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Later that night, Nora and Harry were still in the Hospital Wing because of their regrowing bones. Harry was dead asleep but Nora couldn't seem to get herself to sleep. Meanwhile she was thinking about Theo.

"OH here we go!" Rebekah and Caroline yelled at the same time from excitement.

"Sister." Kol warned her, pointing to his ears and then to the rest of there brother.

Caroline waved Rebekah over so that she could sit with them and could discuss Nora's love life to come with the girls without getting interrupted by the Mikaelson siblings.

Rebekah took the invitation without a second thought. It was like since they started watching Nora's life, all the things, or at least most of the things that had happened in Mystical Fall in the last few months had never happened.

"I hope she ends up with Fred." Elena said and Bonnie agreed with her.

"I think it's gonna be Theo."

"Maybe both." Rebekah smirked at her older brother and in return Elijah looked back horrified. One was already a lot but two...

After Madam Pomfrey had sent all of the Gryffindors away from the Hospital Wing, Theo had sneaked in, of course Harry had drifted off to sleep the moment it started to become dark outside.

"What are you doing here?" Nora asked him, sitting up as he stood at the end of her bed.

"Painting." He spoke, sarcastically. "What does it look like I'm doing, Nora?"

"Ha ha, very funny. But what if Filch catches you out of bed after curfew?" She asked him. She didn't want him to be in trouble because of her.

"I wanted to know that you were okay." He told her. "I hate what Lockhart did to your arm. It looked-"

"Disgusting. You can say it." Nora interrupted him.

Theo let out a laugh. "I was gonna say painful but yeah that too. It's weird seeing an arm without bones in."

"Tell me about it." Nora replied but at the same moment sounds came from Madam Pomfrey's office and Nora quickly shot into action. "Go!" She whisper-yelled at him and Theo took a fast run for it.

He never told her why he came to visit her this late. He could've easily do that tomorrow.

"Kill. Time to kill." The ominous voice from a few days back returned and it was clear Harry had heard it too since he shot up in his bed as well. Both putted on their glasses and looked up to at the ceiling from where the voice seemed to be coming. When Nora looked back down, expecting her gaze to just land on her lap, she was face-to-face with the house-elf they had met a couple of days ago.

"I'm really starting to dislike that voice." Jeremy said.

"I never really enjoyed it in the first place." Elijah said to him. The thought that Nora was hearing things she shouldn't be hearing as a twelve year old girl scared him. He had hoped she would've had the best childhood / live, but seeing all of this, it was going in another direction.

"Hello!" Dobby greeted her before waving to Harry.

"Dobby!" The twins said in union, both were surprised to see him here. And so soon again.

"Nora and Harry Potter should have listened to Dobby. Nora and Harry Potter should have gone back home when they missed the train." Dobby spoke while pointing at them both.

"It was you. You stopped the barrier from letting us and Ron through!" Harry spoke, realizing.

"Indeed." Dobby spoke in a guilty tone. "Yes, sir."

"You nearly got Ron, me and Nora expelled-" Harry spoke with anger in his eyes.

"At least you both be away from here." Dobby stood up and walked closer to Nora's face, who hadn't said that much yet. "Nora and Harry Potter must go home. Dobby thought his Bludgers would be enough to make Nora and Harry Potter see that-"

This time it wasn't Harry who spoke, but Nora. "Your Bludger? You made these Bludger chase after us." She asked him in anger. They could've lost the game if it wasn't for Harry's save!

"Of course she gets mad if it is about that game." Damon commented.

"Quidditch is important!" Regulus and James said to him at the same moment.

"Dobby feels most aggrieved, ma'am. Dobby had to iron his hands." Dobby showed her his bandaged fingers and Nora immediately felt bad for Dobby again.

"You better clear off before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you." Harry said angry.

Dobby, frightened by these words, jumped off Nora's hospital bed, first falling to the ground before backing away from Harry's bed. "Dobby is used to death threats, sir." He said to Harry, who also got out of his bed and approached the house elf. "Dobby gets them five times a day at home."

"I don't suppose you could tell me why you're trying to kill us." Harry said, his voice a bit softer now.

Dobby backed away even more and slowly walked around Nora's bed. "Not kill you, sir. Never kill you, ma'am. Dobby remembers how it was before Harry and Nora Potter triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir. Of course, Dobby is still treated like vermin."

Dobby started bawling his eyes out, uncotrollably and Harry looked on as Nora put her hand, from the arm that still had bones in it, on the house-elf his shoulder as support.

Poor Dobby, nobody deserves to be treated like that she thought.

"Indeed! How could anyone ever hurt someone that cute!" Caroline said, looking at the house-elf as if he was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

"Horrible people." Regulus said, through grunted teeth.

Dobby blew his nose on his grimy pillowcase that he was wearing.

"Why do you wear that, Dobby?" She asked him, nodding towards the old, unwashed piece of 'clothing'.

"This, ma'am? It is a mark of a house elf's enslavement. Dobby could only be freed if his master presents him with clothes." He stopped speaking, gasping when he heard a banging sound coming from outside and glanced at the door of the infirmary. Harry and Nora also took a look but turned back to Dobby when he jumped on Nora's bed again.

"Listen, listen." He beckoned both to come closer. "Terrible things are about to happen at Hogwarts. Harry and Nora Potter must not stay here now that history is to repeat itself."

"'Repeat itself.'" Nora repeated Dobby's words.

"You mean this has happened before?" Harry asked the house-elf.

"Oh, dear God." Elijah said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Dobby let out a gasp before covering his mouth with his hands and once more Nora's gaze fell back on his bandaged fingers. "I shouldn't have said that." He gasped again before grabbing the bottle of Skele-Gro on Nora's nightstand and started to beat himself up with it. "Bad Dobby."

"Dobby, stop. Stop it. Stop it, Dobby!" The twins spoke together, trying to stop the house-elf from beating himself up. Harry grabbed the bottle from him and set it back aside then he grabbed Dobby aloft by the pillowcase he was wearing. "Tell me, Dobby. When did this happen before? Who's doing it now?"

"Dobby cannot say, sir. Dobby only wants Harry and Nora Potter to be safe." He rubbed Harry's hand.

"No, Dobby. Tell me." Harry demanded.

A door in the background opened and it caught Dobby's attention.

"No Dobby tell me! Who is it?" Harry asked once more. Dobby turned towards Nora and snapped his fingers, disappearing into thin air. Nora looked at the entrance of the Hospital Wing and saw the shadow of people coming their way.

"Harry!" She said, pointing to the door and Harry had understood what she meant. He immediately went back to his bed, facing the opposite direction from the entrance so that the people wouldn't know he was awake. Nora didn't do this. Her curiosity was to big to turn around. She would snap her eyes closed if they looked in her direction, of course.

Madam Pomfrey and Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall entered the infirmary and Madam Pomfrey immediately gestured towards a bed, close by the entrance of the Hospital Wing. "Put him here." The two other staff members enter carried a person inside on a stretcher. Once he was on the bed, Nora's eyes went wide at the side of Colin Creevey and now Harry wanted to turn around to look as well by the look of his sister. "What happened?"

"Oh, poor Colin." Rebekah said, looking at the young boy on the bed.

"There's been another attack." Dumbledore answered.

"Attack? Please tell me they don't think of themselves as a safe school anymore?" Klaus asked.

"It was a lot different in our time, I assure you, Klaus." Lily said to him.

"What about now?"

"A lot has changed. Sadly."

"I think he's been Petrified, Madam Pomfrey. Perhaps he managed to take a picture of his attacker?" She asked, looking at the camera in the young boy's hands. Dumbledore carefully took the camera out of his hands and opened the film compartment, which discharged a burst of smoke, making the staff let out a gasp.

"What can this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked in fear of what it might actually mean for the school.

"It means that our students are in great danger." He told them.

"What should I tell the staff?" Professor McGongall asked with a worried look.

"The truth. Tell them Hogwarts is no longer safe. It is as we feared, Minerva. The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again."

"Okay. Let's go pick them up." Klaus said, standing up. If even the headmaster said it wasn't safe anymore, surely they could go home.

"Do you not realize that this happened in the past?" Damon asked him.

Elijah made Klaus sit back down.

"I'm wondering what Dobby knows." Elijah spoke with a wondering thought to his older brother.

Nora and harry shared a shocked look by what they just heard.

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Days later when Nor and Harry were finally out of the hospital, bones fully regrown, the twins told their friends what they had overheard that night and why Colin Creevey was in the Hospital Wing.

"Again? You mean, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione asked, both her and Nora sat on the ground, working on the Polyjuice Potion.

"Of course. Don't you see? Lucius Malfoy must have opened it when he was at school here. And now he's taught Draco how to do it." Ron commented.

"Maybe. We'll have to wait for the Polyjuice Potion to know for sure." Nora said to him.

"Enlighten me. Why are we brewing this potion in broad daylight in the middle of a girls' lavatory? Don't you think we'll get caught?" Ron asked them disgusted on the fact that they were in the girls bathroom.

"No. No one ever comes in here." Hermione explained.

"Why?"

"Moaning Myrtle." Nora said with a sigh.

"Who?" Ron and Harry asked at the same moment a ghostly girl in an old Hogwarts uniform appeared behind Ron out off a toilet stall.

"Moaning Myrtle." Hermione said and Harry eyes went wide at the ghost behind Ron but the redhead was still as clueless as ever.

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?"

" I'M MOANING MYRTLE!" She screamed in his ear before flying to the center of the room and turning back to them. "I wouldn't expect you to know me. Who would ever talk about ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle?" She spoke with a piercing cry. She flew over them, into a toilet.

"I know she's a ghost and all and that she probably doesn't feel that, but it's still disgusting." Stefan said.

"Who goes willingly into a toilet bowl?" Caroline asked herself more than the others, already grimacing at the thought.

"Moaning Myrtle, apparently." Elena said, also with a grim face.

"She's a little sensitive." Hermione told the boys.

"You don't say." Kol said, sarcastically.

"Very." Nora added, taking another look at the Polyjuice Potion.

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Professor Lockhart walked on to a stage in the middle of the Great Hall. "Gather round! Gather round!" He called to the students standing all around the stage, looking up at him.

"Pretty sure he's enjoying all that attention." Daisy said to Nora in a whisper as she started at the Professor who's face was full of self-pride.

"Of course, everybody looking up at him while he's on a stage. What more would a person like Lockhart want?" Nora whispered back as the students gather around the stage as Lockhart had asked of them.

"Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?"

"Sadly enough, yes." Nora muttered, only heard by Daisy who let out a laugh.

"Excellent. In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Dueling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves, as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works." He pulled off the cape he was wearing and tossed it into the crowd behind the two girls where a girl, who Nora assumed was a fan, caught it and started at it with a look of admiration.

"How can anyone even admire that man?" Bonnie asked, looking at the girls with a raised eyebrow.

"Better they than us." Rebekah said. She would not wanna be in shoes of one of these girls.

A Hufflepuff boy Nora had caught looking at her a few times through the year already turned to her. "That Lockhart's something, isn't he?" Awfully brave chap." The boy held out his hand. "Justin Finch-Fletchney, Hufflepuff."

Nora shook it despite hating the words that had come out of his mouth. "Nice to meet you, I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are. We all do, even us Muggle-Borns."

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape." Lockhart continued and a very dour and menacing looking Snape stepped on the stage. "He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry, you'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him. Never fear."

Snape and Lockhart walk up to each other, raised their wands, made a bow to each other, turn around and then they walked back several paces. Then they turned back to face each other and Nora found that Snape was holding his wand rather dramtically.

"I think Snape is the one training for the ballet." Nora said to Harry who stood behind him. He had told her that Draco had asked him during the match if he was training for the ballet. Harry smiled at her.

"One, two, three."

"Expelliarmus." Snape chanted as soon as Lockhart was done and the spell blasted Lockhart back across the stage. He landed on his back and immediately Nora and Daisy started laughing with Ron and Harry.

"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione asked with worry.

"How does no one know that that man is clearly a fraud? He can't do any of the things he says he can?" Stefan asked the others.

"Who cares!" Nora and Ron said, still laughing.

Lockhart walked back towards Snape, deciding to act as if nothing had happened."An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."

"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." He subtly smiled at Lockhart and for one time Nora actually could stand Snape.

"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape." Lockhart said after some nervous thinking, but he had to say something because the whole lot of students was looking at him. "Let's have a volunteer pair. Potter, the male one, Weasley, how about you?"

"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the Hospital Wing in a matchbox." Ron looked embarrassed but Harry had already climbed on the stage. "Might I suggest someone from my own house. Malfoy, perhaps?" He asked, but it wasn't really a question because he was already looking at Draco, sending him a look that he should get on the stage.

"Good luck, Potter." Lockhart said to Harry as they passed one and other.

"Thank you, sir." Harry replied.

Harry and Draco stopped walking when they were a few steps away from each other, both glaring at the other one's face.

"Wands at the ready." Lockhart's voice came from Harry's side of the table and both of them raised their wands.

"Scared, Potter?" Nora heard Draco ask Harry.

"I'm not sure if he is asking the right person. Maybe someone should hand him a mirror?" Kol said.

"You wish." Harry replied.

"On the count three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent, only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One, two-"

Lockhart hadn't finished speaking when Draco raised his wand again and pointed it to Harry. "Everte Statum!"

Harry flew backwards on the table.

"That wasn't fair." Nora screamed at Draco in anger and Harry was agreeing with her. "Rictusempra."

Draco also flew backwards, landing by Snape's feet and now the half of the studnets was laughing. Snape pulled Draco back up and pushed him forward so that he could continue.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart warned the two boys who's wands were already up in the air.

"Serpensortia." Draco chanted and a huge snake fell out of it, slithering all over the stage they were on.

Harry lowered his wand as Snape walked past Draco towards the snake. "Don't move, Potter. I'll get rid of it for you."

"Allow me, Professor Snape." Lockhart said, stopping Snape from moving.

"Alarte ascendare!" The snake didn't disappear. It flew into the air and every student looked up and followed it as it fell back down and raised his head towards the students in a threatening way.

"Sya- hassa- she." Harry said.

Leave them alone.

The snake turned it's head towards the Hufflepuff Nora just met and hissed.

"Sya- hasi- heth." Nora was the one speaking this time.

Leave him alone.

Snape watched them both suspiciously.

The snake turned in Nora's direction.

"Vipera. Evanesca." Snape said, pointing his wand at the snake, causing it to burst into flames and disappear.

Immediately the students started speaking and looking at the twins.

"What are you two playing at?" Justin Finch-Fletchney asked them in anger but it was clear that he was feeling scared and now Nora saw everyone staring at them with shocked expression.

"Okay, can you explain to us now why they can talk to snakes?" Rebekah asked. She and she was sure many others had been having that question on their mind since the memory of the zoo.

"One second." James said, nodding his head to the changing screen.

As soon as they were dismissed from class Nora and Harry made a run for it, wanting to be gone from the Great Hall as fast as possible, wanting the looking faces to stop. Of course, Ron and Hermione ran after them into the now empty Gryffindor common room.

"You both are a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked the twins, stopping both from walking away.

"We're a what?" Harry asked, confused.

"We can talk to snakes. Wow, what a big deal." Nora spoke. "It's not like we killed someone."

"Yeah, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once because he pushed Nora aside." Harry said and Nora remembered the day as if it was yesterday.

"What did he do that for?" Ron asked, turning to Nora.

"That's not the point, Ron!" Hermione said looking more alarmed then Ron.

"But so what?" Nora asked. "I bet loads of people here can do it." Nora continued.

"No, they can't." Hermione said. "It's not a very common gift, Nora. This is bad."

"What's bad?" Nora asked her. "If we hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-" 

Ron cut her off. "Oh, that's what you said to it!"

"You were there! You heard us! Do you suddenly not speak English anymore, Ron?" Nora asked, speaking louder from frustration.

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue, snake language."

"We spoke a different language? But I didn't realize- How can we speak a language without knowing we can?" Harry asked the others.

"I don't know, Harry, but it sounded like you were egging the snake on or something. Harry, listen to me. There's a reason the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent. Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth. He could talk to snakes too." Hermione explained to him.

"Exactly! Now the whole school's gonna think you're his great-great-great-grandson and his great-great-great-granddaughter or something." Ron said.

"But we're not!' Nora said in her and her brother's defence. 

"We can't be." Harry also said, but both were no less sure of their case.

"He lived a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be." Hermione concluded.

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The twins, Ron and Hermione were in the study hall with several other students. Twice Nora and Harry turned around to look at students who's gaze they had felt on the back on their heads. Even Ginny looked away and turned her attention on the notebook in front of her when they looked in her direction.

Nora was the first one of the two who stood up, picked up her book and started walking towards the hallway, away from the looks from the others. Harry followed soon after.

"I swear, don't they have something better to look at?" Nora asked him. She was quite done with being stared at. She loved the attention when she was playing pranks on people but this kind of attention, the wrong one, she despised it.

"Blood. I wand blooood." The ominous voice returned once more to her ears. "They all must die. Kill. Kill. Kill! Time to kill!"

Nora decided to ignore the voice. People were already thinking they wanted to kill people and if they knew about this voice only the could hear, they would surely think Voldemort messed up something in their brain when he tried to kill them.

She turned a corner and the first thing that she saw made her gasp, catching Harry's attention. Nearly Headless Nick was floating above them, petrified with his neck burning as it was barely detached to his body. 

On the floor below him was a sight that shocked them even more. Justin Finch-Fletchey, petrified. Harry kneeled down next to the Hufflepuf's boy to examine his body.

"Oh that's not good." Bonnie said.

"Not at all good." Caroline also said.

"They can't possible keep defending their own safety?" Finn asked.

"Oh, now we're done for." Nora whispered, looking at Filch who had just walked out of a doorway. Harry's hadn't yet noticed the caretaker.

"Caught in the act." Filch smirked, not really caring about the two petrified victims. "I'll have you out this time, Potters. Mark my words." He grinned wickedly before walking away.

"No, Mr. Filch! You don't understand-" He broke off his sentence when someone caught his eye. He looked to his right towards the window, where a bunch of spiders were scurrying away over the wall to the outside of the castle.

Nora didn't try to convince Filch not do to anything. Ever since he found out she helped Lee and the twins with their pranks, he wanted her out.

"Nora!" Harry said, pointing at the spiders.

"AH!" Nora said, backing away. 

Filch returned back, this time with Professor McGonagall, who gasped in shock when she saw Justin.

"Professor, I swear, we didn't." Harry said to her.

"This is out of my hands, Potter."

Mcgonagall took them with her to a griffin statue. "Professor Dumbeledore will be waiting for you both." She said, telling them to walk towards the statue. "Sherbet Lemon." She opened her hands at the statue, which rotated clockwise and rose. A staircase came up from the floor, also in a turning in a clockwise direction. They stepped on it, slowly raising up.

The statue stopped moving and the two were left in front of a door. As they knocked on it, Dumbledore didn't let them in.

"What are we gonna do?"

Nora answered Harry's question by pushing open the door.

The headmaster's office was filled with portraits of sleeping wizards and witches. Nora found it rather beautiful, just like she did with the portraits by the changing staircases.

"Professor Dumbledore?" The two asked but still got no answer.

The two walked further into the room as Harry let the door close behind them. In the center of the room he saw the Sorting Hat sitting on a shelf.

"Bee in your bonnet, Potter?"

"I was just wondering if you put me in the right house?" Harry asked in a questioning voice.

"Yes you were particularly difficult to place, your cousin also, but I stand by what I said last year, Potter, you would have done well in Slytherin."

"You only had two options?"

"Yeah, how many did you have?" Harry said, looking confused.

"Four."

"FOUR!"

Nora walked to the other side of Dumbledore's desk and on a perch was a very beautiful red bird, looking rather sickly, but that didn't stop the Potter from admiring the bird. 

Suddenly the bird exploded into flames.

"OKAY WHAT THE FUCK." Bonnie yelled.

"Can they light animals on fire now?" Stefan asked.

"That's messed up!" Damon said, replying to his brother.

"Shut your mouth about my niece, Salvatore." Rebekah said, threatening.

"AH WHAT THE HELL!" Nora screamed. If they weren't in trouble already they would surely be now. "The universe is against us, Harold." Nora said in a whisper, pointing at the bird, well the pile of ash which was the bird a few seconds ago.

"Nora, Harry." A voice said from above them.

"Oh, my God, Merlin." Nora muttered.

"I can assure you that I am not Merlin, Nora." Dumbledore said, having a little smile on your face.

"Professor, sir, your bird. It wasn't us. We didn't touch him. Or her. There was nothing we could do. Suddenly he was even more red through the flames and then he was just, well, ash." Nora spoke, fastly.

"Oh, and about time too. He's been looking dreadful for days. Pity you had to see him on a burning day."  The headmaster said to them as he walked down the stairs. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. They burst into flames when it is time for them to die, and then they are reborn from the ashes." A baby Fawkes's head was emerging from the ashes and Nora smelted at the sight.

"Oh, look how cute, Harry." Nora said, long forgotten for what they were here for at the sight of the Phoenix.

"Ah, fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, and their tears have healing powers."

The three spirits shared a look.

Hagrid barged into the room, panting as he spoke. "Professor Dumbeldore, sir, wait! Listen! Professor Dumbledore, sir, it wasn't Nora or Harry."

Dumbledore held up his hand, making the giant stop speaking. "Hagrid."

"I'd be prepared to swear it in front of the Ministry of Magic!"

"Hagrid!" Dumbeldore raised his voice to calm down the gatekeeper. "Hagrid, relax! I do not believe that Harry nor Nora attacked anyone."

"Of course, you don't!" Hagrid realized what Dumbeldore had just said. "Oh, right, well, I'll, um, I'll just wait outside then." Hagrid left after an awkward apology for interrupting.

"You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry asked, turning to their headmaster.

"No, Harry, I do not think it was you or Nora. But I must ask you both, is there something you wish to tell me?"

Harry and Nora both said nothing for a few seconds.

"No, sir, nothing." They replied together.

He gave them a look before saying. "Very well them. Off you go." Both the Potters nodded and left in a hurry.

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extra long chapter because of the wait? whoops

sorry for any mistakes in this chap, I had no time with my philosophy

Nora and Harry🤝 running away from their problems

Words: 4563

Posted: June 9, 2024

Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it keeps me motivated!

xoxo Kat <3