"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Get attracted no doubt by Parkinson's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.
"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. And his popping eyes fell on Conventina.
"You!"he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've
killed her! I'll kill you! I'll -"
"She did nothing you idiot!" Sirius throw his shoe at the screen with anger.
"Pad-" James chuckles.
"Argus!"Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Coventina, Anastacius, and Aelora with Granger and Weasley
and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mrs. Potter, Mr.
Weasley, Miss Granger." Anastacius came too without caring with Aelora as Lockhart stepped forward eagerly
"My office is nearest, Headmaster - just upstairs - please feel free -"
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore. The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.
Antares leaned against the wall staring at the writing on the wall.
"One of him is back." He thought.
"What does he mean by that?" Lucius asks. "I don't know brother, how about we asks the screen for you?" Achilles smiles.
"Very funny."
"It was not to be funny." Achilles shrugs.
As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Aelora saw several of the Lockharts in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers.
The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her.
The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from
Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon
spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking.
Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar
expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile.
"Let's kill Snape too." Sirius murmured while Mortem secretly agreed with him.
And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.
"It was definitely a curse that killed her - probably the Transmogrifian
Torture - I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her.." Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs.
He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Much as she detested Filch, Aelora couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him.
Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and
tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.
"..I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou," said 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 as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net
"Change of plan, we kill Lockhart and accuse Snape." Marlene smirks.
"Best plan ever!"
At last Dumbledore straightened up.
"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly.
"Aww..."
"Is that a happy 'aww' or a sad 'aww'," Peter asks Sirius. "A sad one."
Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of
murders he had prevented. "Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all - all stiff and frozen?"
"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore ("Ah! I thought so!" said
Lockhart). "But how, I cannot say..."
"Ask her!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to
Coventina who looked bored.
"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "it
would take Dark Magic of the most advanced -" "She did it, she did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling.
"You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found - in my office - he knows I'm a -" I'm a -" Filch's face worked horribly. "He knows I'm a Squib!" he
finished.
"I did not do anything." Coventina state firmly.
"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows, and Coventina 's sense of forboding increased; she was sure nothing Snape had to say was going to do them any good.
"I swear you are such a faking
asholle." Lucius state bluntly.
"Lucius Malfoy!" His mother gasp at his language. "I apologize mother but it's the truth." Lucius looks at his father.
"Let him," Abraxas smiles at his wife who glare at him. "Or..not."
"Potter and her 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 a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't she at the Halloween feast?"
"But why not join the feast afterward?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"
"because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," Weasley said. "Without any supper?" said Snape, 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," said Granger loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.
Snape's nasty smile widened.
"Ewww!"
"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if she were deprived of certain privileges until she is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel she should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until she is ready to be honest."
"Really, Severus," said Professor McGonagall sharply, "I see no
reason to stop the girl playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the
head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong."
Dumbledore was giving Coventina searching look. His twinkling light blue gaze. Coventina hide her anger.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly.
"He did not just fucking-" Achilles glares at the current Dumbledore with disdain.
"Mark my words, your days will be done soon." He thought.
"Thank for defending her, Minnie." James smiles at his godmother.
"Ah- it's merely the truth." She smiles.
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," said Dumbledore patiently.
"Professer Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As
soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that
will revive Mrs. Norris." "I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep -"
"Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master
at this school."
"The only time I will says this, but thanks Snivellus for shuting him
up." Sirius state while shivering in disgust.
There was a very awkward pause.
"You may go," Dumbledore said to the five students.
"Weasley, if you keep following us around, I will make your poorer than you are already!" Anastacius glared at him.
"Let's go." Coventina started
walking away.
"Guys!" Delphina Lestrange walked toward them with Draco Malfoy and Antares Black. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"We are fine, thank you for asking." Aelora smiles. "Ma déesse," Antares smiles at Coventina before walking next to her. "What? Rubrum stella." She asked.
"Chocolate." He smiles and gave
her a basket of chocolate bar with blackberries. "No thanks." She replies.
"Please?" She sighs and take it. "Happy?" She asked. "Very."
"Aww! Finally some Starseeker
scene!" Evan grins happily.
Regulus chuckles and watch his
nephew with a small smiles.
James glances at Achilles who smirks
at him. "Seeing something you like, Malachi?" He asks softly.
"Totally...not." James scoffs.
The bell rang. They led the way to History of Magic, bickering. History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard.
Ancient and shriveled, many people
said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and
began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly
everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again.
He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened
that had never happened before. Granger put up her hand. Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention
of 1289, looked amazed.
"Miss - er -?" "Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Granger in a clear voice. Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open,
gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance;
Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.
"So now everyone is interest in the class?" Alphard snickers amuse.
"I am sure that if you were a teacher, no one would get bored." Druella rolls her eyes.
"You are right, and why you may ask? Because I am the BETTER adult Black in this family." He state with a smirk.
"He is right." Regulus, Sirius, Narcissa and Andromeda agreed at the same time.
"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Granger as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale -"
But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. "Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see ... the Chamber of
Secrets.."
"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain - by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after
them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and
Salazar Slytherin."
"They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."
Everon starts to listen attentively, many were interest in the story while some like Achilles was sleeping peacefully.
He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued. "For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the
castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between
them." He continued.
"A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin
wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He
believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families."
" He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the
subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the
school."
Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise. "Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said.
"But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing."
"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets
so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at
the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of
Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of
all who were unworthy to study magic."
There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the
usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was
unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for
more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.
"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally,
the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many
times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist.
Granger's hand was back in the air.
"Sir - what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice. The class exchanged nervous looks.
"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his
notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."
"But, sir," said Seamus Finnigan, "if the Chamber can only be opened
by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would
they?"
"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and
headmistresses haven't found the thing -" "But, Professor," piped up Parvati Patil, "you'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it -"
"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore -"
"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't -" began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.
"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"
"Why get so aggressive then?" Lilia Malfoy thought. "The children are right.
"Some professor need to know the real meaning of teaching." Euphemia says.
"Foolish professor, the Chamber of secrets, hm." Coventina stood up and walked out with her friends.