Chapter-39: The Past
I think I owe you guys some explanation of why I didn't upload for the last three uploading days....
See the thing was, out of nowhere the responsibility of giving the presentation to the Vice Chancellor of my college fell on my shoulders. The girl that was supposed to give the presentation fell ill. So, the whole previous week I was just like, preparing for presentation and stuff.
Yesterday I was just lazy and didn't feel like writing.
So here we are today, this is the first chapter of the day. The second chapter would be around the usual timing.
Enjoy.
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Ronan looked at the group before him, all of them had darkened faces. So he started speaking, "First of all, let me start by saying that I dont know anything about what happened to the cat who wrote those words there." He said.
Ron scoffed, "But you were there, weren't you? We are not idiots you know."
He was about to say something else when he noticed the faces of everyone present there. They were looking at him with suspicion, "Wait, do you really think that I did it?"
Neville, who had been silent from earlier opened his mouth, "I want to believe you, Ronan… We were all together and then we came and found you there."
Ronan then huffed with anger, or at least he acted, "Then we have nothing to talk about. And you know what, you guys are one to talk. You came running towards me. It was as if you knew that something was wrong there."
With that Ronan left the room…
***
Neville felt guilty at the moment. Ronan was right, they came there because he knew that something was wrong there. "Should I… said something about the voice that I kept hearing?" he asked.
"No," said Ron, without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world."
"I dont know about that," Harry said, "I feel that if we could have told the professors about the voices, it might have helped them in catching the culprit,"
"But we know that it was Ronan," Ron insisted.
"Oh grow up Ron," Hermione snapped, "He was not behind the incident. Dumbledore himself said that no second-year student could have done that."
"You are always talking about how he is way ahead of us when it comes to studying. Supposbly that genius is already on its 3rd or 4th-year course," Ron said.
"He might be far ahead, but the petrification curse is not something that could be found in normal textbooks, Ron."
"I agree with Hermione," Harry said, "We cannot blame Ronan. Especially not until we have some proof against him."
"The whole thing's weird, isn't it?" Neville said, "What was that writing on the wall about? 'The Chamber Has Been Opened… What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know, it rings a sort of bell," said Ron slowly. "I think someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once . . . might've been Bill. . . ."
"And what on earth's a Squib?" said Harry.
Ron started sniggering making Hermione sigh, she then spoke, "A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn't got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual."
Ron only sniggered louder, while Hermione continued, "You saw Filch trying to learn magic from a Kwikspell course, right.. I reckon he must be a Squib."
A clock chimed somewhere. "Midnight," said Harry. "We'd better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else."
***
Ronan when came back to the Common Room, only to see a crowd waiting for him. As he entered, at first everyone stared at him. And then everyone burst out cheering for him, "Good Job Ronan, killing that old tabby cat," one of the seniors yelled.
That didnt come as a surprise to him as everyone in the school hated that cat and Filch with it. Both the duo of the cat and its owner like to torture students by giving them detentions. And everyone was sort of like happy for the cat, as far as ominous writing was concerned, no one knew what it meant. So they were waiting for him to come up and tell the truth. But he disappointed everyone by saying, "I didnt do it. I dont know what the writing meant as well."
When the crowd dispersed, he had to repeat the same things to his friends as well. And that was especially irritating when none of them believed him.
"Come on man, just tell us the truth," Blaise said, "We won't tell anyone, now, would we people?" Daphne, Pancy, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle all nodded. But he stuck to his story to the end, and they finally let it go.
For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back.
Ronan had seen him scrubbing the message on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect, the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like "breathing loudly" and "looking happy."
And one day Malfoy came bearing news about the Chamber of Secrets, which was a topic of interest to everyone. He and his friends surrounded Draco and then he started telling them about the Chamber.
"My father's letter was brief, but he did give me a lot of information. I am telling you guys this because you are my friends." Malfoy said proudly, "You know how Hogwarts was founded by four wizards,"
Everyone nodded, "Yeah, one of them was Salazar Slytherin, the one our house was named after," Malfoy said, "For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out children who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then a rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."
Blaise then commented, "That explains why I hate Gryffindors lot from the bottom of my heart," Everyone nodded in agreement.
Malfoy then continued, "According to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic,"
"Well, that explains the message," Ronan said, "What it doesn't explain is why the hell all of sudden, everyone is afraid of me? I am not Slytherin's heir," Since the incident, everyone in the school has been acting like Ronan was the main villain and has been avoiding him.
"Well, you are scary," Pancy said, "Hell, most of our year is scared of you. I reckon that is why everyone assumed that you were the heir."
"Can't say for anyone else, but I know I am not afraid of him," Malfoy said. It was then everyone, including Crabbe and Goyle gave the pale-faced boy a look. "What? I am not," Draco raised his voice, but no one bought it.
Annoyed Draco continued, "Anyway, Father mentioned something else in the letter." Everyone looked at him, "According to him, the Chamber of Secrets is a real thing. Because this is not the first time Chamber had been opened."
"It has been opened before?" Ronan asked, he didnt know that.
"Yeah, around 50 years ago. He didnt give a lot of details, but he told me that someone died the previous time. But no one was able to find either the Chamber or the Creature that killed it. Someone did go to the Azkaban as well."
Everyone started chatting with each other about different theories, while Ronan ignored them and concentrated on proving his innocence.
'If I remember correctly Harry gets blamed for the Noriss, in the movies. If I need to prove my innocence, I need to get my suspicion transferred over to Longbottom. And I need to keep an eye on Hermione as well. Her possessed self could go on a psycho mode and could pin more blame on me,' Ronan thought.
But it was then he abruptly got up, startling everyone present around him. He remembered the night the night of the incident and remembered Longbottom saying that they were all together. It meant that if Hermione had been with their group from the start, then there was no way she could have written the message. The real culprit was someone else…
Spending some time in the Library, Ronan started researching being possessed. There were some ways to distinguish between a normal person from a possessed person. And the way he finally decided on using would be using Legilimency. Apparently Legilimency probe could tell if the person is possessed or not because as the possession takes place, Filgia which is a thin natural magical layer surrounding the mind is broken. Filgia gets broken easily when someone uses the Imperius Curse, Possession, or Legilimency probe.
Considering that no one else in the school would be using Imperius or Legilimency on students, it might be simple to find the culprit behind the attacks. And the best thing was that there was a book about Legilimency in the Room. Originally he had planned to learn Legilimency after he had created 3 layers of his Occlumency shield. But plans had changed…
That day Ronan was sitting in the Library, scovering through a beast encyclopedia. Everyone was avoiding him, which was good as he was able to get a lot of work done during that time. And then finally his eyes landed on the page, that told the information about the King of Serpents.
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Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.
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He finally smiled as he got the information that he needed. And it didnt take him long to connect the dots as well, Norris didnt die because she was not staring at the serpent directly, there was water on the floor that night. She looked into its eyes partially. The thing about the giant snake being afraid of small roosters did made him question whether this was a joke, or not. But in the end, he had every piece that he needed, now he could enact and make some backup plans.
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