Madness- T.M.R.

Chapter 10

Weeks had passed and it was nearing the Yule holidays. The grand castle was eerily quiet with a constant air of mingling depression. A week prior there had been a truly horrible incident, as was explained by the headmaster. A third year from Gryffindor, Rubeus Hagrid, had been found dead. Nobody knew exactly what had happened, but given that they had found the boy's body horribly disfigured and torn to pieces near the Forbidden Forest, they came to the conclusion that it had been the work of vicious creatures. 

Most of Hogwarts' inhabitants were aware of Hagrid's fascination with dangerous magical creatures and not even his closest friends and dormmates put it past him to sneak into the Forbidden Forest late at night to find some. Following Hagrid's death, a magical border had been placed along the forest. The magical boundary could only be crossed if a specific keyword was spoken. It would prevent students from casually venturing into the forest and whatever had killed the boy from exiting. 

Seraya had been especially quiet since they had announced the death but most just believed her to be mourning their fellow student. Truthfully it was quite the opposite. A strong sense of relief had flooded her when the death of Rubeus Hagrid had been declared an incident caused by an attack of magical creatures. The Ministry of Magic had sent specialists to inspect the body. The deep gashes along his torso and his throat as well as his missing fingers and a chunk of his cheek had been affiliated to the presented theory of an attack caused by non-human beings. 

The ministry workers had left shortly after their inspection and Seraya had finally been able to breath freely again. Really, she hadn't intended to kill the boy. He just so happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and had seen something he shouldn't have. Seraya did not enjoy killing people, especially if they were of magical blood, but she knew it had to be done. The risk of what could have unfolded had she merely obliviated him would have been too great. 

After having effectively knocked the boy out, Seraya had taken a few minutes to think of a way to kill him that would leave no traces of magic and would not lead to suspecting a cold-blooded murder. A werewolf attack, or generally an attack of any dangerous creature seemed like the best solution and thus the young witch had seen to killing him and preparing the body accordingly. 

She had not in any way taken pleasure out of mutilating the body but she had to do what had to be done. In all honesty, the day she had killed an innocent thirteen-year-old boy would not go down as one of her proudest moments. When she looked into the mirror nowadays the face of someone who had fallen deep enough to murder children stared back at her. Logically, she knew she had to move on. What was done was done. There was no going back now. And yet, the girl couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted whenever she looked at her reflection.

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Tom was furious. Rubeus Hagrid had been his insurance of safety and innocence. He had had it all planned out: When he opened the Chamber of Secrets, people would obviously start worrying and wondering who could be behind it. Tom had seen Hagrid fostering a highly dangerous and illegal Acrumantula in one of the dungeons, which was obviously not the monster of Slytherin but, except from himself and that stranger that remained a mystery, no one would have ever known any better. 

It had been his plan, that if people started questioning intently and started getting too close to the truth for Tom's liking, to frame Hagrid for allegedly being the Heir of Slytherin while the Acrumantula aided him as a monster that killed mudbloods. Tom would have then turned him in and gained all the glory and praise. People would have never doubted his motives again, well except for the old goat of a Transfiguration professor perhaps. It had been a foolproof plan and now from one day to the next it had been ruined by a couple of magical creatures that had gone berserk.