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"ꜰᴇᴀʀ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ'ᴛ ꜱʜᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏᴡɴ; ɪᴛ ᴡᴀᴋᴇꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ᴜᴘ"
- ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ ʀᴏᴛʜ
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——— It was the night of October 31st meaning that it had been nearly two months since Estella's arrival at Hogwarts, and she had never been happier. The girl had never been a fan of school as a result of the years of constant bullying, but at Hogwarts she loved it, it was (very obviously) different to a normal muggle school, and she was in admiration of the Wizarding World so far. Living at the castle and being surrounded by magic was something that she could ever grow hate.
Most of the students at Hogwarts had been buzzing the past week for the Halloween celebrations, and Estella was among them. She loved Halloween and the time of year in itself, she always had fun taking part in Halloween activities back at the orphanage. She would happily say that autumn was her favourite part of the year, and Halloween was up there with her favourite parts of the season.
This year however, instead of joining in on the celebrations and attending the Halloween feast, Estella was currently sat beside Grace and Jace Carter in the library, finishing off her potions essay which was due in first period on Monday morning. Ginny and Colin had completed their essay's as soon as Professor Snape had set the task, but the three had decided to stupidly leave it to last minute, hence them having to skip the Halloween feast to complete their work for Professor Snape, as they decided not to do it during the day.
Out of all the professors at Hogwarts, Snape was without a doubt Estella's least favourite. The man wasn't popular among the Hogwarts students, and it was due to his unnecessarily high standards and strict teaching. He was cold and cynical, constantly being unfair to students, and unfortunately for Estella, he had a grudge against Gryffindors, meaning that he was always spiteful towards the Gyrffindors in his classes. It was also extremely obvious that he had a favouring towards those in his house – Slytherin – and it meant that he was significantly more patient towards those.
The disliking towards the professor meant that Estella disliked potions class as well, never looking forward to the days when she had a potions class.
"Can we give up now, I'm starving" Grace complained, making Jace and Estella look at the brunette.
Grace and Estella had developed a somewhat unbreakable bond, becoming close friends really quickly, and the pair had also grown quite close with Colin Creevey and Jace Carter, the four usually spending time outside of classes together, occasionally joined by Ginny Weasely. Estella was shocked at how quick she had made friends (she reckons Harry had something to do with it) but nevertheless wouldn't change her new friends for the world.
"Snape will have our heads if these essays aren't finished" the boy responded. "Right Ell?"
"Sorry Jace, but I have to agree with Grace, I'm actually starving" she replied putting down her quill. "Come on, we should be able to join for pudding if we hurry up"
Grace wasted no time in packing up her things, and looked over to Jace who sighed knowing he stood no chance in winning against the girl. Nothing came in between Gracelyn Black and her food.
The three left the library and hurried down the corridors, trying to get the Great Hall before they missed the food, but just as they reached the corridors, they heard a rumble, and a burst of chatter, the happy voices of the Hogwarts students leaving the Halloween Feast well-fed.
"Dammitt" Estella cursed under her breath.
"Come on, there will be food in the common room" Grace said, walking to join the crowd of students heading up to their respective common rooms. Both ends of the passageway began to fill with students pushing their way through to their common rooms, meeting in the middle, and suddenly coming to a halt in front of something. The crowd of people quickly stopped and the chatter died suddenly, a sullen-silence falling among the crowd. Deciding to push their way through, Grace, Estella and Jace tried to look at what all the commotion was about.
Reaching the front of the crowd, Estella looked up to see Harry, Ron and Hermione stood next to a disturbing scene and let out a shocked gasp which echoed through the passageway.
Upon the stone castle walls, in-between two windows, written in capital letters and in what appeared to be blood, was a message that read;
'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN
OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE'
The message stood out prominently amongst the wall, and was shining in the light of the lit torches besides it. Just below the words, was a dark, shadow of a figure, and Estella let her eyes wonder down the wall to see a cat, hanging by its tail from the torch bracket. Its body was stiff and its eyes were wide open and staring, as if it was looking right at you. Instantly Estella knew that this was Mrs. Noris, the caretakers Filch's beloved cat.
Whispers and noises of shock filled up the small hall once the mass of students processed the scene in front of them. From the noise, Estella heard a boy from the opposite side of the crowd mention something about Mudbloods, but was to disturbed to actually register what the boy was nattering on about, and stared at the immobile cat hanging on the wall.
However, her attention was soon drawn from the wall when she heard the voice or Mr Filch, and saw his figure pushing the students away and shuffling towards the centre of the scene, and when he saw Mrs. Norris' stiff body; he fell back clutching his face in horror.
Filch's pouchy, pasty face paled and his bulging eyes widened ever more that they usually where. He was visibly shaking as his eyes darted around the room, looking for more evidence as to what happened to the cat.
"My cat! My cat" What has happened to her?" he shouted. "You!" he then shouted, pointing at Harry, his eyes popping out of his head. "You killed my cat! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
He lunged for the boy, his knobbly hands outstretched, but before he was able to grab Harry, Dumbledore arrived on scene, followed by various other teachers.
"Argus" he shouted as he made his way towards Mrs. Norris and took her down from the torch bracket. "Follow me" he said to. "You to Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley and Miss. Granger" he said again, stopping in his path and turning around to face the trio.
The silent crowd parted so that Dumbledore could walk away, and McGonagall started to rush everyone back to their common rooms immediately. Following Percy Wesley and the other Gryffindor prefects, Estella and Grace found Colin and retreated to the common room, their hunger long forgotten as they processed what just happened.
A/N
Hi, long time no see. Long story short, the reason why I have been lacking with the updates is that I've started my first year of college and my sister has just moved out so we've been very busy helping her with that. That being said, my little brother has just tested positive for covid which means I'm self-isolating for 2 weeks, which also means I have the time to write.
I hope everyone is doing well, thank you for the support on this book so far.
- Han x