Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Seventeen

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs Norris with his wan, but nothing happened making me sigh. She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.

"...I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadougou," can you guess who said that? Yup, it was Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography. I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets which cleared the matter up at once..."

The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement and I snicked as I noticed one of them had forgotten to remove his hairnet. He looks like a grandma!

At last, Dumbledore straightened up.

"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. That's good, right?

Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had 'prevented'.

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

LET IT GO, LET IT GO, CAN'T -eep, wrong time, wrong place

"She has been Petrified," Dumbledore said ('Ah! I thought so!' said Lockhart). "But how, I cannont say..."

At first I was afraid...I was Petrified...stop it, Bella! Wrong time, wrong place!

"Ask them!" Filch shrieked, turning his blotched and tear-stained face to me and Harry.

"No second-year could have done this," Dumbledore said firmly. THANK YOU DUMBLEDORE! "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced-"

"They did it, they did it!" Spat Filch, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what they wrote on the wall! They 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.

Didn't they live in water?

"We never touched Mrs Norris!" Harry defended us loudly and I nodded agreeing with him. Everyone was looking at us, including all the Lockharts on the walls. "And I don't even know what a Squib is"

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

"If I might speak, Headmaster," Snape said from the shadows and I paled. This isn't going to be good. "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 set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren't they at the Halloween feast?"

Me, Harry, 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 afterwards?" Snape said, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"

Me, Ron, and Hermione looked at Harry.

"Because - because - " Harry said looking nervous, "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed"

"Without any supper?" Snape said, 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," Ron said loudly, as his stomach gave a huge rumble. I mentally face-palmed.

Snape's nasty smile widened.

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

"WHAT?" I shrieked. 

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

I watched as Dumbledore gave us a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made me feel as though I was being X-rayed.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly. CUE FIST BUMP!

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," Dumbledore told him patiently. "Madam Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made which will revive Mrs Norris"

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. Huh, I almost forgot that he was here. "I must have done it a hundred times, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"

"Excuse me," Snape said icily, "but I believe I am the Potions master at this school"

Ha! In your face Lockfart!

There was a very awkward pause. 

"You may go," Dumbledore said to me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. 

We went, as quickly as we could without actually running. When we were a floor up from Lockhart's office, we turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind us. I squinted up at their darkened faces.

"D'you think I should have told them about the voice I heard?" Harry asked us.

"No," I said, without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world"

I guess something in my voice made Harry ask, "You do believe me, don't you?"

"Duh"

Ron agreed. "We all believe you. But you must admit it's weird..."

"I know it's weird," Harry said. "The whole thing's weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber has been opened...what's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, it rings a sort of bell," Ron said slowly. "I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once...might've been Bill..."

"And what on earth's a Squib?" Harry asked.

To our surprise, Ron stifled a snigger.

"Well - it's not funny really - but as it's Filch..." he said. "A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual. If Filch's trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, I reckon he must be a Squib. It would explain a lot. Like why he hates students so much." Ron gave a satisfied smile. "He's bitter"

A clock chimed somewhere. 

"Midnight," I said. "We'd better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else"