The Other Potter

XLVIII. CANCELLED MATCHES

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As Mia left the Great Hall with Harry, Ron and Hermione to go and collect her Quidditch things the next day, another very serious worry was added to her growing list. She had just set foot on the marble staircase when she heard it yet again.

"Kill this time. . . . let me rip. . . . tear. . . ."

The twins shouted aloud and Ron and Hermione both jumped away from them in alarm.

"The voice!" said Mia, looking over his shoulder. 

"I just heard it again, didn't you?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head, wide eyed. Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Mia, Harry, I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!" And she sprinted away, up the stairs.

"What does she understand?" said Mia distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.

"Loads more than I do," said Ron, shaking his head.

"But why's she got to go to the library?"

"Because that's what Hermione does," said Ron, shrugging. "When in doubt, go to the library."

The twins stood, irresolute, trying to catch the voice again, but people were now emerging from the Great Hall behind him, talking loudly, exiting through the front doors on their way to the Quidditch pitch.

"You'd better get moving," said Ron. "It's nearly eleven, the match. . . ."

"Oh shit," Mia said before she raced up to Gryffindor Tower, collected her Nimbus Two Thousand, and joined the large crowd swarming across the grounds, but her mind was still in the castle along with the bodiless voice, and as she pulled on his scarlet robes in the locker room, her only comfort was that everyone was now outside to watch the game.

The teams walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver Wood took off for a warm up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last minute discussion of tactics.

Mia was just mounting her broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone. Mia's heart dropped like a stone as she stopped walking and looked at McGonagall.

"This match has been cancelled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver Wood, looking devastated, landed and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

"But, Professor!" he shouted. "We've got to play. . . . the cup, Gryffindor. . . ."

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone: "All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Mia over to her.  

"Potter, I think you'd better come with me. . . ."

Wondering how she could possibly suspect her this time, Mia saw Harry and Ron detach themselves from the complaining crowd. They came running up to them as they set off toward the castle. To Mia's surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come, too, Potter and Weasley. . . ." 

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. Mia, Harry and Ron followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack, another double attack."

Mia's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and she, Harry and Ron entered.

Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth year girl with long, curly hair. And on the bed next to her was. . . .

"Hermione!" Ron groaned.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy.

"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them. . . ."

She was holding up a small, circular mirror.

Mia, Harry and Ron shook their heads, both staring at Hermione.

"I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."

Mia didn't remember how she got back to the Gryffindor common room. One moment she was in the Hospital Wing, the next second she was leaning against the wall in the common room with her arms crossed. 

"Could I have your attention, please?" McGonagall called to the entire Gryffindor tower. "Because of recent events, these new rules will be put into effect immediately." 

She unrolled a piece of parchment and began reading from it. 

"All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock every evening. All students will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No exceptions."

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She rolled up the parchment from which she had been reading and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately.

"That's two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff, " said the Weasley twins' friend Lee Jordan, counting on his fingers. "Haven't any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn't it obvious all this stuff's coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin, why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out?" he roared, to nods and scattered applause.

Percy Weasley was sitting in a chair behind Lee, but for once he didn't seem keen to make his views heard. He was looking pale and stunned.

"Percy's in shock," George told Harry quietly as Mia looked at him. "That Ravenclaw girl, Penelope Clearwater, she's a prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a prefect."

But Mia was only half listening. She didn't seem to be able to get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, she was looking at a lifetime back with the Dursleys. Tom Riddle had turned Hagrid in because he was faced with the prospect of a Muggle orphanage if the school closed. Mia now knew exactly how he had felt.

She was standing in between Harry and Ron with her arms crossed and a cold look on her face.

"We've got to talk to Hagrid, guys," Harry said, "I can't believe it's him, but if he did set the monster loose last time, he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"But you heard McGonagall," Ron said as Mia looked at him. "We're not allowed to leave the Tower except for class." They both turned to look at Mia.

"I think it's time to get my dad's old cloak out again," the ginger girl said, looking at both the boys with a cold look.