Draco: So Why Didn't You Tell Me Earlier

At dinner, Bing Huan seemed a bit distracted. Hermione placed a chicken leg on Bing Huan's plate. "Eat properly, you'll be hungry later."

"No, I can't figure it out. Ever since I realized I had malice perception, it's never failed. How could this happen?" He picked up the chicken leg and took a big bite.

"Not even once?"

"Actually, it's called malice perception, and its range is very wide. For example, if you're a police officer, or an Auror as you call it, when they're on a case and might have to act against a suspect to save someone, I can sense it when they plan their move."

Fred: "Doesn't it change based on the target?"

George: "For example, is there a difference between powerful people and not-so-powerful people?"

Bing Huan took a sip of water and continued, "This doesn't have an absolute relationship with strength. It's a high degree of self-control. Let me put it this way, my Master... you probably don't have much concept of this, but in the Wizarding World, the three most formidable are Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort. Voldemort is out of the question; just standing there is malice. If the other two hadn't made adjustments beforehand, they wouldn't have escaped my perception."

Hermione: "Are there really no exceptions?"

"Umm, well, there are. For example, if you give a pre-arranged order for machines or people without thinking ability to stand by, and then something happens after a certain amount of time. Or if you hypnotize someone, making them see Harry as some kind of mechanism, and the entire Quidditch stadium is empty, and they believe the world will be destroyed if they don't break this mechanism.

Another possibility is that the person acting has a peculiar thought process, only knowing that stopping Harry is for his own good, and completely disregarding the consequences of stopping him. These are the situations I know of. The first type is impossible. Quidditch is so intense; it's hard to control in real-time without being present, let alone predict it in advance.

The second type can evade my malice perception, but people who are hypnotized in such situations often don't hide their magical traces or leave no clues. As for the third type, that's purely a possibility my Master proposed under ideal conditions. Does such an intelligent being truly exist in the world?"

After discussing for a long time, they reached no conclusion. Seeing the sky had already turned dark outside, they left the Great Hall. Ron suddenly remembered, "You guys, if that guy didn't succeed, will he try to find Harry again tonight?"

Draco: "It's possible!"

The four agreed to come out and check on Harry after the lights were out.

In the School Infirmary, Harry, who was lightly asleep, felt someone on the bed and quickly sat up, startled. "Dobby?!" The house-elf Dobby looked at Harry. "Harry Potter returned to school. Why did you go home after missing the train?"

"How did you know I missed the train?" The Boy Who Lived jolted. Realizing he had let slip, Dobby immediately panicked. In his panic, he confessed everything he had done these past few days. The more he confessed, the more agitated Dobby became. "Dobby can't let Harry Potter stay here, or the Chamber of Secrets will open..."

"You know about the Chamber of Secrets!" Harry immediately seized on the key point.

"Harry Potter, please don't ask Dobby anymore, ah! Dobby has been discovered!" With that, Dobby vanished like smoke. Bing Huan, who had flashed over, only managed to pull off a strand of what looked like hair. "So, such creatures really exist."

When Dobby first appeared, Bing Huan had already sensed him, so he had discreetly placed Breath Concealment Talismans on all four of them and quietly approached, overhearing most of their conversation. Ron stepped forward to ask Harry if he was alright. Hermione took the hair and compared it with cases in a book to see if it was indeed a house-elf.

At this moment, Draco suddenly exclaimed, "Dobby... isn't he the house-elf from my family?"

"Ah?!"

It turned out that before the summer holidays, to avoid suspicion, Lucius maintained an appearance of hating Harry while interacting with Dark Wizards, even vowing to open the Chamber of Secrets to deal with Harry. This scene was witnessed by Dobby at the doorway, and Dobby's panicked appearance was then seen by Draco.

Ron mumbled, "Then what were we guarding against all summer?"

"You guys didn't ask me earlier," Draco said, feeling a bit wronged. Who would have thought that he knew Professor Snape, whom he couldn't figure out in his first year, and also the mysterious Dobby this semester, yet Draco found out about both incidents last.

The group looked at each other speechlessly. Suddenly, footsteps were heard from outside the door. Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and another staff member entered carrying a stretcher.

"..." Professor McGonagall clearly hadn't expected the night to be so lively. "I hope you can explain why you are here, and at this hour?" Although angry, Professor McGonagall's face still showed some lingering fear. It seemed something quite bad had happened.

Hermione held up Dobby's hair. "Professor, we discovered a suspect who attacked Harry. Things happened so suddenly that we didn't have time to notify the professors. We just saved Harry again."

Professor McGonagall took it and examined it carefully. "This is house-elf hair. Alright, Miss Granger, we'll let it go this time. I hope you'll notify the professors promptly next time. Now, you should all go back to sleep." As if still worried, Professor McGonagall stopped them. "Wait, stay for a while. We'll escort you back later."

Only then did Bing Huan's gaze fall on the "sculpture" on the bed. "Colin?" He held his camera, looking at the person in front of him with terror. His entire body was stiff, just like Mrs. Norris before.

"McGonagall found him on the stairs. The poor child has been petrified," Dumbledore, wearing his pajamas, bent down and took Colin's camera. As soon as it was opened, a puff of heat emerged, followed by the smell of burning plastic.

"It seems the perpetrator this time is not simple. Conventional methods cannot leave any images," Bing Huan fanned away the smell, saying with a frown.

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

"It means Hogwarts is no longer safe."

"When was Hogwarts ever safe?" Bing Huan asked doubtfully. Every year, the final exams involved defeating Voldemort single-handedly; he couldn't imagine what safety had to do with it.

"... It was before you enrolled."

In the History of Magic class the next day, Hermione interrupted Professor Binns' lengthy lecture and raised her hand to ask about the Chamber of Secrets. This matter traced back to the four founders of Hogwarts. Salazar Slytherin believed that magical education should have higher barriers, such as for children from Pureblood families.

This was opposed by the other three founders. After a heated argument, Slytherin left the school, declaring that there was a Chamber of Secrets within the school and that he would help his heir purify it.

"Purify? A ridiculous and ignorant theory," Bing Huan directly chose to provoke a crowd of extreme Pureblood supporters. Professor Binns, however, was quite curious about this young man from the East. "Young student, why do you say that?"

Bing Huan bowed to the professor and replied, "Although I don't fully understand the Wizarding World yet, and I can't come up with a concrete solution at my current level, I can be sure that extreme Pureblood ideology has no future. To maintain Pureblood status, the only path is increasingly frequent and severe inbreeding.

The consequence of this would be more and more children born with congenital defects and a dwindling number of Pureblood family members, eventually leading to their extinction. This is why more and more Pureblood families are now simply expelling those without magical talent from their family tree instead of preventing intermarriage. In other words, many who consider themselves noble are themselves the half-bloods they despise the most."

"A very bold interpretation. Sit down."

There were no classes in the afternoon, so Bing Huan and Hermione prepared to go to the library. After taking a few steps, the young couple's path was blocked by an old couple. Bing Huan was called by Dumbledore to discuss some matters, mostly an exchange; Grindelwald would tutor Hermione in her studies.

Grindelwald led Hermione to the Pensieve. "This is a Pensieve. It can help us examine small details in memories."

"What does this have to do with homework?"

"I'm sorry, little girl. If you have any questions in the future, feel free to ask me, but today, I'll have to ask you to look at the old man's memories first." With that, Grindelwald extracted the memory with his wand and placed it in the Pensieve. "This was a few nights ago, and it really startled Albus and me."

Hermione looked on with a mix of belief and doubt. It was a scene of Dumbledore and Bing Huan arguing, though the parts involving Harry and the Boy Who Lived were omitted. Hermione watched as the boy argued with the two most powerful elders in the Wizarding World for her, even resorting to threats.

Grindelwald said from the side, "I knew this child before you did. He appears cheerful, but he's very closed off. Because of this, he values his emotions exceptionally, even doing foolish things because of them. I hope you can support him when he's by his side."

"I'm sorry," Hermione replied almost without hesitation, wiping away tears. "If he really made a mistake, I will help him correct it. This has nothing to do with your request because Huan is also important to me. But if he is not wrong, I will stand by him, regardless of the faction."

"Even if it means opposing us?"

Hermione did not answer, merely bowed and walked out of the Headmaster's Office.