Chapter 66: Dumbledore's Heir?
As the trio erged from the hospital wing, their faces were lit up with radiant smiles. Just monts ago, Dumbledore had rewarded them each with two hundred points for their exceptional courage and had also bestowed upon them the Special Contribution Award of the school.
Of course, so points had to be deducted as well—past transgressions against school rules were left unaccounted for. However, for their recent actions, each mber of the trio had lost twenty points for defying orders to stay out, Ron had lost fifty points for his improper behavior towards Professor Lockhart, and on top of that, he was assigned a month of detention.
Nonetheless, they had secured a staggering four hundred and ninety points for their own house all at once.
This essentially ant that Gryffindor had sealed the House Cup well in advance.
"I reckon it was worth it!" Ron, even with a month's detention ahead, had no complaints.
If they managed to win the Quidditch Cup as well, this year would truly be perfect... Harry couldn't help but think with a touch of greed. But there was still a chance!
In their final conversation, Harry had a private exchange with Dumbledore. In this intimate dialogue, he mustered the courage to voice a lingering doubt—whether he had been sorted into the wrong house. After all, the Sorting Hat had strongly hinted that if he were in Slytherin, he could achieve great things.
Dumbledore's words, however, put his mind at ease. Pointing to Gryffindor's sword on the table, he said, "Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled it out of the Hat."
Harry had also learned the reason behind his Parseltongue ability. According to the Headmaster, Voldemort had transferred a part of his own abilities into Harry's body that fateful night.
This left Harry utterly astonished.
"Living by one's choices is more aningful than dwelling on an unchangeable past," Dumbledore told him.
...
The night had fallen completely, and the shadow that had hung over Hogwarts for two whole months had finally dissipated.
Ron suddenly spoke up, "What do you reckon Professor Harp ant just now? About Gryffindor and Slytherin and all that..."
Thinking of his own actions tonight, Harry responded thoughtfully, "I guess it might be about the values different houses emphasize. Like Gryffindor valuing courage, and Slytherin valuing cunning."
"Y'know, I almost forgot that Professor Harp was a Slytherin," Ron muttered under his breath.
Hermione remained silent, recalling her first private lesson in magical linguistics when Professor Harp had expressed particular interest in the Sorting Hat. His exact words were, "Perhaps I should find an opportunity to reintroduce myself to it."
The young witch thought that the professor might just be looking for an excuse to try on the Sorting Hat again...
Back in the common room, the three huddled in a corner, exchanging their newfound insights. Hermione's words intrigued them the most; the three professors had been standing by from start to finish.
"How could they just stand there?" Ron complained indignantly, having felt at death's door several tis.
"With them around, our lives aren't in danger," Hermione analyzed rationally.
"I wonder if Dumbledore might be testing us. Rember last year?" Harry spoke thoughtfully, "Voldemort didn't die; that's what Dumbledore told
then. He said Voldemort would return soday."
"Could it be that Dumbledore wants us to beco heirs to resist the enigmatic figure?" Ron's face flushed with excitent, as if the re act of making this deduction thrilled him, "Dumbledore's not exactly young anymore, you know? I an, it's about ti he started considering this, right?"
Dumbledore's heir sounded far more appealing than Slytherin's heir, far more perfect.
The three of them found themselves breathing a bit faster in unison.
The Chamber of Secrets.
Dumbledore, Snape, Felix Harp, and Professor McGonagall stood beside the serpent's lifeless body. It was McGonagall's first ti here, and she couldn't help but gaze around.
"It's like a dim and eerie lair," she whispered.
Felix gently touched the serpent's eye—the majority of it had been damaged by Fawkes, and black blood had tainted much of its serpent visage. It had been quite a task to salvage a bit of clean material.
He was particularly intrigued by the serpent's "deadly stare" talent—"stare and you die." This was one aspect of the serpent that he feared imnsely, yet it was also just fear. He had nurous ways to avoid directly locking eyes with it.
But he was curious. What would happen if Dumbledore and the serpent stared at each other?
Would Dumbledore be killed by the serpent's gaze? Upon witnessing the imnse and sowhat terrifying wellspring of magical power within the headmaster, Felix's conviction wavered.
Against a wizard of this caliber, did the serpent's "death stare" truly hold any power?
Just like himself, he could easily withstand one or two Stunning Spells.
Felix analyzed Dumbledore's strength as he collected various materials from the serpent's body. Severus Snape was engaged in the sa activities.
Be it snake venom, fangs, blood, or scales, nothing was rejected.
anwhile, Dumbledore was engaged in a hushed conversation with Professor McGonagall.
"Minerva, I believe we should take the initiative to publicize this, so that the world sees that we've resolved the Chamber of Secrets incident. This will prevent them from making unfounded speculations," Professor McGonagall naturally had seen the previous reports and was irritated.
"Minerva, I'm not against that idea, but we should wait a few days..."
"Why?"
"Lucius Malfoy has been very active in the school board lately. It seems he views this as an opportunity to have
removed from the school," Dumbledore responded without confirming or denying.
"How dare he!" Professor McGonagall angrily exclaid.
"From what I understand, Lucius has been exerting pressure on several board mbers. It's likely that in the coming days, he'll challenge ..."
"Dumbledore, what should we do then?"
"We just need to wait." Dumbledore's gaze seed to pierce through the ceiling of the Chamber, seeing a far-off horizon.
Felix and Snape, in a series of exchanges, laid out a preliminary plan for dividing up the serpent's materials.
Felix also found Lockhart's wand. After cleansing it several tis with the "Aguanti" charm, aside from an unshakable strong odor, its appearance gave away nothing of its recent history.
Hopefully Lockhart wouldn't mind.
Afterwards, they moved the serpent's corpse into an abandoned classroom and magically sealed the door—once the school made the announcent, they would disassemble the serpent.
When Felix returned to his office, he realized it was nearly nine o'clock.
Hogwarts was under curfew, with few people in the corridors, but it wouldn't be long before the hustle and bustle of old returned.
Sitting on his couch, Felix continued pondering about the Chamber.
The Chamber was found, the serpent was defeated, but there still remained a Slytherin heir within the castle.
Or more precisely, in Felix's mind, a certain young wizard controlled by a piece of Voldemort's soul.
How could they expose them?
And if they stirred up serious trouble, the thought of Hogwarts being closed for two months for a thorough inspection was unacceptable.
Felix contemplated strategies for dealing with this quandary when a hurried knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts.
He opened the door to find a rather unexpected young wizard—Draco Malfoy.
Strangely, Malfoy appeared quite pale, sweat beads forming on the tip of his nose. He clutched a long scarf with deep green stripes tightly in his hand—on the other end of the scarf, about two ters away, trailed an ordinary black book.
It was evident that Malfoy was making every effort to keep his distance from that thing.
"Please co in, Mr. Malfoy," Felix said, his intuition telling him that tonight would be quite eventful.
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