Chapter 110
Chapter 110
The three climbed the stairs and turned into another corridor.
The light here was dim. A howling gale had loosened one of the windowpanes, making it rattle with an ugly clacking sound.
The torches here seemed to have been blown out by the wind.
“Look. Who’s that?” Morn suddenly stopped, pulled the other two back and ducked behind the corner.
“It’s Potter,” Ernie whispered. “What’s he doing?”
In the poor light, they could see only a dark figure standing motionless. They recognised Potter solely because the glow from a distant torch faintly illuminated his face.
“Attack!” A shrill voice made Ernie and Morn shrink back, and Suer’s heart lurched.
“Attack! Attack! No one, living or dead, is safe! Run for your lives! Att–ack!” The shrieking was deafening. Ernie and Morn did not dare poke their heads out, but Suer saw that it was Peeves.
Clang–clang–doors opened one after another along the corridor, and people poured out.
“Let’s go out too and see what happened,” Morn whispered.
The corridor filled with people, all older students who seemed to have had lessons there that evening.
Using his size, Ernie pushed through first. His shout immediately rang out from within.
“Caught in the act!”
Professor McGonagall’s voice sounded too as she ordered Ernie to stop.
Morn anxiously rose on his toes, desperate to see what had happened. His face was deathly pale. “Something hasn’t happened to Justin, has it?”
At that moment, Peeves, floating in mid-air, began to sing–
“Oh… Potter, you nasty little pest, see the wicked thing you’ve done!
“You killed a student for a lark, and thought it jolly fun–jolly, jolly fun!”
“That is enough, Peeves!” Professor McGonagall roared. Suer’s face twitched oddly. Why did she sound a little like an angry cat yowling…?
He shook the strange thought from his head.
Dragging the white-faced Morn with him, Suer squeezed through. “We’re Justin’s dorm mates. Excuse us, please.”
“Hiss…” Morn stumbled and retreated two steps.
Professor McGonagall’s expression was black with anger. “Aurora, would you and Filius please take Mr Finch-Fletchley to the hospital wing?”
Professor Sinistra from Astronomy and Professor Flitwick nodded and carried Justin away together. A petrified ghost, however, remained lying on the floor.
No one seemed to know what to do with him.
Suer quietly reached down and touched him. He was solid… Apparently, petrification could turn an incorporeal ghost corporeal.
Suddenly, Suer felt someone staring at him–Professor Kitty’s death glare.
With an embarrassed smile, he withdrew his hand.
Professor McGonagall finally thought of a solution and conjured two large fans from thin air.
“Mr Bones, Mr Macmillan, please use these fans to take Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington to Poppy.”
Suer and Ernie obeyed. Nick drifted forwards under the fans like a silent black hovercraft.
Morn followed close behind them in a daze.
Before leaving, Suer gave Harry a sympathetic look. Harry was plainly going to have an extremely difficult time for a while.
The three successfully fanned Nick onto a bed in the hospital wing. Before they could even glance at Justin, Madam Pomfrey chased them out.
With both Justin and Nearly Headless Nick attacked, the atmosphere went from tense to genuinely terrified.
Strangely enough, Nearly Headless Nick received more attention than Justin.
What could do something so cruel to a ghost who had already died once?
What sort of power was this?
What monster had Slytherin left behind?
The succession of attacks sent everyone rushing to reserve seats on the Hogwarts Express, hoping to go home early for Christmas.
Harry’s life became every bit as difficult as expected. When Suer met Hermione in the Room of Requirement, she told him a great deal about what had happened over the past few days.
In a word, everyone avoided Harry like the plague.
“Fred and George actually think it’s funny.” Hermione shook her head. “Can you guess what they’ve been doing?”
Suer shook his head. He had spent the last few days reading the book he had borrowed from the Restricted Section. Apart from lessons, he stayed in the common room, and Morn’s state of mind had been worrying too.
The boy shut himself behind his bed curtains all day, utterly dazed.
How could Suer put it…? He looked as though his wife had died…
“Stir this for me. I’ll show you.” Hermione handed Suer the glass rod, straightened her clothes and walked into an open patch of floor.
“This is Harry.” Hermione dragged a chair into the middle. “Whenever George and Fred see him, they deliberately walk in front of him…”
“Make way for the Heir of Slytherin! The most evil wizard has arrived!”
Hermione had a certain gift for impressions.
She reproduced George and Fred’s manner of speaking perfectly, even pausing in exactly the same places.
“Don’t you think they’re being absolutely horrible?” Having finished, Hermione turned indignantly towards Suer.
Only to find him laughing soundlessly.
“Hmm?” Hermione’s delicate brows instantly flew upwards in anger. She had worked so hard on that performance because she wanted him to condemn the twins with her, not so he could laugh!
“Ha… Ahem… Ha, no, Hermione…” Suer finally managed to laugh aloud. He forced himself to look serious, but could not suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth. “They really are going too far. If Mrs Weasley found out, she’d certainly send them a Howler.”
“What are you laughing at?” Hermione edged closer, her small hands itching to move.
She had put all that effort into performing for him, and he was still laughing?
Sensing the air turn increasingly dangerous and a faint chill creeping towards his waist, Suer swallowed.
“It’s like this, Hermione. I always stand firmly against evil forces, as you know.”
“I’m not laughing at Harry’s misery, and I’m not laughing at your performance.”
Suer looked straight into Hermione’s eyes.
“It’s because…”
“You’re truly adorable.”
Hermione’s imposing manner collapsed at once. Her face flushed scarlet, and even her plump little earlobes turned pink.
“W-what did you say?” She turned her head away and refused to meet his eyes.
“I said you’re adorable.” Smiling, Suer kept his gaze fixed on her and leaned slightly forwards.
“S-stop saying that! A few nice words aren’t going to make me let you off!” Hermione still did not dare look up.
“Oh?” Suer raised an eyebrow. “Then…”
“What must I do to persuade the magnanimous Miss Granger to forgive me?”
Suer looked at Hermione’s moist pink lips as she kept her head lowered. His Adam’s apple bobbed gently.
No. She was only thirteen. He must not be a beast.
“At… at the very least, you have to stir this cauldron for the rest of the day!”