A Potter Secret

Voices

Harry passes quickly through the lengthening shadows of the empty corridor. "Blood, I smell blood-" a voice rasps.

Harry stops cold, looking around for the source of the voice. "Isabella, do you hear that?" Harry whispers.

Isabella nods, shivering slightly in his pocket.

"Let me rip you, let me kill you-" the voice starts up again.

Harry steps to the wall, playing his fingers along the stone, then begins walk, slowly at first, then more quickly, as if following something, moving faster and faster, rounding the corner and coming face to face with, Hermione and Ron. "Harry!" Hermione calls.

"Did you hear it?" Harry inquires.

"Hear what?" Ron asks.

"That, voice," Harry explains.

"Voice? What voice?" Hermione asks.

"I heard it first in Lockhart's office and then again, just-" Harry says, his eyes darting around.

"Kill, Time to kill-" the voice hisses. As Harry stiffens, Hermione and Ron study him curiously.

"It's moving. I think it's going to kill," Harry says. Harry runs off. Hermione and Ron exchange a glance, follow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry dashes madly, taking the steps three at a time. He makes the landing, rushes through the archway, and sleds to a stop, listening: Nothing. Slowly, he peers down. Water is oozing over the stone floor, surrounding his shoes. His own reflection appears and, behind it, undulating like a dream, words. Ron and Hermione come huffing up. "Harry, what are you doing?" Ron asks.

He points. Shimmering on the wall are the words he saw reflected in water. "The chamber of secrets has been opened- enemies of the heir, beware." "'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened-?'" Hermione reads.

"What's that? Hanging underneath?" Ron questions.

"That's Filch's cat. Mrs. Norris," Harry realizes. Isabella's head peeks out of Harry's pocket and stares, startled and scared.

The cat hangs stiffly by her tail from a torch bracket, eyes open and blank. Harry's eyes shift to the adjacent window, near the topmost pane, spiders scuttle up a silvery thread, fight to get through a crack in the glass. "Look at that. Have you ever seen spiders act like that? Ron-?" Hermione asks.

"I don't like spiders," Ron admits, stepping back.

Suddenly, the stairwell is alive with voices and, seconds later, dozens of students stream forth, chattering, when they stop, seeing the wall and, standing before it, Harry, Ron and Hermione. A thudding silence falls. Then Draco pushes forward, eyes the wall, and grins nastily. "Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Draco calls. Draco's eyes find Hermione, just as Filch appears.

"What's going on here? Go on now! Make way-" Filch demands, stopping dead. "Mrs. Norris!" He rounds on Harry. "You! You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you! I'll-"

"Argus!" Dumbledore calls. Dumbledore marches forward, trailed by a phalanx of teachers. Seeing the wall, Dumbledore's face darkens. "Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately." He points to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Everyone except you three."

As the corridor empties, Dumbledore steps to the wall and, with extreme gentleness, removes Mrs. Norris. "It was definitely a curse that killed her, probably the Transmogrifian Torture. Encountered it myself once, in Ouagadougou. The full story's in my autobiography-" Lockhart advertises.