Midnight Phantom

Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry and Ron successfully met up with Hermione.

"You've come at just the right time, look what I found."

Seeing the two of them, Hermione proudly waved a thick, somewhat moldy book she was holding.

"You went to the library? What is this?"

The two approached Hermione and saw the title of the hefty tome.

Powerful Potions

"It's our next target—thanks to Cedric, he got a signature from his Head of House, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see this good stuff!"

Although Percy had already confirmed from Professor Binns that the legend of the Chamber of Secrets was false, Hermione and Cedric still insisted that a Chamber of Secrets did indeed exist.

However, they now really needed to prepare for two possibilities.

They had previously discussed and thought that the most likely person to be the heir of Slytherin was Draco Malfoy—after all, he was the first student outside to know about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

It was impossible to pry any information out of that guy, but they could start with Malfoy's two cronies—as long as they transformed into his appearance when Malfoy wasn't around, they could naturally extract information from his two followers.

In addition, Cedric planned to take advantage of Professor Li Wei's absence to go to class and risk transforming into his appearance to question the two assistants—although he felt a bit sorry, he was already quite familiar with the personalities and tempers of the two assistants and believed he could imitate Li Wei's conversation with them.

Hermione carefully opened Powerful Potions, and the three of them leaned forward, looking at the watermarked pages.

It had to be said, it was worthy of a book from the restricted section, the style was wild.

Some of the potion effects inside were terrifying, almost unimaginable. The book also contained some illustrations that made people uncomfortable: one person seemed to have been turned inside out, and a witch had many arms growing out of her head.

"Here."

Hermione said excitedly, finding the page marked Polyjuice Potion.

The people above were transforming into other people.

Harry sincerely hoped that the extremely pained expressions on those people's faces were purely the painter's imagination.

"Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass."

Hermione murmured, pointing to the ingredient list line by line with her finger.

"These are all easy to get; they're in the students' storage cabinets, and we can get them ourselves.

However, there are also some complex ingredients like powdered unicorn horn, a piece of African Tree Snake skin, and a bit of something from the person we want to become."

Hermione nodded, memorized everything, and carefully closed the book.

"There's definitely no African Tree Snake skin in the students' storage cabinets. What should we do? Should we steal from Snape's private storeroom?"

Ron said, sounding a bit timid at the mention of this.

"You don't need to worry about that. If it were just the three of us, we might have to take a risk—but we have Cedric!

He's a senior student and will be going directly to Hogsmeade Village this weekend to trade for the things we need. He'll handle the complex ingredients."

"So reliable—isn't he?"

Ron whistled, but his words carried a hint of sourness.

"How long does it take to brew this potion?" Harry asked.

"If all the ingredients can be obtained. Cedric said he would help me process more than half of the medicinal materials, so it might take about twenty days—that's the maximum processing time for some of the complex ingredients."

"Twenty days?" Ron said, "By then, Malfoy might have taken down half the Muggles in the school!"

Hermione's eyes narrowed unhappily upon hearing this.

"Is that so? Did you two have any gains today? Tell me about it."

Hermione said this verbally, but in reality, she didn't expect much from the two. Holding the book, she stood up and said to them:

"I'm going to return the book to the library now, and then go to the Great Hall to eat—you two haven't eaten yet, have you? Let's talk while we eat."

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, and their voices suddenly became hesitant.

Night, half an hour before lights out.

Harry took out the Invisibility Cloak again while his roommates hadn't returned yet.

"Harry, are you really still going?"

Ron looked at him worriedly.

"You saw it today, how scared Filch was of him. If he wants to do something at night, this is the best time."

Harry's eyes were full of determination.

"But... are we just going to stake out the whole time? You have a Quidditch match tomorrow, you need to be in good spirits! Did you forget? Tomorrow you're up against that bastard Malfoy!"

Harry's determination was significantly diminished.

"Then—we'll just stake out for a while, and if we don't get anything, we'll go back, okay?"

Seeing Ron still hesitating, he shook his head.

"Forget it, I'll go alone."

"What are you talking about, man, of course I'm with you!"

After much deliberation, Ron followed Harry.

Harry, holding the Invisibility Cloak, walked out of the common room. He and Ron found an empty corner, put on the cloak, and slowly made their way to Li Wei's office, where they quietly began to stake out.

Time trickled by.

At first, the corridor was often filled with the clamor of laughter and roughhousing, with bursts of rapid footsteps.

But as time passed, these sounds gradually diminished until they disappeared completely.

Lights out.

Silence swallowed all sound within the castle. A black curtain covered the sky, engulfing the armored statues and submerging Harry and Ron, spreading into the depths of their vision.

This gave them a sense of security, yet also filled them with a touch of fear.

"Ding!"

A door closing sounded in the distance, followed by heavy footsteps.

Filch began his patrol of the entire castle.

Harry and Ron held their breath and waited.

Fortunately, they didn't wait long before Li Wei's figure appeared outside the door.

He was alone.

The two exchanged a glance and quietly followed him.

But Li Wei's next actions quickly left them bewildered.

He simply paced slowly through Hogwarts Castle, wandering aimlessly, stopping to look around.

He didn't look like a professor at all, nor like a student who had lived there for seven years. Instead, he resembled a ghost visiting for the first time.

Harry and Ron followed behind him, watching him pause outside an empty classroom, peering through the glass in the door for a while.

They watched him go to the Great Hall, where he changed the theme of the ceiling decorations four times by himself.

Then, he turned towards the second floor, then the third. He ascended the spiral staircase slowly.

In the corridors that were filled with the noise of students during the day, only his very light footsteps now echoed.

Moonlight streamed through the tall stained-glass windows, casting mottled, cold light spots that illuminated his profile.

At that moment, Harry suddenly felt—Professor Li Wei was actually a very lonely person.

But before he could ponder further, Ron's breathing beside him suddenly grew heavy, and he was about to cry out—Harry quickly covered Ron's mouth with his hands, almost forcibly suppressing the scream that was on the tip of his tongue, enduring the panic.

"Whimper."

Amidst Ron's whimpering sounds, like a puppy's whines, Harry's eyes widened in unison.

They saw a disheveled female ghost floating quietly in a corner of the castle, staring directly at Li Wei with a vigilant gaze.

But upon closer inspection, this was no mere female ghost. It was clearly one of the castle's ghosts, the Grey Lady.