The Exchange Student - Harry Potter FanFic -

➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟔 "𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙃𝙖𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙"

⋆｡°✩°｡⋆

As the caretaker came into view, he got a front-row seat to Mrs. Norris' state. The man stumbled back, clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.

And his popping eyes fell on Harry.

"You!" he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll—"

As the man took a step forward, Nicolás pushed Harry back, hiding him behind his own body.

"Argus!" Came Dumbledore's voice. The headmaster came with some other teachers following behind. The man walked straight to the cat, detaching her from the torch bracket. "Come with me, Argus. You four, too," he gestured Harry, Nicolás, Hermione, and Ron.

Lockhart stepped forward, almost too eager, considering the situation.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster—just upstairs—please feel free—"

Before walking, Nicolás made eye contact with Caelum's pale face, and even Twiggle, peeking out from his pocket-den, looked abashed, if a Bowtruckle could show that emotion, of course.

They started to walk towards Lockhart's office, McGonagall and Snape following behind.

As they entered the darkened office, Lockhart lighted up the candles, giving them clear sight of the movement on the walls, for they were covered with an array of self-portraits of Lockhart.

Nicolás' face twisted in a clear grimace, his dislike for Lockhart only increased with every move and expression from the moving photos.

Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the surface of the desk, his face very close to the cat, examining it closely. Professor McGonagall was almost as close, while Snape loomed behind them like a shadow; his eyes would stray towards the four kids every now and he looked like making an effort to repress a smile.

Lockhart's voice sounded in the closed space, in between Filch's distraught sobs. "It was definitely a curse that killed her—probably the Transmogrifian Torture—I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter-curse that would have saved her."

The poor caretaker was slumped on a chair, his face in his hands. Even Nicolás, who had heard of how horrible the man was, couldn't help but feel a sting on his own chest, imagining himself in that situation with Ember.

Nicolás' mind was also rising with ways of solving the situation. A solution that would prevent the four of them from getting expelled.

Dumbledore started to mutter words in different ancient languages, tapping Mrs. Norris' body with the tip of his wand, but nothing happened.

Looking intently at the cat's body, it sparked in Nicolás' mind like a firefly. There was something in there, in the cat, something that, had the cat been dead, Nicolás wouldn't feel.

"She's not dead," the boy declared in a resolute voice, earning inquisitive looks from everyone else.

"Not dead?!" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all—all stiff and frozen?"

"Indeed," said Dumbledore looking at Nicolás. "She has been Petrified." ("Ah! I thought so!" said Lockhart). "But how, I cannot say..."

"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, pointing at Harry.

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly, "it would take Dark Magic of the most advanced—"

"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found—in my office—he knows I'm a—I'm a—" Filch's face worked horribly. "He knows I'm a Squib!" he finished.