Chapter 153

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13/4/93

Dear Spencer

Ron and I went to visit Hagrid, we were hoping that now Hermione's been petrified he'd be more willing to talk to us about what the monster was. Don't worry, I'm not going to go looking for the Chamber or the monster I just feel that if we had more information we'd all be able to know what and where to avoid and it would be easier to keep safe. I'm not sure why Ron thinks it's so important that we investigate it, it's clearly a job for professionals. I thought we'd be safe enough though, just visiting Hagrid, he hasn't been acting oddly lately like he did last year when he had the dragon so I truly believe he isn't behind what's petrifying people, or if it is one of his pets he hasn't realised it yet and I'm not sure I'd believe he was that naïve. We snuck out under my invisibility cloak and avoided the areas where the students have been petrified. It seems odd that they haven't sealed that area off and made us all go around it the long way, it is possible, though inconvenient. It was lucky that we went when we did and that we had the cloak with us because we learned a lot. Dumbledore and the minister for magic Mr Cornelius Fudge came while we were there. Hagrid's been arrested by the Minister, well taken into custody, the minister didn't actually charge him with anything he sent him straight to prison until the monster is stopped. Dumbledore argued against it but apparently people do still believe it was Hagrid's pet that killed that girl 50 years ago. Fudge was determined to "be seen to be doing something." So he had Hagrid arrested without giving him or Dumbledore a scrap of proof that Hagrid is responsible and the Aurors he had with him just followed orders without questioning it. They didn't even seem surprised so I guess they knew in advance what he was coming to do.

Then the head of the school board, who is Malfoy's dad, (no wonder he keeps threatening people with 'wait til my father hears what happened') arrived before Hagrid was taken away and notified Dumbledore that the board voted and he was suspended and was forced to leave the school.

As he was dragged away Hagrid gave us the advice that to find out what was really going on we needed to follow the spiders, and Dumbledore stated he'd never truly be gone from Hogwarts while there were still those who were loyal to him there, and that help would always be given at Hogwarts for those who asked for it. Hagrid knew we were there of course because he saw us hide in the corner under the cloak before the others came in, but I think Dumbledore knew we were there too and I don't know how he knew.

You'd think that I'd be glad Dumbledore's gone but the school doesn't feel any safer. I still feel like I need to hide my thoughts and feelings from everybody. I don't know whether it's that I'm so conditioned to being surrounded by people I couldn't trust that I still think that somebody is acting in the shadows to try to control me or if my subconscious knows there really is a reason that I don't feel safe that I just can't articulate. What did Dumbledore mean when he said that help would always be given at Hogwarts? Did he mean he's still available to help us if we reach out to him, could he just want to help or was he encouraging Ron to keep spying and reaching out or was it a veiled threat to me, that things wouldn't change I was still being watched even if he wasn't there? Was he even talking about this situation or was he telling Ron that he should keep trying to spy on me and control me? I want to be glad he isn't here, but something is telling me that I'm no safer in the school with him gone than I was with him here. I'm not sure if that suggests he isn't my only enemy in the school or I'm just feeding off everyone else's anxiety.

The whole school seems much more anxious about the monster from the Chamber now Dumbledore's not here, which really doesn't make any sense because he hasn't done anything to prevent any attacks that we know of and there hasn't been an attack since he's been gone but even Hagrid said that without Dumbledore in the school students would start getting killed. I have no idea what he might know to think that, or if it's a symptom of his blind faith in Dumbledore. I guess it would be in Dumbledore's best interests if the attacks become worse now that he's not here, though I don't know that he actually wants anyone to die I really doubt he'd care all that much unless it was one of his pawns or people he found useful or might be useful in the future.

I guess at least now I know that going to the Ministry for help would probably be useless. It's not just the school that's corrupt it's the whole bloody British magical government and police force, or so it seems.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that we almost followed Hagrid's advice since Dumbledore's advice didn't seem to mean anything useful. We noticed the spiders leaving the castle through every open door and window months ago and didn't think anything of it but now we were looking there doesn't seem to be any left so it was hard to find one to follow. I know it seems unheard of that an old and dimly lit thousand year old castle with hundreds of rooms and dark cupboards and corners has absolutely no spiders, but they're gone. I should have known better, after meeting Fluffy and Norbert last year I'm never going to take Hagrid's word for it that any of his pets are safe. We finally found some out in the greenhouses marching in a line which is very odd behaviour for spiders, and we followed the line until we saw that it was heading for the forbidden forest. That pulled me up, I know it isn't safe to go in there, particularly to sneak in so nobody knows where we've gone. Luckily Ron's afraid of spiders and unlike last year when I'd objected to following them into the locked door on the third floor, it wasn't that hard to persuade him not to go. Especially when I told him of the memory of Hagrid having a spider big enough to fill a broom closet.

Thinking of the memory I noticed that Hagrid and Tom Riddle were wearing the same style of uniform that Myrtle wears. I know that uniforms don't change as often as fashion and wizarding fashions change much more slowly than nonmagical fashions so that style of uniform could have been worn for more than 100 years before them and for decades after them, as I said it's still not all that different from ours today so there probably wasn't a style in between, but Myrtle died at school and there was a student killed when the chamber was open last time. All of the attacks this time have been near her bathroom so even if it wasn't her if she was already a ghost she might have seen or heard something. I haven't been able to find Myrtle to ask her about it.

Superman's car was really cool.

Your friend always

Harry

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Please stay safe everyone.