บท 37: Chapter 37: Unhappy Halloween

"Justin! Justin!" Ron's voice echoed through the corridor, his gaze locked onto the boy's gray face.

Bounding forward, Hermione quickly reached the fallen Justin, who appeared lifeless on the cold flagstone floor. Her hand extended shakily to his neck, fingertips seeking a pulse.

"Oh no..." Hermione stammered, a choked whisper escaping her lips. "He's... He's... He's dead!" The weight of her words hung in the still air as she slumped, back against the wall, onto the stone floor beside Justin.

In the faint flickering glow of a nearby torch, Harry studied Justin's frozen face, a grim reflection of pure terror. He swallowed, a bitter icy dread snaking its way through his body.

The boy sprawled senselessly on the floor was none other than Justin Finch-Fletchley; a fellow second-year student but of Hufflepuff House. The sight of him forcibly stirred a whirlwind of uncertainty and shock.

Such an atrocious scenario seemed impossible, even more so as the spirited Halloween feast was currently in full swing. Why Justin would be here, motionless and cold, was a riddle that paralyzed them with fear. Ron, particularly, was noticeably shaken.

"We have to get out of here - quickly," Ron muttered, glancing nervously around the dimly lit corridor.

"But shouldn't we try to...?" Harry started, his voice wavering with hesitation.

"No," Ron interjected, "We can't be found here with him!"

But as fate would have it, they were too late already.

From the direction of the third-floor staircase, the faint murmur of chit-chatter began to grow louder. Within no time, a wave of curious students had ascended, discovering the dread-filled spectacle. The once lively chatter abruptly surrendered to a chilling silence.

The scene before them was indeed terrifying; Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood amidst the eerie stillness, with Justin's lifeless body adding stark contrast on the cold stone floor.

"Enemies of the heir, beware? You'll be next, Mudblood!" The sadistic sneer on Draco Malfoy's face matched the venom dripping from his words as he read aloud the sinister message smeared across the stone wall for all to hear. Yet, his vile insult ricocheted off the deafening silence, unacknowledged as all eyes remained glued to the horrifying spectacle.

All save one.

"Slytherin loses twenty points, Mr. Malfoy. It would appear your previous punishment was not sufficient, hence your tedious bathroom cleaning duty shall be extended until next year's first of January," countered a calm voice, cutting through the silence like a long-lost friend.

Draco's sneer froze on his face, a cold fire burning in his eyes as he glared in the direction of the voice. Professor Sherlock Forester, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, pushed through the crowd, ignoring Draco's silent protest. Instead, his focused gaze took in the grim sight awaiting his inspection.

Upon seeing the ever-composed figure of Professor Forester, Harry, Ron, and Hermione burst into a frantic litany of explanations, each competing with the others in their panic. "Professor, we found Justin like this when we got here!"

"We didn't do it! We were the first to find him!"

"Is he... Is he still alive, sir?"

A ripple of silence swept over the crowd as Sherlock calmly raised a hand, successfully quieting the frenzied trio. He then knelt down in front of Justin, his wand drawn with poised certainty.

The assembled students collectively held their breath as Sherlock gently tapped the handle of his wand against Justin's seemingly devoid body. The spectacle of spell casting was still not as magnificent as it was before his transmigration, but Sherlock had significantly improved from his condition two months ago.

After a thorough check and examination of Justin, Sherlock finally broke the silence. "He's not dead." A collective sigh swept through the crowd. Harry, Ron, and Hermione's anxiety seemed to deflate noticeably, and the silent fog of fear among the other students began to recede.

"Having said that, his condition is certainly not good," punctuated a familiar elderly voice. Unnoticed by the students lost in their fears, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had arrived alongside the rest of the staff.

"Professor Forester, kindly take Justin into your office; it's on this floor if I'm not mistaken. Harry, Ron, Hermione, you three accompany him," Dumbledore calmly instructed. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall was busy getting rid of the stunned onlookers, ordering them back to the safety of their dormitories. Filch, on the other hand, was tasked with cleaning off the menacing words from the walls.

With a swift flick of his wand, Sherlock activated a levitation charm and gently floated Justin towards his office, leading the group of teachers and the golden trio. His office was simple yet inviting, it housed the essential furniture and an extensive collection of books. Dumbledore guided Sherlock in positioning Justin on a nearby couch, before starting his own examination of the stricken student.

The uneasy peace was shattered when Severus Snape suggested that the trio's questionable absence from the Halloween feast marked them as suspicious. In haste, they explained their attendance at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party and justified their absence from the main event.

Satisfied with their alibi, and having diagnosed Justin's condition, Dumbledore cleared the trio from suspicion. "Petrifying Justin would require a dark magic spell far too powerful for a mere second year," he proclaimed.

Snape, relentless in his belief, pressed on, questioning why they didn't return to the Great Hall after leaving Nick's party. In their defense, the trio conveniently left out the part about Harry hearing an unusual noise and discovering the unconscious body in the third-floor corridor. Talking about that would only have cast them into deeper suspicion.

Sherlock, who had been analyzing the petrified Justin, did not pay attention to the questioning occurring between Snape and the trio. The petrified Justin triggered part of his memory. The monster released from the Chamber of Secrets, had the power to petrify. But why did he remember, the first victim was a cat and not a boy?

While he was musing, the students who had dined with Justin during the Halloween feast were called over to be questioned about Justin leaving early. They described that Justin had felt unwell since morning, leading him to pay Madam Pomfrey a visit, who diagnosed him with a cold and given him a potion.

By the afternoon, Justin was having stomach troubles. He had left the feast early intending to rest in his dormitory and ended up being attacked on the third floor corridor. While no further leads were found from this, Sherlock started to doubt when the changes in events started.

From the moment he realized he had come to the world of Harry Potter and assigned the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts he feared the storyline would inevitably deviate from the original.

After all, every Defense Against the Dark Arts professor held a significant role in every book, but the roles were switched this year, and naturally, the future plot wouldn't be the same as before. Suddenly the first creature to be attacked was changed, raising the question of when exactly everything started differing from the original.

While he was left puzzled, Dumbledore had concluded the investigation for the night. He ordered for Justin to be taken to Madam Pomfrey. Professor Sprout happened to be cultivating mandrake plants recently. Once the plants matured, a potion could be brewed to save Justin and they could get the truth by simply asking him once he woke up.

This left the night's attack temporarily unsolved.