THE LIGHTNING LORD

Chapter 46 : Hadrian Potter is the one

Several days later, Harry and Daphne found themselves back at Hogwarts for the second term of school. The attacks on students thankfully seemed to have come to a halt after Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified. During this, Harry and Daphne spent the majority of their time studying in the Room of Requirement as usual. Harry was still really curious to know how the room worked and first thought it was highly advanced illusionary magic, but then everything seemed so real, he really couldn't understand how the room came to be. In addition to studying there, he also spent several hours duelling against what the room could throw at him as well. The duelling dummies provided by the room weren't anything like the ones he had back home; these were insanely deadly, using a wide range of spells. It seemed to Harry that the castle had observed many of the duelling characteristics of various people over the centuries and used them against Harry via the duelling dummies.

As February rolled in, people were getting much happier because of the lack of mysterious attacks. Harry was happy for that, but the cynical part of him thought that something drastic was going to happen soon. He was still working on Voldemort's memories, but he didn't have much luck. Instead, he gained more knowledge about spells and duelling, and while he was happy for that, it didn't help his current predicament.

In the first week of February, Harry was just returning from Quidditch practice when he heard a distant echo of the voice again; the same cold, deadly voice. "Kill . . . Rip . . . so hungry . . . Kill this time . . ."

Harry's eyes went wide. He immediately put his ear to the wall and began following the voice. He ran as the voice dimmed; this was probably the only chance he was ever going to get of finding out what the monster in the chamber really was. He quickly turned a corner and gasped when he saw Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger both petrified. He decided that this was too easy a target for Dumbledore to frame him. Just as he was about to leave, Peeves decided to enter the scene.

"What are up to Potty? Po - " The poltergeist stopped in mid-sentence and before Harry could do anything, the ghost shouted at the top of his voice "MURDER! MURDER IN THE HALLWAYS! ATTACK! ATAAAACKKK! NO ONE IS SAFE IN THE CASTLE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Everything happened so fast that Harry didn't have time to react. Doors opened immediately and people rushed out and spotted Harry standing next to the petrified bodies of Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater.

"Aha! Caught in the act! I knew you were the heir of Slytherin! It looks like those rumours of you bring a parselmouth are true after all!" shouted Ron Weasley, pointing his finger at Harry.

"Parselmouth?" whispered others as they all stared at Harry with terrified looks on their faces.

Professor McGonagall soon came over to them "What's going on here?" she shouted. "What - " She stopped cold as she looked at the petrified students. Her eyes landed on Harry and he could see that she had a cold look on her face. "Potter, come with me" she said coldly.

Harry didn't bother arguing; he knew it was futile. People started whispering as he passed by. He spotted Daphne on his way and she had an unreadable look on her face. Harry went over, gave her hand a light squeeze and followed McGonagall. Just as he had predicted, they stood in front of the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.

"Lemon Drop" said McGonagall to the gargoyle. "Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you" she said to Harry, giving him another cold look and left.

Harry shook his head and muttered 'sheep' and climbed the stairs. He knocked on the door and entered. The office was just as he had remembered. But unlike last time, Fawkes seemed to be nearing his burning day. "Hello Fawkes. Close to your burning day, huh?" he asked the sickly looking phoenix. The bird gave a horrible cry and whimper, and after a few seconds, caught fire. Harry calmly stepped back as he watched the bird slowly rise from the ashes. He smiled, but then the Sorting Hat caught his attention. He took it from the shelf and put it on.