The Gryffindor Quidditch team had booked the pitch for them one day very early in the morning. Oliver Wood had made Harry wake up before dawn, and he left the Gryffindor tower like a zombie.

When Hermione, Ron and Ben arrived, Colin Creevey was already there, sitting on the stands. They sat in the row behind him. The friends had planned to go visit Hagrid when the practice was over, so Ben had decided to write Alycia a letter meanwhile. He hoped she would talk to him if he was the one who started the conversation.

Hello Alycia!

You won't guess who's our DADA teacher this year; Gilderoy Lockhart! Aunt Lydia would freak out if she found out. But he's actually terrible, the other day he made us do a test to find out how much we remembered about his books.

But instead of being about interesting things that we had learned from reading about his adventures, it was all about him. 'What's Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite food?', 'What's the thing Gilderoy Lockhart loves most about himself?'...

I mean, I wouldn't have passed the test if it was about his adventures either, because I haven't read his books, but it's quite weird to make a whole test about yourself.

Anyways, I hope you're doing great.

Love,

Ben.

A shout from Ron nearly made Ben drop the ink on Colin's head. "Aren't you finished yet?"

The Gryffindor team had finally left the locker room after at least twenty minutes. "Haven't even started!" Harry shouted back. "Wood's been teaching us new moves!"

"Hey, why is the Slytherin team here?" Ben nudged Ron gently, pointing at the other side of the field while he folded his letter and slipped it into the envelope.

The Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint, seemed to be arguing with Oliver Wood. Hermione, Ron and Ben ran down from their seats. "Hey, where are you going?" asked Colin.

"Oh, look," said Flint as soon as they arrived. "A field invasion."

They suddenly noticed Malfoy was there, with the Slytherin team, wearing Quidditch Robes.

"What's happening?" Ron asked Harry. "Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?"

"I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley," said Malfoy, smugly. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

The blond was giving the broom unnecessary little turns in his hands. It was a black one with a glossy finish, and the whole team had them. Based on the surprised expressions on Harry, Ron, Oliver and the rest of the team's faces, it had to be the Nimbus Two Thousand and One. It was the new best broom on the market, and it was very expensive. But, of course, for a family like the Malfoys, it wasn't a big price to pay.

"Good, aren't they?" sneered Malfoy. "I guess it's the benefits of being rich, don't you think?"

"Ben's rich too," Ron muttered, trying to argue.

"Yeah, but the difference between us is that my parents care about me."

"Will you ever drop that?" Ben rolled his eyes. "Seriously, I'm not even trying to be funny. It's just getting boring to hear you keep saying that over and over, mate."

"Whatever you say, but let me remind you that I got into the team with the help of my generous father, while you still have those stupid old broomsticks."

The Slytherin team burst into laughter.

"But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them."

The Slytherins laughed again.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," said Hermione sharply. "They got in on pure talent."

Draco's smile faded. He stepped forward. "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," he spat.

Chaos broke out with that last word. Flint had to get in front of Malfoy to protect him from Fred and George and prevent them from jumping on him. Alicia Spinnet shrieked, "How dare you!" while Ben struggled to push Flint away from Malfoy. Ron was furious, his ears were as red as his hair, and he yelled "You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" before pulling his wand and taking advantage of a push from Ben to Flint to cast a spell on Malfoy.

bang echoed all over the stadium when a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Ron's wand and hit him in the stomach, making him get jeeted onto the grass.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" squealed Hermione, as she ran after him followed closely by Harry and Ron.

The redhead opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Instead, he gagged hard, like he was going to throw up, and a disgusting slug fell onto the grass.

Ben's heart lurched so hard that he shrieked and jumped back, nearly knocking Harry off his feet. His heart was pounding, and he physically couldn't look in that direction again.

He was worried about Ron, of course he was, he was his best friend after all, but his disgust and fear for that animal was unbearable. Judging by the sounds, there were many more of them in the grass.

The Slytherins were laughing so hard that Ben considered going and punching them. But he obviously didn't. Harry patted his shoulder gently, and he turned around, avoiding looking at the grass.

"We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest," he told them. Hermione nodded quickly, and Ben hesitated for a second, but did his best to help him up.

"What happened, Harry? What happened? Is he ill? But you can cure him, can't you?" Colin had run down from his seat and was following them closely as they left the field.

Ron gave a huge heave and more slugs dribbled down his front.

"Oooh," said Colin, fascinated and raising his camera. "Can you hold him still, Harry?"

"Get out of the way, Colin!" Harry growled angrily, pushing the boy away.

They managed to carry Ron down to Hagrid's hut, with the redhead throwing up a slug every now and then, and with Ben wincing every time he did.

———————————————

Ben knocked on the door, since Harry and Hermione were busy trying to hold Ron. Hagrid opened it, smiling widely without noticing anything was wrong. "Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ben! What a treat, what brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Er..." began Ben, but was interrupted by Ron barfing up another slug. "That."

Hagrid rushed them inside, offering Ron a large bucket and made them sit on a bench. "Nothin' to do but wait 'til it stops I'm afraid." Ron threw up again, and they all gagged a bit.

"Better out than in," said Hagrid, trying to cheer him up. "Who was Ron trying to curse, anyway?"

"Malfoy," answered Harry. "He called Hermione a... I don't know what exactly, but it must've been pretty bad, because everyone went wild."

"He called her a mudblood," croaked Ron, looking extremely pale and ill. Ben brushed sweaty strands from his face. The redhead tried to thank him, but a new wave of slugs appeared.

"He didn't!" yelled Hagrid, outraged, turning to Hermione.

"He did," she muttered. "But I don't know what it means... I could tell it was something very rude, of course-"

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of," gasped Ron, coming up, but soon had to go back to his bucket. They waited for him, but it was taking longer than usual, so Ben decided to explain it, fearing Ron would say something about his family that could ruin their friendship.

"It's a derogatory term for someone with muggle parents. You know, there's wizards who think that magical people with magical parents are... superior to others."

"Such as the Blacks, the Malfoys..." Ron continued, beginning to recover his normal skin tone. He seemed to be deciding whether to say something else, and Ben knew perfectly what it was. But, to his surprise, he didn't say it. "And other ones."

"That's what your sister called me, right?" said Hermione, after being silent for a while.

Ben's response hung suspended in the air, his thoughts entangled in a web of uncertainty. He feared what could change depending on his answer. Would his words alter their perceptions of him? The mere idea that Hermione or Harry might distance themselves from him due to his family's beliefs tightened a knot of anxiety within him.

"Yes..." he admitted in a small voice.

"But you're not like them," spoke Harry, surprising him. "I mean, you've been our friend for a year now, if you were prejudiced against muggleborns, we would've known it by now."

The corners of Ben's lifted up into a smile with his words.

Describing his gratitude as immense would be an understatement. He had always had a huge insecurity regarding his family background, since he feared people wouldn't want to relate with him because of it. Yet, fate had gifted him three awesome friends who didn't allow his origins to affect their bond. They saw him for who he was, beyond his lineage, making his heart swell with appreciation for the genuine acceptance they offered.

"Aside from a couple of families, nowadays not many people believe in that 'pure-blooded' bullshit-" Ben stopped all of a sudden, realising he was in front of an adult. "Sorry."

Hagrid dropped his hand down, signalling Ben to not mind it.

"You're right, most wizards these days are half-bloods anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we would've died out," added Ron, who was looking better and hadn't thrown up any slug in a long time.

"Apart from those who marry their relatives, of course." The truth was, Ben really hated his family, and he had reasons to do so. But he was proud to say that, as long as he knew, there wasn't incest in his family tree.

At least not in the one closest to him, who knows what his ancestors had done.

Hagrid let out a stifled laugh, and turned to Hermione, who was laughing softly, although there was a slightly sad expression on her face since she found out what that word meant.

"Don' listen ter wha' Malfoy said, Hermione," the giant patted her gently on the shoulder. "Yeh are worth much more than wha' he wants ter make yeh think."

The girl's demeanor seemed to have been touched by his words, a delicate shade of rose tinting her cheeks, as her eyes shimmered with emotion. "Thank you."

———————————————

Ben was climbing the stairs to get to the owlery a bit before dinner time, holding a letter in his hand. It was his first time in that tower, and he thought it was quite nice to see so many owls sleeping and fluttering about happily.

That was where everyone's owls used to spend the nights, but there were others that belonged to the school, and students who didn't have their own could use them to send letters home if they needed to.

So that was what Ben wanted to do. He approached a pretty brown-feathered owl, which opened its big yellow eyes as soon as the boy took a step towards it. He knew it was one of Hogwarts' owls, so it was perfectly trained.

The owl hooted, and Ben decided to take that as a sign that it approved him. He gave the animal the letter he had written to his sister. "I need you to take this to Walker Manor. It's in Wiltshire, England."

Ben hesitated if he should give the owl more information on where to find his house, but it flew out the window before he could. Though he had been surrounded by magic all his life, he was still amazed at the owls' amazing ability to find their intended recipient.

He was watching as the animal disappeared into the sunset, when he heard footsteps behind him. He spun back immediately, almost startled, to see a tall boy wearing the Hufflepuff uniform. His hair was a light shade of brown, and you could see the dimples in his cheeks as he smiled.

"Cedric!"

"Ben!" He grinned joyfully, approaching the younger boy. "You've grown a lot this summer!"

"So have you, you look so tall!"

"I mean, I'm fourteen now," he smirked. But his smile slowly faded, and his volume decreased. "Did something happen this summer?"

Ben's eyebrows furrowed. "No, why?"

"I sent you a letter, in... July, I think."

"Oh," he gasped, leaning against the brick wall. "Yeah, the same happened with Ron and Hermione. We had some trouble with mail this summer, but it's all fixed now."

"Oh, alright," Cedric nodded, ruffling his hair with his free hand as he carried a letter with the other. "I'm glad there wasn't anything wrong, apart from that."

"Nope, nothing wrong!" He forced a laugh, and Cedric smiled brightly at him. "How was your summer?"

"It was wonderful, my parents and I went to Spain," the Hufflepuff told him, looking very happy at the thought of it. "I told you a bit in the letter, but it doesn't matter."

"I've heard Spain's nice, it's quite warm there, isn't it?"

"It is," Cedric snorted, nodding softly. "It was like being inside a chimney, even though I was in the North. Those who live there say that the South is even hotter!"

"Oof, I don't even want to imagine it!"

"Me neither, to be honest," he said, and remained silent for a second, before smiling at Ben and adding, "Well, I'd better send my dad this now, or I'll end up missing dinner."

"Right," agreed Ben, watching Cedric walk to the other side of the owlery. "Goodbye!"

He began walking down the stairs as he heard the boy exclaim, "See you soon!" from above. Cedric was right, it was almost time for dinner, though Ben wasn't too hungry.

Harry was serving detention for the flying car incident with Professor Lockhart, which had put him in a bad mood. Ron, however, was called to help Filch the next day, and the redhead thought his punishment was much worse than Harry's.

As Ben walked past the second-floor girls' lavatory, he saw a girl with fire-bright red hair walk towards it without saying a word. The boy instantly recognised her as Ginny Weasley.

"Hey," he greeted when she was a couple of feet away from him.

She seemed to snap out of her thoughts, and almost jumped out of fear. "Hello?"

"I don't think we've ever met, my name's Ben Walker, I'm friends with one of your brothers, Ron."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ginny Weasley," she extended a hand for him to shake. Her index and middle fingers were stained in a thick red liquid, like she had dipped them in blood.

She didn't notice at first, but she realised Ben was staring at it, and let out a gasp before hiding her hand behind her.

"What's that?" He asked worriedly, stepping forward. "Did you hurt yourself?"

She took a step back. "No, it's- It's nothing, I just... fell on the stairs and hurt my knee," she answered awkwardly. "But it's fine, it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Oh, alright..." nodded Ben, believing her. "Are you going to the Great Hall?"

"Not really, I'm not hungry..." she replied. "I'm pretty sure it's too late anyway."

"Is it?" he exclaimed, and looked at his clock. She was right, everyone was probably finishing dinner as they talked. "Then I'll go see if I can find Hermione and Ron."

"Is Harry with them?" Ginny's brown eyes lit up in excitement.

"He's in detention with Lockhart."

"Oh, okay," she said, her cheeks turning red. "He's very handsome, isn't he?"

"Who?" he frowned. "Harry or Lockhart?"

"Here you are!" exclaimed Hermione, appearing behind them, followed by Ron, who waved at his sister. "Why didn't you come for dinner?"

"I was sending Alycia a letter and talked to Cedric for a bit."

Ginny had hidden her hands up her sleeves, in case anyone saw her blood. "Er- Well, I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow." She gave her brother a playful look, and walked away.

"Does your sister fancy Harry, Ron?" asked Ben once Ginny was far enough to not hear them.

"I'm pretty sure she's in love with him," the boy rolled his eyes.

"Cool."

"We should go search for him, I doubt he's still in detention with Gilderoy," suggested Hermione.

"Oh, you call him by his name, now?" spat Ron as they made their way to the professor's office.

"How do you want me to call him if not by his name?"

"I don't know, Professor Lockhart, as everyone else does, for example?"

Their bickering endured for an extended stretch, as usual, until Ben's attention was abruptly drawn to Harry's presence. He observed with intrigue as Harry walked along the wall, his proximity to it suggesting an air of intimacy with some intriguing revelation it held.

"Snogging the wall, Potter?"

Harry jumped away from it, blushing in embarrassment as he approached his friends. "Did you hear it?"

"Hear what?" asked Ron, looking around.

"That voice..."

"Voice?" repeated Hermione anxiously. "What voice?"

"I heard it first in Lockhart's office, and then again..." He didn't finish the sentence.

"Harry, did Lockhart give you anything strange?" asked Ben, getting worried.

"No, apart from a four-hour monologue about himself." He was silent for a few seconds. "It's moving-"

"What's moving, Harry?"

"I think it's going to kill."

"What?"

"Who's going to kill who?"

But he didn't answer any of their questions. Instead, he suddenly began sprinting down the corridor, and his friends took off after him, without a clue of what was going on.

They ran after him through several halls, until Harry stopped in a corridor, and so did them. The ground was waterlogged, like someone had left a faucet running for a long time. However, Harry's eyes were fixed on something else on the floor; a row of spiders crawling across the floor, climbing up the wall and going through a small hole in the window.

"Strange... I've never seen spiders act like that," told Harry, frowning at the odd sight.

"I don't like spiders..." muttered Ron. Ben, who was standing next to him, could feel that the boy's hands were shaking slightly.

Ron's face had turned white. Ben felt sorry for him. He knew what it was like to be terrified of something that was considered small and harmless. A lot of people thought it was funny, and maybe even pathetic, but you could really have a hard time because of it.

"Look away, Ron, and try to focus on something else," Ben advised him, and the boy did as he said. He turned around, and let out a loud gasp.

They spun back, fearing they would find something creepier than the spiders. And they did.

"The chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir... beware." Hermione read the message written with what looked like blood on the wall.

"Is that blood?"

"It seems to be," the girl replied.

"Oh, no..." whispered Harry, walking towards the wall. It was Ben's turn to gasp when he saw a cat, Mrs. Norris, hanging by its tail from one of the torches, without moving at all. "It's Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris."

"No!" Ben rushed to approach the animal, holding his breath. "I think she's dead..."

"We have to leave before..." began Ron, but it was too late. The corridors were already filled by students who examined the scene and eyed the four Gryffindors suspiciously. Murmurs filled the air, many accusing them of having done that.

"'Enemies of the heir, beware'" read Malfoy, and he glanced at Mrs. Norris before turning to Hermione with a cruel expression. "You'll be next, mudbloods."

Harry had to grab Ben's arm to keep him from punching Malfoy again.

"I bet it was them who did it," muttered someone from the crowd.

"We didn't do anything!" Ron exclaimed, trying to explain what happened.

"Sure," said some boy from Ravenclaw. "Then the fact that you arrived here before all of us is just a mere coincidence, right?"

"No, it's too hard to believe," said a very short Hufflepuff girl.

"You say it's hard to believe that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time as you stand in a school in which you learn to do magic," spoke a black-haired Slytherin boy who seemed to be as old as the other girl. "Ironic, especially for someone who didn't know that magic existed until around three months ago."

"Are you making fun of my best friend because she's muggleborn, Thomas?" another Hufflepuff girl asked, looking more offended than her friend herself.

"Not at all, I'm saying that your friend's sense of what's easy to believe and what's not is kind of off."

The first Hufflepuff girl seemed to be going to say something, but the crowd of students moved apart, letting Filch pass. "What's going on here?" he yelled, making his way to Harry. "Potter, what are you and-" He looked up to the torch, and his eyes widened in both terror and anger. "Mrs. Norris? You've... murdered my cat."

"No..." Harry shook his head, scared of what the caretaker would do. "No."

"I'll kill you..." He said in a whisper, but then erupted in rage. "I'll kill you!"

He grabbed Harry by his clothes, and closed his hand into a fist.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Ben bellowed without thinking twice.

Filch turned back, clearly shocked by the boy's yell. Before he could direct his fit of rage towards Ben too, the calming voice of Albus Dumbledore broke the air.

"Argus?" The crowd parted again, leaving a passage for Dumbledore to cross, followed by McGonagall, Lockhart, Snape, and pretty much the entire teaching staff. "Argus I-" He stopped dead when he saw the bloody message on the wall. The headmaster's bright blue eyes widened in shock, a gesture that all the teachers repeated when they read the text. Dumbledore took only a couple of seconds to compose himself. "Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately."

The crowd disappeared quickly. The Slytherin boy who had defended them, Thomas, met Ben's eyes when he and his friends were trying to rush back to their common room. He shot him a small smile, which Ben returned before he saw him walk away with a girl.

"Everyone except you four," said Dumbledore. Everyone knew who he was referring to. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ben stopped walking, and turned back to see Dumbledore on his way to comfort Filch, who truly looked affected by what happened to his cat. "She's not dead, Argus. She has been petrified."

"Ah, yes," agreed Lockhart, as if no one would trust Dumbledore if he didn't agree with him. "So unlucky I wasn't there. I know exactly the counter curse that could've spared her."

The rest of the professors merely reacted to what he said, clearly doubting he was telling the truth. They turned to look at Dumbledore as he continued speaking, "But how she's been petrified... I cannot say."

"Ask him!" Scowled Filch, referring to Harry. "It's him that's done it. You've seen what he wrote on the wall."

"It's not true, sir, I swear," Harry defended himself. "I never touched Mrs. Norris."

"Rubbish!"

"If I might, headmaster," spoke Snape, who had been oddly silent. "Perhaps, Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time..." The Gryffindors shared looks in disbelief. Why was Snape defending them? "However, the circumstances are suspicious. I for one don't recall seeing Potter or Walker at dinner."

"I believe that was my doing, Severus." Lockhart added, looking away from Mrs. Norris. "You see, Harry was helping me answer my fan mail. He just left a while ago."

Snape turned to Ben suspiciously. "Was Walker with you, too?"

"No, but I highly doubt someone like him would do such a thing."

Ben began reconsidering his opinion about Lockhart, though he wasn't sure if Lockhart was saying that in a good way or not.

"However, that doesn't prove him innocent."

"I was at the owlery, sending my sister Alycia a letter," spoke Ben before Snape would start putting pressure onto him and he'd get nervous. "I had to send it a bit before dinner, because... I was busy with homework before. It took me longer than expected because there was a friend there, Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff, and we talked for a bit."

"I do recall seeing Diggory at dinner," hissed Snape. "Therefore, you must be lying."

"I used an owl with brown feathers and bright yellow eyes. It's the owl that sleeps in the second row from the bottom, the last column towards the window." Ben recited, as if he had memorised it. "You can go check if it is there, and you'll see that it's gone, because it's flying to my house right now. You can even send my mother an owl to check if my sister receives a letter from me. She won't like to be disturbed, but the fact that I was there will be confirmed."

Snape looked slightly startled at how quickly Ben had said all of that. Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore seemed quite amused.

"There's absolutely no other way I would know all those specific details about a random owl if I haven't been there," finished Ben. "Well, unless I was a seer, which I can assure you is not the truth."

"After dinner, Hermione and I found Ben talking with my sister, Ginny Weasley on the second floor," added Ron, causing Snape to turn to look at him.

"So, the three of us went looking for Harry, because we knew he was having detention with Lockhart, and we were surprised he hadn't come back yet," continued Hermione. "We'd just found Harry when he said-"

Hermione looked like she was mentally facepalming.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" inquired Snape, approaching her.

"When I said I wasn't hungry," concluded Harry quickly as Ron and Ben nodded in agreement, to make it seem even more believable. "We were heading back to the common room when we found Mrs. Norris."

They nodded again. Snape raised an eyebrow suspiciously, and turned around to look at Dumbledore. "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus."

"My cat has been petrified," sobbed Filch. "I wanna see some type of punishment!"

We will be able to cure her, Argus. As I understand it, Madam Sprout has a very healthy growth of Mandrake. When matured, a potion will be made, and we will revive Mrs. Norris. Until then, I strongly recommend caution to all." He said calmly, and turned to the four young Gryffindors. "You four may go."

They didn't hesitate.