Sorry this took so long to get out...I've been having a rouch couple months, but I'm back and should be updating at least once a week. =)
Chapter 20
Deathday Party
The month of October came with a damp chill, which caused a small outbreak of colds among the Hogwarts staff and students. It was noting that Madam Pomfrey couldn’t handle with a small dose of a Pepperup of potion, though the potion would make steam come out of the ears of the drinker till hours later. Ginny, who had been looking under the weather for over a week, was bullied by her brother Percy into taking some of the potion. Sadly, the potion made it look like her hair was on fire.
Harri had been avoiding talking to her friends about her ability to talk to snakes for two weeks and all of them could tell that she was stressing out over it. She would sit a little farther away from them and wouldn’t talk to them during class. Instead, she’d pay attention to the teacher or doodle on her parchment.
Draco and Hermione managed to convince Harri to come to the library to study with them when she was cornered by the twins, Luna, Hermione and Draco. They had staged an intervention.
“Harri, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting jumpy all week,” Hermione asked concerned. Harri had never shut her out before.
“It’s nothing, just something that I heard during detention with Snape,” she replied, avoiding eye contact.
“Harri, we know that’s not true, you might as well tell us or I’m going to write to Sirius soon,” Draco told her, hoping that would get an answer out of her.
“Fine, but I just don’t want your opinion of me to change when I tell you,” Harri whispered. She knew speaking to snakes was nothing to be ashamed of, but it was considered to be a ‘Dark Art’. She was the first Potter to be able to speak to snakes in over two centuries. No one is exactly sure where the Slytherin blood is from, but there were some hazy marriages during the Hogwarts Founder’s era…so she figured the blood came from there.
“Harri, just tell us, it’s nothing we can’t handle,” Luna said with a smile, trying to comfort her friend.
“Well, when I was five I learned that I had the ability to talk to snakes,” Harri began to explain when no one said anything she continued. “Since no Potter in over two centuries has been able to talk to snakes, Sirius and I were surprised when I had the gift. When I had detention with Snape I heard one and it didn’t sound happy. It was talking about killing someone. I know that being a Parselmouth is considered a dark art, but it’s just talking to a serpent…”
“So, that’s what you’ve been worried about? Harri, we know you aren’t a dark wizard…talking to snakes wouldn’t change our mind either,” George told her as he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Soon enough the others joined them and then they almost got kicked out of the library.
During the week, Harri had officially classified Oliver Wood as completely crazy. He had the Gryffindor team practicing in the rain for days on end. Harri figured that she hadn’t been properly dry in over a week. Even with the rain she and the Weasley twins had been spying on the Slytherin team. The new brooms made them fast, but that’s really only helpful for a seeker. The other positions need a broom that would stop easier. Either way, Harri figured that the Slytherin team was hindered by their team manager more than helped.
Even better than spying on the enemy team was pranking Lockhart, which every grade seemed to participate in. The pranks ranged from flying papers, which was blamed on the breeze outside even when the windows were closed, to spontaneously combusting books, compliments of Harri’s temper. Lockhart called werewolves monstrous beasts.
Harri dripped her way back through a deserted corridor after a very muddy practice session to find Nearly Headless Nick looking out the window muttering to himself, “Don’t fulfill their requirements half an inch, at that…”
“Is everything alright?” she asked the Gryffindor ghost, shivering slightly from the draft in the corridor.
That was when Nearly Headless Nick ranted on about how he wasn’t in the headless hunt because of half an inch of skin. Harri rolled her eyes, she saw why he couldn’t get in, he was nearly headless after all, but at the same time…aren’t you headless enough when only half an inch of skin is holding your head on your body? She was brought out of her musings when she heard a meow at her foot. It was Mrs. Norris, Filch’s cat.
She knew the caretaker was never far behind, so she ducked into one of the many secret passage ways that she had learned from the Marauder’s map and hoped that the caretaker didn’t find her. He had been in a horrible mood with people dragging mud into the castle, but it wasn’t like they could stop the rain that caused the mud.
A few moments later Nearly Headless Nick came through the passage way she was hiding in and smiled. “The cost is clear! I pointed Filch in the other direction!” he told her jovially.
“I wish I could repay you by getting you into the headless hunt. Is there anything I can do to help you?” Harri asked with her head tilted slightly to the side.
“Ah, there is something you could do for me,” he said. “I feel like I might be asking too much of you, Harri.”
“What is it?” she asked, hoping to help her friend.
“Well, this Halloween would be my five hundredth deathday,” he explained. “I'm holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons. Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an honor if you would attend. Mr. Black, the Weasley twins, Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood would be most welcome, too, of course, but I daresay you'd rather go to the school feast?"
“No, I don’t like Halloween. This would be a welcome change,” she replied. She really hated Halloween, but at least she’d be spending it with a bunch of dead people this year instead of at a feast where everyone was happy.
“A deathday party?” Hermione said unsure of what to make of it when Harri finally told her and Draco, who snuck into the common room again, about it.
“I’ve never understood why ghosts like to celebrate their deaths. It’s so morbid,” Draco commented as he flicked a piece of blonde hair out of his face.
Despite the down pour outside the Gryffindor common room was as cheery as ever. The Weasley twins ‘rescued’ a fire salamander and were attempting to find out what would happen if they fed the animal fireworks. As soon as the fireworks entered the fire salamander’s mouth the little creature went flying around in circle emitting sparks from its mouth.
The entire common room was laughing at the scene, the deathday party completely forgotten. The room got louder when Percy Weasley came down from the sixth year dorms to yell at the twins for causing a disturbance, but the fire salamander flew over his head spitting out red stars as it fell into the fire.
By the time Halloween rolled around Harri was bored, yet stressed. Lockhart kept trying to get her alone, the deathday party was only a few hours away and Sirius had yet to answer her letter.
At seven-o-clock Harri, Draco, Hermione and Luna all went down to the deathday party, the Weasley twins had a prank to pull during the Halloween feast and couldn’t come with them. The room itself was full of ghosts bathed in a ghostly blue light given off by the candles hanging on the walls. The temperature in the room was that of late winter. The small group had to put warming charms on their cloaks to keep themselves at room temperature.
Luna was enjoying herself much more than her three older friends. She was admiring all the different creatures that were flying around the room and admiring all the ghosts that she’d never met before.
Most of the Hogwarts ghosts were attending the party along with many others that Harri didn’t recognize, but there was one ghost that Hermione gasped when she saw her.
“Oh, dear, it’s Moaning Myrtle. She haunts the girl’s bathroom on the first floor. I’m surprised that you haven’t met her before, Harri,” Hermione explained watching the ghost warily.
“Well, I don’t really wander around the first floor that often, not since the troll incident last year,” Harri replied.
The four of them walked around the room for a while and mingled with ghosts until Peeves came up to talk to them. Peeves didn’t mind Harri, since she was the daughter of a Marauder. They taught Peeves a lot of tricks and it seemed like Harri was following in their footsteps.
“Hello, Peeves,” she greeted happily. Peeves saluted her and then an evil glint coated his eyes.
“I heard you talking about Myrtle. I think I’ll call her over! Oye, Myrtle!” he said with a smirk. Hermione looked worried, but Harri knew better and decided to play along.
“That would be lovely Peeves! I’ve never met Myrtle before!” Harri replied and Peeves grinned.
Myrtle came floating over with a very glum look plastered on her face. “Hello, Myrtle, it’s nice to meet you! My names Harriet, but you can call me Harri if you want,” Harri greeted happily. Myrtle looked surprised that someone would greet her in such a friendly manner and gave her a weak smile.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Harri. Maybe you can visit my toilet sometime soon,” she said before she floated off, much happier than when she arrived.
Harri stuck her tongue out at Peeves, who flipped her off and floated away shouting a string of curses.
Nearly Headless Nick came over to talk to them, but before he could get in a full sentence the Headless Hunt arrived. If Nick could still become pale, all the color would have drained out of his face. As soon as Sir Patrick entered the room Nick went over to try and rectify the situation.
“That was really rude,” Draco said with his arms crossed.
“It seems like we aren’t needed anymore. Maybe we could go back to the great hall and get some desert, I bet there’s still some left,” Luna said as she pulled them out of the room. She was getting rather hungry, but didn’t want her friends to think that they were ditching Nearly Headless Nick for her.
As they made their way towards the great hall Harri heard the voice of the snake again.
“…rip…tear…kill…”
Harri stopped dead in the middle of the hallway causing Draco to knock into her. “The snake is back, but where is it?” She mumbled as she looked up towards the ceiling where the voice sounded like it was coming from.
“So hungry…for so long…”
The voice suddenly became fainter and Harri ran after it, her friends sprinting behind her to keep up.
“Kill…time to kill!”
“I think it’s going to kill something!” Harri exclaimed as she ran faster, now silently thanking Oliver for having her in shape from hours of his sadistic practice schedule.
They finally made it to a corridor only to find that it was empty, except for the writing on the wall:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE!
The most horrifying sight was that of Mrs. Norris, who was hanging by her tail from a torch bracket, frozen stiff, her eyes bulging out in fear. The group collectively stepped back only to step in water.
“We need to get someone,” Draco said motioning towards the great hall, but the sound of students leaving meant that the feast was already over. Students filed into the corridor from all sides, crashing into each other to get a better look at the hanging cat.
“Enemies of the Heir beware! You’ll be next Mudbloods!” Alya shouted manically, her grey eyes glinting evilly.
“What’s going on here?” Filch shouted, no doubt attracted to the area due to the large amount of students crowding it. When his eyes landed on Mrs. Norris it looked like his heart broke. It was obvious to Harri that he really did love his cat. Only when he turned his head to glare at Harri did he begin to scream.
“What have you done to my cat? You killed her! I’ll kill you!”
“Argus, stop it. Ms. Potter, Mr. Black, Ms. Lovegood and Ms. Granger please come with me,” Dumbledore said as he took the hanging Mrs. Norris with him.
“Headmaster, please feel free to use my office, it’s just upstairs,” Lockhart began, but Dumbledore just rushed past him, the four younger students following closely behind him.
When they entered Lockhart’s room all of his portraits were hiding behind the frames and the room looked even tackier than normal, but Harri was a little too preoccupied with her current problem of being blamed for something she didn’t do to notice. She watched as the Headmaster put the cat on the desk and poked and prodded her trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Lockhart on the other hand kept going on and on about different ways he could have saved poor Mrs. Norris from her horrible death, that was until Dumbledore told him the cat wasn’t dead, she was petrified.
“I knew it all along,” Lockhart said and everyone in the room, including Snape and McGonagall, rolled their eyes at his statement.
“Though, I’m not sure how she was petrified,” he told the caretaker with a sad smile. Harri had a feeling that he knew exactly what had done it, but wasn’t saying why. She hated when he did that.
“Just ask her!” Filch accused Harri maliciously.
“I don’t know how to petrify anything! And even if I did, I don’t have a reason to bother you or your cat!” she replied angrily. She was not being blamed for this.
“Headmaster, maybe, Ms. Potter and her friends were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he suggested with a sneer. Harri raised an eyebrow, was he defending her?
“Then again, why weren’t you four at the Halloween feast?” he added putting suspicion back on her.
“We were at Sir Nicolas’ Deathday party, he invited us. Harri hates Halloween for obvious reasons, so she wouldn’t have gone to the feast anyway,” Draco told his godfather with a frown. Draco didn’t understand what his problem was with Harri.
“Why did you go up that corridor?” he questioned further.
The four of them looked between each other panicking. Harri didn’t want to tell anyone that she was a Parselmouth. That was when Luna did something very brave.
“They were helping me look for nargles. They’re very common in that corridor and I was determined to show Hermione that they existed, but then we saw Mrs. Norris…don’t blame us for something we didn’t do,” she pleaded, looking like she was going to cry.
“Well, seeing as how there isn’t any proof that they did anything I don’t think that the children should be punished,” Professor McGonagall said trying to stop Luna from crying under Snape’s glare. Luna was her best first year student and McGonagall was not going to stand there and let Snape pick on her.
“My cat was petrified! I want to see some kind of punishment!” Filch shouted. He was obviously hoping to hang Harri and her friends from the ceiling by their toes, but it didn’t seem that Dumbledore shared his feelings for punishing them.
“They’re innocent till proven guilty and we can cure Mrs. Norris. Professor Sprout has procured some Mandrakes and once they reach full maturity I will have a potion made to cure your cat,” he told the mourning caretaker.
“I’ll make it! I’ve made that potion a thousand times!” Lockhart exclaimed and everyone turned to him.
“I believe that I am the potions master at this school,” Snape said icily.
After an extremely awkward silence the four students were excused from the room and left as fast as possible without running and went into an abandoned classroom.
“Shouldn’t you have told them that you can talk to snakes?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No, it’s considered a dark art. I don’t need that going around school. Dumbledore is up to something. He knows what’s petrified that cat and I intend to figure it out as well. Tomorrow we start researching in the library to find out what beast is lurking through Hogwarts,” Harri replied.
“What do you think it meant by the Chamber of Secrets being opened?” Luna asked the group.
“It’s Slytherin’s fabled last line of defense for the school. Only someone of his line can open it and unleash the horror inside of it, though I don’t think it was supposed to be used to petrify cats,” Draco answered. When the girls looked at him like he had grown a second head he cleared his throat and blushed a little bit.
“I read a lot of books when I was still living with my mum and Alya, many of them were stories about the founders of Hogwarts.”
The four went to their respective common rooms and waited for the rumors to start the next day. Harri was prepared for the worst of it. People seemed to turn on her quite easily and she didn’t know why.
While most people in the school were disturbed by the attack on the cat, Ginny Weasley seemed the most affected. According to her brothers she was a great cat lover. Harri checked on her once or twice in the dorms, but every time she did the younger girl would shrug her off and run away. Harri was almost tempted to write to Mrs. Weasley just to tell her that her daughter was acting off, but realized that she couldn’t because Hedwig had yet to return, which was strange, her owl was usually quick with returning letters.
Wednesday morning was when things went from stressful to just plain strange. Hedwig came flying in with the mail that morning with a letter and a box attached to her leg. The letter was from Sirius:
Dear Bambi,
I’m sorry that it took so long for me to get back to you, but Kreacher broke Hedwig’s wing, so she’s be recuperating. I also have a can of snake repellent in the box, just in case the snake is dangerous.
If that git of a teacher tries to get you alone, please, don’t hesitate to hex him and then call me on the two-way mirror. Anyway, I look forward to updates on your pranks! Whatever you have planned for that git of a teacher I have no doubt that you will make the Marauders proud. I can’t wait to hear what you do to him.
On a more serious note, I hope Alya got what was coming to her and the snake didn’t sound friendly? Keep me updated on that. I want to know if I should be pulling you out of Hogwarts. Honestly, first you face Voldemort and now a snake…why isn’t Dumbledore doing anything?
I can’t wait to see you at Christmas! And tell Draco he can write to me too! I’m not picky on who sends me letters! On a happy note, I got my mother’s portrait down and a new wall has been put in. On a more disgusting note, I caught Moony and Tonks snogging in one of the rooms. My eyes will never be able to un-see that.
Hello, Bambi, it’s Remus. Sirius is being dramatic, as per usual, but I do agree with him when it comes to Lockhart, hex him if he tries anything funny. I’m just warning you, don’t get caught while you’re pranking and do not to use the snake repellent, it smells horrible. It doesn’t just repel snakes, it repels humans too. I’ll see you at Christmas.
Write soon,
Padfoot and Moony
A few hours later Draco, Harri and the twins were making their way to the library to discuss their master prank against Lockhart when they ran into Justin, who at the sight of Harri ran in the opposite direction.
Harri frowned, wondering why he would have run from her, but she shrugged it off. The four of them went into the farthest corner of the library and were reading a rather large potions book, pointing out the different ingredients that they were going to need for their prank. Draco was the potions maker in the group and had already asked Snape if he could use the potions lab for an experiment and he said yes without question. Draco told them that it pays off to be the godson of the potions master.
“The ingredients were easy to come by, but we’ll need to test the potion beforehand, we don’t want anything to go wrong and have it kill Lockhart,” Draco told them, expecting all of his friends to agree with him.
“Well…” Harri began to say, but Draco sighed.
“Harri, we aren’t killing him, but we are hitting him where it hurts. This was your idea after all,” Draco told her for the millionth time.
“Fine,” she said as she rolled her eyes, grinning madly. She was happy that things hadn’t spiraled out of control with the snake monster, yet.
“When should this potion be done?” George asked after a few minutes of reading the list of ingredients Draco was using.
“The first batch should be done tonight, it only takes a few days to make. This prank all depends on how many times I mess it up. I could probably fix it right then and there, but it would be a lot of trial and error,” Draco replied as he shrugged his shoulders.
The four of them continued discussing their prank for a good hour and a half, until someone came up to their table. Harri and Draco didn’t notice him at first, but the Weasley twins sure did.
“Diggory, what are you doing here? Can’t you see that were busy?” Fred said hostilely.
“I actually came here to ask Harri something. Harri, would you mind coming over to a table away from here so we could talk?” He asked politely. Harri nodded despite the glares the twins sent their way.
“What is it Cedric?” Harri questioned her Hufflepuff friend as she sat down at a table ways away from the twins.
“There has been a rumor going around the Hufflepuff house saying that you’re the heir of Slytherin. I just wanted to make sure you knew that these rumors were going around, so don’t be surprised when people start running from you. I don’t get why they would even suspect you, your best friend is a muggleborn and so was your mother. I’m just giving you a fair warning, oh, and get Hermione out of the library. I think she’s going to move in here if she stays much longer,” he told her, giving her a flirtatious wink on his way out.
Harri flushed bright red and went back to the table with the twins to collect her things for History of Magic. “What did he want? Ask you on a date?” George asked noticing the blush on his friends’ face.
“Hardly, he warned me about a rumor going around. It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she replied as she pulled Draco out of the chair and away from the potions book. They had a class to get to.
History of Magic was boring as per normal, but Hermione wasn’t paying attention to class, she was busy reading about different snakes. Harri had already narrowed it down to a few creatures, she just needed a few more clues, but she was pretty sure that she knew what kind of snake it was.
On their way back to the common room Harri and Hermione noticed that a bunch of spiders were crawling frantically through the window, trying to escape.
“I think I know which snake is hiding slithering around Hogwarts. They only questions I have is how is it getting around…” Harri muttered. Hermione gave her a puzzled look, but the two of them continued on to their dorm.
“I heard you say you knew what snake it was…so which one is it?” Hermione asked curiously.
“It’s the king of the snakes. It’s a basilisk, spiders fear them and they petrify people, but the only problem I have is how is a giant snake getting around the school? Basilisks aren’t small, Hermione,” Harri said with a frown. She sighed and took her glasses off.
“Harri, I think you should get some rest. We don’t have classes tomorrow. We can go to the library and figure out snake travel tomorrow,” Hermione told her with a weak smile.
Harri nodded and when to the washrooms for a quick shower before hopping into bed.
When she woke up the next morning she put her school robes on and looked in the mirror and screamed at her reflection. She knew who was responsible for this…
“FRED! GEORGE! YOU GITS! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
So, it's been about two months, but I'm back! =D
~Animerocker
PS
I don't own Harry Potter