Always There

Chapter 16

Olivia looked around and found herself in a torch-lit corridor. She spotted Harry and ran over to him. Everything was desaturated, excepted for Harry and Olivia who retained the true rich colors of the present.

They glanced about, disoriented, then spied a boy at the end of the corridor, peering around a corner. A flurry of shadows danced on the wall beyond the boy, revealing the presence of others, unseen, in an adjoining room.

As Harry and Olivia advanced, low voices emanated from the shadows.

"Excuse me. Could you tell me where I am? Hello...?" The boy didn't respond, eyes staked to the activity in the adjoining room which Olivia saw now was the Entrance Hall.

A group of elder witches and wizards, Hogwarts Professors, talking amongst themselves, then abruptly went silent. Making way for two younger wizards, bearing a stretcher. "Riddle." The boy wheeled and looked right through Harry. Olivia giggled as they turned, too.

It was Dumbledore fifty years younger. "Professor Dumbledore." The boy said politely.

"It's not wise to be wandering around this late, Tom." Dumbledore told the young boy.

"Yes, Professor. I suppose I -- I just had to see for myself, if..." Riddle glanced toward the young wizards and watched them carry the stretcher out of the Hall, into the night. "... the rumors were true." Riddles looked lost and sad.

"I'm afraid they are, Tom." Dumbledore told the young boy and Olivia grabbed Harry's hand. It was the night that the Muggleborn witch had died.

"About the school as well? They wouldn't really close Hogwarts, would they, Professor?" Tom asked Dumbledore as the two siblings watched.

"Headmaster Dippet may have no choice, I'm afraid."

"Sir? If it all stopped. If the person responsible was caught..." Riddles quickly stopped talking.

"Is there something you wish to tell me, Tom?" Tom didn't answer for a long beat.

"No, sir. Nothing." Dumbledore studied Riddle for a moment.

"Very well then. Hurry along."  Dumbledore stride directly past Harry, not seeing him. When he was gone, Riddle moved quickly, toward the dungeon steps. Up ahead, a splinter of light leaked through a door. Riddle put his eye to the crack. Inside, someone was speaking.

"C'mon, Aragog. Gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now.. in the box..."  As Riddle pushed the door clear, Harry and Olivia saw a second, smaller room. Crouched by a box, is a huge boy. A strange clicking comes from the box.

"Evening, Hagrid."  Hagrid slammed the door shut. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Hagrid. I don't think you meant it to kill anyone --" Tom accused Hagrid and Olivia shook her head.

"He would never have killed someone." Olivia whispered to Harry.

"No, yeh can't! Yeh don' understand!" Hagrid yelled, but Tom wasn't listening.

"Hagrid. The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered." Tom told Hagrid as he took out his wand.

"It wasn' him! Aragog never'd kill no one! Never!" Hagrid begged, but Riddles wasn't listening.

"Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now... stand aside..." Riddle drew his wand, blasted the closed door off its hinges, extinguishing the torches within. Harry gasped and Olivia screamed. 

A low-slung thing with a tangle of black legs, a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers, scuttled out of the shadows.

As Riddle pointed his wand at it, Hagrid leaped. "Noooooo!" Hagrid jumped in front of the thing. As they tumbled to the floor, the entire room whirled off its axis, spinning, and Olivia found herself plummeting through color and shadow again, falling flat on her back to the floor of the Ravenclaw Common Room. The ceiling above spinning, slowly, to a stop. Olivia cursed and got off the floor.

She took a breath before she dashing to Harry's common room. What usually took 10 minutes to get there, was under three.

Olivia meet up with Harry before the two rushed to Ron, shaking him awake. "Ron! Ron!" Harry and Olivia whispered loudly.

"What? What's happened...?" Ron asked sleepy. The two siblings looked at each other as Ron sat up.

"It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago!" Harry told the sleepy boy, who was now wide awake. Olivia shook her head thinking that Hagrid could never kill someone. 

——— 

Harry, Olivia, Ron, and Hermione were walking together across the grounds. "It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be." Hermione said flabbergasted and Olivia nodded along with her.

"We don't even know this Riddle. He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch to me." Ron muttered as they walked past a bench. Olivia sighed as the walked.

"The monster had killed someone, Ron. What would any of us done?" Harry asked the two and Olivia took a moment to think. She shrugged not knowing.

"Look. Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go ask him about it?" Olivia asked and Ron shook his head.

"That'd be a cheerful visit. Hullo, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?" Ron said sarcastically and Olivia giggled. That would have be a terrible idea. 

"Mad an' hairy? Wouldn' be talkin' 'bou me, now would yeh?" Hagrid said as the three turned around quickly. Hagrid was grinning at them. They instantly look guilty. Olivia felt so bad, but she knew that he didn't kill ANYONE.

"No!" The three yelled all at once. Hagrid looks at them curiously. Harry nodded to the strange canister in his hand.

"What's that you've got, Hagrid?" Harry asked as he looked at it. Harry watched as Olivia walked closer to Harry.

"Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. Fer the Mandrakes, yeh know. Accordin' ter Professor Sprout, they still got a bit o' growin' up ter do, but once their acne clears up, we'll be able to chop 'em up, stew 'em, an' get those people in the hospital un-Petrified. 'Til then, you three best watch yerselves, all righ'?" They nodded and watched Hagrid lope away. Just then, Neville came running up. He looked pale with fright.

They way that he looked was enough to scare Olivia. "Harry, I don't know who did it, but you'd better come." Was all Neville had to say. The two siblings raced after him.