PRINCESS ➳ harry potter , draco malfoy (OLD VERSION)

23 || The Chamber of Secrets

Like she had promised, Katie met Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall at lunch. She looked around to check that there were no teachers near before sliding onto the bench next to Harry.

"Hi Katie!" Ron said through a mouth full of chicken. Hermione grimaced in disgust.

"Katie, I need to talk to you." Harry said urgently. Katie placed her elbow on the table and leaned on her closed fist, waiting for Harry to continue.

"Last night, when I was at detention with Lockhart, I heard this voice..."

Katie furrowed her eyebrows. "Voice?"

"Yes, but there was no one else in the room with Lockhart and me." Harry kept his voice low and hushed as to prevent others from listening in to the conversation.

"Are you sure it wasn't a ghost?" Katie quizzed, "Or someone with an invisibility cloak?"

Harry's lips thinned and he shook his head. "Someone wearing an invisibility cloak would still need to open the door."

Katie fell silent for many moments. She had been plunged into deep thought. Harry had a good point.

"So, let me get this straight — a house elf shows up in your bedroom and tells you not to come back to school, you can't get onto Platform 9 3/4, and now you're hearing voices?" she spoke finally. Harry frowned. "What did the voice sound like?"

All of a sudden, Katie and Harry gasped simultaneously. A coldness washed over the girl as a shrill, icy, venomous voice rang out, as though coming from the walls.

"...rip... tear... kill..."

A shiver of fright ran down Katie's spine. Harry looked at her, eyes wide, stunned. His mouth hung open.

"You... you heard it too?" he asked. Ron and Hermione were suddenly more alert.

"Heard what?" Hermione butt in.

"...rip... tear... kill..."

With one final, fear-filled glance at each other, Katie and Harry bound from their seats and dashed towards the doors of the Great Hall. After they made it to the top of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall, they froze to focus on the silence. Hermione and Ron reached the final step seconds later, panting heavily.

"What are you doing?" Hermione demanded.

"Shush!" Harry snapped. "I hear it again!"

"...soo hungry... for so long..."

It almost sounded as though the voice was moving upwards, like a phantom rising through the stone ceiling. Just as the voice had drifted away to nothing more than a faint hum, it shrieked out, "...I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"

Katie's head spun and she found herself toppling backwards. Thankfully, she was caught by Ron before she could tumble down the stairs.

"It's going to kill someone!" Harry cried and took off up the next flight of stairs. His three friends followed on his tail. The group rushed around the second floor, Hermione and Ron still being very confused as to what was going on. Finally, Harry came to a halt in a deserted corridor.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron panted, placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Hermione let out a gasp of terror and pointed straight ahead.

On the wall at the end of the corridor, words were splashed, in large, bold writing across the stone. They read, 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.'

"It's written in blood..." Hermione whispered. Katie felt herself grow hot — uncomfortably hot. The feeling started from her stomach and worked it's way out, eventually engulfing her body. Her frame was shaking uncontrollably.

"What's that... that... thing — hanging underneath?" Ron said reluctantly, his voice trembling. The four of them stepped forward and, at the exact same time, let out a horrified screech.

"Mrs Norris..." Harry breathed, horrified. Mr Filch's cat was dangling from a torch bracket by her tail. She was as stiff as a board and her eerie, yellow eyes were staring straight ahead.

"Let's get out of here." Ron tugged on Harry's sleeve, but Harry did not budge.

"Shouldn't we... help?"

"Trust me, we don't want to be found here." Ron said seriously. Katie slowly paced closer to the wall, being cautious of the water that bathed the floor, and reached out to touch the writing on the wall. Hermione shrieked and grabbed her by the wrist.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Don't touch that!"

There was a sudden grumble of footsteps and voices as students came pouring into the hall from both sides. The bustle and chatter came to an abrupt halt when all of the students caught sight of the scene in front of them. Scared, Katie grabbed onto Harry's arm, who gripped her back, and Hermione held onto Ron, who was bewildered by the action but didn't shake her off.

Someone shouted through the stiff quiet.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Draco Malfoy, pushing his way to the front of the crowd to make his presence known. He grinned at the sight in front of him.

"What's going on here? What's going on here?"

"Oh no..." Katie whispered, recognising Filch's voice. "We're done for."

When Mr Filch saw Mrs Norris, he stumbled back, clutching his chest. He let out a great wail.

"My cat! What have you done to my cat?" His beady eyes landed on Harry. "You! You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you! I'll—"

"Argus!"

Dumbledore and a number of teachers made their way onto the scene through a parting in the crowd. Dumbledore swept straight past the second years and detached Mrs Norris from the torch bracket. He then turned to the students who had formed an engaged audience.

"Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately." he said, and the crowd quickly scrambled. Dumbledore raised a finger and pointed at Katie, Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Everyone except you four."

"She's not dead, Argus. But she has been Petrified." Dumbledore explained one the halls had been cleared.

"Ah, I thought so!" Professor Lockhart said. "So unlucky I wasn't there. I know exactly the counter curse that could've spared her."

With a nod from Dumbledore, Lockhart was quickly silenced.

"But how she has been Petrified, I can not say." Dumbledore continued.

"Ask him!" Filch bellowed. "It's him that's done it! You saw what he wrote on the wall.

"That's not true, sir! I never touched Mrs Norris." Harry countered, a little more aggressively that intended. Katie's grip on his arm tightened.

"Rubbish!" Filch snapped.

"If I might, Headmaster," Snape spoke, "Perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

All four of the students glanced between each other with expressions of pure disbelief on their faces. Snape being nice?

"However," he continued and Katie sighed. Of course there was a however. "The circumstances are suspicious... I do recall you four leaving the Hall early."

Hermione thought quickly. "We were full. We were heading back to the common room when we found Mrs Norris." Although this was a brilliant and snappy cover story by Hermione, she seemed to forget that Katie was in Slytherin, so she did not have the same common room. This detail did not slip past Snape.

"Is that so?" he said slyly. "Then why, may I ask, Miss Blair, are you on the second floor? The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons."

Ron spoke for the first time since the teachers had arrived, though his voice cracked from fear as he did so. "I borrowed Katie's Defence Against The Dark Arts book — lost mine. She was coming up to the Gryffindor common room to take it back."

Katie nodded quickly. Snape's eye twitched and he swung back around, whipping his cape at the second years.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumbledore stated simply.