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"Harry What-"
"Shut it" Harry quickly silenced Ron as he closed his eyes before opening them again and looking at the walls
"Listen!" Harry hissed and Celeste tried to hear something but nothing was there except for their breathing. She sighed at him before grabbing her last slice of pie.
"This way" Harry breathed as he ran up the stairs and into the entrance hall. Harry sprinted up to the first floor and Celeste had practically given up and was walking behind the running others.
"I am not fit for this" Celeste mumbled as she looked up and saw they were a whole flight of stairs ahead of her.
"It's going to kill someone!" Celeste heard Harry's voice echo and she raised her eyebrows.
"Nothing new" She sighed as she got up, she heard their footsteps running down the second floor.
She was about to run up but somebody cleared their throat behind her and she saw Cedric.
"Oh hey" She greeted and he smiled back.
"What are you doing here?" Cedric asked.
"Well- I was following Harry- Oh my gosh Harry" Celeste says before realizing her friends were upstairs and rushed up, the crowd behind her confused but decided to chatter along.
Celeste ran around the corner, some of the other students following the girl in confusion.
"BLOODY HELL" Celeste shrieked at the sight of the blood on the wall, and the petrified cat hanging on the torch bracket with it's tail. Everyone stopped in their tracks and Celeste looked at Ron, Hermione and Harry with eyes trying to ask what happened but they looked just as shocked as her.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE
Celeste quickly went over to Ron and Hermione to see the mess and her sneakers splashed against the pool of water underneath it.
"What happened?" She asked Hermione who shook her head.
"We found it like this" Ron says.
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods!" Malfoy's voiced out and Celeste turned to him.
"Oh can't you grow your brain to be bigger than your ego at this moment Malfoy?" She barked and the boy sneered at her. She raised her eyebrows at him and he was going to spit a respone back before-
"What's going on here? What's going on?" Filch screeched as he ran up, he shouldered his way through the crowd, obviously attracted by Malfoy and Celeste's banter. He saw Mrs.Norris and fell back in shock, letting out a gasp.
"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs.Norris!?" He asks before his eyes landed on Harry.
"You!" Filch growled going over to Harry "You killed my cat! I'll kill you!-"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore swept past the Hermione, Celeste, Harry and Ron and looked at the cat and detached her from the torch bracket. Following him were other teachers.
"Come with me Argus" He says "You too Mr. and Ms.Potter, Ms, Granger and Mr.Weasley"
"Professor, Celeste was with me when she saw it" Cedric says softly to Dumbledore who looked at him then back to the girl.
"I know Mr.Diggory, I just am going to bring her with me" He says and Cedric nodded and Celeste turned back and gave a smile to him, he returned one before they all went to Lockhart's office, which he had offered up.
They entered the office which was filled with disturbin- er moving pictures of smiling Lockhart around and Dumbledore laid the cat onto the table.
"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 babbled on as Filch sobbed into his hands as he sat in the corner.
Dumbledore tapped his wand while muttering incantation at the cat which didn't move and stood stiffly on the table, stuck like a stone.
"... I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadogou," Lockhart says"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..."
"She's not dead" Celeste spoke up and they all looked at her and back at Dumbledore. Lockhart seemed a bit offended.
"I'm sorry Ms.Potter- you don't see-"
"She's correct, Mrs.Norris isn't dead" Dumbledore cut Lockhart off and the blonde faltered before regaining his composure "I knew that"
"Not dead?" Filch asked "But how can she be not dead? She's all stiff and frozen!"
"She has been petrified" Dumbledore concluded "but how.. I cannot say"
"Ask HIM!" Filch hissed at Harry
"A 2nd year can't have possible done this" Dumbledore says "This would take the most advanced of dark magic"
"HE DID IT! HE DID IT!" Filch cried like an infant, pointing his finger at Harry "You saw what he wrote on the wall! In my office! He found- He knows- I'm a Squib"
Celeste and Ron both widened their eyes and looked at eachother before looking at Harry who seemed like he was going to fume out in anger.
"I never touched Mrs.Norris!" Harry snapped "I don't even know what a squib is!"
"Rubbish!" Filch yelled "You saw my Kwikspell letter!"
"If I may speak Professor" Snape says and Celeste saw a small smug grin on his face before it disappeared "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast?"
The students started explaining all about their deathday party, Celeste included
"But why not join the feast after?" Snape asks "Why go up that corridor?"
"Profes-"
"Not a word from you Ms.Potter, you were nothing but a mere witness" Snape cut her off before he looked at the other students.
"Severus- the girl was there with them in the deathday party" Dumbledore says.
"I suggest- Headmaster" Snape ignored his claims "It might be a good idea if we take away Potter's priviliges, I personally feel like he should be taken off of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team until he is ready to be honest"
"Really Severus?" Professor McGonagall snapped "I see no reason to stop the boy 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! And you didn't even let Celeste say anything about it"
Dumbledore observed Harry and his eyes twinkled behind his glasses before he hummed.
"Innocent before proven guilty, Severus"
Snape and Filch both had the same look of fury plastered onto their wretched faces.
"My cat has been petrified!" Filch screams "I want to see some punishment"
"To the right person" Celeste quickly pipes up, Ron looked to the teachers and saw McGonagall hiding her mouth and Dumbledore just raised his eyebrows at her.
"We will be able to cure her" He says "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their fullsize, 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-"
"I believe I am the potions master in this school" Snape says
The four kids got out of the awkward clasroom and they went to a floo above where they entered a room.
"Do you think I should tell them about the voices I heard?" Harry asked and both Celeste and Ron shook their head quickly
"No" Ron says "Hearing voices isn't a good thing, even in the Wizarding World"
"You guys do believe me, do you?" Harry asks
"Well- it's a bit strange but." Ron started
"We do, it's just strange but when has anything normal happened to us?" Celeste continued.
"I know, but it's strange like what's with the writing on the wall? The Chamber has been opened" Harry sighed.
"Rings a bell" Celeste says humming.
"It really does, Someone told me the story about a chamber under Hogwarts.. might be Bill" Ron says and Celeste nodded after him
"What on earth is a squib?" Harry asks
Ron almost let out a laugh before Celeste elbowed his side.
"It's quite pitiful really" Celeste shrugs "Sort of the opposite of muggleborns- magical parents but born non-magical you know.."
A clock chimed from the distance and they all quickly headed back to bed, hoping that Snape wouldn't find them here and frame them for something else.
Celeste spent the next few days trying to comfort Ginny who was acting way too distraught about this occurence. She sat with Ginny by the couch with Ron as he tried to explain to Harry about how Ginny was a big cat-lover.
"Honestly we're better off without her" Ron shrugged and Celeste scoffed "Stuff like this doesn't always happen in Hogwarts"
"Doesn't seem like it- ever since we cam everything's gone horribly wrong" Celeste piped up and the Weasleys glared at her and she just shrugged.
"They'll catch the maniac soon enough" Ron says "Hopefully would petrify Filch before he gets expelled"
"I'm only joking!" Ron said hastily after Ginny glared at him.
The four found themseleves often in the library as Hermione has taken it upon herself on trying to read the whole library. Celeste had finished her essay and it even reached 4 feet, Hermione did more than that though.
She was playing with the snitch, sitting down sideways on the chair as she watched measure his homework. She had her legs propped up on the table and her chair leaned back a bit. She saw Harry come running here and she looked at him confused.
Harry spilled to them about Justin avoiding him like a plague and Celeste looked at him with an amused glint in her eyes.
"Dunno why you're taking it so hard- was kind of a nutterhead, if I'm being honest" Celeste says as she let the snitch fly arms reach above her head and she caught it.
"All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out" Hermione growled as she went to the table and glared at Celeste's feet and she instantly brought them down.
"there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books" She groaned before collapsing down on the chair next to Celeste.
"Why'd you want it so bad?" Harry asks.
"Same reason why everyone else wants it" Celeste says "There's a story bout the Chamber of Secrets there-"
"What's that?" Harry quickly asks.
"Don't remember" Celeste mutters.
"Exactly! I can't find the story anywhere else" Hermione said frustrated.
"Celeste- let me read your composition" Ron says and Celeste shrugged before reaching to her bag to get it out but couldn't find it.
"Hey where's my-" Celeste turned and saw Hermione holding it with a disapproving stare at her.
"Owh come on Hermione! Celeste was just about to give me hers!" Ron whined but Hermione shot daggers out of her eyes.
"You've had 10 days to finish!" Hermione scolds and Ron groans.
"I only need 2 more inch-"
The bell rang and they all grabbed their belongings to go to History of Magic, which was the most boring class that Celeste has ever been to in her entire life and she went to a muggle school at some points before.
Celeste sat next to Hermione during class and had passed out on her table when Hermione rasied her hand causing a look of astonishment coming from both her best friend and the teacher.
"Miss-"
"Granger, sir. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets" Hermione says and everyone's attention switched to the girl and the professor. Even Celeste was wide awake now.
"I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." Professor Binns says "Now in Septe-"
Celeste's hand rasied and he looked at her expectantly "Ms.Potter?"
"Sir, but don't legends always have a basis of fact?" Celeste asks and Professor Binns looked at her with amazement, nobody had ever interrupted him- she guessed- alive or dead.
"Yes, one can argue that. But this tale you speak of is a very sensational even ludicrous-" He stopped himself as he saw all the students sitting on the edge of their chairs and he sighed.
"Very well" He sighed "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 4 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."
"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. 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. Aftera while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school"
Professor Binns said and everyone hanged onto his every word, which surprised him very much.
"But of course, this is only a tale. A reliable source has said that Slytherin after creating a chamber under the school, 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" He explained.
"Sir what exactly do you mean by horrors within the chamber?" Hermione asks.
"Some say there was a horrid creature, some sort of monster only the Heir of Slytherin can control" He says "But even the most learned wizard and witches couldn't find the chamber as to why it doesn't exist"
Celeste looked off into the distance as she thought of what could be staying in the Chamber Of Secrets- a giant spider? a giant snake? a giant rat? Celeste couldn't really tell but she was determined to find out what exactly is up with this Chamber.