Preparation! Gaunt's old house

Draco stared at the motionless, stiff cat hanging there, and felt his own body grow cold and stiff. Realizing who the killer was, he turned to look at Crabbe in the Slytherin crowd.

Crabbe's face grew increasingly pale, devoid of any color. Sensing Draco's gaze, Crabbe grinned at him, revealing sharp teeth.

Draco recalled his father's words and his conversation with Loren. He put his thoughts into perspective from a year ago, wondering what he would have said and done back then.

"Those who oppose the heir, beware! You'll be next, you Mudblood!" He pushed his way to the front of the crowd, his neck stiff as he shouted. A complete spoiled brat, Pure-blood traitor.

"What happened here? What happened?"

"My cat! My cat! What's wrong with Mrs. Norris?"

"You! You killed my cat! You killed it! I'm going to kill you all..."

Filch was drawn by the shouts and saw Mrs. Norris hanging on the wall. He looked as if he had been struck by lightning and couldn't believe it. He then screamed at Harry.

"Argus!"

Dumbledore arrived just in time to hear the last sentence and signaled Filch to calm down.

He calmly stepped forward and untied Mrs. Norris from the torch stand, then called to Filch, "Come with me, Argus. And you, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley."

The principal led the victim's family and the suspect to the staff lounge, maintaining a serious demeanor throughout and pretending to be completely unaware of the situation.

Loren: "..."

Principal, you're really good at acting.

"The Prefect will take everyone back to their dormitories. Also, the truth of the matter has not yet been determined, so please do not make unfounded speculations." After giving these instructions, Professor McGonagall turned and hurriedly followed the principal.

The Prefect organized the group and led the young wizards back to the common room.

Although Professor McGonagall warned everyone against making wild guesses, how could they not talk about something that had happened in the Castle? The young wizards gathered in small groups with their close friends, discussing it in hushed tones.

In the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Draco loudly mocked Harry, eliciting a chorus of laughter.

"What does it mean that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened?" Hannah Abbott asked Ernie beside her in a low voice.

Ernie Macmillan was a junior wizard who was assigned to Hufflepuff along with Hannah.

"I don't know." He looked around to make sure no one could hear, then beckoned Justin Finley closer. "I think you should be careful. Malfoy just mentioned the Mudblood."

A sudden clap of thunder sounded outside the Castle, startling Justin so much that his face turned pale. He quickly quickened his pace and hurried back to the Hufflepuff Common Room.

At the back of the group, Hermione stood close to Loren, a little worried. "Harry and Ron left too early from the Commemoration Feast; they must have found out something. We'll ask them carefully when they get back to the common room."

"Don't worry, with the principal here, nothing will happen." Loren thought to himself, even though it was the principal's fault that things got into trouble.

Ginny and Luna walked hand in hand to Hermione and Loren.

Ginny's lips were pressed tightly together, clearly worried about Harry... and Ron.

Luna, wearing a roughly carved lion's head mask made from a hollowed-out pumpkin (which looked like Hagrid's work), asked in an ethereal voice, "It'll be alright, won't it?"

Loren noticed that Luna asked about "it," and his gaze involuntarily drifted to Luna's silver eyes.

She had already realized that Mrs. Norris was not dead, which was why she asked that question. At the time, Mrs. Norris's limbs were hanging stiffly from the torch stand, like a corpse; even Filch, the cat's owner, thought it was dead.

Luna can distinguish between life and death. Does her eye have a strange vision that allows her to see things that others cannot?

Luna had light eyebrows, pale skin, and slightly protruding eyes that made them appear large. At that moment, the girl blinked her bright silver eyes, awaiting Loren's answer.

Loren nodded. "With Headmaster Dumbledore here, everything will be fine."

Hermione tilted her head and looked at him suspiciously, feeling that there was something strange about the tone of his words.

Gryffindor Common Room.

A group of young wizards sat neatly on the sofa, their faces full of anticipation as they waited for Harry and Ron to return. They couldn't wait to find out the truth.

Seamus, Dean, and Neville sat in the corner, looking at each other's stomachs with concern. They had lost track of time playing and hadn't eaten anything by the time Percy brought them back from the basement. Now that the excitement had worn off, their stomachs were starting to rumble.

Lee Jordan winked and teased the Twins with a cheeky grin, "Aren't you worried that your little brother Ron might be the murderer?"

This remark seemed to tickle the Twins ' funny bone; they collapsed onto the sofa, and it took them a while to sit up and wipe away the tears of laughter.

George, rubbing his stomach which was starting to hurt from laughing, asked, "Ron, is he the murderer?"

"If Mrs. Norris were to duel him, even if she gave him one claw, Ron might not be able to win," Fred said dramatically.

"And what about Harry?"

Angelina, sitting on the other side with a smile, said, "Oh, Harry might be able to beat Mrs. Norris, but I don't think he could bring himself to do it."

After the three finished speaking, they looked at each other and smiled.

It wasn't that they thought second-year wizards couldn't beat a cat; it was just that they were willing to believe in Harry and Ron, and in their eyes, the two were still children.

The curiosity of the group was not satisfied, and Professor McGonagall returned to the common room with Harry and Ron.

"What are you all doing sitting here? What time is it? Don't you have class tomorrow?" Professor McGonagall scolded sternly.

But it was no use; the Transfiguration Club's courses had brought Professor McGonagall and her students closer. George raised his hand and exclaimed, "Professor, tomorrow's the weekend, there really isn't a class!"

"Hahahaha!" The little wizards laughed along.

Professor McGonagall neither smiled nor spoke; she stood there, staring coldly at George.

The people in the lounge were as if they had been choked, and they could no longer laugh.

"What are you all standing there for? Go back to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow!" Percy forced himself to stand up and called everyone upstairs.

With Percy breaking the deadlock under pressure, the young wizards fled upstairs as if they were running away; they didn't want to face Professor McGonagall's direct gaze.

Percy, who was at the back, glanced at Harry and Ron at the door, then at Loren and Hermione huddled on the sofa by the wall, and went upstairs without a word.

"Go to bed early and don't go out at night," Professor McGonagall said before turning and leaving the Common Room.

Ron let out a long sigh of relief, his tense nerves relaxing, and darted to the sofa. "You'll never guess what happened to us tonight..."

As he recounted the story with great emotion, Loren and Hermione were immersed in experiencing what had happened to them. Harry heard strange noises in the basement and followed them to the Third Floor, where he found Mrs. Norris hanging on a torch stand behind the last corner.

Hermione listened with a serious expression, while Loren took the opportunity to glance at Harry, noticing that although he seemed a little dazed, he was still quite calm.

Ron continued, "Dumbledore said that Mrs. Norris is not dead, but petrified. This is a very advanced form of Dark Arts, and the potion to remove the petrification can only be prepared after Professor Sprout's Mandrake matures."

Hermione asked, "Harry, did you tell the professors about that strange sound you heard?"

"I didn't let him speak," Ron interrupted. "Hearing things that others can't hear is not a good sign, even in the magical world."

Hearing a sound that others couldn't hear, Hermione's heart skipped a beat; she seemed to have grasped something.

Harry was thinking about Dumbledore's last words to him that night, "Harry, trust your friends, trust yourself."

What does this mean?

His presence at the crime scene was meant to convince his friends to believe him. What does it mean to believe someone? Would he doubt himself?

Harry's mind was full of question marks.

His eyes moved from Ron to Hermione, then to Loren, and after a moment's hesitation, he asked, "You... you believe me, don't you?"

Seeing Harry's bewildered expression, Loren couldn't help but laugh, "It's not just us who believe in you, everyone in Gryffindor believes in you. George was just saying that he thought the two of you couldn't beat Mrs. Norris."

Hermione interrupted the boys' nonsense, clarifying the sequence of events. "We need to know what those writings on the wall mean— the Chamber of Secrets, the Heir... what does it all mean?"

The sound of bells came from outside, and Harry and Ron's stomachs started ringing too.

They were cold and hungry tonight, and had also been somewhat frightened. They hadn't felt it when they were on edge, but now that they've relaxed, they're hungry and sleepy.

cluck cluck~

cluck cluck~

Hermione pursed her lips. "I've got some ideas, but I need to sort them out a bit more. We'll talk about the rest tomorrow. Loren's taken some food from the table; you can go back and eat now."

Is there any food?

Harry and Ron cheered with delight, "Long live Granger!"

"Huh? I brought the food, so why is it saying 'Long live Granger '?"

"Ha ha!"

For the next week, the students talked about nothing but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch often loitered in the Third Floor corridor, seemingly lying in wait for the attacker.

When Hermione dragged Loren to the crime scene to investigate, she saw him scrubbing the writing on the wall with "Mrs. Cole's All-Purpose Stain Remover." He stood on a stool, using all his strength, looking as if he wanted to break his arm, but in the end it was all in vain, and the writing still shimmered on the stone wall.

Hermione couldn't bear to see him like this, so she used several "Finite Incantatem" spells on the wall to dim the words and make them eraseable.

Filch said nothing, wiped the wall clean, and left. In the days that followed, he hid in the corridor, trying every possible excuse to lock the students in solitary confinement, with reasons ranging from loud breathing to joking around.

Fred said his eyes were bloodshot.

Hermione even dragged Loren to investigate Moaning Myrtle's Girls' Bathroom, where Moaning Myrtle happily recounted her death, focusing on how she haunted those who mocked her after becoming a ghost.

Inside the Library.

Ron is fretting over his paper. "I simply can't believe it, I'm still eight inches short..."

Before him lay two papers for reference: one was Hermione's four feet seven inches long, and the other was Loren's standard three feet, not a bit more or less.

He said angrily to Harry beside him, "Why can Hermione write so long and in such small characters?"

Although some young wizards looked at Harry with suspicion, at least Gryffindor didn't, and he had been having a fairly pleasant time these days.

Harry answered while measuring his homework with a tape measure, "Loren is even more outrageous. He finished his paper before Professor Binns ' class was even over."

"Just grasp the main points of this chapter. Like my thesis title, changing 'Medieval Europe Wizarding Gatherings' to 'Changes in Customs in the Medieval Wizarding World ' or 'The Impact of Medieval Muggle Activities on the Wizarding World ' wouldn't make a difference."

Loren walked over carrying a thick book, glanced at Harry's homework, and said, "Oh dear, you wrote an inch too much. What a waste."

"What's a loss?" Harry said, amused, then noticed the book in his hand. "Hogwarts: Hogwarts, A History? What are you looking at this for?"

"It's not that I want to see it, it's that Hermione wants to see it. She said it contains information about the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets legend and asked me to find the book for her." Loren slammed the book on the table. "I have to leave for a bit, please give the book to her for me."

Harry and Ron had already opened the big book and were completely unaware that Loren had already left.

Loren walked out of the Library, turned right, and went up the stairs to the Third Floor corridor where the Halloween Night attack had occurred. He didn't encounter Filch, but Dumbledore was waiting there instead.

The writing on the wall still had some faint scratches, with traces of cleaning agent inside. Dumbledore tugged at a corner of his sleeve and wiped away the cleaning agent bit by bit. He then tapped the wall lightly with his wand, and all the marks disappeared without a trace.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, did you have to go through all this trouble to find me? Using Patronus to relay the message makes it sound like an underground meeting," Loren complained. He had just been looking for a book in the Library when a silver Phoenix suddenly flew in through Phoenix window, and he almost sniped it with a Piercing Charm.

Dumbledore chuckled twice, "Loren, I'm too old to see clearly. Could you check if there are any marks on the wall?"

Loren looked closely. "It's gone, it's very clean."

"Traces on walls are easy to erase, but traces in people's hearts will remain forever."

"What's the meaning?"

Dumbledore turned around and patted his head. "It's nothing. I'm here because of what we talked about at the beginning of the semester. I need your help and would like to ask you to come with me somewhere."

A glint flashed in the old wizard's eyes. He had noticed Crabbe's face growing paler and paler these past few days, and the Magic Power within him was undergoing tremendous changes. If he wasn't mistaken, Voldemort was attempting to turn Crabbe into Horcrux.

He wanted to visit Gaunt's old house to uncover more information about Voldemort and the Horcrux. Besides, the school nights seemed rather unsettled lately.

Loren remembered that on the night of the opening banquet, he talked to Dumbledore about the Diary Horcrux. Before leaving, Dumbledore suddenly mentioned it, and he casually agreed.

He asked, "Where are we going, and what preparations do we need to make?"

"We might come across something like the Diary. What do you think we should do to prepare?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.