New Discoveries, Undercurrents Surging

In the days that followed, Scott saw Jacob Kent hanging out with those girls a few more times.

To confirm his suspicions, Scott still took the initiative to greet him twice.

He was certain that the boy understood the intent behind his greetings, but the boy brushed him off with a perfunctory attitude each time.

Consequently, Scott stopped greeting him altogether after that.

By his count, he had given the boy three chances to ask for help, but the other party did not seem to want any.

In his view, this was proof enough that the boy was voluntarily spending time with those girls.

Thus, it was only natural for Scott to stop keeping the matter on his mind.

It wasn't until a day in late September that Eddie suddenly announced in the dormitory that he had made more discoveries "regarding that matter."

At that moment, Scott couldn't immediately recall which "matter" he was referring to.

It wasn't until Eddie walked up to him and said excitedly, "Scott, you were right! Miss Poison Doll is truly not simple at all."

"Hmm?"

Only then did Scott realize with a jolt what Eddie was talking about.

He immediately composed his expression and asked calmly, "Very good, Eddie. Tell me, what have you discovered?"

"You..." Eddie looked at him with suspicion. "You didn't already forget about this, did you? Scott! It was you who gave me the task in the first place!"

"Why would you say that?" Scott put on a look of surprise. "I have been waiting for your progress, Eddie."

"No, it's not just you." Eddie's tone was full of distrust. "I just realized that none of you have asked me about the progress of this matter for quite some time!"

At this moment, Roger, who was standing behind Eddie, exchanged a guilty glance with Scott.

He quickly walked over and draped an arm intimately over Eddie's shoulder. "Of course we wouldn't keep asking about your progress, because we know that when it comes to digging up information, you are undoubtedly a genius, Eddie. We all believe in you."

"Is that so?" Eddie turned his head and stared at him with a skeptical gaze.

"Of course." Roger nodded without changing his expression.

"Milton."

Eddie suddenly turned around, looking for the person in the dormitory least likely to lie and least capable of putting on an act.

At this, Scott and Roger began to panic internally and hurriedly looked toward Milton's bed.

Swish!

Well aware of his own shortcomings, Milton had already pulled his bed curtains shut with lightning speed.

His shaky voice drifted out from behind the blue flannel. "I... I'm sorry, I think I'm a bit tired."

Scott and Roger both felt helpless.

As expected of Milton; his voice, filled with guilt, had already betrayed them.

"Oh, since Milton is tired, let's not disturb his rest."

Roger still wanted to salvage the situation. He reached out to wrap his arm around Eddie's neck again, pulled him forcefully toward the windowsill, and then firmly sat him down on the sofa.

The slightly chubby Eddie couldn't resist the big and tall Roger, so he could only sit down with a sour face, staring at Roger and Scott with a resentful gaze.

"You guys just forgot." He leaned back against the sofa. "I should have realized it sooner."

"Milton!" he suddenly added, sounding heartbroken and loud. "I thought you were the only one, the only one I could trust! I didn't expect you to learn these bad habits too!"

"I... I'm sorry..." Milton's faint apology drifted over.

"Forget it."

Hearing Milton's tone, Eddie felt a bit intimidated and hurriedly shifted his focus to the other two.

"If you ask me, this is all your fault!"

"Don't blame me!" Roger began to shirk responsibility. "You know, Eddie, all my spare time is taken up by Quidditch training. Captain Bruce wants to win this year's Quidditch Cup before he graduates."

He pointed at Scott. "Besides, the commander of this operation is Scott!"

"..."

Scott was leaning against his bedpost; hearing this, he put down the small piece of ebony he had been fiddling with.

"About this..." he said, "I can explain."

"Is that so?" Eddie, sitting on the sofa, struck an even more arrogant pose and crossed his legs. "Then please, explain, Mr. Trollope."

"I gave that boy two more chances to ask for help..."

Scott recounted his experience.

"...And so, since he gave up on it himself, I didn't keep the matter on my mind. After all, everyone must be responsible for their own choices."

By the time he finished, Scott sounded quite righteous.

"Then you must have forgotten one more thing, Mr. Trollope." Eddie said through gritted teeth. "And that is to notify your poor roommate Eddie Carmichael and tell him he could abandon the mission!"

"Oh, Eddie! I just couldn't bear to disturb your joy in digging up secrets; I know you've always been obsessed with it."

Scott quickly changed the subject.

"Hurry up and tell us, what kind of information did you dig up?"

"Right, I remember you saying earlier that you had made more discoveries." Roger added, "It must be some shocking news."

"Hmph."

At the mention of this, Eddie became instantly smug, his nose practically pointing toward the ceiling.

"It's a good thing you have me, Scott." He was practically bursting with pride, "This matter has already exceeded your expectations. If it weren't for me, what would you guys even do when the time comes?"

Scott took a deep breath and offered Eddie a kind smile, "I see. In that case, please hurry up and tell us."

"Fine."

Eddie settled down immediately.

"I said it before. You were right, Scott. That Miss Travers has been making some astonishing moves in the shadows..."

Eddie began to reveal the secrets he had uncovered.

That first-year Slytherin, Jasmine Travers—whom Eddie referred to as the "Poison Doll"—had actually managed to quietly gather a large group of lower-year female students around her in less than a month since the start of the term.

These girls were generally in their first or second year, mostly belonging to Slytherin and Ravenclaw, with a small number from Hufflepuff.

Of course, there were no Gryffindors.

Most of these girls came from ancient pure-blood families or households where both parents were wizards.

"They have secretly established a clandestine society." Eddie lowered his voice, acting mysterious, "The name is [Pure-blood Girls' Afternoon Tea]."

"That society name sounds like you made it up." Roger frowned, "But that's not important. What matters is that if that girl has already recruited so many students, the commotion shouldn't be small. How has no one noticed?"

"They communicate through private, secret methods and have never walked together in a large group." Eddie said with conviction, "The girls Scott saw earlier, the ones who were very close to Jacob Kent, they must be the core members of this society!"

"Wait... as a boy, and muggle-born at that, how did Jacob Kent manage to get mixed up in it?" Roger was very surprised, "Come to think of it, that kid is quite impressive!"

"No." Scott felt a headache coming on, "What we need to figure out now is, if the information Eddie gathered is true, what exactly does Travers want to do? Become the new generation of the Dark Lord?"

"Don't say that."

Roger's face suddenly turned a bit pale.

"That kind of joke isn't funny at all."

I wish I could make this a joke even more than you do, Scott thought.

After all, his top priority for this school year was dealing with Voldemort's diary and the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets! Heaven knows why these undercurrents were appearing in parts of the story that weren't even described in the "original work."