Halloween had arrived despite how much Harry wished it wouldn't. When he awoke that morning he quickly dressed and went down to his workshop, his gauntlet was telling him that nobody had entered his workshop since he had locked it but when he unlocked the door he found Dumbledore examining his shelves.
"You've been busy since I was last here" Dumbledore noted, indicating the various mithril toys and tools that he and Bathsheda had developed.
Harry shrugged and flopped onto his couch, Dumbledore joined him although he sat down with more elegance.
"Is there any point asking how you got in without triggering my mithril?" Harry asked dryly.
"I find very few people bother locking their windows"
"We're on the sixth floor…"
Dumbledore chuckled but didn't reveal any more, the two sat in silence for a few moments before Harry grew bored and began work on his latest 'toy', it was in the shape of a bird and Harry was curious to see if he could make it fly. Eventually he activated it and the bird began flapping its wings before taking off and circling the room.
"Imitating life, Harry?"
"Eventually, at the moment it's just a weightless and direction ideology, exactly the same as moving something with a levitation charm… I need to pre plan the route the bird will take which is kind of useless for now. Eventually I want to just tell it a location and it will find its own way there, like an owl."
"On the topic of your mithril, how is your project with the wards coming along?"
"Fairly well, Bathsheda thinks we should have the bugs worked out by the end of the year, currently we can have a ward fully powered for an infinite amount of time, but if you hit it with a ward shear the entire ward implodes… We think it's an issue with the runes so we're trying to directly copy the runes into the mithril which will solve most of the issues."
"Good good, I fear that with Voldemort appearing last year and your friend Dobby's warning this year there is danger ahead and when that danger appears I want Hogwarts to be as safe as possible… now was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"Lockhart's a terrible teacher, for his first lesson he set a swarm of pixies on us."
"Well that doesn't sound so bad, I remember doing the same when I needed to cover a Defense lesson."
"It wasn't the pixies that were the issue, it was the fact Lockhart was the first to run and I needed to stop the pixies by myself and then since that lesson he's only been reading from his books!"
"Have you tried talking to him about this? I find that most conflicts can be avoided by talking. Of course if this keeps up after you talk to him I will talk to him myself… So did you have any plans for today?" Dumbledore asked casually but Harry could tell without looking that he had assumed his 'serious' face.
"I was planning on rereading my parents school reports until dinner and after that the Grey Lady invited me down to Sir Nicolas' death day, but if you had something planned…"
"That's good, all I was going to suggest was that we could go visit the University of Transfiguration but if you have no complaints I suggest we visit tomorrow to celebrate an uneventful Halloween."
"Sure, that sounds great"
The Dumbledorian University of Transfiguration had been formed after the war against Grindelwald, the various ministries of magic in Europe wanted to reward Dumbledore for saving them but Dumbledore refused, the University was the compromise. Dumbledore got to see his 'reward' go to the good of the people and see more people learn about his favourite subject, while the ministries of Europe got to spend a lot of money and stick Dumbledore's name onto it.
Despite Dumbledore's name being in the name of the university he had no official say over the running of the school, the only requirement he had for them to use his name was that students couldn't be turned away for their blood or financial status.
"I assume you are aware of Ms. Lovegood's habit of following you around the castle?" Dumbledore asked after a moments silence
"Yeah, I'm kind of waiting for her to build up the courage to find this room first…" Harry said sheepishly
"It is good to see you are still letting others in… alas I need to get back to work, should you have need of me I will either be within my office or the hall."
"Oh professor, I do actually have something for you." Harry ran over to his shelf and pulled down two mithril objects, one looked like a large rock while the other resembled a small plate.
"If you keep hold of this plate then if I need you I can activate the mithril and this rock like one will be transported to your plate, this way if I need you I can write my location on the rock and send it to you… I haven't gotten it to work in reverse yet and when I tried to make two plates the rock got confused… but it would make me feel better to know I have a way to contact you quickly in an emergency."
Dumbledore took the plate solemnly "Of course, there is a charm for communication but it is considerably complex, but I take this with the trust that if I contact you with my charm that you will obey it? This way we can both ensure safety"
The death day party was an adequate distraction, Harry thought. It was interesting to see so many ghosts in one place and able to see the magic behind them. At first glance their signatures were just regular signatures but more translucent, however when he looked closer at them he saw that the shapes that he had begun to see in magical signatures were missing. He needed to take a closer look at Lockhart's pixies but he would bet that the pixies were also missing the shapes in their signature, which indicated that the colour was the magic itself while the shapes was the physical body.
He also wanted to ask Dumbledore to show him some self-transfiguration to see if that changed his signature, however he suspected that Dumbledore would refuse. Over the summer he and Dumbledore had come to the understanding that if Harry needed help with magic Dumbledore would help, but he wouldn't make it easy for Harry to do magic he deemed dangerous.
Seeing the ghosts 'taste' the food had also been educational, the food itself did not contain any magical properties, but when the ghost walked through they temporarily mimicked the shape of the food's signature, which led to some worrying conclusions about what happened when a ghost walked through a student.
Harry was raised from his musing by the Grey Lady drifting over, he had sought her out after Hermione's death to ask about the possibility of her coming back as a ghost, he had kept talking to her after it had become obvious his friend wouldn't return as she did not pity him like the other classmates or gush over him for being famous.
"How are you finding the party?" She asked wistfully
"It's unique, I must admit it is interesting to see how you all interact with everything."
Just then Peeves began chasing a younger ghost out of the room and the other ghosts seemed to take this as their cue to leave. Peeves was the most curious ghost, he had a translucent signature and yet he still had some shapes within, admittedly the shapes where the most fluid he had seen but it was strange. The few shapes he had let him physically interact with magical objects but due to their fluidity he could change shape easily and even phase through the walls.
Harry stepped up to Sir Nicolas and politely said "Thank you for inviting me Sir Nicolas."
The ghost seemed to cheer up at that and replied "Nonsense, it's always nice to meet new people, and who knows you may be joining us in a few years."
With that the ghost turned and strolled right through the wall behind him, leaving Harry to wonder whether that was a prediction of danger or simple something he said to everyone, a few years for a ghost could be centuries to a human after all.
He decided to head to the kitchens for food before going to his common room. As he walked he started hearing a sinister voice hissing, he began following the hissing before he forced himself to stop, the hissing surely wasn't an indication of anything good.
"Dobby?" He whispered, as expected the elf appeared before him silently, the only indication of magic was the slight ripples of Hogwarts magic.
"Master Potter Sir?"
"Can you hear that voice?"
"What voice Sir?"
The very voice they were talking about was getting quieter as if moving away, Harry quickly pulled Dobby close and took off his school cloak to reveal his Invisibility Cloak underneath, he closed them and hurried after the voice, Dobby followed but was obviously confused.
They rounded a corner and the voice suddenly became clearer "Rip… Tear… Kill!"
"There did you hear it?" Harry asked Dobby frantically, Dobby shook his head "Dobby not be hearing anything."
Finally they stopped on the second floor outside the out of order bathroom, there was water everywhere but what drew Harry's attention was the stiff body of Mrs. Norris hung up by her tail. He was forced to look away when he realised the voice was getting louder and closer "I smell Blood!... So Hungry!" it was as if the voice was right next to him, he quickly opened the cloak and looked around but even with his mage sight he saw nothing, only the white of Hogwarts walls and the yellow of Dobby.
Harry pulled out his messenger stone and reformed it to say 'Trouble, Second Floor, Haunted Bathroom.' and activated the metaphysical properties that would send it to Dumbledore. He knew it wouldn't take long for Dumbledore to reach him so took a moment to inspect Mrs. Norris, on top of her signature was a vivid green net of magic and malice, the net was tightly constricting the cat's shape within her signature.
Dobby had begun to tug on Harry's hand, his fear had made his voice even squeakier than normal "Mister Potter must leave, there is danger here."
"Dobby its fine, Dumbledore's coming and I think the danger has already passed"
"But the writing sir!" Dobby pointed one shaky finger above the cat, there written in what looked like blood was a message 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir... beware'
Just then he heard a great roar of noise from either end of the corridor, it sounded like the entire school was approaching, he pulled Dobby into a corner and pulled the cloak over them, this robbed him of his ability to see magic as the Cloak's magic was so dense he couldn't see anything else through it.
The crowd appeared around the first corner with the headmaster in front, he stopped in front of Mrs. Norris and told the school "Everyone stay back, prefects return the students to their common rooms." His voice was calm but everyone heard him, Harry suspected magical involvement but under his Cloak he couldn't tell.
"Harry, are you here?" Dumbledore was now much quieter but in the wake of the silence his announcement it seemed like everyone heard him, Harry quickly applied a notice not and slipped out of the cloak, he walked up behind Dumbledore and tapped the man on the shoulder.
Dumbledore spun around and Harry felt his magic swelling before Dumbledore recognised him.
"What happened?" Dumbledore had an edge of panic that Harry hadn't heard before
"I was coming back from the death day party and… I saw Mrs. Norris on the wall, I called you and waited until you showed up."
The remaining students began muttering which made Dumbledore turn on them "Silence! Return to your common rooms at once!" he glared at the remaining students until they began leaving, herded by the members of staff that had turned up.
"My cat! Somebody murdered my cat?!" One of the staff Harry had forgotten about was Filch
"Argus please calm yourself, she is not dead" Dumbledore commanded
"Then why is she all… stiff?" It shocked Harry to hear a tremble in his voice, the man seemed so grumpy and angry the whole time it was easy to forget he still cared for some things, such as his cat.
"Ah, I thought so, I encountered something similar before you see -" Lockhart began
"Yes thank you Gilderoy, but perhaps this discussion is best done elsewhere? Harry if you could report to my office tomorrow after breakfast?"
"Why did you attack the cat?" The moment Harry entered his common room he was assaulted with questions, it seemed his fellow Ravenclaws had been staying up to interrogate him.
"What reason would I have to attack a cat?" Harry asked incredulously
"I don't know, you attacked Malfoy this time last year…"
"That was because he insulted Hermione, saying she was better dead! And why would I call for Dumbledore if I was responsible?"
Before anyone else could ask him stupid questions Harry forced himself through the crowd and to his dorm, his dormmates looked ready to interrogate him too so he entered his study room and formed a block of mithril that would keep the door shut until he removed it, laying down in bed he found it hard to fall asleep and when he did he was plagued by nightmares.
"Soon you will call me master and you will serve me faithfully, you were always going to… it was your destiny"
Harry awoke with a start, according to his watch it was still an hour before food would be served in the great hall but sitting in the hall was preferable to being questioned by the Ravenclaws.
As expected he was the first student in the hall, he sat down in his normal spot and was surprised when food quickly began appearing near him, he was even more surprised to find that it was his regular breakfast. After a whispered "thank you" for the elves he began tucking in.
Midway through his breakfast he became aware of a spot completely devoid of magic beside him. "Hello?" He asked cautiously, afraid that he had found what was responsible for Mrs Norris' petrification.
But when the invisibility was lifted it was only Dobby "You be leaving your cloak Sir, Dobby be's returning it!" Harry quickly took the Cloak and put it on under his school cloak, his sense of security rose at the silky feeling of his Cloak.
"Harry Potter must leave now!"
"What?" He had thought Dobby had stopped trying to get him to leave
"The Danger no longer unknown sir! Harry Potter must leave now that the chamber of secrets is opened once more!"
"I'm not leaving Dobby… wait did you say once more? As in it has been opened previously?"
"Dobby must be leaving!" He clicked his fingers and disappeared with a loud crack, before Harry could ponder over this latest revelation he became aware of Dumbledore sitting down across from him.
"I see your friend has managed to bypass the wards… that is concerning. Do you think he could have been behind the attack last night?"
"Not unless he is a very good actor. So when I left the death day party I began hearing this faint muttering, I called for Dobby and he said he couldn't hear it, we followed it under my Cloak and it grew louder but Dobby still said he couldn't hear it. Then we saw Mrs. Norris and I called for you, the voice sounded really close but I couldn't see it, even my mage sight didn't reveal it… I know they weren't invisible since while I can't actually see my Cloak when it's activated, I can see where it is since it blocks out the magic behind it… kind of like an inverted image if that makes any sense. Anyway Dobby was trying to get me to leave. I suppose he could have gotten Mrs. Norris before I called him…"
"I suspect that your friend is not old enough to have caused the attacks last time, as Dobby said, the chamber was opened once before, almost 50 years ago. I suggest you look into it in your own time, but for now I wanted to ask if you would mind looking at Mrs. Norris and see if you could undo it. I looked at her myself but I wasn't able to see anything."
"Did you not see the net of magic around her?" Harry asked curiously
"No, evidently I did not."
Dumbledore led Harry to the hospital wing, it looked weird to see an entire bed taken up by a cat, her front paws laying on top of the covers, it would have been funny if not for her stiff appearance and Filch sitting over her.
"Good morning Argus, I was wondering if you would mind Harry here taking a look at Mrs. Norris, he has the best mage sight I have ever encountered."
"I don't want Mrs. Norris to just be his newest lab project" Filch said hotly
"He is only here to help and hopefully stop anyone else suffering the same fate." Dumbledore said serenely
Filch gestured for Harry to 'get on with it'
Now that he didn't have the pressure of a bodiless voice or oncoming students he could focus more on Mrs. Norris, it seemed the net of magic had submerged itself within her signature, it was far less distinct but also seemed stronger. Harry knew just by looking at it that the entire net needed to be lifted at once otherwise it would crush Mrs. Norris' signature, presumably killing her.
He was able to look even deeper than the net, the shapes became much clearer. Perhaps it's because she wasn't human or a true magical being, maybe it was the fact she was was currently cursed, but either way Harry realised that if he memorised these shapes and made his mithril recreate them he would have a perfect replica of Mrs. Norris.
However what he knew for certain was that he wasn't strong enough to lift the cat's curse, when he told Dumbledore and Filch he expected the caretaker to get mad, however he only hung his head and nodded, he looked so dejected Harry found himself saying "I could come back every so often and see if there is anything else to try…"
Filch looked at him with what might have been a smile "That… would be nice, lad"
The chamber has been opened and Harry is beginning to face challenges that he can't solve with his mithril, in case it wasn't as obvious as I intended, Harry can't use his mithril to fix the petrification because it is not physical magical strength that Harry needs but will power which his mithril can't provide.
I will most likely not be able to post a chapter next week since I am on holiday and don't know if I will be able to write or upload while away.