Second Attack
"So the Chamber of Secrets is real, and it wasn't just some Slytherin prank," Harry said once they reached the Gryffindor common room. It was fairly empty, since most of the students had already gone to bed after the Quidditch team celebration. Harry hadn't been able to join it because they'd been busy questioning Dobby.
Though that was actually a good thing, since it gave them time to talk among themselves.
"So what should we do? Should we try to find it?" Percy asked, unable to hide his annoyance that, for some reason, this problem seemed to be falling on Harry.
Harry didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked at Hermione.
"Hermione, you've already read the ingredients in the note Mark sent. How long do you think it'll take to make the Polyjuice Potion? We need to ask Malfoy if he's the one behind this, or at least find out something from inside Slytherin," he said seriously.
For a moment, seeing the urgency in Harry's expression, Hermione grew a little nervous before answering.
"A lot of the ingredients need to be processed first. Lacewing flies, for example, take twenty days to mature, so it'll probably take at least a month to finish the Polyjuice Potion," she explained.
"So we have to wait that long? And what if whatever's inside the Chamber attacks again?" Ron finally asked, sounding a little frightened.
Hermione looked troubled, but it wasn't as if she could change how long the potion took to brew. Trying to speed it up would cause all kinds of problems, and it would be dangerous to drink.
"I think you're forgetting something obvious," Percy suddenly said, interrupting them in a calm voice.
Harry and the others immediately turned to look at him.
"What?" Harry asked, frowning at his brother.
"Why don't you just buy the ingredients already processed? Harry has money, so that's not a problem. And if we need someone to buy them for us, we can just ask Sirius. He already said he'd come up with an alibi whenever we needed one," Percy said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Even Harry looked like he wanted to find something wrong with what he'd said.
But he couldn't.
Instead, he found himself staring at Percy, feeling as though his brother had somehow become much smarter than him overnight.
He immediately shook the thought away, though he still couldn't help feeling a little annoyed that the answer had been so obvious and Percy had reached it almost instantly.
"Well... that's actually not a bad idea," Hermione admitted, unable to disagree with Percy. "The Polyjuice Potion itself is regulated by the Ministry, and selling it is illegal, but the ingredients are used in plenty of other potions. Even if potion masters prefer preparing everything themselves, it's not like processed ingredients are never sold," she explained.
"See? Easy," Percy said.
Harry ignored his brother's tone, which irritated him a little, and turned back to Hermione.
"How long would it take if I bought the ingredients already processed?" he asked immediately.
"Maybe... a week, I hope," Hermione answered.
"A week. That's still better than a month. I just hope no one gets attacked during that time. Otherwise we'll have to change our plans," Harry said, not sounding particularly optimistic, though he still hoped nothing would happen over the next few days.
Unfortunately, that hope was shattered almost immediately.
The very next morning, word spread throughout the castle that the first student had been attacked.
It was none other than Colin, the Gryffindor boy who was Harry's biggest fan and was always trying to take pictures of him.
He was now lying petrified in the hospital wing.
Harry and the others were stunned when they heard the news.
Without thinking twice, they rushed out of the common room toward the hospital wing, desperate to see whether it was true.
Just like them, plenty of other students had gathered outside, trying to peek inside, only to be chased away by Madam Pomfrey.
"It would be best if all of you got back to what you were doing. This isn't a place to stand around crowding the entrance," the nurse said irritably as she drove them away.
Behind her, one of the nearby beds could barely be seen.
It was hidden behind closed curtains, making it impossible to see who was lying there, but everything pointed to the rumors being true.
Colin had been attacked.
Panic quickly spread through the gathered students. Fear was written plainly across their faces as they slowly drifted away from the hospital wing.
Only Harry remained for another moment, staring silently at the closed curtains around the bed with a serious expression, remembering Dobby's words.
"Hermione, you need to hurry with the Polyjuice Potion. Otherwise I'll have to use my illusions to sneak into the Slytherin common room and try to get information myself," Harry said in a tone that, from a certain point of view, sounded almost like a threat aimed at the snakes.
Percy, who knew his brother pretty well, gave Harry a brief look.
Harry was usually the well-behaved one. Percy was usually the troublemaker.
But there was one thing they had always shared.
No matter who the enemy was, if they hurt one of their friends or people they cared about, they would always get angry.
And in this case, it was Colin.
Even if Harry wasn't particularly fond of him, since Colin was always chasing him around with photographs and asking for autographs, he was still a cheerful kid who genuinely admired Harry, always smiling whenever he was around his hero.
Harry had already shown how dangerous he could become when someone attacked one of his friends.
Just look at what he'd done to the Slytherin Quidditch team.
He hadn't cared one bit about getting detention afterward.
And that had only been because they'd insulted Hermione.
...
Fortunately, Sirius was pretty quick when Harry asked for his help.
Harry had expected Sirius to still hold a bit of a grudge over choosing Mark instead of him earlier, but Sirius genuinely didn't seem to care all that much.
Besides, Sirius had finally found the perfect excuse to return to Hogwarts.
As for what had happened with Sally, being an Animagus, he hadn't even minded all that much about being turned into another animal.
If anything, he was already thinking of it as a future opportunity to get revenge on those little brats someday.
Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Percy entered the girls' bathroom on the third floor that Hermione had led them to.
It was an old, abandoned bathroom that not many girls seemed willing to use anymore, thanks to a certain someone who had made it her permanent home.
The boys hesitated for a moment before going in, but eventually followed Hermione's insistence.
"This should be the safest place to brew it and hide it while it's maturing," Hermione said as she opened one of the stalls.
It was far more intact than the others. Worn down, yes—but, fortunately, not dirty.
Harry, Percy, and Ron carried in the boxes of ingredients Sirius had sent and placed them inside, along with the cauldron.
"Now that everything's ready..." Hermione said without hesitation as she got straight to work, conjuring a magical flame with practiced ease.
"Once it's done, we can get a confession out of Malfoy and, if we're lucky, they'll send him to Azkaban," Ron said, sounding almost cheerful at the thought of his archenemy being arrested by Aurors.
"If he really did it, of course," Harry added flatly.
Part of him wanted Malfoy to be guilty.
But at the same time, if he was...
Harry couldn't help feeling partly responsible.
After all, he and Percy were the ones who had planted that ridiculous Heir of Slytherin nonsense in Draco's head last year.
Maybe that was why Draco had started taking this supposed inheritance of attacking people unworthy of studying at Hogwarts seriously.
"Still, do you remember what Dobby said? He said the Chamber had been opened before," Hermione said as she arranged the ingredients according to the recipe she held.
"It's obvious," Ron replied. "Lucius Malfoy opened the Chamber back when he was a student, and now he's probably passed the job on to his precious son. He's obviously looking for revenge."
At those words, Harry and Percy exchanged a glance.
If Ron was right, then the people Malfoy would want revenge on most were probably the Knights... their mother... and, by extension, them.
"Should we tell Mr. Vincent and the others?" Percy asked for the first time, wondering whether they should inform the adults.
"No," Harry said, shaking his head.
"At least not until we know Malfoy is really the one responsible. Otherwise they'll probably try to send us back home, and it'll likely cause all kinds of problems with the magical world," Harry said after thinking it through carefully.
And he wasn't wrong.
Many students from non-magical families were under the Knights' protection through secret agreements with their parents, at least while they still had one foot in both worlds.
Besides...
As much as Harry liked being home with his mother, Hogwarts had also become a second home to him.
He didn't want to leave it yet.
"Suit yourself. It's not like we haven't dealt with things that could petrify people before," Percy said casually, not making a big deal out of it as he turned around and got ready to leave.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked immediately.
"I left Tyson alone with Neville. I'd rather be with them. Besides, you guys shouldn't be walking around the castle alone either," Percy said, sounding strangely mature.
Which, of course, made Harry stare at him suspiciously.
But finding nothing unusual in his expression, he finally let him go.