After leaving Lockhart's office, Harry ran into Ron, who had escaped from the ghosts' party, and Bing Huan Hermione, who had come from the Great Hall. They had brought them pudding and chicken legs.
The three of them headed for the Gryffindor common room together, listening to Ron's account of the party and feeling both sorry for him and amused.
"Kill... kill..."
Harry and Bing Huan stopped at the same time.
"That's that sound again." Harry told them to be quiet, then pressed his ear to the wall and listened carefully.
"What's wrong, Harry?"
"There's something crawling inside the wall. Are there pipes in there?" Bing Huan knocked on the wall.
"I'm so hungry..."
"Listen! I heard someone talking," Harry said urgently.
Hermione and Ron stared at Harry, bewildered. Bing Huan leaned against the wall too. "I only hear something crawling. Ennnm, there's a little hissing too. Is there a snake in there?"
"Kill... it's time!" The voice gradually faded. It must have gone upstairs.
"This way!" Afraid something might happen, Harry took off running. When they reached the second floor, Harry cocked his ears again. "Blood! I can smell it! Blood!"
Harry thought the thing was about to strike, so he hurried up the stairs to the third floor. The third floor seemed strange today. Water covered the floor, and it was as if the thing had realized it was being followed. After they came up, they couldn't hear it anymore.
The four of them wandered around the third floor. Turning a corner, they came to an empty corridor. The water on the floor reflected a few blood-red words. Looking up, they saw an inscription on the wall: The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.
Something seemed to be swaying beneath the torch. It was Mrs. Norris, hanging from a bracket like a statue. Harry and the others were startled. "Should we... try to save her?" Harry stammered.
Ron said, "Let's get a teacher. If anyone sees us, they'll think we did it."
As soon as he finished speaking, voices came from both ends of the corridor. Students from Gryffindor and Slytherin came toward them, led by their Prefects.
When they saw Mrs. Norris hanging there, the noisy crowd fell silent. Most of them looked horrified. Only one person was delighted, thinking he'd finally get to vent his anger.
Marcus shouted, "Enemies of the heir, you're next! Mud—ugh!"
Bang!
With a tremendous crash, Marcus was embedded in the wall. When everyone turned back, they caught Bing Huan leisurely lowering his foot. Draco turned to his followers and said, "See? That's what happens when you cling to backward, extreme Pure-blood ideology."
"Boss, you were hit with that kind of violence..."
"Truth!" Draco corrected him. "I was won over by the truth. He bypassed dozens of spells and punched straight at me. Before his fist even touched me, I was already flying. That's when I was completely convinced."
"But he's only one person."
Draco looked at the talkative underling. "What if I told you there are loads of people like him in China, and he's the young master from there?"
"..."
"Huan!" Hermione ran over to Bing Huan, looked him over to make sure he was all right, then said, "You'll lose points for this."
"He had a filthy mouth. I was just cleaning it up for him."
Hermione knew he was standing up for her. That only made her more reluctant to let him get punished for it. Bing Huan seemed unconcerned. Smiling, he gently smoothed the furrow from Hermione's brow. "Look at you. You're about to get forehead wrinkles. And if I'm not going to get in trouble, maybe I can even get Slytherin to lose some points."
Hermione: (ﾟｰﾟ*?)? I was trying to figure out how to get them to take fewer points off you, and you're already planning to get points taken off the other team?
Dumbledore led the teachers over and used magic to pull Marcus out of the wall. Snape asked coldly, "Can someone explain why a Slytherin student is embedded in the wall?"
"It was me!" Bing Huan eagerly raised his hand, looking proud.
"You seem proud of yourself!" Snape felt he was about to laugh in exasperation.
"He insulted my... He used 'Mudblood' to insult a student."
"What!" Snape's expression changed. Those were the three words he hated most in the world—the worst insult to Lily! Though furious, he quickly suppressed his anger as Slytherin's Head of House. "I had no idea Slytherin had students with such poor manners. But no matter what, it's a professor's job to discipline them, not a student's to resort to violence. Gryffindor loses fifty points!"
Bing Huan raised an eyebrow. "Oh, now that I think about it, I fit the definition of a Mudblood perfectly. Your Slytherin students have called me that to my face again and again, and now you're taking points from us. Ennnm, Professor, can I take this as Slytherin declaring war on the Daoist sect?"
Snape: ??(･_･*) How did this suddenly become such a big deal?
Of course, there was no way they'd go to war—not over trash like this, at least. But the matter did need to be dealt with. Otherwise, every time the Slytherins ran their mouths, someone would have to teach them a lesson, and the Slytherin common room might as well have its roof taken off.
Besides, he didn't want Hermione to have to hear such vile words again. No matter how often she was told to ignore them, with her strong-willed nature, she couldn't truly turn a blind eye.
Grindelwald stepped in to smooth things over. "All right, all right. Going to war would be far too childish. I'm sure Marcus here was simply being foul-mouthed, uncouth, and poorly educated. Isn't that right, Severus?"
Dumbledore raised a hand to calm everyone. "In that case, Mr. Bing Huan gets ten points for courageously defending a fellow student's dignity. But he loses five points as a reprimand for the way he handled it. Marcus loses twenty points for insulting a fellow student and causing extremely serious consequences."
The two centenarians looked at Bing Huan helplessly. He nodded and smiled. "All right, Professor. I'll be more careful."
"My cat! My cat!" Filch's shriek echoed through the entire corridor. Only then did everyone remember that Mrs. Norris was still hanging there!
Filch's bulging eyes fixed on the four in the middle. "You! You killed my cat! I'll kill you!"
Grindelwald saw someone clench his fist again and hurried over to stop him. He couldn't let this kid start another fight. He stepped in front of Filch. "Calm down, old man. You absolutely don't want this kid to punch you. I promise."
Dumbledore sent the other students back and lifted Mrs. Norris down, examining her carefully. "She isn't dead, Filch. She's only been petrified."
"Ask him!" Filch pointed at Harry.
"Clearly, this isn't something a second-year student could do. It would take great skill in Dark Magic," Dumbledore said firmly.
"He did it! He did it!" Filch's face twisted horribly.
"I never touched Mrs. Norris!"
"Lies! It was you!"
"If I may say something, Potter was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we didn't see him at the Halloween Feast. Where were you then?" Snape stared intently at Harry's face.
"I can explain that, Severus. Harry was helping me with my correspondence the whole time." Lockhart stepped forward.
"And the other three?"
"Ron went to the ghosts' party. He was afraid the two of them wouldn't get enough to eat or make it back in time for dinner, so he packed them some food." Bing Huan raised his right hand. The bag held the chicken bones Ron had left behind.
"Good thing Ron couldn't resist eating some along the way," Hermione whispered beside Harry.
"It seems there's no evidence that the children are guilty, so they're innocent for now," Dumbledore said at the right moment.
"My cat's been petrified! Someone has to be punished." Filch was still unhappy.
"What, then? Should we cut off our heads to entertain you? Something happens, and instead of finding the culprit, you keep going on about punishment, punishment, punishment. Honestly, I..." Bing Huan hated people like that most of all—useless and stupid, with a bad temper and acting as if the whole world were their enemy.
Harry and Ron hurried to hold Bing Huan back. "No, no, forget it, forget it."
"All right, Filch. We can cure her," Dumbledore said patiently. "Professor Sprout is growing Mandrakes. They'll be ready in a little while." Professor Sprout nodded to show there was no need to worry.
"I'll brew the potion," Lockhart suddenly interjected. "I've brewed it a hundred times, at least. I can..."
"Sorry!" Snape cut off Lockhart's boast. "I believe I'm still the school's Potions teacher, so there's no need to trouble yourself with this."
"..." The silence from the crowd was deafening.
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