NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
Chapter 4: The cat girl and the unhappy ghost
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The next morning it was cloudy and a cold drizzle fell all over the place.
“Did you hear what happened?” a student said.
“What, what happened?”
“A boy was found dead at school.”
“A dead body?”
“And who was it?” said another student who approached the place.
“You are mistaken, there is no dead," said a girl.
“A boy is in the hospital but not dead, it's Justin, you know the Hufflepuff son of Muggles.”
“I also heard that almost decapitated Nick was also attacked and is in the infirmary.”
“That's weird, but we all know who the culprit is, that Neville.”
“It's true, just look at those eyes, he's evil.”
“PROFESSOR, PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL!” Filch shouted, interrupting the conversation of the other students.
“But what happens Argus!” the woman shouted.
“Next to... next to the tower of astronomy... I found... I found...”
“Calm down Argus and tell me what you found.”
“I found a... One of the shattered battlements on the floor, damn brats, now they're doing acts of vandalism!”
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Neville was in Dumbledore's office, the director sent for him because of the latest attacks. The boy waited for the director to show up, and he remembered the night before... He was going to jump, but in the end the vertigo and fear could do more and Neville fell backwards, but the battlement where he was before fell into the void.
“Am I really Slyterin's heir?”
“What if I have a double personality?”
“You would have looked good in Slyterin," said a voice in front of the boy, making him jump from his seat. The sorting hat had spoken to him.
“What?”
“You would have looked good in Slyterin.”
“But... But you told me it would have looked good in Hufflepuff...”
“You would have looked good in Hufflepuff, but you would also have looked good in Slyterin, you child did not let me finish, you interrupted me asking me to send you to Gryffindor...”
Neville stayed as a stone and then to calm his mind he went to where the mascot of Dumbledore, this was a very old and ugly bird, at that moment, she herself was consumed in a fire coming out of her entrails.
“Hey, I didn't do it! Why is bad luck on me! It's best to die!”
In that Dumbledore arrived and reassured the boy who was in shock.
The director explained to him about the nature of the phoenix and asked him some questions about yesterday, if he met Dobby again. Neville denied this and couldn't give the principal any information. Neville was so depressed that he didn't pay attention to the strange voices that seemed to come out behind the castle walls the night of the attack on Justin and the ghost.
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After a couple of days, a rumor was running through the halls of the school, apparently Hermione had been attacked and her face had been disfigured, to Neville the world came over and wanted to enter the infirmary, but Mrs. Pomfrey prohibited everyone from entering.
One very late night Neville snuck into his common room (actually always did this) and stole Harry's cloak of invisibility.
“If Harry finds out, he kills you," Neville said to himself, but the fact that he wanted to know how her friend was, makes his fear go away from him. “It's been several days, I have to see her," Neville encouraged himself.
Neville entered the infirmary carefully and whispered to Hermione.
“Who is there?”
“Hermione is me...”
“You're not Ron or Harry, I don't recognize your voice.” Again the sphere in Neville's chest cracked.
Neville didn't dare take off his invisible cloak.
“Hermione, it's me. Neville Longbottom.”
“Neville...”
“Yes, I stole Harry's invisible cloak.... Don't go telling him please.”
“Of course Neville, don't worry.”
“Are you all right? You can draw the curtain for me to see you.”
“No, I don't think so, I look horrible.”
“Then it's true, you're badly hurt... Oh for Merlin Hermione...” Neville started sobbing.
“No Neville, I'm not hurt... I just have something, but don't worry it's only temporary, Mrs. Pomfrey told me I'll be out of here in a few days.”
“Then let me see you Hermione...”
“No, I already said I look horrible.”
“You will never be horrible to me, you are my friend, my most precious friend.”
“All right, Neville, but don't shout or laugh.”
“I won't do any of that.”
Hermione drew the curtains and the moonlight illuminated her entire figure, the furry face and cat moustaches had disappeared, as did the cat's nose and feline eyes. Hermione looked completely normal except for a pair of elegant cat ears on her head and a long, silky tail that moved nervously but elegantly at the same time. “
“Neville? Neville?”
Neville dropped the cloak of invisibility and watched Hermione with his eyes and mouth open.
“You are... You are, beautiful Hermione...”
The girl looked at the surprised boy, wanted to tell him something, but in that moment Mrs. Pomfrey entered the room and saw Neville, well actually only saw someone else's silhouette. Neville hurried to put on the cloak of invisibility and hurried out of the place.
Mrs. Pomfrey was screaming and trying to catch something she didn't see, Neville ran to his common room, then climbed into the bedrooms and put Harry's cloak in place.
“Hermione dear, who was that one in the room?”
“I don't know Mrs. Pomfrey, I got up when I felt someone draw the curtains of my bed and asked who it was, it was so dark that I didn't see his face.”
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The following nights, Neville repeated the process, but Mrs. Pomfrey magically secured the infirmary door and the poor boy could no longer enter. And the times Neville had to go to the infirmary because of Ron's and Harry beatings, the nurse made sure that Neville didn't see the girl.
“Are you better, Hermione?”
“Yes, I will soon be leaving the infirmary. Hey, Neville, why do you come to the infirmary every time, do you feel sick?”
“This, no... It's just unimportant stuff, don't worry," said the boy who looked pitiful because of the merciless punches of the ginger and the other boys. Mrs. Pomfrey shook her head.
“What is that smell?”
“Smell?.... I don't smell any odor” (the boys other than the beating had peed on him). Mrs. Pomfrey put on a face of anger and grief, but she knew not to ask the boy questions, otherwise he would no longer return to the infirmary and would surely resort to extreme and dangerous measures to heal himself.
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Hermione left the infirmary after a few days and Neville wanted to greet her, but the hateful ones of Ron and Harry took her away and the boy could do nothing. Another couple of days passed and the same frustrating situation continued. In the end, he decided again to wander around aimlessly and found himself in a disused bathroom.
Neville heard someone crying in one of the bathrooms and noticed that he was in one of the girls' bathrooms, he tried to get out but he was caught.
“What are you doing here?”
Neville turned and saw that a girl's ghost was standing in front of him, she had the most grieving face he had ever seen.
“I'm sorry, I was walking aimlessly and came to this place unintentionally.
The ghost girl introduced herself as Myrtle. Neville's eyes were so red from tears that the ghost did not reprimand him for being in the women's bathroom, although this particular one had been out of use for years.
The boys exchanged stories and Neville could see that if his situation was very bad, at least he was still alive and could do something to change it, instead for poor Myrtle, it was the end of the road, destined to spend an eternity crying alone in the bathrooms and sliding down the pipes, her case was undoubtedly the epitome of the tragedy.
“I'd like to do something for you, Myrtle.”
!How gentle you are Neville, unlike others, this morning for example, someone threw a notebook in my bathroom right above my head, I wanted to know who it was, but the idiot had already escaped.”
“A notebook?”
“Yes, look there it is.”
Neville lifted the notebook, it was a black-covered diary, which seemed to be very old, as soon as he grabbed it and felt a sort of strange sensation running down his whole back to the back of his head. Neville said goodbye to Myrtle and carried the diary to his common room.
Neville was so obsessed with the blank-page diary that he forgot to look for Hermione, the boy couldn't understand it, there was nothing that could get his attention from that old diary, but it radiated a fascination that Neville couldn't resist.
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One very late evening in the common room, Neville recalled a story that one of his relatives told him about magical books that only revealed his writings if you wrote in them. Determined to test this theory, he wrote hello on the first page of the book, suddenly this word disappeared and was replaced by others coming out of the diary.
Neville was impressed, for some reason he asked him about the secret chamber and the diary, which belonged to a certain Tom Ryddle, told him that more than fifty years ago, the chamber had already been opened and someone had died, he also told him that the person responsible was arrested and expelled from school and that Tom was awarded with a magnificent trophy.
“Tom, can you tell me who opened the secret chamber?”
“I can't tell you... But I can show you.”
In that moment a light enveloped Neville and he was transported to one of the corridors of the castle.
At first Neville was very frightened, but then he realized that he was inside Tom's memories. He could see how a handsome, tall, black-haired boy watched a student who had apparently died being transported, Neville could not see who it was because he was covered with a white sheet, but when he saw one of the arms coming out of it, he assumed it was a girl.
Tom was rushing into a corridor and opened a door abruptly. The room was dark and could not be seen well but he still distinguished the silhouette of a tall, bulky man.
Tom accused the man of having freed the monster that killed the girl's life, but the other person denied it. Neville understood by the tone of voice, that it was a young boy but of an enormous complexion, in that there were some pushes and a kind of spider the size of a Saint Bernard came out of the place shot.
Tom lifted his wand to stop the boy and suddenly the room lit up, the other boy was Hagrid.
“Hagriiid!” Neville shouted as he was again returned to the common room.
Neville couldn't believe that Hagrid was responsible for someone's death, he didn't know whether to tell Hermione or Dumbledore, and as the days went by when these ideas turned around, the day of the final of the quidditch tournament came. Neville did not want to cheer for Harry and went to his common room, after a few minutes everyone in his house came in with worrying faces.
“What happened? Neville asked.”
“The match was cancelled, two students were attacked, one is a Ravenclaw, Penelope Clearwater and the other is... Hermione.”
TO BE CONTINUE...
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