"Mrs Norris! My cat! Who did this?!" Filch was glaring at everyone through his tears, twitching alarmingly fast, his hiccups shaky and uncontrolled.

Students were gasping in horror, eyeing the cat they hated with a passion hanging in front of them. Some screamed, and whispers broke out amongst groups of students, the information reaching those at the back. Teachers had heard by now that something had occurred and could be seen rushing and pushing past people to reach the front.

Minerva reached the front first, gasping in horror at the sight. Filch by now was inconsolable, shakily reaching for his cat as Minerva glanced around at the number of students beholding the scene.

"Students must be in bed in the next five minutes; any seen out will be attending detention with me for the foreseeable future. First and second years, follow the direction of your prefects." her voice barked across the hallway.

Dumbledore had reached the scene, his eyes dimming and his movements becoming quicker and sharper, emphasising now his powerful status. James and Lily were not far behind, following the headmaster swiftly. Snape had joined Minerva in ushering the students away, his glares enough to make even the stubborn students sway and leave. To everyone's dismay, Lockhart had also managed to push his way to the front and was talking loudly about how he could save the cat - which no doubt, was a lie.

Minerva then reached Harry and Neville, softly urging them to leave. "Mr Potter, Longbottom, get to your dormitories now before I am forced to issue you both detention."

Harry allowed himself to be dragged away by Neville, his mind still occupied by the strange occurrence and feeling associated with it. The cat looked dead; that much was clear. But Harry could sense something wrong with it – his empathy kept catching feelings of frustration and anger, instead of the nothingness that was left because of death.

"Nev… I think Mrs Norris is alive." Harry spoke lowly. Neville looked towards him in surprise, obviously taken aback by the statement.

"Why do you think that?" He asked curiously.

Harry stopped and stared at him seriously. "For one, the cat looked frozen. It wasn't moving, but wouldn't you expect the tail to be facing towards the ground, not frozen, even if it was dead?" Neville nodded thoughtfully. "Also, my empath abilities could sense emotions on the cat. Death doesn't bring any emotions, it's emptiness. But I could sense frustration, anger and fear rolling off Mrs Norris." Neville nodded again, staggered.

Neville then frowned. "You could sense the emotions? That means she's alive, but who has the power to completely freeze a cat stronger than the petrificus totalus and why would anyone write that in blood? Why were they warning us?" he asked, worry seeping through his tone.

Harry shook his head grimly. "I don't know. It could be anyone, but its probably someone with a specific agenda against muggleborns, or people against the 'heir'. Who could that be?"

Neville was lost in thought, mumbling once and again about something or the other. "Heir…it's usually referred to someone inheriting something like wealth, or property, even magic in some cases. But what has 'heir' got to do with anything to do with a school full of children? It's not something to inherit."

Harry rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Actually, Nev…I'm the heir of Hogwarts." Neville looked at him absolutely bewildered.

"What?"

Harry sighed. They had reached the common room by now, and most of everyone had left already to sleep. They sat on the couch in front of the fireplace, Harry casting a muffliato charm discreetly to avoid any eavesdroppers. As they got comfortable, Neville looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry then explained everything – all the houses that he had inherited and all about his wand and the creators of Hogwarts. Neville looked more and more amazed as he went on, his face changing hilariously to the effect of what Harry told him. By the end, he was in complete awe, amazement rolling off him saw powerfully Harry didn't even need to try to feel it.

"Th-that is so cool! So, you're like the owner of the castle?" Neville asked excitedly.

Harry nodded slowly but frowned "I don't think I'm the 'owner'. Hogwarts is a magical castle, it has its own identity and magic. I think I am just a … protector, of sorts, maybe. Like the castle is willing to listen to me, because I could not possibly control the castle on my own. I have the right to make decisions if I ever gain full power, but not without the agreement of the castle."

Harry glanced at Neville to see if had made any sense at all. Neville was nodding thoughtfully.

"I guess that makes sense. Also explains why you were chosen as the heir – it's not for your bloodline, but rather your magical power. The castle probably recognises you as a powerful figure, and that including your bloodline makes you a great candidate for being the heir." He nodded to himself in acceptance, "Yep. Makes sense."

"But what is this about 'the chamber has been opened'? All I can think about is the scary story dad used to tell me about the founders, about how Salazar Slytherin had mad at Gryffindor and had secretly created a chamber. Could that be it?" Neville asked nervously.

Harry frowned again. "I mean, it makes sense … also explains Malfoy's comment about muggleborns. Any heir of Salazar Slytherin would be expected to be in Slytherin, and despising Muggleborns. But who could it be?"

The boys were deep in thought, frustration slowly building as they couldn't figure out the message. Harry broke the silence.

"We could, you know, ask Malfoy…" he grinned sneakily, a plan forming in his head.

Neville raised his eyebrows at him. "… And you expect Malfoy to just tell us? Something you want to tell me?"

Harr's grin widened. "But he wouldn't be telling us. He'd be telling Crabbe and Goyle."

Neville slowly caught on, his own evil smile hesitantly occurring. "How?"

Harry closed his eyes and chuckled, before opening them to display darkening green eyes filled with mischievousness.

"Polyjuice potion."

With that, the boys retired to the dormitory, tired and worried about what the next day could possibly bring. Harry shivered slightly as he covered himself with a blanket.

What was that voice? Why was he the only one who could hear it? It was unnerving, the dark tone, the consequences… It was mind-boggling. The fact that Mrs Norris had been – for the lack of a better word – immobilised, was scary and meant that whatever or whoever was making these noises was dangerous and needed to be stopped immediately. It didn't help that he could hardly go around asking about it, as people would label him crazy and nothing would be done to stop the problem.

He turned over, glaring into the darkness in frustration.

What could he do? Ok, let's get all the facts down. One, he could hear voices no one else could. Two, the voice was a killer. Three, instead of killing, it had immobilised the victim. Four, it could move around unnoticed – possibly travelled through walls (maybe the pipes…?) as that explains why he or anyone else had never seen it. Five, it had something to do with a chamber in the castle, that no one knew the location of. Six, people were in grave danger, mostly the 'enemies', and right now it can be considered that the muggleborns are the victims.

That narrows it down. Harry resisted rolling his eyes at his internal monologue. Now he was left with more questions than answers. Great.

Harry turned onto his back and sighed, staring at the ceiling. There was nothing he could right now, so he was better off just sleeping and thinking about this again when he had more information.

The next day dawned bright and silent, as most people were nervously glancing left and right as if someone was going to jump them.

Whispers were urgently and fast, people glancing at Filch's distraught manner and getting even more concerned. Harry observed in annoyance as the whispers got louder and louder, slowly becoming more and more unbearable.

Neville grimaced with him, disliking the atmosphere of the Great Hall.

As Harry was shoving down his cereal, Ginny and Luna strode into the hall. They looked down the Gryffindor table before they found them, and quickly strode and sat down in their usual seats.

"What's going on?" Luna asked them in a low voice. "Everyone keeps gossiping about Mrs Norris and Filch, talking about how she died – is it true?" she glanced between the boys.

Harry and Neville glimpsed at each other before they gave an almost imperceptible nod to the other. Neville than began speaking in a hushed tone, telling them what happened yesterday. Luna nodded and gasped, but Harry was more interested in Ginny. She was gazing intently at her toast as if it held the answers to some deep dilemma. Her eyes seemed unfocused, her face paler even more than before. Harry could also see she was shaking slightly, as every second or so a shiver would run through her and her eyes would glance up as if expecting an attack.

"Ginny?" Harry asked gently.

Ginny jumped, startling both Luna and Neville out of their deep conversation. "O-oh. Yes, Harry?"

Harry frowned. "Are you ok? You look kind of sick. Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing?"

Ginny instantly began shaking her head, her eyes widening. "No- no, I'm fine. Completely. Just a bit tired." She gave a small grin.

Harry nodded, smiling sympathetically and looked back over at Neville and Luna. Luna was looking worriedly at Ginny, her eyes scanning weak redhead.

Harry then remembered what Luna had asked. "Hey, Luna, how come you weren't there yesterday? It happened right after dinner…" he asked confusedly. Neville also looked questioningly at the girls.

"Ginny felt sick so she went straight up to the dormitory and I couldn't find you guys, so I ate quickly and grabbed some dinner for Ginny and went there too," Luna explained. The boys nodded in understanding. Harry again frowned at Ginny.

"Ginny, if your feeling that sick you should get checked by Madam Pomfrey. It's flu season, and if your sick now there's no doubt it will get worse." He said worriedly.

Ginny smiled at him weakly. "I'm fine Harry, I already went to her last Monday. She said it was just a mild case- rest and food could probably fix it."

Harry nodded but stored that knowledge somewhere back in his brain. It had been days since Monday; it was not just the mild flu, so there was definitely something else. But if she didn't want to share it with him, it was none of his business but what he could do was make sure his friend was okay.

They then quickly finished breakfast and hurried out of the hall.

"What do you have first up?" Harry asked Luna.

"Herbology." She replied. Neville grinned excitedly and started asking her all sorts of questions about what they were doing. Luna answered them all patiently, smiling slightly at his enthusiasm. The boys walked them to class and began their own descent to Transfiguration.

"Harry, how are you planning on getting the book for the Polyjuice potion?" Neville asked. "It is in the restricted section no doubt, so you'd need a teacher's past."

Harry grinned at him, stopping behind him and looking at him triumphantly. "I have the perfect plan."

After Transfiguration, the boys quickly moved to Defence against the dark arts, eager to commence their operation. They were sniggering to themselves quietly, drawing curious eyes towards them. Harry quickly calmed down, as he could see that the 'golden trio' was getting suspicious and would no doubt snoop around if Harry and Neville appeared too happy.

"Second years! Come in, come in." Lockhart's voice boomed out of the classroom. Most boys let out a collective groan as the girls started giggling excitedly. Harry rolled his eyes and forced his body inside.

They sat in their designated seats and Lockhart began his boring monologue, flicking his hair and grinning widely. Harry was hardly paying attention, thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong with this plan. There weren't too many, but it was better to think about than whatever Lockhart was 'teaching'.

Neville was doodling in his book, not paying attention either. Seamus and Dean were passing notes around, charming them to fly to different people in the room. Harry grabbed the one they sent to him opened it and snorted.

He should change his name from Giledroy to Grinedroy - if he smiles any wider his mouth will break.

Well. They weren't wrong.

"-and like that, he was restrained by me in the cold winter month in York." Lockhart, grinning, looked around to stare at both amazed (the girls) and utterly disbelieving and bored (boys) faces.

"Oh, would you look at that! How time flies when we're having fun!" he exclaimed joyfully.

Neville leaned over to Harry. "-funny how quickly it slows down in this class." Neville whispered. Harry sniggered, barely containing a laugh.

People were getting up to leave now, some more happily than others. When the last of the students had filed out, Harry walked up to Lockhart's desk.

"Oh, Harry! How can I help you, my boy?" Lockhart asked jovially.

Harry fashioned his most polite, irresistible, and charming smile. "Hey professor, you know how I'm falling a little behind in class? I was wondering if you could sign this book note for me for the library. I was hoping to do some extra reading you see, just to catch up to the class quickly." He explained smoothly.

Lockhart beamed. "That's a wonderful idea, my boy! But I don't think you will need any books from the restricted section at all, just the books from class would be enough."

Harry's eyes narrowed barely a second before he re-created his previous enchanting manner. "I know professor, but an extra little reading on werewolves would help me understand exactly what you dealt with – I'm sure it was extremely dangerous, it would be wise if I knew exactly what you dealt with, don't you think?" Harry contended, his voice oozing fake awe for the man.

Lockhart ate it up, his happiness and ego doubling."That is true! Of course, I'll sign you a note!" he quickly grabbed the notice from Harry's hand and signed it dramatically. "Here you go."

Harry smirked inwardly and grinned at a job well done. "Thanks, professor."

With that, the boys walked out of the classroom and straight to the library, eager to begin the potion. Madam Pince looked up sceptical of them being allowed to borrow a book as advanced as Moste Potente Potions. But she gave it to them anyway, after Harry assured her it was just some light reading because he really enjoyed potions.

They went straight to the old girl's bathroom stalls, where Harry assured Neville no one ever came.

"Trust me, Nev, no one ever comes up here. It's empty with just Moaning Myrtle." He explained rushed.

Neville stopped in his tracks to look incredulously at Harry. "Moaning Myrtle? Who is that?"

Harry grimaced as he remembered his first meeting with Myrtle Warren.

8-year-old Harry Potter was strolling the Hogwarts Hallways because his brother was in training and the professors were all busy with one thing or another. He had decided to leave them alone and explore a little on his own, after all, he did know most of the places in the castle. He wanted to know every.

He walked past the old girl's stalls that had been closed around 1943 (for what, he didn't know) and heard wails coming from inside. Harry frowned – it was holidays, no students were allowed to stay over the holidays. But that was definitely a girl's voice.

Hesitant as to what he should do, Harry finally decided to go inside. As he walked in, he could see puddles of water everywhere and inwardly wretched at the smell. The whole interior was old, with the sinks in a circle to his right and two rows of toilets to his left. He looked around and could finally see a girl just sitting in the middle of the two rows of toilets, bawling her eyes out.

As he slowly approached her, Harry realised that she was in fact, transparent. She was a ghost. He halted in his tracks, unsure of if he should intrude.

By now she had looked up and started screaming, having been taken up by surprise to see such a young boy standing there staring at her.

"Who are you?!" she screeched. "Get out of my toilet!"

She sent a spray of water towards him as she flew right past, Harry having to use his arms to stop the tiny tsunami.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I just heard someone crying and I thought I should check." He shouted hastily. The ghost stopped and stared at him, suddenly taken aback.

"Yo-you came in…to check?" she asked, her voice sounded choked. Harry took this as a sign for clear and slowly lowered his arms and glanced up at the girl now standing behind him. "Yes."

The girl then looked at him up and down, then frowned. "You shouldn't be here. You don't even look old enough to be attending Hogwarts."

Putting aside his indignance, Harry looked the girl in the eyes as he spoke back calmly, "Yeah. I'm Harry, I'm 8. My brother's having early lessons, so I have to come with."

The girl continued to look at him suspiciously and Harry felt uncomfortable. He decided to keep her talking. "So, what's your name?"

The girl looked at him and answered, 'Myrtle Warren', and Harry decided that was progress enough. "Why are you in a toilet?" he asked her confusedly.

She then suddenly started howling, transparent tears dripping down her face and fading. Her anguish was making the water thrash violently, and Harry decided that was enough of being nice for the day.

He quickly ran out before another storm of water crashed into him, straight to Aunt Minnie's office to ask her about the crazy crying myrtle from the old bathroom stalls.

After Aunt Minnie had explained Myrtle's death, Harry had calmed down and understood her craziness. He tried to avoid her as much as he could, but whenever he had run into her, he had always tried to be as polite as he could.

After explaining this all to Neville, the boys hesitantly walked into the stall – looking around nervously for Moaning Myrtle. Harry gazed around and thought amusingly that nothing had changed, not even the small puddles of water that were always visible in the bathroom.

"I don't think she's here…" Neville spoke, eyeing the toilets with a grimace.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Let's just set up the cauldron and we can go raid Professor Snape's office and get the ingredients."

Neville looked slightly green at the idea but nodded anyway. Harry was nervous himself, as he knew Uncle Sev would not let him live if he found out that Harry had stolen his fine picked ingredients.

"If mum finds out, she will definitely kill me…" Neville groaned as they quietly sneaked to the dungeons.

Harry snorted. "If Uncle Sev or Aunt Minnie find out, they will roast me alive." Neville agreed with him as they quickly walked into the office.

Operation Investigate Malfoy had commenced.

A/N Soooo. How was it? I know you all probably hate me, and I most definitely deserve your hate. It's been a while now. I'm such a bad updater. ;(

Also, just to keep your (and mostly mine) hopes up that I will one day (hopefully) finish this story, I've decided to include little snippets of scenes that could/will happen in the future, like a preview I guess. Don't need to read if you don't want :).

Snippet 1; Harry and Luna's discussion

Harry felt alive walking through the forbidden forest. It was like his nerves came to light; his heartfelt calmer, his brain felt at peace, and his body felt more energetic. It was like he had been charged with a battery, his very soul being charged to the fullest capacity.

Luna felt much the same, which was why she was going with Harry to take a refreshing walk and feed the thestrals whilst Ginny and Neville finished some last - minute homework. The poor pair had been quite swamped with work and didn't have Harry and Luna's quick writing or organisational speed. Which they cursed. Frequently.

As they reached the thestrals, Harry smiled and patted a few as they came and formed a circle around him and Luna. They knew them quite well, as Harry and Luna made it quite a deal to come visit the poor creatures at least once a week – if not for the animals, but their own calm states. The humming of nature was a relaxing experience, and Harry loved to feel and sea the air pulsing and pushing the leaves, whilst Luna enjoyed running her hands down the small river and dipping in her feet.

Neville and Ginny came occasionally, Neville even more often so than Harry. They all tended to sit around and eat together like picnics, enjoying the solitude away from the bustling life at the castle.

"Harry," Harry turned to Luna, watching her look at him with a smirk and mischievous aura flowing form her. "Do you like Ginny?"

Harry coughed and sputtered, completely taken aback. "W-what? What makes you think that…?"

Luna walked around and petted the new baby thestrals. "Oh, nothing … just that slight tinge of jealousy that you tend to get whenever she's around Justin."

Harry could feel amusement now soaring off Luna and playfully shoved her as she looked up at him teasingly. "Oh ha-bloody-ha. I'm not jealous."

She looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "I'm not." Harry insisted. Luna rolled her eyes and moved back to the thestrals.

Harry walked beside her and helped her pick up the baby. "Actually, Luna, love, do you have anything to tell me, about your affections towards a certain, Herbology-loving obliviously adorable fool that we both know?" Harry asked her with his eyebrows now raised.

He could feel Luna's heart rate spike as she turned slightly pink. "No! There's nothing to tell."

Harry grinned and whispered dramatically into her ear. "Are you sure, Ms Lovegood?"

Luna glared at him whilst Harry started laughing.

Welp. There's that. I hope you liked that!

Please review and let me know what you think of this chapter and snippet!

Cheers :)