"Harry, no one doubts what you said. It looks like your only option is to ask the professors. All right, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'll take the morning, Luo Bin will take the afternoon, Ron will take the evening, and Harry will ask Professor McGonagall."
"Uh, the evening? Why does it have to be the evening? Luo Bin, can we..."
"Ron, we're taking turns keeping watch. You won't always get the evening. Anyway, I'm tired. I'm going back to bed!"
Luo Bin left with a yawn, and Hermione followed close behind him.
"Harry, am I your best friend?"
Ron asked, his lips pursed in a wounded pout.
"Of course. But I think you'd rather listen to Gilderoy Lockhart ramble than get scolded by Professor McGonagall and have to write a reflection paper several thousand words long."
Ron shrugged helplessly. "All right, Harry. You win. You've convinced me!"
The two of them left the Bathroom shoulder to shoulder.
Over the next three days, the whole Castle felt like a kettle boiling in summer: hot and restless.
But whenever anyone saw a cluster of students discussing those three difficult riddles, whether in excited voices or hushed ones, they could only think that hot and restless was far better than cold and quiet.
Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to have zipped his mouth halfway shut. He stopped boasting everywhere about the various monsters he had hunted and instead stayed close to Hermione, Luo Bin, Ron, and Harry.
If anyone asked suspiciously about it, he claimed the Stanny Chester incident had left the four witnesses deeply shaken, and that he was staying by their sides out of concern for them.
Of course, nobody believed his flimsy, rotten excuse. But for the sake of stability at the school, nobody called him out on it.
Time flew