Violet Potter and the Basilisk Plague (Year Two)

Chapter Ten: This Is Strange Even For Hogwarts

As the weeks continued to go by and Halloween that year drew ever closer, many events throughout September and the beginning of October had already occurred, good and bad at Hogwarts as usual. Violet Potter had joined the Hogwarts Junior Potioneers Club, of which there was a junior level, for second and third years, an intermediate level for fourth and fifth years, and an advanced level for the sixth and seventh years who were in it. It was started several decades ago by Horace Slughorn when he had been a Hogwarts Potions professor and the Head of Slytherin House before Professor Snape came to teach at Hogwarts (and watch protectively over Harry and Violet, though they had no idea about that yet).

These days the club was headed by Professor Snape who had the charge of the boys, and Professor Sprout, who was in charge of the girls. Whenever Violet looked back on whatever stress and teasing and pressure she had to go through to not only sign up but prove she had what it takes to make it into the Beginner Potioneers Club, she felt sure that it was largely down to Professor Sprout being a fairer judge than Professor Snape that Violet even made it in at all, and in that, Violet felt truly fortunate. And there were reasons Violet had for joining the Beginner Potioneers' Club that year that didn't have to do with extra house points.

It all began on Halloween night that year. Violet and Victoria were on their way back to the Slytherin common-room after the Halloween feast and treat collecting in the Great Hall which included a live concert performed by an American band of four of the most strangely pale and golden eyed wizards Violet had ever seen in her life so far.

The band name was The Coven Undead, and the four band members were all, (as it later turned out when Violet looked up the information), once mortals each transformed at some point in their young adult lives, not long after graduating from Ilvermorny into *vampires* under mysterious circumstances several decades ago.

They also refrained from drinking the blood of humans, seeking sustenance only from hunting wild animals instead, which was an incredible feat even completely mature vampires apparently had excruciating difficulty with. Their names were Derek Hastings, Terrence Rivers, Simon Hastings, and Osmond Fleet. Two of the band members were brothers. There were two songs in the show that also involved at least twelve magically dancing skeletons.

One of these songs was somewhere in the middle of the concert and titled, Skeleton Dust (Ashes to Ashes), as well as the ending song, Requiem for the Immortal Damned. Only they had to announce it as simply Ballad of the Immortal since they knew they were performing for the younger as well as older students at Hogwarts, and Professor McGonagall sat purse-lipped as though she did not quite approve of the fact that Professor Dumbledore decided to hire in a band of vampires for the evening's entertainment. Professor Snape was even more on edge about it, watching to make sure none of the band members were getting tempted by the scent of human blood, and looking as if he'd be the first teacher to step into action if anything was about to go south.

But to their immense credit, The Coven Undead had remained very professional and on their best behavior, which Violet knew from what she had already learned about vampires, couldn't have been an easy thing to do. In fact, it had to be excruciating. And the feast was good, their treat collection bags were about full to bursting, but the music was so positively wicked. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were all attending a Deathday Party in solidarity with Nearly Headless Nick had missed out on so much! Violet and Victoria were still talking about it amongst themselves while walking with the other second year Slytherins when all of a sudden, a Hufflepuff girl named Hannah Abbott let out a terrified scream which made everyone else stop in their tracks.

"What was that and why have we stopped?" Violet asked Tori who only said, "I dunno, but it must be something very bad to cause someone to scream like that. I can't see a thing yet though, there's too many people." But then Hannah Abbott cried, "The caretaker's cat! She's all stiff and won't move!" She sounded as if she were about to cry. Draco Malfoy was then heard to say, "So the miserable Mrs. Norris finally snuffed it and will never be a nuisance to another Hogwarts student again!" While Ginny Weasley snapped at him, "Stop talking like that right now, she still didn't deserve this!" Ginny too, sounded very upset by the entire thing. But then, Ginny had always been very fond of cats.

"How about you stop trying to give orders as though you think you're somebody? We all know you are a Weasley and all Weasleys are poor, and worthless blood traitors! Get back into your place with the other Gryffindor filth and keep that mouth of yours shut and go cry about not being liked by Potty the Scarhead, no one cares or wants to hear you!" Malfoy snapped as Ron tried to get a hold of him.

"You had better apologize for talking like that to my sister Malfoy. You're just jealous because Harry made it as seeker for Gryffindor Quidditch a year before you were even allowed to play for the Slythersnakes." Violet finally moved through the crowd and made her way directly on to the scene. She didn't like the way things sounded to be going, she had a very bad feeling that it was all about to get even worse.

Indeed, Mrs. Norris was laying completely immobile and in such a bizarre manner that for one thing, might have been comical if the situation wasn't so serious, and for the second thing, it told Violet that whatever it was that attacked Mrs. Norris had to be a magical creature with terrifying powers. No witch or wizard could have done this, not even one the likes of Voldemort. Harry and Hermione were both holding Ron back on both sides.

"OOOOH! You better be careful Weasley, I'm sure you wouldn't want Mummy to have to come down to Hogwarts and take you straight back home now would you...?" But Tori stood pointing over to one of the corridor walls, "Someone had left a message written in...blood!" She gasped.

The message was both disgusting and cryptic in nature, revealing that other similar incidents were already fated to occur.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN REOPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Malfoy seemed to be ecstatic about this. "Enemies of the Heir, beware. You'll be next Granger. You and all the other mudbloods!"

And then Filch hobbled crossly onto the scene. "Come on now, what're you all standing around here for? Blocking my way like this, more'n likely more mess for me to have to clean up---" He froze suddenly as soon as he saw his beloved cat.

"Mrs. Norris?"