Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

20. The Writing on the Wall

"Ah! I thought so!" said Lockhart but everyone ignored him.

"But how, I cannot say..." Dumbledore finished.

"Ask them!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry and Y/n.

"No second year could have done this." said Dumbledore firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced..."

"They did it, They did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what they wrote on the wall! Potter and Grindelwald found, in my office...they know I'm a...I'm a..." Filch's face worked horribly. "They know I'm a Squib!" he finished.

"We never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him, including all the Lockhart's on the walls. "And I don't even know what a Squib is."

"Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "They saw my Kwikspell letter!"

"If I might speak, Headmaster." said Snape from the shadows, and Y/n felt his blood run cold. Snape never had anything good to say when it came to matters concerning either Harry or Gryffindor.

"Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast?"

Harry, Y/n, Ron and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. "...there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there."

"But why not join the feast afterward?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"

Ron and Hermione looked at Harry.

"Because...because..." Harry stammered for a moment "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed." he then said.

"Without any supper?" said Snape, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."

"We weren't hungry." said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.

Snape's nasty smile widened. "I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter and his friends are not being entirely truthful." he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he and Grindelwald should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until they are ready to be honest."

"Really, Severus." said Professor McGonagall sharply. "I see no reason to stop the boys playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter or Grindelwald have done anything wrong."

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumblerdore said firmly now.

Snape looked furious.

So did Filch. "My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus." said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it." Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep..."

"Excuse me." said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

There was a very awkward pause.

"You may go." Dumbledore said to the four.

They went, as quickly as they could without actually running. When they were a floor up from Lockhart's office, they turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind them.