Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Fifteen

Why on earth did Filch want a Kwikspell course? Does this mean that Filch was a wizard after all? Harry took the letter and parchment from my hand and started reading 'Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Useful Tips)' when shuffling from outside told us that Filch was coming back. Stuffing the parchment back into the envelope, I watched as Harry threw it back onto the desk just as the door opened. I held my breath.

Filch came in looking triumphant. I will never get that look out of my face...he looked like someone who had just done his first poo in a week. 

"That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" he was saying happily to Mrs Norris. "We'll have Peeves out this time, my sweet"

His eyes fell on us and then darted to the Kwikspell envelope, which, I realised too late, was lying two feet away from where it had started. Harry noticed it too and glanced at me. Filch's pasty face went bright red. I braced myself for the fury. Filch hobbled over to his desk, snatched the envelope and stuffed into a drawer.

"Have you- did you read-?" he spluttered.

"No," Harry lied quickly.

I shook my head. "Didn't touch it,"

Filch's knobbly hands were twisting together. 

"If I thought you'd read my private...not that it's mine...for a friend...be that as it may...however..."

Me and Harry stared at him in alarm. Filch had never looked madder. His eyes were popping, a tic was going in one of his pouchy cheeks and the tartan scarf didn't help at all.

"Very well...go...and don't breathe a word...not that...however, if you didn't read...go now, I have to write up Peeves' report...go..."

Yes! We're free! We sped out of the office, up the corridor and back upstairs. To escape from Filch's office without punishment had to be a new school record and we had got it! Go us! 

"Harry! Bella! Did it work?"

Nearly Headless Nick came gliding out of a classroom and over to us. Behind him, I could see the wreckage of a large black and gold cabinet which appeared to have been dropped from a great hight. I raised my eyebrow questioningly. 

"I persuaded Peeves to crash it right over Filch's office," Nick explained eagerly. "Thought it might distract him-"

"Was that you?" Harry asked happily. "Yeah, it worked, we didn't even get detention. Thanks, Nick!"

I nodded and we set off up the corridor together. Nearly Headless Nick was still holding Sir Patrick's rejection letter. 

"I wish there was something I could do for you about the Headless Hunt," I said. 

Nearly Headless Nick stopped in his tracks and Harry walked right through him and shivered. I giggled, I knew what that was like. It was like stepping through an icy shower. 

"But there is something you both could do for me," Nick said excitedly. "Harry, Bella - would I be asking too much - but no, you both wouldn't want-"

"What is it?" Harry asked him. 

"Well, this Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday," Nearly Headless Nick said, drawing himself up and looking dignified. 

"Oh," I said, unsure whether I should be happy or sad about this. "Right..."

Where was he going with this? 

"I'm holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons. Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an honour if you both would attend. Mr Weasley and Miss Granger would be most welcome too, of course - but I dare say you'd rather go to the school feast?" 

Hmmm....the school feast...food...gorgeous food....

"No," Harry said quickly and I looked at him. "We'll come"

The boy who lived say what?

"My dear boy! Harry Potter and Bella Swan, at my Deathday Party! And," he hesitated, looking even more excited, "do you think you both could possibly mention to Sir Patrick how very frightening and impressive you find me?"

That frightening that you're holding a deathday party...

"Of-of course," Harry said and I nodded, agreeing with him.

Nearly Headless Nick beamed at us. 

*

"A Deathday Party?" Hermione asked Keenly, when myself and Harry had changed at last and joined her and Ron in the common room. I sat beside her and Harry sat next to me, Ron was sitting on the armchair. "I bet there aren't many living people who can say they've been to one of those - it'll be fascinating!"

"Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" Ron asked, who was halfway through his Potions homework and grumpy. "Sounds dead depressing to me..."

"Well, they are dead," I shrugged. "They have nothing else to celebrate...so why not?"

Rain was still lashing the windows like an angry whip, making them look an inky black, but the inside, all looked bright and cheerful. The firelight glowed over the countless squashy armchairs where people sat reading, talking, doing homework, or, in the case of Gred and George, trying to find out what would happen if you fed a Filibuster Firework to a Salamander. Fred had 'rescued' the brilliant orange, fire-dwelling lizard from a Care of Magical Creatures class and it was now smouldering gently on a table surrounded by a group of curious people. 

I was on the point of telling Ron and Hermione about Filch and the Kwikspell course when the Salamander suddenly whizzed into the air, emitting loud sparks and bangs as it whirled wildly around the room. The sight of Percy bellowing himself hoarse at the twins, the spectacular display of tangerine stars showing from the Salamander's mouth, and its escape into the fire, with accompanying explosions, drove both Filch and the Kwikspell envelope from my mind. 

Never a dull moment here in the Gryffindor Tower.