Percy Jackson and Harry Potter Halfblood Heroes.(Book 2)

Chapter 6

Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs Norris?" he shrieked. And his popping eyes fell on Harry.

"You!" he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll —"

"Argus!"

Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by several other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past the four students and detached Mrs Norris from the torch bracket.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr Jackson, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly."My office is nearest, Headmaster — just upstairs — please feel free—"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore. The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office, Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore laid Mrs Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.

He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. ProfessorMcGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.

Filch's meanwhile was sobbing. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs Norris, his face in his hands.

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs Norris with his wand, but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.

"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly. Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.

"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs Norris."But why's she all — all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore "But how I cannot say. . . ."

"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tear-stained face toHarry.

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly as Filch. "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!"

"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows. "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?"

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 afterwards?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?" 

Percy, Ron and Hermione looked at Harry.