Annie had detention later that night with Professor Lockhart. She thought that eating alone in Professor Snape's office had been the detention, but no. She had to work with the most obnoxious person on the planet. And she got quite frustrated about it. She craved every moment of silence she could get, working quickly so that she could get out of that dreadful classroom sooner. 

"Annie, Annie, Annie," sighed Professor Lockhart as they continued signing stacks of fan mail. "Do you think that there is no other way to spend detention . . . . then spending it with me?"

Annie blanked out. She blinked at the Professor, his question going through her head. She frowned. 

"Um . . . . no, sir?"

"Ah-ha!" said Lockhart triumphantly. "Thought so! Fame is a fickle friend, Annie. Remember that."

He winked, smiling cheekily at the girl. Annie felt queasy, just staring at him. She nodded before going back to her work, swinging her legs since their stools were kind of raised. But before she could put her quill back to the paper again, she heard a new voice, one that she had never heard before. 

"Blood! I . . . . Smell . . . . BLOOD! Let me kill you! Kill! Time to kill!"

The voice startled her so much, her knee bounced against the underside of her desk. She stared at the ceiling, wondering where the voice was coming from, and if anyone else had heard it.

"What?!"

"What's that, Annie?" Lockhart asked. He'd been chattering away to himself while Annie had been concentrating on the voice the entire time. 

"That voice," Annie insisted. "Didn't you hear it?"

"Voice?" said Professor Lockhart, who looked a little unnerved. He frowned, confused. "What are you talking about, Annie? I suppose that you are getting a bit, well, drowsy. And, Great Scott! Look at the time! We've been here for nearly four hours. Spooky, the way time flies when one's having a good time, isn't it?"

His eyes nervously scanned across the ceiling. He bit on his lip, hard. A nervous trait Melly supposed he had. Professor Lockhart finally released her, and she quickly made her way out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

"Blood! BLOOD!" the same voice hissed in the walls again. Annie gasped and put her ear to the wall. "I want blood! Kill! Kill! Kill —"

"Annie!" a familiar voice interrupted her. 

She immediately noticed that Dante wasn't with them. 

"Where's Dante?"

"He said that he went to the Gryffindor common room early," Hermione answered at once. "Said that he wanted to catch up on some homework before tomorrow. Annie, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," she answered hastily. "Didn't you guys hear it?"

Ron and Harry gave each other looks of confusion. 

"Hear what?"

"I heard a voice earlier," Annie continued.

Hermione looked extremely concerned. But at least she seemed to believe in Annie. Harry and Ron seemed to believe her as well. Annie never lied. 

"Voice? What voice?"

"I heard a voice in Professor Lockhart's office, first," Annie answered frantically. She wanted to explain quickly so that they could catch up to the voice. "And then again, just —"

She heard a hissing noise that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her eyes trailed up and down the ceiling. She could hear a dull, rumbling noise. 

"It's moving," she murmured under her breath. "I think that it's going to kill."

She took off, ignoring her friends' complaints. 

"Kill?" said Ron incredulously. 

"Annie, wait!" Hermione pleaded. "Not so fast!" 

But, of course, Annie didn't listen. She didn't stop until they came across a 'T' section. she took off for the right corridor with Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind her. She could hear them panting. Finally, she spotted something that made her throw her arms out to stop them. 

Spiders. Hundreds of them, were making their way towards an open window, all in one manner. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She did not like the way those spiders were behaving. 

"Strange," she murmured to herself. "I've never seen spiders act like this before." 

Ron's face blanched. "I don't like spiders."

Something red caught her eye. She frowned. 

"What's that?!" she exclaimed. 

Their eyes lifted up to the wall. There, smeared in red blood, was a message — a warning. Something that sent chills down Melly's spine.

"'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware'," Hermione read aloud. "It's written in blood." 

But that was not the most shocking that they had found. Next to the message, on the nearest lamp post, hung Mr. Filch's beloved cat, Mrs. Norris. 

"Oh, no," she murmured softly. She slowly approached the immobilized creature. Her insides turned to ice. "It's Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris."

"Can we get out of here, please? Before we're caught?" Harry asked nervously. 

"Great idea," said Hermione quickly. "C'mon, Annie." 

But before anyone could move, a rumble of footsteps followed. That meant that everyone from the Great Hall had finished dinner. She knew that there was no way to get out of the way. They were blocked on all sides. 

People whispered, covering their hands over their mouths. Some even looked saddened. Others looked fearful. 

"'Enemies of the heir, beware'?" the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy rang through the crowd with no remorse. "You'll be next, Blood Traitors!" 

"What's going on here?" a voice demanded. 

Annie's insides went even more pale when she saw Mr. Filch making his way through the crowd. He didn't stop until he got face-to-face with Melly and her group of friends. 

"Potter?" he asked. "What are you —" He caught sight of his beloved cat, and his eyes went wide with fear. Then he had a look of malice on his face. "Y-You've murdered my cat?" 

"No," Annie answered at once, shaking her head fervently. 

Mr. Filch did not believe her. 

"I'll kill ya," he threatened. He grabbed her by the front of her shirt, lifting her slightly off the ground. "I'LL KILL YA!" 

Annie was relieved when she heard Professor Dumbledore's voice. 

"Argus? Argus, I —" He stopped, reading the message on the wall silence. "Everyone? You must head back to your dormitories, immediately. All of you, except. . . . you four. Mr Filch, you can let Miss Potter go, now. She's done no harm to you." 

Mr. Filch looked livid, but he reluctantly lowered her down. Professor Dumbledore examined the frozen-stiff cat. 

"She's not dead, Argus," Professor Dumbledore reassured the old caretaker. "But she has, in fact, been Petrified."

"Aha!" said Professor Lockhart proudly. "Thought so! So unlucky I wasn't there! I know the exact spell that would have saved her!" 

Professor Dumbledore gave the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher a look. 

"But how she's been Petrified, I cannot say." 

"Ask her!" Mr. Filch spat, pointing at the terrified girl in front of her. "She's done it! You saw what she wrote on the wall!"

"That's not true, sir," Melly insisted. "I swear! I never even touched Mrs. Norris before in my entire life!" 

"Rubbish!" 

"Might I suggest, Headmaster," said Professor Snape. "Perhaps Miss Potter just so happened to be at the wrong place at the right time. I, for one, don't recall seeing Miss Potter at dinner!" 

Annie was about to launch into an explanation, but Lockhart interrupted her. She was glad to see that he looked serious, for once. 

"That was actually my fault, Severus. You see, Melanie was helping me sign my fan mail for detention." 

"That's why her brother, Ron, and I went looking for her," Hermione agreed. "We just found her when she said . . . . she said . . . ." 

She gave Annie a quizzical look. Melly knew that she had to lie. She didn't want to be called a freak just yet. 

"When I said that I wasn't hungry," she hastily answered. Everyone else nodded, agreeing with the story. "We were heading back to the Gryffindor common room when we found Mrs. Norris." 

Professor Snape did not look convinced. Professor Dumbledore had a raised eyebrow. 

"Innocent, until proven guilty, Severus," he chided.

"My cat has been Petrified. I want to see some punishment!" 

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Professor Dumbledore reassured the old caretaker. "As I may recall, Professor Sprout has just repotted Mandrakes. She and Madame Pomfrey would be able to make a potion that will be able to revive Mrs. Norris to her original state." He gave every one of them a look. "Off you go."

Annie was relieved to get away from the commotion. She walked quickly, but not too fast to make things look mysterious. Her brother, Ron, and Hermione were hot at her heels. They made their way up the stairs. Annie had a question that was nagging at the back of her mind. 

"Do you think that I should have told them? Dumbledore, and the others, I mean?" she asked. 

"Are you mad?!" Ron exclaimed. 

"No, Melly," Hermione answered gravely. "Even in the Wizarding World, hearing voices isn't a good sign." 

She smiled tightly at them before turning on her heel and walking up the steps. 

"She's right, y'know," said a man in the painting. He'd been eavesdropping the entire time, much to Annie's dismay. 

"Shut up," she, Harry, and Ron chorused before following Hermione up the stairs. 

By the time they got to the Gryffindor common room, half the room had been emptied out. Everyone was probably in bed. And Melly didn't blame them. It had been a long evening. But she was surprised to see Dante sitting in the window nook, scribbling away furiously at his homework. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, and she noticed that his face looked a little paler than usual. Melly worried that he was overworking himself. 

"Hey, Dante," said Annie as she came and sat down next to him. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing," he answered with a heavy sigh. "Just trying to finish up some strenuous homework from Professor Snape, y'know?" 

"Yeah. Professor Snape does like to give us a lot of homework," Annie agreed bitterly. 

"Anyways, have you heard about what happened earlier this evening, Dante?" Hermione asked anxiously. Dante didn't say anything. He kept his head down, still scribbling away at his work. But he was listening. Everyone knew that. "Apparently, we found a message on a wall written in blood. And Mrs. Norris was hung on the lamp post, Petrified." 

At that, Dante's leg bounced in shock, nearly upsetting his bottle of ink. He looked scared before quickly replacing his expression. No one had noticed, except for Annie. She frowned, wondering what that was about. 

"R-Really?" he asked, his voice one notch higher than usual. "When?" 

"Not too long ago. I was coming back from detention when we found her in that situation." 

Dante now glared at his homework, scowling. Annie felt uneasy, wondering if Dante was going to go back to being his rude self, as he once was. But instead, he sighed. 

"Well, they'll capture the culprit, eventually." He closed his books. "Well, I'm going to bed. Good night." 

They watched him go up the stairs to the boy's common room, leaving the four of them in a confused silence. Finally, Ron spoke up.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" 

"I dunno," Annie answered, feeling squeamish. "But I'm getting worried about Dante all of a sudden." 

She wondered if he could be hiding anything. And if he was, what was it that he was keeping a secret?