The golden plates and the dishes instantly filled themselves with delicious food. The house elves really do go above and beyond during feasts. As expected, the food was excellent, but the music was a little too dramatic for Harry's taste. All in all, it was an enjoyable night, except for the fact that Harry was still worried about an attack happening.
The Potter scion kept looking around for his suspects all night, but none of them left the Great Hall. Harry had tagged them all discreetly with a tracking charm just in case, but they could be easily dispelled. He kept doing this until Daphne painfully elbowed him discreetly in the chest, "What the hell, Daph?"
"I'm starting to get tired of this Harry. I know that you have a lot on your mind for some reason you refuse to talk about it, but you already don't spend a lot of time with us. So from here on out, whenever you're hanging out with us, you'll pay attention to us. Because you're being a very bad friend right now."
Daphne's words kinda threw him for a loop for a second. Harry knew that he was spending less time with them, but he didn't know that they felt this way. He looked at Blaise who was nodding in affirmation, and Tracy who was playing with her food. It was then that he understood how badly he was treating them. Whenever he wasn't innovating or training for his possible encounter with the Basilisk, Harry did start to view his time with his friends to be a bit of a burden, like a social obligation instead of stressing out.
"I'm sorry, Daph. I understand. From now on, I'll focus only on you guys whenever we hang out."
The blonde looked him in the eyes as if looking for any sign of a lie before smiling, "Good. So, did you hear about Malfoy getting into a fight with Longbottom in the middle of the Quidditch pitch when it was raining last week?"
Harry straightened up immediately, "You're kidding! How did that happen?"
Tracy was the one who answered this time, "Well, apparently the two of them wanted to spend some extra training time on the pitch and of course, they wanted to get the other to stay away, which ended up in a full-on duel. They both spent the night in the infirmary because of their injuries. Flint wanted Longbottom to be banned for 'endangering his new seeker' but Professor McGonagall put her foot down."
"People take this game way too seriously," Harry commented.
"It's a serious game," the brunette protested.
"Exactly, it's a game. In school matches, the snitch is always too slow since professional snitches are very expensive and also very hard to catch. It would be hard to have classes if the games last for days on end. So, in the end, whoever has the best seeker wins, and the rest of the game has very little effect. If you get your beater to attack the other team's seeker and take them out of the game. Even if you're fouled, you'll win the game in the long run. It's a dirty trick that won't do much in a professional match, where the matches are decided by the chasers instead, but it will do."
Tracy was outright gaping at Harry's answer, "I thought you knew nothing about Quidditch."
"I don't like the sport," Harry answered with a shrug, "that doesn't mean that I'm ignorant."
By the time the feast ended, Harry had received no notification from his trap. His suspects had stayed till the end of it, and when everyone started to leave to their common rooms, there was this sliver of hope that Riddle would stay his hand.
Of course, this hope was dashed to nothing as he saw the commotion coming ahead. It was in the path just leading out of the Great Hall, just near the stairs leading up to the First Floor, which was flooding with water. A circle had been formed by the Hogwarts student population, and in the middle of it were Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who looked very nervous.
Next to them was Headmaster Dumbledore himself, who had drawn his wand and was waving it at a familiar petrified figure of Argus Filch, who looked like he was shielding something in his arms with a scared look on his face. When the Potter scion took a closer look, he realized that it was the form of Mrs. Norris that didn't look petrified for some reason.
The little dash of hope that was in Harry's heart had disappeared into nothing as he saw the large words written in blood near the petrified victims:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
Yeah, that's an ominous message alright. Harry needed to look at his traps. The entire map was useless if he didn't know when the chamber was opened and the sadistic caretaker was even at the feast until the last minute, alongside his cat. It was a harrowing thought; the Basilisk had literally, been meters away from the student population, minutes before Dumbledore dismissed them.
Harry came in close to examine the scene further, he heard Dumbledore reassure McGonagall, "He's petrified, but the cat is dead from Asphyxiation. He was protecting her with his arms when he was petrified, and accidentally had his hand over her face. The poor thing couldn't breathe and died."
Shit. At least Riddle hadn't killed the cat on purpose, but damn, this was a very bad move. It showed Harry that Riddle could get in and out of the chamber very quickly and hide the attacks very easily at any moment.
Harry ignored Malfoy making a fool of himself in front of the professor by gloating and calling that the 'Mudbloods' were next. Instead, he slowly walked to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, looking if he could find any clues.
By the time he arrived there, he immediately noticed that his trap was working flawlessly. No one had tampered with them; the marking potion wasn't triggered. Nothing had happened. It didn't make sense. How could Riddle open the chamber without having access to the entrance? Harry slowly walked towards the sink to look at his stone underneath and saw a little piece of parchment just next to the stone. It had the words, "Nice Try!" neatly written on it, and Harry knew that it was a message from Riddle.
Harry stood up with a snarl and froze when he noticed something. The snake engraving on the sink was gone. Son of a bitch, Riddle didn't disable his traps, he simply changed the entrance to the chamber of secrets altogether.
Well, Harry had to admit that the man was good. But he needed to get to the common room before anyone would notice that he was away. He needed to plan, but this wasn't the time for it. After all, it was Samhain, and he would be foolish not to use such an important magical event to give himself an edge. He had a ritual to prepare for.
.....
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