Camera pans the walls of Lockhart's office, lined with framed photographs of. . . Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry and Lockhart work by candlelight at an ornate desk. Bleary-eyed, Harry addressed envelopes, while a cheery Lockhart puts his signature to the stack of glossy photos bearing his image.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. . . Can you possibly imagine a better way to serve detention than by helping me answer my fan mail?" Lockhart asked Harry. Harry puts on a fake smile.
"Fame's a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does. Remember that."
Harry nods, glancing gloomily at the towering stack of envelopes that remain. Dipping his quill, he starts to write, when . . . a chilly voice fills the room.
"Come . . . come to me. . ."
"What?" Harry asked.
"I was saying, six solid months at the top of the bestseller list! Broke all records!" Lockhart said.
"No. . . not you, that. . . voice." Harry told him.
"Voice?" Lockhart asked, puzzled.
"That. . . voice. Didn't you hear it?" Harry asked Lockhart.
"What are you talking about, Harry? I think we're getting a bit drowsy. Great Scott -- and no wonder -- look at the time! We've been here nearly four hours! Dinner's nearly done! If you hurry you might make pudding. Spooky how the time flies when one's having fun!" Lockhart said.
"Spooky." Harry repeated.
(Time Skip)
Me, Ron, and Hermione were walking towards the Common Room. Harry wasn't with us. He is in detention, sadly.
Harry passes quickly through the lengthening shadows of the empty corridor, when . . .
"Blood. . . I smell blood. . ."
Harry stops cold, looking around for the source of the voice.
"Let me rip you. . . let me kill you. . ."
Harry steps to the wall, playing his fingers along the stone, then begins walkiing, slowly at first, then more quickly, as if following something, moving faster and faster, rounding the corner and coming face to face with . . . Hermione, Ron and I.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Did you hear it?" Harry asked us.
We looked at him confused. "Hear what?" I asked.
"That . . . voice." He replied.
"Voice? What voice?" Hermione asked him.
I saw Harry's eyes dart around. "I heard it first in Lockhart's office and then again, just --"
"Kill. . . Time to kill. . ."
Harry stiffens, and Hermione and Ron study him curiously while I just tried to sort things out.
"It's moving. I think it's going to. . . kill." Harry said.
He runs off. I run off after him while Hermione and Ron exchange a glance a follow.
Moments later, Harry is still dashing madly, on the marble staircase, taking three steps at a time.
On the second floor corridor, he sleds to a stop, and listens: Nothing... Well, from what I can see.
Then slowly, he peers down.
Water is oozing over the stone floor, surrounding our shoes as I am right next to him.
Our own reflection appears and, behind them, undulating like a dream. . . are words. Ron and Hermione come huffing up behind us.
"Harry? Megan? What are you doing?" Ron asked.
I point. Shimmering on the wall are the words we saw reflecting in the water.
The chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir . . . beware.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. . . ?" Hermione asked out loud.
"What's that? Hanging underneath?" Ron pointed out.
"That's Filch's cat. Mrs. Norris." Harry said
The cat was hanging stiffly by her tail from a torch bracket, eyes open and blank. My eyes shift to the adjacent window: near the topmost pane, spiders scuttle up a silvery thread, fighting to get through a crack in the glass. Eww! I hate spiders!
"Look at that. Have you ever seen spiders act like that? Ron . . . ?" Hermione said.
Ron was backing away. "I . . . don't . . . like . . . spiders."
Suddenly, the stairwell is now alive with voices and, seconds later, dozens of students stream forth, chattering . . .
Oh no . . .
They stop, seeing the wall and, standing before it, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I. A thudding silence falls. Then Draco rushes forward, eyes the wall, and grins nastily.
"Enemies of the hair, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" He yells.
Draco's eyes found me and Hermione, just as Filch appears.
"What's going on here? Go on now! Make way . . ." Filch said.
He stops dead.
"Mrs. Norris!" He rounds to Harry.
"You! You've murbered my cat! I'll kill you! I'll -- "
"Argus!" Dumbledor marches forward, trailed by a phalanx of teachers.
Seeing the wall, Dumbledor's face darkens.
"Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediatly." Dumbledor said, then looks at us and then continues. "Except you four."
As the corridor empties, Dumbledor steps to the wall and, with extreme gentleness, removes Mrs. Norris.
"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. . ." Lockhart said.
"She's not dead, Argus. She's been Petrified." Dumbledor told Filch.
"Precisely! So unlucky I wasn't there. I know the very countercurse that could have spared her . . . "
"But how she's been petrified, I cannot say." Dumbledor continued.
Filch points at Harry. "Ask him! It's him that's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall! Besides, he knows I'm -- I'm a Squib."
"It's not true, sir! I swear! I never touch Mrs. Norris -- And I don't even know what a Squib is." Harry told Dumbledor.
"Rubbish! He saw my Kwikspell letter!" Filch said.
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Moonrise (Book 2 to Between Two Worlds)
फैनफिक्शनMegan is back and in her second year at Hogwarts. But what happens when Voldemort, or also known as Tom Riddle, is planning on taking her away from her friends and family? Will anyone save her from her worst nightmare? And if so, who will it be?
