The Grandson of Grindelwald (On Hold)

M2, Chapter 6

Hermione: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened...?"

Ron: What's that? Hanging underneath?

Harry: That's Filch's cat. Mrs. Norris.

(The cat hangs stiffly by her tail from a torch bracket, eyes open and blank. Harry's eyes shift to the adjacent window near the topmost pane, spiders scuttle up a silvery thread, fight to get through a crack in the glass)

Hermione: Look at that. Have you ever seen spiders act like that? Ron...?

Ron: I... don't... like... spiders.

(Suddenly, the stairwell is alive with voices and, seconds later, dozens of students stream forth, chattering... when they stop, seeing the wall and, standing before it, Y/n, Harry, Ron and Hermione. A thudding silence falls. Then Draco pushes forward, eyes the wall, and grins nastily)

Draco: Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!

(Draco's eyes find Hermione, just as Filch appears)

Filch: What's going on here? Go on now! Make way... Mrs. Norris! You! You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you! I'll-

Dumbledore: Argus!

(Dumbledore marches forward, trailed by a phalanx of teachers. Seeing the wall, Dumbledore's face darkens)

Dumbledore: Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately. Everyone except you four.

(As the corridor empties, Dumbledore steps to the wall and, with extreme gentleness, removes Mrs. Norris)

Lockhart: It was definitely a curse that killed her probably the Transmogrifian Torture. Encountered it myself once, in Ouagadougou. The full story's in my autobiography...

Dumbledore: She's not dead, Argus. She's been Petrified.

Lockhart: Precisely! So unlucky I wasn't there. I know the very countercurse that could have spared her...

Dumbledore: But how she's been Petrified... I cannot say.

(Filch points at Y/n)

Lilch: Ask that one! He did it. You saw what he wrote on the wall! Besides, he knows I'm... I'm a Squib.

Y/n: That's rubbish. I never touched Mrs. Norris.

Harry: And we don't even know what a Squib is.

Filch: Rubbish! He saw my Kwikspellletter!

Snape: If I might, Headmaster...

(The others turn, watch Snape separate from the shadows)

Snape: Perhaps Graves, Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place atthe wrong time...

(Y/n and the others blink. Could Snape be defending them?)

Snape: However, the circumstances are suspicious. I, for one, don't recall seeing Potter and Graves at dinner.

Lockhart: I'm afraid that's my doing, Severus. You see, Harry and Y/n were helping me answer my fan mail...

(As Snape's lip curls in disgust, Hermione leaps in)

Hermione: That's why Ron and I went looking for them, Professor. We'd just found him when Y/n said...

Snape: Yes, Miss Granger?

Y/n: When I said we weren't hungry. We were heading back to the Common Room and... found Mrs. Norris.

(Snape eyes Y/n coldly, knowing he's lying. Y/n looks away... and finds Dumbledore studying him as well)