Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

26. Aragog

Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle, sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses. But with no Hagrid visible from the castle windows, striding the grounds with Fang at his heels, the scene didn't look right to Harry, no better, in fact, than the inside of the castle, where things were so horribly wrong.

Y/n had tried several times to visit Hermione, but visitors were now barred from the hospital wing.

"We're taking no more chances." Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.

Harry constantly repeated Dumbledore's final words to himself. "I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." But what good were these words? Who exactly were they supposed to ask for help, when everyone was just as confused and scared as they were?

Hagrid's hint about the spiders was far easier to understand. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow. Y/n and Harry looked everywhere they went, helped rather reluctantly by Ron. They were hampered, of course, by the fact that they weren't allowed to wander off on their own but had to move around the castle in a pack with the other Gryffindors. Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Y/n found it very irksome.

Two people, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy and Atticus Grindelwald were strutting around the school as though one of them had just been appointed Head Boy. Y/n didn't realize what Draco was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, He and Harry overheard him gloating to Atticus.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore." he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in..."

Snape swept past Y/n, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.

"Sir." said Malfoy loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Malfoy," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thinlipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right." said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job, I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir."

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now." Malfoy went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies."

"It's a Pity it wasn't Granger..." Atticus said with a sneer as he cast his eyes in Y/n's direction for a moment and grinned.

The bell rang at that moment, which was lucky at Atticus's last words, Ron had leapt off his stool, and in the scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Atticus went unnoticed.