Chapter Six: Out of My Comfort Zone
He felt as if he had woken from a terrible dream when Filch ran up, his finger shaking as he pointed to him. "You—murdered my cat!" Harish stepped back and shook his head, no words still able to come out of his mouth. "I'll kill you! I'll—"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived. 'Great,' Harish thought glumly. 'Just what I needed.'
He swept past Harish and the twins, followed by a number of teachers, and pulled Mrs. Norris off of the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You too, Mr. Blake, Mr. Weasley—both of you."
Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.
"My office is nearest, Headmaster—just upstairs—please feel free—"
"Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore said.
The silent crowd parted to let them through. Harish caught saw a glimpse of Hermione, Draco and Daphne as they passed. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.
When they entered Lockhart's office there was a flurry of movement as multiple Lockharts dove out of their frames, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart walked around the desk lighting candles while Dumbledore set Mrs. Norris on the it and began to examine here. Harish and the twins looked at each other briefly before sinking into desks out of the candle light.
Harish sat rather awkwardly and watched as Dumbledore bent over the cat. He had never been this close to the headmaster before, and it made him feel nervous that the old man would find things out about him that he shouldn't. Like the fact the he really was the heir of Slytherin, even if he didn't put up the message. Or the fact that he was the Dark Lord's son. At these thoughts, Harish strengthened his mental barriers and was careful not to look at the headmaster's eyes.
All the while Dumbledore stood bent over Mrs. Norris, prodding her and waving his wand. McGonagall stooped over the cat as well, but wasn't as close as Dumbledore. She too prodded it with her wand. The silence was punctuated by wracking sobs as Filch bent over with his hands clutched to his face. Harish's eyes roamed over him. ('Pitiful' he thought.) Lockhart stood in the background, muttering different things he had encountered that could've killed her, making Filch sob even harder. Snape stood at the back, his face half hidden in the shadows and he watched Harish closely. Harish made a mental note to not look into his eyes either.
Finally Dumbledore stood up straight and said gravely, "She's not dead, Argus."
"Not dead?" Filch wheezed, peeking one eye through his fingers. "But why's she all—stiff and frozen?"
"She has been petrified," the headmaster replied.
"Ah!" Lockhart said. "I had thought so!"
"But how, I cannot say," Dumbledore finished.
"Ask him!" Filch screeched suddenly, pointing at Harish. "He did it!"
Having finally found his voice again, Harish snapped coldly, "Oh, not this again! How could a fourth year seriously petrify anything, cat or not?"
"He has a point, Argus," Dumbledore said. Harish's eyes snapped to him suspiciously. He wished he could melt into the wall, this was definitely out of his comfort zone.
"I do recall not seeing Mr. Blake at the end the feast," Snape said slowly.
Harish's mouth dropped open. "I was setting the fuse off for the fireworks! Put me under Veritaserum if you want! The twins can tell you too! We did the prank with the fireworks and I was supposed to set it off!"
"Why didn't you return after you did so?" McGonagall asked.
The teen thought quickly, knowing he couldn't tell them he had heard a voice.
"I didn't see the point in it. I had already eaten."
"That's why George and I went after him," Fred said.
"We were telling him how the prank went—"
"When we saw the message."
"Innocent until proven guilty," Dumbledore said finally. "She can be cured. Professor Sprout's Mandrakes can be used to make a potion that will restore her—"
Filch looked furious. "My cat had been petrified! I want to see some punishment!"
"Fine," Snape said. "Five points from Slytherin for disrupting the feast."
Filch opened and closed his mouth, trying to find something to say. After he couldn't find anything to say, he left the room angrily. The other teachers took that as their leave so the only people left in the room were Harish, the twins, and Dumbledore.
Harish stood up and made his way to the door. He halted when Dumbledore said, "Just a minute, Mr. Blake." The twins stopped too. "Mr. and Mr. Weasley, you can leave us. I assure you this will only take a moment."
So the twins left and Harish slowly turned around, strengthening his mental defences even more.
"I want to ask you if there is anything you want to tell me," Dumbledore said quietly. Harish could feel the old man's gaze boring into him. "Anything at all?"
Harish forced himself to look into the headmaster's eyes. "No, sir," and he left a slight swagger in his step to make himself seem more confident than he really was.
The twins were waiting outside the office on him. They started walking back towards the dungeons and Harish joined them.
"You do believe me, don't you?" he asked after a couple minutes of silence. "About hearing the voice?"
The two red heads nodded.
"Why would you make—"
"Something like that up?"
They continued on in silence and Harish went to sleep instantly, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts and fears.
Like when the Ministry was broken into, the attack on Mrs. Norris was all anyone talked about for the next several days. Most everyone suspected that Harish really was behind it, as everyone knew he was going to become the next Dark Lord, but the girls in Hermione's year reckoned she did it because she was the last Black left.
Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been found, as though he thought the attacker might come back. Harish had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Mess Remover, but with no effect. The words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at students and giving them detentions for things like "breathing too loudly" or "looking happy".
Ginny seemed very disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate. According to the twins, she was scared rather easily and probably thought she was next. According to Ron, she was a great cat lover. Harish had too much to worry about to pay too much attention to it.
The attack had a similar effect on Hermione. She normally spent a lot of time in the library, but now she practically lived there. Not even Harish could get her to respond.
After Defence Against the Dark Arts one day, Harish made his way to the library to research for antidote in Potions. He met Draco in the back, who was holding up his History of Magic essay.
"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short…" he groaned, letting go of it and it rolled up. "Hermione had done four feet and her handwriting is tiny."
"Where is she?" Harish asked as he and the twins sat down at the table with the second year.
"Over there," Draco replied, pointing along the shelves. "Looking for another book. At this rate she'll read the entire library before Christmas."
"Shame," the twins sighed.
Hermione emerged between the bookshelves. She looked angry and at last she seemed ready to talk to them.
"All of the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been checked out," she said, sitting down between Fred and Draco. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left it at home, but it wouldn't fit in my trunk with all of the Lockhart books."
"Why are you looking for it?" Draco asked.
"The same reason everyone else is. To read up on the Chamber of Secrets."
"Oh!" Harish exclaimed. "Why didn't you ask?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"I know the legend of course!" Then he added more quietly, "How do you think I couldn't, with my father being who he is?"
"So what is the legend?" Hermione asked.
"The legend says that there was a dispute between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. Slytherin believed that the other founders should be more precise in who they let into their school. Gryffindor, however did not agree. So, according to legend, Slytherin created a Chamber that could be opened by his heir alone. It was said to be the home of a horrible monster. No such Chamber has been found of course."
"But it's open now?" Hermione asked.
"You said an imposter opened the Chamber before," Fred cut in.
"It was open before?" Hermione asked.
Draco nodded. "When my grandfather was in his sixth year."
"What did you mean by imposter?" George finished for his twin.
"You see," Harish replied. "I don't know! That's all I could get out of my father. He said 'imposter', but wouldn't specify who the imposter was."
"Why?" the other four asked.
Harish shrugged. "The only other clue I have to what could be behind this, is that during the summer my house elf told me that a diary was stolen from my father. He couldn't tell me what was so important about it, but from what I gathered, it's dangerous. Whoever stole it must be the one who opened the Chamber."
Harish and the twins left while Draco finished up his homework, Hermione trailed behind them slightly. They walked along the corridors, listening to others talk about the Chamber. As they walked passed, people turned and whispered to each other, staring at Harish. As he was used to it, he just ploughed on ahead. They turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the corridor where Mrs. Norris had been petrified. They stopped and looked. The only difference from Halloween was that the bracket where the cat had hung was empty and an empty chair that stood against the wall bearing the message.
"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Fred muttered.
The twins looked at each other. The corridor was deserted.
"Can't hurt to have a poke around," George said, dropping his bag and looked at the floor for clues.
"Scorch marks!" he exclaimed. "Here—and here—"
"Come look at this!" Hermione said. "This is funny."
Harish and the twins walked over to join her by the window next to the message. About twenty spiders were scuttling up the wall and out the window. There was a long silvery thread that was dangling like a rope as though they had all climbed it in their hast to leave the castle.
"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" Hermione asked. Harish shook his head.
"Do you remember the water that was here?" he asked. "Where did it come from? Someone has mopped it all up…"
"It was level with this door here," Fred said, reaching for the brass knocker, but he suddenly pulled his hand back.
"What's wrong with you?" Harish asked.
"That's the girl's bathroom."
"Oh, no one'll be in there. It's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione said, pushing Fred aside and opening the door.
"Who?" all of the boys asked.
"Moaning Myrtle. She's the reason no one comes in here. It's really hard to have a pee with her wailing at you. She's always throwing temper tantrums and flooding the place."
"That explains the water, then," Harish said, following her into the bathroom.
They looked around and observed the chipped sinks and spotted mirrors. One of the stall doors had been blown off its hinges and the entire room was dim and depressing. Hermione put her finger to her lips and walked toward the end stall, the one with the destroyed door. When she reached it, she asked, "Hello, Myrtle. How are you?"
Harish and the twins went around to look. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking at a spot on her chin.
"This is a girl's bathroom," she said, eyeing the three boys suspiciously. "They're not girls."
"No," Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how—uh—nice it is in here."
Harish shot her a look telling her he'd better do the story making.
"Did you see anything on Halloween?" Harish asked. "Anything odd? A cat was petrified right outside your door."
"I wasn't paying attention," Myrtle said dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then of course, I remembered that I'm—I'm—"
"Already dead?" the twins supplied helpfully.
Myrtle gave a wail and plunged headfirst into the toilet bowl.
"Great going, you three," Harish said.
"Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle," Hermione replied.
"Either way, you three are terrible at interrogation."
"I'm sorry," the twins said sarcastically.
"We can't all have—"
"Dark Lords raising us."
"Come on," Hermione said leading them out through the door. She had just barely shut the door when Percy came spluttering up to them.
"That is a girl's bathroom!" he gasped.
"We noticed," the twins replied.
"What were you—?"
"None of your business," the twins replied sticking their noses in the air and they left Percy behind, heading for the dungeons.
"Still wish we could find the Chamber and who did it already…" Draco muttered that night in the common room.
"Me too, Draco," Harish replied. "Me too…"