Midnight Shadow

Gryffindor common room.

Harry and Ron successfully met up with Hermione.

"You came at just the right time. Look what I found."

Seeing the two of them, Hermione proudly held up the thick, moldy-looking book in her hands.

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

The two moved closer to Hermione and saw the title of the hefty volume.

Powerful Potions

"This is our next target—thanks to Cedric. He got a signature from his own Head of House, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see something this good!"

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

It was just that they truly needed to prepare for both possibilities now.

They had discussed it before and concluded that the most likely heir of Slytherin was Draco Malfoy—after all, he had been the first student outside the school to know about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.

Getting any information out of him was impossible, but they could start with Malfoy's two lackeys—as long as they turned into Malfoy while he was away, they could naturally coax information from the two followers.

Cedric, meanwhile, planned to risk turning into Professor Li Wei while he was teaching and question the two assistants. It was a little regrettable, but Cedric was already fairly familiar with the assistants' personalities and tempers, and believed he could imitate Li Wei's manner of speaking with them.

Hermione carefully opened Powerful Potions, and all three leaned in to study the water-stained pages.

It had to be said, it truly deserved to be a book from the Restricted Section. Its illustrations were wild.

Some of the potions inside had terrifying effects, almost too horrifying to imagine. There were also some deeply unsettling illustrations: one person seemed to have been turned inside out, while a witch had countless arms sprouting from her head.

"Here."

Hermione said excitedly. She had found the page marked Polyjuice Potion.

The people illustrated on it were transforming into other people.

Harry sincerely hoped the expressions of extreme agony on their faces had been invented by the artist.

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

Hermione murmured, tracing the list of ingredients one by one with her finger.

"These are all easy to get. They're in the students' supply cabinets, so we can take them ourselves.

"But there are also more complicated things: powdered bicorn horn, a fragment of African Tree Snake skin, and something from the person we want to transform into."

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

"There definitely won't be African Tree Snake skin in the student supply cabinets. What do we do? Are we going to steal it from Snape's private storeroom?"

At that, Ron sounded a little frightened.

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

"He's an upper-year student. This weekend, he'll go directly to Hogsmeade Village to trade for the things we need. He'll handle the complicated ingredients."

"So reliable, isn't he?"

Ron let out a whistle, though his words carried a faintly sour note.

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

"If we can get all the ingredients. Cedric said he'll help me process more than half the materials, so it should take around twenty days—that's already the maximum processing time for some of the more complicated ingredients."

"Twenty days?" Ron said. "By then, Malfoy might have knocked out half the Muggles in the school!"

Hearing that, Hermione's eyes narrowed unhappily.

"Is that so? Then did the two of you get anything today? Tell me about it."

Though Hermione said that, she did not really expect much from them. Hugging the book to her chest, she stood and said to the two of them:

"I'm going to return this to the library now, then head to the Great Hall for dinner. You haven't eaten yet either, right? We can talk while we eat."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, and their voices suddenly became hesitant and evasive.

That night, half an hour before lights-out.

Before his roommates returned, Harry took out the Invisibility Cloak once again.

"Harry, are you really going again?"

Ron looked at him worriedly.

"You saw it today too. Filch is so afraid of him. If he wants to do something at night, that would be the best time."

Harry's eyes were filled with determination.

"But... are we just going to stake him out the whole time? You've got a Quidditch match tomorrow. You need to stay sharp! Did you forget? Tomorrow, you're playing against that bastard Malfoy!"

Most of Harry's determination immediately fizzled out.

"Then—we'll only stake him out for a while. If we don't find anything, we'll come back. How about that?"

Seeing Ron still hesitate, Harry shook his head.

"Forget it. I'll go by myself."

"What are you talking about, mate? Of course I'm coming with you!"

After thinking it over, Ron still followed Harry.

Harry took the Invisibility Cloak out of the common room. He and Ron found an empty corner, draped it over themselves, then slowly made their way to Li Wei's office and began their silent vigil.

Time passed bit by bit.

At first, laughter and boisterous noise frequently echoed through the corridors, and clusters of footsteps sounded from time to time.

But as time passed, those sounds gradually faded until they vanished completely.

Lights-out had come.

Every sound in the castle was swallowed by silence. A black curtain covered the sky, engulfed the armor statues, drowned the place where Harry and Ron stood, and stretched into the depths of their vision.

It gave them a small sense of security, yet also filled them with fear.

Thud!

A door closed in the distance, followed by heavy footsteps.

Filch had begun patrolling the entire castle.

Harry and Ron held their breath and waited.

Fortunately, they did not have to wait long before Li Wei appeared outside the door.

He was alone.

The two exchanged a glance and quietly followed him.

But Li Wei's actions soon left them utterly confused.

He merely strolled slowly through Hogwarts Castle, wandering about without purpose, stopping here and there to look around.

He looked nothing like a professor, nor like someone who had once lived here as a student for seven years. Instead, he looked like a ghost visiting for the first time.

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

They watched him go to the Great Hall and change the decorations on the ceiling through four different themes in succession.

Then he turned toward the second and third floors, slowly climbing the spiral staircase.

In the corridors that had been filled with students' noisy chatter during the day, only his faint footsteps echoed now.

Moonlight filtered through the tall stained-glass windows, casting mottled, chilly patches of light across his profile.

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

But before he could think further, Ron's breathing suddenly grew heavier. He was about to cry out, but quickly clapped both hands over his own mouth, almost forcibly holding back the terrified sound that had reached his throat.

"Whimper..."

At Ron's faint whine, like a frightened puppy's, Harry's eyes widened as well.

They saw a female ghost with disheveled hair floating silently in a corner of the castle, staring straight at Li Wei with wary eyes.

But when they looked more closely, how was she merely a female ghost? She was clearly one of the castle's ghosts—the Lady Grey.