Ambush

As a damp chill began to shroud the Hogwarts grounds and quietly seep into the ancient stone walls, October came to an end.

Although Headmaster Dumbledore had tactfully advised students, especially those alone, to avoid the damp Restroom areas at night as much as possible, under the pretext of "preventing seasonal flu," colds still inevitably spread among the staff and students, leaving Madam Pomfrey's infirmary packed.

However, after Lin Du expressionlessly announced, "Anyone absent from practical training due to a cold must take a make-up exam over the weekend. The standards will remain unchanged," those students who had been looking sickly seemed to have been hit by a collective healing spell, and most of their symptoms miraculously improved at once.

After all, compared to facing Professor Lin Du's "innovative" practical training courses, a little stuffy nose and headache suddenly seemed bearable.

Fortunately, no serious incidents occurred in the castle over the next two weeks.

No students were injured, there were no terrorist attacks, and even Peeves behaved himself considerably more than usual.

This superficial calm allowed Lin Du's vigilance toward the Chamber of Secrets incident to relax slightly.

Perhaps that "heir" was merely bluffing? Perhaps the Basilisk was still securely confined in some unknown corner?

And so, amid an atmosphere that was somewhat strange yet generally stable, Halloween arrived.

The Halloween feast was as lively as ever.

The Great Hall was filled with enormous jack-o'-lanterns, while swarms of bats circled beneath the enchanted ceiling.

This year, Dumbledore had creatively invited a skeleton band. They played cheerful yet slightly eerie tunes on instruments made of bones, blue ghostly light flickering in their empty eye sockets as their skeletons clicked along to the rhythm and danced absurd but unforgettable dances.

The young witches and wizards chatted excitedly as they devoured all sorts of holiday dishes that looked horrifying but tasted delicious.

Lin Du sat at the staff table, a chocolate cake shaped like a miniature coffin placed before him. He slowly cut into the "coffin lid" with his knife, his gaze occasionally sweeping over the long tables of the four houses below.

Over at Gryffindor, the Weasley twins seemed to be showing off their latest "vomit-flavored candy" to the people around them, drawing gasps and laughing curses.

At the Hufflepuff table, Cedric Diggory was chatting gently with his classmates, apparently having recovered from the setback of the previous practical training session.

Slytherin still maintained its particular brand of restrained boisterousness, while Ravenclaw students discussed the musical composition of the skeleton band or the magical principles behind the jack-o'-lantern carvings in small groups.

Everything looked so normal, brimming with holiday cheer.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, were not nearly so happy.

They had just slipped away from a very unusual occasion—Nearly Headless Nick's five-hundredth deathday party.

They had seen the ghosts' green-mold-covered cheese and a giant tombstone-gray cake, and watched a performance by The Headless Hunt.

Ron stared at the bubbling "gravy," his face looking worse than Bloody Baron's.

"I swear," Ron said as soon as they left the underground classroom, rubbing his arms, "Peeves seems a lot friendlier to me now. At least he wouldn't invite you to eat something that looks like it was dug out of a grave."

Although Hermione's lips had turned purple from the cold, she still tried to reason with him. "Nick will be very grateful that we came. It means a lot to him..."

Before she could finish, Harry, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped short and sniffed hard.

"What's that smell?" he asked in a low voice.

A strange odor drifted through the air, like wet mud mixed with the fishy stench of something gone bad.

They suspiciously turned the next corner, and then all three of them froze in place as if they had been hit by Petrificus Totalus.

Not far ahead, flickering torchlight illuminated the corridor.

Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, hung stiffly from a torch bracket, her tail sticking straight up like a rod. She looked like the ugliest ornament on a Christmas tree.

Her eyes were wide open, filled with terror.

On the wall beneath her, a line of words glowed with an ominous green light, as though it had been written in some sort of luminous rotten mud:

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.

Enemies of the heir, beware.

The air seemed to freeze solid.

Hermione sucked in a sharp breath and clamped both hands over her mouth.

Ron's mouth hung wide enough to fit a chocolate frog inside.

Harry only felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, worse than freezing at the deathday party.

The Chamber of Secrets... Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets... They had speculated about it before, and had even gone to Professor Lin Du... It was real? It had really been opened? And the heir... who was it?

Before they could recover from their shock, hurried footsteps came from the far end of the corridor, approaching with astonishing speed.

They turned in panic and saw a black figure appear at the end of the corridor almost instantly before rapidly closing in—it was Professor Lin Du!

He was alone, his robes billowing behind him from his swift movement, the usual calm on his face replaced by a rare solemnity.

He did not even glance at the three children huddled together. His sharp black eyes immediately locked onto the stiff Mrs. Norris and the green-glowing words on the wall, his expression turning icy in an instant.

Lin Du's sudden appearance was like a block of ice smashing into the already frozen air, leaving Harry and the other two even more at a loss.

"Professor?" Hermione called out softly on instinct, her voice trembling.

Lin Du raised a hand, signaling for them to stay quiet.

He dropped directly to one knee, gripping his wand tightly in his right hand, and lightly tapped the stone floor directly beneath Mrs. Norris with its tip.

"Tap—"

A crisp yet strange sound rang out. Immediately afterward, centered on the point where his wand had struck, an invisible magical ripple rapidly spread outward like ripples across water!

Harry, Ron, and Hermione felt an incredibly faint tremor beneath their feet, as if something were racing through the stone at tremendous speed and surging in every direction.

"Tap—tap—"

Two more taps followed in quick succession. The invisible ripple instantly intensified, like a small seismic wave sweeping rapidly through the third-floor corridor before spreading without pause deeper and farther into the castle!

At the same time, in the Great Hall on the first floor.

The feast was still in full swing, and the skeleton band had reached a raucous climax.

However, Dumbledore's hand holding his silver fork paused slightly. Behind his half-moon glasses, his blue eyes snapped upward, sharply fixed on the ceiling.

A moment later, Professor McGonagall beside him sharply furrowed her brow, while Professor Flitwick nearly slipped off his high chair.

The veteran professors had almost simultaneously sensed it—a powerful, unfamiliar Magical Fluctuation of detection magic was sweeping through the entire Hogwarts castle at astonishing speed and over an astonishing range!

Such blatant, undisguised magical probing was extremely rare at Hogwarts!

Snape's body instantly tensed beneath his black robes. His gloomy gaze swept across the staff table and immediately noticed Lin Du's empty seat, his eyes becoming inscrutably deep.