Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Power
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Sorry to break your heart. I know it breaks mine.
Chapter 11
Almost two months later, it was the night before Halloween and Harry still had not found his form. He was sure that he should have found it by now, the book had said that he would. He was, by now, completely bored walking around a big blank area in his mind. He started thinking about other things.
He thought about when he had asked Hagrid about the threstals. It seemed that Hagrid's interest in scary animals was not limited to dragons and cerberi. He went on and on about all the different qualities of threstals and explained that the reason Harry could see them and the others couldn't was because Harry had seen someone die. 'Creepy.'
Harry decided to give up the search for tonight. Over the last month, he had been wandering the castle invisibly getting to know the layout as thoroughly as possible. He thought about maybe making a map, but decided not to. Once, at the beginning of the month, he had heard a low, scary voice saying "rip.....tear.....KILL...." He just assumed that Peeves was trying to annoy Filch again. Or that Peeves had succeeded in annoying Filch again, and now Filch was after blood.
Over the course of several weeks, Harry had gone into the library at night, silenced the restricted section like last year, and set as many of the books on the tables as possible with an open, empty book on top of each one. He would then charm a quill for each one and have them copy about twenty to thirty books at a time. He would then go about exploring the castle, leaving the books copying themselves under an illusion so as not to attract Filch's attention. By October thirtieth, Harry had the entire restricted section in his trunk.
At the feast that night, Harry and Hermione had a blast. They were both eating and talking with the rest of the Gryffindors. Ron seemed to need to kill the mood though, for Harry at least. He reminded them that it was exactly one year ago that they all became friends. Harry was going to tell him to shove off and that he had been friends with Hermione since before that, but decided to instead remind Ron why this was Hermione's first Halloween Feast. That shut him up.
The happy atmosphere continued until the end of the feast. When they were trudging up the stairs with the rest of the Gryffindors, Harry heard the voice again. It was significantly louder this time; it seemed to be just around the next corner yelling KILL! No one else seemed to hear it. When they turned the corner, there was a puddle of water covering the floor, reflecting an apparently dead cat and a message written in blood. The message said The Chamber of Secrets has been opened again. Enemies of the heir, beware. When no one else seemed capable of doing anything other than stare (except Draco, who was heard gleefully telling one of his thugs how cool he thought this was), Harry moved forward to inspect Mrs. Norris. When he was two feet from it, Filch showed up beat red.
"You!...You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you." When he started moving for Harry, Harry drew his wand, thinking he might need to defend himself.
Just when some other student opened his mouth to mention that Harry had been with everyone else the whole time, Dumbledore showed up. "That's enough. Mr. Filch, step away from Harry. Mr. Potter, put your wand away. Now, let us take this somewhere more private."
"Headmaster, I believe my office is closest!" exclaimed Lockheart, feeling important.
When they got to the office, everyone had to spend five minutes waiting for Dumbledore to figure out that the cat was not dead while ignoring Lockheart as he listed the various ways that the cat could have been killed that he just made up. Harry could tell that the cat was still alive; it still had magic in it.
Finally, Dumbledore straitened up and said to Filch, "She's not dead, Argus."
"She's, she's not? But why's she all stiff, like?"
"She has been petrified, though how, I cannot say."
"Ask him, it's him what's done it," he said, pointing at Harry.
"No I did not. Why would I petrify your cat? It's never done anything to me."
"Don't give me that. All you little beasts are the same. You all think you are better than me just because you can do magic and I can't. It's not my fault I was born a squib, but you all seem to hate me for it anyway. And now you have decided to punish me for it, too." Now Harry felt sorry for him.
"You're a squib? Man, sucks to be you. And I hate to tell you this, but that is not why the kids don't like you. They don't like you because you go around trying to get us into trouble and talking about how you wish you were allowed to chain us to a wall and whip us raw."
"Ha! So you admit to it, then!"
"I didn't touch your bloody cat!"
"Quiet!" Dumbledore silenced them. "Now, Harry, why were you standing next to the cat when Mr. Filch showed up?" Harry was, at first, upset that the Headmaster believed him guilty, too, until he realized that Dumbledore was just appeasing Filch.
"I was trying to help the retched creature! Now I'm just wishing I hadn't bothered."
"I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Harry. Please return to your common room."
When Harry got back, he told Hermione everything that happened. That night, Harry returned to the scene of the crime (completely invisible) and found Filch mopping up the water. He had the door to the adjacent girls' bathroom propped open and was pushing the water to the drain in the middle of the bathroom. There was a sad ghost who was crying impossible amounts of tears. She must have been the cause of all the water. Back in the hallway (Harry was levitating himself over the water), Harry noticed a line of spiders fleeing the scene.
Back in the common room, Harry thought about everything. He knew from the message on the wall that Slytherin's legendary secret chamber has been opened and that the monster within was what had petrified Mrs. Norris. What got him thinking was the part that said that it had been opened again. This was apparently not the first time, then. Suddenly, Harry remembered his visit from Dobby. Dobby had said that this was a danger that had not been seen for fifty years. Harry decided to research what happened fifty years ago, however, he couldn't find anything in the public records of the school from that time other than that someone named Tom Riddle had been awarded a Special Services to the School. He wondered if maybe Riddle had caught the villain. It was then that Harry noticed another notation near Riddle's award. Rubeus Hagrid had been expelled.
The next day, Harry was down at Hagrid's hut knocking on the door. He hadn't told Hermione this, yet, because he wanted to know what was going on, first.
"Oh, it's you, Harry. Well, come in, come in." When he had gotten the tea poured, Hagrid started up the conversation. "So, what can I do fer ya, Harry? Come ter talk about what's 'appened yesterday?"
Harry thought about his response for a second, but decided not to beat around the bush. "Partly. Hagrid, what were you expelled for?"
"Ah, well, I want ter be surprised at how much yeh seem ter know, but, as it's you, I don't think I am. I didn' open the Chamber. They though' it was me, on account o' the acromantula I was raisin' in castle, but Aragog never woulda hurt anybody, even if he had got out o' the cupboard I kept 'em in, which he didn'. I didn' even know where the Chamber was." By the end, Hagrid was looking a little desperate for Harry to believe him. He probably didn't think Harry would, which would explain why he had never told Harry this before.
"It's okay, Hagrid. I believe you. Was it Tom Riddle that turned you in?" Hagrid stopped dead.
"Who told yeh that name?" he whispered.
"I read it in the records near where it said that you got expelled."
"Well, yeah, he's the one tha' turned me in, alrigh'. Now, listen, that's not a name yeh go brandying about."
This confused Harry. He had never hear, nor read the name before. "Why?"
If Hagrid had looked uncomfortable when Harry asked his first question, then he was downright fearful now. Looking deeper, Harry saw a pair of red eyes and a memory of some high pitched laughter. Eyes widening, Harry said, "Voldemort?"
"Shh! Don't say tha' name! And yeah, though I'm not sure I shoulda told yeh that. Come ter think on it, I didn'. How do you keep doin' tha'? You and Dumbledore both always seem ter know everythin' before I even tell yeh. Don't get me wrong, he's a great man, and yer a great kid, but yeh both know more'n yeh should." Harry could hear the playfulness in his voice.
"Hagrid, I have a question. If the Headmaster back then thought that you opened the Chamber, why did he hire you as Gamekeeper?"
"Ah, well Dumbledore convinced him. He's been working as Transfiguration Professor then and convinced the Headmaster that I should stay, seeing as how I had no where else to go. He pointed out that there were no bite marks from an acromantula on the girl that had been killed and that an acromantula isn' even capable of petrifying someone." Well, that was news to Harry. 'I guess I missed the part of the records that show that a student died.'
Harry quoted Hagrid, "Great man, tha' Dumbledore."
"Aye, great man."
That night, Harry explained everything to Hermione. Ron had tried to include himself in the conversation, but decided that he wasn't interested at the mention of giant, man-eating spiders. Hermione was slightly disappointed that he didn't include her in the trip to Hagrid's, but understood that he had wanted to do it alone. He was a lot closer to Hagrid than she was.
Later, Harry tried, yet again to reach his form. He quickly got bored, so he decided to fix up this area of his mind. The book explained the building of the area as being done in layers. He figured that meant that if made it barren, he could add hills and trees and stuff later if he wanted. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined a blue sky and a barren wasteland for as far as the eye could see. When he opened his eyes, everything was still black.
"Well, that didn't work." Harry decided to just walk some more, and ran right into a wall. When he landed on his back, he realized that he had succeeded to build the terrain, and that the blackness he had been seeing was the gargantuan black dragon that had been right in front of him.
"Hell, yeah!"
Chapter 11
Almost two months later, it was the night before Halloween and Harry still had not found his form. He was sure that he should have found it by now, the book had said that he would. He was, by now, completely bored walking around a big blank area in his mind. He started thinking about other things.
He thought about when he had asked Hagrid about the threstals. It seemed that Hagrid's interest in scary animals was not limited to dragons and cerberi. He went on and on about all the different qualities of threstals and explained that the reason Harry could see them and the others couldn't was because Harry had seen someone die. 'Creepy.'
Harry decided to give up the search for tonight. Over the last month, he had been wandering the castle invisibly getting to know the layout as thoroughly as possible. He thought about maybe making a map, but decided not to. Once, at the beginning of the month, he had heard a low, scary voice saying "rip.....tear.....KILL...." He just assumed that Peeves was trying to annoy Filch again. Or that Peeves had succeeded in annoying Filch again, and now Filch was after blood.
Over the course of several weeks, Harry had gone into the library at night, silenced the restricted section like last year, and set as many of the books on the tables as possible with an open, empty book on top of each one. He would then charm a quill for each one and have them copy about twenty to thirty books at a time. He would then go about exploring the castle, leaving the books copying themselves under an illusion so as not to attract Filch's attention. By October thirtieth, Harry had the entire restricted section in his trunk.
At the feast that night, Harry and Hermione had a blast. They were both eating and talking with the rest of the Gryffindors. Ron seemed to need to kill the mood though, for Harry at least. He reminded them that it was exactly one year ago that they all became friends. Harry was going to tell him to shove off and that he had been friends with Hermione since before that, but decided to instead remind Ron why this was Hermione's first Halloween Feast. That shut him up.
The happy atmosphere continued until the end of the feast. When they were trudging up the stairs with the rest of the Gryffindors, Harry heard the voice again. It was significantly louder this time; it seemed to be just around the next corner yelling KILL! No one else seemed to hear it. When they turned the corner, there was a puddle of water covering the floor, reflecting an apparently dead cat and a message written in blood. The message said The Chamber of Secrets has been opened again. Enemies of the heir, beware. When no one else seemed capable of doing anything other than stare (except Draco, who was heard gleefully telling one of his thugs how cool he thought this was), Harry moved forward to inspect Mrs. Norris. When he was two feet from it, Filch showed up beat red.
"You!...You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you." When he started moving for Harry, Harry drew his wand, thinking he might need to defend himself.
Just when some other student opened his mouth to mention that Harry had been with everyone else the whole time, Dumbledore showed up. "That's enough. Mr. Filch, step away from Harry. Mr. Potter, put your wand away. Now, let us take this somewhere more private."
"Headmaster, I believe my office is closest!" exclaimed Lockheart, feeling important.
When they got to the office, everyone had to spend five minutes waiting for Dumbledore to figure out that the cat was not dead while ignoring Lockheart as he listed the various ways that the cat could have been killed that he just made up. Harry could tell that the cat was still alive; it still had magic in it.
Finally, Dumbledore straitened up and said to Filch, "She's not dead, Argus."
"She's, she's not? But why's she all stiff, like?"
"She has been petrified, though how, I cannot say."
"Ask him, it's him what's done it," he said, pointing at Harry.
"No I did not. Why would I petrify your cat? It's never done anything to me."
"Don't give me that. All you little beasts are the same. You all think you are better than me just because you can do magic and I can't. It's not my fault I was born a squib, but you all seem to hate me for it anyway. And now you have decided to punish me for it, too." Now Harry felt sorry for him.
"You're a squib? Man, sucks to be you. And I hate to tell you this, but that is not why the kids don't like you. They don't like you because you go around trying to get us into trouble and talking about how you wish you were allowed to chain us to a wall and whip us raw."
"Ha! So you admit to it, then!"
"I didn't touch your bloody cat!"
"Quiet!" Dumbledore silenced them. "Now, Harry, why were you standing next to the cat when Mr. Filch showed up?" Harry was, at first, upset that the Headmaster believed him guilty, too, until he realized that Dumbledore was just appeasing Filch.
"I was trying to help the retched creature! Now I'm just wishing I hadn't bothered."
"I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Harry. Please return to your common room."
When Harry got back, he told Hermione everything that happened. That night, Harry returned to the scene of the crime (completely invisible) and found Filch mopping up the water. He had the door to the adjacent girls' bathroom propped open and was pushing the water to the drain in the middle of the bathroom. There was a sad ghost who was crying impossible amounts of tears. She must have been the cause of all the water. Back in the hallway (Harry was levitating himself over the water), Harry noticed a line of spiders fleeing the scene.
Back in the common room, Harry thought about everything. He knew from the message on the wall that Slytherin's legendary secret chamber has been opened and that the monster within was what had petrified Mrs. Norris. What got him thinking was the part that said that it had been opened again. This was apparently not the first time, then. Suddenly, Harry remembered his visit from Dobby. Dobby had said that this was a danger that had not been seen for fifty years. Harry decided to research what happened fifty years ago, however, he couldn't find anything in the public records of the school from that time other than that someone named Tom Riddle had been awarded a Special Services to the School. He wondered if maybe Riddle had caught the villain. It was then that Harry noticed another notation near Riddle's award. Rubeus Hagrid had been expelled.
The next day, Harry was down at Hagrid's hut knocking on the door. He hadn't told Hermione this, yet, because he wanted to know what was going on, first.
"Oh, it's you, Harry. Well, come in, come in." When he had gotten the tea poured, Hagrid started up the conversation. "So, what can I do fer ya, Harry? Come ter talk about what's 'appened yesterday?"
Harry thought about his response for a second, but decided not to beat around the bush. "Partly. Hagrid, what were you expelled for?"
"Ah, well, I want ter be surprised at how much yeh seem ter know, but, as it's you, I don't think I am. I didn' open the Chamber. They though' it was me, on account o' the acromantula I was raisin' in castle, but Aragog never woulda hurt anybody, even if he had got out o' the cupboard I kept 'em in, which he didn'. I didn' even know where the Chamber was." By the end, Hagrid was looking a little desperate for Harry to believe him. He probably didn't think Harry would, which would explain why he had never told Harry this before.
"It's okay, Hagrid. I believe you. Was it Tom Riddle that turned you in?" Hagrid stopped dead.
"Who told yeh that name?" he whispered.
"I read it in the records near where it said that you got expelled."
"Well, yeah, he's the one tha' turned me in, alrigh'. Now, listen, that's not a name yeh go brandying about."
This confused Harry. He had never hear, nor read the name before. "Why?"
If Hagrid had looked uncomfortable when Harry asked his first question, then he was downright fearful now. Looking deeper, Harry saw a pair of red eyes and a memory of some high pitched laughter. Eyes widening, Harry said, "Voldemort?"
"Shh! Don't say tha' name! And yeah, though I'm not sure I shoulda told yeh that. Come ter think on it, I didn'. How do you keep doin' tha'? You and Dumbledore both always seem ter know everythin' before I even tell yeh. Don't get me wrong, he's a great man, and yer a great kid, but yeh both know more'n yeh should." Harry could hear the playfulness in his voice.
"Hagrid, I have a question. If the Headmaster back then thought that you opened the Chamber, why did he hire you as Gamekeeper?"
"Ah, well Dumbledore convinced him. He's been working as Transfiguration Professor then and convinced the Headmaster that I should stay, seeing as how I had no where else to go. He pointed out that there were no bite marks from an acromantula on the girl that had been killed and that an acromantula isn' even capable of petrifying someone." Well, that was news to Harry. 'I guess I missed the part of the records that show that a student died.'
Harry quoted Hagrid, "Great man, tha' Dumbledore."
"Aye, great man."
That night, Harry explained everything to Hermione. Ron had tried to include himself in the conversation, but decided that he wasn't interested at the mention of giant, man-eating spiders. Hermione was slightly disappointed that he didn't include her in the trip to Hagrid's, but understood that he had wanted to do it alone. He was a lot closer to Hagrid than she was.
Later, Harry tried, yet again to reach his form. He quickly got bored, so he decided to fix up this area of his mind. The book explained the building of the area as being done in layers. He figured that meant that if made it barren, he could add hills and trees and stuff later if he wanted. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined a blue sky and a barren wasteland for as far as the eye could see. When he opened his eyes, everything was still black.
"Well, that didn't work." Harry decided to just walk some more, and ran right into a wall. When he landed on his back, he realized that he had succeeded to build the terrain, and that the blackness he had been seeing was the gargantuan black dragon that had been right in front of him.
"Hell, yeah!"
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