A stupid trap

The second attack in the castle had left another victim petrified: Colin from Gryffindor.

Now everyone at school feared for their safety. Rumors about the Chamber of Secrets spread constantly among the students, but most were simply childish imaginings, since nobody knew what the chamber actually looked like.

The most frightened were the young half-blood and Muggle-born wizards.

They now either stayed inside or traveled in groups.

Some were secretly delighted, of course—all of them young wizards who preached pure-blood supremacy.

They actually had no idea what blood status truly meant, but under their families' influence, they stubbornly clung to this illogical belief.

Draco Malfoy was one of them, too, but Eli's influence had genuinely changed him a great deal.

He had never used the word "Mudblood," nor did he hold any hostility toward Muggle-born wizards like Hermione Granger. In fact, their little group got along quite well.

All of this was thanks to the boy he looked up to, Eli. At least as far as they knew, Eli was a Muggle-born wizard.

If even Eli deserved discrimination, then what did that make wizards like them, who couldn't so much as touch a hair on his head at the Dueling Club?

Of course, there were still diehards, like Marcus Flint.

That idiot had used up the school's remaining Mandrake medicine. He had now left the hospital wing and steered clear whenever he spotted Eli.

But he still made his remarks behind closed doors.

Eli couldn't control these people. Putting his ideas into someone else's head was far harder than putting someone else's money into his own pocket.

Lately, he had been looking for a way to obtain Crabbe's memories while keeping a close eye on the factory.

According to Klein's reports, renovations on the factory and shop were more than