Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 38
The chamber is open again
The next day, at breakfast, Harry went to the Hufflepuff table and sat down. Luna, who came with him, sat down at his side.
Hannah was the first one to notice.
"Emm Harry, why is there a Ravenclaw sitting next to you?."
"Oh. This is Luna Lovegood, a new acquaintance. She will be sitting here once in a while." Harry answered.
"Acquaintance?. Wow, Harry must really like you. He never brings anyone to our table." Susan smiled at Luna while shaking her hand, then she said.
"I am Susan Bones, and his one is Hannah Abbott, welcome to the Hufflepuff table."
"Nice to meet you Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. Your house seems very friendly." Luna smiled at them.
"We are the house of the friendliness of course. You can see it by just looking at Harry, right?" Susan and Hannah laughed.
"Yes, Harry is very friendly too," Luna commented, not understanding Susan's jest.
"Do I have to be teased at this hour of the morning, Susan?." Harry grumbled.
"You DO when you bring an 'acquaintance' to the table," Susan answered.
A white owl descended to the table, it was carrying a letter on its beak.
"Ah Nagini III, you brought me a letter I see." Harry picked up the letter and ignored the angry hoot. The letter was from Lorry, since he was not allowed to apparate inside Hogwarts he must have chosen to give the owl some exercise.
The letter was merely an update on the reparations on the house, the progress made, which was not much, and the money expent, which was a lot.
While Harry was reading his letter, Luna was playing with the owl and giving it some food.
"Harry, did you really name her Nagini III?" Luna asked with a furrowed eyebrow.
"Yes, why?" Harry said.
"I don't think she likes that name a lot, can't you see that she gets angry when you call her?" Luna explained.
"Really?" Harry looked at the owl, who seem to move her head up and down like she was agreeing with what Luna just said.
"We told you it was an awful name already!." Hannah said, looking exasperated.
"Maybe you can shorten it a bit, something like Nagi," Luna said.
Susan approached the owl and said.
"Do you like that better? Nagi?"
The owl hooted happily.
"Well, there you go Harry." Hannah commented.
Harry crossed his arms and grumbled.
"Fine. I'll call you Nagi then. Happy?"
Nagi hooted happily and Harry sighed.
—------------------------------------------
A week before Christmas vacations.
Harry, Susan, and Hannah were on their way to Transfiguration class, which was their last class of the day when Harry started hearing a voice coming from the walls...a familiar voice.
"What?" Harry asked confused and looked around.
"What is it, Harry?" Hannah asked.
The voice had stopped, or it went away, Harry was not sure. He could not make out what the voice was saying either, it sounded like nonsense.
He looked at Hannah.
"Is nothing, I thought I heard some voice coming from the walls for a moment," Harry answered.
"Maybe it was one of the ghosts, they do that sometimes, although I didn't hear anything. " Susan added.
They started making their way again when after turning the next corner, they heard an unpleasant voice.
"Potter! Oh and the two hussies."
Theodore Nott, who was sitting on a stone bench, stood up. Next to him was one of his gorillas. Harry wondered where the other one was since they seemed inseparable.
Susan and Hannah were making angry faces at Nott. Harry seems as calm as usual.
"Is there something that you need, Nott?" He asked.
"tsk, I don't need anything from you, Potter. I merely wanted to tell you to not get full of yourself just because you won one duel against me, that meant nothing!." Nott's face was getting a bit red.
"Duel?" Harry looked confused for a moment. "Oh, you mean the thing with the snake. Right, I had forgotten about that." Harry said nonchalantly.
Nott's face got even redder while Susan and Hanah chuckled. They all thought that Harry was making fun of Nott.
However for someone with a past like Harry, that event could not really qualify as a wizard's duel, so he just forgot about the incident altogether.
"You bastard!" Nott and his gorilla were ready to pull their wands out when...
A blood-curdling scream was heard.
They all froze for a moment and looked in the direction of the sound.
"Come on Harry, let's go find out what happened." Susan started running with Hannah following closely.
Harry quickly followed them, leaving behind the two other boys before they follow too.
When they reached the origin point of the scream, they could see that a lot of other students were already there, surrounding something.
Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts came through, moving students out of the way and yelling.
"Let me pass!" he spat.
Once Harry managed to make his way into the center of the crowd he heard Filch again.
"Nooo!."
Filch kneeled down and picked up his cat, Ms. Norris, who seem to be dead.
There were two first girls close by, one of them was crying and the other one was trying to console her.
Harry concluded that the scream must have come from the crying girl who found the dead cat.
'Oh, I was hoping for something more interesting' Harry thought disappointedly.
"You!" Filch pointed at the crying girl. "Did you kill my cat?!" Filch's face was contorted with anger.
"N-no!" The crying girl tried to defend herself
.
Then loud and commanding voice was heard.
"What is going on here!."
Students made way for the Headmaster, who was being followed by professor McGonagall and professor Snape.
Filch pointed at the crying girl and said.
"She, that one did something to my cat. Miss Norris is DEAD! I want her punished!."
McGonagall tried to deescalate the situation.
"Mr. Filch, calm down. We will get to the bottom of this, you have my word. But we will not be punishing anyone until we know for sure what happened."
"And I don't believe this is the work of any student Mr.Filch. I am afraid IT has happened again."
Dumbledore said while looking up.
When everyone started following his gaze, they saw it.
Many gasps and some screams were heard. At the top of the wall, written in blood were the words.
"The chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir…beware"