-CHAPTER NINE-

The Deathday Party and the Voice

The Deathday party was in full swing, if you don’t count the time when the Headless Hunt barged in and started playing around with their heads, and sir Nicholas was clearly enjoying himself as he talked with all sorts of ghosts. All the Hogwarts ghosts were there as well as Peeves, the poltergeist. Arielle was surprised to see just how many ghosts lived at Hogwarts. However, the ghost that caught Arielle’s attention was a girl that was wearing a school uniform that was slightly outdated, wore glasses and had her hair done in pigtails. She was clearly depressed and when Peeves made fun of her name, which was Moaning Myrtle, she left the party in tears. Arielle’s brows went down in a small scowl. She knew that Peeves liked to make fun of everyone, but she didn’t know that he was so mean about it, probably because he never made fun of her - she guessed he was too scared of her Papa and Grandpa to do it. However, she really didn’t like the way he handled Myrtle. With her hands on her hips and a serious look in her eyes she turned to the poltergeist and scolded him lightly (aware that she was in a room full of ghosts and that she was under scrutiny because she was a living person).

“Now, was that really necessary, Peeves?”

If the poltergeist was alive, Arielle was sure that she would have heard a crick in his neck, so fast did he turn around to see who scolded him. She was a bit surprised to see that he cringed away from her, unaware that she looked a lot like Molly Weasley, the mother of her two friends, when she was angry – and that Peeves already had the honour of being scolded by the woman once when she was still in school. He knew that the look Arielle was giving him didn’t bode him well, and with her hands on her hips she really resembled a mother who was just about to scold someone.

“You really should go and apologize to her, you know. It wasn’t nice of you to make fun of her.”

Peeves scowled at the girl, finally finding that wayward cat that got his tongue, and replied in an annoyed voice,

“And why should I do that? It isn’t my fault if she moans about her being dead all the time.”

“Yes, that’s not your fault, but you could be a little more sensitive about the subject as it’s obvious that it’s hurting her a lot.”

“I was just telling her the truth!”

“You could have said it in a nicer way – or at least not in such a way that made her leave the party. It’s not her fault if she doesn’t look the way you apparently think all girls should look. I’m sure that she’s a really nice girl, if only she wasn’t teased so much. Would you like it if someone teased you just because you didn’t look very nice? Or if you apparently had problems about something and couldn’t get over them no matter how hard you tried?

“Because, I tell you, you wouldn’t. You would either get insulted and start insulting them back if you had that kind of a personality, which I know you do, or you would feel really bad about it and avoid another confrontation by fleeing in tears, like Myrtle did.”

The silence said it all. Arielle sighed and then blushed as she became aware of the silence around them. She slowly turned her head and looked around her, only to meet the grinning face of sir Nicholas. It was apparently rare that Peeves got scolded for something and apparently a lot of the ghosts thought it funny, as they were chuckling softly to themselves.

“Er, sorry about that,” she mumbled as she quickly made her way to the Gryffindor ghost and after excusing herself – it was high time she left the party – there was a Halloween Feast going on in the Great Hall and her Papa only allowed her to go to the Deathday party if she only stayed for half an hour – and she was already late, she noticed as she walked down the dungeon corridor towards the stairs that lead to the first floor where the Great Hall was situated. She made herself go faster, because she didn’t want her Papa to worry too much about her as he was bound to do – he was a bit overprotective of her after her latest ‘adventure’ with the caretaker. Filch was put on probation after receiving a thorough scolding from both Grandpa and her Papa, and Arielle was told that he was a Squib, which meant that he couldn’t do magic even if he was born into a magical family, and that he was extremely bitter about that and hated just about everyone that had magical powers. Arielle wondered just why Grandpa hired him if he knew that he hated the students so much, but knew that her Grandpa usually did what he thought was best, even if sometimes what he thought was best wasn’t really the best for the others (as proved when he left her with the Dursleys).

Her trail of thought stopped suddenly as she heard a voice that she hadn’t heard in a while. “Blood… I smell blood… so hungry… for so long… kill… need to kill…” Arielle paled as she heard the last few words and then, almost without conscious thought, started running in the direction the voice was going. It kept whispering and Arielle got more scared the more she ran after it. She knew that it probably wasn’t a good idea, but she couldn’t just stop! After all, someone was in danger of being killed! She had to do something!

The voice was getting louder and louder and as Arielle ran around the corner she suddenly felt her feet slip in the puddle of water she had noticed, unfortunately too late. Luckily she stayed on her feet and she quickly moved forward, ignoring the water. However, the voice was gone. There was silence all around her and she started trembling with a feeling of horror. She looked around herself then and then her eyes fell on a stiff form that was hung from a torch by its tail and the crimson words,

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.