Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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ful: these were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Harry shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard.

'Is that supposed to be music?' Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

'My dear friends,' he said mournfully, 'welcome, welcome ... so pleased you could come ...'

He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside.

It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowd- ed dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a black-draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer.

'Shall we have a look around?' Harry suggested, wanting to warm up his feet.

'We should!' a voice whispered behind them making the three friends jump. They turned around to see Amelia grinning at them but she looked different. Her skin was very pale almost dead looking her eyes drained of color. She was wearing black dress pants which matched her black 1800s style boots and an old-fashioned two-tailed button coat; the ruffle of the white shirt Amelia was wearing underneath was placed over the coat, and her hair was pulled up into a tight fancy bun.

'That book you lent me was very helpful. I hope I look dead enough. A new Ravenclaw girl named Luna helped me with my bun. Very nice girl.'

'You look very dead,' chuckled Harry.

'Careful not to walk through anyone,' said Ron nervously, and they set off around the edge of the dance floor. They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Harry wasn't surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts.

'Oh no,' said Hermione, stopping abruptly. 'Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle –'

'Who?' said Harry, as they backtracked quickly.

'She haunts the girls' toilet on the first floor,' said Hermione. 'She haunts a toilet?'

'Yes. It's been out of order all year because she keeps having tantrums and flooding the place. I never went in there anyway if I could avoid it, it's awful trying to go to the loo with her wailing at you –'

'Look, food!' said Ron.

Amelia facepalmed.

On the other side of the dungeon was a long table, also covered in black velvet. They approached it eagerly, but next moment had