The Chamber of Secrets:Raised by Moony and Padfoot

Chapter 5

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Fred and George all sat together enjoying the magnificent Halloween feast. Harry had gotten Fred and George some muggle scary story books for their birthday, one of which they were now recounting, as the group helped themselves to dessert. "The voice was now right next to them..." Fred narrated. "YOU HAVE IT!" George yelled, lunging toward Ron, causing Ron to jump out of his seat, and spill pumpkin pie all over Neville, who was sitting next to him.

"What was that for?" Ron asked.
"Oh lighten up Ron, it's Halloween. What's Halloween without a good scare?" Fred said.
"Where'd Ginny go? Wasn't she here too?" George asked.
"I think she went back to the common room somewhere around when you started telling the story." Hermione said.

"That's a shame," said Fred.

"I wouldn't mind heading back soon, too," Neville said. "I'm stuffed."

"I agree," Hermione stated "I want to make sure I finish the Transfiguration essay for tomorrow's class."

"Ok, ok. We can head back when we've all finished our desserts." George declared.

Harry thought this was an excellent idea, as he was thoroughly enjoying his treacle tart and very much wanted to finish it.

When everyone finished their desserts a few minutes later, they set off for the Gryffindor tower as a group. They were the only students in the hall. They were all talking in hushed voices and joking with one another, when suddenly, Harry heard a faint, and yet distinct, hissing voice, no louder than a whisper.

"Guys be quiet," Harry said.  He listened and heard the voice, and was sure it was the one he heard before. "Can you guys hear that?" He asked.

"Hear what?" Ron asked.
"That voice," Harry answered.
"There is no voice, Harry." Hermione replied.
Harry held up his finger, signaling the rest to be quite again. The voice was getting closer and easier to hear. "Seek....*hissing*....Kill!"

The hissing voice seemed to be getting further ahead as though it were moving down the corridor.

"It's heading this way," Harry proclaimed, running to follow the voice. "I think its going to kill!"

"Harry, what are you talking about, mate?" George asked, but Harry didn't answer. So everyone else proceeded to follow him as he followed the voice. Harry quickly rounded a corner into the next corridor and continued to follow the voice down a short hallway. Then he rounded another corner, to the hallway with the boys and girls loos. The floor was completely flooded. Then Harry looked up.

The rest of the group rounded the corner, slightly out of breath. They all stood a few paces behind Harry and were looking as the ground as they caught their breath. "Look up," Harry instructed.

They all looked up to see a very still looking Mrs Norris (The cat which belonged to the awful caretaker Mr Filch) was mounted to the wall. And there was a message on the wall, written in oozing red writing:
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.

Just then, Filch rounded the corner from the other end of the hall, and saw what had happened.

"You," Filch said nastily, looking at Harry, "look what you've done to my cat! You'll pay for this, Potter!"

"Come off it, Filch! Harry didn't do this! Why would a second year such as Harry have any reason to mess with Mrs Norris?" Fred said in Harry's defense.

"You're right, Mr Weasley," Filch said "it was surely the two of you!" He said pointing his finger back and forth between Fred and George, who both looked back and fourth at each other, shocked.

Professor McGonagall, followed by Professors Snape, Sprout, and Lockhart entered the scene.

"What's going on here?" McGonagall asked in a stern tone.
"Aunt Minerva, we were walking back to Gryffindor tower from the feast, when I heard that voice I told you about before again, and I followed it and found Mrs Norris like this. Everyone else just followed me here." Harry explained.

"They've killed my cat!" Filch said, flinging his hand in the Weasley twins general direction. "I want to see some punishment!"

Snape went up to Mrs Norris and began to examine her. By this point, Filch's unreasonable claims had come very loudly attracting other students to were all this was happening. A crowd had started to gather. "She is not dead, Argus, merely petrified," Snape said bluntly to Filch.

Draco had appeared among the crowd of students. "Enemies of the heir, beware," he repeated. "You're next, mudbloods." He sneered.

Dumbledore entered the hall now, and quickly took in the situation. "Pomona, are your second years studying mandrakes this year?" He asked calmly.

"I had planned to begin teaching mandrakes tomorrow, sir." Professor Sprout answered.

"Then you will be able to grow them?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course," Professor Sprout replied.

"Then we should have no problem curing Mrs Norris, once they are mature." Dumbledore said, looking at Filch. Then he turned to the crowd and addressed them. "Students, please listen up. I understand that this is a frightening situation, but the staff and I will investigate, so for now at least, you should not worry yourselves too much. I recommend great caution as you proceed, but ask that you calmly return to your dorms in a quick and orderly fashion, while we figure out what is going on."

Prefects near by began to gather younger students, and everyone went back to their dorms. But Harry still had a lot on his mind.

The Heir? The heir of who?

The only heir Harry knew was Sirius, as heir to the Black family. He guessed there must be a heir system in other pure blood families, but Ron's family didn't do this, and Harry really knew very little about how heirs in the Black family worked, as he had never met Sirius's mother, the current head to the Black family. Sirius had only bad things to say about his family with the exception of his brother Regulus (though these comments were mixed) his cousin Andromeda, and his Uncle Alphard.

But there was no way this had anything to do with Sirius. And so Harry was left wondering.

*****
Author's Note

Hey everyone, thanks for your support of all my stories. I have been trying to update on Sundays, so I'm hoping to continue to be consistent with this (though there may be some extra updates around Thanksgiving/Christmas breaks).

Feel free to comment, as I love reading them.

~Savanah