The Voice in the Walls
Harry had escaped detention not only thanks to Peeves, but also because of that letter and because he'd discovered that Filch was a Squib. Well, it wasn't exactly something to be proud of, since it almost felt like Harry had taken advantage of the castle caretaker's weakness to avoid being punished. But then again, this was Filch—the man who took genuine pleasure in tormenting students—so that feeling didn't last very long.
As he stepped out of Filch's office, he spotted two familiar faces wandering around nearby with confused expressions, as though they had no idea how they'd ended up there.
"What are you two doing?" Harry asked, looking at Percy and Tyson.
The moment they saw him standing there, they both broke into the exact same smile.
For some reason, Harry couldn't help noticing just how alike those smiles were.
"Oh, Harry, thank goodness we found you. I think a stone frog ate Neville," Percy said in a worried tone.
Tyson nodded frantically beside him, wearing the exact same expression.
Again, it was so identical that it felt strangely familiar.
Harry shook his head to clear those thoughts away before giving them a confused look.
"What?" he asked.
"Yeah. We were exploring the corridors when we saw one of those frogs that looked a lot like Trevor, except it was made of stone. When Neville heard that, he got too close. Then..." Percy explained.
"...the frog swallowed him whole."
"Yeah! It opened its mouth really wide and swallowed him," Tyson added immediately, nodding like an eyewitness.
Harry looked more confused than ever.
Even so, Percy and Tyson dragged him to the scene of the "crime."
Now Harry, Percy, and Tyson stood in front of a stone Frog Statue, staring at it without having the slightest idea what to do.
"Neville!" Percy shouted, though he didn't dare get too close to the Frog Statue in case he ended up being dessert.
No answer came.
"...Well, that didn't work either."
Tyson cautiously stepped closer to the frog again.
"What if it's still hungry?" he asked as he got ready to share some of his snacks, while Percy instinctively took a step backward just in case.
Still, he didn't let Tyson get too close.
So the two of them grabbed a handful of sweets and started throwing them at the Frog Statue's face.
Harry merely gave them a look before turning his attention back to the statue.
He pulled out his wand and lightly tapped the stone.
"What are you doi—"
Before Percy could finish asking, the statue came to life.
The enormous frog suddenly opened its mouth.
Harry barely had time to widen his eyes.
"What the he—"
Clack!
With a single bite, the frog swallowed him whole.
It all happened so fast that he didn't even have time to react.
Percy and Tyson stood frozen as the color slowly drained from their faces.
Tyson pointed at the frog with a trembling finger.
"...It ate Harry too."
Percy swallowed hard.
"The frog just ate my brother... and my best friend." Percy drew Riptide in one swift motion. "...I'm not going to wait until it starts eating the rest of my family," he said, ready to wage war against the statue.
Tyson panicked too, wrapping both arms around the statue as he tried to force its mouth open.
"Don't worry, Harry! Tyson's gonna get you out!" the Cyclops shouted before glaring at the frog. "Spit him out! Harry tastes bad!" he tried to negotiate.
"Move, Tyson! I'll cut it in half!" Percy gripped Riptide and marched forward, fully determined to split the statue in two, drawing utterly confused looks from several students passing by.
Fortunately, Nearly Headless Nick, who had been talking to Harry only a few minutes earlier, spotted them trying to destroy the statue. He immediately floated up through the floor to stop them, instantly understanding what had happened.
"No, no, no! Don't break it!" he exclaimed in alarm. "Those old frogs are only used for transportation. If you destroy it, those two won't be able to come back."
As if to prove his point, only a few seconds later the frog spat both Harry and Neville back out.
They had been transported to a terrace high in the Bell Tower that couldn't be reached by normal means.
The only way back was through the frog.
And to be precise, if the Floo Network hadn't already been Harry's least favorite method of transportation, it had just been bumped up to second place.
Neville was still a little pale after the scare of his life, while Harry looked even more exhausted than before.
As thanks for stopping those two idiots from destroying the statue and leaving them stranded at the top of a freezing tower until someone eventually came looking for them—while Harry was still completely soaked...
They promised Nick that they would attend the five hundredth anniversary of Nearly Headless Nick's death, which fell on All Hallows' Day—Halloween.
Nick had invited Ron and Hermione as well, and Harry said he'd pass the message along.
At last, Harry was finally able to say goodbye and head back toward Gryffindor Tower.
This time dragging Percy, Tyson, and Neville along with him so they wouldn't get themselves into more trouble and end up being eaten by something else in the castle.
Of course, Tyson belonged to Hufflepuff, but there wasn't any rule saying students couldn't visit each other's common rooms to hang out.
Especially Tyson, who was practically adored by the Weasley twins.
And anyone foolish enough to bother him quickly learned why the twins were so confident they'd one day open their own joke shop.
Especially after they discovered Tyson was incredibly good with his hands when it came to making interesting gadgets, so the twins had started trying to learn a few things from him.
At long last, though, Harry was finally able to take a bath and lie down in his own bed after such an exhausting day, making him forget all about Filch and everything that had happened.
Though he did remember the piece of parchment tucked inside his robes. It now rested on the bedside table beside his wand while he finally relaxed comfortably.
Something that would soon stop being so easy.
...
"Well..." Percy said as he now stood inside a grand hall decorated specifically for what you'd expect a death anniversary to look like.
It certainly wasn't the kind of decoration that screamed celebration.
Long, thin black candles with blue flames barely illuminated the room with a dim, gloomy light, while ghosts drifting through the hall made the surroundings look even more bleak and colder than they already were. The music sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, enough to make any living person present wince. Even so, the ghosts drifted about as though they were lazily dancing some strange waltz of death to those screeching sounds.
Even the banquet table held everything except actual food.
Instead, it was piled high with rotten, foul-smelling meat that the ghosts, rather than eating, simply floated over while trying to breathe in its disgusting odor.
The only living people there were Harry, Percy, Hermione, and Tyson.
Ron had turned down the invitation because he thought their group was already big enough. Besides, he wanted to enjoy the much more appetizing food being served in the Great Hall.
Neville, meanwhile, wasn't very comfortable around ghosts, so he'd politely declined as well.
And luckily for him he had, because Percy now completely regretted accepting.
He should've just let Harry come alone.
"Maybe the Halloween feast in the Great Hall is even worse," Percy offered, trying to make everyone feel better.
But it was obvious nothing could possibly be worse than this.
Unless, lacking enough decorations, Dumbledore had decided to borrow Dementors from Azkaban for the Halloween party.
Beside him, Tyson had served himself what looked like a burnt pie and was poking it with his fork without showing much enthusiasm about actually taking a bite.
Even he wasn't willing to eat it.
"Hey, are you going to eat that?" a ghost asked as he floated over to Tyson, staring at the pie as though it were the most delicious snack imaginable.
"No. You can have it," Tyson replied, offering it to him.
The ghost, of course, couldn't actually pick it up.
Instead, he leaned forward and opened his mouth as though he were about to take a huge bite out of the silver plate, the pie... and Tyson's hand along with it.
His body simply passed through all of it, leaving Tyson's hand feeling cold for a moment.
The others watched the ghost.
"Um... can you actually taste it that way?" Harry couldn't help asking.
"Almost," the ghost answered sadly before floating away to continue chatting with the other ghosts.
Fortunately, Peeves, as always, caused enough of a commotion to draw the attention of nearly every ghost present.
Unfortunately for her, his target happened to be Moaning Myrtle, the poor ghost from the girls' bathroom who had died at Hogwarts many years ago.
Harry's group took advantage of the distraction to slip away from the gloomy party.
Not before saying goodbye to Nick, though.
They even made sure to tell the Headless Hunt that Nick was absolutely terrifying, making use of Harry's name and reputation to give Nearly Headless Nick a considerable boost to his pride.
"Finally," Percy said as they walked away from the place, which somehow felt colder than a freezer. "I hope Ron saved us some pudding," he added, sounding genuinely hungry.
"I doubt it," Harry replied with a small smile.
Then his expression suddenly changed.
It became serious.
Concerned.
Without warning...
That voice reached him again.
That cold, murderous voice he'd heard earlier in the Masked Hero's office.
"Harry?" Hermione asked, the first to notice the change in his expression.
Harry leaned against the wall, staring at the floor as he listened intently.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he motioned for them to stay quiet.
"Can you hear it?" he asked, looking at the others.
"Kill... it's time to kill. At last... after so long. I can kill," the voice whispered, slowly growing more distant.
At the same time, Hermione, Percy, and Tyson tried listening for something.
It was useless.
None of them could hear what Harry was hearing.
"Someone's in danger," Harry said, opening his eyes in alarm.
Ignoring the confused looks on the others' faces, he immediately ran in the direction the voice was moving.
Percy followed without hesitation, touching the pendant around his neck and summoning Riptide, ready for a fight.
Even if he couldn't hear what Harry did, he trusted him completely.
If Harry said someone was in danger, then someone was in danger.
He even took the lead, throwing himself forward at full speed.
"Percy, be careful!" Harry shouted as he pulled out his magical tome, preparing to fight the moment they arrived.
Percy simply nodded.
Almost a minute later, Harry, Hermione, and Tyson finally caught up, arriving slightly behind Percy in an empty corridor.
Percy stood perfectly still in the middle of it.
There was no one there.
No one in danger.
"Percy, did you find anything?" Harry asked as he looked around.
Percy didn't answer right away.
He remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him.
"Was someone here?" Harry asked quickly.
"Yeah," Percy answered stiffly.
Without taking his eyes off the nearby wall, he sheathed his sword.
"I found the victim," he added.
Only then did Harry look in the same direction.
Hermione immediately covered her mouth.
Even Tyson looked both shocked and saddened.
Pinned to one of the wall torches by her tail was the familiar figure of Mrs. Norris.
She hung there stiff as a board, her eyes wide open and lifeless.
And beside the cat, glowing as though it had been written in blood, were the words:
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir... beware.
Just as they finished reading it, things became even worse.
A growing murmur approached from the corridor behind them as the crowd of students leaving the Great Hall rounded the corner.
Then they all froze.
It looked like a crime scene.
For a full second, neither Harry nor Percy said a word.
Then they looked at the scene.
Then at the group of students who had just arrived.
And finally at each other.
"Great," they both said at the exact same time, as though they'd just realized the exact same disaster was about to fall on top of them.