Heron

“Appalled. I am thoroughly appalled. That students should cast the Banishing Charm unto another student, and that they should no less be MY students. Appalled.” the short teacher was pacing around, occasionally stopping to look at the two students in front of him. “And no less YOU, Stormcloak. I mean Night-” 

“Sir, with all due respect, while I would like to take credit for hitting Malfoy with Depulso, I didn’t actually attack him.” Silas argued. He was there just so Caspian could feel even a tiny bit less ashamed. 

“Oh... you didn’t?” Flitwick raised an eyebrow then glanced back at Caspian. “No matter! This is not the kind of behavior I expect from Ravenclaw students. Under NO circumstances should you ever point a wand with ill intent at a fellow student.” 

“ Even if it’s Malfoy?” Caspian and Silas looked at each other, both knowing that was the thought that went through their minds. 

“Twenty points from both of you.” 

“Sir, again, I didn’t actually do anything.” Silas tried to defend. 

“Quiet, Mr. Nightingale. It is also your duty to make sure that no one near you does something of this sort, AND to how the events were described to me, you also had your wand out at the time. Consider yourselves lucky; Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were both equally furious. Don’t think I am not disgusted by Mr. Malfoy’s insult towards Miss Granger, but it is not up to you to decide on a punishment. Were it not for the Slytherin students being identified as the instigators in this altercation, you would presently find yourselves aiding Mr. Filch in a thorough castle cleansing, or perhaps facing an even graver outcome. Now get out of here, and best make sure I don’t hear your names mentioned in such incidents again.”   

“Even though he said all that, I think he’s also at least somewhat happy with what we - I mean, you did.” Silas said while they were walking back to the common room. 

“I’m sure he will be even more happy once he receives a letter from Malfoy’s father and gets to reply with ‘ Your son used a foul insult, thus he is no less innocent in-” or whatever he comes up.” Caspian giggled. “I wonder what spell Orion would have gone for?” 

“If Orion decided to hit Malfoy with a spell, I don’t think he would leave the hospital wing for at least a week.” Silas also chuckled, but for some reason felt a bit of irritation welling up inside him. 

---  

“Well - I wouldn’t - say that that’s - entirely true.” Terry kept ducking the bats that seemed to be magnetized to his head. “Even though Orion has been – oh no, you don’t,” he swung at the bat which was trying to grab his pumpkin spice cupcake, “even though he hasn’t lost weight, which might I add is surprising, since we never see him at breakfast; and even though he has once again started waking up before us, it still feels very different to how he was last year. I swear these bats...” 

“I see you’ve become less scared of them.” Caspian added, holding back laughter. 

“Why – are you la – wait. SILAS!” Terry tried to throw what remained of his cupcake at the boy who was sitting next to Caspian and had the tip of his wand barely peeking over the edge of the table; he was using a charm to lure the bats towards Terry. “Of course, I’ve grown less scared. If we’ll be seeing them every Halloween, then it’d be really annoying if I always have to eat with my head turned towards the ceiling. Plus, they’re quite harmless.” 

“What do you think Silas?” Caspian now directed his question towards the boy sitting next to him. 

“About whether or not Orion’s getting better? Surely, he must be. Last month he could barely drag his feet to the next classroom, now he’s spending his mornings in the library.” 

“No, he’s not.” Padma said. 

“How do you know?” 

“My sister said she heard Ron tease Hermione by saying she’s missing her rival in bookworming.” 

“Heh, ‘bookworming’ .” Silas chuckled. 

“Well,” Caspian slapped Silas in the back of his head, he wanted him to take this seriously, “has anyone seen him then?” 

“No.” a number of students said one after the other, “Though I heard Hagrid say something about a pale boy spending a lot of time near the Forbidden Forrest.” said Cho. 

“You don’t think he’s going to it every day, do you?” Sue was surprisingly intrigued. 

“I doubt he could get past Hagrid. A stick in the wrong place and he’d notice. No way he would miss the marks of a student entering.” 

“He isn’t particularly the brightest.” 

“Don’t say that, he’s got a big heart.” 

“I’d hope. He’s a big man after all.” 

“I wouldn’t even call him a man, he’s a giant.” 

“Half-giant.” corrected Michael as the group of students walked down the corridor towards the common room. 

“Is that – is that water?” Caspian noticed the oddity coming from a hall down the corner, but he wasn’t the only one, students from other houses also decided to approach to check what had happened; perhaps Peeves had some success in another annoying prank. 

As they turned around the corner, they were surprised to see the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione standing in the water, but their surprise turned to fearful gasps as they noticed the scarlet writing on the wall, and the tiny body of Mrs. Norris, the cat of the caretaker Filch, hanging from the torch bracket. No one said anything, some people pushed through the crowd to see what was going on. 

“Enemies of the heir, beware! You’ll be next, Mudbloods!” Malfoy shouted with a nasty grin, staring at the girl among the trio. 

“What would make him think that?” Silas thought. 

Everyone had their eyes on the three Gryffindors and just as Silas was about to defend them, Filch pushed through. 

“What’s going on here? What’s going on?” he said, but immediately froze at the sight of his beloved pet. “MY CAT! MY CAT! WHAT’S HAPPENED TO MR. NORRIS?” even the few people who didn’t take Filch seriously and made his life difficult were frightened by his furious screams and even more so by his soul-piercing glares. “WHO- YOU!” he slowly and menacingly took a few steps towards Harry. “You! You’ve murdered my cat! You’ve killed her! I’ll kill you! I’ll -” 

“Argus!” a loud yet calming voice came just in time to prevent the caretaker from striking the boy. Dumbledore approached the body of the cat and detached the poor creature from the bracket. 

Snape and McGonagall who came along with the headmaster looked at the three students, the former with suspicion in his eyes and the latter with worry. 

“Come with me Argus. You too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger.” Dumbledore ordered. 

“My office is nearest, Headmaster – just upstairs – please feel free –” Lockhart said with a bounce. 

“Thank you, Gilderoy.” replied the headmaster but everyone knew that he would rather have said “ I am well aware.”  

The five of them along with Snape and McGonagall went past the sea of students and disappeared behind a corner. No one dared to utter a word for a few seconds. 

“Ahem,” Percy cleared his throat, “everybody to their respective common rooms.” he ordered, and the other prefects quickly followed his example and began leading their houses to the dormitories. 

“Do you think he did it?” Terry whispered. 

“No way. He isn’t that cruel.” Caspian was surprised anyone would suspect Harry of doing such a horrible thing. 

“Maybe he wanted to vent his frustrations on someone or something and FIlch’s cat was the closest thing.” Sue said. 

“And Ron and Granger just let him do it?” Silas was also on Harry’s side. 

“When you say it like that....” Sue realized how absurd it was to blame Harry. 

---  

A few minutes after the coast was cleared and he was the only one remaining, Orion lifted his Disillusionment Charm. He stood a few feet away from the wall with the text, reading it over and over. He didn’t know why this interested him as much as it did. He took a few steps closer and just as he was about to touch the letters, a figure slowly approached from behind, grabbing his shoulder. 

“You shouldn’t.” Dumbledore solemnly said. 

Orion turned slightly but impulsively continued staring at the text, then at the bracket from which Mrs. Norris was hanging. 

“Mrs. Norris is-” Dumbledore began explaining what he had just found out in Lockhart’s office, but Orion interrupted him. 

“Petrified.” 

“Indeed.” though he half-expected the boy to have already figured it out, Dumbledore was still impressed by the fact he’d managed to notice that, even without the cat’s body.  

“Shouldn’t be a problem then, a simple anti-” Orion began, trying to walk away from the situation. 

“There are no simple petrification charms, and no simple cures for it.” the elderly wizard was quick to interrupt him. 

“...Mandrakes?” Orion countered. 

“I see you’ve paid attention in Herbology. However,” Dumbledore stroked his beard, “they are not in season yet and St. Mungos don’t treat animals, so they most likely wouldn’t send any of their mature ones.” 

“Not even to you..., sir?” Orion once again almost forgot to add the honorific, even if he knew the headmaster didn’t care about it. He also didn’t wait for Dumbledore to come up with a response. 

Dumbledore watched the boy turn around the corner and after a few minutes turned to face the writing. “I’m glad he didn’t mention this.” he said and also walked away. 

---  

“You guys go on ahead.” Silas said to Caspian and Terry. 

“Did you do something to anger Snape? Is he giving you detention?” Terry asked with genuine worry. 

“No.” Silas said calmly. 

“A punishment?” Caspian was acting as though his own son had been sentenced to death. 

“NO! I – I’ve been thinking, you remember last year how we talked about want we want to do after we graduate?” 

“Yeah....” Caspian and Terry both said in anticipation. 

“I think I want to become a potion’s master... like Professor Snape.” 

It wasn’t the choice of profession that surprised the two boys, it was the fact that Silas referred to him as ‘ Professor Snape’, no other student did so unless they were talking to or in front of the teacher himself. 

“Si,” Caspian placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “good luck.” he wiped a non-existent tear from his eye. 

“Si,” Terry also placed his, “don’t di-” 

“Would you stop pretending like I’m going to war???” Silas pushed both their hands away. “I’ll see you later in the common room.” 

After the two boys left, Silas approached the dark figure who was watching Harry clean cauldrons. Snape always managed to find a reason to punish the boy, so it wasn’t surprising that once again he was staying behind after classes.  

“Um, Professor?” Silas said slightly sheepishly. (A/N: In that one chapter I did it on purpose, this time I noticed while proofreading that I stacked 's' words)

Instead of answering, Snape, who was staring intensely at Harry working, quickly (and with slight surprise) turned his head towards the Ravenclaw and raised an eyebrow. “Yes?” he said after a few awkward seconds of Silas waiting for permission to speak. 

“I was –” Silas took a deep breath to gain some confidence, “I have decided that I want to be a Potion’s master after I graduate and was wondering if you could recommend books that I should read to become one like yourself.” 

Snape’s face twitched, his face changing briefly to one Silas didn’t think possible.  

“Not now, Nightingale, can’t you see I am currently preoccupied?” he glanced back at Harry who had taken the opportunity of not being under scrutiny to rest for a bit, “I can see you, Potter.”  

Silas was then promptly ignored, so he left. 

“You’re back quick. How’d it go?” Caspian asked once Silas entered the dormitory. 

“He was ‘ preoccupied’ with Potter’s punishment.” Silas slumped into a free armchair and pulled out a piece of parchment so he could also do his homework like the two other boys. 

“At least you got out alive.” Terry said. 

“Why are you both acting like Professor Snape is the devil incarnate?” 

“Devil?” Terry was slightly surprised that a pureblooded wizard would be using such a metaphor. 

“I’m not comparing him to... You-Know-Who.” Silas shuddered. 

“Have you actually seen Snape?” Caspian joked. 

“There must be a reason he’s like that. No person is inherently grumpy like him.” 

“Filch is also like that.” Terry said. 

“That’s thanks to every student that mocks and insults him. I’d also hate everyone here if I was treated that way.” Silas was slightly irritated. 

Caspian and Terry were both perceptive enough to realize that teasing Silas was not a good idea. 

“What did you ask him anyways?” Caspian asked. 

“If he could give me book recommendations.” 

“Can’t you ask Mrs. Pince?” Terry lifted his head from his paper. 

“I could and I have, but don’t you think he knows a book or two that aren’t in the library?” Silas was getting into a better mood. 

“Si, we’re second-years, you should start with the more basic stuff. Also,” Caspian glanced at the clock in the middle of the room then stood up, “we should be getting ready.” 

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Silas also stood up, putting the parchment which remained empty back into his bag. “Sorry, Terry - practice. Today’s our first one.” 

“That’s fine, just make sure you get your assignments done. Good luck.” Terry watched his two friends leave. He leaned back into his chair, looking up at the ceiling, sighing.  

“What’s wrong?” Padma asked, sitting where Silas had just a minute ago. 

“Nothing.” Terry stopped looking up. 

“I know you’re feeling down,” Padma smiled, “you’re gonna be left out a lot with the two of them being on the team.” she paused for a bit. “I’m going to the library to look for information about the ‘ Chamber of Secrets’. Wanna come?” 

“I still have Binns’s assignment to do.”  

“Don’t pretend you’re not curious.” Padma stood up. “Come on.” she invited. 

Terry thought about it for a few seconds then reluctantly stood up and followed the girl out and to the library. 

---  

“Ugh, I can’t believe all of them are gone.” Terry had also become invested in searching for ‘ Hogwarts: A History’ and was annoyed at the fact all copies of the book were already taken. “What are we gonna do now?” 

“Might as well finish our homework.” Padma sighed defeated. 

“Yeah, might as well.” Terry sat. Just as he was about to reach down for his bag, he noticed a familiar face. He quickly stood back up and rushed over. “Hey, Orion, didn’t expect to see you here. What are you doing?” usually no one could find Orion before and after classes, except for dinner. 

Orion gave him a blank look, then walked past him and went to the second floor. 

“He still hasn’t recovered.” Padma approached Terry.  

“But what is it he has to recover from?” Terry looked at Padma, but she had just as many ideas as him, which was none. 

“You see them too, don’t you?” an unsettlingly calm voice asked Orion.  

Orion looked at her the same way he had Terry. 

“Thestrals, I mean.” Luna Lovegood clarified herself. “You go to the forest to see them.” she waited for an answer, but Orion didn’t produce one. “I saw them just before the gamekeeper took us down to the boats. I also go to the forest, to feed them.” Orion tried to walk away, but the next sentence stopped him. “Was it your parents?” 

Orion turned around and the change in his eyes which had become fierce made Luna’s widen. 

“Don’t.” he said simply and continued on. 

Luna sat there aghast for a bit, startling back once a girl with bushy hair rushed in front of her, going the same direction as the boy. 

“Orion, do you-” Hermione stopped once she noticed Orion was still angry at something, but to her surprise he calmed down once he looked at her, “do you happen to have a copy of ‘ Hogwarts: A History’ ?”  

“No.” he said simply and continued reading the book in front of him. 

“I see.” Hermione stood there, unsure why; waiting for something. “Th-thanks.” she didn’t look at Orion while saying that. 

---  

“So in twelve eighty-nine, the Warlock Convention decided that -” Professor Binns stopped his consistently boring lesson in surprise, as a student had their hand raised. “Miss - er -” 

“Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets.” Hermione said, causing the whole class to wake up and start murmuring.  

“My subject is History of Magic, Miss Granger, not myths and legends.” he brushed the question. “As I was saying, the convention decided that – Miss – er – Grant?” he looked back up at Hermione. 

“Please, sir, don’t legends always have a basis in fact?” she argued. 

“Well,” Binns looked around and for the first time in his very long career as a teacher, the class's eyes were glued to him, “yes, one could argue with that, I suppose. However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale...” he looked around again. “Oh, very well,” he caved in, “let me see... the Chamber of Secrets. 
   You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago – the precise date is uncertain – by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution.  
   For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school. 
   Reliable historical sources tell us this much, but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. 
   Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.” 

---  

“What do you think the monster is?” 

“Didn’t you listen to Binns, he said it’s all legends people like to tell, he also said the castle has been searched countless times.” 

“’ Didn’t you listen to Binns?’ that was the only time I’ve listened to Binns. I also don’t think that the text and Filch’s cat are just some distasteful prank. It has to be the monster.” 

“Quiet, you two. Snape’s coming.” Terry warned the two who were arguing and right on time as the door opened with its usual loud slam. 

Just as the black cloak approached Silas’s spot, three large books were slammed onto his desk. 

“I want thirty-page essays on each of these books. Two weeks.” he continued onto the front of the class. “Open your books to page—,” he looked at the room which was confusingly staring at Silas who was unexpectedly smiling, “...fifty-three.” he said in a louder voice which instantly frightened everyone to look back at the professor. 

“What was that?! Thirty pages per book? Did you insult him?” Terry kept asking after the class had finished. 

“Would you stop? I told you I asked him for help.” 

“I understand that, but will you be OK? Ninety pages in two weeks is no joke. Plus, we have our first game in that second week and Ingrid said that even we have to be in top condition in case something unexpected happens.”  

“I’ll just have to work extra hard.” 

“Yeah, but—” 

“HONESTLY, WILL YOU HAVE SOME FAITH IN ME FOR A CHANGE?” Silas suddenly got extremely angry. 

“Si...” Caspian tried to help the situation, but the dark-skinned boy just walked away furiously.  

“I - I don’t know what happened.” Terry was both confused and scared he’d done something wrong. 

“Me neither.” Caspian tried to reassure Terry who was visibly incredibly anxious. “But we definitely should be supporting him. It seems he’s quite serious about this.”