Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 11 - The Message

Cress's POV

Harry, Hermione and Ron tried to drag me to the Death Day party with all the ghosts, but I had politely declined. After fighting the troll on Halloween last year, I decided nothing would stop me from the full Halloween Feast experience. The food, after all, was fantastic.

"A toast anyone?" Fred stood up, signaling all the others at our table.

"And for our Gryffindor Princess, especially?" George joined him, shooting me a wink.

"Of course! Why not?" Lavender exclaimed, grabbing her cup.

I rolled my eyes playfully as Seamus and Dean got up as well. The clinks of our goblets were drowned in the laughter and talking that filled the Great Hall. I had finished my plate of food when I spotted the trio at the entrance of the Great Hall. Looks like they decided the feast was more worth attending. I excused myself from the table and joined them.

"Well? Decided the Death Day party wasn't for you guys?" I leaned against the column. "Why don't you guys come in?" They had been just standing there weirdly.

"No, it's just I hear something. On the way here too, I hear someone whispering to me," Harry described the voice. "I want to go follow it," he pointed in the opposite direction of the Great Hall.

"Real quick and then we can come back?" Ron's stomach growled.

"Yes, yes. Let's go find the source of the voice then. Although, I have to agree with Hermione, I don't hear it," I admitted as we headed that way.

The voice landed us in second floor bathroom, but it was flooded.

"Someone got carried away at the death day party," Hermione remarked, taking careful steps around the puddles.

"No one comes up here anyways," I walked along the wall, where there was less water. On the way back,, something in the reflection of the water caught my eye.

When I looked up, I gasped. Hanging from the hook on the wall was Mrs. Norris, but she wasn't dead. She was petrified.

The gasp I heard next didn't belong to anyone's voice that I could easily recognize.

"M-Mrs. Norris!" Filch's hand shook as  he grabbed Harry's collar. "What did you do to her, Potter?" He prompted.

"I didn't-it wasn't me!" Harry tries to wrench out if Filch's grasp.

"It wasn't, we were wondering why it was flooding and then saw her hanging there!" I clarified.

"Cress, look!" Hermione directed my attention to something scribbled on the wall in blood red letters.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

Suddenly, the feast was over and the students pouring our the hall had gathered around the scene, many of them murmuring about the phrase on the wall. From the back of the crowd rang a voice loud and clear, "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

In an instant, I began to push through the crowd to find him but Dumbledore arrived and started dismissing us so by the time I reached the outer part of the crowd, he was already gone.

~~~

"Professor McGonagall said in class today, the Chamber of Secrets was created by Salazar Slytherin before he left Hogwarts. It's inhabited by a beast, but for years everyone thought it was nonexistent, until I was last opened," I recalled, tapping my pencil on the desk. "Whatever the creature is, it must be after muggle-borns,"

"I'm telling you, the heir is probably Malfoy, did you hear him read the phrase? Exactly something he would say!" Ron presumed.

Hermione nodded in agreement, "Yea, besides, he's a Slytherin. Everyone in his family has been, and he's a pureblood supremacist."