Lumos: Year Two

The Halloween Feast had arrived and Helena was looking forward to eating the different varieties of food they had. She could already taste the pumpkin pie melting in her mouth as she neared the Great Hall. She was walking with Lanee, who she seemed to be attached to the hip to now. They had truced over a month before and decided to become friends. Ever since then, they had been talking more frequently and found themselves to be very good friends.

When Helena and Lanee arrived to the feast, everyone was getting seated, ready to eat when Dumbledore had allowed it. Helena and Lanee smiled to each other and hugged as they went their separate ways toward their tables. As she walked past the Slytherins that she was not fond of anymore, she could hear them whispering about how she was now friends with a Gryffindore. She didn’t care what they thought, so she simply made her way to Jude, Artemis, Veronica, and Annabel, who were all sitting together and talking about Quidditch.

“Helena!” Veronica smiled, “You’re here. Jude was just telling me that you were thinking of joining the Quidditch team next year?”

“Yeah, I was thinking about it,” Helena narrowed her eyes, laughing awkwardly.

“I say you should do it! It’s about time that the Quidditch team got some girls on their team. They haven’t had any in over a decade. They think they’re too good, but you’re a natural!” Jude smirked.

Helena didn’t know what to think of the subject. When she had mentioned that she thought about joining, she wasn’t entirely sure if she would go through with it. Now her siblings were egging her on to do so. She couldn’t help but to smile at their enthusiasm, but something told her that it wasn’t going to last long if she ended up not making the team.

When Dumbledore rose from his seat, the chatter within the room died down as the Hall had been completely filled. He gave a short speech for Hallows Eve and then clapped his hands as food appeared down the rows of tables, everyone with mouth-watering sighs of relief. Helena immediately went for a chicken leg and some corn casserole. After grabbing things she wanted most, she went for most other things at the table to consume. With all that, she had a large glass of cider to fill her up.

Slowly the room started to chatter about the same topic. It all started at the Gryffindor table, but then led on to the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, lastly getting to the Slytherins. She could hear people whispering around her, claiming that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not at the feast.

Helena tried not to make it obvious that she was eavesdropping, but she was curious to hear what was going on, so she leaned in slightly to the fifth year girl next to her, Dahlia Fitz.

“I heard the Ravenclaws talking an awful lot about what they’re hearing from the Gryffindor table. Apparently Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all missing,” she shook her head, “It’s about they decided to leave. They don’t belong here. I bet they got expelled for doing some more illegal things at Hogwarts.”

Helena lost interest in what she had to say at that point. All it was by then was Dahlia criticizing muggle-borns and traitor-bloods. She turned back to her brothers and sisters and tried to join into their conversation while grabbing for a piece of pumpkin pie.

After the feast had ended, Dumbledore had announced for the heads of each House to lead them back to their dormitories. Snape rounded up all the first and second years first, so she got herself up quickly to follow behind as the third years were next, leaving the seventh years to follow in the back. All of the houses were heading into the same directions, into the hallway that split off from the Great Hall to the staircases. Everyone started to complain and make repulsed expressions when they realized their feet were becoming soaked.

Helena tried to tiptoe her way through, but she found her stockings becoming quickly soaked and she winced in the chilled discomfort. When she looked back up, everyone was at a halt as they stared, wide-eyed to the wall, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione all stood in silence, looking just as terrified as most of the first years were. There was writing on the wall in a dark red that appeared to be blood (though Helena only hoped she was wrong) along with a stiff cat hung by its tail by a torch bracket.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

There was a long pause of silence for a moment and Helena could hear her heart beating loudly in her head. It gave her a slight headache as she looked away from the disturbing sight toward Lanee, who was standing next to Dean and Seamus.

“Enemies of the Heir, beware! You’ll be next, Mudbloods!” Helena averted her attention to Draco, who was shouting with an amused expression. She glowered at him before turning back to the three who were standing in front of the wall. She could feel his smile toward the motionless cat as he snickered quietly with Crabbe and Goyle. She sighed. How could she have ever liked someone so cruel? She didn’t understand it. Still, there was something there that kept her feelings locked up and irreplaceable. She tried to ignore it; this was not the time to fathom whether she was still interested or not.

“What’s going on here? What’s going on?” Helena immediately turned, seeing the caretaker trot down the hallway as his feet splashed through the large puddles of water quickly. He made his way through the crowds of students before he backed up slightly, pulling down on his cheeks as he began to wail.

“My cat! My cat! What’ happened to Mrs. Norris?” he screamed loudly, “You! You! You’ve murdered my cat! You’ve killed her! I’ll kill you! I’ll—“

“Argus!”

Helena wasn’t sure if she should back away from Filch or if she should stay where she was. Where were Professor Snape and the rest of the teachers? She could have sworn that Snape was just behind her. She then heard the walking of Professor Dumbledore, followed by Snape, McGonagall, and Lockhart.

Dumbledore had removed Mrs. Norris from the bracket as he motioned to Argus, “Come with me, Argus. You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger.”

As Lockhard approached the area, Helena rolled her eyes as she heard him boasting about his office being nearby. Dumbledore, Filch, Snape, McGonagall, and Lockhart (looking triumphant) all passed through the crowd of students with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they went toward Lockhart’s office. Soon the chatter filled the halls again before everyone headed back to their dormitories.

Helena found Lanee in the middle of it as she pursed her lips, asking something lowly.

“What do you think it means by the Chamber of Secrets being opened? Do you know what that is?” She asked.

Lanee shrugged as she was pulled away from her by Seamus who was heading up the stairs to head to the Gryffindor common room. Helena then started to head down toward the dungeons to go back into her own common room as well. When she arrived, she could see Draco sitting in an armchair with Pansy sitting by his feet, clutched to his legs giggling loudly about how wonderful he was for shouting out the rude comment he had made within the halls.

Helena rolled her eyes as she headed straight for the 2nd year girls’ dormitory and got changed into some pajamas before hopping into her bed. She wondered what Dumbledore was going to do to Harry, Ron and Hermione. She wondered if they were truly going to be expelled at this point.