Chapter 19
Time had passed and things had settled down, Harry and his friends continued to attend their classes while also practicing in the dueling room, with the most exciting thing approaching being quidditch Harry felt he could mostly enjoy his normal school life. When it came to their dueling lessons Flitwick started to teach them about different spells they could practice while they work on strengthening their shields. Harry had been able to suggest some spells from the journal and Flitwick agreed with most of them and had the students practice with the targets on the walls, Flitwick saw the seven students he was teaching were doing well and told them they can teach the rest of their friends these spells in their free time as long as they prove to him first that they can handle the spell.
When it came to quidditch practice Harry saw the rest of the team was prepared, Oliver and Ron had watched the Slytherin team practice a few more times and they were certain they were going to win their first game. From what Oliver told them the teams for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were prepared as well and from the way the Slytherin team has been acting they didn't know that the other three houses were united against them. Harry had told his Slytherin friends about the plan and to his relief they didn't mind that their house was going to lose, although both Tracey and Lilian weren't happy since the two of them were fans of quidditch but they had enough of a dislike for Malfoy to agree this was for the best.
Harry had gotten used to his normal school life at Hogwarts and he was enjoying spending his time with his friends however he was starting to forget the warning Dobby gave him, the only strange thing to have happened was Hagrid telling him and his friends that something was killing his roosters but other than that nothing unusual had happened. Harry didn't know things were going to change soon when he woke up the morning of Halloween. Harry had woken up later than usual that morning, he saw the rest of the dorm was empty so his friends were probably at breakfast already, getting dressed Harry left for the great hall.
Walking downstairs Harry saw Hermione was still in her usual spot, hearing his footsteps Hermione looked up and spotted Harry, she greeted him "Good morning Harry."
"Good morning Hermione, I thought you would be at breakfast already."
"Neville told me you weren't up yet so I thought I should wait for you."
He knew they always walked to the great hall together and they were always the first to wake up, Harry thanked her for waiting before the two left for the great hall. The two left the common room and as they walked they started to talk about what they might expect for their dueling lesson, why Flitwick told them to bring their wand holsters to their next lesson, and if their shields were strong enough to withstand Flitwick's spells. The two were interrupted when they heard someone muttering to themselves, they noticed it was the Gryffindor ghost Sir Nicholas or as everyone called him nearly headless Nick. Nick looked defeated as he was complaining about half an inch of neck and being rejected by the headless hunt, the ghost stopped when he spotted the two kids, he greeted the two, "Greetings Harry and Hermione, I hope you two are doing well."
The two returned the greeting before Harry said "I hope you are doing well too Nick."
Nick looked defeated again before saying "I'm doing as well as I can be, I had hoped to finally convince the headless hunt to let me join but they have rejected me again since my head is still attached to my body by half an inch."
The two felt bad for Nick, they remembered hearing how the man had died and they've had a few conversations every now and then and they liked the ghost, Harry decided to say "I'm sorry to hear that Nick, is there anything we can do to help?"
Nick seemed to think about it before saying "You know there actually is, today is my five hundredth death day and a bunch of ghosts are gathering during the feast to celebrate and I would like to invite the two of you to my death day party."
The two were surprised since they never heard of a death day party, Hermione looked interested in getting to experience something new while Harry thought it would be a good way to avoid having to attend the feast since he didn't like Halloween. The two agreed to go and they noticed Nick's mood greatly improved, he thanked the two and floated away while smiling. The two continued their walk to the great hall and they talked about what they might expect at a death day party, soon they joined their friends in the great hall for breakfast.
Throughout breakfast Harry heard some of the students talking about how excited they were for the Halloween feast, he could see Colin and Demelza were listening to the other students and they looked excited although Ginny looked like she wasn't listening. Harry mostly talked to Hermione and Neville about their dueling lessons and if they were ready, while he didn't like Halloween he didn't want to ruin the experience for the younger students. Breakfast came to an end and Harry returned to the common room with his friends, Harry let himself get dragged into a round of chess with Ron or a conversation about herbology with Neville, he was thankful for the distraction since it took his mind off Halloween.
Hermione spent her time talking with Fay and Sally-Anne, the two girls wanted to make sure Hermione was ok since the two remembered last year on Halloween she and Harry were nearly killed by a troll, Hermione reassured her two friends that she was ok before changing the subject to their classes. Hermione thought back to just before the attack when she thought she didn't have friends but now she looked at Fay and Sally-Anne and glanced over at Harry and felt happy knowing she had real friends. When the three girls were done with their conversation they decided to watch the chess match between Harry and Ron, Fay and Sally-Anne made sure to take the available seats on either side of Ron so the only seat left for Hermione was the one next to Harry. The three girls watched as Neville and Harry worked together to try and beat Ron but in the end Ron still won the match, so far the only person who has managed to give Ron a challenge was Lilian. With the match over Dean and Seamus came up to them and offered to play a round of exploding snap.
The time for lunch quickly came and went and soon Harry, Hermione, and Neville separated from the rest of their friends and were on their way to their next dueling lesson. Entering the dueling room the three of them waited before they were joined by the other four students, Harry smiled when he saw Daphne and Tracey were using the wand holsters he bought them after Ollivander gave them theirs. Once all seven were in the dueling room Flitwick joined them and said "I see you are all here, now that it is the end of October I will be testing the strength of your shields to see if they are able to withstand a more powerful spell. One of you will have to stand over by that wall and you shall cast your shield, I will cast my spell until your shield collapses." The students felt nervous and hoped their shields would be able to hold, Flitwick continued "Before I choose who to go first would any of you like to volunteer?"
The students glanced at each other before Harry stepped forward and said "I will."
Flitwick smiled and said "Very well Mr. Potter, go stand over there and we will begin."
Harry heard his friends wish him luck before he walked over to the wall and faced Flitwick, Harry took a deep breath before he was ready, he quickly raised his wand and cast "Protego!"
Flitwick smiled when he noticed the difference in Harry's shield, it didn't look like the thin layer it was last time, in a flash Flitwick raised his wand and cast "Expelliarmus!" The spell shot out and collided with the shield, everyone heard the impact but they saw the shield held up. Flitwick didn't stop and fired a second spell and Harry felt his shield almost collapse but it managed to hold, with a third spell the shield collapsed and the spell shot past Harry and hit the wall behind him. Flitwick smiled and said "Your shield was able to withstand two of my spells before it collapsed, excellent work Mr. Potter." Harry thanked the professor before Flitwick turned to the students and spoke "As you all just witnessed an overpowered spell will break through a weaker shield but if you manage to strengthen your shield enough then it can withstand your opponent's spells long enough for you to either plan an escape or fight back. A strong shield can give you an advantage in a duel."
The students nodded before continuing with the lesson, Flitwick saw that Hermione, Neville, and Daphne were able to block two spells before the third shattered their shield meanwhile Susan, Hannah, and Tracey's shields managed to block one spell before shattering because of the second spell. Once they were all done Flitwick smiled and said "You have all done well, you've all made excellent progress in such a short amount of time, now that you all know how to strengthen your shield we will move on to learning how to cast a reflecting shield." The students nodded before Flitwick continued, "A reflecting shield is one that is based off your intent for the spell, remember that your intent for the spell can change the spell you are trying to cast, it will of course require more magic as you are changing it from a standard shield to one meant to reflect a spell back. when people think of the spell protego the first thing that comes to their mind is a shield that is meant to block a spell, because of that they have trouble trying to alter their shield into one that reflects a spell and many times they don't use enough magic to make it strong enough to reflect a spell. We will begin learning to cast it next weekend, for the rest of today I want all of you to work on accuracy training however I want all of you to do something different, I wanted all of you to bring your wand holsters since we will begin practicing drawing your wand."
Flitwick waved his wand and from a chest in the corner he summoned six bludgers, he cast a spell and soon the bludgers started to fly around the room, Flitwick turned to the students and said "I want all of you to understand that using a wand holster can greatly help if you are ever in a situation where you need to draw your wand in an instant, when you have your wand in your pocket it can take a moment for you to pull it out but that moment could be all your opponent will need to cast first. For your accuracy training I want all of you to practice drawing your wand and raising it to cast, allow me to demonstrate."
The students watched as Flitwick stood in the center with his wand still in his wand holster, Flitwick glanced around at the bludgers and watched their movement, in an instant the Professor flicked his wrist and had his wand in his hand then in a flash he had it raised and fired a spell. The spell struck the bludger and knocked it out of the air but the students saw Flitwick put his wand back in its holster before quickly turning to another bludger and doing the same, Flitwick repeated this with each bludger until they were all knocked out of the air.
Flitwick saw the students were amazed, he explained "As you all saw when you learn how to draw your wand it can make a difference in who will cast first, I want all of you to practice drawing your wand and casting a stinging jinx as soon as you take aim, if you miss then I want you to put your wand back in its holster then try again."
The students soon took turns drawing their wands and they found the first problem was catching their wands, the first few times the students tried they weren't able to grab their wands as they came out of their holsters and they ended up falling to the ground. Susan and Hannah however were able to draw their wands and cast the first time, when questioned about it Susan admitted that her aunt had her and Hannah practice with toy wands when they were younger so they could be prepared when they're older. For the rest of the lesson Flitwick watched as the students continued to practice drawing their wands, he was glad to see after a few tries the students were able to get the timing right and catch their wands but they kept missing the bludgers. The lesson passed and Flitwick saw it was just about time for dinner so he stopped the lesson, he told the students they have done well and he wants them to practice drawing their wands in their free time until they can draw their wands multiple times without making a mistake, he also informed them that next weekend they will begin learning how to cast a reflecting shield.
Flitwick soon ran off to head to the feast and the students left for their common rooms to get ready, Harry and Hermione remembered they promised Nick they'd attend his death day party so they informed their friends they wouldn't be attending the feast, they made them the offer of joining them but they all declined and so Harry and Hermione made their way to the dungeons where the party was. Once the two arrived they noticed several ghosts were there and they were certain they've never seen even half of them, the two students were soon spotted by Nick and he flew over and greeted them "Greetings Harry and Hermione, I am happy to see you were able to attend my death day party." The two returned the greeting and Nick continued "This is the first time I've ever had two living students attend my death day party, once the other ghosts see this my popularity will increase."
The two smiled before Hermione asked "Could you explain to us how a death day party is supposed to work?"
Nick agreed and had the two follow him, the first thing he pointed out was the table full of rotting food and how since ghosts can't feel anything the rotting food was the closest thing they could feel so the ghosts would fly through it as a way to try and taste it, the two students smelled how bad the food was and were glad to move away from it. Nick showed them a stage where he was planning on making a speech later, after that Nick started to point out who some of the ghosts were and what year they died. This caught Hermione's interest and she asked Nick which ghost has been at Hogwarts the longest, Nick thought about it and said "I think it would have to be between the Grey Lady of Ravenclaw or the Bloody Baron of Slytherin, I haven't spoken to them personally but I remember someone telling me that they were around when the founders were still here."
Nick pointed out who they were and Hermione wanted to try and talk to them hoping they would tell her about their time at Hogwarts. With Nick pointing out who the two oldest ghosts were it made Harry think and he asked "Do you know who the youngest ghost at Hogwarts is?"
Nick pointed her out and said "I believe that would be Myrtle Warrens, I heard most people call her moaning Myrtle and from what I've heard she hasn't been dead for a century yet."
Harry saw a young ghost girl wearing glasses and she seemed to be avoiding everyone, when Hermione spotted the ghost girl she grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him away as she said "Come on Harry, I don't want to talk to her."
"Why?"
"That's moaning Myrtle, she's the ghost who haunts the girls' bathroom on the second floor, when she starts crying she floods the bathroom and she usually yells at anyone who enters the bathroom so everyone tries to avoid it."
Nick had followed the two and heard what they said, he added "She normally avoids everyone and hardly leaves her bathroom, I was surprised when she showed up."
Nick said his farewells to the students and told them to enjoy the party, the two were able to talk to some of the ghosts including the Hufflepuff ghost called the Fat Friar. Some of the ghosts were happy to tell Hermione about when they died and what Hogwarts used to be like, some of the ghosts looked interested when Harry introduced himself since they've heard about the boy-who-lived. Harry sighed at seeing even the ghosts of Hogwarts knew about him but whenever they recognized him Harry made sure to mention Nick invited him. The two students spotted Peeves the Poltergeist at the party and for a while he seemed to behave however after a while they saw Peeves had said something to Myrtle which made her burst into tears before rushing off to most likely her bathroom. The two students had tried to speak to the Grey Lady however when Hermione tried to mention her time at Hogwarts she told them she was busy and flew away, they tried to speak to the Bloody Baron however he took one look at Hermione and flew off without saying a word.
Some time had passed and Harry and Hermione considered leaving the party however they saw Nick appear on stage and begin to say his speech, he was in the middle of thanking everyone when suddenly several headless ghosts riding horses arrived and crashed the party. Nick tried to get everyone's attention again but now everyone was paying attention to the headless hunt and he was forgotten, feeling dejected Nick left the stage. Harry and Hermione saw the time and knew they had to leave however they decided to approach Nick before leaving.
The two walked up to them and Harry spoke "Sir Nicholas, thank you for inviting us to your death day party, we enjoyed our time here."
Hermione spoke next "The headless hunt doesn't know what they're missing, we want you to know we think you're far better than they are."
Their words seemed to reach Nick, he smiled and said "Thank you Harry and Hermione, that means a lot to me." The moment was interrupted when their stomachs growled, the two apologized but Nick said "Don't apologize, I'm the one who should be apologizing, I should have realized neither of you can eat the food we have here." Looking at the time Nick said "You should be able to make it to the end of the feast so you can grab something quick to eat, thank you again for coming to my death day party, it meant a lot to me."
Harry held his hand out for Nick to shake, the ghost tried to move his hand at the same time as Harry's but Harry felt when he touched the ghost it felt like he dipped his hand in ice cold water. The two students said their goodbyes before leaving, as the two walked to the feast they talked about the death day party and Hermione said she was disappointed she couldn't talk to the Grey Lady. They were about to reach the great hall when Harry suddenly froze when he heard a voice.
"So hungry… for so long…"
Harry looked around wondering where that voice came from, Hermione stopped and asked "Harry what's wrong?" Harry didn't answer as he continued to listen to the mysterious voice.
"Come… come to me… let me rip you… let me kill you… let me eat you…"
Harry's eyes widened at what he heard, it sounded like it was moving away, Hermione called his name again "Harry?"
Harry turned to Hermione and said "That voice, it said it wants to kill." Hermione asked what voice but Harry listened as the voice moved upwards.
"There you are."
Harry took off after the voice and said "It's going to kill!"
Hermione chased after him and yelled for him to wait but Harry kept running, he ran upstairs and ran through the halls to where he heard the voice, Harry didn't stop until he heard water splash where he stepped. Harry saw the hall was flooded but soon his attention was on something else. Hermione caught up to Harry and saw the hall was flooded but then she noticed what was on the wall, standing next to Harry the two stared at the sight of a bloodied Mrs. Norris hanging from her tail on the wall. The two looked above Mrs. Norris and saw a message written in what looked like blood, the two read the message.
'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware.'
The two kids were frightened by what they saw, Hermione reached over and took hold of Harry's hand, neither of them knew what to do, the two didn't know how long they were standing there but soon they heard several footsteps approaching. There was no time to hide as soon they were joined by several students, many of the students stopped at what they saw before them and they heard some scream when they saw the message and the cat hanging from the wall. Harry and Hermione saw everyone was looking at them and they could already hear whispers, they noticed their friends were in the crowd and they looked at them with concerned looks.
"Enemies of the heir beware, looks like it's over for you mudbloods!"
Harry recognized the voice of Malfoy and he glared when he saw the joyful look on Malfoy's face.
"Mr. Malfoy, that will be fifty points from Slytherin and a week of detention, I will not tolerate the use of that word!"
Everyone turned and saw the heads of houses showed up and Flitwick was the one who spoke, the teachers stopped at what they saw but before anyone could say anything they heard Filch yell "My cat, someone killed my cat!"
Harry saw a devastated Filch show up, Professor Sprout left to get the headmaster but Harry's attention was drawn when Malfoy spoke up "It was Potter and Granger, they did this!"
Filch turned to anger as he looked at the two and yelled "You killed my cat!"
It looked like Filch was about to attack them, Harry prepared himself to move in front of Hermione in case he needed to, they were all stopped when a voice yelled "Harry and Hermione had nothing to do with this!" Everyone turned to the direction the voice came and everyone saw Sir Nicholas appear from the wall just as Professor Sprout returned with Dumbledore. Harry and Hermione had no idea Nick was there but when he spotted the headmaster Nick spoke up "Headmaster, I can reassure you Harry and Hermione had nothing to do with this!"
Filch yelled "Liar, they did it thinking I wouldn't be able to do anything to them because I'm a squib!"
Harry knew Filch was a squib since his mother mentioned it in the journal, while he didn't like the man since he heard him mention how the good old days of Hogwarts were when they used corporal punishment that didn't mean he wanted something like this to happen. Dumbledore cut in since it looked like an argument was about to happen, "Enough, Sir Nicholas, please explain."
Nick explained "Harry and Hermione were at my death day party and they spoke to several ghosts while they were there, they left just minutes ago to head to the feast and I followed to make sure they were able to get something to eat but then we heard something and came here to see everything was already like this."
Harry was surprised and Dumbledore nodded, as they spoke Lockhart approached and talked about how he's seen this before and how he could have saved the cat if he was there. Dumbledore checked on Mrs. Norris before announcing that she was petrified and not dead, they ignored Lockhart as Dumbledore told Filch to take Mrs. Norris to the hospital wing. Flitwick looked at Harry and when the two looked at each other Harry gave a slight nod so Flitwick asked if they could discuss this in his office, soon the students were guided by the prefects to their common rooms and Harry, Hermione, and Nick followed the teachers to Flitwick's office.
Once they arrived Dumbledore was about to speak but Flitwick spoke first "Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, can you explain what happened?"
Harry Felt more comfortable talking to Flitwick so he explained what had happened after they left the party, when he mentioned the voice Hermione admitted she didn't hear anything, Harry turned to Nick and asked "Did you hear the voice?"
Nick sighed and said "No I didn't, I do know you did though so I decided to say I heard it too."
Flitwick asked "Mr. Potter can you tell us what the voice said?"
Harry repeated what the voice said however they heard Snape say "How can we be sure this is not just some prank Potter and Granger are trying to play?" From the tone of his voice Harry could tell Snape was calling him a liar.
Before Harry could say anything Flitwick spoke with a hint of anger in his voice "Professor Snape, you cannot believe this is merely a prank or that they are responsible for this. Mr. Potter came to me at the beginning of the year to inform me of a warning he had gotten from a house elf during the summer and I informed the rest of you about the warning."
Dumbledore cut in "Now, now, let us settle down, I will begin investigating the matter of what I'm sure is most likely a prank from an older student that went horribly wrong."
Flitwick looked like he wanted to say something but he stopped himself, he instead turned to the three and said "You three are allowed to go, Mr. Potter if you hear the voice again then please do not go chasing after it again since we don't know what it could be, find a teacher instead. Ms. Granger if Mr. Potter hears the voice again listen and tell us if you heard it." The two agreed and Flitwick sent them on their way while the teachers started to discuss the incident.
Nick guided the two back to the portrait of the fat lady, before leaving Harry asked Nick if he knew anything about the chamber of secrets and while he said he heard some rumors he told them most likely Professor Binns would know more than he does. The ghost soon left and before they could open the portrait Harry asked Hermione "Hermione, you believe me, right?"
"Oh Harry, of course I do, I didn't hear it but I know you heard something, we can search tomorrow in the library for something to explain what you heard."
Harry smiled at seeing Hermione did believe him and didn't think he was crazy, he thanked her before he gave the password and the portrait swung open. As soon as they walked in all eyes were now on them, Harry noticed how some already started to whisper however they were approached by Fay who immediately grabbed them and pulled them up the stairs to the boys' dorms. Entering his dorm Harry saw most of their year mates were there, once Harry and Hermione sat down they were asked about what had happened. Once they explained everything Ron asked "Are you sure you heard something Harry, even in the wizarding world when someone says they're hearing voices they're usually-"
He was cut off when Fay punched his arm and said "Harry wouldn't lie about something like that and even if he did he would have told Hermione the truth, he already has enough to deal with because of all the rumors going around."
Ron saw the serious look on her face before saying "You're right, sorry Harry."
Harry asked "What rumors?"
Dean answered "McLaggen and his gang, as soon as we got back to the common room he started spreading rumors about you and how mental you are."
Harry groaned at that, just as he was beginning to think this year was going to be better it all became worse, Fay spoke up "I already told McLaggen he's an idiot and he can shove his rumors up his-"
"Fay!" Sally-Anne interrupted.
The boys snickered before Fay said "Anyways, if he tries to start something Fred and George said they'd handle it and the rest of the quidditch team are defending you, we'll also be there to help you."
They all nodded, Harry looked around at his dorm mates and Fay, Sally-Anne, and Hermione and felt relieved at knowing they were there for him. Harry and Hermione's stomachs growls before they realized they missed dinner however their friends pulled out some food they saved. Neville told them he knew they would be hungry so he suggested they save some food for them, from the looks of it there was enough for all of them to share. The group of friends shared their food and spent their time together before it became late and the girls wished them a good night before heading to their own dorm. The boys got ready for bed and as Harry laid in his bed he started to think about the warning Dobby gave him, he hoped whatever was going on will be solved soon.
I owe all of you an apology, it has been three months since I last uploaded anything and I'm disappointed in myself for doing that. I would like to explain that during the first weekend of November I had part of this chapter written but when I went back and reread it I felt disappointed in it so I went back to rewrite it, this chapter went through multiple rewrites but after a while I felt myself lose motivation and decided to take a break. I let myself become lazy until I realized it had been three months and I refused to let it become four months, I have seen some of you ask why I stopped uploading so I owe you an apology, I will say I have no intention of ever abandoning this story. I have imagined this through to the end and I have many heartbreaking and heartwarming scenes I intend to have written and uploaded, I hope to return to my regular uploading schedule and should I ever lose motivation again I will at least write ON HIATUS in the description. Thank you for supporting this story by favoriting and following it and I hope to have the next chapter out by next weekend or the weekend after.
Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.