Furious Angels

Chapter 10: Reactions

"What in the hell happened here?"

Harry's voice caught in his throat as he stared at the pile of bloody fur and bones that had once been Filch's cat. He couldn't seem to wrap his thoughts around what he was seeing. Certainly he, and probably every other student in Hogwarts, had daydreamed about doing something nasty to Mrs. Norris, but this was entirely different. If this was a joke, it had gone way, way too far.

"We should go," Neville said. Harry glanced at his friend, who wasn't looking at the torn body of the cat at all. Rather, Neville was nervously glancing up and down the hallway. "We really don't want to be here right now. If someone... if Filch finds us--"

"But we have to report this!" Hermione exclaimed. "This is... it's... how could someone do this?" The older girl stepped away from Ginny and waved her hands at the scene. "We have to tell the Headmaster or Professor McGonagall!"

Luna's soft voice caught everyone's attention. "We should tell someone... but could we tell someone after Ginny's in bed?" Neville, Hermione, and Harry all turned to see Ginny leaning precariously on Luna's shoulder. It was clear that Luna, being smaller and more slightly built than even Ginny, was having trouble supporting the weight.

Exhausted from her experience, Ginny was in imminent danger of falling. Harry rushed to her and slipped an arm around his wife's waist. "Good idea, Luna." The relief showed on both younger girls' faces. Harry continued, "Even better... Luna and I will put Ginny to bed. Neville, you and Hermione go to the Headmaster's office and let him know what we've found."

"Madame Pomfrey should have kept Ginny overnight... what was she thinking?" Neville said. He looked toward Hermione and blushed, but nodded. Hermione glanced quickly at Luna, then back at Neville. "You can't get her up the staircase to the girls' dormitory, Harry. How will you...?"

"We'll manage," Luna interrupted. "Don't worry." She smiled at Hermione, a twinkle in her eye, and it was Hermione's turn to blush. The older girl returned the smile shyly as she turned and disappeared down the corridor after Neville.

Luna turned back to Ginny and Harry. "Let's get her to bed, Harry. She's asleep on her feet."

"No, I'm okay..." Ginny said in blurry tones.

"Ginny, don't be brave. Let's just get you to bed." Harry took one side and Luna the other. They didn't so much carry her as merely gave her someone to lean on when she needed it. Guiding her, it took nearly ten minutes to get to the Gryffindor common room.

Harry helped Ginny crawl out of the portrait hole and turned in time to literally run into Percy Weasley. As Harry lay on the stone floor of the common room, the older boy glared down. "What is wrong with Ginny? What have you three been up to? Where is Ron? And where are the other two members of your little 'gang'?"

"Hello, Percy... how are you?" Harry said with a note of derision in his voice. He held a hand up to his brother-in-law for a moment, looking for help up, but when Percy ignored the hand Harry climbed to his feet on his own. "We're helping Ginny up to bed. She got burned by something earlier and we had to take her to see Madame Pomfrey. That's what's wrong, and what we've been up to. I don't have a clue where Ron got off to... he left us hours ago. Hermione and Neville--"

"She was burned? Harry, what were you doing that she could have been burned?" Percy normally shrill voice grew shriller still.

"Percy, I'll tell you everything the moment the Headmaster arrives, which he should be doing in just a minute. In the mean-time, I'm going to take Ginny up and put her in bed. That's much more important than feeding your pompous attitude." Harry turned back to his wife and, with Luna's help, walked Ginny up the stairs to the girls' dorm.

Percy glared at Harry's back for a long moment. How dare a second year speak to a sixth year... a sixth year prefect no less... in such a dismissive attitude! Professor McGonagall would be hearing of this. Oh yes, she absolutely would be hearing of this. Percy stewed for a few moments longer before something intruded on his conscious thoughts: the stairs to the girls' dormitory did not flatten into a slide. The alarms did not go off, and the entire tower was not awakened to the racket those alarms normally made. Harry Potter had just blithely walked up the stairs into forbidden territory, and absolutely nothing had happened.

Outraged and confused, Percy almost yelled, "Potter! How did you deactivate the alarm?" He ran up the first four steps to the girls' dorm, only to abruptly slide down as they changed into a ramp beneath him. He fell face-first onto the ramp, biting nearly through his lower lip, and slid down to the common room floor. Heads popped out of doors everywhere as the sound of the alarm reverberated throughout the tower.

XxxxxxX

Neville Longbottom was gasping. The air was coming in small cupfuls but his lungs were demanding quarts and gallons. Hermione had stopped them in front of a large, impressive-looking gargoyle and Neville took advantage of it. He leaned a hand on it and bent at the waist, trying to get his breath under control.

"Are you all right, Neville?" Hermione was breathing heavy as well, but wasn't gasping. Not quite, anyway.

The boy nodded. "I just..." breathe in breathe out "... need to..." breathe in breathe out "... catch my..." breathe in breathe out... "breath." Neville nodded to himself. "I don't usually..." breathe in breathe out "... run that far." He stood up straight and took one final deep breath. "Or at all... I really need to lose some weight."

"Yes." Hermione nodded vaguely, catching her own breath before turning her attention fully to Neville. "Sorry, what? Lose weight? Neville, you're not fat. You're just..."

"I'm on the chunky side, Hermione. I know how tubby I am." The boy's eyes never left the floor.

Hermione grabbed his arm unexpectedly and he looked up into her eyes. "You're so hard on yourself. Rather off-putting, if I do say so myself." She turned back to the gargoyle. "Have any idea how to get this thing to open?"

Neville started to reply in the negative when the gargoyle spun in place, revealing the staircase behind it. Upon the bottom stair stood the Headmaster himself. The old man looked from one student to the other and smiled primly. "Miss Granger, Mister Longbottom... I assume by your presence here just outside my office that you wish to speak to me about something, yes? How may I be of assistance to two of Gryffindor's finest?"

"Headmaster!" Hermione gasped. "We found something horrible! Please come!"

"Something horrible, Miss Granger?" The headmaster swept out of his staircase. The smile that had graced his visage when first saw the pair dimmed somewhat. "By all means, show me." Neville and Hermione nodded and turned back down the corridor. As Dumbledore followed, he asked, "Have you informed Professor McGonagall about the situation? She is your Head of House, after all, and thus should naturally be the first person you contact."

It wasn't quite an admonishment, but Hermione cringed anyway. "Sorry about that, Professor. Harry thought..."

"Ah... of course Mister Potter is involved in this," the headmaster muttered to himself. "Do go on, my dear."

"Yes, sir... but if we should have gone to Professor McGonagall first..."

"That's neither here nor there, Miss Granger. What's done is done. In fact... Mister Longbottom, while I accompany Miss Granger to the site of this horrible thing, would you be so kind as to go and fetch Professor McGonagall to wherever it is we are going? Thank you."

As Neville sped away toward the Deputy Headmistress's quarters, Hermione resumed speaking. "It's Mrs. Norris, professor... something horrible has happened to Mr. Filch's cat! Someone killed Mr. Filch's cat... b-but worse than that, sir... she's been torn apart! It's almost like she's been in a fight with some larger animal, sir! There's blood everywhere!"

Dumbledore's face grew positively grim. "I see. Did you witness this?"

"No sir... we... that is, my friends and I... Ginny, Harry, Luna, Neville, and Ron... we didn't see it happen... we were just coming from the Hospital Wing, you see..." Hermione looked sheepish.

"The Hospital Wing? Why were you in the Hospital Wing, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore glanced at the girl as they walked, and found her blushing in embarrassment.

"Ginny Weas - I mean Ginny Potter - she got hurt, sir. Burned. We... Neville and I and a few of our friends were... well, we were playing, sir. In a large room containing many, many objects just scattered about." Hermione began to stammer slightly. She was still slightly out of breath, was nervous from speaking directly to the Headmaster (something she had never had occasion to do before this), and from his potential reaction to their possibly being somewhere forbidden.

Dumbledore understood immediately. "Miss Granger, it's all right, calm down. Nothing you say to me now will get you or your friends in trouble, I assure you. I'm willing to overlook the occasional broken rule in the interests of the school. So please, do continue your story."

"We were in a huge room that Harry had found, Professor. It was filled, wall-to-wall, with all sorts of... stuff! All of it was old and most of it looked abandoned or forgotten. Some of it was broken. There were old suits of armor, and wardrobes, and chests filled with all sorts of books and Ron found a flying carpet! And we... the girls, I mean... myself, Ginny, and Luna... we found all sorts of old dresses and gloves and shoes... we were playing dress up like we were all knights and ladies in a castle... I was the Duchess of Granger... We were all dressed up and playing pretend... I guess it sounds sort of childish... but we were having fun, Professor..."

"That would explain your present dress, I suppose." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. Hermione blanched as she realized she was still dressed in the fine gown. "Now, Miss Granger... there is absolutely nothing wrong with children playing games and having fun. It's a skill I like to think I have not yet lost, now that I am settled into old age. But please continue... I enthusiastically await the climax of this interesting if rambling tale..."

Hermione nodded, thinking. "Sorry, Professor... I suppose we have been getting to the point from the roundabout way. While we were playing dress-up, we came across a crown. When Ginny went to put it on, it burned her hands... seriously... her skin was blackened and was cracking open. So we took Ginny to see Madame Pomfrey healed Ginny. We came across poor Mrs. Norris after we left the Hospital Wing."

"Do you think... after we investigate the death of Mr. Filch's cat... that you can show me the object in question, Miss Granger?" The twinkle had faded from Dumbledore's eyes. "I think it behooves us to go and examine an object that can burn the hands that hold it. But first, let us attend to Mrs. Norris."

XxxxxxX

Minerva McGonagall angrily swept into the Gryffindor common room. It didn't happen often, but once in a while, some boy thought he could outwit the alarms the Founders had placed on the stairs to the girls' dorms. She ran the male Gryffindors most likely to attempt to try such a stunt and came up with only a handful of faces. Armbruster, fifth year, McLaggen, third year, and Finnigan, second year, were all at the top of the list.

"Ah, good... Mr. Weasley," she said, immediately spotting Percy standing by the stairway. "I got the notice the stairway alarm had been tripped. Have you identified which boy it was? And did it happen accidentally or did the young man in question have a more questionable motive in mind?" McGonagall folded her hands in front of her and waited for the answer.

Percy was silent for a moment, as if composing himself. "Professor, I am afraid I must apologize. I was the person who tripped the alarm, though I assure you I did it quite by accident." He rubbed at his lip, which was still raw and red from the bite. "However, you should know that before I did so, Harry Potter walked up the girls' stairs without so much as a fare-thee-well and the alarm didn't even chirp at him." Percy waved at the stairs. "It was only after I made to follow him... to bring him back down, of course... that the staircase flattened and the alarm sounded. I nearly bit through my lip when I landed..."

"I see. Where is Mr. Potter now?"

Percy nodded toward the stairs. "Still up there, Professor. He and that Lovegood girl were carrying my sister up the stairs. I told him not to, but he didn't listen to me, ma'am."

"You mean, he's... how long has he been up there?" McGonagall started toward the stairs.

"It has to have been five or six minutes, Professor. Since just before the alarm sounded. He'll be in the first year dorm, ma'am." Percy stood a bit straighter, as if he was about to pronounce a sentence of doom. "Potter really should learn to respect the prefects in this school."

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley... I'll keep it in mind." She nodded to the boy and began to climb the stairs.

XxxxxxX

As she and Professor Dumbledore approached, Hermione eyed the crowd. It was obvious that some student or other had found the remains of Mrs. Norris and word had spread. The students were in a ring, most gawking at something on the corridor floor. She knew, of course, what it was they were gawking at... it was the car-wreck phenomenon on small scale: something horrific had happened, so obviously everyone wanted to get a good view.

On the periphery of the crowd, one of the older boys noticed their approach. Hermione couldn't remember his name... she wasn't sure she had ever heard it... but she did remember he was one of the Ravenclaw prefects. The boy's eyes widened at the Headmaster's approach, and he called out, "All right, everyone... it's the Headmaster... make way there! Let him through, you lot!"

Dumbledore nodded to the boy. "Thank you, Mister Francis... if you could have the children step back out of the way, please? And if you could please send someone to fetch Professors Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick, I'd greatly appreciate it. Miss Granger, if you wouldn't mind..." The headmaster stepped through the crowd, his hand gently on Hermione's shoulder. He guided her into the center of the gawking children until his own view was unobscured.

"Oh, my --" Dumbledore gasped. He seemed to study the cat's bloody carcass for a moment, then turned to Hermione, who (confronted with the bloody scene), was doing her utmost not to vomit. "Miss Granger, if you would please... which direction were you and your friends coming when you came across poor Mrs. Norris?

Hermione nodded. She took a deep breath and began, "We were coming from that direction, Professor... from the Hospital Wing. We'd just rounded the corner there when Neville shouted. He spotted Mrs. Norris first. The rest of us were talking... I can't really remember about what, and Neville just stopped and shouted." Her face screwed up into a pinch for a moment. "Harry and Ginny both said something about not expecting this to happen. I didn't think of it until now, but that's slightly odd, isn't it?"

Dumbledore merely nodded, encouragingly. "That's when Harry sent Neville and me to get you. He was taking Ginny back to Gryffindor tower before she fell over in exhaustion."

"I see. Did Harry say whether or not he was coming back?" Dumbledore asked.

Hermione just shook her head. "I think he was more worried about Ginny than Mrs. Norris, sir."

"Well... that fits," Dumbledore muttered.

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't hear you?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing... nothing... I apologize, Miss Granger. Just muttering to myself." The headmaster removed his wand from his sleeve and waved it carefully around the dead cat's body. Instantly, the worst of the blood vanished... but a blackish grey liquid was left behind "Hurm..." Dumbledore said. It was obvious to Hermione that the professor was thinking about something. She had no idea what the liquid was but noted a slight change in Dumbledore's demeanor.

The headmaster looked around again at the crowd. "I understand you all are curious, and therefore it would be useless to order you all back to your houses... but if everyone could please step back a bit farther, I would appreciate it." His tone was gentle, but it was obvious to the gathered students that he was not to be disobeyed.

She watched as he once again waved his wand over the cat. It promptly rose a few inches in the air and began rotating, slowly. Hermione glanced at the other students... their reactions to the cat, now that it was levitating, was varied. Some actually leaned in to get a better look, while others were being audibly sick farther down the hallway.

She took her first good look at the miniature corpse. It was obvious to Hermione that the cat wasn't whole: the back legs were missing, as was the lower end of one of the front legs. There didn't seem to be enough... she swallowed hard... enough guts left... as if they were removed somehow. And the wounds were jagged... not like knife wounds, or the cuts caused by a slicing curse. Rather, the wounds looked for all the world like teeth marks... big ones.

She realized that thinking in clinical terms helped her get over the nausea at seeing the poor animal in such a bloody state.

Professor Dumbledore had finished his own examination and lowered Mrs. Norris back to the floor. He stood silent, thinking for a long while, before glancing toward Hermione. He stared at the girl for a moment before thinking. "So, Miss Granger... what would your conclusions be?"

His question shocked her out of her reverie. "Sir? I'm... sorry, sir... I was just..."

"Quite all right. You're a normal human being, Miss Granger. That means that, like most of us, you have the one innate quality that separates us from lesser beings: a quick and powerful brain powered no less by curiosity than anything else. What have you noticed? Perhaps I've missed something."

"Oh, well... um... I think Mrs. Norris was killed by an animal of some type... and from the size of the bite, I'd say it was big." Hermione frowned suddenly before speaking. "But if it was that big, how'd it get into the castle?"

"A very good question, young lady." Dumbledore turned. "I do wonder..."

"You sent for us, Headmaster? You, make way!" Professor Snape stepped between two students, who shied away as if set on fire. "You students... back away and allow us to approach!" Whereas Dumbledore's earlier request had merely made the ring wider, Snape's presence made everyone step back a meter or more. He truly was the most hated and feared man at Hogwarts. "What has happened now... oh. Well..."

Next to him, Professor Flitwick let out a high-pitched squeak. "Oh, my... is... is that Mrs. Norris?"

"Yes, Filius, it is. I wish to wait until Professors Sprout and McGonagall are here before going to deeply into this... but obviously the poor beast was the victim of foul play."

Flitwick merely nodded. "Headmaster, if I may... has anyone located Mr. Filch and told him about his pet?"

XxxxxxX

Professor McGonagall pushed open the door to the first year girls' dorm. Her eyes immediately fell upon Harry Potter; the boy was sitting on an end-table, taking in soft, low tones to the Weasley girl. No... she's now the Potter girl. I have to remember that. She watched as Harry leaned forward touch her face, gently. Just past the pair, the Lovegood girl was sitting at a dressing table brushing her hair.

McGonagall took a moment to curiously study the impressive-looking gowns... one pale blue, the other green... hanging from Lovegood's bed before turning back to Potter. "Mister Potter, what do you have to say for yourself? I'm sure you are aware that the girls' dorms are off-limits to boys." She waited a moment. "Well?"

Harry shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "Ginny got hurt, Professor. Madame Pomfrey told her to get some rest. I helped Luna get Ginny to her bed, that's all."

McGonagall nodded, but her tone didn't change. "Mister Potter, your intentions are all well and good but you've broken a rather important rule, willingly. This will cost Gryffindor fifty points, and you'll serve a week of detentions with Mister Filch."

"Professor, I hope you can please excuse the interruption, but does the rule still apply to married students who are in a room together, with or without a third party present?" Luna asked.

McGonagall blinked for a moment, thinking. "Miss Lovegood, this matter doesn't involve you, so please be still. But to answer your question, there are no provisions in Hogwarts rules for married students. Thus, they must follow the same rules as everyone else."

Luna returned the professor's look with one of her own. "But Professor... I am involved in this. If Harry violated a rule, it was with my help. I helped Harry carry Ginny up the stairs."

McGonagall thought for a moment. "Very well, Miss Lovegood. Fifty more points from Gryffindor, and you too will serve a week with Mister Filch. Now... how did Miss Weasley get injured?"

"Potter. She's not Miss Weasley, Professor, she's Mrs. Potter, remember?" Harry said. He leaned forward and ran his hand through Ginny's hair. "And I mean no disrespect, but can we move this downstairs? She's asleep and Madame Pomfrey says she needs her rest."

"Mrs. Potter, yes. My apologies." The professor nodded and led the two students down into the common room. She was a bit chagrined to find a small crowd was awaiting them. McGonagall looked around at the students, her face grim. It didn't seem to her to be a gathering of nosy-parkers... just the usual common room crowd on a Tuesday night. "Mister Weasley," she called to Percy, "I require the room."

Percy nodded. "All right, you lot... you heard the Deputy Headmistress. Clear out. Find somewhere else to be." He roamed the large room, giving nudges here and there to the slower students. They headed up the stairs to the dorms, or out the portrait hole to the hallways.

When the last was gone, he took up position at the hole and waited. McGonagall stared at him for a moment, and he politely stared back. She cleared her throat, then did it again. Finally, she spoke up. "Mister Weasley, you too. Out you go."

The boy looked shocked, but complied. "I'll be right outside if you need me, ma'am."

"Thank you, Mister Weasley." McGonagall turned to Harry and Luna. "Now, you were saying?"

"We were playing around with some old junk we found up on the seventh floor. It seemed harmless enough. The girls were getting all dressed up in some clothes they found, while Neville and Ron and I bogged around. Ginny picked up this... this crown, or tiara, or whatever you'd call it... and it hurt her. It burned her fingers down almost to the bone. Madame Pomfrey healed the burns and suggested she go rest in her bed for the night."

"I see... and in all this did you think to tell someone that you'd found a dangerous object on school grounds?"

"Hermione and Neville were going to the Headmaster, Professor," Luna interjected. "We... Harry and myself, that is... felt it important to get Ginny back here."

"I see." McGonagall took a deep breath. "Mister Potter, while I admire your devotion to your... ahem.... bride... you simply must remember the rules. They are there for a reason and they apply to you as well as everyone else. Now... since your reasons were basically sound, I will return the fifty points I took from Miss Lovegood, and reduce your own penalty to twenty-five. But I don't want it happening again."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Something that had been floating in the back of Minerva McGonagall's mind came to fore. "Mister Potter... another question. Just what did you do to negate the alarms on the stairs? The alarms that prevent male students from climbing into the girl's dorms?"

"Nothing, professor... I didn't do anything..."

"Are you sure?" McGonagall gave him the full stare, but the boy just nodded.

"All I did was walk up them, ma'am." Harry swallowed deeply. "I promise."

"Hmmph. Well... let me see, then. Just two steps."

"What? I mean, what do you mean, ma'am?" Harry glanced at Luna, then back at his Head of House.

"I mean, climb the first two steps for me, Mister Potter." McGonagall waved toward the forbidden stairway. Harry stared for a moment, then shrugged. He stepped toward the stairs, hopped the first one, and stood there on the second.

No alarm sounded. There was, in fact, no reaction at all.

"All right, Mister Potter, come down please." She stepped to the portrait hole and opened it. "Mister Weasley, come in please." The professor stepped back to the middle of the room and turned to find herself confronted with two Weasleys, Ron and Percy. Percy looked perturbed at his younger brother, while Ron just stood there, eating something.

"Mister Weasley... Ronald, I mean... please head up to your dorm. Percy, please climb the first two steps of the girls dorm stairs for me. I'm trying to make sure they still function."

The older boy did so, but no sooner had he placed the first step on the stairway then the caterwauling of the alarm caused everyone in the room to flinch. The stairs flattened into a ramp, and Percy almost tripped onto his face.

"Well... I suppose that means they are working. Though why they aren't working for you, Mister Potter, is something of a mystery."

Harry started to speak but was interrupted by the portrait opening. Neville Longbottom, out of breath and looking somewhat peaked, came stumbling in. "Prof... Professor McGonagall... Headmaster needs... pfreww... needs to speak to you, ma'am. He's... he's at the girl's lav... on the second floor... the one that's always out... out of order."

McGonagall nodded. "Thank you, Mister Longbottom." She turned to the other occupants of the room. "Mister Potter, you're free to spend the rest of the evening as you like. Your detentions will start tomorrow night. You too, Miss Lovegood. Mister Weasley, thank you for your assistance." With that, she left the Common Room.

Harry and Luna both headed for the stairs only to be brought back by Percy's call. "No you don't... I want to hear about everything that went on tonight. I want to know how my baby sister got hurt. And I want to hear about it right now..."

XxxxxxX

Dumbledore looked up as Snape returned. The Potions Master seemed more peeved than usual. "Headmaster, the man isn't in his office, and none of the portraits report having seen him within the last hour. Is it possible that Filch has left the castle for some reason?"

"I've sent for Hagrid, and the gamekeeper's hut is the only place outside the castle I would think Argus would go." Dumbledore sighed. He turned to the nearest portrait. With the voice of command, he said, "Pass the word to the ghosts that I need them. Have them assemble here as quickly as possible."

The man in the portrait, dressed in the style of the English Regency period, merely nodded and left his frame. As he waited for the ghosts to assemble, Dumbledore once again considered the death of Mrs. Norris. It is simply beyond my comprehension that a student would be so cruel as to murder the animal in such a bloody fashion, regardless of how much she was hated, he thought to himself.

"Headmaster!" Dumbledore's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Professor Sprout. "Mister Filch is nowhere in my greenhouses. Nor did I see any signs of his being there earlier."

"Thank you, Pomona." Dumbledore shook his head, truly perplexed. He looked over at the Granger girl but she had clearly given everything she knew to him already. He fell into a reverie, still considering the facts.

"We're here, Headmaster." The voice was gravelly and sepulchral.

Dumbledore looked up into the eyes of the Bloody Baron and smiled, if a bit grimly. "Thank you for coming, Your Excellency. Are all the ghosts with you?" His eyes scanned the assembled spirits. Hogwarts, being a thousand years old, had more ghosts than anyone alive actually knew. He checked off the ones he recognized: Sir Nicholas, the Fat Friar, the Knights of the Cross (and their horses), the Gray Lady, the White Lady, Lord Gingham...

"The only one that failed to heed my call was the young one... Myrtle. But as she haunts the jakes behind you..." The ghostly Baron nodded toward the door behind Dumbledore.

"Ah, yes... thank you..." Dumbledore turned and opened the door to the lady's restroom. He'd never actually had a call to enter this room before, and though he knew intellectually that no one ever came in to use the facilities, he nonetheless felt uncomfortable.

"Er... excuse me, please. Myrtle? It's the Headmaster... I need to speak..." Dumbledore's words trailed away as he took in the scene before him. The missing Mister Filch was lying, spread eagle, in the middle of the floor. The man's eyes were wide, and his mouth was open, as if he died in the midst of a scream. For dead the man was, that much being obvious.

But it was the words that caught Dumbledore and held him. The words, written above the caretaker's body in what could only be the blood of the dead man's own cat, sent a shiver down the Headmaster's spine.

The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of the Heir, Beware!