The Little Pureblood [1]

Chapter 19: Books and Blood

A sudden commotion came from the opposite side of the hallway.

"Move! What's going on here? Get out of my way!" Students parted to show the caretaker himself, Filch. He strode through the crowd until he reached the wall where his cat hung eerily still. The moment the caretaker caught sight of Mrs. Norris, he made an awful sound before putting a hand to his face.

"My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris?"

Sam and I stood stock still with the rest of the crowd. I felt uncomfortable to watch Filch but felt too drawn to the scene to want to leave. After all, it isn't every day you see a threatening message written in cat blood on the wall.

Filch's eyes turned, filled with malaise as he looked at the three students standing out from the crowd.

"You! You killed my cat.." He was looking directly at Harry who stood looking confused and rather stunned at being addressed by the caretaker.

"I'll kill you," Filch muttered darkly. "I'll kill- "

"Argus!" I turned around and to my surprise saw the headmaster himself, Dumbledore, enter the scene, followed closely by Professor McGonagall, Snape, and of all people, Lockhart.

I watched as Dumbledore unhooked the cat from the torch and turned back to face the awaiting crowd while Filch stood to the side ringing his hands and crying proficiently. The tension was building and I couldn't help but feel the need to edge closer to the front.

"Come with me Argus. You too Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley."

I watched as Harry and Ron exchanged knowing looks before following along behind Hermione. The moment they left the hallway, Sam turned on me.

"Is it possible?" I frowned.

"What's possible?"

"That the three of them killed Filch's cat?" I shrugged and started for the end of the hallway with Sam trailing behind me.

"Don't give me that! You know more about those three than the rest of us Slytherins! And they were all found at the scene so I mean.." I shook my head quickly before following the crowd out of the hallway slowly. Sam kept pace with me, waiting to hear an explanation when we were most rudely cut off by a pair of Ravenclaws who were stepping in front of us and started walking in a hasty pace while talking in hushed tones. Sam and I couldn't help but walk close behind as we too wanted to get out and possibly step on the backs of the Ravenclaws robes while we were at it.

"I swear I've heard of the Chamber of Secrets before. Maybe in one of our last assignment chapters?" One Ravenclaw girl said quickly to the other who seemed to be thinking of books names.

"If I remember right, it has to do with Hogwarts so I'm sure Hogwarts A History would help. We can go to the library to find it tomorrow if you'd like," The other said in return.

"Oh I have that book up in the dorms. We can look at it tonight. No doubt the copies at the library will be check out after opening tomorrow morning..."

Sam and I exchanged looks before I stopped amidst the chaos of the hallway until I saw him. Ignoring Sam's questions about what I was doing I rushed over and proceeded to push a Slytherin standing in front of me hard in the back. The Slytherin aka my brother, turned around to face me giving an irritated look that border lined on anger. His friend, Adrian, turned around to face me too, giving me an equally ugly look.

"What do you want, you needy-"

"I need a book," I demanded, cutting him off. Theo and Adrian gave me confused looks but I ignored it.