Chapter 37: Not A Happy Halloween

“Justin?!” Ron looked at the boy’s face and shouted.

Hermione hurriedly ran to Justin lying on the ground, stretched out her fingers, and probed the tip of his nose.

“H-H-He is dead?!” Hermione said these words with difficulty and then fell weakly to the floor.

With the help of the torchlight, Harry looked at the expression on Justin’s face and gulped. He could only feel a chill flowing through his spine. The boy lying on the ground was Justin Finch, a second-grade student like Harry and the others, but he belonged to the Hufflepuff House.

They don’t know why Justin appeared in this place while the Halloween dinner was ongoing and was killed by someone else.

At this time, Ron was already feeling uncomfortable, “Let’s get out of here quickly.”

“Should we try to save—” Said Harry, while he was having trouble with his words.

“Listen to me,” said Ron, “Things could go really bad if someone found us at this time!”

But it was too late. There was a bustling sound of people from the stairs. Soon, some students approached the second floor and found Harry and the others. The students who were still laughing suddenly quieted down when they saw the scene in front of them.

Everyone watched this terrifying scene. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing in front of everyone’s eyes, with Justin lying beside them like a dead corpse.

“Enemies of the heir, beware? The next one is you, Mudblood.”

It was Draco. With a cold grin on his face, he read out the message on the wall loudly and added an unforgivable word, but no one was paying attention to him at this time.

Although, there is still one person who is paying attention.

“Twenty points from Slytherin will be taken, Mr. Malfoy. It seems that the punishment you received last time was not enough. Maybe we extend the time for you to clean the toilet until January 1 next year?” A voice sounded behind the students.

Draco’s smile immediately froze, and they glanced at Sherlock with a gloomy face. But Sherlock ignored him because, at this time, the students had made way for him to go in to check the situation.

The three of them saw Sherlock arriving, and they explained it to him in a hurry, “Professor, as soon as we got here, we saw Justin lying on the ground!”

“We didn’t do it! We just discovered him at this time!”

“Is he still alive, Professor?”

Sherlock stretched out his hand, motioning them to be quiet first, pulled out his wand, and squatted in front of Justin. All the students held their breaths, watching Sherlock tapping Justin’s body twice with his wand.

Although Sherlock’s magic knowledge has not yet risen to the level of the original Sherlock’s level, it is not as bad as he was two months ago. After doing a simple test and examining Justin’s physical condition, he came to a conclusion.

“He’s not dead.”

The three breathed a sigh of relief, and the other students around gradually eased their tension.

“But he’s not okay either.”

An old voice can be heard, and Dumbledore came here with other professors.

“Bring Justin to your office, Sherlock. Harry and the two of you follow us.”

Professor McGonagall dispersed the students, told them to go back to sleep, and instructed Filch to wipe the writing on the wall. Sherlock used the Locomotion Charm on Justin to make his body float in the air and dragged him to his office with Dumbledore and the others.

His office is simple. Apart from simple and necessary furniture, most of the rooms were filled with books. Dumbledore instructed Sherlock to put Justin on the sofa and personally check his condition.

Harry and the others became nervous again. Because Snape began to testify against them and wondered why they didn’t attend the Halloween dinner, they explained that they went to Nick’s party and were not in the Great Hall.

Dumbledore knew more about Justin’s condition and shook his head, “It’s an extremely powerful dark magic that petrifies Justin. It can’t be a second-grade student.”

But Snape was still going on, asking Harry why they didn’t return to the Great Hall after leaving the party. After hearing that strange voice, the three didn’t tell them why they went to the second floor. They felt that this reason was illogical, and it was not good to tell them about it.

Sherlock was confused while watching Justin’s body, not focusing on Snape’s asking Harry and the others. Justin’s petrified state evoked part of his memory.

The Basilisk released from the Chamber of Secrets should be able to petrify people. But why did he get the impression that the first victim was a cat but not a student?

Why did it become the boy that was in front of him now?

At this time, Professor McGonagall called over the students eating with Justin at the Halloween dinner and asked them why Justin left early.

The two of Justin’s friends said that Justin had been feeling unwell since this morning. He went to the infirmary in the morning and was diagnosed with a cold by Madam Pomfrey. After that, he took a medicine from her.

In the afternoon, he seemed to have eaten something and started to contract diarrhea. Not long after the dinner started this evening, he left early and went back to the common room to rest.

Finally, he was attacked in the corridor on the second floor.

Dumbledore and the others didn’t find any clues from it, and Sherlock was still thinking about how the plot had changed.

Ever since he discovered that he had come to the world of Harry Potter, he knew he was going to Hogwarts by accident as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He thought that the plot would develop according to the original progression.

After all, every Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is an important character in each film. He intervened a bit this year, and the story progression might change slightly.

But now, the first attacked individual has changed. Just when he couldn’t think of any clues, Dumbledore’s investigation into tonight’s incident ended.

He sent Justin to Madam Pomfrey and said that Professor Sprout was creating a batch of mandrakes recently, and when the mandrakes matured and could be made into a potion, he could be cured. When Justin wakes up, they can investigate more later.

So tonight’s attack investigation came to a halt.