"As Mr.Black said, she has been Petrified," said Dumbledore. "But how, I cannot say…""Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry.
"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "it would take Dark Magic of the most advanced —"
"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found — in my office — he knows I"m a — I"m a —" Filch"s face worked horribly. "He knows I"m a Squib!" he finished.
"I never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him, including all the Lockharts on the walls. "And I don"t even know what a Squib is."
"Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "He saw my Kwikspell letter! It had disappeared before but now I am sure who is the culprit behind it all."
"I don"t even know what letter are you talking about." Harry refuted.
"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows, and Harry"s sense of foreboding increased, he was sure nothing Snape had to say was going to do him any good, "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Harry was shocked, he didn"t know why Snape would try to help him but then he remembered Draco who was along with them.
"But we do have a set of suspicious circ.u.mstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn"t he at the Halloween feast?" Lockhart out of everyone called out with a nasty voice staring at Draco.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. "…there were hundreds of ghosts, they"ll tell you we were there —"
"But why not join the feast afterward?" said Lockhart, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"
Ron and Hermione looked at Harry.
"Because — because —" Harry said, his heart thumping very fast; something told him it would sound very far-fetched if he told them he had been led there by a bodiless voice no one but he could hear, "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," he said.
"Without any supper?" said Lockhart, a triumphant smile flickering across his face. "I didn"t think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."
"We weren"t hungry," said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.
Lockhart"s nasty smile widened.
"I suggest, Headmaster, that they are not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. To be honest, it"s not like they haven"t got someone in their group who is very proficient in magic."
"Just say it straight, Lockhart you are trying to blame me aren"t you." Draco said frowning, "It"s true if I wanted to I could easily do so, but why would I go this roundabout way of getting myself blamed for it. Do you really consider me that stupid on the other hand, you look too eager to blame me..."
Draco"s voice got slower and slower as his eyes gleamed with light as if he had finally figured something out. The sudden rise in power and the chamber of secret correlates to one thing, Tom Riddle"s diary. Draco didn"t know how Lockhart got his hand on it but he was now certain who possessed it.
"Mr. Black, Lockhart just keep quiet for once." said Professor McGonagall sharply, "And Lockhart, I see no reason to deprive of them of their privileges. This cat wasn"t hit over the head and there is no evidence at all that they had done anything wrong."
Dumbledore was giving Draco a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made Draco feel as though he were being X-rayed but he stayed silent as he stared back at him.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Lockhart," he said firmly.
Lockhart looked furious.
So did Filch.
"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"
"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."
"I"ll make it," Lockhart b.u.t.ted in again looking away from Draco, "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —"
"Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."
There was a very awkward pause.
"You may go all go. I believe Mr. Black has some work to do tomorrow morning." Dumbledore said to Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They went, as quickly as they could without actually running while Hermione nodded at Draco as she slowly left alongside Harry and Ron as well.
When they were a floor up from Lockhart"s office, they turned into an empty cla.s.sroom and closed the door quietly behind them.
Harry squinted at his friends" darkened faces.
"D"you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?"
"No," said Ron, without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn"t a good sign, even in the wizarding world."
Something in Ron"s voice made Harry ask, "You do believe me, don"t you?"
""Course I do," said Ron quickly. "But — you must admit it"s weird…"
"I know it"s weird," said Harry. "The whole thing"s weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber Has Been Opened…What"s that supposed to mean?"
------------------------------------------------
"I don"t know." Draco firmly answered the questioning look of Pansy.
"How come?" Pansy asked again, "You know pretty much everything. So what makes this one so different?"
"Pansy, I think he really doesn"t know." Daphne backed up Draco to protect him but couldn"t help but look back with doubt clearly written on her face. "Right?"
"Sigh! The chamber is an old myth in Hogwarts." Draco said sighing, "It"s just that, A myth."
"Then who could do such a thing?" Pansy asked with nervousness in her voice, "I mean that writing..."
"Maybe it"s just someone with a grudge against the cat." Theodore said suddenly, "I mean who doesn"t hate that cat, right?"
"Stop worrying about the cat." Draco said shaking his head, "I am leaving tomorrow morning so I need to have some word with you guys."
Pansy and Daphne nodded as they circled around the common room and chatted for a while.
Soon both Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy fell asleep. Taking his chances, Draco looked around and slowly without trying to make much noise sneaked out the door. He was carefully walking towards Lockhart"s office when he suddenly felt someone behind his back.
Suspecting it might be the creature from the Chamber, the basilick. Draco kept his eyes closed and turned back pointing his wand towards the other direction trying to feel things with his senses.
"It"s me, idiot..."
Draco heard a familiar voice as he relaxed and opened his eyes, "Go back, Theodore."
"Not until you tell me why you"re acting all sneaky." Theodore came forward with a questioning gaze.
"Sigh! You know curiosity killed the cat, right? Maybe, in this case, petrified it... but I guess it wouldn"t be so bad if someone was at least aware of the situation." Draco said in a whispered tone, "Follow me and be quiet!"
"It is about the chamber isn"t it?" Theodore murmured, "Do you know what happened?"
"That"s what I am trying to find out." Draco said, "Shh!! Someone"s in there?"
To reach Lockhart"s office, they had to go through the first-floor corridor which happened to be the scene of the incident. And in there was someone none other than Filch trying to wipe off the writing from the wall with a bottle of Mrs. Skower"s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but it wasn"t working at all.
Filch getting frustrated, threw the whole bottle on the writing as he started madly scrubbing with all the strength he could muster.
"Knock him out!" Draco whispered.
"A plate of memory charms coming right up!" Theodore nodded and went forward, with his wand.