Chapter 102

As he arrived on the scene, everyone turned to look at Ethan, something he did not even notice. It was not because they wanted to see his reaction. Instead, it was because the moment he spotted his friend, his first instinct had been to extend his mind towards her, to assert her state.

It was faint, but Ethan felt something from her. It was very strange, like her mind was in a state of suspended animation, completely frozen in time. Or nearly so, as he could still feel a sliver of consciousness deep within.

He could hardly dig in any deeper however, as the frozen part of her mind felt extremely brittle, as if a single touch would be enough to break it into a thousand pieces.

Still, knowing that she had been petrified, instead of killed, relieved him. But with that relief also came guilt and anger. A lot of anger.

It was precisely this volatile anger that was felt by everyone around him as Ethan unconsciously forced it down on all of their minds. With how strong his mind was, one did not need to be a Legilimens or even learned in the Mind Arts to feel it.

"Ethan, Theodore, calm down. You're scaring people."

Fortunately, Tracey was there to wake him up as he felt a fair but surprisingly strong hand land on his shoulder. Looking at his friends, he noticed that Theodore's own expression had turned frosty, his hands shaking ever so slightly. His eyes, normally half-closed, were wide opened, the rage behind them obvious.

He took a moment longer to wake up from it, as Tracey's grip had become strong enough to turn painful, forcing him to listen.

At the same time, Miyuki telepathically spoke to Ethan, "Being emotional won't bring us anything. We need to find who this heir is. It should be easy, Daphne did not have many enemies."

Ethan took a deep breath, retracting his mind entirely and cooling it down. At the same time, a group of Professors reached the scene, making their way through the crowd. They were the Astronomy and Muggle Studies Professors, Aurora Sinestra and Charity Babbling.

Their expressions were grave as they looked at the petrified student, and it was only after a quick inspecting spell that their faces relaxed a little.

Ethan noticed a meaningful glance coming from his Astronomy Professor however, which he guessed meant she knew about the events of the night before, and probably believed that this had to do with it.

The glance was quick though, and Professor Sinestra addressed the crowd with her usual stern voice, "All students are to exit the premises immediately, and head to the Great Hall! Move as groups!"

Professor Sinestra was a stern teacher, some would argue even more so than McGonagall as she was easily the one who gave students the most homework and tolerated failure to hand them in the least. So no one wanted to be left behind and stand out as they quickly shuffled inside the castle.

At the same time, Sinestra said to her fellow Professor, "Professor Babbling, please warn the students outside the castle, starting with the Quidditch Stadium, while I deal with Miss Greengrass."

The Muggle Studies teacher nodded and ran off, while Professor Sinestra carefully lifted Daphne. Seeing Ethan was still standing there, along with his friends, she added, "I said, to the Great Hall. Do not even think of doing anything foolish, you would only be endangering yourselves and the investigation. Go, now!"

Though reluctant, Ethan knew she was right. They walked to the Great Hall, which was fortunately not very crowded. It was still very early after all, and it was a Sunday as well, so most students were still asleep.

Ethan and his friends had only been awake to support Daphne in the Quidditch trials.

There were not many Professors up either, or they were already busy looking for the culprit and any other students. But even with only McGonagall in the Great Hall, the students knew they were safe.

In the end, even as the last students were brought to the Great Hall, there were less than thirty of them. Then, the students were all ushered back to their common rooms, led by Professors and Prefects.

Once in the Slytherin Common Room, Ethan realized that most of the other students had already been waken up, and were waiting for them as they were bombarded with questions by their fellow students who had been sleeping.

Except for Ethan, Tracey and Theodore, that is. They were Slytherins after all, they knew better than to ask insensitive questions. Everyone already knew by now that something had happened to Daphne, although not what exactly.

Ethan ended up retreating to his room, not really wanting to deal with anyone else right now, and although he tried to put his head into something productive by working on his runes, his mind was not so easily settled.

He came to a realization: things always went to shit with him.

Some things had just been outside of his control of course, such as the trip in Japan or even the one in Egypt. But then, there were also other incidents where he was directly responsible.

Last year, Ethan had made the conscious decision not to intervene with the whole situation concerning the dragon egg, and that had led to Hagrid dying. And even the situation with Quirrell could have been altered if Ethan had been more decisive. He might have been able to save his teacher.

So he had decided to change things up for this year and be as proactive as possible, yet it had backfired tremendously. Not only was the diary no longer in Ginny's hands, and in someone else's, but it also was now wary of him. Revengeful, even.

Ethan did not believe that the attack on Daphne was random. Not only was she not one of the original victims, not one that he remembered at least, but she also did not abide by the still unrevealed goal of the Heir of Slytherin, to eliminate mudbloods from Hogwarts.

A Pureblood like Daphne Greengrass should have never been attacked by the 'Heir'. The only reason for her to be attacked would be either that the attack was completely random, something Ethan very strongly doubted, or that there was another reason to attack her.

Namely to attack Ethan here.

Now, not only had Ethan caused his friend to be attacked and petrified, but the situation that had been somewhat under control had suddenly escalated and turned extremely chaotic all of a sudden.

He had told the Professors about the passage to the Chamber, and this one he was sure of. How could the Basilisk ever manage to attack a student if the Professors knew of the Chamber's passage?

Only a night had passed since he signalled it to them, so Ethan did not expect them to have raided it already, but considering an evil book had tried to lead a student to it, they at the very least should have kept it under watch.

So what could have happened for the Basilisk to come out of the Chamber and attack? Had Ethan been wronged by his foreknowledge and that sink did not lead to the Chamber of Secrets? Was the Basilisk already wandering in the sewer system and simply had not returned to the Chamber? Or had something happened to whomever had been sent to watch the Chamber?

Ethan knew that he would not be getting any answers to these questions from his Professors though. He was just a student in the end, and telling him more would be endangering him. They had already seen the effects of involving a student in an investigation led to last year, so they most certainly would not be making the same mistake this year.

In other words, there was only one way for Ethan to get his answers, and that was to go check on the Chamber of Secrets himself.