Hogwarts is my Home

Chapter 32: The Petrification of Rian Carter

Rian's POV

The rumours about me being the Heir of Slytherin were not slowing down. The more I argued, the guiltier I seemed, so I tried to best to just ignore it. That could only get me so far.

Lockhart bothered me practically every day about how I, a muggle-born, managed to "sneak my way into Slytherin". I would just shrug at him and change the subject to one of his books. This typically worked, because he loved to boast about his achievements. 

One day after Transfiguration, I stayed seated in my chair until all the other students left. 

McGonagall noticed before even turning around from wiping away the blackboard with a silent spell. "Do you need something, Miss Carter?"

"Professor, I was wondering whether it was possible for a student to be re-sorted."

"Not liking Slytherin?"

"Would you?" I laughed.

"No." She pulled up a chair to the other side of my table and sat facing me. She held out her hands, gesturing for me to give her my own; I did. "Miss Carter, I'm aware that the other Slytherins think you're the heir, but-"

I snatched my hands back. "You're not going to do anything, are you?"

"There's nothing I can do. You know you're not the Heir. I know you're not the Heir. Everyone who knows you knows you aren't the Heir. It is simply just nonsense talk."

"I believe that the Sorting Hat would place me in Hufflepuff if I were to put it on again."

"That may be the case, but you've already been sorted." She paused before saying, "You may think you don't belong in Slytherin, but you are determined, ambitious, and strive to be the best. These qualities are what Salazar Slytherin looked for in his pupils... but they aren't bad unless you make them."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Now get to your next class."

Hermione walked up beside me in the corridor one day in December after classes. "We need your help again."

"With what?"

"We need you to stay over Christmas holiday and help us into the Slytherin Common Room."

"I don't think I can do that, sorry. I really want to go home and see my little siblings."

"Of course. We'll find another way."

Christmas at home was pretty much the only time I was happy all year. I kind of didn't want to go back and almost asked my parents to send me to a muggle school, but would feel guilty about doing that to the twins and Toni.

I ended up dreading going back to Hogwarts, scared of being berated by the other students if one more student got attacked.

Finding out that Hermione got petrified was my breaking point. I visited her when no one else was around, begging for her to somehow wake up.

The people I shared a dorm with trashed my stuff, going through all my belongings looking for proof that I was the heir. They wouldn't let me sleep in my bed anymore, so I went to Professor McGonagall again, crying. She magicked a cot and let me sleep in her office.

Come May, students were yelling at me any time I was seen, wondering who I was going to get next.

I ran into the bathroom, Toni followed me. 

"Are you okay?" she asked me as I was hunched over the sink. 

"I just want to be alone right now. I'll find you when I'm done crying and we'll talk." I could tell she didn't want to leave, but complied. 

"Okay. I'll see you soon." 

I pulled myself together and wiped my eyes. I looked into the mirror and saw a pair of yellow eyes. 

Toni's POV

Professor McGonagall had me pulled out of Potions that afternoon, and I knew either Rian or Spencer had been attacked. 

Rian was placed in the bed next to Hermione's, just as statue-looking as her.

"Did this happen in the bathroom?" I asked her.

"Yes," McGonagall replied shortly.

"I knew I shouldn't have left her alone."

"Antonia, if you did, you'd be petrified too."

Five people (and Filch's cat) had now been attacked, and there was no sign of it slowing down.