Hermione put down her Charms textbook and pulled out a brand-new copy of " Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets " (Part 2) from the letter her parents had just sent her.
The serpentine creature coiled around the stone wall on the cover gleamed with a cold silver light in the candlelight of the Great Hall.
Seamus, Dean, Neville, and several other older Gryffindor nearby also pulled the same book out of their bags.
"Let's watch it together," Percy said, his voice much deeper than before.
A dozen or so people huddled together, turning the pages of a book.
At first, the sound of turning pages was quite uniform, and a few people would stop to discuss it for a moment or two.
But soon no one spoke.
Everyone's eyes were glued to the paper, their fingers turning the pages faster and faster.
Harry's eyes followed the words, line after line, page after page.
Because he was eager to read about Ginny, he skimmed through the plot.
Even though it was something that would happen to him in the future, he felt no sense of involvement at all.
Several tens of minutes later, Harry finally finished reading everything, and his fingers trembled slightly as he slowly closed the book.
He looked up and saw that Hermione's face was as white as paper. Seamus and Dean were both silent, their expressions somewhat bewildered.
Neville, holding the book, glanced with some concern at the three Weasley brothers beside him, whose faces looked grim.
Ron's lips seemed to be moving, but the sound was very faint.
Harry leaned closer and heard him muttering the same phrase over and over.
"This is impossible... this is impossible... this is impossible..."
Percy was standing behind Ron at some point, with one hand on Ron's shoulder, but Percy himself didn't look much better.
He stared at the book in Ron's hand, his gaze as if he wanted to burn holes through those pages.
Fred put his hand on George's shoulder, and George gripped Fred's arm.
" Ginny..." George finally spoke, his voice so low that only Fred could hear it, " Ginny in that book... went to the Chamber of Secrets."
Fred nodded without saying anything.
At the same time, the other students in the Great Hall finally looked up from their reading.
For a moment, the entire Great Hall seemed to be on fast-forward, with all the sounds surging out simultaneously.
" Ginny Weasley was controlled by that diary! She opened the Chamber of Secrets!"
" Merlin's beard —that girl almost died in the Chamber of Secrets!"
" Basilisk! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk! Its eyes can petrify people!"
" Harry Potter killed the Basilisk with a sword!"
What sword?
" Sword of Gryffindor! Pulled from the Sorting Hat!"
"He pulled a sword from the Sorting Hat?"
"There's another phoenix!"
"Phoenix?"
" Fawkes! Dumbledore's Phoenix!"
The discussions in the Great Hall surged like a tide, one wave overwhelming the next.
But amidst that noise, a change was quietly taking place.
People's gazes began to shift, starting with just one or two people, and then more and more people joined the flood of their gazes.
Some of those gazes were filled with shock, some with doubt, and some with a complex, indescribable feeling.
They came from all directions and landed on several people.
Draco sat with his head down in the middle of the Slytherin table, the plate in front of him untouched.
He felt the gazes directed at him from all directions, silently clenching his sleeves, but did not raise his head.
Harry stood beside the Gryffindor Table, still clutching the book with the last page turned in his hand.
He felt the gazes coming from all around him, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.
" Ginny Weasley is the Weasley family sister," someone whispered.
She's only in first grade this year.
She's in Gryffindor.
"That diary... Lucius Malfoy slipped that diary into her's hand..."
At the Slytherin table, Malfoy's shoulders twitched slightly.
Percy didn't look at Malfoy.
His gaze continued to sweep across the Great Hall, from one end of the Gryffindor Table to the other, then back to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, as if he were looking for someone.
"You..." Percy finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse, "Has anyone seen Ginny?"
The people around were stunned for a moment.
"What?" Fred frowned.
" Ginny." Percy turned to Fred and George, then to Ron and Harry, "Did anyone see her at breakfast this morning?"
Fred and George exchanged a glance, then simultaneously turned to look in all directions around the Gryffindor Table.
Ron also stood up and tiptoed, his gaze sweeping over every face at the Gryffindor table.
Harry, upon hearing Percy's words, quickly looked around.
However, everyone found nothing.
"She's not here." Ron's voice began to tremble.
She's not at the Gryffindor Table.
Percy's face turned deathly pale.
"Where is she?" Fred's voice suddenly rose, the tone he usually used for joking now carrying an anxiety that Harry had never heard before.
Did anyone see her at breakfast this morning?
Percy had already turned and was walking quickly and erratically toward the end of the Gryffindor Table.
"Has anyone seen Ginny Weasley?" His voice rang out in the Great Hall, his usual Prefect composure completely gone.
"A first-year student! Red hair! Has anyone seen her?"
No one answered him.
People began to stand up at the Gryffindor Table, looking around.
Ron ran from one end of the long table to the other and back again, his expression growing increasingly panicked.
"She's not here," he said, running back to Harry, panting. "She's not in the Great Hall."
Fred and George were no longer standing in the same spot.
They split up and hurried toward the Great Hall exit, their eyes scanning every face.
Percy stood at the end of the Gryffindor Table, his hands on the edge, and he turned sharply to look at Harry.
" Ginny is missing." His voice was filled with pain and self-blame.
My sister is missing.
The noise in the Great Hall continued, but the air around the Gryffindor Table seemed to have been sucked out.
Harry looked at Percy, then at Ron, then at Fred and George as they disappeared into the Great Hall.
He suddenly felt a churning in his stomach, a wave of nausea washing over him, making him almost unable to believe it was real.
He suppressed the pain in his heart and met Percy's gaze:
We need to go find her.
Meanwhile, deep in the second-floor corridor of Hogwarts Castle, in an abandoned girls' washroom.
Dumbledore was standing in front of a sink, with a small snake engraved on the brass faucet in front of him.
He looked at the snake, a low, hoarse sound escaping his throat.
That's the Parseltongue.
Dumbledore wasn't born with Parseltongue, but he had mastered too many languages and studied too many lost magical traditions in his life. Although Parseltongue was rare, he didn't overlook it either.
The hoarse syllables echoed in the bathroom, as if something was awakening deep within the stone walls.
The stone bricks on the surface of the pool began to vibrate, and fine dust seeped out from the gaps.
Then the entire pool sank, revealing a huge pipe opening.
The pipe opening was as thick as three people could hug, and its dark depths were bottomless, with only a damp, musty-smelling cold wind rising from below.
There was not a trace of a smile in Dumbledore's blue eyes at that moment.
He lifted his foot and slowly walked inside.
The inside of the pipes was much more spacious than the outside, with smooth, damp stone walls and occasional dark green moss growing from the cracks between the bricks.
Dumbledore walked down for a long time and finally came to a stone wall.
Two snakes are carved on the stone wall, their eyes inlaid with the same dark green stone, emitting a faint light in the darkness.
Dumbledore uttered the word again in Parseltongue.
"Open."
The stone wall split open, revealing a vast space.
At the same time, a huge shadow loomed over Dumbledore, as if it had been waiting for him.
It was the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
It coiled up in the very center of the Chamber of Secrets, its body as thick as the trunk of a hundred-year-old oak tree, its scales gleaming coldly in the darkness.
Its eyes were a bright yellow, flashing with a malicious and fierce light in the darkness.
The enormous head was held high, and its massive shadow completely enveloped Dumbledore's figure.
And in the middle of its coiled body, a red-haired girl was curled up.
Ginny Weasley, her eyes closed and face pale, lay motionless as the Basilisk coiled around her.
Dumbledore he watched this scene.
The Basilisk held its head high, its enormous shadow completely enveloping Dumbledore, obscuring his face.
It stared at him, its golden eyes gleaming with cruelty and longing.
It sensed the immense magical power emanating from the old man, a power like a flame compressed over thousands of years, almost scorching hot to the Basilisk's senses.
Despite its confusion about why the old man hadn't been petrified, it couldn't care less; all it wanted now was to devour him.
The Basilisk excitedly tightened its body, its long, coiled serpentine body rubbing back and forth on the damp stone surface of the Chamber of Secrets, making a low, continuous rustling sound.
Ginny let out a soft cry of pain as it tightened around her.
Then the Basilisk suddenly raised its huge head and charged towards Dumbledore, its mouth wide enough to swallow a person whole.