The Black Queen | F. Weasley

6. Filch's demise

Several weeks had passed before the Black Queen showed itself once more. The rumours and whispers had quietened down and the teachers eased up slightly, not being on edge as they were when their colleague got hit by the famous prank.

This time, however, it wasn't another professor who would get pranked...this time Filch was the chosen one.

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Mrs. Norris was padding down the corridors several metres away from Filch's office. Argus Filch, however, was quietly sitting behind his desk in his small windowless office.

He was filling in another file that would go in the filing cabinet that contained the Weasley twins' files. They currently didn't have their own filing cabinet, but Filch was certain that they were getting there and he didn't like it one bit.

"Filthy, little beast those stupid Weasley twins, if only Dumbledore would let me whip them raw," He muttered under his breath and pressed his quill down harder in anger, smudging it in the process. Several curses filled the air as he tried to remove the stain, but to no avail. He glared at it in irritation, hoping it would disappear if he looked at it long enough, but sadly that didn't work either. He contemplated his options, getting another form and starting all over or shrugging it off and continuing.

In the end he decided he wasn't going to put too much effort into filling in this particular form, it was about the Weasley twins anyway, they didn't deserve the luxury of him having to start all over again. He nodded to himself in satisfaction, yes that would serve them right.

No beautiful, stainless form for the Weasley twins, oh no, definitely not.

He had left the door ajar for Mrs. Norris so she could return to him if she wanted or needed to. He didn't see the dungbomb that was rolled into his office softly, but he was surely going to smell it within a few seconds.

A loud bang filled the quiet corridors of Hogwarts, along with a surprised yell followed by one in aggravation.

Filch ran out of his office and was breathing raggedly after coughing for a significant amount of time. His beady eyes flitted from the left side of the corridor over to the right, but wasn't able to pinpoint any students who were out of bed.

"Filch..." His name was a mere whisper and floated through the hallway carried along with the slight breeze that always found its way inside the castle through the small cracks and gaps.

He looked up in alarm and fear. His eyes settled on a black shape that stood at the end of the corridor. Filch stiffened completely.

He had heard the rumours and he had seen the prank thanks to all the pictures that had been spreading through the school like wildfire. Filch feared for his and his cat's life. He hoped that Mrs. Norris was getting out of this situation unscathed.

But sadly for Argus Filch, his cat had already been taken care of.

Mrs. Norris was sleeping peacefully in front of the doors of the Great Hall and changed into a different colour every few minutes.

"Wh- Who are you?" Filch spluttered our bravely and he saw the mouth of whatever it was that was standing in front of him turn up into a wicked grin.

"I'm the vigilante of this school, Argus." It said and its deep voice reverberated against the walls.

It baffled Filch how deep the voice was, it almost equalled Hagrid's. But the words that the shadow had spoken angered him too much to dawdle on that fact.

"Maybe you should take those feelings out on the students that smudge the reputation of this school then!" He spat and some saliva left his mouth when he pronounced the 'p'.