Chapter 43

Felix found it hard to understand this Professor Lockhart.

He had long since seen through the man for what he is – a businessman who sells books by making up stories and self-promotion.

As for his magic skills, he had long ago returned them to his teacher as he graduated.

This author’s formula is to put his own name to his story and to shamelessly enrich himself under the banner of “autobiography”.

This is not uncommon in the Muggle world, but the wizarding world is not that liberal, and to some extent, it’s quite simple. You say it in your book that it’s your own adventures and people would choose to believe it – and that’s a fraud, and if it comes out, it’s basically going to ruin his reputation.

Doesn’t he know this himself? Why did he jump so much when he knew it? And to jump and perform it in front of the best group of British wizards in the wizarding world?

To be honest, Felix didn’t understand it at all.

He and Lockhart were two completely different people.

“Silence.” With the arrival of Lockhart, Dumbledore presided over the meeting.

“A second attack took place, just an hour ago, similarly petrified, just like Mrs. Norris,” Dumbledore said with a slightly heavy tone.

“But this one is completely different in nature, the victim being a young wizard, a first-year, which suggests-” his azure eyes looked around with extreme pressure, “that the Chamber of Secrets has really been opened. ”

“Hogwarts is facing a crisis!”

All the professors became solemn.

Next, Professor McGonagall recounted the information from the last time the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. She pursed her lips and began to recount that part of history, “Fifty years ago, the Chamber of Secrets was opened once.”

“A student lost her life as a result, her name was Myrtle Elizabeth Warren, and yes, she remains at Hogwarts to this day as a ghost on campus.”

“Since then, however, the Chamber of Secrets has been closed, until now-”

“So, then,” commented Lockhart impatiently, “the attack is over? I mean, there’s been a student that got hit, no? I’ve seen a number of similar cases, like the water banshee at Morgan Lake, which appears every thirty years, and since I gave the inhabitants in there my home-made amulet, they’ve never been troubled again …”

Professor McGonagall’s lips pursed even tighter as she said aloud in an extremely rare manner, “I must warn you, Professor Lockhart! Colin Creevey is simply petrified, he has not lost his life.”

Dumbledore followed McGonagall’s words, “True, none of us know if the monster will attack again and if the consequences will be merely petrification. If you have any suggestions, you can all make them.”

Professor McGonagall said, “I have currently arranged for the heads of each house to patrol and strictly forbid young wizards from going to the isolated areas, and for the first and second years, furthermore, to group up for their classes and minimize going alone.”

“Very good, Minerva,” Dumbledore said approvingly.

“Headmaster Dumbledore,” Felix felt the need to voice the information he had, “my focus of concern on the Chamber of Secrets all along. There are three keywords revolving around the Chamber of Secrets-”

He glanced at the crowd, “The unknown monster, the heir to Slytherin, and the location of the Chamber of Secrets.”

“Once we know any of those points, we can sort out the truth.”

Dumbledore closed his slender fingers as if in thought, “Please continue, Felix.”

“The unknown monster, why don’t we associate it with Slytherin? The Slytherin symbol is a snake, perhaps this monster is also a snake, and that solves the problem of how it appeared in the castle – with the help of the pipes that are all over Hogwarts.”

The crowd pondered, and Snape spoke up, saying in his mild, indifferent tone, “Felix, the Slytherin symbol maybe a snake, but that’s only because he’s a Parseltongue. If you had researched him a little, you would have discovered that he is a master of bloodline research, and he studies more magical bloodlines than you can imagine.”

“But we can’t rule that out, can we?”

“Heh! That unknown monster that murdered a witch fifty years ago and fifty years later all it did was petrify …” Snape stared at Felix with his stone-like cold eyes, “If I understand you correctly, Felix, this isn’t the same monster, right?”

Felix shook his head, “I can’t answer that, so my opinion is only for your reference.”

He continued, “There are two possibilities I can think of for the heir of Slytherin. Active and Passive.”

“Perhaps this heir is awake and knows what he is doing, such as carrying on the will of Slytherin and exorcizing the young wizard from the Muggle family. But it is also possible that he stumbled upon the Slytherin relic and is controlled by it.”

Dumbledore looked up, “A very insightful observation, you’ve expanded our thinking.”

He pondered, “We have overlooked this in the past, it seems we need to educate the students more.”

Felix’s “manipulation theory” drew a number of professors into the discussion, he waited for a little and continued, “As for the location of the chamber, I have no way of knowing, perhaps we could enquire the portraits and ghosts of the castle?”

After a long moment of silence, an older professor spoke with hesitation, “Originally I shouldn’t have said this, but I think Hogwarts is at a critical time and any clue is important …”

Felix looked at the old professor, his name was Sylvanus Kettleburn, he had been his teacher in the Protection of Magical Creatures class when he was a student, but he is rumoured to have plans to retire.

The professor, known for his preference to study and look after dangerous creatures, had set an everlasting record, experiencing 62 probationary reviews during his term at school.

If Felix had to rate him, he is another version of Hagrid.

At the moment, Kettleburn said, “The boy is definitely not a bad boy, but if you ask me if he’s anything like me … who made a mistake out of curiosity,” he paused and said a name: “Rubeus Hagrid. ”

“It wasn’t him, Sylva,” Dumbledore said in a firm tone, “I was teaching Transfiguration at the school back then, and I know he’s innocent, but there’s no proof … for it, and headmaster Dippet expelled him. ”

“It was a grave mistake, and we didn’t catch the real culprit.”

The meeting ended and Dumbledore divided up a series of tasks, for now, it still had to be mainly about prevention, in addition to conducting daily patrols, and urging the young wizards in the classroom not to trust any sort of magic item bollocks.

When Felix went out, he saw that Lockhart is talking to Dumbledore about something.

The Headmaster’s expression is very intriguing.

———-

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