As Harry had predicted, the news of Colin Creevey's petrification had spread by Monday morning.
If he'd thought people had been distrustful of him before, that was nothing compared to now. Harry can't go anywhere without being subjected to whispers, glares, and hisses. Harry's just managed to get through classes and is spending the afternoon hiding in the Library.
"You're not even saying anything, you know," Harry snaps at a hissing Hufflepuff third year.
The Hufflepuff glares. "You'd know, wouldn't you!"
"Yes! I literally would know!"
The Hufflepuff flips Harry off and stalks away. Harry sinks his head into his hands.
"You could give them something to really be scared of," Merlin suggests from around his shoulders.
"Don't you have any house pride?" Harry asks grumpily.
Merlin bites him and Harry heals it with an eye roll.
"Well if you're going to be like that, I'm going to go to sleep," Merlin hisses, put out.
"Fine."
"Fine!" Merlin slithers into her satchel.
Harry wants to go back to bed and hide under the covers for a million years. Maybe he should have let Dumbledore suspend him. At least then he wouldn't have been subjected to that potion. Harry had spent the whole rest of the day yesterday in his bed, trying to forget the whole ordeal.
Neville had come into the dorms at around six last night and Harry had pretended to be asleep. Then, Harry had snuck out early for classes, skipped breakfast and lunch, and had sat himself away from his friends (and everyone else) during class. Hermione and Neville had spent most of class time exchanging notes and worried looks, but Harry couldn't bring himself to care.
If he tells his friends, they'll want to tell an adult about the voice. Harry wants to tell someone, he does. Remus, especially.
The thing is, the thought of doing so makes him feel sick to his stomach. What if the professors make him do Veritaserum again, or force him into Legilimancy? And between the monster, the attacks, and the truth potions, telling Remus would only result in him being taken out of Hogwarts for good, no doubt about it. And that is not an option.
Harry looks up as he hears someone slide in next to him.
"You need to work on your hiding spots," Daphne says idly, setting her things on the table. She slides an apple Harry's way.
"Go away, Daphne," Harry says, sinking his head back into his arms and trying to ignore the apple.
"Absolutely not," Daphne says firmly. Harry groans.
Daphne continues, "what happened yesterday? Hermione says you were called in for questioning and she didn't see you till class this morning."
"I don't want to talk about it," Harry says glumly, giving up and pocketing the apple. (Even after living with Remus for over a year, Harry still loathes to waste opportunities to eat when the option is presented to him.)
"Tough. Theo is about to kill the headmaster with his bare hands, and the rest of us aren't far behind. You need to give us proof that he didn't hurt you, or we're going to Remus."
"Jesus, Daph! He didn't hurt me. Everything is fine."
"Yeah, okay." Daphne says, shrugging.
"Really?" Harry asks, looking up at her in surprise.
"No!" Daphne cries, slamming her hands on the table.
Harry jumps, grabbing reflexively onto his magic.
"Come on, Harry! Do you understand how unlike you all of this is? You're scaring us!"
Harry looks at Daphne, really looks. The end of her braid looks chewed on, her tie is crooked, and she's tapping her quill against the table erratically. Her leg is bouncing up and down. Harry feels his heart sink.
"I'm sorry, Daphne," he says. Daphne rolls her eyes. "Where are the others?"
"Great Hall, probably. I slipped away and called in a favor with the twins to get your location."
Despite himself, Harry grins. "So my hiding spot isn't so bad after all?"
"Harry. Tell me what happened."
Harry's grin slips off of his face. He inhales deeply and then, in one breath, says, "Dumbledore used a compulsion spell to try to get me to meet his eyes so he could read my mind, I resisted it so he threatened to suspend me, and we compromised on Veritaserum."
Daphne leans forward, staring at Harry in shock.
"Fuck," she breathes. "Theo is going to try and murder the headmaster and I don't know if we'll be able to stop him." She sits for a minute, jaw clenched, eyes hard. "I don't know if I want to stop him."
"I can't…" Harry swallows thickly, suppressing a shudder as he thinks about how he'd felt under the potion's effects.
"Daphne, this is part of why I didn't want to tell you guys. I don't want this to be a big deal. It's something that happened and was- was not good, but I just… well I just want it to go away, and it won't if you guys freak out about it. We have bigger things to worry about."
"Bigger things," Daphne says flatly.
Harry sighs tiredly. "The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a student died. So, yeah. Bigger things."
Daphne starts to rub her temples. "Jesus Christ," she mutters.
Harry is struck momentarily by how absurd it is to hear the pure-blooded witch take a muggle god's name in vain.
"Well, we need to tell everyone else," Daphne says finally. "I know you don't want to, but if we're going to protect Hermione then everyone needs to be caught up on what we do know, and that includes the fact that the Headmaster knows you're innocent- I assume that is the result of yesterday's questioning?"
Harry nods.
"Yeah. Think he'll release a statement saying so?" Harry asks; watching idly as a pair of Ravenclaws anxiously hurry past where Harry and Daphne sit. "Oh, Snape was also there, so he knows that I'm telling the truth as well."
Daphne grimaces. "Theo's going to want to kill him, too."
"No, he… he was helpful. I'm glad he was there, he did what he could to keep, uh. Keep things from spiraling."
"Have you told Remus any of this?"
"No," Harry says forcefully. Daphne looks taken aback. "Remus can't know. Any of it. He'll take me out of Hogwarts."
Daphne winces, but doesn't argue, which Harry appreciates. Then, she gathers her things up.
"Come on, then. Let's go find the others."
Contrary to what Daphne had said, the others are just sitting at their usual Library table, looking worried. Hermione sees him first and lights up, and Harry feels the curl of guilt in his chest get stronger.
"Harry! We were so worried, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Harry says.
Neville looks relieved, but Blaise, Ron and Theo are glaring daggers at Harry.
"You sure?" Ron asks frostily. "Because people who are fine don't usually avoid their friends."
"I'm really unpopular right now, and I didn't want to drag you guys down with me," Harry says, meaningfully jerking his head in the direction of the group of firsties that had just fled the Library as they'd caught sight of Harry.
"That is such a bullshit excuse," Blaise says, folding his arms and scowling.
Harry blinks. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong: I believe you mean it," Blaise explains. "I just think it's a monumentally stupid line of thinking. I thought we'd already made it clear that we're anything but fair weather friends."
Ron and Theo nod, expressions still stormy. Harry looks at the others, but Daphne just raises an eyebrow and Neville and Hermione shrug apologetically.
"You should let us support you," Hermione says. "You'd do the same for us. We were really worried."
"I'm sorry," Harry says quietly.
His friends don't respond, but he does think they soften a little bit. Well. Everyone but Theo.
"What happened," Theo says flatly.
Harry sighs deeply, then launches into an explanation: he tells them all about the house elf, the conversation he'd overheard in the Hospital Wing, Colin Creevey, and the questioning. By the end of it all, his friends are all wearing expressions of barely concealed rage.
"... but I don't want anyone to make this into a big deal, and I don't want any of it to get back to Remus. He'll take me out of Hogwarts."
"You might be safer out of Hogwarts," Theo points out.
Harry shoots him such a venomous glare that Theo actually pales, which is a feat in and of itself.
"Alright then," Theo says.
"I know you don't want us to make a big deal of-of what happened," Neville starts, looking queasy, "but th-that is seriously messed up."
Harry sits back, tracing circles on the surface of the table. "Yeah," he agrees quietly. "And I want to deal with it myself."
Surprisingly enough (or maybe not surprisingly at all), Theo is the first to nod. The rest of Harry's friends hesitantly follow suit.
"Okay, so do we tell someone about the voice?" Hermione asks. Harry's heart sinks. He knows they should, but…
"No," Ron growls.
Harry starts, looking over at the boy. Ron's eyes are flinty and cold, and his jaw is set determinedly.
"The adults have proven time and time again that they're not capable of helping Harry in any meaningful way. The Veritaserum was the last straw."
Harry feels a huge swell of warmth in his chest for Ron, and shoots him a smile. Ron returns it in kind.
"It's up to us again, th-then?" Neville asks.
"When is it not," Blaise grumbles, then winces in pain.
Harry assumes someone kicked him under the table. His bet is on Daphne.
"What is the plan, then?" Hermione asks.
"Wait," Harry says, realizing something. "Hermione, you're arguably in the most danger here. Do you really think we should tell someone?"
Hermione furrows her brow, sitting back. Then she sighs, and shakes her head. "Ron is right. Telling an adult won't do anything but get them to try and keep us out of things."
"S-so what do we do?" Neville asks.
The table falls into silence for a moment. Then, Hermione pulls out a quill and parchment.
"We should figure out what the monster is: how it moves around, how it attacks, why it hasn't killed anyone yet. We should also find out who's unleashing it, and why: why now? What's the goal, besides 'cleansing the school'?"
"Maybe it can turn invisible?" Harry suggests.
"Or disguises itself, somehow," Blaise agrees. "Otherwise, it probably would have been seen wandering the halls at some point."
Ron nods, sliding the parchment over to him and taking out his own quill. "We might want to try and find the Chamber too," he says, writing it down.
Hermione goes to protest, and Ron hurriedly adds, "not to explore, or anything! It just might give us context. Also," Ron says as he looks at Harry. "You said the Chamber has been opened before?"
Harry nods.
"We should find out more about that. If we can figure out what happened last time, maybe we can use that to stop it this time."
"Do we know when it was opened?" Daphne asks.
Harry thinks back. "No, Dumbledore didn't mention it. But he had to tell Snape it had been opened before, when McGonagall and Pomfrey seemed to both already know. So, probably a while ago, but not, like, a hundred years."
"D-did You-Know-Wh-Who go to Hogwarts?" Neville asks suddenly.
The table falls into silence as everyone thinks.
"Yes?" Ron says finally. "He had to, right? Famously a Slytherin and all."
"No, he definitely did," Daphne agrees. "I just can't imagine the Dark Lord as a student. Why do you ask?"
Neville cocks his head. "Well, h-he was the last known Heir of-of Slytherin, and hated mu-muggles. I'll bet h-he opened the Chamber."
Everyone stares at Neville, who flushes.
"Okay," Daphne says finally. "In retrospect, that's really obvious."
"Little bit," Harry agrees.
"My father knew him during school," Theo says suddenly. "I don't know anything more about it though."
Hermione nods. "Great. There's our time-frame. We just need to go through all the student records during all seven years Theo's father was at school."
"Easy-peasy," Ron says glumly.