perhaps Ron will stick to it if she explains how it'll help him think further ahead in chess….

o0o

The Chamber of Secrets was all anybody seemed to discuss for the next week. Sakura was actually looking forward to watching the Quidditch game if only because it would temporarily make the students forget the chamber.

The rumor that the chamber contained a monster was taken as fact. What most students debated was what type of monster the chamber held. The most realistic suggestion was a gorgon. That was, if you don't recall the fact that gorgons have been extinct for nearly two millennia. Just about every single magical snake was suggested and debated at one point. The issue was none of them petrified.

Sakura believed a perpetrator used an obscure curse to petrify Mrs. Norris and pinned the blame on the fabled monster. It seemed a more likely scenario compared to a creature existing for hundreds of years within the school without being caught.

The only interesting bit of information Sakura had been able to gain was that the chamber had been opened once before.

Last night, after expressing her skepticism that a creature existed at all, Ron had suggested they ask Hagrid if he knew any creatures that could petrify. Hence, they trekked down to the gamekeeper's hut.

They saw smoke coming out of his chimney and the man puttering around the kitchen through his open window. Knocking on the front door, Fang went berserk at the sign of visitors, as normal. Sakura still hadn't forgiven the dog for abandoning her and Draco so readily.

Hagrid had opened the door with a strained smile. "Ah, good to see you three. Come in, come in. Fancy any tea? Rock cakes?"

"Tea would be great Hagrid, but we just ate," Jasmine responded for them as they piled in.

Taking off their cloaks and hanging them up, they all got a cuppa and settled in at the table, Hagrid talking about his pumpkin patch the whole time.

Ron spoke up first. "Hagrid, we actually wanted to ask you about the Chamber of Secrets."

Instantly, Hagrid's face darkened. "Ah, so you know about tha'. Well, Aragog and I had nothin' to do with it the first time and nothin' to do with it this time. Poor Mrs. Norris…"

"Hagrid, what are you talking about? We figured you might know what kind of creatures can petrify," Jasmine questioned.

Hagrid's face flushed. "Ah, well…"

Sakura's heart went out to the big man, she thinks she knows what happened. "Hey, Hagrid, you can tell us. We'll believe you. We know you don't have a mean bone in your body." She ended her statement by patting his hand.

"Hermione's right," Jasmine pipped in. Ron nodded.

Hagrid's eyes became teary but he spoke. "Back when I was a wee lad and attending Hogwarts myself the Chamber of Secrets opened just like now. Two students were petrified before Myrtle, poor Myrtle…" Hagrid openly began weeping now.

He took a moment to compose himself. "A prefect, Tom Riddle, pointed to young Aragog as the culprit. But acromantulas don't petrify and Myrtle had no bite marks on 'er body! The aurors rightly couldn't prove it was his fault but raisin' an acromantula was enough to get me expelled from Hogwarts and most people took that as me being the culprit. Didn't help that the attacks stopped after I left. "

The three students didn't say anything but when Sakura went to hug the loveable giant the other two followed. "We're sorry that happened to you Hagrid, you didn't deserve all that," Sakura softly spoke.

"It's okay, I s'pose. Dumbledore, great man that he is, always believed in me. Gave me this job as soon as he became Headmaster." Hagrid got out between sniffles.

The rest of the trip had been them trying to cheer Hagrid up from his troubles. And although they never got a list of creatures that could petrify, Sakura gladly took the knowledge that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened at least once before and a student named Myrtle had died.

Now, the morning following their visit, Sakura and Ron were waiting in the quidditch stands while Jasmine zoomed onto the pitch with the rest of the Gryffindor team. The Slytherin team had been gloating all week about their new brooms, courtesy of Draco Malfoy, and Sakura had to admit they looked impressive on them.

Turns out, thirty minutes into the game, the brooms did give an advantage. Slytherin was up 120-70, despite the Weasley twins impressive and brutal bludger shots. Gryffindor would need Jasmine to catch the snitch quickly if they wanted to win the game.

A bludger almost struck Jasmine but the quick witch spun out of the way at the last second. Unfortunately, the bludger somehow managed to turn around on its own and fly straight back at her, clipping her shoulder. Hunching over in pain, Jasmine almost didn't dodge the third time.

Then Jasmine was off, rocketing away from the wayward bludger. Sakura immediately started scanning the stands, wondering if she'd need to set another fire for Jasmine's safety. Unfortunately, she could find no one conveniently muttering an incantation to set her ire upon.

The rest of the crowd was starting to notice the issue as well, with people pointing and shouting. The twins were circling Jasmine defensively and the Slytherins were taking the opportunity to rack up points.

How had no one called a bloody pause to this game yet, Sakura didn't know.

Just then, Jasmine dived suddenly, Malfoy on her tail. Sakura couldn't see the snitch from here, but she saw the two seekers with one arm outstretched as they neared the ground. Malfoy pulled up and away safely. Jasmine pulled up slightly and slowed down before crashing and rolling across the ground.

Everyone seemed to wait with bated breath until Jasmine raised one arm, clutching the snitch. A roar rose from three of the houses, the announcer proclaiming Gryffindor's victory.

Sakura was almost to Jasmine on the pitch when she saw the Professors approaching the her friend. She couldn't hear what was being said over the din but she saw Lockheart raise his wand and point it at the arm Jasmine was cradling.

"No!" She shouted, but it was too late.

She heard "Brackium emendo!" From Lockheart.

Jasmine's arm flopped bonelessly. Literally. The audience looked grossed out and in shock. Lockheart began stuttering excuses but Sakura was over him. Although she skipped his classes and self-studied, she heard constant complaints from Ron and Jasmine about his class.

Madam Pomfrey just arrived, looking livid at Lockheart. "Move, you incompetent buffoon! Do you have any idea what you've just done?!" She shouted at him before rapidly firing spells at Jasmine.

Sakura shot a petrificus totalus at Lockheart, who immediately locked up, frozen. "Let me explain for those of you who are unaware. Providing medical care without a medical license outside of an emergency is illegal. Especially without informed consent. Professor Dumbledore, please contact the auror department."

Lockheart's eyes, the only part of him that could move, widened.

"Now, Miss Granger," Dumbledore began genially.

Pomfrey interrupted him. "No, Albus. I am required to report this to the Healers's Guild. The aurors will only fine Mr. Lockheart as this is his first offense and vanishing Miss Potter's bones was non-permanent. Of course, without a proper mediwitch's treatment, the bones could be regrown improperly and potentially cripple Miss Potter's use of her wand arm."

Dumbledore waved his wand and Lockheart could move again. "Nonetheless, Professor Lockheart doesn't need to be restrained. The aurors will know where to find him."

While no one else noticed, Sakura saw the narrowing of Lockheart's eyes and the clenching of his jaw as he stared at her.