Draco paused for a few seconds before replying, "No one's chosen."
"To open the Chamber of Secrets, you need to know Parseltongue. Right now, Harry is the only one in the entire school who can."
"The bloodline of Salazar Slytherin should have ended with Voldemort; there simply wasn't anyone left after that."
Even if Harry had the ability, there's no reason for him to open the Chamber of Secrets —unless...
"Unless something has happened to him that we are unaware of."
Hermione's heart skipped a beat when she heard this.
She dared not interrupt, but her mind was racing: Harry knew Parseltongue, the Chamber of Secrets, petrification, that chilling murderous voice...
All the clues were intertwined, sending a chill down her spine.
Dumbledore didn't speak. He picked up the lemon hard candies from the table, and the two candies flew steadily towards Draco and Hermione, landing in the empty plates beside them.
His gaze slowly shifted to the flickering firelight in the fireplace. "Changes have indeed occurred."
Draco picked up the candy but didn't eat it; he simply twirled it halfway between his fingers. "While it's theoretically possible—I don't believe he opened it."
"His demeanor at the banquet couldn't be faked."
Panic, confusion, helplessness... He didn't even know what he was hearing, let alone actively open the Chamber of Secrets and release the monster to hurt people.
"If Harry really did it, he wouldn't have openly admitted to hearing Parseltongue in front of so many people."
"That's no different from holding up a sign admitting you're the Heir of Slytherin."
"I understand what it feels like to be manipulated."
Dumbledore slowly turned his head, a faint hint of approval in his eyes. "You've got a good eye, Draco."
Harry was definitely not the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets.
"He can hear Parseltongue because he carries a fragment left behind by Voldemort."
"That unexpectedly attached soul gave him the abilities of Slytherin, but it never truly swayed him into the darkness."
Hermione gasped sharply. Soul fragments, Voldemort, Harry... This was a secret she had never heard of before, yet one that could overturn everything.
She finally understood why Harry could understand languages that others couldn't.
"So, he can only hear, not control," Draco continued, following Dumbledore's train of thought.
His tone grew increasingly certain. "In that case, the Chamber of Secrets couldn't possibly have been opened by him; there must be someone else involved?"
"Very likely." Dumbledore. "There is a power hidden within the castle that we have not yet detected; it is mimicking the opening of the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets, but in a different way."
Hermione finally couldn't help but ask, "Professor... could the other method you mentioned be related to... Mrs. Norris, who was petrified?"
" The Petrificus Totalus requires powerful Dark Magic, but the monster in the Chamber of Secrets already possesses the ability to petrify, right?"
That's right, Hermione's mind can always grasp the key points from the most chaotic clues.
Dumbledore looked at Hermione and smiled. "Very accurate, Miss Granger."
"The monster in the Chamber of Secrets of Secrets is a Basilisk; its eyes can petrify living beings, and it is extremely venomous. It is a weapon left by Slytherin to his heirs!"
"But the Basilisk couldn't have appeared out of thin air, much less acted without my knowledge."
Dumbledore's voice gradually deepened, and his gaze returned to Draco:
"So, Draco, think about it carefully. Besides the diary you handed over, is there anything else in the Malfoy family or anything you've ever come into contact with that bears Voldemort's mark?"
"No." Dra answered instantly without hesitation, "I'm certain that the only thing that can be linked to the Chamber of Secrets is that diary."
After he finished speaking, the Headmaster's Office fell silent.
Only the firewood in the fireplace occasionally emitted a soft crackling sound.
If a diary is the only medium.
If Harry isn't the heir.
The appearance of the Basilisk is illogical.
So... who opened the Chamber of Secrets this time?
An existence that even Dumbledore and Draco haven't yet been able to touch.
The conversation Headmaster's Office continued quietly.
Meanwhile, the students, who had been hastily led back to their dormitories by their Prefect, were already encountering real horror in the corridors.
A crowd had already gathered at the end of the second-floor corridor, with gasps of terror and suppressed screams rising and falling.
Even the Prefect, who was in charge of maintaining order, turned pale.
Filch collapsed to the ground, holding the now-stiff Mrs. Norris, and wept bitterly. His hoarse sobs echoed in the empty corridor, sending chills down one's spine.
But the focus of everyone's attention was a stone wall.
A dark red, shimmering liquid was slowly seeping from the cracks in the stone. It was viscous and slippery, and it snaked and crawled like a living thing, twisting, stretching, and piecing together on the cold, gray stone.
There is no pen.
It has no hands.
There is no one.
The castle itself is writing its own story.
The handwriting was grotesque and twisted, carrying a chilling malice; a line of blood-red characters slowly took shape, painfully piercing the eyes:
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.
Be wary of those who oppose your heir.
As soon as the words were written, the entire second-floor corridor fell into a deathly silence. The next second, the suppressed panic exploded.
"Ah--!!"
A girl couldn't help but let out a short scream, which was immediately covered by the person next to her.
The students retreated frantically, their robes scraping the ground, their footsteps chaotic, huddled together, each face etched with extreme fear.
Filch collapsed to the ground, holding the petrified Mrs. Norris. His sobs abruptly ceased, and his cloudy eyes stared intently at the line of blood-red words.
His face was horribly contorted with anger and despair, and his murky eyes swept over all the students present, as if searching for the murderer.
Ron pulled Harry behind him, his face pale and his teeth chattering. "What... what is this... the Chamber of Secrets? The Heir? What is this all about?!"
Harry stood there, stunned.
The words pierced his eyes like needles, and once again, the cold, hoarse, and unintelligible Parseltongue echoed wildly in his mind...
[Kill... clean... the filth...]
He opened his mouth, trying to utter the sounds he heard, but no sound came out.
Because all the probing, fearful, and suspicious gazes around him seemed to drift towards him, albeit imperceptibly.
No one said it aloud, but everyone was thinking it.
He was the first to say he heard strange noises in the Great Hall.
Pansy and several other Slytherin students huddled at the back of the crowd, their faces pale and voices trembling. "It's the Heir of Slytherin... Someone really did open the Chamber of Secrets..."
" Muggle-born people are going to be in trouble..."
Whispers slithered through the crowd like venomous snakes, and fear spread along the cold stone walls, crawling over everyone's ankles, coiling around their hearts, almost suffocating them.