Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
It was Halloween night when it happened, the day had been a normal Saturday for everyone, they spent the morning playing music and dancing, then they had spent the vast majority of their afternoon with the Darcorns as had become their habit every since they had been chosen by those magnificent beasts. They rode them for a while, groomed them and fed them and pampered them as much as humanly possible. Pavarti and Padma had even gotten into the habit of braiding little beads into Tonitru and Fulgura’s mane and tail so they looked even more beautiful than before with the moonlight sparkling off the crystals in their mane. Harry had asked Storm if he had wanted braids and his Darcorn gave him a look that Said, ‘are you nuts’ so that was a, ‘’no!’ On the braids...ha ha ha. Although Sirius and Frank did go and buy Storm and Thunder matching bridal and harness which they seemed to very much approve of, and they were quite attractive on them, they were black leather with silver accents that sparkled and shimmered. Thunder and Storm seemed to almost strut when they had their bridles on, especially in front of the mares, as if to show off their new sparkly bangles to the ladies.
On their way down the corridor right above the Great Hall on their way to the Halloween Dinner they saw it, a message in what looked like blood. “The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened, Enemies of the Heir Beware!” Was written across the wall in the hallway, right next to the girls bathroom on the second floor, then Luna shrieked and pointed, it was Mrs. Norris…she was hanging by her tail from a wall sconce, limp and stiff like she was dead.
Harry put his arm across and stopped anyone from getting closer, then told Neville to go get a Professor. Neville ran off and headed back towards the closest occupied classroom and found Sirius still cleaning up from a class.
“Sir, you have to come, somebody wrote something in what looks like blood on the wall and I think Mrs. Norris is dead.” Neville said in a rush as he tried to catch his breath.
“What! Where?” Professor Black asked quickly, shocked at what Neville had said.
“Down the hall, in front of the girls bathroom on the second floor, above the Dining Hall.” He gasped out,
Professor Black took off, followed closely by Neville and the two raced towards the second story bathroom. Quite a crowd had gathered by the time they had reached it, although Harry seemed to have things well under control with not letting anyone get too close to either the wall or Mrs. Norris for that matter. Poor Luna was crying for Mrs. Norris and Pavarti wasn’t that far from it, she was trying to comfort Luna as best she could but she wasn’t doing that great a job at it.
Professor Black took in the scene as he approached and first went over to the writing on the wall, with his canine senses from his animagus he could tell it was definitely blood, chicken blood to be exact. That was when he decided to contact the rest of the Professors and the Headmistress, so he sent off Patronus messages to Frank, Remus, Alice, Xenophilius, Persephone, Filius, and Pomona as well as Minerva then went over to the cat that was just hanging there limp by its tail. He didn’t want to touch it until everyone saw it, that was when he noticed all the water on the floor.
“What’s all this water doing here?” He asked out loud.
“This is near Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, when ever she gets upset she floods the bathroom, to say the least it happens a lot.” Said Pavarti.
It only took a matter of minutes for the first Professor to get there, it was Professor Lupin, as he rushed up the stairs. Remus didn’t even have to get close to the writing on the wall to know it was real blood, the whole hallway reeked of it. Although it didn’t smell of death as if the cat wasn’t dead, although it looked like it.
The next to show up was Alice and then Persephone and the Headmistress. Alice and Persephone immediately began to shoo the students away and clear the hallway. Although it was a rough crowd since everyone wished to know what was going on, and wanted to see the writing and Mrs. Norris’ body, it was kind of morbid really.
Xenophilius took Mrs. Norris down from the wall sconce and then the Professors all moved into an unused classroom right down the hall to check and see if they could figure out what had happened to her. Professor Lovegood first stated that she wasn’t dead but instead she was petrified somehow.
“I don’t know how but she is definitely still alive, but petrified. She is still warm and everything. Her heart is still beating, just really, really slow. We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey to tell anything else, or maybe Hagrid. I don’t know of any spell that can do this, do any of you?” Xenophilius looked over at the rest of the Professors and the Headmistress who all shook their head.
Just then Mr. Filch burst into the room, “Where is she? Who did this! I want to see some punishment! I demand to see some punishment!” He was screaming as he spotted his cat laying there and rushed to her side.
“Argus she is not dead, only petrified.” The Headmistress tried.
“I demand to see some punishment! Was it that Potter boy? Is that who it was! His father was nothing but trouble and the Headmaster said he was crazy and a threat to all the Wizarding World and yet you put Dumbledore in prison and lord that brat over everyone else here like he is the second coming of Merlin or something. I demand that he be punished! I want him whipped for this! He and his whole crew of degenerates, cause nothing but trouble.”
“Mr. Filch!” The Headmistress practically shouted to be heard over the man’s rantings. “First, Mrs. Norris is not dead, just petrified. As soon as Pomona has the Mandrakes ready, Persephone will be able to make the Mandrake Drought and un-petrify her and she will be just fine. Second, Mr Potter Black is no degenerate, he is the top of of his class and so are all the young people he spends his time with. He has done absolutely nothing to earn your ire as such, touch one hair on any of their heads and you will be out of a job and a home faster than you can say Merlin, do I make myself clear?” Glaring her worst at the maintenance man, whom she never did understand why Dumbledore kept him around, other than to be a spy against the children for him.
“But they did it…”
“You have no proof of that, and to say that a first year could petrify someone, even a cat is like saying you have the ability to walk on water. It just isn’t possible. Also we did not get Dumbledore put in prison, his own actions finally caught up with him, and that got Dumbledore put in prison, that would have done so sooner or later. He had been stealing for over seven years he just couldn’t hide it any longer.” Sirius stated almost growling at the man with his eyes glaring holes through the man’s skull. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on this man if this is the way he was thinking about their kids, he might be a danger to them.
“Let’s take Mrs. Norris down to Madam Pomfrey and see what she has to say about her.” Xenophilius picked up the cat gently and escorted the cat and Filch down to the medi-ward, while the others went outside where their kids were still waiting apparently.
“We are going to have to clean this off before the other first years get around and see this, blood on the walls is not a fresh look for the season.” Sirius stated.
“Shut up Padfoot.” Remus stated nonchalantly.
“Can we put up a notice me not ward until it is cleaned up?” Harry didn’t know if the magic would interfere with their investigation or not but he thought the suggestion might be something to work with.
“I don’t think that would be a problem, and there is some kind of magic on this, I don’t know what it is for, but I would bet it is to keep it from being removed.
“Ok, one Notice Me Not ward coming up.” Frank said. And with that he aimed his wand at the wall, then the wall suddenly looked like any vacant piece of wall. “Now unless you are within that six inches you won’t see a thing. It’s not actually touching the wall, so what ever magic that is within it won’t interfere with the ward.”
“Now let’s go see what Madam Pomfrey says about Mrs. Norris.” The Headmistress said. They all headed to the medi-ward after telling the kids to head down to the Dining Hall and enjoy their Halloween Dinner, which they did.
However the Chamber of Secrets seemed to be the focus of conversation down in the dining hall, as soon as Harry, Neville, Luna, and Pavarti reached the Dining Hall they realized that the gossip line was in over drive and everyone in the Dining Hall had apparently heard about what had happened upstairs. Because that was all they were talking about.
Even though some people, mainly the older students, had heard of the Chamber of Secrets, no one seemed to know where it was or much about it really. Only that it was Slytherins secret chamber and that he had hidden it somewhere in Hogwarts, although Hogwarts had been searched many times, no one had been able to find it.
One of the Slytherin upper year boys said something about how Salazar was suppose to have hidden a great monster in the Chamber that was sent to purify the school of all those that he thought were unworthy of being in Hogwarts. Then Malfoy came over to Harry’s table and stated. “You hear that half blood, that means you and your band of misfits will be next.”
Harry stood up and presented his right hand to Malfoy showing off a ring on his index finger, “That would be Lord Potter of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter to you, or you could state Heir Presumptive Black of the Ancient and Noble House of Black as well if you wish, Heir Presumptive Malfoy of the Minor House of Malfoy. And if you wish to be exact it would be Heir Presumptive Longbottom of the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom, Heir Presumptive Lovegood of the Noble and Ancient House of Lovegood, and Heir Presumptive Patil of the Ancient House of Patil. All four of us out rank you, so if you wish to hand out warnings perhaps you should look in the mirror first before you do that. And I would be on the lookout for that monster in your closet and under your bed if I were you, it just might be hunting you.” Harry pulled his hand with the Potter house ring on it back and sat down at the table again, and attempted to ignore Malfoy who had turned red in the face and stomped off…thankfully.
“A monster in the Chamber of Secrets, how mysterious. I wonder if the Professors know anything about it?” Luna looked over to Harry and questioned.
Harry shrugged, “Neither Sirius nor Remus have ever mentioned anything about it.” And he looked over to Neville.
Neville shook his head, “My folks have never said any thing about it either, that I can remember that is.”
“No clue here, I haven’t even read anything about it.” Pavarti stated.
Fred and George huddled close to them and said, “We heard our parents talking about it one night,” George said
“…a while back. Something about the chamber was opened fifty years ago…”Fred stated.
“… and this being the anniversary year, they were afraid that Harry Potter was going to start school…” George stated.
“…the same year they were afraid something would happen.” Fred continued.
“ Apparently, fifty years ago this year, a student let loose the monster in the chamber;” George said.
“… it petrified a bunch of students until it finally killed one.” Fred said.
“Then everything went silent until this started happening.” George finished.
“Fifty years ago you said? That would have been about the time that Myrtle Elizabeth Warren was killed. I wonder if she was the student that they were talking about?” Luna pondered.
“Whose that?” Pavarti asked.
“You know her better as Moaning Myrtle, she haunts that second floor bathroom, she is really fascinating to talk to if you can get her to actually talk and not…well…moan… about things that is.” Luna stated.
“We could go talk to her, and see what she knows about the chamber and the legend.” Neville suggested.
Harry and Luna nodded, although Pavarti had some reservations about going and talking to the Ravenclaw ghost, since she had been force to use that bathroom before and to say the least it hadn’t been a pleasant experience. She ended up half covered in water when Myrtle dove into one of the toilets and sprayed water all over the bathroom because she didn’t say ‘hello’ to her when she came into the bathroom.
So the four made a decision to go talk to Myrtle after dinner and went ahead and ate their meal in relative silence, thinking about what kind of a monster could petrify a cat, petrify students and kill a young witch. Harry also made up his mind to look up Daily Prophet of fifty years ago and see if there was any information on Myrtle’s death in it.
“Myrtle can you come out, I have some friends that would love to meet you?” Luna began. They had gone to the second story bathroom just as they planned right after dinner and found it shy one ghost. Apparently she had chosen right then to hide away so they decided to try again later and headed over to the Library to see if they could find anything on the Chamber there.
Unfortunately it looked like half the student body was also doing the same exact thing, so they decided to check the back issues of the Prophet for a story on Myrtle and found nothing, not even an obituary. Nothing on her death, nothing about the attacks on Hogwarts, nothing about anyone getting accused or caught, nothing. Apparently Dumbledore had it all swept under the rug quite nicely fifty years ago and Myrtle being a muggle-born an all, didn’t warrant a write up in the paper either.
Eventually they decided just to do their research for their homework, everyone wanted to start on their history papers anyway so they hung around the library for a couple of hours until it was getting close to curfew and then headed back to Gryffindor tower and went to bed.
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Transfiguration class was actually something really useful this time, Harry thought. When Sirius told them what their in class would be, turning a stick into a quill.
“There have been many times I have been caught without a quill and needed one, well this transfiguration definitely helps in such a situation. It is called ‘Taleapenna’ it means ‘stick into quill’. I am going to hand out a couple of sticks of different sizes so you can explore the differences and then I want you to turn them into a quill using Taleapenna. Now it can be a plain white turkey quill, or a flashy peacock feather, or hell a purple sparkly feather with gold border. It is what ever comes to your mind. The limitations are only your imagination remember that. It doesn’t even have to be real bird like colors, neon green with glitter is fine, if that is what floats your boat. Or black with little moving stars on it. Or maybe green with silver stripe. Let your imagination guide you to your destination on this one.” Professor Black stated as he handed out the little sticks to everyone, he had enough sticks to give everyone three, so he did.
“All right now that incantation was Taleapenna, say it with me please. Taleapenna, once again, Taleapenna. Okay now again simple point and transfigure no wand movement so you may begin at any time.
“Harry thought about if for a moment then grinned and closed his eyes to focus, when he opened his eyes he aimed it at his first still and called out “Taleapenna!” And then before him was a beautiful snowy white owl feather with silver edging and a silver nib attached to it.
To his left he heard “Taleapenna!” And Pavarti looked down and had created a rather gorgeous bright red flaming quill with streaks of orange in it, it looked almost like living fire, her’s also had a nib on it but her’s was polished gold.
“Taleapenna!” To Harry’s left Neville called out, and before him sat an exquisite quill it was white at the base then bled into black, the black had the crest of Hogwarts painted on it in intricate detail, and his quill had no nib on it oddly enough.
Luna sat there with her eyes closed for a moment longer and then opened them “Taleapenna” she called out and before her was a soft blue feather about the size of a regular turkey feather with a fairy painted on it, the quill appeared to have a fairy dust border and silver nib. It truly was one of her best pieces to date Harry thought.
Theodor Nott was the next person to call out “Taleapenna” and he managed to get a brilliant pheasant feather it was detailed and vibrant, one of his best works so far. “Brilliant Mr. Nott, now your catching on. Use your imagination and you can get anything you have every dreamed of. Look at this class, see the detailed work on this piece, he even managed to get the size almost perfect. Ten points to Slytherin.”
Tracey Davis had been thinking about she could do and she decided after a minute to two and she called out “Taleapenna!” And before her was a bright green feather with silver webbing all across it like a spider web. It even had a small silver spider sitting off to one side of the web. Professor Black saw this and heaped praise upon this one.”Now here is one that took imagination by the bushel, this feather has silver spider webbing on it and in this corner here is a little silver spider. Excellent work, excellent! Ten points to Slytherin.”
Then Professor Black went over to the Gryffindor side and saw the ones that Luna, Neville, Harry, and Pavarti had done. First was Luna, he gasped as the detail of the painting and held it up. “This one is magnificent, you notice how Luna took the feather and used it for a canvas and painted a fairy on the feather, extremely delicate work but it can be done, nothing is impossible with your imagination.
Then Luna got an idea for another one and she closed her eyes and thought for a minute and then open her eyes and looked down at her stick and pointed he wand and said “Taleapenna!” And before her was a brilliant white feather with half a dozen black cat paw prints zig zagging their way up and down across the feather.
Harry couldn’t help but laugh at that and began to get an idea and then closed his eyes and when he opened then he pointed his wand and called out “Taleapenna!” This time the stick turned into a gorgeous white feather again but this time it had a big black cat’s paw print in the middle of it and was gilded in silver with a silver nib.
Pavarti caught onto the trend and closed her eyes then opened them and “Taleapenna!” When she looked at her stick it had become a taupe colored feather with her Mata’s siamese cat Fate on it with gold gilding and a gold nib.
Then finally Neville’s turn came around and he closed his eyes and he called out “Taleapenna!” And before him was a glorious brilliant white turkey feather with a snow leopard painted on it looking ready to pounce. The feather had silver gilding and a silver nib to it and it sparkled and glistened in the light.
Sirius had watched the four make their new creations and couldn’t help but laugh when they finished and he held up Luna’s first. “It appears we have some comedians in the class folks, this is Miss Lovegood’s feather, as you can see she has paw prints all kitty paw prints all over it. And here is Mr. Longbottom’s with a snow leopard. Here is Mr. Black’s work with a cat’s paw print in the middle of it then gilded in silver. And finally we hav Miss Patil’s with a siamese cat on it gilded in gold. These are all hilarious and get ten points each, I love them.”
The four were all smiling when they took their feathers back they each created a little box to keep their two feathers in, one for each box, of course.
The rest of the class thought the feathers were great and began to get a little more creative, even Malfoy but he stuck to something more traditional. He created his families crest on one of his and a white peacock on another one.
“Class I would love to show you what Mr. Malfoy has done today, absolutely brilliant job, first he did his family crest on this one, and then he did a white peacock on a taupe colored feather. Two amazing feathers Mr. Malfoy, ten points each for Slytherin. Let’s see what you can do with the last, oh and I bet your father would be proud to have either or both of those brilliant creations young man.”
The idea of what to do with the feathers grew as the class went on, and each person tried to outdo the person before them, but they all had fun doing so. Again a brilliant idea for a class if Sirius had to say so for himself, Sirius thought as he was cleaning up after the students had left, he grinned as he thought of the last one that Luna had made that looked like a cookie with a bite out of it. He had no idea where that girl get’s her imagination from but he hoped it never changed.
Charms class was just as interesting that day, well at least to Harry it was, they learned the silencing spell.
“Alright class we are going to learn something today that is extremely useful and I had a student in your year ask me about it just this morning so I know it is something that you might need at some point. It is a silencing ward. This is not to be confused with a silencing spell though. A silencing spell just silences the individual, a silencing ward keeps out all noise from entering or escaping a certain area. I must remind you now that using a silencing spell or ward for nefarious purposes is against the law and will double if not triple the original punishment you would have gotten if you are caught.” Professor Flitwick began.
“The reason someone asked about it is because they were housed with two very noisy roommates and when they wanted to sleep they couldn’t so I taught them this charm and now all they have to do is get into their bed, pull the curtains and cast the charm in their area and no outside sound can come through, it is also a given that no inside sound can make it outside as well. So if you snore or you want to spend some time staying up late talking with your friend but don’t want to disturb the rest of the people in your dorm you can use this spell to keep the noise from getting out and everyone will be happier for it. Now the spell is ‘Silentiumtetela’. Why don’t you say it with me. Silentiumtetela, again Silentiumtetela, and finally Silentiumtetela. Excellent, Now the wand movement is a broad circular motion, the larger the area the larger the motion. But don’t go wild on your circles, or you will silence a whole room without meaning too. Now to release the spell a simple ‘Finite Incantatem’ can end the charm. Also with any standard charm it does have it’s limits, so there is a limit of how much sound it can hold back or not allow in, so the scream of a mandrake or a banshee are definitely out of it’s spectrum of possibility.” He continued.
Then he started around the room and helped each student with their incantation and wand movements until they could all cast it, even Lavender Brown.
Something that Harry had thought was funny was that Dean and Seamus had invited Hermione to set between them again this time on their own. She had blushed but happily sat down and started taking notes and then began helping them with the incantations and by the time Flitwick got to them they already had it down pat and he only thing he had to help with was the size of circle to use for the area they wished to cover.
Potions class was interesting, they made a stomach soother that used a wide variety of methods and ingredients to make. It was the first time they had used the process of testing the temperature of the potion and adding an ingredient when the potion gets to a certain temperature, so they learned ’Temparura; they were also taught “Ventus” for proper ventilation of a potions. Which was important on this potion since the fumes on this potion can make you sick to your stomach unless you are careful.
“Now students we are going to be attempting the Stomach Soother today, this is a very complex work but you should be able to do this at your stage in this class. We are going to learn two new spells today, first you will learn a spell for telling the temperature of the potion, which is Temparura. All you have to do is point you wand to the surface of the potion and say Temparura. Just make sure you are aiming at the potion and not at the cauldron when you do it, and you have it made.” Professor Lovegood stated then went around the room making sure everyone had the pronunciation of the spell correctly.
“The next spell you will need to know is Ventus, which will make sure the fumes from the potion are taken care of, because unfortunately if you don’t use this charm you will end up getting nauseas and even throw up, which I always thought odd since it is a stomach soother.” Professor Lovegood chuckled and went around and showed everyone the wand movement for this one. “Now you see the small spiral upward you use above your cauldron that will guide the fumes where to go.”
With that they began thankfully only Goyle, Crabbe and Brown threw up in class, but a quick scourgify and a ventus and no one else got sick, then Professor Lovegood just sent them down to Madam Pomfrey to get something for their stomachs. Although Parkinson wasn’t looking too good until Professor Lovegood went over to her station and adjusted her Ventus to properly ventilate her potion and then she was fine.
“Alright people when your potion reaches one hundred and fifty degrees is when you add the dandelion but not before, so be careful there are no other indicators of when to add them so you will just have to watch your potion carefully, there is no specific time or times turning, color or any other indicator other than temperature. If you let your potion go above one hundred and sixty degrees it’s too late, you just have to start again, there is no going back, no letting it cooling off and trying to finish it that way, it just won’t work; in fact it will make the person who takes it rather ill.
Apparently Parkinson didn’t hear the last part or listen to the last part of that statement for when she tried to turn her’s in it was a dark grey color instead of light blue, and Professor knew immediately what was wrong with the potion and told her so, then showed the class the differences between the properly made potion of Mr. Malfoy and the improperly made potion of Pansy Parkinson.
“Now you see the difference here, when you add the minced dandelion root at the wrong time you get a dark grey sluggish mess, that will make the drinker ill, so this is what you want to avoid. But don’t worry Miss Parkinson we are going to making this one Wednesday as well so I want everyone to read chapter ten and do the questions at the end of the chapter and have them ready to hand them in when you come in on Wednesday.
Defense Against the Dark Arts had also been very useful, they had used the spells they had learned for a practical for the first time.
“Okay today we are going partner up and then we are going to use the shield and stinging hex methods to practice today. Now if your opponent manages to get two hits on you, I want you to raise your hand and stop what you are doing, we are not here to hurt each other, we are here to learn. The hardest part will be keeping up that ward while someone is shooting a hex at you, it takes some effort. But you should both take turns doing this exercise, try three times and then switch, start with the first person’s name I call shooting the hex and the person I call second defended against. Now I am going to pair you up so I don’t want you arguing with who I set up with.” Professor Longbottom explained.
“Longbottom and Black”
“Patil and Lovegood”
“Thomas and Finnigan”
“Nott and Zabini”
“Greengrass and Bullstrode”
“Malfoy and Parkinson”
“Goyle and Crabbe”
And finally “Davis and Brown”
“If anyone has a problem with their opponent then the only option would be that they spend the entire time fending off stinging hexes against me. So I think it is best to stick with who your partner is don’t you think?” From that point it was just going around adjusting people’s wand movements and stances.
Harry and Neville were doing a midrange level of hexes until Professor Longbottom told them that they really weren’t really testing each other’s shields like that so then they began to go all out. Really trying to make a good challenge of it. It was only when Tracy Davis got a good hit on Lavender Brown and caused her to shriek out and Neville got distracted that Harry actually got a hit in and boy Neville was rubbing his butt cheek the rest of class, making every attempt to get Harry back for that single shot.
The next several weeks went by relatively smoothly, they started their flying classes which was brilliant, well it would have been brilliant without the little accident with Susan’s broom.
They had flying lessons with Hufflepuff at ten o’clock on Saturdays which put a kink into their music time, but they worked around it nicely and everyone just played music until then then headed down to the area to meet Madam Hooch together. Susan and Hannah had learned to fly right along with Harry, Neville and Luna back when they were all going to school together so they were all excited about it. Pavarti was the only one that was hesitant about it since she had never been on a broom before.
There were two rows of brooms laid out on the Hogwarts’ lawn one side for Gryffindor and one side for Hufflepuff obviously. Since there was the same number in each house Gryffindor picked the row closest to the right simply because they were there first so they got to pick, and it look to have the better brooms, but Madam Hooch said it was a mixture honestly. Once he saw the shape of the brooms they had, Harry made one decision, before next class he was ordering a whole new set of brooms. Maybe Comet one hundreds or one-twenties, the adult version of his and Neville’s first broom. They were sturdy and dependable and good for first time riders. Yeah he would tell Sirius to place the order tonight for thirty of them; to cover enough kids needing brooms. He had the money so why not use it for something worth wild on occasion, and these brooms seriously needed to be replaced.
Some brooms flew to the right, some to the left, some barely had any twigs left, some couldn’t get up any speed at all, others seem to have problems with their braking, each broom had something wrong with it in some manner. Sometimes it was just a little something like the fact that Harry’s broom tended to curve to the left. Other times it was something more major like when Susan’s broom shot strait up in the air with her and then started spinning with her on it. Thankfully, Harry and Neville were on the ground watching her fly and grasped hands just as her hand slipped from the broom, in a spit second they had their wands up and pointed at her both yelled out “STOP!” And that is what happened. She stopped in her mid-air fall.
Madam Hooch came running over to the boys and said, “Now lower her down real slow, that will make sure she doesn’t get hurt on the way down.”
Neville and Harry nodded without taking their eyes off of Susan. “SLOW!” They shouted, and Susan began a graceful descent downward to the ground , yard by yard, foot by foot, then inch by inch until she touched down. “Whoosh” What a relief.
As soon as she touched down she rushed over to Harry and Neville and wrapped her arms around the two of them and squeezed the breath out of both of them. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She squealed, in her excitement.
The thing they all didn’t know is that the whole thing had been witnessed from the Headmistress’ office by both the Headmistress and Susan’s Aunt Amelia who where talking about the whole Chamber of Secrets thing again. And they had stepped over to the window to watch the Hufflepuffs get their first flying lessons, when Amelia saw Susan fall from her broom at over a hundred and fifty feet in the air she almost fainted, but instead she heard Harry and Neville shout out “STOP” and her niece just hung in the air there, floating along like no bodies business. With that both women headed outside, as fast as they could, to see what happened.
They reached the training area just as Susan landed, safe and sound and was hugging the life out of her friends. “Susan!” Amelia shouted, causing her niece to look up, she hadn’t known her Aunt would be at Hogwarts today, but she went rushing over to her and reached around and hugged her, burying her face in her Aunt’s uniform.
Amelia didn’t know if her niece was over whelmed or glad to see her or what, so she decided it was a combination of everything and just started guiding her inside the school to Madam Pomfrey to be checked over just in case.
The Headmistress instructed Neville and Harry to follow, when they asked why she said, “Because you two just used an incredible amount of magic right then, to do what you did. I want to make sure you didn’t over do it.”
They were going to argue but the look on her face told them differently, they knew that look, that was a Persephone ‘you had better not even think about talking back to me’ look. So they just shrugged their shoulders and followed behind Amelia and Susan to go see Madam Pomfrey.
Just as Neville and Harry sat down to wait for their turn to see Madam Pomfrey Sirius came skidding around the corner, apparently the Headmistress had sent him a message that they were both being sent to the medi-ward after an accident during flying class, and hadn’t thought to elaborate, or if she did Sirius didn’t hear it. Or had already left the room by the time that part of the message had played. Either way, it was a frazzled Sirius that showed up in the Medi-ward a few moments later.
“Where are they?” He called out as he skidded around the door.
“Were right hear and no reason to shout, we can hear just fine, Dad.” Harry said as he stood up to hug Sirius.
“McGonagall said there was an accident in Hooch’s class, faulty broom, I didn’t catch the rest of it” Looking confused.
“Yeah, Susan’s broom when bizzerk and flew like a hundred and fifty feet into the air then began to spin in place with her on it. It knocked her off of it, and Neville and I joined hands and pointed our wands at her, yelled out ‘stop’ when she began to fall and she did. Then Madam Hooch rushed over and told us to lower her down real slow and that is what we did. That is when Amelia and the Headmistress came out of the castle and ran up. And then they sent us all in here to get checked out. We’re fine but Susan was a little shook up, she was crying and everything.” Harry said.
“She’s fine boys, just the adrenaline rush after the experience like that messing with her emotions, nothing other than that.” Amelia said as she escorted Susan around the white divider. Susan was all smiles now. Apparently a calming draft and a few moments to chill out did her a world of good.
“You have no idea how much I appreciate what you did, I would have died if it had been anyone else out there.” Susan stated.
“I’m sure that Madam Hooch is trained what to do when something like that happens and knows all kind of spells to keep someone from getting killed.” Neville tried.
“Okay a smaller pile of dragon splat, maybe… but still dragon splat.” Susan chuckled half heartedly shaking her head.
“Dad, I had an idea when we were out there on the grounds looking over those brooms. The school needs new brooms, I have the money. I want you to order thirty new Comet one hundreds for the school, and have them delivered immediately. We can’t let this happen again. Susan could have died.”
Sirius was just about to say something when Amelia stated “Make that twenty Comet one hundreds Sirius,”
“Make it ten,” Said Frank as he walked in, apparently he had heard about the whole thing and couldn’t be prouder of his son and Harry. “Those school brooms should have been retired ages ago. Longbottom Hall will donate ten brooms to the school.”
“Thanks Dad.” Neville beamed up at his dad.
“I’m very proud of what you and Harry did today, but that was a lot of energy to use up. Now go get checked by Madam Pomfrey like a good little brat.” Frank patted his son on the head and smirked.
“Hey.” Neville swatted the offending hand away but walked over to Madam Pomfrey and sighed, following her to a bed where he sat down.
A few scans later he was back smiling, “Told you,” was all he said then he pointed over his shoulder “You’re next Harry.”
Harry didn’t look worried at all and just walked behind the curtain and sat down, then popped back out a minute or two later. “Same here, ‘looks good’. Was all she said and told me to quit wasting her bed space and left to work on real patients.” He grinned at Sirius. “Now about those brooms.”
“We can place that order right now if you want. We can even use the floo in my office to call the Comet Broom representative, I wonder if we can get a discount if we let them know they are for a school.” Sirius put his arm around Harry’s shoulder and they all headed down to his office where they did indeed make that call, and they got that discount for the number they were buying and the fact that it was for a school both. And they would have them delivered by next Thursday, so in time for the next flying lessons. Sirius just gave the man his vault information and told the man to take it from there, then told Frank and Amelia to give him their share when they got the chance to do so. It saved the problem of having the shipment from being broken up into three shipments and they got a larger discount that way.
“This is so great! We have got new brooms for the school and no one will get hurt because of those broken down old ratty ones again! Hooray!” Susan cheered, hugging her Aunt.
“It’s something the School Board should have done ages ago, but I am glad were doing it now. We are going to have to make sure that they replace them in ten years not twenty like they normally try to work with.” Amelia stated.
“Twenty years is just too much time on the amount of kids that use these brooms, and the amount of ruff housing and low amount of care they get. With only Hooch to tend to them, maybe she could do a couple of classes on broom care and have the kids do the new brooms broom care instead of her having to do it. It might stretch out their usefulness and keep them in better condition for longer. Or what if every summer we sent the brooms back to the factory to be spruced up some, you know fresh wax, new twigs, breaking and balancing charms checked. Things like that. A standard routine check up. Pay for that, instead of new brooms every ten years. Then maybe they will last for twenty years.” Sirius suggested.
“That’s an excellent idea, a standard routine check up costs a lot less than new brooms. We could swing something like that, nearly every year. It would only be maybe a galleon a broom, maybe two…I would think, if we set up to do them all, they could have them done in a weekend and back to the school in no time. And it would stretch the life of the broom out probably double. If not more.” Frank added. “There are some brooms out there that have been in good working order at the Hall that are almost forty years old and they are as good as the day they were bought because I send them to get maintained once every other year, even if no one has used it. I have some real classics out there too.”
“Yeah dad has a Nimbus Shooting Star that looks like it just came off the floor, you should see it!” Neville said excitedly.
Susan’s eyes got wide. “A real Shooting Star? WOW!”
“Yes wow, and no you can’t ride it. So get that thought out of your head right now young lady.” Amelia looked down at her niece with a smirk.
“But…”
“No but… No riding a classic broom, besides you have had enough broom riding to last you for a little while don’t you think?” Amelia asked.
“Nope.” Susan stated with a grin, stressing the ‘p’ with a popping sound of her lips. Causing Amelia to just role her eyes and shake her head, looking over at Sirius and Frank for help but all she saw was them chuckling and could see there would be no help there.
—————————————————
They were all headed back to Hufflepuff towers, mainly to escort Susan back to her dorm when they spotted him, Justin Finch-Fletchly laying in the middle of the corridor and the ghost of the Fat Friar floating lifelessly in mid-air smoking a grayish smoke.
Amelia, and Frank rushed to the boy’s side while Sirius held the kids back, each one was staring at the body of the boy on the ground. Susan of course knew Justin from the Hufflepuffs and had spoken to him on numerous occasions, she and Hannah had even sat down and done homework with him and Zachariah Smith on more than one occasion too. He was a good person, very friendly once you got to know him. A little snobbish until you got past that outer shell, then he was a really nice guy. And to see him laying there all stiff and such made her want to cry.
“He’s petrified, just like Mrs. Norris.” Frank called out to Sirius. Sirius didn’t think twice he messaged the Headmistress and the four Head of Houses and had them come meet them down here. Soon Professors Longbottom, Lovegood, Flitwick and Sprout were standing there in the corridor and the Headmistress rushed up to the site of the attack. “Sorry, I was preoccupied with a student. Oh sweet Merlin, is he…petrified…?” Minerva asked.
“Yes, same as Mrs. Norris.” Frank said. “And I have no idea what happened to the Fat Friar, he was like that when we got here.”
Headmistress McGonagall looked over to the Hufflepuff ghost for the first time and gasped, “Oh my goodness!”
“It looks like what ever was meant to hit Mr. Finch-Fletchly went through the Fat Friar and caused Mr. Finch-Fletchly to get a diluted form of what ever it was, probably saving his life. But the Friar got the full blast so he has got magic overload, it’s going to take a few weeks to drain off all that excess magic to find out what happened or maybe some Mandrake Drought in a misting bottle sprayed on him, or through him…you know what I mean, anyway it should work as well.” Frank stated.
“Let’s get Mr. Finch-Fletchly down to Madam Pomfrey and see what she says about them both.” The Headmistress suggested.
Amelia went over and leaned against Minerva and whispered, “You realize I’m going to have to write up a report on this don’t you?”
“I would expect nothing less. You were here when it happened after all.” Minerva stated,’’
“Dumbledore would never had let me report it, even if I had seen it happen right in front of my face. He would have found some excuse or reason to keep it quiet.” Amelia stated.
“You will find that I am not Dumbledore, my dear.” Minerva smirked at her old friend.
“Which I am immensely grateful for.” And they both chuckled at that. Then the Headmistress created a small breeze and blew the Fat Friar down to the medi-ward while the Heads of Houses guided Mr. Finch-Fletchly on a stretcher between them. Harry, Neville and Susan followed behind not really wanting to head anywhere without an escort right now. And all the parents agreed.
Headmistress stood and did some kind of spell and called out “All student are to return to their common rooms immediately, all Prefects are to take a head count. Once again all students are to return to their common rooms immediately.”
“I’ll take these two down to Gryffindor and be back in a minute.” Alice stated and turned and left with Harry and Neville. Professor Sprout announced the same for Susan and herded her little badger down the hallway.
With that they all just waited to see what Madam Pomfrey had to say about Mr. Finch-Fletchly.
Madam Pomfrey finally turned to address the Headmistress and the Heads of Houses, “Well it looks like the exact same thing as what happened to Mrs. Norris. No spell residue, no potion residue, no outward sign of violence that I can detect, nothing. Perfectly normal one minute, completely petrified the next, caught in-between heart beats if you will. He is in no pain, nor discomfort of any kind, I doubt very seriously if he is aware or can hear us, although theories waver on that when considering coma victims, no one has ever considered an individual that have been petrified before. So I am going to act as if he can here me, just in case. Perhaps it might ease his mind and trauma just a little. Something a little as playing the Wizarding Wireless for him will make a huge difference. Being trapped in an unmoving body, with your mind still fully functioning is a horror to great to think about. I will make arrangement to have students come read his lessons to him as well.”
“That’s a good idea, I will set up volunteers, I am sure some of his friends will want to help.” Said Professor Sprout.
“Any more clues on who or what could have done this?” Amelia asked.
“The house elves and the paintings haven’t notified me of anything. And now the ghosts are too afraid to wander the corridors, and are sticking mainly to the common rooms and classrooms. Even the house elves are afraid and are popping directly to the rooms that need cleaning instead of using the corridors right now. The paintings seem to freeze in random patterns throughout the castle with no rhyme or reason. And have yet to unfreeze, so maybe they are petrified as well in a way I think. Or maybe it is like with the Fat Friar, magic overload. But what could over load a portrait to that degree?” The Headmistress stated.
“There are only a few creatures I am aware of that even meets the petrify and kill ability that we have found here and none of them are comforting. The Gorgon of course. Although unlikely. Since there hasn’t been one seen in centuries. Or unfortunately the more likely candidate, the basilisk. Which would have to be at least fifty years old since it would have had to have killed fifty years ago when the chamber was last opened. But even then it would only be able to stun, so we are talking about a basilisk that is at least a couple of hundred years old, maybe more. If so, there has to be someone who is controlling it, someone that is a parslemouth and can speak to it, to control it. I don’t know of anyone that is currently alive, that is living in Great Britain that is,” Xenophilius stated, pondering over the information they had gathered so far.
“A basilisk, oh Merlin…we can’t let anyone know that there might be a basilisk loose in the school. They will shut it down.” Minerva stated worriedly. “What am I saying, Dumbledore moment there, we may have to shut down the school if this is true, and search it again. The last time it happened they searched the school but found nothing. But then again that time they accused a acromantula of causing the petrifications and Hagrid was kicked out of school and had his wand snapped for it. Not a basilisk.”
“This is no acromantula bite, no puncture wounds on his body, and I bet there weren’t on Miss Warren’s body either. It was well before my time here but I remember the case, and I seem to remember it saying there were no marks on her body anywhere. No this is not a big spider, or even a little one, and besides acromantulas don’t petrify someone they merely kill.” Madam Pomfrey stated.
“The next child that get’s petrified we start the closing process; if there is a next child that is, pray that there isn’t of course. I won’t allow these children to be placed in danger one minute longer than necessary. With the possibility of a basilisk running around here I am wondering if I should go ahead and clear the castle and then have it searched instead of waiting. What do you think Amelia?” The Headmistress asked looking over to the head of the Department of Law Enforcement.
“My professional opinion is that you call in some of my troops to run the halls and escort your students from and to classrooms for now. While you have the castle searched. Then we can be on hand if anything does happen again, if it does you can close the school at that point, until you flush this thing out into the open.” Amelia stated.
“Wont sending the kids home only be sending home who ever is controlling it too?” Asked Alice. “That will stop the attacks right then. We need to find that parslemouth, they’re the one who is leading that thing around and who released it. Don’t forget the writing on the wall, a snake couldn’t have done that you know.”
“She’s right,” Filius stated, “We had forgotten all about that. What ever is going on here right now has someone, a human someone behind it. Snakes can’t write messages on walls, in chicken blood no less, and do the magic necessary to make it impervious to cleaning charms and manual cleaning. So sending everyone home will only put a pause in the situation until the school reopens, it won’t stop it all together. We have to find the controller.”
Everyone nodded, but they couldn’t think of anyone that they even suspected as being a parslemouth. After a few moments they all agreed that Amelia would send out six Aurors and they would begin escorting the students between classrooms, if more personnel were needed she would pick some people from the new recruits and put them here to get ‘field hours’ as it were. Then they would search the castle to see if anything of note could be found, and finally they would see about setting up a early warning system somehow, maybe something trigger based on some of the paintings. If they were frozen then an alarm would sound, or something like that. So as of this moment they had a tentative plan, and they would make changes as the needs arose.