Miss Quinn

35 ~ The Chamber of Secrets and Venus's Dreams of the Future

Hermione, Ron, Venus, and Emma left the Great Hall early to find Harry. They hadn't seen him for nearly four hours since he was in detention, but four hours was long enough. They turned a corner and almost ran right into their black-haired friend.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Did you hear it?" Harry asked, looking at the ceiling.

"Hear what?" Ron asked.

"That voice," Harry said, "There it is again!"

"I think it's going to kill," Harry said, glancing upwards. Then he took off down the corridor. Emma, Venus, Hermione, and Ron followed closely behind.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped, clutching her side as she ran.

They stopped running as they turned another corner. The floor was covered with water.

"I've never seen spiders move like that," Harry said, looking at a trail of spiders climbing the wall towards the window.

"I don't like spiders," Ron said, taking a step back.

Emma glanced back at the water pooled on the floor and saw something in it. She moved towards it only to realize it was a reflection. She glanced up at the wall and saw red writing.

"Guys," she said. They walked over to her and Venus read the writing.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, Beware,"

"It's written in blood," Hermione pointed out.

Harry stepped forward towards a dark shape hanging from the wall lamp. "Look, it's Filch's cat!" He exclaimed.

Suddenly students filled the corridor. The crowd of Slytherins were lead by none other than Malfoy. "Enemies of the heir, Beware?" He said, "You'll be next, Mudbloods." With that he looked straight at Hermione, who glared.

Filch pushed through the crowd and was about to scold Harry when he saw his cat. "Mrs. Norris?" He said in disbelief. Then he turned on Harry, "You've murdered my cat."

Harry shook his head.

"I'll kill you!" Filch said twice.

"Mr. Filch!" A voice called. It was Dumbledore. Dumbledore spoke to Filch, but Emma was too far away to hear what he was saying. Besides that, she wasn't even paying attention. She was busy scanning the crowd of students to find one that might like to murder a bunch of muggleborns. One person stood out.

Malfoy had a smug grin on his face as he watched the scene unfold. Emma looked away and focused her gaze back on Dumbledore.

"All of you return to your dormitories," he said, "all of you except," he paused and looked at Emma, Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "You five,"

The students left the corridor and the five were alone with Dumbledore and the other teachers.

"Professor, I swear I never touched Mrs. Norris," Harry said.

"Headmaster, if I may," Snape said, "perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Emma glanced at Venus in surprise, Snape was defending them?

"However --" Ah, spoke too soon, Emma thought. "-- I for one do not recall seeing Potter at dinner."

"Ah, that was my fault, Professor," Lockhart said, "You see, Harry was helping me to answer my fan mail."

"That's why we went looking for him, Professor, Harry had been gone a while and we were wondering where he was." Hermione said, "We had just found him when he said--"

"When I said I wasn't hungry." Harry said, "I was heading back to the common room when I found Mrs. Norris."

"I see," Dumbledore said, "Very well, off to your common room."

The five Gryffindors headed back to Gryffindor tower. When they got there, Harry spoke.

"Do you think I should've told them?"

"No, even in the Wizarding world hearing voices isn't a good sign." Hermione said.

"Especially if they're talking about murder," Emma said.

"Why couldn't we hear it?" Venus asked.
"Maybe only certain people can," suggested Ron.

"Well, I do want to know about the Chamber of Secrets. But I expect everyone does, now," Hermione said.

"I'm interested as well, there's something mysterious going on." Emma said. Her friends nodded, then they said goodnight and went to bed.

Venus tossed and turned in her bed. She was scared. She'd seen a vision of this before, and the fact that it was happening made it all the more terrifying.

Finally, Venus drifted into dreamland where the future was clear in her mind. Venus had discovered over the summer that she had the gift of Prophecy, although the visions mostly only showed up in dreams.

A scene of Emma battling a creature filled Venus's vision. Emma leaped onto the creature's back and stabbed it between the shoulder blades. Venus always hated watching these scenes. It was bad enough that she knew her best friend had this other, more dangerous life. It was even worse knowing she might see Emma's death in her visions.

Venus saw just about everyone's future besides her own. She saw Emma's most of all.

In the vision, Emma and a few of her non-wizard friends were battling the creature on a snowy cliff. It was dark out and there was a building with lights on in the background. Three of the people Venus had seen before in other visions, but the three others were new. There was a girl with spiky black hair and a girl with dark hair and freckles. There was also a young boy with dark hair like the other girl next to him. Venus suspected they were siblings.

The vision changed to one Venus had seen many times. The Great Hall in ruins, with wounded students and teachers crammed inside. The Haunting Eyes stood out above the scene. Emma was running around, touching the wounded. She looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. Venus was glad Emma would live that long, seeing as she would be in many battles in the future. Venus didn't know what she would do without her best friend.