A life changing story "Harry Potter and Percy Jackson

Chapter 6

Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.
"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs Norris?" he shrieked. And his popping eyes fell on Harry.
"You!" he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll —"
"Argus!"
Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by several other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past the four students and detached Mrs Norris from the torch bracket.
"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr Jackson, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger."
Lockhart stepped forward eagerly."My office is nearest, Headmaster — just upstairs — please feel free—"
"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore. The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.
As they entered Lockhart's darkened office, Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore laid Mrs Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.
He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. ProfessorMcGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions.
Filch's meanwhile was sobbing. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs Norris, his face in his hands.
Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs Norris with his wand, but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.
"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly. Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented.
"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs Norris."But why's she all — all stiff and frozen?"
"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore "But how I cannot say. . . ."
"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tear-stained face toHarry.
"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly as Filch. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced —"
"He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found — in my office — he knows I'm a —I'm a —" Filch's face worked horribly. "He knows I'm a Squib!" he finished.
"I never touched Mrs Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him, including all the Lockharts on the walls. "And I don't even know what a Squib is."
"Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "He saw my Kwikspell letter!"
"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows. "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't he at the Halloween feast?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. ". . . there were hundreds of ghosts, they'll tell you we were there —"
"But why not join the feast afterwards?" said Snape, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?"
Percy, Ron and Hermione looked at Harry.
"Because — because —" Harry said, "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," he said.
"Without any supper?" said Snape, a triumphant smile flickering across his gaunt face. "I didn't think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties."
"We weren't hungry," said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble.
Snape's nasty smile widened."I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready, to be honest."
"Really, Severus," said Professor McGonagall sharply, "I see no reasonto stop the boy playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with abroomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anythingwrong."
Dumbledore was giving Harry a searching look.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly.
Snape looked furious. So did Filch.
"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want tosee some punishment!"
"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently."Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soonas they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that willrevive Mrs Norris."
"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times.I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —"
"Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master atthis school."
There was a very awkward pause.
"You may go," Dumbledore said to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
They went, as quickly as they could without actually running. Whenthey were a floor up from Lockhart's office, they turned into an emptyclassroom and closed the door quietly behind them. Harry squinted at hisfriends' darkened faces.
"D'you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?"
"No," said Ron, without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hearisn't a good sign, even in the Wizarding world."
"Harry, this is important, was this voice talking to you, or did you just so happen to hear it?"
Harry thought for a while. "I think it wasn't speaking to me, it sounded like it was speaking to itself. I just happened to hear it."
"Good, That means that you're not going insane," He said
"It-it doesn't?" Harry asked, feeling suddenly rather hopeful. It was something that had been hiding in the back of his mind since he first heard the voice. He'd been worried that he truly had been cracked, that he'd lost it.
"No," Percy said with a shake of his head, "No it doesn't. There is any number of things that can communicate telepathically or even any number of creatures that can communicate in a way, where only select people can hear them. It certainly sounds like you must have heard the thing that attacked Mrs Norris. Personally, one of my friends Grover. he can talk to any animal in the world"
"Then what species could it be?" Hermione asked.
Percy shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I though harry would deduce it."
A clock chimed somewhere.
"Midnight," said Ron. "We'd better get to bed before Snape comesalong and tries to frame us for something else."
For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs.Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot whereshe had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back.Percy had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs Skower'sAll-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words stillgleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding thescene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors,lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detentionfor things like "breathing loudly" and "looking happy."
Ginny Weasley seemed very disturbed by Mrs Norris's fate. According to Ron, she was a great cat lover.
"But you haven't really got to know Mrs Norris," Ron told her. "Honestly, we're much better off without her."
Ginny's lip trembled.
"Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts," Ron assured her. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking —" Ron added hastily as Ginny blanched.
"All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out," she said, sitting down next to Harry and Ron. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."
"Why do you want it?" said Harry.
"The same reason everyone else wants it," said Hermione, "to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."
"What's that?" said Harry quickly.
"I can't remember," said Hermione, biting her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else —"
"Hermione, let me read your composition," said Ron desperately, checking his watch.
"No, I won't," said Hermione, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it —"
"I only need another two inches, come on —"
The bell rang. Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering
History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. ProfessorBinns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most excitingthing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room throughthe blackboard
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes andbegan to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearlyeveryone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to longenough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He hadbeen speaking for half an hour when something happened that had neverhappened before. Hermione put up her hand.
Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture onthe International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.
"Miss — er — ?"
"Granger sir. I was wondering if you could tell us anything aboutthe Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.
At this, everyone stumbled out of their stupor.
Professor Binns blinked.
"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "Ideal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends."
He cleared histhroat, "InSeptember of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers —"
He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.
"Miss Grant?"
"Granger, but please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"
Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement.
"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that Isuppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a studentproperly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a verysensational, even ludicrous tale —"
But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word.
"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see . . . the Chamber ofSecrets . . .
"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousandyears ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witchesand wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them:Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and SalazarSlytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, forit was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches andwizards suffered much persecution."
He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued.
"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking outyoungsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle tobe educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift beganto grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be moreselective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed thatmagical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He dislikedtaking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy.After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject betweenSlytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."
Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkledold tortoise.
"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But thesehonest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber ofSecrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in thecastle, of which the other founders knew nothing.
"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets sothat none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at theschool. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets,unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who wereunworthy to study magic."
There was silence as he finished telling the story. But not the usual dull silence.
"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," Binns said. "Naturally, theschool has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, bythe most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told tofrighten the gullible."
Hermione's hand was back in the air.
"Sir — what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"
"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir ofSlytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.
The class exchanged nervous looks.
"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling hisnotes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."
"But, sir," said Seamus Finnigan, "if the Chamber can only be openedby Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"
"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "Ifa long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven'tfound the thing —"
"But, Professor," piped up Parvati Patil, "you'd probably have to useDark Magic to open it —"
"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't,Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat if the likes ofDumbledore —"
"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledorecouldn't —" began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.
"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There isnot a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built so much as a secret broomcupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if youplease, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"
And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor
"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told Percy Harryand Hermione as they fought their way through the teeming corridors atthe end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I neverknew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if youpaid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin,I'd've got the train straight back home. . . ."
"Same," said Percy. "But mum wouldn't be pleased about it."
Hermione nodded fervently, but Harry didn't say anything
As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevey went past.
"Hiya, Harry!"
"Hullo, Colin," said Harry automatically.
"Harry — Harry — a boy in my class has been saying you're —"
But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of peoplebearing him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak, "See you,Harry!" and he was gone.
"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.
"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," said Harry
"People here'll believe anything," said Ron in disgust.
"Especially muggle-borns. Except for Hermione of course" said Percy hastened as Hermione glared at him. "They won't know much about our world so they can believe anything."
"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron askedHermione.
"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs.Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be— well — human."
Percy's stomach dropped. Could it be a Greek monster? Percy wished he hate less.
As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end ofthe very corridor where the attack had happened. They stopped and looked.The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiffcat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against thewall bearing the message "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened."
"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.
They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted.
"Can't hurt to have a poke around," said Harry, dropping his bag andgetting to his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching forclues.
"Scorch marks!" he said. "Here — and here —"
"Come and look at this!" said Hermione. "This is funny. . . ."
Harry got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall.Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiderswere scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long,silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed itin their hurry to get outside.
"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.
"No," Percy said. "How about you Harry?"
"No," said Harry, "have you, Ron? Ron?"
He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed tobe fighting the impulse to run
"What's up?" said Harry.
"I — don't — like — spiders," said Ron tensely.
"I never knew that," said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. "You'veused spiders in Potions loads of times. . . ."
"I don't mind them dead," said Ron, who was carefully lookinganywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move. . . ."
Hermione and Percy giggled.
"It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know when I was three, Fred turned my — my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick. . . . You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and . . ."
He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh while Percy had a huge grin
"Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from? Someone's mopped it up."
"What floor?" Percy asked.
"The second-floor girls' lavatory was leaking," Hermione answered.
"It was about here," said Ron, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door."
He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand.
"What's the matter?" said Harry.
"Can't go in there," said Ron gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."
"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," said Hermione, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."And ignoring the three boy's looks, she opened the door.
It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Percy had ever seen. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.
Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"
And suddenly Percy saw an old fashioned squat girl with pimples and thick glasses wearing a Ravenclaw school uniform.
Percy, Harry and Ron went to look. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin." This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron and Harry and especially Percy suspiciously. "They're not girls,"
"No" Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how — er — nice it is in here."
She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.
"Ask her if she saw anything," Harry mouthed at Hermione.
"What are you whispering?" said Myrtle, staring at him.
"We wanted to ask..." Percy began but she cut him off "I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" said Myrtle, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead—"
"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," said Hermione. "Harry only —"
"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" howled Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"
"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," said Hermione quickly. "Because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."
"Did you see anyone near here that night?" said Harry
"I wasn't paying attention," said Myrtle dramatically. "Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm — that I'm —"
"Already dead," said Ron helpfully.
"Well done Ron." Percy scolded him.
Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing.
Harry, Percy and Ron stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle. . . . Come on, let's go.
"RON!"
Percy Weasley had stopped dead at the head of the stairs, prefect badge agleam, an expression of complete shock on his face." That's a girls' bathroom!" he gasped. "What were you — ?"
"Just having a look around," Ron shrugged. "Clues, you know —"
."Get — away — from — there —" Percy said, striding toward them and starting to bustle them along, flapping his arms. "Don't you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner —"
"Why shouldn't we be here?" said Ron hotly, stopping short and glaring at Percy. "Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!"
"That's what I told Ginny," said Percy fiercely, "but she still seems to think you're going to be expelled, I've never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out, you might think of her, all the first years are thoroughly overexcited by this business —"
"You don't care about Ginny," said Ron, whose ears were now reddening. "You're just worried I'm going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy —"
"Five points from Gryffindor!" Percy said tersely, fingering his prefect badge. "And I hope it teaches you a lesson! No more detective work or I'll write to Mum!"
And he strode off, the back of his neck as red as Ron's ears
The four chose seats as far as possible from Percy in the common room that night. Ron was still in a very bad temper and kept blotting his Charms homework. When he reached absently for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the parchment. Fuming, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut. To Percy's surprise, Hermione followed suit.
"Who can it be, though?" she said in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they had just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"
"Let's think," said Ron in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?"He looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced.
"If you're talking about Malfoy —"
"Of course I am!" said Ron. "You heard him — 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' — come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him —"
"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione sceptically.
"That's like Fred and George being prefects," Percy said.
"But look at his family," said Harry, closing his books, too. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin; he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough."
"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" said Ron. "Handing it down, father to son. . . .
Percy and Hermione looked at each other.
"It may likely be..."
"Well," said Hermione cautiously, "I suppose it's possible. . . ."
"But how do we prove it?" said Harry darkly.
"There might be some way," said Hermione slowly, "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect —"
"If in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know,won't you?" said Ron irritably.
"All right," said Hermione coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realizing it's us."
"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.
"No, it's not," said Hermione. "All we'd need would be some PolyjuicePotion."
"What's that?" said Ron and Harry together.
"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago —"
"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron.
"It transforms you into somebody else," Percy answered.
"Yes thank you, Percy. But think about it! We could change into three of the Slytherins. But no one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now if only we could hear him."
"What about me?" Percy asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're a metamorphagus Percy. You don't need the potion."
Percy flushed. "Oh yeah..."
"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," said Ron, frowning."What if we were stuck looking like three of the Slytherins forever?"
"It wears off after a while," said Hermione.
"One hour," Percy added.
"But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Most Potente Potions and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."
"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," said Ron, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."
"I think," said Hermione, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance. . . ."
Percy coughed. Everyone looked at him. Then they realised it was not Percy anymore but Snape but in Gryffindor robes.
"You were saying." Percy/Snape said