When Celeste got back to her common room everyone was there. She tried to ignore the stares she was getting, -- the very obvious stares -- and made her way to her dorms.
"Yo Second Year!" A male voice shouted out.
Celeste stopped and turned around, "What?"
"Turns out the Muggleborn lovers were actually the Heirs of Slytherin."
"Not the Heir of Slytherin, but okay."
"So I'm guessing Cedric is a Parselmouth too," The upperclassman said as if he didn't hear her. "Is Potter your twin or something?"
" No, Cedric is not a Parselmouth. And no he's not my twin -- we don't look alike or have the same birthday."
"So your Mum was a whore and had you with another man?"
"Don't call my dead mother a whore," Celeste said, turning back again and started to walk up the stairs. "Before I make sure the real Heir of Slytherin does much worse than petrify you."
The day was already at a horrible start. People of all ages from every house except Slytherin were sneering at her, and some brave Gryffindors hexing her with minor spells. It had only been one class and it had already started.
"Hey, be careful, okay?" Cedric said once they got to the stairs leading to potions. . "I told Cho to tell the Ravenclaws to stop being rude to you, and George and Fred will try to make sure you won't get hexed anymore."
"They don't think you're an Heir?" Celeste asked.
"No, weirdly."
"That's stupid, we're siblings."
"Exactly, but I've started to hiss at people who talk about you." He chuckled. "Don't think it's working. Now I've got to go, will you be okay? Oh -- hey, you can walk with Harry to class. Hey Harry!"
Harry, who was halfway up the stairs, turned around. "I'm not- oh, hello Cedric, Celeste."
"Will you walk with her to class?" Cedric asked, slightly pushing Celeste onto the stairs.
"Sure."
Cedric grinned and turned around, walking away. Celeste hurried up the stairs to be on the same steps as Harry. "Have a good day so far?"
"Not at all. Justin's friends think we tried to hurt Justin. You?"
"Horrible. Your Gryffindor friends wanted to Hex me at breakfast and while I was walking to class."
"Sorry about that. I haven't been hexed but--" Harry had just tripped on something laying on the ground.
"Bloody hell..."
Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight the both of them had ever seen.
It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.
"Harry, we need to get out of here," Celeste said helping him up. "Now--"
A door opened beside them with a bang. Peeves the POltergeist came shooting out.
"Why, it's potty wee Potter and Dick-ory!" Peeves cackled. "What are they up to? Why are they lurking? Are they on a date -"
"Peeves stopped, halfway through a mid-air somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs, and before they could stop him, screamed, "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAACK!"
Crash - crash - crash - door after door flew open along the corridor and people flooded out. For several long minutes, there was a scene of such confusion that Justin was in danger of being squashed and people kept standing in Nearly Headless Nick. Harry and Celeste found themselves pinned against the wall as the teachers shouted for quiet. ProfessorMcGonagall came running, followed by her own class, one of who still had black-and-white-striped hair. She used her wand to set off a loud bang, which restored silence and ordered everyone back into their classes. No sooner had the scene cleared somewhat than Ernie the Hufflepuff arrived, panting, on the scene.
"Caught in the act!" Ernie yelled, his face stark white, pointing his finger dramatically at Harry and Celeste.
"That will do, Macmillian!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.
Peeves were bobbing overhead, now grinning wickedly, surveying the scene; Peeves always loved chaos. As the teachers bent over Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, examining them, Peeves broke into song:
"Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, Nothing rhymes with Diggory, You two are killing off students, you think its good fun-"
"That's enough Peeves!" Professor McGonagall barked, and Peeves zoomed away backwards, with his tongue out at Harry and Celeste.
Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along with like a silent black hovercraft. This left Harry and Celeste alone with Professor McGonagall.
"This way, Potter, Diggory." Professor McGonagall said.
"Profesor," Celeste said at once. "We didn't do anything -"
"This is out of my hands." Professor McGonagall said curtly.
They marched in silence around a corner before stopping before a large and extremely ugly gargoyle.
"Lemon drop!" McGonagall said. This was evidently a password because the gargoyle sprang to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was coming, Celeste couldn't help to be amazed. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward. As they stepped onto it, Celeste heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, they saw a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.
Celeste knew now where they were being taken. This must be where Dumbledore lived.
They stepped off the stone staircase at the top, and Professor McGonagall rapped on the door. It opened silently and they entered. Professor McGonagall told them to wait.
Celeste looked around. One thing was certain: out of all of the teachers' offices Celeste had visited so far this year, Dumbledore's was by far the most interesting.
While Celeste was looking at his objects she didn't notice Harry put on the Sorting Hat. She forgot he was even in the room till he said, "You're wrong."
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing," Harry said sheepishly.
"That bird seems ill. Looks like it'll drop dead any second." Celeste said, staring at it.
Suddenly the bird burst into flames.
"Celeste! What happened to his bird?" Harry asked, looking from Celeste to the bird.
"I don't know!"
"Can't you do wandless magic or something?"
"I can't make birds catch fire! Nor conjure up water and revive it!" The bird was nothing but ashes now.
The office door opened. Dumbledore came in, looking very sombre.
"Professor," Celeste gaped. "Your bird - I couldn't do anything - he just caught on fire -"
To both of the children's astonishment, Dumbledore smiled.
"About time, too," he said. "He's been looking dreadful for days; I've been telling him to get a move on."
He chuckled at the sight of their shocked faces.
"Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry, and Celeste. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him..."
Harry and Celeste looked down in time to see a tiny, wrinkled, newborn, bird poke its head out of the ashes.
"It's a shame you had to see him on a Burning Day," said Dumbledore, seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets."
Dumbledore was now staring at Celeste and Harry with his penetrating, light-blue stare.
Before Dumbledore could speak another word, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang, and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes, his balaclava perched on top of his shaggy black head and the dead rooster still swinging from his head.
"It wasn't them, Professor Dumbledore!" Hagrid said urgently. "I was talking with Harry seconds before that kid was found, and I could see Celeste talking with her brother. They never had time, sir -"
Dumbledore tried to say something, but Hagrid went ranting on, waving the rooster around in his agitation, sending feathers everywhere.
" - It can't have bin him, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic if I have to -"
"Hagrid, I -"
"Yeh've got the wrong kids, sir, I know Harry and Celeste never -"
"Hagrid!" Dumbledore said loudly. "I do not think that they attacked those people."
"Oh,' Hagrid said, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right. I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."
And he stomped out looking embarrassed.
"You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed rooster feathers off his desk.
"No, I don't," Dumbledore said, though his face was somber again. "But I still want to talk to you both."
Harry and Celeste waited nervously while Dumbledore considered him, the tips of his long fingers together.
"I must ask you, Harry and Celeste, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently."Anything at all?"
"Aren't you a legillimen? Can't you just see anything you want to know?" Celeste asked.
"I do not wish to use it on students unless it's necessary.
"Well, no, there isn't anything, Professor."
"Yeah," Harry said. "There isn't anything."
The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into a real panic. Curiously, it was NearlyHeadless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.
"At this rate, we'll be the only ones left," Ron told Harry, Celeste, and Hermione. "Us, Cedric, that Chang girl, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. What a jolly holiday it's going to be."
Crabbe and Goyle, who always did whatever Malfoy did, had signed up to stay over the holidays, too. But Celeste was glad that most people were leaving. People stopped hexing her, but every time she entered a room or bathroom people would scurry away from her like she was going to petrify them. It as worse when she was with Harry, though; people would point and very obviously grope their wands from in their robe pockets like they were going to do a double kill.
Fred and George, however, found it all very funny. They went out their way to march ahead of Harry and Celeste down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherins, a seriously evil wizard and witch coming through.."
Percy was deeply disapproving of this behaviour.
"It's not a laughing matter." He said coldly. "Who knows, this girl could actually be the Heir."
"So I'm 'this girl' now? What happened to Diggory, or Celeste?"
" My father says Diggory is a respectable name in the ministry, and it shouldn't be tarnished by some reckless girl," Percy said sneering.
"My whole family could be the Heir! Shut up, will you?"
"Woah, guys. Let's chill, okay?" Ron said. Celeste didn't even notice that Hermione and Ginny had also come over.
"Its clearly you, when your Mum is 6 feet under and your brother, is too depressed to do anything but play Quidditch."
"Oh, uh..." George said, looking around. He tapped Celeste and pointed to the spot where Cedric, Julian, and Cho were sitting, clearly hearing everything. "He looks mad."
Cho was trying to talk to him, maybe to calm him down, but it didn't seem to be working: He was getting up and coming over, with Julian and Cho in tow.
"What did you say, Percy?" Cedric said, stepping up beside him. though Cedric was one year younger than Percy and 2-grade levels younger, he was still taller than him.
"Nothing that concerns you," Percy said, moving his prefect badge so it showed more.
"Hm, I thought I heard you say that 'I'm too depressed to do anything but play Quidditch.' And my sister is 'tarnishing the Diggory name.'" He waited for Percy to say something, but he could only turn paler than he always was, and stare. "Oh yeah, I thought so."
At least he didn't escalate the situation. Celeste thought. She clearly misread it, because Cedric then punched Percy straight in the nose.